Busy, busy, busy

Busy, busy, busy is what my next two weeks are going to be. Fran and I are going on a wee trip to Southamerica all by ourselves, and it is stressing me a little bit. Well, not really stress, just a bit concerned of the plane trip and the jet lag with baby etc. I am sure we will be fine, but you can't really help it but to worry.

On top of that it is work, I wasn't planning to go back to work until coming back from our trip, but I was asked and I thought it would be a bit of a test to see how things will work out. So, here I am doing part time work from home, and planning a trip to Chile and finding a replacement for me while I am away... , trying to finish a cardigan for Fran so she can wear it while we are away... and of course finishing the unpacking, we still have a room with quite a few boxes that need to be emptied out.

I will probably be away from my journal for a while, I will try not to. I am really enjoying this space to vent a little...

Getting back into working life

It is been a week and half of my new working life as a mother. I feel that the brain is still runing in second gear, everything seems to take me a little longer and I forget things very quickly. Hopefully, I will get my brain cells back soon, somebody told that one of the many changes that happens to us, mothers, is brain cells... yes, aparently we do loose some...  but at some point they come back.

Working from home makes the going back to work affair so much easier, I can still spend time with the Miss, and keep to our rutine and work while she sleeps.  I will have to reassess when she starts sleeping less... anyway, I need some sleep so better go to bed now!!! buenas noches!

Filling the pantry

Well, the  weekend was a bit tiring. Little Fran was a bit unwell, running a high fever pretty much all weekend, steady at 38. We weren't really sure what was wrong, so we decided to take a little trip to after hours Doc to make sure wasn't anything serious. So, Doc said it is a viral tommy infection and it should go away soon, and fever should come down soon. Still you can't help it but to worry about it, specially when those sad little eyes look at you like saying "mami please help me am sore".

In between Francisca's naps I manage to get a bit of jam in the pantry. We had run out of all the nice homemade jam  made by mother-in-law. So I took the blackcurrant and raspberries from the freezer (that she had given me) and made about six jars (500ml each) of fresh yummy and juicy jam. I learn that blackcurrant set a lot faster than rasberry jam. I only had to boil blackcurrant for 3 minutes and it was ready, and the concistency is like plum jam. On the other hand, raspberries took about 15 minutes(or more) of boiling to set. Must be pectine content that makes the difference. Anyway, I never had blackcurrant jam in my life before and it taste pretty good, I am sure it will go nicely on some freshly made scones... yummm

This is us, on Saturday trying to hide the tired faces.

The happiest kid on the block, her name is Pepa

I was concerned about Pepa (the rabbit) not being able to adjust to our new house. You know they say that rabbits are creatures of habit and if you take them out of their enviroment or change their sorounding a bit they could get upset, perhaps a bit more agressive or even may get depression.

Pepa has gone the opposite way. Well, that is what I think given that I can't talk to her and ask her directly, I just read her behaviour (try). She has been jumping around and racing in the backyard like nobody's bussiness. It does help that we can lock the back garden so she can't escape. In the other house we couldn't do that, but she was allowed free inside of the house, here she is not allowed inside cuz we are renting and the floor is carpet, not wooden floor like in our other house, and is not that easy to clean....

Here she is... checking me out, she is probably thinking what are you doing following me around with that think on your face???

Alison Holst Books.

Yesterday I went shopping, I used my gift card from whitcoulls and I bought two books from Alison Holst the 100 Great Ways to use Slow Cookers and Crockpots and Baby Food and Beyond - Revised Edition.
I tried a recipe already from the slow cooker book. We had some people over for dinner tonight and I decided to do a Lamb curry. I know I don't eat meat, but I don't mind cooking it, specially using the slow cooker it is just so easy. Everybody seemed to like it, so may do it again...perhaps when Clive comes around next.

Next time I need to try some of the desert dishes from the book, yummy...

Working through the list : Baby shoes

family,Finished one item of my list. It will start getting a bit tricky to get through the list now that I have started working (part-time)... hmmm....

Baby shoes for A.B (a friends of us) have finally been finished, the motive is lady bugs. The material again is canvas and fleece in the inside, this time I have used some of the leather that Jean gave me for the sole. Lady bugs are in satin stich and so the flowers and leaves, the stem on chain. Hopefully the little one finds them confortable!:-).

Here is a fun pic of the three of us playing silly while having a wee break during a walk this weekend.

The house

View from our house this morning... just wish I had a better camera and better photographic skills so I can do some justice to our place...

Plunket pattern - 8 Bibfront trousers

This is for Jean-

I have made overalls for Fran with fleece lining to keep her nice and warm during our walks, specially now that it is getting a bit colder.

Decided to use one of the plunket patterns that Jean let me borrow, number 8 Bibfront trousers with some modifications so my little one could fit it. Here are some pictures, please note that I am not the best photographer.... but hope you get the idea...

Eyelet vest from Debbie Bliss

Finally, finally managed to finish this project (it was finished the day before my b-day, in between moving houses, packing and unpacking, and cleaning, etc).

I bought some beautiful handspun wool - pumkin spice- to make a little vest for Francisca. I went for the "Eyelet Vest" from Debbi Bliss: Special Knits book. I love the book it has beautiful projects.

I am happy with the result, the only sad thing is that she won't fit it for very long. The pattern says for 6 to 12 months, my little one is 5 1/2 months, but she is a big baby... :-( never mind, she will be wearing it every day from now until it doesn't fit anymore hahaha...

My B-day again: April 5th

Yep, you can't avoid them. They come every year. At some point in your life they are very exciting, and at some point you just don't want them to arrive. Yes, birthdays. They seems to come so fast these days:-).
We had a very nice day, with a very nice cake, some very nice conversation.

