I Should Moan Here More Often!

Shortly after posting that last update I had an email from our Seller saying that she had instructed her Solicitor to go as fast as possible so we can meet the 6th August Completion date.

Then this morning at 5am my Great Niece Luisa Marie was born weighing 8 pounds 1 and a half ounces. Mother and baby doing just fine.

A Newsy kid of post

In which the news is that nothing much is happening...

House move - still nothing happening. Our seller is the elusive woman and all we're waiting for is her to get on with things. We're ready to Exchange with our buyer but we're waiting and waiting and waiting for the paperwork from our seller. I've emailed her again today to chase but she's not responding to us, the estate agent or her solicitor so there's only so much we can do.

DH is talking about starting to look at other properties but I'm hanging on in there for a while as we've invested quite a bit of cash in this sale and I don't want to just give up.

It's disheartening though as I'd hoped we would be in the house by now - we've already missed two potential moving dates and the third (suggested by our seller) is likely to be missed too.

Stitching - I'm going great guns on documenting my stash (the link to my stash blog can be found towards the top of the right hand menu) and it's certainly focussing me on staying on the wagon!

I've spent a lot of time making bookmarkers from a Sue Hawkins kit. I made a load last year and gave them to all the women that came to our wedding - my English SIL asked me to make some more as her friends had been admiring them so I ended up making another 19! Here's a pic of 15 of them

and here's a picture of one so you can see how they look not all tangled up!

I've also just completed Bent Creek's Snowbound stitched on a piece of the sparkly blue fabric I dyed at the Weekend GTG. I changed the colour for the snow from DMC 644 to WDW Whitewash but other than that it's as charted. Apologies for the truly awful picture, I'll try and get a better one during daylight hours

I'm currently stitching on a Tatty Teddy birth sampler for my Great Niece which is almost done - I'm just doing the backstitching which, as anyone out there who has done one of these desgins will know, is just awful!

The baby is now officially 9 days late and my Niece is showing no signs of producing anytime soon. She's had one 'stretch and sweep' and is due for another on friday if nothing has happened and an induction on Monday if the baby is still not willing to come and meet us. My poor niece is not only huge and fed up but July is birthay month in our family and she's desperately hoping that the baby doesn't end up sharing a birthday. She's missed her Mum's, her sister's is today, my brother (her Uncle, obviously) is next tuesday and her Dad is the 27th. Her BIL's is also today.

It's a family joke that we should all avoid having babies born in July or December but my niece obviously just forgot how to count. For me I have my Sister, Brother, Younger Niece, two BILs, one Step Sister and Two Nephews in July as well as the children ot two of my close friends. And of course Great-Niece whenever she decides to appear. December is DH, Elder Niece, English SIL, Step Sister and Two BILs.

I'm now determined that I'm going to have my next one in July just because it's a family tradition LOL.

In other less interesting news we bought new sofas (so we need to get in the new house by the end of September!) and we're looking to find a desk - we think we've found one but as we've only seen it in a catalogue we're going to see it IRL this weekend.

I'm eagerly awaiting the final Harry Potter book this weekend. I read the first book soon after it came out (but not soon enough to have a first edition to sell for loads of money) so was a fan before all the hype. I'm only really determined to read it asap because of all the spoilers that will be floating around. DH has promised to do childcare for the weekend (luckily he's not a reader) so I can immerse myself.

We saw the latest film last weekend and really enjoyed it. DH hasn't read the books and hasn't liked the films that much up until now but was really positive about this one. I've read a lot of comments about how much was missed out or changed but there is never, ever going to be a film of a book that is able to stick totally to the text so for me, as long as the essence of the story is the same, then the two should be enjoyed as completely separate entities. If you spend all your time looking for what's missing you're going to enjoy it less and less.

So that's about all the news from here. At the moment we're treading water until the house move is confirmed so I'm getting on with stitching as much as I can as I know there'll be much more to take up my time once that really gets moving.

A Pretty Picture

We were at a friends wedding at the weekend and my little tomboy was all dressed up!

The Good, The Bad and the Downright Frustrating...

