what i ate today...

I think there is one area of pregnancy that ought to be documented heavily. It's isn't the feelings of elation or the changes in your body or arse. More importantly we should be sharing what we can manage to put away in a day. As such, I'd like to tell you all what I have eaten today. And before you bombard me with facts about how you actually don't need to eat much more than you do regularly, let me just inform you, I don't give a flying fart. I feel good and I'm hungry and I'm going to eat.

It's only 4pm and here is what I have already packed away today:

This morning to was two...hmmm, let me spell this phonetically...rog-a-la! They are delicious Jewish sweet cakes that make my eyes roll back in my head and can enhance even the worst cup of coffee.


Rog-a-la is the one that looks like a croissant to the left

At about 11am I thought to myself, surely it's time to eat again? It seems I was right, I had a quick piece of fruit and then tucked into these little babies...



For lunch I had left over pasta from last night. It had plenty of spinach and mushrooms in it.....and cheese and cream and butter...

Hitting on 2pm I thought, I will simply fade away if I don't eat a little something more. So I whipped myself up some crackers with vintage cheese from aussiefarmersdirect and Three Three's gherkins.


We have cheese, eggs, milk, fruit and vege delivered every week. It's feels good to spend our money to actual farmers and not the supermarkets of the world.




An finally, just then, I sat back for a little cup of decaffeinated tea and a mini snickers bar.

Right. Come on. Tell me I'm over doing it. I can take it. I won't be offended. I'm tough. After all, I'm going to go through child birth dammit!

the good and the bad.

It's been an interesting few days in the mini world of Emily Brocklesby nee Elliott (yet to be changed cause I'm a lazy sod). Let me take you through the good first, so you don't think I'm a whining bitch.

1# I feel great. I am utterly surprised by how wonderful I feel in this second trimester. In fact, I feel so good it's making me feel bad. I'm now beside myself with worry that something is wrong with bubs and my bump is just actually a public display of my inability to control myself around carbohydrates. Is it normal to feel this fan-tab-u-lous at 16 weeks?

2# I had a wonderful weekend. Ben and I stayed at the beach house ALL weekend. After a work function on Thursday and Friday I made my way to our beach house, warmed the living room with it's big, burly heater and we ate takeaway! We stayed Saturday night also - ate fish and watched Big Love and on Sunday, as the rain fell and the fire warmed us we decided to sacrifice the early morning rise (5:45am) to stay one more night. Pure Bliss!

3# I have found the sewing class that I have long been desiring. Thread Den is an awesome innovation started by some fashion designers and crafty people. They do all sorts of great classes but I am mostly interested in the 60's shift dress class and little Beginners Mod 2 in button holes and zippers - it's completely daggy but I couldn't give a rats left testicle!

Now for the bad...

1# Some random guy pulled out in front of me the other day as I was gunning it along my green arrow right turn lane and I smacked right into him. Totally his fault. If he wasn't so sheepish I might have f'd and b'd a little more. Anyway, my car was near fine (love my VW Golf) and only needed a slight panel repair which my insurance was going to cover. Good! I hear you say? Sure was.

2# Car was delivered back to me yesterday and all was looking and sounding wonderful. At 6:30 last night I went to drive her home and she was deader than George W Bush's political career. It even smelt as bad as him. Anyway, I had to fork out a whole $30 for a Taxi home - super sucked!

3# Today the RACV told me that they would not take responsibility for my dead battery and I would have to PAY to have it assessed. Totally f**ked off. My car goes away to have its panel fixed and comes back with its motor dead - not my idea of service. I yelled at a guy I don't even know, it felt really good. Smug little twat.

In other news just at hand - my dog maggie has been eating raw chops for the last three days straight. I've never seen her happier. Although, I went to give her a little pat goodbye this morning and was hit by the most powerful pungent festy fart I have ever had the misfortune to smell. I have subsequently given her a new nickname 'burger lips'.

traffic.

Just a small note to say thanks Antonia for sending so much damn traffic to this rusty old blog. I read one of her entries about parenthood and shit my daks! All those Huggies ads went tumbling from my imagination and I was left with a deep feeling of dread that I may end up the loneliest person on the planet.

However, Antonia wrote me a note. A note that touched on the very reasons she loves being a mum. And it touched me. I have every hope that I will feel even half as lucky when my baby comes along. Best of luck at Blogher 08 - you are by far the funniest, so stop fretting!

Here's a pic of a friend of a friends baby that just makes me chuckle every time I see it. I think 'Old Man with mischievous scheme'.

a new direction.

Life is a funny old thing. It throws up so many great surprises. It delights me. I can't get enough. Newly married. settling in a new role at work and now a good 14 weeks pregnant! Boy, that feels good to say.

Yup. Little old me and little older Ben have ourselves a honeymoon baby on the way. What joy!! It's something we have wanted for so long now and to be currently nestling baby in belly feel nothing short of a miracle. My belly is starting to pop (much to the dismay of my new op shop jeans) and I have passed the hard sickness stage of the first trimester and moved my grooving body onto stage two. I only occasionally feel light headed in the shower or really tired from growing bodies and brains and stuff.

Anyway, as a result of this news, I wanted to share two things with you. Firstly the awe inspiring ultrasound!



If you look really closely as Baby Brock's arse you can just make out the 'Made in Vietnam' stamp.

