23. Fob off your Christmas List

I recently was lucky enough to test another "You Sew Girl" pattern, the USB Key Fob. I am currently using mine to house my USB stick for my Embroidery Machine. I don't even have to take the stick out of the fob to be able to use it, with the neat little hole in it, I can plug it straight in!



This key fob is great for keeping your USB stick safe and sound as well as being easily identifiable. It would make a great addition to christmas stockings if you choose your fabrics and embellishments wisely. If you choose more masculine fabric, it would even make a suitable hand-made gift for a man. Because we all know how tricky it is to find suitable hand-made gifts for men and teenage boys.



Pop a USB stick in there and your teens might like it to store their MP3s on or for schoolwork. Maybe you could pair it with an iTunes gift card? It would also make a great teacher gift if you do that sort of thing. You could pop some photos on the USB stick and give it as a gift for the grandparents for Christmas. It could even be personalised with the child's name. Or you could get them to draw a picture for Nanna using some fabric textas or crayons.... (mind going into over-drive here).



Nikki gives you all the nifty tips and tricks you need to make this USB-key fob, and I am sure that you will use some of these tricks when making other things too. The best part is that you can down-load it right now and get cracking on your hand-made Christmas gift-list.



How would you "giftify" a USB stick? Who would you give it to and how would you embellish it? Would you put stuff on the stick, or leave it empty for the recipient to do what they wish?

22. Un-Tangled

I was at my machine, sewing away today, when I reached down for a bobbin. I keep them close at hand in the top of my sewing box.



No matter how much I tidy them though, they always end up in such a tangled mess. You only have to breath near them and they unwind and very soon they are in a bigger mess than this lot are.



The bobbins above are for my old machine. I love this (yes, it stops the bobbins from unwinding) but it also annoys me because it's shape is not really very storage efficient. It takes up way more space than I would like. I know there are lots of other storage solutions, and clips you can buy, but I am reluctant to spend money that could be better used for fabric and other fun stuff.



Anyway, after I popped my instagram photos up on various social media, my friend Amy found me this tutorial. I nipped out to the hardware shop (well as quickly as you can nip to the hardware shop with three kids) and grabbed some tubing in exchange for some small change. I've done a couple of test bobbins, using both 12.5mm and 16mm tubing, and both work fine - I do prefer the tighter curl of the 12.5mm though. My tubing is thinner than what was used in the tutorial but that seems to be okay too.

21. Noah & the Beanstalk

Just over a month ago, Liam, Noah and I planted some vegetable seeds. We planted Heirloom Favourites (tomatoes), Dwarf Peas and Sweet Basil, all ordered online from Yates, and some Capsicum, Dwarf Beans and Sweet Corn all from Aldi.



We planted a punnet of each for Liam and the same for Noah. You can see Noah's peas, above, after just one week!



By day 17, most of the seeds had sprouted and were going quite nicely. Noah is convinced we are going to grow a beanstalk up to the sky and really soon we'll be meeting giants. Liam's peas had been tipped out, so we planted some new ones.



I had almost given up on the capsicum, but some of them have now sprouted, so they might be okay. We planted some snow peas as well, it says to sew early spring, so I hope they will be alright. The basil is still very tiny, we'll see how it goes...



Yesterday, we planted the beans and peas into the garden. The tomatoes are looking a little young yet, I would like to see more leaves on them before I plant them out. We also lost a punnet of them when they were tipped out by one of the kids. I might plant some more, but a different variety, Grosse Lisse instead.



This morning I took a few photos of Amélie and Noah watering the plants.



Do you have a vegetable garden? How do you contend with snails? I'm a bit reluctant to use snail bait with small children around. We're going to try putting some beer in a saucer for them. That sounds really friendly, doesn't it? If you can't beat them, join them, yeah!