Mum of Two

As of tomorrow, I'll have been a mum of two for a whole week. This is our newest addition to the household. 

Miss Rachel May. She's been doing all of the usual things that babies do. I've been doing all of the usual things that I do, like poking her in the head, and pushing her squishy face into funny shapes. Also feeding her and what not.

So helpful to have Steve around being the extra hands and making sure I take naps when I should. Some days I'm not sure how I'm going to cope when he goes back to work, but other days feel like it might just be manageable.

Hard to get a photo of Sophie and Rachel together, but they are getting along just swimmingly. I now know why people go back and have more kids, by the way. Firstly, you totally forget how painful labour can be, and secondly, the second time seems much easier.

Special thanks to Rachel's Godfather, Wade, for the top two awesome photos. :) 

Cardboard House

Something that is not sewing that I've done recently is made Sophie a cardboard house.

I was unsure how to put the roof on at first (despite all the pintrest help :P), and so it was half made when she first discovered it. Then, as I was putting the roof on, she thought it'd be great fun to try to take it off. I think we're past that now. It's tall enough so that she can stand up in it, and look out that flap in the top. Mostly though, she just likes to sit inside and play peek-a-boo through the windows and door.

I tired to get photos of her using it earlier in the week, but she was too excited about it all. Today, I was taking a five second nap on the bean bag and woke up to find her just sitting in it, playing with the window. Good work Sophie.

Thanks to my parents for the speaker box. I thought about decorating it, but maybe later.

Shiny Things in the Sun

Despite the days being cold (and having a lack of warm things that fit to wear), yesterday the sun was shining and it was beautiful outside. In an effort to get some photos of the work in progress that I spoke about yesterday that were not just inside my house, or up against the wall again, I took these to my parents and used their newly planted olive tree to take some lovely snaps.

Taking creative shots is hard work. I don't know how people do it. That said, at least I'm making an effort right? Anyway, this photo shows the beginning of something fun and new. Yay! With a bit more hand stitching on three of these, I'll be over the half way mark for the first section of this adventure. That's nice to think about.

I don't want to go into too much detail (sorry people) because these will turn out to be presents for other people, but yay! What fun nature things could a child find for each of these colors? I wonder how to finish off those ribbons in the square below....

Waiting Progress

Waiting is hard. Very hard. Made harder possibly by well meaning people who keep asking if I'm ok, or if the baby is here yet. No to both of these things people. I don't want to send out angry "please leave me alone" text messages, but isn't it common sense that when the baby arrives and we are well enough to tell people that we actually will? Do people really believe we'd just sit on that happy news for a week or two before we'd tell anyone?

Before I get carried away (and possibly have a cry here at my computer), I'll let that go. There is no baby yet. I'm waiting too. Don't remind me. Enough said.

While waiting, I've been working on some things that will come together to be Christmas presents for some friends of ours as well as for Sophie and bub-number-two. I don't want to give too much away, but as the gifts are made up of (lots of) little parts, I figured it'd be ok to work on them in the coming months because I could do a little bit at a time and feel accomplished.

These are not quite done yet, but I finished the hand sewing yesterday (watching Stardust) and I'm pretty proud of them. I got mum to teach me how to Stem Stitch so that there would be a bit of variety in the stitches. It's easy to do, but remembering how to start each time took a while. I'm still really happy with the results. Now to get some thread and blanket stitch around the outside. Maybe Sally the Sewing Machine will help with that, though looking at the curves... maybe it's easier to hand do it.

I did manage to get Sally out this morning and do some other squares, so stay tuned, oh waiting world; I might post tomorrow too!

Alternative Use

We had extra blankets out for bible study last night, and this morning, I had a brain wave to spread out the Jeans Quilt and let Sophie investigate. All those friendly functional pockets must be good for something right? I am right!

I got out all of her Noah's Ark animals and stuffed them in quickly. So funny watching Sophie find them all. She was a bit confused at first as to why the actual ark was empty. Such fun though. Jeans Quilt for the win!

Last Minute Preparation: Dresses for Sophie

So you'd think that at nearly 39 weeks pregnant, I'd be doing last minute things for the new baby, or just lying around. You'd be wrong. Well, I am doing a fair bit of lying around, and we did do some final things in the nursery yesterday, but in the last week I've been preoccupied with some other things.

