The Flat Battery

If you have ever had a C-section, or know someone who has, you will know that one of the biggest problems following it is being unable to drive for weeks. I got by very well due to a good network of new mum friends, but unfortunately my car was not very happy about the lack of attention received for six weeks. Needless to say, when I tried to drive it again the battery was flat, and despite several charges and jump starts, when the recent cold weather hit my little car decided enough was enough and it wanted a new battery.
Unfortunately, I didn't discover this until I left the house last Thursday intending to visit friends. I was so frustrated that I had got me and little J out of the house promptly after his nap, only to find that we couldn't get to my friend's house after all. I won't lie, I shed a few disappointed tears while standing on the pavement deciding what to do.
Fortunately for me, there is a yarn store in my local parade of shops. Although the ground was pretty snowy, I decided to brave it with the pushchair rather than heading back inside to sulk for the afternoon. Despite my meagre statutory maternity pay, I knew I wanted to treat myself to something, and spent a good half hour browsing the shelves. My yarn store doesn't do a lot of the high end brands like Rowan or Louisa Harding unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately!), but it does do my favourite Sublime, Sirdar, King Cole, and some always useful Stylecraft.
I hit upon a ball of King Cole Supa Dupa Chunky in a gorgeous olive green and decided to knit myself a cowl to keep me toasty in this extremely cold snap we are currently enjoying. Spontaneous purchase achieved, I headed off home to feed J and search for any likely patterns.

In the end I decided simple was best, and went for a cowl based loosely on the My Kind of Town Cowl, although in reality the only thing it really shares with it is the provisional cast on and graft, as I used thicker yarn, bigger needles, cast on fewer stitches and knitted fewer rows. In the end I even regretted the graft as I messed it up the first time whilst trying to simultaneously have a conversation with my mother in law! I ended up knitting the whole thing again. Being super chunky at least it knit up quickly.

Today I got Ed to take some photos of me in my new super-warm cowl - minutes after these were taken he pelted me with snow balls. What a joker.

In other news, Benjy the Blanket Buddy is flying off the needles - just half a leg left to knit! Photos will be shared in due course...

Posted with Blogsy

Jake

So I thought it was about time I updated my blog. It's been a very busy month. I have gone from a pregnant lady with a massive bump...


...to becoming a mummy!
Jake arrived on the 2nd July, a week before my planned C-section after I experienced some bleeding and started going into early labour. I blame a trip round Ikea the previous day and an inexplicable need to clean the bathroom - what was I thinking?
I was so shocked when they said I would be having Jake early. The C-section itself was very straightforward and I have recovered from it very well -my scar is really neat, and although I feel a bit tender when I walk far, we have started getting out and about a bit.
Unfortunately, Jake had a slightly worse experience of birth, about half an hour after birth they realised he had wet lungs which needed clearing because he was coughing up gunk. He was brought back an hour later but then had a 'dusky episode' while breastfeeding - he basically forgot to breathe. He got taken to the Special Care Baby Unit and I wasn't able to see him for another 12 hours until my spinal had worn off. It was probably one of the most difficult times of my life, I couldn't wait to get wheeled down to see my baby.
Jake had no more breathing problems, but was kept in the unit for nearly three days. I was going up and down at all hours of the day to feed my baby, but was reliant on the staff to call the ward I was in.
When Jake was finally allowed out of SCBU, he had lost too much of his birthweight. This meant a round the clock feeding regime and a fight to keep breastfeeding, which was hard but I stuck to my guns. However Jake kept losing weight, and I felt like I was going to have a breakdown!
We were finally allowed out of the hospital just over a week ago when a consultant took pity and decided our home would be a better environment for Jake and me. Sure enough, as soon as we were home Jake started putting on weight and has been very happy and contented.
Becoming a mummy has been the best thing that ever happened to me. I know it's a cliche but it totally changes your life (in a good way!). Total unconditional love for another person, no matter how many times they wee, poo or vomit on you! I can't wait to spend the next year with my little man x x x

Nearly there!

