The Harsh Reality of Motherhood

We had a lovely day yesterday. A good lunch cooked for us. The children got to play with their cousins. A lovely walk in the park. Very nice :)

Although she had complained of tummy ache since the morning Minxie seemed okay in herself, ate a good lunch and played with her little cousin very happily.

She went to bed last night and was sound asleep in minutes.

However, it was down to earth with a bump for this Mummy when, at 10.30 last night I heard her coughing - lots. I soon realised it wasn't normal coughing and rushed upstairs to find the poor little poppet sitting up in bed with sick EVERYWHERE!!!!

I shouted to Moogsdad to help (very loudly - as he'd decided to have an early night 'cos he was tired) and between us we got her sorted.

Big Hat's off to you lovely Mums who don't have a sleepy man to shout at at such times of crisis!!!

I then had her in bed with me all night. No more sick thank goodness but some nasty stuff to clean up at the other end!!!!

It struck me during my nocturnal musings that this is what motherhood is really about.

This is when the unconditional love bit really kicks in.

When you have to clean up horrendous substances that would normally have you running for the hills.

When you lie awake the whole night watching the little fidget next to you for early signs of the next onslaught.

When you have two loads of laundry to show for one night's nursing:

(It's also the bit they don't tell you about when your biological alarm clock is ringing loudly!!!)

At least hanging all that laundry out made me notice some loveliness happening in the garden.


While Minx has lain on the sofa nagging me as she's starving, bored, thirsty, Minx etc etc. I have got on and broken a mental block.

I have an order for a cushion for a little girl who adores her Grandma's bassett hound. I was given a selection of photocopied photos of the lovely pup in question but have put this off for over two weeks as the inspiration just was not happening.

Knowing that my plans for library/post office/charity shops had to be shelved for today forced me to face up to getting this b**ger done!!!

I was undecided about how to do the picture - applique? stitchery? fabric painting? I bogged myself down with worrying about having to go and buy dressmaker's carbon paper, bassett coloured fabric paints etc etc etc......

As I'm housebound today my choices have been limited and I've had to use what I've got.

Once I'd thought it all through it went pretty well. In fact, I thought you might like to see the whole process.

How about a 'How to Fabric Paint a Bassett Hound Tutorial'? Yes?

Ok then.

How to Fabric Paint a Bassett Hound Tutorial by Moogsmum

1. Cut out your photocopied bassett hound picture. Either stick the cut out picture to a piece of white paper or photocopy again (but set the copier to a lighter tone or it'll come out far too dark)

2. Using a dark pencil mark the main lines/folds/white bits/dark bits on the photocopy

3.Turn the picture over and using a soft dark pencil scribble over the back of the whole picture, making sure all the lines are covered.

4. Iron a piece of freezer paper onto the back of the fabric you are using. This awesome paper helps to keep the fabric flat and firm whilst painting - also prevents the paints 'bleeding'.

5. Place the dog picture face up on top of your piece of fabric.

6. Using a pencil trace along all of the lines on the picture - this then transfers a pencil outline to your fabric - like this:

7. If necessary go over any lines that are not clear enough by drawing over them lightly on the fabric using a pencil.

8. Now it's a matter of colouring in. I started by filling in all the white bits first - think 'Painting by Numbers' here.

9. All the white bits done.

10. Now fill in the brown bits.

I didn't have brown fabric paint but mixed my own. If you mix the three primary colours you will get brown - by altering quantities of each primary you can achieve a huge range of different browns.
I didn't have primary colours (!!) but by mixing an olive green and a plum coloured paint I eventually got the colour I wanted.

11. Now to add some shading.

I mixed a little black with the brown for the dark bits and for the light bits I added a little brown to a good amount of white. By adding water you can achieve a nice translucent wash that will add the shading and highlights without covering the main colour.

This is where all those extra lines that you traced really do help. Use the lines to show you where to shade and highlight.

Don't load your brush with a lot of wet wash - fill your brush with the wash but then dab it on a tissue until the brush is drier - this gives much lighter brush strokes and helps to get the fur looking fur-like!

(If any bits of shading or highlighting don't look quite right don't worry. You can paint over them with white or brown again and redo them once this has dried.)

12. Now mix a light yellowish brown for the iris of the eyes - I added a little yellow ochre to the brown paint that I used for the fur. Add a black pupil in each eye and the most important bit - a little white dot in each eye.

Paint the nose with black fabric paint. thin the paint with water for the lighter bits. Add a little white highlight with a dry brush.

Like almost any painting he is best viewed from a bit of a distance but the overall effect does, thankfully, resemble a bassett hound!!

There are bits I could have done more to but I wanted to quit while I was ahead!

Now it's just a matter of making him into a pink girlie cushion!!!!!

The fabric painting thing isn't as scary as it looks. If you get the initial tracing down okay it's just like playing at colouring in!!!!

I'd better go and iron him now to set the paint.

Hope you enjoyed that very very long post ;-)

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