January Joys

I used to hate January. Such a depressing month: Christmas is over, the weather's freezing and we're all starving ourselves to lose those mince pie bellies! But these days I quite like January. I think I have ever since Em was born; with her birthday being in February we always started planning parties and presents in January and it made the beginning of the year that bit more exciting.

One thing I look forward to about January is books. As you know I love reading and normally get a good haul for Christmas. I was already reading this book at Christmas:

 and so that turned into my New Year read too. What an amazing book, I would defiantely recommend it, so beautifully written. I raced through it a) because it was so good, and b) because I had this pile of beauties to get started on, my Xmas books!

 Aren't they pretty?!

I love this too, a new bookmark that my friend Shaughn at work made me. Only been there a couple of months and already she's making me presents, got to love that!

 Winter Ghosts was first (I do struggle with Kate Mosse but actually made it through this one!). I'm now on One Day which my SIL bought me which I'm really enjoying. It follows the story on the same date every year which I think is a great idea.

And of course dear reader, there has to be a crafty project on the go! I've been dying to do this for a while, since some ladies in my crop group made some beautiful ones, but it's quite a big project and so I needed a use for what I made. So then Miss Emily decided she wanted her bedroom decorated purple - oooh oooh oooh, excuse excuse excuse! So, I ordered the wool and have got completely addicted to the fabulous granny stripe blanket. Here it is so far:

 Mmmmm, lush!

We've also had an exciting delivery here at Chez Gillard, a super comfy new bed! I loved my other bed, we got it when I was pregnant with Em and so have had many snuggles with tiny bubbas in that bed. But, it was getting too small now that a certain special little man likes to creep in at 5am and I was sick of hanging off the side! And let's face it, he ain't going to get any smaller! We were also in need of a new mattress as the current one wasn't much good for my dodgy back and Rob's dodgy insides. So, we went the whole hog and got a new bigger bed:

Only trouble is, we can't get out of the blooming thing on a morning, it's just too comfy! I swear that mattress moulds itself into that dodgy spine of mine!

And of course, we had to have a bit of homemade on there, so out comes the sewing machine to whip up some matching bolsters:

Right, better fly, I've had half an hour off from granny-stripe-blanketing and I'm getting withdrawal symptoms!

Cheapo Crafting!

If there's one thing I love more than all things crafty, it's all things cheap and crafty! Been a good bit of crafting on the cheap round here lately.

First of all, a candle holder courtesy of our local wood:

Then a 99p tea-towel from Morrisons:

That makes quite a nifty little knitting needle holder:

(Did have destructions from Marie to make a much swankier one but didn't have enough material so went cheap and simple instead!)

Other crafty stuff, here's Elise's Gabriella from High School Musical doll that she requested for her birthday:

With her very own custom-made high-heeled sandals!

May be a bit of a break on the crafty posts on the blog for a while. I'm now working on Ch****** presents so won't be posting them until after the event. Though you never know, a little bargain crafty project may tempt me again very very soon!

How To Stuff A Mermaid's Tail!

I have quite a few doll orders at the moment, lots of little girls with birthdays coming up who have asked me to make various things. I finished the first one last night, Ariel from The Little Mermaid for a girl who turns 6 in a couple of weeks:

Completely different doing a mermaid doll. I did get asked the other night by Rob why I was sewing legs to a mermaid doll. Hmmmm, good point! So, off with her legs then working out how to make and attach a tail; little bit fiddly but eventually it got stuffed and attached!

Mind you, how I got any crafting done is beyond me: my crafting space has been invaded:


Yes, it would seem I can I have nowt! The lure of paper and glue are just too much for toddlers it would seem!

Emily, who was supposed to be crafting with me, was out in the garden, helping plant the vegetable garden (FINALLY!) which was originally supposed to be Xander's job!

So apparently in about a month we can look forward to home grown spinach, spring onions and carrots! Oooh, they'd go lovely with stuffed fish! :P

Craft Frustration!

So, this morning, Rob packs the kids off in the car to go to Grandma's and I sit down with my breakfast and log onto UKS to see what today's mini book of the day is and see this little guy staring out at me:

So cute and it's Xander's birthday next month and he absolutely NEEDS one!

Then postie arrives with this little stash:

Luscious sparkly fat quarters that I'd ordered to make a mermaid doll for my friend's little girl.

And then last night I sat and sorted out all the remaining pictures for Gemma and Dave's scrapbook and got ideas jotted down for all the pages. And I finally got an idea for Trina's circle journal about the lovely Miss Chloe.

So, kid free day, all these projects and what am I doing? Blooming studying that's what! Why oh why oh why?! It's getting soooooo boring too and all I want to do is craft but apparently you need to do work to get those degree things so my little crafty stash is on the desk where I can neither see it or hear it calling! 'Lou....come and make us...!'

