101 things in 1001 days! #2

My old list is done and dusted as of September (hush yes, I forgot to write about it then - I was kind of busy!), and with the new year on its way so soon!!! I thought I'd write another one. I have a better idea of what I can accomplish too.

My new list incorporates some of the old list, you will see, but with a lot of new things too!


The Mission:
Complete 101 preset tasks in a period of 1001 days.

The Criteria:
Tasks must be specific (ie. no ambiguity in the wording) with a result that is either measurable or clearly defined. Tasks must also be realistic and stretching (ie. represent some amount of work on my part).

Why 1001 Days?
Many people have created lists in the past – frequently simple goals such as New Year’s resolutions. The key to beating procrastination is to set a deadline that is realistic. 1001 Days (about 2.75 years) is a better period of time than a year, because it allows you several seasons to complete the tasks, which is better for organising and timing some tasks such as overseas trips or outdoor activities.

1. Write down all my baggage and burn it 
2. Put my camera gear into my hard case
3. Fly a kite
4. Put up a compliments notice board in a public place
5. Throw TheDoctor a party to celebrate his PhD-dom
6. Put together our wedding video and show it to people
7. Enter something into the Royal Adelaide Show
8. Host a high tea for homebirth
9. Go to a pagan meeting
10. Go to a cricket match
11. Do three things to make our home more green
12. Do a kind deed for a stranger, with no expectation of it being reciprocated
13. Have a sleepover
14. Do a weekend away
15. Take a photo a day for a month
16. Answer 50 questions that will free your mind
17. Get a pedicure
18. Tattoo my scar on my left shoulder
19. Find a personally inspirational quote and work it into a piece of art
20. Buy a piece of art and hang it
21. Make cushions for my couch
22. Take a photography class
23. Make a list of 25 things I'm truly grateful for
24. Organise a craft retreat
25. Write a will
26. Become a marriage celebrant
27. Get my ears pierced some more (3 more times)
28. Go overseas
29. Go bushwalking/hiking
30. Sort out superannuation and consolidate
31. Write to 5 people by hand
32. Plan a surprise birthday party
33. Take a weekend away with my sweetie
34. Try a new cuisine
35. Get engagement/wedding tattoo
36. Take a photography course
37. Learn tai chi
38. Go camping for a weekend
39. Go on a winery tour of the Maclaren Vale
40. Paint 2 inspirational canvases
41. Decorate the bedroom wall
42. Visit someone interstate by surprise
43. Do a burlesque class
44. Buy 5 pieces of lingerie
45. Catch a train across the country
46. Go somewhere tropical
47. Celebrate 4 pagan festivals
48. Go on a girly road trip
49. Do a pottery class
50. Go fruit picking in autumn
51. Attend a wine vintage festival
52. Take 6 'us' photos and frame them
53. Host a photo scavenger hunt
54. Make a list of 100 things that make me Happy
55. Write out 10 family recipes in a cook book and share them with siblings
56. Send someone flowers
57. See someone amazing in concert
58. Go away for a trip by myself
59. Attend a book signing
60. Make a herb garden
61. Plant our placenta
62. Sand and refinish a coffee table
63. Sell a photo through RedBubble
64. Photograph a day in my life
65. Finish the time capsule for Sally
66. Build a henge over a year
67. Ride in a hot air balloon
68. Bake a rainbow cake
69. Do a yoga class
70. Give contact lenses another go
71. Write a letter to myself in 1001 days
72. Make an iTunes playlist of 101 of my favourite songs
73. Make a list of sites I'm a member of, and passwords there
74. Make a house journal
75. Set up an altar and seasonal table
76. Get my passport
77. See a musical
78. Knit a scarf for winter
79. Send hand written cards for birthdays to 5 people
80. Buy a red 4 slice toaster
81. Find a Friday fill in to do
82. Learn about EFT
83. Buy an overlocker
84. Set up a sewing corner
85. Learn to juggle
86. Buy a flute
87. Take some lessons in playing said flute
88. Buy a really good pair of jeans
89. Try indoor rock climbing
90. Drink a cocktail on a beach
91. Go star gazing
92. Do the City to Bay
93. Find wooden dinner plates and buy them
94. Buy a couch to suit the room!!
95. Make wrapping paper with Sally
96. Use a "shelf elf" for Solstice
97. Go a week without swearing
98. Play bingo in a bingo hall
99. Build a teepee
100. Build a bonfire and toast marshmallows
101. Write another 101 list

In which my blog morphs into a house reno type blog...