Thought I'd post a quick catch up and update you on how things are going, seeing as I'm on my first real day of maternity leave.
First up, a quick page to share. I made this ages ago, and the photo is from even longer ago! I love walking along the Southbank and watching all the street performers, but this fish on a bike has got to be one of my favourites!

I am now feeling decidedly huge, and baby is certainly making its presence felt. Unfortunately we had confirmed on Friday that my placenta is far too low for a natural delivery, so we are booked in for a C-section on the 9th July, which is three weeks today! Very close to my due date which is a little bit scary as if I start early I'm going to have to hotfoot it to the hospital pretty quickly before I start dilating.

I'm a little bit disappointed that a normal delivery is ruled out, but ultimately all I want is that the baby we tried so hard to have gets here safely, and the danger of bleeding makes a C-section the best way to achieve that.

We have had a bit of a mad dash round the spare bedroom, trying to box up all my books and crafty gear, and most of that is now in the loft. I also did a big eBay sale and have even more to load up too now - there is no point keeping stuff that I haven't used for years, it might as well go to a good home.

I have been doing a spot of knitting for the baby - believe it or not this is going to turn into a duffel coat. I'm hoping to finish it in the next few days, I'm really not that quick at knitting. Unlike my lovely friend Rach who made me this gorgeous blanket! She is a knitting supremo (though this is of course crochet).

Finally, here is a little photo of me yesterday, at a spa day I was bought for my 30th birthday. It was at a lovely Elizabethan hotel in Staffordshire called Hoar Cross Hall, with these beautiful gardens. The day was just what I needed to calm me down, I was starting to feel very stressed out. The beautiful bump massage I was booked in for was bliss, and has left my skin so soft - even hubby noticed!

Anyway, hope to be back to update soon!

Lumps and bumps

It has to be said, I'm starting to feel decidedly large now.

This is me at 31 and a bit weeks (apologies for untidy bedroom in the background!). I have now put on over two stone, am getting decidedly breathless having to walk around at work and have forgotten what a decent night's sleep feels like. But I know it'll all be worth it in the end - just counting down the days until I can go on maternity leave and have a rest!

It's been a busy couple of weekends too. We went away two weeks ago, after my very clever husband attended his OU degree ceremony. I'm so proud of him - he completed it in less than three years while working full time, which is more than most uni students can say - I worked part time at best through my degree!

Ed had booked us a couple of nights in a hotel at Ironbridge, which is well worth visiting - very pretty and the Victorian museum is great. I have quite a few photos which will probably appear on layouts in the near future.

Then last weekend we visited my mum and dad's and I got to show off my bump which had grown a lot in the five weeks since I had last seen them.

Speaking of mum and dad, they feature in this layout which I made a week or so ago, the picture is ancient, from 2007, but I really love those beach huts! I'm not in love with this layout - the balance is a bit off - but I don't want to do anything else to it right now so it is going to stay how it is until I decide to come back to it and work out what is wrong with it. I think it might be the title.

The trouble with this layout is that after deciding to organise my albums chronologically (inspired by the Shimelle Cover to Cover class) I realised that this layout really stands out in my 2007 album because it has such a different style to the one I had back then when I scrapped a lot of my 2007 photos. I used to have such a busy, intricate style, I've really pared that back to let me have a chance of finishing the odd page since work got so much busier. I hadn't really thought about how much my style has altered over time.

Shimelle's class has got me all inspired - I have printed a lot of my 2012 photos and ordered an AC album ready to start scrapping some up to date layouts and hopefully create an album with flow. We are supposed to be looking for the things that will create continuity in our albums rather than a set of disconnected pages, and I'm struggling a bit with this. I tend to grab whatever is in the Cocoa Daisy kit I'm currently working through, but I'm wondering whether for this 2012 album I need to put more thought into it.

So here are the things that are fairly common on my pages:

- 7 gypsies quote stickers (or October afternoon sometimes)
- Stamping, usually in black ink. I particularly like my set of Autumn Leaves border stamps.
- Butterfly punches, but not on every page
- Buttons
- Ribbon or ric rac, usually to underline a title or similar
- I used to use a lot of paint, and have recently been experimenting with mists instead (a bit less messy/time consuming)
- One photo layouts (though I would actually like this to change to get more of my photos scrapped)

I'm wondering whether I need to choose a particular motif or maybe a colour scheme to create commonality. I'm not sure if I could limit myself though, so maybe just colour schemes for particular events or sets of pages instead? I do like Shimelle's use of kraft cardstock on all her pages in one album, but I would have to buy a load more kraft if I wanted to do this.

