Christmas Crafting

This year I have decided to pull my finger out and get going on starting some family traditions for Louis. I've seen loads of wonderful and very creative ideas online. Many of which are way beyond my capabilities. But a few have shone out as potentially achievable. And I set myself a goal of actually finishing 1 or 2 in time for Lou's first Xmas. 

I've always loved crafting. I spent a couple of years making celebration cakes after attending a college course in the evenings. I enjoyed it a lot at first but at heart I'm a bit of a perfectionist and when something doesn't turn out the way I want it to, I do tend to just admit defeat and give up all together rather than honing my skills. So really, I love a craft but I want one that a) Has fast results and b) is idiot proof. 

So this year I decided to start out by researching some ideas for a Christmas stocking. It sounded like a good way to mark Lou's first Christmas and could be easily personalised. So I found some really rich cotton fabrics with cute designs and off I went with the sewing machine. I started over a month ago and have only just finished. It didn't take me that long in real time obviously. It's just been hard to find the time and energy to devote to it with a 6 month old to look after. I'd say it probably took me 3 hours tops to complete. But I'm really pleased with it. 

Next I turned my attention to making some Christmas decorations. Something we could put Louis' stamp on, not just for our own tree but as gifts for friends and family. My friend Rachel posted a photo on my Facebook page which got me inspired (Thanks Rachel!). It was super straight forward, and fail safe. I made 3 in the end. And again, it took a few days to complete - sleeping baby allowing. But now we have a cute Santa themed baby hand print hanging from our tree. I'll post the photo guide below incase anyone else fancies having a go. Hopefully as Louis gets bigger we'll be able to add to the ornament collection year by year with some different home made ones too. 

So there's my festive creations. What are you making this year? Xx

Christmas Prepping with our baby :)

It's busy busy busy as the Margetts/King residence!! Christmas preparations are in full swing. We could not be more excited to be spending our first Christmas with our 6 month old baby boy!! Eeeek!! 

For some reason unbeknownst to me, this year I've failed to do my Christmas gift shopping online. Last year I did 99% of my shopping that way which worked fantastically and meant I avoided the usual stress of Christmas mayhem in Kingston. For some bizarre reason I have spent most of my days in one town or another getting lots of last minute 'necessities' (the inverted comma's signal that their actually necessity is questionable to anyone other than myself!). As lovely as it is to see all the lights and festive cheer, I could really have done without it. Especially with a bubba who shares my disapproval of public transport. Please God bring me a driving license for Xmas!!! And nope, that doesn't mean I have a test booked. I'm just hoping to miraculously find said piece of qualifying paperwork in my stocking... Long shot? 

I was sensible enough to at least do my food shop online this year. So I'm expecting a hearty consignment of Christmas carbs to arrive from Waitrose tomorrow. Yippee - no trolley wars for me this year .

We have loads of exciting things planned around the Christmas period. We plan to visit a Christmas event at Kew which should be very pretty as they decorate the gardens with lights. It's also an opportunity for little Louis' to have his first meeting with Santa Claus (more for Sean and I's benefit than Louis but it's all part of getting into the spirit).

We have our real Christmas tree covered in 'Baby's First Christmas' ornaments which is lovely. Quite a few have spaces for photos so we've been filling those up too. 

We are very excited for the 25th and look forward to catching up with everyone... And eating our own body-weight in chocolate and turkey...

Feliz Navidad! << thought I'd mix it up a bit by writing than in Spanish {I think I've been somewhat overdoing the Bublé albums}

Above photo is in the same location on the Southbank that Sean and I got engaged just over a year ago. Note new addition :p

New Life

 

Well well well.. Where to begin?! It's almost an entire year since my last post. So much has happened and I'm kind of annoyed at myself for not keeping on top of my blog more. I know I'm going to have forgotten some of the details of all my big news. Alas, I do have an excuse though! Rather a cuddly and lovely excuse. A baby! 

In October 2013 I fell pregnant with a miracle. I managed to conceive following a recent bout of pneumonia so it's quite bizarre that my body decided to achieve such a feet. We were incredibly shocked at the short time scale in which I fell pregnant. And I honestly thought the pregnancy test was telling lies! In fact it didn't really sink in that I was 'with child' until we saw his heart beat at an early scan at 7 weeks. I spent the entire first 12 weeks convinced I wouldn't make it to the 12 weeks mark, just waiting (and dreading) something awful happening. It all seemed too good to be true. But as the weeks went on, and the horrendous morning sickness passed, my bump grew and it all became more real. I woke up every morning and looked down at my bump to check it was still there, and that I hadn't just been having a very long dream. 

