What's in a name...

When I first got into sewing, it was because I was suffering from PND and needed to do something other than longing for Bel to go to sleep and wondering what had happened to my life. I am so grateful for this hobby. It has truly been my lifeline!
One of the first things I made was a door hanging for Bel with her name on it. When I made it, she was madly in love with birds of all kinds and would lie on a blanket in the front garden for hours watching them. At that point, I had loads more time and hand-embroidered her name.


She absolutely adored it and loved swinging it on her way into the room. So when Willow came along, it was time to make a new one. She didn't have any interests when I made hers, being that she was only a few weeks old, but I hated that she didn't have her name on her door.
When she was in the womb, she was an absolute pest and wouldn't move very often. Consequently, they couldn't move her into a good position to discover her gender during ultrasounds. So, her nickname was 'Sprocket' (my husband is a motorbike mechanic). But sprockets aren't particularly feminine...With a bit of embroidery and lace, anything becomes girly! I severely underestimated how busy I would be with two darlings, so Willow's name was machine stitched on, otherwise she would still not have a hanging on her door 6 months on!


Once it went up on her door, my husband started collecting sprockets at work for actual garden edging!

Lanterns

I wanted to dedicate a whole post to this project.
Last year here in Cairns, the council put up lanterns in trees around the city as part of Cairns Festival. It has been Little One's favourite past time to go and see the 'Lantern Trees'. Unfortunately, the council, suddenly and inexplicably, took down the last of the lanterns at the Lagoon. LO was devastated! So, we broke out the recyclables, fabric scraps, paint and hot glue gun and made our own lanterns. They have been loads of fun and we place battery operated candles in them so LO can place them wherever she wants in the evening.
Once again, I consulted so many tutorials across the net in coming up with these ideas. There are so many amazing people willing to share their ideas!



On a political note, our current mayor is not popular, at all, but it's saying something when a 3 year old is unhappy with your decisions!

Slack blogging!

I am the slackest blogger. So I am going to start trying to catch up. It's not that I haven't been sewing, but just as uni finished I found out I was pregnant. It was not a fun time and now my tiny one is 6 months old and I am just starting to feel as thought I can start doing things again!
Once again we had a handmade Christmas. I will have to dedicate an entire post to that. I started sewing in October and was still making things for Little One the night before Christmas Eve!
But once the new year arrived, the focus has been on more general gift-giving. It seems that there are more and more birthdays to celebrate every year! To kick the year off, I made one of my oldest and dearest friends a chicken (inspired by Ikat's amazing design http://www.ikatbag.com/2010/03/chicken.html).

'Jessie' the chicken softie

Then we found out that the amazing midwife who delivered Tiny One was moving away. She has been an amazing friend and we couldn't have made it through the labour without her! So, to give her a parting gift, I used my girls' and Little One's best friend's silhouettes to create a wall hanging for her to remember the girls by.

Silhouette wall hanging

Now with Valentine's Day tomorrow, I am thinking that this afternoon we will break out the pink and red felt and create something to show the girls' friends that we love them!