It is certainly giving me plenty to think about anyway!

For the two people waiting on their flowers, they are all now parcelled up, addressed and ready to be posted in the morning. Sorry it's taken so long!

An unusual double layout

You see, this is what happens when I go back to work - any other life goes straight out of the window! I haven't blogged for a week and a half, and I had been so good up to that point. Oh well, here I am again, ready to share an uncommon sight in my scrapbooks, the elusive double page spread!

As a rule, I don't like to scrap double pages - I find them really hard work to do well, and you need a lot more space to spread them out and check you have achieved continuity across the two. I have probably done about three double page spreads in the last four years. But I decided that I didn't want to have just one photo of this event in my scrapbook, but didn't feel like squeezing them all on one page.

The first page was inspired by an old Shimelle starting point - I often struggle to use plans or sketches, and I did with this, but I was quite pleased with the finished page. I really love the little camera and chandelier stamps, but for the life of me can't remember what brand they are! I continued my experiementation wth ink mists, in this case lime green and blue, to take away some of the harsh white of the background.

I then added the second page. I'm not as happy with this one, but I tried to fit three more photos onto the layout and also take some of the design features across, hence the use of the horizontal strips and blocks of paper and the same stamp set.

Here are the two as they appear in my scrapbook album - went a bit overboard with the lime green on the second side, but never mind! It isn't the favourite double page I have ever made, but it isn't awful and allowed me to get more photos scrapped.

The event in question was my third hen do. Yes, the third. I had four in total, though I suppose not all would be described as traditional hen dos. It comes from having such separate sets of friends. The first was an awesome day out in Stratford Upon Avon with my work colleagues involving a river boat trip and plenty of dares (and booze!). I had a fantastic time, but have yet to get any photos of this from my colleagues - I dread to think what I look like.

The second hen do was with another set of friends at one of their houses - good food, lots to drink and lots of gossip.

The third was this - a really lovely meal out with my in-laws, so quite a small affair.

And finally, the fourth was with my family in London - a trip to the theatre to see The Mousetrap, followed by another fantastic meal.

So this is the first one to be scrapped, but I'm sure I'll get around to the rest in due course!

In other news, the kitchen is getting gradually closer to completion - still no sink, but we may actually have a worktop and oven by the end of the day tomorrow.

Baby is starting to make me breathless going up the stairs and walking around - I assume because it is pressing on my diaphragm. I literally have to stop half way up to get my breath back - very embarassing. It's not that I'm particularly fit usually, but I definitely have better lung capacity than a sixty a day smoker. It's like getting a taste of what old age will be like!

To those ladies still waiting for their flowers, I plan on packing these up tonight, so hopefully will post at the weekend.

Baby Shopping

It just about dawned on me yesterday as I faced the prospect of returning to work that in 12 weeks, we should be welcoming our baby home. While it still seems like a dim and distant prospect as I feel like I have been pregnant for literally ever, people keep telling me how fast the time has gone and how big I'm getting. This made me decide that I probably should think about making some of the big purchases that we will need (while I'm still earning some money!).

My mum has very kindly offered to buy us the pushchair, so we are going to make our final choices about that at the weekend. And my sister in law has donated what feels like everything else we will ever need for the baby including newborn clothes, baby bath, baby walker, baby toys, moses basket etc. But what we did need to get was a cotbed.

I had looked around Mothercare a few times and thought this looked like a nice sturdy choice, but it was a bit pricey. So I was very pleased when I flicked through the website yesterday and found it with £50 off! Mind made up - I ordered it and we are picking it up at the weekend. God knows where we will put it though - everything is all over the place with the kitchen in the middle of redecoration.

