Sorry!

Sorry friends!

In my last post I missed out some of the details for the giveaway, go back and read it again - all can enter and don't need to share it :) I've edited it now.

Thaaaanks! x

What A Privilege!

On Saturday we went as a family to vote for our new government. 

I've voted before, but I'm fairly new to this politics game. I think for the first time I began to understand what MMP is and its implications. In school they just teach you that it means lots of people are in the government. Not very helpful. 

Anyway, parties aside, I consider it a huge privilege to live in a country where our votes count. Especially in Christchurch central where there is a dead heat. One of my votes made a difference. 

I hope to teach Camilla to be informed about our country and our freedom to vote and be heard. She will be attending all the votes and will grow up listening to Mum and Dad talking policies and hearing us pray for our government until she can do so herself.

Smells a bit like freedom doesn't it?

Creative Driftwood

When I came back from this holiday I stopped off at this beach and found THE most PERFECT driftwood I have ever seen in my liiiiife.

Its small, perfectly smooth and shaped and best of all it goes for miles along the beach. 

I brought some home, along with a few perfect stones. I bought some brooch backs from spotlight and turned them all into brooches. Some I wrapped in embroidery floss, others I painted and the rest I left al-natural.

The moral of this story is now I have too many stick brooches.

This is my attempt at a garden. Apartment life huh? Over crowding much?

Oh! E! And this is my first time linking up with Creative Spaces. Head there for more crafty happenings!

Dear Baby, 12 Week Update

Our little Babe is 12 weeks old! She is a healthy, strong, smiley wee girl with a soft spoken voice and the most beautiful blue eyes I have ever seen.

The jury is still out on who she looks like. Really, I'm not too worried, It's quite obvious she came from both of us. In my opinion I think she has my nose and eye colour and I think she has Graeme's eyebrows and mouth and she has Poppa Mutu's forehead :)

She loves seeing Graeme come home from work and instantly lights up and starts 'talking' at the sight of him.

She pokes her tongue out when you prompt her to, and if she is left alone on her tummy or on her back on the floor she can spin around in a full circle. She has almost rolled over a bunch of times too. I'm keeping my camera on record and very close to me!

She's almost growing out of her basinet so we're going to need to look at purchasing a cot soon, and this week I'll be rearranging everything so we're not using the change table. I think she's too big and too mobile for it now.

She likes tummy time and she mostly enjoys getting changed - she often smiles and babbles all the way through it.

We give her a dummy after most feeds because she's very spilly and can sometimes get quite upset when she's burping. A dummy relieves her straight away. Although, she has found her fingers so when her dummy falls out during the night she just starts sucking her 2 middle fingers. Graeme and I say she's rockin' and rollin'.

She now rubs her eyes when she's tired and I have realised she has quite a unique cry when it's bed time.

I don't know many children's songs so I end up reciting songs I do know. Mostly Michael Jackson and Queen. We also regularly play Christmas songs. I think she's a fan already!

It really amazes me how naturally life comes for little babies. You dont have to teach them how to smile or to grab things - they just start doing it. They are such sweet innocent little people.

Dearest Little Camilla,

You are 12 weeks old and you are already growing into such a sweet little lady. You have the sweetest smile that takes over your whole face. I was told by 3 different people yesterday that they couldn't stop looking at you during church because you kept on smiling and capturing their attention!

Right now you are so softly spoken, you make sweet little gahs or maa's. We like to turn your babble into sentences and figure out what you're trying to say. Your dad likes to offer you things to stop you being upset. "Hot dog?" he asks. It hasn't worked yet, you can't be bribed because we are your greatest joy. You love to be held, talked to, looked at. You are a little attention bug! When I'm holding you and talking or looking at someone else you make little noises at me to get my attention and when I look down you just smile up at me! 

These last 3 months have gone far too quickly. In another 3 you'll be eating solids and in your own cot. I wouldn't be surprised if you are crawling! I'm so proud of you for being so strong and healthy.

You make being a Mum so much fun, thank you! Long may it last!

Love, Mama xxx

Poo and Smoke

Last night before the blog party we had to quickly take Camilla to the doctor. She hadn't had a bowel movement in 17 days. I know. This made me realise how conflicting advice is. Most people weren't concerned "anywhere up to 10 days is normal". Ten days passed "She'll definitely be going today". She didn't. "Give her diluted prune juice" "Give her dissolved brown sugar" "Don't give her anything but breastmilk"

We went to see our doctor who disagreed with everything above, and said anything over 4 days would be a concern and would have a reason for it. Most probably a teeny tiny little crack that makes them hold on. Which is what she had.

Most importantly though, she didn't seem to mind. She wasn't upset so there wasn't a huge cause for concern. If anything, she's been a great little baby these last few weeks. The Doc loaded us up with different things to try over the weekend, and after our first attempt before going out last we had a huge success. 18 days worth of success. I ended up having a shower with Camilla early this morning to rinse her off. It stunk, but boy was it a breath of fresh air. Relief!

Overshare?

On a completely unrelated note, I notice the sky turn orange earlier, I looked up and it was filled with smoke! An old house opposite the Marae on Ferry Road was burning down.

Edit: Photo added:

It was a beautiful [condemned] 2 story historic home with a huge porch. I often admired it, wishing I could restore it.

thanks Graeme for the iphone photo :)

Bloggy Party!

I met up with 10 Christchurch bloggers last night at Miriams house for a Secret Santa party! Let me tell you, I was crazy nervous, but even more excited! I have been following all these ladies for months and months, its nice to finally meet them and put a face and voice to their text on screen! Funny how you create your own expectations of people, many of them blew those out of the water (in a great way!).

The evening was filled with delicious baking, fun crafted presents and lots of laughter!

