bump: halfway

I was hoping to document this pregnancy week by week, but I've come to accept that it's just not going to happen. I think once a fortnight to once every 3 weeks is about as often as I can rope the husband into taking my photo. In any case, we snapped these today and I'm about 20.5 weeks along, closer to 21 weeks now. Very specific, I know!

I'm still in a funny stage of pregnancy where I feel big and people who know me want to pat my tummy, but people who don't know me seemed shocked that there's a baby in there. But oh... there is. Yesterday husband and I sat and watched my belly as the baby jumped around. It looked like s/he was doing aerobics in there and cracked us both up to no end.

I'll be posting about our Christmas and my birthday in the next couple of days, but in the meantime, I hope you're all enjoying these post holiday days x

my creative space: a baby sleep sack

Last week while my husband was away for work, I occupied all my free time with the making of this baby sleep sack. The pattern is from Handmade Beginnings by Anna Maria Horner, a book I've made so many projects from. This little sack is ace because it's lined with flannel so it's nice and cozy, and the patchwork looks pretty damn cute too. I made the patchwork front with fabric from Maze & Vale that I got at the Finders Keepers market. The fabric on the back is from Ikea, and the lining I got at Spotlight.

So, my thoughts on the project... It took forever! I actually thought I could have it done in a night, and instead, it took me a week to finish. There are a lot of steps (especially if you patchwork the front) and I found the instructions sometimes hard to follow.

If you do want to save some time, skip the patchwork front and use one piece instead. Or you can get that nifty fabric that looks like patchwork but isn't. If you do want to piece the front yourself, this tutorial is awesome. I also thought it strange that after so much work, you sew the velcro on right through all layers, leaving the seams visible from the front. Instead, I left the bottom open (you're supposed to baste it) and sewed the velcro to only the front lining. Looks much nicer. So there you go, let me know if you make one yourself!

Linking up here

a doll for a baby
baby singlets & a beanie
bibs
flannel booties
gifts for a babe

summer mornings

Summer mornings are my favourite. Before the heat settles in for the day, and while the busy street we live above is still quiet, it's so very peaceful. This morning my heart feels especially full. I woke up to baby kicks, tea on my nightstand, and the news that the newest member of our extended family was born last night: a baby girl named Elizabeth.

Last night my friends, Sandy and Alanna, made me a birthday dinner complete with pinterest inspired table "because it was you coming to dinner miss blogger." The food was delicious and the gifts even better: a beautiful handmade journal where every page is unique, and a bird pin which they gave me while shouting "PUT A BIRD ON IT!" There is so much to celebrate right now.

p.s. it wasn't my birthday yesterday, my birthday is on christmas day :)

birthday/christmas wishlist 2012

A few things I'm coveting this birthday/Christmas:

1. What Katie Ate - Just like my mother, I am fast becoming a cookbook-aholic.

2. Mr. Boddington's Penguin classics from Anthropologie - I would choose Pride & Prejudice, Sense & Sensibility, and Little Woman.

3. All for Everyone toque - Because that'll be handy this summer ;)

4. Vitamix - With its $1000 price tag, this is firmly on the keep-on-dreamin! list, but one day, one day, it'll be mine...

5. Fern oxfords from The Horse - I will love them until my feet are too fat and swollen for laces.

6. Stockholm clutch from Elk - I have been pining over these bags ever since I moved to Australia. They've always felt like too much of a splurge, but if it's for my birthday/Christmas...

7. Not pictured because I forgot about it until now, but ever since this post, I have been longing for this whale print. I would put it in our bedroom, so I could wake up to it every day.

What's on your list?

merry

Yesterday I put on some Christmas tunes, tied on my apron and got to work making something that's been on my list to try for a long time: the pioneer woman's cinnamon rolls. Since I don't have an industrial kitchen, or the wherewithal to make the bazillion buns the normal recipe does, I used the quantities I found here. It was the perfect amount.

In between the making, while I waited for dough to rise, I got myself organized to finally send out some christmas cards. Beautiful stationary always helps, so I picked up some Rifle cards and excitedly got to use my custom address stamp from Oh My Deer for the first time. Seeing as how I'm just gettting around to this, it's safe to say that no one will actually receive said cards before christmas, but it's the thought that counts, right?

By the end of the morning I was mailing off a few cards and going to visit a friend's brand new baby with a plate of cinnamon rolls in my hands. And people, holy crap, they are good! Almost as good as my beloved Grounds for Coffee (Vancouverites you know what I mean, right?).

an escape (and some blue bottles)

Last week we spent a couple of days around Bateman's Bay with our friends. We took full advantage of the south coast's famous beaches, which reminded me, yet again, of just how funny life in Australia can be. On our first beach trip we were at a beautiful, deserted white sand beach. The ocean was the clearest blue, like in the tropics, and not too choppy. Have a look...

