Time flies!

Wow, the weeks are passing by so quickly. My daughter is a month old today! Here are a couple of pictures taken 2 weeks ago.



I snatched a moment to stitch this quick creation a friend's baby. It was so easy to do. I cut out 2 different size heart shapes and hand stitched the smaller ones to one side of a larger one. Embelished them with some ribbon and a button, then sewed the 2 larger ones together on my machine remembering to stuff them and stitch some ricrac so they could be tied together. It made me so happy to look at it, so shabby and girly!


Just had to take a quick, more recent picture... so here is one taken a few minutes ago. She's wearing a cardigan knitted by her Poh-poh (my mum) and a covered with a blanket made by a friend.

Recently had these pictures taken of our family and Mae when she was a week old.

She seems to be fitting right in to our family and loves looking at her brothers. I am suffering from sever mushy baby brain syndrome. It is especially affecting my communication, I can't seem to find normal words to describe things, and end up using really unusual words to express myself. Tom went back to work today, thankfully I felt a little more energetic, although I'll be ready for my bed tonight even after an afternoon snooze!







Photography by Splash Photographic

Look what we made...

Well, it's been an eventful few weeks since my last blog post.

Will try to be brief, although I would like to post further thoughts at some point.

On the 13th October at around 4pm as I was sorting a pile of washing, I felt a gush of waters which could only have meant one thing... at least 4 weeks earlier than I was expecting I went into mild but controlled panic! A friend was at the park with my children, so I called a midwife and my husband. My friend then arrived back at the house with my and her children, and I quickly arranged for a friend to look after my children whilst my friend took me to the hospital which happened to be in the same town as my husband was working. I called him with a list of items to buy from the supermarket as I was expecting the baby to arrive that day. However, once I was at hospital, apart from the odd trickle there were no real contractions. I was kept in for a couple of nights for observation, then I was told that they would like to induce me. I was a bit shocked at this as I had been given the impression previously that if I didn't go into labour I could be let home. I negotiated that I could come home to pack some things then return to the hospital to await a space on the labour ward... it didn't come. The next day another Doctor saw me and queried the postion of the baby, so I went for a scan and discovered the baby was breech (I suspect the little madam has been twirling around in there all through the pregnancy as I had previously gone for a scan querying the size of the baby - turned out it was a big baby and lots and lots of water). He then recommended I see another Doctor who scanned me and performed an ECV - basically she turned the baby. She was happy to let me go home as she could see that there was still loads of water around the baby. So, I was let home on the 16th with a follow up appointment booked for the 22nd. Fortunately my mum had booked to come and visit and was around when I slowly went into labour on the 23rd. As I had kissed goodbye to my homebirth I wanted to go and get settled in at the hospital so I could feel relatively calm. Tom and I headed off just after 10pm. A lovely midwife negotiated that we could have the 'family room' until labour really set in. Tom was able to sleep on an off from about 12am - 3am whilst I listened to our MP3 player and surfed the internet on my phone. When the contractions started to get more painful I got moved onto the labour ward. The whole process was a little bit longer than I had anticipated as my previous 2 labours had been under 2 hrs long. Anyway, eventually Mae was born after a huge gush of waters popping at 6.24am on Saturday 24th October, weighing 8lb 5oz nearly 3 weeks before her due date.

Without further ado here are some pics...


Ingredients:
Tom, Ruth and God

Felt Brooches

Apologies for being a terrible blogger over the last few weeks.

Have to confess not made any cards for over a week, and am now posting about some brooches I made a while back.

Being heavily pregnant and looking after 3 busy boys (4 including DH) means when it comes to evening I lack motivation to do anything that requires moving to much or thinking too much! Including standing at craft table and making things - although I really miss it and would like to be cuttin' and stickin'.

Anyway... I have recently discovered the joys of using my Quickutz to cut out felt and make them into brooches... Here are my first little designs - what do you think?





Quickutz dies include RS-0377, RS-0487, RS-0230, KS-0075, RS-0005, RS-0349.

STAMP SOMETHING - favourites!

The challenge on the Stamp Something blog is to use your favourite product, this card SO fits into this category! Was commissioned to make this.

Favourite paper company - Anna Griffin
Favourite ribbon - Anna Griffin
Favourite chipboard buckle - TLC
Favourite flower company - Prima
Favourite footprint stamp - Hero Arts
Favourite corner stamp - unknown
Favourite scallop punch - Fiskars
Favourite punches - The Punch Bunch and Woodware
Favourite techniques - inking, layering and threading floss through buttons.
Favourite font - Porcelain.

Di Hickman September no 2

This is my card for Di's sketch this week, you can find it here if you'd like to play along.

Ingredients:
Paper - Anna Griffin,
Flowers - Prima,
Punches - Fiskars and The Punch Bunch,
Stamp - Hero Arts.

Salt - GUIDANCE

Here is my piece for last weeks Salt challenge, please have alook at what Stacey wrote and our responses to the theme here

I've been wanting to do some more painting and perhaps mixing it with some other media. Thought this would be an opportunity to play . I'm afraid I was a bit impatient with my attempts and am not very satisfied with it. Anyway, the important aspect for me was to be reminded that for guidance we should look to God's word, and pray for wisdom to apply it to the situations we find ourselves in.

I printed out the verse, tore it and used the wet acrylic paint to 'stick' it to the canvas.