Sunday, December 25, 2011

Merry Christmas


I am going to take a short holiday from blogging to enjoy the summer holidays with my family and friends. I hope that you have a magical time with your own loved one and I shall see you in the new year.
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Saturday, December 24, 2011

My gift to Eliza

I received an email this morning from Pinkie McKay about special gifts that we can give our children (and each other). It touched me deeply, and I wanted to share it with you.

* Self confidence: Help your child understand and accept that nobody can be approved of all the time, and when she encounters disapproval she needn't feel immobilised, that she much trust herself, not the opinions of others. Give this gift with a hug.

*Possibilities: Give children the freedom to be anything they choose, rather than limit them by labels or roles. Teach them by example that a boy or girl can sew or play football, cry or be brave, mow lawns or do dishes. Give this gift with a smile.

*Life without needless fear: Encourage children to become 'doers' by showing them that you will tackle problems and not be a worrier yourself. Give this gift with a laugh.

*The gift of loving: Encourage children to be fully alive in every way. Allow them to have adventures, a chance for laughter, fun, creativity. Give them the supreme gift of being able to find happiness in virtually all circumstances. Give this gift everyday through the year.

Whilst for so many little children Christmas is about gifts, I want to teach Eliza that there is more to it than just a present under a tree.


PS: If you are a parent I highly recommend Pinkie. She is a down to earth person who encourages you to have confidence in yourself and your own parenting ways, rather than following some strict guidelines set out in a book. She has helped me many times and I highly recommend you sign up to her emails. Pin It

Friday, December 23, 2011

Eliza's Stocking


I finally made a decision about what stocking to buy Eliza, this lovely burlap and linen number from Turnbow Designs.

Honestly, the picture doesn't do it justice (especially as it is hanging on our actual fireplace due to lack of mantel). It is so well made, and will last my little girl many years to come.

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Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells

Jingle all the way...except for when the baby is asleep!



I brought my bell wreath from Myer recently and couldn't be happier with it. I like that it is festive but something a little different to the regular green wreaths.
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Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Hair Clip Holder

Eliza has a lot of hair clips, as something is needed to tame her wild spike. (I refer it as her Stegosaurus spike, as a reference to her being 'Dino' when I was pregnant, and me being 'Pregosaurus").

Moving right along, her clips got tossed into a glass bowl on her dresser most days, but I found this was a breeding ground for other crap too, like her dummy, random tags off new clothes and other mundane things.

I wanted to get the bowl off her change table and onto the wall, and came up with a very simple idea that I had seen around the place.

I started with an Ikea Ribba frame and a scrap of material.

As the frame didn't come with a bit of cardboard, I cut out the required size from a nappy box I was about to put in the recycle bin.

Given I was doing this during nap times I had to be quick and quiet about it, so out came the quietest tool I could find: sticky tape. Pulling the fabric tight I secured the ends with tape.

For the corners I folded them over neatly and added more tape.

It looked a little like this after all four corners were done

Even Lucy cat 'helped'. She loves laying there watching the birds and gets rather cranky when I use the desk for office type jobs.

Once all the sides were taped up I had this:


To be able to attach the clips I needed ribbon to make a criss cross pattern with. Out comes the ribbon, and you guessed it, more tape.

To get the measurements I went from corner to corner, and then used the thickness of my ruler from the outside of the ribbon. By some odd bit of luck, it fitted perfectly!

I forgot to photograph this part (partly because Eliza woke up, partly because I am forgetful), but to stop any of the ribbons moving I sewed a few stitches in each of the ribbon joins. I went through the board and everything, but you could use push pins if you wanted.

All done!

Once I made this one I decided that I wanted to make it bigger, so next time I go to Ikea I will get a bigger frame and start all over again. For now it sits on her dresser.

So there you go, a quick and easy craft project that can be done in under 2 hours.
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Monday, December 19, 2011

Paint it black

(as a 'I-didn't-really-need-to-know-that-fact' fact, I love that song, and it may have slightly inspired my choice of paint colour for our house).

I finally got around to painting the timber on the side of the front door. Not that you can see it behind one of the plants, but it's there.


On a side note, do you think I need to paint the bits around the door at the top?
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Friday, December 16, 2011

Social Media Secret Santa

This year the very lovely Telle from FatMumSlim arranged a Secret Santa for anyone with a blog or twitter, and I took part. Like most Secret Santas, we were each given a name of a fellow blogger to stalk and buy a present for.

My very lovely Secret Santa did an excellent job of stalking me, and brought a truely gorgeous gift.
 Even the postpak was pretty, everything was nicely wrapped with ribbon and it had baubles scattered in there as well.

As Eliza was napping I was able to wrap it in peace. I was given a wooden Home sign (that now lives on the bookshelf in the office), some chocolate sea shells (which now live in my tummy/on my thighs), a Glasshouse candle (my absolute favourite kinda that now lives in the office so I can smell it as I write this post) and some lethal body lotion and soap. Seriously this stuff should be illegal, it smells that good.

