Alessi - 10 months

This kid is no longer a baby.

And we have teeth! Two of the little beauties. These are making eating so much easier for her now so we're no longer restricted to mashed and steamed stuff. These days her favourite foods are chicken, sweet peppers, dried apricots, apples and raisins - LOVES raisins. She's still not a fan of yoghurt  seems to hate banana and isn't over keen on anything sticky. Such pickiness from a girl who was eating live insects not too long ago.

As well as continuing to storm around the house like the little whirlwind that she is, she's now started talking. In her own way anyway. She knows what she's saying even if we don't, but hearing her happily babble away to herself is my new happy.

This week I returned to work. It's only two days each week, but I was worried about how Pip would be. Turns out, she loves it. There's been no tears at all, no worried looking around for me or becoming quiet and withdrawn after being thrust into a new environment. My instincts told me that she would love it, that she would thrive being with other babies, but I had thought it would take time to get there. Two days in and even more inquisitive and standing almost unaided after trying to copy some of the older children. I'm absolutely gobsmacked.
Having her being so relaxed in her new environment has been liberating for me too as I've been able to switch off mum mode for a while and just be in the office around my old work buddies without worrying myself stupid. By the end of the day I'm ready to get back to her and it's all just made me realise that while I struggled at the beginning, I'm really loving this motherhood thing now. It's kinda cool.

The work, it never gets done

I am seriously struggling to get much done these days and it's starting to make me feel pretty antsy.

I never thought for an instant that working at home and looking after a child at the same time would be easy. In fact I knew it would mean learning to be flexible, patient and sometimes accepting that there will be days when nothing gets achieved. But I didn't think that there would be times where weeks and weeks would pass without anything being achieved at all.

Ever since Pip became mobile I've found it really difficult to do anything, but I'm only really feeling the effects now.
Much of November was a write off due to colds, then it was Christmas so I gave myself a wee holiday and we've spent the majority of this month with colds again. So in all that time that she's been mobile I kept thinking that once the illnesses and Christmas were over, I could just jump straight back into it.
How wrong was I?!

A mobile baby means this: grabby little hands pulling down my pedal leads, curious fingers poking at the printer, emptying out the bin, trying to climb the mannequin and none of these things lend themselves to productive sewing time.
I've put the travel cot which doubles as a play pen (or 'baby bin' as it's known in our house), in the corner, but you only get a few minutes of peace before she starts shouting to be let out again.

That's my problem, so here's my question. How to I get stuff done?
I've come up with the following ideas and like none of them.

1) Bring in the spare TV, stick her in the baby bin, put on the TV and hope it keeps her distracted for half an hour.
I'm liking this idea about as much as I like the thought of getting another cold.

2) Move all my stuff back downstairs and sew while she sleeps.
This isn't practical for two reasons, she only sleeps for half an hour a day and she'd spend the rest of the day doing all the stuff I listed above, i.e. it's pointless.

3) Wait until Dan comes home, throw Pip at him and get busy until it's time to start getting her ready for bed. This however, would only give me about half an hour and wouldn't give Dan any time to catch his breath after his day at work so not ideal either.

Whatever the answer is, I've got to find it soon. I have so much work to do by March and time is fast running out.
Story of my life!

Eco Wood Polish

1 lemon

2 tbsp water

3 tbsp olive oil

Mix the ingredients into a spray bottle, shake well, apply to a dusting rag and you're ready to go. Here are some before and after photos which, other than a little cropping, haven't been edited.

BEFORE

AFTER

Bish, bash bosh. The amount that this makes was enough to polish my tv unit and coffee table. It's so easy to throw together so I only make the polish up as and when I need it, also I'm really not sure how long it keeps for.

As you can tell from my 'before' photo, sometimes a fair amount of time can go by between polishings!

Resolutions

1. Officially start my own business

    I've proven to myself that I have what it takes so no excuses.

2. Learn to play the guitar

    Even if it's just a little bit.

3. Decorate the blank walls in the house

    There are too many in this house and I like pretty things to look at.

4. Stop dressing like a tramp

    All my clothes are faded, worn or have holes in. This really isn't an exaggeration.

5. Take photos of every day things. Regardless of mess, weather or mood

    It turns out that I like looking back on all of my year, even the messy bits.

6. Start altering clothes

    I like the idea of buying second hand and putting my own mark on them.

7. Aim to make 5 tutorials this year for the blog

    I love this as a way of sharing ideas with people so I'd like to give it a go.

8. Make a few items of clothes for myself

See number 4. Also, why the hell not? It's a perk of the job.

9. Make more time for me and Dan

    I hate the term "date night", but regardless we need something like that.

10. Keep life simple

      This is when I'm happiest.