Sitter

Well it certainly has been a while! But I've been feeling some crafty inspiration lately so here, hopefully, is the start of a few more posts :)

The recent spate of television programmes about hoarders have got me thinking a bit about my stash of "useful" bits and bobs. It's certainly not a hoard on the scale of anything featured on the tv programmes I've been watching, but there were one or two things I identified with. Particularly the idea of keeping things that could be useful one day! As a case in point, I've been hanging on to an old broken shopping bag for ages thinking I would either repair it or re-purpose it in some way. One day......

Well today I finally decided to seize the day, and here are the results!

Firstly, I took the bag apart and got rid of any ripped or broken bits:

Then I cut up some wadding to be slightly smaller than the bag. I used 6 layers but my wadding was quite thin.

To make the sitter water proof I put the wadding inside a thick bin bag and then used gaffer tape the seal it up.

I used my sewing machine set to a long stitch to sew up the two sides of the bag to make a pocket, then put the wadding inside. Then I sewed along the top of the bag, keeping the handles out of the way.

To neaten the edges I used the left over fabric from the bag side gussets to bind the edges. I could have used ribbon or bias binding. I stitched it right sides together to the edge of the bag at the front.

Then flipped the bindings over and hand stitched them down on the back. A thimble and strong needle and thread were needed here.

All this took about half an hour, and now Lily has a waterproof sitter for picnics in the garden. Now all we need is some Sun!

Project Life 2012 Day 16 - Dreams

1/16 Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
Use today's photo to document a dream YOU have for the future-- for yourself, your family, your children, your country or your world.

Well, where to start? There are so many dreams I have for the future, especially for Lily. I am sure I am similar to many other mummies when I say that my main dream is for her to be happy and healthy through whatever path she chooses in life. However that's not easy to capture in a photo!

I was out and about this morning and passed the Royal Berkshire Hospital, where Lily was born. The hospital was built originally in 1839 and some of the early buildings (like the main frontage I took this rather bad picture of) are now grade II listed. It has also cared for some famous people, such as Douglas Bader and more recently Mrs Carole Middleton through the birth of her two daughters Catherine and Pippa! Maybe Lily will be lucky enough to marry a Prince one day as well?

Project Life 2012 Day 15 - Worship

1/15 National Religious Freedom Day
A perfect time to document your place or form of worship.

I'm not particularly a follower of any religion, but I guess I am one of those people who puts down C of E on their census form rather than put nothing. To me it seems a bit sad that it would be left completely blank!

So today's challenge was a bit tricky to me. There is a church I go to from time to time, but I'm not sure I would call it my "place of worship". To me that suggests a level of commitment that I'm not sure I'm ready for. Having said that, this church has been part of my life in many ways since I was very little so, although it's not featuring in today's entry, I am sure it will at some point in this project.

Instead I've chosen to use another one of yesterday's photos. I picked this one because it is to do with worship (being on the side of the church from yesterday's adventure) but also demonstrates my love of science and shows how the two can sometimes work together.

Project Life 2012 Day 14 - Walk

Didn't really go for today's prompt so I decided.....

....just to include this picture I took during an impromptu photography lesson with Steve!

This was taken on a sunny winter's afternoon so the sun was bright but low in the sky. Lovely conditions for a walk, not so easy for a photograph.

The picture was taken in the grounds of St. Andrew's Church in Sonning. I have a strange fascination with graveyards. I think it's the little snippets of information you get about people that leave you wondering about their story. Why was this grave marked with such a beautiful statue when there were others only marked with a plain stone or not at all?

Project Life 2012 Day 13 - Superstition

1/13 Uhh Oh! It's Friday the 13th! Document any "bad luck" you had today due to the un-luckyness of the date. If nothing bad happens, take a photo that represents a superstition that you hold.

I'm not generally an unlucky person (which I'm sure, obviously, is due to my naturally positive outlook on life!) so the only bad luck I experienced today came in the form of a cheeky toddler who stole my lunchtime apple!

Life could be a lot worse!!

Project Life 2012 Day 12 - Morning Drink

1/12 January is National Hot Tea Month Take a photo of your morning pick-me-up. Is it tea, coffee, 5hr Energy, or chocolate milk?

