Serendipity Child

maternity leave: days seven, eight and nine

2012-02-07T14:28:00.000-08:00

Oh dear, I am not keeping up with my maternity leave diary! Well I haven't really had anything exciting to report. On Sunday I had the ladies from my NCT group over for another afternoon tea. It was lovely chatting with other pregnant women, all due to give birth around the same time as me.
Baby has been really active the last couple of days, like crazy active, it's still not in the right position though, it's back is on my right hand side and it is much better for its back to be on my left before birth because it makes it easier during labour (apparently). I have a midwife appointment tomorrow, so it might have moved by then, we will have to wait and see. I keep feeling its foot in my side and grabbing it and saying "foot" loudly so maybe it will know what its foot is, or will recognise the word "foot" after it's been born.
Today I spent some time writing my birth plan, or as I have called it "Birth preferences" because nothing ever goes to plan. I want to have as natural a birth as possible, but at the end of the day I just want baby to come out and be healthy and for me to be healthy too. I am sure that is all any expectant mother can hope for.
Any of you write a birth plan? What did you include?

Mori girl mama

2012-02-04T15:38:00.000-08:00

For the stylish Mori girls out there who are about to be or already are mamas, just cos we are having or already have babies, doesn't mean we don't still love the Mori look.

'Mori girl mama' by serendipitychild

Messenger Bag Owl and Lace o... TrackandFieldD... $70.00	Linen and Lace Ring Sling BertiLouBaby $75.00	fleece stroller blanket, cri... beanstalkbyizz... $42.00
Khaki Nursery Painting of Fl... Amborela $42.00	Baby Girl Shoes, Felt Baby B... ShesSoCraftyGo... $28.00	Forever I Do- Wedding Gown I... whiteromance $450.00
Ivory Lace Vest Bennair $56.00	Green & White Baby Bib with ... MidwestNest $10.00	Mori Girl Shawl Victorian Ca... auntcarriesatt... $110.00
Lace and Sparkle Pouch - wit... hoakonhelga $30.00	Beautiful cotton lace and li... kirstyelson $12.50	Blank Mini Notebook made fro... AdaJane $8.00
Love Birds Watercolor Painti... idillard $20.00	Change mat-Onesie lilybellnz $35.00	Victorian Quilt Patchwork Ap... stitchingbevy $150.00
Tree Wall Decal for Baby Nur... LeoLittleLion $79.00

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio.

Maternity leave: Days five and six

2012-02-04T14:46:00.000-08:00

Spent yesterday getting the house ready for my "afternoon tea with mummy to be" (NOT a baby shower which is far to cliché and makes people feel obligated to bring gifts), including a food shop which was shockingly expensive. Can't believe a small trolley now costs what it would have cost to fill a large trolley 5 years ago. Also put together my party games, including a drawing of a giant baby with an anatomically correct umbilical cord and placenta to pin on! my pregnancy quiz which took me about 2 hours to do...I think I was really over-thinking the questions, printing off sheets for match the celebrity baby names to their celebrity parents, guess the measurement of mummy's tummy with string, preparing for guess the baby food flavour and preparing vegetables and fruit for match the vegetable to the age of the foetus (in weeks).

On second thoughts the placenta looks more like a tomato.

Today I got up early to get everything ready and made two trays of sandwiches for all the guests. My mum and sisters came over in the morning and helped me with the last few finishing touches to the house as well as finishing off icing some cupcakes that my sisters made. Friends arrived at about 1.30 then all through the afternoon friends popped in and out, we had sandwiches, cake, tea and played the games as well as me opening presents which was so sweet of my friends, and not expected at all. I was very happy to receive the Mamas and Papas Jamboree changing mat which I have been lusting after. There was an element of surrealism to the whole thing though, it felt a little bit like my birthday, only nothing was for me!
Foolishly I forgot to take any photos for the entire day, took some last minute ones of me and my family but apart from that, nothing! What an idiot!

yes, my sister is holding a spider plant, it was the prize she chose for winning one of the games!

Maternity leave: Day four

2012-02-02T15:09:00.000-08:00

Thought I would share with you some artwork I have done for the baby's room today. Do you remember this post, of images from the Jamboree collection at Mamas and Papas, in particular theses paintings? Well I loved them so much but just couldn't justify £22 pounds a pop. So...I decided to imitate them on canvases I bought from Hobby Craft for about £5.00. Do you like? I am really pleased with them.

