36 Weeks

I'm 36 weeks pregnant now, probably time for an update on the old blog eh?  Time has flown slowly if you know what I mean. The nursery is almost there, except for one part of a door jamb. My hospital bags are packed and ready to go!

I was meant to finish work at 34 weeks but ended up on sick leave from 32 weeks. I have been trying to take it easy since and am feeling pretty good! The baby is doing very well and is probably going to be a "chubby baby" (to quote my obstetrician!). The thought of pushing out a chubby baby is making me a little nervous!! The "are you sure there's only one in there?" questions from random strangers at the supermarket checkout are also doing wonders for my belly self-esteem, hahaha!

I've been getting a bit crafty lately - can you see the mobile in the pic above? I made that! It took me 5 days but was totally worth it. I purchased/downloaded the pattern from Craft Schmaft which also has gorgeous little toy patterns.

The blanket in the cot - that was P's when he was a little bubba and was made by one of his Grandmothers. It had the most insane amount of pilling going on and some of the crocheted squares were coming apart, but I gave it an intense going over with one of those weird pill shaver machines, stitched a few squares together and washed it with wool wash, and it's come up a treat.

The blanket on the end of the cot was knitted by a clever friend.  I envy anyone who has the patience to  knit! The sheep pillow pet is from a friend who jumped the ditch to New Zealand, what a very fitting pressie hehe!!

I've been washing all the teensy little baby clothes, they just look too cute hanging on the line.

We were given a book called "Telling Your Dog You're Pregnant" by a friend who is a Vet. Lexi has taken the news very well, she has no idea what's going on lol. The book comes with a CD of baby related noises to get your pup ready for the impending arrival. Lexi was pretty good with it, except for the toy noise track which has made me think we probably shouldn't get any squeaky toys for the baby!

Reno-wise, it never ends, but we are at a stage where we can live pretty comfortably. I will have to do a bit of an update on the blog with all the work that's been done.

We also finally got our Wedding Photos back, so I can post them up too! hooray!

Shopping for the bump!

My bump has been out since I was about 12 weeks pregnant, so I had to start shopping for Maternity Clothes as early as January! The weather for the entire first term was mainly hot hot hot, so dresses and sandals formed the basis of my work wardrobe. The most important thing for me when shopping for maternity clothing was definitely comfort, followed closely by price.  I've been trying to be budget savvy, and as such have hardly paid full price for anything. Thank goodness for sales, eh?

Basics:
Big W and Kmart have a tiny range of ridiculously cheap, basic maternity clothes. I got several tops from Kmart for $5 a pop, and the trackies from Big W are super comfy! Big W stocks maternity stockings too.

Stripey Top - Kmart,  Bump @ 19 Weeks

I got some great basic black slacks for work at Target, which also stocks really comfy maternity knickers and pretty nursing nighties. They had some great dresses in summer.

Harris Scarfe seems to be perpetually on sale and stocks the Bonds Bumps singlets and undies, as well as a Berlei maternity bras.

I bought a plethora of cheapie dresses and tops from the Pumpkin Patch factory outlet at Brandsmart, I found the fit on their clothing to be a bit out of whack, especially around the bust, but for $5 each you can't really go wrong!

Jeanswest Maternity Jeans are cheap and comfy! they are probably my most worn item.

Top - Patch Maternity, Jeans - Jeanswest, Necklace - Emily Green. Bump @ 29 Weeks

MammaBella - I went to their shop in Oakleigh, but they have recently moved to The Baby Gallery in Clayton. I scored some Hot Milk maternity bras on sale, as well as some nursing pyjamas.

Ripe - I got a nice jumper and some denim shorts from here back in summer, and was also lucky enough to be given a second hand pair of Ripe jeans from a friend. They aren't as comfy as my Jeanswest jeans though.

Online:
Asos - A great site to find gorgeous dresses.

Dress - Asos, Bump @ 25 weeks

Soon - I grabbed a divine cardigan and a top from here.

QueenBee - I bought a bit of everything from here - shorts, leggings, tops etc. They stock Trimester leggings which are incredibly comfy!! The Twice Nice Maternity Top by Fillyboo is my second most worn item of maternity clothing!

Maternity Sale - I only just stumbled across this site recently, and went a bit nuts buying dresses, leggings and tops! The dress I wore for my baby shower came from here.

Now that I'm 36 weeks I am living in black leggings and comfy tops :)

Summer Holidays

The holidays went entirely too fast, and I feel like I didn't really do much! The bulk of January seemed to be taken up with changing my name, jeeeez louise that took a fair effort!! Some other things I got up to included watching the entire first and second season of Girls, reading One Shot, by Lee Child (hubs loves the Jack Reacher novels), catching up with lots of mates, decluttering my house, selling some stuff on Ebay, and buying a bunch of items for the bub.  

We have put this pram on layby at the Baby Gallery. It's the Steelcraft Agile Plus with amazing quick and easy foldingness! It happily came at an excellent price, definitely within our budget.

We spent the Australia day weekend with friends at Inverloch, which was a lovely way to finish off the holidays. I seriously recommend the Cadbury Caramello Slice at the bakery in Tooradin, on the way down to Inverloch. It is seriously worth the stop! I tried to take a photo of it in all its goodness, but my stupid phone was chucking a spaz.  

