NIKKI-SHELL

Mixtape Zine Issue 4

We have just opened up Issue 4 for PRE-SALE. This ensures you get yourself a copy and also help us out with knowing how many to print!
Buy it here!!

fabric brooch and a neighbourhood walk

Made yesterday during our lazy day at home, we've been having quite a few of these recently :)
I had the idea for making some of these while i was pregnant to use up my scraps and stash and have something to do while sitting on the sofa.  This one is pretty big, the base is a wooden coaster and the only size i could find when i went to Spotlight.  I'd like to find some smaller wooden discs, any ideas?  Of course i could cut them myself but i don't have the power tools required for such a thing.
The girls had a go at stitching too, i'll show you once they've finished.  Mia took to it pretty quickly and has been doing a fantastic job.

This morning we got out of the house and went for a neighbourhood walk.  Here are a few pics.

Oh and we switched off last night for Earth Hour, did you?  The girls want to do it again tonight, more for the candles than anything else!  I think we just might.

 

The Birth

First of all we'd like to thank each and every one of you that left us a comment about the birth of Heidi.  We've loved reading each one that has popped up in my in box over the past week. 
Heidi is a whole nine days old now and it seems like she has been with us forever, i can't believe it!  After a pregnancy that seemed to last FOREVER it's as if it happened ages ago, it's amazing what those hormones can do!  She is such a sweet little girl and so good, we are truly blessed.  Now, for the birth story so many of you have asked me to share.

As you already know i passed my due date which was March the 15th.  This was a big surprise considering Esme turned up 5 days early and of course we just assumed that this being my third pregnancy things would turn out the same especially considering the size of my bump!  There was no room left in there, i could feel my stomach churning somewhere up around the top of my back, who knows where the rest of my internal organs were!
On Monday the 17th, two days overdue i visited the midwife at the hospital and had an internal to decide how they would induce me if it came to that.  I was booked in for Tuesday the 25th and sent home.  Still nothing happened and i was becoming increasingly grumpy especially with the ridiculous temperatures we were having.  We weren't leaving the house much because of the heat and the fear that i may go into labour, we had severe cabin fever!  Then Thursday came, five days over my due date and i felt a little different, some yucky stuff was happening 'down there' and i thought "today may be the day", the day continued and nothing happened.  Later in the afternoon i lay down for a nap, my braxton hicks became a little more regular but i still managed to sleep.  Kev woke me for dinner, t-bone steak and veggies, which i struggled to eat over my huge belly.
I decided to check my emails and bloglines, commented on a few blogs and while sitting there i felt a crunch down in my pelvis, OH OH!  What was that?!  After that i felt uncomfortable, like i had a ball between my legs which made walking around a little difficult.  I made drinks for the girls and Kev and decided to take a bath.  Of course Mia and Esme wanted to get in with me but instead settled for sitting at the side of the bath on their little chairs to watch me.  This is when my contractions started, around 8pm and were coming every few minutes.  Kev called the hospital and an ambulance and i got out of the bath to get dressed to go.  Well little Heidi was having non of it! I got on all fours on the bed and Mia stroked my hair while telling me "It's OK Mammy, the baby is coming", Kev spoke to the hospital on the phone and Esme thought it was play time and jumped up and down on the bed!  Then i suddenly started pushing!  I got off the bed and stood at the side leaning over it.  Kev started to panic a little and i asked Mia to leave the room after she had arranges some towels on the floor underneath me.  Our friends arrived to look after the girls and my waters broke.  The paramedics (four of them!) arrived minutes before Heidi made her appearance at 8:50pm.  Kev cut the cord, the girls came in to meet their new sister and i was taken to hospital to deliver the placenta.  The paramedics were pretty pleased that they got to deliver a baby and i seemed to be a bit of a celebrity in the hospital, everyone seemed to know what had happened " Oh you're the lady that didn't get here in time!", quite funny really.
I had a feeling things would happen the way they did.  I knew that I'd go into labour as soon as Justine went on her weekend away and that I'd have Heidi at home.  Luckily our friends Jaymz and Kythera were free to come over and take care of the girls and can you believe that Kythera cleaned up the mess afterwards?  Now that's friendship!  And she did it with one arm in a sling.  She tells me there wasn't much to clean up but still!!  What a star*

We've had a wonderful week getting to know Heidi.  Mia and Esme adore her and smother her with hugs and kisses.  Life doesn't feel much different so far, we're gradually getting back into a routine which i have been craving for the past few months.   I'm looking forward to getting back to my sewing, regular meet ups with friends and time spent with my beautiful family but i'm taking my time and easing myself back into it all.  I have creations i have made over the past month to show you too, i managed to knit a sock in the few days before and after giving birth!  Now i just need to make the second, more on that later though :)

Earth Hour

I've signed up, have you?

