Dear Addison - 10 Months

Dear Addison,

I think that I would like to pause time this month. You are at such an awesome age and I fear that the next few months will zoom by with a more mobile you.

This month you learnt how to get around the room. I'm not saying crawling because you are still a while away from that, but you can commando crawl around by using your forearms to pull yourself along. It has helped a bit of the frustration noises you have been making but they are still happenning because you want to be standing up most of the time, which you still need a helping hand with. You are getting pretty close to pulling yourself up though and you are getting more and more confident stepping around furniture. I think in a month or two you will have caught up to your little friends, some of whom are walking already! I am enjoying the restricted movement in a sense, because it is not too crazy yet.

 
You have 8 teeth now and it is mentioned in everyone's comments when they see you. You have also started chomping on the length of your fingers so those molars of yours are probably getting ready to make an appearance soon. You are a pretty good teether I think. There is a lot of drool so the bibs are out in force. You also seem to wake up about 30min after we put you to bed with such a sad cry so we give you teething powder and sometimes Pamol and you generally go back down without a fuss.

You have started biting a little bit, you got me pretty good on the cheek the other day when I thought I was getting a kiss. You suddenly bit down hard and clamped on and I couldn't get you off. There were a few tears from me then and an invisible bruise. You have also bitten me while feeding a few times which ends in yelping and you end up in tears. We are looking at slowly weaning you around the 1 year mark so not too much longer but I will miss it.

You have started to copy sounds and mimic our mouth movements. You try to say 'beep' and 'ball' but both end up being 'buh'. You can identify 'Dad-dy' and 'Mam-a'. Killer is 'La' and Banana is 'nananana!'

You are now a pro at waving goodbye but you need to master the eye contact that goes with it.

Your newest trick is turning the pages of a book. We read Hairy McLary - the touch and feel version - and I zoom through it trying to keep up with you turning the pages, stopping at the last page to feel the scratchy velcro tongue of Scarface Claw (the toughest tom in town). Touch and feel books are the only books you seem to be interested in, but we can wrangle you into listening while you brush your teeth.

You love music and enjoy toys that bang, rattle or shake. Balls are a hit and so are bubbles. Everything still goes in your mouth so we have to be careful what ends up on the floor, you are quite partial to bits of last nights dinner we didn't sweep up. You also love the mirror and play games with us when we hide from you.

You are starting to transition to one nap per day (nooooooooooo) especially if we head out in the morning. This was kickstarted by the demolition of the house next door. It was so loud and house-shaky that you couldn't sleep during the day for the few days there was work going on - and fair enough too! We have since had other road works and the concrete cutter is not your favourite.

You went swimming this month for the first time! Nana and Koro were here for a visit and we went over to one of the indoor pools. You loved it! there was no apprehension and you enjoyed being swum around. You liked being on your tummy in the water but not being tilted onto your back. Aunty Jane is coming next week and we will go swimming again with her.

Your cousin arrived two weeks ago, he is beautiful and you were quite excited to see him at the hospital, you leaned over his bassinet and smiled as you tried to touch him. I can't wait until you can both play together.

You are beautiful Addison, you make people smile and draw them to you. I love you to bits.

xx Mum

{DIY} Blue and Gold Dresser Makeover

About a month ago, Dave was away for 8 days on business. To fill up my evenings, I decided to tackle a long overdue project.

This dresser literally arrived on my doorstep one night. My wonderful brother-in-law is always on the hunt for roadside treasures and he saw this one, loaded it into his car and dropped it off one night way before Christmas! I put it away in the shed and forgot about it (Dave didn't - he kept reminding me it was taking up precious shed space!) until I had a moment of inspiration. 

Below is the before pic - I had to borrow this one from TradeMe because I forgot to take one! Mine was without the mirror or lip on the back edge.

It was in ok condition, a few rough patches here and there and a few of the rails need replacing but still perfectly functional.

When we bought our house we inherited a bunch of paint cans in one of the sheds. One of the cans had this really pretty blue colour that I kept in my head for a someday project. I am also really loving the metallic/gold trend at the moment so I put the two together and boom.

I also wanted to make a feature of the inlays, not just paint the outline but fill it up with a statement piece. The Moroccan-ish pattern stuck out to me and so I went in search of something I could use to stencil.

Unfortunately what I wanted wasn't easy to stencil so I took the long route and made a template and carefully traced around it a bazillion times, trying to get the spacing even.

Then came the hours of hand painting between the lines, they needed a couple of coats too - Dave bought me a gold paint pen to make things easier but it got clogged and bled everywhere so I ended up using the paint from the pen and brushing it on.

Once that was done I had to figure out what to do with the handles. They were silver and white pewter and I couldn't make up my mind what to replace them with. I ended up spray painting the original handles gold and they turned out pretty good and still go with the new drawers.

I am so stoked with how this project turned out, it is exactly what was in my head and I managed to execute it all by myself!

It also cost pretty much $0 because we had everything lying around - (no wait I had to buy gold paint and the paint pen - so lets say $20)

This beauty is going in Addison's room and is the inspiration piece for the colour scheme. I am still to work out the details though. It is almost ready for painting - so close!

While I was taking these photos my kitty Killer came to help model the drawers for me!

Dresses For Cambodia

A while ago a friend of mine, who has a very generous heart, put out a call to anyone who can sew.
I won't ever win any awards for sewing but I can get the basics done to a passable standard so I answered.

The call? To make simple dresses for little girls that get rescued from the streets of Cambodia. They normally get clothed in soccer uniforms but what little girl doesn't want a pretty dress of her own!
Sophie has a friend that works with these girls and is able to facilitate the distribution of the dresses that get made. How cool!

I have been hoarding vintage sheets for a good few years now, using bits here and there but I still had the bulk of the fabric left which is perfect for making lightweight dresses for the heat of Cambodia.

I used this free pattern to make the dresses and made one in each size from 1-8. I feel like the gap from shoulder to armpit isn't big enough for the average kiwi girl but hopefully they will fit someone! I really love seeing the pretty dresses all lined up and I love that I can use my time and resources to do something good!
 
 I just need to get my hands on some size labels then they will be off on their adventure!

If you can sew or if you would like to contribute fabric to the cause then get in touch with Sophie or I!
xx