I made myself a mei tai baby carrier the other day, and then a second one when my MIL gave me some Thai silk she’d been given.  The girls were so entranced by the sewing machine and all the sewing paraphernalia that I let them have a go at sewing some patterns on a spare piece of fabric.  They loved it and I suggested they make something, which they very eagerly agreed to.  We decided on bandanas, which I initially thought was a bit daft as hemming is so boring, and that’s all that’s required.  However, to those new to sewing, even boring straight lines of hemming is exciting so, in the end, they loved it.  They helped me pin and then we sewed together, with them controlling the needle and me controlling the fabric.  Flopsy took to an even pedal pressure very quickly but Mopsy took a bit of experimenting before she got the hang of not doing desperately fast or nothing at all!  But by the end she was sewing like a pro!  It was really fun and we all enjoyed it.  I’m thinking of suggesting they make simple bags next, if they express any more interest. 

 Mopsy the rabbit (oh!  Just realised that Mopsy is a bunny in the actual story!  Ha ha!)

 Flopsy the sky

 Flopsy the clown

 Mopsy the lion

  Flopsy the zebra

And to celebrate, here’s my favourite pic ever, in the whole wide world, ever!  Photos of Flopsy’s birthday to follow soon…

Yesterday we…

 Cuddled,

  did some ballet,

 drew pictures, watched tv (no photo of that as it didn’t make a very interesting photo ;-)),

 pretended to go to sleep with Teddy,  planted out the lettuce seedlings,

 sowed more lettuce seeds,

  marvelled at how much the tomato seedlings and sunflower seedlings have grown,

 laughed at Flopsy and Mopsy bouncing a ball,

 did puzzles with Grandma during an impromptu visit from her and Grandad,

  grinned at Mummy,

  made flowers (inspired by something on Teletubbies),

 and experimented very briefly with coloured cellophane.

Also did a lot of dressing up and reading stories, which we forgot to take pictures of!

 She’s so gorgeous!

While we were away, Mopsy consolidated her new skill of being potty-trained (she’s very good and learnt it very quickly indeed and is now out of day-time and night-time nappies); Cotton-tail learnt to roll over at the age of 15.5 weeks; Flopsy, Mopsy and I held a tarantula; Flopsy and Grandad had a boa constrictor wrapped around their shoulders (so did Mopsy and Daddy but Mopsy got very frightened and burst into tears so we have no photo of that!); we went on the beach and the girls played in their knickers and vests as it was so warm; we went on another beach and were wrapped up warm because it was so cold and windy!; we went for a very short walk (about 1/2 a mile if that!); we ate ice-cream; we watched the chickens, ducks, goats, turkeys, geese, sheep and lambs from our window; we had a lovely time

Because I often get bored of big knitting projects, I decided to have a few things on the go at once for me to switch between:

 This is a jumper for Mopsy - intended to be big enough to fit her next winter, but it’s going much faster than I expected and may well be ready in time fit Flopsy for a while first!

 This is a dress for Cotton-tail to wear next winter.  It’s my first attempt at knitting in more than one colour at the same time, and while I’m pleased with it as a first attempt, I’ve not left enough slack in the yarn at the back so where the sheep are pulls a bit, but it shouldn’t matter as the skirt is a full one and this is the back of the dress too - hopefully I’ll be a bit better at tit when it comes to knitting the front.

 This is a summer top I’m crocheting for Flopsy - the pattern says it’s to fit a 4 year old, but I’m not convinced that it’s big enough by a long shot so it might end up being Cotton-tail’s at this rate!  Crochet grows so quickly - this has taken me about four hours work in total - compared to hours and hours and hours on the other two projects!

  This is my Grandad with Mopsy - I had to post it as he’s dressed up as a nurse…as a profession he is a consultant surgeon so he’s experiencing ‘how the other half lives’ LOL.

  Lovely Grandad pulling Flopsy and Mopsy on their sledges.

  Flopsy making a snow-baby while Mopsy tries to get her snowball to not stick to her glove when she throws it!

 Little Cotton-tail, sleeping peacefully in the sling (her snowsuit clashes horribly with a) Flopsy’s coat and b) her coorie fleece pouch sling - oh well, she doesn’t care!)

 Making a very smart snowman with Grandad.

 The finished article

 Flopsy and Mopsy’s own snowman made with a little help from Grandma.

We celebrated yesterday with family and a lovely afternoon was had by all.  I spent the morning decorating a cake for her, which I’d made the day before.  As she is obsessed with Father Christmas (”Mishmush”, she calls him, and is absolutely delighted when she sees a picture of him and distraught if we dare to throw one away!  She’s even learnt to draw through her love of Mishmush, and spent all of last month refusing to speak to us unless we called her Mishmush, instead of her real name!), I had thought to make her a Father Christmas cake, but then we considered the fall-out that would ensue when we cut into him and, horrors, ate him!!!  So I decided to make her a Lola cake (from Charlie and Lola), who is another favourite, but not quite so dear to Mopsy’s heart as Father Christmas.