Growing up!

Little bear is growing up so fast! He loves dressing up and playing the parts of different characters that he knows. He loves cooking too. He cannot eat dairy or soya, so I have to put a bit more time into planning his meals. He told me I was "the best mummy in the world" after I had tried and succeeded to make him dairy free chocolate! I have had a lot if success with recipes from one particular blog that I follow. Now that things have eased up at work for I while I hope to get the recipes on the blog so that I have a catalogue of those we like.
We have been enjoying the odd days of sunshine that have come our way. Little bear loves any opportunity to run around the garden in his undies! Actually he loves watching his reflection in the door as his dances in his undies! Poser or what?!

Knitted Easter bunny

Finally, I have learnt to knit! After the last couple of months crocheting gifts for next Christmas ( I know it's a bit early, but why not put the long nights to good use?), I decided it was time to learn to knit. Properly. I have always wanted to make a little bunny or teddy bear for my boys but never sat down to learn. I am so pleased with the results, it turned out so much better than I expected.
I was supposed to give it to little bear for an Easter gift, but a soon as I had finished stitching the face I couldn't wait to give it to him! He loves it too! I suppose I will just have to make another one for Easter : )

3 Quilts for 3 boys!

Well after a busy Christmas holiday, lots of flu, playing in snow, and having no heating or hot water, I have finally got round to posting my quilts that I completed in time for Christmas!  These 3 took up so much of my time that I didn't make as many gifts as I usually do, but is was soooo worth it to see the look on my boys faces on Christmas morning.  I was worried that they wouldn't bother much with them. I was WRONG!  I cannot get them up to bed as they sit snuggled up on the sofa in the evening!

Here is the 'Playing with horses' for Baby Bear.  I have shown it before, so technically I only made 2 quilts before the holidays.  As he got it on Christmas day it still counts!

For Buttons I decided to try my hand a a different technique.  I used the `stack and slash' cutting method to make a wonky quilt.  This suits me down to the ground as I tend to cut wonky anyway!  I used some fabric that I had purchased last year after I took him to London, so the quilt is about our special trip that we had.  He absolutely loves it!  The bright colours suit his funny personality!

It is backed in a deep purple fabric with purple border.  I made my own tape to make the border, and finished by hand stitching it on.  I have to admit I had been avoiding doing it for months but once I had made the top and just had a go it was easy!  Not as scary as I had thought.  he hand stitching was quite relaxing in fact whilst watching TV.

Well, Big Bears quilt was a whole different kettle of fish!  I had been saving up his T-shirts for years.  Some are from our trip to Africa when he was 11, some from Air cadet events, and others just remind me of him.  I wont lie to you, this thing was hard work!  Getting the thing under my machine was exhausting.  The hours of ironing on interfacing so that the T-shirts fabric doesn't pull was dull.  But I actually cried when I had finished, not just from the blood, sweat, and tears, but from how proud I was of the end result!

The whole point for learning to sew was to learn techniques and acquire skills to complete this project.  It had been something I had been thinking about for 10 years, when I realised my 1st baby was growing up and I suppose I just wanted to save some of it.  Now, none of these shirts are his baby clothes.  They are from his early teenage years 11-16.  Now he has gone off to college and I only see him in the holidays I needed something to show for all of those years of 'sweat, blood, and tears'!  

Being a mum is full of ups and downs, lots of imperfections, mistakes pulled apart and fixed back together, tons of love, tons of tears, and hours of boring ironing!  That is what this quilt illustrates for me.  And... in the end being so proud of how it turned out.  Just as I am my Son x

Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree..

How lovely are your branches! This must be the best Christmas tree we have had for years! It is the perfect shape. I really will be sad when we have to take it down, the living room will look so bare. I will have to get something to keep the fairy lights on all year round!

After all the Christmas crafting I've been doing, I'm already planning my next project! I got a lovely layer cake of fabric for a gift, so can't wait to turn it into another quilt! After completing 3 quilts, one for each of the boys, I think I need one for me! I will be posting pictures of the finished quilts when I can get a nice bright day sometime!

Dinosaur garden!

After an exhausting day shopping, visiting family, and watching Button in his first rugby match ( which led to him getting a bloody nose that he was extremely proud of! ) I desperately needed to entertain little bear so I could make a meal! The weather was fine for a change, but he was so tired that he didn't want to play outside. That was until I decided to make a dinosaur garden!

