{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!

{photography amongst the bluebonnets: a beginner's guide}

As any Texan will tell you, it's rather a tradition around here to take family portraits in the wildflowers that grow alongside the roads. Justin was away, but Tilly, a few friends and I took a little road-trip down to the town of Independence one morning, to frolic, picnic and take photos in the fields.

This is what happened when I tried to sit Tilly down in a nice fat clump of flowers, as I could see the other families were doing:

Major scowls... and then attempted escape! So, as perhaps there are other families who can't magically produce smiles out of thin air, these are the things that I found did work for getting a semi-decent photo in the bluebonnets.

1. Find a spot far enough away from any roads that you can let the children run free. No matter how good your photos, no one wants to remember the day little Suzie was squashed by an eighteen-wheeler.

2. Wear your running shoes. As your children run towards something -- a butterfly, a family member, someone's discarded lunch -- sprint ahead, quite far ahead, and then turn and get a shot of them running towards you.

3. Accept, and work with, the back-of-the-head shot (from behind, no one can see them scowling, at least). Try to angle yourself so that the wildflowers fill in the background, and it might look as if your child is gazing thoughtfully across the meadow (when they might really be turning away in a sulk).

4. Find something for them to hold onto. A fence, a tree trunk, a flower. A large enough prop will prevent them running off so quickly, and the little props serve to hold their attention for a second, while you snap away.

5. Remember, one good shot is enough. You're probably not going to wallpaper your house with this roll of film -- just one, lovely photo to frame or save is all you need.

6. But... take lots. My 400 photos yielded less than a handful that I really liked.

7. Try something different. Lie the child down and take a photo from above (if it isn't too muddy). Throw them in the air a bit to get them laughing. If they're a little older, perhaps let them try a self-portrait?

8. Bring help. Bonny and Jonathan, who joined us, were a wonderful help, serving as safety officers, entertainers, photographers, subjects, and, perhaps most importantly, navigators to actually get us there.

And for those of you with children who will sit and smile, well, perhaps there is a secret that you could share with the rest of us? 

{abstract art, junior}

This Christmas, we decided to take advantage of Tilly's new colouring craze. I saw this lovely idea on Pinterest, to frame a child's art along with a photograph of them creating it. 

So, out came the crayons and the camera, and we got to work.

(Can you spot Justin's drawing of a baseball bat bat? Genius)

Of course, when buying the frame, I didn't think to check it was the right size for my photo -- a 5 x 7 frame for a 4 x 6 photo. Rather than leaving blank space around the photo, I cut out an extra big piece of art -- enough to fill the lower frame, and serve as a mat for the photo in the top frame. I love how the colouring overlaps -- because, really, what fun is it to stay within the lines?

Signed and dated, of course, for future reminiscing pleasure. It seems we've got another lover of red in our midst...

Note: Our quilt for this month is finished -- have a look here.

Also Note: I was lucky enough to be a part of The Pickled Herring's Scandinavian Christmas again this year. You can read my post on the Danish nisse here. 

{pinterest challenge: woolly letters}

Starting to think I'm going Pinsane? Maybe. But with 3682 pins, I couldn't stop at recreating just one. I'm hoping I can stop at five -- that seems like it should Pinough for now, right?

I fell in love with these wool-wrapped words, originally posted here. As you might remember, I've gone on about how I love capturing handwriting in stitches and stencils, and now in pipe cleaners. It's true -- the way you shape letters, even with an awkward piece of fuzzy-covered metal, takes on your personality, somehow. That, I love.

The word love, on the other hand, wasn't quite doing it for me. Not that we don't like love, or need to remind ourselves of it -- it just wasn't screaming "make me!" 

We're in the process of giving Tilly's room a bit of a makeover, and, strange as it might sound for a little girl, we're going to use a lot of grey. Grey, white, and, of course, some lovely bright red! With those colours in mind, I had a go at bending Tilly's name out of pipe cleaners, and wrapping it up nice and warm for the rare chilly weather we're enjoying.

Something else Pinished -- four pins down, 3678 to go...

{pinterest challenge: ruffles}

This tutorial -- seen on, you guessed it, Pinterest -- was for a ruffled tote bag to take Trick or Treating. With a different set of colours, though, it was easily adapted for a new season of celebration.

Don't know how to make ruffles? You will after sewing this bag. (Note: you'll probably also have discovered how NOT to do it!) Tilly has been trotting around with ours today, and I love how it looks as if she's wearing a floor-length flamenco dress!

P.S. Looking for a free Christmas present? I'm giving away a new piece from my shop over here -- stop by, leave a comment, and win yourself an original bit of Red Red.

{confessions of tillyless tuesdays}

I was just going to show you the sweet little baby head with its sweet little baby mullet and the progress on tilly tuesdays: volume II, but then I decided I should tell you the truth. The truth is, I haven't consciously taken a photo of Tilly on a Tuesday for sixteen weeks. There have been plenty of photos, and there have been the usual amount of Tuesdays, but if they've occurred together, it's been purely by chance.

If you remember, tilly tuesdays: volume one was a handmade book of photographs, taken each Tuesday of Tilly's first year. Ah, younger Astrid, and her need for perfection. Once, late on a Tuesday evening, she did the unthinkable -- the most taboo act of motherhood -- she woke a baby just for an authentic Tuesday photo. (Yes, I can hear your collective gasp, echoing around the world... don't worry, I've learnt my lesson.)

But earlier today, wanting to read an email without being asked to see "beh-bee? beh-bee?" (and then screamed at when the email had no baby in it), I pulled down volume one. Fifty-two weeks of beh-bee, in handy sit-on-the-floor format. Peace. And then I realised --  today is Tuesday, and I hadn't yet taken a photo. I didn't take a photo last Tuesday, the Tuesday before, or any of the fourteen great-great-grand-Tuesdays that came before that.

