I was delighted to be sent a copy of Stash Happy: Felt to review by GMC Publications this week. I'd not done much with felt before I started reading Mollie Makes, but I think I'm now addicted. I'm not allowing myself to start a new project until I've finished one of the in progress ones, but there are so many now on my to do list from this book that it's a bit silly. The book contains 30 projects to make and it's fair to say that all of them are completely adorable. Two projects are both owl based and I have an owl obsessed daughter at the ... read more
Messy painting
Whilst Little Miss C had her lunchtime nap on Monday I decided that we should make the most of the good weather and so I set up for us to do some painting in the sunshine. Whilst she slept it all looked so beautiful. I'd laid out everything carefully, taped the plastic sheet down so that wind didn't blow it away, put paint in four different containers, taped the paper down and I even had a special pot for the water that she couldn't tip over and spill. Then the artist woke up... She was very excited to see what we'd got lined up for the afternoon. She's done some painting ... read more
Calling all local crafters…
I've got some exciting news that I've been meaning to share with you for ages - I've found a new home for all St Albans crafty types. The lovely Charlotte has opened up StudioDelirium in the grounds of the Secret Garden Cafe here in St Albans. She's offering knitting and crochet classes, a weekly Stitch & Bitch session and also selling a delightful array of lovely yarn and crafty accessories, as well as some lovely handmade bits buy local people including myself! Whilst she's starting small she is very keen to meet the needs of all local crafts people, so ... read more
Rainy day drawing
Entertaining an active toddler on a rainy day when you're stuck in the house is not an easy thing. Little Miss C loves nothing more than running about the garden so when it starts raining at breakfast and continues in a monsoon fashion all day it's tricky to know how to keep her occupied. At 14 months she's not really old enough to do any drawing herself yet but that didn't stop me getting out some paper and wax crayons earlier today. Whilst she had a few problems coordinating holding the crayon and making contact with the paper she was completely fascinated to see me drawing ... read more
MIA…
Apologies for being Missing in Action yesterday. I had one of those "growing older events" to celebrate... Chair in its new home, and cushion a birthday present from Mr C, purchased from We Love Cushions. ... read more
Autumn Clean
You hear of people having a Spring Clean, but I think I'm currently in the middle of an Autumn Clean instead! I've got a strange desire to tidy, clean and sort things at the moment. No idea why as it is very unlike me. One area that has got a lot of attention lately are my sewing and knitting stashes. They'd got a bit out of control lately with piles of yarn, fabric and threads all threatening to fall off shelves whenever I went looking for something. Some lovely (cheap) storage boxes from Wilkos helped and certainly look much better on my shelves than the precarious ... read more
Get knotted hat
You may remember that back in August I knitted a first hat for Baby C. A second quickly followed, this time in a plain colour, just in case Baby C was not a stripe lover. Little Miss C has not (yet) expressed a preference in the stripes vs plain debate, but it just happened that the plain one was in my bag the other day when I noticed how there was that slight chill in the air and thought that I ought to wrap her up warm while we were out and about. I know I'm biased, but she really does just look good enough to eat! ... read more
Crafting for baby
Real progress has been made here now that I've got a little bit of "me" time again. The Ten in the Bed cross-stitch that I started back at the beginning of February (nearly eight months ago!) is finally finished. Well, I say finished, the sewing part is finished. I still need to wash it, mount it and frame it though before it can be hung on the wall in Little Miss C's nursery. I just hope that it won't be another eight months before this happens! This is the view that I have most evenings now that the sewing is complete. There's still a long ... read more
Black and white…
That's all that's left to be done on my nursery cross stitch project - the black and the white bits. Unfortunately though there is quite a bit of both!I've finished the white section of what is the folded over white sheet on the bed, but there's the whole pillow are that also needs to be white, and then I need to start on all the black outlining. Not only do all the toys in the bed need their features adding, but each square on the patchwork blanket also needs defining with a black outline. It may take a while... ... read more
Handmade Home – Amanda Blake Soule
Another book that I've been dipping into latelyis rather different to the last: Handmade Home (or Handmade Home: Simple Ways to Repurpose Old Materials into New Family Treasures to give it its full title) is by the wonderful Amanda Blake Soule and it's kind of difficult to express just how in tune I feel with this particular book. Many of you may be familiar with Amanda from her SouleMama blog which is on my list of daily reads. For some reason though I didn't rush out and buy this her second book as soon as it came out. I'm not too sure ... read more