Life went a bit skewwiff

So my life went a bit skewwiff for a while there. After Atlas was born, we went back home and started to settle into our new rhythm. But then my husband was granted parental leave, so off we went to visit the southern part of our state and friends and family.

But then... driving to his mother's, my husband experienced severe pain, and fobbed it off. By 1am his mum had called the ambulance and he was whisked off to hospital. Turns out he had gallstones and pancreatitis.

So while he was in pain in hospital, they gave him the wrong sort of drip and so he ended up with chronic gout as well. So his stay in the hospital was extended.

Once that was over, we stayed at my mother-in-law's home - bless her for taking us in even though... well that is another story to tell probably never on here - for two weeks before my husband went in for surgery to remove his gallbladder.

Two more week after the surgery he was given the clear to go home - so we drove the three days that it now takes with a baby and finally got home.

So my life in dot points:
- End of May - Left home to go to my parents to await the birth
- Start of June - Husband travels to us
- June - nightmare of a month with two uncle passing away, issues with hospitals and anesthetists. Working on our home to make at least one room livable.
- July - Atlas is born and breastfeeding becomes an even bigger nightmare - I will make a separate post on this topic because I really couldn't find anything to help me online.
- August - We finally make our way back home - We are getting pretty good sleep, breastfeeding is still an issue, Atlas is a beautiful boy.
- September - Went to visit family and friends down south. Spent between hospitals and doctors
- October - Spend between hospitals and doctors before we finally get to go home.

November and December has been fantastic - settling Atlas into our home routine, Charles going back to work and me working out how I manage to do very little all day bar looking after a baby, but not get much else done.

I had some big changes in my life in the last 6 months, but I'm keen to get back to blogging.

Wardrobe Challenge 1 - Define your style

After being pregnant and not being able to fit into anything except for some leggings, maternity jeans and a few tops, I am really craving having my wardrobe back.

But I'm going to going back to my clothes with a little bit more organisation.

I've roughly followed the philosophy of "Color Me Beautiful".  I remember being a pre-teen and going to a session with my mum. The lady talked about colours and held up fabric pieces and loaned my mum the book. In university I found a copy of the book at the second hand store - called "Gillians" in Brisbane - loved that shop. Here it is on Amazon.

So you will see a lot of the same colours in my wardrobe, as well as clothing silhouettes - although I don't always follow the 'flattering' suggestions.

I'm going to follow "The Six Pillars of Wardrobe Building, which is here. Not for any other reasons, but it was linked to last year by someone in the Australian Curves group and I remembered it.

The first step is "Define Your Style" which includes a palette. I'm copying Gillian from "Crafting a Rainbow" for this.

BAM!

Behold the amazing colours of my life... I just picked colours I like and have in my wardrobe already. So many colours - oh well... 

Next up, I have to develop a signature look...

Birth happened

I've been preoccupied with my last trimester, birth and looking after a new born.

I'm not going to lie.  Giving birth was the most terrible thing I have ever had happen to me.  The first two weeks were absolutely shit and I wanted out, I cried all the time and questioned myself and my ability to do this.  Breastfeeding is the pits.  8 weeks on, and I'm now coming out of the coma and am loving myself, my husband and my baby but holy hell... I'm so glad I came home to be with my parents because being here with nothing to do but concentrating on being a mum has been amazing.  Love them.

Altas Vernon, born on the 5th July 2015, 5:51pm, 4.65 kg and 56cm long.

Fluffyhouse vinyl toys

I found these sitting in drafts - thought I should publish them since I'm cleaning out clutter!

Smiggle scented gel pens

Yesterday I wandered into a Smiggle store, not expecting to buy anything - honestly.

I pondered over the set of gel pens.  I bought a set a couple of years ago but was disappointed at the quality.  They skipped, the dried up quickly, and the colours were very pale on white.

As I was leaving I saw the woman at the counter using them so I asked straight up, 'Are these any good?'  We chatted for a bit about how they have now improved their quality, that they seemed a thicker barrel.  I was still umming and ahhing.

In the end I went back to the shop and bought the big pack, the woman even got out a pad of paper so I could test the set I picked up.  That's pretty awesome service I think.

So I have now tested them all and I'm happy to say that although some were a little scratchy they all worked well.  Only two didn't write straight away.

The pastel colours are very vibrant - seemingly neon.  

The glitter is fine, can be a little patchy but overal nice to look at. Silver in colour. I tried to photograph that for you here:

Now we will see how long they actually last.

You can buy these from smiggle.com.au as well as in store.

Colouring in

I love to colour.  Adult colouring books are really popular right now so I'm stocking up when I can!