We had the odd hiccup along the way (both metaphorical and literal - baby had hiccups  every hour from about 20 weeks!!). But all of them were overcome and the doctors and nurses were fantastic. So reassuring and I had an amazing team around me. 

We joined an NCT (antenatal) class with couples who were due around the same time as us. The course itself was ridiculous and such a waste of time. Believe it or not some expectant parents need to be told that babies need bathing and feeding - go figure!! But it was fab for meeting people and we have quite a nice little circle of friends in the same boat as us. It's proved really helpful as we can all bounce off each other now we have little people who cause us lots of worry. 

Our baby was due to arrive on the 1st of July. But because I had to have an elective caesarean, he was delivered slightly earlier at 38 weeks and 2 days. Louis Anthony Ernest King was born to the sound of Adele's "Someone like you" at 15:01 on the 19th June 2014. And I might be biased but he was, and still is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.  Everyone tells you about the flood of emotions you feel and the instant love that fills you when you hold your baby for the first time.... All I can say is it's true but those words don't do the feeling justice. It's more than words are capable of expressing. Sean and I  were just overwhelmed. That bond is what got me through the first few agonising days following my c- section. Granted I did spend the majority of those days in a opiate induced haze from the morphine I was given.... But still... my desire to nurture and protect this little life would have got me through anything. 

To cut a rather long and wonderful story short, we now have an 10 week and 6 day old baby boy. He is developing in leaps and bounds and the smile he has is heart melting.  

Our last weigh in and 8 week check showed he was following his growth line perfectly. He was a healthy 10Ib 8 ounces. Tomorrow's the next big weigh in. I suspect he's probably over the 12 pound mark now. He's certainly filling out. 

Sean and I also got engaged in December 2013, on the Southbank under the Christmas lights (all very romantic and a separate blog is required for that story). So we are hoping to get married in the summer of 2016. Having a baby is rather a costly exercise so we may have to wait a while to have the wedding we want. But we'll get there. 

So we're all doing wonderfully and couldn't be happier. I've honestly never been as tired as I am now, but I've also never been as happy! I've had the family I could only dream of a year or so back. I'll never forget what a blessing it all is. 

Everyone else doing the big move for me ....

Well this weekend was officially the 'Big  Move Weekend'. It defies physics how so much stuff can fit into a one bedroom flat. I started getting things boxed up a week or two prior to this weekend in the hope that it would make the move a bit more organised. Sean started filling all the holes in the walls where the hooks that hung our pictures had been  (man stuff!). He also gave some of the walls a fresh lick of paint. Anything to get my deposit back "/

We had a wonderful week in Wiltshire last week which I will update on later on. But for one reason or another I came down with a cold and suffered for a good portion of the holiday  week thereafter.  On our return this made our manic house packing all the more arduous as I really just felt like death warmed up. Sean, as ever, was so kind and took over a lot of the organising and sorting of stuff. He is such a good boyfriend and I couldn't ask for anything more. He tucked me up in bed, Kleenex in easy reach, cup of tea in hand and provided me with regular snacks and warm drinks and cuddles for when I was being a whinger or just generally having a meltdown about not being able organise for myself.

I say a 'cold' but as we know its never just a cold with me and inevitably goes to my chest. I suffered with fevers and was coughing up some pretty colourful stuff within a few days. But determined not to get sick during this move, I soldiered on without seeing the doc. I didn't really have much choice truth be told. It didn't feel urgent enough to go to A&E and with it being the weekend there were no GP appointments I could make. I had an appt at chest clinic on the following Tuesday so I thought I'd hold on until then, hoping they could give me some oral antibiotics to fight off the bugs.

When I arrived the doctor wasn't having any of it. As much as I protested and basically had a mini meltdown about the Impracticality of it all.. he wanted me admitted for IVs. I was naive to think that meant I had at least bypassed the stress of the A&E process. I still had to sit there for 4 hours while the bed manager found me a bed. Nevertheless they did get me settled in the end. Sean brought in some essentials for a few nights stay (3 at most I thought) but here I am on Day 9. I feel a zillion times better than when I was admitted. the infection levels are coming down in my blood which is great news. There's just a couple more hurdles to overcome and then I can go home (well.. go to my ymums anyway. I know longer have an apartment do I? Must remember that!).  The antibiotics have raged havoc with my warfarin and so my clotting is again in a sub-therapeutic range which makes me very susceptible to yet more blood clots. So for the foreseeable I'll be on the injections again. This sucks but it keeps me safe so I am tolerating it as much as I can. Hurdle no.2 comes in the form of my oxygen dependency. My lungs don't seem to have recovered enough from this last bout to be able to cope without oxygen at all. Even at rest. The doc commented that my bronchiectasis was rather more widespread than he'd originally thought. And so he says that each infection will take its toll (leaving further scarring) and take longer to recover from.

