Lulu Carter

our photo shoot afternoon

Wanting something better than my hand held bump shots we had a little fun in the kitchen today.It seems while we were getting busy, a little cast member not right then required, grabbed my camera and took a snap

I like it.

 

 

 

 

32 weeks and things have changed that may involve a graveyard dig

  

Before you ask-yep,that is toothpaste smudgy yuk on the bathroom mirror.I strongly suspect that is the nearly ten year olds toothpaste splatter as he talks while brushing.Noice.And yep-I failed to notice it as I was sooo busy trying to frame the tap out of shot anything on the mirror was invisible to me. Actually I was also trying to frame out the door handle behind me so....anyway...I was kind of splatter distracted.

Do you see that enormous thing up top?!?! Where did that come from? I have been tinkering along not too large and uncomfortable and then -within the last two weeks- exploded. Seriously.

And I'm sure it had nothing to do with donuts.....

In six weeks today this little boy will have maed his debut by now but I have been getting the most frightening feeling that he will make an early entrance like his brother. Shall I point out that we are not ready? Do you think I should send him a memo or something??

I hope to show you a finished quilt in the next few days and then I really must get onto the rest of that list.

*stocking for niece

*stocking for this one

*tree skirt (had happily removed this one as we werent going to be here but things have changed so its back on)

*paint bedroom walls white

*make mattress covers for moses basket and pram bassinet

*forage in attic for baby leftovers and wash those still ok

*cook stuff and shove it in the freezer

*in regards to above-who am I kidding-eat take away......

*put my desk in boys room so there is a scrap of wall to use as 'baby space'

*narrow down the names list

*find a bigger house (this one had been removed aswell but is now alarmingly back on)

*rob a bank so the above can be achieved

*rob that bank on a day that walking is not agony so I can run/waddle relatively fast to the getaway car

*nuke the headlice that seem to have again invaded oldest childs locks

*how does that HAPPEN???? really really disgusting little critters

*maybe shave that kids head and call it a day

 

Can somebody tell me which books to strategically place in front of nearly ten year old now that Harry Potter has all been read and nothing else quite measures up in his mind?

Electronic games are getting dangerously close to a midnight graveyard dig. We need more books.

Take care xxx

 

lets talk donuts

These are my idea of heaven.Dangerous, but finger licking belly swelling heaven.

Given that they simply dont keep, there is a spectacular chance you will eat all two dozen at once. Followed by their 'bums'. There's really no way getting around it. Especially as they need to be eaten warm.

I accept no responsibilty.Nada. I support you in your gluttony.

To begin with your plate will be piled high.

Then it will dwindle.

I say feed them to the children.They are much better prepeared to burn it all off. Those of us with sofa commitments are less so.

First spied here. Recipe over here.

Go on.......you know you're drooling now.xx

 

30 weeks

Getting there!

Have a gorgeous weekend.

xx

Movie Night quilt

A long time ago in May, I went away for a heavenly weekend with Belinda, Mel and some other fabulous women.

During that weekend , after I had made the requested pajamas and robe and oohhhed and ahhhed over everyone elses sewing goodness, I knealt on the floor and cut out some squares.

Not sure what I'm doing here, I remember thinking. Not sure that I like this fabric  ( purely because everyone else did-slap me ). But I cut and I pieced and by the time I came home I had the beginnings of a quilt for..... for what? I wasnt sure.

The boys didnt need another. I didnt want to make something for the baby yet which was still very new and I didnt want to make it and give it away because, to be honest, once those squares were all happily side by side, I completely loved this fabric.

So movie night quilt was born.

Every Saturday,give or take, we rent a movie for us all to enjoy and make far too much caramel popcorn and something easy for dinner. The boys and I all squish on the sofa snuggled up and husband settles into his big old chair and we enjoy family movie night. We've done this for over a year now and its a lovely family treat. Up until now, the only with a quilt for snuggling was the person in the chair!

But this quilt has languished on my shelf next to the one I started for our bed.

Until I wrote my list that is.

