Long Summer Days

Sat uploading these photos listening to the persistent rain that has not stopped since Saturday night and has kept us hauled up in the house, its hard to believe that we spent such a lovely long day on the beach on Saturday. It wasn't the warmest of summers days but it was bright and dry, and we made the most of it as unlike the heat and the weeks without rain that we experienced in July, August so far is proving unpredictable so days like Saturday have got to be made the most of.
And the Sea Holly on the sand dunes is just amazing, obviously a plant that is enjoying our Summer weather so far!

An Epic Day

The last few weeks have been all about birthdays and party's! Our oldest turned 8!
I still can't get use to the idea. The more I look at him, and see him playing with his friends the older he seems, though his emotions are never far from the surface and there are many occasions, often daily when I still want to wrap my arms around him and protect him from the tribulations of growing up. I have a feeling that this strong urge will never leave me.
We wanted to celebrate his birthday with a party, but trying to think of something that would entertain a group of 8-9 year olds mainly boys was difficult. We finally settled on a party in the woods, complete with bows and arrows, war paint, the making of head dresses, hot dogs, the toasting of marshmallows, a good old fashioned game of piñata all wrapped up with a water fight! The preparation for all of this started a good couple of weeks prior to the party and began to occupy any spare time we had, but all the work and the added stress of having to borrow cars to get to the woods as our car broke down three days before the party and then on the journey to the woods coming to a standstill on the road due to an accident and having to turn around when they closed the road and find an alternative route across the moors, only to eventually reach the woods an hour after setting out, and watching the excitement drain from our birthday boys face when we explained to him that there was a chance that his friends may not be able to reach the party, and then the joy when eventually 40 minutes after the party 'officially' started his first friends turning up, and the thankfulness that came flooding over me at the sheer determination of his friends parents to get their kids to the party was all worth it when he friends described the party as 'Epic'!
Yes indeed I think it was Epic, a day full of emotions and a day full of memories that won't be forgotten in a long while.

An all too brief getaway!

We spent the bank holiday weekend at my sisters house. Only an hour away in the Devon countryside, and yet that hours drive made the kids feel like they had been away on a short holiday, and for my self and my OH being away from our house and garden meant we had a chance to relax without feeling guilty that we weren't attending the many jobs that we need to do! We spent an afternoon in a field playing with bows and arrows which has become the latest favourite with the boys and a lovely Sunday rediscovering Rosemoor.  An amazing 65 acre garden that we last visited at least 6 years ago and has grown and been improved especailly with regard to children.
We had such a lovely time at 'Aunty Suzie's' it was just such a shame it was all too brief.

I must now point out that we have three most gorgeous children and not just the beautiful daughter pictured above!!! These pictures are a reminded that my children are growing up fast and that I need to make the most of being able to photograph them whilst young, especially when they smile, giggle and explore as unfortunately as they grow up they get faster and faster and spend less time standing still and become less tolerant of being constantly photographed! I failed this time to get a nice picture of my boys but I won't be put off!
Oh no this has just made me realise that I need to get more cunning with my camera!

{First 8 photos taken on phone via Instagram}

Girls Explorer Clothes

 

Yes I'm still on the subject of fashion! But this time kids, well girls to be exact. Diane von Furstenberg and Baby Gap’s “The Limited Edition Explorer Collection” was launched today and it is a wonderful collection of clothes. Now it might be something to do with the fact that I have a particular crush on yellow and green at the moment, or maybe that the large geometric patterns used remind me of some of the quilting fabric collections that are popular at the moment, either way I love this collection. It is full of colourful, exotic prints and patterns. It's modern, yet still has a lovely playful, young feel to it at the same time, which I think is often missing in kids clothes. The t-shirt style dress would be perfect for my 3 year old daughter. The simple design of the dress, does not restrict movement in anyway and is so easy to wear whether on its own or over shorts or leggings, exactly what an active little one needs! My favourite of the collection though is the shirt dresses I can imagine these looking beautiful on older girls, and I really wish, that they came in adult sizes as I'm sure they would look beautiful on us women too!

Lucky Winnings!

I'm not an avid fan of facebook, I tend to dapple a bit here and there, I have a personal page purely because I have to, to be able to have a business page on there, and I'm not the best at keeping my 'A Crafty Hen' page up-to-date. I guess it's a bit like this blog, I tend to come and go! I suppose a lot of it is depends on how busy I am with work, the busier I am the less I blog or update my facebook page. This Easter I decided to close my shops so I could concentrate on the kids and also try and get some of the pressing jobs around the house done. Also having a little bit more spare time has meant I've had a chance to catch up on blog reading and to also explore other people's pages on facebook and that's when I found Beetle Cherry's page full of her wonderful illustrations, and her giveaway. And what a giveaway, for liking and sharing her page which I would have happily done anyway, I got entered into her giveaway and really couldn't believe my luck when she said I had won!

And here it is, amongst the gifts are gorgeous cards, that I can't imagine parting with!!
A lovely wooden feather brooch, that I can't wait to wear, and a beautiful print of a girl Dressed up as a Red Indian, which will go on my daughters wall along with some other cards and prints that I've been collecting for her. Such an amazing and generous giveaway, I feel very lucky to have been sent it. You can find Beetle Cherry's gorgeous items in here shop here I am very tempted to get this print for my sons bedroom 'The Tiny Boat' so they don't feel left out!