So for future reference all... If you have a cold or infection of the respiratory kind, please don't share it if at all possible ! I'll really need to be more careful than I have been being. 

In the meantime the move happened thanks to my Sean, Mum & Dads relentless hard work. I really can't thank them enough. Sean hasn't had a chance to rest since he had to travel straight to Belgium on Sunday to start a weeks training over there. I'm missing him like mad and can't wait to have him back on Friday night. Nothing quite like being in the arms of the one you love - cheesy I know but very true. In the meantime mum has assumed her usual duties as my sole visitor, food provider and clothes launderer. Lord knows what I'd do without my family. 

Rough few weeks

Check me out, updating just a day after the previous post. I must be on the ball!

Felt like having a little rant over some stuff that's been going on, so here goes. As some of you may or may not know... I had some pretty major surgery about a month ago (I won't go into details). Anyhow the surgery itself went to plan as far as I know. I did encounter some issues with the anaesthetics (as is only to be expected with my grumpy lungs). This meant I had to spend a couple of nights in ITU. This is nothing major and is quite a common occurrence for me. Unfortunately I went on to have further issues when I was put on a PCA for pain control. I think the settings were too high and my body didn't like it. I subsequently started having hallucinations which were nothing short of terrifying. I genuinely believed I had died during the operation and was in some kind of limbo. I can not even begin to describe the terror I felt. In a last ditch attempt to 'survive' I made  a panicked called to Sean at 3am  (who was away on work in Belgium) who got in touch with my parents. They drove in at ridiculous O'clock and calmed me down. Once they'd arrived I promptly relaxed and fell asleep. Only to wake up hours later feeling completely 'with it' and embarrassed about the previous nights drama. I was worried I was losing it, but all the doctors and nurses said that it's a common problem with Patient Controlled Analgesia and the concoction of drugs that are in the syringe driver can cause all sorts of horrors to feel like reality. Phew - still got my wits about me for a while yet then!

I stayed in for a few more days. And though I didn't really feel up to being discharged (still struggling with breathlessness and requiring oxygen and strong pain relief), I went home on the surgeons advice.. He was keen for me not to risk developing any more chest infections or hospital bugs. Plus I have oxygen at home so that wasn't insurmountable.

2 days later I still wasn't feeling any better. I saw my GP who I assumed would probably give me some antibiotics for what felt like a chest infection and advise the usual increase in steroids and nebs. But instead she saw my sats were 84% (I wasn't aware they were quite that low) and my racing pulse, and sent me to hospital for bloods and x rays. Turned out my bloods came back pos+ for a clot which didn't guarantee I had one but at the same time didn't rule it out. So it required further investigation. I'd only packed enough for one night as I didn't predict any of this would unfold. But the next day I went for a CT of my chest and a Doppler (ultrasound of the blood flow) of my leg. These, together detected a large clot in my right iliac vein and a pulmonary embolus in my lung (the cause of all the breathlessness and low oxygen levels!). To cut a long story short I spent the week in hospital being dosed with warfarin and Denzaparin and trying to get my breathlessness under control. I finally came home on injections in my belly (which took some getting used to!).

I've been going to Co-agulation clinic to get my blood tested weekly. Thankfully my local clinic measures it with a finger prick test so I don't have to have a million butchered attempts at drawing it from my non existent veins. All's been going well and I'm getting used to the new routine. That was, until a few days ago when then breathlessness and pain started up again. I held off on seeking advice as didn't need any more hassle from it all to be honest and as ever assumed things were 'probably fine' and I was just over thinking it. But when they tested my blood this morning at clinic, it was the thickest it's been yet. I mentioned in passing that the pain had started again. And she immediately made an appointment for me to see the GP today (hmph... Grrrr!). So off I trundled. And low and behold, the GP sent me into hospital for more tests for further clotting. So after 7 hours in the acute medical unit, I've finally escaped with another 10 days of jabs in the belly to break down another PE in my lung. I'm just glad that I didn't have to stay in all honesty.

I won't lie, I'm pissed off. I can handle my other health issues. I know when things aren't right and can generally taper my own medication to what's needed day to day. And I know if something's really not right that  I can go into hospital for IVs etc. But this clotting issue is an unknown entity for me that I'm really not comfortable with. My body doesn't tell me when to worry and when not to with this. I guess I'm still learning to read the signals.  I don't want to be on lifelong warfarin and injections. Nor does anyone. I shouldn't complain, diabetics inject every day and don't moan. I just need time to adjust I guess.

