Baby Quilt

... and a matching cushion too. I am really happy with the end result!

The pattern and quilting was very much inspired by this quilt - I fell in love with the zig zag lines. And I am saying inspired because I could never execute anything as amazingly as Rita. And while I am writing this odd Oscars thank you speech, may I say huge props go to my machine's trusty walking foot and thanks to my machine for not quitting on me and always believing in me. Well. Mostly.

The fabrics came mainly from scraps, except the lovely elephant fabric which I completely adore! I did not make the binding - I have lost my bias tape maker so popped into Amitie this afternoon to grab some binding there. It is very dangerous to live close to Amitie. I had to sit on the floor to rummage through the bias binding basket, and had difficulty getting up again, and I'm sure everyone in there thought I was going to go into labour clutching my bias tape and that my waters would break over all the lovely quilts. Now there's a scenario to have nightmares about.

I have been spending so much time at home resting and recovering and this was the perfect little project to keep me calm and trucking along on the machine. And what a glorious day today so I could photograph the quilt in the sunshine! I hope the baby will like her heirloom. She will probably say "but mum I want barbie sheets from Target". Bad luck dude, bad luck.

33 Weeks

I think the first picture says it all.

Top Marks from the style department. Please not the grey woollen socks stuffed into leggins, in turn stuck into (ill-fitting) hiking boots. All my shoes are now too small due to my feet being swollen and huge (and somehow also very flat). I can no longer fit into my maternity jeans because they hurt my belly (and I've become obsessed thinking they cut circulation off to the baby) so these days I look like a deranged gypsy. This outfit isn't actually so bad. You should have seen what I tried on before I found this dress in the wash. But this dress I ironed on a high setting and due to the high polyester content, it started burning slightly so now I am constantly smelling like burnt plastic. Pregnancy is very glamorous.

On Friday night we had to call am ambulance because I had pretty severe heart palpitations - I am used to having these, but they wouldn't ease up and I felt nauseous and shaky. I wanted husband to drive me to the emergency but he had a few beers while he was out and so it had to be the ambulance. If our private health cover fails it will have been the most expensive few beers he's ever had. Anyhow this week I have to have check ups and get this all investigated. We spent most of the weekend recovering from the late night on the couch. We came home on Saturday morning around 6am completely shattered.

blogged from finland

I am in love with THIS blog. I love all the colourful things they make for their house and their kids.

Yup I love it.

PS All images are from weekdaycarnival of course! 

Love = Pegboards and Bloggyworld

Now will you look at what this fabulous miss has sent in the mail for me. After days of blathering in a very boring way about my inability to find pegboard hooks on Twitter, I received a whole bag of them in the mail - plus the most gorgeous vintage fabric baby girl dress! I can't believe how generous fellow bloggy world friends are. I enthusiastically spent some hours hooking things to the pegboard and daydreaming about our baby girl playing in the grass wearing this supercute outfit.
And a lovely fellow Brown owl gave me this beautiful knitted baby hat.
Way to make a girl get emotional, ladies!

Thank you. x

PS: And in case you were wondering (I am sure you were not), the overlocker is still not playing nicely so I have put it in the naughty corner. The sewing machine is working again, though. Leading by example.

32 Weeks

What a Papa can do is quite amazing. He can make me fear incontinence when he makes me laugh, and he makes me laugh a lot. He can also put together shelves and drill holes into the wall and sort all his tools into a toolbox with great care. He can also be a great forklift when I am stuck in the bath. He can patiently stare at my stomach to catch a glimpse of a little foot (but never long enough so he misses out, all the time). 

He can make me tea and make me stay on the couch and pat my head when I am sobbing because I'm tired. He can also watch TV shows with dragons, dwarfs and medieval bosom ladies at a very annoying volume. He can make some very odd choices in reading material before childbirth - I mean, who would chose to read Orhan Pamuk and Cormack McCarthy 8 weeks before having a child... but that's just him. He has great hopes that you are a Timelord or that you will at least love watching Doctor Who with him and patiently listen to his explanations of how cricket works. Because I never do. We don't really mind if you are a Timelord or not but if you could somehow make time go quicker so we can meet you sooner we would appreciate it. 

Finished!

Fellow crafters who have seen my pitiful attempts at finishing the baby blanket of horror won't believe me but::: I finished this today. It's a cloud baby mobile made entirely from scrap fabric and felt, and two buttons, and some fishing wire. I think it's super cute. I stuck to fairly simple colours and lots of black and white because as a smart new mother who reads too many books on baby development, I know that babies can only really see black and white and some colours at the beginning. I hope she will like to look at this. The quilted change table cover is a UFO (unfinished object) that I found in a box. It has some very nice bamboo batting on the back so it can double up as a playmat. 