Again, I really honestly couldn't believe how lovely everyone was. I guess I wouldn't bother reading their blogs if they weren't lovely.

We were supposed to trade a handmade / baked / opshopped gift and I mega failed on this. I was supposed to make for Max and I had all these plans and dreams which I left until the last minute, then I had to take Camilla to the doctors and that stuffed up all my plans so I had to do a quick dash to the supermarket on my way to the party, excuses excuses. Either way, the gift I gave was crap compared to what I received. Guilt much!?

Miriam was my Secret Santa and she gave me a great book on eating for kids, a goodnight story book for Camilla, pretty pretty story pages about birdies loving their Mamas that I'm going to put on the wall in Millas bedroom, a personalised singlet and for me, pretty pretty crane earrings that I had previously admired elsewhere in the blogland!

Big thankyous to Juliet for organising everything and for the party photos!!

Juliet. Miriam. Max. Holly. Hannah. Kirsty. Nin. Deb

Learning Peace

Learning Peace

art sourced here

I've struggled with this one. I really want to be a person of peace. I want to be calm, relaxed, and at peace with others, the world and myself. I want to internally know and believe everything will be okay, and for the most part, I do have those feelings and thoughts on the inside. I think I am a generally peaceful person. Some times I stress, I worry, I get upset, I take things the wrong way, but I would like to think that most of the time I am at peace.

I love that if you are a peaceful person you can sow peace into other peoples lives. As a peacemaker you can be a beacon of peace and stability, speaking wisdom and control when everything else seems disordered and unruly.

James 3:18 Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness

I love that in the bible Jesus says that he leaves us with peace and he gives us peace. He encourages us to not let our hearts be troubled and to not be afraid (John 14:27).  

Some people are so troubled and afraid. Peace is a gift. Like all good gifts, we can choose to accept it. Like all good gifts, we can choose to use it. 

As I grow older I want to use peace more and more. I have the ability to be a peacemaker and to exercise that gift amongst my family, friends and community. Some people just like to stir up trouble, some people are stubborn and like to provoke. I would much rather be an intentional peacemaker. 

Wouldn't you?

Celebrating My Birthday

It was my birthday on Sunday. I love having my birthday at this time of year because here in Canterbury its "Show Weekend" which is a 3 day weekend for us. This means I always get to do something awesome on the weekend for my birthday. This year we were in Akaroa celebrating my mother in laws birthday with the family. 

I'm a little bit weird about birthdays. I dont like to make a big deal out of my own, but I love celebrating other peoples. I think birthdays should be the best day of the year, and they never are, so I am often disappointed. I've learnt not to get my hopes up so now I down play them. This year I turned 23, and the biggest gift was my baby daughter - I always wanted her by the time I was 23, and it happened! :) I dont expect presents, but I secretly hope for them. Graemes parents made us breakfast in bed and after I brushed my teeth I discovered a trail of candy hearts in the apartment. I followed them...

And they lead me to my beautiful daughter holding my gift from Graeme! Cute!!

It was a pretty normal day, except for the fact that people kept wishing me happy birthday. We travelled back to Christchurch in the afternoon and went to our night service at church. Afterwards I did the groceries and we went to our pastors house and ate indian.  Just a usual sunday. At 7am the next morning I realised no one sung me happy birthday* so Graeme did with his croaky morning voice :)

Another day, another year older.

But really, thank you for your birthday wishes, I dont mean to seem ungrateful.

You can read about my nerves in my approaching birthday last year here
You can read about how I had the best birthday ever last year here (no need for the nerves!)
And lastly, you can read about what I did on my birthday day here 

*My Mother would like you to know that she half sung me the song on the phone

Akaroa on Show Weekend

This long weekend in Canterbury we took a trip to Akaroa with my inlaws. Akaroa is a sweet little town nestled in Banks Penninsula. The first people to buy the land off the native tribes were the French so all the signs are in French and the whole area has heaps of history around it. The whole area is really beautiful - New Zealand in a snap shot.

I share the same birthday week with Graeme's Mum so we took advantage of their weekend away and spent some time with the family celebrating! 

We had family dinners and lunches, watched a movie on a rainy Saturday afternoon, visited a market, did some walking and went to a beach on our way home. We stayed up late and played cards and a hilarious game of charades. Probably the best game of charades I've ever played. The night ended with me going to bed first while I could hear Michael Jackson playing downstairs amongst lots of laughter. Perfect.

 I woke up in the morning to my birthday! Graeme started to teach Camilla to skateboard (gotta start em young) and in the afternoon we made our way home.

Even though Akaroa is crazy touristy now and much of its original French charm has been exploited by the tourism industry I still appreciate the area for its history. You might remember, we went their a few weeks ago and visited the families Marae. While I was there I did a little reading and learnt how the French did some deals with the local Maori tribes to buy some land - they went back to France to get their settlers and 2 months later the English came in and officially colonised New Zealand. The unknowing french returned on their ship and discovered they had no where else to go, so they stayed in Akaroa. I find stuff like that really interesting. I love history and I love learning.

Thanks Phillip for the photos! :)

Milla Moo

I had a little photo shoot today with our sweet little MiniMoo! We bought her a cow suit earlier this year for her to fit at 6 months but I couldn't wait!

Eheeeheee :)

Comb Revelio

Specialis Revelio!

I made a few of these cute hair combs today! I saw them here and had a go! Such a sweet touch to an other wise boring and practical accessory.

I have super thick hair and I love me a hair comb. Helps keep everything in place and now it looks styley too!

I'll be adding a few of these to the Stitch Africa sale I'm doing in December. If you're visiting here from Stitch Africa and want to get your hands on some now just email me on sophie@moo2.co.nz. I'll just be flicking them off for a couple of dollars to cover the costs of the combs :)

Fun!