So back to work today, and it wasn't too bad although I find that my tolerance levels are significantly reduced at the moment. I don't normally respond to kids too aggressively, however annoying they are, as it doesn't get you anywhere. But I am finding myself decidedly snappy when they irritate me. Hopefully they will sense the general mood and take care!

I've also been struggling a bit with my SPD for the last few days. I had it really early and went to the doctors, but then it seemed to sort itself out and so I stupidly cancelled the physio appointment that took about 6 weeks to come through. Then, as per the law of sod, it started to appear again in the last week, exacerbated by me trying to push a heavy trolley round Sainsburys yesterday. I know, not clever. I'm going to have a hot bath later and hope that it disappears from whence it came again.

So onto a layout to share with you which I made last week. You will realise there is no sense of order to my scrapping - I tend to scrap whatever photo falls on my lap or fits with the particular papers I have in front of me. This happens even more so when I'm trying to get through my backlog of kits as I am now.

I made it with the June 2011 Cocoa Daisy kit - a much brighter prospect than the May one altogether. When it arrived I initially didn't like it that much, but its actually grown on me a lot as I've come to scrap with it.

The photo is one of our group shots from a scrappy weekend away with the girls last year - I decided that we looked like one of those police line ups and was going to call it The Usual Suspects, but I didn't have enough 's's! So I called it The Line Up instead. Apologies to SJ who is mortified by the gesture she is pulling in this photo...

I was quite pleased with the little embellishment cluster here, which I augmented with some ancient Scenic Route supplies and some Girls Paperie cut outs. The date isn't on there because I couldn't remember it - I need to check!

In other news, Shimelle's new class Cover to Cover is open on the class forums, so I might spend a bit of time introducing myself over there later. In the meantime though, I want to finish a half finished page and also (shame) do a bit of work this evening too. I'm working later for the next few days, but hope to share another post with you soon, even if it is a small one!

The one with the rumbling tum...

I think I may have to nickname this baby the Hunger Monster. The main effect it seems to have had on me all pregnancy is giving me terrible hunger pangs if I don't eat every 2-3 hours. Most of the time I am able to satisfy its cravings and have been desperately trying to snack on fruit to try to introduce it to healthy flavours even before it enters the world. But my glucose test yesterday was an ordeal and a half.

I wasn't allowed to eat or drink anything after 8pm in the evening, not even a cup of tea. They don't make you do this for most operations - you can eat later than that! By the time I had arrived at the hospital at 8.30am yesterday morning I was ravenous, but had at least another two hours to wait before I could eat anything.

The wait in the day room, while interminably boring, wasn't too bad. The baby was going insane kicking me, probably in protest, but finally the second set of bloods were taken and I got up to leave. By the time I had reached the lift though, I was shaking, in a cold sweat, heat was rising up the back of my neck and my head was spinning. I was nearly in tears by the time I reached the cafe, and even more so when I saw the queue! I always get grumpy when I don't eat, but apparently being pregnant magnifies my symptoms tenfold. I now have even more respect for my poor diabetic husband when he suffers hypos - his blood sugar levels drop way lower than mine!

I think it's safe to say that with that reaction to a lack of food, the chances of me having gestational diabetes are slim to none. 

But because of this, I spent the rest of the day feeling very tired and grumpy and wasted most of my time fretting about anything and everything that had already or might possibly go wrong. Note to self: never, ever go without food again if you can possibly help it.

Today is a new day however, and so far I have managed to finish a layout and now I'm onto blogging this one.

I made this layout a couple of weeks ago, it is a picture of me and my little sister at my engagment party in 2009. The papers are still from the May 2011 Cocoa Daisy kit, some of the backs of the pages were more pastel than vintage. While I really like this photo, I'm not overly happy with this layout. I think it's missing something - maybe some stitching? Or stamping? If you have any ideas, please feel free to comment.

I've got one single and one double layout left to share, though I may scrap a little more this afternoon so there could be at least three blog posts next week, though don't be surprised if you don't see another one till next weekend as all-consuming work takes over again. But I think I've definitely caught the blogging bug again, so I won't leave it too long, and I am of course going to be taking part in Shimelle's new class, Cover to Cover (or at least attempting to!) so expect to see me trying to get to grips with my albums which are currently, to use the technical term, a right old mess.

