Seeing Orange

Harmony day, which was celebrated here last Thurday, is often recognised by wearing the colour orange, or cultural dress.  Being a very Aussie family, we don't really have anything "cultural" in our wardrobe, so I decided to be prepared, tie dying a t-shirt for Austy to wear to school for the occasion.

 

I am usually not this prepared, (and there has been one harmony day where hubby had to drop Austy at school and rush off to find something!) but knew that with school half an hour away this year there would be no chance in any rectification if I overlooked it.  So I did the shirt anyway, even though there had been no notes home about a casual day that I could recall.

 He didn't end up wearing it, as it seemed this school doesn't really do anything for harmony day.  Luckily his teacher decided to do a few related activities with the class, because Austy was a bit upset about the fact that he has always celebrated it at school before. Alas his t-shirt is still unworn (that's what I get for beiung prepared!).  I think I might applique a charcoal fabric in the sillhouette of a guitar to the front though as I am pretty pleased with how it came out (after my last tie dye attempt was little more than a failure!) and I'd like him to get some wear out of it.

 

On Wednesday night, I came home with Madelyn's harmony day dress for kindy still looking like this:

 

So I decided to let my WIP Wednesday post slide for the third week in a row to turn it into this:

 

I must admit, I did contemplate sending her to kindy in her brother's size 8 t-shirt, and regretted not throwing one for her into the pot with it as I was also trying to bake raspberry jelly cakes as my "cultural dish" for our shared harmony day morning tea at work.  I pushed on and she was very happy with the results.  Unfortunately the only modelled photo I have is an iPhone shot hubby sent me at work, with her grinning as proud as punch!

 

Madelyn took home the kindy's "cultural awareness doll", Sima for a sleep over a couple of weeks ago, and the thing was dreadful - it was sticky, filthy, had horrible messy hair and very stained, and falling apart clothes in it's little pack.  Most of the clothes were cabbage patch doll clothes and didn't fit properly.

 

The first thing I wanted to do was wash the doll, but on reading the kindy's booklet that came with her, the first thing that was mentioned was "Please do not give me a bath".  I contemplated it for a moment, and nearly left her, but I couldn't handle the thought of not knowing where she had been, and feeling that grime upon her plastic skin I decided to give her a bit of a wipe down with a soft cloth and dish detergent anyway.  We spent some time brushing her hair with Maddy's Australian Girl Doll brush, and some leave-in conditioner, and all that was left was to make her some new clothes.

Since we only had her for the one night, she had to go back with just the outfits she came with, but at least she was cleaner and the children could get a comb through her long black hair once again.  Then today I discovered this Mod Kid dolly pattern that I have had unopened for ages, and decided to make a new slightly longer skirt for Emily (the one I made to match Maddy's was slightly to short), and two new long sleeved tops, one for Emily and one for Sima.  So Madelyn has a belated Harmony Day present for Sima the cultural doll tomorrow - a pretty new top, and Emily's too short skirt (which should still cover Sima's knees as she is a smaller doll).

I think I have had enough of orange for a while now!