Rosi's Mobile Making Baby Shower

I love a crafty baby shower. It gives the event such a lovely feel; all making something for the new arrival. For mine we each made a flag for bunting and for my sister-in-law we all painted a little canvas for the nursery wall. So when it was my turn to organise the do for my wonderful friend Rosi I wanted to do something similar, but not something any of us had done before. Cue lots of pinning! As well as the above ideas there were some other good ones, like bib and babygro decorating.

Here's what we did...

A couple of us took along bits of card, paper, ribbons, buttons and anything else suitable for sticking together. I also took along a little kite shaped template. We then all made a kite to our own design to then hang together in a mobile. 

It was lots of fun, and still left us time to eat cake, drink tea and open presents within a couple of hours.

It then fell to me to put the mobile together! It was trickier than I expected as it became something of an exercise in engineering and balance! I made a large cloud using 6 pieces of white card cut in symmetrical cloud shapes, which I folded in half and glued together with prittstick. I then used the trusty glue gun to stick a long length of cotton to each kite. This was in a different position for each one in order to balance them in a good flying position (due to everyone's individual designs). I used a needle and thread to attach a kite to each arm of the cloud. I also made a couple of small clouds to use as additional balancing weights and give it a bit of visual balance too. 

And this is how it turned out:

JLW's New Bag

When Jola needed a new bag for nursery I tried really hard to find one on Etsy; I like supporting other people's handmade businesses.  I found one, but it was going to cost nearly $30 to ship, which made it much too pricey!  I had recently pinned a tutorial on Pinterest so decided to give it a go.  It's this one here by the Ribbon Retreat.  It's a really straightforward tutorial with easy to follow instructions and pictures.

As it's quite a simple design it was pretty easy to add some additional touches so I made a few changes:

- I added a couple of inches to the side panel pieces to make it wider.

- I added an elasticated front pocket, with velcro fastening and button decoration.

- I added piping to the main body seam.

- I machine stitched initials onto the front.

Changes I didn't make but should have done:

- I shouldn't have bothered with the piping; I'm not very good at it!

- I should have brought the straps closer together at the top as they currently sit too wide to stay on my toddler's shoulders.

I am definitely going to try another one in the future now that I've learnt some lessons for this one!

Mini Advent Stockings!

I'm aware that today is 1st December, aka the first day of Advent. But I've been so busy - had a wonderful time at Lewes Artists and Makers yesterday - that I didn't get round to preparing anything. If only I'd spent less time researching blogs and Pinterest and more time making! But I woke up this morning and gave myself a good talking to. I realised that I don't have to make 24 of something for today...just the first one! So I quickly made myself a miniature stocking template (find it here) and whipped this up by cutting out two pieces of stocking shaped fabric as per pattern.  (Don't forget to do opposite shapes for the front and back if your fabric has a right side)  I used fusible interfacing prior to cutting on one side of the fabric as it stiffens it up and it also means you can just draw straight round the template and then cut.  I folded over the top edge (just once, but you could do it twice) with a 5mm seam allowance and stitched.  On the back piece a stitched a folded piece of ricrac about 1 cm in from the back edge of the stocking so that it can be hung up.  I used bondaweb on the back of coloured felt and cut out a number 1 and then ironed it to the front piece of the stocking.  I then placed the fabric right sides together and stitched round the outside using a 5mm, leaving the top edge open.  Using pinking shears I trimmed the edges - the interfacing also means the raw edges won't fray so is perfect for this quick project.  Turn the little stocking inside out and you should have a cute little stocking to hang on the mantelpiece or somewhere equally as festive!  Now repeat 23 times!

I bought the fabric especially a while ago. I was also able to do tomorrow's stocking. When we were younger my mum made some very similar stockings (another idea pinched from her, despite the hours on Pinterest!) and every morning a new stocking would appear with a little goodie inside - a toy, choc or other treat! Jola is still a bit little to get it, so I figure I can use this year to make the advent stockings and start the treat bit next year. I'm so pleased I realised it wasn't too late! And there are still a few hours of the 1st left, for anyone who's feeling as disappointed as I was with myself this morning!

Wintery Knit Knit

I'm not a very fast knitter. It was probably my first craft, but it is not my craft of choice! I love hand knitted items and would love to improve. My mum's one of those casual, chatting, watching TV, super fast knitters, whipping up a little cardi in a couple of evenings.  I've tried doing it without looking, for about 10 seconds, but I may as well look for all the concentration and teeth gritting it takes!

Anyway, I decided to attempt a hooded cardigan for my little girl. I took great pleasure in searching Ravelry (where I could lose hours!) for a suitable pattern. Found a good one here. 

But I started knitting it about 9 months ago, for age 18-24 months.  She's now 26 months and it's not finished.  I got up to the hood and abandoned the plan.  I decided to convert the hood into a little bonnet.  And here's the result!...

