Lately, pregnancy.

Well here I am. Knocked up. In the pudding club. Up duffed. Bun in the oven.

Feeling giddily excited.

There's been disbelief, excitement, a bit of feeling scared-shitless. Sleep; lots of it. Crawling into heavenly, soft, warm bed at 8.45. Toast, for too many meals a day. Tablets, taken grumpily twice a day, even when I thought I'd vomit them up again (I never did, thankfully). Constant sickiness, although mercifully not too severe. Lots of walking to relieve pelvic-ache (yup) and lots and lots of talking.

Rows of blue plastic chairs in waiting rooms, where we've waited impatiently. Painful blood tests; collapsed veins; and finally vials of blood. Then there was the scan; the relief, the wonder. Our wriggling, waving baby, crystal clear on the screen. Right there in front of us. Our baby. Squeezing my misters hand very tightly. And more recently, there's been the nerves (weird?)  and exhilaration of telling our friends and families, whose reactions have ranged from the sublime to the hilarious (but that's for another post). The relief of my employers very understanding reaction. And my slowly expanding tummy which is examined eagerly at least four times a day by my mister and I. Just to check.

But mostly, there's been magic. In my tummy. All around me. Like the almost perceptible electricity in the air around Christmas.

Bed. 

Toast. 

Crochet.

The beginnings of a baby blanket.

Scan.

Tablets. 

Belly.

I learned this trick from Peonies, so thank you Cara!

Cleverly snapped by my mister whilst we were walking.

Tiny bump! Look closely, its there somewhere. 

I don't want to wear anything apart from this dress. I need a hundred of them. Its so soft and comfortable. Where can I buy more? (this ones vintage, dammit)

So there'll probably a bit more baby talk on my blog from now on. Lord knows I have so much to talk about. But I promise not too much. Promise. 

Thank you again for all the comments on my last post. Really and truly, you're the best.  

Baby Time...

I'm very excited to say that I am pregnant! 

I'm manically busy at work (and feeling a bit sicky) but will tell you lots more soon. Thank you for all your very lovely comments so far.

P.S Whoa!

P.P.S Polaroid snapped by my sister whilst camping in Wales. Before we knew for sure. But we knew. 

Papermash stopframe animation love and my famous junk!

I love this stop frame animation, although I am rather biased. It's for Papermash, one of the loveliest shops on the internet, owned by Lynne, one of the loveliest bloggers on the internet, directed by a lovely friend of my hubs and I, and, most importantly, featuring some of my junk! I think Lynne may have been a little overwhelmed when, after she asked to borrow about 6 things, I sent over an enormous suitcase full of junk.... Anyway I can't help feeling ever so proud of my books and typewriter and tins. Hurrah!

Happy Birthday Roald

One of my favourite Roals Dahl quotes

I grew up with Roald Dahl’s stories. They were the fuel to my already rather overactive imagination. We passed long car journeys immersed in his audio books, lost in giant Peaches and Chocolate factories, George’s crazy concoctions, the horrible tales of the Twits, the terrifying vision of Miss Trunchball and Matilda’s deeply enviable magic. I read way beyond my bedtime, devouring Roald Dahl’s revolting Rhymes, Dirty Beasts, and The Giraffe, the Pelly and Me (I can still recite the song), amongst others. In fact I owe an awful lot to Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake, two of my hero’s, and cannot wait to tell their stories to my own future kidlets.

So, Happy Birthday dear Roald. And a very heart felt thank you.

What's  your favourite Roald Dahl story?

So long summer.

I know that summer is over. That for some it never really began. But allow me to indulge in one final goodbye. 

So. Back to Wales. Back to warm sun and canvas and barbecues and suncream and the tingle of water on slightly sunburned skin...

On the first day, he fell asleep in the car, a deep, red cheeked, deep breathing slumber. We carefully lifted him from the car, walked to the beach and lay him down on a blanket.  

This toddler, who is usually a bit grumpy when he wakes up, looked around and did this:

My baby half brother (the dude) and step mum - "Big sandpit!"

Pure beach joy. I doubt I will ever forget his reaction.

