It was a very good year

As it's the end of 2011 I thought it would be nice to go through my blog and take a look back over the past year. And I'm so glad I did as I'm quite surprised by what I've learnt.

At the start of 2011 I felt well and truly stuck in a rut, but with no clue as to what was causing it or what I wanted to do to change things. There was a lot of moaning done about the weather and the dark winter days. On the bright side, we did get to see Band of Horses play in Bristol and it remains to be the best gig we went to during 2011. So beautiful.

Spring saw optimism start to creep back into my blog. I got my chickens (finally!) and finished a granny square blanket that I'd been working on for nearly two years. It was a small achievement, but one that I was proud of nonetheless. 

I also started missing my old business and desperately wanted to start it up again. I had a vague plan in mind, but nothing solid.

After taking part in a craft fair and selling off my old stock I set about making some new items for the shop.

However, my vague plan had remained just that, so by mid-summer they had soon sold out and unfortunately the shop has remained empty ever since.

We got the chance to go to Glastonbury at the last minute (I became Stephanie Kitchen for the day), started making plans for a road trip across America and enjoyed a cracking camping weekend with friends.

It was after this camping trip that I made the rather surprising discovery that I was pregnant. Without going in to it too much, the start of the pregnancy was pretty stressful. That along with the usual nausea and tiredness meant that I had no energy or desire to do anything, so I took a break from many things, including this blog.

By the autumn the dreaded first trimester was over, the pregnancy stresses were thankfully no longer an issue and so I returned with renewed energy.
However, regular readers may have noticed that despite the renewed energy, I have been posting a lot less since then. The reason for this was a dressmaking course which I started in September.

So far, I've completed nine out of eleven assignments. With only two more assignments and the final examination left to go, I'm well I'm on track to have it all done and dusted long before Pip arrives *touch wood!*

As well as working on the various assignments, I've also been working through a massive 'to do list' which I frequently refer to as, The Beast List. 

Basically I took all my other existing lists, the winter list, the New Year list, the things to do before Pip arrives list and merged them altogether to create the mother of all lists, The Beast List!
It's taking some time as it has over 70 items on it, but we're getting there.

And this pretty much brings us up to date. It's been an odd year really. Not a great deal has happened and yet, so much has changed.

And what have I learnt from it?

Well lesson one clearly has to be that I have a problem when it comes to making lists! I really ought to stick to one main list and then daily to do lists rather than have four or five on the go. That way I might actually get to complete one of them and stop myself from feeling stressed out for not achieving anything despite being constantly busy.

Lesson two would be to take more photos. Not just photos for this blog, but of my day to day life too. It doesn't matter if the weather is miserable, if the house is a mess or if I have spots on my face. One of the photos I included above was taken by Dan during the summer when I was two months pregnant. I'm sat at the bottom of the garden feeling sorry for myself. I felt awful and was unhappy that there were so many things I wanted to do, but just couldn't. That may not sound like a moment you'd want to remember, but when I found it, I spent a good few minutes staring at it, recalling how it felt and remembering things I'd already clean forgotten about. All because of the power of photography. So there you have it, lesson two is that you should always take photos of your life. The good, the bad, and the spotty.

Lesson three would be to go easier on myself when it comes to setting goals. I'm a big goal setter and to give myself a little credit, if there's something I really want to achieve, I will usually succeed eventually.
However I almost always underestimate how long something will take, or I will set my sights too high and make my goals too ambitious and I will always, without a shadow of a doubt, forget to allow myself any time to relax and do other things. All that leads me to feel burnt out pretty quickly and again, as with the to do lists, I end up feeling stressed out when I try (and fail) to get everything done in time to meet the deadlines I've set myself.

So in short, 2011 has taught me to make my to do lists shorter, take photos of everything and make my goals a little more realistic.

2012 has got it's work cut out to beat this one and I can't wait to see what it has in store. The good, the bad and yup, you guessed it.

