TopCat's Crafty Place

fish lips and stripey monkeys!

2009-11-08T18:14:00.005Z

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....

2009-11-01T13:23:00.006Z

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....

2009-10-29T21:58:00.006Z

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...

2009-10-28T17:17:00.006Z

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

2009-10-27T18:09:00.006Z

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!

2009-10-24T07:16:00.003Z

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?!

2009-10-12T09:22:00.004Z

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).....

Gggggrrrrrrrrr!

2009-09-15T20:52:00.002Z

Today I have mostly been finishing off this scary guy, it was so much fun I'm going to make a whole herd of them... is herd the right word for a bunch of monsters????? Of on a another wikipedia-tangent I go!!!

oooh looky here!

2009-09-13T08:23:00.008Z

Whilst blog hopping yesterday morning I came across this fab place:

It's a fantastic on-line magazine for UK based crafters of all disciplines. I'm just trying to find my feet - which is always fun/slightly difficult - on the new forum and am really looking forward to getting to know new crafters! I know that some of you that read this blog are like-minded crafty individuals so come and join us!!!

Yikes!

2009-09-12T09:02:00.005Z

Looks like November is going to be a very VERY busy month for the sock toys! We have 4 craft fair/ school event dates in our diary now... I think I'd better stop procrastinating and turn the {sock mountain} into more creatures!

I have plans to make lots more elephants, some mice, a few birds, monsters, robots and a reindeer, amongst others.... really should get of the lappy and onto the sewing machine!!!!

This is Leonard - still one of my favourite creations, I should make some more as I have lots of lion-mane wool and it's a really therapeutic creature to make!

Have a glorious weekend all, it's a perfect autumnal Saturday here. Looking forward to a lovely seafood lunch for my birthday tomorrow and hopefully plenty of crafting time next week now that I've spring/autumn cleaned my house!!

TTFN xx

My creative space....

2009-09-03T09:12:00.004Z

...is a bit cluttered and the home of 2 or 3 projects currently on the go! Been a busy week this week and I don't feel like I've had much calm, creative time. Saturday is going to be a day at home, just Robyn and I, and I will honour my "no housework on the weekend" rule to. the. letter. I hope it will be a lovely day, filled with tickles and giggles with the munchkin and creative time when she's happy playing or snoozing.

Pop along {here} and see what the other ladies are up to!!

It's Tuesday and I can't wait....

2009-09-01T09:26:00.003Z

...for Sock Club to start in 30mins!!! Me and the other girls obsessed by socks and turning them into funky creatures get together with our kiddie winks-every Tuesday. I'm hosting today and I'm all ready and waiting!

I'll try to remember to take a pic of the mayhem that ensues when 4 women try to make sock toys with 4 9-month-old babies crawling about, it's a sight that's for sure!!!

Oakley

2009-08-31T09:02:00.002Z

You know I sometimes think the hardest part of making sock toys is coming up with names for the little critters when I'm done! I actually ended up on a "chose your baby's name" site for this one! I could only think of Octavius or Oliver and I didn't like either.

So - meet Oakley the Octopus!

It's a Bank Holiday here in the UK today - once Robyn wakes up from her morning nap we're heading out to a country park for a walk in the sunshine then to a lovely country pub for lunch, perfect!!

No-brainer.

2009-08-27T08:33:00.003Z

This little monkey is just too cute! She fills my day with laughter (mainly!) and I wouldn't change a single thing about that. As of 17th August I am technically, officially, unemployed. My maternity leave came to an end and I am very lucky that I don't need to go back to the endless drudgery of commuting to London and picking up after a team of bankers. Now don't get me wrong, I was extremly lucky in my last job, the guys I worked for as PA/ Team secretary were the best bunch I've ever worked for, BUT given the choice of babysitting 6 grown men and commuting for 3 hours each day or staying home with the little munchkin... well it was a no-brainer!

Finally - an elephant!

2009-08-26T19:25:00.003Z

Ever since I bought these socks months ago I've known that I've wanted to make an Elmer-like elephant. Well here at last (insert drum-roll here) I can present my Elmer-phant!!!

I'm looking forward to making more now that I know how. I think next time I'll make the ears bigger though!

Sock mountain

2009-08-16T14:12:00.004Z

I really think I need to get sewing to make a dent into my sock mountain. How can 2 bags.....

.... have turned into this staggering pile?!

a few close-ups:

I hadn't realised I was such a stock-piler! I guess I'm just a sucker for socks now!!!

9 months old!

2009-08-15T10:31:00.008Z

Well Robyn was 9 months old yesterday - I was pregnant for 9 months and that seemed to drag on and on for ever, not like these first 9 months with Robyn! This is what my little Bobbin Robyn was up to yesterday:

Hmmm this rattle looks interesting....

You want it Mummy?

Well you can't have it!!!

ner ner ner nerrrrr

Am I Cute or what?

