More visitors and February stitching report

It's been another busy month, with visitors and even some casual work for me... but I have managed to get some stitching in!

As mentioned in my last update, Alex's godmother Lydia came to stay in early February for a few days. A couple of days after we said goodbye to her, Tom's parents and brother arrived for a visit. It was nice to spend time with them and take them to some of our favourite places - all food related of course! It was also lovely to have them all here to celebrate Tom's birthday.

Tom's brother had to head back to Australia after a week, but we will see his parents again the last couple of days before they leave Bali after they've spent some time at another part of the island.

Just before Tom's birthday I also started some casual work. It's only a few days over a couple of weeks, helping out with early voting for Western Australian state elections, but it's been rather fun getting dressed up again for work and going into an office! With the baby bump still barely showing (meaning all my old work clothes still fit - yay!), and my energy levels starting to go back to normal, I'm feeling like my old self again!!

In between work and spending time with visitors, I've also squeezed in some stitching. I've done a bit more work on the 'A Boys Story' quilt by Anni Downs for Alex. Last year I started the aeroplane applique block but hadn't quite finished. All I needed to do was applique the trees and grass and finish it off with some stitchery. I'm rather happy with the finished block:

 

Finishing the applique square meant I was able to put together the full block - meaning I have one corner of the quilt done!

Alex is rather obsessed with planes at the moment (along with cars, trains, trucks, and buses... what's with boys and transportation?!). His excitement in seeing the 'air-pane' made me fairly confident he'll like the final product and has encouraged me to try and get the bulk of this quilt done before baby number two arrives. Wishful thinking? Let's hope not! In pushing forward with that goal, during this month I also prepared the train applique square... and finished it, stitchery and all :)

 

Now just to get moving with more of the stitchery cartoon squares and I can do some more piecing. Problem is, I'm also DYING to start other projects. My Mum is visiting in a couple of months and I'd love to have made some headway with a project she's asked me to do - a smallish stitchery of a lady who has been shopping. But, with my new year's resolution in mind, I know I should be picking at other old projects before I start tracing the new pattern. So a stitchery cushion top I started last year got some attention in the last few days of February, although with most of it requiring 'chain stitch' it seems to be taking a while. I think I'll have to do a few more stitches before I share photos... but I think I may have done just enough to warrant a new project for March... hehe :)

Until next time xx

Busy couple of weeks

Oops, I haven't been updating my blog of late quite as frequently as I'd been hoping to!
It has been a rather busy couple of weeks though...

This morning we said goodbye to a lovely visitor we had for a few days. Alex's godmother Lydia came to stay and it was so nice to see her, and especially spending an incredibly relaxing day at a spa retreat on Saturday :) Our day, starting at 10am was filled with massages, scrubs, manicure/pedicure, and all sorts of other pampering until we left at 5pm. Absolute bliss!!

On the rest of the days that Lydia spent with us, we enjoyed lovely meals including brunch on the other side of town overlooking the beach, and a Chinese New Year's feast to mention just a couple.

We also spent a day exploring Ubud, as well as taking a drive up to Kintamani to see the volcano Mt Batur and the surrounding lake. Absolutely amazing, and apparently the volcano continues to be active.

The weekend before Lydia arrived, we finally stepped foot in the ocean while living in Bali... can you believe it's taken 4 months?! I'm not much of a sand person, and having a pool in the backyard has eliminated a need to go near the ocean. Despite living a short walk from the beach, we packed up the car and headed across the island to Seminyak for our beach experience. The water was very refreshing on a rather hot day!

Alex, despite showing tendencies of not liking sand much like his Mama, had heaps of fun playing in the muddy sand with Daddy

Our day at the beach came after a rather busy week of Tom being on call and a last minute 'day trip' to Singapore... and yes, I said day trip! We flew out of Bali at 6.30am and left Singapore at 8.45pm that same day. With the flight time only 2 1/2 hours, we still managed to see a lot though! In particular, we went on the Singapore Flyer - a large 'ferris' wheel acting as a giant observation wheel with excellent views of most of the island.

Here is a picture of the Flyer itself... apparently it's the largest of its kind in the world.

In the afternoon we headed off to a medical appointment, being the reason for our quick Singapore visit. I can now happily announce that Alex is going to be a big brother in August! We found out rather last minute that it was best to head to Singapore for our 12-week ultrasound and some routine blood tests as Bali's facilities aren't to the same standard. All is looking well with our second bubba, and now I'm just hoping that the morning sickness and tiredness will settle down soon! Unfortunately even the best scan picture of bubba was a little blurred when I tried to scan it to the computer, so I'll have to wait until the 20-week scan to share bubba's first picture :)

Well, that's my big news and my busy couple of weeks...
Until next time (hopefully not as long a time either!) xx