The Softer Side Of Rock

First thing's first, a great big Happy Birthday to this lady:

My fellow rock chick and fave sister-in-law is celebrating her **cough**th birthday today...Happy Birthday L'il Sis!

So, what to buy her...hmmm....

Brainwave! Last year, my fave present was this from the fabulous Marie. So I gets to thinking: as obssessed as I was with the curly haired top hated one, my SIL had a bit of a thing for the rather temperamental lead singer. Ta-da! So, off to the sewing box and after a few hours of chuckling to myself, I came up with this:


It's Axl!! Complete with tattoos (one of which is his long-time love, my SIL!):

I was so sad to send him, but there was just time for a quick band photo before he was parcelled up:

Eeeh, I do amuse myself sometimes!

I Really Don't Know What Gets Into Me

Why oh why I do this to myself I'll never know! Another hectic few weeks, what with weddings, holidays, birthdays, job interviews, assignmnets etc and I get all keen on the crafty projects. Hardly enough hours in the day to sleep at the moment and I decide I MUST CRAFT!

TBH, it's nice and relaxing with everything else going on around and it's important to fit in things you love, but I'm starting to think I should have a word with myself about how much one person can actually fit into a day!

Anyhoo, couple of completed projects. First of all, we have another doll that I made for my little buddy Annabel's birthday:

I was good actually and sewed a load of doll body parts while I was doing this one so for any future requests all I have to do is stuff em and dress em!

Last night, I did a spot of scrapbooking while I was waiting for the last ever Prison Break to come on (sorry Gem, my thoughts are with you!). I loved this idea of just taking a random day in your child's life and scrapbooking it. It's sometimes little things we forget about our kids growing up and so this is good to look back on. I just wrote random things about what his favourite toy was, what we'd done that day, what he ate for tea etc:

Now thinking of one to do for Emily. Hmmm....Today I had attitude, sang to Hannah Montana, had a bit more attitude, refused to eat anything my mother cooked, had attitude...:P

Happy Birthday Poppy!

Happy birthday to my little pal (and Xander's main squeeze!) Poppy, who turns 2 today!

Poppy's mum commissioned me to make Poppy another doll as she loved her Christmas one. This time she wanted Fifi - hmmmmm a tad complicated but I gave it a go and I love her:

Have a great day Poppy!

Happy Mothers Day!

Happy Mothers Day to all my fellow yummy mummies out there and of course to my own mum.

I was ordered back to bed by a very bossy 7-year-old this morning so they could bring me breakfast in bed (scrambled eggs, smoked salmon, toast, orange juice and coffee, yum!). I've got 4 cards in total and a pot of baby roses to go out on the patio. At the moment, I'm enjoying the luxury of still being in bed at 10am; though will have to drag my lazy bum up soon as Emily's insisting on a Mothers Day crafting session!

This afternoon I'm taking my mum to the pictures to see The Young Victoria as a Mothers Day treat. I of course made cards for both her and Rob's mum. I've joined a weekly challenge on my UKS team mate Michele's blog and did these for last week's challenge:

For presents, I again turned to the wonderful Deanna. I just loved these when I saw them on her site and thought they'd make lovely Mothers Day presents. They're rice bags that you pop in the microwave and then use on sore muscles. Hope both mum and MIL are nice and relaxed today with these on! Deanna made her's from knee socks but I couldn't find any so made fleece ones instead. Most importantly they are decorated with felt flowers handmade by my very talented daughter!

They even have washable covers:

Anyhoo, better fly. Emily is stood demanding a crafting session right now and sometimes it's just easier to go with it!

Hope everyone has a lovely day!

Bubba Squishing!

Today, me and the Billy boy have been for a little trip over the hills to see my good friend and fellow scrapbooker and blogger Rach (who I haven't met up with for a ridiculously long time!). Xander had great fun with his old pal Cam; they weren't up to any mischief honest (please, could they have looked any more guilty!)

They did play lovely together and Cam was very good sharing all his toys with Xan.

And no, if Cam's big sis Charlotte asks, they weren't on her DS while she was at school, honest!

But, the main reason for our trip today was to meet this little lady:

How blooming adorable is she?! This is Caitlin who is just 7 weeks old and she is gorgeous. Auntie Lou spent a good majority of the afternoon having a good old squish of the little munchkin.

Of course, with Rach being in my craft family, crafting just had to be done to welcome little Caitlin into the world. For this, I turned to one of my blog inspirations at the moment, Deanna, and her wonderful hooded bath towels. I loved how they turned out:

But I'm not sure Caitlin quite got it. (She'll thank me when she's snuggly warm after her bath tonight!)

