my creative space:a present for the cutest five year old

The pattern is from Rimoli's Amigurumi World: Seriously Cute Crochet.

I made this dancing bear for the sweetest five year old ! She calls the bear Teddy or sometimes Sakti and she took the bear for a walk in her pink purse. Cute! Cute! Cute!

I have some plans for this years creativeness. Mainly to branch out of making crochet toys. Hopefully get back to sewing and to learn some basic quilting. And screen printing too! And of course to still do lots of crocheting. I just want to mix it up a bit.


Heaps of creative people doing their thing here.

a cardigan and a polaroid camera

Hi hi!

This week little bear has had few 3-4 hour sleeps. Hurray! So I thought I'll come say hello. I was ment to show you the finished felt book I made for Bear, but I've had trouble editing the pictures. It's all new to me so it can get a bit tricky. Maybe in a day or two I'll get it sorted.

Anyway, in addition to sleeping a bit now and then I've also been op-shopping (and I did a bit of reading too, but more about that later).

First I found a little hand crocheted cardigan for Bear. It's supposed to be summer here in Melbourne town, but we've actually got a lot of use out of the sweet cardi this cold cold week.

And few days after I found the cardigan I found a polaroid camera at my favourite op-shop! I had one when I lived in Finland and then they stopped making film so I stashed it somewhere safe and promptly forgot about it. But now I have this beauty! Next I need to find some film.

And while wandering around the internet I have found out that I'm not the only one who gets excited when they find something pretty/useful/eccentric/amazing at the op-shop/ flea market/ thrift store. So I'm joining in with Her Libarary Adventure's Flea Market Finds.


Love,
M

P.s. Not long now before my friends from Finland are here. Hurray!

2012

So far this year we have celebrated my birthday, demolished the gingerbread house, made new year resolutions, talked on Skype to China and Finland, got the hang of rolling around, organised cupboards, danced to David Bowie,  read lots, practiced sleeping properly, op-shopped, had brunch with friends and dinner at my favourite cafe. Not a bad start! Been dreaming about swimming and crafting too. Maybe this week I'll have time to do both. And of course I've been thinking of sleep a lot or rather the lack off sleep.I feel quite hopeful and confident that we'll solve the sleep puzzle soon.  And what about you? What have you been up to my old friend?

Mmmm all the different buildings taste different too. Trust me they really do!

warped

We've been away at the beach house, in paradise. Yet little bear (still) hasn't been sleeping and so my days, evenings and nights mostly consist of trying to make her to go to sleep. We've tried feeding, rocking, patting, singing, dancing, driving and walking. I've even tried reasoning with her ' Pikkukarhu you will feel much better after a good sleep.', 'You know little ones are supposed to nap during the day.', 'I love you but you need to sleep now before we all go loopy!'. And I must admit that I have even tried swearing in all the languages I know just in case it would help. It hasn't. As a result I feel as wonky and warped as the gingerbread village I made for christmas. Next year I will make something more weather appropriate and hope it doesn't buckle in the heat. Maybe a beach shack would do the trick.

They always say that being a parent, being a mother, is hard work. And it has been tough. Especially, getting the whole breastfeeding thing to work. Not that I am complaining. Well maybe a little bit! I haven't had a proper nights sleep since my first trimester. So I just thought that being this exhausted is somewhat normal and that her erratic sleeping pattern is typical for babies.  But then the MCH nurse asked me what our days are like and after she heard my answer she exclaimed ' We better get you some help now!'. I guess it is that bad then as we were straight away given a referral to sleep school. Now we just have to wait until March and hope that we will be okay. It hurts me to see her so tired. It hurts me to be so tired. It's really hurting our little family.

But don't worry too much we are still quite happy. There have been lots magical beautiful moments. Most of the time she is a very happy and curious baby. Even when she is tired and has big bags under her eyes. She has also managed to roll from her back to her tummy. I haven't seen her do that yet, but N did. Bear has also been trying to figure out how to crawl. She gets quite frustrated after trying really hard and still not getting anywhere. My beautiful one. We also had a really lovely christmas with N's family and a relaxed New Year with our friend. And and and it's my birthday tomorrow and my soulmate, the beautiful Aleksandria, is coming from Finland for a visit. Can't wait to see her. And I can't wait what surprises N has in store for tomorrow.

HBD!

Yesterday  was my mother's birthday and since I can't hug my mum and wish her happy birthday in person I will do it through as many channels I can (I've already sent my love via email, facebook and skype). So here we go: Hyvää Syntymapaivää rakas äiti! HBD!

I also know that my mother misses Little Bear to the max, but I don't want her to feel like she is missing out so I took a gazillion photos of Bear and the numerous new facial expression in her repertoire. She can switch from a happy grin into a sad little frown in seconds and the other way again. Makes me laugh every time and I just want to kiss and cuddle her forever. So I do kiss and cuddle her lots. Of course I do! And she just giggles and happily shrieks in response.

My mum loved the big fat emails (living abroad far from my family and friends has made me appreciate such things as email and even facebook!!!) chock-full of bear love. Here are some of the pictures I sent that day.  I hope they'll make you smile too.

Oh and the crocheted suit Bear is wearing used to be mine. Made by Helmi-mummo who lived next door to my grandparents. Isn't it gorgeous? I sure think it is.

my creative space: lil bunny

When I had to stay at the hospital due to preeclampsia I was lucky enough to share a room with a very kind and sweet lady. It made my stay a lot more easier being able to talk and listen to someone so warm, positive and empathetic. And it was nice to have someone to say good night to just before falling to sleep. Also the midwives loved her and even the grumpy food trolley man gave her extra biscuits! That's how lovely she is.

The pattern is by Ana Paula Rimoli and the bowl is made by my mum.

This bunny is for her little girl. I'm also going to make a little turtle for her son who has the sweetest giggle and was a little bundle of energy every time he visited his mama at the hospital.


More creative spaces here.

4 1/2 months

Bear's four month pictures are on my broken laptop. So instead we have some 4 1/2 months photos taken at our favourite park. We live in a tiny apartment so we try to spend as much time outdoors as possible. I think it is important for Little Bear to experience nature; to hear the birds chirp and to follow the dazzling morning light dancing around. During the past month she has become more and more aware of her surroundings and it's been fascinating to follow her reactions ( Well at times it was less fascinating and rather more frustrating when she was too interested in everything else than feeding. Lucky enough we managed to work around the issue and we didn't have to retreat to feed in a darkened room!). Bear's grandparents came for a visit last weekend and we were having lunch at a cafe when two men wearing reflective vests came in. She had a party staring at the bright orange vests and she happily shrieked at the men for a long time. 

We really enjoyed having her grandparents from Adelaide here. Bear, especially, loved chatting to her granny and grandpa making these little conversational sounds and she even made these hilarious expressions to go with them. It's great to see that special bond forming and tightening its grip. I'm really happy she has such loving grandparents from both sides. All in all we've had a really good month. Can't wait to see what the next one brings with it.