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!

It's only bloody Christmas!

Today, at precisely 11.45am and 0 seconds, it finally started to feel like Christmas around here.

And why you might ask? Because I finished work for the holidays! Gingerbread biscuits and Roses chocolates have been consumed, hot chocolate has been drunk, presents have been wrapped and Christmas music has been played.

IT'S OFFICIALLY CHRISTMAS TIME Y'ALL!

Hot chocolate and gingerbread biscuit break after present wrapping.

My crochet snowflakes that still have not been made in to a garland and I fear, probably won't be.

My tree!

Roses chocolates, obligatory Christmas treats.

And my favourite card  that we received. Although technically, it isn't actually ours. Every year we get a card for a couple who lived here years and years ago. They never have a fowarding address on them so we have no way to let the senders know that they've moved on. But I fell in love with this card and so we've kept it. 

Happy Christmas Eve, Eve everyone!

4 Simple Goals

-1-

Finish all the sewing assignments in my course.

This was outstanding at the start of the month, but I actually completed this last week so I'm already on track!  

-2-

Finish re-vamping my crafting corner

This task has been on my list since forever, it's time to get it done and I'm so close!

-3-

Start exercising regularly  

I'm currently suffering from pelvic pain due the pregnancy so some gentle exercise is needed to help keep the worst at bay.

-4-

Make a bigger shelter for the chickens

Poor chooks. The one Dan made for them a couple of months ago is too small so they don't use it. It's time for an upgrade.

And for those who are curious, this is how I got on with last month's goals..

1. Drink more 

I failed miserably at this. I'm really trying for Pip's sake, but I've never been very good at drinking enough water at the best of times so it's proving to be something of a challenge. I had been doing well with fruity teas, but then they started giving me heartburn which has made things more difficult. I'm not giving up though!

2. Complete 3 assignments

Almost completed. I completed two, but got hopelessly confused with the last one so I was still struggling with it by the end of November. Still, it was a good effort.

3. Start making Christmas cards

I did! However, I didn't actually, finish any of them! The idea was to crochet a snowflake to stick on the front of each card that could then be removed to use as a tree decoration. I got as far as making the snowflakes before stumbling across an old pack of cards from last year in amongst a box of other tree decorations and deciding to use those instead. 

The snowflakes will now be used to make a Christmas garland which I will be posting about shortly.

4. Start making Christmas presents

Nope. I didn't even make a start on this one. I thought about it a couple of times. But that's it.

So in short, November's goals were a complete flop. However I am determined to do better this month. DETERMINED.

Just you wait and see..

Bump update - 6 months

I meant to post this last week, but as has been the way this entire year, life got in the way.

Not a lot has changed since last month bump-wise apart from the size of my gut. I never think I look that big until I catch a glance at my profile and have a "who ate all the pies?" moment.

I've also decided that while some mother's to be love every moment of being pregnant and could do it again and again and again, I'm not one of them. I love that Pip's doing her thing and seems happy and healthy in there. I so can't wait to meet her, but I think I will be happier when she's here and I can have my body back. Before I get shot down in flames, this has nothing to do with me getting bigger, I've no problem with that one.
It's the lack of mobility that's I'm having problems coming to terms with. I start to ache if I sit down too long, if I stand up too long, if I walk about too much, if I do too much, if I don't walk about enough or do enough. It's ridiculous.
I can't bend down anymore, getting off the sofa involves shuffling my bum to the edge and then heaving myself out, I also can't seem get in or out of the car without making some kind of involuntary "ooompf" noise and I can almost feel what I fear is the start of a waddle.

Also, braxton hicks contractions. I do not like the feeling at all. AT. ALL. They're totally painless, but it's an odd sensation to have what feels like your whole abdomen turn to lead and then back to squidge again. It almost feels like the baby is rolling slowly around in your gut and without exception, I will need the loo after I've had one, even if I only went two minutes previously. Yeah, I'm not a fan.

