{how to have fun and learn nothing}

We are in quarantine, keeping our coughing, snotty mess of a life to ourselves. To celebrate our fourth day of seclusion, we turned to the humble pompom for entertainment.

It was supposed to be an exercise in colour sorting. But who wants to put things into muffin tins when it's so much fun to tip them out?

So, we invented a game. 

All you need is pompoms, a funnel and a muffin tin. 

Once you've got the hang of it, you have to come over and play it with me, because really, Tilly and Bella aren't much competition. And I need a challenge. (Well, or a dose of reality)

{the human wreath}

A string of Nepalese pom-poms arrived in the post this week from my lovely Mum, all red and felty and studded with beads.

And with one day left in April, and no wreaths yet made for my wreath of the month challenge, I am resorting to wreathing myself in pom-poms. 

More effort will be made next month, I promise.

Tilly's Mobile

The mobile is complete! And, I managed to stay within the limits of my challenge to myself: don't buy any new materials to make it, and don't unpack any more boxes to find supplies.

Here is what I ended up using:

• 6 pipe cleaners
• 1 long piece of recycled ribbon from a Christmas present from my Mum
• fishing wire
• 7 felted balls
• 1 small square of white felt
• stuffing
• some of that string/ribbon you can buy that has pink pompoms attached

The hardest thing, really, was making the hoop. I started off with just basic wire, trying to wind it around bowls and jugs to make a circle, but it was much too flimsy and kept slipping off whatever I was winding it around. So, pipe-cleaners to the rescue! Much sturdier, and I was able to create a circle from three of them without wrapping them around anything. Then I used three more to wrap tightly around the first three, making the whole thing a lot stronger.

The pipe-cleaners looked okay on their own, but a bit too homemade... more like something Tilly herself will be making in a few years! So I tried wrapping them with wool, first, but it was taking forever! So, I thought, what is wider than wool? And luckily the ribbon basket was right there on the shelf! Almost all of the ribbon I have comes from being wrapped around presents from my Mum... this beauty was nice and long, and so I simply wrapped, and then glued the end down.

The fishing wire was pretty simple... it fitted through the eye of a larger needle, and then I sewed the felt goodies in place, taking care to have it all balance. And the heart was just a free-hand cut shape... I'm sure if you're looking for a pattern, there are plenty of good heart templates online. The pompoms were just cut off the string they came on, and sewn to the heart. Easy!

Isn't there just something about felt that makes a place feel like home?

Wodger Weginald Wabbit

A new toy has taken shape:

He was originally going to be for the baby, but I couldn't resist sewing a red pom-pom onto his bottom, thus making him 'risky' as a choking hazard.

So, he will be packaging himself up in an envelope shortly and sending himself to one little wabbit-lover in China: my little sister, Alice!

(And I'll be making another, pom-pom-less version, for baby in the near future!)

Pom-pom Package

Every day, Bella and I walk down to the mailbox at the end of the street, and most days we come back with armloads of bills, forms, and newspapers. Today, we had all that stuff, but we also had the most exciting package in the world!

It came from Thailand, and has 29 stamps on it. Wait... 30 (I just recounted!), and they are all beautiful Thai landscpaes, waterfalls, and flowers.

And inside, was this treasure-trove! A little pipe-smoking man on a handmade notebook, a postcard-album, a copy of Sense and Sensibility on DVD, little handmade paper sunflowers, and more than a handful of pom-poms!

The postcard album is to store pretty cards, and inside was this one of a sweet little girl and her cat!

It was, of course, from my Mum, who's just been to Thailand on holiday! She always finds the brightest, happiest, most inspiring pressies for me, and I'm so grateful for that!

I hope your mail today had something lovely in it, too!

xo