lately

It's not until you're pregnant, that you start to realise just how long nine months is - thankfully, I'm now twenty-two weeks, which is just past the halfway milestone. Hurrah! We found out that we're having a little girl, and she has subsequently been named Daisy, after my Mother's Grandmother - for a long time I couldn't feel any movements ("oh, you can feel them from about sixteen weeks if it's your second baby" - pffft), and at my twenty week scan, the sonographer explained that the placenta was at the front, and acting as a cushion. Over the last two weeks though, I've started to feel her wriggling and kicking, and have even seen my tummy move - magic!

The best thing about being so far beyond the first trimester is without a doubt the diminishing sickness and nausea. This pregnancy has been so much worse than when I was expecting the Boy, so to be able to actually smell food without wanting to retch is like Christmas come early - I'm anaemic, and still feel exhausted all the time, but I'd take anything over that endless sick-feeling.

We've been out and about a lot more lately, and have managed to solve the problem of the vegetable box with the discovery of a local market that takes place every Saturday - it just so happens that it's right around the corner from the park and lake we like to take the Boy to, which means killing two birds with one stone. Massive win!

We've been off exploring the local countryside as well - I'm absolutely desperate to move to somewhere more rural, but at the moment it's just not on the cards. So I have to make do with driving through little lanes and shouting, "STOOOPPP!" whenever the Husband manouvres his way past whichever animal, vegetable or mineral I see that might make a good photo......

 

The Boy and I have been squeezing in a lot of fun time too - painting, parks and Christmas baking, as well as a lot of peering out of the windows at the unusually foggy weather. We might live in a flat, but we're lucky enough to have some pretty impressive views out across the fields - I'd still much rather open my back door to an expanse of green, but all in good time!

fanfare for a finished project (finally...)

I honestly feel like I might need a drum roll for the beginning of this post, accompanied by a host of trumpets, and possibly even a choir joyfully trilling, "hallelujah!" After yet another massive blog-gy hiatus, not only have I managed to string another post together - I've actually (drrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr) finished the ripple blanket, border and all (tsssss - that's the symbol, in case you hadn't guessed).

Originally, I was going to sew some binding type tape up the sides, more out of sheer laziness than anything else - I thought it would be much quicker to simply pin the edging, and then nip it all together on the sewing machine than it would to actually just crochet a border. I literally couldn't have been more wrong - after pinning everything in place, I started stitching, and it soon became pretty clear that it was a terrible idea. For some reason, the tape moved as I moved it through the machine, which meant that it ended up all lopsided and tatty. I then had to spend an entire evening unpicking the damn thing, and then a further two evenings crocheting a proper border. The moral of the story? Don't try to cut out the middle man, because he'll come back to bite you firmly in the rear end.

It all worked out perfectly in the end though, and apart from the ridiculously large amount of time I spent on it, I'm really pleased with the whole thing. It's made from a variety of Stylecraft colours (I know some people turn their noses up at Stylecraft, but it's not bad at all, and is really the most affordable yarn around - it's not 'splitty' at all either, which is a big plus for me), and is quite soft and cuddly.

I made it originally to go on the Boy's bed, but as he's still in his cot (I'm putting off taking the sides off for as long as possible....), it's found a temporary home on the sofa - the Boy doesn't seem to mind, and often runs up to me saying, "Mummy, I lie on my blanket". What can I say? He appreciates a good bit of crochet!