Happy Valentine’s Day

Happy Valentine’s day everbody!

I baked my husband an oversized heart cookie and surprised him with it this morning when he was outside digging, hard at work.

We had our second ever date in a Mexican restaurant which is still a favourite of ours so I’m making chilli beef nachos with salsa, guacamole & soured cream for dinner tonight.

Oh, and here are some of the little versions of his big heart biscuit. They’re rather scrummy, and ‘T’ approves too

sending lots of love xx

Handmade doll and felt food swap

Do you remember a while I go I did a post about a swap I was going to be doing with Laura from Under Rainbows? In November I noticed that Laura ‘liked’ some of the felt fruit and veg in my Etsy store, so I contacted her and thanked her and had a look at her shop too and noticed that she made the most beautiful Waldorf dolls, I left a note saying I would like one some day for ‘T’ though couldn’t afford one at the moment and then she wrote back with the fantastic idea of doing a swap. I was delighted!!!

I quickly got to work making the food for Laura’s children for their Christmas present. I made:

• a fish
• a pumpkin
• a carrot
• 2 x mushrooms
• 2 x strawberries
• a pepper
• an onion
• an apple half
• an egg
• a lemon
• an apple
• a tomato
• a turnip
• 

to swap with THIS beautiful doll! :

I am SO pleased wih her, I cannot wait to give her to ‘T’ for her Birthday at the end of March – I think she fits in well at home don’t you?! Laura was so kind as she even made an extra dress out of the same material that I made ‘T”s first Birthday dress from as well as her little dungarees, blouse, knitted cardigan, hat and socks.

It has been so nice to take part in this swap, it feels much nicer to trade in this way and to really make something and think of other children opening them on Christmas day – has anyone else taken part in a swap? Oh and we need a name for dolly too – so if anyone has any names then do let me know!

Thank-you Laura for your amazing talent and for making such a beautiful dolly, it will be treasured, looked after and cared for for years to come. x

(PS – I’m hosting 2 x FAB giveaways at the moment – the one here is to win some adorable Japanese fabric and the other one here is to win some Japanese craft books of your choice!)

……………and of course, don’t forget to head over to another week of ‘Handmade Monday’ over at 1st Unique Gifts xx

Seasonal book basket: Winter

I’ve been looking forward to getting the Winter book collection out – they have to be my favourite!

Here are some of the books in our Winter book collection:

It seems the best season for snuggling indoors with T and reading a Winter story whilst keeping warm indoors.

I really love the illustrations in Shirley Hughes’ book – ‘Lucy and Tom’s Christmas’ – but then I love all of Shirley Hughes’ books.

Fun at the fairground

It’s that time of year again when the fairground comes to visit our town. I love going to the fair and seeing all the lights, soaking up the atmosphere, it’s even more fun this year now that ‘T’ can come along. I went every year when I was little, I remember having to dress up really warm and getting nervous and excited at the same time about going on some for the rides. I used to take my nieces every year when they were younger and lived nearby, and we used to take my step-son too but he’s too grown-up to be taken to the fair by us now!

One of the most sepctacular fairgrounds I have ever been to has to be at Luna Park – right beside the Sydney Harbour Bridge in Australia :

Here’s another fairground photograph I took when my husband and I went to London one Christmas to visit family, I remember it being absolutely freezing that day!:

And here are some photos of the fairground taken yesterday, I’ll treasure the moments and memories from this visit, little T’s face melted my heart when I saw how excited she got about looking at all the lights, stopping every now and then to stare and have a little dance.

We took on her one ride which was a merry-go-round and she sat on the boat and got excited every time we saw Daddy. I’ll savour this lovely evening.

Another tunic made

I dressed ‘T’ in her Birthday dress/tunic today – well it’s more of a top now as she has grown so much! She looked so sweet in it that I thought I’d finish another one whilst she slept at lunchtime today, I started it ages ago and put it aside so it felt good to finally complete it. Don’t forget to check out the other blogs at ‘Handmade Monday!’