Some of my Nursery things

I have been happily crafting away on things for the baby's room for a little while now but I have been waiting to put up pics until it was closer to finished.

Last night I was bored and decided to play around with my Mobile concept. It is a little bit shabby but still cute I think it is more a Dangle than a mobile. Here is one of the fish....

And the dangle from a distance.....

I did these paintings a little while ago now but I have waiting to hang them beofre I took a picture. I am really happy with how they came out....


There are other things but I will save them ntil the room is more together.

New Project

This is the beginnings of the last project for the baby's nursery (If you exclude the mobile - I'm still working on the concept for that.) It's not much yet but I hope it comes together. Thats if I can even get it to hang on the wall once it is finished. LOL - it is so heavy!

Sad news

After having a lovely couple of hours with us at home for christmas yesterday, Mark's mum passed away this afternoon at around 5pm. She went quite peacefully and her last hours were spent with family.

It has been a very long day and we are all a bit sad - but also relieved that she is no longer suffering.

So Rest in Peace Jo - you are with spike now - together again. xo

I love this picture of mark with his mum - it really captures the relationship they had.

Merry Christmas to All

Even my Cat is getting into the christmas spirit....

Awake already

and No it's not because I am waiting for Santa Claus to come. It's just the being pregnant thing.
Hungry hungry hungry this past 24 hours - I had to get up and eat something. And now I am awake.

So I decided to start doing some research on my little baby shower favours. So I thought I would post a link here to any interesting looking tutorials that I come across - so that I can find them again and so can other people!

My baby shower isn't really going to have a theme per se - but a hostess from "the Body Shop at Home" is coming along to demonstrate her wares and do a pampering session icluding a foot or hand massage - so I thought a bit f a relaxation theme would be nice. But in reality - it is just going to be a little lunch party with salad and sandwhiches and party cakes - and possibly nice refreshing homemade lemonade (I'm liking the sound of that!). Just one game to play - one where everyone gets a bib and a nappy pin when they arrive, and then after that they are not allowed to say the word "Baby" - if someone else catches them out saying baby - they can steal the bib./bibs that person has - even if they have collected 10 bibs. Whoever has the most bibs at the end of the shower is the winner! (I guess I will need a prize too).

So here is what I have found so far:

• This from Feeling Stitchy
• Over at e-how
• This is more along the lines of what I was thinking over at Blooming at Home

What I was thinking was a small heart shape with some muslin and the embroidery on one side, sewn together and filled with some lavender and possibly rose petals. I have a few roses left on the bushes that may need to be sacrificed for the purpose - and (luckily) we have a lavender plant as well!
I think what I want to do is a combination on these tutes. I might even do a tutorial of my own if I like how it turns out.

Christmas Has Arrived

Yay - finally on a break from work - 10 whole days and I am really looking forward to it.
Today my beautiful husband went and fetched us a christmas tree - it might only be small but it is very cute:







I am happy - all the presents are now organised and wrapped - we just have to tidy the house a little and we will be done and ready for family tomorrow.

It was a rather quiet day at work today (as can well be imagined) and as I often do when I don't have much on, my mind drifted to things I could make.
I drew fish for a while (concept for mobile for baby's room) and then I started thinking about my upcoming baby shower and all of the things I need to organise for that.
I went through the list and got to a thank you gift - I thought for a while and came up with the idea of making a little drawer sachet/wardrobe pomander with a tiny rocking horse and the words thank you embroidered on it. I got quite excited by this idea and commenced drawing rocking horses.

So a little bit of internet research over the next few days and I will have a new project on my hands. Yay!

What next?

My next couple of projects for after christmas. It is time to move onto basic clothes!

I also want to try my hand at creating a few softies for the baby - my mum always made me soft toys and they were the ones I treasured (and trashed) the most. It is kind of cute actually - I had a small soft cat toy that I dragged with me everywhere (and I mean everywhere - it was my cuddle rug). Inevitably they would get tatty and start to fall apart. then miraculaously, a brand new one would appear overnight and I never knew any different for years. Until my mum ran out of her stash of that particular material. Hmmn...

I want to have a go at making a mobile from felt animals but I haven't quite got my head around that one just yet. I have a few ideas I am toying with but I am not really sure.

