Thursday, April 29, 2010

Polar Fleece Knot Blankets

Thursday 29th April, 2010

While down in Victoria I was told about polar fleece knot blankets, which I thought would be a good thing for the kids to make and help keep them warm on these cooler nights. I was given a project sheet from spotlight but lost it between then and now.
So yesterday the kids and I went shopping at spotlight for some material and then the fun began. Even more so when I ask them for the project sheet and they said they didn't have any, so what follows is from what I can remember from being on the sheet.

for each blanket you need two peices of polar fleece the same size.You can use the same colour is you wish but we chose to do two different colours. Our peices are 2m x 1.5m
Lay the first peice of material right side down, or wrong side facing up towards you.


Then place the second peice on top but with right side face up. So you should have both the wrong sides facing each other in the middle.
You will need to trim them. My kids found out that the measuring of material when purchased is not an exact science. Miss Z bought the pre-cut fabric that was $12.95 for the 2m x 1.5 and after matching them up where the same size. Master J and Miss E fabric however was taken off the roll and we had some trimming to do...
Once your materials match together, you need to cut out a 13cm x 13cm square from each corner like so.
Don't forget to do all four corners. Then we cut strips  13 cm long about every 2-3cm around the 4 edges.
Once you have cut around the 4 edges you then you knot together the top and bottom peices of fabric. We just did simple knot . Miss Z started out only doing the first cross over and under like in tying your shoelaces and discovered that mum was right you had to do it twice to knot or it will come undone. Miss E was happy as she could master the first bit which was like tying the schoe lace. Mum just followed along and did it a second time to get it to knot.
And there you have it a really warm blanket to put around your knees or snuggle under on a cold winters night.

Run for the hills, its a teenager

Thats right. We officially have a teenager in the house. Miss Z has turned 13. Where does the time go?
And to boot we had lots of cake, 3 in fact. One with the family in Victoria, one on the day and then one just last weekend when we finally had the sleep over. Yum yum.

2010 Blue Mountain Holidays day 5 - 10

Well I am lumping this in all together. As I posted in a previous post all my photos for these 5 days have been deleted, never to be seen again. Oh well such is life.
Thursday 25th March - We did get up in time to catch to the 8:12am train into the city centre. We walked to Paddy's Market where we caught the Mono Rail around to the harbour.
Once there we went into the Wildlife world which I got some really good shots of animals. I even got a shot of a frog bottom but alas its gone now so you'll have to use your imagination.
Rode the Mono rail again and then back onto the train for our 2 1/2 hour trip home.
Early to bed tonight as tomorrow is traveling to Victoria day.

Friday 26th March - Having packed everything last night made getting up easier this morning. Actually we were even up before the alarm so once we were dressed it was in the car and on the road by 6am. Today we travelled down to Victoria via the following towns. Oberon, Crookwell ( to stop and get photos of the train station there), Queenbeyan, Cooma, Bombala ( this was lunch stop at 1 - 1:30) Delegate, Orbost, Bruthen, Sale, Trafalgar.

Now 5 km before Orbost we had a blow out which took us forever to change, making us arrive at orbost at 4:35 on a friday afternoon looking for somewhere to get a new tyre, so we also stopped and had tea. so by 6pm we were back on the road arriving at my brothers house at 9pm. What a big day that was.

Saturday 27th March - Sleep, sleep, sleep. No not alday but it was a relaxing day. That afternoon/night all my brothers came around with family and we had pizza. Quick easy and only cost $8 for delivery there.

Sunday 28th March - we travelled to Wallhalla to see yet another steam train. This was ok as we met up with some friend that we have not seen for a long time. The best part, her hubby is a train fanatic too, so we got to talk with each other about interesting stuff while the boys went off taking photo's and film and what ever they do when together around trains.

Monday 29th March - it was decided that we would head home tomorrow instead of Wednesday so we went out to see my newest nephew again and his parents of course. We got the better deal as the Miss Z and Master J stayed behind and we took Miss E and Miss K ( my 2.5yo neice) out to the farm with us.

Tuesday 30th March - On the road again by 7:40am. Stopping in at Eden for lunch and then home around 4:30 I think it was. So much nicer driving with 2 people. So glad to be home. But overall we did have a great holiday.

2010 Blue Mountain Holidays day 4

Wednesday 24th March, 2010

Today is steam train day. We are going to the beautiful Lithgow. Before the steam trains we went and had a look at the old Blast Furnace site.

Which now looks like this

After a bit of wondering around we traveled out to the Zig Zag Railway.

What a stunning job was done with that railway. That was just one of the bridges we got to go across.
We had some lunch there while Mr. J went off taping the next steam train. Don't worry he got some lunch.
We then went for a drive back into Lithgow and went up to Hanssan wall look out. The highest lookout in the blue mountains. I could have spelt that wrong, its been a month now since we were there.
We found a little hole to walk through, which opened up into this......
But what you get to see when you walk through or if you turn back around to look behind you in this picture is this......................



Then to your right over on the top of that ledge is a seat. There is a guy sitting on eat eating his lunch. He apparently like to go up and have his lunch there, very peaceful he said.



This one above was taken from over the other side.
We did a bit more driving around and then headed for home.
Tomorrow we would be heading in via the train to Sydney to go to the Wildlife World at the harbour.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

And Then I Cried...........

 Well, I have one more day of photos that I need to resize and post up for our holidays. Unfortunatley I have deleted 200 photos of our holiday including the 5th day at the Wildlife park and then the whole next week. This is the saddest part as that was the time spent with family. When I discovered what had happened I was not a happy camper. So then I cried....................

Friday, April 2, 2010

2010 Blue Mountain Holidays day 3

Tuesday 23rd March, 2010

Today we are going to Scenic World in Katoomba.
Katoomba Falls as seen from the skyway.
Once we got to the other side we went for a quick walk around to the top of the Katoomba Falls
Well maybe not all the way to the top, once again there were a lot of stairs. So we went back across on the skyway.
Just to prove I stood on the glass bottom of the skyway and looked down.
Next came the steepest railway in the world.
This was a bunch of screaming school kids. And they were going up!!!!
This was the original one. No cage to keep you in. Why would you even get on?
Just to get some perspective Master J  is standing upright. Thats how steep it is.
They had heaps of mining stuff set up down the bottom.
I was once told that all Norths are related so who know it might be some great great uncle twice removed.
The Cable way was next.
Those famous 3 sisters, what trip to the Blue Mountains would be complete without a photo of them.

Down the bottom I have taken a few more photos.
They have wild life down here, well spiders anyway.
at the bottom of this tree was this sign.
Hubby wasn't keen to let young Miss E lean back so I took a photo of what I saw.
By about 3 we were all getting tired. So we went for a drive to the toy museum.
I have finally worked out how to do the timing thing on my phone, as long as I have a surface to put the phone we are right.
Last but not least, who could resist.