Ok. It's out of my system now. I'm ready for you, Autumn.


P.S, Our camera lenses have broken and there's been lots happening recently, including decorating, feeling sick and a funeral with a dramatic entrance, hence my recent lack of posts, apologies.

Nice prints and Friday

Some nice prints for you on a Friday;

Firstly this London map print by Abigail Daker from her Etsy shop:

 

I think it has a rather 70's look,  which I love. It is also very reasonably priced too.

We gave this print to Fay and family when we visited them over the bank holiday weekend. (There were also tea rooms and lie-ins and pub lunches and home cooked pies, and orchards and animals and cider and our adorable goddaughter, Florence. It was a lovely trip.)

The second print is by Paul Neicho from Print Club London. 'Ceremonial Counties of England'

A group of us gave this to Ray and her hubs to mark their move from one county to another. I love the graphic shapes of all the differnet counties and  I love that its partly educational too! But then again i'm a huge big geek.They seemed to like it anyway.

Lastly, happy Friday to you! I'm so so happy it's nearly the weekend.*butt wiggle desk dance*

Hand made book tutorial

Having now made up how to make a note book, I can foresee plenty of other excuses to make more. To congratulate someone, to wish someone a happy birthday, to deposit advice for mums-to-be or perhaps  to contain family recipe's. Or they could be given plain as notebooks for Christmas and birthday presents.

You will need

A range of different paper, cut to A5 ish size.
Very thick card (I used mount board)
Fabric for your cover (I used a blue floral linen fabric from my stash)
Embroidery thread to hold it all together
Things to decorate pages (optional)

A drill
A strong needle
Clamps
Guillotine or sharp scissors and ruler to cut the paper straight
PVA glue
Scraper (or credit card)


Firstly get together your paper. I used old envelopes, old posters, floral wrapping paper, brown paper etc. I love the look of the different papers but you might choose to use more uniform papers. Cut the pieces roughly the same size, A5ish. Then decorate your pages, if you want too.I doodled on them and used my Japanese masking tape.

Next, make your cover. Cut out two thick pieces of card, 3cm's bigger than your paper.

Find a piece of fabric large enough to easily accommodate your card (see image below). Cut corners off fabric. It doesn't matter at this stage what the edges look like as they will be covered.

Using PVA glue, stick the card to the fabric. Its important to leave a gap between the card as this will form the spine of the book. Depending on how many pages your book will have you will need to leave more or less space between the card. Starting from the middle, use the scraper to push out any air bubbles and evenly spread the glue. The scraping bit is important otherwise it will dry with air bubbles under the fabric.

 

Now cut out two pieces of thick paper, the size of your paper. I used some vintage wallpaper from my stash. Stick this in the inside cover using PVA glue and the same scraping technique from earlier. Let it dry.

Now secure it all together. Annoyingly we were running late by this point (!) so didn't take photo's of this next stage but I will try to explain it in detail.

Knock your paper together neatly so that the left hand long edge is together and straight. Carefully insert it in your cover, making sure the left hand edge is sitting snugly in the spine of the book.

Clamp the book together against a table top, making sure the clamps are holding the top and bottom edges against the table, rather than the side edges (the left hand edge needs to be free). Also ensure that the left hand (spine) edge of your book is hanging off the table by about a quarter. This is so that the drill can easily make it through the pages without ruining your table.  Mark 4 equal holes down the left hand edge about 2 Cm's from the edge with a pencil. Using your slimmest drill bit, drill 4 holes through the whole book.

Whilst it is still clamped, thread your needle with some thick embroidery thread. Pass the needle up from back to front and weave it in and out of the holes to hold it together. Do not pull the thread too tightly, its important to let the thread be a little loose as it means the pages are better able to open.Once your done the spine should look like this:

 And that's it. You're done. Enjoy!

I'm happy to answer any questions below.

Also thank you for your sweet comments on my last post. I should clarify that Ray has only moved an hour and a half away, so I'm being a tad dramatic. But its quite a change as we're used to them being so close. Moving day went well, their house (a whole house!) is gorgeous and spacious and I'm more than a tad jealous.