Disaster Averted...PHEW!

Kate had a midwife appointment this afternoon, just after lunch. So we trundled along there and for a change saw the midwife that has been allocated to her. She's usually either on the sick or on holiday. Anyway, she had the usual checks for blood pressure, urine, measurements and heart beat. Then the midwife was having a feel of Kate's tummy to see where the head is, and couldn't decide if it was at the bottom or at the top. So she rang the hospital and asked them if they could do a scan to check. We then had to tootle up to the hospital, waited 10 mins then she had her scan, which thankfully was fine. Kate was cacking herself in case the baby was breach, in case she had to have a C Section. She's feeling much happier now that she knows the baby is head down though.

Afternoon Visitors

My ex-step-nephew turned up this afternoon with his friend Michelle and her 15 month old daughter Molly. Michelle brought a load of baby clothes with her for Kate so we spent a good half an hour going through them all and saying how cute they are. LOL. We're sad, it's official.

FOR DAVE!!!

Here's some pics for you to choose from. I don't have as many white tiger charts as I thought I did.

Next new start

This is going to be my next new start. I'm sorting out my thread boxes at the moment, then hopefully tomorrow I'll grid the material, 28 count evenweave, and make a start. It's a big one this one, not just a quickstitch, so will probably take me a hell of a lot longer to do.

HAED Spirit Of Fire HD

Yahoo!!! It's finished. I'm rather pleased with myself, and to celebrate I'm going to start another HAED after tea. This tiger is for my ex DH Mick for C'mas. Thanks for looking, and please feel free to leave comments, they're always appreciated.

House photos

I got Kate to take some photos of her house yesterday while we were there. The first photo is of the sitting room. There's a gas fire behind that sofa, and the door in the corner is an under-stairs cupboard which is quite roomy and contains the electric meter. The two-seater sofa and matching armchair she got for nothing from Freecycle.

Next up is the bathroom, which is downstairs. It's pretty basic - bath, loo, sink - and the colour you see on the walls there is the colour it's just been painted. This is pretty much finished as far as decorating goes, there's just the door to gloss....and the floor to clean.

Below is one corner of the kitchen. It's not a big room, and doesn't have much cupboard space, but considering there's only going to be Kate there I don't suppose it matters that much. It's had one coat of a nice sunny yellow since this was taken and will get another one today some time. The cooker will be going in later on once the painting is done. She definitely needs something at that window, because it looks straight into next door's kitchen window.

The stairs. Not a lot you can say about stairs really is there! We're just going to paint the walls here. It would take too long to try and get all that textured wallpaper off. She doesn't have a carpet for the stairs yet.

This is going to be the baby's room. And it's not staying this colour. The ceiling has been done and the walls have had one coat of white emulsion to take the darkness off. I think it's going to end up a really light minty green/blue colour. The bedding Kate has for the cot has touches of mint in it so the colour will match that.

Below is Kate's bedroom. Kate only took a photo of the back of the bedroom - the room goes front to back with a window at each end - so you can't really tell how big it is. It's 18 feet long and 10 feet wide. The whole room needs stripped, one wall is going to be papered and the other three painted, but I can't remember what colour. LOL.

And finally the jungle, I mean the garden. As you can see it's still full of rubbish from the last tenant. The council are going to come and clear it at some point, but they're behind with gardens at the moment. They told her when she got her keys that if it hadn't been done in a week to ring up and remind them. I think she's going to wait till we get back from our weekend away next weekend before she starts hassling them. If they don't come soon she's going to have a bumper crop of blackberries down that left hand side.

35 Week Bump

Here's the 35 week bump photo. As you can see she finally has some corker stretch marks (YES! There is a god!) which she isn't too happy about. Told her she could get loads more before the baby is born. I love to cheer her up.

Kate hates having her photo taken, but I managed to get this one yesterday not long after she'd been to the hairdressers for her hair trimmed. We went on a girly spending spree yesterday - Kate got her maternity grant and backdated Income Support so she was rich - first of all going to a charity furniture place where we picked up a couple of pieces. After that we went to Babies R Us for cotton wool, toiletries, nappy rash cream, milk powder (for just in case the breast feeding doesn't work out), top and tail bowl, a soft toy, and a couple of other bits. Then it was on to Ikea where she bought herself a rug, a cutlery tray, some net curtain panels, and I got a lovely duvet cover. Finally we went to Focus for decorating stuff. Hopefully we have all the paint and paper we need to do the whole house. It's all systems go now, we only have 5 weeks till the baby is due.

On Saturday we're off to the carpet shop to get her sitting room and bedroom carpets. I've told her she can have the carpet from her bedroom here for the baby's bedroom, so that will just leave her stair carpet to get.

Today we're making a start on the decorating. Kate has gone round to give the kitchen a good clean and Dene is going when he gets up to make a start on the ceilings for her. Craig will paint the kitchen walls later this afternoon then we can start putting stuff in there. Not that she has much but the cooker can go in and the kettle and the other odds and ends she has that will go in the cupboards.

Just need Dene to get his keys now.

Kate has keys...YIPPEE!

Kate went round to her new house today to meet up with someone from the housing department. After checking that all the repairs had been done, she signed her tenancy agreement and received her keys. The back garden still needs clearing but they're behind with gardens due to the bad weather we've had recently.

Since we got back I've sorted out her gas and electricity and she's currently on the phone to BT to sort out her phone line. She's been on there almost an hour and spoken to six different people! What a flippin' palaver! I still need to sort out her water rates, but I'll do that tomorrow before I take her to the hairdresser for her hair trimmed.

After the hairdresser we'll be off to look for paint and/or wallpaper as she got some decorating vouchers, and her maternity grant will be through tomorrow too, so we'll be off to spend some of that as well. We have five weeks to get her house sorted before the baby is due. All hands to the pump...

Tiger Update...again

Well here we are again, with yet another tiger update. There's not much left to do on this, then I just need to get it framed and put away for Christmas.

On the housing front, Dene should be able to move into his new apartment at the beginning of August, when all the building work is finished. Kate had a phone call from the housing department today and she has to meet someone at her house on Tuesday morning, where hopefully she'll get her keys and sign her tenancy agreement and whatever else needs doing. Once she has the keys we can get stuck in with the decorating (something we don't need to do at Dene's as it's brand new) and get furniture put in etc.

We're back in touch with Craig's oldest daughter Ainsley (14). She's coming up to stay with us for a couple of weeks at the beginning of August. Craig and I are going down to Bristol for a weekend so he can do the driving thing that I bought him for Christmas, so we're going to collect Ainsley on the way back in Leicester (and Kate in Nottingham as she's going to stay with Laura for a couple of days - always supposing she's ok to travel). She has to be back in Leicester on 18th August so we'll take her back that day. We're both really looking forward to seeing her again after four years.

Shop Update

I've added lots of charts and threads to my shop site. Please feel free to browse.