I always need rehydration in the mornings, before caffeine. And to be honest I drink enough caffeine at work without needing it at home as well! So here it is - Redbush Tea with Vanilla.

Incidently, this is my favourite mug. Not just for the witty (and pretty true) little slogan on it, but it is one of those mugs that just feels right. Not too chunky, not too thin, just the right size. In fact, I might have to go and buy another one just in case this one gets broken as I'm pretty sure I'll never find another mug that quite lives up to this one!

Project Life 2012 Day 11 - Derek

1/11 National Blame Someone Else Day Take a photo of something in your home that you, personally, take NO responsibility for, like the stuffed dear head in the dining room or the neon beer signs in SO's office or the ugly wallpaper in the hallway. Make sure to note who IS responsible.

This is Derek. He is Steve's friend and has lodged with us since we moved into our first house 10 years ago!

Project Life 2012 Day 10 - Every Day

1/10 Take a photo of something you use every single day without fail. It could be your car, your phone, your hairbrush or whatever.

Just before Christmas 2009 I had my heart set on getting myself an Ipod Touch, but just couldn't really justify spending the money on myself so I decided to wait and see if I had a little bit of Christmas money or vouchers to put towards it. Lucky lady that I am, my lovely husband bought me one for Christmas (and not to show off too much, it was hiding inside a Radley handbag!).

Two weeks later I found out I was pregnant and my ipod became a bit of a lifeline through pregnancy insomnia, waiting for appointments, then keeping in touch when I was on maternity leave and keeping me awake through night feeds in the early weeks. Aside from that it makes a great torch and handy distraction tool for nappy changing.

It's pretty rare I go as far as to say something's changed my life, but where my ipod is concerned I really would go that far! It's changed the way I keep in touch with people, and once in a while I even use it to listen to music!

Project Life 2012 Day 9 - Desk

1/9 National Clean Off Your Desk Day

This isn't so much about cleaning our desk, but more about why you should not let a toddler loose near a desk, clean or otherwise!

Project Life 2012 Day 8 - Bathroom

1/8 National Bubble Bath Day
Take a photo of your bathroom.

Well, this isn't our whole bathroom, but it is a little insight. This is the windowsill in our bathroom and as you can see it's mainly covered with girl stuff! Mind you, as we outnumber the male in our house by 2 to 1 I suppose that's a fair division. Steve would probably argue that this is a marker for the rest of the house, but I am not so sure!

You might notice a profusion of Body Shop products, which is a good in-road to shamelessly plug my little business as a Consultant for The Body Shop at Home. If you want to see what I'm up to you can like me on Facebook for my latest updates.

Project Life 2012 Day 7 - Weather

Jan 7 -- Take a pic of your thermometer, snowbanks, or a screen-shot of your weather forecast.

Well that was easy! Today has been a typically mild day for this winter so far. In some respects I'm not sorry there's been no snow yet this year, but it is fun when it happens. You'll also note we need to buy some petrol!

Project Life 2012 Day 6 - Self-Portrait 1

Jan 6 -- is time for your first self-portrait of the year.

This got me thinking a bit about my "self". When Lily was first born, she was almost as much part of my "self" as I was. Although I've had close relationships with family and friends over the years, nothing quite prepared me for the all-consuming nature of the mum and baby relationship. It was totally new to me to be that physically and emotionally close to one person for so much of my time. Even within the last 15 months that bond has changed and developed as she's become older and more independent. But for the moment I can't quite imagine a self-portrait that doesn't include her.

Project Life 2012 Day 5 - Crafting Goal

Jan 5-- Take a photo of one of your crafting goals for the year.

I am constantly trying to get my stuff organised. Ever since owning "stuff" of my own I've found it gets everywhere and lots of it never has a permanent home. Finally, when we moved to our current house in 2010 I had, at last, a home for my all my craft stuff. Admittedly it's in the downstairs toilet, but we all have to start somewhere, right?