We had visited the library and got Gardening with Children by Kim Wilde ( yes the 80's pop singer). It has some great ideas on how to incorporate children's play into your garden.
We had an empty barrel that the husband had intended to grow lettuce in but never did. After adding pine cones, stones, and shells, along with some twigs of rosemary, we had our dinosaur garden! Little bear played in it until tea time, which was just what I needed.

If the rosemary doesn't take I will plant something more permanent. He really enjoyed placing the stones and twigs in sections then hiding each if his dinosaurs in the make-shift forest! He was so sweet pretending that they were having acorns and conkers for their tea until T-Rex came and ate them up!

Isn't he just too cute?

So little time!

In between this...

and this...

and this...

and this...

and this...

and this...

...I have very little time left!  Cannot believe I have taken on all of these projects for my home decor when I must get started on the holiday gifts!  It is September already, the new term is crazy at School and I am getting more and more frustrated as I don't have enough hours in the day.  I really could do with one of those watch things that Hermione had in the Harry Potter stories where she was able to fit in extra lesson, that would be my idea of heaven!

From top to bottom:

Willow Crochet Doily blanket - I just had to make one, it is so pretty!

Cross stitch dove - for me!

Cranberry muffins - for the boys 

Wild Olive inspired zippered pouch - for me! - had to organise my thread before starting new projects!

Cross stitch bee - What Delilah Did pattern - this is for me and it is taking ages!

Crochet draught excluder - started a tapestry one and got fed up so am quickly using all my scrap cotton yarn and will stitch it together and stuff it!

Doing lots for me by the looks of it doesn't it, but hey my house needs pretty things in it too!

Autumn walk

What a surprise we had when we found these community project sculptures dotted throughout our favourite walk in Ellsemere!

The Sssh is my favourite. Found in the woodland clearing, it gave us a great opportunity to encourage the boys to listen to the sounds of the woods!

Finished quilt!

I finally finished the patchwork quilts for little bear!  Yippee! Must get it wrapped up now ready for Christmas or I will end up using it myself. 

I used fabric from Heather Ross's Far Far Away III collection for the front.  I particularly wanted the Playing with Horses print as Little bear is always playing with his toy horses (well he did much more last year when I bought all the fabric!)

I used the lovely Far Far Away 2 Roses for the back.  I couldn't bring myself to cut into the lovely grey rose print, so after taking it to my local quilting shop and begging for some advice, (I had already purchased all the fabric online, so felt a bit cheeky really)  this is what we came up with.  

The wonderful ladies at ZigZags in Newport were excited to help when I told them it was my first quilt.  They managed to convince me to add some more depth to the back by adding complimentary borders.  I wanted a single colour for the back as it would have been simpler to put together.  However they did the calculations for me and worked out how much fabric I would need and how to lay it out.  After I had finished the back I still wasn't convinced that I liked it.  But after I put it together and matched it up I am so pleased I had gone for a double sided look.   

As for the quilting, I didn't really know what to do so I just started in the middle and followed the fabric pattern and went round in a spiral.  This led to a bit of rucking up near the end but it was late and I didn't care by then!  If you ignore the mega crinkles I think it looks just fine. I will never do it that way again and will seek advice next time!

I know that the back is a bit girly for Little bear, but it means that I can use it too!  Perhaps he will give it to his children one day and it would be suitable for both boy or girl.  Or I will be able to keep it for myself as it looks so nice on my armchair in the study!

I hope you like it.  My pictures don't do the fabrics any justice.  Thank you to the lovely ladies at ZigZags for helping me with it!

x

Avengers cross stitch

Captain America, Iron man, The Hulk, and Thor. Hope my boy likes it. Just need to find a frame, Ikea trip maybe? : )

Wee little stitches

Can you guess who's next?

Quick Quilt project.

Having been 'in the middle' of making a quilt for bear for nearly 7 months now and with no effort still no time to finish it I decided to make a really quick quilt.  Bear needed a simple lap quilt that was light enough for summer to sleep under.  He had an Ikea baby duvet and cover, but it kept rucking up to one end as he tossed and turned in the night.  The solution?  Quilt it!

I simply put the duvet into the cover and used the Purl bee lap duvet tutorial to piece them together.

After machine stitching at intervals throughout the quilt I decided the stripy side need a touch more colour.  So I stitched and knotted some wool that through the layers.  I love how the colours of the yarn match up with the front.  Purely a coincidence! 

I will, at some point pluck up the courage find the time to bind my patchwork quilt, but in the mean time, this was a quick and easy project!