PS: I had a long chat to my sewing machine and after rethreading, cleaning, oiling and punching it 
it decided to play nicely again so it will not need to be taken in to the machine hospital. Thank you, machine. That does however not resolve the issue of the unthreadable overlocker of doom.

31 Weeks

1. Conversations in our house still go like this

"I am SO tired. I don't understand why I'm so tired."
"You're PREGNANT."
"Yes but why am I always so tired?"
"Because you're GROWING A HUMAN".
"Yes but I just don't understand why I'm so tired".

etc etc.

I still haven't quite figured it out yet. But it looks as though I have to slow things down a bit more, some days I'm ok and some days I'm just too tired to even go and get a glass of water. Coincidentally the baby is now moving more than ever, which is nice, but you know, at 3 in the morning I'd like her to be asleep, instead she is kicking me in the ribs as if to say "hey you boring lame peeps, entertain me". She is also digging her fingers into my sides, which feels really funny. Poke, poke.

2.This ginormous baby blanket will not finish itself. Just a note to self. Neither will the baby quilt, baby mobile, bassinet sheets and clothing. Cough. Cough.

3. From all my baby books I gather than my relationship will implode after the baby arrives - faster than I can say poopy nappy. I don't really think that's going to happen - after 10 years the boat isn't that easily rocked - but the dynamics will most certainly change. It's one of the things I've thought about the most in recent weeks. Just the fact that oddly this little creature is bonding us closer together than ever, and at the same we have to move apart to make room for her. So it's now pre-baby dating time and we are trying to get out for nice dinners, and I like getting nice native flowers occasionally, like these ones.

4. I do not understand how anyone can be of the opinion that having a baby does not require much preparation or thought. It does. And it's not that great when you can't remember any of the preparation necessary, let alone any thoughts. So I am making lists. They are everywhere. And still, I forget to take the lists to the shops, and then I stand there in Ikea, without a clue what I wanted there, and resolve the crisis by eating Ikea carrot cake and Applesinjus and staring into space. And kindly nod towards the other pregnany ladies who are also standing there with their carrot cakes staring into space, thinking exactly the same thoughts as me, I'm sure.

Favourite Bits

We have almost moved in and I am in complete crazy nesting mode. I just took these shots to learn how to adjust the ISO on our camera, but they turned out pretty nice I think!

Nursery Prints

Don't get me wrong, there is no nursery yet as such, there is a room which hosts spare mattresses, washing lines, and mountains of baby clothes (conveniently ALL in the same size - well done me!), as well as random items such as nasal extractors. Once we have some stuff that the baby actually needs in there, I am dreaming of putting all these prints on the walls.

I love Blanca Gomez and I need more of her prints! This one would be so cute in the baby room!

Cute whale print found on Etsy

Alphabet Print by Finkastudio on Etsy

Still want this Wayne Pate print.. a lot! 

Wintry

30 Weeks

It's all getting a bit too real... childbirth ed classes, getting things a ready as you can, chatting to other mums, ignoring most of the advice, learning to breathe with lungs at half their usual capacity... sleeping on a wedge pillow, eating magnesium supplements, feeling very tired and full of anticipation. Cramming as much time in together as we can, just the two of us, as it's been now for over 10 years. There's room for one more.

This week we put my iPhone on my belly while it was playing music and watched it being kicked from below.

I am a bit, no a lot, worried about going through the next months away from home. I'm sad to not be able to share them with close friends and family. It can feel completely overwhelming. But I'm just happy at the moment to be enjoying these last very precious weeks with my husband as we watch my belly grow.

I love my ring

I had to take my wedding ring off due to completely unreasonable swelling of my extremities. But I won't take this off. It is my most treasured material "thing". I wish I could go back in time and get engaged again. We had such a lovely time that winter and I was only slightly irritated when I had to pay a strange UPS man a lot of money for import tax on something he was delivering from the States in a small box. It just so happened that my now husband had bought this ring in the US, where he found it at an ethical jewelery place, and shipped it to my parents' place where we were spending time over Christmas. He told me it was a present from his mum, but I secretly suspected he had bought something expensive and electronic (and was secretly getting a bit mad about it). It also just so happened that I had frequently shown him pictures of all the kinds of rings I didn't like - I'm not one for large rocks and most definitely not one for unethically sourced stones, that was the most important part to me. I couldn't really love this any more if I tried.

We went to Paris on the train and I was a bit concerned that my husband was constantly touching his nether regions. Turns out he was just checking the ring was still in his pocked. ALL the time. We slid around a very icy and snowy Paris, got sick and then got engaged in the lovely hotel room while I was sipping some tea from a toothbrush holder cup. There was champagne hidden outside the window which we drank, all of it, and then slid around the square we lived on (which contains the grave of Monsieur Saint-Exupery, this was the best part) a bit tipsily until we found some place to eat. I'll never forget a second of it. I love looking at the pictures from that holiday.