During the last excruciating days of my pregnancy, I started making stuffed toys for my little bundle of joy.  I had several sketches for these cuddly critters, but once the baby came, I had little time, energy, focus, time or freedom to work on such frivolous things.  Did I mention that I also just didn't have the time?  Now that Maisie is nearing a year old, I feel a lot more confident in my parenting skills and have started to figure out how to manage my time to do stuff I want to do and still look after the baby - despite the fact that she's crawling and climbing on everything! 

To get to the point, I've started making more cuddly critters and here's my latest creation for your viewing pleasure.  Below is the photo gallery showing the project from concept to completion.

Actually I was driving through Chipping Norton on my way to see an exhibition by my friend, Cleo Carruthers, when I saw out of the corner of my eye this weird and wonderful site.  It's some sort of disused storefront filled the brim with wonderful goodies that I'd LOVE to get my hands on...if only I had a studio to house it in and weren't about to embark on an international move.  Stupid life getting the way of cool stuff.  Anyway, I was just intrigued by this image and my wonderful husband obliged me by turning around in busy traffic and stopping so I could get out and snap a pic.   

I don't know if I'll ever do anything with these images, but I just can't resist sharing.  And even if I can't get my greedy paws on these wonderful objets d'art, I have tucked the imagery away in my memory - I'm confident they'll resurface when the time is right and they'll be find new life in some sort of creative output down the line.  In the meantime, enjoy the imagery for yourselves my lovely readers and let your imagination do with them what it will!

While most of my new work has been - surprise! - baby related, not all of it is.  One of the new additions to the Bohemian Pearl collection is the crocheted coaster.  They're made from 100% fine merino wool and backed with felt which has been attached with hand-stitching.  My followers will know how much I love to incorporate recycled materials into my work...the button and ribbon are examples of that.  The buttons were a great score from my local charity shop (a bargain at 3p each!) and I have no idea where the ribbon came from, but I just love it!  

The crocheted coaster was inspired by the vintage bunting you see here.  I came up with the idea for the bunting when wanting to create something special for my daughter's nursery.  I just couldn't shake the idea of yarn pom-poms - remember those?  Anyway, I abhorred the idea of spending so much time (and wool!) wrapping and wrapping and wrapping just to have it go wrong when I had a lightbulb moment - why not crochet yarn circles instead!  I love how it's a unique take on bunting, which is so popular right now.  I just love it!  And the best part - the bunting looks great in adult bedrooms, too!

I'm a bit late in getting this one up with winter is behind us.  But then today when the temperature plummeted and I was shocked in having to turn the heat on, I thought to myself, 'you can never put your wooly hats away in England!'  This is a my daughter wearing the beanie I made for her out of merino wool, which I think is just stinkin' cute!  I make them in adult-sizes too and while they are cool, I don't know if they're quite as cute as this!

I'm embarrassed.  It's been nearly a year (ahem...a WHOLE YEAR!) since my last blog.  My head hangs heavy in shame.  In my defense, I've been a little bit busy with the biggest art project of my life: raising my daughter.  I knew that motherhood would keep me busy, but my God I had no idea that it would be THIS crazy!  But as you can see, I've wasted no time introducing her to the art scene.  Here's a snapshot of us at my friend Martin Beek's recent exhibition in Ipsden, which featured his plein air paintings that were created over the course of a year in all kinds of weather.  I've known Martin for quite a long time (15 years *gasp!*) and have always admired his work.  This exhibition was really interesting because it was displayed in a church that's located in the heart of the countryside which has inspired so much of his work.  It was really stunning.

Sadly, my first return to blogging in quite some time has been cut short by the sharp cries of little Miss Maisie who has just woken up from her nap.  So it goes.  Until next time...