{good morning, two-year-old}

Today, Tilly is two -- a morning celebrated with a breakfast picnic, and a first play in her newly-finished, newly-furnished house.

Inside the house, she has a little kitchen, some animals, and a lovely miniature grand piano that our neighbours passed along. So far today, Tilly has been finding new and unusual combinations of putting these three elements together -- using a spatula to play a tune on the piano, cooking up a big pot of peanut-butter-and-animal soup, and sitting her little wooden tiger on top on the piano so that she can serenade him.

Now having a little midday rest, Tilly will no doubt be all-energy again in time for the dinner party she's having tonight for her friends. Let's hope they like stewed elephant.

 

 

And, if you'd like to see a little of us all in (stop) motion, here's a video that I've made, just remembering the last few weeks of playhouse building and decorating. 

Watch out for:

• Justin recreating one of his favourite Simpson's moments.
• Tilly walking the plank.
• me proving that IKEA kitchen scissors can do anything. Yes, even cut roof shingles.
• a lot of dancing cups, and a Marmite jar that likes to twirl.

Enjoy!

{stop-motion and a big red balloon}

A new life goal: learn how to make a stop-motion video. Um, and go back in time to do it at our wedding. Hope you enjoy this little bit of happiness as much as I did:

Bryony + Christopher's Wedding in Stop-Motion | Bay of Islands, NZ from Bayly & Moore on Vimeo.

{in progress: 'on the tube' baby quilt}

Sometimes, inspiration hits so hard that there's nothing to do but give in, right away, dropping everything else and running with it. 

That's how I felt when I saw this Tokyo Subway quilt by Elizabeth Hartman of Oh, Fransson!. She provides full instructions for making the quilt, including just how many thousands of squares to cut... 

 (image source: Oh, Fransson!)

...but I loved the idea of designing my own snaking, bendy train lines. I also loved the idea of scaling it all down a bit, and making a baby/toddler-sized quilt instead. Oh, and I like to imagine these are London Underground trains instead (so please 'mind the gap' between some of the blocks).

The idea was to slowly but surely cut out the 500 squares I needed over the next few months, a few each evening, leaving plenty of time to sew it together before our December due date. However, it was all just a bit too exciting, and one manic night of cutting led to four manic days of sewing, and within a week the whole top was done.

So much for slowly but surely... but then again I do have an awful habit of just making quilt tops and never backing or binding them, so at least there's a good few months left to get all that (boring) stuff done. Until then, Tilly is putting the top to good use, driving her Brio trains up and down the tracks and stopping at each 'squirrel crossing' square (made out of a pair of Justin's old boxers) to avoid any casualties.

{texas in bloom}

A little glimpse of our flower bed, happily growing and blooming.

The giant coneflowers were for Mother's Day just a few weeks ago -- huge and daisy-like, with petals that fold back and down to make unusual cones. The garlic, we have yet to work out if we'll actually be able to eat, but the flowers are nice nonetheless! The borage -- only just sprouted -- came back with us, as a packet of seeds, from England, and should give lovely blue flowers to put in our summer drinks. The achillea only came in packets of "mystery colour" and so I'm rather pleased to see it coming out white.

Patiently waiting for the next planting season, we have fennel, marigolds, nasturtiums, "demon" peppers, Thai basil, and red spring onions... and I'm dreaming of a big purple buddleia to bring in some serious butterfly action!

{annual summer knitting}

Every year, as it gets hot, I'm overcome by the illogical impulse to knit a thick and woolly blanket. In 2010, it was a little faded pink, basket-weave project for Tilly. Last year, it was a gigantic patchwork throw for my sister, Alice, to take to university. And this year, I bring you the grey stripes -- a baby blanket for our forthcoming little winter elf.

Though the knitting is now all finished -- happily, it worked out that I could cosy up with it while in chilly England this May -- all those stripes means a few dozen ends to weave in. And end-weaving-in is top of my list of unexciting projects. But hopefully by December, it'll be ready to wrap around a new little person... you know, if Texas temperatures ever decide to drop down to blanket-wearing weather!

{all work and no play... yet}

This is the house that Justin built.

Perhaps you remember it as the giant pile of wood that I showed you in September? (Inspired by a little playhouse we saw while on holiday in Denmark) Well, that's almost exactly what it still was until last weekend. Almost all this -- walls, studs, screws, paint -- in three days. I keep having to pop out into the garden and touch it, just to make sure it's really, really real.

There's still plenty more to do -- several more coats of paint on the inside, and a whole roof to go -- and then the proper fun can begin. Curtains! Pictures! Little window boxes full of bright little flowers! Oh, and Tilly will probably enjoy it a bit, too.

Our final deadline is the 29th of June -- Tilly's second birthday, when hopefully a little crowd of friends will help her warm her new home with apple-juice toasts and a little summer picnic!