TinkeringTimes

Autumn

Autumn, as collected by a three year old, in the safest and most precious place he knows.

Technorati Tags: autumn,conker,England,trike,childhood,play

Thank you

To my little one, who has just learned, all by himself, that it's nice to give flowers. And to Elsie, for leaving me the perfect vase to put them in.

(And in fact while I'm at it, to hubby, for moving your model aeroplane at last off the top of the Dansette giving me my nice pink and green space back.)

Sandy

 

You might remember me admiring *this* gorgeous bunny. Not least for it's understated, subtle, appearance. So I bought the pattern and set about my first attempt at amigurumi.

Ahem. As you'll see my attempt was slightly less understated and subtle! really I was using up remnants of yarn leftover from two baby blankets so it is what it is...

Also my local haberdashers didn't have any of those beautiful pure black plush eyes and I just couldn't wait for any through the post so we settled for Manchester's finest alternative.

But all in all for a first attempt I'm actually pretty pleased. And since its was a mere six rows in, toddlerboy took one look and said his name is Sandy and claimed it as his own. So it's well loved no matter what. Just as well really.

Pollocks to it.

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!

A new adventure

A lovely something came my way. A perfect and rare chance to really combine all the things I love. Children, the internet / social media, craft, design, art, learning, museums and galleries... you get the gist.

What is this magical thing? I will be writing three times a week from now on for AOL's parenting blog www.parentdish.co.uk

Sounds great! And it sounds easy but I know it won't be - eventually I fear inspiration may run dry, so if you have any suggestions of short pieces I could create related in any way to the subjects listed above, please do pipe up with suggestions, links, ideas, press releases, products, events, research reports and other interesting bits and bobs.

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).

It's that time again

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.

woozy glittery shaker tutorial

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...

prezzies

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

etsy time

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.

Jude

the most gorgeous feet in the world

Jude

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...

lady of leisure

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...

leaving do for the self employed...

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...

babe's room

the babe's room is coming on nicely - nearly done now. new additions:

gorogeous blanket and cushion from Quiltbaby



birdy mobile is finished and up

i heart quiltbaby

sharing some shopping...
these things I have bought and loved - by quiltbaby


bird quilt



olive green quiet creature


reversible stripes quilt

rearranging

Finally started rearranging things around the house to make room for baby so...

Step 1: This sofa, now fully reupholstered, packs away and moves into the loft.
Step 2: This sofabed comes down from the spare room and replaces the first sofa
Step 3: The cot goes up in the spare room, now baby's room
Step 4: Just because we're in the mood we finally also put the mirror up that replaces the one I smashed - oops!

And for extra detail:


1. Frances, Eyore, Elmer, Skini-Bear, Bunny, Mouse and George move into the cot (tho those with buttons and badges are on a short term lease, moving out somewhere safer when baby moves in)
2. Nik's dinosaur moves onto the window - at least whilst I decide if its shadows are too scary...
3. Nik sewed this plane, I love it and so it moves onto the window too
4. Gorgeous blanket knitted by my mum is laid out in cot all soft and cosy for the little person.

So we got through quite a lot in a Sunday and we're feeling very happy with the results!

mother's day

sharing some mother's day moments...
1. making jelly and fairy cakes for afternoon tea for my mum:





Can't show you the finished red jelly frogs as we ate them before I remembered to take a pic - but they were good believe me!

2. the repotted pots kindly attended to by my mum as a gift to me:



3. shadow gardening whilst waiting to become a mum (only 3 months to go)



4. the other mum in our house, Jango, looks on curiously. (Daughter Suki is nowhere to be found as usual, most likely hiding under the bed)



5. no pics but in short some other keywords of my mother's day: heartburn::back-ache::tears:: hormones::wonderful hubby::Johnson&Johnson basket::simon rimmer's cupcakes::halestones::storm::snow::bean::

things to make and do

I'm finally back at my pc after days and days away so I've been able to see all the lovely craft streams in my rss feeder, here are a few of my favourite finds - please try one out and let me know how you get on...

1. National Handwriting Day Ok it was last week - 23rd Jan, but I was in London and anyway I'm on a mission this year to write people more letters on lovely paper and in home made envelopes. So far the lucky recipients are loving a cheery bit of mail amongst their junk and bills. So I suggest you do your bit too as a belated national handwriting day gesture, go on, you might like it.

2. Valentine's Day - which I haven't missed (yet). My cards are normally ribbon based in some way or another, but I might try one of these this year - they're so adorable (and a bit less girly for hubby!) So here's a lovely robot based pdf template for you.



3. For no reason at all other than it's just beautiful, make an origami star vase. Not sure it'll hold much water but I bet it looks fab full of buttons, badges, pens, ribbon or whatever you have too much of in your house.



4. A little not-so-light reading - bare with me... this one came through from the makers of marvellous Etsy so I know its going to be interesting, an interview with Naomi Klein of No Logo fame. I've not read it yet so take your chances but Etsy don't usually get it wrong.

Happy happy days.