From the sick-bay...

This morning my lovely friend, Miss L, will have opened our birthday gift to her. She was a challenge for me to buy for, because my inclination is usually to head toward faded pink florals like a one-colour-preoccupied homing pigeon and buy up this nostalgia-ridden girlyness because it's what I would like for myself....but Miss L is a girl that I feared may not share my love of such things. She is elegant, yet bold...and I was feeling altogether stuck until I happened upon this teacup...which seems both elegant and bold and, for me, its perfection almost entirely rests upon the presence of this black butterfly that flits around the inside.

Perfect. I would enjoy drinking tea from it, and even if I knew not to go and buy the pinks that I would love, I am completely averse to buying something that I wouldn't covet myself. Miss L is a creature much like myself when it comes to tea drinking and always has an interesting selection of herb teas to wade through when we go visiting....so a teabag holder seemed the perfect gift to accompany the cup and saucer, so that she might still drink her gingery concoctions when out and about.

However, this only led to more indecision...what fabrics could I possibly rustle up that might go with the teacup...because even though one is for the kitchen and one is for the handbag, they must compliment one another if they are to be given together...otherwise the whole thing just feels wrong. After an hour of indecision and holding fabrics against the teacup and bothering Ian for opinions, I finally pulled out an off-cut of some silver shot silk that I had bought long ago from John Lewis' remnants basket on a whim, a little more casting around revealed that a small section of an Amy Butler print that, while not the right colours for the most part, could be cut into to scavenge the grey and cream lacework section.

So sewing finally began at past 11pm...the little flower on the front is not perfectly placed...but there's only so many times that you can get the seam ripper out when it's fast approaching pumpkin hour (and as Alice C has told me, I must get to bed earlier, and she is so right...to be in bed by 11.30 is beginning to feel like an early night, which may account for why I feel so sleepy all the time!). By half-past midnight tidying and de-linting the carpet could commence and as I plucked thread and pins from the floor I was mentally thanking Miss L for inspiring me to broaden my colour horizon in creating her birthday gift. I loved using these colours that feel so grown-up and serene.

We celebrated Miss L's birthday last weekend (whose husband made the most amazingly chocolatey chocolate cake imaginable), and this morning it was the turn of our own little Dinosaur-boy for a party...which of course means that Mr Teacakes has been in the flour bag again (actually, just the icing sugar bag, for I am his lackey that does the donkey work of whipping up his spongy canvas while he's at work). Unfortunately, such was our rush this morning that my attempts to photograph his creation were somewhat hurried...but hopefully you can fathom that a train was (pre-demolition) pulling some troublesome trucks that were heavily laden with all manner of sweetie goodness!

His party was lovely, his friends were lovely, he was lovely...I am less lovely and still have a headache and only narrowly managed to avoid being sick on Zebra-girl as I lifted her out of the bath this evening. Oh mummy, she said looking at me aghast as I gazed at the inner-reaches of the toilet pan, I so dislike it when people do that...it makes me think they're actually going to be sick on me! Once I'd recovered, this comment interested me, for she makes it sound like it's a regular occurrence...who are these people, I wonder, who narrowly miss inflicting the product of their illnesses on my lovely daughter with such frequency?!

I am in bed now...resting...and plotting my next piece of stitchery.