Where were we … ah yes, I left you last week by saying that my mum and Grandma were visiting, but staying in a hotel in Ilkley. Yes yes yes. I remember. SO much has happened since then though that it feels like ages ago!

This is the first time that my Grandma has been able to visit my house and see where I live, it’s taken a while to arrange it and as she is not able to sleep on the airbed in our spare room (or climb our nearly vertical stairs) we pondered for a while about accommodation. When Alice and my mum were visiting in March we went to Ilkley and commented how lovely it would be to stay in this hotel which almost overlooks the moor. It turned out to only be about £50 more than staying in the local (pretty scummy) Travelodge and I have to say it was a fabulous choice and we would thoroughly recommend the hotel (Rombalds Hotel).

Their room was on the 2nd floor and was the two windows above and to the right of the door in the above photo.

The room was warm and clean and just lovely really. It was fun watching as all the things were discovered!

The view from the window was ace, lots of trees and if you crane your neck one way you can see the moor and if you do so the other you can see down the hill and almost into town.

Thursday was mostly about getting settled into the hotel and a bit of an explore around Ilkley. Just a small explore as walking was limited. We did make a good attempt at drinking Caffe Nero out of business! I think we went there 3 or 4 times in 2 days!

I should point out here that Grandma doesn’t really “get” blogging, or why I took photos of our drinks, food, ducks, beds etc.

Yes, ducks! They were out for a stroll near Marks and Spencer :-)

On Friday I got the bus over to Ilkley again. “What do you want to do?” asked my mum. “Find somewhere with a toilet!” as after sitting down on the bus for half an hour the baby had dropped onto my bladder as I walked. My poor mum, we had to make so many loo breaks for me that weekend!

For a serious answer (after a loo break, thank you Caffe Nero) we went for a drive past Bolton Abbey up past Burnsall and then stopped in Grassington. It was almost 12 noon by this point and as a hungry pregnant lady I was absoLUTELY ravenous by this point, having only had two bowls of cornflakes for breakfast. I did the only decent thing to do (aside from eating my arms) and hustled us into the nearest cafe for FOOD.

Fortunately it was pretty lovely, and the panini and chips combo certainly filled me up.

Later on we went back to the hotel and I noticed how lovely some of the glasswork was. Isn’t this the prettiest window glass ever?

I was feeling a bit snoozy so Grandma sent me for a nap on her bed. I didn’t feel like napping but I did feel like crocheting:

After a while we left Grandma for a while and we walked back into town, stopping to rescue someone’s pet rabbit on the way. We’re good like that. We sneaked another Nero:

and looked around the charity shops to see what we could find. I scored some children’s books (Shirley Hughes! Love her.) and some Anchor embroidery cottons which are very pretty but I’m not sure what I’ll use them for.

and THEN (we were always told not to write that in a story in school, but hey I’m not in sch0ol now and this is MY blog!) we booked a table at the Italian restaurant where Andy joined us for dinner and we have a lovely meal, but I was too stuffed to have dessert. Andy and Grandma managed though!

Phew. I was rather tired after all of that. Mum and Grandma went back to the hotel and me and Andy went home where I frantically packed my bag for a week away, cleaned a bit and whatnot before crashing out in bed. On Saturday morning my mum and Grandma collected me and took me home for a whole week. I have more photos of that (obviously) but for another post as it’s only 6 minutes until my bedtime now and I have to say that my eyes are drooping and I am feeling distinctly sleepy!

xxxx

EDIT: We went to the shop of Betty’s, but not the restaurant because it’s very expensive and we’ve all been there before anyway :)

]]> http://www.littletinbird.co.uk/2012/05/15/ilkley-in-may/feed/ 22 http://www.littletinbird.co.uk/2012/05/08/bunny-fun/ http://www.littletinbird.co.uk/2012/05/08/bunny-fun/#comments Tue, 08 May 2012 17:19:22 +0000 admin http://www.littletinbird.co.uk/?p=1611

Fun thing to do at home Number 1: Feeding dandelion flowers to the rabbits stalk first so they get little flower faces. Awww!

I’m a bit late with these, seeing as it is now the 4th of May! I am posting these now so that it doesn’t get any later.