Now that it has a home, it just needs sorting (again!) and storing in a slightly more usable fashion than the current "piling" approach. I know where everything is but it doesn't exactly allow for easy access! I'm thinking some sort of Ikea shelving/storage solution may be in order. And with only 139 days until my birthday I better get planning!

Project Life 2012 Day 4 - New Toy

Jan 4-- Take a photo of someone in your house playing with a new "toy".

Slight cheat today, on two counts: I didn't take the picture and it's not strictly new, or a toy! But it was a good photo so shame to waste it!

Obviously once she's settled into her new office I'll be completing a DSE Assessment for her!

Project Life 2012 Day 3 - Packing Away

Jan 3-- is time to take down the holiday decorations. Take a photo of all decor getting packed up & put away.

Please forgive the Americanisation there!

So today I actually decided to go for two photos.

First of all.....naked tree! Poor little thing has had all of its decs removed and is now sitting out rather sadly in the rain waiting for green waste recycling day next week.

My second picture is like saying goodbye to an old friend. I bought this little tree for Steve as a pre-Christmnas present in about 1998 and made him an advent calendar where each day's gift was another decoration. It's seen us through about 10 Christmasses before we finally pensioned it off last year in favour of a real tree. Our love of real trees is definitely here to stay so we've now said goodbye to the old plastic tree. As you can see it's from a very exclusive shop and was very pricey(!) If my calculations and dates are right, I think that means it cost us about 50p per Christmas. Maybe I am starting to remember the benefits of fake trees over real ones after all....!

Project Life 2012 Day 2 - Resolutions

Well, I've managed to keep this up for two days - not bad so far!

Jan 2-- needs a New Year Resolution photo. Take a pic of something you want to change & let it serve as a "before".

Today's prompt was a tough one for me. I rarely make resolutions because when I do make them I rarely keep them. I suppose it's a self-defence mechanism to save myself from the inevitable feeling of failure. But after much hard thought I have made two this year. The first I am doing right now, keeping up my blog. The second....

Our lovely Beetle has been languishing in the garage since we moved house in June 2010. He's a fabulous old car and is really my pride and joy, but being stuck in a garage with two other vehicles in front means he doesn't often see the light of day any more. So I am going to resolve to take him out more often. Just the small matter of an MOT to get through. We've not encountered any major MOT issues in the last 7 years so fingers crossed for this one!

Project Life 2012 Day 1 - Bags

Well it's been a while, hasn't it? I've been a bit of a lazy blogger over the last few months, thinking of things to post but never quite committing fingers to keyboard! I have resolved to try and improve matters in this respect and I've enlisted some help.... Whilst browsing Facebook the other day I spotted a link to this thread on the Two Peas in a Bucket forum. I've always fancied having a go at a photo a day project of some sort so this has been my inspiration. My track record at completing these things is not great but we'll see how we go!

Prompt 1: Jan 1-- is First Foot Day. Take a photo of the first person to come visit you this year.

OK, so first confession: I failed on the very first day. I was more interested in entertaining our guest that taking a picture of her. So here, instead, is a picture of the lovely bag she bought me for Christmas.

Emma did mention when she handed me the gift that she'd not been sure what to get me this year, but she knows me well enough to know a she can never fail with a bag!

Rollercoaster of life

I'm not really a cliche user if I can avoid it, but I've got to say this last week definitely comes into the category of "Rollercoaster of Emotions".

Last Monday was my first day back at work after 10 months of maternity leave. For weeks I've been swinging between dreading it and looking forward to it (although, to be honest, dreading it was more common!). I wasn't scared of not remembering what to do (not sure I knew in the first place!) or feeling out of touch with my colleagues (as I've managed to keep up with them via pub lunches, facebook and the odd email here and there) but I was just so nervous about leaving Lily with anyone else. I realised that for her whole life the longest time we had spent apart was about 4 hours - what a scary thought.

