The Final Countdown

So here we are, at week 39 + 5 days. There's a very real possibility that I'll be holding a newborn within a few days. It's really quite a strange feeling. I look at Millie, and our life as is, and to suddenly throw another child in the mix? It's doing my head in.

My in-laws arrived yesterday and have spent the morning cleaning my spare room out, putting things under the house, entertaining Millie and baking banana muffins for M's playdate. I have been... well, essentially freaking out.

How will Millie cope with the new baby? How will I cope with Millie and the new baby? Will I ever sleep again? How will we ever eat meals again? What if I can't feed the new baby? (I know the answer to that one, duh.) What if? What if? What if?

I know it'll be fine. Because aside from every reassurance I can give myself, it will have to be fine. We will muddle through sleep deprivation and toddler tantrums and crayon on the backs of chairs and milk everywhere and we'll be fine. Better than fine. We'll be awesome.

So I leave you with this...



But tell me... what are your tips?

FFS Friday: I have a pink knife and an apple in my handbag.

Instead of a big long page of rants I will let you be privy to something I experienced this Tuesday. Looking back, I actually wasn't sure it was possible for someone to hit me up with every pregnant lady cliche. But it's all true, and all took place over the course of 10 minutes.

Mr S and I were in town to do some various errands and I popped M in her pram whilst Mr S went to get his eyes tested. We have not had a second cup of tea today as we left the thermos at home...

I stopped in at a jeweller to get my watch battery replaced. I've never really been there before, and I won't be back in a hurry. As soon as I walked in the door his wife offered to help with the pram (no thanks, I'm good) whilst Mr Jeweller remarked:
'Geez. Look at you!'
That should have been my DING DING DING walk out the door, but alas, I did not.

I smiled and made the requisite 'Yes, soon' noises whilst he looked at my watch. Then...
'Oh! You've already got one! I should loan you that show about the babies being born, you know? That one on SBS. About the babies getting born. It'll hurt so much you know!'

'I've already done it once.' Wan smile.

'I mean, geez, two babies? Wow, you're keen. How old's the little one?'

'19 months.' Wan smile. How long will this take?

'Geez. The second one's so different. It'll hurt and they won't sleep.'

I made small talk here with his wife about babies either eating or sleeping and how M eats anything we throw at her blah blah blah blah. Isn't this over yet? I made a snap decision at this point that I could not stand to wait to have the band adjusted as I intended. Just put a new battery in already...?

'I mean, geez, wow, it'll hurt. And two will be so hard to deal with. You know, the feeding and the sleeping. Or not sleeping he he he. Now... I'm not sure that I've got the right battery for your watch. It is a bit old, isn't it?'

'Remember, I already have a baby. I've done it before. And every baby is so different.' And my watch is gorgeous and actually not that old at all.

More small talk with his actually lovely wife about how wonderful M is.

'Oh, she's a good kid?'

'Yes.'

'Well, we had two that didn't sleep didn't we Mrs Jeweller? Good kid or not, geez.'

Wan smile. M is patiently sitting in the pram grinning at everyone walking past. It's times like this I wish I had a biter for a child.

'I don't know why you'd do it again. Geez.'

THEN...

'Besides, looks like there's TWO IN THERE, isn't there?' Buddy, I've got a pink knife and an apple in my bag. Did you really just say that?

At this point I actually glare at his wife, to which she halfheartedly tut tuts him. He finds the battery and replaces it.

'Here you go love. Oh look at you little one! Look at you sitting there! Yeah, you're in your pram aren't you? Now what's that in your mouth? What's that in your mouth?'

'She says IT'S A DUMMY.' Caps lock voice. Caps lock glare. I pay and as I turn to leave I say

'Have a good day. I'll leave you to terrify someone else now.'

And I leave their shop door open, after they've complained about how cold it is.

FFS.

And an extra FFS goes to me for not thinking clearly on the spot and what I meant to say was...
'You are an arse. Have a nice day terrorising someone else.'

