I'm not a big reader of baby magazines, so I hadn't bought a copy of My Child before. It is a nicely presented magazine.
A few months ago I was contacted and asked to submit some clothing for a preppy style story based on a travel theme. Here is the result. A Townmouse red wool coat, boy's shirt and denim skirt were featured.
I do like denim red and blue together.
Tom, who is 7, dotes on his new sister. He's always wanting to cuddle her. He gets in the bath with her.
Here he is, up on a stool at the laundry bench, changing her nappy. He's my spare pair of hands and doing a great job.
He's also very pleased that she looks just like he did as a newborn.
Max and Henri look very similar, and now Tom has a lookalike in the family.
I think she's going to be well taken care of by her brothers.
Of course, Adelaide is blissfully unaware and spends her whole time doing this:
Life is good.
Our baby Adelaide arrived last Thursday.
She is a very sweet, calm baby. She is named after her great, great grandmother on Will's side (Adelaide) and her great grandmother on my side (Elizabeth).
The boys are all completely enchanted by her, and keep begging to hold her or wake her. Henri wants to know when she's going to start talking.
Here they are having their first cuddle a few hours after she arrived - all a little overwhelmed. They couldn't wait to show her off at school for the first time this morning, proudly pushing the pram through the school grounds and standing by to introduce her.
We're very short on children's bedrooms in our house, so I won't have the fun of decorating a little girl's bedroom just yet. When bub-to-be arrives she will share a room with Tom.
But I did enjoy these images from the March issue of British House & Garden nonetheless.
Built in beds under the eaves in a similar way to Max and Henri's room.
Sleepovers would be fun in the above bedroom.
Loved these bunks above.
Love the colours in the room below.
Only five years in the making, our front sitting room has finally come together and is almost finished. We have gone from this:
To this:
Will and I surprised ourselves by picking out this zebra patterned wool rug on Saturday. We are conservative people after all, so this was a rather unusual direction for us. But we both liked it and felt it gave the room an element of luxe that sets this space apart from the rest of the house.
The "fish man" sculpture and painting set the colour palette for the room. The background of the painting is a lovely shimmery pewter grey with lots of texture. That led to the wall colour and curtains.
The aboriginal art above the fireplace (which photographs rather strangely) will be moved to above the sofa. We are now on the hunt for a mirror for the mantlepiece - something smoky and square edged - aged and masculine maybe.
The walls are feeling very bare. We also need a coffee table or big upholstered ottoman for the middle of the room. After catching up on blog posts this morning, I emailed Will the first photo from this post, which he liked. Isn't blogging great like that.
The room is now calling for a strong accent colour to lift all the muted tones. I'm thinking mustard or aubergine or burnt orange. Since the zebra rug went down the Liberty cushions aren't quite cutting it.
These simple embroideries are enjoyable and quick.
It's been a long time since I've sewn simple items like bunny rugs. This fabric is leftover from winter production. I've backed the bib in one of the other fabrics from this season's range.
No baby news to report - that's still a week or two away. My blogging hiatus has been due to technology woes. Here's a tip from me. Putting your laptop in the fridge is no solution to computer overheating issues. I fried my laptop.
My business is completely dependent on one file that includes my customer database and order history. Without it I can't really work. (Fortunately I was able to retrieve this file and I'm now back in business with a new laptop.)
Let's just say over the last two weeks I watched a lot more television than usual, am better at Soduko than I'll ever need to be, and have stocked the freezer with chicken stock and soups for the colder weather to come. I've also read a lot of books. I'm on a Tim Winton craze, after reading his latest book, "Breath" for bookgroup. Now no other author is good enough and I'm reading everything he's written.
Now that I have my technology sorted I have been able to launch my winter range to my customers. These photos are of the new range, which is on the website. Filling orders will keep me occupied up until my due date.
But no work tonight. A dear friend sent me a copy of The Man From Snowy River after reading my recent blog post. How lucky am I?
Soon after I found out we were having a little girl a friend came over for morning tea. She has three daughters who are always beautifully dressed in very classic clothes - the sort of clothes you don't see worn so much any more.
She brought with her a gift which I absolutely adore.
She knew I would have the clothing side of things well covered so she presented me with this beautiful box of ribbons, so I would always have the perfect hair accessory to match an outfit.
I can't tell you how excited I was to receive this. When I didn't think a daughter was in my future I confess to being rather wistfull watching mothers of daughters brush their little girl's hair at swimming lessons or in readiness for school.
Now I can't wait for the day when I will be able to pin one of these newborn hairclips into fine baby hair. (Although if she follows in her mother's footsteps her baby hair will look more like a toilet-brush and I'll develop a penchant for beanies to hide it.)