gentlytiptoe

how does your garden grow?

2008-06-14T23:16:00.003+01:00

recently we took charge of our neighbours garden while they were away on holiday. I had a little willing helper, to water the many pots. We then went back to our garden, which is mostly lawn and plastic toys, and felt inspired to attempt to grow some of our own. here there should be a photo of our great success, but the slugs and snails all seem to live on our side of the hedge!

trip to the beach

2008-05-23T23:24:00.006+01:00

My love of the seaside has meant it is never very long before my babies get to see the sea. This has to be one of our favourite beaches too, it has rockpools, nice smooth sand when the tide is out, (although an alarmingly quickly incoming tide!) and an exciting hidden walled garden with heavy weathered gates and turreted walls, great for hiding and chasing about in.

We spied this garden display belonging to the little house right next to the sea, how did we miss it before? One day I want to live by the sea just so I can have a wall like this!

Isla was not phased by all this though, cosy in her sling, she just came for the ride!

what shall i call this - blimey a post???!!!!

2008-05-21T21:02:00.004+01:00

Thought I would share some most recent gifts, it was my birthday on Monday, a pretty jar of buttons, arranged in rows of colours, a gift from Julia (thank you!) and a hand spun and handmade bracelet, a gift from non blogging (yet - though she should!) kirsten - thank you too! (fabric behind and on top of jar is from Julias recent trip to London, I must let her do a guest blog in the next few days and tell you all about it!)

Baby Born keeps freaking me out, Esme has taken to dressing her in the babys clothes, borrowing the moses basket and putting baby born in it, leaving her lying on the floor, that kind of thing. You can see why, they are pretty similar!!

I haven't fallen off the edge of the planet after all. here I am. And its not the babys fault, its my stupid Internet provider. it mostly isn't working. roll on June, and hopefully a smooth switch over (another) to someone better.

busy little blackbird

2008-04-26T23:12:00.007+01:00

From my sitting room window I have been watching this female blackbird collecting materials to build her nest. She has chosen a beautiful spot, deep among the flowering clematis right next to the window. We cannot see the nest, and I am guessing now she is getting ready, or maybe even sitting on her eggs already, as I have only seen Mr Blackbird the last few days, taking mouthfuls of worms to the nest.I am hoping soon to see baby blackbirds taking their first flights, how lovely.

And here is my newest little bird, we have named her Isla, after much pondering, choosing names is so hard. I have been enjoying dressing her in the nighties that I wore when I was newborn - they have lasted well!

She's arrived!

2008-04-18T10:03:00.000+01:00

Yes, the moses basket has a new resident! We have a beautiful baby girl, born at home on Monday evening.

quick, sew!

2008-04-10T22:29:00.002+01:00

After seeing the lovely job Kisskus did on her moses basket, I decided maybe I would have one too this time. I won the basket on ebay last week for a bargain £3.80, and immediately ordered myself some scrummy japanese fabric. I admit to blatantly copying the simple style of basket cover from kisskus, hope she doesnt mind. I also decided to make a miniquilt to go with it, using every last scrap of my japanese fabric, and joining it with some of my favourite green linen fabric, which goes on forever (but is hard to sew with, as it has so much movement.)I also stole the idea for the strip of patchwork down the quilt from someone in blogland, and when I rediscover who it was I shall ask their permission and give credit!! (was it you???!!!) so, in 2 days i completed this fun task, and I am pleased with how it turned out. All ready now!

Today, Weirdbunny - my guest blog writer!

2008-04-10T22:08:00.005+01:00

(no news on the baby front yet!)

Hello Weirdbunny here.

Thankfully Hannah has let me invade her blog just for today to showcase the wonderful bunny I received from Suzie Sews. Yes I've finished my blog, but I just had to let everyone see the bunny Suzie made me as part of an Easter Swap we did. Thank you Suzie !
Julia x

38 weeks

2008-04-08T04:22:00.003+01:00

I was taking a few pics of the nearly completed bathroom at the weekend and decided it was about time I had a photo of me during this pregnancy! so here we are, 38 weeks and hoping baby will come anytime now.

Oh and this is the bathroom, the walls are a kind of grey, with the bottom half tiled with big white brick shape tiles. it needs some other stuff on the walls too, like a mirror and maybe some sort of art over the bath, as its a bit plain at the moment. other than that, its turned out really well. Oh, need some new towels too.

and another one of me, dont you just love stretchy dungees!

Birds

2008-04-02T22:46:00.003+01:00

Laurie has been drawing some great things this Easter holiday, especially birds. He drew his Nana a card with a jackdaw on for her birthday last week, and it was the beginning of many more bird pictures. I especially liked this little blue one.