No not really but dear blog, I do have a lot to share with you!

I've had a serious attack of Life (TM) recently so my blog has just fallen down the list of priorities. I has gotten me to thinking though that blogging about deeply personal stuff, like working my way through the steep learning curve that is putting an offer in on a house, is something I'm better at doing in hindsight. Plus I was so caught up in the doing that I couldn't also take time to do the blogging about it, ya know?

I have been so caught up in the last few weeks with Life (TM) that I've also not been looking after myself very well. Sigh. It seems that I fall off my "to do" list so much more quickly than other things, and when I'm limited with my number of spoons* I just don't have time for me. Silly Emma though because that then reduces the number of spoons* I have and so on and so on.

So as well as blogging, I plan on doing:

1. a massage
2. a haircut and colour 
3. fitting the gym back into my weekly schedule, twice a week
4. finish TheChilderbeast's quilt
5. catching up with friends
6. planning my future better
7. cooking and baking
8. spending time with my lovely TheHusband and TheChilderbeast
9. doing my tax
10. and - buying a house

No I didn't forget about the title of the blog. But for now, short and sweet is the name of this game!

10 things that I can't plan my way out of just yet.

You all know just how much I detest not being able to plan? That "hurry up and wait" is the MOST irritating and distressing situation for me to be in? Well here are 10 things that I absolutely CANNOT plan for, around, up to or through, but will define 2011 for me:

1. Resolution of my motor vehicle accident?
2. Which will start with a phonecall tomorrow to my lawyer,
3. And another appointment with him and my other lawyer,
4. And then a court case in late February.
   
   This was care of a surprise letter last week detailing my court date. I was expecting it to all drag on into 2012 and instead it might be all summed up and dealt with by the end of February. Cue a whole lot of tears, a lot of stress and anxiety, and lots of "what if"s. 
   
5. Placement for school - details up on 18th of January
6. Freakout in the meantime because I went ahead and booked attendance at some truly awesome workshops and a conference but if school is horrible and insists that I am on placement that week, I'm lots of $$ out of pocket and really upset .
7. Choosing of placements in early February
8. Don't know when I actually find out about them
9. Sally to a maxilofacial surgeon on 24th of January
   
   Ah I haven't told you about those dramas and her suspecte posterior tongue tie. I'll post later.
   
10. I have to start thinking about next year and applying for jobs, sometime soon (surprisingly soon in fact)

So I asked a friend to cast a rune for me and this is what she said:

I drew the blank rune for you~The Unknowable~The God Odin.

Blank is the end, blank is the beginning. This is the rune of total trust and should be taken as exciting evidence of your most immediate contact with your own true destiny which, time and time again, rises like the phoenix from the ashes of what we call fate.

The blank rune can portend a death. But that death is usually symbolic, and may relate to any part of your life you are living now. Relinquishing control is the ultimate challenge for the spiritual warrior.

Here the unknowable informs you that it is in motion in your life. In that blankness is held undiluted potential. At the same time both pregnant and empty, it comprehends the totality of being, all that is to be actualized. And if, indeed, there are matters hidden by the gods, you need only remember: what beckons the creative power of the unknown.

Drawing the blank rune may bring to the surface your deepest fears. Will I fail? Will I be abandoned? Will it all be taken away? And yet your highest good, your truest possibilities and all your fertile dreams are held within that blankness.

Willingness and permitting are what this rune requires, for how can you exercise control over what is not yet in form?

The blank rune often calls for no less an act of courage than the empty handed leap into the void. Drawing it is a direct test of faith.

The blank rune represents the path of Karma, the sum total of your actions and of their consequences. At the same time, this rune teaches that the very debts of old karma shift and evolve as you shift and evolve. Nothing is predestined: the obstacles on your path can become gateways that lead to new beginnings.