BNHQ Update:

• Their dog has gotten out. Again. FFS. Thankfully we now have our yard gate closed a lot of the time as we have our beautiful deck and spend a lot of time playing soccer on it.
• When M and I were outside playing said soccer, I noticed a smallish child riding a tricycle on the road shoulder across the road. This shoulder has a dirt path less than a metre wide. Smallish child is doing three point turns, and when I gently point out 'Hey matey, there's lots of cars on the road here, it might be safer if you stay in your driveway?' I'm met with 'I can do whatever I want.' So I get out of our yard, across the highway with M on my hip, and the BN spot me coming in, and I meet them in their yard. Whilst being jumped on by two dogs I explain the situation, to which BNVisitor1 (who is the child's parent) starts screaming at him that he knows he's not allowed and oh my god he KNOWs he's not allowed and the dogs are barking and they're all screaming at each other and I just can't wait to get out of there. Now BNHQ occupants glare at me when I pull into the driveway. I'm not sorry for caring, and yes, it is us that called the police a while back. FFS.
• And seriously, enough with the idling and revving of your BNHQ cars for hours at a time. SERIOUSLY? FFS.

Baby Br... Wait, what was I saying?

In the last few weeks I've:

• Forgotten my name (this happens regularly)

Tried to check Twitter with the device in my left hand...
the television remote.

• Forgot how to use my eftpos card this week, and when the very nice man at the post office corrected me, I said somewhat indignantly 'I know!' and he said 'Do you? Really?'. Bastard. He was right.
• Tried to put my tea cup in the bathroom sink.
• Walked into countless rooms and forgotten why I was there.
• Used iCloud's 'Find my iPhone' feature more than once to locate my phone. Only to find it next to the mousepad where once clicks the mouse on 'Play Sound on iPhone' in iCloud.
• Wandered the house to find my phone, only to realise it's in my pocket.
• Told someone that I worked at '<business name> in Huonville'. They said 'Isn't that in Hobart?' I said 'No, Huonville.' 'Huh.' 'WAIT, I said Huonville? I meant Hobart. They both start with "H".' Just kill me now.
• Trailed off mid-sentence with absolutely no idea of what I was saying in the fir...
• Reminded myself that I actually need to take M out of the car when we get home, and not just wander inside myself.
• Forgotten to check my diary to see what I've written down to do so I don't forget. Yep. I know.

Sent a fantastic sewing tutorial to someone on Twitter. Sans link. Cringe.

I can't believe how badly baby brain has affected me this pregnancy. I hope it'll go away after the baby's born? Maybe?

How's your baby brain? Please tell me I'm not the only one?

Toni and David

When I was pregnant with M, Mr S and I affectionately named the Braxton Hicks contractions Toni (Braxton) & David (Hicks). Conversations between us used to go a little like
'How are Toni & David today?'
'Toni is singing her greatest hits and David is banging on about Human Rights. I mean, quite rightly so, but he's particularly vocal today.'

Thankfully, Braxton Hicks contractions end when you give birth, so I didn't need think about them for not very long at all a little while. This time around they started up EARLY. As in, from about 13 weeks. Which is manageable when one's baby isn't particularly huge, therefore the surface area for a Braxton Hicks isn't particularly huge either. But now, LORDY. Given that my baby, therefore my uterus IS particularly huge, Toni and David are very active.
'Toni will not shut up with "Un-break my heart" and David is very shouty. Very very shouty.'

Or when one hits in public people around me start to look very concerned. I have pregnancy induced asthma this time around so the squeezing of my entire middle coupled with my reduced lung capacity often has me feeling a bit pale and breathless.
'Er, are you in labour? <nervous giggle>' I'm highly tempted to say yes, just to see what they do.

So for the next few weeks Toni and David will continue to sing on loudly and bang on about human rights, and then I'll give birth. And I will make sure I will not have to think about it for a bit longer this time.

Thankful Thursday - A Night Out

You may recall my Thankful Thursday of a few weeks back. Remember the one where I wanted to find something BIG and LIFE AFFIRMING to be thankful about... but the overwhelming gratitude I felt that day was that by the time most of you read it, I had finished my last day at work and was on maternity leave.

I came home from work that day, picked up M from daycare, sat on the couch for a bit and decided there was no way I was cooking and got fish and chips for dinner. Mr S picked up a bottle of wine and we had a sip and clinked glasses towards our future.

Over the course of the next day I had three Ocular Migraines, each getting progressively worse, winding up with me lying in bed, unable to sleep but unable to open my eyes. The next day I woke up with the Headache Hangover (whee! fun times!) and as I supervised Millie's breakfast smearing of weetbix all over the dining table Mr S asked for use of the car. Sure thing. I'm not going anywhere.

