Looking Back

Today I've been going through my photographs from last year (looking for a specific one for my sister which turned out I took it in 2011, so not last year at all) and I realised there's lots of things I didn't record in my blogging absence.

Some of things we got up to included visiting the Giant Pandas, Tian Tian & Yang Guang at Edinburgh Zoo

(Tian Tian, the female Panda, not really wanting to seeing anyone)

(Yang, Guang, the male, chilling!)

The male Panda was hilarious, this was the most animated he got - hanging over the side of his bed!!

We saw the Olympic torch as it went through our town (it's a rubbish photo - I realised too late I was on the wrong side of the street!)

Euan had a fairly impressive (if I do say so myself!) Pirate birthday cake

That's all for now!  I'll catch up on what else we got up to another time.

All about the Dude

Life is a whirlwind of nappies, feeding, cooking, washing and many other delightful household chores at the moment, seriously feels like if I blink another day goes by!  I once read someone say they were in the 'happy phase of sleep deprivation' - I can't say I'm happy about the lack of sleep but I do love the little moments in the middle of the night when it's just me and my little Moo Moo.

I'm also very happy that in the middle of all the chaos I've managed to get the Dude's quilt finished. 

I'm rubbish with proper details but the size is roughly a decent kid's lap quilt, not as big as a single bed quilt but good enough to sleep under when it's hot.  I'm also rubbish at remembering what material it is - my excuse is that I've had it for AGES so even if I did know it, I've forgotten it by now (my shocking memory is a source of many jokes for my dearest husband!), but I've loving the binding fabric, which was a gift from my sister - really cool paw prints in black and white.

After the Dude's quilt got my mojo, mojo'ing I also made up one of the blocks for my scrappy round the world quilt, just to give me an idea of how it's going to look.

It is very scrappy and is a combination of pinks, greens, yellows and some blues - the materials are mostly ones I've been gifted/acquired/stashed over the years but never actually done anything constructive with until now.  It's going to one of those quilts that you either love or hate I think by the time it's finished but I like that.  I'm cool with fugly stuff :)  So one block down, 23 more to go!!!

The last few days has also been busy/tiring due to No1 son coming down with good old chickenpox.  I noticed a couple of tell-tale blistered spots as he has getting ready to go to his new gymnastics class on Saturday morning (typically it only started the week before) and decided we'd be best not to go.  So Saturday morning he looked like this (one little spot on the side of his nose)

this was the poor little guy on Monday - miserable is an understatement!

I had the 'pox when I was 5 (on my summer holidays I seem to recall) and I've still got the scars to prove it but I don't remember having as many spots has he has, particularly on his scalp.  But we seem to be over the worst of it, he was running about outside as his Granda's today so that is a positive sign that he's feeling more like himself.

Normal service ....

... is slowly being resumed!  I can hardly believe that our little girl has been here for 8 weeks, those have definitely been the quickest 8 weeks of my life.  She has her own routine and we are gradually getting into a new routine which meets everyone needs.  Her longest sleep seems to be from 7/8pm until roughly 4am, which is a fantastic 8/9 hours.  However I would REALLY, REALLY love if her longest sleep was the other side of midnight through to 7/8 am.  I've tried doing a dream feed at 11pm but she still wakes at 4.30 so we're just going to have to continue our middle of the night wakings for a while longer.  But on the other hand I do get snuggly cuddles in the middle of the night and if I'm really lucky little smiles too! (she isn't smiley in this photo, but any excuse for a wee photo of my baby)

I have been slowly starting to make stuff again - yay!  Nothing exciting to begin with, more function, than frivolity, but still getting back in front of my sewing machine.  To make this lovely ............

peg bag!!  It's been on my to do list for goodness only knows how long and a new bag of pegs has been sitting in my kitchen for the same length of time.  But now it's made!  So I can hang my washing out and keep on with my peg OCD (honestly I have to use the same colour of pegs for each item of clothing - I'm weird, what can I say!).

The other thing I've started is adding the binding to a quilt I'm making for my son.  The quilt top has been a UFO, hanging about for ages (like many other things) so I've made the binding and pinned it to the quilt.  Just need to attach it now, maybe I'll get that done on Saturday night when Pedro's at work).

Loop? What loop?

I'm well out of the quilty/fabric loop, I have absolutely no idea what fabric is new/cool/'on trend' (I hate that phrase!) or indeed what is going on in terms of quilt alongs, swaps or anything these days.  My head (and life) have been full of many other things for so long that I feel like a total newbie again.

But I do a a couple of very good reasons to get back on that horse, get back into the loop.  One obviously my delectable little girl

(I'm so not over looking/taking photos of her yet!)

And secondly I was in the fortunately position a few months ago to be able to upgrade my sewing machine
so treated myself to this lovely beauty - a Janome XL 601

There are quite a few things I love about it - it's so much quieter than my old Janome, it has a top loading bobbin, it has a larger choice of stitches than my old machine (even though I'll probably only use the same 3-4!) but by far my favourite, bestest thing about it is the start/stop button!  I can't say enough about how much I love the ability to sew without using a foot pedal. It means I can sew in small spaces (handy when our office/craft roof is now a nursery) and I just find it so much easier.  Love, love, love that little button and what it can allow me to do :)

Although I have been out of the loop, one thing I have picked up on is the scrappy round the world that is doing the rounds at the moment, I think there is also a flickr group too, and to be honest I think I might have joined it but I can't actually remember.  (Yes my memory is THAT bad these days)  When I started my maternity leave I decided I would attempt to start a quilt so I went through my stash and came up with a fairly decent scrappy bundle of fabrics.  So I've made a start but that was 4/5 weeks ago, not much has been done lately but once Little Miss gets into a bit of routine at nights then maybe I'll have the odd hour or two across a week to pick it up again.

Quick things I need to tackle are a quilt for my son which only needs the binding done.  Just need to decide what fabric to go for - decisions, decisions! 

It's Been Too Long ....

since I blogged anything about what I've been doing or why I've been absent for such a long time.

Lots of things have been going on, work stuff, family stuff but mainly I've been working on a special New creation. A very special one.

Little miss Megan was born on 19 February at 6:53pm weighing in at 8lbs 4oz. She has slotted in fairly well into family life but it does feel like starting all over again in some respects. The dude is almost 4 so you kind of forget just how small newborn babies are and just what the techniques are for dealing with sleep deprivation - not quite mastered that one yet.

But she is just perfect, my family is complete and I'm one very happy (although a little tired) mummy!