Back on board....

it has been an insane few weeks, my daughter has been ill and was in hospital for four days, which was very exhausting, but we came out with some news and hopefully we will have some answer soon to why she has been getting so many repiratory infections in the last couple of months. If you want to read her story, this is the link The Mastermans

the last couple of days I have been getting into sewing again when I can, usually late a night when I have finished working and Nakita is in bed. I have decided that this christmas everyone will be receiving something handmade/sewn, it is very exciting and rewarding, much more fun browsing a fabric store now than braving the shops at christmas time!

i will post some pictures of my latest bits and pieces, but beware if you are a IRL you might be getting a sneak peak of something you might be receiving!!

i have been doing quite a bit of reading lately, especially about homebirth, I know it isn't an option for me, but I have been really enjoying reading some amazing stories, and in some ways I feel sad that I wouldn't have it as an option, but I know that we will need to have access to high level care for bubs, and in reality I am at peace with that. Homebirth: A Midwife Mutiny  is a blog I have been reading that has a number of amazing stories of homebirths and even a hospital transfer which turned out to be the most amazing birth in a hospital I have read :)

i have achieved a few things on my 101/1001 list but have to update that later!
xxoo

1001 things in 101 days

1. Create a list of 101 things to complete in 1001 days (1/1)
2. Sew an Owl softie (0/1)
3. Have friends over for Brunch, Lunch or Dinner once a month (1/32)
4. Have a computer free day once a month (0/31)
5. Burn all the photos of Nakita and send to family (0/1)
6. Travel to Qld to see friends (1/1)
7. Travel to Melbourne to see friends (1/1)
8. Take Roy to the Star Wars Exhibition in Melbourne (1/1)
9. Take Nakita to the zoo to see the Pandas (0/1)
10. Walk the Linear Trail into the City (0/1)
11. Walk up Mount Lofty (0/1)
12. Post a "people photo" one a day for a month my blog (0/31)
13. Post a “organic photo” one a day for a month on my blog (0/31)
14. Post a “creative photo” one a day for a month on my blog (0/31)
15. Cook something new once a month (1/32)
16. Have a generation photo with Nakita, my mother and grandmother (0/1)
17. Travel to Sydney to see family and friends (0/1)
18. Organise a Date with Roy once a fortnight (1/72)
19. Make enough cloth wipes to stop using the throw away the disposable wipes (0/1)
20. Get enough cloth nappies to go full time cloth (0/20)
21. Read at least one book to Nakita every day (20/1001)
22. Sew a blanket for the NICU at the WCH (0/1)
23. Sew 5 gowns for the NICU at the WCH (0/5)
24. Breastfeed Nakita until she decides to wean (0/1)
25. Save a $1 a day to spend at the end (20/1001)
26. Read a book for myself once a month (0/32)
27. Sew 5 gifts as just because presents and give to friends/family (0/5)
28. Sew 5 Bell Taggies and give them away to friends with newborns (2/5)
29. Post/Update Nakita’s Blog at least once a fortnight (2/72)
30. Try to sell some of my sewing on Made It (0/1)
31. Make Nakita’s Birthday cake each year (1/4)
32. Bring in a special lunch to work for the girls once a month (0/32)
33. Go to the Farm twice a year for two nights (0/6)
34. Go to Clare twice a year for two nights (0/6)
35. Go to a sewing class (0/1)
36. Have a photography lesson (0/1)
37. Research information posters for the Women’s and Children’s NICU/SCBU waiting room, on what visitors can do for the parents of premmies, with little handouts/brochures
38. Follow up on compiling our Prem Playgroups “stories”
39. Photograph the WCH for a book, on having a sibling in the NICU/SCBU, so they can relate exactly to what they are going to see and have to do.
40. Complete the thankyou’s for Nakita’s first Birthday
41. Register to be banned from a forum for at least one week (0/1)
42. Learn a new craft (0/1)
43. Hang all of our photos around our house (0/1)