The Good:

I love tennis. This fortnight of the year is always bliss for me as the BBC have great coverage of Wimbledon with their interactive service and DH knows that he has no chance of watching anything else. Not only that the IBM scoreboard that can be accessed through the Wimbledon Site is even better this year so even when I'm at work I can keep up with games in real time.

The Bad:

The weather. God it's awful weather here in England and whilst we thankfully live away from the worst of it, the news is full of awful pictures and stories and four people have died due to floods so far.

The Downright Frustrating:

Solicitors and Estate Agents! We've ground to a halt with our house move due to our Sellers Solicitor not having answered a request from our Solicitor first made on 1st June! We've been held back for four weeks for the want of one response - everything else is in place. Now it looks like we won't be moving till mid August, which is so frustrating. I've asked the Estate Agents to put our desired moving date of 16th July to the other two parties but given our seller needs a rocket up her a*se to do anything I can't see her agreeing.

Damn, damn, damn...

In other news I've started cataloguing my stash with the idea that seeing exactly what I have written down will scare me to not fall off the wagon. It's working so far as I'm shocked at the amount of fabric and threads I have (I've had a list of projects for a while so that's not too much of a surprise).

One final piece of niceness for this post is that the wonderful ladies who joined me on the Stitching Weekend were incredibly generous in their thanks (I did the organising) and I got four Flower Fairy Lili of the Valley Cross Stitch Kits and a £25 gift voucher for Lekker Threads!!! To say I was stunned is an understatement. I've said it elsewhere but it's worth saying again, thank you to all of your for your generosity. I used the voucher to buy four more charts and some red threads for a redwork design I want to start so my projects list has increased yet again (but at least I'm not out of pocket)

A Cracking Good Weekend

The weekend before last 17 women descended on a group of holiday cottages on the Staffs / Derby border called Dove Farm Cottages for a long weekend of stitching and nattering at it was one of the best weekends I've had in a long time.

We're all members of an online community and have met up before in smaller groups but we took a gamble that we could all survive a weekend in each other's company and it was a good gamble because we had a fantastic time.

Firstly the cottages are amazing. Clean, well equiped and in the middle of the most gorgeous countryside you can imagine. Not only that they have alpacas, one of whom was kind enough to have a baby shortly before we arrived - if you go to the website I linked to above and click to read their blog you'll see some pictures of Cocoa. We had various plans to steal him but we figured as we want to go back next year we'd better leave him behind.

As well as forays to Wye Needlecraft and a local Patchwork shop Kate from Sparklies did us proud with a floss / fabric dyeing class and I can safely say I haven't had that much fun for years. I regressed to childhood and behaved like a two year old - the immersion dyeing was good but the sponge dyeing was terrific fun. And yes, I'll admit to it being me that named a fabric colour 'basically bonkers' but in my defense Kate used the description for me first so she should take the ultimate blame.

It was late nights, too much food and not much stitching but we shared WIPs and HDs, wish lists grew and Sparklies sold about half it's stock. I did manage a small HD (pic to follow) but generally I was laughing too much to be able to stitch - 'I can't get it in the hole' was the recurring shout over the three days and yes, we were talking about needles...

One of the great things about the cottages is they come with a Seminar room big enough to house 18 people (the maximum who can stay in the three cottages) so we were able to all sit together and chat and stitch. Having said that the weather was wonderful for us and we did spend a lot of time sitting outdoors.

Anyway, we're booked again for next year and I can't wait. I'm currently trying to work out how to schedule a pregnancy around the chosen weekend LOL

Where does the time go?

On Friday 1st June my baby was 2!

Not only that the previous Sunday was our first wedding anniversary.

Here's some pics of the birthday girl:

Meeting the horses

Jumping with Mama and Grandad

I'm so grown up!

We've actually had a week away from home - four days in Brussels and then we spent some time with my family and celebrated Lia's birthday with them before heading home and having friends to stay for a couple of days. All in all I'm glad of the rest now I'm back to work LOL.

