time to enjoy

Now on maternity leave from work I have moved to be with David (Mr V) in Essex. Home sweet home. I am undergoing a thorough life laundry - it's cathartic, and quite tiring. I have mobility challenges due to BUMP.
8 weeks to go now, during which I have Christmas to contend with. I love Christmas, making cards and buying and wrapping gifts., and while I am not at work I can really indulge my craft tendencies - brilliant.

I have also made a start on the long awaited Quilt. I did all the design and working out ages ago but the actual making (the good bit) got seriously delayed, due to my boring sickness, which has now, I am glad to say, subsided.

back in the land of the living

finally I have my life back, just a little bit. The constant nausea and daily sickness has given way to occasional nausea, with the help of some drugs.

I never thought I'd be one of those sickly pregnant women. it's very horrible.

I have flown past 20 weeks in a blur, and here I've put a couple of pictures.
No progress on the quilt. My life has been mostly work, rest and surviving the journey to and from Essex. hence the lack of posting. I did bake some cakes at the weekend. woo hoo! oh and my excited sister came to visit and we combed through the sacks of baby paraphernalia that she brought with her. Well loved baby grows, cute hand knits, and a variety of crinkly toys. Now it's all sitting in the spare room waiting for someone to play with.

D is being very very good, and cooked all weekend and did the washing up. I'm so lucky. I'm really counting the weeks until I can say goodbye to Cornwall and work and start being full time at home.

re - worked

I re - worked the quilt design. scaled it down and put a white design in the blank area, to see how it looks. I don't want to lose the design by putting too much pattern in. I quite like it.

new fabric woo hoo

after a bit of confusion with delivery I finally got the fabric for the quilt.
and got to work planning my design straight away. thought i'd cheat and do it on the computer first to check it looks OK before i cut the shapes... is that cheating? maybe - it just makes sense to me. didn't take long either.


I'm not sure if i should make the pinwheels smaller, and might change the border colour.

doting auntie

I went trawling round all the finest Charity shops this weekend to get some toys for my Nephew. Since he and his mum are flying down to see me later this month, some amusement will be required when they arrive.

got quite a haul, a quick lick with the dettol wipes and they are good as new.

something to get excited about

Since the birth of my nephew 18 months ago, I have been very proud of myself for making him a little baby quilt, which has reportedly been very useful, and I hope will be a treasured childhood momento for years to come. The thought of having my own baby has given rise to much excited and enthusiastic daydreaming about a new quilt project.

I have done no sewing since January, I was so down and miserable at the end of last year, that I decided to give it up for a while, because I was turning it into a chore, rather than a pleasure.

now it's summer, I'm feeling better and I have a big reason to get stuck back in again. At Christmas I got a book from my Auntie, called Material Obsession, it is the most scrummy gorgeous book of quilt ideas ever. I defy anyone to not get inspired.


So I did a bit of online scouring for the greatest 'unisex' colourscheme and fabrics for the wonder-quilt. I found this great shop called Ray-Stitch they don't have vast collections, but what they do have is lovely, and also some organic stuff, which I am a big fan of.
they had a summer discount offer, so I went a bit mad and bought 3 bundles of fat quarters. can't wait to get them in my grubby little mits.


The wools are what Mum has got for her crochet project. Except not the Mint coloured one, I though that would be a bit yuk, so went with the brown and natural colours.
so excited.

grandma

I keep looking at the scan pictures, and D laughs at me - “they'e not going to change” I don't care because I think it's facinating.

Still feeling sick.

my due date is 1st Jan. this is not considered ideal by D. I quite fancy a 25th December baby. It was my Grandmas birthday, so I think it would be sweet. Not sure I'd want to take her name though, it was Clarice lillian I think. Not loving those names, maybe they will grow on me..

an excuse to put a picture of Grandma here, on her 90th Birthday, 2003.

first scan

A whole month has passed, and not much has happened really. I have been nauseously taking each day as it comes. Everyone says it will get better after 12 weeks, I'm 11 now, so - fingers crossed. I don't think I've prayed so hard for something in my life!

