The act of being caught by surprise

The act of being caught by surprise is what happens when you're 35 and a bit weeks pregnant and you're about to have breakkie on a Sunday morning before packing for a trip to Sydney to help your sister get ready for her wedding the following Saturday. It happens in the form of what you think is wetting your pants but after uncertain contemplation and a few trips to the loo you realise is actually your waters breaking. Yikes!

And eventually the act of being caught by surprise culminates in a most devinely beautiful little Murphy entering the world at 7.52pm on Thursday 13 September weighing in at a pretty decent 2880g (6 punds 6 ounces-ish) for a 36 weeker.

And so Unit 1 is now Murph the Smurf and out in the world and doing important things like eating, pooing and sleeping and we're loving it. He's a healthy beautiful boy and we are now a fully fledged family of 3.

I am Craftless

I am craftless other than the 2 knitting projects I have on the needles and in reach, but they're not worth talking about at the moment. So here's some other craft I'm working on....Unit1


6 weeks to go.

I see Red

In my non craft life I'm seeing red at the moment - a lazy builder who I've come home early from work to meet 2 days in a row without him showing, bastards (of all genders) who won't offer me a seat on the stinking hot overcrowded tram - despite their eye contact and secret peak at my belly (interestingly mostly young women wearing ipods - or maybe that's eyepods? Darling just cause you've got earphones plugging your hearing holes doesn't mean I can't see you looking at me - may the karma goddess hit you with her pointy stick if you ever need a seat on a tram when you're 7 months up the duff), and meanie bobeanies at work who despite being high powered successful women are acting like a pack of high school girls bitches.

In my craft life however I seem to be seeing pink...

Umbilical hat from Stitch n Bitch (not for my bump). And I've cast this on again in another shade of pink for a different girl bump.


A beautiful cotton beanie from Sam at Wizz Me together with her ace pattern for a baby beanie in 4 ply cotton that I can't wait to try out (just need the right size needles) - sent in response to my weak pleas for help. Oh and Sam I was overly excited by the duck shaped paper clip. Sam has an etsy shop by the way.

At least the pink can cheer me up and I have been right into the pinks lately- even though I'm not a pink girl. Ingrid and I were discussing over email how the bun in my oven may be trying to send me some signals. Maybe but we'll all have to wait another 10 or so weeks to find out. Shit 10 weeks, really??!

Oh and this too can cheer me up - I forgot all about it and found it in my pile of bday cards (surprise bday bash I never told you about way back in March).

Care of Brownpants who can jump on my bed any time! I think I will get a proper frame for this and put it on the wall over our bed.

Oh and did you hear the Up the Duff bug is going around?

Can't touch this

No, you can't touch this. Thank you MC Hammer. So I'm standing at the baggage terminal at Auckland international airport after waiting 45 minutes for the baggage carosel to fire up so I could finally get to bed. Anyway after several lovely conversations with other random frustrated passengers I ended up standing next to a friendly nice woman - that is she was friendly and nice until things got way too personal and this total (although quite nice) stranger became my first 'stranger touching my pregnant belly' experience. Wowa lady you might be excited about the whole pregnancy caper and how you loved both your pregnancies but hands off my baby booty. I guess she couldn't resist me and all my 27 week glory? Could you?


Go on, you guys can pat my belly I don't mind people I know doing it - just not random strangers at baggage carosels - or anywhere else really.

Anyway despite the randomness and oddness of it all I was surprisingly less outraged than Mr S+L was when I told him. 'Get your f*&^ing hands off' he said to her retrospectively and via the international mobile phone call. Thanks sweetie, back to your cave I said.

On to other things...I did some nesting the days before we bought the house. Strangely enough I unpacked 2 of the remaining 6 packed boxes from our move 2+ years ago. Look what treasures I found:

Some of my Dad's books from when he was a kid


And my library bag from primary school - it still has my name clearly written in the hem - so hands off if you're thinking about stealing it from the bag room at little lunch

All hail the conquering knitting and baking Queen

I'm no queen (or princess for that matter), but I did do some conquering this weekend.

In the knitting stakes I conquered my socks, see that's the beginnings of a heel flap there people


and finally (after about 18 attempts) I cast on my clapotis. Now complete with life line, bless the advice of knitting experienced friends.


In the baking stakes I conquered lemon meringue pie, my first ever proper attempt at meringue. Delish.


I also conquered an awful lot of shopping - nothing new here and not really conquering, but here's some fabric porn



From where I sit it's got new skirt written all over it. The shopping also included a visit to Marta's Yarns but I'll post wool porn another day.

And I the baby got it's very first crafty gift too!


Each piece of conquering couldn't have been accomplished without my partner in crime for the weekend Brownpants. Thank you for the baby's first pressie and thanks for all the knitting help!

Now I'm off to conquer these!

Up the Duff

Yep, um hi, I'm back. And I've got a good reason for neglecting you for the past few months. I could barely raise myself from the couch. No no please don't laugh it's true and the reason is cause I am up the duff sorry I mean pregnant.

Don't you just love that saying, 'Up the Duff'? I've been wanting to use it to tell all our friends but keep forgetting.

Anyway it's all terribley exciting and we're thrilled.

So while I haven't been crafting and blogging I've been snoozing up a storm. There's been:

• extreme tiredness
  
• extreme face stuffing and
  
• extreme baby secret keeping (there's been a few suspicious peeps about - rightly so when you're #1 drinking buddies both give up the booze and coffee)
• much putting up of feet
  

So instead of crafting I have developed a comprehensive understanding (is that possible) of the latest comings and goings of Neighbours, Home and Away and Desperate Housewives (shame shame shame), feel free to email me if you need a plot update (or don't cause I already feel embarrassed enough).

But with the sudden announcement of my second trimester (we thought we were still in week 12 but the ultrasound told us otherwise) I am flushed with the arrival of a small stereotypical bout of 2nd trimester energy and over the easter break have accomplished:

• hours and hours of phone calls,
  
• many outings with friends and the ultrasound pic
• knitting of the back of my very own cardigan and
  
• a monster clean up of the spare room

All while making some eyelashes and keeping a second heart pumping deep down inside my belly (or so my preggas book tells me). Yay me.

So um yeah there you have it. The whole thing is out of this world weird - there's like a small depandant being growing inside me and we saw it moving at the ultrasound the other day.

Hey I just realised it's 10pm - the latest I've stayed up in ages. Hilarious. Also hilarious is how I've lost count of how many weekends in a row we've now stayed at home and watched the West Wing (which I love) instead of being drunk at the pub until 3am. The times they are a changing.

So, Kel - I'm sorry if this is where you're reading this first - I REALLY wanted to speak to you on the phone and tell you myself. And Bel, now you know why I completely ignored your joking question about me being pregnant, couldn't exactly say no could I?!

PS I have a craft list as long as my arm - but not the baby's arm cause that's quite short at the moment.
PPS So does my Mum and all my crafty grrls. This will be a well crafted for bub.