(apologies the imbed is really small, youtube have changed their imbed system and I can’t work out how to make it a proper size. Here’s the video page if you need it)

One of my favourite crafts and an especially awesome craft to do with kids is bleach stencilling. We have a heap of bleach stencilled clothes in the wardrobe now and we always get great comments from our friends. It’s a great way to whip up a quick protest tee out of an old shirt too. Or you can use old scraps of fabric and make patches. Just remember the test spot. Some fabrics don’t take it at all and some colours are picky. I find greens and blues usually work best.

The singlet I used in this tutorial video was one of a pile of baby singlets I had donated to me. They’ve all been spunked up with an image of the great wind vane sculpture down at our community garden where we hold our Braybrook Sprouts Permaculture Playgroup. I’ve made a pile of these singlets to give to all the wee ones that join our group.

Bleach stencilling is a fabulous way to teach kids about how the fun works. As you can see in the video it literally works like magic in front of your eyes. And there’s so many other teachings you can incorporate depending on what you use as your stencil. Maybe use some shape blocks to make a picture. Or use some shapes found in the garden like leaves. Just ensure the edges are very close to the fabric or they will go blurry.

Have fun with this tutorial and feel free to share it around.

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See I think internet censorship is silly, rather pointless, and inevitably ineffective. I would even go so far as to say that it is a policy equivalent of fucking for virginity.

Our political leaders are supposed to introduce policies that REDUCE the problems in the most cost effective way. Not flick rubber bands at problems in a way that not only makes them harder to solve but creates a whole new raft of problems in the process, not to mention costing a big bundle of dollars.

If the government really wants to deal with the problems of sexual exploitation in our society perhaps they might want to start by looking at their own policies that treat women and children like tradeable commodities. Perhaps if the exploitation of women and children wasn’t so wholeheartedly endorsed by business, media, police, our governments etc etc then people wouldn’t find the sexual exploitation of women and children so enticing.

But big picture issues and solutions don’t fit so neatly into electoral terms do they?

What gets me the most about this whole internet censorship thing is the AUDACITY of the Minister to say that it’s to help parents protect their children.

Excuse me? If I needed help protecting my kid, I’m afraid the government is probably the last place I’d look. I would much prefer tax payer dollars were spent educating parents, teachers and anyone else who has interaction with kids and computers on the issues surrounding net safety, respect for women and how to empower kids to protect themselves.

Do we seriously think rape and sexual assault would be such big problems if our kids were empowered to respect all genders. I know thinking back to my teenage years there were far too many guys who thought it was ok to treat girls like objects and even more girls who just did not have the skills to stand up to it.

At some point we, as a society, have to do something real about this issue. And sadly, despite the rhetoric of ‘Australia Says No’ I doubt it’s gonna come from the government. So it has to be up to us as parents, aunties, uncles, grandparents, siblings and friends. Anyone wanting to read more on feminist parenting might want to start with ‘Raise Some Hell’. And if anyone reading this post knows of any good resources it would be awesome if you could share them in the comments.

Finally, I urge you all to drop a line to Stephen Conroy. He really is being quite a fool about all this malarky. And the more people who tell him the better.

http://nocleanfeed.com/

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This cross stitch was hand stitched on antique linen. In between breast feeding, changing and entertaining twins and feeding and hanging out with a three year old, it took me about 3 weeks to complete.  It has been framed in an antique brass frame with the original mounting board to complete the aged feel of this piece.

This piece is for sale and proceeds will go to the campaign to stop internet censorship.  Maybe someone out there wants to buy it for Stephen Conroy?

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We’ve got two!

Woke up to contractions on the morning of the 18th. They were steady at about half an hour apart most of the day. So I spent it in bed saving up energy, snoozing, playing mindless computer games etc. Tara – our 3 year old – decided to put nail polish in her eye so Karl nipped her to the doctor in the morning. Can never all be about mum!

My contractions picked up around 6pm and by about 9.30 the midwife was around and I was down to 5 min gaps. All was going pretty normal until about midnight when I started to feel really frustrated because it felt like I really wasn’t progressing. I didn’t have any control around my groin. Couldn’t relax or push or anything. It felt numb, like I’d had a local anaesthetic. But it sure as hell hurt everywhere else, despite the awesome relaxing power of our birthing pool.

Before my labour I’d spent a fair amount of time meditating on the birth of my first child. Since that was such a dream birth I wanted to be able to visualise it happening again! But it turned out that preparation came in more handy in helping me identify when things weren’t progressing like last time.

At about 1am I started to really feel like there was something wrong and started talking about getting me to a hospital. My waters still hadn’t broken so the midwife suggested we try breaking them first and see if that moves things along. So we gave it a go, but they were so tight they wouldn’t break. Spent another hour in the pool and then tried again. This time they broke and it made a massive difference. 5 mins later we gave birth to a baby girl!

