Baby Shower Bracelet

How cool is this idea? Yvette organised for all the ladies at my Baby Shower to bring along a bead which she made into a bracelet on the day for me to wear and think of all the support I can count on from family and friends during the pregnancy, labour and afterwards! What a special thing to do! I wish I knew which bead was from who though, I haven't gotten around to asking everybody, so if you see yours let me know! Yvette did say there were too many for one bracelet though, I knew I had too many friends {tongue in cheek!} I picked Mum's out {smiles} cos it looked like her kind of bead- can you pick it? It's the teal oval bead with a tiny pink flower inside it! She said she kept the other one (cos they were a pair) and she wanted to make it into a bracelet to wear so she would think of me. Isn't that sweet! Felicity's is the silver ball with silver swirls on it, Alicia's is the hot pink hexagon and Yvette I don't know which one was yours! Whenever I have worn it to work my work friends are like "Oh, you're wearing your bracelet!" cos they like seeing their beads :)
Thank you so much for organising this Yvette, i just love it!
:) C

Sewing for Peabody

Hi y'all!
Yay, it's only day 2 of our 5 day Easter Long Weekend, hooray! This means I can get heaps of stuff done for Peabody and also get Hotel d'Lam cleaned up a bit before my MIL returns from China on Monday. Apparently Will's cousins have been giving his Mum lots of stuff to bring back for Peabody, so I'm interested to see what she brings! Is it going to be those (sometimes gorgeous) Asian Puff-ball dresses, or a bunch of horrible character outfits made from hot, scratchy, flammable, unbreathable fabrics? {giggles} I'm really excited to see! LOL!
As you know, Peabody's nursery corner is "Woodland Themed" (yet to be all set up though- better get moving {sound of whip cracking behind me!}) so I have had all these cool ideas of some toys to make for Peabody, including a Woodland Mobile. Well, this week I have finished off 4 more Felt animals which takes my total up to 6! Hooray! I have sewn them all onto red ribbon loops so that they didn't have to be permanantly fixed to anything. At this stage I will probably peg some to the "hood" bars that go over the bassinet which holds the mosquito net, then I could also tie one to another long ribbon loop for the pram etc. Then when Peabody goes into a cot I will probably make the mobile then. I figure they're probably quite multi-purpose when they're sewn to a ribbon loop! I got the idea for them from Etsy, where there are so many gorgeous felt animals and baby mobiles! But there was no way I was going to pay $70 for one! Not when I have 2 hands of my own to make them with!! The idea for the moose, fox and hedgehog all came from finger puppets on etsy, the mushroom and cloud are like Japanese ones I've seen around and the rabbit just came from my head. I still have a lot more animals in my head, so I should keep on sewing this weekend!
And here is the Nanna Knitted Knee Rug (well, crocheted, but it doesn't alliterate as well) I was telling Yvette about, that I bought from the Hospital Auxiliary on one of our Antenatal Visits. The old dear's always have a stand at the Hospital and one day as we were walking out this rug caught my eye and I bought it! (For the bargain price of $14 too, including a face washer and vanilla scented sachet!). I loved the gray and yellow colours and knew it would be suited to Peabody's Woodland room, especially seeing as it is non-gender specific and we don't know if Peabody is a girl or boy ! I thought it would be handy for throwing on our floor to give Peabody some tummy time, cos we've got floorboards throughout the house, and the rug is nice and soft & squishy. Mum said it's made from pretty good Wool too so that was good to hear! I loved supporting the Hospital Auxiliary and I always stop past their stall now, though haven't bought anything else yet. I really can't believe I will have only 4 more weeks of visiting the hospital before Peabody is born! How time is flyyyyyiiinnnnggg (eek!)
:) C

Urban Renewal- its been like forever!

