Pencil Cases : :

Being a twin must be great sometimes, but other times not so great.
They have to share EVERYTHING...well everything except beds pretty much.
They share clothes, toys, a bedroom, friends at kinder...you get the idea.

So every now and then I try to get them something that is just theirs. Something they don't have to share.
When I was shopping the other day, I decided to get the girls some new pencils and markers. They needed some new ones as their old ones had the led broken inside and only a few colours left.
I got them a packet of pencils and markers each. They were so happy, Little miss E esspcially. She kept asking 'I don't have to share?'
Since they were both so excited about having their own pencils I decided they needed their own pencil cases.
So I let them pick some fabric from my cupboard (which they LOVE doing), and I made some!

Little Miss I chose this premier prints pink elephant fabric. I coordinated it with a pink fabric from my stash for the piping and lining.
If you look closely at the photo below, you can see quilted circles on the pencil case. (Yes the elephants are up-side down on one side). I free-motion quilted that! First time I have used it, and not unpicked it! It was actually kinda fun too! I may have to use it more often....

I really like how it has a large zipper opening. This took me a little while to make because it was just so fiddly! But it will last longer than the rubbish plastic ones that you get from the store, and it looks better too.

 It didn't turn out quite as well as I hoped, but its still cute, and I'm sure I'll get better at it, because I still have to make another one for Little Miss E, who has been pestering me to make a yellow one for her.

I used a free tutorial from HERE. Its quite a good pattern, although hers is much neater than mine. But that could be because i used a zipper that was too long, then i trimmed it too short. Oops! I also omitted the muslin step, because i didn't have any, so mine is probably not as stiff as it should be.

Jessica

My Perfect No Cook Play-dough Recipe

Now I know that there are a million Play-dough recipes out there, and mine isn't anything special, except for the fact that its the one I like to use (which I suppose makes it pretty special!)

I like to make play-dough this way as I don't have to mix anything over a stove, and I generally have all the ingredients. It also makes super soft lovely play-dough that will last near forever (if stored in an airtight container), or until the kids decide to destroy it anyway :)

My Perfect No Cook Play-dough

Ingredients:
3 cups plain flour
4 tbls cream of tartar
2 tbls cooking oil
1 cup of salt (plus a little extra)
food colouring
2 cups water

To make this fantastic play-dough Put 2 cups of flour (not the full 3), the cream of tartar, cooking oil, and salt into a mixing bowl. Then add your food colouring. There really is no set amount for the food colouring. Just add however much you think you need. I generally add a few drops then add more if it needs later.

Mix well.

Boil the water in the kettle, and add the 2 cups to the bowl. Now, It will be HOT, so I start of the mixing with a spoon. 
Once its cool enough to put my hands in, I take off my wedding rings (really, you don't want to forget this step. I did once, and it wasn't fun!) and start mixing with my fingers.

Add more flour as needed. You want to keep kneading the dough until the colour is evenly distributed throughout. For every grab-full of flour I add, I add another pinch-or-so of salt. Keep kneading and adding flour until its no longer sticky. You should be able to put your fingers into the middle of it, and not have any play-dough stuck to you.
Viola! Lovely play-dough!

When I made mine, Little Miss E and I couldn't decide what colour to make it.(In other words they were both gripping the colour they wanted and crying 'I want pink', and 'I want blue')
So I separated the mixture into two bowls and made half pink and half blue. (They will end up mixing it together and it will turn a funny colour, but at least we avoided that argument!)

Enjoy!

Jessica