I

Inverloch Beach with pretty sailboats

As I'm preggers, I got to sleep in a bed inside our friends house instead of in the usual tent. Pure luxury!! Usually our dog comes with us and sleeps in the annexe of our tent. This time she had her own mini break at mum and dads, playing with their dog all weekend. She was stuffed when we went to pick her up!

Lexi, asleep in the car, whilst sitting up. Poor poppet!

I'll be 20 weeks pregnant tomorrow! Half way there already. My bump is quite big and the bub seems to be doing all kinds of somersaults. 

That is me, two weeks ago. And that bump could potentially be mostly chocolate. hahah! I have added fake glow thanks to picassa lol!

I made a mars bar cheesecake with glitter for my sisters 24th birthday.

She was a happy camper! The celebrations continued when we went out for breakfast at Santucci's in Camberwell, where I devoured this divine stack of pancakes with lemon butter, passionfruit, strawberries and honeycomb... droooooooooling just thinking about them!

I highly recommend!! yumm!

Sadly, the holidays are over and we're all back at work getting into the swing of things. This year, I don't have my own class - instead I am floating around the school, relieving various teachers so they can get their assessment done.  It's so odd to not have my own class. Simultaneously it is a FANTASTIC thing, because it means that I have no reports to write, no preparation to do, I can arrive at 8:30 and leave at 3:45, and if I need to miss a day due to appointments it's not such a big deal. So you could say I am one very lucky girl!

The 8 week countdown until next holidays begins now!

My Wedding - on EBay!

Well here is a shameless little plug for you!!

Having a wedding that involved lots of DIY projects meant that after the wedding, you have a lot of wedding paraphernalia left over! With a bub on the way and a very little house (with no storage!!), I have to ignore my hoarding tendencies and sell the rest :( I wish we had a recycle my wedding type site in Australia!!

I am selling a whole bunch of stuff on eBay - including tea cups, table numbers, candle holders, pompoms and more. Click here to have a squiz!!

Happy 2013!!

2012 was undoubtedly one of the biggest, most amazing years of my life!!

The best things that happened??

We got married!!!!

We went on our Honeymoon!!

in glorious, sunny Vanuatu :)

aaand...

surprise!! We are having a baby! I am currently fifteen weeks pregnant :)

I will fill you in on all of the detalis about these amazing happenings. I would have earlier, but the whole having to keep the baby bump a secret for the first trimester made me feel like I couldn't really blog without spilling my guts! I am going to try my hardest to be a good blogger in 2013!!!

Hope you had an amazing Christmas and New Years, and a fantastic 2012. Can't wait to share 2013 with you!
Love Lorta xo

DIY Wedding!

There's been a bit of DIY action for this upcoming wedding!

Table Numbers:
As Lexi Dog couldn't be part of our wedding, we thought we might include her by using gorgeous photos of her for our table numbers!

You will need:
* Ikea Tolsby Frames
* Photos of your puppy, or similar!
* Pretty paper, I used the Miss Nelly collection - it's so pretty!
* Silver foil edged sticky labels - I used these, bought them from Spotlight (we found it really difficult to print on these labels, even though the packaging says "printable" - there's no template, so we spent ages making one, only to find that our printer ink just smudged on them straight away!!)
* Printer, scissors, glue

We had to print the numbers onto plain paper, cut them out, stick them on the labels with glue, then stick the label onto the pretty paper!
Insert your number page and your photo back to back in the Tolsby Frame, and voila, you're done!

Place Setting Chart

You will need:
* a big pretty frame (we bought ours on Ebay)
* a sheet of plywood (our frame didn't have a back to it)
* double sided tape
* pretty fabric
* pretty paper to print the names on
* a stupid continuous border punch - I used this one (but found it tricky to use!!), bought it at Spotlight. Left tiny dots allll over my floor!

P cut the plywood to fit the frame, I covered it with fabric and stuck it down with double sided tape. P put some nails in the back to help the plywood stay. Then we printed the guests names on pretty paper, punched the borders, and glued them on with double sided tape!

I had to practise A LOT to get the borders right!

Ring Pillow

I outsourced this job to my wonderful Mum!!
We used the ring pillow design from Handmade Weddings - a book that my gorgeous friend gave me when we got engaged!
Mum popped a doily on top, stitched on some ribbon, and voila! It's beautiful!

Scalloped Table Cloths

We used this tutorial to make them, and I will show you a pic after the wedding! It took a lot of cutting, and mum decided she wanted to iron interfacing onto them all to stop them from fraying, so it took her even longer!! Good on ya mum!

Cake Bags

First of all, I got the cake boxes, P and I assembled them all while watching tv!
I made a pretty monogram thanks to Wedding Chicks, you can too!
I saved the monogram, and turned it into a sticker! I used Moo.com to make my round stickers

and here is the end result!

Silver Votives

I made some plain glass candle holders into silver mercury style votives using this tutorial.
I ruined my floorboards doing this - make sure you do it outside!!
They turned out ok, not amazing though!
I will show you a pic later on :)

I used Galej candle holders from Ikea.

I guess we've been pretty busy! Not long to go now!

10 years ago...

I was in year 12.
My hair was the longest it had ever been.
I was the skinniest I had ever been.

10 years later...
I'm getting married.
My hair is almost as long as it was in year 12.
And I fit into my year 11 AND year 12 formal dresses!

Warning: dodgy iPhone just woken up pic!







These are both massive achievements for me!!

Love from Lorta xo