So, it has been forever since I did a little "Urban Renewal" project around here. I have had this one in my mind for a long time, after I saw something like it in Real Living Mag, and it involved painting the wall behind our bed in dark grey and putting up a photo collage with different black, white and grey picture frames with all my favourite pics in it. I bought 2 sample pots of grey paint before we moved in and kept asking Will could we try them on the wall and we never did and then we moved in and now it's impossible (well, given my current pregnant status) for me to move everything out of our room to paint that wall! So I gave up on that bit and last Saturday I gathered the frames (still in assorted boxes from our move 4.5 months ago!) and did the photo collage! And I'm really happy with how it turned out too :) I have the idea that I would let the wall "Grow" with us too, so once Peabody comes along I can add some more frames to the outside with pics of Peabody and more family holidays, once we go on them :) Should be fun to choose and add more pictures! Will asked would I be covering the side walls too... well.... maybe! When I was on exchange in Germany a friend's host family had holiday pics in a photo collage kinda-setting all up the walls of their stairwell. All of theirs were even in the same A4 red frame. It really looked cool and as a visitor I spent ages on that staircase looking at all the places they had been as a family! I hope looking at our photo collage wall will be like looking at a snapshot of our lives!
:) C

35 Weeks!

Ouch, 35 Weeks is turning out to be the hurty week!
I have been having Braxton Hicks contractions on and off for a couple of weeks, but none in the last week. I think Peabody has been saving it all up for tonight cos I had one mega ouchy contraction-type feeling tonight! {owie!} I was at work, doing our end-of-night check of the dept when I all of a sudden got the big ouchy tight-as-a-rock tummy which stopped me in my tracks! Luckily Willy was there cos he quickly said "Do your exercises!" which involved me leaning over some machinery and swaying side to side to help ease the tension in my tummy. It worked! Hooray! {clapping hands} I couldn't believe how much my mind went blank and I couldn't think of what to do to stop it from hurting! I'm so happy Willy was there! Later he was like "I think you stopped breathing properly too".... ok, so there are a couple of things I think we need to write down to remind me of what to do during labour! 1.Breathe, 2. Exercises, 3. Stomping Feet (to confuse finicky brain away from the contraction pain) 4. Visualisation (I'm not big on meditation, but I do believe in having a positive attitude so maybe this will work!) 5. Remember it is healthy pain (maybe this is the positive thinking bit!) cos that pain tonight is probably no where near as bad as the real thing will be!
I do feel Peabody is much lower these days, but is still moving around heaps too so mustn't be too ready to come out just yet! I have been having stretching pain at the sides of my tummy cos it's soooooo out the front and my lower back muscles have started hurting this week too, I think they're having a hard time balancing this giant ball out my front! But I can't complain too much, I think I have had a relatively easy pregnancy so far without any Morning Sickness and not too many aches and pains, so Thank You Lord!! I hope it continues this way!
:) C

1st Anniversary :)

