Home Day

It's been a week of needing lots of coffee thanks to a 5 month old who wakes 30 billion times during the night and two other boys who always seem to make their way into our bed and then take up all the room.
Although I do adore the cuddles given as they snuggle up.

And so today is a Home Day. Nothing on the agenda except coffee drinking, banana cake baking, cuddles and playing with two cute wee guys and maybe even a spot of crochet. Christmas is coming after all... Shee-oot!

Although it's a chilly day outside the sun is streaming through our living room windows and we are enjoying the feel of it's comforting warmth on our skin.

Sure there's housework to do and I'll be tackling that too, but at the moment - I'm not bovered.

Hope you're all having/have had a Happy Thursday!
X

Our Nana would be so proud of us right now

How's this for a fun night in:

Three sisters who haven't been together for nearly a year and a half.

Three sisters sitting down together, spending a {crazy} Sunday evening indoors.

One sister knitting.

Two sisters crocheting.

We are so hardcore.

Wishing the fourth sister was here too.

:::

My Creative Space

It's been a while since I've been a-crafting.
What with baby Max needing to be constantly attached to the b-rest, lack of sleep and sickness, it just hasn't happened. But oh I've been itching to pick up a project and let the creative juices flow.

I found some wool at our local Hardware store {yes I know, wool in a hardware store? CRAZINESS!} for £1.29 per 100g ball. Now that's a bargain I just couldn't walk past.

I've been longing to make the crochet blanket mentioned in this post for over a year now and low and behold the wool available at the Hardware store had just the colours I wanted. WHOOP!

So now that my big sister is here and there are an extra pair of hands to help with the boys, I've been able to steal moments on the couch with my crochet hook and £1.29 balls of wool.

I can't wait to finish it. Three squares down, only 35 to go.... Should have it done in a year month or two.

And it shall feature in our lounge as a 'throw' on our couch. Yep, I've got good feelings about this one!
It's always good when you know a project you've started is going to look great. And even more so when the materials were such a BARGAIN!
Seeing that success and sense of achievement in my mind's eye is what will make me finish the other 35 squares.
{And the fact I've blogged and bragged about it so now I have to finish it... Doh}

:::

Linking up with Our Creative Spaces

Boat Watching, Nana Naps & a Bedroom Re-Style

What a lovely Saturday we've had.
Well, I've had a lovely Saturday - my husband may beg to differ...

You see, I got to have a sleep-in till about 9am. Sweet.

Then after making me a cup of coffee and some porridge Austin took Luca to the supermarket (which is actually an incredibly exciting 'Big Adventure' for his 3 year old life) and they got to sit down and have a special treat together at the supermarket cafeteria... WHOOP!
And while they were there Luca got some new sandals which just happen to be Lightning McQueen ones.

Oh the joy and pride on his face when he came home wearing his new big boy size 12 (!!) sandals, trying not to smile, you know how it is.

While they were at the supermarket Beni and I had a wee lie down. For two hours.

After lunch Austin took the boys for an outing to Kingston (he is so good to me!) where they had a playground adventure and watched boats on the River Thames.

While they were out I had a two hour nana nap. Yes, another two hour snooze... this baby's sucking the life out of me I tell you!

And took some photos for you of the new look for our bedroom (following on from this post).

I'm enjoying it - the colour and style is more 'me' again. And I'm 98% sure Austin likes it also... I know he's happy the pink's gone.

The quilt is made from an old sheet which was one of my first purchases when we arrived in London nearly 10 years ago. I'm so pleased I held onto this one - I've been wanting to do something with it for a while but haven't found the right project, until now.

Cushion covers were from fabrics I had in my rapidly growing stash. Nice to put them to good use rather than just sigh over them whenever I pass them by.

So all-in-all a jolly good Saturday - and I didn't even leave the house...!
Very nice indeed.

There's nothing like a good bump on the head to get the creative juices flowing

On Saturday night I was rudely awoken by this mother-of-all picture frames falling on my head.

It hurt. Real bad.
Gave me (and my husband when I yelped) a hell of a fright.

And so I have decided it is time for this picture frame and it's fabric art to go.
I was never fully happy with the result on this anyway. Trying to introduce a bit of pink and femininity (is that a word?) into our bedroom didn't really work.

So over the past few days I've been pondering redecorating our bedroom and what I would do. I am so partial to the good ol' orange and chocolate brown colour combo (must be because I'm a 70's child? I'll blame it on that) and I just happened to have some fabric in these colours lying around begging to be made into a quilt/throw for our bed.

I'll also be making some new cushion covers - that's on tomorrow's agenda.

Then there's the question of wall art - something light in weight - to replace the mahoosive frame that was above our bed. Off to the art supply shop I went today and got a couple of canvases, paints and brushes to see what I could create myself. This was quite an exciting undertaking for me as it's been a good few years since I picked up a paint brush or felt inspired to paint.