Take heart: know that the work of self change is progressing in your life.

So I consulted my horoscope for the year:

While no sign benefits more from the unsettling yet exciting changes trigger by the encounter between Jupiter and Uranus in Pisces on January 4, you won't necessarily recognise their potential. In fact, because this is the case with most developments, especially during the year's first half, you're urged to explore everything, even what seems unrealistic. Not only will circumstances be shifting, an often, with your ruler Neptune in Pisces from early April until August, you'll be conducting an extensive personal review.

Consequently, what you regarded as ideal as the year began could be very different by its close. Knowing that, ignore those who insist on a detailed plan. Instead, combine a review of long-cherished dreams with serious reflection on what, and who, make you glad to be alive, an allow those to shape your activities. Ther could be no better approach to 2011.

And then decided to have a drink.

10 things I plan to do in the next little while

Ooooooh a 3 year plan. Exciting, isn't it? Well, further to my 101 things to do in 1001 days, which I'm halfway through or thereabouts on the calendar but only 1/3rd of the way through!!, I'm feeling the need to revisit, reconsider and rewrite. Yes I will admit that there are things on that list that I don't want to do anymore (blue high heels? What was I thinking??), and things that I want to add and focus on. So I'll update my list, and am going to write another one eventually because that's #101 on my list.

But in the meantime, here are 10 other things I want to achieve before the end of 2012.

1. Complete my Bachelor of Midwifery
2. Study to be a breastfeeding counsellor with the Australian Breastfeeding Association
3. Become an accredited child birth educator
4. And maybe do a breastfeeding course too
5. Learn how to use my Nikon D40
6. Learn how to edit my photos
7. Run a course in babywearing (that's something percolating at the moment)
8. Master my breadmachine
9. Work out Who Am I
10. Enjoy Summer :)

While I'm eating lunch...

Via Pink of Perfection:

Do this quickly, without too much thought.

1. Write ten things you love.
2. Write five things you would do if you knew you wouldn’t fail.
3. Write five alternative lives you would like to live other than your own.
4. Write four tiny things you can do in the life you have to bring you closer to those imagined lives.

Now, imagine an older, wiser version of yourself who has some advice to share.

1. What do you need to know?
2. What do you need to embrace?
3. What do you need to do?
4. What do you need to grieve?
5. What do you need to celebrate?

----------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Write ten things you love.

• The smell of food cooking in my kitchen
• Tutus on little people
• The colours of the rainbow
• Making a friend smile
• Baby cuddles
• Neatly manicured toes
• Warm hands
• Hats with ears
• A good coffee and/or glass of wine
• Wind chimes

2. Write five things you would do if you knew you wouldn’t fail.

• Skydive
• Run for prime minister
• Perm my hair
• Open a craft/yarn store
• Ride and camp my way across the state

3. Write five alternative lives you would like to live other than your own.

• French cheesemaker
• Anyone French actually
• Canadian midwife
• New Zealand knitwear designer
• Online writer

4. Write four tiny things you can do in the life you have to bring you closer to those imagined lives.

• Learn French
• Learn to make cheese
• Visit France, Canada and New Zealand
• Write more

Now, imagine an older, wiser version of yourself who has some advice to share.

1. What do you need to know? The things in life that happen, happen just as equally to you. Yes the bad stuff happens but so does the ordinary, and the normal. You are not a special little snowflake for the most part and you're not that different.
2. What do you need to embrace? Your normalacy and mainstreamness.
3. What do you need to do? Be open to love from all quarters.
4. What do you need to grieve? Your childhood
5. What do you need to celebrate? The life that you have made for yourself! You havebeen in control almost half of it now and you are doing a great job of it!

10 things I'm waiting for in the post...

I am actually waiting on a LOT of things in the post at the moment which is great! But I am impatient!!