Hi y'all!
Its been a quiet week of posting for me, cos it's been a super busy week for everything else! So many appointments and visits and then our good friends Samira and Alex's Wedding on Friday too. Their ceremony was at 10:30am and the reception went through til midnight so it was a very long day and I pretty much slept most of yesterday away after all the dancing at the wedding! I danced so much I thought Peabody might fall out at one stage!
So here are some pics from our 1st Anniversary last weekend. Firstly, we started out at Bondi Junction Westfield for a shop around. We didn't get each other presents, but I wanted to buy a "Woodland" type toy for Peabody, and I found out its kinda hard! I didn't want an owl cos I have fabric to make one but owls are pretty much all that's out there at the moment! Oh there were a few rabbits but Mum bought Peabody a rabbit already and I didn't want an Easter themed rabbit anyway (you know, the gaudy coloured ones... ew!) Where are all the deers and hedgehogs and squirrels?? So anyway, in DJ's Will spotted this Kangaroo and Joey by Bebe, I guess an Aussie Woodland needs a Kangaroo right? After looking around more and deciding there wasn't any other worthy Woodland creatures we bought the Roo and I asked Will to name them so he called them Lewis (the Roo) and Hamilton (The Joey- it's actually on an elastic cord so it comes out of the pouch but can't get lost!!) Recognise the names? Yes, in this first pic Lewis and Hamilton are watching their namesake Lewis Hamilton the British F1 driver, work his magic on the track! {giggles}
For dinner on our Anniversary night we went to Nick's Bar and Grill at King St Wharf in the city, courtesy of my family.. thank you family {hugs!} It's in the Entertainment Book (which I highly recommend if you like going out to dinner and saving money!) so we went extravagant and ordered the Surf and Turf platter for 2. Wow, it was pretty amazing! It had Salt & Pepper squid, scallops, fried fish and prawns, ribs, chorizo sausage and steak as well as a Greek Salad hidden in the middle of it all. It was YUM! And I loved the "shared plate" part of it too cos it meant we didn't sit there with our heads down in our food, not talking for the duration of the meal! It was a Sunday night too so it wasn't too busy at the restaurant which was nice also!
We stayed the night at the Sheraton On the Park which was the same hotel we stayed at for our Wedding night. Because I am totally shameless I wrote it was our Anniversary in the booking notes and pointed out that we had also stayed our Wedding night there, so they upgraded us from a city-view room to a park-view room for free... {shameless!} And then, half way through the evening they delivered us a bottle of Red Wine as a complimentary gift from the hotel. How lovely was that?! We've saved it for when Peabody is born {smiles}. How exciting! This stay we got to enjoy a little bit more of the hotel facilities and we swam in their cool pool which is on the top floor of the hotel. I've never swum around high rise buildings before! It was really cool! But the main reason we stayed there again (apart from wanting to get away from a house full of people for our anniversary) was for the delicious Buffet Breakfast... oooohhh YUM! And again it did not disappoint! I somehow managed to wedge in (around Peabody) 2.5 plates of food, though I did pay for it later in uncomfortableness, it was a little too much! I ate pancakes with fresh honeycomb I chipped off the comb {yum!}, bacon and eggs, stewed prunes, a mini breakfast pastry, fruit, yoghurt, I got an omelette from the chef this time too! You tell them what you want and they make it fresh for you... YUM!! Oh so totally worth it for deliciousness :)
So that was our Anniversary, thanks for visiting with us!
:) C

Wedding Pages

Hi y'all!
So I said I had been working on some Wedding pages using our professional pics, and here they are! It is so much fun to get out my big stash of Wedding page supplies and get working. I didn't realise I had so much love/wedding related scrapbooking stuff! And seeing as Valentine's Day only comes once a year its a good chance for me to use it all up for these Wedding pages! Hooray {clapping hands!}
I have been holding on to some "special" papers for Wedding pages, including this sweet one with the curly edge (I took the pic on a red carpet, so the red edge isn't actually part of the paper) and the clear polka-dot paper of the second page. The Japanese floral paper on this first page is a left-over scrap from our Wedding Invites, it's cool to get to use it on a Wedding layout!
I love this clear acetate "paper" of the second layout and I used it with one of my fave pics from our photo shoot. I don't mean to be up myself, but I remember Felicity saying there isn't a single good solo shot of her from their Wedding day and she really wished she had a good professional pic of her and when I saw this one I was so happy! I love that you can see my red shoes peeking out from under my dress and my beautiful bouquet beside me. I look so happy too! Which, of course I was, and still am, a year later {love you Willy!} The paper doilies are certainly coming in handy for Wedding pages too, lucky I have an industrial sized stash of them. LOL! Those MM Wedding rub-ons I have had for YEARS and I'm so happy to have them out of my stash! The whole panel is nearly finished now, hooray!!
And for the final page I wanted to pick up on some of the smaller details that made the day such a beautiful event, the gorgeous flowers, my red shoes, the Candy Bar, and our cool "Present" cake! Can you see I used a piece of the same ribbon and a tiny pearl buckle that I used on our Wedding invites on this page :) {sweet!} And I just love the pic of the Candy Bar, it makes me sooooo hungry to eat all that sugar, I wish I could! {sigh} All the red and white lollies look so awesome in those gorgeous jars! I love that people still comment on the Candy Bar Bonbonierres a year later, it was a fantastic thing to do!
Hope you like the pages! There will be more to come cos I've got lots of beautiful pics to scrap!
:) C

