First Washing for Peabody

Hi y'all!
Happy Monday! Hooray, I survived my busy weekend! And I made it in to bed before Midnight last night- now that is a record for me! I slept soooo good too, I even woke up an hour before my alarm feeling like I should hop up and hop to it! I didn't, I still layed in bed for another half hour. {giggles}. But I thought about getting up early, and that's what counts right? Today Will and I are going to have lunch at Chatswood with one of my old High School Friends (Monique), I am really looking forward to it! I love catching up with old friends :)
Last night I went through my Baby Change drawers of Peabody's clothes cos I decided its time for me to start washing some clothes in readiness! Felicity gave me her box of Lux flakes (cos her babies aren't babies anymore {sad face}) so I was all set :) Because we don't know if Peabody is a girl or boy I had to search around in my collection for some unisex items, and also colours that I wouldn't mind on either sex. Of course you can't really put pink on a boy, but I did wash some turqouise blue things that I wouldn't mind on a girl! I have a few grey clothes and some red clothes, not a whole lot of white and only one cream bodysuit. One of my fave's is the red spotty suit (it looks big in this pic but it's 000), apart from looking a little like the immunisation bear from the Teddy Bear's Picnic- have you seen him? He has big red felt spots all over his body. Very funny! I hope Peabody doesn't look like he/she has the Chicken Pox every time they wear it!
Have you seen many nice unisex clothes in the shops? They are really hard to find!! I don't have a lot of 0000 clothes either, but judging by the size of Will and I, I'm not sure I'll need clothes that small! We have another ultrasound tomorrow morning at 9am (eek! Too early!) so I guess we'll see Peabody's progress so far, though he/she has another 2 months to stack on the beef :)
Oh I found this OshKosh bodysuit in Babies R Us last week (on sale too {high five!}) with a little Lamb on it, and of course I had to get it for our baby Lam!! Sweet!
Oh Yvette, you wanted to see what is in the Baby Change Drawers? Well, here is a shot of the shoe drawer {wink!} Of course, any child of mine is going to have a pretty awesome collection of shoes! And especially cos they are so cheap in America so I bought some on our honeymoon and also a stack in Hawaii last year. What do you think? So cute {swoon!} Yes, each one of those tiny boxes also has a pair of shoes in them! I can't wait for Peabody to begin to wear them!
:) C

Minding Xander!

Here we are, hanging out together! It's still a bit early for me, I would normally still be asleep but Xander is having fun!
:) C


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Bump!!

This is one of my favourite pages of Peabody so far, I love the colours, the papers, the embellishments, the picture and the bright yellow wall behind me in the pic! It's the bright yellow wall of the furniture store (Best Price Furniture, Manly) where we got Peabody's change table drawers. When I spotted it I knew I wanted Will to take a pic in front of it so I stood and posed while people stopped in their cars at the lights watched and laughed. {shameless!} I just love it when a page comes together and you love everything about it. It's a really simple page too, so I love that I love a simple page! The "togetherness" and "look over here" quotes are actually from the tear-off strip at the bottom of the background paper- it's the paper's name. Pretty cool! Yvette gave me a whole bunch of beautiful hand-dyed doily pieces for my birthday and this sweet little red one sits perfectly on this page! As does the pear sticker :) I also love the Dear Lizzy "Blossom and shine" quote. Did I mention I love it all?
What a busy end to the week and weekend I have ahead... this morning I had to drop Will off to pick up his car from servicing, bank our Wedding Photo refund cheque (more about this later... but just know this is a big HURRAH!!), I have a skin cancer clinic check up appt this arvo, then work, tomorrow I have to be at Alicia's at 9am (eek!) to mind Xander for the morning, then work, Saturday we have to vote before I head into the city for my friend Samira's Hen's night, staying in the city Saturday night, Sunday breakfast in the city (I'm voting for Pancakes at the Rocks and the Hen is too, so hooray for eating Pancakes Sunday morning!) then home sometime Sunday to finally relax before the next working week! {sigh!} Somewhere in there I have to get enough sleep to survive the weekend... I hope I can!!
:) C