To the two people who wanted flowers - I have emailed you!

Turning Thirty

Finally, finally I have time to sit down and write a post! As always, the last few weeks of term were entirely hectic, and my time at weekends has been spent on a variety of activities, mostly enjoyable ones.

Firstly, I managed to finish this little set of winter woollies. A little behind the season I know, but they will be great for next year and I'm really pleased with how they turned out. The hat took about two or three days to knit, but the snood took forever because I was sooooo bored with knitting stocking stitch that after a while I put it down and had to force myself to pick it up and knit the last ten centimetres.

 In 'I'm getting old' news, I turned thirty two weeks ago! I always thought I would feel absolutely terrible on my 30th birthday, waving my twenties goodbye and all that, but being pregnant and looking forward to the excitement of the rest of the year kind of took the edge off it. I had a great night out with friends (despite staying entirely sober!) and also had a yummy Sunday dinner with the in-laws.

My mum and dad sent me this gorgeous bouquet - it lasted for ages, and was the same shop I got my wedding bouquet from. It was a shame not to see my folks on the day, but I spent the whole of the Easter weekend with them last weekend instead, so I had a good catch up too. My little sis turned 28 on Tuesday too, so I managed to see her the day before her birthday. I don't often get to see my family on birthdays and special occasions, so I really appreciate the times I do.

In pregnancy news, I am now about 27 weeks pregnant! Time is flashing by and little one is really wriggly now. I am a bit concerned that I am putting on too much weight too quickly - I started at 10 stone 5 pounds and this morning weighed in at a massive 11 stone 12 pounds! Seeing as the most I should reasonably put on for my height is 2 and a half stone, I may need to hold back on the eating - not fun! I depressed myself slightly looking at some pictures of me pre-pregnancy in which I am looking lovely and slim, but it is all for a good cause after all.

One of the reasons I don't have a lot of time to think at the moment is this:

We are doing up our kitchen before the new arrival gets here - it means the house is covered in food/pans/crockery and the kitchen is a bit of a mess. Ed is doing a really good job with it, but has to fit in around work. I'm hoping that we will get finished by May, but I may be being optimistic!

Finally, here is a page to share, another one of my trip to Paris in 2010 and made using the May 2011 Cocoa Daisy kit. I love the effect of the clock mask and the spray ink - I think it is a Tim Holtz one. The page didn't need much added because of the gorgeous background paper with poppies and crosswords bizarrely enough! I haven't made any new pages in a while but I have got about five more to share, which I will do as soon as I can photograph them and get on to blog again.

Taking a break

Another week passes too busy to blog, but I'm determined to manage at least a post a week if I can, so here is a quick one. I'm now 23 weeks pregnant and loving all the kicking and squirming that little one is doing. In fact, I got a bit worried earlier today when I hadn't felt it kick in a while and had to have a little listen on the doppler (which was an absolute godsend in the early days of this pregnancy, but hasn't been used so much lately). But all was well, and since then I've been reminded of little one's presence several times!

Sleep is starting to be a problem - not actually getting to sleep, but waking up with lower backache and not being able to get comfortable again, not matter how I prop myself up with pillows. This morning I got up at seven as it was useless lying there trying to sleep - I'm convinced this is all training for the early mornings I will get to experience as a mum. My own mum exists on about 3 hours sleep a night even now, all thanks to yours truly who was a nightmare sleeper!

I actually got a Mother's Day card today (clever bump!). Nice to think that next year it will be for real...

So a layout to share, not photographed very well I'm afraid due to poor light this evening. It was made using last May's Cocoa Daisy kit, and shows some photos of our holiday to Paris in the Autumn of 2010 - this is me and mum taking a rest outside the Louvre. Everything on the page comes from the kit, except the chipboard thickers and the pink mist which I used to add a bit more depth to the background. I love that rose ribbon!

In other news, I managed to sell a few stacks of scrapbooking paper, but have lots more to go, including a stack of about 150 sheets of Basic Grey! I think I must have had a bit of an obsession at one point...

Anyway, off to bed now to get my couple of hours of sleep - back next week!