34 Weeks!

Here I am, 34 Weeks along with Peabody. Since when did my face get fat? Oh, that was last week {frowny} I look so puffy in this pic! I think I need more sleep. Lucky I've still got my ankles, thats a high-five worthy point {slap!}
We had another ultrasound this morning, all is going really well. Peabody is still bang-on-average which is awesome! It was a different Sonographer today and I (thankfully) did remember to tell him we didn't want to know the sex cos he asked us to look away for a sec while he measured the femur, in case we saw something we didn't want to see! I wouldn't want to get this close to having Peabody and have the surprise spoilt! Out of 20-something guesses at the Baby Shower there were only 3 guesses for "Girl!" All the old ladies at work, no matter the nationality, tell me it's a boy too. Either cos I'm carrying high, or out the front, or cos it's a ball, or cos I still look happy, or cos my armpits haven't changed colour (what the??) I'm like "I'm white, my armpits never change colour!" How funny. Will says Peabody is a girl cos I've got so many girl clothes. LOL {giggle} I don't think you can shop your way to a certain sex baby!
:) C

Happy Anniversary Willy!

Wow, a whole year is behind us already. Hasn't time completely flown?? It has been the most wonderful year though, THANK YOU WILLY!! xoxoxo {love}I cannot believe how much we've done in a year! We Honeymooned in awesome America, including my favourite places New York and Disneyland and explored some new places together, like Washington and LA. We went on a fantastic family holiday to Hawaii, we moved house and now we're having a baby?! WOW! Not sure I could have packed more life-changing things into this year. Oh, I guess I could have changed jobs. Does changing from Pathology to Motherhood count??As you read this Will and I will be basking in the delicious luxury of The Sheraton on the Park for our First Anniversary, where we also spent our Wedding night. At least this time we will have some time to enjoy all the facilities! And of course, Monday morning we will be stuffing ourselves at the DELICIOUS buffet breakfast! YUM! That is the thing Will and I are looking forward to most {drool!} It was included in our room rate last time and this time, but if you were just to visit the hotel and pay just for breakfast it is something like $46 each! That is how awesome the breakfast is. Can't wait! {clapping hands!} Did I mention can't wait {happy dancing!}
So now that we FINALLY have our wedding pics (Still not up for telling that long story, soon maybe) I hope that you're enjoying these shares!
:) C

Baby Shower.. SPOILT!

Hi y'all!
Happy Saturday night! Wow, what a day Will and I have had. Lets just say lots of nesting was done today (actually not in our bedroom/nursery but the rest of the house got a good clean down and make over!) Needless to say there are a few sore backs, tired eyes resting in front of the TV now!
Yvette asked to see what Peabody got at the Baby Shower on Sunday cos there was so much going on she missed a lot of it! Well, in our family traditional-style I had already laid everything out on the bed when we got home on Sunday and took a pic of it for posterity's sake! So here it is for you to enjoy too :)
Peabody was most certainly SPOILT {hugs everyone!}! Peabody got lots of beautiful handmade items- Mum appliqued the beautiful blue towels with some gorgeous Woodland creatures and made a white waffle cotton pram cover appliqued with a gorgeous tree and more woodland animals! She also embroidered some sweet little singlets and socks and knitted a super soft pram snuggly from wool I bought in Melbourne {snuggle!}. Yvette made Peabody a quilt! Can you believe it? I had no idea she was making one {surprise! Blowing on a party hooter!} Peabody was also spoilt with Woodland onesies, woodland sheets, beautiful soft green and white cot blanket, some little toys, a sweet little Bear from Cooper and Sienna, a really cool Nappy change pack, baby bath, nappy bin etc etc....! Well, you can see from the picture! I feel so much more organised for baby now :) YAY! Just over 6 weeks to go!
:) C

Friday at my desk!

