Crafty Days

My girls love craft, they are crafty girlies, painting, drawing, colouring in, glueing, they'd be sewing and knitting if they had half the chance, in fact Grannie has patiently taught Ruby & Tilly how to bobbin knit and they both loved it.

I recently did a cross stitch for my mum and when I say for my mum, it was a little project she was supposed to do herself, but somehow feigning bad eye sight, she passed it onto to me too do and as I love a cross stitch I didn't hesitate to do it, after all it is for my gorgeous nephew Alistair and I was helping my mum out. (yes I have finished it Mum and will post it today I promise) Ruby was enthralled watching me, asking questions all the time, I knew what was coming, she decided she wanted to do one, so next time we were in Jo-Ann's Ruby picked this little kit and took too it straight away - not quite cross stitch but it's a good start for a 5 year old and she is enjoying it.

Our lovely friend Lesley recently saw this tutorial on Pinterest and instantly tagged me in the pin as she knew my girls would love it -  http://megduerksen.typepad.com/whatever/2011/05/butterflies.html%20

I immediately I knew it was going to be a winner, so another trip to JoAnn's with a 50% off coupon in tow, we purchased the butterfly cutter (and other crafty things but don't tell the hubby) We didn't bother with the acrylic paints this time we just used what we had on hand and I knew we had 2 canvas frames somewhere....

The girls got on with painting their paper whilst I went on a hunt for the frames, once found and whilst the painted paper was drying we got painting the canvas frames, as you can see Ruby is a bit more particular than Tilly.

Now the fun bit - I basically let them loose with the butterfly cutter choosing their own colour patterns, and boy did they enjoy this bit, Tilly needed a bit of help punching out the butterflies, then they got gluing the butterflies onto their painted canvas.

Drum roll please - here are the finished crafty butterfly canvas - we love them

This craft was a great project for the girls- they painted the paper & canvas late afternoon, then it was allowed to dry overnight, after breakfast the next day we got cutting and gluing - Ruby needed no help with the project & Tilly only needed help with the cutter not bad for a 5 & 3 year old.

From the Inner West to the Mid West

It's been a while but we are finally here, we've moved from the Inner West of Sydney, to the Mid West of America.

We've settled in Evanston to be exact, about 11 miles outside of Chicago. It's a lovely leafy suburb, great parks for the kids, good shopping for mum, the beach is only 1.5 miles away - yes we are on a lake (Lake Michigan) but it's a huge lake and luckily for us it has beaches, a great lakeshore walk, parks and BBQ areas so far so good.

We've been here 5 months now and in that short time we've unpacked our small container of belongings that fitted into a 3 bedroomed house in Sydney's Inner West into a 6 bedroomed house with an attic and basement to boot, the good news, moving into a larger house is, I have my own sewing/craft room, more on that later but I love it, Hubby gets his own man cave, the girls, despite the having plenty of room, are sharing and we have 2 spare guest rooms. It's a big lovely old house built in 1893 and we're enjoying it.

We managed quite quickly & luckily to get the girls into a lovely pre-school, they started in March, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Ruby was in the Red room and Tilly in the Yellow room, and the school is next to a fantastic park called Penny Park built by the residents of the area. Although it is Summer holidays now Tilly will continue there in September, whilst Ruby moves on & upward and starts kindergarten.

Hubby is really enjoying his work and has been jet setting around America - he's been to 6 different states so far.

I've jumped into American life, luckily having children means you get to meet other mums and make friends quickly, I'm already part of a book club - yes another excuse to go out and drink wine, I'm getting use to driving on the right, the lingo, food, transport and the American ways it's all fun so far.

As well as a trip to New York which was utterly fantastic, we've had plenty of visitors, my mum who came over with the girls & I in the beginning thanks Mum, we've had Grannie & Grandad (Hubby's parents) over, Nanna & Pop (my Mum and Step dad), our lovely friends Lesley & Steve dropped in for a weekend whilst visiting NY and we're expecting D-Dad (my dad) over hopefully in August - it's great having people over, showing them our new city and life.

So far the weather has been great for us, some days I feel like we are still living in Sydney, it's bizarre but very familiar.

It's now Summer holidays, the kids have 3 months off here, yes three long months, so far we have managed to survive the last 6 weeks with plenty of museum outings, craft days, movies, play dates and parks. I have to say like Sydney, Chicago is very child friendly, plenty to do and see it's great. With only 6 more weeks to go, not that I'm counting, I am I am, Saturday marks a huge adventure for us we're off on our first American/Canadian road trip for 2 weeks and we are all very excited about it.

Mrs C

From Sydney to Chicago (Via A Short UK Holiday)

Welcome to my first post - our exciting news is we are moving from Sydney to Chicago via a short holiday in the UK.

You see my hubby got offered a job in Chicago with the same firm he works for here and we thought why not, let's experience America for a couple of years and see if it's true about living "the American Dream" so we're in and we're off.

However myself and my two gorgeous girls are going via England first, we're leaving Daddy to pack up the house and start his new job in Chicago while we have a whale of a time in England with our friends and family - perfect

Although excited to be looking forward to our new adventure, we are equally so sad about leaving this beautiful city and country that has been our home for 11 years, our gorgeous wonderful friends that make living here so much fun and enjoyable we will miss you all old & new.

The plan is to blog about our American (and a little UK) adventure - the quirky findings, obscure events/happenings, normal every day stuff but most of all it will be a reminder to us of our journey and life there

Sit back, hold on tight and enjoy our journey with us.

The Travelling Chaplins