Jenny, Author at Everything's Famtastic

October 29, 2019October 6, 2021

More DIY Easy Halloween Costumes Anyone Can Sew

sewing, sewing project, diy sewing, diy, diy costume, halloween, halloween costumes, pirate, bat, ninja, ninjago

Hi there! Have you been psyching up for Halloween? Or rather, are your kids getting crazy for Halloween? Let’s be honest, in the end, rambling through the neighbourhood trick-or-treating is more for their benefit than ours. Right? Nevertheless, I will admit that I am also getting a little excited.

When I prowl the neighbourhood with my kids on the 31^st October, it’s not as though I’m going to have a fistful of lollies thrust my way. (*Psst!!* There are however, a couple of neighbours who like to share a quick slurp of some fiery type of liquid that is definitely NOT for the little ones! Nudge nudge, wink wink)

What I do enjoy is watching the kids each year get bolder and more adventurous and confident, relishing the thrill of dressing up and dashing so free-spirited around the neighbourhood after dark. And we bump into so many of their friends also doing the rounds, so it’s practically like a street party. 😊

I know that last week I posted here a few home-sewn DIY Halloween costumes. But guess what I also enjoy?

October 22, 2019October 6, 2021

DIY Wicked Halloween Costumes You Can Easily Sew

I could have sworn we just enjoyed summer holidays and now all of a sudden Halloween is upon us. For most kids, Halloween means 2 things: costumes and lollies!

And when my kids think of costumes, what they really mean is “Mama’s GOTTA sew me one!!!”. 😉

halloween, halloween costumes, costume, diy costumes, sewing costumes, sewing, sewing project

Are your kids hankering for a really cool costume? That you are apparently going to make?!? If you are a #sewingnewbie perhaps you are feeling the pressure to come up with something great, while not necessarily knowing where to start. Even if Mama doesn’t think that Halloween is a really big deal, it’s a sure bet that the kids do!

Fear not! I would recommend you go grab yourself a hot beverage (coffee is my poison!), find a comfy chair because I’ve got a bunch of creative Halloween costume ideas just for you! They won’t break your budget, won’t take too long, but they will give you that satisfying feeling of a job well done.

October 15, 2019November 22, 2021

How to Know Whether Your Child is Ready for Their Own Phone

Warning! Warning! We now have a young lady in her mid-tweens in the house! Our oldest “baby girl” is certainly a little girl no more. Our formerly-known-as-Miss-10 recently celebrated her 11^th birthday. Yay! Happy Birthday amazing, gorgeous girl! (I know you’ll be reading this 😉).

Birthday celebrations mean birthday party planning, right?!? And boy, did she have plans. A gaggle of girlfriends stayed over to dance, chatter, play games and feast on popcorn while watching a DVD. Apparently they even managed to find time for some shut-eye.

Apart from her big birthday party though, she had one other grand plan occupying her thoughts every waking moment: a mobile phone.

pin, pinterest, kids and mobile phones, mobile phone, cell phone, parenting, tips

Mobile phone, cell phone, Handy, expensive-addictive-glowing-screen-attention-sucking-vampire. Call it what you want. But that gadget was front and centre on her birthday wish list and she was darned certain she was going to get one. From us. Her parents. Her caregivers. Her guardians. The logical left-brain to her own excitable right-brain.

But what to do? The idea of giving her her own mobile phone had me feeling incredibly nervous and concerned and a thousand other emotions that all together made me feel, well, uncertain and a little uncomfortable.

Mobile phone. Cell Phone, Handy. Looks harmless enough, right?

I mean, how are we supposed to know whether now is the right time to give her a phone? How does anyone know when “the right time” is? Read on!

October 1, 2019November 9, 2024

What It’s Like to Live Plastic-Free (and How You Can Do It Too!)

In case you have been living in a dark cave for a looong time, you have surely noticed the ever-increasing amount of news surrounding climate change, food production and wastage, plastics polluting the oceans and much, much more.

Now I don’t know about you, but a lot of this news scares me. And to be honest, it’s intimidating. What are we humans doing to the planet? To the environment? Why is it that so many goods are needed for our ever-increasing consumption, while at the same time landfill is stuffed with ever more food and plastic waste? And what can I, what can any of us, do about it?

Have you ever heard terms like “plastic-free” and “zero-waste” before? I am certainly aware of these concepts. Ask my whether I actually live plastic-free though, and I would probably um and ah and say how desperately I wish I did, but that I haven’t started. Yet.

I’m all for upcycling (such as in these sewing projects) and recycling (like giving new life to old toothbrushes). But still…

I needed to find some more information, something which I could latch onto and quickly implement to kick-start a plastic-free way of living. What does it even mean to live plastic-free? Would it be hard?

I decided to speak with my friend, Birgitta, as she is one of the only people I know who really does live plastic-free. And has done for a while. She would surely have some ideas for me!

Lucky for all of us, she was happy for me to share her story and some of her top tips with you! Plus, she shares one of her favourite recipes with us 😉. Read on to find out how Birgitta got started and how she successfully maintains a plastic-free household.

September 24, 2019June 26, 2021

The Art of Creating Special Memories

This week I am not going to dilly-dally around. I’m going to get straight into it. So… Who doesn’t believe in love? And romance? And beautiful gifts from your special someone?

