Our Little Man Has Arrived

The reason for the radio silence on the blog....

Our beautiful boy Finley Milo arrived on 31st May. We've made it out of those hazy first few weeks and are now enjoying getting out and about in the sunshine. 

I still have lots of posts I was meant to write up while I was pregnant, including a tutorial for this blanket I made that you can see in the photo. All to follow, maybe once this sunny weather is over! 

Moving East

We've finally sold our flat in Broadway market and are in the process of buying an actual, grown up three bedroom house! We need the space not only for the impending arrival but hopefully there'll be more room to set up the sewing machine as well as more space for the boy's ever-expanding record and guitar collection.

With only a week to go until the bump's due date I've got lots of outstanding blog posts to write, including a baby blanket tutorial which I will publish soon. But in the meantime, I thought I'd share a few images of our new neighbourhood. We're staying in a flat in Leytonstone until the sale of our house gets sorted and like lots of people I had no idea how lovely the parks and 'countryside' is around here.

Wanstead Park is just down the road, has lots of lakes and a brilliant kiosk that sells home made cake and tea in proper mugs that you can enjoy while watching the ducks. The bluebells also happen to be out at the moment and they look and smell totally amazing.

And nearby in the other direction is Hollow Ponds, which also make you feel like you are out in the country rather than in a park just outside of central London. We're already getting excited about bringing the little one here for walks once he finally arrives.

Hemingway Design at John Lewis

We've been spending quite a bit of time in the John Lewis baby department recently, but I managed to sneak off to the haberdashery department. With the impending house move and new arrival, I haven't had much time for crafting recently so I was looking for inspiration. And I couldn't help admiring this lovely collection by Hemingway Design for John Lewis. Inspired by Art Deco motifs and shapes, the whole collection is lovely, I especially like the vanity cases which would make a very stylish place to stash your craft stuff. They'd be equally lovely as vanity cases in the old fashioned sense too, to carry around make up or as an overnight bag.

Tins and purses with designs inspired by vintage sewing patterns.

 Hemingway Design is run by Wayne and Gerardine design who designed under the Red or Dead label in the 90s and who have since worked on a fascinating variety of projects ever since, on everything from wall tiles to the first vintage festival at London's Southbank. (You can read more about the Hemingway Design history on their website.)

Even the simple button, pin and needle tins are stylish with a simple Art Deco font.

 It's so nice to see some craft accessories that aren't the usual twee floral patterns that seem to be everywhere trying to emulate the Cath Kidston aesthetic. You can buy the collection online at the the John Lewis website.

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Fabric Haul from the Middle East

Over Christmas, I was lucky enough to go to Oman in the Middle East to visit my parents. Apart from the weather and good food, a big bonus are the material shops full of unusual prints that you can't get over here. I stocked up on fabric so I can start making some new designs and also try out making new things for my little bump. In the excitement of a whole shop full of material and preparing myself for some haggling, I stupidly forgot to take some photos inside the shop. Maybe next time. For now, here's a little look at a few of the new styles I bought.

Baby Essentials

I can't quite believe it but I am already almost 6 months pregnant. So far we haven't really got anything sorted, as we're planning on moving house before the baby is born and we don't want to fill our flat with things when we're having viewings.

Luckily, my ever stylish friend Amber who writes the Theatre of Fashion blog bought our son his first tuxedo...

And Daddy-to-be bought him a Moustache dummy...

And that's pretty much all we've got so far but surely that's all the Spring/Summer 13 essentials sorted?

Upcycle Those Christmas Cards

If you haven't quite got round to recycling your pile of Christmas cards, why not upcycle them instead? I know that this is a bit late and most people took their decorations down last weekend, but even if you've already thrown away your cards, this is a great way to create your own gift tags during the rest of the year.

I love old fashioned, brown luggage/postage labels and already use them in my bib packaging, so I loved the idea of this label shaped punch when I read about it on the Offbeat & Inspired blog back in December. I immediately bought one online from Amazon and intended to use it to make some homemade labels for Christmas. Sadly I didn't actually get it until after Christmas, but when I was taking down all my Christmas cards last week I was thinking what a shame it was to throw them away when I remembered the punch.

It's so simple to use and strangely addictive, you find yourself wanting to punch label shapes out of everything! Now I have lots of labels ready for next year which I've packed away with the ribbons and Christmas wrapping paper. As it will be the first Christmas with a new baby, I think I'll be very glad that I was so organised!

I do intend to use it all year round to make pretty home made tags, like the ones made out of cereal boxes that Offbeat & Inspired originally blogged about that inspired me in the first place! Have a look at Sarah & Tiffany's beautiful tags here.

New Cushions

Back in the summer, I made a cushion for a friend with some lovely African style material that she picked up in Ridley Road market in East London. Luckily, she liked it so much she asked me to make another one for her. I really like this material, I must get up to Ridley Road myself in the new year and get some for myself!

You can find out how to make this cushion by reading my Easy Peasy Envelope Cushion Cover tutorial.