Aurora's Popsarella dress and cape

Hello!

I'm so excited about this post.

My youngest brother decided to get married rather last minute (we had about a month's notice), on the Friday before Christmas. A low-key wedding for him and his fiancée, and a few close family members.

It wasn't going to be a big affair, so a frilly, pink, meringue-style baby dress was not an option - not that I would have wanted it anyway; if there's one thing I can't stand about buying clothes for Aurora, it's the lack of colour and style choice in high-street shops. To paraphrase Henry Ford;

You can have any colour you want, as long as it's pink

I tweeted about it at the time:

My brother and his fiancé have decided to get married on the 19th of Dec. Will I be able to find a dress for A that's not frilly and pink?
— Dawn Johnson (@vintagescientis) November 14, 2014

No. pic.twitter.com/A7SGOCV0YO
— Dawn Johnson (@vintagescientis) November 14, 2014

What a great way to limit a child's imagination! Encourage each gender wear the same colours, play with set toys, and suggest only boys can read adventure books, whilst girls read princess fashion books. Of course that won't encourage bullying, either! (I really love what Let Toys Be Toys, Let Clothes Be Clothes, and Let Books Be Books are doing at the moment - breaking down outdated and, frankly, ridiculous stereotypes imposed by toy/clothing/publishing industries).

From this basis I knew I would not be buying a pink, frilly meringue - but it needed to be special, fun, bright and reasonably priced.

It was  therefore a totally serendipitous moment - whilst getting my dirty fix of Facebook - that I saw Popsarella had added some new fabrics, one of which was the aurora borealis print! Fate. Pure fate.

After contacting the lovely and very helpful Laura, I asked if I could have a dress in the aurora borealis fabric - and if she could make a hooded cape. She told me she had been thinking about making capes, and that she would give it a go, getting it to me in time for the wedding!

She did amazingly. I went for the Bettie dress as it's a bit more of a party dress, as opposed to the (still brilliant) Penelope dress (I love this space fabric!)

The cape is reversible and has the aurora borealis fabric on one side, and a lovely wine-purple velvet on the other, with a sparkly, iridescent ribbon-tie. It's big enough that it will fit her for a while!

We had no idea what the colour scheme for the wedding would be: in an it's-beginning-to-get-a-bit-weird-fate moment, we found out once we'd received the dress and cape that it was purple.

 

I got the sparkly shoes and Nora Batty tights from Monsoon. Although Aurora's 8 months old, she'll be able to wear these 0-6 month tights for a while. 

Congratulations to be brother and beautiful sister-in-law. 

This is definitely a keepsake outfit!

I bought Aurora's dress and cape from Popsarella - I just had to write this post, because I love them so much and can't wait to buy more dresses, especially in the space fabric!

Post by Popsarella.

Baby's Blankets

I put off creating this post about blankets as the weather has been so sunny and warm, that it seemed a bit pointless. Sadly, it's grey and raining and Aurora and I are snuggled up in one now.

When I was pregnant and thinking about what I wanted for the nursery and the baby, I knew I wanted lots of cosy knitted blankets, clothes and, as it turns out, toys. 

This post is about the blankets, some of which I managed to get at really great prices from the pop-up charity shop at Southend Hospital: handmade by the volunteers and sold at (far too) reasonable prices. I was also lucky enough that family members, friends and even strangers are much better at knitting and crochet than I am, as well as being generous. 

Here are a selection of my favourites:

Blankets one - four were all bought from Southend Hospital's charity shop. Although it doesn't show on the photo, blanket 2 has sparkly thread running through it!

1) £9

2) £3

3) £3

4)£3

I bought one or two each time I had a scan or midwife appointment.  

Number five was also from the hospital's charity shop and cost £1. Number 7 is a shawl which was a present from my mum and dad's neighbour, who has also knitted Aurora an all-in-one (which I will post about another time). 

Six and 8 were knitted by people I had never met which I think is lovely (not that I've never met them - the fact they are generous enough to make and send lovely items to a stranger). Eight is a cot blanket knitted and with lining, which was a gift from my husband's friend's mum; whilst 6 is a shawl knitted by Aurora's great-gran's hairdresser!
5) £1
6) gift
7) gift
8) gift

To give an idea of the sizes, here's Aurora to give perspective (dressed as Toby from The Labyrinth as we were watching the film and singing and dancing along that day).

Although I love them all, I have two favourites. One is a child's blanket that my mum picked up from Norfolk and Norwich hospital, also knitted by a volunteer from the charity shop. For this blanket the lady - in her 90s - said she had used a pattern from the 1960s - which is obviously right up my street. It's amazing and the lady only wanted £19 for it!

My other favourite blanket is one that Aurora loves, she's very happy when snuggled up in it. Her great-gran, the mother of my husband's late mum, began knitting it before she died last year and was completed by my husband's aunt. It's very special for that reason.