Sunny Spring Day

This is my Noah. My Noah is a happy little soul and today he is mostly happy about playdough and the pretend oven I have just made him from a cardboard box! Simple fun, eh?

Anything seems more possible on a day like this and at the risk of sounding very 1950s housewife, I did enjoy hanging out my two loads of washing in the sunshine this morning, because the sheets will smell of spring later when I cosy up in them and the colder evening, and because it is a moment of peace outside the house. I am looking forward to getting out there and planting some seeds soon too.


We try every year to have a bountiful harvest of vegetables, but over the last 8 years our endeavours have usually been curtailed by either pregnancy or a newborn! Our best ever crops were the year my first was born. We commandeered a 6 foot wide piece of neglected land in between our flat and the boundary fence. It was tiny, and quite shady, but well protected from the wind, and south facing, which meant the sun heated up the wall behind the veg too. I remember Jonny feeding me copious amounts of spinach with or in every meal on my return from hospital after an emergency c-section. I ended up quite anemic and so Jonny took it on as a mission to fill me up with as much iron as possible!

Here we are, 5 children in all, and this may be the year that our veg grows, well nourished, weeded, properly pricked out at the right time and totally uneglected.....perhaps? And if it does, all it will have to contend with is the occasional football, bike, den building venture, water fight....Ah well, it's mostly about the enjoyment anyway, and the idea that we can produce food for our family from such a small space, as well as have room for a play fort for the boys,


a studio for me and a sunny patio and fire place for evening sausage sizzles!

Well, Two sleeping babies and a floor to sweep, so I will leave you to enjoy the sun while it lasts. XX

Spring sunshine and the Creative Spirit

There is an unusual moment of peace in the Welch home, at least for a few minutes until the boys bundle in the door, flush faced and out of breath from their race to see who can be home first. Today they celebrated World Book Day by dressing up for school. The older two as Harry Potter (of course) and Eron as an Ankylosaurus, from his favourite lift the flap book of the moment, "Rumble, Roar, Dinosaur!"

It's taken all week to get the costumes ready, and a sizeable chunk of studio time has been diverted to kitting them out with robes and wands and papier mache armour plating. I truly do love being able to give my boys more fuel for their creative expression and imaginations. I'm so glad I can carve out time to do things like this. Just so you know I'm really NOT supermum though, I do also struggle to give up the time I would previously have had to create for the sake of creating. I remind myself in moments like this, that my family is the best free flow creation I have or ever will be part of, and I am so, so blessed to have boys that share my enthusiasm for making thing.

So, I thought I'd share some of the Welch family creations that have been going on over the past few weeks.....
St David's Day Daffodils, planted in the Autumn and surprisingly blooming just in time for judging on Tuesday. Ben was very pleased to win best bloom in his class!

A Crocheted Snuggle Bunny for my new nephew - my first venture into amigurami! The pattern for the bunny is here, and I just attached a simple blanket. He's just the right size for little hands to cuddle.

A rocket pencil holder Ben made at Beavers,


"Blib Blobs" made by Cadan - a work in progress. He's desperate to have a corner of my table at the school fair to sell them on, in aid of Children on the Edge.

We have been busy haven't we!

Well, I now have two or three boys perching anxiously at my shoulder, hoping to be the first to gain the computer for games, so I'll have to sign off, see you soon! XX

It's Time I got started again

Here I go again! Those of you who know me, will be familiar with my stop and start relationship with my creative work. I know it won't come as a surprise to you to hear that now that Reuben (youngest of our gang of boys) is 9 months, and (she says with held breath) is beginning to be happier amusing himself these days (mostly with the contents of my kitchen drawer and my stepper machine!) I am moving back into my studio.

Yesterday I had a very productive day, mainly thanks to my mum, who came over and not only looked after the two littlies, but also helped me sort about 3 tonnes of assorted yarn, and cut the fabric out of about 20 sample books, thus freeing up precious space in my tiny garden hidy hole of a studio. YAAAAY!!!!

So, no excuses now for getting in there and making things. Hmmmmm, what shall I do first?

'Tis the season.....

....to get busy!
We've had a cosy indoors kind of day today. As the wind and rain batters the outside of the house, inside is a picture of calm. Well, almost! I have been busily finishing pixie house keyrings and pins and Jonny (bless him!) has been uploading all my stock to my etsy shop, so all you lovely people can peruse and purchase to your heart's content.

You will currently find all my small bags, my medium bags and most of my "Teeny Totes" as well as a few angels in the form of "Bag Buddies" visiting their other bag buddy friends for Christmas. As soon as we can we will upload the pixie house range too.


Hope you enjoy looking!!

Nearly there...

After a long hiatus my bags will soon make it the World Wide Web! We've been photographing each one, cataloging them and generally getting organised. No mean feat with four (and a half!) children mind you! So stay tuned for the big day - wont be long now.

Duncton Fete and other matters

Saturday morning started early - Eron singing to himself in the hallway at 6am. As it was, I had to get going anyway - firstly to our school Fair to set up a display for our local Playgoup and then a dash back home in the, by then welcome rain to get ready for my first show of the year, down the road at Duncton.

By the time I arrived there at 1pm with my mum, the sun was shining again and I was delighted to find I was once again next to Jo, from Phoenix Cards - she's lovely, and I loved browsing through the beautiful designs and dreaming about one day submitting my own work to them.

The stall was visited by lots of little girls, purses full of coppers and faces full of delight! So much so, that I am busilly working on more pocket money friendly treats for next weeks show in Petworth Park. They seemed to love the Bag Buddies,(below) so I will also have to restock these and Ben has a lovely idea for Alien Bag Buddies which I have to try. I think I will be in the studio every spare moment again this week!


These little friends proved a big hit and they were just as much fun to make as the bags. The things I make have to be a joy to make. I really do love the boxes of fabric I have collected over the years, full of precious scraps of treasured cloth. Some are especially favourite pieces that I am eeking out for only the projects I have tried and tested. That's the pleasure and pain of creating things from reclaimed fabrics - once they are gone, they are gone. So I am so pleased when a little square of yellow rose cotton, or the fabulous green house curtains turns up in the bottom of a box! Every tiny piece is used as I invent ever smaller creations; hems, darts, seams are all incorporated somehow!

Tonight I have been working on hair ties using sheer and shiny fabrics, in pinks and lilacs embellished with beads and sequins. If that doesn't entice every 6 year old girl with coppers to spend, I don't know what will!

Land Ahoy!

So, here I am, back again after a long absence from my studio. The last year has been chocked full of Little One Number Four, Noah, and to be honest, still is! I have been squeezing in time in my garden, while he sleeps, to work on my new collection of bags in readiness for a couple of shows I have coming up. So, land is on the horizon!

Way back last Summer I cut up mounds of fabric and lengths of ribbon, selected buttons and cord and folded these "kits" up into neat piles, like a squirrel getting ready to hibernate! Over the last months I have been turning these kits into beautiful bags of all sizes and colours.
It always surprises me that I can feel so thrilled to pick up the next kit from the pile, and even more thrilled to put a completed bag on the shelf! As I unfold the bundle of remnants and remember the delicious mix of ingredients I had placed together months ago, I find it easy to start work again and again.

I have also made a whole gaggle of girly dolls that would look brilliant on book bags for school. I think I may call them "Nomites" - a name my dad used to call me. When I was a little girl, I would draw "Nomites" which were essentially plump little circular figures with arms and legs sticking out of the sides! I'll see if I can dig one of my doodles out and post it!

First Summer show this Saturday and Noah is cutting teeth!