Let Us Make

One thing I really wanted to get done while I was on holidays was to properly unpack and set up my craft room (which Peter is still optimistically referring to as the ‘office’, but he’ll come around). Well I’ve cut it fine, but today, on my last day of holidays, it is finally done.

Before

After

Most excited about this new development is Mayana (who by the way is celebrating her last day of being two today!), because this means that she FINALLY has a making space again. We (and others) gave Mayana loads of ‘making stuff’ for Christmas, and she has been very keen to get creative with it all.

Mayana’s Making Space 1: easel & making drawers

Mayana’s Making Space 2: The making table (first things she tried out today was her brand new watercolours).

It’s good to have all of her things organised again. We have evolved into two drawers of ‘making stuff’, and she was most excited when she opened one that is entirely full of various kinds of paints (watercolours, finger paints, acrylics etc). I’ve also started a basket of recycled materials for ‘box craft’, which is something she loves to do.

As for me, I’m pretty happy with shelves for my scrapbooking and sewing materials, drawers for my yarn and patterns and fabrics- and to have it all organised and accessible is fabulous!

Now I just have to wait for maternity leave so that I have time to get into it all!!

A Peek At My Week

Hello from the weary traveller. We are finally back in Queensland, finally back at home, and looking forward to sleeping in my own bed tonight!

Here is this week’s offering of A Peek At My Week!



This was our last week of our wonderful WA holiday, and saw us taking in a few more wineries at the beautiful Margaret River and making special memories with our very awesome WA family. Peter and I also went on our first date in a very long time (San Churros for dinner, YUM!). We had a road trip to Geraldton – the furthest North we have travelled in WA thus far – and lapped up the hospitality of the Geraldton Bumas.

 Finally, yesterday, it was time to say goodbye to all of our Perth family, and our Perth holiday. I definitely was fighting back tears as I kissed my Oma one last time, and as we waved at the assortment of cousins and aunties and uncles who accompanied us to the airport.

We had such a wonderful holiday, I only wish we could have had just a few more days to spend with the family.

If you use Instagram (or even if you don’t!) I would love it if you would join in with this little meme, and share a peek at your week too! You can use the free software from Picasa to create a collage really easily, and just add the link for your post to the linky below!

23 (and a bit) Weeks

This pregnancy is absolutely flying by. I'm sure the first 23 weeks of my pregnancy with Mayana took a lot longer than this! I had forgotten how much I love being pregnant... Watching my bump grow, feeling those first flutters, then feeling them turn into little thumps, then bigger thumps and spins and summersaults. I have again been very blessed with no morning sickness, and on the whole this pregnancy is very similar to my last. I have popped out a lot quicker this time, with my separated tummy muscles, and I guess as well from being pre-stretched from last time. This has caused me a fair amount of discomfort, with pelvic, hip and sciatic pain, and I'm very much looking forward to an appointment with a physio when we get home from holidays! We will also be having another scan soon after we get home, because Baby Two was being very wiggly during our last scan, and they weren't able to get good enough pictures of the heart. The doctors said they are not necessarily concerned, but I suppose it is within their duty of care to be sure. I am excited to be having another scan. We had only two with Mayana, at 7 & 19 weeks, and will have had four with this one (at 7, 16, 19 & 24ish weeks). Being pregnant on holidays has made these last few weeks go much quicker pregnancy-wise, and I have had fun showing off my bump and letting people feel Baby Two kicking as we've visited family. It was, however, a bit disappointing during the Margaret River leg of our trip, I do like me a spot of wine tasting. My wonderful husband has bought me a nice sampling from some of our favourite wineries to have my own private tastings after the baby is born. So all-in-all, at 23 weeks this pregnancy is rolling along very happily. I really do love being pregnant, feeling my darling move, and hearing Pete talk to and feel his unborn child. I'm looking forward to setting up the nursery and washing all the baby clothes and smelling that sweet baby smell and watching Mayana be a big sister... I'm so excited about being a Mama for the second time around.

A Peek At My Week (yes, already!)

I know, it feels like this is all I’ve been posting lately, but it is meant to be a Friday thing, and I have kept all my photos separated into weeks.

So here we go, my Peek at My Week contribution for the 31st of December to the 6th of January... the first week of our brand new year.

We have certainly started the new year with a bang. We’re about halfway through our Perth holiday, and having a fabulous time catching up with family and playing tourist. New year’s eve was in the middle of our biennial family reunion, Camp Buma. This year’s camp was held at a school, which sounds like a strange location but actually worked really well. The school had some really cool facilities, including a 30m abseil tower, and camp this year was filled with lots of adventuring and thrill-seeking.

In that first row of photos you can see some of our camp moments: the abseiling, a bunch of third generation Buma’s (Mayana and my cousin Jess’s kids) playing together, the lovely Louise and I hanging out with our gorgeous daughters, the very auspicious 24-man-spoon, (which even Oma was in on!) to bring in the 2012 (by far beating our 2010 and 2011 records!), and a selection of our amazing Dutch foods from Dutch Day.

That first photo in the second row if my little precious Mayana who was absolutely devastated to see the end of camp and say goodbye to her friends. I think there were a lot of us that felt fairly much the same. It was a fabulous time, and we had quite a few extras who weren’t able to come to our last camp – including some cousins from Canada who I had never met before this!

Most of the rest of this week’s photos are highlights from our time so far in the Margaret River region. Tonight will be our third and final night here, and we’ve had a lovely time. We’re staying somewhere much nicer than the kind of manky Backpacker’s Hostel that we stayed at last time we were here. I’ll post more on all of this when we’re home, I don’t want to use up too much of my holiday time in front of a computer!!

I hope you’re having a very happy New Year also!!

Please, if you feel so inclined, join in with my lil ole meme by adding your post to the linky at the bottom. I took my photos on Instagram (follow @zoeyjoyful) and I made my collage with Picasa!

A Peek At My Week

I'm running a little late with this last week's Peek At My Week because I've been too busy holidaying, and for that I do not apologize :) 

I am sharing some of my favourite Instagram memories from Christmas and the first few days of our holidays, I hope you enjoy them!

I made my collage using Google's free software Picasa, and if you want to follow me on Instagram, look for @zoeyjoyful.

Most importantly, if you'd like to join me in playing A Peak At My Week, please share the link to your blog post in the linky below :)