It's nearly my birthday! Eek!

Last week almost felt like my birthday! 

My new sofas arrived! And I absolutely love them! They are from DFS and part of the beautiful French Connection range. 

My little munchkin Jessica looking so cute sat on the 4 seater and the 3 seater butted up strategically to the cupboard part of my dresser. 

Jessica is also being amazing! In the last couple of weeks she started crawling and is already sofa surfing! Yesterday she even stood unaided for about 2 seconds before she decked it! Bless her! 

Oh and she now says mum, mum and Dad, dad! Killer cute! 

I also went to one of my bridesmaids from my weddings' baby shower and I crocheted her a lovely baby blanket and gave her the cutest pair of baby ugg's that her own mum bought for me when I was expecting! 

I am also so close to getting my pre pregnancy figure back! This morning I was so excited I had to take a picture!  

I have been doing Juice Plus, and as you can see, the results are very encouraging! I'm also now a Juice Plus rep. I mean, why would I not want to help others get the results that they want!? 

I am now back in size 10 jeans and size 8 tops! I can't even explain how happy I am with it, just need some proper hot weather for crop tops! Which isn't that frequent when you live so close to the sea! The breeze is beautiful but not crop top beautiful! 

This week is the last week before I turn 29 and I have a wonderful wish list going...lots of beautiful vintage dresses and accessories and of course, a sun jellies tote! I need one so bad! I need one more than I need jelly shoes! 

I'm also crushing on Cry Baby this week! How could I not? Johnny Depp at his most heartbreakingly wonderful.... 

Here you go, here's a quick piccie of the beaut to keep you going.... 

I gave up my maternity clothes today...

So today I was having a lazy morning with my little family when I thought, what can I get rid of that won't take me a long time to do? 

I'd already recently gone through the items under my bed and the drawers in my bedroom and my clothes but I knew I had an entire suitcase of clothes under the bed that I hadn't looked at for a while. 

It had my maternity clothes in it! 

Looking at them is a real bittersweet feeling for me. Partly because I wore them when I was expecting our Angel Penelope, but also because I wore them when I was expecting our Rainbow Jessica and torn between hope and fear. 

I knew I had to get rid of it all though, it's right for the soul. 

All I kept was 1 tshirt with a sweet bump slogan that I bought when I was expecting Penelope and wore it this time around too ❤️ 

'Penelope' 

Even saying this I keep thinking maybe I should just go through the bag again, just invade, but honestly, once it's gone, does it really matter? It's just stuff!

The memories, the feelings, the people, whether they are here or not, that's what makes life full.

I felt, after Penelope, that with every small item I bought, it would make me feel better, but it didn't, it never did. And now, I'm having to declutter all of my hurt and grief all over again. I'm literally so relieved I'm doing it. 

What's better is that now I have my beautiful Jessica to keep me company. It's like she knows, at 7 months old, when I need a smile or a kiss from her. 

I love my girls ❤️❤️ family forever!!!! 

Family Sunday?

Sundays to me are a family day. And I adore them! 

The only thing that is a bit pants is that it is the last day of the weekend but it is so much better to be positive about this day! 

I love the lie ins (which I only have several left of before Jessica arrives) and the housework, cooking the other halves favourite meals and really making a fuss of him and making sure he is ready and relaxed for the week ahead. 

It's not a totally selfless task though, he is very helpful on Sundays doing a dump run almost every weekend while I have been trying to get the house ready for our little bundle of joy. 

I can really make an effort with dinners on Sundays, you always feel like you have more time to yourself. I never do a full roast as that isn't really 'my thing' though. Am I the only one that thinks that roast dinners are a lot of hassle for not enough enjoyment? You're always sick of looking at it by the time you sit down to eat it. 

I'm very much looking forward to tonight's dinner, spicy chicken (the technique unashamedly stolen) and handmade chips that gives the other half the excuse to get out his horrid deep fat fryer from the cupboard! And a lovely big salad for my plate!!!! 

It's also a day for me to take stock and think about my week ahead and the tasks that must be completed and any little projects I want to try and get completed. 

All of this could is a lot more difficult than usual. With a little wriggly monster using my skin as a Pilates band with her feet and the SPD restricting me from doing a lot, I have a lot against me. Luckily for me I have been in nesting mode for months so I have been very pro active doing the things that I need to get done. And those things that I physically cannot do I have had some amazing support and spare bodies around to save me from my frustration. 

I have so much to do next week already! I've painted the box to hold all the special bits to serve as a memory box for Jessica and I want to finish decorating that. I want to finish the crochet blanket I am making for her. I would love to make some little cafe curtains for the kitchen which should only take an hour to make, including measuring up and I'm desperate for a new battery for my watch too before I have Jessica. 

