Oh happy day

Her reports from nursery every week where she spends one day read. ' Loved playing with the babies in the home corner.' If she could she'd put Seb in there and have her own real life baby.
Don't grow up too fast. I can't imagine how sad i'll be when you no longer want to play with your babies.

cloth kitty!

I want to make one of these. Bad!

Her name is Suki! Love it.

LMNOP Magazine

An online magazine worth a look. LMNOP's magazine is for hip and stylish parents and their children. A great flick through for 30 mins with a cup of tea. You won't be too tempted to buy anything as its Australian based but has some great ideas and inspiration. Issue 7 out now but previous issues available to download too...all FREE.

Happy 6 months old!

Wow! Sebby you are half a year old and how you've changed. I can't quite believe how fast it has gone. I love how much you love your big sister, watching her, touching her and smiling at her. I love how much you look like each other yet you still really look like my little boy. I love the smell of your hair and your laugh when we tickle you and today, i loved how you played peek a boo with me when you pulled the blanket off your own face. I love how much fun it is to find clothes for you after 2 years of girls clothes. And i really love how you just love your mummy and are happiest snuggled up next to me.

cute art i'm loving today

Well if this isn't the cutest! I'm loving these prints from Tollipop. Just can't decide which one to order! This has to be a winner though. Reminds me so much of Kitty and Sebby. ;')

Baby shower balloon competition

So today baby Freeland arrived. A baby girl as expected at 6lb 9oz. Congrats to the Freeland family. 3 is definitely becoming the new 2! Unfortunately my baby shower balloons that got released over a week ago with possible names may have gone too far astray ;( No response yet. Still hopeful, but i have a feeling she will named soon anyway! Feel free to offer your ideas!

Love handmade

Too cute. If this were my only Christmas present i'd be a happy gal. Of course i'd still want a full on slap up dinner with all the trimmings though! My godaughter made these and gave them out the other day but i think they are too cute to save for Christmas. Thanks BB. xx

My glass is always half full.

Seriously, positivity is catching. I think its a gift to be happy most of the time regardless of what situation you're in and i love it. It's the thing i most want to pass onto my children.

Having just discovered 'The Quiet Life of Violet' it only confirms to me that people who are positive and happy can overcome so much and Violet is surely an inspiration to us all.

and so are these. Today i feel very lucky just to have these.

Have a great day whipmeister. Sorry about the photo but i couldn't resist!! xx

Summer

Am loving the summer with the kidlets. Both of them are growing up so fast and i seem to be missing it as everyday passes. This is a reminder to pick up my camera more and worry about other stuff less. Selling my house seems to have brought out the worst in me. My creativity seems to have vanished, almost. Why is it that having to keep a tidy house means less crativity. I thrive on mess. Mess = creativity. Can someone help me cure this association?!

Roll on more big and bright beautiful sunny days. You are very loved!

And for the record:

Things to do before i'm 31.

1. Use my new sewing machine

I've started the list so now its official. More to come...

xx

The big guy

This will always be in my top 10 songs of all time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-blEgMyJwU



Shame i never got to see the big guy up close and personal and we had tickets as well. I'm sure the songs will still be around long after the sicko jokes have disappeared.

My two favourite boys

Enough said.

The dark glasses are from the ultra successful laser surgery he had the day before. Hours after we were at a BBQ on possibly the sunniest day of the year and he said he has felt absolutely no pain! Lasik it is then! Can't wait for a consultation when i am no longer a boobie milk mama!

Sorry for being a rubbish poster this week. I seem to be behind in everything at the moment but spending alot of time cutting out things from my zillion magazines in a bid to centralise all my clippings i want to keep in a couple of scrapbooks rather than keeping ALL my magazines. I am trying to streamline in preparation of moving house. Now all we have to do is sell it!
Damn you credit crunch/House slump !!

House Fever

image from livingetc.com
find the whole house here.

Hello again. I'm afraid to say i have a severe case of house fever. We have our house on the market and have unfortunately found somewhere that's a bit of a project that we'd like to buy. Only thing is we haven't sold ours and i'm already in a state of house fever.

