shake it like a polaroid picture!

Warning - I'm gonna be all lame here and gush about an iphone app. You take a picture then you shake it and wait for it to develop like a polaroid!! It's so much fun! (And it's completely hypocritical of me to love it so much as I really hate the Hipstamatic app that takes faux lomo shots - just use a Holga or a Diana people!)

But look at the pretty wisteria...

And I love how at this time of year the gutter is filled with pretty purple petal litter

And this is my new friend Zeppellin. He's the friendliest kitten in town. He lives on my parent's street and I actually cross the road to see if he's hanging out...

And here is my old friend Montalbano with his new friend, Gabi's crochet baby blankie. I got straight onto it and sewed up the left over hexagons and started working on the trim. And since Bano likes it and I'm also told the lovely Sally's Mister 3 even likes it, so I'm feeling pretty confident that my lil one will like it too. (And if not, too bad.)

Only problem is I got THIS CLOSE to finishing the trim in the pale green when I ran out of yarn. CURSES!!

Ironically every thing I've ever tried to crochet in that lovely pale green bamboo/cotton yarn has been promptly ripped up, I just can't seem to get it to work for me. So I wasn't surprised it wasn't going to oblige me and finish the trim without an argument. What should I do? Rip it off? Fill the gap with left over jade? Crochet the row again using a smaller stitch that might conserve more yarn? Ditch the entire project?!

sometimes courage needs a little encouragement

I was reminded that I need to find the strength within when I saw this lovely image on Pikaland by Nicole Daddona.

I'll admit to being a little paralysed by fear lately, or a nifty cocktail of fear, procrastination, laziness and exhaustion. I feel like I'm treading water, but that the water level is rising swiftly and it's getting tougher to keep my head above water. Trouble is, it's only me making the water rise!

I have so much support around me, I know everyone believes in me and deep down I even believe in myself. I'm just not making myself proud, if you know what I mean? I'm not getting things done. But I'm not in the mood for getting things done. Can't I sit on the couch all day instead? I need to encourage my courage.

I need to get on with it.  


I need to tackle some mammoth tasks and then I can quit feeling guilty about not being the amazing me I know I can be. 


Here are a few tasks to tackle. If I admit them to you, dear friends, perhaps you'll hold me accountable?!

* Declutter, repackage and transform the "junk room" into a happy room for the lil one to sleep in. There is a lot to do in the smallest room in our house. A lot.
* Do my tax before the end of the next financial year already.
* Work harder and smarter at my freelance jobs. We need the money.
* Stop freaking out and comparing my impending labour experience to that of certain celebrities. Like Kourtney Kardashian, for example, who didn't even break a sweat on her perfectly made up face when she reached down and delivered her own baby. I know I won't be sweat, tears or terror free when the big day comes, but the image of her completely calm labour is not inspiring me, it's giving me guilt trips like skinny models in magazines. 


That'd make a nice start I think. I will do the things that I think I cannot. Or rather, the things I do not really want to do, but know I must.



 

warm fuzzy "look everyone, I made this!" moments

So even though Spring is well sprung these days, what with all the magnolias and cherry blossoms and wisteria waving hello as you walk down the street, I'm still making room for some warm fuzzy moments in my life.

If I can be THIS PROUD of my recycled woollen turtleneck jumper transformed into a hot water bottle cozy then I can only imagine how proud I will be of the little baby I pop out after 9 long months. I bet there will be a lot of "LOOK EVERYONE, I MADE THIS!!!"...apologies in advance people.

Meanwhile, here is my new improved hot water bottle. Turtleneck jumpers are terribly unflattering on me, but I always get sucked in by the woollen jumper rack at Vinnies, so rather than return it back to Vinnies in a recent spring clean I decided to get crafty. Wish I'd thought beforehand to embroider something cute on it before I sewed it up but the urge to make overwhelmed my thinking process.

Have you ever got so sick of a project you'd been working on that you never bothered to finish it? Well, I think I've come across a solution - pass it on! My lovely neighbour Gabi had been working on a sweet hexagonal crochet baby blankie for a friend of hers since her friend found out she was pregnant. Now that friends baby is 1 and Gabi still hasn't finished the blanket but has grown sick of the sight of it. So she passed it on to me instead.

And I'm so excited! I just have to sew on 14 left over hexagons and edge it and it's done! Almost like I made the whole thing myself!

I better get cracking on this though otherwise I fear I'll lose the will to finish also, and it would be a terrible shame for this poor orphaned blankie to be abandoned twice!

"one time I looked at a diamond and it gave me a sunburn"

MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON
Uploaded by manandamazing.

Now that I have distracted you with THE. CUTEST. STOP. MOTION. ANIMATION. EVER I'm hoping you'll not be so mad at me for not upholding my regular blogging aspirations. It seems that turning on the computer and typing out intelligent, thoughtful blog posts on a regular basis is still beyond my capacity. Le sigh. Le sorry. All I can do is hope to improve?! Try harder?!

But I do want to say a HUGE THANK YOU for all your lovely kind comments regarding my new pregnant life. May I say it with flowers?

Thanks to EJORPIN for pointing me in the direction of FLOWER POWER!

I have been busy but my camera has not, must remember to recharge that battery! In the meanwhile might I share with you the wonderful MAEVE online magazine? A most lovely online publication indeed.

I'll be back soon with images of creative pursuits, I promise. I DO!