Baby, it's cold inside

Well, it's colder outside (or at least, I think it is!). Took the kids to the playground yesterday afternoon, but as soon as the sun dropped behind the trees it was just too chilly and we came home again.
On Monday I finished what I'd wanted to get done in our bedroom - in the immediate sense, anyway - including finishing the white wall, putting up a photo of Ben and I (our official 10th anniversary shot, we've decided!) and swapping out the painting from the lounge room to go above our bed (though that wall is still the old off-white, hasn't been painted yet).
And in the interest of full disclosure, this is my 'creative space' in the left hand corner of the room... though in all fairness, half the scrap supplies you can see on the desk are actually Kell's.

The boy we are waiting for is still in here... and I am wearing these wrist-warmers and this scarf pretty much all day every day, inside our house. Most of this week I've concentrated on doing my MYOB data entry for the last financial year, which I finished last night.

The other day I had a fire going for most of the day, which was lovely, but we generally try and limit it to evenings and just have the reverse-cycle in the lounge going during the day. A heater for our room is on the shopping list for the weekend or next week at least! I also really want to take Sienna to see The Fox and the Child, but since it involves a city trip (or close enough to the city), I'm not sure when.
The new SC came out yesterday... my contribution is this layout of Sylvia looking gorgeous on her wedding day a few years ago

And last, but not least, Ash being silly in his new hoodie, which he loves...

Baby corner

Part of our re-organising the house involved making a corner for Cedar in our nice big bedroom (the room that was the kids shared room last year). I've been painting the walls white, and repainted some furniture white as well as making the new cushions and window seat cover which I've posted before.

Anyhow, yesterday I put up some pictures on the wall as a finishing touch and Ben hung the baby hammock (not pictured) on the other side of the room near my art/sewing desk. I figure we'll use both the bassinette and the hammock depending on what he or we prefer at the time. So, at last, here is Cedar's corner...

The chest of drawers used to be covered in different fabrics in Sienna's room, now it is covered in vintage houndstooth wallpaper. I picked up the bassinette from a local op-shop for $10 with stand :)

This photo mobile was a pregnancy gift from Kell, the art cards from Wee Gallery (I bought them from The Hip Infant stocktake sale) suit perfectly and are designed for babies. The Cedar poster is by Kal Barteski (same as the one Ash has in his room) and the two Sheepworld pictures are from a calendar Sylvia sent me a couple of years ago - when I was in Germany last I took a liking to Sheepworld :) One says "You are the noodle in my soup" and the other "You are my hot water-bottle when I'm cold" (in German).

The funky cat comforter is Deglingos and I bought it from Urbanbaby, the gorgeous David Fussenegger blanket was a gift from my sweet friend Kate!

The softie sunflower (below) I made for Ben years ago, the photo is one from our anniversary shoot in April with Monkey Gumboots in Hobart. There are a few toys and details around from 'My Neighbour Totoro', one of our fave family movies. The 'Baby Sleeping' sign was a gift from another gorgeous friend Megan - I can see it being very handy to stick on the bedroom door and teach the kids to obey it!

About a week ago Sienna pulled out some white polar fleece from my stash of fabric under the window seat and declared to me that she wanted to make Cedar a blanket. Why? "Because I haven't made one." Well, naturally ;)

So we worked together on a collaborative blanket - Sienna taking charge of decoration and design, while mummy did the sewing, embroidering, and generally putting it together. All of the drawings - leaf, flower, hearts and suns - are hand-drawn by Sienna. For the leaf and flower I transferred them to the fabric (in the exact locations she specified, of course!) and added fabric. For the suns and the hearts she drew them directly on the fabric and cut them out herself before sticking them on the blanket, I just embroidered them on.


The clouds I cut out for her, she found them a bit tricky, and she stuck them on where she wanted. Whenever I asked 'are you sure?' about where she chose to put things, she was really insistent. "Just where I put them, mummy". Funny girl :) The words she wrote on paper and we cut around it so she could stick it on to the blanket, I traced it with a fabric marker and embroidered them in her colour choices. When I explained that she could add a kiss or hug by using an x and o, she thought that was a fantastic idea. She said it had to be 'ox' - "Because I always say 'cuddle kiss'!".

She is quite pleased with the result (I added a little blanket stitch around the edge as well) and wrapped it up today in vintage sheet music. It was a fun project, and really sweet of her. She is so random in her creativity, it's quite interesting to let her lead the way and see what she comes up with!

Forever Barbie

I took Alannah and Sienna to the Forever Barbie exhibition at Federation Square yesterday... lots of ideas for making them doll clothes, they both loved all the sparkly outfits best ;) I let each of them choose one Barbie to buy, which was quite funny - Alannah chose one she had seen before at Target and wanted, it has a bath tub and two dogs. She was very excited that the Barbie's knees bend, which her other Barbies don't. And it is apparently so wonderful that her pink lipstick matches her pink ruffly shirt!

I liked Sienna's choice - though the outfit is a bit skimpy, LOL. As soon as she saw it she was desperate to get the Supergirl barbie. It's actually a collectable, with a certificate of authenticity inside the box, but nevermind that now ;). She is actually Sienna's first Barbie, all her other dolls are Disney (Giselle and Edward, Jasmine, Mulan and Ariel). So it's been all about superheroes since then.

Something I love...

...about these two is how much THEY love books. Ash in particular will often grab a book, sit himself on the couch and flick through it.



