Happy Birthday little lady!

Today is my little lady's 3rd birthday. It's hard to believe that this boisterous, bossy, mischevious, hilarious little beauty is already leaving toddlerdom behind her and moving on to a new stage. It seems literally only a few weeks since I was sitting in the delivery room with her in my arms, a tiny, calm little baby with a shock of black hair. She was a quiet baby and slept all the time, which was something of a surprise after 20 months of dealing with her sleep-allergic, noisy, attention-loving big brother. But that wasn't to last and if you saw her now, you would never believe that she could ever have been described as quiet! She has the sort of confidence in herself I can only aspire to, wraps everyone she meets around her little finger and I can only hope that she continues to be as charming and happy as she has been since she arrived into our lives. (But if she was a little less headstrong and stubborn that wouldn't be a bad thing!)

E's arrival and those quiet days while she slept her time away were the start of my crafting adventures. First I started to knit, in those snatched few minutes of peace, then I taught myself to crochet. I made a lot of bags, those first few months and decided to take a sewing class so I could learn how to sew some linings to put into them. Of course, once I got behind the sewing machine I was smitten!

I don't post pics of my kids on my blog so I thought it might be nice instead to put up some pics of things I've made for her in the last few years.  Here's a few of the early things I made for E - some of them not brilliant from a technical perspective, but every stitch of each one filled with love!

This hat was the 2nd thing I ever knitted! From a pattern in a Debbie Bliss book and E wore it all winter and looked very cute in it despite the fact that really, it was a little on the big side!

After tackling that I moved on and this was the first piece of clothing I tried - knitted with beautifully soft Baby Cashmerino, again from a Debbie Bliss pattern:

After getting friendly with my sewing machine, one of the thing I was most excited about making was little dresses and tunics for E - these two are a couple of my favourites - simple, but pretty. The top pic is another favourite - I'm just waiting for her decide its a favourite for her too ;-)

I love making softies too for the kids - here are a couple I've made for E - Martha and Ruby (both from patterns):

Next up - I'm going to make a quilt for a move to her big girl bed, can't wait to do that :-)

So Happy Birthday, my darling E - we adore you more than you could possibly believe <3 <3