[ . . Wonderful Week . . ] Just have a go

Pincushion by blondesbackyard available from Etsy

Let's get it out of the way straight away shall we - still no baby! I am going to pretend that I am absolutely fine about this. Obviously we would rather baby be here but alas, no, he/she has other ideas.

So in a mission to take my mind of this fact - and thinking that if I started something, baby might want to disrupt my plans - I got my sewing machine out. Encouraged by the nursery inspiration from a couple of weeks back I wanted to make some things for the baby's nursery.

My mum and dad bought me my new sewing machine for my birthday back in July last year but embarrassingly I hadn't used it until this week. This is through a mixture of my birthday being a strange time when we weren't really sure if Baby B was going to stick around - I was only a few weeks pregnant and had already had quite a few issues. The other reason being that the house has been a tip for most of the time since due to constant decorating so getting the sewing machine out seemed a bit too much like a treat.

Another reason, is that I tend to have these fads about things and then go off them. "If only I had a new sewing machine I'm sure I would do loads of sewing" - that kind of thing! And the final reason that I am going to own up to is that I was a little scared of it! My mum is a brilliant seamstress and always has been so I feel there is a lot to live up to. Not that anyone is testing me you understand, this is just the pressure I seem to like to put on myself for no apparent reason. I have been aware of this for sometime which is why it made it on to my 30 before 30 list at number 22.

I shouldn't have worried, it was quite successful. I even managed some stitches! A lot easier to use than I expected and I seemed to have remembered everything I knew from the last few times I had used a sewing machine - probably about 5 years ago.

I have finished one item, a laundry bag for the nursery. I thought this was a good one to start with, lots of straight lines and seams! It looks good and I keep going to have a look at it hanging on the back of the door to remind myself I can sew. Next on the list is an organiser to hang on the cot (inspired by this one) and some soft activity cubes (inspired by these). Finally I want to make some bunting but with baby's name on. Needless to say this one will have to wait. Baby can you hear me?

So, this week was wonderful because I actually decided to just get on with something to distract me from wishing each day away.

Silent Sunday: The sewing machine is go!

For Silent Sunday

Dear so and so...

Dear the blogging world,

Thank you for accepting me, encouraging me and inspiring me to continue with this blog. It now must be some sort of record for me keeping it up. Thank you for your meme's and prompts. What with the Gallery on a Wednesday, Silent Sunday and now my first venture into 'Dear So and So' there are constant ideas. And the comments that come with them, they really make my day.

L x

____________________________________________________________________

Dear Charlie,

You really are the most wonderful cat. So much more than a pet - in fact that term makes me a little upset. Thank you for wanting to sit with me all the time and have lots of fuss. I like how you seem to want to get as close to bump as you can and how you looked generally concerned when I was poorly yesterday.

I really hope you do not change when baby arrives. You are going to make an excellent big 'brother'.

L x

____________________________________________________________________

Dear Mr B,

This week you have tested me by entering my little 'private' online world. Following me on Twitter means you can now see into my brain - not like you couldn't anyway! Maybe I need to accept that my anonymity has gone. Maybe it never existed anyway.

I don't know why this seemed so strange to begin with, I lost my Twitter voice for a few hours. We are so close, you know how I tick. You know my strengths, my weaknesses and my weirdnesses. You know I am a geek. All this, and you still love me. Please don't ever stop.

L x

PS. The cutest part of you now being 'into' Twitter rather than just taking the piss out of me is that I am able to teach you something. This doesn't happen very often. #theresaturnupforthebooks hehe!

____________________________________________________________________

Dear Baby B,

So you continue to tease us with your potential early arrival. Little signs here and there. It looks like you aren't going to arrive today like we had hoped but you still have a few days to meet the target.

Whenever you decide to make an entrance into this world please know that you have a very excited mummy and daddy-to-be waiting to cuddle you and hold your hand. You may be scared but we are a little bit too! Will we know how to change your nappy, what will we do when we can't stop you crying? But we are all in this together. We will get there.

