fish lips and stripey monkeys!

A short and sweet post today - I told you November was going to be a crazy month for me and it certainly is panning out that way. I've not helped the situation by locking our only set of car keys in the boot of the car, let me tell you (all is not lost, we'll be getting a new key mid-week hopefully).



Anyhoo, onto more fun things:

Robyn decided that doing fish-lips on the glass would be her activity of choice yesterday:









Secondly, I have finally beaten my sock-monkey fear and found the mojo! The first monkey came out OK but I wouldn't share the pics, he's a bit flakey in places. However, sock monkey mark 2 was much improved, and here he is, happy in his home-made-from-sock-scraps santa hat:

I can't believe that in less than a week we'll be celebrating Robyn's First Birthday, so I have a ton of baking to do this week in preparation for a full-on weekend of sugar filled parties, can't wait!!!

and so the crazy month begins....

Well, here it is, November. This month will be one hell of a crazy month in the Chorley household. I have 6 sock toy sales to prepare for, we have LOTS of Chorley birthdays - Robyn's 1st, Colin's brother and dad, and Colin's as well. I'm also going to the O2 London twice!! We're going to see Michael McIntyre on Tuesday and A-ha on Wednesday (I was and still am a huge a-ha fan, so really excited for that!!)

So it's been truly lovely that we've been able to spend this weekend just quietly at home. Although it's been quiet, there has been one major event - Robyn took her first steps yesterday!! I don't who was more excited us or her!! I can't wait for her to wake up from her nap now to see if she can do some more!!! This was Robyn earlier today - she'd decided it would be great fun to empty out as much of her toy box as possible! I'll try to get some pics of her wobbly walking and post here!

I've been very well prepared and have made sure that all my sock toys are labelled up and ready to go. I realised there was one I hadn't photographed and shared - so please meet Mr Robot! I also have some reindeer almost finished off, but until the tinsel is out I shan't be taking a pic, so you'll have to wait for those!!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend folks.

My creative space....

I know it's a little late, but better that than never right?

For once my creative space (aka a small desk in the conservatory) is pretty tidy! Trust me, this is an organised placement of things, honest! What you can't see is the pile of bits on the dining room table, the row of now finished snowmen on the back of the sofa and the awful state of my front room rug which is covered in bits of thread debris and sock dandruff!!

Scoot on over to {kootoyoo} for more creative spaces!

What's hot and what's not...

I've been reading these posts from other blogs that I follow for a couple of weeks and finally just happen to be at the computer at the right time to join in!

So what's hot and what's not in the Chorley household this week...

Hot:
Robyn gaining much more confidence in standing, I'm sure it won't be much longer before she's toddling around and causing more mayhem (if that's actually possible).

Planning birthday cakes for a one year old - 2 and a bit weeks and Robyn will hit that milestone - I'm planning on super large birthday cake size cupcakes!

Robyn making me guffaw with laughter on a regular basis, yesterday it was copying Goofy trying to moo like a cow, trust me it was funny.

Finally getting a new home for the fish we inherited, we'll be able to now fill in the pond and make the garden so much safer in the spring, can't wait!

Assembly line production of sock snowmen almost complete - I just have 3 more carrot noses to stitch hurrah!

Finally getting Florence and the Machine album downloaded... love love love it!

What's not:

Having to clean the oven, yak. It sets off the fire alarm every time we use it, so I've bitten the bullet and put some oven pride cleaner in, just need to scrape that out now.... in the words of Annie "tomorrow, tomorrow"

Finding a dried up piece of cat poo on the window sill ON THE INSIDE OF THE CONSERVATORY!!! I think it must have been stuck to Jack's bum... so not impressed by that.

The realisation that after 2 years of no-speciness I now have to wear my glasses again... boo hiss. I guess all the sewing of sock toys whilst watching tv of an evening has taken it's toll. Oh well, could be worse I suppose, at least I have the specs already and don't have to shell out for more.

