And now it's Pajama Bags...

I'm always on the look out for something new to sew.  My latest sewing time has been put to use by sewing Pajama Bags.  When I was a young girl, I had a PJ Bag which would hang on the end of my bed and each morning I would put my nightie in it.  When a Facebook Fan (& a mum from school) suggested Pajama Bags, I thought yeah, what a cool idea.  So, I got sewing, using pieces of fabric which I had spare.  

Each bag is lined with a contrasting or matching fabric, and then can tightly close using a ribbon-drawstring!

I very much love the Monkey Pirates!

I had quite a few tries getting the ribbon opening just right so the first one was given to Monet (who loves it!) and I have a parcel to send off to my nephew and two nieces next week (with new pyjamas!)

I hope they like and use them like my girls do.

My Babies In An Ancient Dress

Check this out :-

When I do this, you can really see Monet in Lily.  The dress that they are both wearing was worn also by me as a toddler and pretty sure it was originally owned by my sister Kim too.  Only thing is, for an ancient dress, it is pretty typical of Lily to get blue marker pen down the center of it, (*urgh*) but hopefully it will come out in the wash.

Dress Up Fun

As I was busy in our family wardrobe room (yes, we have one whole room which houses all our clothes in free-standing wardrobes), organising stuff before we head off, the girls were busy in Lily's room, trying to keep out of trouble. I could hear squeaks of delight coming from the youngest and Monet giggling away.

"Mum, where are you?"
"In the wardrobe room...."
"Okay, well here comes Lily..."

This is how Lily presented herself to me.

Cute eh?  Lily the Fairy.

Well, then it wasn't long until I was given a 'dressing up' fashion parade...

I was visited by a Mermaid and Hula Girl...

A couple of Pumpkin Fairies...

And Snow White with her Wicked Step Mother.

(Check out the shoes on that above photo will you!?!)

Fun, funny times.

The Little One Has New Shoes...

...and I desperately want some for my own feet, though I doubt I'll ever find them in a European Size 41.

Not the greatest photo...

Miss Lily loves them so much that she insisted on wearing them practically straight as we walked out the shop (thanks Mothercare) and got in the car.  Back at home it was nap time and she had a good two hour sleep with her little red shoes sprinkled with white flowers on.  No way did she want them off her feet.  And no wonder, they are lovely and grippy on the soles and are soft and comfortable (looking) on the inside.

Cute eh?

A Day Out

Up bright and early this morning, the four of us got in the car and headed up the road to Dubai Mall.

Up the 'Fashion Car park' we drove....  It is impossible NOT to feel carsick as you drive up the eight levels to the start of the car park...

Where we usually park, you end up quite near the biggest bookshop in the country (but it does feel like the biggest in the world), 'Book World'.  I snuck a piccie, you're not meant to take photographs in there.  I bought a couple of guide books, all ready for our holiday!

Outside the bookshop, we peered down to see other families playing on the lighted floor, three levels down.   It was hard to get Lily to move from that spot.  She loved the lights.

I quite like getting to Dubai Mall early, if anything to beat the crowds, like we did today.  This photo was taken at around 10:30am.  If it was a few hours later, the place would be pumping, and I'm not really one for crowds.  Especially in shopping malls.

And of course,  no visit to this particular mall is complete without seeing the Aquarium.  Our girls love it.

Monet thinks a visit to this mall, actually any Dubai mall, is not complete without going to choose her own bag of sweets.  *Argh*  MrL and I usually take turns to help Monet pick out her sweets, today it wasn't mine.  ;P

And speaking of sweets, when Lily starts to get restless in the pram/stroller, it only takes a little playing with her big sister for her to forget her worries of being strapped in.

Today we picked up some bargains - though I didn't spy anything I liked (think I'm getting fussy) in the clothing department, Monet scored a couple of real bargain pieces from Pumpkin Patch, as it is Summer Sale Time here in the UAE.  Funky dude.

