waiting for baby

So the highly anticipated due date has finally arrived...and still no sign of baby. It's hard not to be disappointed, no matter how many people tell you that first babies rarely arrive on time and are late more often than not. It really is the most frustrating thing, waking up every morning thinking, 'ahh, perhaps today will be the day!' and then as every hour passes and still no signs of labour occur, the level of hope that this will be the case slowly diminishes. As we have now been impatient for a while, we've already tried nearly all of the natural ways to induce labour... so far to no avail. It wouls seem she is a stubborn little one who will arrive when she is ready and only then, no matter the amount of pleas we put out to her!

yoshitomo nara

I was lucky enough to recieve a gorgeous little gift from Curt the other day in the form of a book of postcards by one of my favourite artists, Yoshitomo Nara. Based in Tokyo, he is one of the most influential contemporary artists in Japan. I love his oddball characters which are inspired by Japanese anime, poetry, graffiti and punk rock. Check out more of his work here.

We already have a little trio of his images on our living room wall (pic above) and I can't wait to get some little frames to display a few of these postcards in and maybe I will try and break free from my hoarding tendencies for once and even send some to a few people!

hello summer

Yay! So it looks like summer here in London (or at least spring) has finally shown its face. After a long, miserable winter and a slow start to the warmer season (what was beginning to feel like weeks of constant rain and clouds), we have now had a few days of glorious sunshine. Have been feeling very lucky to be on maternity leave this week as it has allowed me to spend hours lying in the park 'resting' whilst soaking up some sun and all importantly getting some colour to my pasty white limbs. Have also been lugging my sketchbook along with me and been using the opportunity to work on some drawings and paintings...as I know when baby finally decides to arrive there will be rare opportunities for such creative ventures in the first few months!

So here is my latest one at the initial sketch stage (a close-up due to the size restrictions created by my rather small scanner)...

Hopefully more will be on their way very soon if this surge of inspiration and motivation combined with the promising weater continues!

cupcakes and pretty baby gifts

My lovely friends Natalie, Jo, Laura and Katie threw me a baby shower/tea party on Friday evening. This called for an afternoon of baking where I threw myself into the creation of cupcakes and corn-flake cakes (and soon turned the kitchen into an area of mass carnage).

The girls decided to trial out their own baby bumps with the help of some balloons!

some things

I will miss about being pregnant...

being lazy and not feeling too bad about it...having a good reason for letting other people do things for me like make me food and cleaning the house (mainly poor Curt!)...feeling her kicking and moving around(though this can sometimes can feel more like punishment when it wakes you up at 3am, if you actually stop to think about it, this really is something quite amazing)...the excitement of daydreaming and wondering what she will look like/act like when she is born...my pregnancy yoga class...pre-labour maternity leave (the chance to lie in and watch daytime TV whilst still being paid is not to be sniffed at ...afternoon naps...being able to eat as much chocolate and other sweet type treats as feasibly possible without feeling guilty about it.

I will (most definitely) not miss about being pregnant...

my swollen sausage fingers (which are currently causing me to have to wear my engagement ring on my pinkie finger!)...the 3 moths of gruelling morning sickness, which I wouldn't wish on even my worst enemy... having to get up to pee multiple times during the night and not being able to get back to sleep again...the lower back ache...not being able to fit in any of my clothes (*sigh* for all the pretty summer dresses in my wardrobe...soon, soon my lovelies!)...not being able to eat blue cheese/goats cheese etc- all the cheeses that I love the most...being (almost) tee-total- though on the plus side my liver has definitely thanked me for this.

new beginnings

Little Miss at 11 weeks...(now a darn sight larger and hopefully preparing for imminent arrival)

Well now seems as good a time to start this off as any. I'm sitting here on my sofa a 6.45am on a Friday morning like a beached whale, wondering if today will be the day she finally decides to arrive...wondering how my brain power could have deteriorated to the extent that I forgot to buy milk yesterday when the most challenging part of my day involved lying on the sofa changing the channel on the TV remote. Everyone says that first babies are usually late but surely there are some exceptions to the rule...me, for example. I was born two weeks early so surely some kind of logic may suggest that she would kindly do the same, but hang on...nope. The kicking and squirming has already begun, a sure sign that today will not be the day after all. If the tottering pile of baby and pregnancy library books threatening to fall off my bedside table are all correct (and I feel that the odds are probably high on this one), a little one as crazily active as this is not one which is quite ready to make an entrance to the world just yet. And so another day of the waiting game begins.