Quacky Christmas!

Here are my Christmas cards for this year, starring my boy and his alter ego. I got them printed surprisingly early - first time for everything! 

Oxford treasure

We spent a weekend in Oxford with friends recently - a lovely little break. My very talented friend Sophie made these beautiful things with the zebra and rabbit fabric, which I love! I bought the pink fabric and ribbon from a sweet little shop called Darn It & Stitch. I came back all inspired and wanting to make more things :)

Modern life

This is what I see when I step out the house. On the tube, at the bus stop, on the go...everyone immersed in their little world in the palm of their hands. Distracted half conversations with little eye contact, not taking much notice of what's actually going on around them. 

HOHOHO

10% off on all goods in my Etsy shop until Wednesday 18th December! 

Coupon code is HOHOHO

Happy shopping :)

An unexpected question

Earlier on today at the supermarket, I was asked my age when buying a bottle of wine. After 2 years of continuous sleep deprivation (no) thanks to a certain little man, I'd say my eye bags have aged me considerably, so this question totally took me by surprise. My mind went blank. I genuinely couldn't remember! I mumbled and stumbled, "Er...erm...hmm. Thirty....erm...how old am I? I can't remember. Er, well, I'm definitely over 18 that's for sure." She believed me, ha ha.

More felt bags!

You can now find these 2 bags, in addition to the 3 in my previous post in me Etsy shop :)

Felt bags

I made some felt bags. My boy seems to like them, filling them with his toy trains and carrying them around everywhere :)

I'm making a couple more. They'll all be in my Etsy shop tomorrow, but now it's time for bed!

Gulliver

I've ended up doing a fair bit of this since we moved Oki out of his cot and into his new bed. I know we should be training him to fall back asleep on his own etc, but I'm so flipping tired, it's the most tempting option when he wakes us with his crying in the middle of the night. Although the cuddles are lovely, it's bloody uncomfortable and I get attacked by all his cuddly toys. I am just too big for your little big bed. Please please please Oki, just sleep. I'm so very tired...

"Gulliver is washed ashore after a shipwreck and finds himself a prisoner of a race of tiny people" (Wikipedia)

You can find previous sleep episodes here.

walking his majesty

Oki was never an easy napper. I had to walk for hours to get him to fall asleep, even though he was really tired. My average was 2-3 hours, although I think my record was 5 hours, ridiculous! He didn't like me to stop walking either, even when he was asleep. Or step into a shop. Or stop to chat to a friend. He wasn't fooled by the rocking. He always knew and would wake up crying. I envied those mums having a drink and a chat, a meal even, with their friends at cafes, whilst their baby slept peacefully in the buggy. That was a complete alien concept for me. From the day he was born, Oki made us work super hard to get him to fall asleep, and rewarded us with non-stop crying until he did. He's a bit better these days, but since we moved him into a big boy's bed, it's back to square one...sigh...

At long last!

At looooong last, I have updated my website, hooray!

Please check it out here and let me know your thoughts :)

My big big thanks to my good friend Dan Mortimore for all his advice and help over the years. It couldn't have happened without him!!

facebook

I now have my very own facebook page...not sure what that means exactly but I thought I'd give it a go :)

The art critic

I took Oki to the Tate Modern the other day. We checked out the big clocks and columns at St Paul's Cathedral on the way, crossed the wobbly bridge, then ran into the gallery to escape the cold. 

Inside, Oki had a great time running about, quacking away and generally not taking much notice of the art! The one comment he did make was about this piece by Lucio Fontana. He said, "Oh no, torn cushion" with a sad face.

Little Tiger!

Grrrrr! Just added a Tiger Hat in my Etsy shop :)

The story behind these pictures:

With a boy who increasingly refuses to wear my newly knitted goods and be snapped, I'm having to come up with new ways to get him to cooperate (or trick him). Bribes of snacks just aren't enough anymore, so on this day I took him to the train station to watch trains - one of his favourite past times. We sat on the bench, out came the snacks, and while my boy was getting excited waving to the driver and the trains, I made a comment about how cold it was and snuck the tiger hat on. Tee hee, success!

woolly goodies

Now available in my Etsy shop...some hand knitted woolly goodies!

New felt toys in my shop!

You can now find new handmade felt toys in my long-neglected Etsy shop, hooray! Knitted goodies coming soon...

quack quack

With the days getting colder and darker, I've been enjoying knitting lately. 
These duck mittens are my latest creation - an attempt to get my boy to wear gloves during these cold months. He can be quite the fuss pot, refusing to wear certain things for mysterious reasons -  gloves being one of them. He'd happily wear socks on his hands but as soon as I show him a pair of gloves, he starts running awaaaay.
He is convinced he is a duck, quacking away whilst playing, so I thought a pair of duck mittens might bring him around. 

I think he likes them, but oh boy, is it hard to get him to wear them and pose for a picture! Bribes with biscuits just about did the trick ;)

Hopefully I will have a bunch of knitted and handmade goodies in my Etsy shop soon...

frog, tortoise and snail

I've been meaning to make Japanese flash cards for Oki for a while now, but keep on getting side tracked. With 48 characters in the Japanese syllabary, and some of the sounds changing by adding dots and little circles, it's a lot to take on and a bit daunting! 

I doodled some ideas for the letter "KA" (か) - かえる, かめ, かたつむり, かさ (frog, tortoise, snail, umbrella), and thought I'd just turn them into illustrations for now. Hopefully, type will follow one day soon...

pop up!

Made these funny little pop up cards for my nephew and niece last night, as it's their birthdays coming up. They are pretty simple and basic but I really enjoyed doing something a little different! What I envisioned was a leg to come flying out when you opened the card, but with no experience or knowledge in this field, we settled for something much simpler.

Let's make a cake

I received copies of "Let's make a cake" this morning. I worked on this Korean picture book for Froebel over 4 years ago, so it took a long time to reach me!