Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas one and all! 

From all of us in the Owl Nest!


Laughing Owl x

Cross Monday Week 40

I so wanted that plant finished this week, I've not enjoyed doing it, its very bitty, but all the Christmas preparations have meant that I haven't quite got there.  I even tried to sneak a bit of time today between present wrapping but it wasn't enough!  

I'm not sure how much I'll get to do this week, I'm going to be somewhat busy, but either way, I'll see you next Monday - have a very Merry Christmas!

My Sunday Photo

Owlfit of the Week

It's Christmas!!!  I've been a bit slow on sharing the old Christmas jumpers and now I realise I have lots to share and little time to do it!  I have a December birthday, so growing up, Christmas didn't start until the day after my birthday, which meant no decorations, Christmas song or clothing for the first two weeks of December... then WHAM straight into the Christmas spirit!

So here's how Little Owl has been going about for the last few days!  The hat was knitted by LittleOwl's Fairy God Mother for her first Christmas, so chuffed that it still fits!

I'm in love with the Snuggle Fleece from Frugi.  All Frugi snuggle fleeces are reversible, with printed cotton on one side, and this lovely snuggly fleece on the other!  Until this week, Little Owl has been wearing this the other way round, but the fluffy white fleece feels very festive!  They are quite expensive at £30 but hard wearing and a generous fit so I'm sure we'll get a lot of wear out of it.  I was lucky to pick this one up in a flash sale that Frugi had about a month ago, I think I got 20% off.

The trousers are from the Little Bird range at Mothercare.  You might have noticed by now that I have a soft patch for cord trousers so couldn't resist these flares from Little Bird for £12.

Finally, Little Owl's beautiful boots from Livie and Luca!  You may remember me debating over whether to get the pink or blue pair a few weeks ago, well I went for the blue.  These will feature loads over the coming weeks, so expect a more detailed review soon, for now, just know that I love them!

Oh - there is one more thing - you might just spot a red bell on Little Owl's boot, it was one of the gifts in her advent calender, and its bit of a tradition of having festive bells on your boots in the Owl household!

Cross Monday Week 39

I'm not sure how I found the time this week but I've actually done quite a bit.  Filling in the details on the centre plant takes a lot of concentration and I'll be glad when its done!  Can't see that I'm going to be doing a whole lot this week but it would be good to have that plant done! 

My Sunday Photo

Clyde Cat

Owlfit of the Week

I love it when an Owlfit comes together unplanned and looks amazing!  The brown 'bear' dress is a hand-me-down from Gap and I've just been unsure as to whether I like it or not.  Its been in storage for a year or more, been washed at least twice, moved around in the wardrobe and finally been sat in the 'dress drawer' all lonely for several weeks.

My mum bought the top from Boots a few weeks ago as part of a set of 3, and this one is my favourite.  I know I don't normally go for pink, but the grey stripes and the mustard edging on the neck are great, so when I spotted the matching tights I grabbed them.  The tights also came as a set of 3, but the other two pairs don't match the other tops!

Anyhow - I'm dead chuffed at how these all look together - and her mustard shoes from Livie and Luca set if off perfectly!

Advent

Advent is a time of preparation, and whether you are waiting for the arrival of Jesus Christ or waiting for Father Christmas to pop down the chimney, there's an awful lot of stuff to learn when you are two!

I want Little Owl to grow up understanding why we do what we do at Christmas.  I want her to know the story of the nativity, of Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus.  But I also want her to know about Father Christmas and the magic of the season!

That's an awful lot for a two year old!

So I am using the season of advent to help!  Little Owl hasn't had an advent calender before, I couldn't see the point in a daily dose of chocolate for her last year as she was too small to know what was going on.  But this year...

Little Owl is going to find out about the nativity through books and her own nativity set that will grow day by day.  As we edge closer to the big day itself, Father Christmas will begin to make an appearance, as well as some more modern Christmas traditions.

With the help of little advent sacks from Lidl, a wooden nativity set from BigJigs Toys, a few books and the Polar Express on DVD, Little Owl is feeling the magic of Christmas already!

The gifts that don't fit in the sacks, are wrapped up below.  On those days, Little Owl finds a letter in her sack, and has to match it to the letter on the parcel.  She likes those days the best!

If you want to join in the fun with LittleOwl, make sure you follow me on Instagram to find out what is in her advent sack each day!

Cross Monday Week 38

I'm quite pleased with progress this week - its all thanks to I'm a Celebrity!  I've really enjoyed this season and I'm actually sad that is over!  

I discovered this week that I have made a second mistake, this time I'll share with you as I have made an adjustment to make it right.  The bar on the left hand side is one stitch too short, which means the blue bird is one square to far to the left, meaning that the handle on the vase starts to far to the left... this confused me for quite a while until I worked out what was going on!  I've added an extra stitch on the handle to make it fit, and have done the same on the other side too to keep it equal so all is good!

My Sunday Photo

Owlfit of the Week

Little Owl has been a very poorly owl this past week and so was barely out of her pjs!  Luckily these gorgeous snuggly clothes had recently dropped through the letter box and were ready for just such an occasion!

