Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Beach fun and new friends.

On Friday afternoon Miss Annie and I packed up our stuff and made our way down to Rye for a sewing weekend. As the lovely Sewjourn is booked out months in advance we opted for somewhere by the sea and oh boy am I glad we did!

Organised by the lovely Leslie, we were to be sharing our two story beach house with some other devoted bloggers and crafty people Jo and Julia. I have met Jo before and learnt so much from her and was excited about getting to know Julia.

As Ben has been too busy with the house I had to bring Miss A with me. Not that it was so bad. She moaned a bit and was kinda clingy, but overall she slept well and seemed happy to be somewhere a little different. Leslie and I took her to the beach. She absolutely loved it.



Not so keen on being sensible in the sun.







Miss A always squints in photos. I have NO idea where she gets that from.

These sewing weekends are great for so many reasons. We get to learn from each other and complete projects that haunt you as you tackle the day to day of house cleaning, cooking and baby wrangling. Usually these sewing weekends involve lots of great food (last weekend being NO exception) and if you're lucky you'll make some new friends. What surprised me the most was that not only did all of these things occur in Rye, but I also secured some confidants. People I could talk to easily. People who were on the same page as me, in motherhood, as a wife, in life.

Even with my little chicken there, I managed to get some things done. I was keen to make some pillow cases for European Pillows my sister had given me. I want our new bedroom to have white linen and then I plan on mixing things up every now and then when I come across some interesting fabric. I found this cute fabric in spotlight and was very happy with how they turned out.



I also made a little summer top for Annie that I'm going to put away for next year. I used the lovely grey and blue fabric that was left over from the pillows. After a marathon car clean on Monday I have decided my next project is a little car seat toy holder for Miss Annie's books. I'm hoping it will assist in keeping our vehicle somewhat respectable!

Sunday, February 14, 2010

knackered.

There's no hiding the obvious. I am absolutely knackered. The house has really begun to take shape and with a steady speeding up of things, Ben and I are getting busier and busier. I spent most of Saturday carefully painting around our stunning cornice and along our architraves. I managed to get the three bedrooms and the hallway prepared for the roller paint Derby that will commence this weekend.

Finding the time (and the right job) to help Ben with the house has been hard. Big thanks to my sister Deb for helping out with Miss A. You are more than wonderful to me. I want to be apart of the development of the house and find that hard with an active one year old. She demands so much of my time and energy I feel I cannot give in others areas when I (badly) want to.

I've been working two days a week as well. I actually really like that. Being with adults and working my advertising brain has been good for me. I found that the dramatic change from working woman to stay-at-home mum hard. Two days is enough to satisfy the person I have spent the last 32 years being and gives me plenty of time with the delightful Miss A to grow into a good mum. It's a very good balance.

I have had little or no time for sewing lately. We are still living with my parents-in-law and there's no real space for setting up a sewing machine that I don't have to pack up at the end of each session. However, I am pleased to say that I am going away on another sewing weekend this Friday (with Miss A) so hopefully I will get some quiet moments to rustle up a dress or two for me and my baby.

Oh yeh, forgot to mention...we are going to Bali in April for a little family holiday. We must be mad, with all the renovating etc, but when my air-hostess friend got us fights for a quarter of the price we could not resist. Bring. It. On!

For now though, I will delight you with our ceiling roses. It's the pretty things that make this renovation business so much easier to handle...







This is my father Thomas.



Without his help, I don't think Ben and I would ever move into our new home. He has been wonderful. Not just wonderful, but selfless, loving and dedicated. We owe him our sanity.