My friend Bear

 
He had to have a bear, of course, so here he is.

 
He'll be waiting when you're ready for him, little man.

The Moon on a Stick

Dadda Boo has always said I wanted 'the moon on a stick'... so now he's gone and made one (for Boo).  I bought him a woodworking book for Christmas and he's been enjoying doing some of the projects, such as this one, using his new coping saw. 

Goodnight Moon (and Cow). 

a la Collage Collage

Before the wee man arrived, Boo and I had a couple of collaborative picture-making sessions, based upon the approach we had taken in classes with Erin at Collage Collage.  She provides pre-cut shapes (related to the picture book introduced at the start of the session) for the 2-4 year old to glue onto their pictures, adding painting/drawing/further embellishment.

 

For our 'snow picture' we used as a starting point the book above, 'Bright Snow, White Snow' by Alvin Tresselt, a vintage library book sale find with some lovely bold illustrations by Roger Duvois.

 
I cut out some paper shapes related to the book images - houses, people trees etc.  Boo glued them onto kraft paper and painted them with white 'snow' paint.  She added decoration with glitter and silver paint, and we put a grey wash over the sky.

 
 
 
The other picture we made was a 'bear picture' (of course) as a present for Dadda Boo for Christmas.

 
 
 

 
 
Here it is, framed on our bedroom wall, entitled 'Bears in a Den' by Boo.

Love is all around.

 
Didn't he do well?!  I got a smashing card from smudge ink, a fantastic Boston-based letterpress design studio (cards available at Dream Designs shops). 

And some delectable little incense leaves which seem almost too lovely to burn (though I will).

 
 
Boo and I performed a (decidedly girly) makeover on the window trees.

 
 
Boo loves her 'family heart'; she's planning to put some small bears (?!) in the pockets. 

Big love to you all. 

From my Heart to Boo

 
Boo has been saying those three little words a lot to me in the last few weeks.  When she's not hugging me and showering me in terms of endearment, however, she's tearing around like a wild thing, stomping her feet and screaming and generally being about as obstreperous as her nearly-4 year old temperament can muster.  It's such a time of great change and challenges to her sense of how her little world works, I know, but we are struggling to find a way to help her deal with all this in the face of her unpredictable behaviour.

Mama can return the protestations of love, however, that is one thing that she must need right now, a whole heap of reassurance.  So, I sewed her a new heart as a gift for Valentines' Day on Monday.  It's based on Amanda Blake Soule's 'family heart' in her book 'Handmade Home', but I don't have a copy at home right now, so I kind of made it my own way too, adding 4 pockets (for Mama, Dadda, Beth and Arthur) for love notes or trinkets (... or heart chocs for monday).  Its made from scraps I had in my stash, with some of the pockets made from offcuts of felted sweaters.

 
I hope Boo will feel the love of the family in its new 4-person composition.

A little friend

 
A little friend for the wee one.... a knitted rabbit from Debbie Bliss's 'Special Knits' book, finished just in the nick of time for his arrival.  Oh, and those nursery curtains did get finished too.  Phew.

Bloomin' Marvellous

 

 
 

 

 

 

Thanks to Dadda Boo's company for the lovely flowers which I have been enjoying looking at during feeding times.