This past weekend was Hubby’s and my wedding anniversary. Our 12^th to be exact. Which, whether you like it or not, we are just going to pat ourselves proudly on the back. Anyone who has ever been married knows that despite loving someone with all your heart, there are times when there can be other, not-so-poetic ways, to describe your feelings for this person. Marriage can be great. But it can also be hard work.

So when another years passes by and you can honour the fact that yes, you are still together, you are still in love with each other and you still want to stick by each other, it’s worth celebrating. Am I right?!?

So when we celebrated those 12 years together, it was the most magical, romantic, memorable day of the year. Or was it?….

**cue suspenseful music**

September 15, 2019June 26, 2021

5 Easy Ways to Reuse Old Toothbrushes & Reduce Waste

recycling, old toothbrushes, eco-friendly, tips, how-to

Hey! Another week has gone by, so it’s time for another episode of Jenny’s Everything’s Famtastic!!! Just to help you imagine that better, that should be announced in goofy, game-show-host voice. 😉

This week has been crazy busy between still getting our school routine down pat and juggling everybody’s extracurricular activities. I am sure I have mentioned before that German school times tend not be the same each day of the week. Mondays til 11.15? Sure! And Tuesdays? Nah, let’s schedule ‘em til 1.00!. *rolls eyes*

And not forgetting, that halfway through the school year everybody gets a whole new timetable and the adjusting and juggling starts all over again. Which of course also impacts on the extracurricular activities start times! Like currently. When I foolishly thought music lessons would always and forever be on Thursday afternoon. Apparently I am just some naïve, clueless foreigner…

Can you tell I sound a little frazzled?!?

But I’m not here today to rant about the German school system, believe it or not, LOL. No, in a convoluted way, I wanted to write about trying to reduce waste in our household. A few weeks back I talked about upcycling fabrics for sewing projects. And in a couple of weeks I will be sharing some helpful tips from my friend who is well along the path to living plastic-free. I am REALLY looking forward to her insights. Watch this space!!

I myself, still have a looooong way to go on that track. But I am aware that every person should be trying to do a little more to reduce waste in this world. Me included, of course! This week, one small event reactivated my thinking about reusing a simple household item.

“Surely you don’t mean….?” you ask.

**drumroll please**

September 8, 2019June 26, 2021

Password: Stoffmarkt Overload

Wow! What an experience that was! My shoulders are still aching from that heavy backpack! Seriously.

Oh! And I haven’t even said “Hi” yet. So… Hi! How are you doing? I hope you have been having a great week. Our week has been extremely busy, settling into school routines and extra-curricular activities all over again. Life with 3 certainly keeps me on my toes. If you have any kids, be it 1, 5 or 12, you can surely picture exactly what I mean!

And while this week’s *secret password* is “Stoffmarkt Overload” I am not referring to the fully loaded family schedule I have been presiding over. No, I am speaking about the (felt like) tons of goodies I brought home with me after a shopping spree this weekend.

So, what were those goodies you ask?!?

September 1, 2019June 26, 2021

Back to School Time

Here we go for another round of Everything’s Famtastic, with your happy host, Jenny!! How were things in your part of the world this past week?

We’re doing OK here. School holidays finished. Early school mornings have started again. It’s going to take some getting used to. We need some time to find our “groove” again. It was only a 3-day school week to start the school year off with. You know, the type that everyone likes, where you don’t have to face a full 5-day uphill battle of re-resetting your circadian rhythms after a 6-week hiatus 😉.

But seriously, these past few days of school and kindergarten [preschool] actually flowed surprisingly well. Not once did the kids complain about being woken up. No grumbling during breakfast time. No grouchy faces when it came time to walk out the door. Even no protesting when it was homework time in the afternoon.

**High fives all round dear family!**

What happened to my kids?!?

August 25, 2019June 26, 2021

Sewing + Upcycling = Win

sewing, sewing projects, diy, diy sewing, upcycling

Yo, hello! I hope you have all been having a Famtastic week! Here it was the last full week of summer school holidays. Just a couple of days left and then we are thrown back into the (so very, very early, every morning) school schedule.

I truly imagined having some time to pursue my own hobbies these holidays. Yes, snigger at me, if you wish. But I really had fantasised about getting some sewing done. Leggings for the girls, a shirt for me, perhaps a shirt for Master 5. Let us take a moment to contemplate whether I did any of those things…

**3 milliseconds later**

Alas, NO. I did not. Is this how it is for you during school holidays too? Imagine squeezing in some Mama time and end up with perhaps a microscopic amount of Mama time?!?

Anyway, I did, however, repair a stack of holes in children’s clothes. “Wow!” I hear you say. Yes, I find that neither fun nor satisfying. What I DO enjoy is creating handmade clothes and other goodies. Like shirts and leggings and skirts.

What I have been experimenting with more recently though is UPCYCLING in my sewing projects.

So what is upcycling anyway? And why would anyone want to do it? Hint: Upcycling does not mean riding a bike up a steep hill 😉.

August 25, 2019June 26, 2021

Cool Weather, Hot Look- How to Sew a Loop Scarf

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You can learn all about how to make an Infinity Loop Scarf here!