Pirates, rabbits and snails

2008-03-26T21:53:00.002Z

A random snapshot of our life here today! I have been meaning to make this pirate T-Shirt for ages now, we have this cool book called 'Tim, Ted and the Pirates' that had an equally cool scull illustration that I have always wanted to print onto a shirt. I was going to use freezer paper, but decided to use fabric pen this morning on a him. It turned out pretty good I think.

Next, Lucie poses with my Yo-Yo bunny, from Jackie as part of the Easter Bunny swap organised by Lucy Locket recycled. It is for the new baby, but try telling Lucie that!!

And finally, the (pet garden) snails have had babies, they thrive on neglect it seems.

Happy Easter!

2008-03-23T23:46:00.004Z

Hi, I am of course back home, blogging very infrequently again I am afraid, still trying to finish the bathroom, and every other room in the house seems to be affected too, you start moving one thing around.... Hubby laughs and says I am nesting. 4 weeks to go until baby is due - not long now thank goodness. I also lost my camera lead, have found it now though. wanted to share a great book I bought at the nursery booksale recently, Henny Penny. Does anyone remember it? It is such a reminder of childhood for me, look at the picture story inside!

We made Easter hats the other day, the children wore them today proudly. they involved lots of pens and glue and general stickiness - great fun!

Is anyone else having trouble uploading pictures to blogger? I cant seem to load a single picture easily since about christmas, it takes ages and sometimes just doesnt seem to load at all, so I have to keep cancelling. It doesnt like it if I put on more than one photo at a time either. Its driving me mad! (had to backdate this post a whole day as pics wouldnt upload at all!)

indoor fun

2008-02-28T23:51:00.005Z

Still away from home, we have been doing lots, inside and out. A few days ago I discovered this great idea for making little magazines (or in our case books) from one sheet of paper, Esme in particular has been enthralled ever since and has been busy making up stories.

The two younger children have been discovering some of the toys that used to belong to me and my brother, I love that they take pleasure in playing with them, even though they are worn and chipped and dont make loud noises or need batteries.

My weetabix racing car.

Little people.

daffodil woods walk

2008-02-25T23:30:00.006Z

We are away this week visiting my parents while at home hubby is in charge of supervising the man rebuilding the bathroom (how exciting!). Today we went on a lovely walk through Betty Daws Wood, the children, myself and Grandpa. The hundreds of daffodils are tiny and grow wild here, they are so pretty.

There were many snowdrops too.

blue skies

2008-02-22T17:45:00.006Z

Another week (or two) and no posts, oh dear. been busy, the children were home last week on half term, we had a lovely chill-out week, and the weather was really good to us, resulting in some al fresco eating of lunch, in the park and at home.
(there should be a pic of lunch here but blogger doesnt like it and refuses to load it!)
One day we had some friends big and small round for a clay-day, which was great fun for all of us.

I really must also announce the winner of the oops magazine freebie, which was...

mijk of mijk improves, picked out by Esme "Milk, it says milk mum, oh no, thats a J, it says...(followed by a long silence)...". she got confused by the name that looked like neither English or Welsh! So, another parcel to Mijk, as I noticed she just won Julias 300th post freebie too!!! lucky girl! I will get the parcel in the post as soon as I can.

Sun Monkeys

2008-02-08T23:01:00.000Z

I have been enjoying making these monkeys up for the last couple of evenings. And today they were able to bask in some rare winter sun. Still to decide if they need clothes, I kind of like them without. When I made Betsy, my first sock monkey, I tea dyed her to make her look old, and stuffed her with old cut-up shirts, so she is heavy and lumpy. These two are lovely and squishy and soft though.

oops, anyone like a freebie?

2008-02-07T22:35:00.000Z

I bought 2 copies of this months edition of Country Living (UK) by accident. the second time, I thought some bits looked familiar but just thought I must have browsed it well in the shop. when I was reading it at home, I was convinced I already had it, but a search of the magazine pile didnt find another copy.

Well, yesterday I found the first copy, with a different pile, of books. So, if you would like me to send it to you, leave me a comment. I would prefer to send it outside the UK, to someone who cant just go into a shop near them and buy it.(otherwise it doesnt seem worth the postage). I will get one of the children to pick a name from the comments in a few days. I will be popping in some other little bits with it too, to make up a nice parcel.

Crempog!

2008-02-05T22:56:00.000Z

Some welsh words are great, and Crempog is one of them, its up there with Sboncen (squash - the game of). Crempog is Welsh for Pancake, so happy Pancake Day!!

cabinet for threads

2008-01-21T23:58:00.000Z

Last night I made little shelves for this cabinet, it was originally a photo storage box. I will hang it on the wall, then I can always have my cotton threads to hand (out of reach of smaller hands). I need some more reels of thread now though, to fill it up.

some late sharing

2008-01-18T23:08:00.000Z

Blog etiquette seems to suggest it is still ok to show some christmas stuff in January. I have been waiting for a bright dry sunny day for nearly 2 months to take photos of a swap I received, and the weather just isn't playing. so here is a bit of the lovely swap I had from Bridie, I will put more pics on flickr. (check out the teensy ric-rac!).