1. New glasses!!!! They cost me postage as I "won" a free pair. Can't wait to see how they go.
2. Threadless tshirts x3 (2 for me, 1 for TheHusband)
3. Notice from my lawyers about my claim (as it is coming up to 3 years since my accident)
4. Several boxes from VistaPrint (purchased before the Icelandic volcano exploded and delayed the already-slow postage I chose)
   
5. Nappies
   
6. x2 lots actually
7. Stallholder pass for Mums and Bubs market 13 June 2010
8. Felt embellishments
9. Stitch markers
10. Buttons

It's funny though because I didn't pay for much of this. The glasses were free ($14ish postage), the Threadless tshirts were from money I earned from selling yarn, the VP stuff also from yarn sales, the nappies are modern cloth nappies that are saving us a bucketload each week, and the last 3 were swaps with others to get my crap gone (it's called a karma swap - I take something from someone and offer something of mine up instead). #7 I hope will be $$ coming in!!

What about you? What are you waiting for in the post?

Project list!

So for at least the next 4 months we are living quite close to the bone money-wise, which means that I in particular need to watch my pennies. But entertainment is rarely free, so I am having to look for ways to amuse myself around baby wrangling.

On Ravelry, I signed up for the "shop the stash" thread, so that I am committing not so much to not buying yarn (zomg! don't tell me I can't do something!!!) but that I'm going to use what I have to hand. Which is hard when I really want to knit a Rose Red beret in a bright green but instead I am knitting it in a purpley-pink because I don't have any green.

A good thing that I love dyeing yarn, and have some amazing stuff to use up still. This one in a wool/alpaca blend and is a smooshy but loosely plied yarn which will be awesome in the cable and lace pattern planned.

In an effort to be more frugal and to get some $$ on the inwards side of our ledger, I am also going to list the craft that I have things in the cupboard with which to do and haven't had the time. I have some more of that time now, so I plan on using it.

Projects on the plan:

• Central Park Hoodie - yes, I'm amazingly far behind the 8-ball in getting excited about this. Kate at Craftastrophies gifted me some amazingly smooshie possum-merino The Knittery (sadly now defunct) yarn last year as a wedding gift and it's now going to be turned into an awesome cardigan. I actually wound a ball this morning, discovering in the process that each of the 3 smooshy skeins that I have is actually 3 skeins, so there is a lot of ball winding in my future. Will swatch today I think.
• Rose Red beret as above.
• Duck Soup to finish. Seriously - it's got 1 and a bit sleeves to do. It's a baby garment so that is NOT a lot of knitting. I should just finish it.
  
• Moderne Baby Blanket from Mason Dixon Knitting.
• At least 2 baby hats.
• Plus a heap of other hats that I've traded things with other lovely mamas.
  
• Quilts/play mats - 8 I think. I have tie-dyed some of the fabric and just need to get sewing. Next week. And photos of the fabric as well cause it is AWESOME.
• Framing of various things.
• Cards to make.
• Beading to do.
• Books to read.
• Postcards (awaiting delivery) to send!
• Sell my tshirt collection cause now that I have awesome cleavage care of breastfeeding, my tshirts don't fit. Some of them are AWESOME and it's hard to part with them*.
  

So it's not like I don't have things to do. But perhaps frugality comes with a dose of stepping away from the shopping and into what is to hand. This is not even touching on the cooking that I could do, the libraries to go to, the people to visit with and letters to write.

* Kate and I had a big chat about this on the weekend when we went for a long drive to see a rather underwhelming alpaca show. It's a catch-22 situation to have a lot of (things - let's say tshirts). I open my drawer and think "Wow I have a lot of tshirts I will wear this one!" and I put it on, and it's too small. Or smells odd. Or has a stain. Or the arms don't sit right. So I either wear it and fidget with it all day, or I take it off and put it back in the drawer. Because I have a lot of tshirts and it's a Good Shirt so I don't want to reject it out of hand. But if I actually tried them all on, my huge pile of shirts turns (turned actually) into a set of maybe 6 that fit and are in good condition. Which gets me thinking about why I keep the ones that don't and aren't. Some of them I adore because they're cute and funky and retro, just like me. Others I keep because I feel that I should own a black one, or a white one. But there is no point in having clutter, which is what defunct tshirts and sweaters and shoes and so on are.

10 things I wish I had known 8 weeks ago

Sally is nearly 8 weeks old! She weighs slightly more than 4kg now which is pretty awesome - firmly on the 15th percentile and cute as a button.

