Sewing for the baby

I recently had the chance to make a start on a few little things for our new baby - due at the end of November. Usually I am overwhelmed by possibilities and choices which makes commiting to and starting a project problematic. Luckily a few months back I had ordered a copy of Growing-up-sew-liberated and in it I found a pattern for a baby sleep sack.

It is such a straight foward pattern to follow. I implemented my usual process of tracing up the pattern one night, cutting the fabric the next and then sewing up on the third. Actually because it was the school holidays I managed to do the sewing up during nap time.

They were a bit tricky to photograph without a cute baby around to model - but not long now!

Tell me a story

I love books - I think that I always have. I love reading to my children. As an early childhood teacher I had a pretty impressive book collection and that was before my own children came along!!
My weak point however has always been oral storytelling. I am not really a natural but I wish I was. Last year when we attended a Steiner playgroup A loved the weekly story and so did I.
So I have decided that it is an area that I am going to work on . I was recently inspired by this post and two weeks ago I gave it a go.

I chose to tell a story called "Brown Caterpillar" that I found in the book 'Very short stories for 3-4 year olds' compiled by Kim Preston and distributed by the Melbourne Rudolf Sreiner School. It is seasonally appropriate and I have heard it told so it was not to hard to memorise. All the props we already had - it was very simple - a few silks, river stones, pinecones, a brance, blooms from our front yard and a felt caterpillar, chrysalis and butterfly.

Well both children LOVED it. They sat so still, taking it all in and then wanted to tell their own stories. A went first and his story was similar to the original but there were some points of difference. It was very sweet.

Then it was H's turn. She did a fantastic job of retelling the story for a 2 1/2 year old.

In fact we each had to have two turns and a story that I thought would take 5 - 10 minutes ended up taking at least 30 minutes - perfect entertainment on a rainy spring day.
My confidence has been given a real boost and I am planning on making story telling part of our regular rhythm.

Pincushion Swap

After much to and fro I finally decided to join the pincushion swap hosted by Mothering with Rhythym and Rhyme. I did not really need to add anything else to my list nor do I use pincushions but it seams I cannot resist a good swap. Here is my offering from this pattern. It reminded me of Lilacs and I am really excited because we recently planted two in our garden.  Hope that my partner likes it!

This moment

Inspired by soulemama   *A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Lucky Me

I was very lucky a little while ago to win a giveaway on http://fionaduthie.blogspot.com/. I won a delightful collection of hand dyed wool roving – a beautiful rainbow of colour that I am planning to make into some special goodies for the new baby. I will make some felted slippers – a little family tradition now as I made some for both A and H’s birth. But of course there is lots of roving so I am thinking of some other felted items that I can make.

I ordered some additional roving and a skein of hand dyed wool. Fiona’s products are truly delightful. I don’t have a plan for the yarn or extra roving but it was nice to treat myself.