Milky Monkey

July 07, 2014

Milky Monkey

My son likes his milk. Alright, it's not actually that unusual for a nine week old baby, but believe me, he has got an appetite ! This means that he spends most of his time attached to his mother, who can't really do anything else than sit and feed him for most of the day... Of course I am delighted and feel very lucky that breastfeeding is going well, but I find my new role as "milk bar" (nice phrase invented by a friend who knows very well what she is talking about, having given birth for the second time last week!) rather draining, both physically and mentally.

So I felt I needed to do something to get this frustration out of me and try and stay sane, and this little crafty project did just that !

Mr Monkey calls our son the "milkaholic", based on the level of excitement that he gets into when he feeds, and on the contented bloated look he has after he has finished ! This got me thinking, and a few days later this trio of babygros was born.

I acquired some sets of stamps and a box of textile paints, and stamped away during one of the mini monkey's naps. I found it to be a very therapeutic activity: quick, you get an immediate result, and my son now has some personalised gear whilst I feel like I have used up all this negative energy! I added a couple of home made stamps cut out into rubbers to the bought ones to finalise the look with a few shapes.

As far as costs are concerned: a very affordable little project, it takes a little bit of investment to start with but I'm sure I will get my money's worth out of these purchases. I bought a set of stamps and some textile paints for a total of around £17 and I firmly intend to get a lot of use out of them! It took all of three drops of paint to print the three bodysuits so I'm sure the paints will go a long way. The shirts were bought for £4,50 for a pack of three, so nothing too outrageous there either, and they can be found in most supermarkets for around that price (got mine from Boots).