Anyway... Here's to the next 10 days of a bruised belly and no cranberry juice, grapefruit or alcohol (none of which are allowed in this regime). Wish me luck.

Thanks for reading! 

In lighter news, I am now the proud owner of some very cool slippers :)

The Move

I'm moving! After 3 years in my one bed flat in suburban Surrey I'm moving back in with my parents. I always imagined my next move would be to my own place. Unfortunately finances haven't allowed for that. So it's back to my parents in a last ditch attempt to save for my future. 

I have a great relationship with my folks and they are extremely easy going so hopefully the transition won't come as too much of a blow. They've been hard at work clearing out the downstairs bedroom for me so as I can basically live in the downstairs of the house. It gives me a certain amount of freedom too as there's a ensuite attached to the downstairs bedroom. So I'll have my own space. I've already made plans to bring in a sky+ box and make it cosey :)

My mum and dad have been an absolute godsend. They have gone to so much effort with this move. And over the years have helped so much with regard to getting me to and from clinics, walking my dog etc and generally just taking good care of me. 

I'm kinda looking forward to being back there. I love to watch trash TV with my mum and she's a fantastic cook. And my dad can pretty much turn his hand to any DIY issue. He even comes in handy when I'm making cakes as he has quite a good eye for detail and design. So I'm always keen to ask his advice. That is, when I'm not having a meltdown about one I've messed up. Mums always there to help with the fondant covering - which I always stress about.

But I will miss this place. Don't get me wrong.... This flat is damp, cold, it never has hot water and there's not enough room to swing a dead cat.. Let alone keep a pet dog. But it's in a perfect location and I can get to the centre of town, cinema, coffee shops, transport links within 10 mins flat. I will miss that convenience!!  It's back to struggling onto the number 71 bus to get to town. Would I really travel 35mins to the nearest Costa coffee for a mocha hit?!? .... Probably... Sad but true. I'm a coffee addict. 

So wish me luck with the move folks. I'm already up to my eyeballs  in boxes and am frantically labelling everything. I've got another 2 weeks to go - Miss Organised!!

It will be so nice to be able to bath without having to set a timer, which only runs luke warm for 5 mins max. And not be cold and wrapped up in layer upon layer because the heatings knackered. Oh and don't even get me started on the drainage!!! 

Trying to keep in mind that this move is a step closer to me being a home owner one day. Positive thoughts... Positive thoughts :)

Quilting

I'm only a day post publishing my 'Never Ending Bucket List', and I've already started working on one my targets. My Godmother is literally the Queen of Quilting. Her work is so intricate and skilled. She made me the most beautiful bed spread this year. I was so delighted with it, and really touched to receive something that has had so much time and effort put into it. I was really inspired by it and wanted to have a go myself. Now, I was under no illusion...I knew quilting wasn't going to be a walk in the park. So I decided to start at the beginning and go right back to basics. I enrolled in a 'Quilting Taster Day' - ('taster' being the operative word here). Unfortunately it turned out to be a lot more advanced than I expected! The class was full of people that had clearly had experience and had come fully prepared to produce some impressive stuff. I was still cutting perfect 3" squares when everyone else was making borders!  I felt like a complete wally for the entire duration. Everyone was so far ahead that I was losing track. My patchwork looked pretty shoddy (will post pic for comedy value). 

After that, I had lost all interest and resigned myself to the fact that  I was completely rubbish and incompetent at quilting. Hence I didn't try any more. Until that is... My mum reminded me that my God mother would be happy to teach me. My godmother lives a good 70 miles away (hence the local 'Taster' session I took initially). But we worked out a date and today I went down to see her. She made it all seem so straightforward. We went right back to basics which I really needed. And I came home feeling confident about it. She also thought the taster session had been asking us to produce quite advanced work (not appropriate for a novice at all), which made me feel better about my failed attempt. I'm actually really excited to get going with the rest of it now!! So my little spark for quilting has been reignited and I'm really excited to learn more. My God mother has been honing her skills for 10 years and does wonderfully complex work. If I can produce something even a tenth as impressive then I will be happy with that. So it's back to the sewing machine for me.. complete with my trusty 'unpicking tool' (I can see me needing to use that white a lot!!)



Auntie Roslyn's Work



1st attempt from 'Quilting Taster Day'



Much more basic but more neater work after my session with Auntie Roslyn