3 years on

We celebrated the boy's third birthday last week. This is us on Christmas day when he was a week old. Laid back soul that he is, he pretty much slept through the entire event. Come to think of it, I think I caught the odd forty winks myself - I know I only made it half way through Christmas dinner before I passed out with exhaustion on the sofa!

Being almost a fortnight late, my plan of finishing the Christmas preparations after he was born didn't quite pan out as I had expected. Everything was pretty much thrown together, but none the less lovely for it. Somehow, this year I seem to have contrived to have been even less organised! The Christmas cake isn't even marzipanned, never mind iced, but then I don't have the best track record with Christmas cakes ...

A week of sewing

look away now if you are my mother - spoiler alert!

part of the to-sew pile

I can't believe it's almost a fortnight since my last post. Things have been pretty hectic with Christmas preparations as well as the usual day to day things. I have a poorly girl and boy at home today - hoping this is the last of it so that everyone's well over Christmas. I could also have done without our burglar alarm going off at 3.30am this morning for no apparent reason, although it did mean that we got to see a fox in the front garden that we would otherwise have missed.

Feeling a bit more organised, finally. I managed to skive off for a day of Christmas shopping the weekend before last, so we at least have some presents sorted and the boy's birthday is now in hand too. I've also been sewing a lot over the last week. I started out with one of those daunting piles of fabric that represent my to-do list last Wednesday - some already cut out, some where I hadn't even made a start. It's been really nice to tick a few things of the list this week making me feel a little more in control.

Here are my finished objects for the week:

another 2 sets of these Christmas decorations

miscellaneous fabric bits and pieces


a made-to-order moleskine organiser


another custom moleskine organiser


And last but not least, my mum's weekend bag:

... okay so this is a bit of a cheat as it's not totally finished yet, but only the lining left to do now. I'm absurdly pleased with this bag; my poor husband has had to put up with me asking 'how lovely is this?' approximately every 5 minutes. The pattern is so well put together, I love everything about it and I'm already planning my next one. I'll post some more pics once its completely finished and lined.

Meanwhile, it's back to the next pile of fabric - my poor machine is probably looking forward to a nice rest over Christmas, especially after being put through its paces on that weekender!

Busy busy busy!

So much going on this week, and no, I haven't even really made a start on ticking items off the list. I am obviously a bad mum as everyone else I chat to outside school and playgroup seems to have trees up, cards written and presents bought. I haven't even thought about Christmas yet. And then there's the small matter of the boy with a third birthday just over a week before. Aaaarrgh! (keep calm, don't panic).

My etsy shop is keeping me quite busy at the moment. A few custom orders on the go, mostly for moleskine/journal organisers.


I just posted this one off this morning, and have another 2 to sew this week. I also had my 100th etsy sale this week! Call me disorganised but I hadn't quite clocked that I was near my 100th sale, so hadn't even thought about the free goodies I'd always planned to throw in. The list is definitely getting longer and not shorter, but isn't that always the way with lists?

I'm really excited to see this week that the first issue of the brand new online magazine UK handmade is out. I've been involved in this in a very small way, and it's been so exciting to see the whole thing take shape thanks to a lot of hard work by the editors. Do pop over to the website to view or download the first issue. There's also a giveaway to celebrate the launch of the magazine which you can find details of on the UK handmade blog. There's still time to put your name in the hat if you'd like to win 1 of the 5 goodie bags pictured below:

Anyway, time to get on with that list. I did buy some fabric today to line the weekender, so that's a start. Hopefully I'll be back with some actual progress soon!