Tree Fall

Lily turned 2 on Sunday. Which is crazy, because I'm pretty sure that I only had her a few months ago.

From day one Lily was different. She was the funniest looking baby, which made us both fall in love with her instantly. When my brother first saw her he laughed, and then he held her and looked at her and said that he thought that with her funny little elf face she would turn in to a real beauty one day. He was right.

Lily works at her own speed. Which means that she learns some things at super fast speed. She started feeding herself before she turned one. She can already dress herself and (just like her big sister) has been choosing what she wants to wear for as long as I can remember. But it also means that she does some things at a much slower pace than we're used to. But that's ok, because slow isn't bad and with Lily, it's worth the wait.

Before Lily was born we couldn't believe that we could love anyone as much as we loved Bella, but in an instant we knew we did and we knew we were so lucky to have another amazing, funny, wonderful girl in our lives.

Lily is quirky and funny and so, so sweet. She loves to look after her babies and spends hours every day feeding them and dressing them and putting them to bed. She loves to dance, and says 'more!' as soon as a song ends. She particularly loves to dance in the car and frequently shouts 'Ma!' so that I'll turn and look at her as she shakes her head from side to side and waves her hands around like a loon. She's quite possibly the most ticklish child ever to be born and breaks out in to huge, sweet peels of laughter as soon as you even show her your tickling fingers. She loves to climb in to bed with me and watch saturday morning tv and 'read' my Living Etc and Elle Deco's, whilst Jim and Bella play downstairs. She loves to hug and pats our backs to comfort us. She blows kisses all the time and hurls herself at us when we walk through the door. She is kind and caring and sweet. And she is loved, so very, very much. By me and Jim, by Bella, by her Nana and Grandpa, by her friends and all her family. She's special and the fact that we have her in our lives makes us feel special.

Happy 2nd birthday Lily. You're a star, that shines bright in our lives. Thank you for sharing yourself with us.

Lily insists on growing. Which means that she needs new clothes. So with that in mind I bought some t shirts a while back with the intention of fashioning some new dresses out of them for her.

 

I used two t shirts and my favourite striped knit jersey to make the dress. Just cutting and re-sewing, without measuring or anything. I wanted it to look kind punky - like something I would have worn back in the day.

When I started making dresses for Bella I discovered that making them and her wearing them were too entirely different things. Which is possibly why I didn't really get in to making an awful lot of clothes for her. It turns out though, at this stage of the game at least, Lily is not only receptive to mummy making dresses for her.  But also grateful. Who'da thought??

It also turns out that Lily has spent the last two years watching Bella pose for photographs. As is evidenced by these pictures... She's pretty sure she's got it going on! And who am I to argue?

We woke up to a beautiful, sunny day today, which made such a big difference to all our moods. Added to that, Jim booked the day off so that I could work and relax a little (often the same thing) after a very long week. So I decided to spoil myself and spend a little time making something for me.

I'm a huge Orla Kiely fan and was in heaven when I visited her store in London with my sister-in-law a couple of years ago (I had so much fun with her that day - I'm desperate to do it again). It was quite incredible to see all of her beautiful prints in one place and I could have happily spent a fortune.

(Orla Kiely shop, London)

Instead I just bought a couple of notebooks and promised myself that I would treat myself to one of those lampshades one day!

Of course I'm no nearer to being able to afford an original Orla lampshade today than I was on that shopping trip, but after buying some of her fabric on Ebay last week, I decided that it would be a good idea to make my own.

So this morning I spent a happy half hour, with the sun streaming through the studio window, putting this shade together, whilst Jim and the girls played with playdoh.

I had intended to use the shade on a lamp we have in the front room, but once it was finished I realised that it would look perfect in our bedroom - to read by, in what will be our reading corner (assuming that the solid oak shelf that Jim put up, doesn't fall down on top of me, again).

I love how it turned out - and although it still wasn't super cheap (worked out at about £20) it was a fraction of the cost of an original. And when you take into account that it's on a huge, solid wood lampbase that I got for £10 in the Habitat sale (love the Habitat sale) it works out pretty good. Oh and no, I really don't think you can have too much Orla!

Thanks to everyone for your lovely comments and emails. I found it too hard to say the other day but Mom has cancer and we're all just hoping for the best and trying to stay strong for whatever she has to go through.  And knowing that there are so many people out there hoping for the best too really does help. Thank you xx

I keep starting this post and then deleting it, going back on Twitter for a few minutes, checking Facebook, starting it again, deleting it again, writing an email, starting it again, deleting it.....

I want to write about the beautiful new poster that I bought from here and how perfect I think it looks with the amazing Habitat lamp that I got in the sale a few weeks ago for £15, reduced from £65! And I would like to take you on a bit of a tour around the room that is finally starting to be a place that I can relax in. But it all feels kind of shallow. Which is perhaps unfair because in reality, having a room that I can disappear in to and shut the world out of, is now more important than ever. Because my mum is seriously ill. And that fact alone occupies my mind at the moment and colours my view of the world around me.