Hi y'all!
I thought Mr Mojo may have left me since I've abandoned him the last 2 weeks in favour of baking & antenatal appointments. But today I finally got back to my desk and did some scrappin! I've already finished one wedding page and now I've sat down with some more pics hoping to belt out another page! With only 6.5 weeks til Peabody is due, I want to get as much crafting in that I can! I've heard I won't have much time after he/she is born. Unless I have a Golden Child like Xander (we can always dream!)


:) C

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

33 Weeks!

It's time for the 33 Week pic! What's funny about this pic is that I am wearing the same jumper in my 15 Week pic of Peabody, and my tummy is MONSTEROUS compared to that pic! {giggles!} I used to think I had a tummy then! Its nothing to now!
BIG NEWS- Last night I packed my Hospital bag!! How scary is that! It means Peabody's arrival is fairly imminent.. eek! {Freak Out!} I mean, Alicia had Xander at 33 weeks, I totally can't imagine having Peabody this week! At least I am slightly more prepared after the Baby Shower. We still need a car seat though, or Peabody will be walking home from Hospital with me! LOL! Good thing it would only be a half hour walk, lucky we're not at Westmead then.
On Saturday we had our Antenatal class at the Hospital which was really informative and educational. It was a bit rushed though cos it was only the one day, but now I have a bit better idea of when to come to hospital, what kind of pain relief I want (I'm gonna try to tough it out with no epidural and no morphine unless they are specifically required) and I'm interested in a water birth cos 3 of the midwives at the hospital are qualified to do that. I think I should read up a bit more! It was a very interesting mixed group at the classes- 4 Muslim girls (one who had actually brought her husband, though he averted his eyes during the birth video's!) 2 Indian couples, one Tibetan couple, 2 Asian couples, one other white couple (WOW!), an African girl and her sister and us. It was good cos everyone had different questions to ask! And we got a tour of the Birth Unit and Maternity ward too, which was awesome. They have all single rooms too so no sharing... hooray!!
:) C

Peabody's Woodland Baby Shower!

Hi y'all!
Happy Tuesday! My weekly pic will have to wait one post, until I've posted these pics from Peabody's Woodland themed Baby Shower on Sunday. Oh I had such a fantastic day! Thank you to my family who put in so much effort baking, decorating and organising games, and to Alicia who always opens her house so wonderfully to us for partying! As soon as one of my work friends, Linh, walked in she said "Oh I always love coming to parties here, you can smell the food as soon as you walk in and it always looks so great!" {high five!} You can't really beat a comment like that! I'm going to post lots of pics so prepare yourself for total overload!!These are the fantastic felt Mushrooms Mum made for the entrance. Aren't they just to most awesome mushrooms you have ever seen? And her gorgeous little bunny is so sweet sitting underneath {heart!} There were 3 mushrooms and Peabody, Tassy and Sienna were all lucky to get to take one home. I can't wait to set up Peabody's nursery corner properly and put this mushroom to good use!