That was our day out.  What did you get up to on the first day of your weekend?

Rejuvenate

Many years ago, about 9 years ago to be precise, I bought a tee shirt I loved to death. Literally. I have posted about it before, which you can read about HERE. My Shem tee-shirt. A Melbourne designer, located in Chapel Street.  Anyway, after many years, wears and washes, she was looking a little...haggard I guess is the word.  But I couldn't part with that tee.  Nup.  It's the oldest single piece of clothing in my wardrobe.  Which never gets worn.  And sits there looking all sad with it's ripped and holey collar and not the colour it originally was.

Until now.

I had a sudden brain wave the other day, of a need to rejuvenate that tee.  I visited my local H&M store, tried on like a zillion white tee shirts of about a dozen different sizes (how can one store have such a difference in clothing sizes is beyond me!) but I finally found a comfortable, fitting, not see-through white tee.

Back at home I set about cutting out the figure on my old stained, holey tee....

And there she is, the Queen-like silhouette on my dining table.   And the back end of the original tee which reads 'Let God Save Her'....

I placed the silhouette on the new tee, ready to be sewed on.  I set my sewing machine on a 'tight' zig-zag and sewed around the outskirts of the face...

...to get to the final result.  One I am rapt with.

My rejuvenated favourite tee shirt, which I wore with pride today. =)

Love Me A Bargain.

There's a little outlet shop in one of the malls in Abu Dhabi called 'Tchibo'.  It is a German store and I always try and 'pop in' whenever I am in that particular mall, as you never know what one will find.  It is jam packed full of home wares and travel wares, from bags and shoes, shirts to cups and the stock changes probably each week.

On a whim, I popped in last week.  And I walked out with a pair of travel pants (or Trekkinghose/Hiking Trousers as they've called them);

Now this store is always a buzz with shoppers.  And the reason why?  Because it is cheap.  Damn cheap.  Those pants cost me a whole...wait for it.....wait for it....30 dirhams.  At the time of typing, 30 dirham is roughly ummm....$7.60aud.  Can you believe that?  They're going to be the perfect pair of trousers for jumping on a plane with and in one of my favourite colours (that dark olive greeny colour I seem to wear a lot of!)

They have a few more stores in the UAE and I know they're dotted over in Europe too.

Oh yes, I do love me a bargain.

All In Her Strides (denim ones at that.)

You know those moments when you think to yourself, "gee I'm glad I did that!" (few and far between for me) but I heard myself muttering that the other day.  I had saved quite a lot of Monet's old clothes; ones that weren't stained or torn or faded and it is only now that Miss Lily can start to wear these clothes.

I started keeping Monet's clothes from about a Size 2, so was chuffed to find this little yellow number tucked away in a big plastic case and have it fit :-

It looks just as gorgeous on Lily as it did on Monet.

So after Monet finished school we decided to get Lily to try on some of the numbers which will get worn on our upcoming holiday.  We hadn't giggled so much in ages - it is very strange seeing your baby in jeans for the first time!  And when Monet changed into jeans too, oh man, I could have been back in Melbourne!

It was 42 degrees behind that front door!

Cute eh?  It's like reliving Monet's toddler-hood! *heehee*

We live in a house, a very big house in Abu Dhabi....

Friday was shopping day for us.  

We wanted to hit some shops, as you do.  Our destination was 150k's up the road at Dubai Mall, the largest shopping mall in the world, located under the Burj Dubai.  The past couple of times we have been there it was still in the process of opening (shop variety wise) but when we pounded the mall this time, we found most shops were open.  Gotta love that.

On the way 'up' to Dubai we got pretty excited to see some camels wandering on the side of the road (behind a fence) and even on the way home we saw more.  Rather funny as it was the first ones we had seen like that (one after the other), especially coming from Australia where we would always see, yet still get excited, about seeing wild Kangaroos on the side of the road. 