Mummy, x

__________________________________________________________________

Dear Hairdresser,

Thank you for your words this week and explaining to me that I can bring Baby B with me to my next appointment. These are the things that I don't even realise I don't know until I am told. I wouldn't have known what to do.

There are going to be so many more of these in the coming weeks I feel. But thank you for crossing one of my list.

L x

__________________________________________________________________

Disclaimer: the above are in no particular order!

Why not pop over to 3 Bedroom Bungalow using the link below to see more Dear So and So's.

Music to give birth to...

I have been wanting to put together a playlist for the hospital for some time ready for Baby B's arrival into the world and inspired by a post over at Mumra's blog I thought I would share some of my choices with you.

As I am sure is a similar story for many people I am hoping for as natural a birth as possible. I am not however hung up on this and will do whatever it takes to make sure baby and I are as safe as possible. Part of this for me is positive thinking and feeling relaxed and comfortable. Music for me has that great power of being able to transport you to somewhere else. The associations we have with certain songs can be very strong. So this, along with some of my hypnobirthing mp3s from Tums2Mums should be the perfect mix.

The first for me has to be Air, and I could have picked nearly any song from the Moon Safari album. It is always the first album I go to when I want to switch off and drift away. I have chosen New Star in the Sky mainly for the name!



From a similar era for me is Kings of Convenience's, Quiet Is the New Loud. This takes me straight back to when I first met Mr B and has lots of happy memories.



Another from a similar genre is Royksopp and the album Melody AM.



To change the tone a little bit and add some guitar next I have picked Never Say Anything from The Belles. Mr B was in a band when I first met him back in 2002 and our lives revolved quite substantially around going to gigs and him playing gigs. He therefore always had a new favourite band and at one time this was them. He played at the same gigs with them a few times and we still listen at home.



I have realised how old all these songs are so to bring it a little bit more up to date is Midlake. We went to see them in November and at that stage Baby B wasn't wriggling too much and the music (and probably the bass) woke little one up and he/she went crazy! We have since listened to their albums in the car a lot and Baby B seems to approve.



I hope you liked the peek into my music taste - heavily influenced by Mr B. Which no doubt Baby B's will be too.

Why not go over to Mumra's blog now following the link below to see more great playlists...

The Gallery: Expressions - when girls get together

Well this week's prompt for the gallery is Expressions.

If this week had gone a little differently I might have chosen the expression of a newborn but that wasn't meant to be. Therefore I raided the archives again and through a mixture of reminiscing and laughter I stumbled upon the photos from my best friend's hen party last April in Paris.

We had such a great time, I had only got back from Japan a few days before so was a little disorientated and staying for three nights on a barge on the Seine, possibly didn't help.

There were many expressions over the weekend, but mainly laughter. The photo I have chosen is from the Eurostar on the way home. It certainly isn't the best photo I have ever taken but it captures the mood and memories perfectly. Champagne had seemed to be a theme of the weekend.

If you look closely you can see not only my friend's expressions but also those of slight panic in the passengers in the reflection of the window. Something along the lines of "great, a few hours on a train with a group of giggly girls drinking champagne!". Oh well, it was fun and this year we all turn 30 and should probably start to grow up a little. To be honest, I am not going to hold my breath! x

Why not go and have a look at some of the other entries now here.

[ . . 30 before 30 . . ] 17. Take more photos with the digital SLR

You may have already read about my love for photography on theprojectlab but also that it is one of those things that I never really get round to doing hence it making it on to my 30 before 30 list.

My weekly photo post for the gallery has helped to reignite my love for photography but still getting out to actually take new photos is not easy - and it is not going to get any easier I fear. In an attempt to make it that little bit easier I have changed the title of this one on my list from 'spending half a day taking photos' (when was this ever going to happen!) to just 'take more photos'.

A couple of weekends ago the sun decided to make a rare appearance so we made the most of it and went for a walk around one of our local favourites, Thornton Reservoir. It was originally built in 1854 and is now owned by Severn Trent Water and there is a lovely walk around the outside which is just under 2.5 miles. Perfect for a sunny Saturday. I didn't take too many pictures but I hope you enjoy the ones I have picked out below.