Here are 10 things that I wish I'd known 8 weeks ago though. Or even 12 weeks ago when I was still working. Consider it my assvice to first time mamas:

1. Keep working if you need to, and muster a "fuck off" face for anyone who exclaims at you still working. You won't be working still (at 32 weeks, or 38 weeks, or up til the day you go into labour) if you didn't financially need to and sadly money does influence how much women work during pregnancy.If you've made a decision, own it.
2. If you don't need to, then stop as soon as you can. I regret continuing on to 36 and a half weeks to be honest, because the last 2 I was so miserable and sore and wanting to just focus on my bellybabe that I suffered each freaking hour. I also birthed at 39 weeks so didn't get the time I thought I would. But see point #1 cause that was the boat I was in.
3. Cut back on everything else. Send your partner or your apologies to things without you. Become a hermit in any way that you can, if you can't disengage from work and study and other commitments.
4. It's a good learning phase for what it's like to have a newborn to be honest, and now is the time to practice it and make peace with the guilt or upset you'll feel at not participating. But the mental benefits of it are huge and it's easier to learn it that way, instead of when you do something, exhaust yourself, get upset (lack of sleep is the BIGGEST dictator of how I cope at the moment) and then take 2 days to get over it.
5. NOTHING is going to prepare you for having a babe. NOTHING. It is so mindblowing and all-consuming and just insane, in a terribly soft and lovely way as bluemilk has said. Sure the practicalities of it are learnable, the what to dress them in and how to respond to cues and how to tie a wrap. But the head stuff? Nup. NOTHING is going to get you through, around or prepared for that. But you can prepare yourself for *that* element of it.
   
6. Know that you are going to have no idea of how you're going to feel and that you'll need people to call and cry to (midwife, friends, other mothers) because I think a lot of mothers will know what you mean and can tell you that it's normal.
7. Be physically prepared. Have meals in your freezer, in small serves. Have extra baskets around the house with water bottle, nappies, nipple cream, tissues, book, lipbalm etc. Get lots of pads ready. Put dark sheets on your bed. Wash everything. Get some singlets and trackpants and socks and undies and slippers ready. Get a haircut and lots of convenience things that you might not normally get (face wipes, favourite toothpaste, nice soap).
8. Do some work on your relationship beforehand and get some idea of each other's expectations.
   
9. Get your partner to read Birth Partner.
   
10. And step away from the computer!! Step away from research and planning and trying to be prepared for this. Embrace that you can't plan or write lists or pack anything that will prepare for all of this. And be ok with this.
    

Know that first time mother hood is coming and it is something that you cannot plan for, and cannot touch and cannot fathom as yet. And you will be so amazed at how much Love you have yet to hold in yourself. You have so much strength and care and warmth and inate knowledge that you will be fine for the future. Really you will be. You're going to doubt that and revel in it and thoroughly love your babe and that can't be found on google or a forum or in a book.

You just need to get through the last few weeks leaning on the inner mama lion that you have. That's also what she's there for - not just to roar when your babe is here.

Lastly - the shit that I have with my relationship with my mother didn't come out during labour. I didn't stop labouring because of any issues I have. But I did get to a point where I acknowledged that I was terrified of being a mother because of what my mother was/is like. It's at the end of my birth story (yeah must post that), a few minutes before I birthed, where I went through a moment of doubt right before I did it and it caught me by surprise. I guess that really did mean I was 99% ok and processed.

Go for a walk, swim, massage, cup of tea and paper, whatever it is that you need to recharge your batteries. And take every day one at a time. Also good practice for labour and each contraction.

1 month round up!

Yup it's been a whole month since Sally joined and completely upended our world!

We have something of a routine. We get up about 7am, not willingly on my behalf, and TheHusband changes her while I wake up. Then we feed, both sides so a FULL breakfast, while I eat toast and tea made by TheHusband as he gets ready for work. We take him to work if it's miserable or cold, as he otherwise rides, and check the mail. Come home, Sally has a bath in the laundry trough if required, fresh clothes are applied, more boob and then into the sling for a sleep by 9am. I put washing on, tidy up the house, make the bed - which is WAY more domestic than I usually am! - and generally hang out.

