Remember how I wrote about making soft toys for Christmas presents a couple of weeks ago? I forgot to mention on here that my link to Mollychicken led to something very special... a wee pattern for an Anna Panda which you can find right here! It appeared the day after I sent out my request, and a lovely comment left on my blog from Lyn herself- eeee! This was very exciting for me, being such a newbie to the blog world and all. And I hope to make a little panda very soon, (I think my neice Esmae would love one) so thank you Lyn!

I had a lovely weekend, it was Tom's Mum's birthday so we had a lot of family time and it was very relaxing. On Friday night Tom and I (mainly Tom, actually!) cooked dinner for her and Dave, Tom's brother Dodge and his girlfriend Gemma. And then on Saturday morning we went out to the Haig family home at Cable Bay for a birthday brunch and caught up with lots more family. Arlo spent over an hour at the beach while everyone was eating, looking for 'hermit crabs'... his favourite activity ever. He can stand for hours, crouched over rocks and waiting patiently for them to come out.

I also had some time for a bit of sewing over the weekend- I made a top and pants for a friend's daughter, Maia. She was born a week after Arlo and we met at our Pink Kit birth classes. I made some dark red summer pants and the wee button-backed top (that needs a good iron) you can see in the picture below, using homespun quilter's cotton and a 1930s reproduction print- a scrap from my Mum. I figure the cotton will soften up after a few washes and be nice and cool for summer. It was a bit of a swap- Maia's Mum Ana made us a beautiful birthday cake in return that we had at our dinner party on Friday night. I've been thinking more and more about craft swaps lately. Actually, I was inspired by shopping for presents at our local pottery co-op shop, where I fell in love with everything but could afford only one bowl! I would love to organise a website or something for Nelson craftspeople to be able to do a swap but i'm not sure how to start it.

The bag is my first finished Christmas present. (I'm pretty sure my littlest sister Sarah doesn't read my blog, but the photo's not very clear anyway!) I found the great beaded bag handles at the Sunday market, attached to a very falling-apart old bag, so I replaced it with some more of my Japanese-print fabric and lined it with pink cotton. I hope she likes it! It's satisfying to have done one present at least!