What is that I see?

A new bed?
A cosy new bed?For a big boy? Wow!As you can see, Caleb is very pleased with his 'big boy's' bed! So am I. Phil put it together one afternoon this week using four palettes from our house-building project. He cut them down to smaller sizes, wirebrushed them and screwed them together to create a nicely-cost-effective bed for Caleb until such time as we are ready to move into our new house. The inspiration came from the image below in the January issue of vtwonen, a Dutch interior design magazine.

Feeling spoilt!

Thanks to Estelle, Aimee, Bronya, Mum, Leanne, Noleen, Judy and Jane I haven't had to cook dinner for a week, and still have several more cooking-free nights to look forward to!! Yes, wonderful friends, hey! We feel thoroughly spoiled. The meals have been delicious, and if any of you are reading this, Phil says you can make those dishes for us again anytime (just don't tell him I told you that!)

We are also very spoiled by this little fellow:Cute, isn't he? Not only that, but at this stage he is drinking well and sleeping well, and hardly fusses.

Aaron, Hannah and Caleb feel spoiled because Bronya brought this house along with our dinner the other day, and they have spent two happy mornings painting it, with grand plans for more 'decorating' in days to come. And anything that keeps the kids so happily occupied is a treat for mum as well! (These photos depict the aftermath - I had a beautiful series of photos of the kids painting, but unfortunately there was no memory card in the camera).Caleb thought it very funny that I got a splash of green paint on my nose when I opened the paint bottle. Of course, the moment I turned my back, Caleb was proudly sporting a green nose as well!

It only took 172hrs...

This is Phil. I'm sorry, but I just had to "break in" to this blog... but it is for good reason. I need to inform you all that Ruth has succumbed. It took 7days and 4hrs. The sewing machine has made an appearance. I'm sure Daniel will be lulled to sleep by it's humming very soon.

Forming habits

Sitting in hospital gave me a lot of quiet time to think about priorities, and establishing good habits and daily routines. There are various things which I have long tried to make a part of my regular daily routine, but for which I have a whole range of excuses for not getting to them regularly enough... So now I have made myself a little reminder card in my diary, which lists five regular daily activities which I want to introduce into my day, or improve on in my day. These include paying more attention to my skin and hair (like actually combing it in the morning - I told you the other day that hairstyling is not my strong point!), daily pelvic and abdominal exercises, regular exercise in the form of a walk or bike ride, personal Bible reading and prayer, and also a drawing a day (or thereabouts, excluding Sundays)... So far, pretty good, all things considered! For example, I have 5 consecutive days of drawings in my journal now, and am also enjoying doing them!

A new nightie is perfect for a long sleep-in

and then if you very quietly go off and play after breakfast, Mum might not notice that you are still wearing your nice new nightie halfway through the morning! (Actually, I caught her before it got to halfway the morning, but if she'd had her way it would have stayed on all day!)
(Pattern adapted from an Ottobre top pattern).

1000 Artisan Textiles

I don't think I ever blogged about this last year, but I was very excited to have three quilts accepted for publication in the above book. And then last week Brenda pointed out that part of 'Not Even Solomon...' is featured on the cover - even more exciting! The book will come out in May (I think) and I certainly look forward seeing it!

From where I sat today

Between the nursing pads and the Lansinoh, the sadly-neglected 'golden elm' quilt made a reappearance today. It's at the stage where the bits of lunchpaper* need to be pulled off, and the loose threads need to be tied away - perfect work for a day spent on the couch with my feet up. Aaron and Hannah returned home this evening so there will be a bit less 'feet-up' time from now on. It's wonderful to be slowly getting the family back together, though!
*some of the quilting design was sketched onto lunchpaper as a guide, then placed over the quilt and stitched through... it now needs to be ripped away with the help of blunt tweezers

From where I sit

Thanks for all the best wishes and kind words regarding the birth of Daniel! (No, he's not still crying in his basket - I picked him up right after the photo.)

With a bit of blackmail and bribery, I managed to convince Phil to take me home from hospital this morning. It is so nice to be back in my own space!

I'm always amazed how clear my head feels after nine months of pregnancy haze. Today I spent some time catching up on a huge backlog of blog reading, and felt incredibly inspired by all the things other people have been doing and making. I have severely itchy hands! But don't worry, my end of the 'coming-home-early-from-hospital' deal involves sitting down with my feet up as much as possible, so for now I will spend my days just dreaming, plotting and planning new quilts and handmade projects.

Something to leave you with: if, like me, you have spent many hours trying to work out in your mind how your sewing machine makes its stitches, you must check out this post by sooz!

Daniel

Late yesterday evening we welcomed little Daniel into our family! We thank the Lord for His care during the birth, and for our healthy baby son/brother. Daniel came nearly 2 weeks early, but is still a good size (3550gms). Caleb is quite smitten with him, and treats him very gently.

Hairdo

Styling hair is NOT my forte. No matter how carefully I do Hannah's hair, within 10 minutes it looks just like it did when she got out of bed. I see girls in Hannah's class with hair that still looks perfect at the end of a school day, and wonder how their mums do it. But never mind, because I love what that wispy hair does for my drawings - so much more interesting than perfectly tidy hairs!

Introducing...

...Oscar, Oswald and Oliver. They are drilling engineers who work very hard out in the Botswana bush. They never thought they would become engineers, but sometimes opportunities come your way which are too good to pass up!I think this is the last elephant post for a while. It is true that I didn't intend to turn these into engineers, but I was working on them while Phil was working in Botswana sending pictures of daily encounters such as these:
...so now they have work boots and hard hats just like Phil! Two of them will go to Phil's work colleagues in the near future. I just need to put the company logo on the hard hats still. By the way, just in case you didn't catch it in the first elephant post, the pattern is by Jodie from Ric-Rac, and I loved sewing it up!

New residents

Salad

Last week we had salad proudly presented by Aaron and Hannah... this week we have salad sandwiches, with thanks to Myrtle and Eunice for the free pattern...

Wishing you a blessed new year!

Well, happy new year to you all! I know I should be writing a deeply philosophical post here, reflecting on 2009 and anticipating 2010, but I don't think my baby brain is up to that right now!

As always is it is humbling to consider how God has blessed my quiltmaking, also this past year when I didn't find half as much time to sew as I would have liked! That's partly due to constant efforts to keep my sewing in balance with my other tasks around home - always a challenge, but something which I think worked quite well in 2009!

I don't foresee a whole lot more sewing happening in 2010 yet, what with 'Flossie' making an appearance within the next three weeks, all being well. Nevertheless, I do hope to keep working away at my 'childhood' themed quilts and ideas. My goal is to be in a position at the end of this year to be able to commit to a new solo exhibition, the Lord willing!

2009 was my first 'blog year'. This blog was begun with some trepidation, as I have never been much of a journal keeper, but I find that I have thoroughly enjoyed keeping this blog. Being more housebound than in previous years, your feedback (verbal, blog comments and emails) from this blog has been very important to me! Thankyou!

I am very thankful for the opportunities I have to create and share my work! I am especially thankful for such a supportive husband. Without his support, I wouldn't be doing any of this!

On a more personal level, God blessed us in so many ways again in the past year - we all finished the year safe and well, also after many overseas trips between Phil and myself. Phil and I have both been able to enjoy our daily work. Our housebuilding project is going extremely well. And we have three happy, healthy kids, who also happen to be my biggest challenge in life! We look forward to new experiences, opportunities and challenges in the service of the Lord, in 2010.