31 Weeks!

Slack!! Yes I hear you, it's Thursday and I'm only just posting my Peabody belly pic for this week! I can't help it, time is flying and it's like trying to grasp at a bunch of helium balloon strings as the wind whips them away! What is happening to time???!!!
At least I have begun reading in ernest... I'm reading the Birth Skills book my friend Vicki bought for me (and recommended) and I really like it. I can imagine using lots of the skills she talks about in the book and I can totally see how it could work. E.g. stamp your feet throughout a contraction to divert your brain's attention away from the pain and into an action that requires attention instead. I think my brain could be easily fooled {wink!} and today I looked at "Save our Sleep" by Tizzie Hall and I would really like to get that one to work out a good sleeping/eating arrangement for Peabody. If anyone has it can I borrow it? Otherwise I might buy a copy for myself, though it was $35 at Baby Bunting today. Let me know if you see it cheaper! I'm starting to realise I know nothing about routines or demand feeding or anything like that... I gotta get educated, it's only 8.5wks til Peabody is due and I need info {freak out!!} Lol.
:) C

Baby Shower Cupcake Toppers!

Hi y'all!
How do you like these Woodland Themed Cupcake Toppers I'm making for my Baby Shower? I'm pretty impressed with them if I might say so myself!! I used the same Forest Friends stamps I used on the invite as well as a Hampton Arts Mushroom stamp. Aren't they cool! I bought these extra long ice cream sticks too cos I don't think I'll use these for sticking in the cupcakes as much as I might poke them around flower pots etc so it will be good that they are extra tall. That's what's in my head anyway! I might tie a little ribbon around


the sticks too, maybe the red spot I used on the invite. Yay, it's all coming together!!
:) C


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Wedding Cards..

Hello!
So I had fun the other day at the Craft Expo and the very next day after buying new stuff I was sitting at my desk making cards with the new purchases! That never happens! Alicia was inspiring to me, while I was shopping, cos she has a very different eye for things. E.g. she is so totally up with fashions and popular culture that she encouraged me to buy things I may have thought twice about. Well I did love this particular Chandelier stamp but Alicia really encouraged me to get it cos she thought it was awesome. Then she suggested that I make Black and White Wedding Cards and I went off on a tangent after that. I bought some paint on white shimmer paint, Hero Arts wedding stamps and I used my newly purchase doily dies to make some Wedding Cards that are totally different to other Wedding Cards I have made in the past. And I love them!I shimmered the Bride's dress and the black background paper on this one. It looks really pretty IRL! I dug out this vellum BG paper which I have had for probably like 6 or 7 years! I was so happy to be getting to use it! I also love the font of the sentiments in this set, so pretty!
And of course Stampin Up's "Well Scripted" set has the most beautiful "Congratulations" stamp and I couldn't resist using it! Here I've used the doily edge die cuts too, so sweet!
And lastly I used the doily die to cut the vellum circles and stamped the SU Congratulations over the top, finished off with some "Mr & Mrs" ribbon and jewels and voila! Beautiful!
Hope you like them!
:) C

Week by Week pic Pages...

