Chirpy, chirpy, cheep, cheep

I enjoyed crocheting Happy the hippo so much that I decided at the last minute (i.e. 2 days ago!) that I wanted to make another of Hedi's designs for my running chum, Eleanor who I'll be seeing at the start of the London marathon on Sunday. She has the most gorgeous smiley little baby ever and I thought this would be perfect.

So here we have the Bluebird of Happiness. I took some photos outside but it was jolly cold and windy so we came back inside to finish off.

I chose this bright turquoise blue and set it against a day-glo red as little people love bright colours. The stuffing is quite safe for toys and as it's made with acrylic yarn it's easy to wash.

I did a few modifications as usual.

I didn't like the way the tail turned out using the instructions and when I checked on Ravelry I saw that a lot of people had very curly and rather thin feathers. I've made them more robust so they stand up better.

As it's a gift for a baby I didn't use eyes, I just did a bit of embroidery using dark brown yarn.

I also changed the beak completely as the written instructions made a beak that was far too wide. I also pushed a tiny bit of stuffing into to as well.

More birdies:

This was the view that greeted me this morning when I opened the bedroom curtains. We created this little splash pond in the front garden for wildlife and for the reflections. Little did we know that the ducks would claim it as their own!

Bottoms-up! 

Then, as I was opening up the curtains in the music room I spotted the first ducklings of the season. This is Mrs duck whose brood was attacked last year. I notice that Mr duck has stayed around to keep his family safe which is unusual as they often disappear to leave the duck to raise them alone.

The proud parents

The 2 remaining ducklings in that link grew into fine drakes and disappeared during the winter. A few weeks ago 2 drakes appeared and seemed to know me as they came really close to me. I nicknamed them Tweddle-dee and Tweedle-dum until I noticed one of them had a bit of a limp and I realised that they were Titch and Quackers but all grown up!

Titch (left) & Quackers, June 2013

All grown up now