Today, she is six

To prove the adage 'time flies' is correct, the little girl turned six today.

I'm lucky to be a mum to this firecracker of girl.

She loves hard, she feels big, her smile lights up the room and my heart.

She wants to be an artist when she grows up.

A joker and a ham, with pen forever on her hand.

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The Current State of the Girl

Those of you on Instagram witness full-on angst mode from me yesterday.  Maia had yet another eye appointment at the Opthoptist (which is normally angst-inducing enough by itself) but after our last visit they had asked my to make some of my patches to leave there so they could recommend them to other patchers.  Oh, and leaflets too:

Can you spot the spelling mistake? I couldn't, until they'd all been printed.  By the detestable printer that prints off grain so you need to true up every stupid side of every stupid paper. And then of course when we got there it was a different (slightly more intimidating) orthoptist than the one who asked me to bring my wares the last time so I sat there fervently clenching and unclenching my jaw while wondering whether to say anything at all.  But I did!  And she was super enthusiastic and I cried hot sweet tears of relief internally.  But enough about me.  The good news is that we're taking another break from patching (possibly permanently).  The a-little-bit-less-than-good news is that her bad eye appears to have reached it's full potential through patching; at the last three appointments her eye has had the same results so the patching has done all it can.  Which sounds a little bit dejecting, but the opthoptist showed me how far we've come in the last almost two (!) years:

Before we started, Maia's bad eye couldn't even read the top line.  That's pretty terrifying.  And now, she's able to see between six and seven lines below that. Not quite as good as her good eye but not too shabby either.

And here she is before and after her appointment: the only thing better than not wearing the patch is not wearing the patch but also eating a Mint Aero.

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I am Boy-Child, hear me Roar

With the Skater Dress complete, I got a chance to quickly sew up another Dolman tee long-sleeve hack for the boy.  I'll be posting the pattern pieces and tute tomorrow!


And what better time to sew for my boy than Celebrate The Boy time by Made by Rae and MADE?

I've said it before, but it's a really good time for 'boy'-fabrics in the shop right now, and a lot to appeal to older boys.  As Jamie is rapidly approaching eight I have a lot less leeway than I used to with the things I make him.

My new friend Max calls this fabric 'Commie Lion' which is both funny and apt.

I know, I know... cool shirt / what a bad-ass fabric / my hasn't he grown.  But also: have you ever seen Jamie's hair this long?  It's dangerously close to mullet territory, saved only by the mutton chops balancing out the party at the back.  True Story: we're not sure if his hearing problems are coming back or it's the hair muffs.

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Snowmaggedon

After a week of everywhere else in the UK getting snow and Edinburgh cruelly not, we finally got our just desserts.

One glorious inch of it.

Thankfully we got out for snow-jinks early yesterday morning as it was all gone by the afternoon.

It was just enough for a spot of light sledding.

More than enough for snowball fights.

And plenty for snow angels.

With more on the way this week, I hope we get some more play time.

Without the schools being closed, Edinburgh Council.

** If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend heading over to Capturing Childhood's post on how to take great pictures in the snow.  I'm glad I read it the night before!

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Christmas Makes and Outtakes

Two weeks and a bit to get my second Christmas post written, that must be a record of irrelevancy for me!  Better late than never though, no?*  The pajamas you have seen, but what about their Christmas day outfits?

I finally got a chance to  use the tigers for my kith and kin.  In related news, I'm desperate to use this green version for something for me.  But what? The correct answer is All The Things, but I will also accept more specific answers. 

 

And the girl got a Hansel and Gretel skater dress. 'Wait, a skater dress?  I've never seen one of those on her before!' said no one ever.  I think the current count is a dozen.  No judging, once I release the pattern you will make a dozen too.

In conclusion, they both got green clothes ergo they are 'Christmas clothes'.  In my defence I did attempt to sew my very own green dress on Christmas Eve but it was a massive fail- more on that at a later date. So I wore a red dress and gave a cursory tick of the Christmas box too.

One reason why I have fallen deeply in love with Instagram is the chance to have a peak at the 'real' lives behind the online personalities I know.  Not that what we put forth an 'unreal' portrayal on our blogs, but the temptation (for me anyway) is to show the very best pictures / most flattering angles / two square feet of the house without detritus on the official Kitschy Coo web presence.  Instagram obviously has this element too, but it seems there is more humorous side dish of #keepingitreal there, which I love.  So in that spirit, here's a behind the scenes of what 98% of my photo shoots consist of...

*Strictly rhetorical question.

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Christmas Sewing: PJ edition

I hope everyone had lovely holidays.  We've been very busy doing nothing around these parts; Jamie got the lurgy just before Christmas and is on the mend but still fairly lethargic. The up-side to this is that we've all slept until at least 9am every day this week!  He normally wakes Maia up for a companion between 6 and 7, so the extra couple of hours is a blessed relief.  Steven and I were actually the first ones up on Christmas, and swithered about whether to wake them.  We waited :)

I didn't do a huge amount of Christmas sewing but I did whip them up matching pajamas to give them on Christmas Eve.

The tops are the raglan style that I use for my normal tops and the bottoms were a quicky-and-dirty cuffed slouchy bottoms traced off existing pjs.  I may at some point work on a slouchy bottoms pattern if there is interest, but I'm pretty sure there are eleventy million slouchy bottom patterns so it would most likely be a redundant exercise... agreed?  The only change I made to the slouchy bottoms I make for toddlers was to switch from a cuffed waistband to an elasticated waistband (which, incidently, was a thing of beauty since I tried the serged elastic / topstitch method for the first time rather than a channel).