Hi Y'all!
It's Saturday, it's Saturday!! {blowing up balloons and kicking them all around the room while doing a happy dance!} Well actually it does feel a little "party-ish" in my room cos I'm burning my Tutti Frutti Yankee Candle melt and it smells sweet as candy in here!
I'm having a rather lazy Saturday... what am I doing? Well, so far I have eaten breakfast, trimmed some rubber stamps and done a scrappin page. Oh yeah, I ate an orange too. It's 2pm so I guess I can say I haven't really accomplished much! I guess I am soaking up all the spare time before Peabody is born, cos I have been told endlessly by my friends who are new parents, that there will be NO SLEEP and NO SPARE TIME once Peabody is born! So peoples- I am taking your advice and doing not much these days! LOL!! Will told me to have an afternoon sleep today, but so far I'm not really sure I've earned it! Oh wait... I hung washing out too! Score {high five}. Have I earned that nap now? LOL!
So here are the 2 latest pages I did on my week-by-week pics up to Week 25. I tried to use more blue-based coloured products this time, just in case Peabody is a boy cos I don't want all pink pages in his album! {laughs}. Apparently the most favoured print for Maternity clothes is stripes. Hahahah {giggles} I DO have a lot of stripy Maternity clothes and I didn't realise until I did the right hand page and every top is stripy! And believe it or not, not all my maternity clothes are black and white or grey too! I wish they had more coloured maternity clothes. If anyone spots a Maternity Hoodie I really need one cos my poor normal Bonds hoodie is strrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeetched across Peabody's bump and I'm not sure how much longer I'll be able to wear it! Apparently they should carry them at BigW but I haven't found one yet...
Well, I'm off to lounge about a bit more!
:) C

Woodland Baby Shower Ideas..

Hi Y'all!
Well my Baby Shower invites were posted out last week so I hope you got yours!! We're having a Woodland themed party, of course, considering my love of owls and woodland animals {smiles}. I made the invites using Stampin Up's Forest Friends set, Chocolate Chip, Baja Breeze and White cardstock and the Top Note Die. The red spotty ribbon is left over from our Wedding Invites, so it's kinda nice to have that tie-in too! The glittery button is from American Crafts.
My Mum and Sisters are top-class, well organised, full-of-awesome-ideas party throwers (in fact an old primary school friend I reconnected with on Facebook recently told me she remembered I always had the best parties when we were at school!) so I know it's going to be a beautiful party full of wonderful decor, delicious cakes and foods and fun! And thanks to Alicia for being the gracious host again, she really does have the best party house! I'm really looking forward to it! I can't believe this time around the baby shower is for me! It still sounds funny!
So if you wanted an idea of what to get me {giggles} or what Peabody's Nursery corner of our bedroom will be like (evidently there aren't enough rooms at Hotel d'Lam for us all so Peabody will be in with us... indefinitely. I have to work on marrying off Will's sisters. LOL!) then here is a Woodland Shower/Nursery mood board I put together of things I loved off Etsy. Tonight I am planning on making some felt woodland animals for a baby mobile or pram toys for Peabody. I haven't made anything like this yet for him/her but I realised with less than 10 weeks to go I have to get cracking! I have made some good scrap pages about our journey together though, so I don't feel like I have done nothing for Peabody which is good!!
I hope to see you at my party!
:) C

30 Weeks!

ARGH! 30 Weeks already?! Alicia told me to pack my Hospital bag at 30 weeks cos she unexpectedly went into labour at 33 weeks and was due to pack her bag the very next day! So she didn't have anything ready and had to grab stuff on their way out the door which she hated cos she loves to be organised! I can't believe I'm up to the stage of thinking about packing my bag already! I know it's early but you never know (and my sugars have just had a massive surge last week so anything can happen) but I did sort out a couple of outfits to take to Hospital for Peabody the other day so that's a good start! It was so cute going through all my baby clothes again. Oh how I love to look at them and wonder what Peabody is going to look like in them, whether she will need a bow in her hair or whether he will look so cute in these miniature loafers! How exciting!
Peabody is sitting up really high again, right up under my ribs and the bottom of my tummy is empty! Yesterday Peabody pummeled me all day and at one point I had to push a body part out of my ribs and I think it was a little hand! It felt like it pushed up against me then it slipped away. For that moment I felt a real connection with the little person inside, like we were giving each other a high five {awwweee}. I actually didn't feel so great yesterday and today I ended up calling in sick for the first time in my whole pregnancy. I'm pretty proud of that! But by the end of work yesterday I hurt all over and my feet had cankles and I was at work last night wishing I was anywhere else! Will is a bit concerned and keeps telling me to take it easy so today I'm at home and going to take it real easy, just watching Tivo and maybe doing some crafty things for Peabody. Gotta relax now I'm 3/4 of the way through!
:) C

