Cold and cosy...........

Its cold in our little old Nelson, in fact I believe its cold in most of NZ at the moment.On Saturday the hills surrounding the city got a thick dusting of snow, it came down quite low and stayed around for most of the day. This is very unusual and a little exciting for us as we don't usually get snow at all!
We decided to go for a walk and soak in the atmosphere, it almost felt like we were on holiday in some little alpine village (one can wish)! On came the merino's, uggs and Puffers. Whilst I was getting Archie ready I noticed that he was wearing an entire mummy made wardrobe, so took the opportunity to snap a few pics!

Merino lounge pants

Merino tee with vintage pocket, long sleeve base layer

 The two tops were made for Charlie and are still going strong a couple of years later. The pants I made this winter for kindy, lovely warm and comfy!
Hope you all had a lovely weekend x

Autumn........

Its getting cold out, we were all bundled up in our woollies this morning ready to walk to school.The leaves are dropping and there are feijoa's that need to be picked. Autumn has well and truly set in.

Ive been meaning to make Archie some new winter clothes for ages but haven't got round to it. His kindy is in a valley and it gets so cold there, I don't think the sun comes up till about 10.30! He needs lots of woollies!! The good thing about making Archie stuff is that it kills two birds with one stone. If I make his things a bit big, Charlie will fit them too, BONUS!

Unfortunately once again, by the time I had finished making things for orders, I had run out of sewing time! I did however manage to whip up a new hat each. They chose the fabric, stoked!!

Hope you are all keeping warm xx

100% merino hoodie

Reversible merino beanie

GRUMPY!! 100% merino beanie, reversible.

Uninterrupted .........

Uninterrupted sewing time........  AMAZING!! Thank you my lovely for taking days off in the school holidays xxxx

Weekend .......

This weekend we celebrated a birthday. Jack turned 8. Cliche I know, but wow where did that time go! He's getting so grown up now, a real little man.

We had cake, pizza and Italian doughnuts!!

We went to the Basket ball and watched the Giants win!!

We had our first sleepover with 2 friends and didn't got to sleep till 11pm, such good fun!! In the morning we scooted at home and at the skate park.

                                                                              

Then it rained, and we rested bliss. Boys played with the new birthday lego, I played in the sewing room, and we even painted some little toe nails.

 

We then watched Jack do the Aquathon, he did GREAT!! That night I went out for tea with my Mum, Thai yum yum, followed by a french film.

Phew what a weekend, it was pretty busy! Considering the amount of things that we did, it all went pretty well. Jack apparently had the best birthday ever, and loved the aquathon. Though the kids were pretty tired, and it rained a lot, it all ran smoothly! I sometimes find it hard to find a balance between letting the kids do all the things they want to do, and giving them the downtime they desperately need! I think we achieved that this weekend, and I even got to spend a couple of hours at the flea market but that's tomorrow's post xx

Friday.....

Today is Friday. I love Friday, for apart from the obvious reasons, its a day I can completely call my own from the hours of 9-3! Archie goes to his beloved Nana's house for the day, and the other boys are at school. Which leaves me to do pretty much what I want, in theory. I try not to fill this day with housework, and general day to day bits. Sometimes it works and other times not so much. I'm sure you other busy mummy's can relate!
                                                                        

Base layer 100% Merino

Base layer and Leggings 100% merino

Relax pants 100% Cotton, Hoodie 100% Merino

Today has been particularly good as I have finally finished the biggest custom order I've ever had! This had been causing a little stress as I wanted to get the order done in a reasonable time frame, but that time frame happened to be one of the busiest weeks id had an ages! I also ended up with the flu (I never get sick) arghhhh stress!!! However, I managed to finish the last piece off this morning, and am feeling really happy with how everything has turned out.

Day bed in our room covered in fabric!!

It will be nice to get our room back, it has had to double as a cutting room for the last two weeks. The bottom rooms in our house got water damaged in the floods last December, so we have had stuff all over the show the last two months. I'm happy to say that the painter is painting as I type (yay), and the new carpet is going down next week (double yay).

Archie wearing Merino hat, and black merino base layer!

Tomorrow we are hoping to do a big clear out in the boys rooms/playroom. Sunday, Andy and I are going on a long run, then I'm hosting our monthly book club so will be baking up some tasty treats in the afternoon. Hope you all have a great weekend!

Me.....

Ive started this blogspot to use as a place to document the many ideas/thoughts/feelings that I face during my journey of being a SAHM.


                                                                        My Boys

I have 3 boys. Jack is 8, Charlie is 5, and Archie is 3. A very loving and supportive life partner, Andy.
The two big boys go to school and Archie goes to morning kindy. Therefor I technically have every morning free of chillens, and should be able to to spend a large amount of that time on my small business of making merino children's clothing (more on that later). Funnily enough that time is quickly filled up with other so called more important things such as school trips, groceries, exercise list goes on... We are just settling into this routine as a family, and I still very much feel that I need to find the happy balance between work and play.

I am Primary Teacher by 'trade', but have not practised since before Jack was born. Teaching has never really been my passion, and I'm not sure I will resume this profession when I do rejoin the workforce. I'm very interested in health and nutrition, so thinking that perhaps combining the two could work. I have another couple of years before I need to make my mind up thank god! In the mean time, I have found myself making and selling merino children's clothing. I have a bit of a passion for kids fashion and found a HUGE gap int the market for funky affordable boys stuff, especially cool merino's.Think brights, stripes and funky colour blocking, mixed with some retro vintage cotton.  Team that with a skinny middle child who was always cold, I started making them myself.



Charlie in a hoodie I made him.

Originally I intended on just building up my own boys wardrobe, but got asked numerous times to start making things to sell. Seeing it as an opportunity to make a little spending money whilst doing something I enjoyed, I decided to roll with it and see what happens. Thus far, it seems to be doing just grand, although a little busy since the cold snap!!

I am currently at the end of a pretty big weight loss journey. It has taken me just over a year to lose 25kg, I still have 5kg to go to get to goal weight, I have done this the good old fashion way, by eating less and exercising more! At present I'm still calorie counting and exercising lots, hoping to get to goal weight before a girls weekend planned for the end of April. I'm quite short so the weight loss has been pretty dramatic for me, lets say it wasn't pretty when I started.  Im finding that so many people are interested  in different aspects of how I lost weight, be it what I'm eating, what exercise I'm doing, how I manage it around the kids. I found it hard to find other kiwi mums weight loss blogs, so thought I would blog a bit about the things that I found really use full. During this time I discovered RUNNING something I never thought I would do! I have grown to really enjoy my runs and feel so much fitter and stronger. I'm hoping to do a half Marathon in Nov so will be training towards that very soon.

Family walk time,,,

Baking bread, reading books, op shopping, keeping our family healthy and free from additives and chemicals, gardening, are all things I will be sharing on the blog, as well as the general ramblings of a mum doing her best. Andy has also shown an interest on perhaps writing a post or 2, so look out for that.....

Homemade ciabatta nomnom

Coffee on the Pirate ship Golden Bay...

Disclaimer: I love photos, but I'm certainly no photographer, and most of the pics I take are taken on my iphone because I'm too lazy to get out the proper camera!!