Add on top of this 6 months worth of filing which I have to do and I have also decided to completely re do my filing system, and my wedding folder that I need to reorganise which will all help me with my housewife duties once little Jessica is here! 

I love Sundays, they always make me feel so good about the week ahead and give me and my other half a real chance to catch up and plan what we need to do the following week and this week we have a midwife appointment where I can grill her over my induction and a friends wedding reception to attend so I need to start fighting out what to wear!!!

What's your favourite thing about Sundays? I'd love to know! 

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Crafting

Furniture Painting for the Nursery

So, it feels like quite a while ago that I acquired a lovely large piece of furniture destined to be turned into the changing unit for my baby (due in 2 weeks- eek!). 

It was originally in good solid condition but in desperate need of repainting. Especially as it didn't quite work with my colour scheme that I had in mind for the room. 

I had planned to have quite a vintage feel to the room with bursts of colour where I could also. In my mind I am still not convinced that I have achieved it but working to a budget it is quite difficult so I am proud of my efforts to date!  

I wanted four colours all in one room which consisted of yellow, pink, blue and green. I have painted all the walls yellow, the changing unit is pink with blue drawer  fronts and cupboard doors, the nursing chair is pink but I have come to a point where I am to fit a green into the scheme apart from the curtains and the carpet that already existed in the room. Do you think this us enough or shall I add it change something? 

The cot will remain white and the crib will stay unpainted, along with the chest of drawers and single bed which belongs to the landlord. 

Finished nursery photos to follow hopefully very soon!! 

Xxx

In need of sleep......!

Gestation. 34 weeks pregnant. 

Why is it when you are pregnant, everyone spends the time reminding you that this is your last opportunity to get any sleep and that you need your rest because 'when baby arrives, you won't get any sleep at all...'. Yeah, apart from the amount of hormones coursing through your body permit that from quite early on in pregnancy! 

Add on top of that the need to pee constantly, being woken by the most wonderful kicks, the odd dreams and horrific nightmares you experience and sleep is a distant known luxury, one you won't reclaim for yourself again for a long time to come. 

As for resting, how do you rest when there is always so much to do? I admit I have made it a particularly arduous mountain to climb as I have spent my whole pregnancy spring cleaning, throwing so much out, just to replace it with new, meaning my ever tolerant other half has done a dump run almost every week for the last 8 weeks so far. 

I have also had my living room, bedroom and nursery all repainted. I have employed the assistance of a dog trainer to help prepare my beautiful boy for the change in his life. I have cleared the garden and made it pretty with lovely flowers, nurturing the bees nest I have tucked away in the lower eaves of my house. 

I'm 2 weeks away from being induced now and now is the time for that last little push to get things done. 

I have just started to organise the items in the nursery now that has been painted, I need to sort my bags for hospital and ensure the rest of the house is ready. Sort the household filing, tidy away all my craft items and finish the crochet blanket for my little girls pram. 

I also think nerves are setting in a tad too around the birth. We hopefully find out the date that we are going to get booked in for our early induction this afternoon. Please keep everything crossed that it is a good date and we don't get put off again.....! 

Xxx

Hooking Mad!

It's been a week since I first picked up a crochet hook and now I can't put it down. 

I started small with some rows and started to try a little flower which surprisingly turned out very well! I found the YouTube tutorial soooo easy! I did have to start again twice as I kept getting a tad confused at the beginning but after it clicked, that was it! I was well and truly hooked and managed to make my first flower! 

This is the video I used to make it on YouTube. 

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dQeq7Hci_qU 

I then posted on the 'Sewfie Crochet Talk' group page on Facebook and shared my little flower and received so much lovely support and encouragement! I mentioned that I really wanted to try doing a granny square and I was told to just go and do it. 

So after watching another couple of YouTube videos, none of which I found entirely helpful on their own, I used two or three to get a general understanding of the pattern, I completed my first granny square in under 2 hours and here it is! 

Now a week later I have decided my first simple project should be a baby blanket for my little Princess due in July and now have this little stack going on! 

And now this morning, I have been awake an hour and already half way through another square which will be number 8! 

It is truly addictive! I find myself waking up early to pick up my hook and yarn to make even more squares! And the best thing about all this that makes it much more satisfying? 

My nana would be proud of me!!!! 

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Overwhelming frustrations because of the weather?!?!?!

This weekend is turning into a glorious first spring weekend out lovely little UK is experiencing of the whole year, and all I want to do is cry!

I love spring cleaning but my house is in a state of complete upheaval! 

