Happy the Flowerpotomus

Goodness its been a bit of a manic little while. Visit to the parents, unwell baby, big sort out and clear outs of the spare room, making some changes in my life too, all for the positive of course, and the beginning of the boy attending infants full time, the slow roll in now over. So its been somewhat chaotic. Especially as missy's birthday is in just over two weeks and needed to get that sorted too!

The subject of missy's birthday is apt, because this project is my birthday present to her. As a stay at home mum I don't have my own income, and while hubby's pay will easily stretch to big fancy presents, I still want to give my children something a little special too. This is why I have been working on a gluten free red velvet cupcake recipe to be her birthday cake (watch this space, the recipe is coming!), and I tend to look for those special presents on my very limited budget throughout the year, or I invest what I have more freely available. Time. Though the availability of time has been questionable lately!

I knew that as soon as I saw Heidi Bears' pattern that I had to make it for missy, and while she was young enough to appreciate it. I am lucky that her brother has always appreciated the hand made things I have made him. He has a special blanket I made for his second birthday that he still adores, I've made him several pairs of socks that he loved over all others, several hats, a stegosaurus, a chicken, a hand sewn sock monkey and a sweater. The sweater is now getting too small and he sweetly asked me to make him another... so guess who bought yarn for said sweater this week?

And missy seems to be following in his footsteps. She's worn little outfits I have made her since birth as you can see here:

And I made that blanket too. Its actually the back you can see there. The photographer loved the texture as a background. That blanket is now the cuddly and I live in fear of anything happening to it because I think her little world will implode if it vanishes or dies!

So she appreciates the hand made, and I was more than willing to put in the effort. So in a little under two weeks, I created 44 african flower motifs in various geometric shapes from squares to octagons and everything inbetween. I have to say this. Heidi makes the most amazing patterns. They are not just visually stunning, and you really must check out her blog, but her patterns are so well laid out with step by step photo tutorials. It makes them very long pdfs, but they really are worth it. I never felt lost once. I even learned her join as you go method. And the only deviation from the pattern  aside from my own colour choices, was to embroider eyes instead of using safety eyes.

So here is Happy, in progress to the finished beastie, all waiting to be wrapped for her birthday!

The first motifs

 

 

 

And our finished hippo!

 

I am most biased and think he is wonderful. If missy doesn't like him, I think I shall claim him for me! He is cuddly and squishy and definitely made for cuddles. 

Till next time!

Kat

xxx