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Erwin has a brother, just hatched today. Herman will hopefully be up over at etsy with a few of his animal friends before the week is out. I recently read that giraffes have a gestation period of 14 to 15 months! Thankfully, Herman only took me a few hours, but can you imagine what those hot African summers must be like carrying a 1.8 metre tall baby? It's given me a new found respect for the giraffe mother!
We had one of those visits to Ikea today. You know the kind, where everything you go there for is unavailable? I wanted to pick up some trestle legs for a desk for my new work room - they were out of stock. We had also planned to pick up a couple of blinds for some glass doors in our lounge room - again, out of stock.
I'd also hoped to pick up some of their excellently priced linen so I could make an advent stocking garland. I liked the linen in the ones above (from the most recent home beautiful), and have also been inspired at past christmases by the ones made by Stephanie and Amanda. But, um yes, the linen? Discontinued. Bummer. Better luck next time, eh?
I know it's early, but we were in need of some christmas cheer today, so the tree's up!
My very favourite decoration, a gift from Sarah last year - a bird by her talented friend at paper boat press (more here).
Audrey found a new spot today. I found her here this morning eating a nectarine.
I'm so glad it's Friday! It's been a long, hot week. Matt won't be home until late tonight, so after Audrey goes to bed it's me, feet up on the sofa and some wonderfully unchallenging reading material:
I just wanted to say a very big thankyou to everyone who has been stopping by to read my daily posts this month. Especially those who have commented - it means a lot and this would be no fun at all without you continuing the conversation. Happy friday to you all!
This is our progress on the new bedroom for Audrey & the wee chap. I should say Matt's progress as he's the one who has done most of the work. I'm loving the colour. So aside from some paintwork on the architraves, now it's time for the fun decorating part. I need to get cracking with some cushions, and of course Audrey's quilt. I'm considering ordering some of these alphabet cards from Mahar Drygoods for the walls. Plus, if the budget allows (probably not, but dreaming is good), I'm thinking a lamp like the giraffe one here.
While we're in fantasty decorating land, I've stashed some of this Alexander Henry 2d-Zoo fabric for a quilt for the baby (I say fantasty because it could be some time before this one is done). I was inspired by this (scroll down - it's the pink quilt with the red binding) on the purl bee a while back, so I'm hoping it will work to 'just' hand quilt around the larger animals & shapes. Seriously though, I feel like the combined forces of pregnancy and hot weather are impairing my ability to make a half decent decision about anything, so if anyone thinks that the hand quilting plan will ruin an otherwise lovely piece of fabric, um, tell it to me straight!
Audrey and I had a delightfully girly day at home together today. First up, a haircut for the little one, followed by a spot of grocery shopping and an ice-cream treat at a cafe (her, not me). It's been over 30 degrees for days now & the forecast says up to almost 40 next week. So hot. What happened to Spring?! I'm really starting to feel it, so we spent the hottest part of the day indoors today making Christmas cards. These Santa cards were inspired by these (scroll down) over at the wonderful Kid's Craft Weekly. Lots of fun, and I love how they turned out. Audrey had a ball, she's the perfect age for Christmas crafts now. I think we'll be depending on that in the hot weeks ahead!
A slightly wistful and grumpy post from me today. These are some cupcakes I made for Audrey's recent 4th birthday. I seem to have developed a pregnancy induced glucose intolerance (can't bring myself to call it this, which seems a fairly alarmist tag, although perhaps I'm in denial). So I'm sorry to say I'm off the sugar for the duration of this pregnancy, until I get the all clear. This is such a different pregnancy - I scooted through my first one with not a care in the world! In any case, it's really not that bad, and certainly no big sacrifice to make to ensure the health of this little one - which is clearly the most important thing. It's not like I was mainlining sugar before or anything, but I will miss it. Especially at christmas - bah humbug!
Back on the wagon and sewing today. I think I mentioned that we are in the middle of swapping rooms? Well, my workspace is a wee desk in the corner of our bedroom at the moment. For both the computer and sewing machine. I have to crawl under it to get to half my fabric which is on a shelf jammed between said desk and the wall (such a dignified look for me right now). It will be worth it, though, because in a few short weeks I'll have a space of my own again - and this time, one that I can shut a door on. Looking forward to that.
The piles/works in progress above will shortly become a couple of bunnies, a couple of monkeys and a giraffe. Plus there's another giraffe on the way. Erwin seems to be holding up nicely, so it's all systems go there. If everything goes to plan, I'm hoping they'll be up on etsy by the end of next week.
Oh, and there's an interview with me over at Red White You this month. A first for me. I'm a little aprehensive about reading it, lest I crapped on too much. Thanks Laura! :)
We went to the birthday party of a special little girl today (happy birthday Moopy!) Blogging every day is forcing me to take more photos every day - which can only be a good thing - although I forgot to take the camera out with us so todays photo is the birthday girl's parcel.
Nevermind though, because it fits in with what I wanted to blog about, which is Christmas wrapping. Wrapping presents is one of those things that I would like to do much better at. So, some links that I am finding inspiring:
-The nice package pool on flickr.
-These stickers designed by Lara over at kirin notebook. I'm also loving the christmas cards Lara designed for Moo.
-I always love everything this talented friend wraps & packs. :)
-Just before I sat down to blog this evening, I realised that Alicia wrote a post about wrapping today, too. Love those colours.
Audrey and I had a very "impormtant" (as she says) conversation yesterday. I told her I needed to know what her favourite colour was so I could make her a special quilt for her new bedroom (we are currently doing a round of pre-baby room switching). After thinking about it for a few moments, her reply was "blue". A few weeks ago, she told me that she wished the whole world was pink (or something to that effect), so I'd been pulling pinks off my fabric shelves, playing around with them and wondering why it just didn't feel right. Last night I started playing with blues and came up with this combination above. It feels so much better - much more her. I'm so excited about making these into a quilt for her!
For the patchwork bit, I'm thinking of using this pattern from the Machine Made Patchworks book 1. One of my favourite quilts ever would have to be Rosa's version of this, so beautifully hand quilted. Another reason I'm glad that blue was Audrey's colour of the day is that I have more fabric in those hues with white space in them. I'm no doubt very slow on the pick up, but after looking at this quilt for a while, I realised that it was the white space in so many of the prints that made it work so well. Well, duh, I hear you say.
The trick now is to actually get cracking with it. I seem to have so many ideas that burn out before they get a chance to become anything. I'm not alone there am I? But I'm determined not to let this one go. Matt is up a ladder as I type, painting the room this colour (it's much brighter in reality) - perhaps that's just the motivation I need.