Sally wakes up about midday. We feed again, change nappy, and then she hangs out on a mat while I shower and dress. More feeding, then settle by 1pm ish for another sleep. Awake at 3pm ish, more boob and changing, then a play until about 5pm. Then more boob, and sleep til 7pm. Wake up, boob, play and change nappy and we settle into bed by 9pm ish. Feed to sleep and wake up about 1am. Feed and resettle til 4am ish. Sleepy feeding and back to sleep til 7am.

Cosleeping is the best thing, especially when it was 7C last night and I didn't have to get out of bed to feed! It is so nice to have a bubba just cuddled up to me and safe, and so easy for her to feed, which keeps me awake, and then fall asleep there and me too.

I have a long list of things to do this month:

* Finish sorting Sally's clothes
* Dye the baby clothes I don't love - black, green/blue
* Buy quinoa, virgin coconut oil, steel cut oats - from Goodies and Grains
* Make biscuits
* Cut nails
* Target voucher $50
* New jeans
* Tattoo design - engagement/marriage, and Sally
* Organise wall decoration
* File last 2 boxes in sally's room
* Sort out pay
* Do a freezer audit
* Osk's birthday present
* Book car in for service
* Sort out mobile phone
* Sell maternity clothes
* Sort out life insurance
* Replace Osk's ring (damaged at work)
* Pick up portfolio from uni
* Find Studio Oat print and hang
* ING pin

Right now, time for some tea and baking I think!

10 things no one told me about labour

This one is just about labour - not birth per se. But here we go!

1. It does get harder but by the time you need to focus on it being hard, you're there in the zone of labour and as long as no one points it out to you, it doesn't get Too Hard. You hardly notice that it is getting harder.
2. It doesn't just get harder. It changes. The hard bits pass. So if this moment is hard, doesn't mean the next one will be.
   
3. So it really helps to take 1 contraction at a time. And one breath at a time for that matter. Because you don't know what the next one will be like.
4. Being curious about the next one keeps you sane.
5. You may hit the point of saying "I can't do this any more". What you probably mean is that you don't want to do it any more. Which is a valid point! But you will keep going.
   
6. You will be amazed at what you can do in hindsight but at the time you won't believe that you're doing it. Go for hours without sleep. Make a lot of noise. Stand up for 12+ hours.
7. You will spend most of labour with your eyes closed so make what you can see when you open your eyes worth it. Inspirational words and poems, pictures, a candles, charms etc.
8. AND make your support people count. Only have people around who inspire love in you when you look at them.
9. You'll be down to monosyllabic conversations by the end of it, so make them count. "Water", "ice", "hot", "cold" etc etc. Your support people should know how to interpret these things and respond to you.
   
10. Your brain slows down so small conversations will take a few contractions. If that conversation is with yourself, you can take hours to make a decision. Which is great!
    

In preparation for birthing

Here is a list of things that have been suggested to be assembled and easily found for birthing day:

- plastic drop sheets
- icecream tubs
- lip balm
- massage lotion
- bendy straws and plastic cups
- heat packs
- cord ties
- newborn clothes
- newborn nappies
- baby blanket
- birth certificate to fill in (made myself at home!)
- birthday cake recipe
- "0" candle
- tea lights and matches
- essential oils (I've chosen kunzea, lavender and rose)
- witch hazel to put on pads to put in freezer
- squeezy bottle for peeing afterwards
- electrolyte powder (cause I struggle with low blood sugar and pressure, and with vomitting at the best of times and this won't be!)
- fit ball (need to blow this up a bit more!)
- old towels next to bed in case of membranes rupturing
- colander and bowl for placenta
- garbage bags
- placental remedy bottle (need to decorate!)
- placental slice receiver for the freezer (ie a freezer-safe container!)
- epsom salts
- rescue remedies
- music (thanks for the suggestions! We do have a playlist but I forgot to put it on here)

Also plan on stocking up in early labour with juice, mint leaves (lollies - no point in trying to have them now because I loves them!), and charging the camera up.

Any other suggestions?

Name sweet spot

There is a sweet spot in naming a baby - somewhere between the very common (Emma, Kate, Sarah, Melissa for eg) and the uber uncommon (Deja, Psyche etc). It is freaking hard to find though.