I want to thank my Secret Santa, I love the gifts you chose and look forward to finding out who you are.
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Thursday, December 15, 2011

Eliza Wears


We have really discovered rolling continuously now, and it is making it hard to get a picture of the front of her outfits!
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Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Eliza - 6 months


Weight: 7.0kg
Height: 65.5cm

Feeding: After a few weeks of not being able to work out your bottles, as you would barely drink, we got it sorted and can usually get 4/5 full bottles into you a day. Moving to formula has continued well for both of us, and has reduced the stress level of the household greatly. This month also saw you have your first solid foods. Since then you have tried and liked everything we have put in front of you. The only thing you weren't a fan of was when we served you a jar of beef and vegetables. I tried a bit, and I don't blame you for turning your head at it. 

Sleeping: Oh how you are trying to wear Mummy down. Most nights I am up between 1 and 4am, and again at 6.30. We started you on a new routine that has set nap times during the day, and it seems to be worked well for us. The aim is to get you sleeping overnight with no wakings, but it doesn't seem to have made any difference to you at all. Ah well, it's not forever. {It took me many months to come to this acceptance}

Personality: We have taken to likening you to a cat, as you are temperamental and very cat like. You can be happy one moment and perfectly happy the next. You have started 'patting' the cat, however it looks to be more like yanking fur than patting. I don't think the cat is your biggest fan, but she does like it when you stroke her nicely, so she accepts it.

Everything you touch has to go in your mouth currently, no matter what it is. We have to watch you very carefully, as you will chew on anything, including your blankets!

Looks: *Sigh* you are still wearing your 000 onsies. We have well and truly got our value from them! It does mean that a lot of your summer clothes are a bit too big, but that doesn't matter. Your hair has thickened up and is now quite long at the back. Your fringe was starting to hand in your eyes, so we had your first hair cut this month, much to Mummies sadness - her little girl is growing up. 

Activities: This month you went to your cousins first birthday party which you cried for most of, as you had some terrible tummy pains. 

We went on your second trip to Ikea Richmond (third Ikea trip in total). You were slightly less perfect this time, spewing on yourself within 5 minutes of being there. We got what we needed and got out of there very quickly. You were asleep by the time we had reached the tollway.

This month also saw you spend two full days with Nanny K, as mummy had to go into a work for a few days. She said you cried for an hour for the first hour of your nap, however you were as good as gold after that. Mummy was terribly happy to see you each night when she got home - distance really does make the heart grow fonder.

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Tuesday, December 13, 2011

First Haircut

At 5 months, 3 weeks and 2 days my little girl had this giant mop on her head
 Not something you usually see on such a little girl, I know. It was starting to get in her eyes, and look ratty, so we made the decision to have a tiny smidge of her fringe cut.

So much happier now. Least one of us is, I am still sobbing that my little girl is growing up so quickly.
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Monday, December 12, 2011

Dear paint-maker

Dear well know paint company with a fluffy dog for a mascot,

In the future, if you plan to discontinue a paint, could you possible let me know first? I really wasn't that appreciative of being told I can't get Super Bright base Extra Enamel paint anymore. Yes, you did offer me AquaEnamel, and that is also a great product, but it isn't Enamel and therefore ISN'T WHAT I WANT!

Now I have to paint all our windows and trim with undercoat before I can paint them with the coloured paint - a step I didn't need to do with the old paint.

Thanks :)

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Friday, December 9, 2011

Christmas Tree

For the last 5 years the husband has refused to let me have a real christmas tree. I nagged and nagged, and he said when we had a baby we could have a real tree (at this point we weren't even engaged).

Well, now we have the baby, so to the christmas tree farm we went!
 With the perfect-est tree

 The nice man came and cut it down for us




 Eliza's first decoration.


It smells so pretty in our house these days.

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Thursday, December 8, 2011

Eliza Wears


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Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Hair Clips

I have some shocking news for you all - my little girl has hair, and lots of it {I know, you are all dying of shock here}. So what does one do when she has a little girl with hair? You buy clips!

Our My favourite clips are from Masterpieces Of Fun Art on etsy, as they are cute, come in a huge range of colours, and made from high quality materials. They are made on alligator clips, so you don't have to worry about hurting your babies head with hard snaps.

I am that in love with these clips that I have placed several orders for them, and have one to match every outfit that Eliza owns. They come with our hair of approval :)
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Monday, December 5, 2011

Let the light shine in


We are one step closer to finishing our veranda renovation - we removed the tin. It was actually a lot harder than we thought it would have been, as they were all linked together or something. I can't say I was paying that much attention due to sitting under a tree watching the husband work baby wrangling.

We are still debating if to have a bullnose or straight angled roof. I am leaning towards straight just because it would be cheaper, but bullnose would look better. We need to add some more timber beams to the frame and paint it, so we have time to make a decision.

I never realised how much light was being blocked by the roof, our hallway is so bright now! Apparently the flashing is going to be a bitch to fix, so we are on the quest to find a man to finish it. Suits me, as I want this done for Christmas and the weekends are running short. Of course, that means we need to find a man who can do the job quickly.

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