Just as he left he said
'Oh! I've organised dinner for tonight! All you have to do is make sure Millie's fed by 6pm. And wear something nice.'

'Oh great!' I thought 'How lovely! He knew I wasn't feeling well and wanted to do something nice.' I spent the day pondering if we were actually going anywhere (No! Ridiculous! We can't afford that!) or were we just having a nice dinner at home (much more likely!). But still, a nice outfit was requested...

When one is 35 weeks pregnant and the size of a house, this is somewhat easier said than done.

I wore this dress, it being the only thing that isn't jeans that fits.
Also FYI L-R: Mr S, M, me & Mothership.

I even shaved my legs. That's how much of an effort I went to. Doesn't sound like much, but my Heavily Pregnant Sistas will understand. I wore this outfit and at 5.55pm decided to brush my hair, because even thought we weren't going anywhere, it would be nice to have brushed my hair more than once in a day. You know?

Mr S ambled through the door at 6pm on the dot, dressed up very handsomely. He packed Millie a bag, instructed me to get in the car, to not worry about makeup please, and just get in the car. Now.

We drove to Millie's daycarer's house, where I was instructed again to stay in the car (I'm a fusspot leaving M) and we were on our way. To dinner. In town.

It transpires that Mr S had organised this with Millie's daycarer about three weeks ago to celebrate my finishing work and have a night out by ourselves before #2 rolled up, put down their kit bag and interfered with our sleep for a period.

Mr S took me a beautiful Greek restaurant, where we stuffed ourselves full of dips and breads and olives and stunning Greek food. We then went to a bar for a drink and fancy dessert. Despite ourselves, our conversation was peppered with baby names and talk of Millie. We did manage to talk of matters other than these... eventually. A movie was contemplated... but there's a high probability I would have fallen asleep. As I demonstrated, falling asleep in the car on the way home.

Wouldn't this be a lovely well rounded blog post if there were pictures of the restaurant, a selfie of Mr S and I, a picture of our dessert (I tried, but Mr S convinced me that no one cares. He's right.) and another selfie at the end of the night? Well, no. I was too busy having fun stuffing my face with Greek dips.

I'm so grateful that Mr S took the time to organise such an event and to keep it a secret from me for so long. M's daycarer didn't breathe a word either. I'm such a lucky lady to have a Mr S in my life.

And now, as baby #2's arrival approaches with the speed of light, Mr S is being even more wonderful than normal. And that's a lot of wonderful.

What are you thankful for today?

What I Like To Read

Following on Copying Shamelessly Sarah's lead from a few weeks back, here are my favourite blogs to read.

Dear Baby G

  I have always loved Sarah's blog, and look eagerly at my feed reader to see if she's written anything new. As I've mentioned gushed previously, she's also a fantastically awesome lady who I am proud to call my friend, not just on the innernets.  What you'll find at Dear Baby G:Stories about homebirth, health issues, the cutest toddler in the WA timezone, and beautiful tales of home life and the odd recipe and craft tutorial. Sarah's your gal.

Sew Delicious

Ros is exceptionally awesome and I think one of Australia's unsung sewing bloggers. She's hilarious, her tutorials are spot on, her tutorial photographs are even more spot on, and I can't believe she's not driving around a brand new sponsored Mercedes Benz... Also a lovely lady who I call a friend. What you'll find at Sew Delicious:
Awesome tutorials for a wide variety of sewing projects, lovely link ups for sewing link parties and most recently, a hefty digest of sewing tips in her Back To {Sewing} Basics series. 

Kate Says Stuff

Kate writes such gently touching stories I'm always keen to see what's up next. Kate Says Stuff hosts the Thankful Thursday link up, which I think is such a wonderful idea to make me pause and appreciate the awesomeness in my life. She has a good proportion of guest posts that are always thought provoking and bring a quiet stillness to my life as I read. Kate also hosts lots of fantastic giveaways! And, she's absolutely lovely. What you'll find at Kate Says Stuff: Thankful Thursday, Autism information and support, stories of family life, fun giveaways and great reading.

Veggie Mama

Stacey shares the most amazing vegetarian recipes and pictures from her house in QLD. This lady can food blog, yo! I've got a few of her recipes in high rotation (Corn chowder, anyone?) and I love her even more now that we almost have twinsies for our first bubs... and we managed to get knocked up fall pregnant magically again within weeks of each other.

