Baby Woo's Mobile

I spent quite a lot of time thinking about what type of mobile I wanted to make, I did know I wanted to make something rather than buy something.

So my hunt for ideas was on. I thought woodland creatures made of felt, birds, and just plain circles.
It wasn't until I was checking out pretty things on Pinterest that I found the perfect pretty mobile! I came across a textile artist called Pam Garrison. This is the photo that inspired Baby Woo's mobile

by Pam Garrison.

My fave bit, milinary flower & vintage buttons. 

The Rose was from a gift given to me by my best friend Hailey. 

Little Bird x

The cream ribbon is from my wedding bouquet & the  2005 is the year Mr Woo &  I met

I used vintage ribbons, buttons and laces. I simply wrapped a vintage wooden embroidery hoop in ribbon  & started adding the bits - THAT'S IT!
I made the little heart and stuffed it with lavender for bedtime soothing.

Sneak Peek Reveal

I'm 28 weeks pregnant today!

I spent the entire morning at the hospital being a human pincushion. I had an ultrasound scan that revealed that Baby Woo has very long legs, just like her dad! I had my anti d injection, glucose tolerance test and two rounds of bloods drawn! I had to fast because of the glucose test so I finally got to eat once I'd left the hospital!  It was a long day, but it's all important! 

Can you believe 7 months has past?! I can't!
I'm keeping busy so I know the next 3 months is going to be gone in a flash! 

About the sneaky peek....

Do you remember the Sneaky Peek from last week? Check me out being a poet just then! Aaanyway! I'll refresh your memory a bit...

+

=

Tadaaaaaaaaa! 

A vintage button monogram :)

The bits for Baby Woo's room are slowly coming together. I have more to show you but want to do one bit at a time. I started working on the crib dust ruffle/valance last night. It was the project I was most nervous about but you know what??? I've done the hardest bits now and it was so easy! I can't believe it! All that is left is for me to hem & press and it's ready! Amazing! 

It was all fine til the nap.

The nap.

I didn't sleep well last night, I don't guess women on the verge of 7 months pregnant do sleep well. On days I'm not at the shop I normally take an afternoon nap, I just HAVE to otherwise I'm a crab. Today I laid down around 4:30 I guess and had a really restless rest? Then Mr Woo got home and I fell back to sleep for about 2 hours! Oops! 

I woke up hungry enough to eat an ox! But we have no food in the house at the moment. We really need to go shopping. So we had to go down to the village shop. But sometimes it takes Mr Woo a while to get going, so by the time we got to the shop it was like 9pm. Still no dinner & I was getting mad. We spent too much time wandering around the shop and I was getting really frustrated and annoyed. While I was trying to get everything prepped for our baked potatoes I was speaking to Mr Woo's brother on the phone. He has a new girlfriend. It's her birthday in a couple of days and he called to tell me about her wonderful gifts which includes a trip to someplace wonderful. 

Well that was it. 

I lost it. 

I marched into poor Mr Woo who greeted me with a big smile and told him about how they're jetting off somewhere amazing and how we never do anything and I burst into tears & hurt his feelings :( 

Hungry.
Hormonal. 

Frustrated.
Seriously resenting my baked potato. 

You should have seen my crocodile tears. 

It was pretty terrible. 

Plus when I was on the phone I was wiping something up and broke a ceramic letter and cut my finger and  was bleeding all over the counter. 

What a night. 

I'm still grumpy but now also feeling awful for hurting Mr Woo's feelings. 

Painting Baby Woo's Room

B for Baby

We've been given the go-ahead to paint the spare bedroom {which is becoming Baby Woo's nursery}!!! Just so long as we paint it back before we leave. No problem! 

I have been wanting to use Farrow & Ball's Saxon Green:

But...over the past week I'm really feeling a light grey would be nice & Mr Woo prefers a grey to the green. He said the green is old fashioned. Hmm. Who knows. Maybe something cool and calm like this Benjamin Moore Stone Harbor:

Here's a little girl's grey nursery from www.petitelemon.com

I really like it. I'll be using pink as an accent rather than yellow, but I find it so calming! 

Now that my dream nursery fabric has arrived I think the grey will go better as there is a lot of orange in it that I never noticed in the online swatches.

I am so excited about my fabric btw, I might just have to start my dust ruffle project today!!!! 

Although it's a modern trend to have grey nursery walls, with my fabrics and furniture I think it's still going to look very vintage. 

OooOOo I'd love this on the wall! 

ttfn! x

Penguins Need Jumpers

Poor little mites! New Zealand's Little Blue Penguins or Fairy Penguins are being affected by the Taurunga oil spill. I'm probably a bit behind the curve here, esp as New Zealand is heading into Spring/Summer. But I read about the story only this morning. 

The Taurunga oil spill off the coast of New Zealand unleashed 2,500 barrels of heavy fuel into a fragile ecosystem, coating thousands of local seabirds in oil. This puts many of them — particularly the mind-meltingly adorable Little Blue Penguin — at serious risk of freezing and/or being poisoned to death. We know, we know. After today's news from Ohio, there's only so much animal suffering you can take. But you can actually help, particularly if you know how to knit.

A call put out by Grist.org asks for the world to send in penguin sweaters, which will keep them warm and prevent them from preening and swallowing the toxic oil on their feathers until workers can remove it. A decade ago, a similar incident in the region asked for "penguin jumpers," and many Little Blues have already been outfitted from whatever stockpiles were left over.
Interested? Of course you are! Here are patterns and instructions from Skeinz.com,Penguins.org, and Etsy. Get stitching. 

Here's one pattern:


Penguin Jumper in 8ply  - Must be 100% Wool Yarn

1 pair 3.25mm , 1 pair of 3.75mm needles , 1 set of 3.25mm dpn’s or circular

Cast on 36 stitches using 3.25 needles.K1, P1 to end of row. 


Repeat this row 7 times.  


Change to 3.75mm needles and K2, P2 rib. Work 4 rows increasing at each end of every row. (44 sts)
Continue until work measures 15 cms.
Decrease 1 st at each end of every row until 28 sts remain.
Decrease 1 st. in middle of next row (27 sts.)

Leave on needle.

Make second side the same.

Transfer the 54 sts from both pieces to 3 of the set of 4 3.25mm needles.(18 sts on each.) and work a round neck in K1 P1 rib for 10 rows.
Cast off.
Stitch up sides to decreasing to 27sts (opening for flipper). Add elastic to the top and bottom to prevent the penguins getting out of them. Top: 15cm of elastic; bottom 17 cm (knots allowed). Flat elastic OK.


Here's another that looks a little easier for beginners like me:



PENGUIN JUMPER 
8 ply pattern


8 ply wool or blend 
1 pair of No.9 (4mm) knitting needles 


METHOD: Back (repeat exactly the same for the Front) 
Cast on 36 sts. 


K1 P1 to the end of the row. Repeat this row 7 times. 
Change to K2P2 and inc.1 st. at each end of this and the next 4 rows. 
(44sts.) 
Continue until work measures 10cm. This is a bit shorter than the original 
pattern but we have found that it works better. {side} 
Decrease 1 st. at each end of every row until 28 stitches. {flipperhole} 
Dec. 1 st. in the middle of the next row. (27 sts.)
K1 P1 for 16 rows. {neck} 
Cast off loosely. 
Make the 2nd side exactly the same as the first. 
Using a flat stitch like mattress stitch, sew the sides together and the neck 
leaving the flipperholes open.




Mail finished Jumpers to: 
Penguin Foundation 
C/- P.O. Box 97 
Cowes  Victoria  Australia  3922