A belated birthday post

Our sweet tiny lovely Tessa turned one this month, so hard to believe it's already been a year. She has grown so much and her amazing cheeky personality has really blossomed, I think she will keep us on our toes as she grows up.
Here she is in her new trolley that her clever aunty and uncle made. What a brilliant job they did, worth the late night as it was her favorite present by far. She has already learnt how to turn corners and back up when she hits the wall. She is so close to walking and has taken a few steps already.


The owl birthday cake I made her, carrot cake with too runny cream cheese icing. Oh well there will be many more birthdays for me to practice and perfect it. She has an owl soft toy that she loves to cuddle and squish up to, so I thought that would be a simple idea for her cake.


Tessa opening presents with mummy's assistance. She didn't really get into it as she was so tired the poor wee thing (shh Tessa you could try have longer day sleeps, just bit longer). Next year I bet she will tear into the presents without any help at all. Thanks to everyone for the lovely presents she has been enjoying them. She seems to be getting a nice collection of peter rabbit toys and books the lucky thing.

We look forward to another amazing year with you our tiny lovely Tessa.

Eastwoodhill

A couple of friends and their gorgeous little boys spent the day with us at Eastwoodhill arboretum for their easter centennial celebrations. It was a lovely day and we had a picnic lunch. The arboretum was beautiful but I got a little distracted with taking photos of our darlings. Hopefully we will being going again in a couple weeks and I will take some photos of the amazing trees, especially now the stunning autumn colours have fully developed.

Here is Tessa contemplating her empty marmite sandwich container wonder where they all disappeared to. I made hot cross buns for the first time, which everyone enjoyed. One of the other lovely mums bought the most gorgeous scrummy homemade jam to go with them. Peach and Vanilla pod, honestly this is the best jam I have ever tasted, it was like summer captured in a jar. I must get the recipe, hopefully I will be allowed to share it with you.



They are very good at 'sharing', which is good except for all the colds getting passed around. Oh well I guess it is immune system building, as long as the colds aren't too nasty.

wedding

So I have finally got a couple of photos from the eagerly awaited family wedding I mentioned in earlier posts. The above shot has our darling Tessa and her Gran (my mother in law, the best that anyone could ask for). Tessa is wearing the dress I made for her, out of lovely and light white muslin with vintage ricrac and eyelet edging. The edging and ricrac is from my grandmother's sewing stash that I managed to get bits and pieces of from over the years, there is some wonderful bright coloured buttons and zips from the seventies which I am still figuring out what to create with.


This shot shows the Happy Couple, the Mother in Law and hubby and I. The bride looks stunning and the dress looks amazing. As you may have guessed I didn't manage to sew my own dress, but I would have loved to. Instead I had to spend a lot more than I would have liked on this lovely dress, the ties at the front can tied in many ways which makes it quite wearable. It is a New Zealand label, Kate Matheson.
The wedding was beautiful and the weather even held out, against family tradition. Including ours, the last four generations of weddings have had rain or flooding. It was wonderful coming back to this venue for the reception, we also had ours here two years ago. The owner does a brilliant job, grows all his own produce and carves the delicious ham, beef and serves my favorite scrumptious salmon at the buffet table. You can tell that he is proud of what he does.
Desert was a choice of three which were also very delicious, I chose the baileys cheesecake.

mmmm

Sorry for the longish absence, I have been otherwise occupied and felt like I didn't have much to say. Anyway here are a couple of photos from the cooking I did to help with wedding (more about that next time). Above is Aunt Anne's decadent chocolate rum truffles, they turned out very scrumptious and were quite popular. And below is Alison Holist's christmas nut pies. Both were deceptively simple, as long as you followed the recipe well. I would make them again for another special occasion. A bonus is that both can made ahead and frozen till needed, ideal for someone that seems to under estimate how long everything will take.

Chasing cats

Tessa has been really enjoying playing with our cats lately. It has been great teaching her to be gentle and pat the nice puss.

They don't always co operate and stay still, so Tessa has to creep up on kitty.

As you can imagine it dosen't always end well, and tears result. Poor wee Tessa. It is quite lovely watching her learn so much as the moment. The other day she was teasing the other cat with my necklace, she was in fits of giggles. It was so gorgeous.

My Creative Space

I found these brilliant buttons last month when I visiting my mum for her birthday, Tessa and I surprised her which really quite special. Anyway we went shopping at this really really amazing yarn shop, and these are what I came away with. My self control was quite good for once which is very unusal as normally I would have to buy some yarn any yarn to add to my stash. Anyway getting off topic, these gorgeous wooden heart buttons just had to come with me, I took all they had left. I am thinking a cute little pinafore dresses for Tessa this winter, or maybe to decorate a sweet knitted hat.

I got these gorgeous rose buttons at the same time I just love them. I think a cardy for me, when I finally get around to deciding which one to knit either Mr Greanjeans modified similar to this or the Febuary lady sweater also lengthened. I have 18 50gm balls of cleakheaton country silk yarn, in a charcoal grey with flecks of a lighter grey silk through it, quite a rustic colour.

This is something else I have sneaking away to sew, its not quite finished but I thought I would like to share. A sweet wee dress for Tessa to wear to my sister in laws wedding. Its made from lovely light muslin. The lining is from a muslin wrap of Tessa's that we didn't need, so this is kind of a refashion.

A close up of some of the detailing.

Choosing fabric, maybe you can help?

Maybe you could help me
I am a little stuck and I need some girly advice, I need to choose what fabric I should use to make myself something, to wear to my sister in laws wedding in March. This is what I have narrowed it down to, three fabrics. Keeping in mind I am a red head, (not bright orange, more of a strawberry blond) with a pale complexion with more than my fair share of freckles, hehe.
The first is probably my favorite a gorgeous chiffon 2m with beautiful colour( this is see through but I have some black muslin I can line it with). But I am a little bit chicken to wear this much colour especially since I am still carrying quite a lot of post baby weight, maybe better on the bottom half.
The second is another lovely fabric silk chiffon 5m, a beautiful grape colour (also see through I could also use the black muslin as lining).
And the last is quite a nice leaf print cotton 2m, a more subdued colour which I would be a little more comfortable with but possibly not dressy enough for a wedding.

Now the patterns, the above one I was thinking of doing the third from the left on the bottom, possibly for any of the fabrics but would probably best in the second one, the grape silk. But since I am still breastfeeding a bit of alteration would be needed for easier access. I could also shorten this pattern and wear it as a top with skirt the pattern below.


This pattern A I thought would also be suitable for the grape silk fabric, but the body fabric is supposed to a knit fabric. I could just add bit to the width for ease and this might work.



This pattern would probably suit the first fabric in either view C or B


And this pattern I really like the the skirt A, which would suit either of the first two fabrics

And the last pattern I promise. I like either view B or E. The fabric could be any of the three

So what do you think? Any ideas? Advice? would be very much appreciated. Please help me I would love to hear all your thoughts.