I love her despite her ability to be full term pregnant and hide that baby in her insides so well that if you looked closely you might wonder? Whereas I, well, I am a hippo. (but this post is not about me, obviously.)

What you'll find at Veggie Mama:

Meatless Mondays, flavour packed vegetarian food that makes you wonder 'Bacon? What bacon?' and gorgeous kid's food ideas.

Craftiness is Not Optional

I started reading CINO about a year or so ago, and it was her tutorial page that got me more confident about making kid's clothes. Jessica is also having an early November baby, so I've been following her baby tutorials with keen interest. However, she is a hand made goddess, and made an entire hand made nursery for her new baby, which is CINO baby #3, so she's even more amazing for doing this with a four year old and a two year old. (As we discussed in another post, I bought a second hand cot, a new mattress and washed some clothes. Yup. Mother of year over here. Again, this post is not about me.)
What you'll find at CINO:
Outfit a day pics, fantastic kid's clothes tutorials, stories from family life, and the life of a brilliant sewing blogger.

Parental Parody

Georgia, along with Sarah, is one of the only ladies that can make me almost choke on my tea with laughter at 6am. I love reading about her twin tornadoes, along with her other two kids who seem like the loveliest, cheekiest monkeys around. Also, next to Ros, Georgia is my #1 blog face book page commenter. What's not to love about that?
What you'll find at PP:
Laughs, and competitions to win wine. Enough said, really.

Honey, You Baked

Melina and Danni live in two different states, but used to share a workplace. Now, they share recipes and kid's activity ideas via their blog, Honey, You Baked. Melina is one of my Lady Village, but I swear I'd tell you about this blog even if Millie isn't often dressed head to toe in Miss E's handmedowns. The recipes they post are amazing, and they have the ability to make dinner look easy. I made this a few weeks ago, and I was a convert.
What you'll find at HYB:
Kid's activities, handy recipes, beautiful sweet treat blog hop posts.

Styling You

This isn't a blog I check every day, but I find myself referring to Styling You again and again. What a resource! Nikki features great product reviews and has always given me some great sneaky fashion advice on The Twitter as well.  What you'll find at Styling You: The Model and Me series, product reviews, fashion advice.

Cass Can Sew

Cass is a newer addition to my reading list, and I'm absolutely loving her blog. I found her through Sew Delicious and I'm in love her vintage op shopping bent and ability to make the CUTEST things. THE CUTEST! You need to check her Etsy shop too. What you'll find at Cass Can Sew: Great tutorials, vintage style, op shopping adventures, great recipes just like Nana used to make.
So there you have it, just a handful of my favourite blogs. I'll do another post, because there's more, but I'm tired and hippo-like and pregnant, and it's taken me a week to write this one. At the risk of never blogging again, I'll let you enjoy this list before I continue with it!

Mrs Smyth Pretends To Be Organised

This is my 'Wait... what's my name?' face. With my awesome colour coded diary.

I am exceptionally forgetful. Even more so now I'm heavily pregnant. I forgot my name a few weeks ago, and yesterday when I tried to spell out to Mr S that I would take Millie to the p-a-r-k... it came out p-r-k-a-wait-p-r-k-wait-you know what I mean. I'm unsure he'll let me forget it...

A few months ago Mr S's rotating monthly roster started getting the better of me, meaning that I kept stuffing up Millie's daycare hours as well. So I bought a new diary and some new textas and started colour coding my life. Mr S's work hours are in dark green, Millie's daycare is in orange, my to do list is in purple and I cross it all out in red. Other things are grey, blue, and the meal plan is in red. The textas are freakin' awesome to tote around - they fit in the strap of my diary and their hard case means they don't get lost/Milliefied.

I also found some ways to better organise the rest of my life.

To help me keep a visual track of where I'm up to with blogging (and often forgetting about this little beauty of a form... therefore I sometimes fall behind) I've been using this Blog Weekly Calendar from LivingLocurto.com. With a calendar on one side and a 'To do', 'Blog Parties' and 'Ideas for Next Week' on the other side of the page, it's a truly marvellous tool for a forgetful blogger like me. When I stick to it, that's when I do some great posts.

image from livinglocurto.com

Day to day I try to follow the list I write in my diary, but if I need extra nudging away from Facebook I use a Daily Schedule Form from GetButtonedUp.com.

image from getbuttonedup.com

I also have their To Do Itinerary Form printed out to sometimes help me get a better visual of my week, but I generally use my diary for this too.