Brussels was great fun. I spent too much money but as it's more than likely our only holiday this year I don't care. Plus the budgeting will be tight after we move so I thought I'd make the most of the gorgeous toy shops and kitchen shops we found before I have to feel guilty about spending money. Lia did very well out of us, we found two amazing toy shops where I could have bought one of everything but limited myself to a set of plates, bowls and a cup, a doll, a wooden shape puzzle, a set of stackable boxes and a small dolls house. Yes I know that's a lot but most of it has been put away for her to have between now and Christmas. Plus I used some money that the Greek relatives sent for her birthday so it wasn't all from us.

She also got spoilt with presents from others. Greek Yaya sent a set of wooden animal dominoes - not like the game, animal shaped pieces that you line up in a row and knock over. I'll take a picture when we get them home (we left most of the stuff at my parents), my parents gave money for new curtains and furniture for her new room, my sister and niece bought several sets of Early Learning Centre HappyLand toys and other relatives gave money.

I also bought a few things in Brussels for our new kitchen as it was hard not to. I know we've not exchanged contracts yet but we're still heading in the right direction and I'm so excited about the space I'll have that I want to fill it with pretty new things.

Talking of the house move, the surveys have been done and all is progressing as it should although our Vendor seems to like to take her time over things. She's had two jobs - engage a solicitor and fill out some forms. Both have taken her two weeks (and that's consecutive, so four weeks in total). However, now that's done we should be able to gee up the Solicitors to get on with the sale. Our hopeful completion date is now 16th July

Coincidentally, not only has my brother already moved house this year my Mother and Step-Father are now going to be moving too. They're buying a new-build flat not far from their current house but as well as downsizing to a more managable size for two septagenarians they'll be right next to a bus route instead of a mile up a country lane.

The only downside to them moving is that now my Mother is attempting to get rid of all her junk (sorry, unwanted items) onto me. I made DH promise not to say yes to anything while we were there and I've told her she'll have to wait until we're in the house before I commit to having anything. Don't get me wrong, there's things I'm more than happy to have but until we actually live in the house we won't know for sure what we need.

I'm starting to worry about packing. How come we manage to accumulate so much junk? I'm quite glad we'll be budgeting hard in the new house as I need to use up the Stash I have before getting more (both stitching and papercraft) and I'll have to stop bringing more into the house. I'll also be gaining a new hobby of gardening so there'll be less time to devote to my other hobbies, not more.

We had several long talks about what we want from the next few years and we've got three long-term goals:

1) Pay off as much extra on the mortgage as we can
2) Do a loft conversion in the new house to make a fourth bedroom
3) Have the holiday of a lifetime to Kuala Lumpur, Oz and Disneyland

And of course, baby number two is the next work in progress after the house move.

We're lucky in that we should be able to knock several years off our mortgage by overpaying. We can't afford for me to now work right now but with me working we have spare for overpayment. I'm hoping that I may be able to drop down to part time at some point so packing extra cash into the mortgage now is a good plan. The good thing about us overpaying the mortgage is that the money comes off the capital and interest but sits separately so we can get at it if we need to.

As for the loft conversion, we need to get it priced up and then work out how long it'll take us to afford it. It's not necessary straight away but we'd like to be able to do it in around five years (cue laughter!)

Finally, the holiday is something that will be done when the kids are old enough to appreciate it so again, we're looking six or seven years in the future at least. I've always wanted to go to Oz (and was close to booking a ticket before finding out I was expecting Lia) and DH loved Kuala Lumpur when he was there in 2005 and wants to go back and take me. I added Disneyland as, if we're going that far, we may as well come back via LA and really finish off the kid's holiday in style

So, with all of those things PLUS a second baby there'll be very little spare cash floating round the Family V. This means I'm going to bow out of the 50 project challenge and go full time onto The Wagon. I've talked about it before but now it's essential. I'll just have to use birthdays and christmas for stash acquisition.

So that's you caught up with us. I'm away on a jaunt this weekend leaving DH to look after Lia for four days - it's a weekend GTG of stitchers (around 20 of us) which should be great fun. After that I'm back down staying with my parents as I'm booked on a four day course in London and they will have Lia for the days. It's useful as it means DH gets a break after exhausting himself as a sole parent.

