Playtime

While I haven’t been producing items for sale over the past year, I have found time to create a few objects for our own home. The first was a really fun project which allowed me to order some truly awesome fabrics online to produce the most colourful patchwork playmat for the little one. With a bit of custom applique and my new skill at french knots (to complete the strawberry) it was ready to go and has been well-loved and used over the 20 months.

 

 

A bonus of this project was all the leftover scraps of fabric which have since been turned into a set of matching applique cushions, ridiculous amounts of bunting, some cuddly owls and several pieces of fabric artwork all of which I’m sure will feature in future posts.

Project Linus

Early last year I was browsing a quilting magazine at Mum’s and read an article about Project Linus. Project Linus is a volunteer organisation established to provide homemade blankets, quilts and incubator covers to babies, children and young people in hospital, shelters and hospices. While I’m not known for completing patchwork projects, but after some first-hand experience of NICU when the little Pickle arrived I could see exactly what impact a Linus quilt could have and dropped them an email about helping out. Since then I’ve taken over updating their existing website with plans for a refresh in the future, and helping to spread the Linus message online.

 

Are you a crafter? Could you spare some time to create a blanket, quilt or incubator cover – or even just one block of a quilt?

 

If not, you can always support us on Twitter, Facebook, or make a donation to help provide fabric and supplies.

 

projectlinusuk.org.uk

Image of the day

Polaroid rainbow by yumalum on etsy

Jessica

 

This is Jessica.

 

She joined our family in 2010 after a holiday in Cornwall. We met, we fell in love, and she came home with us.

 

Jessica is an original painting by Caroline Walker. You may recognise Jessica (and the rest of the herd) from Glastonbury Festival or from her starring role running along a beach in the Muller advert.

 

This painting now lives in our hallway and is greeted on a regular basis by the little one who expects you to moo on demand when she points at it.

2011 – a year in review

We’re already a month into 2012 and I’m thinking back over the past year. 2011 was an incredible year for us. It sped by, it was packed full, it was full of highs, lows and thousands of wonderfully happy moments.

To be honest, the year didn’t begin on the 1st January – for us it began in October 2010 when an adorable baby girl arrived in our lives. Not content to stay in my (enormous) tummy a moment longer she appeared three weeks early, more perfect and cuddly than we could ever have imagined. I fully intended to get back to blogging during my maternity leave but instead spent my time gazing at our little girl, playing, walking, gardening, pinning, photography, cooking, crafting, reading, and enjoying every second of being a parent. Predictably, given my love of photography, she is probably the most photographed baby in the world and on her first birthday I completed my first 365project – a photo every day for her first year.

Since returning to work a few months ago I’ve continued the photo project while reminding my brain just how to code, and refrain from telling my colleagues that cups of tea are “hot – don’t touch”. Now we’re settled into a happy routine balancing work, nursery, family, friends and time at home I think it’s time to get back to blogging, etsy, and much more.

A work in progress

The new house is really beginning to take shape now. The office is half decorated – to be completed this week. Carpets and wooden flooring are chosen, the new fireplace is arriving in two weeks, toilets are fixed, the hot water tank is fixed, the garden no longer looks so much like a jungle and the lingering smell of curry spices is gone.

We now affectionately refer to the house as ‘the money pit’ as predictably we’re hopeless at just improving things gradually and in the next three weeks will be decorating the entire downstairs living space. Why work at a normal pace when you can manically attack every room in the house? We may be mad, but our deadline for having completed most of the renovations was moved forward by several months, and a nursery is now high up on the list of rooms to be decorated…

Christmas in April

339 long days after we first sold our house, after the disappointment of losing the first house we waited for, we have finally moved into our new house. Eleven months is a long time to be in limbo and the moment on Friday morning when the removal truck arrived holding all our furniture and posessions from storage was so exciting.

The new house was absolutely filthy and smelt, but we honestly didn’t care – after a few days of bleaching every surface, cleaning the carpets, windows and floors, and a LOT of unpacking and flatpacking boxes we are in. It’s like a huge weight has been lifted from our shoulders, and despite the amount of work that needs doing to the house and the garden, we’re just happy and relaxed for the first time in almost a year.

Now I can *finally* start decorating!