I seemed to cram a surprising amount in to April, happily there was a lot of crochet and a lot of family time. I worked on my ripple again after having a break from it for a couple of months and I tihnk I have finally made it the desired length. Now it’s just awaiting a border. We had a flying visit down to family in Dorset, passing Stonehenge as we did so. We had lots of rain (some that made me feel cosy and homey, and some that did not!), and we had Easter where I consumed far too much chocolate (lots more than in previous years, hmm wonder why) and Andy’s dad visited to help with the tiling in the bathroom. April was also the month where I had my 20 week scan, and I was finally able to share the news of Tiny Tin Bird with you all :-)

Another rainy photo, saved for posterity because it was so lovely and fresh walking home in the rain like that. I had a cuppa at Lucy’s house, the market had baby plum tomatoes back for ONE DAY and I managed to get some, I also snagged a Gerbera for my windowsill which makes me enormously happy. I worked like a demon on some granny squares and LOVE them so much. The sun did shine a few times so I made sure to get evidence. I made lots of vegetable and lentil soup with ginger, which is my current favourite thing. I had lovely visits from Rach, and from Katherine and Phoebe, and most importantly we HAVE A SHOWER AGAIN! and a new sink as well.

Phew! Busy month or what?

Right now, I am Not At Work, hurrah! My mum and grandma are visiting and are staying in a hotel in nearby Ilkley so I am off there in a little bit to spend the day with them. Even better, I have the WHOLE of next week off too and am going back home with them! Hurrah! Andy is staying here and I will miss him lots but at least he will be able to feed the rabbits :-)

I’m not sure if I’ll get to blog while I’m away, it does depend on whether I can remember my logins when I get there as I’ll be using my mum’s laptop (can’t cope with lugging mine home again on the train.)

xxx

Life for me is so very much about the weekends at the moment. Workdays tire me out right until the end (although I am enjoying the extra hour or so I have now that I don’t have to wash my hair in a bucket every evening) and there is always so much to do - wash up, cook dinner, make lunches, see to the rabbits … you know the score. Weekends though, ah, yes, I like these VERY much indeed.

The weekend really starts after lunch on a Friday. Friday afternoons just don’t really count do they? They’re when you slooowly delete all your emails from you inbox and fanny around doing little tasks that you’ve neglected all week. Not for actual work. Then there is the HURRAH feeling of 5pm and I skip down the hill into town and back home, stick the kettle on and revel in the knowledge that it doesn’t matter if dinner is a little later, that I don’t have to make the lunches and that I get up whatever time I want to the next morning.

Increasingly at the moment I am finding that I Do Not Want to be far away from my home (exception being next week when I’m going to stay with my mum for a week, but that’s the same thing really, it’s still one of my homes). Since I discovered that I can feel homey here, I want to stay in and make sure the washing up is done, the floors are hoovered and the fridge stocked. I’m finding enjoyment in organisation at the moment and I’m trying to encourage that feeling to stay.

My main aim at a weekend is to get some crochet hours in. I really really feel the need to crochet at the moment and I want to get “in the zone” with it as much as I can. So I am. I get up at the same time as I do on a work day (I just naturally wake up then) and set to in order to get my jobs done so that the rest of the time is mine. This Saturday, I woke up and got dressed straight away and went out to the market for the week’s veg to turn into tasty things like soup.

Some sneaky chocolate from M&S (this was demolished during Sink Building: “THE BABY IS HUNGRY, ANDY!!!”) and a bright red Gerbera from the flower man. Oh I’m happy with my Gerbera! On Friday I walked past the market on my way to work and they had a bucket of tightly furled peonies. I walked back into town on my lunch (something I haven’t done for a while as my main aim at the moment seems to be to consume as much as I can) to buy some and they had all gone! Waah! I was so disappointed that I nearly cried. Anyway I knew they wouldn’t have any on Saturday either, since Saturday seems to be Friday’s remaining stock, but wanted to get something anyway. Gerbera it was. Must be a red one, yellow or white just won’t do.

I can’t adequately explain to you just HOW happy this little scene makes me. Do you ever get that feeling where something is just so visually stimulating and pleasing to you that you find it hard to a) stop looking at it and b) stop congratulating yourself for beings so awesome as to put a plant in a bowl? I love it. Although, I could do with a bigger bow, it’s a bit precarious in this one!