Luckily, present-day Astrid cares very much less about perfection. "Ah, close enough," was my mantra of the afternoon photo sorting, along with "If I tell myself enough that the dates are accurate, I won't know the difference." Sorry, future Astrid, it doesn't sound like I've got much faith in your memory. At least I've labelled the book for you so you'll know which child is in the photos. You're welcome.

Okay, enough words. You're here for the photos, I know.

While the first volume was full of milestones like Tilly smiling or eating food for the first time, this year the firsts are of a rather different nature. Two months ago: the first time she sailed around a miniature version of the world in a Lego boat. A month ago: the first time she picked up a ladybird. A week ago: the first time she really played with a friend, rather than just trying to hit him on the head with toys (sorry, Ewan). 

And that is why I have to keep it up -- so that all these photos don't fade into the jumble of "when she was little," but get to tell their stories and take their place in this weekly history of a person. Well, that, and I love the thought of teenage Tilly going to the photobooth each week to take her picture, twenty-year-old Tilly taking blurry self-portraits on a 'vintage' iPhone, eighty-year-old Tilly sleeping in a room full of filing cabinets (a la Bill Cunningham) filled totally with Tuesday photos... 

...let's see, 80 years x 52 weeks = 4160 photos. Okay, she'd probably just have them on a CD. 

{matchy matchy}

Inspired by all the memory games I showed you the other day, I made this little animal matching game for Tilly. It's sort of cheating -- rather than make the whole thing myself, I simply made a board to go with a Clothkits Noah's Ark that I used to play with as a child.

What a relief to not have to make new animals! And it's sort of lovely to turn one toy into two toys. 

Maybe you've got a similar set of animals that could double as game pieces? Or, it could be fun to use household objects and have more of a scavenger hunt game -- make a game board that has spots for a fork, a hairbrush, a banana, the TV remote!

To make it was simply a case of drawing around each animal onto fabric (I used fabrics that roughly matched the colour of the animal, to make matching a little easier), cutting them out and sewing them onto a square of white linen.

Then, to increase the future educational value, I added freezer-paper-stenciled animal names.

Here's the board:

And here it is with all the animals in place:

Yes, there was quite a discussion about how to say 'zebra'. We're going to have one poor little confused baby when it comes to the letter 'z'.

The sheep seems to be Tilly's favourite. I wonder if all those grey fluff lines remind her of the sheepskin she can't sleep without.

The crocodile is Bella's favourite -- I always seem to be pulling him out from her jaws. Luckily, tooth marks only seem to give him more character.

Tilly was very excited by the whole thing...

...for a few seconds. And then off she went to tip over the furniture, empty cupboards, and rip magazines apart. 

How lovely that putting the game away is as simple as loading the animals back onto the ark.

I've got a feeling this'll be perfect if we ever have forty days of rain.

{birthday envelopes}

It's birthday season around here! To hold the cards, I sewed up a couple of felt envelopes for Tilly's friends, and figured while I was at it, I'd tick another project off the first birthday list for Tilly. 

Similar to the Valentine's envelope, this version is a little more baby friendly, with a Velcro fastening for easy access. Want to make one yourself? Or, a whole set for your little postman? Here's how:

Materials: 

7" x 12" piece of felt in your choice of colour

Small scraps of felt in other colours (for the stamp)

Embroidery thread

5" length of sew-on Velcro

You can choose whether to hand-sew or machine your envelope. I hand-stitched the name and stamp, and machined the edges, but it would work just as well all hand-sewn or all-machined (if you are confident with free-motion sewing).

Cut your felt to 7" by 12". This is the perfect size for holding a notecard (A6, I believe). Cut triangles from two of the corners, along a shorter edge, (1 1/2" along the sides).

Fold your envelope so that the bottom edge (without snipped corners) reaches to the lower corner of the triangle along the top edge (the bottom of the 'flap'). This is the shape your final envelope will be. Place pins along the fold, and along the bottom of the flap. You should only pin through the top layer of felt, not all the way through.

This will mark the space for the front of your envelope, and show you where to sew on the name and stamp. Unfold the envelope and sew on a name in the middle, using backstitch or chain stitch (as above), or your machine if you're cleverer than me!

Assemble your stamp. Cut a 1" x 1 1/2" rectangle for the base, either using pinking shears or simply scalloping the edges with your scissors. From contrasting colours, cut a 3/4" x 1 1/4" rectangle to go on top of the base, and an emblem of some sort for the middle.

As these will be given on birthdays, I added the babies' ages (one) on my stamps, and a heart for Tilly's (as she'll be using the same one again next year!)

Stitch the second rectangle to the top layer of felt, in the upper right-hand corner of the front of your envelope. There is no need to stitch the base, as the second rectangle will hold it in place.

Stitch on your number, heart, initial, or whatever emblem you've picked.

Now, for the fastener. Cut a 5" length from both the hook and the loop tape. Pin the hook side to the backside of your envelope, 1/4" from the top edge.

Now, refold your envelope (bringing the bottom edge up) and fold the top flap down to see where it meets the back of the envelope. Pin the loop tape in that spot.

Sew both pieces of Velcro in place.

Pin the edges of the envelope together.

Sew along the bottom edge of the flap, just above the top of the backside of the envelope. Do NOT sew the back to the front!

Continue sewing round the other three sides of the envelope, sewing front and back together.

Your envelope should look like this! All ready to fill with birthday cards, and to be used by little postmen for years to come.

What a colourful day at the post-office! And, unlike regular envelopes, it should stand up to a bit of chewing...