Had some nice time cuddling her in the water but it was a bit hard to bring her up high on my chest as her cord was really short. About 5 mins later I started getting more contractions and really had the need to push. I figured it was just the placenta and deciding that I was well and truly over it just pushed it out. But when it came out it only went halfway and stuck. I reached down to feel what was going on and it felt really hard. My midwife got me to pull my hips up so she could have a good look. Her first panicky thought was that I’d pushed out my uterus since it was so hard. But then we both saw a foot!

Holy crap call ambulance!

I had a boy twin yet to come out and he was breach. The paramedics on the phone told me to get out of the pool and onto a chair with my legs up high and just push him out. That was the most intense 10 minutes of my life. I was pushing and pushing but baby still wasn’t coming out.  I then experienced this amazing moment of clarity and my brain just clicked on and said you’ve got another baby and he needs your help, get him out now! So I took a deep breath and pushed until out he flew. Through the midwifes hands even..

Just as she was cutting him out of his placenta which was still in tact, the paramedics ran in and took over care. He had a cord around his neck, wasn’t breathing and had no pulse. After 5 mins of resus they got his pulse back but were still taking care of his breathing when they took him to hospital. I was then able to birth the first placenta – which was delightfully easy after all the other bits! It was last to come out since she was on top and had pushed past her brother to come out – thus the intense labour! We spent about half an hour calming down, cleaning up, feeding baby girl etc then followed to the hospital.

Brilliantly, my three year old stayed asleep through all of this!

We then had the most intense week ever. Long story short, he suffered from Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy, basically a shortage of oxygen and blood flow to the brain which can be really really serious. At one point there was also evidence of a stroke. The first couple of days he was having frequent seizures and was looking very ill. We were bracing ourselves for some pretty severe brain damage and early on there was conversations about the possibility of decisions around life support. But since then he has done nothing but improve. And on the following Monday we finally got him to have an MRI scan which came back normal. Including the news that the stroke probably didn’t happen, it was swelling on the brain which looked like a stroke. That’s now gone. So while he’s still got a way to go before he’s called a healthy baby his chances at a ‘normal’ life are almost on par as with any new baby. It’s been nothing short of a miracle – hugely helped by an amazing care team in the hospital. He truly couldn’t have been in better hands.

After a couple of days out of intensive care and into special care, the team decided to transfer him to our local hospital which also has a special care unit. This meant it was heaps easier for us to visit. And a less intensive unit meant the focus was very much on bringing him home. And it was only a couple of days before the doctor invited us to ‘bed in’ with him so we stayed at the hospital and were in charge of his care but the nurses were on hand if we needed them.

Unbelievably, less than two weeks after a pretty traumatic birth, we got to bring our little legend home.

We named the babies Curtis Taonga and Jamari (hasn’t got a middle name yet..). When I told my Dad the news on the first day he said oh he was just being a gentleman and letting his sister go first. I really liked that take on it. So given Curtis means courteous and polite we thought that was appropriate. His middle name is a Maori word and it means treasured object or person. He’s our polite treasure! Jamari is French and means strong girl warrior. Since she likes to lead the way! She’s an awesome baby and is doing everything she should be. Sleeps like a legend!

I’m recovering pretty well. I had a couple of stitches and ended up having a blood transfusion a couple of days after delivery. But home and settled now and starting to get our heads around the realities of three kids… We have to buy a new car, eek!

So that’s a really long story short. It’s been insanely surreal. It’s only been a week but already our lives have been completely changed. But thanks to some serious amounts of positive energy, unbelievably amazing support from friends and family and liberal doses of tears, it’s definitely a change for the good.

Wow we have a wee tribe!

Lots and lots of love and kisses.

Rayna and the rest of the Braybrook massif!

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Yeah so I’ve been pretty slack at the ol’ blogging recently.  But I have a fabulous excuse!  I’m preggers with kidlet version 2.0!  It’s been a bit hellish so far but things are settling down now and I’m starting to make progress catching up on the last few months of missed stuff.  If you sent me an email and I haven’t replied, please don’t take it personally, you are far from the only one!

It has meant some good stitching time though and I’ve been working on some exciting new projects recently.  I hope to share them with you very soon.

Some of you might remember that it was kidlet version 1.0 that started this whole crazy cross stitch adventure in the first place, so who knows where this one will take me!

p.s. the badge above I bought for my birthday. You can buy one and other cool pro mama stuff at MuthaCrafter!

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And the link took my on this little adventure to the girls not chicks website where I found the girls are not chicks colouring book.

I am so, so happy to find this. Being a mother of a young girl, I am absolutely terrified of how to help my wee girl negotiate her way through all the bullshit messages about what being a girl and then a woman is all about. There are so few toys and books out there designed to give girls positive messages about themselves which aren’t based on their bodies or how to get a boyfriend.

You can buy it on their website or on their etsy store.

I have!

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I promised a finished cross stitch and now I’m finally delivering! I’ve been slowly working on this one for a couple of months now and I’m so happy to see it finished!

It’s is an antique (c. 1860′s) inspired floral border surrounding the text ‘Don’t Bleed on the Carpet’. I’ve subtitled it ‘if you’re going to die, do it quietly’. It’s meant as an ironic tribute to all those revolting home sweet homes out there. But it’s also my little tribute to al the amazing women in the world running households. It’s such hard work and as you know, thanklessly unpaid. But it goes on no matter what. Because it’s such important work. We all need somewhere where we can stop and be safe.

