Most Wanted - Gooseberry Moon

Thanks so much to you all for your best wishes & congratulations on the birth of Eva. We've been quite overwhelmed by the response from everyone. Friends and family have been incredibly generous and thanks to them she's going to be the best dressed girl in the North West for at least the next 6 months.

Thank You Cards

All this means I have a stack of thank you notes to write, which gave me the perfect excuse to pop back to one of my favourite Folksy shops, Gooseberry Moon. Run by Nicky, Gooseberry Moon is a great source of stylish stationary, with clean, fresh designs.

Poppy Field Birthday Cards

Based in North Wales, Nicky first started her business almost a year ago, designing and printing wedding stationery. In March she opened her Folksy shop, where you can buy notecards, birthday cards and all manner of other paper goods. I'm a big fan of her 'Minty' bunny range and as well as using the thank you cards have been going through a steady supply of New Baby cards - I suddenly know a lot of new mums.

Christmas Cards

Keep a look out for Nicky's Christmas card designs - these are printed on recycled card so you can do your bit for the environment too. You can order personalised wedding stationary and announcements through her website. Check out the Gooseberry Moon website here and make sure you're the first to know about new designs by following Nicky's blog here.

Welcome To The World, Eva Rose

She's here! After a rather-longer-than-I-would-have-liked labour, baby Eva Rose entered the world at just after 8 in the evening on the 20th October. She weighed in at a healthy 7lb 10 ounces and is absolutely gorgeous (not that I'm the slightest bit biased).

Eva (and Daddy)

We brought her home the following evening, and after the initial shock in the first couple of days of realising that "I was up ALL night with the baby" is a literal statement, not a figure of speech, we're slowly getting the hang of parenthood. She's got used to the moses basket now which has freed up my arms and meant I'm not permanently pinned to the sofa.

So apart from being a tad sore (me) and a touch windy (her), we're doing well and looking forward to getting to know each other better.....

The Final Countdown

Have been pondering on what it will feel like to not be pregnant because it seems like such a long time since I wasn't. As this is my last post before my due date I thought I'd share my top things that I'll miss and the top things (much more to choose from) that I won't miss!

I'll miss:

• Eating copious amounts of cake and ice cream without caring about the consequences
• Having an excuse to sit on the couch and do nothing
• Watching my tummy ripple of an evening alien-style and feeling the baby wriggle around
  

I'm looking forward to:

• Being able to easily put my shoes and socks on without assistance
• Being able to find a comfortable position in which to sleep
• Regaining the use of my stomach muscles (I hope)
  
• Fried egg sandwiches and large glasses of wine (not necessarily together)
• Getting my memory & spatial awareness back (although I'm told that may take some time)

Of course it goes without saying that I'm looking forward to meeting Bump at long last. I don't expect to be posting very often for the forseeable future, but hope you all stick around and bear with me - I'll try to post the odd update! Would love to hear what you Mums miss/don't miss about being preggers.

Pink Topaz Drops

My shops will stay open but initially there may be a short delay on dispatch times whilst I get to grips with things - I'm aiming to post an announcement on the shop homepages to clarify this once everything 'kicks off'. Or if there's something you have your eye on, beat the chaos (both at CeeGee central and at the Post Office) and order it now! Could be with you by Monday ;). In response to the proposed strikes you can now choose a courier service for delivery - check out my website for more details.

Last but not least, if any of you fancy a look I've started a new Flickr album here for piccys of my lampwork beads. I'm quite happy with my progress, hope you agree.

Size DOES Matter

I've been happily whiling away the hours in my shed workshop practicing making beads. Definitely a great way to avoid the horrors of daytime TV during maternity leave. Something I'm finding quite 'challenging' is getting the beads a uniform size so I can make sets of the same design.

Yesterday I think I very nearly cracked it, with this set of 5:


I know that they're uniform enough to use in my own jewellery designs as the differences would be so slight in a finished piece of jewellery, but am finding it really difficult to decide whether or not they would be good enough to sell on their own as a set of beads. For some reason I can't look at them objectively to decide whether I would be happy if I'd bought these as a jewellery maker.

So I'm hoping you guys can help me. Am I being overcritical and need to remember that exact uniformity isn't going to happen with handmade beads? Or am I not quite there yet? I know it's difficult to tell from a photo but your opinions would be much appreciated!

Getting There....

Just a very quick post to show you the first ever pair of earrings featuring beads made by yours truly. (Drum roll please) ....ta-da!


They're not up to a good enough standard for selling I don't think (and haven't been kiln annealed so I can't sell them anyway), but they're good enough for me to wear and I've been proudly doing so. A bit more practice and hopefully I'll be ready to unleash my beads on an unsuspecting world :).

Cooking On Gas

It's finally happened.... I have my little hot head torch on a bulk set up in my old shed new workshop. It's not perfect - only half the roof is insulated as that turned out to be a two man job that I wasn't much help with in my current (very preggers) state. Should probably get some metal sheet to protect the table. Plus, due to lack of tools we haven't yet got the extractor fan up and running so I'll have to torch with the door open for the time being. As I feel like I'm permanently overheating at the moment, that shouldn't be a problem....

These last snags aren't important though as I'm just chuffed to bits that we actually got something in place before the baby arrived. Now I can have some fun reacquainting myself with the glass whilst there's still time. Here's my little glassy corner - I'm sure it will never look this tidy ever again.


The fire extinguisher is behind me :). I've installed a little gadget that's supposed to give off an ultrasonic noise that acts as a spider repellent. I have my doubts as to how effective it'll be but as there are supposed to be a lot of them about this year (and I'm not a fan) it's got to be worth a tenner to give it a go. I'll try and remember to report back on its effectiveness!

Finally a big thank you to AMI Designs for including me in this gorgeous treasury of pale pinks and greys - so pretty. You can take a proper look at it here.

Just Call Me Auntie C

I'm an Auntie! My sister had a (somewhat reluctant) baby boy very late last night. Baby Tom entered the world weighing a hefty 9 lbs 7 ounces - ouch! Can't wait to see them both but it'll be a while unfortunately as she lives down south and due to my own bump I'm not really in a position to go anywhere at the mo. Will have to make do with the gazillions of photos that I'm sure my mum will take when my parents go down this weekend!

Back here in leafy Cheshire I've been included in this lovely treasury by fellow Etsian CakesKnitsandCosies, who has put together a collection of items by local Etsy sellers. I think it's a great idea for a treasury and really good to see so many great items coming from our neck of the woods. To view it in full click on the link here.