A Peek of U 3D Ultrasound

I just realised I never posted about our 3D Ultrasound!! How could I have kept such a sweet pic to myself for all this time? Well, you can see it all the time at the moment anyway, cos it's part of my new blog banner, but here it is in "big" for you too {smiles}.
We had just the most fabulous time at the ultrasound! I really recommend it to anyone who has had a not-so-satisfactory ultrasound experience elsewhere like we did, but also if you just want a really good long look at Bub inside! Not only did we get a whole hour to relax and have a look at Peabody moving around, giving some outstanding facial expressions and just looking super cute, but Ray, the Sonographer was a really lovely man too. It's called "A Peek of U" Ultrasound and they have a couple of locations I think, we went to the one at Casula and as it was on a Sunday (their quietest day apparently) he threw in a free USB which he filled with about 18 video's of Peabody moving around a little and doing some "Quiet talking" where he/she was just slowly moving their mouth as if we were having a quiet conversation, a smile and a little video of Peabody trying to stick his/her thumb in her mouth but getting it up it's nose instead! It was just so sweet! {swoon!} We also got a bunch of still pics that he printed instantly for us. How awesome is this pic, considering the ultrasound was done at the very beginning of my 26th week. I think it's awesomely clear! Thank you so much to my family for this awesome birthday present! It was so much fun!! Now it makes me even more excited to meet Peabody IRL!
Just for a little laugh I thought I would post this pic of Willy that I just saw on his Mum's photo wall. Isn't it the funniest! He is doing the typical Asian "squat"!! LOL! Remember I said we saw men doing this a lot in Japan? Taxi drivers, chefs out on a smoke break etc. And here is Willy getting his practice in as just a little tucker! And I think he looks exactly the same here as he does in real life, 27 years later! Same facial expression and same hair-do at the moment too {giggles}.
And for a little comparison here is a little pic of me too :) One of my faves. I wonder which one of us Peabody will look more like? I bet he/she will have more hair than me!! LOL!
:) C
P.S. Oh yeah, Will's Mum was telling me the other day that when Will was little people used to ask if his Dad was Mexican cos he had very dark skin and big dark arched eyebrows! Hahahahahahahahaha {Belly laughing til I explode!} I told him it would be ok with me if he was Mexican cos I love their food! Hehehe. I wonder if Peabody will look Mexican?

Craft Expo Show Booty!

Hi y'all!
I had lots of fun yesterday at the Craft Expo at Rosehill Racecourse with Aunty Julie and Alicia! I was so happy that Alicia had fun and even bought some things, cos it's her first craft show and she's not into scrapbooking or quilting! She got some cool lazer cut thin wooden Eiffel Towers to put in jewelled frames in her guest room. She's so imaginative!
So my wrap for the show this year is: It is the Year of the Craft Punch. That's right- if you love punches get yourself over to Rosehill ($15 entry) cos it is raining punches at all the scrapbooking stands! There were also HEAPS of acrylic stamps so if that's your thing then you should go too! There wasn't many 12x12 papers (which was good cos I wasn't tempted) and there wasn't many sticker embellishments, it was mostly brads, flowers or 3D stickers, and I wanted things like journalling spots, baby stickers etc and there wasn't much!
Here is my booty from the show.... I got lots of Studio G acrylic bird stamps (at $2 each, how can you pass it up?), some gorgeous Hero Arts stamps to make wedding cards- which I have already made 2 of today {hooray!}, I did get a pack of doily edge circle dies to try out which I am excited about! And best of all the GIANT EK Success large scallop deep edge punch. Isn't it awesome! And the sweetest Martha Stewart Christmas punch which creates a little pop-up village. I've seen it online and was so excited to get it IRL! The punches were 2 for $50 at the Catchy Craft Stand which I think was a bit of a bargain (compared to some of the other stalls there).
So I'm going off to play with my booty again!
:) C

A Very Peabody-ish Christmas :)