It’s right in my line of sight from my chair and makes me happy happy happy. There are three blooming blooms on there now and I’m going to snap them off soon to encourage the furled up ones to grow. If you snip their heads of the plant thinks “oh no, flowers have not turned to seed! must grow more flowers to replace!” and HOPEfully you get more flowers this way. In theory. I’ll let you know how that goes.

And just because I love it, here it is making me happy from the outside, taken through the window:

Homey!

Other visually intoxicating things include my Granny Squares blanket which makes me actually pop with happiness every time I look at it. Here it is with all my stuff flung on the chair on Friday night. LOVELY. I can’t tell you how much I’m loving working on it.

It’s just so … perfect? right? beautiful? everything I wanted it to be? Yes, all of those.

Until this happens:

Disaster, right? Can’t justify more £££ on another ball and can’t wait for it to arrive anyway. So I went in search of anything that I might have used this yarn in that could spare a bit.

Ah yes, never did anything with those bullseye squares that I made. Chop chop, snip snip, bingo.

Before long I was merrily on my way with the next round. Always a solution to the problem!

Other weekend bits featured fizzy water in a glass with a cow on (did you need to see that photo? No? hehe.)

Many cups of tea:

and the aforementioned sink debacle:

(Why oh why was textured wallpaper created?!)

Rach visited on Sunday and brought some gifts for Tiny Tin Bird. How sweet are these elephant trousers? They have a big bum to allow for nappies :-D

I’ve been thinking a lot about the things that I need to get for TTB. There are two lists in my head, one for things that I NEED to get and one for things that I WANT to get. I have been wary of talking about this since an incident on Facebook where I expressed a desire to purchase a baby bath (a modest purchase of perhaps £6 or so) and I was set upon by a rowdy bunch of friends who tore me limb from limb informed that I would not need a baby bath because you can wash babies in the sink. Well fair enough perhaps you can, but at that point we didn’t even have a bath for me and Andy and I wanted to be sure that I had some way set out in my head that I could clean this little baby. I don’t like the idea of washing the baby in the sink very much either, although I appreciate that some people do. That’s fine. (Also helps if your sink is a big white Belfast sink which ours is certainly not.)

Anyway, I’m just careful of saying things that could incite well meaning but ultimately frustrating advice. I don’t really think that babies NEED a whole lot. Some clothes to wear, somewhere to sleep, something to be safe in the car, something to travel around in, some blankets and a baby monitor. I am very fortunate in that I have been gifted a whole supply of baby clothes (thank you!) so I don’t really need to worry about that right now.

My “Need” list so far is: Cot and mattress, cot bedding (sheets really I guess), car seat, baby monitor, pram.

My “Want” list is: Ergo baby carrier.

That’s it really. I think nearer the time I might be a bit more anxious to get everything sorted but right now I feel like there is pleeeeeeenty of time and it will all get sorted. My main concern is saving up for Expensive Pram. I did a lot of research and pram-testing and Expensive Pram (which I had ruled out from the start because of being expensive) is the only one which fits our need. I get the heeby jeebies thinking about spending that much on one item but I think overall the cost will be justified. (Have also looked into 2nd hand. Not yet convinced but I don’t want you to think we’ve not thought of it.) I think if we just eat soup and jacket potatoes until that time then we can afford it!

Now then. In all this thinking about baby equipment and what I need and what I don’t need and what people will tell me I don’t need/sh0uldn’t have/will look silly with I have overlooked something which is really quite exciting. There’s still aaages of time to go before this kind of thing will be necessary but on Saturday I was having a bit of a reminisce about the toys we had as children and I suddenly remembered: Duplo! Lego! Playmobil! Train sets! Toy farms! Toy kitchens! For a good half hour I was absorbed by Amazon, looking at all the Duplo you can get. You can even get a zoo set which is VERY similar to the one we had as children (still in the loft at home). How ace is that? I know having a child will be tiring and difficult (I’m so not thinking about that part, what’s the point? It’s gonna happen, no point worrying about it.) but you know, I am going to get to PLAY with this child! Give him/her a childhood and I am really excited about doing that. It’s a lot of responsibility, providing someone’s childhood but also something to look forward to. Imaginative play, walks in the park, pushing the swings, feeding the ducks, learning about shadows, counting things, teaching about seasons and holidays and food and words and numbers. I even have a recipe for playdough.