I think this piece is mostly dedicated to women living in war, who despite all obstacles still strive for a clean, tidy, safe space for their loved ones to rest before facing another day. The women who sew together rags for their wee ones ’cause they know how important it is for a two year old to have a cuddly friend. The women who dress in black and march for peace amid gun fire and tear gas. All the while carrying giant handbags with keys and snacks and hankies for small runny noses.

So to all the mothers of revolutionaries out there, I thank you. “Cause we all know they couldn’t do it without you.

———-

This design is also available as a kit and an e-pattern. The e-pattern is available now in my etsy store.  I’m getting around to finishing the kits.  Hassle me if you really want one and I’ll get more organised!
xox

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Cheers to Julie for the ace find!

Speaking of skinny girls with eating disorders. I am certainly adding my voice to the outrage against the Miss Bimbo online game. I am not linking to it because I don’t believe they need any more encouragement.

Basically the game involves playing games on their website to earn Bimbo dollars which are then spent on making your virtual body look hot. Options include diet pills and plastic surgery. The hotter ie skinnier your Bimbo is, the better you get ranked against other users of the site.

This offends me on so many levels. Most of the press has been around parents being outraged. And as a parent I am outraged. I get petrified at the thought of how to explain the world in a rational way to a teenager now. I can’t even imagine how I’m gonna get a teenager through to her 20s without an eating disorder/drug addiction etc in 15 years time.

But I’m more angry as a woman. I saw one of the developers of the site on tv nonchalantly shrugging off concerns of parents as no big deal. I don’t think it had occurred to him that people might find this offensive. He claimed that their site isn’t anything new, it’s all stuff that’s around in society anyway. But he was wrong.

This site is turning the physical mutilation of women for the purposes of men’s voyeuristic pleasure into a virtual competition. It’s turning it into a game, with mass participation. This has a massive desensitisation effect for very young impressionable minds. Participants of this game can experience the social ‘benefits’ of plastic surgery without ever having the deal with the costs, both physical, emotional and financial of the actual surgery.

I’m angry that some young men thought that it would be a nice profit making venture to exploit the competitive drive amongst young women.

And I’m really pissed off that they put craft on the front page.

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Welcome to all the visitors from Sew, Mama, Sew! I’m so honoured to be a part of such an inspirational project. I’ve already made two things and have a long list of other projects to do. Hope you find this tutorial useful

We all know that making our own things is good for the planet and our wallets but sometimes it’s a bit hard making things. So here’s a super easy one. Please just use this as a rough guide. It’s so easy you should really let your creative juices flow and come up with your own styles. Feel free to send me photos of any finished product!

I made a few baby hats recently. Actually a lot, I’ve turned into the mad hatter. So here’s a step by step on how to make a baby hat out of an old knit dress. You could use pretty much anything, as long as it’s a bit stretchy and warm.

Cut the bottom of the dress off at about 15cm. Sorry don’t have a pic of this, went and did something with the dress before I remembered to…

Cut up from the bottom about 15cm (for a 6 month old) along from the seam. Make sure the seam is exact on the edge before you cut.

Fold so the seam is on the outside and then sew up the side. Make sure you do the side first so the two ends are even where they join.

and along the top

so it makes a rectangle (ignore my wonky lines, I was experimenting)

Turn inside out.

Ta da!

Piss easy and super cute.

I’ve made a few out of polar fleece too. The difference was that I used one long piece and folded it over the top and sewed up the sides. I tucked under the bottom of the rim of the hat and sewed along there to keep it straight and tidy.

I also cut a couple of small strips and tied little bows on the corners to give the hat little ears.

I want one for me!

And recently I made one out of a crazy vintage 60s psychedelic shirt. And I make a matching scarf to go with it. I know it clashes really badly with what she’s wearing but how cute is that?

You can find that one in my Mintd Store!

Thanks for checking out this tutorial.  I’d love any feedback from people making these hats on how easy the tutorial is to follow.  Or if there’s any way to improve it.

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Even having fun is political. And the most political fun stuff you can do is stuff that costs no money! Screw the GDP!

So here’s Tara having fun for free.

This is Tara in her spaceship. It’s just a box lined with a blanket and she loves it. We got the idea off mum. I reckon she spends about 30% of the day sitting in it. And it’s a waterproof box so we can take it outside and put it on the grass, even in the morning when it’s still a bit damp.

Another fun free thing we do is talk to Tara about adventures. Any time we go anywhere, it’s an adventure. A walk to the shop or a three day road trip. I know one day some authoritarian grownup is going to say to her “life’s just one big adventure to you isn’t it?”

I hope she says yes.

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But we bought her this tshirt and I have to show it off cause she’s real cute

aww ain’t she hot?

So if you want one of these tshirts go visit the Fat Mumma’s website or their Mintd store.

And note the hat she’s wearing in the top photo.  I made that and will be making some more soon, stay tuned for the tutorial on how to make the easiest baby hat ever.

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