november love

Disclaimer: I've been in the process of writing this post for about a month so it's all over the place, I guess it comes with being a new mum. Or I'm just really disorganised. Oh well, onward and upward!

My favourite time of the year has come and gone! The weather has started to warm up amidst rainy days, plans for christmas celebrations and gift giving are on my mind, and I've celebrated turning 25 years old as well as 9 years together with Adam (we started dating in 2001 & married last year).

I am so amazingly blessed to have such a wonderful husband and gorgeous little girl. Adam is such a great support and help to me, always loving and sweet and forgiving (yes, I do dumb stuff sometimes!) and supportive, that I could not imagine my life without him. And Nova is simply flourishing, smiling and giggling, cooing and blowing raspberries, and about to cut her second tooth already!

I loved the idea of having a list of things I'd like to do before my next birthday and was inspired by Elsie to do the same. Here's my list: 25 before 26 (work in progress).

Often I feel that if I don't have any pictures to post that I don't remember anything of importance to share here (or I just don't remember). I have definitely been taking photos though, some on my Diana Mini but most on my iPhone and posting them on instagram. If you're on there, please friend me! Username: owlette. Instagram is seriously the best photo app I've come across ever. I've been using it to take photos of Nova daily, I'm hoping I'll make it to 365!! I'm also posting them to my twitter and flickr accounts. Here's a few previews:

counting down the days

It's been a fun, creative, trying-to-be-patient sort of month so far. Feels like life has started to get busier again very quickly, and I know in the next months to come it will only increase, and that's great!

We've finally gotten the keys to our new home, and the renovations are already under way! It's starting to look so lovely and it should all be done within the next 2-3 weeks. Then we can finally move in! Since we'll be renting from my in-laws, their whole family is joining in on the fun of stripping the floors for new wooden boards and repainting the walls and doors. It's so lovely to see them all come together to help out, I only wish I could be a part of it! I've always wanted to do home-renovation projects and have been waiting for the day we would have our own place to do it in, unfortunately being pregnant has restricted me from all the fun stuff (heavy lifting, painting fumes, climbing ladders). Hubby says I'm working hard enough already making a baby, he's very sweet :) So for now, I'm just really looking forward to being able to pack up all our things into boxes when the time is right. Not long now till we move!

I've been delving into my creative side once again, and it feels great! Early this year I decided that I'd start designing cards rather than buying them to save costs and to give myself a project. Lately I've been re-designing some of the birthday & thank you cards, and I'm liking how they look. I also made invitations, "eat me" & "drink me" tags, and headed up a DIY body scrub session for my gorgeous friend's bachelorette party, which was Mad Hatter themed. It was held at her parent's home, the decorations looked so lovely and the food was delicious! Guests were invited to bring a plate, I baked banana bread and lemon meringue pie :) My latest creative venture is a second-hand sewing machine my mum bought me a few days ago. After she showed me the basics and then reading through the manual I felt I finally understood how it worked. I've started making something I plan to use for my upcoming baby shower. I'll be taking photos again soon so there's proof I'm not making this all up :)

All this craft & designing & baking has gotten my creative juices flowing, and really has me wanting to open up my own shop of sorts. Not so much for the money but rather because I love making things too much to let them collect dust, and there's only so many people I know that appreciate handmade gifts. I've considered using Etsy, but wonder if there's any other way of selling things online that works best with the AUS$. Or more importantly, would anyone actually like what I make enough to buy it?

planning planning planning

Still getting over a chest infection, but have started collecting ideas for my baby shower! I won't be having it till June so I'm just gathering inspiration for how I'd like to decorate. The theme is: rain. How original for a baby shower! Haha :) But I just looove when it rains, and clouds and raindrops are so cute, and since I don't what the baby is I figured this would be a fun way to bring in turquoise as a neutral colour.

I've also been making a few things for my friend's bachelorette party. It is Mad Hatter tea party themed, and I spent the day making "eat me" and "drink me" tags yesterday and will be baking banana bread and lemon meringue pie the day of the party. Not to mention that hubby and I will be moving within a week of her party too so there will be a lot of packing to be done amidst the party planning. Then once we've moved it will be lots of unpacking and organising and settling in.

I cannot wait to unpack as I loooove organising, especially in categories, ie alphabetically, size, genre (I'm thinking of our books, dvds, and kitchen cupboards). Yes, I am a dork and will go so far as to start categorising items placed in random order at dvd stores, much to the disdain of my husband (but I know he secretly loves it!) And unpacking means finally getting to use all the bridal shower and wedding gifts we were given over a year ago that have been in storage. It's like birthdays and christmas all rolled into one!

past few days

I've been sick with a chest infection/flu for the last week. It seems like it's hit me a lot harder than past years now that I'm pregnant, my lungs felt bruised every time I coughed! Not fun. But I am taking baby-safe antibiotics and am slowly recovering. Time spent in bed has been passed with the first season of Gossip Girl (which was entertaining enough), reading Nana and my favourite magazines from New Zealand: Your Home & Garden and World Sweet World. I wish they were available in Australia! Especially since these are much more suited to my taste than most of the home renovation magazines here; most of them cover only country or unaffordable-modern styles. Except Real Living, which I find is great with tips & tricks and has an affordable diy approach which I plan to apply when decorating our new home in the future. And I am seriously counting down the days till we move out, only a few more weeks and I cannotwait&amsoexcited!

