my creative space: my go-to baby gift

There was such a long stretch there where I never posted anything crafty. My fabrics were in storage, my sewing machine gathered dust and I never got beyond flipping through my beloved craft books. I'm so happy to be making again - finding pockets of time here and there to make things for myself, my home, my friends, and my tiny squirmy baby.

This post is giving me some major déja vu; I've made these baby booties several times now and posted about them here and here. They're just such a perfect gift for a new baby - pretty simple to make, oh so cute, and who doesn't love baby feet wrapped in flannel?

This time I decided to be super efficient and make one pair for my husband's cousin's new baby (got that?) and one pair for my baby. The pattern is from Anna Maria Horner's book Handmade Beginnings, and all the fabric came from my scrap bin. But my favourite part? Well that was choosing the buttons of course! I love buttons, and since I'm yet to conquer my fear of sewing button holes, any project requiring buttons without the hassle of corresponding holes is right up my alley. I picked up both these pairs last time I popped into All Buttons in Newtown. That place is my favourite.

p.s. linking up here today

popsicles for a hot day

Have you heard? We're expecting a high of 43 degrees today in Sydney. I stepped out earlier to buy something from the chemist - my one and only outing for the day - and it felt like being hit by a brick wall of heat. It reminded me of Darwin. Whenever it's this hot and humid I always feel as though we should be trying to eat the air, rather than breathe it.

Other than staying inside as much as possible, days like today call for ice water, salads for dinner (in anticipation of the heat, I made pasta salad yesterday for tonight's evening meal), and popsicles, obviously.

I made these by blending about 1 cup of natural full fat yoghurt with 1.5 bananas and a tablespoon or so of honey. I separated that into 2 bowls, throwing mixed berries into one and roughly chopped frozen peaches into the other. I filled up my popsicles moulds, popped them into the freezer last night and voila! An icy cool treat to carry me through today.

Stay cool (and SAFE) my Aussie friends!

p.s. another, more exact, popsicle recipe is here

self-care (isn't selfish)

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So far, I've had a fairly cruisy pregnancy, for which I am so grateful. Nevertheless, I don't think growing a human is easy on anyone's body and I'm recognizing the need to take care of myself more and more. 

For the last few months I've been seeing my chiropractor once or twice a week, getting a massage about once a month, going to yoga whenever I can (and not beating myself up about it when I just can't be bothered to leave the house), and taking lots of naps. I even treated myself to a blissful facial at my friend's spa. And you know what? I feel better. Not quite the emotionally stable adult I once was, but getting there. I also think that by taking care of my body, I'm setting myself up for the best possible chance of having the natural birth that I'm planning, and being a good mom to my baby.

I wanted to write this because I think we could all use the reminder to take better care of ourselves and our bodies, pregnant or not. We seem to think that it's selfish or indulgent to have a nap, get a massage, or simply put our feet up for an hour. But it's not, we only have this one body so we may as well take care of it.

p.s. have you read the post 55 gentle ways to take care of yourself when you're busy busy busy? It's great!

2013

New Year's Eve last year found the husband and I having a few too many drinks at a house party in Christchurch, NZ. This New Year's Eve we watched the 9pm fireworks and fell asleep well before midnight. Seriously. It's amazing how much can change in a year!

Maybe it was because I woke up without a hangover, or maybe it had to do with waking up to a clean house, but I have been feeling pretty inspired and motivated. I love how a new year can do that. Most of my goals have to do with my translation business, so I won't bore you with those... The only other two things I really want to accomplish this year are: surviving the first few months of parenthood, and paying more attention to my kitchen. I.e. getting back into menu planning, not going to the grocery store every damn day, buying produce at the farmers market, being mindful of how much we spend, cooking more foods from scratch and drinking more green smoothies. To that end, I continue to save (and save, and save) for my dream vitamix, and a friend and I have signed up for Heather's Whole Food Kitchen online workshop.

Finally, it was hard to whittle down (I especially wanted to include all of my posts from Vancouver),  but here are 6 of my favourite posts from 2012:

New Zealand: Part 1
A letter (to my dog)
Sunday is my favourite
The end of missing someone
Surprise!
My black apple doll and gender predictions

my creative space: christmas mittens

 This Christmas I didn't get around to making many gifts, so I was pleased when I whipped up these re-purposed mittens for a friend of mine. Luckily, she was about to go New York which means that she'll actually get to use them, because otherwise, getting mittens in the middle of an Australian summer is pretty lame.

But back to the project - the mittens are made using an old sweater and they come together quickly so they're the perfect last-minute gift. That said, it took me 2 pairs to get these right. I made the first pair using instructions found in The Crafty Minx. Most of the projects in that book are seriously great, but this one is a dud. Naturally, I turned to the internet and used this tutorial from A Beautiful Mess. They turned out great, if I do say so myself!

linking up here today

festivities

Whew, I'm finally getting around to posting about our christmas/birthday/new year's week. It was busy; there were parties, gifts to unwrap, christmas lunch with family, and best of all, breakfast in bed on my birthday. I also managed to score numbers 1 and 6 from my wish list (thanks husband). I was a bit homesick this birthday/christmas (maybe I should starting calling it my birthmas, does that work?) so I skyped with my family a lot and took it easy with husband. 

The taking it easy was actually my favourite part. Hanging out at home after the festivities, playing with our new toys and pottering around. I've had a lot of free time to read and have gotten through: Mother Rising, Shakespeare by Bill Bryson, The Bean Trees, The Philosopher and the Wolf and I'm currently reading Cloudstreet. The Philosopher and the Wolf was my favourite, hands down. I hope you all had wonderful, relaxing holidays!

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