Bits and pieces round-up

It seems I still have lots of little bits and pieces to catch up on - I've thrown a few into this post and hopefully after that things will be a little more caught-up.

I made the girls a skirt each before Christmas.  Just simple elastic waist twirly skirts using the full fabric width and leaving the fabric to do the talking.  Islay's is made from Dear Stella's Gilt Trip Buds in Metallic.  I had just enough left after making my giveaway pouch and washi dress (which I have yet to blog about so maybe I'm not catching up all that well after all). I used some narrow red ribbon to hem the bottom.  The ribbon adds a touch of colour when she swings around  - which, being six,she does a lot!  And Katie's uses my favourite Denyse Schmidt Flea Market Fancy prints.

I made a surprise present for the children before Christmas.  They had seen me making several Owl Hotties (wheat and lavender filled) and had hovered around a lot commenting how lovely they were - I kept avoiding their questions and they assumed that I was making them for someone else.  They were so excited to be given them on Christmas Eve and to have a hot, sweet smelling, owl to snuggle up to when they went to bed.  Their looks of surprise and delight made keeping them in suspense very well worthwhile.  I made each one a little different but they are all made with flannel.  I'll blog about them separately with better photos.

This picture is of Angus just after having had a baby pre-molar pulled out.  It had started coming loose but had, somehow, got stuck and was uncomfortable.  He was very good about it all and enjoyed an hour or two afterwards cuddling his Owl Hottie and Lily the cat.

I think I managed to complete most of the Christmas makes I had set for myself - this little stocking was the last to finish I think.  I worked on the theory that Katie wouldn't mind this year if she didn't have a proper one but in the end she did get it on time. The fabric is a very sweet Sevenberry print but I don't know anything more about it.  I bought it from a stash clear out so it could be a few years old. It seems perfect for a little girl's stocking.

Are you still with me?  I wanted to quickly share some books I was given for Christmas and my birthday (it was mid January and I'm now 40 - to celebrate I had the most wonderful night out with some girl friends a couple of Fridays ago).  The top 2 are novels that I have had in my amazon wish list (what a great tool). The Living Forest is an old book that my dad hunted down for me.  The soap book may have to wait a wee while but I would really like to try soap making sometime soon.  The bag making bible is exactly that, by the looks of things - perfect for mastering new techniques.  The final book was a present from John and is lovely to flick through.  He thought I'd enjoy all the different colours and patterns and he was quite right.  So much inspiration.

Well, thankyou for making your way through all of that.  I'll try to make my next post a little more snappy!  Hope you have had a lovely weekend and a good start to the new week.