I have a few printouts of the Master To Do List from Organizedhome.com for the laundry list of "to do's"that aren't freakishly urgent yet need to be noted or I will forget about it. Case in point: I know write 'Check car oil' in my diary every fortnight... or I don't do it. The last time I actually got around to doing it, months after I said I would, the car took 4L of oil. Oops. Sorry Handsome James. Thanks for not dying on the highway.

Master To Do List from Organizedhome.com

I am yet to laminate but have ready to go a few copies of the Pantry Inventory and Freezer Inventory (Freezeventory as I affectionately think of it) to stick on the pantry door and help us in our post baby haze. Remember I talked about treating your freezer as a take-out joint? Yup. This will help.

Freezeventory from organizedhome.com

Pantry Inventory from organizedhome.com

Then there's meal planning. I am a firm believer in meal planning, and writing shopping lists for meal planning. I've talked about this before, but never actually shown you my meal planner. There are HEAPS of Meal Planning printables out there, but I just didn't find one I liked. So I oh-so-quickly whipped up a fortnightly meal planner that I stick to the pantry every fortnight. We only shop weekly, but this gives me a good visual of where we're at for the next fortnight, and I can make sure we're eating precisely what I feel like cooking on any given night. Bacon and eggs for dinner? Phew. It's on there.

Mrs Smyth Meal Planner

You can download the Meal Planner and print it for yourself if you so choose. It's pretty basic but it has everything I need on it, and enough room for me to write meals for Mr S and myself, and also what M will eat if she won't have what we're having. Want it in another colour? Let me know.

I also know that there's so many oh so pretty printable planners (I know, I've spent hours looking at them) but for me, functionality is key. I realise these are all pretty plain, but they get the job done, and that's what's important for me. Design Finch has a great round up of a few pretty planners that you might like to take a squiz at.

I have a stash of these forms in a display folder that I can grab easily and get planning. I try to do our meal planning and shopping list on a Sunday so I can have a clear idea of the upcoming week.

Next in this series: my serious love of HomeRoutines.

FFS Friday - Guest Post Edition

The return of FFS Friday is brought to you by a special guest poster.

Everyone, meet Lucy the cat.

Over to you, Lucy.

I'm not one to mince words, but as I am a Lady Cat, I am polite and precise. I do not swear, my preferred cuss word is "Eff."

I have hijacked FFS Friday this week because there's a few things I need to get off my furry chest.

• Mummy is getting fatter. Again. I'm pretty sure this means that I will move down the ladder of Mummy Importance one more rung. Again. FFS.
• The fatter Mummy gets, the less patient she seems to be with me. I'm just trying to say hello at 4am sometimes. What's effing wrong with that? FFS.
• Millie is quite noisy so I often hide in my Fortress of Solitude all day, until approximately 6.50pm, when Millie is having her bottle and book before bed. I secretly enjoy a good story so I join the family on the couch for this. I try to show Millie I care by sitting on her, but she is unappreciative of my gesture. FFS.
• Millie has worked out where my Fortress of Solitude is, and Mummy and Daddy get upset when I hit her for bothering me in my Special Place. Is there no effing privacy anymore? FFS.
• I understand that Mummy often has her hands full with noisy Toddler all day, so when Millie is asleep I try to spend some quality time with Mummy. She is often on her computer, so I attempt to get her attention by systematically flicking everything off her desk and scratching the walls. I am often ejected from the desk area with force, and I just can't effing understand it, so I come back time and time again. Mummy, why don't you get it? I just want to be with you? FFS.
• I like to rejoice when all is silent in the house, and Millie is asleep. I show my joy by standing near Millie's closed door singing loudly 'Hooray! It's quiet again! Hooray!' Mummy and Daddy are not impressed with this. I mean, I hear them say 'Oh it's so nice and quiet now.' and that's all I'm doing. FFS.
• Daddy does not appreciate my slow walking in front of him when he's on his way through the house. I'm just trying to effing remind him to slow down, relax and smell the roses cuddle me. That's all. FFS.
• Sometimes I have bad dreams in the middle of the night too, or I wake up having a panic that there's no food in my bowl. There's a monster in the kitchen, so I really need someone to come and show me where my food is, and to help me check for monsters. I know that sometimes Mummy and Daddy have been up 3 or 4 times with Millie, but hey, you signed up for parenthood. 5am is a perfectly decent time. FFS.
• Mummy, if you leave your glasses on your bedside table, when I need you to wake up and show me the food, I might accidentally knock them on to the ground, or between the bed and bedside. I understand that you can't see to actually find your glasses, but your blindness is not my fault. Show me the food please and let's hunt for monsters. FFS.
• This bathroom renovation affects us all. My privacy for the toilet in the bath? EFFING GONE. My second litterbox for wee and poo segregation? EFFING GONE. And it's back now, but an extra recepticle for water in the bathroom? EFFING GONE. FFS.
• I am glad that the shower is back for me to perfect my claw-to-glass technique, and as a back up toilet, but since Daddy fixed the shower door I can't seem to get in anymore. Is there no joy left in my life? FFS.
• Lastly, Mummy, stop staying up and spending time with Daddy. Once Millie's gone to bed, you need to scram so Daddy and I can have grown up time watching TV. At least I stay awake for the movies. FFS.
• No wait, one more thing. Mummy and Daddy, please stop forgetting my effing anxiety pills from the V-E-T. It's good for no one. I know they cost a small fortune, but I'm not sorry. FFS.

