The Daphne Tree

Well, the ballerina trend continues... Crikey, I tried so hard to dress her in everything other than pink, I'm all about equality between boys and girls, I encourage her to play with dinosaurs and lego, and am secretly a bit pleased that she shuns her baby dolls. HOWEVER, she is getting girlier by the day. She may only be two, but she already loves trashy pop songs, twirling around like a ballerina, sparkley things and make up. Nooooooooo! I think parents have little hope really, these are little people with actual opinions! How very dare they?! So ballerinas are IN, and I admit the thought of Daph doing ballet is very cute indeed. But I might make her wear "alternative" tutus. In the name of making and sewing her things to ease my maternal unrelenting and possibly unecessary guilt, I thought I'd get her a tutu. Then I remembered we're on a strict budget at the moment, so what can I make one out of? I found a load of patterned chiffon material in the stash an...

This post is inspired by all of the people getting married this year! And I'd love to say to them all, it is YOUR day, you don't have to do what anyone else wants or whatever anyone else does. You may have dreamed about a big white wedding since you were small, and if that's really what you want you should go for it. BUT, in this day and age, you can make it whatever you want. You can get married underwater, in a windmill, on a remote island or up a tree. You can wear black, blue, animal print? Hell, you can probably be naked. You can write your own vows, play your favourite music, eat your comfort food and tailor everything to truly represent YOU. If you want to be a bit different, I BEG you to look at  Offbeat Bride , the ideas and real weddings on there will get your brain ticking! They call it wedding porn you know... Here's a couple of snaps from our wedding two years ago: Yep, we were on a farm, I was 36wks pregnant, we camped that night, we h...

So, turns out I am a terrible mother. We went out for a walk yesterday and Daphne nearly froze. She refused to wear her gloves, and we stayed out too long, and she was like an ice block when we got home. This NEVER happens. Even when she was a tiny, delicate newborn she never got cold, she only ever OVER heats normally. It saves us a fortune on the heating bill, as I'm too scared to put it on in case she overheats and starts puking. It happens! ANYWAY, when I found myself chucking out a load of her too-small tights this morning, I decided they should go into my "corner". I have claimed a corner of our dining room as my own, and it is now an immaculate, efficient sewing workspace (junk-filled, ribbon-tripwired, needley-haystack Nic-haven). I decided to make Daphne a pair of special mittens. Ones which were long so they could go up her arm and keep out the draughts (and be super-hard to take off) AND they had to appeal to her in some way so I could be all high-drama enth...

My little girl is nuts about most animals, but at the moment she is quite keen on pandas. It's bound to change by tomorrow. But she had an old black jumper which just seemed to be just waiting for a funeral, so it made me sad, and I had to turn it into something else... Here it is before.... Funeral anyone? OK, so I cut up the front to make it into a cardigan... I love this part - snip! Then stitched on some white lace (sticking with the black and white theme see...) and attached a big black button and popper on the back. Can I just say I did this in about 10 minutes so it's not my finest work! You've got to make sure the stitching catches all of the fiddly jumper edge so that it doesn't fray. OK, so that was the front. And I decided because it was a v-neck, the panda would have to go on the back as there was more space. Sooooo, then I cut some panda face shapes out of t-shirt material and stuck them on the back with bonda/wunda webby stuff. You COU...