Today I continued the big clear out, nearly there now, made some soup for freezing so that when baby comes we have some easy nutritious meals at the ready and added a few more things to my hospital bags.

What are you up to?

Maternity leave: Day three

2012-02-01T13:43:00.000-08:00

More clearing out today, making room for baby. This weekend I am having a couple of gatherings of friends to celebrate coming to the end of my pregnancy, some may call it a baby shower, but I am calling it "Afternoon tea with Mummy to be"!! So I have been trying to think of games to play that are fun and silly but not too embarrassing, so far there are my ideas:

Guess the size of mummy's tummy with a piece of string, closest size wins,
Blindfolded baby food guessing game,
Pin the umbilical cord on the baby (like pin the tale on the donkey),
Childbirth Trivia quiz,
Celebrity baby name guessing game or match the name to the celebrity baby,
Blindfolded guess the baby item.

Anyone got any other ideas?

here is a pic of me, Baby turned 37weeks yesterday:

Books for sale

2012-02-01T09:34:00.000-08:00

Do you like books at excellent prices? You do? Excellent, I am just the person you need for I am selling lots of my old books from university and the like, take a look at my Amazon shop and see if there is anything that takes your fancy:

Serendipitychild Amazon Shop

Maternity leave: Day two

2012-01-31T11:58:00.000-08:00

The big sort out continues; today I sorted through all our old receipts, some dating as far back as 2005. I can't help but think "why on earth did I keep this receipt for a white t shirt from tescos that I bought in 2006 for £3.00"? Hubby sorted through a massive pile of paper including lots of bank statements, credit card bills and the like. Both of us are terrible at organising our paper work. We both always wish we were better at being organised with our things, not hoarding, keeping things in order, the right place for the right thing, but we are fighting a losing battle against our genes. Both sets of parents are terrible hoarders and organisers, it is quite literally in our DNA to be chaotic with our things. We are also finding it very difficult to get rid of stuff, if we are not asking ourselves "will I need it in the future for some obscure reason" I am thinking "but I could make it into something". But those days must end because we have a baby coming and it needs room! So not only have I now an extensive list of books for sale on Amazon, but also a pile of shoes, bags and clothes waiting to go to charity shops. It is quite cathartic in a way, but also frightening.

In other news I went into town today to buy some nursing bras, I am now a shocking size 34 J!! Which is the largest size I can get, so I am really hoping they are not going to get any bigger when the milk comes. I am finding some of the physical changes of pregnancy quite distressing and am beginning to wonder if I will every feel good about my body again.

Also bought some washable nappies from Boots. We are planning on getting more second hand but are feeling the urge to make sure we have everything ready for baby sooner rather than later, so a pack with 3 wraps and 12 liners should keep us going for a while if baby decides to come a little earlier than expected.

Last night I ordered a Tens machine for hire to help with discomfort during labour not sure if it will do any good but I figure anything is worth a try.

Maternity leave: Day one

2012-01-30T14:21:00.000-08:00

On Friday I had my last day at school for some time. It was possibly the most incredible anti-climax of my life. I thought it would feel so wonderful and such a relief, but of course to everyone else at school it was just another normal day so there was very little in the way of celebration. It is a strange feeling really; to be off work for something other than a half term or holiday, the true reason for not being at work hasn't really sunk in yet.

So how has the first day been? Well pretty good really, I got up late and came downstairs to find a silly surprise left by my husband:

The cuddly lion we bought for baby all snuggled up in our new moses basket!

I spent the day tidying and sorting, trying to get the baby's room ready and doing general housework, everything takes a v.e.r.y long time because I am so slow!

When my hubby got home, he had another surprise for me:

Oooh yes! A box of doughnuts!

Buying a pushchair on a budget

2012-01-29T11:10:00.000-08:00

During the Christmas holidays the hubby and I decided it might be time to start looking for a pushchair for our impending bundle of joy. You might think this would be fairly easy task, but with so many options out there and a tight budget we were extremely confused.
We spent literally hours trawling the internet trying to find the right pushchair for us. I thought I would share the process with you in the hope that it helps you find the right pushchair for you.

First we thought about what we needed from a pushchair, this helped eliminate many many pushchairs from the market. Three of the key things we decided we wanted were:

An all terrain pushchair because we like going for long walks,
A travel system so that we could use the same frame for a car seat, pram and pushchair which would save us both space in the house, and money,
Both forward and rear facing seat options.

