New Bear - well actually its a guinea pig!

I did it! I made some little mohair guinea pigs. Following on from an earlier post about how I found that secret stash of mohair scraps, I realised that a lot of them would work well as guinea pig colours. A little bit of brain storming and scribbled designing later - and the result are these two sweet cartoon-like mohair guinea pigs. I was aiming for 'realism' with the shape - but alas the heads are too squat to be realistic. But I am actually really happy with them despite this. I think I'll keep tweaking the patterns with each new piggy I make though - but that's just human nature I think!

She can crawl!

And she's off and racing!

My dad (Grumpa) and his wife (Nana) popped around this morning for a visit. I was just showing them how keen Chelsea is for Easter eggs when she surprised us all by actually crawling for them. She hasn't stopped since! All afternoon she has been discovering book shelves and our DVD collection and electrical cords and all things generally fun and/or messy!

I feel really mean when i can't let her play with the Easter eggs once she has crawled to them because of their size (perfect for getting wedged in her throat). But i actually think taking them away each time she reaches them has turned it into more of a game and made her more determined to get to them!

Here comes a whole new chapter in our lives i think!

New Bear - Lacey

This is little Lacey. She is made from one of the most fun mohair fabric's I've ever worked with. The piece used for Lacey was a left over from some bigger bears I made a few years ago. I am a hopeless hoarder, and so was delighted when I found a secret stash of offcuts in one of my craft boxes. The next few bears I'll make will be from some of these awesome offcuts too. I think I am at my most creative when faced with the challenge of limited colours and limited size pieces. Some of my best work have been bears made from 'scraps'!

Lets pretend to be tourists

In a snap decision this morning, Mark and i decided to take Chelsea into the city on the train. Her first time on a train. And her first time in the city. She was such a good girl too. We had to rush to make the train in time, so her feed got cut short (she got the other side while we sat looking out over the river on the South Bank river walk. Then in another snap decision we decided to have a ride on the Big Wheel. A first time for all of us.

It is seriously high! I was a little freaked, but Chelsea and Mark loved it.

Easter Jumping

We had a lovely picnic at the beach today with my family. The weather was amazing! I let the waves splash over Chelsea's feet and she loved it. And there was lots of jumping... as you'll see in the photos!

A different kind of sewing

I decided that i should sew an outfit for Chelsea. In the big batch of hand-me-down clothes i got from my mum were two outfits i had sewn for my younger siblings 10 and 7 years ago. So i knew i had done it before. Just not in a very long time!!

Sewing clothing is similar to bear making, but different enough to prove a bit of a challenge. I 'stole' the pattern from another commercially made outfit of Chelsea's, giving it a few tweaks to make it look more like i wanted it to look (and a little less complicated!). Cut it out. Made some more tweaks. Started sewing - yet more tweaks... a bit of unpicking. A bit of re-designing. A bit of experimentation and trial and error - and finally the outfit was done!

Its like an oversized romper, or one-piece bloomers, made in a sweet 'old fashioned' butterfly and flower print of muted creams, pinks and blues. It has two butterfly buttons down the back and some buttons and snap fasteners between the legs for easy nappy changes. I'm pretty happy with it. Some bits are a bit uneven, but I think it's great for a prototype!

New Bear - Erno

Whipped this little dude up last night. (I make it sound so easy don't I :P) My plan was for him to be a new line of Emma's Bear kits. I've measured out how much of each fabric is required (with a little extra in case of errors), and have his pattern all drawn up, and instruction booklet at the ready... so look out world, there's going to be an 'Erno Invasion'!