Wishing you all lots of sunny days. x

[ . . Wonderful Week . . ] Waiting...waiting...waiting...

I have really left this post until the last possible moment hoping that it could be an 'introducing you to Baby B' rather than a 'we a still waiting' but hey, baby knows best! :)

Another week, another appointment with the midwife who actually visited me at home which felt very odd. I'm not home bound, I am just pregnant! Anyway, I shouldn't complain. All was well after the previous week's dramas and baby behaved her/himself. Our normal midwife, who we have been very lucky to see most of the time, is actually on holiday next week and despite us only be 38/39 weeks she keeps telling us that she is expecting to come back to baby and not pregnant me. I do hope she is right.

This past week has also been the first that I haven't had too much work to do, apart from a sneaky VAT return. I still haven't been that great at relaxing. It's just not me. [Please remind me of that when I have a little baby!] I do however want to get better at it as I think baby might be waiting for me to 'stop' before saying hello.

Towards the end of the week, after all the outstanding jobs were finished I also had a mini breakdown. It caught me completely out of the blue. We were sat down after lunch and I suddenly realised things would never be the same again once Baby B arrived. I just burst into tears.

You will all know that I have been very excited about the arrival of Baby B, and I still am, but I think all the positivity has been hiding some other feelings. Mr B and I have always been so happy, which I am so thankful for, but it suddenly dawned on me that things will change. After the little wobble and after talking to Mr B (and crying on him!) I realised that yes things will change, but it is a new chapter. No one is going to suddenly take all our happy memories away, we are simply going to have more good times, happiness and memories.

So, this week has been wonderful because I have realised that this is the start of a new chapter, not a new book!

Silent Sunday: A bit of a wobble!

For Silent Sunday.

The lovely Jay is having a well deserved Sunday off this week so there is no Linky to see all the other Silent Sunday entries. There are both happy and sad reasons why which you can read here. You can however see alot of the entries by following the hashtag on twitter #SilentSunday.

The Nursery

Regular readers will know that we have had a few dramas getting the nursery ready for Baby B but we are now finally there. Mr B excelled himself one weekend once the plastering had been fixed (see before and after) and got it all painted - 3 coats on the ceiling, 2 on the walls and 1 on the gloss!

Since it's been painted I have allowed myself to start looking for decorating ideas. I love interiors and will share with you some of our home at some point but needless to say I am a subscriber of LivingEtc and love looking at all the interior/craft/design blogs. But nursery's - that was something new.

I decided to turn to twitter for recommendations of where to look. I was struggling as we don't know whether Baby B is a girl or boy and neither me or Mr B are fans of the bland and neutral. I wanted colour! Well you all did me proud with your recommendations which led to an afternoon of surfing and the following inspiration. Thank you especially to Kirsty (Imperfect Pages), Kelly (Place of my own), Kat (Housewife Confidential) and Baby Style File.

1 / Love the braveness of this black wall and the shots of colour (Found via pinterest, originally from ohdeedoh)
2 / Injecting colour with toys with a little bit of prettiness (LivingEtc)
3 / I am loving bright multicoloured blankets (LivingEtc)

I think one of my favourite discoveries in this journey has been Bambino Goodies and especially their room tours. Right up my street!
4 / Great coordination of the fabric (Jakob's Retro Room Tour @ Bambino Goodies)
5 / Really like the mix and match cushions and I am a sucker for letters (as above)
6 / I love the use of display shelves and you can never go wrong with a monkey! (as above)

7 / Light and bright nursery (Chic & Cheap Nursery)
8 / More statement shelves and remembering that a nursery can also be a little bit grown up (Project Nursery)
9 / A focus on using embriodery hoops as frames using different fabrics, perfect temporary decoration (as 7 above)
10 / Cute DIY mobile made using felt and another embriodery hoop (as 7 above)
11 / Great giraffe and retro shelves (Found via pinterest, originally Little Green Notebook)
12 / More decorative shelves and making books part of the design (Project Nursery)

13 / Cool alternative to a mobile and gorgeous quilt (Found via pinterest, originally Playing House)

14 / Alternative to embriodery hoop frames and the obliglatory bunting with name (Ohdeedoh)

I do hope you have enjoyed the inspiration and you may even find it useful for yourself and I have started a board on pinterest to catalogue all my nursery inspiration - because I keep finding more (!) which you can see here.