Trying to figure out how to jazz up my blog a bit - I desperately want a new pretty banner, I just need to apply myself and find some quiet time to look into it I guess!

I guess I should be grateful that it took more brain effort to come up with a what's not list than a what's hot list....

Don't forget to stop by {Loobylu's place} for more hot and not lists!
ta ta for now!
T xx

A Robyn post

Whilst looking back over my last few blog entries I realised they've been a bit scant on the Robyn front. You know I can't believe she's going to be 1 year old in just over 2 weeks, it's scary! I'm really looking forward to a weekend of celebrating though, lots of cakes to bake which is always a good thing.

Lately she's been loving feeding herself (rather than me spoonfeeding her) - her favourite food is pears and bananas, she can't get enough! She is also a complete whizz with her shopping trolley walker - she races up and down the lounge giggling away. Actually I don't think it will be too long before she's walking on her own, she can already stand by herself so watch this space!

Robyn has also developed her own little vocabulary - CAT (which she has to shout!), dully (dummy), Daddy, Mummmmm, mmmmm (which generally means feed me now) and tickle ickle ickle. She can also yodle like the best lonely goat herder! It's hilarous, I must get it videoed.

Well it's fast approaching Robyn's bed time so better get off the computer and get things sorted around here! I'll leave you with a couple of pics taken whilst she was eating a cheese spread sarnie the other week. It seems the messier the food, the more tasty!

jeez louise!

Blimey o'reilly and oh my buddha! In 3 weeks time my little Robyn-Bobbin will be a year old, as in 12 months, as in HER FIRST BIRTHDAY!!! Seriously? I'd better get baking!

She is currently learning that she can stand all by herself and gets so excited that she claps, it's so cute! I'll have to try and get some pictures today, except that it's so grey and dark here I doubt that I'll get any pics worth sharing...

The other thing that's scaring me at the moment is the realisation that in 10 days time crazy season is going to start around here. Now I'm not complaining BUT our sock toy venture has proven so popular that we have 6 bookings in the space of 4 weeks! YIKES, my stock level needs serious replenishing is all I can say. I have lots of new designs to share but not many photos as yet. Keep your eyes peeled here for a sneak peak of my current favourite - a Rudolph sock toy, complete with red nose!! Just to keep you interested, here's a few of my most recent:

How is it mid-October already?!

Wow, what a month. It's funny how a week away can actually mean an extra two weeks work... 1 week before the holiday to pack and clean up the house and 1 week after the holiday to do all the laundry, ironing etc etc.... jeez louise.

All I can say is we had a fantastic week in Cornwall, we were exceptionally lucky with the weather considering it was the back end of September. Also we were exceptionally lucky that Little Miss Robyn travels so well and slept through the night 6 times out of 7... how cool is that?

I don't have any pics on the lappy to share, Mr Chorley has already taken them off the camera onto the pc but if you're on FB check out my profile as I've copied them all onto there. My favourite has to be Robyn eyeing up daddy's beer!!!

Anyhoo - now that Colin is back at work it's all back to normal here. Robyn is in the middle of her first nap of the day and I'm catching up a bit with all things housework. Just thought I'd share some pics of my latest sock toys - it's all go here at the mo, my friends and I have 5 (yes 5!!!) craft sales/ events booked up for November - YIKES!!! Better get busy!

These are more of the same on the Cyril front - I guess he's a type of Gremlin that multiplies if you feed them after midnight!! I love making these guys, they're so fun!

A pair of birds - of the puffin/ toucan type I guess... All I know is they're great fun, the pics don't really show off their fancy plummage, I shall take a tail feather shot for another time!

A close-up of Cyril the third!

Well, this last fella doesn't really have a name or species..! He started off life as a monkey and it went a little strange... as he's red I'm thinking of calling him Gooner!!

Right better dash, got some bits to do before heading off to the dentist (boo).....