How to :: Crochet I-Cord ::

I have a little jewellery making tutorial coming up that requires the use of some crochet I-Cord (though you can totally use knitted I-Cord too if you'd rather). So I figured before sharing that with you I'll give you a little tutorial on how to make the I-Cord itself first.

I-Cord is really very, very simple to make, both with knitting and crochet and is simply a lovely little tube of stitches, ideal for adding to all kinds of projects, or can even be knit/crocheted with itself.

Crochet i-cord is essentially exactly the same as knitted i-cord the way I make it, but if you're not comfortable with knitting or just find crochet easier on the whole, this is a great technique. I haven't yet timed myself, but I'm also fairly confident this way is much quicker for me.

All you need is some yarn and a crochet hook in a size best suited to your yarn. I've made a video which gives you a step by step guide, but if you'd rather words and pictures I have those for you too, just keep scrolling.

9 Months ::

Last week Miss Effie Tallulah turned 9 months, meaning she's been out in the world growing as long as she was inside growing. She is turning into such a feisty independent little character.

Crawling is now very much established and she's quick, much too quick, she also fears nothing, so must be watched like a hawk at all times, also she will put EVERYTHING she finds on the ground in her mouth. I made a beanbag last week, so I've spent the majority of last 7 days retrieving polystyrene balls from her mouth. She's started to pull herself up now too, not on the sofas yet, but anything a little shorter and she's up. I am very much not ready for walking yet. Of course she'll probably decide to do that the week we move house, but I am hopeful it will a long way off yet, Milo was well past one before he started.

She now has two very prominent bottom teeth. She's recently discovered she can actually use these to take little chunks off things, which she seems very proud of, I love watching her bite small pieces of rice cakes off with them, a look of satisfaction in her eyes.

Routine-wise not a lot has changed since last month, still having 4 milk feeds a day, 3 meals and one nap in the morning, sometimes a little afternoon catnap if given the opportunity.

She is cheeky! She seems to understand 'no' now and is aware of the things she's not supposed to touch/put in her mouth, I can tell this by the way she looks at me whilst doing exactly that as if to say 'look Mum I'm going to do that thing you don't like'. For the most part though, when you tell her 'no' she usually does stop.

She blows kisses and gives out high fives, she tries to clap, but isn't all that successful! She'll also come to me now and put her arms up to be lifted/cuddled. I completely forgot how it feels to be needed in this way. Milo's so much older than her and so independent he rarely needs me for cuddles. It's really lovely to have someone who does, even though I know it won't last forever. Which is exactly what I keep reminding myself when I feel like she's attached my hip and I'm not getting anything done.

She makes a lot of sounds now and has a lot of chat, but not really any words. So far we have 'at' (cat or any kind of animal) 'dad-eee' (daddy, of course she can see daddy and not mama and calls for him regularly throughout the day when he is at work!) and as of yesterday 'ilo' (milo, which prior to yesterday was 'arah' repeated very loudly when waiting for him outside school or when he was ignoring her). I'm not going to lie it would be nice to hear 'mama' soon, but I'm sure it will come soon enough.

She's such a happy, friendly, smiley, sociable baby and I'm so lucky to have her.

Blogtacular 2015 ::

Last weekend I headed over to London for a fabulously inspiring, fun filled weekend, surrounded by amazingly creative folks in pretty spectacular surroundings. It was of course the second Blogtacular event.
I went along last year and I cannot tell you how much it changed the way I think about my blog and work in general, how much I learned and what an amazingly positive effect it has had.

So when the weekend finally arrived (Johnny bought my ticket for me last August as a birthday gift, so it seems I've been waiting forever!) I was so excited. Partly because I got a weekend away (my first since Effie was born) and got to hang out with Joanne of Not So Granny, who I don't think I had seen since last Blogtacular. But mostly because I knew I would come away full of inspiration and ideas. I certainly wasn't wrong.