April the 5th vino y se fue

By far my best b-day present
(photo taken at blue lake 4th of april)

The move

The move starts today. This morning we get the keys for the new place- a little rental house at Lake Okareka. It is very exciting!!! It seems that it was yesterday when we decided to sell our house and now it is sold. It didn't take very long, despite the fact of being a private sell. We move this weekend and the new owner get the keys on Friday next week. It is a bit sad, I really like this place nice size section and all my plants in the garden, well some of them will come with me to the new place...

The one thing I am not really looking forward is to the next move, once we finally find the house we want to buy. It is better to give ourselves time to find a place we really like rather than buying just any house.

The big question now it how are my babies going to handle the move? Francisca and Pepa, I think Francisca should be fine but no so sure about Pepa, we will see!!!!

....And time goes by....

Here we are on Chrismas Day having a picnic at Lake Tarawera, this little one has been busy growing... on this photograph Francisca is 2 months and five days!  Can't believe how quickly times goes by.... incredible

Knitted Baby Socks

Well, apparently I thought I was expecting a premature baby. Most of the things I knitted while expecting Francisca are far too small, the little cardigan and all the little socks... my midwife suggested that if I have any spare time (yeah right, spare time) I could knit some baby socks and booties for SCABU (special care baby unit) cuz my little socks are really small she thought they could easily fit premature babies. So, I may donate the two pairs of socks that she doesn't fit any more and finish a couple of more little booties (when I get some spare time hopefully before Xmas)... and give them away.

I manage to take some photos of Francisca wearing one pair of little socks... (feet close up)

Our midwife came to see us and to measure Francisca, and she was as surprise as I was with Francisca's growth. She put on 420 grams and grew 3 cm from 54 to 57 cm, this could well be normal but it seems pretty amazing to me. Hence none of the things I made for her are fitting anymore ...  well I may have to make some more!!!

At 42 week of gestation she was born!!!

Oh my lord, I never imagine that I would carry my baby for 42 weeks. I never wanted her to be early either, I always thought that she was going to be on time, like her parents we are very punctual people, never late. Well, she wasn't ready to make the big entrance into the world and decided to be 2 weeks late.

I remember going to my 41 week appointment with the midwife and she saying if nothing has happened at 41 weeks and 3 days we need to meet at the hospital for a CTG scan to monitor baby heart rate and make  sure things are going well. 3 more days at that point seemed ages, not that I was feeling physically uncomfortable. It was more the emotional side, the phone calls, emails and texts asking the tipical questions: anything happened yet?, are you still in one piece? have you had your baby yet? I know that people truly care and wanted to know, but I found it very difficult to deal with.

41 weeks and 3 days came, and we had the CTG scan and the little one was as happy as you can be with the max heart rate at 164 and lows of 115 and moving lots. We were sent home for the weekend to keep waiting. Our midwife said you are both fine and if nothing happens during the weekend on monday we will book a room at the birthing unit for Tuesday for an induction. Tuesday came and we were there at 7:45 am, induced at 12:30 pm and with a baby in my arms at 10:33 pm... and the start of a new chapter!!!

Well, overdue pregnancies do happen, the thing to remember I guess, is that you will not be pregnant forever. I think that part of my problem (if you can call it a problem?) was that my body was coping well with it, our midwife said to me "you were 42 weeks pregnant and you looked like 36-37 weeks".

Everything is now behind, we now enjoying our little treasure.
 

our little treasure

 

Fran and Dad in the garden, first outing

 Fran and mom in the garden, first outing

New banner - using embroidery stiches

In an attemp to use up some of my free time, I made a new banner for the blog. I have been playing around with some photos but didn't like the end result, so I decided to make my own using some of the bits of thread I had around. Also, it was useful to practice the french knot stich I have just learn from Needle'N Thread using their "french knot tutorial".

I am not a very good photographer, it does look pretty cool but the photo doesn't do a very good job showing it....

flower using french knot and chain stiches

banner using a mix of stem,chain, satin and french knot stiches

.... and she keeps waiting.....

Pepa-

I just needed to post this photo... on saturday night Pepa(our little Giant Flemish) had a clean toilet and she always enjoys a  clean toilet...well who wouldn't... she was so happy that she had a little nap in it!!!

The pukeko

Hamish likes pukekos but who doesn't like pukekos, so my latest shoe request was a pukeko and obviously came from Hamish.

Here is a photo of them!!

I think I will give the shoe making a bit of a rest now. I have enough for presents now, and need to wait for some babies to be born..!!!

Grandma

I have been thinking about the lake and the family back at the lake in Chile, and about our holiday this year and Grandma.  Grandma has a natural talent for spinning but she does it using just a stick,  she doesn't use the wheel - which I have seen done most of the time here in New Zealand. She has one of those wheels, but says that is to noisy and prefers to use the stick. She spends her days now between spinning and knitting...

I wish I could learn to do this, it may just be a matter of trying - will add it to my list of things to do next winter..... wool is winter thing for me..

Organizing

I did some tidying up yesterday that led me to this : "a needle case". I never heard of such a thing until I came across one while looking through some of my favorites blogs. While organizing the dining table last night- which is currently filled with my sewing and embroidery things- it occurred to me that I probably needle case would be quite useful so I made this... This is what I ended up doing, I may need to add a little hmm lock to keep it close...

Now, I have my sewing needles organized but the table is still a mess!!

Going back to my old hobbies

My arts and crafts teacher from high school would be quite please to see that I have taken my old hobbies back. I used to really enjoy doing embroidery a while back and even doing my -not very talented -classmates friends work, not that I was that talented I just liked it!! Well, given I now have a bit of spare time ... why not... So, Aeropajita Jara - that is my teachers' name (yes I know)- thanks for all you taught me! I made this bag to store things and decided to make a bit more interesting with a couple of little flowers.