I have noticed quite a few lists of monthly goals and projects/focus points poppingup around the blogging world and I quite like the idea of this - but I do need to have a bit of a think about it a bit more first.

I do have Project january though - master the art of machine applique, making shorts for small boys and aprons - as above!

No Christmas Tree

I would love to be able to post about all the lovely things I have made for christmas tree decoration - but alas - our decorations haven't even made it out of their boxes in the closet this year. Not very christmassy of me you may say! But the thing is - we don't even have a tree!




Just a few pretty lights on the front windows.

And a present corner where a tree might go if we had one.


Unfortunately with everything that has been going on a christmas tree just wasn't high on our priority list this year.

So next year I plan on going all out with some handmade ornaments and house decorations and making things really christmassy.

for now... we will have to do with just the lights and the christmas present corner.

Sew easy!!

I have finished all of my christmas projects.

The first pic is of the little Anna Maria Horner Wildflower pincushions. I think they are just so (Sew) cute! But unfortunately mine didn't turn out as good as I would have hoped. That is because I used the old dinosaur of a sewing machine to construct them.




I should have waited just a day for my new shiny christmas present to arrive!



The difference is amazing! Today, after finishing the christmas shopping (thankfully it only involved the hardware store), I had lunch and rested for a couple of hours (I wish I could rest after lunch every day!) - I got stuck into finishing the bunting to go in the baby's room. I just love how it turned out - it looks so great in his room and really ties things together.

I will post some pics as soon as I get it up to the spot where it is going. That's not going to happen today.

So then I sat down and went - well what can I sew next... LOL... we may have created a monster!

Aprony goodness and projects

I have a few little projects underway at the moment - mainly for small family christmas gifts which I hope to get all the cutting out done for by the end of today. I just love the colour combination of the fabrics I have chosen for them and I will definitely take some pics and share.

I think these small sewing projects are good for me to develop my skills and learn new techniques.

I also bought a magazine the other week which had a rather cute apron pattern in it and I have been on the look out for some material that would suit the purpose nicely. This morning I found some georgous girly and fun lingerie inspired fabric in black, red and white and I thought combined with some red polka dots it could be quite fun - so I am going to have a go with that.

31 and a half weeks along and after buying it last week and looking at it nervously in the cupboard all week I have bitten the bullet and tried the rasberry leaf tea. Supposedly it is a uterine tonic and can assist with a more smooth labour. They (being experts I assume) recommend building up to 4 cups per day by the 40 week point so I will start with one per day for the next two weeks and go from there.

I really don't want my little one surprising me before new years!

Who are Primrose and Avery?

I guess they are just a couple of characters who have been popping up in my drawings lately. Primrose being a shy girl who doesn't really like to show her face and is quite partial to striped stockings and red shoes and Avery the cat.

As this blog is about my fledgeling artistic side I thought it appropriate to subdue the colour in the post title for now - just until I feel like I am more confident with what I am doing and drawing and making.

Sewing and painting are featuring heavily at the moment and I am trying to stockpile a few projects to keep me entertained while I am on maternity leave (but before I have the baby).

I am also a bit keen to expand on my crafty capabilities and to learn a little more about embroidery techniques, expand upon my limited sewing skills and possib;y learn to crochet. That is more than enough to keep me busy!


For any new readers - I have been blogging for a while now - but mainly about fitness related things. I have always enjoyed being creative and making things but in the past few years doing that has been associated with much guilt that I should indeed be doing something else! (i.e. Studying). My fitness/Life blog isn't really the place for posting about crafty things so I thought I needed a new space. I have been trying to find the right angle for a few weeks but I think now I have found it. I am 31 weeks pregnant with a little boy due on Valentines day and most of my crafting activities in the past few weeks have been directed at his nursery. I am almost done so I will post some pics of the things I have made over the next few weeks. I am also busy making a few small handmade additions to christmas presents.
I'm not quite ready to commit to being completely handmade for presents just yet but I think I will work on it over the coming year.
I find the creative process very meditative and calming - but - my brain often gets caught up in thinking too hard about all the things I want to do and create. Mind you - thins may all change once baby come along. We will soon find out I guess!