Me and Rach spent the rest of the afternoon shovelling down homemade chocolate tart (the woman just had a baby 7 weeks ago and she's making me desserts!) and discussing lots of scrapbooking stuff. Thanks for having us over Rach, was lovely to see you all!

Finally...The Christmas Crafts!

Finally! I get to post the Christmas presents I've been working on for the past few weeks!

It all started when my crafty mentor Marie sent me a text back in October when I was still in hospital. She sent me a picture of a little Saturday night project of this. Oh my god, I have to make one! So the lovely Marie, taking pity on my sorry poorly sick state, showed me how it was done.

So, what to make me thinks. I decided to start with some fairly generic ones, so made a couple of Christmas dolls:

And for a little personal touch, personalised a la Toy Story:

OK, so they turned out alright, maybe I'll be a bit more adventurous. So, I decided to go off pattern with the hairstyles and clothes and make a princess doll for my little buddy Elise:

She even sported a little bracelet made by my crafty daughter:

So, I'm now thinking that I am worthy of Marie's example and attempt to do some actual characters. I ask my cousin Laura what's Evie's favourite character...Peppa Pig she says! Hmmm, maybe actually making the head into a pig is a tad too adventurous! OK, so what's her 2nd favourite? Dora The Explorer...voila!!

So, a few new stuff to do here: short hair, iron-on logo on the t-shirts; shorts; socks; those huge brown eyes. However, she turned out not too bad (though remembering to take a pic on the camera instead of on my phone at night might have helped! ):



Finally came a doll for Emily; and who else but Miley Cyrus (ie: Hannah Montana actress). Emily showed me a picture and instructed me to get it made and get it off to Santa double quick! I must admit, she is my favourite:


It was a bit of a 'make it and see' job on Miley's boots as I only had a pattern for shoes, but they turned out OK:

I really really enjoyed making these and am actually quite sad now they're done. Maybe I might make a few more in the future. Thanks to Marie for sharing this idea with me; if anyone doesn't frequent her blog then I'd definately recommend going over there and having a look at her dolls, they're fab!

The Mini-Me Of Quilts!

There's been quite a bit of quilting happening around here this past week. Our friends Mandy and Nick had a beautiful baby girl, Molly, a couple of weeks ago; so what better excuse to buy tonnes of pink squares and run up a baby quilt!

Once I got started, I realised I had too many squares for one quilt, and so decided to make a mini-me quilt for Molly's big sister Ella, so she could use it for her dolls.

I also had my first ever go at embroidering free hand, by personalising Molly's quilt. Hmmm, the embroidery actually came out OK, the quilting round the edge, not so well! Anyway, she's 2 weeks old, what will she care?!

My next project is to make a 'jeans' quilt. We have enough old denim round here to make quite a big one so hopefully that'll be ready by the time Winter sets in (probably next week the way this Summer's gone!!).

Nappy? Cake?

Every time I say nappy cake, I always have that Peter Kay Garlic Bread/Cheesecake sketch in my head! http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=OTxL6DaOs74&feature=related

I meant to post this when little baby Abigail was born but didn't as I wanted to give them the gift first (yeah, coz when you've just given birth you tend to do lots of blog hopping!)

Anyway, I wanted to make Abigail something special but, as her mum's such a crafty goddess (along with most of the family!) I was stuck for ideas. I eventually decided to make her some patchwork bibs (a quilt was out of the question after the fantastic one Lauren's mum had made for her, just couldn't compare!). I made them pink and put her initial on then sat back and prayed that a) it was a girl and b) they didn't change their mind about calling her Abigail!

Next I had a go at a nappy cake. This has caused some very confused looks from people: No! I'm not making them eat nappies! I've seen these a few times on my crafty travels but never had the opportunity to make one. But, thanks to little Abi, I can now add this to my list of crafty attempts!


Still haven't managed to get pictures of Abi but hope to soon! Took my camera to see her yesterday but poor little munchkin had a tummy ache and so wasn't in the move for posing! Thankfully, the whole family's doing well and I'm loving my role of Auntie Lou (which consists of giving snuggles, then handing her back and coming home for a full night's sleep and being thankful I never have to do the sleepless nights again!).

Snug As A Bug In A Rug Part 2!!

Made a couple more quilts lately. The first one I made for Evie's birthday present, if you look carefully it has her name at the bottom. The second is one I made for Emily, I also made her a matching pillowcase.

Today I'm having a scrapbooking day. I've completed one for Xander's book and am now scrapping Emily's 6 week holidays but have a serious case of scrappers block! Hopefully it will clear soon and I'll be able to crack on!