Mum also made this sweet Woodland wreath to greet the guests on the way in! Love those tiny mushrooms and sweet little birds!Mum and I have been collecting Woodland themed decor for the party, but also once we started looking around our houses at what we already had, it seemed we have heaps of Woodland themed things! So we created this sweet display on Alicia's sideboard, of all things bird, mushroom and Woodland! There was candles, Christmas decorations (the mushroom clips and acorn), Birdhouses, pinecone candle holders, baskets of birds etc. Love it!So if you remember the invite, the colour theme was Brown, Blue, white with a splash of red so I asked my family to make Woodland-ish type food- no baby pink or baby blue icing etc! In this pic you can see Alicia's delicious Macadamia Chicken scrolls, Mum's sweet little Woodland shaped spice cakes and Felicity's awesome birds nest and edible eggs!One of Mum's friends makes these sweet little Mushroom tarts so she ordered some, aren't they cute! Yvette made the very moist Black Bottom Brownies on the right, there are Palmiers and Chunky Mini-oreo Rocky Road at the back that I made, and Baclava Logs right at the back of this pic on a plate with my ever popular White chocolate chunk and macadamia brownies.Here are my Mini Lime Meringue tarts. Dad got me a mini food blow torch from Aldi last week so next time I make them they will be even better looking cos these ones I had to brown very carefully under the griller which was hard work! You have to sit and watch it cos they brown very quickly, and quite unevenly under the element so it involved lots of shuffling. Anywho, they look good here!
And how sweet is this Woodland cupcake stand! I bought it in RJ's in Corrimal when I was visiting Mum and Dad last time. I'm not sure what it is actually supposed to be for, maybe it really is a mini bird-bath, but it held my Mini chocolate mudcake cupcakes with peanut butter frosting quite well!One thing I really wanted at the party was a Washing Line string with my favourite Woodland themed baby clothes pegged to it. It was such a talking point at the party too! Everybody seemed to "oohh and aahh" at the gorgeous little outfits hanging on it!I love this little "Gone Fishing" outfit on the end, it's perfect for Willy's baby!! So sweet!
Here are the proud Parents-To-Be! Yep, Willy came to the baby shower too :) He's the smart Dad, cos he got to indulge in all the delicious cakes and sweeties! He did join in the games too, which was so sweet!And here are my lovely sisters and I! Yvette hasn't seen me in person since Christmas when Peabody's bump was still quite small and she probably wont see me again until after Peabody is born (unless you come to Mum's sale Yvette!! I just thought of that!) so she really noticed the difference in my tummy size!
I had a fantastic day at Peabody's Woodland Baby Shower, and Peabody was quite spoilt! I do feel a lot more organised for Peabody's arrival now though, and I spent yesterday washing bassinet sheets and wraps in preparation! Not long now!
:) C

32 Weeks!

Hello hello? Am I still here? Are you still there?

Wow, what a week! Finally on Friday I will have some down time, time to just chill out, do some fun baking for my baby shower on Sunday and, get this.... have lunch with Willy! WOW! Yep, he's not working OT Friday so we're hanging together. What a rarity! AND we're hanging together on Saturday cos we've got our all day Antenatal class at the Hospital. Sweet {feeling my baby confidence rising already!} I will finally know stuff! Hooray! Phew {Wiping back of hand across forehead} Peabody didn't make it out before we got to go to these classes!

I had 3 major appointments this week- Ultrasound, Antenatal and Endo and all went really well so I'm quite happy! Peabody measured just slightly under average size for 32 weeks on the Ultrasound, and is approximately 1.9kg. How cool is that? We didn't see any cool shots of him/her this time at Ultrasound cos his/her face was buried down in my hip but the Sonographer did say "Oh, bub has a high nose, like you" meaning me. Poor Willy! We have already seen at the 3D ultrasound that Peabody doesn't have Willy's chin or lips, and now nose too? I hope it comes out with a full head of dark hair and almond eyes so Willy doesn't feel left out! Asian genes are supposed to be more dominant, but maybe I have freakishly dominant genes too! LOL! It's a battle- Asian v's Guilo! {giggles}

We only waited 1 hr 15mins for the antenatal appointment too, which is a recent record! Dr Jenkins said from my 34 week appt Peabody will have a foetal Cardiocatography (I think it's like a baby ECG to measure heart rate and other stuff) every week. Should be interesting! Yet another side of Peabody we'll get to experience before he/she is out!

And then at my Endo appt today I got 2 thumbs up for my GHB (3 monthly average sugar measurement) so all is on track :) Happy days {happy dancing on the spot}. So I celebrated with a large Big Mac meal, a glass of champagne and an entire chocolate cake. Hahaha... I joke! (But part of me would like to polish all that off!)

I am super looking forward to my baby shower on Sunday! I asked my friend who took my Kitchen Tea pics if he could take more pics but he's got a church meeting on and can't come.... so bring your camera's people, I will be expecting some good shots!

:)C