There is so much to look forward to and it is all that which I think about with every little kicky pokey nudge in the stomach :-)

Edit: Oh Cuckoo, so much to look forward to! Knicker canoes, that’s tickled me :-D

Making plans can sometimes be great. Sunday morning for example, I got up at 8am and made a big batch of vegetable soup, cooked all the necessary bits for Andy’s lunches during the week and made 2 batches of the absolutely essential oaty cookies that we both have as our afternoon snacks when at work. I put a load of washing on, showered and dried my hair and was on time to meet Rach at the station. After Rach left, I had planned to spend the whole afternoon curled up in my chair putting a border on this bad boy (above) as I’d finished joining the squares the night before. Sounds good doesn’t it? Oh and I had also planned to help Andy install the new bathroom sink. We didn’t anticipate that this would take long, we’d just need to turn the water off for a short while.

Oh ho ho ho. Four and a half hours later, at half past EIGHT we emerge from the bathroom, weary, achey, tired, confused and overall damn well relieved that we finally managed to make the (%£%$$£”$ pipes match up to the £”%£^%$& taps in order that we could turn the water back on. Oh my GOODNESS! It’s done now, the sink is in and it’s working (THANK GOODNESS) and nothing has exploded yet but let me tell you this: after we’ve finished renovating this house, I am either NEVER leaving it, or ONLY leaving it for a house where there is absolutely no work needing to be done. Nothing.

It was after we fitted the sink that we looked at each other and decided that in fact, we quite like the toilet: it is inoffensive and we are both quite happy for it to stay. I’m going to get on ebay shortly and sell the new toilet that came with our bathroom suite. We definitely do not want to change the toilet after having changed the sink!

Anyway, we still need to do things like tiles and decorate around the wall but ta-daa! It’s a sink! A white one (as opposed to mustard) with a mixer tap (as opposed to the “burn or freeze” dilemma)!

(Side note: see that pink tub trug and that hose pipe hanging down? That’s how we’ve been washing between 3rd March and 24th April. Shower ta-da coming soon!)

My other best laid plans included some bloggy ones: I wanted to have finished my granny squares blanket and photographed so I could blog it yesterday which would make it my “April finished item” and then today I wanted to blog my April mosaics (which I have yet to make). I was feeling a bit bad about not getting everything done but to be honest, getting the sink connected was more important and it doesn’t really matter if my blog posts are a bit delayed, it’s just a blog. It will wait for me!

Also, thank you for your wedding comments. I know babies rarely arrive on time but it’s going to involve some travelling and I’m just not comfortable with doing so that close to my due date. Also can you imagine if I DID have the baby at the wedding? thunder stealing or what! hehe.

Right I’m off to bed because I’m completely knackered again, see you all soon :-)

Right Now I Am:

1. Feeling bittersweet at the arrival of Rach’s wedding invite. Sad that I can’t go, but knowing that it’s for a good reason (it’s my due date.

2. Hoping that Andy is ok … he arrived at the station to come home to find that all of the trains were cancelled because of flooding, but there was no more information and no replacement bus services. Nothing.

3. Composing a letter of complaint in my head. Ok, flooding is not something that can be helped but the handling of it was dreadful.

4. Putting a beer in the fridge for when Andy gets home :-)

5. Cooking risotto very slowly so that it is ready at this later time!

6. Thinking “forget blocking them first” and joining up my granny squares. I can block them afterwards.

7. Realising how much I love joining granny squares and enjoying how calming and therapeutic it is.

8. Feeling glad that I’ve phoned my Grandma for a chat (and trying to tell her how to get her new cordless phone off of loudspeaker …)

9. Looking forward to seeing my mum and grandma next week.

10. Enjoying little baby kicks and feeling relieved that I can feel them tonight. Baby apparently had a long sleep today until I fed it a twix in the afternoon. Babies like chocolate – who knew?

