Fire balls and Sprouts

My lovely friend gave me an enormous bag of dried peas recently, for making bean bags. There's so much of it I'll be sewing bean bags for every occasion for the next 10 years!! 

Coming up soon is our boy and his friend Tom's joint birthday party, so I have been sewing some Super Mario themed bean bags. Lots of fun :)

FEED ME!

I've been having fun making these things for a lovely community event which is happening this weekend. The mouse and the shark will be attached to a wooden stand, and there will be a bucket of fish and plate of cheese (sewn by me, stuffed by me and the little one) to throw into their hungry mouths!

I hope the kids (big and small) enjoy feeding the hungry beasts!

Christmas Stocking No 4

We have a special visitor this Christmas - the boys' American cousin! I've had a lovely time making this Christmas stocking for her. I hope she likes it :)

At Bromham Mill

You can now find some of my hand sewn toys for sale at Bromham Mill in Bedford.

Here they are in fine company :)

Letters, Lettuce, Sailor and Chubs

I've been doing the tiniest bit of sewing a day whilst the little one naps, and have finally managed to complete 4 more squishy friends to join the Minty Bob Gang, yay! The round orange one reminds me of the lovely chubbiness of a baby and makes me smile each time I hold it, ahhhh :) 

Yikes Spikes!

Today was the warmest day of the year so far. Blue skies and glorious sunshine, beautiful! Shame I could only enjoy it from the confines of our very warm home with all the windows closed as my hayfever fully kicked in :'( I get it really badly every year and it's a messy itchy horrible NIGHTMARE!

Rather than be miserable and mope about, I decided I would take advantage of my partner being home to get the sewing machine out and sew whilst the little one napped and older one was entertained. 

The older one is obsessed with dragons at the moment. He draws them all the time and comes up with great names for them. I asked him to draw me one to make a while ago (I had to keep on reminding him to keep it SIMPLE!!!). It's probably taken me about 2 weeks but I have finally managed to finish it, hooray! There are lots of mistakes and it's a bit lumpy and bumpy and funny looking but he seems to like it and immediately held it in his arms and chewed on its tail so I think that's a thumbs up :)

Cooooorpany

Our two boys make up words all the time, which they turn into chants and songs. 

We have no idea how it starts or what it means but it's funny and makes us smile all the time :)

We often hear them chanting:

"Coooorpany, cooorpany, stop that corpany!"

so one day we asked the older one to draw a "Corpany".

Here it is. Ohhhh, so that's what it is. It all makes sense now.

I turned it into a felt toy.

I can't wait to find out what a "Big dog danga-doo" is!

Bon Voyage!

In my late twenties, I went backpacking around South East Alaska and a little bit of the Yukon Territory for a month or so. I look back on that time very fondly and often think of the kind, funny, warm and slightly eccentric (!) people I met on my travels. 

One friend I made and stayed in touch with was a lovely funny Japanese girl who was working at one of the hostels I stayed in. In her last letter about a year ago she told me she got married, and although I'd been meaning to write and find something special to send to her, I'm ashamed to say a whole year has passed by without me being able to do so - terrible!! So in the past week I decided to sew a couple of toys for them -  a silly present to hopefully make them smile and detract from my ineptitude! Fingers crossed these toys will travel safely and join them in their happy home :) Bon voyage!

SHOP!

**New stuff in my shop!

Why not pick up something original or unusual for Christmas this year? Many items at a discounted price! Have a peep :)

Loppy & Lugs

**SALE**

These funny creatures are back in my SHOP along with some others so please check 'em out :)

Strange looks

Today I left the little one at home with Grandma (Thanks Rosie!) and instead got to hang out with these guys at the park. I think they enjoyed all the rides but most of all, I think they enjoyed the strange looks I got from people as I took their pictures! Luckily I bumped into a friend and their little boy, so I didn't look too much like a weirdo hanging out at the playground with my newly sewn friends.

They are my latest addition to Minty Bob and friends and will be at our stall at the Castle Quay Weekender which is happening this weekend in Bedford :) Pop by and say hi!

the secret is out!

Now that our guest of honour has arrived I can reveal the third stocking, for Rosie :)

Christmas stocking!

I made a Christmas stocking for the little one :) I've been doing a little bit each night once the boys have gone to sleep and I've done all the boring stuff that needs doing. 

I'm working on another one which is nearly finished but that one is a secret, shhh!

Shop!

I have some new and old things in my Etsy shop including handmade toys and accessories, and limited edition Giclee prints. Please pop in to see it all :)

Coleman and Choc-poc

A couple of new friends have joined Minty Bob in my shop!

Squirty Bertie

Hello!

Sorry for the long absence of posts...where did the last 2 and a half months go?? During that time I seem to have acquired some extra baggage under my eyes thanks to a couple of boys but not much else...

Saying that, I've been enjoying a bit of free time since my older boy started school and have been sewing some silly things. Here's an octopus as requested by the boy. We've named him Squirty Bertie :D