Hold my hand

I've been thinking about motherhood a lot recently. Revisiting my old blog and striving to establish this new one has highlighted to me the changes that my children have made to my life.

Becoming a mother is like suddenly becoming a secondary character in the novel of your life. Surprisingly though, this actually makes it a much more fascinating read (well maybe not for the long-suffering friends who now get to hear every 'amusing' anecdote). Your days, your thoughts, your conversations all orbit the tiny people who have suddenly become your world.

Lately though I've felt a need to try to get back a little of what I was before, and finding time to sew, knit and write are, I suppose, my way of reclaiming a little of the limelight from Merry Berry and the Little Panda. However, even the way I write and create has changed now, my children unconsciously alter my mood, aspirations and my inspirations. I once read an interview with Michelle Obama, in which she was asked how happy she was. I forget the exact quote, but it was along the lines of 'a mother is only as happy as her unhappiest child'. That says it all really. From the moment you give birth the highs and lows of your life become anchored to those of your children. It is a petrifying thought and an equally petrifying reality.

We are fortunate that we seem to have a lot more highs than lows at the moment. One of my personal highs is that I've made three sales and one swap from my Folksy shop! I've been trying really hard throughout June to list an item every day. Today I listed this cupcake apron as modeled reluctantly by the Little Panda (he only modeled it on the understanding that I would make him one featuring a space rocket). I also listed these sweet little nappy covers, Merry Berry has been doing her best to ruin the set I made her, by sliding into muddy puddles and covering them in Ribena but they are still going

strong!

Elephants, I like Elephants...

Are these the sweetest sandals in the world? Or are they just the sweetest feet? I couldn't resist buying these because of the elephants. I like elephants, I'm a secret elephant collector. If you look round my house it won't be long before you notice rather a lot of our large nosed friends sitting on shelves and generally making the place look pretty.

Why a secret elephant collector? Well, let's be honest, we all know what happens when you let it slip that you have a certain admiration for a particular member of the animal kingdom. Christmas comes and there's yet another novelty teapot under the tree. Ok, novelty teapots are a bad example, because to be honest I've got a weakness for those too but I'm sure you get the point.



My Mum's a teacher and it's even worse for them, let the class know you love sheep* and every plastic ovine product in the town will be on your desk on the last day of term. Although it does make it easier for the giver. Imagine their satisfaction when they spot that sheep toilet roll cover and realise they bagged the perfect gift.

Here are a couple of elephant items from my Folksy shop (just in case you know anyone who like elephants)!

[caption id="attachment_85" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Come and see my elephants"]

By the way the title for this post comes from this great children's song on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yihq8BIhL9c

*animals have been changed to protect my Mum's end of term chocolate gifts. Resist the sheep teapot.

To celebrate my new blog and my first ever Folksy Friday, I've decided to feature panda products!  All of these gorgeous handmade items can be found for sale on the Folksy website, just click on the images above.  What is it about the Panda with the moustache that makes him so cute?  Here is my Panda also with a moustache.



My own little panda is feeling a bit sorry for himself today after a crash on his scooter (better known as the yellow sky-rocket).  Trust it to happen on the only occasion I hadn't taken my huge bag with me (the one that contains the kitchen sink amongst other things).  I had to staunch the buckets of blood pouring from his mouth with my lovely blue cardie.  Fortunately, the Little Panda felt much better after a pack of chocolate buttons provided by my much more organised friend and a few hugs (provided by me - I never forget those).

Pin-up

This week has been busy. I decided to have a big clean up and not a single grubby finger print or dusty corner in the house escaped (although can I just say don’t open the cupboard under the stairs). I needed a quick make to bring some necessary craftiness to my poor hum drum life (serious violin playing here folks).

My parents-in-law had recently given me two old wooden frames (I think they were hand carved) and I've been debating what to do with them for a while. Finally I decided to turn them into two very sweet mini notice boards, which I have hung over my sewing table. If I'm feeling a little pretentious in future I may refer to them as my mood boards (don’t hold your breath).

I'll go through making the notice boards step-by-step just in case anyone else fancies making one.

Supplies

• Two cork tiles


• drawing pins


• wadding (batting)


• A piece of fabric about 4cm longer and 4 cm wider than the frame's aperture


• Small nails

Tools

• Stanley knife


• Scissors


• hammer

1. Using the Stanley knife cut the cork tiles to fit snugly into the back of the frame.


2. Cut the wadding to the same size.


3. Stretch the fabric over the wadding and the cork tiles (make sure the untreated side of the cork tiles is facing towards the wadding and the fabric). Pin in place using the drawing pins. It’s best to place one pin and then do the pin opposite to ensure that the fabric is stretched evenly. Make sure that the pins go through both cork tiles to hold them together.


4. Fit into the frame. If you’re lucky your frame may already have fittings to hold the back in place. If it doesn’t just use some small nails to hold it in. Knock the nails into the fame so that they are about half in half out (see diagram). Knock in at least one nail on each side (the exact number you need to put in to ensure that the notice board is strong enough will depend on the size of the frame.

You could also put some ribbons across the board to hold postcards etc, but the prints on the fabric I used were quite busy and didn’t need any extra detail.

I finally got my Folksy shop up too. I’d welcome any constructive criticism.

I‘ll leave you with some photos of the hair clips that I’ve just added to my shop.

I'm back. I just couldn't get used to Wordpress and the result was no blogging so here I am dreaming of the sea again. I'm bring across some of the posts from my Wordpress blog. This post will fill you in on my family now.

To start our adventures, here is a summary of key characters:

Me: (I just asked my husband how he would describe me and he said 'deranged zoo-keeper', I think I might have to write this myself). I previously worked in finance but for the last 3 years I've been a full-time Mum. I spend any spare moment I have making things (sewing, baking, knitting, drawing, turning cardboard boxes into the requested object of the latest pre-school whim - actually I spend most of my time on the cardboard box thing). On this blog I'll probably give you the impression I live in quiet tidy rooms with gentle music playing in the background. In reality I sometimes forget what colour the carpet really is under the toys and cbeebies theme tunes haunts me as I drift off to sleep.

The Little Panda - 3 years old and already a gentle giant. Clever and shy, he obsesses over maps, aeroplanes and under-sea creatures. He pretty much always wakes up singing.

Merry Berry - 18 months old. A determined, NOISY, child. Happy and energetic. Independent but loving. If only she would sleep.

Monkey - My wonderful husband. Captain of our small crew and ridiculously adored by the children. Clever, charming and infinitely patient (luckily).

Well, that's all of us. Let the adventures begin...

New blog

I just wanted to say that I have a new blog, which can be found here. I've loved this blog so much over the years but my neglect of it since I had my children has just meant that I've lost all the lovely people who read my posts and I feel too sad to try and bring it back to life. So I've decided on a fresh start. If there is anyone who still visits this site I'd love to hear from you on my new blog. I'll put my patterns over there but I'll also update them on here and try and maintain them better than I have done over the past three years.