11. Plotting baby blankets and wondering if I’ll have time. I’m thinking … Stylecraft stripes for the pram blanket, single rows but turning the work each time so all rows are the front. Then perhaps a creamy Rico Baby dk blanket for immediate snuggles and cuddles :-) (Or I could cheat and put a border on that ripple I made a couple of years ago!)

12. Feeling HAPPYHAPPYHAPPY that we now have a shower again! I haven’t been “Andy-Authorised” to share pics yet, and it’s literally just the shower that is done and the rest of the room still to do, but ooooooooooh YES it’s so lovely to wash one’s hair in the morning IN THE SHOWER rather than in the sink the night before. A highly underrated pleasure. I am so proud of how hard Andy has worked on this that I could actually burst.

How’s your evening? xx

EDIT: Realising that I’ve joined my squares in the wrong order because I’m following an old photo of them. Pants!

Just a quick note (as I’m just scoffing my breakfast before heading out to work) to say a massive thank you to you all for your congratulations and well-wishes, you’re all lovely and the response was a bit overwhelming! In a very good way of course.

We’re really happy and excited and I’m looking forward to sharing more of it with you as we go on. Not all the TMI stuff but the nice stuff like blankets and baby kicks :-)

thanks again :-D

xxxxxxx

I’ve been hoping and wishing and dreaming about making this blog post for a long time but now that the time is actually here I find myself somewhat at a loss for words. I am hoping that more words will come to me if I just keep typing … hopefully they will be assembled coherently :-)

For some months now I have been keeping a secret from you. A secret that started out teeny tiny (the size of a poppy seed apparently) and over time has grown and grown and is now the approximate size of a cantaloupe melon. If you haven’t guessed what kind of secret it is yet, I won’t keep you in suspense any longer: it’s a baby-sized secret!

Yes that’s right, come September (all being well), Tiny Tin Bird will make our family of two into a family of three, make our parents into grandparents and our siblings into aunts and uncles. To say that we are happy and excited about this is an understatement. I’m sure you can imagine that we are completely over the moon!

So far, my pregnancy has been fine apart from some wicked tiredness. Oh my! It’s a wonder I’ve achieved anything this year at all, all I have really wanted to do is spend every spare moment in my bed. Some days I have! I had also really hoped that “baby brain” was a myth, sadly that myth became reality at about 6 weeks when I managed to leave my shoes at work and has now progressed into things like making pots of tea with no teabags and being really confused when the “tea” came out clear!

We’re both so happy and since we had our second scan on Friday (all healthy and fine!) we have just had perma-grins attached to our faces. I’ve been cautious of getting too excited or telling the world prior to this point but hopefully being half way through means that it’s ok to share and start thinking about things to buy. I’m making a list of things I would like to buy (why is my taste so expensive?!) and an even bigger list of how I can afford these things! (To be honest, those are the only two things on my list so that’s not too bad …)

I’m also making a list of all the blanketty things I would like to make for him/her. (The English Language is missing a pronoun don’t you think?) I have been saving some Cotton-Ease for about three years for this purpose and tried to start it last week but it transpires that me and Cotton-Ease just do NOT get on, so that idea is out of the window. I have some other good ideas though, don’t worry, and I am very much looking forward to sharing them with you as time goes on.

So yes, there you go. The reason for my intermittent blogging, grumpy-guts posts and overall my giddy, over-the-moon happiness:

:-)

xxx

Friday afternoon: Tea and chat with friends

… waiting for the swing bridge on the way home (twice! Shouldn’t have stopped to chat.)

Saturday morning: trip to the market for fruit and veg, and a bunch of daffs. Happy to see the return of the baby plum tomatoes on the market! I have been buying supermarket tomatoes because the ones on the market never look very nice but HOORAY that these ones are back.

Doing battle with the house and overcoming one small stronghold: the dining room windowsill. (I came, I saw, I added flowers.)

Loving stems in water in my new old bottles (eventually destined for another windowsill but are happy here for now.)

Saturday afternoon: hot chocolate and cake with Katherine and Phoebe followed by yarn shopping and a trip to the Pretty Shop.

Sunday morning: Sorting my yarn colours for a bit of hooky in my crochet nest on the bed. This time with TWO of my finished blankets to snuggle in while hooking. Lovely!

(Not pictured: the 14508 hours approx spent working on the bathroom. My back will never be the same!)