You will have to check back in the coming weeks - once I have made some of the decorative touches - to see how I have interpreted the above for Baby B. I just need to blow the dust of the sewing machine first!

The Gallery: Togetherness - in the sunshine

So for this week's gallery the prompt was 'togetherness' inspired by Valentine's Day.

Mr B and I have never really 'done' Valentine's Day, except for maybe our first Valentine's Day which was only a few weeks after we had met. Mr was still in 'impressing' mode and had booked a table at a local restaurant but when we arrived the restaurant had no record of it. I remember it clearly now, even though it was 9 years ago, his face dropped and he looked so worried. Anyway, it was all sorted and we had a lovely night.

Since then we always celebrated our anniversary in January which seemed too close to do Valentine's Day as well. Then this year, with all the baby craziness we both forgot our January anniversary so have decided to stick to OUR special day. Our wedding anniversary in June.

So for me togetherness is about our wedding but I couldn't choose a wedding photo as I hadn't taken the photo so teamed with going through some old memory cards I discovered photos from our honeymoon. We went to Singapore, Bali and Hong Kong and the two I have selected are from our relaxing time in Bali. I was going to choose just one but I thought they made a good pair.

So there we have it although we had been together for 6 years before our wedding, it really did formalise everything for me - true togetherness.

However, as the next few weeks progress and with the arrival of little Baby B I am sure I will have a new definition of togetherness.

Why not take a look at all the other entries for this week's gallery here.

[ . . Wonderful Week . . ] It really could be any day now...

I'm afraid I am a little late this week with my post as I was going to write something on Friday but that didn't quite go to plan! We had our regular midwife appointment in the morning and she sent us straight to the hospital telling us to prepare to have the baby!

This all came about because the baby's heartbeat seemed quite slow which can be a sign of distress. The midwife said that she just had a funny feeling and told us not to worry but she thought the baby might be happier out rather than in! We have had a few issues along the way in the pregnancy and I am quite small so the fear was that baby might have just had enough.

After waiting at the hospital for an hour or so I was put on a CTG machine so baby's heart rate could be monitored for half an hour. We did see it slow down to less than 100bpm, but also speed up to 170bpm in line with the baby's movements and the hospital midwifes said they were very happy and there was nothing to be concerned about.

Phew, what drama. The most surprising thing about all of it was that me and Mr were remarkably relaxed about the idea of having the baby there and then. In fact, we were a little disappointed when it was clear that wasn't going to be the case. But we have to remember that baby knows best when it wants to come out.

So I have entered this, my 39th, week of pregnancy excited and to be honest a little impatient to meet little one. So if I disappear for a while it may be because baby is on the way, or that I just haven't got round to posting :)

Silent Sunday: Ready now!

For Silent Sunday

The Gallery: 24 hours - the highlights

Tara over at Sticky Fingers has set this week's Gallery prompt as 24 hours. This one had me a little stumped as I couldn't just delve into my archives to find something and needed to actually take some photos. I also forgot until yesterday.

Not that this made much difference as my last few weeks have been a lot about getting organised for the arrival of Baby B, washing and cleaning. All pretty dull. And yesterday wasn't any exception so I decided to focus on the graphic and intriguing disguised in the mundane.

So here it is, my 24 hours, Tuesday this week...


Celebrating the sunshine by wearing my trainers for the first time in months!


One 'last' trip to stock up on baby essentials and ended up buying more unnecessary treats.


Hoovering (again!).


Quick relax and cup of tea with Charlie.

Welcome home.


And to bed...(never realised before how much this looked like a smiley monkey!)


I am now off to make another cup of tea and enjoy looking at everyone elses 24 hour posts. And guess what, Charlie boy is sat in exactly the same position as yesterday! Some things never change.