Hi Y'all!
Just a quickie post... Will and I just got back from Pancakes on The Rocks after work (it's now 2:30am!) cos we were celebrating 4 years of being together {awwwwweee! The crowd sighs!} Who would have thought that the odd couple who had a rather awkward kiss in the work carpark all those ago would be married and expecting a baby 4 years on! LOL! Not me! But it is so lovely to look back and share all those memories during a spontaneous trip to the city for some late night bites (I had the Pancakes, Egg and Hash, if you were wondering, and yes it was delicious!!)
Here is a page I did of Peabody at Christmas- this is the first pic where you can really see I have a little bump. And back then I thought it was big too, hahahahahaha! Now, at 29 weeks, I KNOW my tummy is big! And people (especially at work) have no qualms about telling me that too. Some people have no tact!
Sleep tight peeps!
:) C

The other class samples...

Here they are! The other class samples I promised you from Mum's Stampin Up class on Sunday.
These are the ones I made with Aviary:This first one is cased off one from Splitcoast Stampers. Have you visited splitcoast? If you have Stampin Up sets and you need inspiration then you really should go there! It's full of awesome card samples using Stampin Up sets and they are super easy to find. Go! Visit! I love the muted colours of this one and the little "pop" when you see the birdie! So sweet!
And this one is just a fun little one showcasing the Aviary on the stand that comes with the set. I like to combine different sets and the background flower on this one is from Baroque Motifs. Ohhh, I wish it wasn't 2am or I would head off to my desk and do some stamping now! I feel inspired! Maybe inspiration will multiply while I sleep and I'll be extra creative when I wake up. LOL! {giggles}.
And now Awash with Flowers:
Oh I love the monochromatic colours of this card, isn't it cool?! It uses the 2 step set Awash with Flowers and the sentiment is from Great Friend. I love the Daffodil Delight and Basic Grey combo, it's really funky! It was fun to stamp a whole garden in yellow too! (And did I mention it was super quick too? Love it!)And last of all, a beautiful one for the Mum's (and no, I don't think I'll make it as a Mum on Mother's Day this year- Peabody is due 2 weeks after Mother's Day! Bummer!!) I "painted" the edge of the petals by inking up the flowers with Pretty In Pink then inking only the edges of the flowers in Melon Mambo (without stamping off the Pretty In Pink ink) and then stamping it on the white card. Doesn't it create a great effect? I got this card idea off splitcoast too, but I know I will be replicating this one a lot! Its very pretty!
Good night!
:) C

29 Weeks!

Here I am! 29 Weeks! And posting this pic almost on time too {high five!}
I did think I had no appointments this week but then I remembered I have a skin cancer clinic check-up on Thursday. And I"m going to Craft Expo at Rosehill on Friday with Aunty Julie and Alicia (sorry Mum!), but that's not as much an appointment as a whole lot of fun!
I am actually totally surprised at myself for still remembering all my appointments, as my brain doesn't properly function for other things at the moment (baby brain!) Good thing I have a portable, walking memory called Will! And a calendar. It's tough to remember my antenatal appointments (fortnightly), ultrasounds (were fortnightly, but now monthly) and my endocrinologist appointments (monthly with a fortnightly phone check-in)! Phew, I'm never this busy!!
I hope you've got an easy week!
:) C

Latest SU class samples.