I bought two books by Zoe de Las Cases, 'Secret Japan' and 'Secret Paris'.

Both have illustrations that have a sketchy feel.

There is both detailed images, patterns and scenery pages.

At the moment we are using Staedtler triplus fineliners simply because they are the pens I packed.  I'm currently visiting with my parents until my baby is born so I packed light. Although most other people I know don't pack art and craft supplies like I do!

But of course I have ordered some new gel pens because I really miss having the variety of colours and pens :)

Gelicious - Devine Vines Skittles

Of course I ordered the new Gelicious colours; Devine Vines and Surfing in Straddie.

For ages now I haven't done anything exciting with my mani, just the straight colour. My faux daughter had some nice gel nails done recently in black, silver and grey skittles and I thought I would give it a go using my Gelicious colours.  I mean I have enough of them to make it work.

I went with Devine Vines (dark green) for the main colour.  My middle fingers got Pastachio Parfait (light green). My index fingers got Sympathy Hook Up (grey) as a base colour and After Glow (silver) over that.

TUTORIAL

File edges and then clean off nails using Isocol.

Start with your worst side.  I paint my right hand first because when I first start out I am more patient, and by the time I'm onto my left hand I start to rush and and need the skill of my writing (right) hand.

Paint one coat of Gelicious Peel-off Gel Base and Top Coat.  Set for 30 seconds.  I paint my thumb seperately after I have finished with the rest.

Paint one coat of each colour on your fingers. 

My nails are now ready to go in the 'oven' to bake. These are all the 30 sec formula.

Repeat this again for each nail.  I find that two coats usually does the trick.  No one ever looks that closely to my nails to check if they are totally perfect and opaque.

I give my index finger one nice coat of After Glow.  I find that the grey underneath really helps with colour otherwise I need three or more coats.

Cook that single nail.

Taking photos of the light...

Put a top coat of the Peel-off Gel and set.

Clean off tacky residue with Isocol.  

Repeat for other hands.

Repeat for each thumb using Divine Vines.  I do them each seperately because I often find that I scrape the polish while I concentrating on my finger nails, or if I'm swapping from one thumb to the other.  It only takes about 10

Minutes more overall and you get a better stress free result.  Plus my light doesn't fit all my hand in there - flat.

I hope you like it!

Things no one tells you about being pregnant

There are a few of these kind of post about, but I thought that I would share some of my thoughts about this whole 'things no one tells you' that I haven't seen very often.

Cramps

I got them.  It was as if I had my period but at least I wasn't bleeding.  Instead you are paranoid that your having an ectopic pregnancy and then later on as you get along a few months you think that you are miscarriaging but really everything is stretching.  Then later you get these things called Boson Higgs or something... Braxton hicks.

Pelvic pain

At the 30 week mark or so I started to feel like someone punched me in my vagina - and now it feels bruised big time. Side note: For some reason men don't realise that being kicked in the genetics is painful for women too. This is what I'm going through now.  It's apparently because your ligaments are all stetchy getting ready for birth.

Dislocated jaw

As with the pelvis pain, my jaw is also looser, and so yawning in the morning has popped out my jaw twice this week alone!  This might not be an issue for you, but since I already have an issue with this... Chewing is awful, talking is mildly painful.  

Baby movement

That ninja can really kick.  Like I have jumped at sudden hard kicks, and apparently it gets worse and can be painful.  Plus if you have watched a certain Ridly Scott movie, watching it is kind of freakygh.....  The other thing is that when you actually want the movement, for example you would like your husband to feel it, the baby will not move.  Until the said husband gives up, and then it will move, but only up until husband tries again...  It's not like the movies.

Itchy boobs

Man they get itchy.  

Other things worth noting but are often talked about include pins and needles in hands, legs that seem to want to jump around, needing an endless supply of Quick Eze, crying, urine smelling weird, your glasses stop working because your eyes change shape.

This little dude has put me through a lot already, guess it's just the warm up for the rest of my life though...

Wish List?

New filofaxes!

I'm loving the new to me colours of the A5 Saffiano. Pear and Aquamarine...

Such lovely colours.

Also check out these A5 Dominos - turquoise, pine spots and aubergine spots.

Holy cow - it looks like they finally realised that A5 users deserved some more fun colours!

What else have I been eyeing off?

The Travalo Perfume Atomiser - look at all the colours!

So these are little spray bottles that you load up with your perfume so that you can travel without worrying about breaking your bottles of perfumes. The bonus is that filling them is really easy - not messy at all.

And the last two things on my list are two new colours from Gelicious.