As with last years event, I think my favourite was the opening keynote, (now avaliable to watch online here) given by the fabulous Grace Bonney of Design*Sponge. I also really enjoyed Fran of Fall For DIY's talk on blogging full time and took loads of useful information away from Kat Molesworth's photography workshop. However just being there surrounded by all those wonderful bloggers was incredible.

There were some great sponsors around showing off their wares and giving you the opportunity to pitch to them. Plus the new addition of the Genius Bar, where 3 talented ladies were available all day for brain picking and chats. I loved the crafty activities provided by seeds and stitches and even did a little shopping at the market place. 

After the conference West Elm hosted an after party sponsored by Pinterest, full to the brim of crafty folks running crafty escapades. I made a little plant pot cosy using some gorgeous Nikki McWilliams fabric and tried my hand at some paper cutting. 

It was lovely to get back to my babies on Sunday afternoon, tired but full of ideas. Effie having never been away from me for that long before looked as though she didn't know whether to laugh or cry as I approached.

It was such a great weekend for so many reasons and I'm already excitedly anticipating next year.

I'll blog about the gorgeous goodie bags separately so check back later in the week.

If you couldn't make it but wished you could you can join in with all the fun online, at the virtual conference.

This Week ::

A round up of some of my favourite moments from my Instagram this week ::

Little Bento Project Bags :: How to ::

Back in the spring my sewing machine and I reacquainted ourselves and it was oh so good. I had grand plans of making myself a whole summer wardrobe, not to mention all manner of baby attire for Miss Effie. However, work and life, as is often the case, soon had other ideas and my sewing machine has been sat in the corner of my dining room gathering dust ever since then.

One of the things I managed to sew back in April was a really simple folded bag, which I love so much it has become my daily use bag. This bag is so easy to make, it takes so little time, but is so versatile and I love it so much.

As this years Knit Girllls, Stash Dash is currently in full swing, I've been pulling unfinished knitting and crochet projects out from all over the house and what I really needed were a couple of these bags in a slightly smaller incarnation. So, I dusted off the sewing machine and the iron (it's only outing is generally for sewing or weddings) and quickly stitched up just that.

Hillary's sent me some of their gorgeous daisy pistachio fabric to take part in their crafting competition, so I decided this would perfect for these little bags.

These are great little project bags for small knitting projects. Perfect for baby sized items or socks for instance. The handles on the top are knotted together to seal, so need to worry about zips getting too close to your precious knitting either. Read on if you fancy making some of your own.

Personalised Towel :: How To ::

In need of inspiration for a last minute Father’s Day gift, that’s personal and will be cherished? Why not try your hand at embroidering your children’s drawings or writing onto a gym towel? Find a towel that has some nice thick panels along the edges that aren't fluffy, to provide a flat space for your embroidery. I've used this same technique to personalise hankies which would also make a great Father's Day gift.
 

 

Ingredients ::

• A towel, with nice thick panels
• Embroidery floss
• Embroidery needle
• Scissors
• Dressmakers carbon paper
• Embroidery hoop

Method::
First up, measure the panel on your towel. Mark out on a piece of paper this measurement to ensure your child(ren) don’t write or draw too large for the space you have available. For example, the panel on my towel measured 2.5cm high. As it was much longer than an A4 piece of paper I didn’t worry too much about the length, but I did draw two lines 2.5cm apart and asked my little boy to try to keep his writing within these lines. Milo, much more of the practical than creative sort, decided he’d much rather do some writing than drawing, so that’s what we went with!

When your child has finished, cut out the paper along the lines you drew, so it fits into your panel. Place your carbon paper dark side down on to the towel, with the drawing on top, over where you would like your embroidery to go. Carefully draw over the lines of your child’s drawing/writing with a pencil, pressing down just enough for the carbon to mark your towel.

Put the embroidery hoop over your area to embroider, making the fabric nice and taut like the skin of a drum.