One part however, one very big part remains to be very, very cool and that's Pip herself. Feeling her kick is just awesome. It's like having a little friend around with me all the time keeping me company at work, in the car, even as I'm typing this.
Her kicks are getting stronger too and Dan's felt and seen them now which is just ace. I still have my freak outs about her arriving. Will I be any good at this? Will I be the first to drop her on her head? What if I leave her at the shops or sit on her or something? I have been assured that babies bounce so I'm counting on that to be true.

On a serious note, I don't want anyone to think that I'm not happy or grateful for what I have here. I am, more than I can put in to words. It's just all so very strange and I want to document exactly how I feel about the experience so that I don't forget in years to come. That includes the stuff that I don't like so much. Pregnancy isn't just about loving your unborn kidlet, there is plenty to be grumpy about and damn it, I've earned the right to be as grumpy as the next mother to be. And I am. Sometimes. As anyone who follows me on Twitter can testify!

My latest ear crush

That is, my ears have a new crush, not I have a crush on this guy's ears. Anyhoo..this song is called The Fear, it's sung by a blokey called Ben Howard and I'm a wee bit obsessed with it at the moment. 

He's playing in Bristol at the end of February and I'm thinking of going. I'll be due a couple of weeks later though so will be pretty mahoosive by then. But we've been to the venue before and there plenty of places where I could safely stand and watch while getting a decent view at the same time so maybe..

And I'm rambling again. It really is a great song, if you play it, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. 

x

4 Simple Goals, the return!

So I think the last time I did one of these was in October last year..some time ago!

I really enjoyed having these smaller goals to aim towards, but what killed it for me was having a deadline that was too far away. I either forgot what my goals were or forgot to do them. So this time, I'm going for monthly goals. Much easier to keep track of. And the goals above will also help me complete my Winter List so even better!

Bump update - 5 months

Please ignore the McDonald's fries. I only had a few of the husband's...promise!

I'm 21 weeks now, half way there and finally I'm starting to feel properly pregnant. It may seem odd that it's taken me this long, but until we got the all clear following last week's scan, it kind of felt as though this pregnancy wasn't really real, as if I was just playing at it or something.
Now however, I feel as though there is definitely going to be an actual little person at the end of all this. Something which has me been both grinning with excitement and quietly freaking out in equal measure.

So here's the second and last scan photo of Pip. The next time I post a picture of her will be after she's born. That's right, I said "she". Pip's a girl! Just as I thought I might add, which meant Dan lost the bet and had to buy Chinese for dinner.
I had crispy aromatic duck. It was lush.

We have a name for her, but we're keeping it a secret for now. I already can't imagine her being called anything else so I don't want to risk it being ruined by someone telling me how they once had a friend with a young girl called the same thing who then went on to become an axe wielding murderer or something daft.

Probably the best thing so far has been feeling her kick. It's nice to get a daily reminder that she's really in there and not something I've just made up!
It also makes all the little niggles worth while. Needing the loo 15 times in an hour, itchy belly, instant heartburn after eating chocolate (SO not impressed with that one), back ache, tiredness that hits at 2.30pm every day and almost constant gas. Yup.

Oh my god and did I mention that my girl likes to skank! For those who aren't sure what I'm talking about, it's  this..or a version of it at any rate!

She is totally awesome already.

Evil cat is coming for you!

This cat has nothing to do with anything by the way. I just like him.

Oh my gosh, you know those days when you find yourself trying to decide whether to bang your head against a brick wall or just burst into tears? Well I've had four days like that so far. FOUR. And folks, I'm so tired. I'm pleased to say though that I have neither inflicted a brick wall upon my head nor shed a tear, but it's been close!

Those of you who follow me on Twitter will already know that I'm doing a dressmaking course. You will also know that it is not going well. Not at all.