Robyn Bobbin

2009-08-13T09:20:00.003Z

Just a nice simple post today - things to do, people to have lunch with, you know how it goes.
Taken a few pics of Robyn the last few days, here's a few! (Oh, if you'd like to see more I always upload lots on facebook, come and be my friend!! Tracey Chorley Neé Latarche)

Too early for Jingle Bells?

This dress is too long to crawl in!!

Check out my teeth - ggrrrrr!!

Ooops caught in the act!!

Mmmmm yummy pegs!

more sock toys...

2009-08-08T09:29:00.005Z

I thought I'd share some more shots of sock toys with you today. I've not taken many pictures of Robyn lately, that is my aim for this weekend: to get more. I do have a pic to share of me, Colin and Robyn at a wedding last Saturday. Robyn wasn't very well at all, she was trying to cut 3 teeth at once, silly girl. But hey, I still think she looks gorgeous!!

(I don't think this is the best quality version of this shot, but it's all I have for the moment, will edit later when I can get to Colin's pc!)

Ok - so onto the sock toys. These are some I created a little while ago. I'm working on several ideas at the moment. Once I get my desk set up in the conservatory today I'll be able to really crack on... I'm currently taking over the dining room table and it's such a pain!!

Geoff the Giraffe:

Leonard the Lion:

Polly Pig:

Orla the Owl:

Right, that's all folks... now that Robyn has finally settled for her morning nap I'd better get some chores done!

PS: Forgot to mention that I do sell my sock toys and will try my best to make special commissions if you should have any! Let me know in comments or email me! x

8 months and sock toys

2009-07-24T14:16:00.003Z

Well 8 months and counting! I know they say enjoy every moment as time flies when babies are little, but really?! wow... Robyn's now crawling FAST and is the proud owner of 3 and a bit teeth (4th one is cutting at the mo). She loves her food, has 3 meals a day quite happily. I guess she's probably still pretty small for her age, at least compared to her peers... she's always been diddy though, rather than on the 50th percentile she's always been on the 9th or thereabouts.

We have her 7-9 month check in a couple of weeks so will be interesting to she where she's at then.

Staying home with Robyn pretty much takes up most of my time, any spare time I do have is given over to sock toys... I am obsessed. My friends and I have recently done quite well at some school fetes and fundraisers, we're hoping for more success in the run-up to Christmas. Here are a few of my latest creations, if anyone's interested in buying any or requesting specific animals please contact me!!!! I don't really work from patterns so can make most anything. The frog here was made off the cuff, so to speak and I think he's my favourite yet! Shame he's a commissioned one, must go and scour the shops for more green socks!!! Happy Friday everyone! T xx

6 months!!

2009-05-14T12:28:00.003Z

6 months! Oh my goodness, I can't believe Robyn is 6 months old today! I know people always say the time will fly by, but really, 6 months?!
When I look back at pictures we've taken since Robyn was born I can really appreciate how much she has changed. On a day-to-day basis it's harder to see, which is why I'm so pleased that we've taken lots (and lots!) of photos.

It's funny the things you forget, for example, for the first 4 and a half months Robyn was exclusively breast fed, no bottles, all me! Now it's seems weird that she would have anything other than bottles. We're now gearing up to wean her onto food... yikes! We're going to try baby-led weaning, so rather than give her mush and puree we give bits of food, like steamed carrot sticks or broccolli. The theory is that she learns to eat proper food straight away and can show us what she likes and what she doesn't like. Should be fun (and messy!).

On the 2nd May Robyn cut her first tooth, I've been trying to get a photo of it, but it's more elusive than the Scarlet Pimpernel!! I've been reliably informed that the 2nd tooth follows within 2 weeks, so any day now, yay....!

She's still pretty dinky, out of her peer group she's the smallest girl, along with a 4-week premature twin girl. We've only recently been able to dress her in 3-6 month clothes, and currently have 1 pair of socks that fit her and they're 3-6 month size!! Strange really as she has plenty of 0-3 month size socks that are STILL too big! Oh well, I'll have to make some sock pigs out of them!! (There'll be another post soon with pics of all my sock toy creations!) At her last weigh-in (5th May) she was 13lb 14.5oz, and had stayed true to her 9th percentile line.

I still get quite bad hair-envy. A lot of her little friends have oodles of hair, but not my Robyn... she does now have a downy fluff of hair on her head which I'm hoping will thicken up soon. We shall see!! I shall leave you with a collection of pics from the last 6 months - I wonder if the next 6 fly by equally as fast?!

2009-05-01T15:59:00.003Z

Where does the time go??? Robyn is now 5 1/2 months old, crazy!!! She seems to be changing every day, to the point where Colin now thinks she looks more like me than him... I'll let you decide, here's some pics of my lil munchkin:

Slightly confused:

Very cute:

Watching tv (again!):

Funny face - check out her Pixie ear (on her right):

I need to practice a bit more with my portrait lens on the camera, but I'm getting there - have always wanted to get that blurry background effect! She's a great model though.

