OK humour me, yes this is a child's painting not in fact a Jackson Pollock. (Depsite the clearly way above average use of mass, movement, balance and confidence of colour)
However what I love most about this is the genius who is my toddler's key worker at nursery, who spent a long time on toddlerboy with this until she finally got the story out of him that what he has painted here is...... "daddy cooking beans in the sunshine"
And that is why I love good nursery staff!
The image, by the way, was one I found whilst trawling for something suitable. It reminds me of all the mixed emotions I had when pregnant, setting up my little one's room. The excitement and fear in equal amounts that has never gone away. (Although the cot has recently made way for a big boy's bed).
My little one is two. A proper person. And a food allergy so only home made cakes for this one, which is no bad thing, especially given how much I love baking. Happy Birthday my little man.
OK I'll admit, this started off as my Day in the Life post. On weekends, my days can be very dull - all feeding people, doing the cleaning and so on. yaaaawn.
The most exciting things are, unsurprisingly, the little creative bursts that sneak up en route. So I'm combining the more colourful parts of my weekend with a chance for you to have a go at one of them.
Between bursts of cooking and cleaning I whizzed through the living room with the boxofstuff* and felt tips for the boys. Turned back 2 minutes later to find this little creation. Not bad dad!
After lunch Dude (now 18 months old) popped off for a quick nap. Turned out to be 4 hours - a new record and an incredible, and rare, break for me and pa. In which time I ran up the woozy glittery shaker for Dude. So called because it's oh so glittery and makes me feel just a nice amount of woozy watching it.
It's a great way of using up some of your haberdashery stash and is so easy...
You will need:
- small clean SAFE bottle or jar with lid
- food colouring
- water
- buttons, sequins, beads, glitter
- baby oil
1. Fill your jar or bottle one third full with water
2. Add the sequins, glitter etc
3. And a teeny drop of food colouring
4. Top up rest of bottle / jar with baby oil
5. Replace lid / cap - if you have it I would strongly advise you superglue the lid on or things could get very messy!
Done - just shake, watch the bits flutter the colours mix then settle back down. Dude loved it straight away. The buttons I'd put in gave it a good rattly touch too so good for listening as well as looking.
The evening was spent making custard drop biscuits and putting up the Christmas decos...
*boxofstuff - I've been lucky enough to work with earlyarts which was an amazing induction into very early child development, so I know how crucial simple open-ended materials and 'free-play' (which the child directs themselves) is. So we have a big paper bag and box full of anything and everything we can find to go in - cardboard tubes, paper cups, bundles of ribbon, straws, crinkly plastic or metallic sheeting, toy boxes with cellophane windows, postcards and a hundred more types of packaging for Dude to route around in and do whatever he likes with...
a little round up of some of the many fab and unexpected prezzies we received for Jude, thank you so much to anyone who sent us things... (there are lots more but I don't have photos of them all)
baby towel - with ears, aaaahhh; and blanket. from the white company
thankyou Richard & Jess
hat and boots - probably from someone on etsy but I don't know who...
thanks Vic
babygro & t-shirt with handstitched motifs in the cutest wrapping paper ever!
from Crib - thanks Jenny to at Aurora Bloom
How to catch a star - beautifully written and illustrated
thanks CJ
Skwish - from me; which I love because it looks like some 1950s atomic sculpture!
green furry monster (modelling 6 years worth of Elle Decoration!)
thanks Cath - he rocks!
Story book from Pollyanna, which was her dad's when he was little - which makes it very special.
Thanks Pol
a quick round up of my latest etsy joy...
hair bobbles from marymarsh
gocco print card from bunny
beautiful silver bracelet from sacredsilver
Tilda the jack rabbit love creature from LookWhatICanDo
stripey sling from drewbabydesigns
(baby, model's own!) 
and this surprise freebie card from bombus, what a treat!
Thanks fellow etsians, life would be much duller without you.
the most gorgeous feet in the world
here he is at last
little Jude, born 15.06.07 after various trials and tribulations! but we're all back home safe and well and cosy (and tired...)
learning a little more day by day and panicking slightly (ok more than slightly) about when Nik goes back to work and I have to figure everything out alone...
Day 2 as a lady of leisure - i.e. after finishing work and before the baby arrives...
It's been lovely spending time sewing without feeling guily about other things I should be doing!
So today I whipped up a cusion cover from this gorgeous vintage fabric I've had stored away for a few months. It's a cotton / linen mix and has such a lovely density to it.
In the shop
And reading this book mum brought over for me - it's an easy read but so full of character and touches lots of things relevant to me right now. A touching, colourful and charming tale of two strong women, a rainy grey city, family ties and a passion for cloth, family history, vintage clothing and fabrics and the lives and loves around them. Definitely worth picking up...
And a guy I knew at school came by to talk about the UK DIY crafts scene which was a joy - to find someone as obsessed by it as me, but also someone male who's interested in it - few and far between!
He has some fantastic ideas about support for the UK scene which I'll be saying more about as the year unfolds hopefully - but as a one-off for now he's running a crafting stall /event / installation at the Interesting 2007 conference and has taken a stash of purses and birdy brooches from me to include in the goings on, so if you're there keep an eye out for a few of these and grab yourself a bargain...
Kind of busy for a lady of leisure then! Though there was also some sitting out in the sunshine eating ice-pops...
Tomorrow is my last day of work before starting maternity leave.
Since I'm self employed and work from home on my own and therefore won't have anyone throwing me a leaving do, I'm inviting my virtual friends to join me for one instead...
If you'd like to join in please bring your photos of tea, cake, champagne, big lunches, party hats, silly dancing to 80s music, and whatever else seems appropriate to this flickr group and discussions anytime tomorrow (Friday 1 June).
or post your comments / pics / links etc to this post
hope you'll join me for Friday jubilations...