Now it’s time to get stitching. Choose your colour and cut a length of thread about the length of your arm, any longer and you’re likely to get yourself in a tangle. If you’re using traditional 6 strand embroidery thread, you’ll probably want to half the strands so you’re only using 3 for your stitching, otherwise it can tend to be a little too thick. Thread your needle and begin, very simply all you need to do is sew over the lines you’ve just put on the towel using backstitching. To backstitch, make a simple straight stitch, any length you like, I usually do mine around 5mm, continue along your drawn line, but bring your needle up a little bit ahead (around the same space away as your original stitch was) and bring your needle back down in the same place as the end of your last stitch, repeat the last 2 steps all the way along your lines, changing colours as you like.

When you've finished all your stitching, wash to remove any leftover carbon lines and wrap ready for gifting.

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Harry Potter ::

Harry Potter hysteria has gripped our household recently. Milo is utterly besotted and so completely engrossed. I am not remotely ashamed to say that I myself am a massive fan of the series.

Please note there are mild spoilers below if you haven't read the books yet.

I actually started reading Milo The Philosopher's Stone a year ago now. It took a bit of time to get him hooked, we dipped in and out a bit, I found myself having to recap what was going on a lot. I think he was probably just a little too young back then (5).  However after my lovely friend Melody visited with her kids a few weeks ago and Milo got talking to her eldest son about his own love of Harry Potter, he decided we should get back to the book. Which we did and to be honest we were pretty close to finishing so finish it we did and moved directly on to The Chamber of Secrets.

Originally I said he couldn't watch any of the films until we finished all the books, but I realised that was a little unrealistic, plus I watched the films as they came out, before the series was even all published. So we borrowed the films from my favourite Harry Potter fan. Watched The Philosopher's Stone one Saturday morning, devoted that afternoon and evening to finishing The Chamber of Secrets in book form, before watching the film the next day.

I did say we would then have a little break from the books, to let Johnny do a little bit of bedtime reading (he's not a Harry Potter fan). However Milo insisted we go straight on to The Prisoner of Azkaban. Part of my reluctance to move straight on was due to being a little uneasy about how Milo might deal with the subject matter in this book. It was the first one of the series that really drew me in and the first one that made me cry. However he loved it all and was totally gripped throughout. Of course, Sirius is now his favourite character and I greatly fear how he'll cope when we make our way to through book 5.
We tend to talk about it a little as we go along, Milo asks questions and I run through parts with him I know are important to make sure he understands. Then over breakfast I ask him to give me a recap of last night's reading. To be honest he's so engrossed at the moment, it's mostly all we talk about all day.

My original plan was to hold off before starting The Goblet of Fire but he was so eager to move on and had dealt so well with everything so far, that we jumped straight in. I completely forgot how terrifying the first chapter was, not to mention the scenes at the Quidditch World Cup. I will say that Milo has never been a sensitive child in terms of fear, he'll cry a lot at the end of 'Up', but he's not one for nightmares. If he was I probably would be less inclined to read this book to him at this young age. I'll talk more about The Goblet of Fire once we've finished it, we're currently about half way through.

I really think that the first 3 books are great read aloud's for a 6 year old. I don't think he could read them to himself yet, I think a lot would get missed along the way and he'd probably get quickly bored, but to be honest, it's an almighty pleasure to read them to him anyway. I would probably be wary about moving on to book 4 with a 6 year old. Obviously you know your child best, but just be warned it can be a little frightening in places.

Other than the joy I'm getting in sharing something so close to my heart with him, the other bonus that has arisen from this is Milo's interest in reading to himself. He is a reasonable reader for his age (probably average) and he has always loved books, but when he goes to bed he would usually write or look at lego books, more than read any stories. However, I think Harry Potter has helped him to really understand how utterly wonderful the written word alone can be and he's taken to reading to himself in bed. Finding something that he could happily read to himself but was engaging enough was a bit of a task. Nothing we had on the shelves already seemed to be up to it so at the weekend we took a trip to the library.
We took home with us, The Worst Witch and Oliver Moon and the Potion Commotion. So as you can see we haven't moved too far from the theme of magic! He's stated on the Worst Witch and loving it so far. Any recommendations for age appropriate read alone books, much appreciated.