 

For the last 8 rows I added 30 stitches on each end and changed to a rib stitch to shape it round the face and allow it to be tied under the chin.  I then folded it in half and stitched the back seam.  I'm also planning on putting a popper on the strap so it's secure.  Oh, and I made a pompom for the top.  It's a little small, naturally, and isn't quite shaped right.  But I'm pleased with it and it looks so cute!

There are proper patterns available - like this one - so sweet!  A much more realistic goal for a non-speedy knitter like me!

Moose Maple Butter

As a family, we're pretty into moose. And maple syrup. And butter. So imagine my delight when Farrah got in touch to ask if I'd like to try a new product called Moose Maple Butter! She promised me that it's the perfect accompaniment to my American Pancakes, and she wasn't wrong! 

I just slathered it on in a manner that would make Nigella proud. It's not hugely strong on the maple front, but my husband and I agreed that this wasn't necessarily a bad thing as it didn't taste as sugary and sickly as a big glug of syrup can sometimes. It was just right. And it looks like they've worked hard on achieving that exact balance.  It's also worth noting that there are no additives or other nasties in it - just natural maple syrup, organic butter and a pinch of sea salt. (Nutritional info can be found on the website). And I've got enough left to try it on some warm crusty bread next, as recommended by Farrah.  Can't wait!

Moose Maple Butter is being launched in the UK in November - you can find more details here. I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for details of stockists.  

Cuckmere Haven

The last time I went to Cuckmere Haven was a painful mid-break up outing when I was desperate to prove we could 'still be friends'. That story does have a happy ending; he is now Mr Big Tree Little Moose, but certainly not as a result of that little trip!  Anyway, I've been wanting to erase that 'last time' memory for the last 8 years, so when my mum suggested going together last weekend I jumped at the chance. As a family we've always referred to it as 'Seven Sisters' but I think that's actually the name for the park above the cliffs. Cuckmere Haven (or Valley) is the estuary bit you walk through to get to the beach. I'm pretty sure Birling Gap fits in there somewhere too, but I'm not sure where!

We got there just before 11am and parking was easy, even for a sunny bank holiday. Glad we arrived at that time though, because when we returned to our car a few hours later the car park was mayhem! Cost of parking seems reasonable at £3.50 for the day. Although it's slightly frustrating that we didn't get it free with National Trust membership; although much of the country park is NT the car park is not. 

It was so lovely to be able to take the dog, Otter. She absolutely loved it! And fortunately there were no grazing sheep in the areas we were walking so she could run freely most of the time. It's worth knowing that there are no dog poo bins on the walk to the beach; the nearest one is by the car park. And dogs on leads on the beach May to September. 

Our little toddler's greatest pleasure is running. And here she could run! The paths are far enough away from the river that she wasn't going to trip and fall in. She would have run the entire mile route to the beach but at one point we put her in the pushchair for a forced break! We took the park trail down to the beach, as opposed to the beach trail, as it was so much quieter and gets you to pretty much the same place!

Once at the beach we settled down for a picnic but a ridiculously crazy amount of teeny tiny flies forced us to relocate backwards onto a grassy spot just before the beach. Which was equally as beautiful. 

The walk back felt quite long! Little J did more running. By this time the route was busy with visitors so I'm glad we came at an earlier time. 

It's such a happy family place for me, full of great memories of cycling, climbing trees, exploring old war bunkers, collecting stones, sea swimming, searching for fossils in the cliffs and more. I'm glad I've been able to take my mind back to those memories, and start making new ones of our own. 

Bluebell Railway

I thought I published this weeks ago but I've just found it in my draft box! Oops! But I imagine that this would be a perfect crisp winter day activity so I'll post it now - just make sure you check the timetable in case it changes during the winter. 

My mother-in-law recently took us all out to the Bluebell Railway as a birthday treat for little J.  Can you believe she's 2!!??  Crazy.  Anyway, it was wonderful.  (Although I'm glad it was her treat as it is quite expensive unless you go off-peak!)  We arrived a few minutes later than planned and missed our train.  The next one wasn't for over an hour.  Argh!  Make sure you check the train times before setting off!  But our dread of trying to keep 2 toddlers entertained for an hour fairly quickly turned around as we realised what was going on at the station.  There's a souvenir shop that has Brio train sets ready to be played with.  There's a cafe for coffee and snacks.  And then there are the trains!  Plenty to see up and down the platform and quite a few chugging through.  We were even allowed to get on an engine with the driver and see them stoke the fire.  You can purchase station-only tickets at a fraction of the price and I would definitely consider that in the future.

Little J and her cousin loved it all.  If I'm honest we probably didn't need to go as far on the train as we did as once it was moving the girls sort of lost interest - you're on the train so you can't see it!  I think they're a bit young for that bit.  But there are a few stops on the line so you don't have to sit on the train for hours.  We stopped off for a picnic and then got back on the train as it headed back.

We all commented on how lovely the staff at the station seemed.  They must all be passionate about their trains!  And the stations and trains are beautiful.  It was absolutely delightful and we've got such special memories and photos of the day.