just a quickie

Life has been amazing lately, I feel so blessed! I can't wait to share it with you all. Unfortunately we've gone over our download limit so the internet is s-l-o-w and frustrating to even try to view my reader to catch up on all those lovely blogs I follow, let alone trying to upload anything of my own. So I've resorted to posting from my iPhone. Here's a preview of what's to come (hopefully by next week):
• A couple of yummy baking photos
• Etsy buy from magicqueen
• Weekend away celebrating my one year anniversary with hubby

sleepy owlette

Gentle Raindrop is no more. Welcome to Sleepy Owlette! Some may wonder why the sudden name change, especially since it means that anyone that may have been following me will no longer know where I am... That was a risk I took, and besides, other than the newly added "Followers" widget on the side I wouldn't have had any idea anyone was reading this other than myself and the few that left comments. So to those that did I have tried to reconnect by leaving new comments on their lovely blogs. Hope that helps, and thanks to all the lovely people that actually read my ramblings!

Anyhow, the reason I decided to change blog name was due to a sleepless night, thinking of all the fun the future holds when my little bundle of joy arrives. My hubby and I are sooo completely excited. Any time the baby kicks and I let him know so he can try to feel with his hand on my belly, we get completely googly-eyed and mushy and that "I'm so happy right now I could cry" look in our eyes. Since finding out about the baby, I have bought only one piece of clothing so far. This is not without effort, and the fact that we're waiting till the birth to find out if it's a girl or boy has actually been helpful, if frustrating. So in essence, the name change is in honour of our baby. :)

a little naked chef

I've been avoiding the 'Afternoon Tea' baking challenge... BUT at least I am still trying different recipes! I had a quick look through jamieoliver.com and found a few that I liked. I have since made the full english for dinner a few nights ago (hubby was completely stoked) and today I tried my hand at my version of apple pie from scratch! It turned out okay-ish.. My mistake in editing the recipe is that I replaced a few ingredients I didn't have for something "similar", ie instead of ginger in syrup I used maple syrup and instead of real blackberries I was going to use jam, but I could only find apricot jam and used that instead. The end product tastes pretty good considering, but the apricot taste is enough to make me not want more than a nibble.

I've come to the realisation that I really need to work on my photography skills. I want to be able to take memorable (not accidentally nice) photos of me and my hubby, and even more so when our little one arrives. I feel limited having only a Canon SX100 (not a DSLR) but at the same time know that having a nicer camera doesn't necessarily mean I'll take nicer photos. Better brush up on what I learned in photography back in uni a few years back!

blood battles and dessert

My hubby and I email each other a lot throughout the work day. It's the best thing though, especially during a crappy day because he's so good at cheering me up. Yeah, we're lovesick like that.

Okay, let me explain a bit here: I'm not a big romance fan. You ask me if I've seen the latest chick flick at the movies and I'll start telling you about the last action movie I watched. I get annoyed when right after some awesome fight scene they bring in some pathetic love interest that ruins the whole plot. My idea of a good mix of action/romance? 300. Short hubby/wife action and then off to war.

Anyhow, I got this very lovely email from MR. Husband, and am very much looking forward to our date night tonight! Yes, the way to my heart IS through my stomach!

For desert my love would you prefer:

Nutella & Marshmallow Crepes
Thin traditional crepes filled with melted nutella and marshmallows, sprinkled with nuts
or....

Mars Bar Cheese Cake
Traditional baked cheesecake with a mars bar twist
or....

Nutella Pizza
Oven baked pizza topped with nutella and nuts
or....

Nutella Pancakes
Stack of pancakes topped with melted nutella and nuts

Yes, I love being married to my man!! And yes, I do love nutella. I have been known to have it not only on toast but also crepes, muffins, scones, sao biscuits, strawberries, oh the possibilities are endless!!

REBOOT

I'm 23 years old, married to the most amazing man and serving an awesome, powerful, personal God. I'm musically and creatively inclined. I'm so imperfect it's not funny (well, sometimes it is) and a little obsessive compulsive. I've studied graphic design for four years and now work an administration job for debt collectors (don't ask). I'm hoping to one day be one of those blogger mums and share a glimpse of my day with the world, but I don't have kids yet so this is practice. True story. One day I will look back at this and laugh. In a good way.

there's nothing wrong with making plans

Been journaling a bit, knitting a green scarf, and pondering lyrics. Discovered tumblr and am very much in love. Have been keeping a "food diary" that I will look back on when completed and possibly cry (not really, just being dramatic). I do realise, of course, that although I may have cut a lot of junk food out of my diet and am consuming much more fruit/veggies/water than before that it makes almost no difference if I do not exercise.

lunch break

Hubby and I have been house sitting for his aunt's while she's on holidays with her family. It is so much fun, and a nice glimpse into the future (we currently live with my parents). We are so excited and eager for the day we have finally saved up enough to move out on our own.

In some ways it feels like we're doing things backwards. Most couples move out together then possibly get married and have kids (or kids then marriage), where as we dated for seven years before getting engaged and marrying three months after that. But I love our quirky relationship and I can't imagine life with anyone else. Hooray for highschool sweethearts!

I've got a few projects I hope to show in the future once we're back home and I have my camera handy. I've taken up knitting again since it's almost winter. I've really neglected my creative side for the last few months due to christmas and getting married, glad to be getting into it again.