The problems start whenever I have to complete an assignment at the end of a section. The assignments are shall we say, not written for beginners. Actually I'd go to far as to say that they're not written for accomplished sewers either, but I won't bore you with the details. Let's just say they're stupid and I want to beat the person who put the course together with a soggy bog brush.

Looking on the bright side, tomorrow we have our 20 week scan...this one's the biggy. It's the one where we'll find out the flavour (yay!) and will see if everything is as it should be (eep!).

Yet another bright side, not at all related to dressmaking courses or anomaly scans, is that I have a tub of Ben & Jerry's ice cream in the freezer. And it's calling my name..

Lazing on a sunny afternoon...or not

Today was gorgeous wasn't it? Sunny and warm, but with a slight nip in the air just to remind you that it was autumn. I decided to make the most of the weather by doing something that would help me move closer to crossing off not just one, but two things from my Winter List.

• Move chickens off garden and create a more 'winter friendly' space for them.
• Prepare garden ready for winter.

I've moved the chickens to the side of the house where it's paved which will hopefully make them more comfortable during the winter months. There are still one or two things to do before I'll consider it a more "winter friendly" space though so I'm not quite done with this task yet.

The other thing I did was to remove the chicken run from the garden as it was in a hell of a state. The grass that you can see in the picture above has long gone. Now it's full of ruts and holes where the chickens have been digging. Also, the ground is so compressed that it no longer drains properly when it rains. This does not make for happy hens.

This is what it looked like first thing this morning..

And this is what it looked like before I came in this evening..

I can't tell you how good it felt to rip down all that netting! All we need to do now is level off the ground and aerate it so that it starts draining again. 

But that will be a job for another weekend because I'm pooped!

Time for a new list..

Every year I make myself a list of things to do before winter arrives, this was my list from last year. It's something of a ritual I suppose. Something that gets me in the right frame of mind for the colder and darker days. 

This year however things are slightly different. A lot of the stuff on lists gone by have been simple house and garden maintenance jobs. There will be no conker collecting to deter spiders this year either. They work a treat, but I was still finding them under the sofa and behind the oven as recently as last month so spiders be damned. Instead, most of the list will be DIY jobs that we've been putting off for ages, but now need to get done before the baby arrives. So here goes my Winter List, 2011 style..

1. Add fence to front of house 
2. Get crafting corner sorted 
3. Fix kitchen wall that I buggered up
4. Get Dan to finish tidying tile grouting in the kitchen 
5. Paint hallway
6. Move chickens off garden and create a more 'winter friendly' space for them. 
7. Prepare garden ready for the winter
8. Make/buy a door curtain for front door
9. Make a curtain for the bedroom 
10. Finish dress making course by Christmas
11. Make a draft excluder for the living room
12. Add winter stuff to car (de-icer, cover for windows, blanket etc)
13. Put summer clothes in attic and bring down the winter gear
14. Buy a maternity winter coat that a) does not cost a small fortune and b) does not resemble a kid's duffel coat
15. Fix crochet blanket
16. Make a snood
17. Make Christmas presents, cards and decorations

See? It's a much smaller list this year and I've already made a start too! My summer clothes were packed away in to the attic and my winter clothes brought down at the start of September so I considered myself to have gotten off to a grand start.

Good job then that we're not experiencing some sort of mini heatwave that calls for flip flops and summer dresses.

Hang on a minute..

So it's autumn

I'm still finding it rather surreal that I've missed an entire season from my blog and I confess I'm finding it rather hard to find my feet again.

When I signed off things were growing in the garden. My pumpkins were teeny tiny and now look at them!
Unfortunately I have no photos of anything I did during the summer as I was either feeling too gross, moaning about feeling gross or sleeping.

That said things are back to normal now and just in time too. Autumn is my favourite season and I intend to squeeze every last drop of autumnal goodness out of it that I can. Pumpkin pies, hot chocolates, walks in the woods, candles, curling up on the sofa with knitting. The works.

