Boyishness

So often I find I'm not naturally inspired to reach for my blue and brown baskets of fabrics - because, yes, they have been perfectly colour-coded for a few months now, ever since my friend who knows how obsessively tidy I am and how much I love colour-ordering things, peeped into my fabrics cupboard and pulled away aghast and exclaimed how shocked she was to see it was all such a mess...I think she may have even sworn...but actually I'm so glad she did shame me into order because having your fabrics grouped by colour makes it so much easier to work (at one point I grouped by fabric designer...this should work, but for me it somehow doesn't). Anyway, back to the blue and brown baskets: I tend to go to them when someone has asked me to make something for a particular little boy, but rarely feel compelled to make boysy things of my own accord, but I feel like that might be starting to change. When I looked over all my things for the craft fair a couple of weeks before the actual date I was slightly horrified by the mass of pinkness that faced me...for I love using pink fabrics, but I really don't want to be the Weirdy Pink Woman (a name that would feel akin to being called only the Woman who Carried a Log as was the case for a character in Twin Peaks...do you remember her? She really was a little odd), so I set about on a quick u-turn mission to try and mix other colours into the table and I'm so pleased I did, because I think I've broken my seamstress's block with making things for boys, and now have a head swirling with ideas.

Poor Dinosaur-boy flumped down onto the floor and cried, his lips contorting to make him suddenly bear a close resemblance to a wide-mouth frog (I love this scrumptious face so much, it's such a shame it never appears when he's not crying or unhappy as I would ask him to do it for me all the time) when he woke in the morning, at first delighted to see a dinosaur doorstop on my desk, then only to realise that it wasn't actually intended for him (perhaps I will make him one for Christmas), but what fine impromptu market research results...children will cry not to be in possession of one!

Anyway, Ian has now finally started on the mammoth task of uploading things onto my website for me...it has been months since I updated it and much of the stock was sold when you clicked through to it, so it feels rather wonderful to finally be able to refill some parts of it. There are now several new doorstops (and even one for grown-ups) a few glasses cases (there were lots, but I seem to have sold most of the ones that I made somewhere along the way - quite a few people have enquired about when these might be appearing in the shop - if you don't see one that you like, I am very happy to make them up in colours of your choice), and several new pincushions. By the end of the week there should also be a variety of pencil roll holders and a great many travel tissue holders in there too.

Today was spent working on more things of the boy variety - a small Christmas present for Ian -which I am so desperate to share and now I'm suddenly remembering how irksome blogging can be at this time of year. Dinosaur-boy went to a friend's house after school and so I had the whole day to myself and enjoyed finishing the project in one sitting - which is currently something of a novelty. Once both children had finished school this afternoon my father arrived and took us out to our favourite cafe for milkshakes - a previously unheard of treat for a Monday, but even better for being so decadently inappropriate. Perfect.