Cloud dough fun!

With all this rain lately we have had to have a lot of indoor playtime! Thankfully I came across an amazing site The Imagination Tree. A wonderful site filled with lots of fantastic sensory play based ideas to do with your babies and toddlers.

We had a go at making and playing with 'Cloud dough'. A quick and simple recipe using just flour and oil. Both boys spent a full 2 and a half hours making and playing with the stuff. Best thing was that it was so easy to clean up!

Camping, cowboys, and Cath Kidston

Just thought I would share this sweet pic of the little bear playing camping in the back garden. He is growing up so fast. No sippy cup for him anymore thanks to Cath Kidston's cowboy mugs!

Here is the link to the Cath Kidston shop if you want to check them out. - Sorry but I think the mugs have sold out :(   They have other enamel camping ware or melamine pieces.  Button and bear love the camping mugs and plates.  We end up using them all the time!

Chocolate cherry dairy free ice cream!

I made this amazing banana and cherry chocolate ice cream this weekend for us all to enjoy - bear is dairy and soya intolerant so dessert usually ends up being fruit for all of us.
I always try to have some banana pieces in the freezer after seeing this pin here. They are nice blended up on their own, but adding coconut milk makes a huge difference to how creamy it tastes. After all that's what you want with ice cream isn't it?

3 Frozen bananas - these should be sliced then frozen
Half can of black cherries - in natural juice
Half a can of coconut milk
Tablepspoon of cocoa powder

Place the bananas, cherries, and cocoa into a food processor and blend. You may need to stop and break up the banana with a spoon if it starts to clump together. Slowly add the coconut milk until it all becomes smooth and creamy. You may need to add more or less of the coconut milk. You don't want to make it too runny.
Eat immediately. You could scrape this mix into a Tupperware and freeze again until later (give it a quick whizz in the processor to break up any ice crystals before serving), but we always eat the lot in one go!

Enjoy!

Crochet shawl

I made this crochet shawl while watching the Queens Diamond Jubilee celebrations on TV last weekend. I have since been trying to get some good light in the house to take pictures but it has chucked it down all week. Typical for a half-term holiday!

The shawl is a present for my mum, no particular reason, just because I fancied having a go. It crochets up quickly and after blocking it hangs beautifully. I used Rowan Cocoon wool which I'm nearly all out of now :(

Thankfully I recently started an instagram account so that I can get fairly good pictures in poor light!  The weather is pretty rubbish for June.  This weekend was not too bad though, we went to the zoo again yesterday and the boys are currently playing camping in the back yard!  School tomorrow :(

I want to get some quilting time in this week. not sure how I will though, my big brother has asked me to make him an outfit for a punk festival he is going to! so I will be working on that this week.  I must ask him if I can show you the pictures of him in it!

Hope you have had a good weekend!

Etsy Favourites

Don't forget Fathers Day - Sunday 17th June!
Here are a few gift ideas for dads everywhere...

Hunting slippers

Letter magnets

Adjustable Bandolier
Grey Bow tie
British Garden birds print - Love this must have!

Linen infinity scarf
Metal book rack
Fathers day card
Blue tit mug

Rainy days...

Etsy Favourites - Jubilee!

Union jack dress
Queen counted cross stitch
Union Jack Earrings
Jubilee Pocket mirror
Jubilee Embroidered pincushion

Have a fabulous long weekend enjoying the celebrations!  Fingers crossed it stop raining enough to have a BBQ!

x

Jubilee!

A little something for the weekend celebrations!

Floral book plates

Thought I would give you a close up of the little wall art that you may have spotted in this post. 

My Husband and I love books, old nature ones in particular.  We have a largish collect of old books displayed in a number of places around the house.  I stumbled across this beautiful book of wild flowers in our local vintage book shop and just fell in love with the plates.   The flowers are so detailed and pretty I just had to have them displayed.  

But you know how things go:

1 - Couldn't bring myself to cut up the book!

2 - Would like to display all of the plates in frames.

3 - Framing them all would cost loads, and I would have to do it in one go.

Then I saw the book sitting on my shelf and realised that I never get to see these gorgeous pictures and that is just a crime!  So I did it. I tore the pages out carefully, and used my seam ripper to cut the cotton binding so they all came out great after that.  The I just put them up with blutack!   

I love it! Husband loves it.  In fact he thinks it looks good without the frames and said "why didn't I do it sooner".  Just what I was thinking  :)

Have a great week!