Ikea to the rescue

We were very brave yesterday, and ventured into our local Ikea store in search of the elusive solution to Chelsea's clothing problem. I am always in awe of that place. I don't know if it's the sheer size of the building, or the unique layout, or the mind-boggling array of weird and wonderful pieces of furniture... but it just doesn't feel like shopping. More like an adventure!



We discovered one piece of furniture that was perfect and spent the morning today assembling it. Wasn't too bad. I think the prospect of assembling flat-packed furniture is a lot more daunting then the reality. (like a lot of things i suppose).



So with a bit of 'help' from Chelsea, we managed to get it together. And I think it looks fantastic!

Lunch Ladies

I had a delicious lunch of fresh 12-grain bread and bright pink beetroot tzatziki today. My lovely lady Chelsea enjoyed her chicken/bean/vegy mix.

She enjoyed it A LOT!

Beautiful Sleeper

Well not much to report today in terms of bear making. Didn't deliberately do nothing. Would have spent the whole day making bears if i could have. But life continues around me despite my best efforts to slow it down!

Two hours stuck in the car on the gateway this morning probably didn't help my daily time check. At one point all of the cars had been stopped so long people were actually getting out and walking around on the road. It was like something out of a movie! The accident that was the cause of the delay looked pretty bad too. It shocked me into quiet reflection for the rest of the trip. One minute you're busily rushing off to somewhere desperately important. The next minute you're not going to make it to where you are going. Not today. Maybe not any day from now on.

Definitely time to slow down and enjoy every precious moment of life. That is why i thought it was timely to share this picture. I love watching Chelsea sleep. It was so easy when she was a tiny baby as she didn't know i was there. Now she is so alert and aware that if i make too much noise she wakes up and sees me and the magic is over. This was a lucky, rare moment. My beautiful sleeper.

Bella

Chelsea and i took a drive over to 'the other side' of town today to visit my mum (her Nonna). We spent the day hanging out, and chatting and eating! All the best things in life. While Chelsea had a HUGE midday sleep, i sat out on the deck in the warm autumn sunshine with their dog Bella.

Bella is impossible to get photos of because you can't see where her eyes are! And she never stays still. I managed to trick her into this pose by saying 'walkies!'. Seems to be a word most english-speaking doggies understand!

Three things i discovered today:
* The black and white cat that lives down the road has eyes that glow green when my car headlight shines on them
* The local population of rainbow lorikeets decided to have a dusk gathering in the trees that spanned the main road as i drove home.
* I have developed quite a good resistance to Chelsea's cries of protest while i drive!

Lots and lots of homemade baby food

So today was a little more productive. I've given up on the clothing explosion in Chelsea's room for the time being. Until i can find something satisfactory to store them all in they will just have to live on the floor. And i even managed to draw up three bears this morning as well. (a little blue and yellow synthetic one, a rich brown 9" that i'm going to try sculpting eye lids for, and a BIG black and brown one with a shaggy body).

The rest of the afternoon was spent cooking Miss Chelsea some more dinners. This batch is:
chicken
pumpkin
potato
onion
zucchini
carrot
green apple
red kidney beans
pasta

It was a bit of an odd combo - but actually tastes quite good as far as baby food goes!

Anyone else worried about the medieval plague!?

When i was pregnant with the lovely miss Chelsea Claire, my dad gave me two books he had just finished reading that he raved about. One of my brothers had also read them and said they were the best books he'd ever read in his life (big call coming from a 20 yr old!). So i took home the two house-bricks disguised as books and planned to read them 'when i got a chance'...

Chelsea was born and life got a little crazy, and still i hadn't even opened the front cover. It wasn't until she was about 2-3months old, that i found some time every afternoon to sit outside with her while she watched the leaves moving on the trees with the fascination of someone new to this world, that i got a chance to start reading. And that was the beginning of an obsession!

I LOVE the books! The first is called 'Pillars of the Earth', the second (and the one i'm almost finished now) is called 'World Without End' - both by Ken Follett.

The books are set in medieval europe and centre around some pretty amazing characters, along with the building of a cathedral. Beautifully written, and with such complexity and realism that you can't help but be pulled into the world of lords and peasants, monasteries and priests - and at the moment the black plague has hit, and hit hard!

So as i read about all my lovely book-friends dying from this disastrous disease i must say the parallels to all the modern zombie/end-of-world movies spring to mind, and i am just a little freaked out! One of my friends, who conveniently happens to be a nurse, has reassured me that we can now treat the black plague... but still... I bet government aren't covering 'outbreak of plague' in their disaster strategies!

Chelsea's clothing explosion!

Decided to work on the chaos that is Chelsea's room. I discovered a heap of clothing that i bought for her last year - that will now fit her. Along with a tonne of hand-me-down clothing from my mum. And the result was a pile of pink and purple goodness all over the floor in her small room while i tried to figure out how to store it all.

So far the solution was to buy 56 child-safe clothes hangers and hang as many of the pieces as i can. This has not been sufficient (still very little carpet can be seen in her room), so it looks like we may need to find a more standard solution - a set of drawers perhaps!?

So no bear making so far today which is a bit frustrating.