This post was written on 03/03 and is planned for posting in early April. Just so you know. Puggles will actually have a name by now, but this is to document our thoughts.

Teresa Strasser suggests two tests for naming a girl baby - and finding that sweet spot - is to pretend you're being introduced to this baby as a lawyer, and also as a blind date prospect. Kate recommends thinking about standing at the back door calling your child in from play. I'm caught in a place of having a very common name and hating being the 2nd or 3rd Emma in a group of friends or at school.

So our short list at some point has been:

Boys
- Flynn
- Gideon
- Griffin
- Bexley
- Bailey
- Darcy
- Sebastian
- Rowan
- Quinlan
- Jasper

Girls
- Sally
- Ophelia
- Chloe
- Isolde
- Tabitha
- Odette
- Indigo
- Claudia
- Scarlett
- Addison

We also considered Audrey (oh how we've gone back and forth with that one) and Saskia (a little too popular around a group of friends) and Salome (too biblical for me).

EDITED TO ADD: We went with Sally (short for Salome which in the end was because of a U2 song and it took me 4 days to realise that it probably made my mother (devout Baptist insane harpie with whom I have nothing to do) feel faint) and Clio, cause I liked Chloe but it was a little too like clover for me!

Welcome the new year!

Some call it resolutions. I instead am saying "changes".

I have 5 changes I want to make and 2010 is a good time to do it:

- Give birth in my home
- Reach out to people and find some more irl friends
- Put my personal happiness and that of my family, above other things
- Spend less time on the internet
- Take a photo a day

I am doing well with #5 right now. It's been 1 day.

What do you use vanilla sugar for?

One of the comments left on my blog recently said:

What do you serve vanilla sugar with/use it in? I've never actually heard of it! Sounds yum though!

And I thought - what do I actually use it for? Here are 10 totally random things I use it for:

1. Sprinkle on top of baked goods instead of plain sugar
2. Add to a cup of tea when you need some sweetness and comfort
3. 30g (1T) in any baked good instead of vanilla extract
4. Add to cocoa powder when making hot cocoa
5. Add to a coffee or fruit cake to change the flavour
6. 1tsp in a tomato dish helps to enhance the flavours
7. Make a vanilla sauce for your next pudding
8. Add it to stewing fruit instead of plain sugar
9. Make icing or custard with it
10. Smell when you need an uplift
    

10 things I have to have in my pantry

1. Tinned tuna - must have for making a quick pasta or rice dish, a salad, or lunch.
2. Frozen vegetables - peas, corn and beans, as well as celery bits.
3. Herbs and spice in small jars so that turnover is rapid.
4. Plain flour and SR flour. Small purchases made (2 bags of 1kg eah) at a time to stay fresh.
   
5. Eggs (always a half dozen at least), milk (UHT), cream (UHT) and butter.
6. Butter - did I mention that? A couple of 250g blocks as well as a few wrappers from old blocks so I can grease pans.
7. Vanilla extract.
8. A surprisingl number of different types of sugar - brown, white, raw, caster, vanilla.
9. Pasta and rice and cous cous and polenta.
10. Cheese - grated in the freezer, block in the fridge. Cheddar, mozzerella, parmasen.
    

10 Craft things that I have on my brain

Yep there are 10 projects that I want to get through before Puggles arrives. Which is in less than 100 days. So plenty of time!

Some of these need me to be using power tools which makes me really happy to!

1. Decorate gumnuts to be silver bells for Midsummer
2. Make a 4 seasons tree
3. Replace the glass in 3 frames - broken by moi, and by the cat, and by the heat dropping one off the wall
   
4. Hang all framed pictures on wall hooks!
   
5. Make a cotton reel board
6. Make wall buttons and decorate the bedroom wall
   
7. Make 2x baby quilts
8. Finish Puggle's Duck Soup jacket
9. Decorate the bed head
10. Put the decals on the kitchen table

10 things on my mind

1. December is such a crazy-busy time of year that I sometimes forget to do important things, like pander my feet. That's my plan for today!
2. The back fence to our property faces our back neighbour, who recently built a new pair of houses to mirror the pair of houses that ours is part of. The fence is half down and lying in their yard. We are a naked house. And that means my pregnant belly is in full view of their house and I. do. not. CARE. Fix the damn fence or negotiate with the owner of ours to replace it with something of decent height.
3. When did I get all grown up? Just this last weekend I took my pregnant belly out and went house hunting with Kate and it was weird to be doing all this Adult stuff.
4. But it has got me thinking about buying a house with the settlement that I'll get from the accident on 2007. A little house all of our own? That'd be amazing. I've never really thought about owning a house but now it's on my mind.
   