For me this means constant scanning of new ideas, magazines, blogs to search for ways to create new and amazing rooms in my ahem...er new ( not yet house).

Bear with me on the image front as i'm having probs using images from other sites. They don't always copy due to copyright??? And i must find out how to do a flickr mosaic but until then!

I am in love with...

this table

this office space

this playhouse, which would all obviously look lush with my new walnut floors and pale walls!

More dreaming to come. It's all i do at the moment. That oh and watch the Rachel Zoe project. Gotta love it! Oh yeah...and look after my kiddies!

My photo has been published!

Yay! I was so excited to get a flickr message that one of my 'dummy' photos that i took in Stockholm last year had been chosen to appear in the new Schmap online travel guide.

Small things make me very happy!

Check it out!

My little runaway

Yes her. The not long turned 2 year old. Growing up so fast it makes me feel as if i'm in a constant state of fast forward. So fiercely independent. I honestly don't know where she gets it from.

Last week we visited a friend with some other friends who also have crazy 2 year olds. To cut it short. I thought she was playing in the garden. She wasn't. When i didn't see or hear her for a few minutes i went into the garden to search for her. It was a long garden and you can't see to the end. I was gone for 5 minutes or so. By the time i came back in the house my heart had started to race. I went to check upstairs and realised that the front door was ajar...

She was with one of the others little girls in a neighbours front garden down the road clutching toys in both hands. Two ladies were questioning them obviously trying to find out where they had come from. I bet she wouldn't even remember. It's not our house, would she remember what front door she came out of? They weren't taken aback by our dismay and horror but they didn't seem too worried either. They had just decided it was time for a little adventure of their own. Totally oblivious to danger and at the same time to fear.

After the initial anger, relief, shock...a whole whirlwind of emotion i guess i just felt sick. How our whole life could have changed in that one instant. Its a real busy road with lots of parked cars. They wouldn't have been seen. The image of her body lying in the road still comes to me at night but even worse what if they'd just disappeared without a trace? Never to be seen again?

I guess these things happen to give you a reality check. Don't take it for granted that your child can't open a front door or that someone else has locked it. Don't think they are playing in the garden, know they are. It would have been my fault and i can try ever harder to protect her under my wing but for how long i don't know.

Jeez i'm usually relaxed but now the thought of her going to the shops aged 12 on her own gives me shivers. Then again i can't be the one that aged 18 is still driving her to School because i don't want her to get a bus. When does your responsibility stop and theirs start? Not sure anyone really knows the answer but i guess one day i'm going to find out. Let's just hope there's no more adventure escapes for quite some time.

PS. Thank you God! You kept her safe. There's a chocolate brownie point waiting for you at my house. x

Happy Birthday Lulu!

Hoping i look as good at 37 as you do! Have a good year gorgeous! xx

This is your present. Just waiting for it to arrive! I think this says a lot about you at the moment!

I have a dream...and it involves BIG sunglasses

Loving these Dirty Dogs!
I'm so jealous. Nick went and had a consultation for laser eye surgery today and is booked in to have his eyes fixed later this month. I would love to be able to wear a big fat pair of these. My eyesight has been getting progressively worse and i seem to wear glasses all the time now. It doesn't bother me until the sun shines and then it makes me crazy! For some reason, my prescription and sun glasses don't mix, unless you like the teeny weeny styles that let in all the light and are totally useless anyway. Because even with the thinning my lenses remain big and heavy and bulbous and not suitable for large or rounded shapes. Darn fashion!

Anyway, I will continue with my dream to wear normal sunglasses until after i have finished feeding my babe (can't have surgery til after this time as your prescription changes after having a baby...hormones again!) Maybe i'll just take the plunge and get used to sticking my fingers in my eye and go ahead and try out those contacts everyone has been wearing for years!

Happiness is...

My favourite Emma Bridgewater cup. Oh so true!