Today Mr V and I went to have a scan, he will miss my scan in Cornwall next week, so I booked one in a local babyscan shop. Really cool, baby was posing nicely in perfect baby shape. Now it's really much more real. Up to now I've just felt ill for no apparent reason.

sick

I am already having guilt feelings about my blog - and barely just got back up and running, how sad.
my news is meagre these days - and I feel I have little of interest to share, unless you want to know the minutiae of my grind through this all day morning sickness. It's dull, and much like having an old auntie drone on about her ailments, of little or no interest to others. Besides that, nobody can do anything to help.

My activity levels are seriously reduced as well, hence further lack of news, as I don't really do much these days.

dull dull dull. hurry up and get better I say.

making choices

I withraw from my flat purchase this week. I hade been about to buy a lovely 2 bed victorian flat, a bit of a project, but right in Falmouth, and just perfect to make a little home here. I'm quietly gutted about it's loss, as I had been so looking forward to moving out of my 'room' and having a door of my own. But you can't have it all. I console myself with thoughts of being with Mr V, and having a family.

and so it begins

I have barely had a chance to get used to the idea of having a baby, and planning alll the lovely things I am going to make, when the sickness hits me like a brick. Coupled with a rotten cold I am wretched and bed ridden for a week.

this is not good.

I pray for relief. try every remedy.

nothing.

revelation

I had a reflexology session at the weekend, I love reflexology, a nice lady called Amanda comes to my house, puts on some relaxing music and gives me a foot massage. She'll read my feet, if any part is sensitive, she'll be able to determine which part of the body it corresponds to – I love that. So after my first session a few weeks back, she said I had sinus problems and it might be my eyes. So off I went to Vision express, for an eye test. My eyes are fine. So that was something of a blind alley (that's not a pun). Back to the point. This time, I reacted to a sensitive point on my ankle, which apparently, is corresponding to the uterus. Hmm. Well I'm not sure – after the last escapade, I'm not jumping to any conclusions.

I now realise having done a test, that I am pregnant. It's still sinking in.
Mr V is silently shocked as well.

Spring challenge

Every year, as winter recedes, I find myself surprised at the utter joy and excitement I feel at the promise summer.

It is as if 'there is a light at the end of the tunnel' and I am beginning to realise just how much the winter months close in on life and how much they affect us. With a natural talent for the melancholy, I assume that I suffer more than average, But it is hard to tell.

the Longer daylight hours, and the milder air, are all so refreshing. This year they have emboldened me to take on a swimming challenge, to swim 1 mile in the sea from Padstow to rock, for a cancer charity. It was quite telling even to myself that I was happy to jump at the challenge, despite not swimming regularly for a few years, and certainly not in the sea around Britan. A 10K run, something every woman and her dog is doing these days, hasn't, and i feel sure wouldn't, be entertained so readily, despite my recent running regime seeing me manage a 6k run comfortably. I have realised that I love to swim, it makes me happy, and rarely bores or pains me as running does. I have made it a new commitment, to make sure I do it. If it makes me happy then it must be good.

Having proclaimed all this, I must add that I have yet to enter the sea since reviving my swimming passion. I have told myself that I cannot enter the sea unless I have a wetsuit, for fear of Hypothermia. The temperature of the waters in these parts at this time of year could be anything from 10 to 15 Celsius, not an inviting thought. Swimming wetsuits are, I have recently discovered, a specialised, and not inexpensive luxury. I already have 2 wetsuits, but these are for diving, and therefore, not suitable (a terrible pun) for swimming. The part of my brain that tells me everything must be right and correct before proceeding (with caution) has convinced me that I MUST HAVE, a new wetsuit.
'Ouch', responds my bank balance.
Fortunately, the researcher- in another part of my brain, has found a place to hire them, thus reducing the cost.
'phew'

Now I am plucking up the courage to order my wetsuit, for I know that once it arrives, I shall have no more excuses to avoid the Sea.
The swim is in 6 weeks. Not long to hone my open water skills.
Perhaps I need a book as well? just to make sure I get it right...
yes I am sure a book would help.
I shall put the researcher on to it right away.

back in the blog

I realise have restarted writing my blog, it happened in the beginning of May, it's a surprise to me, and sprung from nowhere. I think it is the weather. Life is such a grind in Winter.