And with the ability to be able to share this news, I am also able to share my latest project. A blanket for baby of course. This will be the biggest blanket I have ever made - quite the challenge for me. I am making it single bed size so that during cold nights when I am feeding bubs and I can stay warm, and then when he/she is big enough, they can have it on their first ever bed! You'll notice I have kept the colours very neutral as we wont be finding out the sex of the baby until I have pushed it out over a 36 hour period.



Soooo...you make a square. I like this one.



This fabulous red material is a fav. I purchased it from Patchwork On Central Park.



Each square is different. See how great these colours are!!!
Right now? I am going to go home and eat soup and change into trackies that fit and watch TV til my delightful husband comes home. I might even eat some of that smashing apple and blueberry crumble I made last night - geez I'm getting domesticated!

Other people's money...

There's nothing better than spending other people's money. I don't mean that in a bad way. eg. I'm not robbing change purses from old ladies on the tram. I merely mean, when someone gives you the gift of a voucher and you get to head out and spend it.

Ben and I allocated all day Saturday to the fine art of spending other people's money. We had been given two vouchers for a our wedding, a Chapel St Bazaar voucher and an Australian galleries voucher. Noice!

We headed to the Chapel Street Bazaar first. Swinging past Tusk cafe for a really overrated breakfast and coffees that never actually made it to our table. If you've ever been to the Bazaar, you'll know that walking in there can make your head spin. There are so many little nooks and crannies, filled with retros goodies ranging in price and diverse in their age.

It was so incredibly hard to choose something in the end. We wanted it to be something that reminded us of the beautiful people that gave us the voucher, but we also wanted it to be something that would live on in our lives for many married years to come. After much debate we finally settled on...

This stunning late 1960's radio. See how it has NSW, QLD, VIC etc. And it still works. I love the art deco shape and the cream and blue colour. It has livened our kitchen tenfold!



And of course, no house is complete without a wall clock....or in our case, a retro clock!




Ben and I love this clean display and fancy the idea that it runs on electricity. An odd wire here and there has never fazed us!

busier than bees when their busy...

It's been a hectic week. so much frustration, emotion and nagging, aching tiredness. I would say 'I need a holiday' but I know I've just returned from one. Why does Vietnam seem so long ago?

I'm finding I like going to bed at 9:30pm on.the.dot. not a minute before and most definitely not a minute after. I feel like every time I pick myself up off the couch and head to bed before ten more wrinkles appear around my eyes and my hands start growing their very own walking frame. Could I really be this old already?

I'm putting most of it down to work at the moment. As it is the end of the financial year, there is SOOOO much happening. We are always manic in June and I had prepared myself for that, but to make matters worse I am having recruiting issues and internal stresses and also have to co-ordinate three juniors and a work experience girl. So you get where I'm coming from.

Ben has been a great help - as usual. He can lighten my mood from the minute I walk in the door. Seeing the muddy face of Maggie the Kelpie also eases the stress. I want to take the two of them and head to our beach house, lock all the doors and allow winter to batter around outside as we read books, drink wine and eat well.

Tonight I am off to another function that I have been guilted into attending. When you're this tired the last thing you want is your mother on the phone saying 'but I already told them you'd come!'. Anyone else as weak as me? I hate disappointing people. I would drag this depleted body half way across town to a fancy dress I haven't prepared for, to hang with old work colleagues I have lost touch with and enter into conversation that might actually freeze my brain rather than disappoint my mother, or her very lovely friends.

I really need my head checked. Anyone noticed yet that my capitals are back? I figure there are enough young people in the world bastardising the English language, why should I join them.

oh, and before I forget....another thing that brightened my dull week. My sister sent me a photo of my nephew Charlie lying on the blanket I made him. *Sigh* he's so cute!

holding me back.

hmmmm. i've been so distracted lately. there are so many things that i want to get done and just cant get around to. for instance, i have been meaning to clean out our second bedroom and rearrange all my sewing things, but other things catch my fancy...like baking a deliciously naugthy chocolate hazelnut cake or staring at more photos of the wedding til the point when some might deem it a little narcissistic. anyway, the point is, I have a plan. a grand plan in fact. and as is with most grand plans there are certain things getting in the way. let me list a few.

guitars. our spare room is currently the home to some 7 guitars. my new husband benny is a bit of a rock god. he likes to bang out tunes in the garage every tuesday night with his three mates. strange thing is....why would anyone need that many guitars when they only have two hands? he assures me that in fact he does need them all. even the old battered one in the bent case. each one apparently serves a purpose - yeah, clogging up my friggin' spare room!

books. again with the hording. ben loves books. it's sad that it takes him so long to read one because he really really loves them. as such we have accumulated a hideous amount of books in our spare room. there are so many bad books in fact, that the good books wont fit on the shelf and have to live by the side of the bed. the pile is getting so big ben and i might have to catch a train to find each other in bed at night.

clothes. ahhhh yes. apparel rules the corner of my humble spare room. ben went through a dress up party stage when turquoise leather jackets and brown spandex pants were really, really funny. now they're just really, really annoying. but ben cant throw ANYTHING out lightly. 'i might need that cream and brown striped wide collar shirt'. 'what for?' i would quiz. 'don't know, might have a book launch gig in a 70s bar coming up that it would be good for'.

thankfully bens mum and dad have taken our spare bed off our hands to decorate their new place. it means bens friends dont have to bang their drums around it in the garage and i can start planning the room that i have been thinking about for so long now.