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But this evening we have some major improvements. The fabric cabinets are once again full and very pleasingly reorganised. The bookcase is in place, awaiting repainting. And the piles are at least decreasing, if not disappearing.
I also made serious inroads with the girl's bedroom and am tentatively saying that they'll be in by the beginning of the week. Which of course means photo's. Lots of photo's.
Sorry! That was a completely unintentional break. We're all absolutely fine, other than some food poisoning (me), a cold (Lily) and a tooth extraction (Jim)! We've just been totally snowed under with the room swap (still not finished) and trying to get everything back in order before Jim starts his new job (thank goodness) and Bella's 4th birthday (next week) and Lily's first birthday (two weeks after). So it's all been busy, busy, busy and blogging appears to have been lost in the throng.
Oh and the parcel? It's going back. But I got something just as nice instead. And one day it all may even be finished enough to show you.
There's lots of planning and list writing happening around here at the moment. I'm absolutely loving the way that the girl's room is turning out, but I want to make sure that it works the best way possible for them too. And although Lily is still a baby, I'm planning everything based on her wanting to do all the same things as her big sister, because before we know it she's going to be painting and drawing and reading too.
I'm also trying to create a room that will appeal to them for a good few years, so nothing too babyish. The only problem is that knowing my two, Lily will turn out to not be girly at all and hate pink! But we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.
Bella's been in to see the room and seems to like it, although she does keep asking why it's such a mess! And in all honesty I don't think she's in a huge hurry for us to finish it because she likes sleeping in our bed so much. I'm just hoping that she'll love it so much that the transition won't be too hard.
I'm hoping that it will all (mostly) be finished in the next few days. Mostly. I'm hoping.
And the studio?
The best that I can say at the moment is that it's full. To the brim. And won't be finished this week. Soon though. And I think I'm going to like it.
Yesterday afternoon both Bella and Lily left to spend a couple of days with my parents. So that I could give up my wonderful, much, much loved studio and turn it in to a room for the girls to share.
Oh the horror.
All is not completely lost though. I do get Bella's old room as my studio and we do get to reclaim our bedroom. But seriously. The horror!
I spent most of yesterday clearing and cleaning and sorting all of Bella's toys and moving them into my studio, so that I could spend all of today papering the walls of my new studio and filling them then painting them, then painting them again.
I also spent most of the day trying to decide whether I wanted the studio to be grey or white and whether I could splash out on one extravagance (yes!).
Tomorrow a new carpet's being laid and then we have the fun of trying to fit my old studio in to my new studio. Followed swiftly by painting and papering the girl's new room and trying to get it fit for occupancy by saturday afternoon.
The pain of the swap over has been largely diluted by the fact that a couple of weeks ago we discovered a huge damp patch over half of Bella's wall (it had been hidden behind cupboards), that has definitely been a factor in how bad both her skin and her breathing have been. Since then she's been sleeping in my bed and Jim's been on the sofa. So it's nice to feel that things are getting sorted and that by Monday we should all be in our own beds again.
Although Bella (who's been excited all year about getting her new bedroom) has already phoned me today to tell me that she wants her old bedroom back!
I think that it's fair to say that this is my all time favourite floral print ever* . And the proof of just how gorgeous it is is the fact that when it first arrived Bella grabbed it and ran. And yet, and this is a big 'and yet', there is no pink in it, what so ever. See? Proof.
Meaning that I was fairly confident that this skirt would be a hit. Or at least as confident as I can be when faced with the bizarre vagaries of an almost 4 year old.
Fortunately, so far I've been proven right and the skirt has been a hit. Of course that could all change. And change back. And change again. But at the moment? Big hit.
I used Liesl's Lazy Days skirt pattern, that can be found here, but instead of finishing the hem with ribbon, I used some binding that I made myself. This has got to be the quickest and easiest skirt ever - taking less than an hour from start to finish. Because you use the full width of the fabric, from selvedge to selvedge, there's almost no finishing of seams, and then you don't even have to hem it.