The fabric I used was an organic cotton knit from Lillestoff; as usual, the quality and handle are amazing.  In news that will madden you (and maddened me at the time), I received a gigantic order from them the night before the UK Christmas posting deadline.  There are some very special prints that I know you'll love and some more coordinating solids for your stash!  It's the very best stuff, and I'll get it listed shortly.

We had a pretty chilled day, after the initial excitement of opening presents was over there was settling down on the couch with books, soft-toys for Maia and a Sonic Screwdriver for Jamie. That boy has the most serious Doctor Who fever.

Lots of cuddles with mum and dad.  If you follow me on Instagram, you'll know that not a minute passes where at least one child isn't sitting on top of me or in my grille.

As per perverse expectations, it wasn't the biggest or most well-thought-out presents that were the best received, it was the practical joke stocking stuffers.  That whoopee cushion will be the death of me.

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Christmas Wishes

With furious last-minute Christmas sewing on the agenda today, I'll preemptively wish you all a very happy holidays a day early.  If you are partial to diminutive Scots singing with gusto, here's a video of the kids' school singing The Gift at their Christmas service last week.  I might have cried. Which is not quite the benchmark it used to be, but the performance is very touching nonetheless.

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Feminists and Pirates are not mutually exclusive

To prove Aristole's theory that art indeed imitates life, Maia recently started a drama class. You can't believe it, right? Given her predisposition for all things dramatic, emotional and pretend-y, I reckon she'll be teaching the class by next term.

The class is working on a 'production' of Peter Pan and given that there are precisely two boys amidst eventy girls, there is serious competition for a shot to play Tinkerbell.  This week, they were told to dress up either as fairies or pirates.

Naturally she wanted to be a fairy but I reminded her that I made Jamie a full pirate outfit a couple of years ago (in contrast to the terrible pound-store ripped and bent fairy wings) and when she tried it on she looked the business.  And I told her so forty five times until she believed that girls can be tough and strong and that she is not limited by her gender to be inferior and that she is the master of her own destiny and happiness and there is no such thing as toys for girls or boys.  Okay, maybe believing these things are a work in progress.

Pictured: the business  Not pictured: imaginary sword

Despite the fact that every single other girl in the class dressed as a fairy, she basked in glory of her fierceness (after some encouragement *sigh*).  As opposed to........

The Benign Pirate, circa 2010

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KCWC: The Birthday Edition

In 'Time Flies' news, the boy turned seven yesterday.  He was a bit disgruntled that he had to go to school but I told him about how having a birthday in the summer holidays is massively overrated; I never had four separate classes at school sing Happy Birthday to me and have suffered with depression on-and-off ever since.  Okay, those things might not be directly linked but we'll never know.  It can't be a coincidence.

Where has the time gone? It seems like only yesterday he didn't want to make Dope Dope Yo hands in photoshoots*.

 

With seven years on this planet successfully completed, you're allowed to be a bit casual about birthdays. (Pictured above: casual attitude).

Can you tell who has started karate this year?  If you need a clue I can post another hundred pictures of him punching and kicking towards the camera.  And looking tough.

Ladies and Gentleman (ie my dad), please prepare yourself for the grand denouement of this post, where I demonstrate with irrefutable proof how time does indeed fly:

I present you with three year old Jamie versus seven year old Jamie. At least 75% percent less moon head but otherwise identical.

*Actually, this is the first occurence of Dope Dope Yo hands so it could have been yesterday.

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Collect the Moments: Redux

As the Capturing Childhood: Collect the Moments photography course finished while we were still on holiday, I didn't get a chance to properly share my thoughts on it. Or picspam you with some of my favourite holiday shots. So let's kill two birds with one stone...

I can't overstate how happy I am to have been on the course; the instructors were knowledgable and accessible, the modules informative and well-rounded, and the community of people taking the course were so engaging and supportive. Like many people, my photography was predominantly focussed on a 'look at me / look at the camera' remit which can produce good shots but also lots where the kids looked forced or unnatural. This course really challenged me to look at the camera as a bystander or a witness: to capture the mood, tell a story, show the personality of the subject.

These are my favourite shots from our day at the Connecticut Science Center (which by the way I highly recommend if you're in the area!).  Rather than lots of 'look at the camera / show me what you're doing' pics, I was trying to capture Jamie and Maia caught in the wonder of all that science.  The only picture that is 'staged' I re-focussed so that while he thought I was taking a straight-up shot of his creation, I was actually taking a picture of his fiercely proud face.

This collage tells the very sad story that the rules of baseball are hard.  From the back it just looks like a very sweet shot of friendship but by orbitting around you can see that two year olds, despite their reputations, are indeed capable of extreme compassion.

Or how about the story of 'I (deliberately) got my glasses wet, my eyes are all wet, ergo I don't need to wear glasses on the beach or probably ever'?  Nice try, Maia.

Two girls sharing a hula hoop, boys playing in the background. 

Pictures oozing with the personality of the subjects, but still natural.

And the technical information about lighting, focus, movement and framing were clearly helpful too.  Man, I really needed some technical help.

I think one of the biggest lessons I took from Capturing Childhood was that the journey to a picture is often just as good than the resulting picture. I think I love the shots of everyone reaching out to help Calvin onto the lifeguard's chair more than the posed one as it shows the dynamic in our family of closeness despite our distance.

Disclaimer: I received nothing in compensation for this review, I just couldn't recommend it enough!  Capturing Childhood: Collect the Moments is just about to start a fresh session if you're interested.

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