Little Miss doll

A friend recently gave birth to her second lovely little girl. I have been trying to decide on a good gift for her older daughter to celebrate becoming a big sister. After seeing so many of the beautiful homemade dolls out there, I was motivated to try to make one myself. I could not find a pattern that was quite right for what I was thinking of so I decided to make it up myself and here she is! I have nick-named her 'Little-Miss' because well, I think she looks like a little miss! She is made out of various cotton fabrics with carded wool stuffing. She has a little heart for a mouth and her new owners name embroidered on her bum. 

A baby shower

Yesterday was a good friends baby shower. It was a lovely afternoon with silly games and afternoon tea of club sandwiches and cupcakes- very ladylike. I have been making a conscious effort for the last year to *try* to make my gifts rather than buy, so in accordance with this, I made the above baby shower gift. The knitted top is a Milo vest by my favorite designer Tikki. The bunny was inspired by this bunny on Kelly's blog Reclaiming me and the pattern was from here. I even made the gift bag by downloading the paper pattern from the net!

This Moment

{this moment} - 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. 

A little green dress

Isn't it lovely? This beautiful little dress was made by the very talented Kelly at Reclaiming Me . It is made from a gorgeous green floral vintage fabric. She kindly gifted it to us. As soon as Holly saw it, she got very excited, as Holly LOVES dresses. She instantly wanted to put it on and was more than happy to pose for an impromptu photo shoot. 

Thank you Kelly!

The best bits

I think kids have the right idea, take the best bits in life and leave the bits you don't like so much. Holly is a great one for doing this. Take the above cupcake. She carefully nibbled off the icing (which lets face it really IS the best part of any cake), before carefully placing the rest of the cupcake back on the plate. 

It got me thinking about the best bits of my life and the bits I could discard. I would happy take the toddler laughs and kisses but discard the tantrums. I would happily take the baby smiles but leave the poopy nappies. I would take my home but leave the house cleaning. I would take the chocolate but leave behind the calories!

Holly can do it, so why not me? Alas, I think that is just one of the privileges of childhood. 

But if you could, what best bits would you take?

A Marys market day

It is always a good day when Marys Market comes to town and today was no exception. I picked up a few fabulous things for the girls and me-

A little t-shirt dress from Scarlett and Victor. It is a bit big for Holly at the moment but should fit her well next summer.

Two playhouse kids bodysuits for Isla, perfect for this winter.

A lovely Scarlett and Victor dress for me ( was a real steal!)

A playhouse kids pinafore dress for Holly. Could not go past this one as Holly is a shoe addict and it really is too cute!

For the love of her sister

We have been making the most of these balmy autumn days in the garden. The little one was lying in the shade watching the leaves move gently above her, while Miss Holly was being busy as toddlers do. Then, Holly came over  to where Isla lay, and quietly placed a gift beside her sister. 

A kind gesture from one sister to another. Such a special sweet moment for a mother. 

Bloom

I have finally finished knitting up the bloom dress by Tikki for Holly and it looks great (if I do say so myself!).  Holly loves it too. She saw it hanging over the back of the chair the morning after I had finished it and instantly had to put it on!

I also learnt an important lesson knitting this- *do not attempt lace knitting with small children present*. I ended up having to undo and redo several sections of this dress before I learnt above mentioned lesson and left knitting it until after the kids were asleep. 

Our little house

When Holly was a baby, we bought a new house. Well I say new because it was new to us but in reality, the house is over 100 years old. Now in some parts of the world this may not be considered very old, but here in New Zealand, where European settlers only started to emigrate about 200 years ago, it is old. Most of our family thought we were mad to move here, to this run down old cottage. But, two things sold me on this place, one- it is only a hop, skip and a jump to the waterfront and two- it felt like home. I have lived in lots of houses but this was the first place that I have ever felt attached to. It did need work done though and after living through one cold winter here we decided that we really did need to get onto it. So shortly before Isla was born we got the builders in to do some big renovations for us. Thought I would share some of our before and after pics-

Bathroom (which was a laundry) before-

Bathroom after-

Lounge before-

Lounge after-

Kitchen before (was a bedroom)-

Kitchen after-

Holly's room before (was a bathroom)-

Holly's room after-

We have largely finished the inside of the house now, just a few little bits and bobs but nothing major. Next job is to tackle the outside..... when the budget permits.