By picking out the key things we needed from our pushchair we could limit our search and save a lot of time. Knowing what we wanted helped us to navigate around other websites because we could enter specific things into their searches such as "all terrain" and "rear facing seat option".

Next we logged onto the "Which" website and looked at all their ratings for the sort of pushchairs we were looking for. The pushchair that had everything we wanted and came up the best in the ratings was the ICandy Apple Jogger. Strangley, it was impossible to find an online proce for this pushchair so we went to John Lewis for a quote. Shockingly for everything we needed we would have to fork out over £800 which was way over our budget. However we did not lose hope, we began looking for a second hand option by searching on Ebay, Gumtree and Preloved. We found two pushchairs that were local to us, one was brand new (including the car seat), but in a limited edition fabric which meant the owner was asking for £600, which we felt was too much, the other was also the limited edition fabric, but was a couple of years old. We went to look at it and were happy, it was in very good nic, the only wear was on the tyres. So we parted with £300 for the exact pushchair we wanted that would have cost over £1000 new (due to the limited edition fabric). This pushchair didn't have a car seat so we looked online for the cheapest place to get the carseat that would fit with this pushchair, also checked it out on the "Which" website to make sure it had a good safety rating, and went for the Maxi-cosi Cabriofix from Mothercare for £100. So all in all we saved a lot of money and got a very nice pushchair. We could have got a brand new pushchair for this £400, but it wouldn't have been everything we wanted and needed, I think that making the compromise of buying second hand was a really good choice for us and one I would recommend for others.

Here is our pushchair:

If I had lots of money.....Etsy beautiful maternity clothes

2012-01-05T14:30:00.003-08:00

'Gorgeous maternity clothes' by serendipitychild

Teal Green maternity nursing... ZoeChen $72.00	Hummingbird and Flower Mater... JemmaJewel $44.00	Play Pants, maternity (hemp ... pasqueflowerde... $68.00
Womens Maternity Blouse Gold... SavoyFaire $49.00	Oo2958 Maternity. Classic e... Oonu $160.00	POCKET MATERNITY TOP pavlinadadakov... $42.00
THE GENEVA--Mauve, Cream, & ... BlessedandBelo... $29.99	Maternity Dress.Teal Blue. estmoda $162.00	Greyish-blue Maternity Wrap ... SHIHAR $85.00
White Maternity Shirt - Alic... alicebmaternit... $33.00	Maternity Blouse. Sale 50%... estmoda $60.00	Maternity Dress- 'Butte... onor $79.00

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio.

Getting ready for baby

2012-01-04T12:59:00.000-08:00

I have found the process of preparing for a baby extremely over whelming and have spent many hours in tears wondering how on earth we can afford everything we need, worrying that we are running out of time and becoming more and more confused by the sheer amount of choice out there. Today, however I decided to bite the bullet, I went shopping and bought a few bits. To make it seem less over whelming I have been focusing on what I need for my hospital bag and the first few days at home, here is a list of my purchases so far:

Breast pads,
Maternity pads,
Maternity mats, (what fun!)
nappies,
baby wipes,
a night shirt,
muslin squares,
5 sleep suits,
a blanket.

Next on my list are a dressing gown and a car seat so we can get the little one home.

Here is everything so far. Not a lot but it's something!

Review of 2011

2012-01-03T11:29:00.000-08:00

Last year I made some new years resolutions, so though I would now take the opportunity to see which ones I achieved, which ones I nearly achieved and which ones I didn't achieve (and why) So these were my resolutions for 2011:

1. Read the Bible in a year - I have very nearly done this, I am about two months behind and am proud of that alone, I have never got this far through the Bible before. I have found the process of reading it very useful, though I have to confess often I am just reading the words and I feel they are not really sinking in, however the odd verse jumps out at me and speaks to me on a really personal level. My aim now is to read the rest before the baby arrives!

courtesy of weheartit

2. Buy nothing new for a year - Although I did of course buy new things this year, I think I was much more thoughtful when making purchases, I did consider if I could make things or get them second hand and have come to the conclusion that if there is something out there that I really really want (but can't afford), then I can get it one way or another, either I buy something similar second hand or make it myself.

