Hello!

Well here I am again, out of winter hibernation! I've been busy working on our house for the past few months, and have struggled to fit in time for other projects. But that's just about finished now, which means a little bit more free time, and personally I find there's no better inspiration to be creative than a good dose of spring sunshine, and colour that you can almost taste.

I can't remember if I've shared this before, but is the 'sky' wall in El's room, complete with wall stickers from Nouvelles Images. As a sidenote, I've found these low-tack stickers to be a little too low-tack for my painted walls. I'm not a particular fan of stickers and would have painted the tree as a mural if we weren't planning to move soon. I do love the graphic style of these stickers.

Autumn (?) colour...

I took these photos on our little country walk on Sunday afternoon, when the air was still warm, the sky was blue and the oak trees didn't seem to think it was autumn. (Or perhaps it is still too early for them? I really should know!)

Well, since the weekend, autumn has well and truly hit with a vengeance! In fact it feels more like winter. We have the worst winds here, truly, I'm sure I would be much more enthusiastic about getting outdoors if they weren't so bad. For now I think I'll just use them as an excuse to stay indoors and make soup.

Current Work-in-progress and a thrifty find

There are only so many baby clothes you can fit into a memory box, and yet some hold too many memories to part with. So I've spent the past couple of evenings sorting through stacks of knit rompers and bodysuits and turning them into this:

And even though it's painful to cut into some of those cute itty-bitty clothes, there's something quite satisfying about a stack of neat 4 1/2" squares. I don't have enough for two quilts, so I think I'm going to turn them into two super-soft pillow covers. Pillows are very popular in this house, especially with the nearly-two year old...  

Meanwhile, I thought I'd share these lovely bowls I spotted a few weeks ago in a charity shop window.

Usually the charity shops pickings are pretty poor around here, but I was rather pleased with this set of a large and six small glass dessert bowls for £10.

Not exactly cheap, but they are old (the ticket said 1930s although I'm not sure they are quite so old), they are in perfect condition, and I love the combination of frosted and clear green glass, especially on a sunny day.

Beach days

I want to share the finished Jester costume I made for El last month. It was a success, and in fact she won first prize at the church medieval fayre, although I think the judges were rather more impressed with her wellies than the costume itself! I made the hood based on photos of a traditional medieval costume I saw online. (Can't find the link just at the moment though - I'll add it here when I track it down.)

Both the hood and tunic were made from two adult-sized t-shirts I bought from the supermarket. El picked the colours herself, and I think she chose well (if not quite authentically!).

Sorry for the lack of posts recently. I've been in a bit of a creative flunk; first sewing machine troubles and then the general level of clutter and things-to-do taking up not only my time but my energy too. Add to this school holidays and that little Miss Ki (who is not yet 2) deciding daytime naps are a thing of the past and, well, I'm often so busy watching the children and talking with them and playing and learning and tidying and tidying and tidying that I don't seem to have time to plan sewing projects, never mind think about writing tutorials. I'll be back, I expect, when I have space to breathe. 

But for now, we'll be on the beach!

From an English country garden

Today was an event I really look forward to each year - the day the owner of this beautiful house opens its gardens to the public.

For a few hours we got the opportunity to explore the formal gardens and beautiful woodland walk, enjoying the flowers and trees in their full glory.

  

I decided last year that I wanted to sew dresses for the girls for this year's open day, and although I left it to the last minute, I just got a couple of simple little frocks done in time.

For El I made this sundress from Carefree Clothes for Girls, my first attempt at clothes from this book. I really enjoyed making it. I was worried, based on the photo in the book, that it might be cut a little low and loose at the front, so I changed the front to a round neckline rather than square.

I used a tie at the back instead of a button, to allow for a little adjustment and avoid hair getting caught up.

For Kiki, I used this ruffle shirt pattern by Heidi and Finn and added a couple of inches to make it into a dress.

This is the only photo I have of her wearing it - a rare moment of stillness between bouts of running around as fast as her little legs could carry her.

Contrary to the impression the photos above might give, the weather was very changeable today, with showers, lots of cloud and a very strong wind that shimmered through the meadow grass quite beautifully. Not the easiest thing to photograph!

Photo Friday: Hello Spring!

We've had some glorious spring weather here recently, and have been welcoming with open arms the opportunity to get outside.

Of course the logistics of actually getting outside aren't necessarily any easier, because that blue sky means sunblock and sunhats in addition to all the normal spring gear of wellies and woolies.

But once out, there's a lot to see. And very, very many questions to be answered.

 

Which makes, for, at the end of the day, an evidently too-tired-to-hold-the-camera-straight-or-focus-properly mother, but two pretty-much happy-with-life children.

 

(Butterflies and turtles on view at Williamson Park, Lancaster.)

Photo Friday/This Moment

Inspired by Soulemama's {this moment}:

Two tired children today meant bathtime was best enjoyed straight after lunch.I think this is the way to go for cold, dreary winter's afternoons.

Tidy Me Happy!

Our dining room is small, and it also has to double as a laundry room, playing-at-the-table room and route to the stairs. Stairs mean potential storage space underneath, and we certainly need to make use of every corner and cubby hole we've got, but a cupboard there would make the room look even smaller. Instead, I came up with this.

{Before and After template by Paint the Moon}

The table has adjustable legs it's tall enough to fit over the tumble dryer, and the man of the household came up with the idea of attaching my home-made fabric screens using dowling rods supported by hooks so they can come off easily too. Shelves, table and fabric are all from Ikea. It's a nice bright room as it gets the morning sun, and it makes me so happy to see colourful pretty things in that space, instead of the mess that always seemed to accumulate there!

I just need a new phone now. One of these Trim phones would do nicely.

{Image credit: Retrowow}

But the question is: which colour?

Skipton Castle

Can't beat a good clamber around a proper, well-preserved medieval castle. Check out the arrow slits, measure the thickness of the walls in spans of your outstretched arms, scare yourself in the dungeon, poke around the fireplaces and tread on the steps worn down by hundreds of years of use. El loved it almost as much as the fish and chips we had for lunch.

If you go down in the woods today...

At this time of year it always seems hard to get out for a walk at the weekend. By the time we've pried ourselves out of bed, had breakfast, cleaned up, played, had lunch, napped (ok, only the one-year old gets to do that, lucky girl), and got wrapped up and out of the house it's almost sunset.
But every time we visit these places I always wish we came more often, so we could keep track of how they change from month to month. Like whether or not the (three) tree bears hibernate in winter.



They don't. Perhaps we should try not to either!

Photo Friday

Break time. For One Red Robin's Colour Me Happy. (The Amy Butler print alone makes me happy).


And for Soulemama's {this moment} - "A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember."