Back to Work

Well today I started my new job at Fill Your Pants. It has been 13 months since I was made redundant and although I was looking forward to, and have enjoyed being a stay at home mum, I needed a job to being some money in. As of today, I will be working 2 days a week.

My first day was grand, I learnt a lot and had a lot of fun with all the fluffy nappies! I can't wait until Thursday to go back, and have some articles to think about writing in the meantime!

My Little Baby is One

A year ago yesterday, I gave birth to my beautiful little boy at 5:30am, Leicester Royal Infirmary by Cesarean section. He weighed 7lbs 4 ozs and was totally perfect. Although I didn't get to meet him until he was nearly 3 hours old, he fed beautifully straight away, an absolute pro.

He was so tiny, but so perfect.
How he is a big boy, walking around everywhere, interested in everything, so caring and giving. I am so proud of him, and that he is mine!

To celebrate this special day, we took Louie to the zoo. I didn't get many photos but Rachel did, and I will like to her blog when she uploads the photos which will be totally amazing!
Louie really loved the monkeys, and didn't want to leave them! They were by far his favourite. He enjoyed running around and getting all muddy and having some freedom! It was his first proper walk, and he loved it.

 Then we went home to make our dinner, and the rainbow came out again! This time it was Rachel's beautiful creation!

 And we had home made pizza for Louie's birthday tea, followed by birthday cake of course!

And yay for my 100th blog post too!

Birthday Party

Louie's birthday is on the Monday, but we had his party on the Sunday so that all his relatives from around the country could come. We had a lovely weekend with Grandma Jojo, Elle, Dani, Rob and Summer. It was wonderful. In the morning, Louie opened some of his presents, one of them being the Wheelybug Bee from his Mama and Papa.

 And his Grandma Jojo bought him the beautiful Rainbow stackey buildey toy thing! Which we did ask for, and Louie loves it! Although, he didn't build this structure, Elle and I did!

Playing with Papa

Sleepy boy

 So all morning we were getting ready, making food and preparing the house. I made the conservatory into a play room for all the littleies, it was lovely! Isn't it colourful!

 

The wonderful cake!

Mama, Papa and Babybee

 Later in the afternoon, it was time to sing Happy Birthday and blow out the candle (With a little help from Mama!). Louie was fascinated by the cake!

Grandma Jojo and our beautiful niece, Summer Daisy

 All in all, we all had a lovely day, Louie was a little overwhelmed by all the people but he was a good boy. A perfect party for a perfect boy.

The Great Outdoors

 Louie's walking is coming on so well now. He really is sturdy and very confident. On Friday morning, he saw Papa go outside and he wanted to follow, standing sheepishly at the door in his pyjamas. Mama found him some booties and his poncho and away he went on his first venture outside on foot! And check out his BEAUTIFUL poncho!

Making Cakes

Here is Louie and his Nana making cakes for his birthday party! He was such a good boy!

How We Do a Back Carry

On a forum I frequent, it became apparent that people were struggling with back carries using a mei tai or other similar sling. I kind of do my own thing and have found an easy way of getting baby safely on my back so here is my tutorial :)

Preparing for Louie's Party

This coming Sunday is Louie's first birthday party. I am so excited and have been planning this day since he was still all warm and cosy in my tummy!
We have themed the party 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' as it is one of my favourite books, and Louie likes it too!
All of the party 'stuff' arrived yesterday, after a brief scare that it wouldn't arrive, so today I have been wrapping his gifts.
This rather large box seemed like too much hassle and waste to wrap with paper, that my one year old wouldn't appreciate anyway, so I made a paper bow for the top, which matches his other gifts from us.

The modest presents from us, and the pass the parcel :)

I can't wait for his party, and his birthday, it will be so much fun. I can't believe that it has been almost a year that Anna and I went to town and my waters were leaking on the bus on the way home! 

Treasure Basket

For a while now I have wanted to create a treasure basket for Louie to play with. On a recent trip up to the attic I found a wicker basket and thought to myself, ' Well I don't have an excuse now do i!' So over the weekend I have been finding objects to put in Louie's treasure basket.
I shamelessly googled treasure baskets to get some inspiration and so that I could link to my blog and came across this blog, I hope they don't mind me linking.

My basket contains;
A wooden spoon
A natural sponge
A wooden ball from a Pot Pouri that is long past its smelliness!
A shell
A wooden nail brush
Scraps of fabric

A feather

I really didn't think that Louie would be too bothered about playing with it, as he does have so many toys, regrettably many that I would not have chosen myself, but lovely all the same. So when he played for over an hour solely with the items from the basket, I was overjoyed! And to my delight, he wandered off into the conservatory this morning and played quietly, when I went to see what he was up to, he had reached down and got the basket off a high stool (which I would never have thought he could have reached!) and was playing with the items! A success! 

Two Exciting Projects!

So this is my first item made on my shiny new sewing machine. It is a bag from the Cath Kidston 'Sew' book, the bag that I was eyeing up for months! I couldn't get any Cath Kidston fabric but saw this in John Lewis and fell in love. Although the pattern suggests using duck (canvas), this is just normal haberdashery cotton. I lined it with some quite thick fabric that we found in our attic which is just perfect because it gives the bag a little bit of structure without it being rigid. I altered the pattern quite a lot, giving it a lining, and sewing the straps straight on to the bag as opposed to making a button hole and stitching a button, it seemed like too much work for a feature I wouldn't accommodate anyway. Overall, I am very pleased with the outcome, as it is very tidy for something I have made! I wouldn't shy away from making it again :)

The reinforced straps

The lining

Today Dan and Louie accompanied me to Lollipops again, this time to make a commemorative plate for Louie's first birthday.

Mama hard at work!

Louie playing with the tile

The finished plate

I was a bit disappointed with the writing as it curved, I worked out that it would fit but in practice it didn't, which is a shame. But I am so pleased with the VHC spots around the edge, and the hand prints are lovely. The little caterpillar crawling up his hand was my favourite little finishing touch that turned out really well! I will post a picture when it has been fired and the colours will be in all their bright and lovely glory!

Lollipops

Today I met up with my friend Vicky and we took our little monkeys to a little pottery cafe called Lollipops! Its one of those cafes where you choose your pot and you can paint it, and its great for little ones because they can make their mark on something special :)

Vix and Austin

 Louie had rather a short attention span and the lovely lady (I must ask her name next time) dug some toys out for him to play with.

 These are the shots of the lovely mug I painted. A deep purple on the inside, a lilac handle with Louie written down it (Vicky's idea!) with a little foot print and a little hand print! Then I found the little heart tool and fell in love with the green and red, hopefully it will still look nice once it has been fired! A nice new mug for my new job, which will keep Louie close to my heart!

Our finished creations!