Vintage map bunting for sale in the craft shop

3. Exercise at least 3 time a week - for a long time I was cycling to work every day, but since I fell pregnant I have been too frightened to cycle in case I fall off or hurt myself on the handle bars, so I have stuck with walking; walking to the shops when I can and going for long woodland walks at weekends.

Me on one of our many woodland walks,

4. Eat more healthily - I started the year eating very healthily but in the spring I started medication for Poly-cystic ovarian syndrome which made me feel very sick, then I fell pregnant and felt even more sick to the point where vegetables made me gag (I can't think why my body didn't want me to eat veg but I couldn't) however I did keep eating lots of fruit so don't feel too bad about not being super healthy.

Courtesy of weheartit.com

5. Finish my wedding scrapbook - hmmm still not finished, or even close!

Unfinished wedding scrapbook,

6. Grow more veg - I struggled with this because I had a very difficult start to my pregnancy and as a result wasn't able to work the allotment...AND I got an eviction letter :( On the bright side I am now sharing the allotment with a friend so hopefully it will be more manageable in 2012, I can't wait to spend time there with my child, showing him or her the wonders of nature,

Courtesy of weheartit.com

7. Make £400 per month of crafts, photography etc - Didn't manage £400 per month, but I was pleased with what I achieved in 2011 in terms of independent money making. I am going to carry on with my Etsy craft shop, although I have closed the art shop because it wasn't as successful as I had hoped. I am on maternity leave from photography now, but will start again in late March/April. Having said that I am definitely happier with the craft side of things than the photography, and am going to work on this more in 2012,

32 sales yippy!

8. Pay off overdraft - I did this!! Purely on saving and spending less, so very pleased with myself,

Courtesy of weheartit.com

9. Watch less TV - I did this and re-read "Remotely controlled" to motivate me further, I am going to continue watching less TV and hope that when our baby comes I will be far to busy! Really don't want to look back on my life and have wasted 12 years watching TV (The average amount British people watch TV in their lifetime!)

Courtesy of weheartit.com

10. Have 100 followers on the blog - I have 106 lovely lovely followers, I have love for you all, I love your comments, thankyou thankyou for following my blog.

My fabulous followers!

As for 2012, I am not making New Years resolutions but I do have many hopes for my life with my husband and our new baby which I am sure I will share with you as time goes by. I am really looking forward to 2012.

(Photos are mine unless linked to weheartit.com)

Baby's bedroom

2011-12-30T11:43:00.000-08:00

We went to Mamas and Papas a few days ago and I fell in love with their Jamboree range. It is cute and fun and seeing as we don't know the sex of our baby yet it is fairly unisex. I like the jungle animals theme and love the colours. Here is some from their range:

Sadly we can't afford to buy all these delicious things so we are planning on buying a few key pieces like the wallpaper and then choosing fabric in co-ordinating colours and making a few matching items like curtains and a blanket. I put together this colour way to make it easier:

I will take some pics of what I make...if I manage to make anything! Stupidly I didn't photograph ANY of the Christmas presents I made but I might make some more things that are similar and put them in the shop. Here are the things I made for my family:

Dad - bought three packs of nice and unusual coffee from Whittards, a cardboard (shoe box sized) box from Hobby Craft which I decorated with pretty vintage papers and some small jars which I filled with maple syrup, some nice hot chocolate and some demerara sugar that I infused with vanilla and made pretty tags for them. I put verything in the box with some raffia to fill in the spaces.

Mum - Made some moisturiser by melting shea butter, jojoba oil and wheatgerm oil together and pouring it into a tin and letting it et, I then made a label for the tin with a piece of pretty scrapbooking paper. Also bought a kilner jar which I filled with melted wax and a wick. To make it more interesting I added some lavender oil for a nice scent and some shells and driftwood. I tied the top of the jar with raffia, a shell and a piece of driftwood.

Brother - Felted a jumper and made a pair of mittens (much harder than I thought, lots of swearing involved), and I made him tie from some tweed that had some sparkly bits in which i thought was quite festive. (Again much harder than I thought, again, lots of swearing!)

Sister - Covered a small note book with pretty fabrics, lace and buttons, bought a hot water bottle and made a patchwork cover with pretty co-ordinating fabrics, some vintage.

Sister - Made some bunting with flowery fabric and bought some cheap towels which I embellished with some lovely Cath Kidston fabric along each end.