I love my boy

I love this photo. He looks a bit annoyed, probably because i stripped him off and put him on a fluffy rug that got in his mouth so that me and my friend Erika could takes some cute pics of him at 8 weeks. This weekend he was 12 weeks old and i realised how much i love him. Takes a while to kick in and be real sometimes. But how could i resist?

Not that i was ever disappointed but surprised. He wasn't what i expected. I was sure he was a girl. Another girl. I had pictured 'her' and Kitty in the future, sisters just like me and mine. I had grown up with all girls, all girl cousins and had lived with me and my mum and my sister. I think the only thing i couldn't wrap my head around was that Kitty did not have a sister but i hadn't considered what she would gain from having a brother.

I'm so pleased he belongs to me, well really more that i belong to him. (If you have read Amy Bloom's novel 'Away' you'll understand why i put it like that.)

Sometimes great expectations can be better when they are not exactly what you are expecting.

Fifty people one question.

Sorry for the absence. I've been busy.

But mostly I've been totally blown away watching these. It's better than TV any day.
I don't know why I find it so amazing or emotional for that reason. Maybe its the answers it evokes insides me. Whatever it is i find it fascinating. Absolutely blindingly riveting. The way we all have different priorites and thoughts.

The question they asked 'what would you like to happen by the end of today' in New Orleans was the one that got to me the most. Go take a look.

What's your answer?

Unravelling

Tell me, what is it you plan to do

with your one wild and precious life?

~ Mary Oliver

I'm very excited to say that in the spirit of self discovery and a love of photography I have been prompted by sfgirlbybay and Bliss to sign up for an online course. I'm slightly scared about the possibilities of what I have let myself in for but mostly excited. It feels good to commit to doing something positive in your life to move you on out of your comfort zone. For me it will also focus my mind on sorting out my old photos before I start taking too many new ones and that's got to be a good thing. More focus, less procrastinating!

;)

Happy Easter

Although i am not too fond of clucking hens (irrational fear of having my face pecked or feet or well anything pecked off really!) I do love eggs.

Easter Sunday we had a delicious brekkie of scrambled eggs and bacon on toast. I have then continued in my love of eggs ever since, chocolate eggs. Cadbury's have a lot to answer for!
It's not wrong to eat your childrens AND your friends children's eggs is it? Oops!

I'm going to miss those hats!

Hello warmer weather. We welcome you here in England. We crave you, your gorgeous light through our windows and sun warming our face. I want to bathe in your beauty. Do me a favour and stick around for a while. Please.


But boy am i going to miss those hats. It's one of her favourite things to wear. She loves to wear wellies and she loves a cosy hat. I only wished I looked as cute as her in mine.

All the best nights out are those unplanned

Hope you had a great weekend. Mine was totally unplanned and fabulous and ended up in a totally random crazy night out with an old friend whilst the boys stayed in to look after the babes. Not sure quite how we ended up going out but it was FUN! (dodgy phone pics always show a good night!)

I now feel youthful and teenlike and in love. My hubby let me lie in and sorted out the kids in the night. And let me say I am definitely thankful for small pleasures such as this. Life is great.

One of those days.

Today I have been mainly dealing with the above. I seem to have lost my sense of humour in the process, which is unlike me. One of my friends calls this a code red day. Thankfully it is nearly over. One madam and her testing two year old antics and one little boy who at 7 weeks old nearly has his first two teeth seemed also to have their code red days today, together.

What to do when you want to scream? Well scream, silently if you are in an inappropriate public place like the library of course! Then breathe and smile. It also helps if you get to see understanding friends or family to take your mind off it and remind yourself that tomorrow is another day and no one gets two code red days together.

(unless you are really unlucky.) Fingers crossed for me tomorrow.

Dummy Art

On a recent trip to Stockholm we visited Skansen Zoo and found these. An amazing array of dummies, thousands of them created into a mass work of art. Some of them were left around the zoo, fallen under bushes and spat out mid tantrum no doubt. Most of them however were donated by children giving up their habit once and for all. Someone's trash into modern art. Recycling at its finest. Long live uber cool Scandinavia. Oh and our son was conceived on this trip. Must have been something in the trees ;)