5. I have one more woman due to birth this year and then I'm done for 2009. Which is sad. I have none lined up for 2010 which is scary.
6. Less than 100 days to go til I'm a mother and really that means nothing to me because what the heck is 100 days? 3 months, 12 weeks, etc etc, are much easier to comprehend.
7. I have painted toe nails and am happy. Despite being 6 months pregnant, it's not that hard to sit on the ground and paint them, or shave my legs. Which I do approximately quarterly ;).
8. I am starting to feel "nesty" and that's amusing! I have gardened this week, and cleaned up Puggle's room, and started some Christmas stuff as well.
9. What I haven't done recently is knit. Which is surprising given that I was not that long ago OBSESSED with it. I think I need to start knitting some baby things.
   
10. I have conquered my ipod - I've managed to rename it, convince its calendars to synch with Google calendar *and* Facebook, get my old music off my old ipod and give it on to TheHusband, and upload music to it with gay abandon!
    

10 not so important things that are things on my mind

1. I am in the market for a new watch.
   
2. Have had a touch of something gross this week.
3. The exam I sat on Wednesday is now part of the "the subject that never ends" because of (2) - I have to resit it.
   
4. Stuggling to get my ipod touch to sync with a calendar.
5. 24 weeks down and Puggles is kicking up a storm.
6. I see myself in a sarong for summer but am yet to find one I like. I might have to brave ebay.
7. Speaking of summer - we renewed our lease the other day for another year.
8. Augh the internets. They are broken and then they are fixed for $110 and some very highly skilled guy coming over to unplug the alarm system.
   
9. Money is crap and tight and it's only another 12 weeks before I go on maternity leave.
10. I need new shoes and a few other things and see (9) for why this is a problem.
    

Wantage and todoage

I am big enough to work out the difference between "need" and "want" so here is a list of things I want (and won't go out of my way to buy but keep coming back to wanting):

• Knitpicks interchangeable needles - I have some Denises but I dislike them as the plastic flexes when you use them
• Jigsaw so I can cut things up - I have a heap of mdf that I want to make things out of.
• Steam mop for the floor of doom (big house = lots of floors).
• SLR camera
• cutting board for sewing
• overlocker
• body form
• this pattern:
  

Things to do around the house:

• Decorate the purple table some more. I'm working with Eve to develop some decals for the table and it is so exciting!
• Make some new curtains for the back area.
  The walls are painted in Pantaloon which is a yellow based paint and the curtains are a revolting gold colour and they clash and they are BORING so I want to update
• Make some foot pooffs for the placing of feet on. Chez Larsson has inspired me to change some of our milk crates into foot stools.
• Tie backs for the curtains in the kitchen. This will involve improving my crocheting skills though.
  
  
• Sort out superannuation
• Harrass the gym to refund my personal trainer $$
• Go to Hobart, Melbourne and Bendigo!!!! Which is where I am at the moment btw...
  
• Organise the spare room for our housesitter
• Paint the chest of drawers that currently hold my stash
• Finish Sabrina
• Paint the little chest of drawers that holds our IT stuff
• Paint the mdf bookcase that I've had for since 19mumblemumble - I'm thinking white
  

Friday fill in #2

1. She had a great idea to make pikelets for brunch.

2. My arm is by my side, always.

3. I know this: my time will come and I probably won't even notice it.

4. I have some of the best years of my life to come still.

5. These words apply to me: suck it up, princess

6. Today I am happy because the sun was shining.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to cocktails and a surprise, tomorrow my plans include breakfast with a Kate and Sunday, I want to be at the airport early for our trip to Hobart!