Tapestry is not my friend

For my birthday treat in January I went to London to see the Grayson Perry exhibition at the British Museum and it was brilliant.  His work is so witty and insightful, it's difficult to highlight a favourite piece but I really liked 'You Are Here' - you couldn't take photos in the gallery but I found this on the Guardian website so borrowed it to give you a rough idea.  You really need to see his work to properly appreciate it. 

I've been wanting to learn to sew and embroider for months now but not found any kits that I liked.  I didn't want to cross-stitch Disney characters or cutesy little animals so when I saw the tapestry kit in the British Museum gift-shop I leapt at the opportunity.  The kit is a sew-your-own Alan Measles and while I think the finished article will be really cool I have learnt that tapestry is not my friend.  I don't have the patience (or eye-sight apparently) to do small scale, fiddly things.  I hate following patterns at the best of time so have now gone off-piste and while I'm sticking to the colours I'm pretty much doing my own thing in order to produce my own unique version!  This is my progress so far, the grand sum of about 20 hours work I think... 

Oh baby baby!

So, in June I'm going to become an auntie for the first time!  I am very, very excited that my little sister is pregnant and have already started to make things for my niece or nephew to be!  As they are not finding out the sex I'm making things in a whole rainbow of colours so they can choose when he/she makes an appearance.  I've got both a blue and a pink stripey blanket and now I've found a really sweet crocheted matinee jacket pattern and gone a bit crazy.  As baby will be born in summer I thought I should make the larger size so it will be useful in the autumn but then I decided to make a tiny little one too.  And now I don't seem to be able to stop!  But they are so cute!