Chick, chick, chick, chick, chicken

Or is it a rooster? How do you tell the sex of poultry? Do only males have those reddish flappy bits of skin (I really must work on my poor fowl-related terminology) on top of their heads?

My sudden interest in this animal springs from Sunday's visit to a childrens' petting farm (hmm...is that the correct title these days?!). Farm is taking it much too far. There were a handful of enclosures with various types of chickens, goats, sheep, a pony, two donkeys and two lamas. But that was enough excitement for an 18 month year old. Elaine was surprisingly but sensibly wary of the goats and other animals bigger than her but the chickens were inspected with some intensity.

"Hmm..should I make a grab for it...?"

 

When it's spring again...

...I'll bring again, tulips from Amsterdam...well, from the salon downstairs. It was too hot for them down there so I rescued a few to draw before they wilted completely.

 

We have now had two days of warmth and sunshine! A real shock to the system. Last week, however it was still cold and miserable so, with my parents in tow, I took Elaine to a large indoor play centre. In theory she's still too small for a lot of the apparatus but she didn't let her size stop her. She was on the big slides, in the ball pit, on the electronic cars and on the bouncy castle and trampolines:

Apologies for the rubbish photo. Not used to dealing with bright sunshine anymore!

Another sketchbook completed!

Ever so gradually I'm getting through my various half-filled sketchbooks. This book was completed in (for me) record time - I started it in September last year. Hmm...6 months...ok, that's not actually that impressive. However, my uncompleted Moleskine, which I'd left accidentally at my parents' house, has been on the go since 2009 and is still not done. Pitiful. Anyhoo, here are the last pages:

Toddler + curiosity + mother trying to deny it's time to get up = 

 

The weather has been continually cold and miserable so we've been forced to invent some indoor activities (because everyone needs a short break from pure destruction):

I attatched a long cardboard tube to the stair bannister for Elaine to put plastic eggs down. A kind of seasonal, non-choking hazard marble run.

The completed sketchbook

Lost mojo, pink swimming costume

Oh dear, I'm getting a bit out of the drawing groove again. The blog is a big help but also a bit of a hindrance in that part of my brain is worrying that what I'm currently sketching is going to be unuseable so what's the point? Of course, that isn't the point of a sketchbook at all. However, I did have to self edit a birthday card I was trying to paint for my dad at the weekend. It was so awful I just had to chuck it and he got a bought card. So this is it so far for March:

 

Now is the winter of our discontent...

...made glorious by the completion of the final baby quilt. Hurrah! This one went really fast as I chose a super easy pattern. The Japanese fabric charms are so busy that a more complicated pattern wouldn't do them any favours. Ditto complicated quilting. (Not that I know how anyway). That's my story and I'm sticking to it! I think this quilt is also quite a bit smaller than the others as my fabric stash and patience was dwindling!

If you look closely, you'll see that the bottom left square has come away from the binding after a turn in the washing machine. I nearly threw it off the balcony at that point but forced myself to rescue it with some (quite dodgy) hand sewing.

 Otherwise there has not been too much going on. I think pretty much everyone here (aside from the ski lift companies)  is now sick of the snow now and desperate to see some signs of  spring. I'm certainly looking forward to the days when forcing a toddler into snow boots and suits is no longer necessary for even the shortest of forays outdoors.

Sometimes it's good to have a little rant on paper about inconsequential things.

Quilts-a-go-go

Yes, this is meant to be a sketchblog but recently I've been wearing down my sewing machine trying to get baby quilts finished. The one drawing that I have done is below:

 

Can you tell what it is? Our neighbour lent us her old wooden sledge so we bundled Elaine up in her snow suite and wrapped a huge blanket around her to take her out for a walk. At first she was sitting up taking in all in but then she dozed off and slumed further and further down. Her hood was up and her wooly hat also slid over her eyes so that only her nose, cheeks and a bit of the dummy was visible. Just as well, as it was about -10 degrees centigrade.
We were away for a short trip with the camping van and in the evening I finished hand sewing the binding onto the two baby quilts below. Phew. One more to go (decided that baby no. 5 is going to get something else!).

 

"Busy, busy, busy, busy...

...there's so much to do..." That's the first line of a song on Elaine's Fisher Price musical activity table. The song does continue but I'm not sure of the words as she has normally pressed several other buttons by that point, treating me to a Mexican-style tune and a snippet of 'Ode to Joy'. This first line certainly describes her day, though. It's typical toddler frenetic action. Draw her from life? Ha! No chance!

 This page is the only one I've managed to do this week as I have been desperately trying to get a baby quilt finished for a friend. The baby arrived just before Christmas so I was late starting and I'm a very slow and unsure sewer. This photo is rubbish but, for my standards, the quilt turned out satisfactorily. I can take no credit for coordinating fabrics as it was a ready made bundle from Fabricworm.

 Am currently quilting a second baby quilt but have run out of thread half way through. So that's my Sunday night sew-in foiled again! There are another 2 friends with babies born in January and another due any day now which I had planned to make quilts for but I think my sewing stamina may not last that long. I'm quite peeved. When I was pregnant, no-one got pregnant to keep me company and now all five of them have produced offspring within a 2 month period without a care in the world for my schedule!  It's most unreasonable!