Tree Fall

One Year

Lily turned one. Just like that. I now have a four year old and a one year old. Even Bella turned to me yesterday and said that she just couldn't believe it.
Our lives are better because of Lily. We're happier because we have her. We laugh more because she laughs so much and we have more fun simply because she's there.
Each of us is totally and completely in love with her. We love her immediate smile. And her incredible laugh. We love her obvious (and slightly scary) intelligence. And we love her hugs and (oh so sloppy) kisses.
She is so much more than just our daughter or sister or grandaughter. She's Lily. And she's ours. And for that we are so very, very grateful.

Of course, turning one means that Lily can now have her very own quilt. And whilst I didn't get it finished in time for her actual birthday, I did at least get it done for the week of her birthday.
Once I got started it came together really quickly, which is surprising because it bears absolutely no similarity to what I had been planning.
I had assumed that Lily's quilt would follow in the same footsteps as Bella's and be predominantly pink and red. Especially as their new room is also pink and red.
Even after being inspired by the photo below from Marie Claire Idees, I figured I would still stick to my usual colour palette.

Which is why I surprised myself when I started reaching for greys and lilacs. Because even though I love the shade of purple that the cot is painted in the Marie Claire photo, I really do not like lilac or any form of purple. At all. Usually.
But the second I started building the little pile of fabrics for Lily's quilt I knew exactly how I wanted it to look.

I started off with the purple Liberty print (in the centre of the quilt above) - my least favourite colourway of my most favourite print - and teamed it with a Cath Kidston grey floral that I got on sale last year.
As soon as I put the the two prints together I knew that lilac and grey, which a touch of yellowy green thrown in was the way to go. For some reason it suggests an old fashioned, romantic feel to me. A look that's got a little sophistication to it, but is still young and fresh.
For the back I continued with the grey and used a print from the Come Quilt With Me collection by Pat Yamin for Marcus Brothers.

And because I wanted to make sure that the quilt wasn't too grown up I embroidered a deer, off centre and using a couple of strands or embroidery thread in dark red on the quilt top.

Because I'm so into eiderdowns at the moment, and wanted Lily's cot to be soft and welcoming, just like Bella's bed, I decided not to make a traditional quilt. But instead followed the same steps as Bella's eiderdown/comforter, but this time using a small cot duvet as the filling. The only other difference is that unlike Bella's, I decided not to quilt or even tie this one. The whole thing is pretty small and I wanted to make sure that it kept it's pouffyness. That may change though and I may yet decide to tie it.

Lily herself hasn't slept under it yet. But she has enjoyed eating her raisins on it.

Interview

Beth over at Sew Mama Sew was kind enough to interview me about my stash. If you're interested you can read the interview here.
Thanks Beth!

Just saying

Today has been a strange one. For the first time in just over 8 months, Jim went to work. I never spoke about it at the time, but last June Jim was suspended from his job for something that he didn't do. He's a bank manager, so it was pretty serious and very stressful. If for no other reason than we couldn't talk about it and if we did, we knew there were the whole 'no smoke without fire' mutterings. When he was first suspended we thought it would be for 6 weeks at the most, while it was investigated. However, for reasons that I can't legally discuss, it was 6 months before he was completely and totally cleared of the accusation. And a week later, he was made redundant.
It's then taken him another 2 months to find a new job (and well done him!! Finance is not a great place to work at the moment!). It's a 2 hour commute and he won't see the girls at all in the week, and it's a pay cut. But it's a job.
So this morning, before the girls and I were out of bed, Jim left the house and went back out to work.
Which meant that with Bella at nursery, the house was very quiet. And just a little lonely.
And it was made a little lonelier by the fact that Lily is poorly and slept most of the day. She was rushed to hospital in an ambulance on Friday, with a seriously sky high temperature and a rash. She was fortunately released a few hours later, but just hasn't recovered yet. Which is heartbreaking because she's more miserable than I've ever seen her.
Add to that the fact that I spent the morning dealing with someone that doesn't deserve a single second of my time and the afternoon discussing legal matters, and it's safe to say that it's been a strange one.
Oh and because Jim started his new job in the middle of the week, he's confused me and  I'm now absolutely convinced that it's a Monday!
But the weirdest thing of all is that when Jim was suspended I still couldn't drive. And now I can. And for the first time since becoming a mother, when Jim left for work this morning, I didn't feel trapped in the house. And I didn't wonder what I was going to do. Because I can now drive. And if Lily won't sleep or we have no food, I can load us up into the car and go. Anywhere.
Cool. But strange.