This week Julia also finished and gave Lucie her fabric notebook, It is lovely and has been out with us on several trips already, 'drawing' relieves the boredom of sitting in a cafe with Mummy and her friends! I especially like how the vintage style fabric on the front of the book has a girl, and her back on the back, a coincidence Julia assures me, but a very happy one!

(will edit to include more links tomorrow when I have more energy!)

tiny patchwork

2008-01-13T18:44:00.000Z

For a while now I have been wanting to do some little patchwork hexagon handsewing. So on New Years Eve(while sitting in and watching Take That on TV!) I began this little project for myself. The tacking is still in (and there's a loose thread there), but here is a bit of it.

I was going to make a dolls quilt for one of the children, but the pieces are very little (smaller than an inch across) so it is going to be very labour intensive for an item that might get dragged about and left out in the garden, and I am also not sure whether the tiny seam allowance would stand up to too much play. I haven't quite decided what it will be yet, maybe a cover for a new diary or notebook, or perhaps just to frame and put on the wall.

I like the back, it shows all the work involved, especially the paper piecing that I havn't really done before (with excellent triangle graph paper from here). At the moment I am just going round randomly, adding hexagons to one side then the next, and I will stop when I am done. Any other ideas what it might become?

a late present

2008-01-09T16:18:00.000Z

Not even late for christmas (I haven't got there yet!), but for a new baby in the extended family born a few months back now. I made this lion softie from the book Embroidered Treasures by Claire Garland, then adapted the lion head and mane to make a matching little top.

The stripes are actually dark brown and white, its difficult to see in the rubbish light we have here at the moment, and the lions tummy is yellow and spotty. (and yes, I vandalised a second teeshirt to make the stripes matching!). The embroidery is mostly chain stitch and french knots, I am not good at chain stitch, if I think about it while I am doing it it goes wrong. I think I got away with it though (tried to switch off my mind and just do it). Hope they like it, it should be with them in the mail anytime now. and I don't think this branch of family read my blog so I shouldn't be spoiling anything by showing you here.

In full bloom

2008-01-06T23:47:00.000Z

Happy New Year, I knew I would get round to blogging again sometime!! So, christmas has been and gone, quite hectic in parts, and tomorrow the children go back to school and we begin over again, another year.

I treated myself to these lovely tulips today, they were reduced, and a bargain at 75p for 10. As I climbed into the car with them and told my husband they were 75p, obviously pleased with myself, I saw the look he gave me, that my father and I used to give my mother on such occasions, and knew exactly how unimpressed they were, and yet now I could feel exactly how my mother felt, (Im sure) too. So there we go, 2008 and I am becoming more like my mother every day. Worrying.

I too am blooming, 25 weeks pregnant now, and suddenly I look very expecting, 3 weeks ago you could hardly tell, now I have a huge belly. Pregnancy gets less fun each time I do it, Im sure there should be some deal where you get less time for good behaviour or something. I am looking forward to the nice baby reward at the end.

Dont mention my big tummy though, I am a bit shirty about it, If you see me, tell me I look tiny!

sing choirs of angels...

2007-12-14T18:15:00.001Z

This week we have been mostly doing christmas concerts. The children have been angels, Mary, Joseph, a star and a cowboy!! I didnt get many photos from the concerts themselves- why do I always end up with a seat at the back?? So this was a little home concert Lucie did for me (in pretty bad light, it has stopped getting properly light here these days)...because angels always wear berry hats, or didn't you know?

christmas tree

2007-12-14T16:51:00.000Z

I have been trying to post this all week but have not been able to upload the pics. either blogger is playing up, or it just doesnt like my new(ish) camera. really annoying anyway, but at least it has worked now.

I always find it hard to photograph the christmas tree, it never comes out looking as twinkly and pretty as it really is. This year we have a teeny real tree on the windowsill, and I have left all my usual ornaments in the attic, deciding this year to have a change. I wanted to keep it really simple,because it is so small, and have just got white handmade decorations. Me and the kids made these, using cookie cutters, rolling pins and Das clay. we made patterns by rolling the clay out on (free!) textured wallpaper samples that I got from the DIY store when we bought our tree. I am really pleased at how they turned out. I found the sweet pompom garland at paperchase.

advent

2007-12-08T16:36:00.000Z

Granny has been really busy, these are the lovely paper advent calendars she made and sent for the children this year. Each day they find a chocolate coin, a tiny handmade card, or a little toy and a sweet. They look really festive on our door too!