Birthday Sewing

Soon it is Lucy's 3rd birthday. In exactly one week tomorrow, my little baby will be a big girl. Three is a mile stone isn't it?
So I will be busy every evening of this week with this Clothkit doll.

Baby Goodness

My very good friend Fiona had a little baby boy nearly three weeks ago. Congratulations!!! He is a very gorgeous and quiet little boy.

I have been crocheting a blanket for weeks now


and luckily got it finished just in time for my first visit. But I knew I also wanted to make her a bag. So I spent nearly three days solid a couple of weeks ago on the sewing machine and again got it finished just in time.



The pattern is from Anna Maria Horner's new book, which I can only recommend for anybody who either just had a baby, is expecting one or likes to give handmade presents rather than mass produced ones. I have been making blankets now as presents for over a year and can hardly imagine ever buying a baby present again. The book has lovely patterns for different things and I will certainly make some of them for our own little baby.
There is also a changing mat for the bag.


I filled the bag with a few goodies:



My favourite is the book. It helped me a lot through difficult times in Lucy's first 18 months. The book describes different phases of mental development of children and why they can be a bit more difficult than usual in those times.

This was my last baby present. From now on its all for our own little one. I still have until November, which isn't really that long I guess.


P.S: I have been writing on this post for a week now I think. So, my apologies if it doesn't flow, but I was having difficulties concentrating on it. I am feeling like that a lot lately: restless and bored. Must be the fact that I am soon entering my third trimester and its all coming to an end...

Birthday Surprise

This time of the year is birthday time in my family. First, Lucy will be 2 years old on the 22nd of February, then I will be 29 on the 17th of March (Oh oh, the big three O is getting closer. Not that I mind ;). I also just discovered that my blog is gonna be ONE on the 13th of March.

BUt of course Lucy's second birthday is my main focus and will from now on get most of my attention. As her birthday is so close to christmas, it is difficult to get her presents. i don't like a toy overflow. There is nothing worse than giving a child too many toys. In my opinion they only end up not knowing what to play with and get bored. And to be quite honest, Lucy already has quite a substantial amount of things to play with. So, the plan for her second birthday is to give her a permanent fixture in our house: a den under the stairs.

This is the space I want to close off for. All the way up to the radiator.




And as you can see, there is enough space for her there. Even when she is older, she can still sit in it and have her own little hide-away, whee she can have secret tea parties with her teddy bears and dolls.

I will close it off with curtains, so that one day it can be easily dismantled again. There will also be a lot of cushions and a blanket that I will crochet for her. Oh, I don't think I have quite realised yet just how much work it will be. And not that much time left.

I have been thinking about a colour scheme. I am not a very pinky pink person. I love greens and purples and blues and turquoise. But I am also an Interior Designer and it is important to me that no matter what it is, that comes into our house, it has to match somehow the rest of the decoration in that room. The wall that goes up beside our stairs is a light purple, so I thought of this colour scheme:


I am not so sure about the last three colours yet as I want to stick mainly to lime green, dark purple and orange. We will see. I will keep you updated on the progress.

Clutch-ing Great Inspiration

A week ago I bought something of etsy that I wanted to have for quite some time: a clutch bag made by Constança Cabral. I have been checking her shop again and again, but these bags are sold out so quickly that I was always unlucky. And of course there were some times when the fabrics were just not me. But then I was reading her blog and stumbled across this beauty.


And when I checked her shop straight away I couldn't believe my luck. I had to have it!

Well, yesterday I got the package, which was super quick, as she only sent it on Monday. I love it! This is one beautiful clutch that I can see myself using a lot. And it will make a nice change to the changing bag that I have to carry with me for the last 18 months ;)





Constanca has been a true inspiration to me...in many ways. I first heard of her when I received my copy of the IKEA family magazine in January. Constanca's home was featured in it. But not only did she talk about her beautiful apartment, she also mentioned her blog. Of course I had to check it out. Well, Constanca's blog was the actual reason, why I started my own. And although I am far away from where she is at the moment, it is really nice to follow somebody, whose passion for sewing is as great as mine.

If you want to check out her beautiful clutches, go to her shop Saídos da Concha or look at her very classy blog.

Oh, I nearly forgot to mention that she also sent ma lovely little lavender cushion, which made the whole parcel smell wonderfully summerly.



Hope you all have a wonderful start into the week. I will have to go and start packing now ;)

cafetiere/french press cosy

My mum likes to drink coffee and she always uses one of those cafetieres/french presses. She has been going on and on about getting a cosy for her press so I thought I would make her one myself. I knew I wanted to use felt as it looks so warm and wooly and....well...cosy ;) It was meant to be a christmas present but I dragged it out until just two weeks before christmas. I never Made one before and wasn't sure how long it would take. But after one week of intense evening sewing this was the result:







I have'nt been sewing in years, so I was quite proud of the result. And after my sister-in-law saw it she asked me to make one for her tea pot. I will have to start this soon, as it is March now and I told her I would make it as her christmas present...oops...