The top is the Little Mia Pointelle from Frugi.  I bought it their recent flash sale, but its still available at full price of £14.  I've had my eye on this for a while, as LittleOwl had one last year and is honestly the softest item of clothing she has owned!  It was the top I always reached for when she was going to spend a long time traveling, and the one she wore when we flew to India.  This is the age 2-3 top and still has lots of room to grow! 

The trousers are from me&i and cost £20.  I've been toying with getting these for a while and I'm so pleased I have.  They have a thick waist band which is adjustable.  The long ankle cuffs give the trousers a lovely shape but also mean that they aren't obviously too big at them moment.  They are sized 98/104 which some brands say is 2-3 while others say 3-4.  Either way, she'll be in them for a while!

So that's my poorly LittleOwl.  Apologies if I didn't get round to commenting on your posts last week, I'll do my best to get round everyone this week.  Meanwhile...

Frugi in India

... here is LittleOwl in India wearing last seasons pointelle top, which still fits, in the first ever Owlfit of the Week post!! 

Cross Monday Week 37

 

So all my hopes of great progress... if you saw My Sunday Photo yesterday you might have gathered that LittleOwl has been a poorly owl this week... and that meant very little stitching.

 

My Sunday Photo

This week has been sponsored by...

Owlfit of the Week

I love the bright colours in this owlfit!  In the words of Chandler "could it beee any more colourful?"  Sorry, shouldn't be watching Friends while blogging...

Back to the Owlfit!  The top (kirta) and legging are from Westside, India.  LittleOwl hasn't worn the kirta too much as when she first got it, she was still lacking in the hair department and looked quite boyish in it.  

I've teamed it up with the pixie hoody that I bought in Lille, France that I shared with you a couple of weeks ago.  On her feet, LittleOwl is wearing her Ladybird wellies from Tesco.  If you haven't seen the wellies they have in stock this winter you really should, I couldn't choose between these, the crocodiles or the giraffes - so I let LittleOwl choose!

Bathroom Layout

Papa Owl and I have started planning our bathroom layout.  We'd had a few rough sketches of how we thought things would go, but hadn't actually measured the room to see if it would fit.  The room is currently two room, which we will return to one.  The current three doors will be reduced to two, one to enter the bathroom from the house, one to enter the garden from the bathroom!

I did a bit of searching on the internet and came across a bathroom planner on bathstore.com.  It was a bit clunky but very quickly gave me a scaled layout and the ability to add baths, showers etc.  It soon became apparent that the only way we were going to fit in a toilet, sink, shower and bath was if the bath was to sit in the middle of the room.  We thought a free standing bath would be a luxury that we couldn't justify, but the extra door in the bathroom means we just haven't got the wall space to fit it all in otherwise!

I'm quite excited by this!  We currently have a shower over the bath so it will be fantastic to have a separate shower.  Having a toilet in the bathroom will make it so much easier with Little Owl.

While I was busy clicking away at the laptop, Papa Owl had dug out some square paper, a ruler and a pencil and had been busy creating a scaled diagram.

Papa Owl hasn't included the chimney on his diagram as we are planning on taking it out.  While it took a little longer to set up, Papa Owl's diagram is much more tactile and easier to change than the online diagram.  It took a bit of work looking up different sizes of baths and showers but it gave us a lot more flexibility.  Going for a central bath has also given us the wall space to have a large shower.  Another luxury but does mean it will be possible to take a shower with Little Owl.

I've been quite drawn by this style of shower which I have been told is an "off set quad".  It gives us the space inside the shower, but by softening the corner, allows more room outside to walk through what might be a pinch point between the shower and the bath.  

We are still very unsure of the style of bathroom we want.  Do we go with a Victorian bathroom which will keep in style with the house but limit us on some choices, or do we go with contemporary which allows us to add sunken spots lights bringing much needed light to a very dark room?

Cross Monday Week 36

Look how much I have done!  So excited!  Everything on the left of this section has taken me two weeks to do, and if I push on I could get it finished in another week, a week to do the big plant in the middle, and a further 3 weeks to do the right hand side... two weeks to do the vine... hang on - I thought I was doing well but if I keep this fast pace up, its going to take me 7 weeks minimum to finish this section.  Not sure Christmas is going to lend itself to lots of stitching either!  Oh well, at least its a marker, lets see how far I get by 12th January, just 7 weeks away!

My Sunday Photo

Sunday afternoon fire

Owlfit of the Week

You know when you arrive home to a package like this, that its going to be a fab Owlfit week!  I am a big fan of me&i having first discovered them at The Baby Show when Little Owl was a baby.  If you haven't discovered me&i before you should take a gander at their website.  The concept behind the me&i brand is that the clothes are all bought through home parties, however, if like me you don't have a rep local to you, you can just order through one of the reps. 

So do you want to see what I got?!!

Matching hat and skirt!  I fell in love with this pattern when I first saw it, and quickly added it to my pinterest board of this seasons top toddler clothes, but it was looking a bit too pink for me and I wasn't sure what I was going to put them with.  After they arrived, I realised how much red was also in the pattern so off I went to H&M to buy the top and leggings (which are part of their 3 for 2 basics range).  I was really impressed to discover their winter leggings slightly fleecy on the inside to make them nice and warm for winter!

I've teamed them up with boots from Mothercare.  If you want to see what other little ones are wearing this season, click on the badges below to find links to other blogs.