Beautiful flowers

On Tuesday, my wonderful husband came home just before I dashed out of the house to babysit for some friends, bringing with him a beautiful bouquet of flowers. They are red and white (my favourite) and include gerberas which we had at our wedding. These came with an apology for forgetting Valentine's Day, which was very much appreciated.

Unfortunately, due to me coming down with the delightful Noro virus (after Oli and Purdles also suffered at the start of the week), the flowers were just dumped in a vase, left in their wrapping until today. The photo here is 4 days after the flowers were given to me and they are still gorgeous.

Made in February

Had a chance now to download the pics of some of the odds and ends I have been making for fun this month. Purdey has demanded a whole new wardrobe for her Barbie dolls and new Sindy doll (OK, it is a 1980's edition bought recently on ebay), so there is a photo of the first of Barb's new kit, there are two Waldorf dolls with lavender filled beanie hearts made for our one year old nieces, a plate of chocolate cupcakes made by Oli and Purdey (pictured alongside my much-loved trusty Kitchenaid), a pile of cranberry, oat and raisin cookies which I made whilst the cupcakes were cooling, and finally, a card made for some friends to congratulate them on the birth of their first child, Rebecca Annabel.

The card is made with a few stamped and watercoloured images (Stampin' Up! stamps and markers/blenders) which is a bit like grown-up colouring in. I had hoped to get around to making some more cards this weekend, but today is pretty much over and tomorrow isn't looking good either! Oh well, perhaps I'll have to send IOU notes instead of cards next month!

The school holidays have been upon us, so little time to blog. Grabbed a few moments to update today, but the morning so far is not going as planned. Our eldest son was due to be back at school today, but after just 59 minutes back in class, I had a call to say that the poor little mite was sickly, so could I please remove him from the premises! Needless to say, he has perked up somewhat upon returning home and is complaining mightily because his beloved Nintendo DS is in Daddy's coat pocket. He keeps asking how many minutes until Daddy gets home (more to the point, until the aforementioned beloved electronic gaming device is safely returned). I started by telling him that he had 630 minutes or more to wait. He was not impressed. This was promptly followed by a resurgence of the sickliness and he has retired to the sofa. He must be ill. He has allowed CBeebies to stay on rather than his usual favourite of the dreaded SpongeBob, which we have endured throughout the holiday week.

To make today even better, our 7 month old baby has cut his first tooth this weekend and has conjunctivitis with a heavy cold (again!!). This means that he is feeling quite grotty and wants Mama all of the time. Our daughter is feeling somewhat put out at the fact that the boys are getting all of my attention, and is being equally demanding. She has just worked out that having big brother (recently nicknamed Bubble) home means that she can't go to playgroup this afternoon - the highlight of her week. She is not amused! She is flitting from one activity to another and I am struggling to keep up with tidying the devastation left in her wake. Luckily, I have managed to get the baby to have a nap and the other two are now magic painting for a few minutes until they get bored, hence the brief opportunity to release some frustration by blogging.

If I can wrestle the camera from my husband (that's the guy who failed to produce even a sniff of a Valentine's card or gift - on our 20th Valentine's Day together!!*) at some point, I will add in some pics of recent creations (Barbie fashions, Waldorf dolls, more cardigans and cards).

*More on that later when I have recovered from the hurt a little!! He helped a bit by sharing some of the chocolates I bought for him, but has a way to go!!

Made in January

OK, so, it's the last day of January and I have already let slide the promise I made to myself to get a head start on next Christmas. I have always been a last-minute-Christmas kinda gal, so this is no surprise to me. I only managed to get as much done as I did in 2009 due to the fact that I am on maternity leave and trying to take it easy, rather than my usual running around taking on far more than I know is good for me (doctor's ordors this time!!).

Having said that, I haven't been completely idle this month (is it actually possible to be completely idle with a baby, toddler and 5 year old??). Woolly hats and scarves have been made for each child to ward off the cold (remember the -23 degrees celsius nights at the start of January??), birthday cards have been produced, crocheted throw has been started (more about that later), a tea cosy has been made to fit in with my pink kitchen and two cardigans have been knitted. I also stepped out of my usual style to make a fluffy gillet for my daughter (not usually a fan of this type of synthetic ribbon yarn, but it suits her bubbly personality).

