The build/craft up to baby!

This time last year, I was preparing for my penultimate city break, knowing the next next one wouldn't be for a very very long time and eagerly wishing my maternity leave would start soon. 

I, unlike many other women I know, loved everything about being pregnant.  I loved feeling my little boy kicking and wriggling around and seeing my ever increasing bump.  No matter how much bigger I got and how many jokes I annoyingly had to smile at about being sure I wasn't carrying twins, I couldn't have been happier.  I should mention though, my journey to meet my son was a relatively smooth one, no morning sickness, no aversions, no cravings and aside from one episode of back spasms, I thankfully had no pain till the very last month.  I am not bragging by any means this was simply my experience.  I know for some women pregnancy can be draining the whole way though but particularly in the first trimester as we all know from hearing about the sufferings of Kate Middleton.  I feel for any of you who have had to endure it and I can only surmise how awful it can be.

My baby boy is a December baby and there was a lot of wishing (definitely not on my part), that he would be a Christmas baby but he had other ideas.  My last month and a bit was filled with swelling, much anticipation and to my relief, the end of my working/commuting days for at least 6 months.  My pre-baby maternity leave days were filled with lie ins, eating, yoga, eating, TV, eating, occasional preening, housework... and eating.  In between all of this, I nurtured my new love of crafting.  I had had enough of DIY having done up our new house throughout most of the year with the help of my husband and Dad to prepare for the baby.  Crafting was so relaxing, much more rewarding and something in which I thought I could finally excel (with practice of course).  I started with a mobile for my son's room and had an idea in my mind of what I wanted but no plan of action as usual with me. It took a week or so but it finally came together and shortly after he was born, I installed it in the nursery attached to his light fixture. 

I love Christmas and it pained me not to be able to have decorations or celebrate in the way we usually would just in case the baby turned up.  We figured we would be too busy being new parents to put the decorations away and would hate to have superstition supply us with bad luck because we didn't have the time to take down our decorations before it was unlucky! During the process of our house refurbishment I signed up to many newsletters about DIY and one in particular had a link to wreaths.  None of mine or my husband's family like them but I was determined ours would be different so I set about combining the best of a couple of the ideas.  Here is the finished product which I thought looked very wintery and the family loved it! I really enjoyed making both and my son thankfully loves the mobile which was all I wanted really!