44. Find the perfect photos and print them to place in the frames Roy gave me for my birthday (0/1)
45. Have another baby (0/1)
46. Choose a plot in the community garden (0/1)
47. Join in on at least two community garden working bees (0/2)
48. Plant a herb garden or herb pot (0/1)
49. Design the garden for our house (0/1)
50. Sort out the office, into an office not a pile of boxes (0/1)
51. Ride my bike from home to the city and back (0/1)
52. Get my eyesight checked (0/1)
53. Read a book outside under a tree (0/1)
54. Take Nakita and Roy on a Picnic along the Linear Park (0/1)
55. Walk up around Morialta Falls (0/1)
56. Join the local library and take Nakita in to chose books (0/1)
57. Paint the three canvases (0/3)
58. Hang Nakita's paintings in her bedroom (0/1)
59. Throw a party, that isn't a birthday party (0/1)
60. Have the Prem Mum's over for a "Movie Night" (0/1)
61. Go wine tasting (0/1)
62. Climb a tree (0/1)
63. Hold a candlelit dinner (0/1)
64. Donate blood/plasma three times (0/3)
65. Find a wholesale butcher to buy all out meat (0/1)
66. For one month ONLY buy what is already written on my shopping list (0/1)
67. Sell the Baby Bjorn on EBAY (0/1)
68. Organise a Skype phone call with Damien and Alina (0/1)
69. Organise a Skype phone call with Amber and Carl (0/1)
70. Go back to yoga (0/1)
71. Research what I can do to try to get to Full Term for the next time I am pregnant (0/1)
72. Buy some gumboots for the markets in winter (0/1)
73. Make contact with two old school friends (0/2)
74. Get my skin checked for Skin Cancers (0/1)
75. Take Nakita to her physio sessions (2/7)
76. Volunter for something (0/1)
77. Write at least 20 recipes from friends or family into my Cooking Journal (3/20)
78. Go out for breakfast, dinner or lunch to at least 10 new places (0/10)
79. Bake and decorate fancy cupcakes (0/1)
80. Watch a movie in our Home Theatre (0/1)
81. Get my toenails done at Endota (0/1)
82. Get a massage done at Endota (0/1)
83. Organise a massage for Roy (0/1)
84. Write a budget with Roy (1/1)
85. Pay off Nakita's christmas present (0/1)
86. Find 5 new blogs that interest me to follow (0/5)
87. Sell 5 things we don't need on EBAY (0/5)
88. Research schools for Nakita with Roy (0/1)
89. Go out to brunch at the Hilton (0/1)
90. Go to the botanic gardens in all four seasons (0/4)
91. Go out for High Tea (0/1)
92. Get a new sewing machine (0/1)
93. Sew a dress for Nakita (0/1)
94. Go indoor rock climbing again (0/1)
95. Catch up with 2 uni friends (0/2)
96. Make a list of 50 things that make me happy (0/1)
97. Participate in Earth Hour (0/3)
98. Make a photo book and get it printed (0/1)
99. Document a day in photos, one photo per hour (0/1)
100. Design and print a present from Nakita to each family member for Christmas (0/1)
101. Write 101 reason why I love my husband (0/1)

a new and an old photo #2

the last couple of months I have embarked on sewing, I have found that it is a really relaxing and calming activity, getting me away from a computer screen that I spend so many hours a day glued infront of. Everything I have sewn so far has either been for Nakita or I have given away to friends, I have a list of things I want to sew, but at the moment I am a bit limited by my machine rather than my ability to sew.

which brings me to my something old..... it was my grandmothers "spare" sewing machine, it is old... very old, it is in a wooden box and the motor is separate from the machine. We have managed to get it to sew a straight stitch and a zig zag (although it drops stitches in the zig zag), but you know, I love the old machine, all the little quirks about it. I have to spin the wheel to get it going, you can only thread the needle from one direction or the whole things refuses to budge.... it will be upgraded one day, probably to just a basic machine, I am not really interested in something with hundreds of features that I will probably never use...

the new isn't really all that new, but it is a LOT newer than my sewing machine, it is my mother's overlocker, on loan for maybe another week or two if I am lucky.