We are very fortunate to have found a fantastic childminder and my equally fantastic mum has also offered to spend some time looking after Lily, but that didn't stop my (another cliche coming...) feeling of a heavy heart when Monday morning finally rolled round and the time actually came to part with her for the day. I think the thing that hurt the most was not being able to explain what was going on. She's a bright 9 month old, but not quite that bright yet! Although she'd met Michelle a few times before, she definitely looked a bit confused when I left :(

I found the best way to cope was just to keep busy at work and being the first day back there was plenty to do. The wheels of administration grind very slowly where I work (sorry, another cliche!) so there were plenty of phone calls to make and people to chat to. The day passed surprisingly quickly and I was really pleased to collect Lily in the evening and hear about what a good day she'd had. Although we only had a couple of hours together in the evening before bed, I found myself making the most of that time trying to find out how she felt about her first whole day away from me. I did feel a sense of relief that she still appeared to be talking to me!

The rest of the week passed off similarly and I could see Lily's confidence at being without me growing even in the space of a few short days. Part of me feels sad that she can manage without me, but of course it is better for her development to interact with others.

I think being away during the week makes you savour what time you do have together and make the most of the small moments that might otherwise pass off un-noticed. This weekend, for example, has been a busy one, but the most fun was had this afternoon A walk to the local shop for an ice cream:



Followed by Lily's first ever go on the swings in the local park:



Oh yeah and I had to have a go too:



Then back home for a splash in the paddling pool and a home grown strawberry as a snack! It's amazing how much fun you can have so close to home. Hopefully next week will be even better than last week ready for more fun and games next weekend!

10 Things on the 10th

1. The issue of Mollie Makes I am still reading. Must get on to issue 2 soon!

2. Consecutive dunkings Lily managed at swimming today. And no tears :)

3. Ribs in the bag of starters with our Chinese tonight. So how come I only got one?

4. Dads who made it to Dads and Babies Rhymetime last month. Will there be more tomorrow?

5. Numbers that would do on the lottery tomorrow. I am not greedy...

6. Unfinished craft projects in the living room. This obviously does not include those in the bedroom, spare room or utility room.

7. Solid hours for which Lily slept last night. Can she do the same again tonight....?

8. Minutes by which I missed the Sainsbury's delivery man today. On the plus side, when he came back we had a good chat about VW campers.

9. Whole days left until I return to work (booooo!).

10. Things. On the 10th of the month. Will I keep this up? Who knows but it was fun today.

My, Haven't We Grown!

Today we had the mums and babies from our NCT Group over to us for our regular weekly meet up and it really struck me how much we've all grown!

When we first found out we were expecting Lily we really had no idea what to expect! One of the things I was keen on from the start was attending some ante-natal classes to hopefully prepare us a little for what was to come. Various friends had recommended the NCT classes so we signed up and were booked on to some sessions during August 2010. I remember before the first class feeling quite nervous, partly because this made the impending birth seem rather more, well, impending, than it had. I was also quite nervous about being thrown into this group of people with whom we only had one thing in common - babies!

As it turns out, I needn't have worried. Ever since those classes almost a year ago, we have met almost every week and shared our many different experiences of early parenthood. As our babies have grown I think we've also grown from that group of acquaintances with only our big tummies in common to a group of friends with all sorts in common (particularly our love of tea and cakes!).

I have always been quite an independent soul, not really feeling the need to rely on others for support, but I have been amazed at the comfort we have offered each other. Just being able to meet up with mums at the same stage has been fantastically re-assuring, knowing that we are all going through similar issues, being able to share ideas and learn from each other. When joining this kind of group, you never know who you might end up with (!) but feel so lucky that we are all so supportive and non-judgemental of each other. We all have different parenting styles and different ideas but we all seem to get along fabulously well and respect each other's ways while offering each other gentle encouragement and guidance when things aren't going so well.

Other than the obvious, one of the things that's upset me most about my imminent return to work was the thought of losing touch with my NCT group. It is so easy when circumstances change to let contacts slip and before you know it a week, a month, a year has gone by and contact is lost. So I was really relieved today when we started talking about this and resolved to continue to make the effort to meet up, even if it's not all together every time and even if it's not every week. In these kind of situations it's easy to make hollow promises, but I have a good feeling that we will all make the effort to make it work. I truly hope so. Vicky, Vicky, Heidi, Katherine, Emma, Joe, Luke, Tom, Doug and William, you have all helped Lily and I far more than you could ever know over the last 8 months. Thank you xxx