Delivery from Paris

Since the new baby came into our world and the big boy turned five we have had post from Bulgaria, Holland and the United Kingdom - its been quite exciting getting all these international packages, even if they are all for the youngest members of our house.  But one morning last week a parcel was left at my front door from "La Poste" - this one was for me!

I've made enough money from my selling my wares online to have a healthy enough Paypal balance for me to treat myself to a new bag.  I wanted a bag that could function as a baby bag, but not look like one, a bag of modest size and one that I could adjust to either sling over my shoulder or over the pram.  Finally, while I like to use tote bags a lot of the time I am always losing my stuff at the bottom of them, so some pockets for organising "stuff" (babies and mine) were a must.  I found the perfect answer at a French Etsy store called Ikabags. 

I opened the postage box to be treated to a beautifully presented purchase.

A package wrapped up in green paper and ribbon.

Neatly folded and tied with string and business card.

My new bag - blue/grey and cream stripes, with a cream lining and adjustable strap - perfect!

Handmade of course - the construction and finishing are absolutely faultless, very high quality work. 

Filled with a few baby things - wrap, blanket, nappy/wipes wallet and the like - which I realise are majority handmade :) 

I know I'm going to be using this bag for a long time to come, and when I make more money, perhaps I'll be buying myself another bag, in another colour - you can't have too many, can you?

Old towel, new tricks

At the back of the linen cupboard I found an old towel.  An odd sized, well used, pale green towel with a few stains here and there.  I washed it and cut it in thirds.

I went to the fabric store and bought half a metre of flanelette for $3.  I cut that into thirds.

I ventured back down to my sewing room and in a few stolen moments during the week I sewed towel and flanelette segments together (sewed the stains on the towel to the inside!).  Now I have three lovely and functional "burp cloths" (not that I set much score against "burping" my baby).  They're certainly not the neatest sewing job I have ever done (a bit of speed sewing required to finish off seams when baby started crying), but they're perfect for putting under his little head in the pram, over the bed sheets, on my lap or over my shoulder after a feed.  Baby can now have a little dribble or overflow of milk and I stay clean and dry and then just throw these little cloths in the wash when needed. 

But of course, sometimes he misses the cloths, and I get sicked on, and thats OK too.

Finished size if you are interested: 50cm long and 25cm wide

Meet Mateo

Born 1:54am on Wednesday 24th August 2011, taking everyone by complete surprise at almost three weeks before his due date.

He's really a spitting image of his older brother - full head of hair, similar birth process, born on the 24th of a month. Our big question is: will he have blue eyes like his brother and mum, or brown like his dad?

After the hectic hustle and bustle of the hospital we are settling in at home beautifully.  Thanks to everyone for their well wishes and congratulations.

Stopped

Wow, no blog posts from me since early August.  Where did I go?

Over the last month I have felt like a clock winding down.  Strangely and slowly I stopped spending time in the sewing room and visiting blogs online.  I finished a few projects in the works and despite having a million ideas in my head of things to sew I just didn't find any get up and go to start a single one of them.

I finished a custom request for a cuddle owl.

I finished one pinafore for the shop.

I finished making a pram liner.

Then I turned my attention to bugging my husband into getting a shelving unit from Ikea so I could organise the baby things in it.  Mum and Dad came around to help assemble the cot and re-arrange our bedroom funiture to fit it in.

Then last week my waters broke...