Drip dripping the clues. Not much longer until the new range of products is ready. Yip yip!! They are coming together nicely - I do hope you'll like them.
Check back for more sneaky snooks, and an exciting competition.
Hope you are all having a lovely weekend x
They are on their way! I'm just putting the final touches together and then they'll be ready for buying - in a few days, maybe a week?
There is quite a big clue in the photos, but can you guess what they are going to be?
Do you remember the scarf I mentioned in my last post? This is it! Just a simple cosy little scarf. It literally took about 30 minutes.
The blue fabric is something I've had put away for years. I bought about half a metre because I loved it so much, even though at the time I didn't sew! The gingham lace-y-ness on the front is actually a Laura Ashley napkin ring!
And I think she likes it - because yesterday she got her coat and this scarf, and stood by the front door saying 'go'! So off we went for one of those before-daddy-goes-to-work autumny walks.
I also mentioned that I had cut all of the blocks for my first quilt. Tom and I laid it all out the other day, and I'm very excited to start the actual quilting part of quilting. Especially as the wadding had now arrived. Yip yip!
I read some pretty good reviews for this make, but as it's my first attempt I am slightly clueless. Has anyone ever used it before?
Oh yes... the quilt layout... I almost forgot!
Remind me that I'm excited will you, when I'm knee deep in quilting craziness?
I am without words (almost). My inbox has been flooded over the past few days with the most beautiful comments and emails from you, my dear readers. I cannot express the gratitude I feel for the loveliness you sent me. I am in fact, overwhelmed.
I would love to send each and every one of you a bunch of flowers, but alas - my funds will not stretch that far! So I send you e-flowers in the form of a photo! Please know that it is meant as wholeheartedly as an actual real life bunch of them.
Of course, I am feeling so much better, and wonder now how I could have gotten so tangled. But as many of you pointed out - everybody has down days, it is certainly not a failure. It is a natural and proper part of life. Because without those days, how would we ever keep our feet on the ground with all of the amazing things that happen to us each and every day?
Things like :: waking up to find your little girl by your side saying 'mummy'. Finding a few minutes to make that little girl a scarf. Starting your new projects and loving making them. Cutting the last square out for your first quilt. Watching the leaves fall from the trees as autumn slowly turns into winter. Going for early morning walks in those fallen leaves before daddy goes to work. Those walks taking sooo long because someone wants to pick up every leaf she passes (Matilda, not me!). Having a mum who will happily babysit whilst two sleepy people go to the cinema to watch Up (loved it!). Red cup season starting so that we can take cosy Christmasy drinks on walks with us. Getting the chance to have a few hours each week for coffee shop writing meetings with Tom - we're working on our first Clara and Macy book - and let me tell you, it's going to be awesome!!
You know, despite the down days, I love my life. I am grateful for so many things in it. I am especially grateful for people, people who I have never even met, who would take the time out of their own busy lives to write and remind me of that.
I often wonder how personal I should be on my blog. And today I don't know if this is appropriate or not, but I kind of just need to write it - send it out there - get it off my mind. The truth is, dear blog readers, I feel like I am failing. And I'm not sure how to fix it. My mind is just going round and round and I just can't seem to shake off this feeling. I stopped breastfeeding almost a week ago, and I'm pretty sure that is having a big impact on me. As some of you know, it was a tough ride - exclusively expressing for 14 months, and going dairy, soya, and egg free for 11 of those months. I got there in the end, and am now in a place where I can feel proud of myself for it. But this week, whether it's crazy witchy hormones or something else, my poor little mind is feeling extremely low.
There are so many things I want to achieve, but I'm not quite sure how to get there. I wonder about my blog and what it means to me - what it is for and why I have it. I wonder about my shop and whether it is a good idea. I wonder whether my new line of products will excite people. I look at other peoples websites and wonder how they find the time to make them look so pretty. I wonder when Tim Burton will finalise his designs so that I will be making puppets again. I wonder how I will ever get my nursery book published. And whether Clara and Macy will make it into their own book series. And of course I wonder whether or not I am doing a good job as a mum.
All of these things are, today, tangling me up. I think I know the answers already. And I know deep down that I'm not really failing. And that true failing would be to not even try. But sometimes it's hard to remember that.
Thank you lovely readers for letting me ramble, and for getting these tanglements out of my head - it is exactly what I needed.
Oh my goodness - it's the third ber! Happy third ber to you all!!
Now then, it could be said that we have too many books in our house. We had a lot before Matilda arrived, but now - well, you can see for yourself -
- and I couldn't bear to part with a single one of them.
Starting the day with a nutritious breakfast of fingers...
and a little bit of pumpkin...
taking a nap to recuperate...
before some running around in Tatton Park...
and posing for photographs...
What? You mean your pumpkins don't wear pink sunglasses?
Happy Halloween to you all! Here's hoping for a pumpkinlicious time!!
We've been getting all Halloweeny over here.
Making bats...
Pumpkin garland...
'Boo' signs...
Spooky water bottles - using this download and a few drops of black food colouring...
And creepy eyeball jelly...
These are so much fun! Pour blackcurrant jelly half way up the glasses, and leave it to set. When it is almost set, pop a chocolate eyeball in, then pour in some orange jelly. Leave in the fridge and voila - completely creepy halloween pudding!
Would you like to join in?
I made a little Halloween template page, which you can download here to make your own decorations. Hope you like it!
Happy Crafty Halloweening!
(p.s. the bats are just two of the cardboard wings with a papier-mâché ball, and a ribbon glued on.)
We drew, we cut, we glued.
We screwed paper up, and flattened it out again.
Stuck stickers, used chalks, got wet with gluey water, and dried ourselves off again.
Halloween decorations were calling, and well, who can argue with that?
And whilst creating our little masterpieces, we listened to this -
- at least three times.
Matilda's little friend Zac turned one a couple of weeks ago, and I wanted to make him something special. So this is what I made...
A birthday crown using one of my favourite patterns, from Soulemama's The Creative Family.
And the bag that I made up as I went along. The fabric on the pocket is Alexander Henry 's 2D Zoo, which I absolutely love.
And I filled it full of these...
Lovely and colourful wooden blocks - I think they make such great gifts for little-ies.