We certainly don't hang around...

As I mentioned in my last post we have decided to move house. It's something we've been talking about for quite a while now but have been putting off for no real reason so we decided we should just go for it as there seemed to be a lot of 'signs' telling us we should.

So the last 10 days has been:

Thursday 3rd May - Decide to move
Friday 4th May - I go to a couple of Estate Agents to arrange them to come round and value the house. I am given the particulars of a house.
Saturday 5th May - The house is valued and we are left to decide what we want to do. We view the house we have the particulars of and offer the asking price. We then put ours on the market
Tuesday 8th May - Our offer is accepted. Estate Agents get the details of our house together to send out
Wednesday 9th May - A sold sign goes up on our 'new house' and a For Sale sign goes on ours. We have two weeks grace to sell otherwise the vendor can put their house back on the market
Thursday 10th May - The particulars of our house are mailshot out
Friday 11th May - two viewings of our house, two offers. I also have two quotes from removal companies
Saturday 12th May - we arrange our mortgage and accept one of the offers on our house

Monday 14th May - I resist all urges to collapse in a heap as there's so much to organise still...

Not bad for 10 days work! We only viewed the one house and it's so perfectly what we want that we didn't bother with anything else. It has a huge lounge and kitchen downstairs and three bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs. The garden is 150ft long and there's enough parking in the garage and next to the house for about six cars. Oh and it's next door to a Primary School.

Hopefully today the Surveyors will call and we can organise that asap. There's no chain so we should be able to move quickly - we're hoping the last week of June as that fits perfectly in our schedule.

We've already started the great 'pre-moving-de-junking', for people living in a tiny house with no storage space we certainly have a huge amount of junk. DH is doing a bootfair this weekend and then there's charity shops and freecycling for stuff we can't sell. We're also using this opportunity to get rid of a lot of furniture and the guy buying our house is interested in some of it so that's great (and nice and simple).

I have to say, the idea of packing is daunting to say the least. We have a huge amount of loft space in the new house but not many built in cupboards so we're having to think quite carefully about what we are going to have where.

So that's us. People on the move. You can expect many boring updates regarding the status of everything for the next few weeks as I'm incredibly excited about it all and have a need to share LOL.

Cut Thru Igloo HD

Just a quick post for now to show off this finish:



It's a bit manic at our end as we've decided to move house and things are going way quicker than we expected so I'm rushed off my feet with a million and one things to think about.

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

What a Week!

I spoke too soon at the end of my last post...

By monday night I was feeling awful - DH had been in bed all day and I collapsed once I'd got Lia settled. I didn't get up again for two days during which I was throwing up, shivering, coughing and generally being quite seriously unwell. All three of us were bad - we had a 'who has the highest temperature' competition going on for two days (I won, I peaked at 39.1) - and I was tempted to hang a plague flag on the door.

Poor DH had to parent for two days as I couldn't stand up. The only difference between us was that he could stand so even though he felt as lousy he drew the short straw. My Mum did offer to come over but I didn't want to risk her catching it as she's only recently got over something similar herself and she certainly didn't need it again.

So we muddled through and we're all now sporting terrific coughs that the doctor says there's nothing can be done for we just have to wait for them to get better.

In the midst of all this my SIL had her baby. We got a call Thursday morning to say things had kicked off so we spent the day waiting for news which finally came at 8.20pm. They knew they were expecting a boy so no surprises there but he was nine days early.

Unfortunately he hasn't been well and has been in Intensive Care having oxygen and being fed through a tube. News is a bit sketchy (I think Greek doctors tell a lot less) but apparently it's just due to the trauma of being born - he's been doing better and better though and is due to come out of ICU tomorrow and should be allowed home then. SIL is okay, very sore as she has quite a lot of stitches but obviously worried to death about her son.