Monet and I both love the aquarium at the Mall - you can pay to go through the aquarium itself (unsure of the price) but otherwise you can stand behind barriers and see the giant glass wall with coral and fish.  It is pretty awesome to see for yourself.

Lyndon has been quite keen lately to purchase a gift for himself - a train set, so he and Monet could enjoy together, but he didn't see one that 'ticked all boxes' so instead he got a Wii Fit.  How come no one has ever told us about how good they are before??  I swear I hadn't laughed so hard in ages with both Monet and Lyndon doing exercise.  (Mind the shite quality of this photo - I was trying to quickly take one on the sly...)

There is one section where you can go jogging and seeing Monet 'jog' (ie sprint) on the spot was too much for me.  Monet and Lyndon too doing yoga and exercise was amusing but they enjoyed themselves.  It will be great to use for me once baby has entered the world.  (It is recommended not to use when pregnant, well especially 33 weeks along like myself)

Back to Dubai Mall...

I was rather happy to see that a H&M store had opened (you should know by now how much I like H&M, great prices!) and that they basically had most of their store at 50% off.  Monet and #2 gained a few items (so cute) but I'm leaving clothe shopping for moi a bit further along the track.  

I did however purchase a few of my favourite little cookbooks and I lashed out and bought myself some new shoes...

How could I resist those little (well, not little) numbers?  Too cute I thought.  

We had a nice day out and the evening was topped off with us each enjoying an Export Quality Four & Twenty Aussie Meat pie for dinner!  You have no idea how good they taste when you aren't in the country of origin!  (We have a box of 24 which we got off the Dubai Dingos AFL club, located here in the UAE.)

One last thing, Monet made my day today by announcing that this is her favourite song.  She must be taking after me after all!  I don't even care that the song is 14 years old.  It is Blur and that what counts!

Relief.

With great relief I can tell you all that I have got Monet into a School for the new school year. 

She begins KG-2 (like Aussie Prep) come August 30th, (which is during this year's Ramadan over here) and will be an orientation day for all new children and their parents; school tours, teachers met, school uniforms purchased.  I can tell Monet is looking forward to it already.  She got a *glowing* report from her Nursery School Director which I am sure helped.  (I have to tell you, it is very hard to get children into school over here - there are limited places everywhere it seems - and these schools are not cheap.  All international schools here are private.  The company Lyndon currently works for, will pay a certain amount for Monet but the rest we have to fork out.)

It will be a hectic time for us with Monet starting school, her 5th birthday the following week and baby #2 due.  

Speaking of, Monet took this photo yesterday of me, so for all of you who want to spy a 23 week pregnant woman look no further;

Monet was busy trying on her 'winter' clothes for London next week.  We had to purchase some new threads for her on the weekend as her legs seemed to have stretched over the past few months and she didn't have a winter coat, which will be needed going from 40+ degree days into the low teens.

(I can't help but look at that above photo and see that she's looking 'grown up'. When did that happen?)

Things are moving ahead, per usual.

Spilling The Contents...

...of my 'handbag'.  Now, if you know me, I am not one for handbags.  Never, never, never.  Though out my teens and into my twenties, and now my mid-way through my thirties, I have never owned a proper handbag.  Well, what I identify with handbags anyway.  

If I can get by with just a small wallet (never a purse!), even one that just holds a couple of cards, I am happy.  If it has a key ring attached I am even more happy.  

Of course once you have a baby all this changes as you can't leave the house without bibs, nappies, change of clothes etc., etc.,  But I never called it a 'handbag', rather the more distinguished name calling of 'nappybag'.  

The one bag I have used (but just gave to one of the op-shops in Victoria) most days and was a great travel bag was my M1-11 Bag.  It was actually a 'man bag'.  But it was nearing its end so I was on the hunt for a similar one over the past several months... I found one in Melbourne.  In one of my favourite stores, Kathmandu. (Great bags, great skirts!) It is perfect for me.  Can hold my camera, phone, wallet and keys plus a few other little items so it's not all bulky.  I love that in a bag.  

