Tag: pregnancy

Hippity Hop Hooray!

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Funny fact about 2015 – it was the year all my favourite women were preggo – Christina Aguilera, Leighton Meester, Blake Lively, Zooey Deschanel, Kate Middleton (yes, I’m a Royalist), Tamera Mowry-Housley, and my most favourite ladies, my two big sisters!

My cousin sister lives across the pond in Canada so she escaped (most of) my excited shrieking (I say most, because, well thank you FaceTime). My sister however did not escape that fate. She had to put up with the weekly photos, shopping lists, endless advice, nursery ideas and of course, the baby shower talk!

I just could not wait to get stuck in and for once picking a theme was the easiest part. Having grown up reading Peter Rabbit together and both of us being obsessed with the Beatrix Potter collection, it was an easy pick.

And where else to start, but the cake. Yup, it’s almost always because I just want to eat the cake mix by the way. Don’t judge me!

I’m pretty proud of this one – it was my first time using gum paste and thanks to the incredible step by step YouTube tutorial on how to make little Mr Peter Rabbit himself, it turned out pretty well. Here’s the link to the Modelling Paste Peter Rabbit tutorial. I loved making the fondant vegetables too – fiddly but fun. And hey, my mum gave me a thumbs up, so like highest praise ever, yes i’ll take it!

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Peter Rabbit themed paper plates, napkins and cups and a bunch of themed stationery for the games added some fun to the day. And of course no party is complete without balloons. Jade of Jade’s balloons came through again and we had a beautiful set of yellow, mint green and sky blue balloons that filled the corridor ceiling. Needless to say, Sophia and Aishy were in love. 2016-03-20_0002

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We had the mother of all dessert tables with homemade meringue kisses, sweets, cakes, sandwiches, tarts and the usual Costco to die for red velvet cake! I have always loved the Meringue Girls creations so just had to give their meringue kisses a go myself. Really easy and really pretty – where would I be without YouTube! Here’s the link if you want to give it a go yourself – The Meringue Girls Mixture

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I also made a McGregor’s baby vegetable garden by gluing mini white picket fences around the edges of a crate and using chocolate sprinkles for the soil. I then used this to present the bubba’s spread with cherry tomatoes, veggie sticks and cheese.

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There was of course a little teeny bit of DIY in the form of these floral wooden letters spelling BABY.

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It was super simple to do and has become a pretty little addition to our Jacob’s nursery – why not give it a try yourself? All you’ll need to do is buy some wooden freestanding letters (I got mine off eBay), get a glue gun, some artificial flowers and glue glue glue! I’m working on another as we speak for a very special friend of mine – I hope she loves it!

Here are some more pictures of all the fun that was had – (thanks hub!)

 

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What better way to end this post than with a picture of my crazy beautiful sissy, her neat little 35 week bump and the gorgeous and unique guestbook her best friend Jaymi put together.

This too is hanging proudly in the nursery and serves as a perfect reminder for my sissy of all her nearest and dearest who came and showered baby Jacob with best wishes, gifts and all the love in the world.

Hippity hop hooray, our little boy was indeed on his way!

Love you sis,

L x

 

Mother Nature is meaner than Regina George.

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regina

Pregnancy plays a few cruel jokes on us that are conveniently or perhaps kindly not mentioned to a mum-to-be by those much wiser. Bright eyed and bushy tailed a first time mama I was -and though by and large I had a pretty easy ride compared to some of my friends – being on the other side of fence now, I’m here to let you in on a few home truths.

I think its safe to say that most women will find themselves nodding in agreement to some if not of all of the following:

  1. The tiredness, oh the tiredness! For once, you actually WANT to clean your house and get things ready, and yet your lack of energy makes getting off the sofa without help a feat in itself. Fail.
  2. So much to remember; antenatal appointments, daily Pregnacare , vaccinations, what NOT to eat, packing a hospital bag, and of course the antenatal book!! Where has my photographic memory gone? I used to scoff at the notion of ‘Baby brain’ but it’s the real deal people!
  3. Butter fingers and blurry eyes. So I thought I was losing my mind when I kept dropping my keys and almost tripping over nothing but nope, my new found clumsiness and overdue trip to Specsavers was thanks to my little bun! Super! Not like I have an incredibly precious bump to be mindful of or anything!
  4. And then there’s the war between bladder and baby. Yes, baby wins. Everytime. And to make it worse, your capacity to hold anything more than a drop of water decreases whilst your thirst increases. Exponentially. Can I have some water please?
  5. You can sleep all you want. Except that you can’t, hello insomnia, how are you doing? I can’t find a comfortable position because everything aches and my puppy has stolen my pregnancy pillow. Great.
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Exhibit A – Westie pillow thief.

I’m sure there’s plenty more my baby brain has either kindly blocked out or stupidly forgotten. Either way, back up is needed to combat the above!

Arm yourself with the following:

  1. Family. I cannot stress this enough. They kept me sane when I was going insane, happy when I was down and rode the rollercoaster with me in the front seat. Without a seatbelt. Thanks for reminding me to take my vitamins, NOT to eat the Camembert and to drink water, constantly.
  2. Friends – new and old. When your mum says “in my day…(insert annoying but probably 100% right statement to do with pregnancy/nursery/work/anything at all)” and it literally drives you mad, you can always rely on your friends. Thanks for putting up with me and my nesting lists! You know who you are!
  3. Your bad ass self – you can do this. Believe it, even at your lowest point. As the best midwives in the world (who obviously work at Broomfield Hospital) would say, “your body is designed to do this”. It is a different pace of course, but you can do this, slowly. And buy a notepad, it helps!

N.B. Bad news for friends and family – the above applies for post baby too!