Totally Spoiled

Last Thursday was my birthday and I've been totally spoiled for the last four days.

I try not to work on my birthday so I booked Thurs and Friday off to make it a nice long weekend. No such thing as a lie in when you have a toddler so I was up early Thursday morning opening cards before DH went off to work. Lia and I then headed to my parents as we'd arranged for them to have Lia for the day on Saturday and I wanted to make sure she was settled in before leaving her for the day.

My Mum was good enough to buy me one of the new Michael Powell designs - Greek Village 1 which I had asked for as well as giving me some cash to spend in London. I also saw lots of family and had a nice, if quiet, day.

The main excitement was all arranged for Saturday. DH and I met in London in the morning and the first thing we did was go on one of the London Walks - we've done some of these in the past and really enjoyed them so it was nice to do our first since becoming parents. The weather on Saturday was absolutely perfect - lovely and warm for walking about but not too hot that you just want to flake out. After the walk we went to a food market near London Bridge which was amazing, the smells were enough to fill you up. Unfortunately for us we couldn't buy anything as we didn't want to carry it around London for the rest of the day but we did have a good lunch...

We then walked back from London Bridge to Covent Garden (crossing over on the Millenium Footbridge) which was quite a walk! Covent Garden Bead Shop was the destination to spend not only the cash my Mother had given me but also some of the money DH's Mother gave too (although DH wouldn't let me spend all of his mother's gift there as he'd never get her to understand how I could spend all that money on beads...)

We continued to walk around that area for about two hours - stopping for a drink in a nice, amazingly uncrowded, wine bar and then heading to get another part of my birthday gift from DH's Mother - a case for my new Ipod which was itself my gift from DH). I know I moan about my in-laws but they're good with gifts - they just send cash and I can get whatever I want!

We were booked to see Mary Poppins on Saturday evening so we were wandering around near the theatre looking for a place to eat and squabbling over what we wanted when we found a lovely little Moroccan restaurant just around the corner from the theatre. The food was very reasonably priced (£53 for both of us - three courses, wine and coffee) and it was really good. No I can't remember the name but DH got their card so I'll post it later as I'd definitely recommend it.

The final treat of the day was Mary Poppins which was amazing. I will admit that by this point we were flagging a bit given the amount of walking we'd done but the energy of the show made it impossible for us to not join in with the clapping and shouting.

So that was birthday treat and it was truly a wonderful day.

Sunday we had to drive home from my parents (a 2 hour drive) but we went to a French Market that was in town before we left and got some great food for our lunch (a picnic in the park). Last night all three of us were totally exhausted so we just ignored the housework that needed to be done and vegged out in front of the TV (well DH and I, Lia went to bed).

In addition to the above my other birthday gifts were:

Michael Powell's Cottage Garden 2 (the last part of my gift from MIL)

The Cat's Whiskers - Birds of a Feather Dilly Bag, Grandma's Thread Minder, Alyssum Scissor Pocket and Spring Fever - all of which are shown here.

Teresa Wentzler's Sun Dragon

Michael Powell's Snow Series - Church Window Chart (you can get the charts from US shops but UK shops only have the kits)

A Mon Ami Pierre's Nine Red

All that and I still have some money from my FIL to spend but I'm going to a LNS this saturday so that will probably vanish there.

See, the post title is true - I have been totally spoiled!

Babies, babies everywhere!

As you know from previous posts, I'm an Auntie to a little Greek nephew, well finally here's a picture:

You can tell he's Greek - he has sideburns already!

I'm also an 'Auntie' to another new baby who arrived on 11th April weighing 7lb 7oz and is a sister for my Godson. Here she is at just two days old:

And just so he's not left out here's the proud big brother who is two and a half:

I've had a wonderful weekend - I was due to go 'Up North' (ok Oldham - but that's very north for me LOL) for a Stitchers GTG this Saturday (14th April) which coincided nicely with my Best Mate (who lives up that way) being due to produce her baby on the 7th April. However the little tyke had other ideas and wasn't ready to come out - I was beginning to worry she'd not bother coming out to see me so I gave her a good talking to about how sensible it is to keep on the right side of Auntie Joy-Joy and she obviously took it to heart and popped out just in time.

