white bears

Gosh... we have colds and runny noses, little toddle-belle and I. We are truanting from playgroup and hiding indoors today with homemade soup, The Lion , the Witch and the Wardrobe on DVD (with some scary bits fast forwarded as she is too small), play doh and fairy lights...

The temperature has dropped to zero now and there is frost and rolling mist. I am re-reading North Child by Edith Pattou. It is wonderful, based on the fairytale East of the Sun , West of the Moon, a white bear takes a girl away to a place carved into rock. Oh how I love it. Set in Norway and another of the animal groom fairytales I love so... Just as Beauty in Beauty and the Beast has her room of books in Beast'd castle due to her love of reading, so Rose in this story has her room in the white bear's castle full of threads and yarns and a loom due to her love of making things.

There is also The Princess and the White Bear King. This book's artwork adorns my daughter room...

How I love white bears.

some powder pink fur & green ribbons

Over the weekend I had some fun making this collar. Its knitted in powder pink Jaegar fur which was on offer at my local yarn store. I bought it in other colours too - woodland green and light fawn. I couldn't resist.

Finished it with thrift shop lace and two vintage button box buttons - one wooden heart, one shiny mother of pearl. It also looks very cute on Baby J , but she wouldn't stand still to have her photo taken ;-)

And a while back I had knitted this lace effect collar in leftover creamy yarn. I finally finished it with a striking greenest green ribbon and some more thrifted lace. It is kind of inspired by the Elizabethian collars in the 16th century. Because I guess Elizabeth I is kind of my favourite historical character. " I may not be a lion but i have a lion's heart"...

Oh I am very pleased with it. x

Baby & the Beast

Another day spent crawling around the floor of the library. ah bliss. Hired out a few craft and cookery books... then we went home and ate lunch in the garden. Yes! it was actually sunny enough. I remember last year we had a glorious April and May and then a rainy, stormy rest-of-summer. My July baby was born during a thunder storm.

Beauty & the Beast - I always imagine Beast as a lion... and I never want him to change into a Prince at the end... Is that just me?

impromptu tea party

Everything is colour. the weekend was colourful.

Instead of lunch on Sunday we had a tea party. Me, Mr K & Baby J.

Baby J says 'da da da' to this Lion when he wears her Dad's spectacles. Hilarious.

Meanwhile I posted off a huge package full of hand-me-down baby goodies to a wonderful old friend who I have been getting to know again through the shared recent admission to the 'mummy club'. I love love love putting together little packages, little bundles of bits and bobs all tied up with a ribbon.