Given that I won't have much time on my hands to make Sophie (or the new baby for that matter) as many cool things as I have in the past, I thought I'd whip up a couple of size two outfits for her so they were ready when the time came. I am really happy with the results, though I have to say my gathering skills are still lacking in finesse.

 Firstly, I made an Izzy Top, with the free pattern found on Climbing the Willow. I have to say, I'm really thankful for the internet and all of the free things that it gives away. Because the bodice of this top is completely lined, some creative sewing meant that I could actually make the whole thing reversible. Two tops in one!

I'd do it differently next time, but it was good learning and practice. The back closes with a snap so no yucky button holes to navigate for me. I am well pleased.

The next thing I made was a Sally Dress from Very Shannon. I made another of these in December/January for Sophie's First Birthday. I really like that it has no buttons or zips, but it can be a little fiddly to get all of the bodice sewn. That said, it did only take probably an hour and a half from start to finish, so I can't really complain.

I lined the pockets and bodice with some of the left over material from the Izzy Top. Despite it's pink-ness, I really like it.... what's happening to me??

I did put away the sewing machine this morning with a bit of a sigh, knowing I've actually finished the important things on my to-do list and it might be a while before I can get Sally the Sewing Machine and Olivia the Overlocker out again, but I'm inspired by an idea for a travel mat, and some new car toys for Sophie, so maybe it won't be so long as I think.

Felt Crown

About two weeks ago I had a mad dash of inspiration and spent some evenings doing some hand sewing to whip up this beauty.

My first ever felt crown. I made it for the the girl next door who turned two in May (we were invited to the birthday party that actually got cancelled, so my mad dash to have a present ready to take to the party was in vain. :P ). I really liked the hand sewing though. It was fun to try to make it multi-size (it had elastic hidden in the back which will mean it expands!).

I tried to get Sophie to wear it (to check sizes), but she wasn't overlly keen. Thankfully the little girl next door loves it. Hooray!

Coming Clean

I write stories.

Woah, it was even hard to write that sentence,  but it's true. I've been writing stories for over ten years now. I might even consider myself to be a writer. I don't know what makes it hard to admit to, or talk about, but for some reason, I feel that writing isn't something that is openly discussed (if it's a thing you do for fun anyway).

Maybe because everyone can read, and thus, everyone could be your biggest critic. Maybe because writing can often be personal, and you don't actually want people to know what you think about things. I certainly know that when I write stories, I want what I believe to come across to the reader.

In any case, I've decided to come clean with the world and let you people know that yes, I do write stories. I have finished stories that I'm proud of. I have stories that I put a lot of work into, and that many people have spent time giving me feed back on and editing.

I tell you this because my goal is soon to publish these stories. To take them from being something I do when I'm creative (or angry at something I've just read that was badly written), or when I'm bored, and put them out into the world for everyone to enjoy.

I don't mind if not everyone loves them. In fact, I'm kind of expecting some people to say all sorts of things from: "This is not something I'd read" to "Your writing is terrible". But I'm ok with that. Because at the end of the day, I'm happy with my stories. The good guys win, the bad guys loose and while in real life not everything works out wonderfully, if you read my stories, just for a moment, they do.

Dress Up Skirt

I was at Spotlight last week getting some ribbon on sale and I rifled through the remnant bin for fun and found some shiny fabric. I've been meaning to make Sophie a circle skirt (or one like this (which involves much less cutting/measuring/accuracy)) for a while, and since the material was cheap, I thought, why not? Good practice.

Some little girl out there probably has a mum working hard at making a full Elsa costume but as I got the remnant, and my little girl really doesn't care about dress ups yet (or Frozen), so I made a skirt. I had to do a little creative sewing and cutting to get it, but I did. When I originally put it on her, she was rather unimpressed, and I noticed that because of the squareness, some parts were too long and she was tripping a little. So I did a few tucks and gathers and now it's very wearable.

And while my little girl was unimpressed with  having to wear a shiny skirt for no apparent reason and very unhelpful with taking photos in said skirt, she was very helpful with the washing this morning. So I can't complain.