I'm quite seriously broody so spending the weekend cuddling a brand new baby hasn't helped me get over it at all LOL.

Back to the stitching GTG - Rach was kind enough to open up her house for a few of us to get together and natter - I even managed a few stitches (but not that many). It was a great day and I finally got to meet another Stitchers little boy who, whilst still technically a baby at seven months old is rather a big boy! Still, I got some cuddles and that was the main thing.

Oh and thanks to Rach's DH who did us proud - cups of tea were served, he laid out lunch for us and was even brave enough to come out to the pub for some dinner at the end of the day (I think the lure of beer was the deciding factor).

Before I sign off I just wanted to say thanks for the nice comments about my Peacock Chair (here and on the BB's) and to say to those worried about the finishing, it's not that bad - honest! I'm a real novice when it comes to finishing things so if I can do it, anyone can.

A Peacock Chair

So here's my finished Peacock Chair in all its glory. I've spent most of this Easter weekend doing the finishing which has really helped me learn patience as there's an awful lot of work to do to finish this off!

Anyway, no more waffle, here's the pictures

The finished stitching:

The first part of the finishing:

All the pieces completed:

The finished chair from the front:

The finished chair from the back:

Single Parenting

DH left for ten days in Greece yesterday so I'm single parenting at the moment. This is only the second time I've done it for more than a day or two and the last time Lia was only five months old so it's a while ago.

I wasn't bothered about it as I'm more than capable of looking after her on my own, but what has caught me out is her constant requests for Daddy. He left last night before her bed time so when I put her to bed she kept asking for him and this morning when I'd gotten her dressed she ran into our room calling for him and then looking confused when he wasn't in the bed.

She's too little to understand if I try to explain he'll be gone for a while so I guess I'm going to have to deal with her looking for him every day. Thankfully we're off in a couple of days to spend Easter with my family so that should distract her a bit. She doesn't seem bothered that he's not around - I think it bothers me listening to her more.

So what else is going on? Well the sleeping in a real bed is having mixed success - we've got a stairgate across her door and she tends to get out of bed and lie down in the doorway next to the gate. A couple of times now we've found her there asleep and have put her back in bed - the first time I did what any normal parent would do and took photos before moving her. LOL

Oh and that's Gung-Gah she's got with her...

She doesn't cry, she just gets up and sits by the door. We deal with it by going up and telling her to get back in bed (which she does) and then leaving. Nine times out of ten she's up and out of bed again within seconds but there's no way we're going to sit with her to keep her in the bed as that will just result in a whole different set of problems.

When she's really tired she stays put but as she's still napping during the day she's often not quite tired enough. It's difficult as she still needs a daytime nap so I guess we'll just keep on till she learns. At least she's not wailing and complaining.

In other news my nephew is home with his parents and seems to be doing well. I still haven't seen a photo but DH has promised to send some asap now he's out there. I've spoken to my SIL a couple of times and she seems to be adjusting to life as a new Mum. I think she's finding it hard because she's used to there being a yes or no answer to everything (she's a lawyer) and the one thing you realise when you're a parent is that there is never a right or a wrong way to do things, you just have to make a decision as to what is best for you and the baby and go with it.

Still, he's less than two weeks old so there's plenty of time for her to adjust.

I'm still waiting on news of two more babies. One was due on 30th March and one is due 7th April. The latter is my godson's baby bro or sis and I'm so excited - somehow it is much more fun when you don't know what's coming out.

In stitching news, I'm working on Cat's Whiskers Peacock Chair. The kit arrived on Friday and I spent Friday night gridding the fabric and making a start on the stitching. I love this design and my new found confidence for finishing things is going to be tested to the max with this one.

I have two other Cat's Whiskers projects that I want to do too - Grandma's Thread Minder and The Birds of a Feather Dilly Bag and there just aren't enough hours in the day to do everything!

I've made good progress on Dimensions' Sleigh Ride:

Unfortunately all my big WIPs - Sleigh Ride, Noah's Sub and Cut Thru Igloo - have loads of blue so I get bored with them quite quickly. Still, at least I don't feel bad about focussing on the Cat's Whiskers designs instead