This week it's been just Ernest and me. The big ones all went back to school on Monday, but my mindee's Mummy was on half term this week, so I had a week off from child minding.
I determined to make the most of time with my littlest guy, and we had a great week.
There was some beautiful bright almost spring like weather at the beginning of the week, and I managed to capture some afternoon sun on this little rose plant.
I love light, and especially glowing bright sunlight, I like to imagine Florence is there in that light, and she is.



I love to see my children playing together. Here Ernest is helping India prepare lunch.



On Friday Ernest and I took the train into Manchester to meet Woody for lunch. Ernest finally agreed to go in a sling, something he usually refuses vehemently.
I loved having him up there on my hip, chattering away. he loved Manchester and was describing everything he could see so excitedly.
We met Woody in the Craft Centre, where I managed to (quite easily) persuade him to buy me this beautiful tile.



I've been admiring these for so long, but could never decide which I liked best, and felt too self indulgent to buy one, but having seen that Victoria had bought one last week, I decided I needed to just pick one...and now I'd like another!

And one final pic, my new hair! India calls it my evil mermaid hair. I just fancied a change and did this today.

Last week Eden helped me to decorate the lounge. I hate decorating, but having an extra pair of hands made it so much more pleasant.
We finished the painting in just two days.



Just in time for the new sofas to be delivered.



I also hung my beautiful prints of Florence's name in the sand above the larger sofa. I've not hung them together before, but I'm glad I have now, they look just right there.
Hanging those spurred me on to hang two of my Fairy Tales for Hope prints. These two are for Florence, Thumbelina at the top bought by me, and Sleeping Beauty at the bottom a gift from my friend Kate.
They are hung just outside my bedroom, so I can see them from my bed.



I'm looking forward to hanging the other three prints I bought for the boys room.

This is my lovely neighbour, Natasha. I've known her since she was a toddler and started going to the same pre school as India.
Natasha loves vintage style and last Summer I offered to teach her to sew her own vintage clothes. I let her rummage through my patterns, and she chose a 1960's mini dress, with peter pan collar. Fairly ambitious for a first project, especially considering how different construction of this kind of dress is now to back in the 60's.

There are a lot of darts, and with this particular pattern a fairly complex pleat panel, cuffs and a collar. Plus Natasha chose a very lightweight fabric that necessitates french seams.

These days this style of dress would most likely be made with a stretch fabric, rather like this one in Top Shop.



She's doing really well though, despite often long breaks between working on the dress due to our conflicting schedules.
Today she took home something that is beginning to look like a dress. Hopefully one or two more lessons and we'll be finished.
Natasha has promised me photos of her wearing it on stage when she plays in her band.

Vintage is a word that is rather overused of late, but I'm sure like most things that will change again. Maybe I just resent the word being applied to items of clothing I remember wearing..surely 1990's isn't vintage?
Anyway, one of the charity shops I like to visit has an upstairs devoted to vintage and to bridal.
I don't usually bother looking up there because I usually have Ernest in tow, and I try not to linger or negotiate tricky stairs when shopping with him, even if I can persuade him into a sling (rare these days!), he's still a reluctant shopper.
This week though I was shopping with my big girls and we had a good old rummage through the vintage section.
I simply could not leave these beautiful baby clothes behind.
This tiny woollen coat I'm guessing from the design, construction and the label dates from early -mid 1970's
The lining is in need of replacement, and there is one tiny moth almost hole, but otherwise it's in lovely condition.
It's very like a coat I made for Sid when he was small, and like a design I've been working on for some time for Flossie's Garden.



I'll probably keep hold of this for a while, research don't ya know!



I also came away with these two baby nightgowns. These are handmade, not particularly well, but so very sweet and obviously with love. They are flannel, perhaps made from an old sheet?



I love the tiny hand stitched detailing on the yoke, and the simple construction.



I can definitely see me raiding my stash of flannels to make something very similar.

Sadly both nightgowns were rather grubby, I've given them a good hand wash and hung them in the winter sun in the hope of brightening them both up.



I can't help wondering who wore these, maybe someone stitched them while heavily pregnant, and saved them after their babies had grown? I'll never know.

Today we did a little Valentines crafting. Merry mentioned our Valentine bunting on the DKL blog, and I spotted some of the other ideas that were linked to, one was printing with empty toilet rolls.
I knew Ernest and my mindee would like to give that a go.
Ernest also used a little foam stamp that I think has been in our craft box since India was small.
The resulting cards were quite effective, the empty toilet rolls were easy for both toddlers to hold and use.
Eden and I couldn't resist a little play too.

Ernest, in true toddler style decided to obliterate his printing with some brushwork!
I combined the foam stamp with the toilet roll to make Woody a card.

I love crafting with the children. I like to observe their very different approaches to the same project, and I adore the way children become so absorbed by the materials.
I do lots of craft activities with Ernest and with my mindee, often themed around festivals. I always keep things very simple with toddlers, and there is nothing simpler than this Valentine bunting.
The cardboard bunting and the sticky foam hearts all came from the bargain bin at the craft store.
This simple activity kept both boys very busy for almost a hour, my mindee enjoyed taking the stickers off the bunting as much as he enjoyed sticking them on in the first place!
Luckily I rescued enough pieces to string together this collaborative piece.

 

There has been a lot of illness in this house this week, Sid was off school for most of the week, but by Friday was at least well enough to join in with some Chinese New Year crafting.
We painted egg boxes, and will string them together this week to make snakes.



Look at the lovely patterns left in the sink after we washed the paint trays.

I stopped pumping breastmilk for Ernest in August. Two years of pumpimg was hard, I'm not really sure what kept me going, sheer determination at times...and even as I type that,even though I know it's true, there is still a little voice in the back of my head reminding me of all my failings.
I always tried to feed Ernest in as close a way as possible to breastfeeding. I was lucky that I had the experiences of breastfeeding my four older children as a model of how to bottle nurse.
Ernest was only ever bottle nursed by me or Woody. If Woody was feeding him it was generally because I was double pumping. I do remember one instance when Ernest was just a couple of weeks old and I was trying to increase my dwindling supply, pumping every two hours, just as the milk let down Ernest woke and I asked my friend Souad to give Ernest his bottle of milk, but she couldn't quite figure it out (he was at that time still struggling to feed from a bottle) and she passed him to my other friend Fiona who fed him. That is the only time he has been given milk by anyone other than Woody or myself.
Ernest doesn't feed himself either. He will bring me his bottle, snuggle onto my knee and be fed.
I realised a few months ago that to some people this looks rather strange.
When Ernest was tiny and being fed with a bottle we fitted in with the other bottle feeding Mums...well our bottles were different, and the milk in much smaller quantities, but on the whole no one really noticed. As Ernest grew I would notice quizzical looks from both formula and breast feeding Mums as this walking talking toddler would ask for milk,and climb on my knee for a snuggle and a bottle filled with milk.
Ernest knows that milk comes from breasts, he knows that all his friends have breastmilk, and if he sees them having milk he wants some too, just like his older siblings did.
These days the milk is not from my breasts, but cows milk.
He has milk before bed, sometimes in the night and sometimes during the day.
Other than bed time, I work on the same principle of "Don't offer, don't refuse" that I did when breastfeeding his big brothers at the same age.
Our bottle nursing moments are just as precious to me as they would be if he was still breastfeeding. A chance to re-connect. Toddler life is busy and hard work...so is Mummy life. It's nice to snuggle down and share a few milky cuddles.