The whole birth was turned into a bit of a circus by all accounts. When DH spoke to his mother on Thursday he reported back that there were 15 people at the hospital including friends and their boyfriends/girlfriends, SIL's Boss and his wife and the company taxi driver! Apparently this report was wildly inaccurate as there was actually around 30 people there all milling about.

I would have sent the lot of them packing - Lia's birth involved me and DH only and that's how I wanted it - I didn't even tell my lot that I was being induced. Poor SIL had to go through birth and then the following trauma with an audience of 30 (okay they weren't in the room but they were getting blow by blow updates) and none of them got to see the baby anyway as he was whipped down to ICU.

As I said, he is getting better - the grandparents all got to visit him for the first time yesterday - so hopefully we'll get some pics soon.

What a Weekend!

Looking back my weekend started Thursday evening approximately five minutes drive from our house when Lia threw up in the car.

Actually 'threw up' is not the best description, 'erupted' is a much better word to give you some idea of what happened - the poor thing was covered in it and we were on a dual carriageway with nowhere to stop. Of course she was screaming, the smell was awful and all I had in the car were some wet wipes (usually god's gift to mothers but in this case barely adequate...) so I decided just to get home and deal with it there.

Thankfully DH was also just arriving home so as I parked I opened the car window and shouted for assistance. He removed Lia and the car seat as one and disappeared into the house while I examined the car for any minute vomit particles that would lurk and stink the car out at the first opportunity.

He had stripped her naked by the time I got in and was washing her in the sink so I was left to scrape the muck of clothes and car seat (it's so much fun being a mother!) Thankfully the car seat cover is washable so the whole thing went in the machine and is now looking as good as new.

Lia's never normally sick whilst travelling (I pay minute attention to this as I have chronic travelsickness that is legendary in my family) so I wasn't sure what the cause of the eruption might be as she seemed fine, ate her dinner and slept through the night. Friday the stomach upset proper started (and I was home alone during the day). It's been a while since I've had to deal with nappies quite that bad and in such volume!

By Saturday morning she was running a fever and refusing any food offered. I decided to go ahead with getting her into her new bed as I figured being a bit under the weather she'd just be happy to sleep and stay put no matter where she was. She was actually quite perky most of the time, playing, chatting, etc she just wasn't eating and someone had turned a tap on in her nose so there was a constant battle with tissues. One of my pet hates is snotty nosed kids and I don't care how much she hates it her nose is wiped at the first sign of snot.

Anyway we got the bed up and she seemed really happy with it. Here's a couple of pics of her and Q testing it out.

We have a guard rail that is on the side now to stop her rolling out but she quickly discovered how to exit the bed herself. Thankfully she seems happy enough not to get out once she's in for the night. She did get herself up after her nap yesterday and this morning she was up and calling me too. So, fingers crossed it continues to be okay, we've got a portable stair gate that we now put across the door to her room as our stairs are incredibly steep and end at a laminate floor. She can come down them but I don't want her to attempt them when sleepy or in the dark.

Anyway she was quite pathetic and drained by yesterday morning - understandably given the lack of food compared to the vomit and nappies - so I spent mother's day morning with a little limpit attached to me just wanting to be cuddled (not that I objected). She's got such a good knack of finding me gifts I really love (amazing in one so young) so I got a book token, a copy of the latest Take That single and this Bothy Threads cross stitch kit:

I love this design (I don't know why) and can't wait to get started on it but I've told myself I have to have one more finish before I can start something new. I also love book tokens as a gift - there's nothing I like more than browsing around a book shop deciding how to spend my token. I've loved them since I was a kid - I think it's the fact that you *have* to spend a token whereas if people give you money your parents put pressure on you to save it. Anyway, there's nothing immediate on my wish list right now so I'll probably save it to buy the final Harry Potter book in July.

To end off my weekend Lia was much better by yesterday evening (although she still has a nasty cough) but DH was lying shivering on the sofa complaining of having the flu. He's home from work today but Lia's in nursery and I'm at work with a sore throat...

Stitching finishes

I've had two stitching finishes in the last few days. Apologies for the slightly dark pics - I'll have to start taking pics during the day rather than under artificial light.