Firstly, I decided I wanted to paint my house, so I got my wonderful mother and step father over to help me paint my mammoth living room with its glorious double height cielings and open landing which I utterly adore but turns out you need some very long ladders and nerves of steel to paint that high up (cue said wonderful step dad!). 

Then we had ALL this lovely rain we've all experienced and my house decided it was thirsty and every weak spot that it had was affected, the rain fall was so much so that a normal build house could physically not withstand the volume of rain we were having. Considering this though, we are lucky and still have a home when so many people were rendered homeless after the rain we had! 

Then I discovered mouldy spores on the inside of my wardrobe, where all my clothes are! Luckily all my vintage gems were untouched and yanked out in enough time, I think I've probably lost one white pair of jeans but I'm not emotionally attached to them so they can be easily replaced. But I need to do something with the inside of the wardrobe before I can put my clothes back in and they all need rewashing before too so my mum has promised to come over to help me paint mould stop paint on the inside of the wardrobe and has even offered to wash all my clothes again for me so I don't have to lug it all to a launderette myself. 

The same also needs doing downstairs in the nursery but until my living room is finished, I can't move my things from the living room, out of the nursery to be able to get into the wardrobe to paint it. 

Not only all of that but I also now need to baby proof my home so selling a lot of my excess lovely pieces is now necessary. I want less clutter so it takes me a lot less time to dust everything when I will also have a baby to care for. 

Today is a perfect day to do all of that and nothing can be done until next weekend now...... Apart from maybe a dump run with things I know I don't want and I know I won't sell.....

Now to wake the Mr up.............

Second Trimester Niggles

I don't really know why everyone says that the second trimester is 'plain sailing'? 

In comparison to the first trimester sickness and the third trimester indigestion and heartburn I can kind of see why it is the lesser of all three evils BUT I kid you not when I say the second trimester brings with it it's own trials and tribulations! 

I am no longer throwing up multiple times a day but I am suffering with relatively severe SPD, chronic daily headaches, exhaustion and a new one for this week again......crying!!!!!!!! 

I feel like a bag of nerves! 

I come into work to 'discover' my chair has left me for for a slimmer owner, and my cool and collected reaction was to slam my bag on my desk and hurl my coat under my desk. Then I turn round, grab the spare behind me and crack on with my day feeling very aware of my mild over reaction. 

I have felt so confused at work that I am second guessing myself and when proof reading and checking work I am making sure that I'm not being over zealous or too flippant. 

The stress of the simplest of things like adding a new printer is just beyond me and has me flying out of the office in an over emotional blubbering state. 

I don't know what's happened to me! I was so calm, blissfully happy and relaxed and now I am tearful, scared to say or do the wrong thing, or even stick up for myself! I want me back from 2 weeks ago. I can't deal with people as a general thing, I have a short list of my lovelies that have a mutual understanding of my sensitivities and know exactly how to cheer me up or keep me on at least a level playing field, and for those I am eternal grateful for. 

The best thing about the second trimester is when you start to feel your precious bundle wriggling and squirming around inside you! For first pregnancies that is unfortunately a few weeks after consecutive pregnancies BUT every wriggle, every kick, every delicious tumble is what reminds me that I am an incredibly strong person! 

I have done all this before, and please don't tell me it will all be worth it in the end, that's what they said last time and I never got to bring my Penelope home, never got to change her bum, feed her, dress her in the prettiest dresses. But I have waited and fallen again and been blessed with my ray of sunshine from my beautiful angel as a Christmas gift! And I am doing all of this all over again! I have to feel the gentle kicks of my second daughter knowing she will never meet her big sister! 

This is my pregnancy and I will be putting myself and my little girl first, over and above everything else in life. 

My rules. My Princess. ❤️ 

I feel old but like I have witnessed a true revelation....

Airbrushing. 

On my phone. 

It means that you can be utterly vain and present yourself as the person you wished you could be. 

Only problem is, I need this to be more of a reality. I'm getting married later this year! 

I suffer with awful acne, have done since I was 13 and now I'm almost 28! I used to be on medication to 'try' and control it but as a pregnant woman, the risk of the harsh acne treatments is not worth the risk to the baby. 

So, aswell as inevitably getting fat and gross, I have very painful SPD so any kind of managing the house for my hard working other half is difficult, and I have this acne to try and get over too! 

Time after baby will be washing my face at least as showering daily might be difficult and throwing on some jeans and the baby in the sling and the dog on his lead and going for lovely brisk walks in the shade together. I'll have 5 months to fix my face and make sure I'm conditioned enough to get in the beautiful wedding dress I have chosen. 

I hope you'll all be there to support me in my journey and offer some fab tips for me to test out. 

Love Fi xxx

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My lovely airbrushed photo...........