Baby's 1st uniform!

So my bambino has enrolled in the best creche in the country while i'm at work...yep, Grandma's house!! He and his big cousin (who is a whole 6 months older - oh!!) are the sole pupils and are spoilt rotten all day long, no doubt!

So i decided to make him a little uniform, with the Grandma's Creche crest on it of course!  To make the crest i used freezer paper then fabric paint....it has the 4 most important things that make it Grandma's Creche...heart for much love, stars for lots of fun, z's for naps and a banana...well...because...you need to know my mum really!  She believes that bananas cure all ills. 

Then free-motion script at the bottom...easy-peasy!

cardboard cakeplate

So i decided to take a blog holiday in June because Rocco was in hospital getting his first big operation, and I didn't really have the time or opportunity to post crafts. And while July has been spent doing lots of crafts...there has not been a lot of blogging time, hence the late posting!!

This is just a quick one for parties - it's a cardboard bun-stand.  It is just 3 circles of thick cardboard, covered with patterned adhesive paper. 

To assemble, you just slot the two pieces of the stand together and slip the circles over one by one....then twist them round to secure and keep the stand in the correct position...make sense?

Klaus clothespeg

So having had a little boy, i wanted to even the gender balance on the little clothes-peg people i'd been making....they're basically all girls except for the groom.  Enter my favourite style icon....the nutcracker!!

Lol...i think i love him.  I made the arms from cut up piece of a wooden kebab skewer and he even has a little blonde suede beard....seriously...i think i love him.

freemotion monogramming

i really thought i'd blogged these, but it seems i haven't yet.... i did some monogramming on a set of towels i dyed for us to take away in the camper.  This will mean that when im drying my face with my nice orange towel, i know im not going to get a mouthful of aftershave (from superD's green towel) or of baby slobber (from Roccino's yellow towel) and Grandma and Granda can avoid all of the above with the addition of perfume from mine!!

Car-tivity mat

So it seems that the bambino doesn't like to travel in the car, cos his chair faces backwards and he's just left staring at the blank back of the seat...seems like it's too boring.  SO i decided to make him a little activity mat that he could look at while we're traveling. 

The holes at the top are for the pins of the headrest and they're off-centre so that the seat belts don't get tangled.  I made the tree with lots of buttons so that i can put on little birds or pieces of fruit or whatever, so that it will always be different and won't get boring for him.  I did flowers for the first batch...although i'm thinking they're a little girly...seems i can't help myself!! The tree has SuperD's and my initials engraved in a heart...it's hard to see in these pics..

And here it is in situ.  The bottom of the mat just reaches the foot of where his little car seat is mounted.  The first time, the reaction was fabulous...he started to cry as i lifted him in and then....silence...his little eyes just staring at it....RESULT!!! Now i wonder how long this will last??

Leave your macho at the door!

Poog wanted some pretty cushions for her bed and had this great Paris motif fabric and matching rose print. 

 

We made piping from some (very narrow!) satin bias binding which really was a bit of a headache because it was so fragile and slippy!!

  

She also choose some ultra-girly buttons for the closure...i wonder what her husband thinks of it all??!!  See?....little pink lips and crystal hearts....now those are some uber-girly cushions!!! lol it seems that Jo is man-enough to manage!!

 

Dye another day

I really enjoy the cold water dyes that i scored of freecycle a while back...they are very simple to use and no real fuss.  The colour permanency is also great!!  This time i made my own colour for the burgundy stuff because i was a little worried about it turning out pink-ish...for a boy it would be a little weird.  I also experiemented a little more with putting elastic bands round bits of the muslin while dying, so giving the cool white diamond shapes.  

Let me tell you...those muslins have come in seriously handy....they've been washed 5,000,000,000 times already and the colours are still strong!

Labour craft 2

So i mentioned before that i was in hospital for a full week...well i obviously needed to send out a call to poog to bring me something more to craft...all she had was another little felt doll kit that i'd given to her in her christmas stocking!!!  

As before, i was soooo glad i had something to keep my hands busy and the two little dolls turned out to be my little mascots in the birthing suite!  Bonus! lol!

Labour craft 1

So unfortunately due to complications before the birth of my bambino, i had to stay in hospital for a week...yeah, i know!  Talk about boring!! It was also really unexpected so i had no time to arrange a craft to keep me occupied.  Luckily i had packed in my labour bag a little felt doll kit, just in case i had a long labour. 

I was really glad of it...especially because there really was nothing else to do, and everyone else in the ward was so bored to death that they kept coming over to see how i was getting on...i would've had a full craft class going if i'd brought more kits!!

Make an impression!

So the latest thing i made (customised) for the baby room is this clay impression kit frame thing that poog bought me.  The baby's little hand and foot were just the right size to fit in it....cute!!  I'll pop a picture in it when i get round to getting them printed.  Some dodgy free-hand painting completed the camping customisation so that it matches the rest of the room.