Some of our faves are:































































































































Here are some on my wishlist:









My favourite places to shop for books are at Borders (Knox is our local store) and online at the Book Depository - free delivery worldwide, and also from some websites that sell all sorts of kids things, they have a fun selection on My Messy Room and Tinypeople (which I've mostly just browsed through so far). We also pick some up from op-shops now and then, we don't have any great book shops with kids books around here, unfortunately. But there are a couple of bookshops in Adelaide I like to visit when we are there - Mary Martin bookshop on Rundle St is one of them.

And huge congrats to my friend Bek on the recent arrival of Benjamin James... you are incredible and he is pretty darn cute!

Fun finds and stuff being made

Here are a few things I've saved lately - for inspiration or just because I like them. First this poster from Elsie Flannigan reminds me of my hubby

And so does this poster from this seller on etsy, LOL, though I could equally use it to remind myself some days!

This is gorgeous, and inspiring... from madeleinesargent on etsy (and she's a local)

Love Natasha Morton's art...

And this lady's ceramic designs are kind of folk-lore ish and I find them really cheery and appealing...

I keep thinking this head cold is actually a sinus infection, and then deciding I am getting better - until the next morning when I realise it has actually not progressed much at all and maybe I should go to the doctor. But I can't be bothered really. This has been going on for a week now, and when I think about it not much has changed, LOL, so probably I should have done something about it LAST WEEK. There doesn't seem as much point now. Is that a contradiction? Well, whatever. It's still better than the whole-body flu thing that everyone in our house had a week and a half ago.

This girl had her school photos a couple of weeks ago - here is her headshot for Prep. As cheesy as it is, she is a bit cute!

Following up on my whinge about her various tests from the last couple of months, Sienna had a surgical consult on Monday evening. At the end of the day, she has got a blockage limiting the function of the tube between one of her kidneys and her bladder, resulting in an uneven function of the kidneys. Instead of them each working 50%, one is working 60% and the blocked one about 40%. While significant, it is not a stress - she is a generally well and healthy child. The next step is an investigative procedure under general anaesthetic, which she will have in a couple of months, so her surgeon can see exactly what is happening where the tube meets the bladder. Actual surgery will likely occur later in the year.

I made up this new crumble recipe last night - it is apple with Outback Pride Australian Wild Fruits, and an oats / brown sugar crumble. Very wintery and yummy! The trouble is light - as I tend to make recipes at night it doesn't make for fabulous photography.

This is what I've been working on the last week or so in the evenings, as well as some work for SC which I can't share yet. 'My Focus Journal' is for labour, I am trying to think positive! After a couple of kind of messed up labours (or at least the tail end of them, with PPH and whatnot), I have a new doctor and wanted to remind myself of various things to reduce the fear factor. Here are a couple of pages from it.

And these two came to stay a couple of weeks ago, I didn't take many photos but snapped these just before they headed home - my little sister Hayley and her 2 year old son Caden. Awww.... Thanks for visiting, sweets :)

SC and me

These are my layouts from the current Scrapbook Creations , issue 67, where I have an article on using up alphabets in different ways.





And this one is the colour team assignment - Peach and Burgundy.


As for me and mine, we've all been sick with nasty colds since last Thursday. Today I am more tired than anything, because the blocked nose and coughing are making it hard to sleep, and it has turned into more of a head cold now. Many many tissues :) Tomorrow Sienna will be back at school and Ash has kinder, the two of them are basically down to runny noses and a bit of a cough now, but are happily playing and seem to have plenty of energy, so at least we're at the tail end of this thing!

My little sister from Adelaide came to stay, along with her 2 year old, for a long weekend so that was busy and fun (despite the house being overrun with tissues and panadol!). I took a few photos before they left yesterday morning so will try and pop them on the computer today.

Other than that I have started thinking about packing a hospital bag and that sort of thing ready for July, it's supposed to be less than 3 weeks now, which means (from my personal experience) that it will be about 4 weeks if Cedar goes the same sort of time as the other two did. So I have some things to pop out and buy to be more prepared for that, on my to-do list this week as well as making an article deadline next week for SC. Time for actual to-do-lists of the written down variety!

Both window and actual shopping

Some of my fave stuff I've bought for baby Cedar...(I like more colourful things too but these are the more nature themed stuff I've bought, I haven't actually stocked up that much!) I also got him a fun Where the Wild Things Are tshirt, you can see it here at the top right corner.

I have this suit on layby for Ash...
... and this pair of shoes I just bought on sale at FrockYou -
I am crossing my fingers that they really do fit (according to the measurements provided they totally SHOULD but I've learnt not to get too excited until this is proven), as I've needed a ballet flat style of shoe but haven't seen anything I've liked - that will fit - for a reasonable price, but I love these ones.
I bought one pair of these Baobab pants - above - at a discount sale (I love the seahorse top too!), and am thinking I should just make my own... off to Spotlight I guess to try and find some nice thick stretch cotton. I made fitted bassinette sheets out of unbrushed jersey fleece the other day, they seem so cosy to me that I might try and find similar fabric in other colours for comfy clothes too!

Other stuff I think is super cute (though some of it is just too expensive, even with my genetically inbuilt bargain hunting gene!)

I love fairytale style skirts for Sienna, this one has that beautiful lace trim underneath.

We are all sick at the moment with a yuck cold cough thingywhatsit, and while sitting on the couch by the fire I've been handsewing some doll clothes for my niece Alannah. Sienna has started making requests having seen the ball dress I made for Lana's barbies, so I think it's a project that may continue - though in future with the sewing machine, which should speed up the process, at least when it's a little less icicle cold in my bedroom!