Baby Mary Janes

I went on the hunt for a bootie or slipper pattern to make with the left over yarn from the blanket edging.  I wasn't happy with any of the patterns I found so I decided I would try and make up my own.  Here is the result: Mary Jane Baby Slippers  They are so cute they made me go a bit gooey (Sap!) I used a couple of the Liberty buttons to fasten (2 down, a couple of hundred to go)  Next, a matching hat I think.

On the nursery front, the carpets have been cleaned!  It was a bit of a task as we used a hired carpet cleaner and so thought we might as well do all the other carpets in the house.  Well I say 'we', the other half did most of it and a grand job he's done too (although broken himself a bit now)  So it is now all ready to take the dresser/changer we are collecting next week and then the cot we need to organise ourselves to collect at some point.  It's all coming together!

In the mean time, I am busy working on a wedding gift project for my friend who is getting married at the end of June.  The sunny weather is tempting me away from the sewing machine at the moment but I need to crack on as DDay is fast approaching, if I don't get it done before then they won't happen at all.

Blankets, Birdies and Buttons

This is a bit of a random round up of the things I have been up to over the last month or so.

Firstly, here is the video of me putting up the wall decals earlier in the week, as promised.  I've never used iMovie before (as you can probably tell) and its a bit jumpy as the camera obviously wasn't on a sturdy enough surface but it's just a bit of fun.  I'm not claiming to be Peter Jackson!

Secondly, I have finally finished the project that was keeping my hands busy while I wasn't working on the nursery or some other project.  It's taken a while as I've often put it down in favour of a quicker piece of work but a project like this is nice to have going on 'in the back ground' to fall back to when hands need to be kept busy.   I picked up the yarn for the main part of the blanket to keep me occupied while I was back home for a week in late February.  It is simply a granny square in 2 colours which I kept at until I ran out of yarn.  I'd slightly underestimated the amount I needed as I had intended the border to be in the darker green from the middle but there wasn't enough so I picked up a complementing green for the scalloped edge.  As it's a slightly thicker and softer yarn, it worked out well as it gives a cosy soft edge but the main bulk of the blanket will be nice and light for summer.

And finally I just wanted to post a picture of the jar of buttons I picked up from Libertys this week.  I  could have spent hours (and a small fortune) in the haberdashery department but I restrained myself, I really have no need for any more fabric or yarn just now!  But I couldn't resist the jewel like colours of this collection.  I have no idea what I am going to make with them, they could get used piece meal on various projects or I might make a button necklace from them.  If anyone else has any project ideas fot them then please let me know.

Been a long time, shouldn't have left you...

...without a blog post to read.

Well, a lot of things got in the way of me posting last month.  We have been having some (none nursery related) work done to the house, which is now finally finished.  The place was turned upside down for a while (to the point where I could barely find the laptop!) and has hindered progress on the nursery but we now have gorgeous new floors downstairs (clean and splinter free for little crawling paws) and a freshly painted hall, landing and dining room.  Downstairs feels so much more light and airy but very homely now and the added benefit is the dining room is now free from junk and hopefully fit to hold a birthing pool. (Eek!)

Also we have been away on a 'babymoon' to the Forest of Dean.  I'm not sure how I feel about this term really but the idea is you get away from it all to have some quality time as a couple before life changes forever.  We had a great time, very chilled out and were pretty lucky with the weather.  We stayed at a really fabulous and quirky B&B just outside of Ross on Wye called The Hill House.  It was just right, handy for Ross, but out of the way up the mysteriously named Howles Hill and a bit spooky - reputedly haunted although we never saw the White Lady our room was named after.   Duncan does the most incredible cooked breakfast, all locally produced and enormous portions.  I think my bump has doubled in side just from eating!  When we werent chilling out infront a roaring fire sampleing locally made ales and apple juice (you can guess who was drinking what?) we were mooched round Ross, doing a very a small spot of walking near Symonds Yat, and visiting the International Centre for Birds of Prey which sounds a bit nerdy but was actually fun and informative, my favorite creature being the cute and cat like Burrowing Owl.

But today I finally got round to putting up the wall decals.  It turned out to be fairly quick and easy, the first big piece that went up was the trickiest and after that it was plain sailing.  As I mentioned in my last post, each colour came on separate sheets, so this gave me to have a lot more flexibility into the design and placement of the different components than if it was just a one colour sticker on a massive sheet. And here it is:

The Finished Wall

I am really glad we decided to paint the wall a pale yellow as I think it would have been too stark on white.  The supplier also very kindly sent me loads of extra bird so some of them have escaped from the main wall to populate the rest of the room.

One landed on the window sill.

A little bird hanging out with the owls on the light switch

I also videoed myself putting the decal on the wall but I need to edit and speed this up Benny Hill style (to save you all falling asleep) so this will be posted at a later date if anyone wants to see exactly how easy this was!