Robyn's favourite trick at the moment is rolling onto her tummy and then getting annoyed with herself as she can't get back onto her back! It's funny, except when she's continuously rolling when you're trying to change her nappy! She also thinks it's dead funny to blow raspberries with her dummy in her mouth to see how far she can get it to fly!! She keeps me very busy and very entertained, that's for sure!

Enjoy the long weekend folks, it's meant to be gorious weather, at least here in the south east, finger's crossed!!

Photo shoot!

2009-03-25T13:56:00.002Z

OK as promised more pics of Robyn!

Big ol' blue eyes:

She's a bit fond of this bunny - thanks Nanny!

See - she does wear dresses (sometimes!)

In her new "entertainment centre" (this was tougher than labour to put together!)

2009-03-19T09:43:00.003Z

Oh dear... it's been a while! Robyn and I have settled into a lovely day time routine, which works for the most part. She has the odd day (like yesterday) where she'll only sleep if I cuddle her, which is no bad thing as I get to sit about having cuddles with my baby! It just so happened that yesterday I was at a friend's trying to make sock toys.... typical!

Sock toys are my latest craft obsession - they're so much easier than I thought they'd be. I was convinced that I couldn't sew and so (!) have been very surprised by the results.

Well, Robyn's about to wake up so I'll leave you with some pics for now.... I have taken lots of pics of Robyn lately but they're all on Colin's pc so I'll have to blog from there later!

oh yeah, I baked again!

12 weeks!!!

2009-02-06T12:57:00.004Z

I can't believe Robyn is 12 weeks old! I know people say that time flies, but really, this fast?!? I also can't believe I've not blogged since 25th November, shameful!

So here's what we've been up to the past few weeks.
I wanted to write a bit of a recap of here of nicknames as I seem to have so many for her:

The first was Pink Smartie as that's what we'd called her throughout the pregnancy, this then turned into Baby.
After that was Green Eggs and Ham, cos that's what it smelled of when she farted!! I now have the Dr Seuss book and enjoy reading it to her.
Then she was Treasure, as in My Little Treasure... that still gets used as she is a real Treasure, so calm and easy going.
Treasure then mutated into Treacle which at 12 weeks still sticks (no pun intended!!).

Of course I do call her Robyn a lot too, and Robsie... seems strange to have picked a name for her then use all these alternatives!

For the first 7 weeks Robyn decided she was a nocturnal baby. She'd sleep for 4 hours during the day then be awake between 8pm and 2am, it was soooo hard going. Middle of the night feeding I could have handled, it was the fact that she would refuse to sleep during this time so we (I) had to be awake too. Saying that though she would then sleep until 7 or 8am. It wasn't just the lateness of the hour either, she would find falling asleep so difficult it would give us really bad back ache walking around, rocking her off to sleep. Come Jan 1st I decided I'd had enough and imposed an evening routine. I would much rather get woken up at 5 or 6am and go to sleep by midnight. So, we decided that before her 8pm feed we'd give her a bath. It worked, first time!! We now give Robyn a bath every night, she has a feed then cuddles with Colin, sometimes she naps for anything up to an hour after this, sometimes not at all. She then wants feeding around 10 - 10.30pm. I get ready for bed and feed her in bed with the lights low and Classic FM on the radio. She then falls asleep so quietly on my lap after feeding, I can put her into her moses basket and she sleeps through to 6 or 7am!!! It's been like this since 1st Jan, so fingers crossed it's a nicely established routine.

Classic FM has been a God-send. We started trying her with white noise one night - it worked. We turned it off at 4am as it was getting on our nerves and she woke up instantly. So the radio went on. First off we listenend to Radio 4 as it was only people talking. It seemed to work, we became fans of the Shipping News. Over Christmas we spent the night at Mum and Dad's and couldn't get Radio 4 to tune in on their radio, so ended up with Classic FM instead. We now listen to that all night!! I've read somewhere that classical music is good for babies brain development and we don't mind listening to it either.

We've been going to baby massage classes these past 2 weeks which have been great fun, as much for me as Robyn I think!! She wasn't much in the mood for it yesterday but we'll get there I'm sure. I am very lucky to have made lots of new friends from my ante-natal group. To be honest I didn't think I would, I didn't want to become friends with people just because we were having babies at the same time, but they are all so lovely and we all get on really well. We have 2 more classes to go and I can't wait to learn all the moves and have some quality time Robyn, even if it's only a couple of times a week to chill her out.... not that she needs it as she is super-chilled!

She's starting to 'coo' a lot now and responds a lot more to use pulling silly faces at her. Just this morning she found it hilarious if I said "you're full of farts and bogies today"... it would seem she has my toilet-level sense of humour!!!

Here's a few pics from the past few weeks:

Sleeping like an angel, literally!

Bath time!

Baby Massage class