You know those great big scary hairy lists you write before your baby is born? All the things you simply must get done because you cant see them happening if you leave them until after the arrival??

Yep. One of those lists.

So I am in tick off mode and this is the first cab off the rank. Just now.All washed and completely crumpled (I need a dryer!) just for you.

Although none of that explains why there is a reclining bunny in some photos and much less, why he is sporting a bowtie. I think he needs some pants........

xx

 

I had forgotten

 

You know the way everyone is an expert.The way they must have an opinion on your pregnancy and then your mothering.

"You're how far along! You're too small"

"Wow you are HUGE now arent you! Last week you weren't showing!"

"Are you sure its a boy? Really??"

Um.Yes.I have the test results.

Oh it gets boring. I know the fun really reaches new heights once they are out of incubation. Its all come flooding back to me.

One of the reasons I didnt want to tell people for some time was that I did not want anybody saying to me

"You poor thing.I'd hoped you would have a girl"

Only one friend slipped up but she realised that I was so damn happy it was obviously not important. She didnt actually say anything-her face just fell a bit.

Earlier today though, I had a wowzer. 

"So.....another boy. Thats just what you need" Slap.

Really.Some people should not open their mouths.Except to eat.

Nah. Maybe they shouldnt even open it for that.

 

This photo above has nothing to do with anything at all but Henry took it last weekend in the garden.

I think its gorgeous.He's going to enter it in a school photography competition so fingers crossed for Mister bug finder!

Take care xx!

 

for a girl called Lola

This is the Bo Peep skirt from "Seams to Me" by Anna Maria Horner.

Tomorrow a little girl I know turns five and I am anticipating some squeaks and gasps. Quite possibly from her older sister aswell.That ok. Its her birthday next month.

*front

*back

I think we should all get around in a skirt like this.Just sometimes.On a sunny skipping kind of a day.

xxx

success!

Oh dear.My purge. I sat down here over the weekend to show you some lovely baby nurserys ( because lets be honest- there is not much going on in my head right now other than this bump)  I have been hording on Pinterest.But it didnt quite work that way when my fingers met the keyboard.

Still, I hope I am not the only one who sometimes feels as though nothing ever quite works out the way they thought it would. Something that has been three years of working, waiting and an astounding amount of effort from my husband, got bumped a bit. Not something we are really in the mood for.

He deserves it and damn it, we deserve it. So when I sat down to chat to you I shared that.

On a much perkier note, I finally succeeded at getting myself one of these posters. Do you ever find that as much as you might lust after something, once it is out there everywhere you turn, it takes the gloss off it for you? I do that all the time. Movies, books, recipes, clothes.

This poster I had in my hands when I stood in the fabulous shop at the Imperial War Museum in London. But I put it back.

Last week I thought, you know what? I dont have my London terrace and my white floorboards and my spaniel ( I sound like a total Anglophile dont I??)

But.

I can have this poster draped in some fairy lights to enjoy every time I enter my lounge or sit in my kitchen.

So there you have it. Success. And looking at it up there all sparkly and "I'm here" I feel completely and utterley calm.

Now isnt that something. xx

*Deep sincere apologies for the absolutely RUBBISH photo taken on my phone. The thought of waddling up the other end of the house to find my camera was all a bit much. A cup of tea was closer to where I was!

limbo

Things are always fluid around here. Making location and lifestyle plans when you rely on the film industry is relatively impossible. Its why we are still in this country, this street and this house. Its why the boys don't yet have that much yearned for dog. I call it limbo. I used to call it other things but they just gave me a headache.

Between us, we have fervent dreams for our family of soon to be five, and yet year after year we seem to continue rolling along this same path because such and such is going to happen. We put off moving, changing, taking what seem like big risks because firstly there is a job that needs doing in order to make the change viable. Its a big part of why I never went back. When you have children there simply must be a constant. I wish we both had a gyspy strength of heart.Pack up and change. Just go with it and all will be right.

I wasn't raised like that. Grow up, get a job, buy a house, then buy a bigger house and so the story goes. Only have two children because financially its easier and once a year have a holiday somewhere sunny.