[ . . 30 before 30 . . ] 4. Pay off a credit card

The past few years have certainly been busy and expensive. All our own fault I hasten to add!

We got married and had an amazing honeymoon to Singapore, Bali and Hong Kong in 2008.

Since we bought our house five years ago we have had a lot of work done including re-doing/decorating every room in the house at least once and in 2009 we had the roof fully re-tiled, and moved the position of the upstairs bathroom to make the most of the space.

Then last year we decided that we would have one last ‘big’ holiday to Japan before we tried for a family. This was not cheap – once in a lifetime – but certainly not cheap!

So, here we are a few years later, happy and with many memories but also the debt that came with it. As we start to tighten our belts so I can stay off work for a while with Baby B in 2011 we are starting to get ourselves back to ‘zero’. One credit card down, a few more to go!

Silent Sunday: Nearly there

For Silent Sunday

[ . . Wonderful Week . . ] I'm going to CyberMummy!

I can't believe how fast the weeks are going! Don't get me wrong that is a good thing but there still feels like a lot to do before the arrival of Baby B. With this in mind I have done my last day's work this week to allow myself time to relax in the next few weeks and hopefully encourage Baby B to arrive before D Day (Due Date!).

This week we also attended the funeral of our lovely neighbour of 5 years who passed away in January. She was a remarkable lady and the perfect neighbour. She always looked out for us and took in our many parcels whilst we were both at work. Nothing was ever too much trouble and she was very strong. I would call round every few months and we would have a good chat and most importantly a good laugh. She was laughing until the end. She encouraged us to be neighbourly, which we loved but despite this had never actually spoken to the neighbours the other side of her even though we were a similar age. Well the funeral certainly changed all that. We got on like a house on fire and in addition to being a similar age they are similar in so many other ways. We were all laughing and saying that hopefully our friendship can be one of her legacys.

The nursery has also been coming on leaps and bounds but I am saving showing pictures until it is completed in the next week or two and a few things off my 30 before 30 list are underway. The other main news this week is...

I am very excited about this and if you are a regular reader you will know I have been considering it for some time. After it was announced that Sarah Brown was going to be a keynote speaker earlier this week I thought it was now or never to buy a ticket before they all sold out. So I took the plunge, I was hesitating over the cost of the train, whether to stay over in London, and how/whether to take Baby B but I decided the details can be sorted out nearer the time. I had mentioned the conference to Mr B in the past, who thought it was hilarious that there was such a conference, but I don't think he expected that I would go, either that or he was not listening (!). He looked a little surprised when I broke the news to him when he walked in from work but I think he was more amused at my guilty sounding admission that I had bought a ticket.

To think this is how I am whilst I still have an income, what am I going to be like now I am properly on maternity leave. Am I going to feel the need to ask for pocket money? Oh, I do hope not!

So, I leave this week looking forward to the next. Feeling excited and a little apprehensive that we are a week closer to Baby B's arrival. I think the reality of it is sinking in. How tiny, precious and breakable the little one will seem. How many things will change. What can we still do. What will we not want to do. Can we attend friends weddings and other occasions. What do we need to consider.

Only time will tell.

The Gallery: Shapes...Spanish style

Another great prompt for The Gallery this week and it is 'shapes'.

This one was right up my street and made me think of all the architectural and graphic photos I take. I can't help it. I am drawn to the abstract. Spotting parts of buildings or my surroundings to zoom in on and crop.

I think this comes from when I studied photography and we started off with our black and white 35mm film and manual SLR. Contrast and graphic elements were the name of the game for a strong shot and I discovered the work of  American Ralph Gibson. This never seems to have left me.

So, I started going through lots of old photos, which is hard work these days because all the digitals are stored on a hard drive (which we have lost the power cable for) and the actual prints are in the loft which is getting harder for me to access with the bump. Most of my photos would have fit but I decided to focus on some photos from when we went to Barcelona in 2009 - luckily stored on Facebook!

One of these weeks I will actually use the prompt to go out and take some 'new' photos, maybe in the summer when Baby B is here!

You can see all the other 'shapes' here.