Heidi Grace

almost 1 hour old

DETAILS:
20th March 2008 at 8:50pm
50 minutes labour
Born at home on the bedroom floor
8lb 4oz
51.5cm long

Managed to get a nap and dinner in before it all happened!
Thankyou for all your well wishes, we're doing great.

Lots of love Nichola.xx

SAY HELLO!!!

Heidi Prested was born March 20th at 8.50pm! At a reasonably large 8.4lbs, both mother and daughter are doing well in hospital right now...I'm sure you can expect updates and photos very soon!
Kevin \m/

The Coop!!

While i sat at home last night feeling like a beached whale Kev was hanging out with Alice Cooper!

Look away now if you're easily freaked out!!

40 weeks 3 days

Belly button shot just for you Jus :)  Rub rub!

waiting.......

Erm, yeah!  I'm still pregnant!  And very hot and extremely bored.  My due date is tomorrow.  My brain isn't working well enough to start anything that needs any kind of concentration (which would be most things on my list!) so i've been laying around the house doing not much at all and napping.  Oh, i did finish a pair of mittens for Mia, leg warmers from 'The Happy Hooker' for me and a hat for someone special, yes! knitting in 40 degree heat, i HAVE gone mad.  I've surfed the web over and over, purchased some knitting patterns from Etsy and fabric from Tessuti.

Hopefully i'll have some news for you soon but until then you have to do the same as me....wait :)

nesting?????

After writing this post on Sunday over on BurdaStyle i got out of bed with a mission.  To clean my sewing room! 
At 8:30am it looked like this:

and by 7pm it looked like this:

Yes i was in there for that long  and although it may not look like i did much it was a big job.  I whittled down my book collection, making a pile for Ebay and transfered the rest to one bookshelf.  The other bookshelf now hold my fabric stash, if you can call it that.  I do have 3 large plastic boxes sat on top of the wardrobe full of bit's and pieces too though.  Then the other shelves at the end hold boxes filled with supplies such as trims, elastic, paints and stationery.  The filing cabinet hold my commercial patterns and the small suitcase is full of scraps i  can't bear to part with, they will and do get used though.  I sorted through all those pink boxes, finding self covering buttons i need to finish the baby jacket as well as other stuff i didn't realise i had.  I sorted through my embroidery threads and wound them all onto cards, my yarn stash that fills 2 large plastic tubs, my knitting needles (no need to buy that knit picks dp set i thought i needed, i have most sizes i need!),  magazines, paperwork, loose patterns printed from the net and all those little bowls and tubs of 'stuff' on my sewing table.  I filled a moving box with rubbish!
It feels so much nicer in there and i feel inspired to create, especially now that i know what i have in there, i think i have enough stuff to keep me going for at least a year and plan to limit what i do bring into the room to what i need for specific projects if i don't have it already.  I think i could knit about 8 pairs of socks, a cardigan, many hats, mitts and scarves, and various other knitted items with what i have as well as using the left over balls of yarn on other projects (i have ideas!).  The 2 tubs of fabric bits and pieces can be made into things for myself and my family and items to sell.  The notions and trims can be used on said projects and i can start using my craft books more instead of them sitting on the shelf looking pretty.
Of course i have all these grand plans and ideas but since baby is due this week i doubt i will have the required time needed to fulfill them all.  But, i'll have a sketchbook, pencils and lots of time sitting on my bum to be able to write and draw my ideas down for when i DO have the time.
There are still a few things i'd like to get to help with storage, a pegboard so i can get all the bits off my desk, a thread spool holder (any ideas where to get one?) and some storage pockets to hang from a pole across the window.

At least my sewing room is clean.  I can't say the same for the rest of the house though :/