snow where are you?

Wet and windy February. Whilst the south of the country is literally drowning under all the rain, here we are, miserable, wet and windy but not properly cold like a good old winter should feel like. Snow, I miss you. Last year it was snowing on the day Baby was born. We were waiting to be seen at the maternity ward very early one Monday morning as day was just breaking and it snowed. Later that morning before I lost my mind track of time in the delivery room, I remember looking outside and seeing yet more snow falling down.
As Baby's birthday approaches I realise I am feeling increasingly nostalgic of those last  few weeks of pregnancy and early days of motherhood. I miss the anticipation of it all - even though it drove me mad at the time, the laziness, and touching my tummy to feel her kicking back at me. And the cold, crisp air charged with the impending snow.
Man, I really wish for some snow before winter's over.
In the meantime I have found some comfort in finishing all the nitty-gritty hand quilting of my last baby quilt. What a great feeling when it finally comes together! I also made a new bias in a lovely black sakura-style fabric I bought with Atina Alga years ago. And we've taken the habit of going out for breakfast at the weekend. Lazy days, hibernation, and comfort foods. Just that darn snow missing...

still winter days

Yesterday on the radio many people were phoning in and saying how happy they were that January was finally over. It's true that it's a pretty long month, and for those who made resolutions it can be a bit depressing. The incessant rain just doesn't help to make things any better.
Still, if you look on the bright side, you might say it's great to come home and have a hot cup of cocoa. You get to snuggle up on the sofa under all your quilts and later in bed with a hot water bottle. You get to bake hearty comfort food without any complex, and January is also a good excuse to snap up some sales in the shops. Being the capricorn that I am, I got a bargain or two on a recent shopping trip. Well...recent shopping trip...ummm. All is relative now with Baby. "Recent" goes back to the first few days of the month about three weeks ago, as for "shopping trip" it is more like an hour zooming from one place to the other in the local shopping centre.
Luckily the days are getting much longer already and there is hope that soon I'll be able to venture out with my pram and Baby in tow at the end of the working day. Till then, back to comforting things. Enjoy hibernation while it lasts!

yellow

Looking back over the pictures I took in the last week, it's funny to see how yellow is the common denominator (Sewing Bee book included!). Funny too that a colleague of mine brought me a gold-dusted cheese from her local farmers' market, but I didn't get a picture of that!
Anyway it's been a funny old week altogether. I turned another year in the lowest of the low-key ways but managed to catch up at the weekend with a romantic meal in town (sans Baby, which turns out is always weird now). I had great plans for us to have a superb birthday cake, something terribly calorific a-la-Nigella, but never got round to actually doing anything. Had enough calories in my Friday night meal for a whole week anyway, so it's probably just as well.
Instead we made the most of the nice weather and took a couple of long walks (say, isn't it supposed to be the middle of winter...where is the snow, by the way?). I stuck to my plan and sewed a little bit more - I love the satisfaction of taking my patchwork pins out one by one and turning the quilt on its back to see the little alcoves appearing.
We marvelled at how amazing our baby is: she has developped the start of her own language to the rhythm of na-na-na da-da-da, she cuddles us in the evening when she is all tired after her bedtime stories, she loves playing peek-a-boo, fruity yogurts and dragging her cuddly toy along into all her daily adventures. She is simply a star. Our daughter.

new sewing project

2014, as promised, will not see me making any resolutions. And yet, I insisted in setting myself a small challenge for January. It's hard to describe but I have felt a small shift in my way of seeing things. January is my month, and as a Capricorn things tend to be over-analysed and take for evvvveeeeer to actually come to completion. Somehow though, it feels like my looming birthday has given me a big kick in the backside and I have embarked on another baby quilt project.
This weekend I left all the dirty dishes in the sink, ignored all the little things I needed wanted to fix and just did a bit of cutting and arranging fabric squares. Bliss. Then I did more ignoring of the chores and just sewed all the squares together. More bliss.
Tonight I plan to not only sandwich the top, middle and bottom layers together but also start hand-quilting it. Why not?z
I see wonder women everywhere on the net who seem to be able to do it all: job, home-maker, mother and crafter. Maybe they're just bragging. Or maybe I just need to prioritise things differently again from now on if I truly aspire to be a bit more like them.
2014 is still young, but as I keep writing in my students' reports I will do my best and strive to achieve my full potential. Sounds like a plan!

Best wishes

Well, this is it. 2014 has come and the holiday is nearly over. It's been a good time, even though not much has happened: no reading of the couple of books I had lined up, definitely no work prepared for next week, no sewing, and not much sleeping (when can I start having a snooze until 8 again?). Instead, lots of cuddling with Baby, cooking, a new header for this blog, walks in the park and trips to the city, a couple of good movies and a spot of retail therapy.
Resolutions have never really been my forte, so again this year I fail to make any but promise myself to try and keep calm and look after me and my two favourite people, and use my best judgement as much as possible. That should do it. The other things will hopefully just fall into place by themselves over the next twelve months: treat ourselves to our first holiday, sew sew sew, worry less about work, go back to healthier-looking food, spend lots of time with Baby before she fully turns into a little girl (sometimes it scares me how much she has changed already).

♥♥ happy  2014 ♥♥