Calci-yum Pop tops and dairyfood

I have not posted here for a while - but i have tried something I thought you all might be interested in.
I am part of a group of testers from Soup NZ.  It is a great way to try new products.  Recently we were on the Calci-yum trial.  Which of course the kids loved.  We tried the Pop tops and the dairyfood.

 Now we had a bit of a drama trying to get the pop tops at the local supermarket.  They didn't have them and tried to source them but were told they wouldn't send them up here.  So anyway I got some when the boys and I went to Timaru in the school holidays.  We were with some friends who also have a 10 year old boy and an 8 year old girl.  The kids chose their flavours at the supermarket and were told they could drink them on the way home.   They raved about them - they loved the smooth flavour and having tried one i must say it was far superior in flavour to the carton milks.    My 5 year old loved the fact that they didn't spill in the first 5 seconds after you grab them and squeeze them.  Cos of that reason i normally take the first swig out of the kids cartons.    They all were finished in about 2 minutes and they were asking for more.   I will be buying these again.  They have way less sugar than lots of other kids drinks and they are priced at only 1.60 which is a great price compared to other kids drinks on the market.  Great if you are grabbing something on the run like we were.

Here are the boys devouring the dairyfood.

KCWC Day 4 - Disaster hoodie.

This hoodie started as a bit of a disaster really.  I only had just enough fabric and then I had to cut the 2 hood pieces separately, which was where things went wrong.  Not thinking I cut 2 hood pieces both on the same side.  DUH!!!.  When I went to put them together I realised I had 2 of the same side. So I chucked it aside and left it until I had the patience for it.  I finally decided it was time to finish it off before  Mr 5 grew out of it.   So I cut down the size of the hood enough that I could get one cut out the right way from the wrong piece.  Then i added a brown panel in the middle of the hood.  Whew, saved.  I used ooga booga knit on the inside of the hood.    Make sure you check out all the other things that bloggers around the world have been making, over in the Elsie Marley flickr group.  

KCWC Day 2 and 3

Wow time goes quickly around here.  I am nearly 3 days behind in my KCWC posting.  Anyway the boys desperately need some pants and I love this pattern - some gorgeous details in them.  Made the 5 year old a cord pair with cowboy pockets. The just about 3 year old got a Brown canvas pair with robot pockets.  They are a really easy pattern to sew.  You can do as many or as few of the details you as feel like doing.  I didn't use piping around the pockets because i didn't have any and I didn't do the back pockets or the belt loops.

And YES that is pins you see in the hem - haven't hemmed them yet,  will do that when the boys are home from school and preschool.  The robot pants will go nicely with Charlie's Robot top.

The pockets close up.

I also love the look of the inner waistband with the contrasting fabric.

Will have some in action shots for you later in the week.

KCWC Day 1 - The Robot Top

Well we are in the new house!!  Very exciting. have been in for 5 weeks - been a very busy 5 weeks though, still quite alot to be done around here but feeling a bit more like a home.
I am taking part in KCWC this time and although most of the bloggers on the other side of the world are making Spring clothes I am making lots of warm winter stuff for the boys.   I was away on a craft retreat for the weekend and got lots of stuff for the boys made so I have lots to share this week.
First up-  The Robot Top.  

This is an Ottobre pattern, whichI have been eyeing up ever since I got these cool robot buttons from the lovely Nicci of Buttons by Benji.  I am really happy with the way it turned out.  It is made from a lovely thick cotton Lycra for the body and another stripy cotton lycra for the arms and a cotton rib for the cuffs and binding.   I plucked up courage to do buttonholes which I am not overly fond of doing and seem to only do at craft retreats.  The robot is an embroidery design that my friend Claire did on her embroidery machine.  I appliquéd it on.

Of course Charlie could only keep it clean for so long.  Typical boy.

The absence....

Well you have all probably been wondering what on earth I have been doing. Or maybe not just enjoying your summer. Well this is the reason for my absence....

We are in the middle of building a house and between that, the kids, school holidays , sewing. I seem to have no spare time to post. But I need to make an effort to do this. It keeps me sane.
So we are just about finished. Painter starts this week. I can't wait to see some colour on those walls, we have a bit of a red theme running through the house. We are having a red feature wall in the Kitchen with a red splashback and red pendant lights - can't wait to show you how it looks. We are mostly keeping it pretty neutral with a few splashes of colour here and there.
Here is our RED, the boys are having a feature wall each - Charlie is having blue and Jack is having green ( very dinosaur like don't you think??) Charlie is having a construction themed room and Jack is having a dinosaur themed room. They are so looking forward to moving in and seeing their new rooms come together. I am also loving lighting plus's new limited edition light shades that match perfectly with our resene colour.
Our neutral colour is half napa. I promise I'll try to be a bit more active here over the next few weeks updating you with how it's all going.

Winners

I have finally gotten around to drawing some winners for the Eczema cream. Sooooo who are our winners you are wondering....

Well they are
Aimee
Tanz
and
Jess
I will Email you all now - I really hope this makes some difference for you.

Eczema remedies - and a giveaway!!

Now some of you that know me may have heard me talk about the amazing Eczema creams that I have been trialling with Jack. Well I can now tell you a bit more about them. For those of you that know Jack IRL - will know that his legs were totally covered in Eczema, so bad that he used to scratch till he bleed most nights. I had tried everything in the way of creams - most offered some relief for a short time and then stopped working. I tried double rinsing all our washes, i tried not having baths everyday, tried oils etc in the bath. but nothing worked... til now.
BEFORE

After a week of using the cream his legs were pretty much healed up. There was a bit of scarring that took a bit longer to deal with. BUT his skin felt smooth - not bumpy, red, scaly and dry. We now only use this when he gets a bit itchy.
AFTER:

Check out the website
I have 3 tubs of this cream to give out to 3 lucky people.
For 1 entry - follow my blog and leave a message saying you are following
for another entry leave me a message telling me why you would like to try this cream and check out www.sodeenaturals.com and tell me what other product you would like to try

They are currently doing a great shipping deal of $15 to NZ no matter how much you buy - so gather all your friends together and try them out.