Treasure

Today, Holly and I had the opportunity for a little one on one time, such a special treat! We had a lovely time, we went to a local bead shop to make some 'treasure'. My girl is a bit of a magpie, she likes all things that sparkle so this was like heaven to her. 

She loved choosing her beads that we could make her something special with. Finally we settled on some cute little glass rainbow beads. Holly enjoyed getting the beads out while I threaded them. We ended up making her a wee necklace and bracelet which she proudly wore home. 

To finish off the trip, we stopped for a quick treat, a coffee and fluffy at a nearby cafe. Bliss! 

Love letter to my Baby Isla

My sweet girl, you are growing so fast, nearly 3 months old already, how time flies! It seems so recently I was eagerly watching the calendar awaiting your due date, that day came and went and I could not believe it! I had thought for sure you were going to come early but you, my sweet, had other plans. Luckily for me, you were born the following day. Now, 3 months on, it is hard to imagine what life was like without you in our family. You are such an amazing little girl. You have started to smile and laugh. You love to watch your sister, everything she does is so interesting to you. You love it when I tickle you under your chin. You love it when I kiss your tummy. You think it is fun when I hold you up high over my head then lower you down for a kiss. Playing under your black and white mobile is your favorite pass time. Your daddy is so proud of you and thinks you look alot like him. He is probably right, your features are fine like his. At the moment your eyes are still blue, we are waiting with anticipation to see what colour they will end up. You hate sitting in the car, making car trips not very fun at the moment. Some days you like to nap and some days you don't but that is ok because you are a great little sleeper most nights, even sleeping through to morning occasionally. You enjoy watching the world from the front pack more than from the push chair.  You are such a snugly girl, who likes nothing better than being held, cuddled and kissed, which is lucky because I love giving you these things. You make me smile, you make me laugh, you make my heart fill with love, my sweet, sweet girl. x

A day at the zoo

To celebrate Holly's second birthday we decided a trip to our local wildlife reserve would be fun. Holly loves animals and was very excited when we explained about all the different animals she would get to see on her 'special day'.

We bought some bird food which Holly enjoyed feeding to them with some help from her Pop.

These were the smallest horses I think I have ever seen. I thought Holly would enjoy them because they were so tiny but she really was not fussed on them and gave them a wide birth.

I like to read a lovely little book called 'the foolish tortoise' to Holly so we took a special photo of this little turtle to take home.

In fact, Holly loved the turtles so much she didn't want to leave and added it as a new word to her quickly expanding vocabulary.

Even Isla had a lovely day and was very taken with watching the birds over her Nan's shoulder.

When all the walking got too much, Holly hitched a ride on Dad's knee as he is in a wheelchair at the moment following surgery.  But poor Pop had a even heavier load to push!

It was a lovely way to celebrate the life of our lovely girl, with close family and friends. The weather could not have been better, another long balmy day under the southern sky, bliss.

Wooly mail

I think I have coined a new phrase here. I was trying to think of a good term to refer to receiving yarn in the mail. When you receive a cloth nappy it s often referred to as 'fluffy mail', so I have decided that receiving wool in the mail should from here forth be referred to as 'wooly mail'.

Anyway, I received this lovely little parcel in the mail from creative outlet. These yarns are all from their hand dyed wools and the colours are amazing. Now I just have to decided what to knit with them..... mmmm decisions.

Holly's day

Today my sweet girl turned 2 years old. What a difference 2 years can make. This time 2 years ago, I was a new mother to a darling 9lb 3oz girl with straight dark hair and dark grey eyes, now she is a very active, blond curly haired, brown eyed toddler! She has bought me such joy, I have never smiled more than I have these last 2 years. I am a very blessed mother to have my sweet girls.

So, here is 2 years in photo's-

Happy Birthday Holly!! - We love you!!

One red balloon

We have been having some lovely warm days here lately and what better way to make use of these lovely days than to get out in the garden and play. Holly and I had a fabulous time with this red balloon, chasing it around the garden as the wind wiped it around unpredictably. She would laugh and squeal as she tried to catch it. We nearly lost it over the neighbors fence a couple of times  but luckily the wind always blew it back. I will miss these fun days in the sun as the weather cools with the onset of autumn.