Devine Vines looks amazing - perfect for me. I wish they would bring out a grass green and an emerald.

Surfing at Straddy looks like a great pinky neutral.

So that's it - an expensive wish list for a lady just about to go on leave at half pay though... Oh well.

Chihiro

Yesterday my beautiful big white cat, Chihiro, passed away.

I found her laying at the front door where she napped.  She looked like she was sleeping and I didn't realise she had died until my friend tapped her.

We often called her 'dead cat' because she was always partially deaf and would sleep so deeply that it sometimes would take a few goes to wake her up. When she did she would make a little chip sound.

This time though she really was.

She was such a lovely cat. She snuggled and kissed. She would climb onto our bed at night time and cuddle up. Whenever I went to the toilet she would lay at my feet and wait for pets.  When we watched TV she would jump up on my chest and rub her face over mine and tuck her head under my chin.  She would rub herself all over my husband's feet, roll on her back and let him rub her tummy.

During the night she would either sleep at the foot of our bed, but usually she slept in the bedroom doorway, so I would have to step over her during the night when I have to go to the toilet.

Last night it broke my heart to realise she wasn't there anymore.

Every morning she would wait in the bath for me to run a little water for her to drink.  If you took your time she would have a fussy fit and stamp her feet.

Sometimes Squish would join her but since the bathroom was her room he tended to stay out.

Squish is confused about what has happened.  He has been going back to where she died to try and find her.  This morning he waited in the bath for her to come, refusing to drink and looking towards the door as if she was going to run in.

During the night he jumped up in the bed for extra cuddles.

I stayed home today, and Squish has been with me for most of it.  

We got her as a kitten in May 2004. She was a rascal.  She had a stuffed snoopy toy - I always felt guilty that I threw it away went it got too dirty and bedraggled.  She used to chew on cords - especially through expensive headphone cables.  She used to wake me up during the night by squeezing inbetween the headboard and the wall, then she was swat at me through the decorative holes - smacking me in the head.

She was actually a him - the vet didn't even realise until we had her desexed - mid operation!  All her bits had been tucked up inside her.

Lately she had arthritis and struggled to jump.  We had been talking about putting in some steps so she could climb up in the bed easily.

She still liked to play, especially hide and seek.  She would come out of hiding and pat you playfully, then she would run away expecting you to chase her.  Then she would hide again. We only played it four days ago, but I accidentally stepped on her feet twice.  She was dirty with me and hid for a few hours, but then she came out and forgave me by giving me a rub and a purr.

She usually used her scratching post, she would play with the ball on a string as well.  But if she wanted my attention she would climb up on the arm of our couch and scratch.  

Two days ago she came up and bit me without any warning at all, but that was about as naughty as she got.  

I wish I had taken more photos of her over the holidays, she was so cute and loved me being home.  I had been promising that in a little while I would be home full time, with a baby as well.

She liked this pregnancy business, it meant I would take more afternoon naps so she could snuggle up to me and lay in the air conditioning.  Within minutes of me turning the air con on she would appear.  She also liked when I had all day 'morning' sickness because then it was one big all day nap for her.

I'm grateful that I had been able to spend   so much time with her in the last fortnight.  

I loved her very much and she loved me. I'll miss her.

School holidays

I've been on school holidays and I just haven't felt like I have rested at all.  

I'm either moving furniture or sorting through stuff, cleaning or doing school work.  All these things of course need to be done but...

This afternoon was a little better because I was actually sorting through my yarn!  Putting together all the same colours and rebagging lots.  I really do have a lot of yarn.

I did sort out the yarn I need for my faux daughter's blanket that I want to make for her for Christmas.  It will probably be a late present though!

It will match her room well especially once I sort out a nice zigzag or chevron pattern.

The other blanket I am working on at the moment is for my own baby.

I wanted to see how they looked this morning.  I'm not even half way there but at least with a baby's blanket it's not too big.  Even though I have soooo much yarn - I still don't have a match for the yellow from the varigated yarn :( the rest are close enough that in photos I don't think you can really tell that they don't match perfectly.

I might have a sit down and get started on the next diamond!

On holidays at last

This term has been full on. Work has really amped up this year, I've applied for a promotion, getting stuff ready for my leave, heaps of baby appointments.

Although school holidays started yesterday, I actually needed to go into work twice...

Today, I'm not doing anything.  Not even getting out of PJs.

I made some ice cream in my new ice cream maker - OMG YUM!

Squish really likes it - but he can't have a lot.

I'm hoping to get stuck in on my baby's blanket.

Here's hoping I get some more lazy days.