So, following the footsteps of some other fellow blog friends before me, I now present to you my spilt contents of my current travel 'handbag'... (I love my bag so much I have to tell you that it opens the other-way, towards you, as a safety measure.  It also closes one section by zip and then another section covers it all via the use of magnets.  I do so love it.)...

So what's here?

• My keys - only need one at the moment (how good is that) but I am lost if it isn't on a lanyard, this one being my free 'Wooshka' one I got when I purchased a t shirt from them.  I always hook my lanyard onto my bags strap so I know at all times where my keys are.  I get paranoid.
  
• Spare set of Monet's knickers - self explanatory
  
• Band aid
  
• Strawberry Hair clip - one of Monet's, not mine  
  
• A pen - nicked from The Hilton at Melbourne Airport
  
• Pack of tissues - I never leave home without them
  
• Monet's drink bottle - this one is a little too bulky but until I find a smaller one this one will do!
  
• Fold able travel brush - great little invention those
  
• One 'Enviosax' bag - these bags are needed over here. (The UAE  haven't heard of 'green bags'.  It is plastic bag central around here!)
  
• Lost Fairy - She fell off one of Monet's clips
  
• Shopping list - from the other day.  (Monet wrote Milk for me)
  
• A Muesli bar - good for emergencies with a 4 year old.
  
• My newest Wallet - from Esprit.  I bought it in Melbourne and I love it.  

I am actually surprised that I am hauling that around my neck with me!  (I only purchase bags which can go around my neck and arm - sling style - I am not one for a bag that is only slung over the arm/shoulder.)  Usually my camera is in there and my phone too but both are out next to me on the computer.  

So, who else is going to spill their contents?...

(Sorry to for my fellow blog friends who run their blogs via Typepad - I can't get onto your sites at the moment due to something to do with the UAE, one suspects.  Lyndon is going to look into it for me!)

Something for Everyone.

We went to Marina Mall yesterday - the place where the snow slope is due to open in the first couple of months of 2009.  It also has an ice rink.  This place is crazy. *smirk*

So we went to the mall yesterday, Monet and I peeled off in one direction and Lyndon in another, (the best way to go shopping really, but in all honesty it would have been better if it was 'I' who was alone!)  It is amazing to visit so many shops from so many countries all under one roof.  *heehee*  Did you know Woolworths in South Africa is a clothing store as compared to Woolworths in Australia being a supermarket chain.  (Did I read that the variety store of Woolworths in Britain is closing down?)

I was happy with a couple of purchases from Next for myself.

Monet was happy with the dress she choose from Pumpkin Patch.

Lyndon was happy with the television he choose from Carrefour.

A rather successful shopping day for all actually... (as one waits for the technician to arrive and put the tv on the wall for us.)

A Coat and a Jab

I've been sorting through my old wardrobe here at my parent's house.  I have been finding lots of things long forgotten about including this little number, modeled by our own beautiful four year old Miss Monet...

The winter jacket was actually worn by me, when I was four.  I think my Grandmother had bought it for me, to wear on those cold, winter days when I went to Kindergarten.  (Well, Monet won't be wearing that when she goes to Kindergarten now will she?)  It is in rather perfect nick and if we were residing in Victoria permanently she'd be wearing it now.  

Monet thought it was rather wonderful to be wearing her mum's 31 year old coat.  I wonder what else I might dig up in that wardrobe?  (Plenty of junk waiting to be piffed no doubt!)

In other news I had three jabs in my arms yesterday.  My right arm was so sore last night I couldn't lift it.  I had a bad night sleep, due to being not able to sleep on my preferred side.  (Don't you hate that?)  Monet had to have two jabs but she has been fine.  Who would wanna move to the UAE?  *wink wink*

401

Very typical of me, but my last post was actually my 400th post on this version of biglittlesister.  I also forgot to wish my sister's partner a Happy Birthday for the week just past.  I hope I am excused - I have had a lot going on. (As if *you* all didn't know!)