A fear and routine drummed into me by someone who had it drummed into him. What a waste of life to do nothing with it. There is a whole world out there and I dont believe my children should be adults before they can appreciate it. I dont believe we have to live in a four bedroom house and have a strangling mortgage to justify calling ourselves adults. I thoroughly disagree with the values of the person who drummed them into me.

Its not me. I fancy packing my bags and grabbing my boys and landing somewhere that will force us to learn new things. Cultures, languages, history. Where I come from that was called "stupid" and "being a dreamer". As though there is something insulting about being a dreamer. I couldnt imagine how. Dreamers change the world. Not always of course but the world has been shaped by some very notable dreamers. If nothing else they hopefully manage to live the way they desire on more than a "its laundry on monday and saturday is supermarket day" level.

In my childhood home, the only dreamers who were respected were the ones who were financially successful. No matter that they may turn seventy before that happens. This person still adheres to this mentality.

Two existing on the same industry roller coaster was never what we wanted once we had our family. And yet its so hard to get off a moving roller coaster don't you find.

And here we are nearly at 2012. The christmas decorations have been in the epartment stores for a month  and things we thought would be well underway by now have yet again been slid along a bit. 

Exhaustingly and so familiarly, we have yet again had the rug yanked a little from under us. We are unsteady on our feet and our plans that seemed so very solid this time, have shifted again. Its a ripple effect.

Wait for this to start then we can do this then we will be here and it will all be by then.

See.Limbo.

I managed to marry somebody who has an ingrained fear of risk more than I do. Its quite ironic really when I thought I was marrying a fiercely determined gypsy. I think he thought the same thing and that together we would leap off that building. He would be the gypsy king and zip around the world and I would be his gypsy wife zipping around after him with children who had more stamps on their passports than anybody else we knew.

But then we over think things and we wait. Nobody should wait for anything. You just get older. So do your kids and school makes them less portable.

So the one thing I know will happen, is happening and has a deadline no matter what, is this baby boy.

And even though there is no point decorating a nursery or taking out that bigger mortgage just incase we aren't here long enough to make it worthwhile, this baby gets my head out of limbo just a bit.

having too much fun

Of the itty bitty kind.

Pattern-Me

Pattern-Me 

Yarn-Koigu KPM #P538

Pattern-Maile Sweater   *I left off the bottom lace pattern as its for a baby boy.

Yarn-Debbie Bliss Cashmerino #340031

Pattern cardigan -Debbie Bliss Ribbed Baby Jacket

Pattern booties-  From the book "Purls of Wisdom" by Jenny Lord ( A fabulous book if you needed to add to your collection! )

Yarn-Morris and Sons Bamboo # Kingfisher

Pattern-Info on Ravelry

Yarn-Malabrigo worsted #Paris Night

Pattern-Milo Vest  *I left off the cable detail

And of course the crochet Baby Twister Blanket and I've made a baby ring sling in apple green linen which I'm hoping will not be too tricky to use and light enough to prevent us both from melting.

I ordered the rings from here.

 

Little bump is doing fabulously but his carrier is not doing quite so fabulously this week.It seems my pelvis is terribly unhappy and has become unstable.Lots of lying down for me.

This was one of the main reasons we never went back for a third baby after having Oliver as from 28 weeks he crashed downwards and I could not walk.For years afterwards I was paying the price too.The thought of revisiting that was frightening.

Thankfully I am not running around after a toddler this time and know what will happen if I don't pace myself.

I have even been banned from doing any yoga as that will make things worse for me.Absolutely rotten as yoga is my daily fix. It seems I suffer from this which is very impressive in a "palms on the ground legs straight" kind of competition but not so much when pregnancy hormones make you super flexible anyway.

But whatever it takes is what I will do so that both of us make it to the other end on one piece.

Even if that means walking like a little old lady which is about were I'm at by midday.

Until then ( oh my goodness ten weeks!!) there will be knitting and sewing and quilting as they are perfectly sofa friendly activities as we all know.

Take care xxxx