Cakes, icecreams and hobnobs...

I write this post with all the joy of a person who has just unexpectedly found an unopened packet of chocolate covered hobnobs at the back of the cupboard, when only moments earlier she had thought that the house was entirely lacking in anything nice to nibble upon. There is double excitement to be had from realising that for perhaps the first time in my life I had actually put something nice in the cupboard and then forgotten about it for several weeks...how I have always longed to be the sort of person that does that and to be able to nonchalantly say 'no, I've never really been a great lover of sweet things, I much prefer savoury'. The celebration cannot be entirely joyful though for this oversight can only be put down to a worrying forgetfulness, rather than the lack of a sweet tooth.

So it is all rather thematic that for this blog post I have surrounded myself with fairy cakes and ice creams of the stitched variety. Ever since my children were tiny I have made them appliqued t-shirts using whatever plain ones happened to be in their drawers (the one above is an old Boden t-shirt modelled by Zebra-girl). So how excited I have been to finally take the leap, after a couple of years of research (this is no over-exaggeration, it is something I have looked into on and off since Dinosaur-boy was around four months old), with an ethical supplier of scrumptiously soft organic cotton bibs and t-shirts that I might applique my designs onto.

Here is the finished version of the bib that is being stitched a the top of this post.

I was very tempted to put my labels beneath the applique pictures...just because I found the colours so pleasing and matchy, but after refusing to buy Dinosaur-boy a cap that he liked at the weekend because it had the shop's branding across the forehead, I was swayed away from doing this and sewed them onto the ends of the ties instead. I am still on the trail for a cap (why can't he be happy with the bucket hats that he's always worn and in which he looks so very lovely and little boyish?) that meets our now mutually agreed terms of not being branded or printed with army camouflage. I am having to stop myself from purposely buying one with a legionnaires flap on the back in the hope that this might prevent him from wearing it backwards as I know he would end up disliking me for it or insisting on walking around with the flap hanging down over his face. Oddly, I know that once I have found a cap and he undoubtedly starts wearing it backwards I will (grudgingly) adore seeing him in it, because I will know how much enjoyment he will be taking from wearing it and because it is so lovely when children decide what they think is 'cool'. I can't tell whether it is a good or a bad thing about motherhood that it allows one to take leave of one's previous likes and dislikes in the face of one's delighted offspring.

Anyway, ice creams....stripey, beachy...

The brown one is an ancient design from when Dinosaur-boy was about 12 months old, but his was originally appliqued by hand, rather than by machine.

He has asked me to make him a t-shirt with a large black bat on it. I love that he thinks up what he would like and puts requests in...and it makes me realise how far off the mark I normally am with trying to second-guess what they might like. I never would have thought of that.

Anyway, today the heating is on, the hobnobs are being eaten and a feeling of cosiness of drifting over me and making me feel most happy that I don't have to leave the house until school pick up time. Enjoy your day. x