Tis the season to be jolly

Twinkle little stars !

After several days of rain a break in the weather was warmly welcomed

and a trip out to Holdon forest seemed like the perfect place to appreciate
the fantastic colours that autumn brings.

Unfortunately as I was stuck round

the car park with crying cold baby my vision of an artful day

capturing autumnal scenes on camera was fast disappearing.

However Finley and his little friend Oliver had a fantastic day

and after discovering this musical device created from a fallen tree

peace soon reined, warm hot chocolates and crepes in hand a good day was had by all.

5th week craft craze

5 weeks on Merryn has doubled in size and has unscrumpled to this beautiful like bud, who will grow into a gorgeous little flower of a girl before I know it.
After overcoming the sleep issues that new life brings I was ready to get sewing again. In spite of the tiredness I am determined to put my thoughts into crafty reality.

My brain has been bursting with ideas many of which I'm sure wont see the light of day, but Merryn has brought out the girly side in me. Thoughts of my fashion degree have spurred me on to design little dresses for her and although its just a start I know there will be many more were this came from.

I also tried a few patterns from an old toy book I won on ebay
(Pamela Peakes, creative soft toy making ) and after a bit of modernising, some added rattles and that crispy stuff babies go crazy for in the ears, I had two cute baby toy dogs. Bones and Bramble.

There are two other patterns I have got to try next; a really funky puffin, and a mother & infant anteater. I'm sure I can revamp them. I'll post the results.

three becomes four

Baby Merryn finally arrived, can't tell you how good it feels to have my body back.
Although I don't recognise it.
Finley was thrilled at first but a few weeks in and he said he wants her back in my belly.

Also had a birth day, cant tell you how old its too depressing but my good friends cheered me up with all their fab gifts for both baby fin and me.

nothing happening on the craft front as you can imagine although my head is exploding with ideas and cant wait to get sewing again.

I'm sure my next post will be full of random crafty exploit's

I dug out my old flower press last week and
started frantically trying to preserve some of my

lovely summer garden before the weeks of rain took its toll.

The result was this butterfly card which I was quite pleased with

I can see me doing many more.

My crochet birds are coming on and

with some brainy ideas from my other creative

pals I have started developing a label Woolly Soup.

Since I seem to have a thing for birds at the moment

I started playing around with sketches of birds for my logo.

Final result as shown above, let me know what

you folks think.

Other news, I have two weeks to go till due date, Cant explain
how excited i am, the belly now has a name (Merryn) as we have

been told it is a girl although I'm still not 100% this is correct

knowing my family history.

And Finley has decided that noddy lives in toy town

in Exeter, and that he has only just grown his nipples

(he wont believe me that they were always there) looks like

my baby brain is now a family thing not just me.

poor Merryn what is she being born into.

boxes of treasure

Finally we had some sun and so came the mad rush to the sea to get that summer feeling I so love about living in Cornwall.

I discovered a new section of beach in Looe previously undiscovered by me, and what a find for beach combing.

Thousands of mother of pearl shells, drift wood and some amazing plants hanging on to the cliff face.

I also found some ellusive burdock growing which I have been searching the hedgerows for to make a brew.

After gathering some seeds to sow next year and filling my pockets with beach treasure I left a very happy girl.

My other box of treasure, stock for selling, progressing nicely.

Its surprising what you can do in a few nights instead of cleaning

and house chores although I now live in a pig sty.

I also found a treasure in the local charity shop, the best book

with the best title, you got to love those vintage publications, they're so cheesy

chutney stock also progressing, Although our home grown chili stock was a bit disappointing this year with all the rain so we had to top up our supplies with a few extra shop brought chillies too.

Ideas for market stall plan

Today I had a rummage in my messy work room at old sketch books and fabric experiments but I think the mess in the room is a reflection of my brain at the mo.

I'm trying to think of stock I can make to sell in a market stall and shops but finding something a bit different is really hard.

I want to use some of the fab herbs and chillies that we have been growing and apart from chutneys and jams I think I have hit an inspiration road block.

I am thinking along the lines of home dyed and printed fabric, bags, toys and cards.
On the toy front Finley apart from developing green fingers ( or should that be brown ) has turned out to be a fab business partner.

He was sitting on my lap looking at pics from other blogs and after looking at wee wonderful's (see inspiration list ) he decided that he would like a robot toy and that birds would be a good idea to.

( Fins robot, more technicolour than techno, don't think ill pursue this one.)

I shortly after decided not to continue the robots after spending a whole day on just one, but my birds turned out pretty well.I went back to my childhood days designing the little outfits for them which is were I started of all those centuries ago.

However my partner Adam now thinks I have reached a new low in pregnancy weirdness after knitting little hats and making pom poms.

baby nesting crazy

It started with this toy elephant for my friend Jen who has just had a new baby girl, Lucy. Then I just got a bit carried away









I'm going baby mad at the moment and my baby nesting has kicked in.
As well as finishing the new room for Fin and baby I have gone crafty crazy.
The cot is out the loft and in place, and as I finished the last bit of paint work on the mural I can move on to other projects I have been itching to do.

I have discovered a new talent for knitted baby shoes and interactive baby toys with rattles inside and crispy fabric and texture bits.

I have already made three pairs of shoes a crochet dress and hat for my new arrival and as I have two months still to go I can see my craze getting out of control.

After being shown the basics of crochet by my dear friend Ambika, I have gone crochet crazy. This is my first successful piece - a monkey for my little boy Finley who has been happily taking it to bed with him since I completed it.

Its amazing what you can do with just circles and squares. I hope to move on to more complicated techniques later.