Our youngest grandie turns 1 today!

Technically, this post should have been titled 'Attitude of Gratitude'... because we are so very grateful to be able to celebrate this day with NMC and her family.

NMC has been busy baking up a storm and I'll post some photos for you next week.  She used to have a collection of beautifully delicate fabric butterflies that adorned most of the birthday cakes she made for us as she got older (we always get a home made cake), but they became quite old and discoloured over the years so they got dumped.  

Guess what's going to be decorating chickadee's cake today?  No prizes!!!  Butterflies (and a few dragonflies)!  We eventually found some more. NMC found some really delicate and rather beautiful ones in Tasmania last weekend and I found a few in the $2 shop down the road. 

NMC was two months old when a huge and very beautiful butterfly flew down and sat on her face for so long that we all had a chance to wonder at it... 

We all love butterflies and I once made NMC Roman blinds for her bedroom with beautiful lace butterflies appliqued all over them (I cut out the fabric behind them so the light could shine through).  


Okay, so time to go.  It's going to get to 36degs today (at least) and I'm sitting here with the fan blowing a gale.  The best we can hope for is an early southerly wind... thank goodness NMC has brilliant airconditioning.  This house is shortly going to be as hot as an oven (again).


April Blackbird


 

The forgotten art of 'baby-proofing'

It's been an awfully long time since I've had to truly baby-proof my house and I've realised just how much I've 'forgotten' the in's and out's of this artform.

New Mum Chick is dropping off our littlest chickadee tomorrow afternoon and she's spending the night with us.  We're all looking forward to the event, but it's the first time she's sleeping over since she learnt how to crawl. Fast!  And she pulls herself up on absolutely everything before coasting around to the next piece of furniture so I have to make sure that there's nothing she can overbalance on.  We've seen her stand bolt upright on her own too before realising what she's doing and sitting down as fast as possible. This kids in a hurry!

I've spent the day washing off furniture that might resemble something delectably irrestable to gnaw on and I'm in the process of vacuuming the house (truly... just stopped by the computer to check my emails and thought I should really create a post...)and I'll steam the tiles downstairs early tomorrow morning...

We don't have gates on our stairs, but I do have very large couches that I can place in front of the stairs so we'll tick those boxes.  Might have to put another large couch in front of the entertainment centre too!  We don't want her climbing on top of that and it's at such a great height for climbing too! 

I have plenty of ribbon to tie my kitchen cupboards shut, but that can wait until tomorrow morning.  Fortunately my cupboards have the sort of handles that lend themselves to being tied shut.  So tick that box too.

Ornaments don't really pose a big problem as I don't have many standing about.  Those I do have will get popped into the cupboards before she arrives.

So, I think we're safe.  Little Miss C has learnt the meaning of the word 'no' too!  Which definitely helps and it amuses us all to watch her shaking her little head as she mimics us by repeating 'no, no' while smiling sweetly back at us.  She actually leaves off 'touching' or 'doing' when we ask her to now.  At least for a while.  Hey, we may have changed our minds and it might be perfectly allowable a few minutes later.  One never knows until one tries.  Does one?

Needless to say, she keeps us all highly amused by her antics and her grandfather and I are looking really forward to the privilege of the impending 'sleep-over'. 

April Blackbird

Have baby, must feed... even when you're out.

I keep promising to post these photos of my latest attempt at getting the 'feeding cloth' right.

I was very happy to find Burnt Street upholstery materials in Seaforth.  There's a whole group of shops devoted to all things fabric.  I thought I'd died and gone to heaven! 

Anyway, I fell in love with this fabric.  It's double sided and the colours are wonderful.  My pictures don't really do them justice.  I did take New Mum Chicks advice on board and I made these cloths smaller and inserted a double row of 'bones' to make the hoop stiffer. 

Idea being you slip the strap over your neck, there's a buckle adjustment (non-slip) and I've made a knot so that the material can't slip out too far.

Baby goes under the cloth.  You can watch what baby does and baby can see you, but nobody else can see.

Baby likes the 'secure' environment. Mum keeps her dignity intact.





See, good strong boning this time around. Apparently, you can wash it in the machine.

Off to cook dinner.

April Blackbird

Finally...

I've finally managed to get some photos of the duvet cover I made for my littlest Chickadee. Apologies for the long wait Arabella.

They're not wonderful photos, but I think you'll be able to see what I did.  Those pillow slips are at least 30 years old so it's good to see them revived.

Recognise the eyes peering over the top of the cover?  Sweet man that he is!  I left a longer 'piece' on the top so the pretty top sheet can fold down over it. That said, nobody uses top sheets and duvets on cots anymore, this is merely decoration.  I was about to throw the cover into a 'soak' and 'wash'.  Came out really well and now looks really good. I was happy the lace didn't shrink.

The bit in the middle is the front of the old pillow case, then there's some ribbon and then some old lace.  I finished it off with a 'pretty' stitch on my machine.  Have 'stuck' the ends together with Valcro for quick closing.

I joined the two fronts of the old pillow slips and covered the join with the ribbon strip (actually 3 strips of ribbon... 2 narrow on the outside and a thicker piece in the middle) you see in the middle.  Made two bows to pretty up the edges.  Stitched them on flat.  They washed well.

Did the same pretty stitching right across the back, top and bottom. Not nearly as nice as my grandmother's beautiful hand stitching, but I simply don't have the time. Or the inclination, if I'm honest.

This is the detail from one of the top sheets I made for the cot.  Ancient lace from my kist. I bought the new cotton sheeting though.

All soaked, washed, dried and ironed.  I was most relieved to see it all survived intact.

So, what do you think?  Haven't got photos of the fitted sheets... they look like nothing except a mass of white material really.

April Blackbird.

Yes, our littlest chickadee is a girl... and she's just gorgeous!

As grandparents, you'll excuse us for thinking that all our chickadees are all just gorgeous!  I'm not making any excuses for being over the moon at the safe arrival of our littlest girl.  I find sitting on the side-lines watching the entire process absolutely nerve-wracking! 

I spent yesterday morning cleaning the house, all the while having ernest conversations with my angels... couldn't settle to anything as I watched the clock tick by so I had to 'move'!!!.

Whoever said you have to sit in a quiet place with your legs crossed to 'meditate' didn't know what they were talking about... you can meditate as you move, as you clean, as you shower.  Meditation is a 'state' of mind.  Thankfully, I find 'zoning out' very easy to do.  It helped to pass the time while we waited for the phone to ring. 

Our littlest girl looks just like she did in the scan picture I posted previously.  This photo was taken yesterday afternoon when she was just a few hours old. 

 

Needless to say, we have all fallen in love with her!   Haven't seen her 'awake' as yet... haven't had a cuddle yet... will be doing heaps of that!

April Blackbird