Everyone seemed quite pleased with their presents, although my brother less so because his mittens were about 3 inches too long for his fingers!!

Did you make any presents this year? What did you make? Did they go down well?

Christmastime in my house

2011-12-21T14:46:00.000-08:00

I have been busy busy busy making Christmas presents for friends and family and trying to get the house nice and tidy before the big day. Also lots of Church things going on at this time like our Youth group Christmas party and youth drop in sessions, so not a lot of time for blogging. However thought I would share with you a few pics I managed to snatch of our Crimbo decs that we have going on this year. I went for a red and white theme with a sort of New England/Shaker feel (I think) with gingham and hand-made-looking (bought them in Wilkinsons for £1.00 each) decorations. Last year we had red and gold so I just kept the red and ditched the gold so everything matched. Also wrapping the presents with brown parcel paper and raffia this year and sewing little name tags to tie on.
School holiday has begun so hopefully will have a little more time for blogging, it only occurred to me the other day that I could have been documenting the making of my Christmas presents and producing tutorials for everything, but by then it was too late, everything was already wrapped up. I still have a few presents to make so will photograph them and see what I can do tutorial wise. Having said that I wouldn't want my family finding out what they had got if they took a sneek peek at pics on my blog.
Anyhoo, here are some photos from around the house, the tree is one we bring in every year, it is looking slightly sad this year, for some reason it has started to grow in a curve!:

And then there is me, getting bigger by the day!

Making Christmas cards

2011-12-14T03:07:00.000-08:00

Every year I like to make my own Christmas cards, I think they are more personal than the ones in the shops. This year I went for a Robin Lino cut. Here is a peek at the making process:

Christmas stuff in the shop

2011-12-09T10:03:00.000-08:00

There is a little bit of crimbo stuff in the shop, would love it if you took a look, see what you think:

Surprise!

2011-11-29T10:46:00.000-08:00

Bohemia

2011-11-21T19:00:00.000-08:00

Found this delightful shop yesterday called Bohemia. Most things are out of my price range, but there are some really lovely designs, lots of mori style too, take a look:

Love love love!

100 thing challenge

2011-11-20T13:56:00.000-08:00

I am reading a book at the moment called "100 Thing Challenge" haven't quite finished it yet, but so far it is very interesting. It is about a bloke who decides to strip his life of personal possessions till he has just 100 personal items. It is not something I would personally be interested in doing, might actually be impossible for me actually because I probably have more than 100 things in my craft room alone! However I do agree with the principals of having less stuff. I quite often feel like all my belongings are a bit of a burden, plus having a small house means that we very quickly look cluttered if we don't keep a tight reign on our buying
I do feel that the society we live in places a great deal of value on having a lot of stuff. People seem to feel that it adds value their person if they have expensive/lots of things. Usually whenever I think about buying something new I try to ask myself a few questions:
Do I need it?
Is it beautiful?
Is it useful?
Could I make it myself?
Depending on my answers to these questions will decide whether or not I will buy the thing I am looking at. Of course I am not always that virtuous and often give in to impulse purchasing!
As I have said before I am currently trying to have a bit of a clear out and make some space, but it can often be very difficult. I have noticed that there are several things that stop me from getting rid of stuff I don't need. First being that I think I might be able to sell it, therefore I keep hold of it a wait to sell it online, often I don;t end up selling the item and at this point should probably get rid of it, of course I don;t manage to do this.
The second reason I find for keeping hold of things is if it was given to me. We all receive gifts that are not always the thing we really want, they take up space we already have one, it's not quite the right thing, I know this has often happened to me, but it is very difficult to get rid of things you have been given, there is guilt attached.
And finally I am always thinking that "it might come in handy one day". This is probably the worst of the three for me, it completely disables my ability to get rid of things, and as a result I have a house and loft half full of piles of worn out of too small clothes, broken bits of things and all sorts of scraps that just might come in handy for something. I swear I have things in my possession that I have had for perhaps 15 years thinking they would be useful for something.
But at some point you have to decide that enough is enough and be ruthless, this is what I am going to have to be over the next couple of months to make space.
What are your thoughts and feelings on having lots of stuff? What do you do with things you no longer need? Could you live with just 100 personal possessions?