Hi Y'all!
This last weekend I went to Mum and Dad's while Will was at a friend's buck's weekend. It was a good chance for Mum to have a Stampin Up party while I was there too! Mum and Dad have been painting the inside of their house, so it was a fantastic effort on their part to have it presentable for guests! Thanks M&D!! Mum is doing a craft room make-over and it's going to be FABULOUS when she's finished. All custom furniture including a white corner desk, drawers and shelves, organised storage, wallpaper off the walls and white paint on, carpet up and floorboards sanded and polished! It will be a whole new world of inspiration for her and I'm so excited!
So here are the 2 cards we made in the class- I'll have more samples with the same sets to show you later on and give you more inspiration! The first card is using Aviary from the current Summer Mini Catalogue. Man I love this set! It is so much fun! I also used my favourite sentiment set (which I can't currently remember the name of- typical pregnant brain!) also from the current Mini Catalogue. The sweet hearts pinking border punch is from the mini too and is just so sweet! The leaf stamp is from Great Friend, which is in the main catalogue. I used Melon Mambo, Pear Pizzaz, Pink Pirouette and cream card and Melon Mambo, Crumb Cake (Kraft) and Chocolate chip inks. I really like this card!
The second card uses the Awash With Flowers set from the main catalogue, and it's another beautiful set! And it's so much fun to do some "watercolour painting" with this 2-step stamp set. The background "watercolour" pieces are separate to the "outline" pieces and it's fun to choose colours and build up a little vista of flowers! I stamped all the images onto white card I had cut using the Top Note Die cut and my Cuttlebug machine (clenching my butt cheeks together as I wound it through- I really should get a Big Shot Machine instead, they're more heavy duty! I'll put it on my wish list {wink!}) And matted it on Not Quite Navy, then Tangerine Tango and Cherry Cobbler card. A combo I got from the Colorq Challenge blog! The ribbon is Pumpkin Pie and the inks are Riding Hood Red, So Saffron, Pumpkin Pie, Cajun Craze, Elegant Eggplant, Certainly Celery, Old Olive and Baja Breeze. I love the richness of all these colours together and I'm pretty sure the ladies at the party enjoyed making this card too!
Thank you for a lovely weekend Mum and Dad (and Felicity, who dropped in for the party on Sunday too!)
:) C

A special greeting from Peabody...

A KISS!!

Can you see it? Peabody is laying on his/her side with lips pressed "up against the screen" (or my tummy) for you!! And what a set of lips! {swoon!} And look- I think that's my chin too! And there is also a little hand in the pic too, which is so sweet! "Hello!" says Peabody!
It's good news about the size of Peabody, well, in a way, cos it turns out Peabody is actually small for 28 weeks, 3 days, and is measuring about 27 weeks 4 days instead. This is great news for my Diabetes cos it means my sugars are going well and they aren't making Peabody a big fat fatty. They also aren't concerned about Peabody's size at this stage, even though he/she is small cos there are plenty more growing weeks still to come! Estimated weight today was 1.150kg (2lb, 9oz) which sounds pretty good to me!
So it turns out Peabody was just riding high yesterday, and has continued up high today, cos I'm having trouble turning around to look over my shoulder when I reverse park! Watch out!! {giggles!}
:) C

28 Weeks!

Peabody and I have officially entered our 3rd Trimester together! YAY!!
At the moment I am pretty much just cruising along, although this week is a week of appointments with an antenatal appointment yesterday, an Ultrasound this morning and an appointment with my Endocrinologist this afternoon {phew!} I had better remember them all!
Yesterday at our antenatal appointment my tummy measured a bit bigger than it should (30cm which equates to 30 weeks, instead of 28 weeks) so at the Ultrasound today we'll see if it was just because Peabody was riding high or if my sugars haven't been that good {frown}. By my measurements my sugars haven't been that bad so I'm hoping it's the former, not the latter, problem! I do think Peabody was up under my ribs yesterday so I'm hoping that is what they can see on the Ultrasound! Also, at our last Ultrasound 2 weeks ago, Peabody measured bang on average- in the 49th percentile for growth- so I'm hoping he/she hasn't gone and got their "fat on" in the last 2 weeks! The Dr also suggested it may have just been a growth spurt. We'll see soon!
I also have to make sure I remember to tell them we don't want to know the sex every time we have an Ultrasound! I don't want the sonographer to slip and accidently tell us, or thinking we must know because we've had a number of ultrasounds already! I am keen to keep the surprise for when Peabody's born. It's so exciting for me to keep imagining what Peabody must look like and formulating a picture in my head! I think if I knew the sex there certainly wouldn't be as much anticipation and excitement for the birth!
I'll let you know how the Ultrasound goes!
:) C