Which is not to say that I suddenly find myself looking at my new prints or lamp and thinking they're pointless, because I don't. It just feels shallow to talk about them. Every time I start a sentence about them a part of my brain shouts, loudly, "who cares?". But the fact is, I do. I do care that when I get in to bed, feeling like my entire world has just crashed down around me, it truly does help to lie staring at this little scene. It might make me shallow but this stuff makes a difference in my life. It's not about possessions or about buying expensive things. It's about creating spaces that are calm and peaceful in an attempt to counteract the lack of calm space inside my head.

So... I don't know what's coming or how I'll cope. But I do know that I'm going to finish making the world around me look the way I need it to look. And I'm going to take comfort from it whenever I can.

Which means that I need to buy a few more prints, put up a couple of shelves, cover a chair (I have big, patchwork/embroidery plans for that), make a couple of cushions and finally sort out the huge pile of baby/toddler clothes that have taken residence at one end of the room.  And I have to keep telling myself that its all important. At least to me.

I made my first patchwork lampshade almost exactly 4 years ago after buying an old standard lamp and shade for a couple of pounds. I've made a few since, but for various reasons (mainly lack of time and rubbish organisational skills!) have never managed to make more than a handful of them or to produce an actual line of them for sale - which is something I always planned to do.

Strangely a number of different factors have come together recently and suddenly I find myself being asked to focus on these lampshades. Which makes me happy, because it has pushed a desire to make them to the top of my Need To Do list and I don't even have to feel guilty that a few other things have been bumped down the list!

The shades will be available over the next few weeks (hopefully, rubbish organisational skills not withstanding) and will come in a number of different colourways and styles - although all will be patchwork. They will also all be available as a table lampshade or a pendant lampshade.

I'm really pleased that I've got a 'new' distraction and am excited about the new designs that I've been working on. Life around here is about to change and I am grateful for any kind of positive distraction. Which of course means fabric and sewing and designing. Thank goodness for those constants in my life.

Also, thank you to everyone that has voted for me!! I really appreciate you all. If you haven't voted yet, and don't mind doing so, I would be truly, truly grateful! You can do so right here .

For my Mom.... Happy Valentines Day. I love you.

I don't normally do this, but I'm very proud to have been shortlisted for the Handmade Olympics. I'm particularly proud of the fact that it's not only my Princess and the Pea Set that has been shortlisted but also that the judge was someone that I consider to have pretty darned good taste.

I know this is a little shameless, but please vote for me, if you can. I would really appreciate it. My Princess and the Pea Set means a lot to me. It's a very personal design that grew out of a friendship with Blair and gave me a real connection with Amanda and then became a personal family favorite.

I'm proud of it and Bella loves it and so does Lily and that's all the seal of approval that I really need. But it's still really lovely to have someone else trecognise the love that's gone in to it.

So if you chose to, thank you for voting for me! And more importantly, thank you for reading this and supporting me in general. I'm sorry that I rarely reply to comments. It's not that I don't want to, it's just that often it's a choice between posting or replying! But that doesn't mean I don't appreciate it all. I truly do.

The link for voting is in the sidebar, or here

Thanks you. Truly. xx

Bella turned 5 on Friday.

Five!

It seems unbelievable that she's been in our lives for 5 years already. And of course, it also seems unbelievable that it's only been five years.

I am genuinely and hugely proud of Bella. When she was two years old, she stood in front of a smaller friend, with her arms out to protect her from some older, scary children and just last week at a birthday party she gave up her chair in a game of musical chairs because her friend didn't have one.  She is loyal and loving to everyone around her, even when she maybe shouldn't be. She never complains that she is often the only child at a party that can't eat the birthday cake. She never complains about the fun days or the big (starting school) days that she misses because she is in hospital. She calls me her "beautiful, beautiful Mama" and tells me on a daily basis that I'm at least getting some of it right. She asks questions all the time, often questions that you're not expecting, like "what's snogging?". She asks if Jim's had a good day at work, even when I forget to. She says that she loves Lily more than she loves anyone else in the world, even me. She insists on knowing the name of every song we listen to. She can name all the tracks on the Florence and the Machine CD. I can't. She calls Robbie Williams, Wobbily Williamson. She worries about the children that have no homes because of earthquakes. She worries whether our cat is too tired. She is cheeky and rude and in no way perfect. Except she is. Perfect. And brave. And smart. And we all love her with an immense passion.

Happy 5th Birthday my beautiful, beautiful girl.

For a whole five minutes this week it actually looked like we were heading out of full blown winter and quite possibly moving in to a wholly different season. I not only caught a glimpse of the sun but also spotted a number of green shoots!

Of course we're back to snow, ice and freezing fog now, but that slight glimpse piqued my interest for brighter, dare I say, spring like colours!

Expressing yourself is obviously very important. That's what we keep telling ourselves.

Over and over and over again...

Can you tell what it is yet??