And no, the studio's not finished yet, but as you can see, at least one person around here doesn't care!

studio

I knew when I started the swap over that it was going to be difficult logistically, with no room to store any of it whilst every where was redecorated etc, but I didn't realise that it was going to take quite so long!
We are almost definitely on the home stretch now though. With the girl's rooms only really needing the artwork hung (even that is taking longer than I imagined possible, because I  can't decide exactly how I want to arrange it all!) and a few bits finishing off.
The studio is a little further away from being finished, but is at least now useable. And is already making me very happy.
I really loved my old studio, and it was a wrench to give it up, but I'm so pleased that I did, because even though it's a third of the size, I love this one more. And it feels right.  There's no guilt involved with having this room to myself. It's not at the expense of Bella having to sleep in a crappy, tiny room or Lily not having a room at all. And its meant that the house feels like we fit in it now. It feels balanced.

I desperately need a new chair, but to keep me going until I can find one,  I made this cushion. It does make the chair more comfortable, but it doesn't stop the wheels from falling off (I tip over almost every time I sit down!). The fabric is my new absolute favourite print. It's one of those fabrics that is appearing all over the house and (should I ever find the time) I have every intention of wearing it in some form too. It's a duvet cover that was on sale in Habitat. They only had a single (twin) cover, so I didn't have to make the impossible decision of whether to keep it for the bed or cut it up, thank goodness.

The feel of the studio is very different to the old one. It's much calmer and,  I think, a lot more grown up. But it's still evolving. In fact, I started writing this post this morning, when the room was pretty tidy, and as I said, useable and after a couple of hours of filling book shelves and emptying cupboards it looks different again and is a lot less useable!!

** the print is 'I Like My Shoes' by the very talented Askey and you can buy it and all her other fantastic prints here.**

Par Tea

February is officially party month in the McGrory-Patton household, with both Bella's and Lily's birthdays as well as the majority of Bella's friends. Which makes it a fun month, but a potentially expensive one. So this year I decided to through a simple tea party for Bella's birthday (although I have to admit that she also had a bigger party at a play center a few days after) with jam sandwiches and jelly and ice cream amongst other goodies.
In preparation for the party I dragged my cold and tired body (and Lily's, bless her) out of bed to a car boot sale  early the sunday before and bought a 20 piece vintage tea set for a couple of pounds, knowing that if anything got broken it wouldn't matter (it's not pretty enough for me to have normally bought it, but I knew Bella would like it) and I already had the linens and the cake plates.
To decorate I used the birthday banner that I've used every year for Bella and I had been desperate to try making these since first seeing them, so I spent a good couple of hours in front of Dr. Who making huge puffy flowers (you should make these even if you don't need them, they're so cool), which we just cellotaped to the ceiling (I'm going to hang them in the girls room after Lily's party).

To keep it all looking like a proper tea party we filled the tea pot with Apple juice and cut the sandwiches out with princess cookie cutters and filled cut glass sweetie bowls with grapes and strawberries.
For the party favours I wanted to do something that wouldn't immediately be thrown away (totally agree with this sentiment), so I bought 5 plain white mini tea cups from Ikea - I wanted vintage tea cups but didn't have time to search for them, and also realised that some of my friends wouldn't get the whole vintage thing and would actually prefer new Ikea mugs. Which I filled with shredded tissue paper, jelly love hearts, jelly bellys and lip balm, placed it in a cellophane bag, and tied it with pink ribbon (and then didn't take a photo!).
It was a lovely tea party, but I have to admit that my favourite part was when I walked in to the front room to find them all watching Star Wars with Bella dressed in her Princess Leia costume and excitedly explaining to everyone that Luke and Leia were actually brother and sister and that Darth Vader was their father.