Bella has chosen a couple of other fabrics that she wants made in to skirts (all of which are pink) and because this is so easy, I'm happy to believe that I may actually be able to honour her requests.
(* Anna's 'social climber' in ice - I'm a huge fan of Anna Maria and can not wait to see her new collection - in fact I was tempted to stay on at Sew Hip a little longer just so that I could see a preview of it!)
I cut this top during my sewing marathon the night before Christmas Eve, but didn't get around to sewing it up until yesterday. When we had a bit of a breakthrough actually, because whilst I sewed, Bella sat at my work table and made birthday cards and Christmas cards ( I know) for hours.
It's the first time that I've been able to sit and work for any length of time with Bella at home and I can honestly say that whilst I couldn't achieve quite as much as normal, it was a lovely way to spend the afternoon. We both even ate our lunches in the studio, we enjoyed it so much. At one point Lily also came and joined us and very excitedly threw fabric and thread around.
I bought the fabric last year, intending to make summer dresses for both the girls, but couldn't find the time and it's been sitting in a 'must use' pile on the studio floor ever since. I did wonder about making a blouse out of such a summery print, but decided that with everything here being so grey it would be nice to see Lily in something cheerful.
I made the pants yesterday, but because I didn't want it all to look too summery I chose a dark blue linen that has also been sitting in the 'must use' pile (it's a dangerously large pile). I did line them with this sunny print though.
The blouse fits 6 - 18 months (starting as a long sleeved blouse and ending up with a 3/4 length sleeve - but the body still fits), but Lily is at a kind of in between stage at the moment, so I'm going to change the pattern slightly, and lengthen the sleeves, whilst also narrowing them.
Have you seen our chubby girl? Up until a couple of weeks ago Lily was consistently below average weight, but has suddenly decided to make up for lost time and is now sporting those gorgeous chubby little hands and cheeks.
I tried to get a pic of Lily standing in the outfit, but this was as good as it got...
She's a whirling dervish. Not to mention that she's started walking with her push-a-long car this week.
You can buy your own blouse and pants here.
(and no, I have no idea why I called this post Apples. Strange.)
Hey! We still know how to have fun around here.
New colours and cashmere/wool mix for a (increasingly) belated Christmas present.
Princess comics and jam sandwiches for breakfast.
And helping me out with the colouring in.
Every time I post a pic of Bella I'm aware that the problems with her skin are becoming more an more apparent. Because of her allergies, Bella has severe skin problems that mean that the skin around her eyes and mouth bleeds regularly. Her entire body has constant sores all over it, requiring 4 lots of medication every day, as well as anti-biotics on a regular basis ( she sees both skin and allergy specialists). She also has to wear a full body bandage every night. Up until now we've all just dealt with it, but she's beginning to realise that she looks different and commented about how she looked when she saw these pics. She does however know that she's beautiful and will happily tell you so if you ask her!
Happy New Year!
I can't pretend to be upset that 2008 is over - it was a tough one. Unfortunately, 2009 may prove to be even tougher.
This is the first time in a long time that I haven't looked forward to the coming year. But I have to say that this one scares me. Neither Jim or I have a job, so no income at all, Bella has to stop going to nursery and our biggest achievement will be to keep our home.
The good news? Jim and I are working things out and we have the two most gorgeous girls in the world.
But life is so very complicated and although I intend to tackle this year head on, I have to start it by acknowledging that it's not going to be easy and that I honestly don't know what will happen. I lost a lot last year and just hope that I can get to the end of this one without losing more.
I haven't written much in the last 6 months because I prefer this to be a happy place , and I still want that to be the case, but it would seem that it's write the truth or write nothing, I'm afraid. So here we are with the truth.
That's not to say that it will be all doom and gloom! There's far too much gorgeousness in the world for that to be the case.
So, again, Happy New Year. Lets hope it's a good one.
