I know it's only November but...

I am old-fashioned when it comes to Christmas. I don't really want to hear mention of it until December, let alone see any decorations or hear any carols. It somehow makes it less special to me the longer it goes on for. So I apologise in advance for bringing up the C word in early November!

That being said, I've found if I want to do any seasonal crafty things, I have to get them done early. Not only do these things always take longer than you'd imagine, but if they're going to be posted around the world (and here's hoping they are!) you need to get your Christmas shopping done in plenty of time to avoid disappointment.

So here are the latest festive offerings from Hand Drawn Baby Onesies:

A cute holly design with swirls and dots.

Santa hats and green stockings.

I purposefully designed these so they could be for boys and girls.

I'm very happy with the designs, but annoyed with the photos. I took them in the afternoon and really I should have taken them in the morning. November light is just to weak here in the afternoon. Perhaps I should sort out my Christmas designs in July next year? 

Gorgeous wooden stuff at Jigsaw Wooden Products

I needed some finishing touches for Baby A's room. We went with a fairly neutral yellow wall colour and green carpet, with lots of red touches to make it a bit more personal. So I was looking for some kind of red clock or pegs, rocket themed would be a bonus. At times like this I turn to Etsy of course.

And I found JigsawWoodenProducts. This is what first drew me in, as it was spot-on perfect for what we wanted.

You can have any colour combination and I didn't have a name on mine. 

I did stick with the red, since it was prefect.

Then I got clicking all over this shop (dangerous) and found these pegs.

It's not space themed, but we also have quite a large agricultural theme going in this house (so many tractor toys) so these were a must have too. Again I didn't have a name on mine, and had them both red with yellow knobs.

They all arrived very quickly and well-packaged. They look absolutely gorgeous and finish off Baby A's room nicely. If I need any more funky wooden accessories, I know where to go. I also love these, and am wondering if I can come up with a reasonable excuse to buy them. Can you have too many pegs?

Red Baby Quilt is Finished

I needed something to do with all the leftover fabric from Andrew's bedroom, so of course I made a patchwork quilt. There wasn't enough for a full size quilt, so I made a baby one, which was as big as I had enough fabric to do. The theme is red and yellow.

The fabric from his curtains and bunting all make an appearance. I had to buy some poly-cotton for the backing fabric as I didn't have a big enough piece, but that was about £4 a metre, so all in all this quilt was a bargain.

I'm pleased with how it looks in the room, really adds a splash of colour. And even better, this is one of the only baby blankets I have that he doesn't seem to be able to entangle himself in.

Making the Nursery Curtains

I couldn't find any curtains for baby Andrew's room that I particularly liked, so I decided to buy some cool fabric and make some myself. I ended up using Spoonflower, a fabric site I have wasted many hours browsing with no purpose. So it was nice to finally have a cool excuse to buy something a bit quirky.

Here's the design I went for.

It's called Robot Circuit Board (red) by Robyriker. I liked that it's subtle but with a nerdy pattern if you look closely enough. My husband is an electrical engineer, so the circuit design appealed to him too.

Since Spoonflower is an American site I was expecting postage to be horrendously expensive, but it turns out the ship from Germany too, so it's very reasonable for most of Europe too. The fabric itself costs $17.50/yard for basic cotton, which would have been reasonable had I bought it before the UK voted to leave the EU and the pound plummeted. As it was, my exchange rate was rubbish. Oh well, silly me!

This was my first time making curtains and I basically winged it. I also wanted black out fabric since it's going in the child's room and we all want as much sleep as we can get. My made-up, probably wrong method of curtain making, was to cut the black out fabric to the exact size I wanted, then to fold the curtain fabric over that (double folding it so the raw edge is hidden. That way I could be sure both curtains would be the correct size so long as I cut the black out fabric correctly. It more or less worked! Pinning the fabrics together was the worst part since my table wasn't big enough and I lack the floor space to do it without blocking all the doors. I was also looking after baby Andrew alone, so this took ALL DAY!

Here are the finished curtains. I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out for a first attempt.

I also made a simple orange curtain for the bottom half of the window as passers-by have a tendency to stare in!