Hope you have all had a positive weekend and are looking forward to the week ahead with energy and excitement.
Hels
x

Selling my solar viewer

2011-11-09T04:44:00.000-08:00

I am having a massive clear out at the moment, so expect more posts like this! Today I have decided to list my beloved Solar viewer on Ebay. It has been in my Etsy shop for over a year and although I have had a few views haven't had a buyer or that much interest, now I just want to get rid of it because, at lovely as it is on my shelf, I need the space. So if you like it you really could get a bargain. Head over to Ebay and take a look:

New item in the shop - Mini book!!

2011-11-02T04:44:00.000-07:00

I have seen a few mini books floating around on the Etsy market and with my stash of vintage paper building up in my spare room to quite ridiculous proportions I thought I would give one a go to try to reduce my stash, and expand my little online business in the process. I loved making it and am definitely going to make more, I have loads of ideas for making a travel version with all my vintage maps, and a Christmas version. I have put this one in the shop but have also made another for myself so I will be posting my own finished version in a few days (check back soon!) complete with photos and journalling. I called it the "English Country" mini book because I included little things like doilies, pages from an old Enid Blyton book and floral Cath Kidston style paper which I felt gave it a feeling of eating cream teas in a pretty rose garden. Let me know what you think:

Front:

Back:

All the pages:

Especially pretty pages:

Hope you are all having a great day x

Alex Duncan - Surge

2011-11-01T13:08:00.000-07:00

The weekend before last I visited a lovely art gallery in Swansea called The Mission Gallery, the gallery alone is beautiful because it is an old church that has been converted into a small gallery space. It has a really calm, peaceful feel inside, a really beautiful, small space. The exhibition that we saw was called Surge by an artist called Alex Duncan, it consisted of a series of large format photographs which were reflections of urban environments in the surface of puddles, a series of small photographs of water - the ocean, rivers, lakes- which had been left in water till the image had begun to fall away from the paper creating a fascinating rippling effect on the surface of the photograph, and finally, an installation which, from afar, appeared to be hundreds of ocean tumbled stones but on closer examination was in fact different sized pieces of polystyrene which had been collected from beaches across the UK. The installation was really beautiful and thought provoking and we spent a long time looking at it, I would really recommend the exhibition if you are ever in Swansea.
I find it really encouraging and inspiring to visit contemporary fine art exhibitions like this one as it is such a contrast from the very traditional paintings that I spend a lot of time looking at online. Unfortunately I couldn't take any photos inside but I did manage to find on online that someone must have sneaked; I have also included some images from the publicity material:

Have you seen any inspiring contemporary art exhibitions recently?

Treasury on Etsy

2011-10-31T14:58:00.001-07:00

I enjoyed making a treasury today, haven't made on for a while, but it took me a loooong time, plus I accidentally pressed back space halfway through, lost the whole things and had to start again! Hope you like it.

'Can the magic in my heart fly across an ocean of love' by serendipitychild

Beautiful things

Elvish Twine ring, sterling ... redsofa $70.00	Wonderland Art Print 8x10. ... donnageissler $30.00	Moonrise, Charmed Meadow sol... 88editions $258.00
I Heart Bubbles - Floating i... WhimsicalMinim... $25.00	Antique Apothecary Bottle Co... JennasBeachRet... $44.99	original drawing - combined ... restlessthings $75.00
Fall Sale: visit shop for co... amylgieschen $20.00	Stillness - 8 x 10 paper pri... maechevrette $20.00	summer field nature photogra... shannonpix $28.00
FLAGS orginal oil painting o... BrookeWandall $35.00	Leafy Garden Platter: Large ... IllyriaPottery $78.00	30 Place Cards, Wine Glass D... MamaTita $60.00
Glass Reflections- daisy flo... leapinggazelle $25.00	Buy 1 Get 1 Free This Week -... ChelseaVictori... $30.00	5" dish be you. mbartstudios $22.00

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio.

Some things that made me happy today

2011-10-29T13:18:00.000-07:00

A beautiful sunny day so the hubby and I set of for an afternoon at The Vyne, a nearby National Trust house and gardens. We took their woodland walk and thoroughly enjoyed the sun through the leaves and the wind in the pine needles followed by a cream tea. Here are some things that made me smile:

Beautiful red leaves

Last butterfly of the season?

Tasty cream tea and carrot cake,

The sun shining through the leaves,

This bench with it's inspirational message "Reach for the stars"...

So I did!

What has made you smile so far this weekend?

