G to S

I may not have been telling you about it, but I have been (slowly) continuing with my baby sampler.

As I'm now 30 weeks life has had to take a little bit of a slower pace. I've still got quite a few more weeks at work and am stubbornly refusing to give up my social life completely so the thing that has had to give is my craftiness.

With weddings and summer bbqs, weekends have also been a little insane, but I can see the light now and with August setting in I can see a few free weekends lined up and have my projects ready for the making.

In the mean time here is the latest on my sampler...still plenty of time to finish before bump makes an appearance.

Pick-Your-Own vs Grow-Your-Own

Working for your dinner is certainly back in fashion. Whether it be to own a pig on a farm which you eventually have for dinner, to pick-your-own organic veg from a public farm or to grow-your-own veg in your garden or allotment it is certainly all the rage.

R and I have been partaking in the Pick-Your-Own and Grow-Your-Own recently with various degrees of success. (Haven't attempted to piggy ownership, not sure how I feel about the idea really)

Pick-Your-Own

We tootled off to Garsons in Esher yesterday for some Pick-Your-Own action. I knew they had a large range of veg options but wasnt quite prepared for the rolling acres of cultivated land ripe for picking. We came away with some carrots and peas. Here is R with one of our harvest

Grow-Your-Own

Well I've never pretended to bee particularly green-fingered, in fact there is a joke in my house that anything which is brought in doors I kill whilst Mother Nature has a helping hand in keeping the garden alive which is why things survive a little longer

We have allsorts on the go...

Tomatoes are coming along well, my main concern is that they are all going to ripen soon and we are going to have to eat tomatoes for breakfast, lunch and dinner for weeks on end

Rocket is growing nicely

My potatoes were a comical disappointment.

After planting then watering and feeding for a couple of months I decided that yesterday was the day to dig them up and enjoy a lovely potato salad. I was maybe a little ambitious with the size of bowl I got out collect my harvest, but I was expecting at least 5 decent size potatoes, after all I planted 5 so was expecting the harvest to be at least what I had put in the ground. Here is everything I found.....

No idea what I did wrong, but it is suffice to say I wont be giving up the day-job to become a potato farmer!

Given the apparent success (!) of the grown-your-own R has decided that we need a proper little veg patch, so yesterday afternoon he set about clearing a corner of the garden. We, unfortunately disturbed this little fellow.....you will be pleased to know he has now been re-homed at the other side of the garden and has been heard rustling this morning so hoping he is liking his new environment.

I've been making new friends

I'm clearly at that life-stage where we are programmed to re-produce as it seems my friends and colleagues are all having babies. I'm now 27 weeks pregnant and loving it, am certainly getting bigger everyday and people are visibly shocked when they see me after a week or so break.

I had the wonderful honour of meeting the newest arrival to my urban family at the weekend. A dear friend's beautiful bouncing baby boy who is now a whopping 3.5 weeks old. He is absolutely adorable and is already incharge of the household, its amazing how they manage that.

I made a couple of treats for this little cutie so he can be the talk of playgroup and make all his friends jealous of his designer one of a kind toys

The tag blanket

You may remember I made 2 of these a little while ago. Well one of them was planned for this little fellow. It really was amazing to see how fascinated he was with it. I knew that babies see contrast rather than colours so made this out of bold black and white fabric. He intently stared at it which really makes me question why the shops are filled with brightly coloured toys rather than simple contracting toys which attract the attention of the littlest ones???

The play mat

This was a slightly bigger project. Essentially a quilt made from medium weight cotton to be slightly more durable than the average bed-spread.

I made this with black and white on one side and brightly colours animals on the other so hopefully will stimulate a little longer than the early baby stages.

Well he certainly seems to be enjoying it.

Looking forward to more play time with my new friend soon

xx

It really is the little things

If I were to tell you I was a little bit proud of myself I would be lying....I'm literally bursting

I've just completed my first nursery project.

I've read that babies are stimulated by bold colours and also like to suck on satin tags. I spotted a picture of a tag blanket in a magazine and decided to make one, here is the result.

I actually ended up making 2 as a dear friend has just a beautiful bouncing baby boy and thought he might like one too. Love it Love it Love it

All Buttoned Up

I returned home late last night resembling a Pearly Queen

I hadn't suddenly decided to move to East London and learn Cockney rhyming slang. No. I'd been to a Button Jewellery taster class at the London Jewellery School and had made enough goodies to practically rattle as I walked home.

There is certainly something exciting about being faced with a box brimming with buttons. I don't know if its the feeling as they drip through your fingers, the mirage of colours and shapes or just the chance of uncovering a gem which makes rummaging such fun but the 4 of us in the class were mesmerised before the class had even started.

Our 2.5 hours whizzed by in a flurry of button threading action. I really couldn't believe just how easy it is to make these sweet-shop treats. Am now off to eBay to source some materials...here is what I made....I will be seen modelling them around London and Surrey for a long time to come

2 cute bracelets

some retro button earrings

and here is me modelling my new necklace

Trip to Ikea completed....

....without a tea candle, packet of napkins or set of glasses gracing my basket and I got no where near the usual £100 spend, I am one chuffed little crafter right now.

I did decimate the fabric department.

There were just so many lovely fabrics.

As previously mentioned we don't know if I'm carrying a she-bump or a he-bump so strictly unisex colours and patterns. Here's a little sample of what I picked up

Let the sewing begin.....

Simply Quackers

I finished my little ducky today, and am pleased to say it does actually resemble a duck....

there is a beak

there is a yellow body

there are wings

and even a little tail

I don't have a pond in the garden so the the duckie can be seen here hiding in the peonies

Think I've still got a lot of practice before I can attempt the beautiful crochet toys from my earlier post..... Can anyone recommend a good amigurumi book which starts with the basics???