For the love of Organic....Part 1!

I've been slowly reopening my 'shops' back up after closing them for a while whilst we went on a camping trip, and as I've opened them up I've had a good look at them and it's made me question a couple of things. At the moment I have a folksy shop, an Etsy shop and a Bigcartel shop but I'm beginning to wonder where I'm going with a couple of them, more on this later though, as I think I have a lot of pondering over it first to do! The other thing I have noticed is how many of my items are now made using Organic cotton fabric, especially in my Etsy shop which has become the shop that I update the most and put my 'one off' items in.

Luxurious Baby Bib Set Bunting

The use of organic cotton has not particularly been a concious decision. I spend a lot of time browsing fabric sites and making notes on forth coming collections that I like and prints that suit my work and more and more I find that the ones I like tend to be organic. 

Luxurious Baby Burp Cloth Set Bunting

I am drawn towards nature and animal prints so its not surprising that the first collection I fell deeply in love with was Circa 52 by Monaluna for Birch fabric and especially their Woodland Party print. It came a firm favourite in my Etsy shop as well, selling well and I was so disappointed when I came to order more and found that it had all sold out! I have since managed to find and buy 1 yard! and have started to make one off bibs using it like the bib below and I hope to have the sets above back in stock before Christmas.

 Baby Bib Woodland Bunting

Luxurious Organic Baby Set Forest Animals

The second collection that I was drawn to was Ed Emberley's first fabric collection 'Happy Drawing' which was brought out my Cloud 9 fabrics. I love the quirky animals and his scribble print has become a firm favourite. From the moment I heard Cloud 9 were releasing this collection I knew I would like it as his 'How to draw' books are a favourite in our house with the kids and myself, they are just perfect for any parent who gets asked by their child
'Can you draw me a............"! 

 Lavender Raindrop

We own 3 of his books and have a fourth Ed Emberley's Drawing Book Of Halloween on it's way for my Halloween obsessed son! I love the drawings of the foxes, raccoons and elephants and what is so lovely with his 'Forest Friend' print is that you keep spotting animals that you hadn't noticed before.

Organic Baby Bib Grey Elephants

At the moment I have a selection of baby accessories made using Emberley's prints available in my shops with more on their way. Cloud 9 are also releasing Ed Emberley's 2nd collection 'Happy Drawing Too' in October, so I'm looking forward to seeing that. Cloud9 also have a lot of new fabric designers working with them with collections due out towards the end of the year. It seems to be a very exciting time in the 'Organic Cotton' world!

Part II of my 'For the love of Organic' coming very soon!

One Summers Day

I am sat here 10am on a Monday morning in July, I can hear the rain pouring down outside and I have the lights on as it is so dark and grey. I am dressed in jeans and a long sleeved top which wouldn't be out of place on a winter's day and I am surrounded by piles of laundry waiting for a dry day to get washed. The fact that it is mid way through July is crazy, doesn't bear thinking about. Only 2 more days until the boys break up from pre-school and school and the 'summer holidays' commence. So far the British Summer here in Devon has been awful, the wettest and dullest that I can remember, so it was amazing yesterday to wake not only to some sunshine but also to a weather forecast that showed no rain for the day! 

With a chance of a day without rain there was only one thing the family wanted to do and that was to head to the beach.

We can only hope that 'Summer' decides to appear again soon and we can get out and about a bit more. For my oldest it did make a lovely ending to what has been his Birthday week! He turned 7 on Wednesday. Seven I can't believe it, it seems so grown up. I have also noticed that turning 7 seems to mean that taking a photo of him has become very difficult, in fact quite rare! I can't quite decide whether it is because he rarely stays still or if he no longer thinks it's 'cool' to have his mum constantly taking pictures of him! Either way I feel his birthday passed by with only a few photo reminders but hopefully his memories will stay with him for a while well at least until his next birthday!

  

Sewing for flexible kids!

I really can't believe how quickly my youngest is growing up, she will be 3 in October which will be upon us before we know it, which quite frankly scares me. But however much I wish she could stay 2 forever I have also been quite keen to get her potty trained and to finally wave goodbye to nappies! So in the school holiday just gone we had a third attempt at potty training and this time I'm so pleased to say it clicked!

Potty training rather highlighted the lack of trousers that my daughter has and also how difficult some kids trousers are for them to pull up and down, so this weekend I decided it was about time I made some trousers for her. I made the mistake to ask what colour trousers she would like, of course her answer was 'pink' so we set about raiding my 'pink' stash but I needed a meter of fabric due to the length of the trousers and my pink stash is very limited so we eventually settled on this lovely bright fabric. 

The great thing about the busy print and the colours is that even though she has spent the weekend wearing them, playing in the garden, playing on the floor etc they don't show the dirt, and with there simple elasticated waist she can pull them up and down easily herself. I used an existing pair of her trousers to make a pattern and they came together very quickly. 

I'm pleased to say even though she refused to try them on when I was sewing them so I could check there length she now seems happy with them. And after jumping, running and bending in them they have passed her 'flexi' test and have been approved. 

I have promised her that the next pair will be pink so are now on the search for some pink fabric that gets the approval from us both, that I think could take a while!