What are you reading?

2011-10-28T15:24:00.000-07:00

I am always reading. I literally always have at least one book on the go; I read before I go to sleep, it helps me relax and sometimes, if the book is really good I will read while I am having my breakfast. If I am ever out in the car for a long journey and my husband is driving, I read then too. But recently I haven't been able to really settle into a book. I have partially read an Alison Weir novel, then I started to read a book called "Last Child in the Woods" I couldn't really get into either of them, not because they aren't good books but it just wasn't what I wanted or needed to read at this moment in time. So I picked up a book off the shelf that I have read before called "Living the Good Life". If you have read this blog a long time you will know that I am really into self-sufficiency, I have my own allotment and like to fantasise about having a smallholding, giving up work and doing it ourselves. This book by Linda Cockburn is about her life of self-sufficiency in Australia and it is really great (like reading while I eat breakfast great). I am in full on fantasy mode when it comes to self-sufficiency, watched a couple of episodes of the Good Life this week and went to the allotment today to plant some broad beans. All because of a couple of chapters of this fab book.

So what have you been reading recently, anything get you really inspired?

op.s. if you are interested Linda Cockburn has a blog about her life of self-sufficiency in Australia, read about it here.

Another new thing in the shop and a moan

2011-10-26T13:45:00.000-07:00

I have a bit of a moan today but first I will just show you this new item in my shop: It's a hanging decoration made from vintage maps, do you like it? I haven't made any of my paper wares into 3D forms before so I enjoyed using embroidery and wadding to make this home accessory into a stuffed shape.

I have made a small and large one, only the large one is in the shop at the moment, I will be listing the small one tomorrow. Do you like?

So here is my moan. I was driving on the motorway this afternoon and was overtaking in the central lane at 70mph (the speed limit) Suddenly a car from behind me indicated into the middle lane the undertook me and sped off make a ride gesture with his hand/arm (something I am pretty sure a woman CAN'T be). What a cheek!! I saw no reason for him gesticulating at me like this, I had done nothing wrong , I don't know about you but I am definitely finding that people are becoming more aggressive on the roads. When other drivers annoy me I just let it go over my head because I know it isn't worth getting angry about, I tend to think that being rude and aggressive towards others just adds negativity to the world, and really I want more love and peace not more anger and aggression. Having said that, I did leave this status update on Facebook to vent some of my miffedness:

"To the man on the M4 travelling West from Bracknell who gave me the wanker sign; the speed limit on the motorway is 70mph regardless of which lane you are in. Idiot."

However, he will never hear this so at least he won't know that he upset me with his unnecessary rudeness. Some people...tsh.

How do you deal with rude and aggressive drivers?

new item in the shop

2011-10-25T09:54:00.000-07:00

I have been longing to make a doily bowl for ages and I finally got round to making on last week Wednesday. I am really pleased with the results and will make more with some white doilies which I think might be more sell-able, assuming I can sell this one. I got it up into the shop this morning and would love you to take a look and let me know what you think of it, I am not 100% on the photos I think the contrast might be too high. Do you like the little tag I made for it?

Recent artwork

2011-10-19T03:29:00.000-07:00

I am finally feeling like I can be creative again, the artistic juices are flowing and rather than giving up when things don't turn out perfect, or not even starting out to begin with, as I have done in the past, I am just having a go anyway, making art for myself and not even thinking about selling and not worrying that some of it is quite bad.
So here are some recent artworks that I have created just in my small journals, I drew ideas from how I was feeling at the time of paintings them. They are certainly not the best things I have ever done, but they are "something"; paint to paper, creativity, and something of my spirit on paper. I would love to know what you think.

The most revolting looking soup ever

2011-10-15T11:01:00.000-07:00

So today we went for a lovely walk in some woods near us, the weather was glorious, so warm and bright, there was not a cloud in the sky, I always find walking in the woods like healing, I feel totally refreshed and revived after getting fresh air and sun on my skin.

Along the way we gathered lots of sweet chestnuts from their spikey jackets, it was bliss shuffling through the autumn leaves picking up and admiring the shiny smooth skins of the chestnuts in the glorious sun, some had fine silken hairs on them, like these:

When we got home I chopped some onions, garlic, celery and squash, added a stock cube and water, then boiled up the sweet chestnuts. After cooling the chestnuts I spent about 45 minuted peeling the flaming things and I now have a very sore thumb. The result was this absolutely disgusting looking soup, my husband names it spooky soup because it looks like something you might serve on Halloween!

