It’s a…

…onesie! 

Lovely Thimbleanna enquired recently and I realised I’d probably not actually mentioned that yes, we know (to a reasonable degree of certainty) whether it’s a Miss or Master on the way and the blue hue above will clue you in.

This was a gift from a friend who knows us well, who was visiting friends in Cupertino, CA and went to the Apple Store. Mr D probably won’t dress the child in anything else.

It was really important to me to find out, if we could, for lots of reasons. Absolutely none of them relate to painting the nursery or splashing out on a gender-specific layette. I feel lucky enough to be having a baby without any complications thus far, including getting pregnant easily, in my very late 30s when the media had already conditioned me to think it would never happen.

It may be that we only have one baby – which is fine – and I am a horrendously curious creature. I wanted to know who we were preparing to bring into our family, our home, our lives. In absent minded musings before this came very real I’d pictured myself with a little girl. Actually I think I imagined a two child family, a boy and girl (the family structure that, coincidentally, both I and Mr D grew up with) but that comes miles and miles behind a healthy baby. Now that I know it’s a boy, it’s not at all important either way, funnily enough. But it did take me a little bit of time to get used to the idea. Now that’s all out of the way and I’m looking forward to the arrival of the little lad, as my parents are calling him (and I’m also a very proud auntie, as my gorgeous nephew was born a week ago!)

The nesting has started in earnest.  As in: acquiring vital bits and bobs, clearing out the room, and you may be able to see the bars of the to-be-reassembled cot in the photo above. Twelve weeks seems like a long time before the little lad is here – but it’s really not!

Stir Wars: May the winning bid be with you

With only a few days to go until Stir Wars: A Night at the Death Star Canteen, there are two rather brilliant announcements.

Firstly, a huge thank you to everyone at ASDA for joining the Rebel Alliance, aka our list of brilliant sponsors and donors. They jumped into the breach at this late stage to help us with our store-cupboard ingredients after we were let down, and we’re delighted that this means the maximum amount of cash from tickets sales can go directly to the Make A Wish Foundation.

Meemalee, Food Urchin, Arianna and myself are so grateful for the support from all our sponsors, and the fabulous forty of you lovely people who’ve already bought tickets.

Of course you all know that the event is entirely sold out… or is it? Yes, the rumours of this late-stage plot point are indeed true. We have four tickets available, and they will be auctioned as two pairs via Twitter and this blog tomorrow, Tuesday 1st May.

How will it work?

Blog Auction:

• Leave a comment on this post which includes your bid amount, after 12:00 noon UK time on the 1st May, but before 2:00pm.
• Bidding closes at 2:00pm (according to the WordPress clock) and late entries won’t count.
• Bidding starts at £80.00 for a pair of tickets, i.e. face value as paid by the first forty people who booked.

Twitter Auction:

• Tweet the following: “@Stirwars May the Force be with me, I bid £XXXXXX to win a pair of #Stirwars tickets!” and replace the XXXXXX with your bid amount during the eligible times as below
• The Twitter auction runs from 5:30pm UK time to 8:30pm UK time (as per the time on our Twitter timeline).

GENERAL RULES

• Bidding starts at £80.00 for a pair of tickets, i.e. face value as paid by the first forty people who booked.
• The highest unique bid over £80.00 in each auction wins a pair of tickets for Saturday’s events.
• Only bids in excess of £80.00 for the pair of tickets will be eligible
• You must leave your email address with your comment on blog entries (won’t be published) or for Twitter entries, be following @StirWars so we can get in touch.
• Same criteria apply to these tickets as the first forty – we won’t be able to cater for any dietary requirements so these tickets would be best suited to curious omnivores. Or someone who would like to donate lots and lots of money to the Make A Wish Foundation and buys them in a gesture of sheer altruism.
• You can bid more than once up to the closing time, and can participate in both auctions if you like.

Good luck to all, and Danny, Mimi and Arianna (along with our Front of House legends, Oisin and Phil from The Ship) look forward to welcoming you on Saturday. I can’t be there on the night, unfortunately – but I’ve been promised lots and lots of photos!

Quilting for Baby E

I’ve kind of got my sewing mojo back. Well, I finished a project – I started this ages ago (to “get ahead of myself” and then didn’t get around to quilting and binding it until the day it was to be handed over.

It’s backed with a fleece blanket from that Swedish retailer – which, in full baby brain mode, is white – what was I thinking? It was a good way to use a charm pack although I”m still unsure of that black square at the bottom, and some Marsha McCloskey “More Fat 8ths and Friends” which I’ve been hoarding for ever. It has four coordinating prints running lengthwise along the yardage so you’re supposed to cut it up into eighths but I never got around to it. 

I reacquainted myself with Heather Bailey’s brilliant continuous binding tutorial and powered through attaching it to the front. Then sat down to hand sew the binding to the back. I’d completely forgotten how meditative and calming it is to make those tiny stitches, over and over. 

Twenty six weeks

The stripeyness is a blanket-in-progress for my brother and SIL’s baby, due very soon. There’s very little on the way for Baby D as of yet, apart from a cardie I kind of screwed up. What can I say, garments are not my forte. 

There’s been lots of nesting around here. Major house reorganisations, including some grown-up decisions about how best to adjust (the house, god knows how we’ll fare) to having a little person around here. More details on those soon. When they’re finished. 

Pregnancy has treated me pretty well so far, up until about forty-eight hours ago. Then odema, heartburn, headaches and god know what else decided to descend simultaneously. Oh, wait, I do know what else. 

A bit of my molar fell off. 

Here’s hoping that’s it for now…