As you have probably gathered, Ive hung quite a few things on the walls in Jacintas room. The majority of it Ive made myself, but Ive had my eye on a print from Belle & Boo on etsy for quite a while. They are the most gorgoeus illustrations. Last night I was blog hopping and popped by the Belle & Boo blog. I was delighted to find she had made one of her prints available for free download and use through a fantastic scheme being though Indii fixx called Feed your soul - the free art project. Very cool idea. Its great to see people out there prepared to give something of themselves - for nothing - just to make someone else (like me) happy!
Ive framed up three prints (and made a card with an extra one I printed off ) to finish the collection above the cot.The centre one is from Mandy Sutcliffe (Belle & Boo) the other two are from Cori Dantini (right) & Marjorie Ann Velez (left & card) two other artists participating in the project. It has given my collection a bit of 'artisticness' - if thats even a word. I really wanted an eclectic collection of randomly hung pics on the wall. Unfortunately my need to line things up and have them neat and orderly and somewhat the same (read - safe and boring) has some what hampered and drawn out this process to date. (You are talking to the girl who HAS to line up the bickies, in even rows, neatly on the tray when she bakes) It is getting there and Im trying to let go of my neat line tendencies a little. I did manage to use frames that were not exactly the same...LOL....its a start! All I need now is a pack of my favourite 3M velcro picture hanging strips and they will be up on the wall.
One of the great things about being able to create this collection on the cheap is that hopefully I will feel OK about changing it. I dont want it to be a static display. I want to be able to incorporate some of Jacintas own art work as she gets older, or items of interest to her. For now its my space to do with as I please (which may even include actually purchasing one of the other gorgeous Belle & Boo prints that Ive been drooling over) , but as she gets older I want it to be her space!
2. Im a winner !
I was thrilled to be choosen as one of the winners of a Baby Beehinds nappy on the weekend. BBH were some of the very first MCN I tried, and I still use them on a regular basis. No skill involved - they have started a facebook fan page and to enter all you had to do was upload a photo (or three) of your littlies in a BBH nappy. 
There were going to be 10 winners, but with so many cute pics, they ended up choosing 25 of us as winners. Super generous! and super orgainised..got an email to say it was in the post this morning. Even better, you could have your choice of nappy. I decided on a Licorice Minkee Magicall - cant wait till it arrives.
There were going to be 10 winners, but with so many cute pics, they ended up choosing 25 of us as winners. Super generous! and super orgainised..got an email to say it was in the post this morning. Even better, you could have your choice of nappy. I decided on a Licorice Minkee Magicall - cant wait till it arrives. 3. She is finally walking
At 17 months and one week, Jacinta is finally walking. In fact I dont think Ive seen her crawl today. So strange, after all this time of seeing her crawling around, she just keeps appearing - tottering along. She has taken to going into her bedroom and reaching right into the cot to pull out her dummy and blankie. 
I just turned around as I was typing this, and there was little Miss, toddling around the corner, cheekily grinning at me from behind her dummy...you know, the dummy she normally only has when she is going to bed, or travelling in the car! She thinks she is pretty clever...so does Mummy ;) One more milestone checked off the list!
I just turned around as I was typing this, and there was little Miss, toddling around the corner, cheekily grinning at me from behind her dummy...you know, the dummy she normally only has when she is going to bed, or travelling in the car! She thinks she is pretty clever...so does Mummy ;) One more milestone checked off the list!Hope your having a happy day - keep smiling, hug the ones you love, and remember to be greatful for the little things!
I thought by the time this letter was written I would finally be able to announce the fact you were walking, but no...you have taken those first tentative and unbalanced steps, 
you are standing more often than not as you go about your day, but the actual walking is still not happening. In the last few days Ive watched you get up and take a few steps all by yourself. Its the first time Ive seen you do this with out prompting from one of us. You are beginning to realise that you can walk, and Im sure it wont be long until you are officially toddling around the place.
but because you are not walking its a bit hard to get out there much at the moment.
We try and get to the playground when we can. 
You love to watch Isaac, and swing and climb onto everything. 
You think you are very clever.
Ive finished all the art work for the walls. I love that you notice when ever a new piece gets put up, and that you are excited and point out the birdies and the butterflys around your room. All that needs to be finished is your quilt. The top needs quilting and binding. Ive dropped it at the shop, to be machine quilted with a pretty little flower and heart pattern - it should be back in about 4 weeks.
It hasnt taken you long to work out an effective way of expressing your self if you are being annoyed by your brothers. You pull this face and let out a mighty yell. You dont scream or squeel, its a cross, dont mess with me sort of yell. Very un-lady like!
Last week I attempted to make my first ever dress for you. It looks so gorgeous on you, I cant wait till summer arrives and you can wear it.
Your last eye tooth finally cut this month. Hopefully thats it...until the two year old molars start to make their presence felt! 
It was Craigs birthday a week ago and while he was at work the kids and I wrapped presents and made a cake and even blew up a few balloons. I thought we were all finished when Isaac piped up - "we gotta have birthday flags" . He loved helping me make all the birthday bunting for Jacintas 1st birthday party, and now thinks that along with a cake, a party needs flags LOL 
They did a great job, and it was nice to see them all co-operating and working together...for a change! 
I wanted something cheap to practice with. I woke up this morning and decided I wanted to make a dress. Ive never attempted to sew a dress before - my biggest achievement to date was PJ pants! Im really not a good pattern follower, so I got one of my favourite little dresses that looked relatively simple and drafted a pattern for the bodice, studied how I thought it was put together and winged it from there. 
Eventually I got there - and I only had to unpick one little section. 
Now if little Miss ever decides to walk she can check out its twirling potential - surely by the time the weather warms up she will be well and truely walking! 
I think she likes it!
Step 4 - I have left the old elastic in the nappy and stitched the new over the top. You could unpick and remove the old elastic if you wanted. This is what the stretched leg elastic in the nappy looks like before putting the new piece in.
The nappy should now look like this.
How hard could it be to whip one up out of some fabric I thought? A while back I got some end of bolts of fabric from spotlight. Great patterns for the older boys, I plan to make some summer PJ pants from it and maybe even new quilt covers (I got about 15 m of each one!) and it worked out to only about 50c/m. what did I have to loose? (Except my sanity maybe!!!!) All I had to do was unpick a bag ( I had one that was starting to come undone at the seam anyway), draft a pattern from it, cut out the fabric and sew it up! An hour or so I thought - no worries! More like two and a half !!!!
I guess it wasnt really that hard. Ive never really used bias binding before and I hate pinning things before I sew. Note to self - when trying to use said binding always pin it first to avoid unpicking and having to fix!!!! 
I sewed, unpicked and re sewed two of the four sections before I finally admited defeat and pinned it first..LOL it was then still a little tricky, but so much quicker and easier! Its a little rough around the edges, and apart from having a bit of trouble getting the biding to sit nicely around the flap section, Im really happy with the way it turned out.
Should be a handy bag for one of the boys...if Isaac will let anyone else near it!!!