Linking up with Sarah from Dear Baby G for FFS Friday. Shiny things coming soon...

And just so you know, this is systematic proof that I've lost my marbles and without Millie in my life Mr S and I would be crazy cat people. That is all.

Thankful Thursday: The Ladies in My Life

ah, yes.

Some people have their village close. As in, real life. I live 45km from the City (Hobart), and my closest village friends live 45km the other way from The City. So we're all quite a ways from each other.

Then there's my Online Village. I was just thinking about these lovely ladies today, and how much they all mean to me. Oh, pregnancy hormones, you'll start me sniffling any moment.

My Online Village falls into two groups of women. Let me start with these lovely ladies.

I met Sarah from Dear Baby G when I was heavily pregnant with Millie, and she was almost-heavily pregnant with Maggie. Since then we chat regularly on The Twitter and would furiously email back and forth (I think our record was 10 emails in 5 minutes one day) until we worked out Facebook Chat. Sarah's helped me through the crappy parts of first-year parenthood and made me smile. She and her man, HB, sent Millie gorgeous Christmas and Birthday and Just Because presents, and I do count her among one of my closest buddies. Sarah is also turning into an Uber-Blogger and I respect the way she's built her blog up over the past year or so.

Also, she drunk texts me. Respect.

I've known Melina for years, except I didn't know that I knew her. You see, back in my other life being a wage-earning musician, Melina was the very first person who ever signed up to my mailing list, and she'd faithfully buy every CD via PayPal. We then started chatting on The Twitter, and she said something one day that made me twig that she too was in the very early stages of pregnancy. So there we were. Me with my first, she with her second. We haven't really stopped talking since. Her little man O was born two days before M, and those two will perhaps get married one day. If that's what they want. I can honestly say that without Melina on the other end of the phone I would have been in endless struggletown throughout Millie's first year. 

Mel and I share many hobbies and interests and both had FurChildren before Real Children, and more than once we've realised that We Are Twins. Mel now lives 45km the other side of The City, but we seem to catch up more now. She is an Uber-Mum and I affectionately call her MacGuyMum. Who else would think to packing tape a nappy closed to ensure that the wearer stopped taking it off at night?

Ros from Sew Delicious is a newer addition to my village, but like Melina, I think she and I could be twins. Ros sews like a demon, is also an Uber-Mum to her two gorgeous girls, cake decorates like nobody's business and is such a genuinely kind and lovely person. I wish we lived closer, because I'm sure that our little girls would play destroy the joint so well together and we could drink tea and eat cake.

Stacey from Veggie Mama and I also met when we were heavily pregnant with our first babies. She lives in QLD, not far from my sister, so it was delightful to get to go and see her when I was recently in Queensland. She is also a Very Tall Lady, but seems to hide her babies even better... I present pictorial evidence to you...

Stacey is 38 weeks pregnant here. I am 32. Uhuh.
(Stacey also took this photo)

Laydeepants and I at the recent Etsy meet up in Hobart.
She kept resting her arm on The Bump, said it was comfortable.
We tried to rest a wine glass on there too, but The Bump would not co-operate.

