November Goal Review

Here's how my month went:

• Isabella's photo wall - done!
• Get out and wash baby clothes - done!
• Sort out the office/guest room - done!
• Pack hospital bag - done!
• Start planning/buying/making for Christmas - in progress
• Date night - not done, but this was a bit over ambitious this month.

It's a boy!

He's here! We welcomed our son Joshua to the family early this morning in what turned out to be a very quick labour after a week of waiting! I'll write more once we're home and settled. For now, we're settling into life as four.

Make it Monday - Constellation Embroidery

Here's my latest Mollie Makes project. It's embroidery which is still quite new to me but as with my knitting magazine, I love that they provide clear tutorials both through the magazine and on their website.

I finally feel confident with French knots - you can see how many there are in the pattern above.

The white on a dark background was new for me and I love the effect it has too.

It's inspired me to crack out the embroidery books soon.

Weekly Wisdom

And she gazed at the sky, the sea, the land, the waves, and the caves and the golden sand, 

she gazed and gazed amazed by it all, 

and she said to the whale 'I feel so small!'

The Saturday Update

Still waiting! We had a fun weekend swimming last week and getting ready for baby. All week we've been in the usual routine for Isabella while walking lots and attending lots of appointments.

I'll write about the birth once it's over but I will say already that it's not true that it goes quicker the second time around. Maybe the active bit will but I've been having contractions for four days and still no baby.

It's turned really cold now but we're going for a walk later and then it's back to the waiting game...

Links!

Excited to try this next year.

A lucky story.

True - I didn't get it as a kid.

Sweet.

I'm a big believer in karma.

What a great record to break!

Helpful.

Funny and a bit tragic.

Operation Christmas Child

For the second year in a row, we took part in the German version of Operation Christmas Child. This was last year's as I forgot to take a picture but it's such a good cause I wanted to blog about it again.

Basically you take a shoe box and fill it with gifts for a child who otherwise wouldn't have many presents. The project came to our attention through Isabella's nursery and you have to specify whether the gift is for a boy or girl and what age. I always go for a girl Isabella's age.

We filled it with a variety of fun things and then wrapped it up. There was a huge tower of boxes at the end of hand-in day. So many more happy children. Our first bit of Christmas cheer.