Don't ask me what it is. Nothing in particular, although the semi-circle does remind me of the pregnant belly I'm currently displaying. Maybe I shouldn't paint when I'm pregnant....?

Anyhoo, I hopefully will be able to show the end result of our bedroom makeover in the next couple of days. That's if it turns out ok...!!

It's not just our bedroom that's being affected by my sudden urge to make things better - the kitchen, lounge, bathroom and toilet have all had a deep-cleanse and all clutter has been removed.
Maybe this is actually me 'nesting' in preparation for baby arriving soon rather than inspiration given from a donk on the noggin...

Whatever it is, I'm liking it!

My Creative Space - Refashion: Men's Business Shirt to LIttle Man's Sunday Best

All through my teens and early twenties (when I had mum's sewing machine handy) I was always into refashioning garments. I remember with fondness walking out of a Trift store on countless occasions, bags in hand that would cost approximately $1 NZD each. Oh the Good Ole Days eh?

The best I can do nowadays is £3-£4 per second-hand item which is actually quite good buying yeah innit.

This week I splashed out and spent a few quid on some business shirts with the view of refashioning them into little guy shirts for my boys. I didn't have a pattern so just traced around an existing shirt for the sleeves, shirt front and shirt back and used the existing collar and cuffs (although I reduced them in size to fit).

And this is the result - a Sunday Best Shirt for Beni-Boo:

I wanted to photograph him modelling it but because of this...

...I was unable to fit his hand through the sleeve... oh well, I'm sure you can agree with me that it will look SUPER CUTE on him!

And now to make some ties and bow-ties to team up with the shirt - now THAT will be cute!!

Linking up with My Creative Space at kootoyoo here.

My Creative Space

Luca needed some tracksuit bottoms to wear when he got home from school as his other 2 pairs were in the washing pile, yet to be done...

And so emerged the Bruce Springsteen tracksuit bottoms refashioned from a Brucie tour t-shirt.

You may recall the Brucie tour t-shirt downsized to a top for Beni-Boo here - so here's the tracksuit bottoms version:

I'm not sure if I like them or not, but - you know Luca - he rocks them anyway (even with a "clashing" Lightning McQueen t-shirt on).
He thinks they're cool cos his mamma made them for him.
Bless his dear wee heart.

Joining in with My Creative Space at Kootoyoo

A Celebration of Spring

I am very happy to say that Spring is now well and truly HERE!

The promise of Summer and the warmth of the sunshine is enough to make one weep for joy. Don't get me wrong, I DO love a good chilly winter, especially when there's lots of snow and below zero temperatures. And I'm inside.
But it's amazing how GREAT you feel when you get the warm sun on your skin once again - it's like reconciling with an old friend.

And as the Spring bulbs start to flower I realise just how much I've missed colour over the past quarter of a year.

So this weekend Spring was celebrated by a visit to Kew Gardens for Austin and the boys with Aunty Gretchie while I celebrated some peace & quiet at home. Lovely.

Walking Boy has become Running Downhill Boy!

Of course there was a massive playground there as well, just incase your children aren't quite exhausted enough...

And while they were off galavanting around the gardens smelling the flowers I was at home making these for Luca:

{cute little buns he has!}

This is a 'trial' pair of underpants with the idea of making a matching vest top for summer PJ's.
I obviously have to tweak the pattern a little as these ones will probably fit him until he's twelve...

I've been doing a fair bit of crafting lately which has been very satisfying but I think it's called "Nesting".....
Only 11 weeks to go before bambino numero tre is due!

I really ought to start thinking about making a few little outfits and/or blankets for the new arrival...? Not knowing the sex does make this slightly difficult...
Can't wait to finally meet the little one really soon!

Linking up with Heather at Blessed Little Nest for {Life Made Lovely Monday}.

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My Creative Space: Cushion Covers for the Boy's Room

So here's the three covers finished to go with the quilt

I love it that the majority of the fabrics used were old sheets and curtains.

I showed Luca them last night.
First showcase was the car cushion. "Is it cool?" I asked. "Yes, it's cool" he said stroking it.
When I showed him the dump truck one he said "This one's really cool too Mamma! It's got green stripes!"

My child, you say all the right things.

I'm still forming inspiration for the rest of the room - we're a bit restricted with space and supplies but I'll see what I can do and will let you know!

Thought I'd 'Link Up' with Kootoyoo's My Creative Space here. Why not eh?

Italian Alphabet Quilt - Finito!

My first major project for 2011 is now finished and I'm feeling well chuffed - my first ever quilt!

I got a chocolate brown fleece from a Thrift store before Christmas which is snuggly but a bit boring, so I deciding to make it a bit more 'exciting' by attaching it to a patchwork quilt.
Much more exciting now.
And educating even as we can now learn our Italian.
Multi-purposing.
I like.

I'll put it on the bottom bunk in the boy's bedroom - this may inspire me to 'freshen up' their room a bit...?
I'll let you know!