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Tuesday 23 July 2013

Sibling Bags

We've had a really hectic week since my last blog post, I've had my birthing box delivered so I've got to get some towels and a shower curtain ready for the homebirth.  It made me realise that I'm 36 weeks (37 tomorrow!) and that this baby could be fairly imminent and I have absolutely NOTHING ready.  

All the nappies have been washed and clothes sorted into bags of newborn, 0-3 etc but none of it has been put together in a nice easy kit to get me over the first few days and I don't have a hospital bag packed just in case I need to transfer and all of that jazz so I'm starting Op BabyPrep and planning to be ready by the end of this week.  

Before that though, I had a party to plan, my wonderful Dad turned 70 this Saturday and it's tradition that we get a bouncy castle for him.  In years gone by he's always been the first one on it and the last one off but unfortunately his illness has put paid to that now.  Instead we had all my siblings and their children and put on an easy buffet.  The weather was much cooler so it was a lovely day and we had 7 very happy children that somehow managed to go until midnight!

Plus it's now the Summer holidays so I've had my two plus my niece and nephew to entertain but that is for another blog post.

So, as part of Op Babyprep I started on the Big Sibling kits for Roux and Hurricane and another one for Peanut.  My two are aware of the bag for the baby and thankfully can't read so don't know whether it says Little Brother or Little Sister but have had great fun choosing outfits and a toy each for it.

I got the idea to do something like this some time ago as I wanted to give the children presents when the baby arrived and was pootling about in my brain trying to decide what exactly I should do when I thought of using paper bags I already have left over from party bags so I typed Big Brother in Pinterest and saw some interesting results.  

So, I decided to go for a tote bag, the idea being that I can fill it with cheap toys (Poundshop, The Works, Yorkshire Trading Co etc) that will include a colouring book, a toy that they'll like (Trash Pack for Roux, Polly Pocket for Hurricane), a photo frame each so they can have a picture of them and the new baby in their room, a t shirt, card and possibly a disposable camera for Roux.  The plan is that I'm going to buy extra tat that I can keep in reserve so when the baby hits a feeding frenzy for a few days the bags can reappear with a new present in to keep them occupied whilst I'm doing nothing other than feed feed feed drink tea feed feed feed.  

Hobbycraft provided me with some cheap fabric paints and the tote bags and I got doodling.  


Then I measured how big I needed the image, thankfully it was the size of A4 paper so I doodled about on a pad until I had the designs I wanted (I'll update this after the baby is born to show their bag)




Note the error!  I'm so used to Hurricane being a 'little' sister that I automatically did her design saying that, thankfully I realised just before I started painting as I'd already done the babies meaning I'd have ended up with two 'littles' one of which might have been wrong.  

I then tried the old fashioned method of tracing, then marking the reverse with carbon and then trying to press it onto the bag and it didn't work.  Pregnancy must be getting to me as I thought it was a fail and was preparing to go freehand when all of a sudden it hit me that I could slide the pad into the bag.  
What a doofus!


I then traced through the bag so I could dispense with the pad and make sure that the writing was exactly where I wanted it.  


Slide a bit of cardboard in the bag so the paint doesn't seep through to the reverse side then let then painting commence.  This is pretty easy to work with but I would recommend a few coats.


It looked a tad plain when finished, I don't do plain...


Take some Modge Podge (wonderful stuff) and some buttons...


Et voila.




As I had the fabric paints out (and had treated myself to some dylon fabric pens too) I decided to go for t shirts too.  Due to school uniform being all over the shops it was really easy to get a pack of two plain cotton t shirts for just £2.  Roux and Hurricane are different sizes but just for this occasion I'm sure that Roux can squeeze into a smaller t shirt (penny pinching Mother) and I already had some plain white vests for the baby.


I wanted to keep the designs very similar so using the scientific method of folding paper until it was the right size I then doodled the same image slightly smaller.  


I think I rate the paint over the pens as although it took longer with the paints you get a much crisper effect.  The pens bled more than I'd have liked on the cotton of the t shirt and I couldn't get a nice clean edge.  Also, it was harder to do the dots, spots and stripes.  I'll keep the pens for quick jobs or just to put names in clothes and continue with the paints.  



It was wonderful sitting in the garden this afternoon finishing these off, thankfully the children still can't read so didn't have a clue what I was doing (and the older cousins are sworn to secrecy).  While I was playing with these sat on the warm grass the 4 children were painting their own bags as homework totes for when they return to school.  Tomorrow the plan is to add monsters, flowers and butterflies out of felt to them.


I'm linking up to Handmade Harbour again this Monday and can't wait to see the lovely things on offer there.



























Monday 15 July 2013

We are Family...


Sorry for my long absence from this blog, I've been trying to move house and unfortunately, no been in the best of health but I'm here again as despite the lack of Internet (I'm stealing my parents wireless as I type) here's hoping I'm going to get back into the swing of things. Although, I can't promise as Peanut will be making an appearance very soon and we all know how life vanishes with a newborn. 

Anyway, the purpose of this blog post is to showcase some photos I've been working on for Honeypot House which will become the new Kitsch Stitch HQ.  This is MY first home, as in a home that I've never shared with my parents or partner, it's just me and my beautiful children. Everything that I seem to be choosing for it is BRIGHT which I think is reflecting the new me. Also, I want to surround myself with my family, my beautiful children and my fresh start.

So, with that in mind I whipped up a series of photographs of Roux and Hurricane holding up letters. It's simple really, take pieces of A5 sized card, doodle some letters on (or print them off) and then get the children to have fun posing holding them. I'm still without my DSLR so these were taken with an iPhone and changed to black and white with Instagram. It was so simple and took an hour to do. 


My absolute favourite one is this one. It took one shot but shows how close my pair are.

As the colours were so bright and the backgrounds varied I opted for black and white to try and mute it a bit and make the letters stand out. 




Trying to find a frame with 6 apertures in a straight line is like finding gold dust and when I did find a couple they were far to expensive for my teeny budget. I contemplated buying a large frame and fashioning my own mount but again, mount board costs a lot of dollar. In the end, Ikea came to the rescue. I purchased 6 small squareish frames and using glue dots and Sellotape fashioned a frame. It now hangs near the front door so I see it whenever I come and go. In a few weeks when Peanut makes his/her arrival I'll update it.


My sister has asked for one that says "home" featuring her children and I can see me taking a few commissions! Next time, I'm contemplating using blank A5 card so I can put the letter (or message) in digitally afterwards but then I lose the fun of doodling.

I'm hooking up with Handmade Monday and I can't wait to see what delights
the other bloggers have in store.