Let it rain!

I finally finished the first of my to-do projects, a rain jacket for Nicholas. I bought the pattern from Peek-a-Boo patterns which I originally found on Etsy. Since then though I have liked them on Facebook and also visited their website. They have heaps of patterns. There are at least 5 or 6 that I really want to buy to make both for Nicholas and Beth. However, before I am able to do this I need to finish all my other projects.

This is the rain jacket pattern I bought. The pattern had a great tutorial that was super easy to follow, with both a written explanation and a picture beside it showing what to do. It was very easy to put together and makes a great finished product.

Rain Jacket

So when the first wet day presented itself we set off outside and to take some photos. I love these photos, the Autumn leaves everywhere are just so pretty, and Nicholas is rather cute too in his little blue rain coat. 

Aww...so happy :).

And here is my list of things to finish (I think it might take me a while):

• Rain coat
• A hooded jumper for both Nicholas and Beth (have pattern and material)
• A hat for Nicholas (have pattern and material)
• Two long sleeve shirts for me (have pattern and material)
• Two dresses for me (have pattern and material)
• A shirt for me (have pattern and material), and I bought some nursing shirt patterns which I would like to make up (need to buy material)
• A winter skirt for me (have material, need to find a pattern)
• A pillow for Nicholas (have material and pattern)
• Finish the very first quilt I attempted (have the quilt top but need to buy the rest). 

Hopefully I will get it all done before the end of the year, because there is a bunch of other stuff I also want to make. 

Reproductive Health (Access to Terminations) Bill 2013

The Tasmanian parliament will soon have to decide on a Bill which would radically change abortion law in Tasmania. Public consultation on the first draft closed last week, and amendments are already being made. So far, DHHS has published 88 of the 140 submissions from organisations. Since it is not clear that the Department will actually publish the approximately 1910 individual submissions, Clare and I decided to publish ours in full here.
--Dan.

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Regarding the Draft Reproductive Health (Access to Terminations) Bill, Invitation to Comment.

We write to express strong objection to the proposed Reproductive Health (Access to Terminations) Bill 2013, as we believe that the Bill's provisions: 

1. are not founded on a philosophically defensible system of ethics, 
2. are incompatible with long-standing principles which are foundational to international human rights law, 
3. disproportionately criminalise conscientious objection, and 
4. will not reduce the demand for termination services.  

These objections can be further explained as follows (n.b. we use 'termination' and 'abortion' interchangeably, as does the Criminal Code Act)...

Toddler Busy Bag Swap

I attended my first toddler busy bag swap yesterday. If you haven't participated in a busy bag swap, you should. All you need to do is get a few friends together (we had 10), and have everyone create an age appropriate activity (there are heaps of ideas on Pinterest. Just type 'busy bag swap' in their search engine), and replicate it 10 times. Then on the set date, meet up with the other 9 people and swap bags. At the end you get to take home 10 bags, each with a different activity. This is a great idea, especially with winter setting in and the days getting colder.

My activity was based around Tinkerlab's Art Dice concept. My Dad cut the cubes for me, I sanded and drew on them, added some more ideas for the using the die, and presto, I had a busy bag activity. It really was as easy as that.

And this is what I returned with:

Two threading activities

A colour matching activity

Two cars and a city map

Laminated shape recognition cards

And some craft activities

And already Nicholas is loving the threading activity.

I am so glad I participated in this busy bag swap, and have signed up for a pre-school age swap in June. I'm already looking forward to all the different ideas and activities that people will come up with.

Elizabeth's Quilt

Here is evidence of the making of Beth's quilt (sorry about the poor photo quality they were taken on my phone):

This was on my to-do-list of things before Beth was born. Surprisingly, I got it finished and even took it to hospital with me. I am really pleased with my efforts, especially as the last quilt took me two years to finish.