Pre-baby maternity leave pics

Testing out the Blogger app.

indoor bulb update

It's gone to plan! My indoor hyacinths have started blooming... all a week before our little girl's due date. Now it's just a waiting game... and quite an uncomfortable one at that.

♥♥♥

baby shower

Two very lovely friends organised my Baby Shower 10 weeks ago. I have lots of photos but I'm aware that not everyone enjoys having their photo plastered all over the internet so I'll share food and shower gifts instead. It was a fab afternoon!

DIY baby capsule liner

So, we hired a rather unsightly Safe N Sound Safety Car Capsule last week. Apparently it is Australia's safest capsule so we went with it. I didn't realise how uncomfortable the existing velour liner was, nor how ugly it was until I took it home. After an intensive search session for online patterns all I could find were some eBay covers asking $50+ aaaand funnily enough multiple baby forums where lots of mums complained of the sheer ick-factor of the capsule :S

So I got to work, and took pics along the way (iPhone quality, sorry) to remind me of the making process (I have a few requests already from friends!) and for any crafty mammas out there wanting to have a try at making their own. I'm not putting up pattern pieces to enlarge or anything, you just trace around the 3 parts and make sure you add an extra 1/2 inch around all sides for the seam allowance.

1 The not so pretty beginning. 2 Material from stash. 

3 Trace three pattern pieces. 4 Cut quilt wadding for all three pieces. 

5 Cut backing and top fabric using pattern pieces. 6 Cut straight lines using a rotary cutter.

7 Assemble in order a) wadding b) top fabric c) backing fabric and pin. 8 Sew around edges.

9 Snip all rounded corner edges. 10 Turn all three pieces in right way and pin.

11 & 12 Pin some more then sew 1/4 inches in to create a neat edge.

13 Match up original liner, trace all seatbelt gaps and sew around all. 

14 Line up the three pieces over original liner and pin where the two seams need to be sewn. 

15 Sew up the two seams at the back. 16 Use a zigzag stitch along those nasty fraying edges.

17 & 18 Make a sweet corduroy bow or two like this.

Done! I think it's pretty cute and so much more snuggly. 

Despite a few unsightly seams I couldn't be happier!

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36 weeks pregnant

Mark was a complete trooper and took some great maternity shots last weekend. I took a few happy hours editing them in Phososcape, and now more than ever can hardly wait for the arrival of our baby to obsess over taking a billion photos of her ever 2 minutes.

hats for baby

Cold days & nights + maternity leave + crazy strong nesting urges = out came the (dusty!) knitting needles & crochet hooks.

It has been a very long time since any motivation to craft up a storm has hit me. It is great having it back! It's funny how knit and crochet stitch lingo comes back after all this time away. Ravelry has been keeping me busy - SO many free cute baby patterns to peruse and choose from. 

Currently my favourite yarn is without a doubt Moda Vera Beetle. It is super soft and extraordinarily easy to knit with.

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