In fact I think I'm going to start by curling up on the sofa with a hot chocolate in hand and The Princess Bride on the telly box. Oh yes.

I'm back!

Oh my gosh, the last time I posted it was the middle of summer. That seems like such a long, long time ago.

However, I can now reveal the reason for my absence..

Now I know they say that life happens when you're busy making other plans, but this is ridiculous! Dan and I didn't even think we could have kids so this was something of a surprise.

I guess the funniest thing about it all is that yet again, plans of setting up my own business are having to be temporarily shelved. This time however, I don't mind one bit. It's not a dream I'll ever give up on and I know I will make it will happen one day.

So that's my little bit of news. How is everyone? Did you all enjoy your summers?

Kim x

Time Out

Source

I know this post was supposed to be a run down of my camping trip, but instead it's me saying goodbye for a little while I'm afraid. 

Things have gotten a little crazy over at my neck of the woods and I need to simplify my life a little. It won't be for long, I'll definitely be back. I love this blog to much to do a permanent runner. I'll still be reading my blogs though, I can't go completely cold turkey.

See you soon guys. Enjoy the sunshine!

Unorganised

ARGH! We're off camping today and I had a plan of making some bunting and writing a post about it today. Then life got in the way and well, let's just say that there is no bunting to take pictures of.

In fact I have to hold up my hand and confess that I have nothing note worthy to share with you all today. So instead I shall offer you my best puppy dog face and apologise. Things will be back to normal next week, but right now I need to stop drinking coffee and get our stuff together! Dan and I have a reputation for forgetting our tent or something from the tent which has seen us having to buy a new one at the eleventh hour. I have sworn that we will NOT be doing that again so I have a list and I need to start checking it.

Have a lovely weekend folks and I promise I will be back with some photos of the camping trip next week.

Kim x

My current smiles

Today I thought I'd share some of the things that are making me happy right now. I really enjoy putting together these posts, they make me feel all buzzy and grateful for the things that I have. 

Reaping the rewards of my hard work..the good courgettes! However, there is also a pile of bad courgettes though. Not so great. 

Now guess which one is mine and which one is a Sainsbury's courgette.

My two current favourite nail varnishes in the whole wide world..mix 'em up and you get..

..a little mini universe at the tip of each finger!

My new best friend. I am ripping up all my old clothes and working out how they work and then trying to put them back together again. So much fun!

My garden. This is my favourite place to be after work. Except when it's cold or wet. Then it's not so great.

What I did yesterday

We went to visit Dan's family this weekend to celebrate his sister-in-law's 40th birthday so I thought I would point my camera phone at everything and take you all on a journey with me. A journey that involves cupcakes, pie and mash, some alcohol, silly dancing and a lot of tarmac. Here we go..

Driving out of Bath, s'cuse the mucky windows. 

Couldn't resist.

 And then on to the motorway..

And another motorway..

And yet more motorway. Yes, I was bored by this point.

And then for a late lunch!

Dan posted a picture of his pie and mash on Facebook. The reaction of his friends from Bath went along the lines of "what the hell is that??"

The photo above is mine, this one is Dan's, (I'm not that greedy). For those who haven't seen it before, the green sauce is called liquor and is basically a type of parsley sauce. I had my doubts the first time I saw it, being a traditional pie and gravy girl, but it's actually quite lush.

After being fed, watered and rested, we then got ready for the party.

The cupcakes Dan's niece's made. VERY nice. I won't post the photo of the cupcake his brother made though. It's not that kind of blog.

Yoink and yum.

Dan's aunt and uncle enjoying a little smoochy dance when they thought no one was looking. A ha!

That's where the photo's stopped, so the next one is from earlier this morning. Dan found this old Chelsea football club mug in the back of his mum's kitchen cupboards. It's now sat in our kitchen cupboard. Apparently he's bored of drinking out of my girly cups.

Back on the motorway, homeward bound.

And then finally home to sit in the sun with cats and chickens.