Anyway the first finish is The Cat's Whiskers' Red Desert Scissor Pocket (limited edition release from last year). It's only my second project that requires 'extra' finishing and I'm pleased that I managed to produce something I'm proud of. My real problem seems to be that I'm too impatient to take time to be careful and neat but I'm working on it.

So here's the front:

And here's the back:

I stitched it on an anonymous piece of 28ct linen from my stash and it came with the Dinky Dyes threads required. My only change was to not stitch the date but to use my initials instead.

My second finish was a design featured in WOXS magazine a couple of months ago. I'm so useless at keeping track of things that I can't tell you which issue or which designer but it's perfect as a birthday present for my sister.

So as you can see hobby wise I've been quite busy lately. I'm also up to six books read so far this year which is great. Shame I'm not so diligent about the housework...

Lia's new bedding did arrive on Monday so that's what we'll be doing this weekend - I'll post a few pics when it's all put together and report on how she's settling in with her new sleeping arrangements.

I'm also planning on tidying up the garden as the weather here is absolutely gorgeous. Thankfully we had the garden paved last year so 'tidying it up' involves a bit of sweeping up and probably painting the fence. I was sad to have the garden paved but with other hobbies and Lia something had to give and that was it. Hopefully the next house will have a bigger garden and I'll be inspired to get back to that hobby too.

Blooming Typical

So I waited in all day yesterday just in case the bed linen for Lia's new bed arrived and it didn't. Today I had to go out and of course, missed the delivery, so I have to go pick it up on Monday.

I'm so disappointed as I was looking forward to getting it all sorted this weekend and now I'll have to wait another week. Okay, it's not much in the grand scheme of things but I was excited and to make it worse we have the bed, the mattress, the quilt, the pillow and the guard rail but none of it is any use without the linen...

We'll have to wait till next Saturday as we have to take the cot apart and attempt to store it somewhere (probably under our bed once we decide where the rubbish that's there can be moved to), make the new bed, move the stair gates and organise her room. Still, we didn't have any other plans for next week so I guess we've now got something to fill our time.

Here's a picture of Lia reading to Neh-Naw the Cat.

I've had a couple of suggestions as to where the names might come from but as you can now see maybe Neh-Naw is Lia speak for 'Freaky Coloured Cat'! We got him in Greece (he's actually Neh-Naw mark 2 as Neh-Naw 1 got washed a few too many times and is now consigned to the back of our wardrobe for emergency use only). I haven't taken a pic of Gung-Gah or Q yet but Gung-Gah is also Greek and quite freaky (in a blue way), Q is a good quality M&S Teddy though (which may explain his lack of syllables, very English and reserved).

Oh and no, Neh-Naw and Gung-Gah aren't close to the Greek words for cat and dog either so that doesn't solve the mystery.

All Grown Up!

Isn't it amazing how time flies?

I spent this weekend buying my baby girl her first bed! She's 21 months old now and too big for the cot at Grandma's and travel cots so if we want to go anywhere she has to learn to sleep in a proper bed.

We were going to IKEA until I discovered their matress sizes didn't seem to be standard so I ended up getting this one from Mothercare together with a mattress. I did look at bedding from Mothercare too but I find them so uninspiring and bland that I didn't bother.

I love bright colours so I went to this place instead - Vertbaudet - and got some gorgeous bedding. All in all i spent around £220 to get bed, mattress, guard rail, quilt, pillow, four fitted sheets, two duvet covers and two pillow cases. Luckily my Mum was on hand to put some money towards the cost as Lia's birthday present and I kept some christmas money for this too.

I try and get things that are not specifically girlie just in case the next baby turns out to be a boy. I went for the jungle bedding and some plain orange / yellow bedding. Much of what we already have in her room has jungle animals on so it'll fit right in.

So now I'm eagerly awaiting the deliveries and hoping it will all come by the end of this week so we can get her bedroom organised. DH is worried about the added work of keeping her in bed but I figure if she gets up, she gets up, she has to learn how to sleep in a proper bed at some point. Plus, given that I am spending Easter with her at my parents and we're going to Brussels at the end of May we need to get her used to beds as soon as we can. I look upon all this as the next fun stage but I know there'll be nights when we find her asleep on the floor and we'll more than likely get morning visitations now.

