Toilet training....Second time round

Last Wednesday Charlotte decided she wanted to start going to the toilet. She keeps taking off her nappy, which horrified me when it was full of a nasty surprise!! That's when I knew it was time. She is 3yrs old next May, so as happy as I was that she was showing some signs of independence, I thought mmmmmmm not sure. I went with it regardless.

Wednesday was a very wet first half day, as the day progressed she was in a bit of a potty rhythm.

Thursday she had playgroup & luckily the lovely carers there were more than happy to continue on with her toilet training. She did well apparently, with just the one accident as she didn't quite get there on time.

Friday was scary. I had kinder drop off for Hudson, & Charlotte has her little ballet dance class. She used the kinder toilets... Hooray!! We dropped into home for a moment, only to have one....BAD accident, I mean bad one, including a whole change of clothes. We were late to dancing due to this, & half way through class, whoopsie tinkle on the dance floor. Luckily I took an old towel just in case. Afterwards we had a coffee with a friend....whoopsie flood on the floor. It was now killing me!!!!!! I was down to two more change of underwear & leggings. She went at kinder pick up & seemed fine for the rest of the day.

The weekend has been great. Staying home as much as possible, and two parent here equals double attention. The fact her dad when & bought her some Barbie & Dora knickers has certainly helped.

I am finding it so much harder toilet training second time around. I am not sure why, it just seems so much harder. Hudson was good, when he decided to be rid the nappy he was done in a couple of days. Even though he was bribed with M&M's. I have spoken to a few other mums about this second time around toilet training, and surprisingly they have all said they noticed it to. Do you think it might be me not Charlotte? I mean lets face it she isn't getting the same clock work attention Hudson received while toilet training. I am busy, & having another child, means sometimes I forget to ask if she needs to go as frequently as I should. Someone said she is too young? I kind of disagree as my nephews were completely trained by about 2yrs. Maybe I am just putting too much pressure on myself? I guess it's only been 5 days. She is doing really well & it's definitely getting the whole thing, maybe it's my impatience for getting this job done & dusted? I am just note sure.

Today is a new week. I will just keep loading her back pack with clean underwear and leggings, and we just go again. I refuse to give in as I believe that would just confuse her putting a nappy back on due to my impatience, giving mixed signals. We're on our way, just not sure when we'll get there completely.

What was your second time round like?

Where has this obsessive inspiration come from?

I have mentioned before I am a book junkie, & even more now that I can download them to my trusty ipad. I have been feeling a little flat lately, & looking for some new inspiration. It's an awful rut to be in :( I love the search for something new to spark that feeling, it's the best feeling every, when you find something your connect with & it literally makes you jump.

I have found it & I have had such a surge of inspiration the last few days. I want to draw like crazy, I am literally thinking about patterns & colours all the time. It's been a private & fun build up of obsessive inspiration, chattering away to myself, it's all happening in my brain, & no one knew about, until I told you today, haha!!

This is all due to another admired artist of mine is Jessica Swift, I have been following her for a while now, & have always been so inspired with the achievements she has told us via cyber space, like her work & licensing deals (a dream of mine).  I loved her rain boot campaign, it was so cool. Her own patterns on rain boots, how awesome!! You can see them here. When winter hits here again I think I will need to splurge, they even have secret messages in them!

I just read her e-book.....

Its a great read of inspiration & honesty. She literally takes you on a journey from where she started, yep from the sale of her first painting, all the way through her career & awesome licensing deals. She has exhibited at trade shows I dream about like Printsource & Surtex, all because she had the courage to have a go. The hard work, & it's been a lot from what I have read, was so inspiring. I just loved it. There were also lots of other information that was golden for someone like me. 

I could chat about it forever, but I won't as if you need the buzz that I got, you will have to buy it here.

If you read it let me know what you think.

Garden Party Pattern Repeat

I have gone a bit off track the last day or so design wise. Not in a ridiculous way, or completely off aesthetic, but just a detour of ceoncentration. After my last post of expressing past love for pattern repeat design, I thought I would have a play around, & I just can't stop!!!

Shhhhhhh, I should be doing other jobs, but I just couldn't help myself. Sometimes I believe when passion & inspiration hits, you just have to go with it. You never know how, or what you will end up with.

While initially sitting around thinking what should I design, I thought I would keep it simple, & work with the hundreds of designs I already have sitting on my computer.  Dreaming about a whole collection of perfectly coordinated fabrics, I started to dabble with this. Ahhh to see my designs on bolts of fabrics would be a dream come true!

This collection is called "Garden Party". I have just created 1 colour way to start with to see how I would go. Truly it was like riding a bike, I just go back on & started peddling slowly. After a bit of fiddling, I got my groove back quickly & came up with the following 7 designs for this collection.

Oooooh how I could see a quilt made with this!

Or some bed linen!

How about some summer floral skirts for Charlotte?

A couple of softies maybe?

Here is my inspiration, where it all came from. my own Garden Party range that I have within my shop right now.

Inspiration

 This was so much fun my head was pinning & will keep making more :)

My love for pattern repeats

Did you know that I am completely a self taught artist? No graphic design training, just an education in fashion design. Digital illustration has been a passion that I have had since I saw a graphic design drawing on a computer, back in the late 1990's, in one of my first assistant jobs. Since then I have been obsessed with.

My love for pattern repeats has also been something that I have truly enjoyed & haven't dabbled much in it since I left the fashion industry. Designing kids & women's wear, it was part of my job to design repeat prints so I could have fabrics made exactly how I wanted them. I loved doing them as it was the fondation of a whole fashion story. The print, the tee shirt design, or a border a print, an embroidery detail, even a second colour way. All were derived from the initial print.

During this time I have started to build an inspiration folder in pinterest, which is growing believe me. here are a couple of favourites to date.

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I have also started to play around with my own again which can be quite addictive & I look forward to sharing some with you.It's jumping back on a bike again really, I have been a bit rusty achieving that perfectly seamless repeat, but it hasn't taken long.

Have a great Monday,

Custom bunting order

A new customer order I have just completed & I think it's so pretty. 

It's based on my Pretty Owl Cushion, & was specifically made to co-ordinate with it.

You couldn't get anymore pink and girly could you?

I hope you're having a great weekend.