We spent last weekend in Melbourne.  It was nice to do a spot of shopping in some half decent shops, but since when has Melbourne become so blue, tight jean orientated?  *blah* Living in Cairns I swear you can get away with wearing anything, anywhere, but since Melbourne is so fashion savvy it was a good excuse for us to buy a few new threads each.  We really liked the new(ish) DFO at Spencer Street.  (We liked it soooo much better than the Morrabbin Airport one we used to visit when we lived in Melbourne three years ago.)

Much to our delight, the weather was 'pleasant', even though the skies weren't blue.

  

It was nice to wander along Southbank again and meet up with friends at the Riverland Bar, down below Federation Square along the Yarra.   We like that outdoor bar so much, we visited it both on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

We met up with even more friends at a pub in Richmond and enjoyed a dinner out in a Beer Garden.  Monet and I didn't stick around too late as the Cox Plate had been run and there were too many horrible drunk people around, otherwise we had a rather good time.  

All up it was nice to spend a couple of nights in the town we once called home.  We stayed at Oaks on Market which we had stayed at once before.  It is in a good position, is reasonably priced (including buffet breakfast) and we will stay there again down the track.  We also had this view from our hotel room.

As much as we love Melbourne and as much as we tell people how much we are Melbourne people at heart, we know we're not ready to move back there.  Obviously there are other roads for us to travel at the present and according to this article in today's The Age, we've made the right decision.  (You have no idea how many people have asked Lyndon to 'take my business card with you' and asked to pass on their resume.  It is making us think the past 10 months have honestly been worth it and we got in at the right time.)

Today, Lyndon arrived safely in Abu Dhabi.  He is currently amazed by it all (the shops, the compound we'll be living in, the city, the palm trees, the current beautiful heat).  He has already told me how much he thinks Monet and I will love it.  I know he is right.  And I can't wait to get over there too now!

Monet and I are now at my parents.  I'm keen to have a drink in honour of all the good things life has in store for my little family at present and to celebrate over 400 posts!  (Any excuse, I know!)

Soon Her Whole Wardrobe Will Be Full Of Shonky Skirts...

Yes, I have been at it again.  

Sewing that is.

Today's 'blue' gingham number is straight from the 'biglittlesister' collection.  

No orders are taken. (The seamstress isn't too good!)  

The model thinks the sewing is terrific and is keen to give it a go. (Both modeling and sewing, that is, especially since the new series of the US Project Runway is beginning tonight on Arena.)

  

I might not be much of a seamstress, but I'm pretty good at making plugs.

(T-Shirt courtesy of KMart)

Straight from the pages of Vogue. Or maybe Not!!

I've been busy sewing today.  I'm not a good, neat sewer, but I can sew.  To an extent.  

If I start something I usually have to have it finished within a certain time frame or otherwise it will never get finished.  It will sit there idle until months (years!) down the track when Lyndon will ask "I thought you started blah, blah project?"  Ahem.

But today I sewed Monet a skirt.  No pattern or anything, just a simple skirt in a 'gold' gingham print she picked.  I had noticed in one of the kids clothing stores a couple of weeks back (when I was browsing with my Mother-In-Law) a skirt, made out of black and white gingham, simple straight lines, nothing too difficult, selling for $25.  The one I made today was based on that design and cost me about....umm...$2.  Maybe $3.  

I might not be much of a sewer, but my daughter certainly knows how to strike a pose. (There's nothing to it....Vogue...) One too many model/fashion shows perhaps?

Funky Monkey

Because every little girl should own pink flip-flops and every mother should wear comfortable shoes.

Every little kid should have dress ups too...

You never know, you might find the character within. 

(It also makes the fact that the small fortune you spend at Disneyland was worth it for their memories. Cinderella has been huge around here since our visit, but the dress was purchased at the local Kmart.  We weren't stupid enough to pay through the nose for a similar dress there!!)