We all waded in, and were enjoying our cold swim when Ben spotted something floating at the top of the water. Then he spotted another one, and another one. One cry of "blue bottles" was all it took to send Alicia and I racing out of the water. The funny thing is that I didn't even know what a blue bottle was, but I knew if Alicia was running away, I sure as hell should be too. Want to see a blue bottle?

I quickly learned that a blue bottle is a jellyfish (I had guessed that much), that isn't deadly, but hurts like crazy if you get stung. That blue balloon shape is what floats at the top of the water, and beneath that its tentacles spread out and cause extreme pain if they happen to touch you. Husband remembers being stung as a kid and vomiting from the pain. None of us got stung, but I was certainly more careful next time we went for a swim! Here are the rest of our photos from our short trip...

bump: 18 weeks

Dear baby,

You're 18 weeks old now, and I'm 99% sure that I can feel you move. That, or there's something very strange happening in my stomach... But no, it must be you. Even your dad has felt you. It took a few attempts, and more patience than he has, but yesterday morning while he rested his hand on my tummy and tried to coax you out, you gave him a bump. I can only describe it as simultaneously being the strangest and coolest feeling ever.

Last week we went to the south coast to visit friends. Alicia, who has a pretty good feeling for these kinds of things, thinks you're a boy too. Yesterday my mom sent a list of hilarious boys names including: Pascual, Wolgang (that's right, without the f), Adolfo, and Benito. Don't worry though - I promise we will not name you Adolfo.

I have my second midwife appointment tomorrow, which means I get to hear your little heart beating away. I hope you're doing well in there. Stay cozy and keep on cooking!

love,

your mom, mum, mommy, mummy, mumma (I wonder what you're going to call me, you canadian aussie baby you)

p.s. your dad thinks it's totally weird that I just wrote you a letter, oh well

my black apple doll and gender predictions

On Tuesday night I all of a sudden had an urge to be productive and make something. So what did I spend the next 2 hours making?

A doll.

Yup. Probably the least useful thing I could've made, and yet, it made me undeniably happy. I've said it before and I'll say it again - starting with a bunch of scraps and ending up with something pretty never ceases to amaze me. I followed this tutorial from Emily Martin of The Black Apple, and then added a cape and a mask based on this doll.

I did, of course, think about the baby growing in my belly and wonder whether this doll could be for him/her. I know you're not supposed to say this, but to be perfectly honest, I would LOVE to have a girl. All the names I like are girls names (and I can't think of any boys names!) and I'm just a pretty girly gal myself. Dolls, dress up, sewing... that's a language I speak! Both husband and I are convinced though, and have been from the start, that it's a boy. And we're not finding out; we I want the surprise :)

seasonal envy disorder

via

Being a blogger, and an expat living in a country where the seasons are reversed, I seem to suffer from seasonal envy pretty much all year. But it gets so much worse in December! Every time December rolls around I feel like Dylan Moran talking about Ireland and the war: "What? What? There's a what on? Oh really? What I'm not dressed... Oh, oh, it's all over... oh well!"

I blame it on the weather. I find it nearly impossible to get in the spirit, and you know... buy gifts, put up a tree, decorate, bake gingerbread cookies etc, when it's 35 degrees outside and I'm heading to the beach. Christmas in Australia is, to me, as out of place as an elephant in Antarctica.

I also happen to be a Christmas baby, so this is the one time of year where all my celebrations are packed into a 12 hour period. Yet, I find myself wishing I was home listening to Sufjan Stevens Christmas carols, baking with my mom and watching the snow fall. And your blogs are not helping ;)

The funny thing is that based on your comments, I know that you have a bit of the same envy when you visit this space. I so often hear: "I wish I could go for a swim right now!" or "I want to see the sun!" So I don't really have a solution, I just felt like rambling. I suppose the solution would be to embrace Australian Christmas/my birthday for all of its quirkiness and stop wishing I was somewhere else. All I can do is try...

red & green

I just realized while putting together photos for this post, that I unwittingly spent the weekend taking photos of red and green, wherever I found it. Must be my attempt at feeling festive during an Australian December. 

This weekend we stayed close to home, only leaving to go for swims. During one of those outings, husband's mum gave us this awesome advent calender. It really is the only sign of Christmas in our home, though I'm hoping to either put up some branches with decorations like this OR this fabric from Ikea. How are you celebrating the arrival of December?

heat wave

 

We're in the middle of our first heat wave of the summer, and I'm not coping. I'm grumpy and lethargic,  and all I want to do is lie under the air conditioner eating popsicles. Other attempts at cooling off include: closing all skylights and blinds so no sunlight gets in, eating watermelon, swimming, drinking ice water, and letting the whirring of the fans lull me to sleep.

Here's hoping the cool change arrives tonight!