I do recommend Verbaudet as they have some gorgeous things, especially furniture. I can't wait till we get in our new house and have more room to give her a proper bedroom instead of the bedroom/storage/spare room she's in now.

Talking of Grandma, my Mum is chuffed because Lia has given her a name. As Lia is her first grandchild she spent most of my pregnancy trying to decide what she wanted to be called and I think she settled on Gran. I started out calling her Grandma because I was confused as to what she wanted and thought that was what she had settled on. Anyway, Lia has now christened her 'Ma Ma' and Mum's over the moon, telling the whole world that as Lia chose that name that's the one she's going to use.

It's very sweet of couse, both the name and my Mum's excitement, but I tend to spoil the moment by telling people that Lia named her toy cat first. LOL. In fact she has three toys that sleep in her cot and they now all have their own names that she's chosen - she carefully introduces them to us all the time. 'Neh-Naw' is her cat. She also uses this word as a generic word for all animals but specifically referenced it is the cat. 'Gung-gah' is the dog and 'Q' is the bear. I don't know why poor old Q missed out on a second syllable but he's definitely just Q.

I also have no idea where these names came from, she knows that Neh-Naw is a cat (she tells me so regularly) but I can't see where the names might have derived from. Let's face it Ma-Ma is clearly her version of Grandma but it takes some twisted logic to get 'Gung-gah' from 'Dog'...

I'm working to a 'Calvin and Hobbes' theory. For those of you who don't know this cartoon strip it's a small boy (Calvin) who has a toy tiger (Hobbes) and whenever they are alone together Hobbes is real. Given the intense conversations Lia has with Neh-Naw, Gung-Gah and Q I'm inclined to believe they're real.

A Pic Filled Update

We're internet-free at home at the moment and have been since before Christmas. Changing our ISP seemed like a good idea at the time but we're certainly regretting it now. We chose Talk Talk (and yes we did know about the complaints) because they have a great package - £20 a month is line rental, 8mb broadband and unlimited anytime local, national and international phonecalls.

The hook for us was the international calls. DH calls home a lot. Granted, not as much as his mother calls us (two to three calls a day every day) but enough that the deal will be saving us around £40 a month.

We did know the horror stories about Talk Talk so we weren't expecting a speedy services but they certainly are moving at a snail's pace. Thankfully we can connect using DH's new mobile as a modem for only £1 a connection (up to 24hrs) so I now have limited access at home. The current ETA for broadband being back is 1st March so finger's crossed.

So, what's been happening with us? Well Lia is bigger and chattier. She seems to be doubling her vocabulary daily at the moment. Current favourite words are: Mummy (finally!), cat, bubbles, shoes, coat, chair, spoon, milk, toast, oh dear and oh no. Her animal impressions have extended to include snakes, dogs, sheep and monkeys and reading is much more interactive now she's pointing out the things she knows.

We've also caught her counting to five (okay, missing out one but definitely two, three, four and five) and she's taken to telling me when she's going to poo! All in all my little girl is growing up fast. She had her first haircut on friday - I did it and it's not as bad as I thought it might be. She looks like she has a mop-top mind you but my hairdresser advised keeping it quite short so it has a chance to thicken up rather than grow all wispy. It's also easier to manage.

So here's a couple of pics:

Pre Hair Cut

Post Hair Cut

Our Little Sailor!

As for me, no internet has meant more stitching time so I'm up to 13 finishes on my 50 project challenge and have made good progress on some larger WIPs. I'm on my fifth book of the year so I'm doing well with my reading challenge (but not so well keeping my reading blog up to date!) And I've also lost half a stone so my weight loss is going well too.

My latest stitching project was a biscornu. I'd never attempted anything like this before but Karen has had a hand in starting a Finishing Blog and I was inspired to give it a go. I'm pleased with my first attempt and have a bit more confidence to try new techniques now.