i still remember when I was young and my mum bought the overlocker when we went to the Paskaville field days. The buzz when mum bought it home and the fin she had sewing up a storm with it, we couldn't believe how quick it was and that it actually cut the material as it went though, trimming it and making it all enat and tidy.

this machine had made so many things over the years, numerous Rock Eisteddfod costumes, clothes, wheat bags, gifts and now it is allowing me to "play". After I get a new sewing machine the next thing on my list will be my own overlocker :)

a new and an old photo #1

this is the first of hopefully a series of old and new photos, a way I can display some of my old favourites as well as something new:)

this old photos is from September 2006, we were driving down to Milford Sound, on the South Island of New Zealand, it was a gorgeous day, albeit freezing day and the snow was drifing off the top of the mountains. The quality isn't very good as it was taken with our digital video camera, which was great for taking video, but not quite there as a camer, and it was before I bought my big SLR, oh I wish I had the SLR when we went to NZ!



this recent photo is of a sliced butternut pumpkin, I love how the water was beading off it not long after I cut it.



let see how creative I can get next time.....

new layout and title

i also got creative and designed up a new title image, inspired by a nursery website I was on early today, not bad for about 20 minutes in photoshop, gee I love that program!!

finally going to try and get this blog going....

i started it in February with full intentions of writing this blog, but life just go too hectic and it go put to the back burner.

i have been inspired over the last few weeks to start writing down more random stuff about me, very technical terms here people. I have spent so much energy on Nakita, my gorgeous husband, our new house, our old house, work and doing things for other people. But it is time that I did something for myself.... I think I need to do something for myself.

i have a computer full of photos (not all photos of Nakita;)), I have a love for macrophotography, but don't have the money to buy a gorgeous macro lense, so I will use what came with my beautiful Canon Digital EOS 400D SLR. I bought it a couple of years ago for work, and it takes some fabulous pictures, I have a lot of learning to do and my photos are quite amaturish, but I don't think that matters, as it isn't about take the most amazing, brilliant, wizz bang shot, it is about taking photos of things, people and places that are important to me, make me smile or I think are just too cool! So I am going to share some of my photos, nice individual shots for a change, not a series of slide shows.

i am also going to share my sewing, at the moment I have borrowed my mother's overlocker, which I know she will be hoping to get back shortly, but I have been having a wonderful time sewing up wraps, cloth wipes, change table mats and my very cute minkee bell taggies. The sewing machine I have is my grandmothers, I will take a photos of it as you won't believe it when you see it. It is one of those with a separate electric motor and it is in a wooden box and it weighs a tonne!

my list of 101 things is still going, I will post it up, with where I am up to and what I have to cross off.

but for now I am heading off to pick up little Miss from Daycare, I cannot wait for her squeals of delight when I come in the door and a lovely warm cuddle with my baby girl. Then home to spend an evening with my gorgeous husband, the most caring, thoughtful and forgiving person I know.

love for now, till later on
xxoo

the begining...

where do I start... I have had a Blog for our family, which I started when we were trying to conceive our first daughter Nakita, it has been a wonderful experience writing about our journey. But now I am looking to write about me, myself and I.

i want to record my life, my experiences, my trials and tribulations. I needed to find a place where I can write when I feel like I need to escape, celebrate, cry or vent.

i am a working mother, from a government/corporate background, but now working privately and a majority of my work at present is based from home. I am a Landscape Architect, but have a loves for deign, photography and the like.

i was reading a blog earlier today and came across a list, 101 in 1001, it was a list of 1001 things to achieve within 1001 days. What an inspiration, is this something I need, I have so many things i want to do, my head is spinning, so many aims but I feel that somedays I will never get the basics done. So why not make a start, make a list, follow the list and complete it. So the countdown begins. I will need to spend some time creating this list, 101 seems a lot but I am sure that in the end it won't be, some things will be weekly, monthly or yearly aims, others will be one offs.

i have since google and found a website Day Zero about the list and for the list, but for now I will keep mine on my blog :)

so for now I will leave this, while I go to ponder what will be on my list....