The tea cosy is from a pattern shown in a couple of recent knitting mags. I altered the pattern to fit my teapot (a gift from my parents 18 years ago when we bought our first house!) and used wool which I bought 6 years ago and gave up on soon after purchase when I discovered that I wasn't as keen on wearing it as I thought. The plan had been to knit something for myself whilst on my first maternity leave. I got as far as knitting the back of a cardigan, but soon found that the yarn was actually much warmer to wear than I had realised and I knew then that I would never wear the finished garment. The yarn is beautiful. It is Rowan Big Wool which is 100% merino. It knits up really nicely (some merino can be a pain) and projects take shape quickly using 12mm needles. I dug the pack of yarn out of my spare room at the end of last year and made a couple of Christmas gifts with two balls. That left 10 more.... The tea cosy swallowed up 2 more, leaving 8.... I started a woolly buttoned neck-warming collar with another 2 and have knitted up a Rowan pattern (Dumpling from Rowan Babies pattern book by Kim Hargreaves) with another 2, leaving 4. This should be just enough to make a chunky cardi for Purdey, which I hope to start this coming month before the weather turns to warm for her too!

Anyone who hasn't yet fallen to sleep reading about the yarn (still available from Rowan stockists) and long forgotten half-knitted cardigan may be thinking 'what happened to the bit used to make the back of the original cardi?'. Well, rather than unpick it, I cut it down the middle and joined the two armholes together then overlocked the cut edge to make a scarf with neck-shaped cut out. Ideal for a scarf made in such a thick yarn. As it can be a little overwhelming up near the face, I backed it with some pretty fabric, so it is also now reversible. Ingenious I hear you cry!

The Dumpling cardi was created for my niece Hannah who will be one in Feb. Born amazingly early at just 26 weeks, she and her identical twin Lucy are doing incredibly and are growing well. They are roughly the same size as our 6 1/2 month old baby boy, but I have knitted the pattern slightly larger in the hope that it will fit her in the autumn too. I have knitted a second version for Lucy using Sirdar Big Softie in a lighter shade of pink to match the hats I made them at Christmas. Each cardi has a knitted flower in the alternate shade of pink and green embroidery for the flower stem and leaf, just to make it unique. I just hope the bright pink isn't too garish for their gentle colouring!

The bicycle birthday card needed a quick fix. I used a thick shoelace just twisted together at the side of the card and attached with the last tiny bit of adhesive left in a glue runner. The moral of this story is not to place your cards above a log fire as the glue (especilly when you have not used enough of it) will come unstuck! I will fix it with some Tombow before giving the card to the birthday boy, but it was photographed before I had chance!

More to come on this month's creations when I get the chance to take more pics, or get my slave (I mean husband) to do it for me.

Here are some I made earlier

As well as making various handmade gifts, clothes, accessories, homewares, cakes and preserves, I have (with a little help from my husband) found time to make three little people over the last five or so years! Here they are! The two bigger ones are not in disguise, they really do look like that!

More Christmas goodies

A few more bits and pieces I made for Christmas this year. The guitar cushion was made for my 5 year old son for his den, the apron for my friend who is a talented crafter herself, and the red heart wreath which hangs in my living room.

Handmade Christmas

Especially since having a family, I have wanted to give hand made gifts at Christmas. I have made a few gifts in the past, but this year, I really went for it! I think that I gave at least one handmade gift to everyone on my Christmas list, whether they appreciated it or not!

Not everyone 'gets' the idea of handmade when everything can be sourced so easily (OK, not handmade versions). For instance, there are members of my family who probably think I am crazy spending two whole evenings knitting up fingerless mohair mittens when they can be bought for a fraction of the amount I spent on the yarn. They are WRONG!! How can you compare something made lovingly for you from great quality, luxurious natural materials to a bargain pair of acrylic gloves popped in a shopping basket without a second thought? To me, handmade is about the care and love that goes into making an item. To use the mittens example, the two evenings making them is two evenings thinking about the person they are for. You can't say that about mass-produced shop bought items! If you don't enjoy making things yourself, the next best option is to buy handmade - there are lots of us out there willing to provide such a service. After all, we run out of reasons to make things for our own families after a while!

My only regret is tht I am so bad at taking the time to photograph the things that I have made. As so many of the gifts made this Christmas were only ready at the last minute, I only just about got the time to wrap them before it was time for them to be unwrapped again! Many of the gifts were also given in handmade packaging (shown in the picture) or in handpainted gift wrap, made on snowy afternoon by my two eldest children. We also made all of the gift tags and Christmas cards, only finishing late into the night on Christmas Eve.

I WILL start earlier this year! With three children to occupy, finding time to craft is hard. If it is for someone else, I get the excuse that the item MUST be made, so therfeore I can justify taking the time to indulge myself in 'making'. If it is just for me, it isn't so easy to mke tht justification and housework has to take priority (doh!). Oh well, 341 days until Christmas.....