The downright spotty!

Seed to Pie - The Conclusion. Sort of.

So at the start of the year I had this grand idea that I would document the life of a pumpkin, from seed, to plant, to pie, to face. That was the plan. Everything went as it should, the seed sprouted, it grew, it produced pumpkins, which I then made in to a couple of pies and of course there was no issue with the applying to face part. It was the documenting part that didn't quite go to plan.

The reason? I'm rubbish, simple as that folks.

So here you go, the last instalment in the seed to pie process. Where are the photos of the pie you might ask? Well, there are none I'm afraid, it comes back to the whole me being rubbish thing I mentioned earlier. Below are the only two photos I did remember to take when I started baking the pumpkins.

I know, thrilling right? I think it's fair to say that this idea was a bit of a non starter!

The pie tasted bloody good though.

Christmas sneak peek

Home is where the heart is and my heart lives behind this front door.

Early morning driving

Christmas Day carnage at the In-Laws..our tree is better

Surprise gift from Dan. Didn't even know it existed, but I love it. And yes, it's as twee as it looks!

Dan's mum stocked up on my favourite sweets because she's ace.

My current view when I look down. I'm fairly sure it's about 30% baby, 20% turkey and 50% Refreshers by now.

This little beauty is a praline and cream latte from Costa. I'm getting as many of them in while I can. 

And don't worry, it's decaff. 

Now we are home and I'm looking forward to enjoying the rest of the Christmas holiday. 

I hope you all had a good one! x

Bump update - 7 months

One more sleep 'til Christmas!!!

Today I hit the 7 month mark which means another bump post. I know I only posted the 6 month update recently, but I'm determined to do them on time from now on which will mean only one a month.

And hopefully more non-baby related posts in between too!

I forgot to mention in my last post that at 24 weeks, Pip became legally viable. That means that if she were to be born now, she would have a good chance of surviving despite being early. Obviously I don't want her going anywhere for some time as she's still got a fair bit of cooking to do, but it's reassuring to know that my girl has made it this far - keep it up little Piposa.

The most bizarre change I've noticed at this stage compared with last month is that I am not so grumpy with the pregnancy now. And thank god! This is despite being bigger, clumsier and less able to move around than before. I think perhaps it's easier now because I've found ways of keeping the worst of the pelvic pain to a minimum. That pain really got me down with how constant it was so to have some relief from it now is, well it's just that, a relief! And it's left me free to enjoy the pregnancy more, like I ought to be.

I am huge though! I now have to put cream on my belly day and night as it itches all the time. The itching is caused by the stretching skin apparently. Nice. No stretch marks yet although I've been told that these can come right after you've given birth instead so we'll just have to wait and see with that one!

I also can't eat regular sized meals anymore because there's less space in there for it. I have to eat little and often..which suits me just fine haha!

Pip's gotten bigger two. It's not just kicks I feel now, but actual movements too. Sometimes when I lie down in bed and my belly is lying against the mattress I can even feel little hands or feet, it's crazy! I also got my first boot in the ribs last night. 

Oh and she gets scared at loud noises now too. Dan was watching football the other night and suddenly shouted really loudly which woke Pip up (she'd been still in there for a while) and I felt her whole body jolt! I then got kicked for a good half an hour after that. Nice one Daddy. 

We've also been playing her music and it's interesting to see that she seems to react to some songs more than others. I started singing Lana Del Ray's "Video Games" to her a while back as I thought it might be something that could help her sleep later on. She doesn't react much to it, (maybe that means that it works?) but if we play Ben Howard's "Old Pine" she goes nuts every time without fail. Whether this means she loves it or hates it is anyone's guess though!

Right, that's pretty much it. This was a bit of a long post full of baby gumph and for those of you who are not all about the little people I do apologise. I'm just getting this all down for myself so that I can look back in years to come and remember what each stage was like. 

And to summarise, 7 months is pretty damned awesome!