Then there's Laydeepants. Actually, her name is Melanie, and she's the coolest cat around. I met Mel when I first moved to Tasmania. She also sews like a demon, is a way-cool community radio chick, loves live music, has some AWESOME interests, paints amazing things, and is currently riding a pushbike everywhere and training for a 10km run. We have semi-regular Laydee Days, where we craft and chat. Sometimes we just chat. Sometimes we just craft. But I luff her lots and lots.

My other Online Village is my Online Mother's Group. (I'm having a baby brain moment, should that be an apostrophe?) We all met when we were in our pregnancies for March 2011. We started on Essential Baby but none of us could work it on our phones so we switched to Facebook. These ladies rock my world. I don't have a real life mother's group, so these 38 ladies are my lifeline sometimes. I don't say much in there at present, but I read every day, and I'm always so grateful that they're there. After all, when you've got a new baby, it's highly comforting to know that there's 37 other Mums up at 3am too, and a fair chance one of them is online. We're now 18 months into our relationships with each other, and it's lovely that there's still 30-odd of us around.

I am thankful for all of these women. They are there to listen to me, and are always unwavering in their support and friendship. 

Thank you!

Linking up with Kate from Kate Says Stuff for Thankful Thursday.

Crafty Wednesday Tutorial: Wheat Bag Fun Times

When Mr S came to bed the other night and stole our one and only wheat bag off my bump he said 'Why don't you make some wheat bags? I can get the linseed from my work and it makes sense to have more than one in our house.' I knew his feet were cold and he just wanted the warm wheat bag, but I also knew that he made sense.

So behold, a tutorial for you! It is really SO straightforward and took less than an hour, including the cover. And now you've got some instructions and no baby brain, I expect it will take you even less time.

Not Wheat But Linseed Instead Bag Tutorial

YOU WILL NEED:

1 x 24inch x 13inch rectangle of calico
Approx 2kg linseeds
Your noble steed (sewing machine)
Your best sewing friend (my iron)
A ruler
A fabric marker
Chocolate brownie
Cup of tea

WHAT TO DO:

1. Fold your rectangle in half longways, so you've got a rectangle that's 12inch x 13inch. Stitch around the two short sides with a 1/4inch seam allowance, and stitch the top 2/3 closed.
   
   
2. Are you feeling pedantic? Trim corners and turn inside out. Not pedantic? Just turn it inside out.
3. Give it a light press with your iron.
4. Measure up and divide your sewn rectangle into thirds. I realised I'm crap at dividing inches into thirds, and went with the 'near enough' theory.
   
5. Have a bite of brownie and a sip of tea.
6. Sew 2/3 along your first line.
7. Using a jug/funnel/SOME directional implement and preferably OVER a bowl, pour 2 cups of linseed into your bag. Jiggle it around to make it stay in the channel. It should look a bit like this.
   
8. Push all the linseed to the bottom of the channel and finish sewing the line across.
9. Sew the next line 2/3 across and fill and sew in the same fashion.
10. When you reach your last channel, fill in carefully and sew the edge closed, ensuring that you fold the seams in as you sew. I promise you I trimmed the threads after I took this photo.
    
11. Finish your tea and enjoy your brownie!

The Cover

Millie was still asleep so I decided to make a cover for the Not Wheat But Linseed Bag.
Here's where I clearly didn't imbibe enough chocolate brownies to be entirely accurate, nor did I take any notes. I am now 35.5 weeks pregnant and it is almost a week later than when I made this and took the photos, so bear with me. Do as I say, not as photos say I did.

YOU WILL NEED

1 piece of fabric 15.5inches x 12 inches
1 piece of fabric 22 inches x 12 inches
More brownies
Another cup of tea

WHAT TO DO

1. Overlock one of the shorter edges of both your pieces.
2. On both pieces, fold over your overlocked piece and finish the seams. Alternatively you can do a rolled seam here for a neat finish.
3. Fold the finished seam edge of the 15.5inch x 12 inch piece over 6 inches to create a 'pocket'.
   
4. Place both pieces right sides together, so your 'pocket' piece is facing up.
5. Sew around using a 1/4 inch allowance.
6. Overlock/zigzag seams and trim threads.
7. Heat your Not Wheat But Linseed Bag up and pop it in the case.
8. More brownie.
9. More tea.
10. Yay!

I hope you enjoy this. It was such a quick project that's been so very useful! What are you making this week? Link your posts up below.