Here's the finished article - it's a freebie pattern and I used fabric, floss, beads and buttons from my stash so it really was a great addition to my challenge.

In other stitching news here's a couple of finishes and a couple of WIPs. Just to prove I do actually stitch. LOL

Lili of the Valley's 'Make a Wish' (I used Silkweaver Intrigue 28ct linen)

A Mill Hill Snowman Banner

Sleigh Ride WIP

Cut Thru Igloo WIP

So that's about all from me for now I guess. Next month sees the much heralded arrival of my Greek nephew so everything is focused on that right now. DH is looking for a new job (because he's bored rigid at the old one) and there's changes coming at my job (but nobody knows exactly what) but hopefully both of us will be more settled by the middle of the year so we can start thinking about moving house and baby number two...

Some stitching finishes

Here's a couple of stitching finishes. The snowman banner is from Rico Designs and was my last finish of 2006. The wedding sampler is a Michael Powell design and was my first finish of 2007.

For new readers of my blog, I'm taking part in the 50 project challenge where I have to complete 50 craft projects from my current stash before I am allowed to buy any more. These two are finishes 9 and 10 and I completed number 11 yesterday but don't have a picture as yet.

New Year, New Start

So Happy New Year. Better late than never I guess :)

I'm not really big on New Year's resolutions but I have two goals for 2007 which are:

1. Stop talking and get acting on weight loss. I'm more determined than ever and have lost 3lb in the last week which is great. I've pretty much totally cut out soft drinks and am drinking much more water, I'm having an actimel a day which is really making a difference and no chocolate, crisps, biscuits or cake.

2. Spend less money. Given we want to move house and have another baby we need to curb our spending big time so I'm taking control of the finances and really counting pennies.

As well as those I shall be sticking to my 50 Project Stash challenge and extending that to cover papercraft stash and books as those are my only other expenditures really.

I'm also going to try and read more. My goal is 20 books this year which I'm ashamed to say is realistic for my current lifestyle. Ashamed because I'm more than capable of reading 20 books in a month (and have done so on many occasions) but given Lia, work, housework and other hobbies I'm putting 20 as a goal and any more as a bonus.

Junk clearance is also still large on the agenda. We did so well last year and I'm much better at moving things on once I've finished with them than I was. This year I'm hoping it's clothes that get more organised as I've got lots of hardly worn stuff in smaller sizes so as I lose weight, old clothes will go and I've got a new wardrobe ready and waiting.

Picture organisation. I want to make two scrapbooks - one of our wedding and one of Lia's first year so I will be making a start on those too.

I also want us to get away a couple of times just the three of us. A long weekend break somewhere in England and a long weekend somewhere in Europe (other than Greece). Given my SIL will be getting married (again) sometime this year we will be in Greece for a couple of weeks at some point but I'm not going to Greece more than once this year.

So what does 2007 hold for the Family V? Well, it's another baby boom year with the first one already having made an entrance on 6th January and five more being due between now and July. One of those babies will make me an Aunt for the first time at the end of March (DH's Sis) and one will make me a Great Aunt at the beginning of July!!! An Aunt and a Great Aunt in the same year!

The thing is that my half sister is 24 years older than me so my neice who is pregnant is only three years younger than me. Even spookier my Sis and DH's Mum were born two months apart, they both had daughters within a month of each other and now those daughters are due to give birth within three months of each other. Isn't it weird how these things come about?

Work wise I will be learning many more skills this year which can only be a good thing. It also means I will be using my brain much more which again, can only be a good thing. I tend to coast a lot at work as much is boring and repetitive so it'll be good to have something to focus on.

I would also like to think that we'll be at least trying to make baby 2 by the end of the year and also will have moved house. I won't be overly disappointed if that's not the case but I am determined that both of those will happen before the end of 2008 if we decide to put them off for a while.

So that's the start of 2007 for me. I'll be putting more links into my sidebar as I'll be keeping track of the books I read as well as my Cross Stitch projects and, as always there'll be plenty of news about Lia (who is doing really well at the moment which is great)