What a week it has been!

Oi...!  It has been a week and a half here.  What with week long Man Flu (seriously, the doctor this morning said that it was mainly men being affected) and Ava being off colour all week which has just developed into a weepy ear infection needing antibiotics.  Never mind me with a weeks worth of the tummy bug doing the rounds.  So far Chloe has steered clear of it all, but what with Ava coughing all over us - Chloe and I will be lucky to escape the cold.  {fingers and toes crossed that we do}

On the upside, having an extra body in the house has meant that I have been able to sneak in a bit of sewing - rather a luxury these days!  I finished a very special birthday present:

And had loads of fun with appliqué, free hand machine embroidery and good old fashioned hand embroidery.

Playing with colours was fun too.  This special friend with an extra special birthday (40th on 29 Feb...how lucky that it is a leap year) isn't into the crazy bright colours that I would ordinarily choose.  Although I did restrain myself, it is still rather brightly coloured.  I will ta-da it once she has received it - - - just in case she happens to pop in and totally squash her surprise.

Today I also made a little teeny weeny apron for Ava.  Mom brought me this super cute fabric ages ago.  I look at it almost every day and scheme about making something with it - something Special Enough.  I finally decided that today it was going to be made into the Sew Liberated apron.  The backing fabric is re-purposed and unbleached calico.

Sorry, the pics are awful.  My phone was recently upgraded to the iPhone 4 (hubby hand-me-down) and I have been playing with the camera on it.  Never mind the busy-body photo subject constantly moving!

Enjoy!