Pink in the House of Trouser!

Well I have had a couple of days to get used to the news but I have to say that it is still blowing my head off - we are expecting a little girl!

I was so 100% sure it was a boy and Mr G was sure we were having a girl but I pooh-poohed his idea (I mean a mother knows her body doesn't she?).  I could not believe it when the sonographer said it was a girl!  I actually said I don't believe her!  We told the rest of the family who are all so pleased for us and surprised too as my 2 boys are the only grandchildren and nephews on both sides.  Mr G and I are in shock (me especially - "I was  ... Wrong?") and are finding it strange to use words like "daughter" and "she" and "her" as they have not really been in our daily vocabulary until now!

I am so thrilled.  I have always wanted three children and now, knowing that I am having a girl, I am reflecting on the other option of three boys.  I love having two boys now and I was looking forward to having three boys and just thought that that was the way it was going to be for me.  A girl has really made me think about how the dynamic in our house is going to change.  I love the idea of having another female in the house (even our cat is male) and I cannot wait to meet her!

I have to say, I am concerned with the amount of pink that everyone is telling me is going to hit my house.  I am not a pink girl and after scaring myself to nausea in the baby clothes aisle of my local supermarket.  Does it really have to explode all over the house when a girl arrives?  There has been a girl living in my house for as long as I can remember and there is no pink anywhere - not even in the wardrobe!  What will our new arrival bring with her?  Will the House of Trouser go pink?

Whatever she brings she will be loved for it by us all.

It happens every year ...

Every year around this time. I get introspective.  I think about the year just gone and the year yet to come. I make lists.  I make plans.  I may start these lists and plans.  I may carry them out for a week or two.  I certainly lose focus on them.  I certainly lose my grip. I definitely forget them, maybe for a moment, maybe for a month.  I come back to them and bemoan my inability to follow things through.  I hate myself for a while.  I get introspective.  I write another list.  I hate this journey.  I want to get off.

To Be Read 2012

I have shelves full of books in my house many of which I have read but many of which I have had on my To Be Read list for years. I saw this challenge for 2012 and thought it was right up my street.

Here is my pile

31 Songs - Nick Hornby

Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel García Marquez

Paula - Isabel Allende

Big Stone Gap - Adriana Trigiani (oops picked up the wrong book for the pic)

The Resurrectionist - James Bradley

Birdsong - Sebastian Faulkes

Dylan Thomas - Andrew Lychett

Eating Children - Jill Tweedie

The Christmas Books - Charles Dickens

Birds Without Wings - Louis de Bernières

Shakespeare - Bill Bryson

Quiet Moments in a War - The Letters of Jean-Paul Sartre to Simone de Beauvoir

1940-1963

Tess of the D'Urbevilles - Thomas Hardy

Insomnia - Stephen King

In no particular order I have to read 12 of the TBR pile in 2012 (with 2 spares in case 2 are no-goes). The challenge starts on 1st January 2012 and ends on 31st December 2012 by which time all the books will have been read and reviewed here. I think it is a fab challenge and hope it makes a big space on my groaning bookshelves in 2012!

:(

I am not happy with my life right now.

That sounds awful, but it is not that dramatic. I have a penchant for the dramatic sentence. To clarify, I mean to say that there are things about me that I hate, not so much about my life, that make me unhappy.

There are things that I want to go but never get around to doing. I am currently trying to apply for Olympic tickets with 51 minutes to spare before the 5,000,000 day deadline is up. I could not motivate myself to apply for something I have been wanting to get for years. There are thousands of other people trying to do the same thing and causing the website to crash. I actually set up a ticket account this afternoon which was awfully foresighted of me. Not foresighted enough to actually get the bloody things though. What an idiot.

I have no energy or get-up-and-go and I can't control my eating.

I can't even be bothered to finish this post. 23.23

23.41 I have just come back from the Olympic website after trying for an hour, and managed to request 4 tickets for the night of the men's 100m final! Whoop whoop! I did it! If ever there was a time to pull one out of the bag that was it! Ok, so I don't have them quite in the bag yet, but at least I applied for the ambition! I am so pleased with myself I just want to apply for jobs now!

I love blogger, but ...

I love love love Blogger. Even though I have not been posting for the past few months I have still been using it to follow all my fave blogs on RSS as this is a great way of reading the "headlines". I have, however decided to stop doing this as I find that there is soooo much lovely interesting stuff going on out there, that there is no time left to do important stuff like blogging myself and doing useful things like, erm Christmas shopping! I often read blogs for half an hour, an hour day whilst waiting for the boys to go to sleep or just noodling about on t'laptop until stupid o'clock at night. This is all very well and lovvely, but not ultimately useful or creative for me. Now this time will be used more creatively for doing inspiring crafty things and making some space and money for little old Gherkin.

The blogs I follow are largely crafty ones, written and photographed by some very clever and talented and INSPIRING people who make me OOOh and aaaah daily on sight of their pretty wares. They are just so amazing and make me go "I could make that!" and all to quickly I find myself with a bunch of new fabric and bits of shiny things to do to it and then no time to actually make a dent in said fabric and shiny things! I have vowed for 2011 to clear a space in my crafty boxes (and there are MANY) and make stuff with the stuff I have and then blog about it myself and maybe inspire someone else to drag a box out from under the bad and do something with the contents!

Here is a list of the things I plan to make over the next decade or so.

Voile fabric flower brooches (5 fabrics bought this week)

Vintage button rings (ring blanks awaiting toppers!)

Dust ruffle and bunting and bolster cover for Cornichon (fabric in bag awaiting wash)

Bunting for Little Pickle (ditto)

Earrings for Folksy shop (beads hanging around since summer)

Envelopes to sell (too many books in wardrobe waiting to be snipped)

Slides for birthday presents (make-your-own-button kit relatively unused)

Quilt for Mr Gherkin (need to get rind of some fabric!)

Quilt for me (fabric saved from January awaiting wash)

Quit sandwiched for Mum and Dad (WIP right now- will be done for Christmas!)

Lavender bags to sell (huge bag of lavender is residing in my wardrobe - yum but ugly)

Baby quilt for N's little girl (so much fabric to use up!)

Baby boy quilt (ditto)

Cut up old clothes for the ultimate recycling quilt (memories of old sicky babygros)

Denim quilt (nobody needs a whole box of old jeans that don't fit any more, do they?)

That is just the tip of the iceberg. Quilts take ma ages. Hopefully, I will have much more time on my hands now I cut out my inspirational reading time and turn it into inspired crafting time!

Small Challenges

I made a bet with myself tonight as I made tea for the boys. I bet myself I would be able to resist picking at their tea (frankfurter sausages in ratatouille with rice). And I DID! I love frankfurter sausages (they are soooo gross but sooooo addictive and once I pop I can't stop. Anyway I was strong all through teatime and did not try one (as I know that would have broken the seal) and even when clearing the table I did not break. I was so pleased with myself that I decided to go for a run after putting the kids down and I DID! It was was lovely too - through the woods which were bursting with wood anemones and threatening to explode with the promise of bluebells. I came home invigorated and refreshed and not hungry and very pleased with myself. I then shaved my legs and prepped my toes with the first part of a pedicure. I am soooo organised and ready for an early night! Get me!

Just me

I feel the need to think hard over the next few days about what I want in my life in 2010 and what channel I intend to take. I have been pootling along nicely now for a long time using the kids as a crutch but not taking anything for myself. I am going to have a good long think about what is good for me, just me.