A host of golden daffodils...

Wasn't it a wonderful day today? It was lovely to see the sun after what has felt like an interminable winter of endless grey days. Of course, it will probably only last for a day, but at least it was a reminder of what is to come in the next few months.
 It makes the layout I am sharing today particularly appropriate. This one was created for an ill-fated Scrapbook Inspirations design book, and records some memories of my sister's birthday a couple of years ago in Wimbledon. The tables in the pub were decorated with some lovely daffodils, cue much posing amongst all the guests! I pinched the idea for the rolled paper daffodils from an old issue of Papercraft Inspirations, but I cannot for the life of me remember whose design it was.

I really liked this layout - it seemed to come together easily, included a lot of photos which isn't like my normal layouts, and has an interesting colour scheme which is different to my normal style. It's always good to experiment.

So what has been going on in my life? I've been busy creating a few layouts, I have pretty much used up last May's Cocoa Daisy kit, which takes me onto June - I know, I'm way behind! I've managed to create six layouts from it, which I will photograph and share on here over the next week. It is so unlike me to create any layouts lately, this has to be a recent record for me. I think I have picked up the scrapping bug again.

I have also been browsing the divine issue 42 of The Knitter and am currently purchasing the yarn for this little number. It's all Rowan Felted Tweed and Kidsilk Haze, so not cheap, but I love Rowan yarn and patterns never look quite the same if you make it in something cheaper. I just love the shirred edging and the slashes, and the button up neck at the back - it is such a unique pattern. Of course, I probably won't be able to wear it for a while but by the time I have finished it I will hopefully be back to something resembling my normal weight - I have such a queue of knitting projects!

Finally, we had the excitement of my 20 week scan yesterday. I'm not quite 20 weeks, just a few days under, but baby was looking well and all it's organs were measuring correctly. Despite the scan taking a good twenty minutes, I barely got to see any of it as the sonographer had the screen turned away, but Ed got a good look. He said it was all a bit difficult to make out anyway, though it was funny when the scan started as the baby was kicking away but its head was wedged under my full bladder! I got a little run through at the end and got a little glimpse of its face - it is so strange being able to see this tiny person that is currently all curled up inside me. It is certainly a wriggly one, and an awkward one! At the last scan, it wouldn't lie correctly for a neck measurement, and this time it kept covering its face so the sonographer couldn't check its lips till right at the end when it finally deigned to show us its face.

Unfortunately our scan photo isn't great - it looks like two floating blobs, one its head, one its belly, with nothing connecting them! And it cost us £10 which in my opinion is a bit of a rip off for scan photos, but I suppose the hospital have a captive audience really. We have to go back for another scan at 34 weeks as I have part placenta praevia, so we need to check the placenta has moved out of the way ready for birth. Apparently most do, and at least it means we get to see it again.

We both have a feeling that its going to be a boy, I've thought this since the beginning for some reason, but have decided to keep it a suprise till the end, so will have to see if we are right in July...

So very much to tell...

Yes, hello, it's me again, absent blogger extraodinaire! Every now and then I get the urge to scrap, and to blog, and it appears that now is the time. Strangely enough, it also seems to be when I'm ill, as I have been suffering from a terrible cold for the past week. Maybe this is the only time I slow down enough to actually put the effort in!
So I thought I'd catch up with uploading some of my (now rather ancient) efforts onto my blog. And I'm obviously going for a rather romantic theme today...

This one is our engagement party - this photo is from 2009!

And this is from our wedding day, just after we signed the register. Our wedding being in 2010, and this the only photo I have scrapped from it - the shame! I did however create a photobook on Photobox to distribute to relatives, so they are recorded somewhere at least.

Gotta love that bling!

So why have I gone all romantic?

Possibly because I thought it was about time I shared the news that after a long, sometimes traumatic road, I am finally going to become a mummy in July. There were times over the last year when I wondered whether I would ever be able to make an announcement like this, but thanks to the wonders of science and the great British NHS, our dreams came true. I am almost 19 weeks and I cannot wait for the day I get to bring my baby home.

Worthy of a blog post, no?