Oh and just in case you make the mistake of thinking that nothing goes wrong - the party favours were supposed to include hair clips with fabric covered buttons, but I just could. not. make them and after many glue gun attempts and pinging off of buttons I gave up. So then I decided to use a mini silicon heart shaped cookie tray to make mini heart shaped crayons, only to discover when it was far too late that the mini heart shaped cookie tray was actually a mini heart shaped ice cube tray. And had therefore melted, along with the broken crayons. So then I decided (oh and all of this happened the night before the party, because apparently a year is just not long enough to prepare for Bella's birthday) that I would make monogrammed hankies for all the girls. At 1am.
Not.
So jelly hearts, jelly bellys and lipbalm. Good enough.

Bed

Every time that I pictured Bella's bed in her new room I saw an ultra girly, floral, vintagey, pouffy bed. I wanted it to feel soft and safe and to engulf her. And to achieve that I knew that the most important part was a floral, faded, vintage inspired comforter, similar to one that I used to love to sleep under at my grandparents house when I was a child (albeit a rare occurance).
Until recently I only had a vague image in my head of how I wanted the comforter look. Ironicly enough, the original one was both mauve and backed in satin - two things that would ordinarly mean that I didn't like it. So I haven't had a definate image to work from. But faded and floral were absolutes.
Which was why I was so pleased when I was in York's Cath Kidston shop a couple of weeks ago and not only saw this pink floral /paisley print, which was perfect for the top of the comforter, but also saw that it was in the sale.
I generally feel that their cotton duck is a little too rough to the touch, so I don't use much of it (apart from when it's in the sale), but this particular fabric is really soft and feels almost warm to the touch (have you seen that they've released a number of prints in a cheaper (softer) quilters cotton?).
To make the actual comforter I bought a £3.50 lightweight quilt from Ikea for the inner (normal quilt batting isn't pouffy enough), which I cut slightly smaller in width to take in to account the fact that whilst Bella's bed is a standard single length it's slightly narrower .
I then layed the backing fabric (I chose to use Amy Butler's quilters solid in Celery) on the floor, face up. Then the quilt top fabric on it, face down and finally the quilt inner on top and pinned it all together.
I then sewed through all three layers, around three and a half sides with a 1/4 inch seam, leaving an opening to turn it right side out. After flipping it right side out I hand sewed the opening closed and then quilted across the width of the quilt in straight lines, about 10 inches apart.
It took no time at all (except quilting through the three layers - it's really necessary to make sure that you use a strong enough needle) and has turned out exactly how I wanted it to.
And best of all, Bella ( who can often be a little non-plussed about her quilts) loves it too. The fact that it billows and pouffs and engulfs her creates exactly the sort of feeling for her that I was hoping for.

And after also replacing her mattress with a much more comfortable sprung one I'm finally happy that she has a proper snuggly, comfortable bed.

(the comforter is on top of her new duvet set - the lighter floral print).

sharing

Almost spring like. And yet there's still snow outside.

The girls room is pretty much finished and tonight, for the first time both of them are in there. Which is more than a little scary.
Does anyone have any advice about the best way to sort out night time routines (who to put to bed first etc)? We're complete novices at room sharing ( I didn't even share as a kid) and have no real idea of how this is going to work, with a one year old and a four year old. Especially as Bella not only talks in her sleep, but also often shouts and cries. And Lily is teething and waking a couple of times most nights, albeit only for 5 or ten minutes, but certainly long enough to wake Bella too.
All and any advice or experiences would be much appreciated.
In the meantime we're just keeping our fingers crossed and walking on tip toes!

Funny. Kind. Pink. Clever. Chocolate. Sweet. Caring. Protective. Jelly beans. Laughter. Hugs. Kisses. Books. Princesses. Dress up. Empathetic. Artistic. Star Wars. Singing. Loving. Sister. Friend. Daughter. Loud. Soft. Gentle. Perceptive. Dancing. Expressive. Confident. Polite. Musical. Tall. Shy. Cheeky. Painting. Sticking. Excited. Sophisticated. Friendly. Beautiful. Jokes. Books. Learning. Talking. Talking. Talking. Dresses. Drawing. Glitter. Red. Joy. Cuddles. Proud. Happy. Charming. Gorgeous. Crazy. Silly. Loved.
Four.

Thank you Bella.
For every second of the last four years.
xxx