Yes folks, your eyes are not deceiving you, you do not need to adjust your screens, that is in fact grey soup!

It was tasty though!

Versatile Blogger Award

2011-10-12T14:30:00.000-07:00

I am pleased to say that I have been tagged with the versatile blogger award from my blogger friend Fran over at SkullsandPonies.

The idea of the award is to basically share a blog you admire, respect and like! So I am thrilled to be awarded!

When you are tagged with this award you are given the opportunity to share with your readers some information about you. So here are 7 things about me that you may not know:

1. I am a massive fan of the BBC TV series The Good Life, and would love to be self-sufficient myself. I grow my own veg at my allotment and try to make as much as I can from scratch.

2. I believe I have some kind of magnetic field in me because electronic equipment often breaks or malfunctions when I use it and i can't wear a watch because they always stop.

3. I have a kind of split personality, I can never commit to one thing I always like a bit of this and a bit of that. I like Mori girl style, but also 1940's, I like shabby chic, but also mid century modern, I want to be self-sufficient, but I love convenience, the list goes on. Although I don't believe is star signs, I do seem to match up with my symbol of the twins!

4. I wish I could sing, I like to think I can, but really I know I am terrible! I would love to sing like Vera Lynn and tour round old peoples homes singing songs that won the war!

5. I have two guinea pigs, Florence and Matilda, they are a naughty, cute pair and I love them.

6. I am allergic to cats, some people think that I don't like cats, but that's not the case at all, they are so pretty and look so soft to stroke, but I just can;t stand to be around them for more than a few hours without sneezing, having an itchy throat, coughing and wheezing.

7. I used to love dance and gymnastics, I did tap, ballet, theatre craft and gymnastics and loved it so so much. Now I don;t do any dance, for some reason I don;t miss it, but it brought me a lot of happiness at the time.

I am passing this award on to:

Two Shades of Pink

Take Courage

Ruffles and Stuff

Mori Girl Levitation

2011-10-10T09:57:00.000-07:00

Hi folks,

I came across this wonderful photographer the other day and thought you would like to see her beautiful photographs. The images of yowayowa "levitating" are beautiful in their own right but in my mind some of her photographs have a Mori feel to them which just makes me love them even more:

I could just keep on posting her images, they are so wonderful. Click on the image to visit her website to see more.

Mannequin update

2011-10-09T09:02:00.000-07:00

You may remember some time ago my sister and I made a mannequin of my own body and I posted up photos of the process. After posting about it on a forum I visit, I realised I never shared with you the photos of the finished object, so thought I would do so today!

I made the mannequin by putting on a black plastic bin bag then getting my sister to wrap my in gummed parcel tape. When I was all wrapped up my sister cut up the back and removed the form. I then taped up the cut and the head hole and stuffed it with plastic bags.

Next I took an old Christmas tree and cut off all the branches, I wrapped the tree in some tough white cotton and secured it around the trunk with some co-ordinating herringbone tape. I then secured the trunk in a Christmas tree stand. I placed my mannequin form on top and covered the bottom of the form with more gummed tape to keep it attached to the tree trunk.

Here is the finished thing:

This time last year

2011-09-30T14:11:00.000-07:00

Thought I would have a little look back at what I was up to about this time last year.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Autumn Outfit

2011-09-29T11:24:00.001-07:00

Went shopping with mum yesterday as she came over for the day and saw some lovely outfits in M and S. All out of my price range of course but I liked the casual, almost hippyish style, they had a sort of vintage washed out look which I liked. I put this outfit together which reminded me of one of the outfits on a mannequin in M and S. My thirft plan it to try to buy similar items from charity shops and see if I can put something together for a fraction of the price.

Autumn Outfit by serendipitychild featuring short heels

Vince smock top
$220 - net-a-porter.com

Leather waistcoat
£180 - flannelsfashion.com

Abercrombie Fitch embroidered skirt
$68 - abercrombie.com

HYD stockings hosiery
€15 - pret-a-beaute.com

Belstaff short heels
$735 - net-a-porter.com

Ralph Lauren Collection flap handbag
$595 - net-a-porter.com

Chunky jewelry
£15 - julesb.co.uk

HTC floral belt
$135 - barneys.com