Baby Shower....not long to go!!!

I've had my baby shower!!  This means the arrival of baby Brown is imminent. Aaaah.  I had a 3D scan as well this week, which was brilliant.  They are so clever, they even give you the forecast weight of baby!  Thankfully he's not gonna be the size of a house....but surely if I eat more cake things will change?

My baby shower was fantastic, and I felt really over whelmed and emotional after!  We all trotted off to Heaton Park, and took over a classroom there.  The girls brought loads of smashing food, and our Laura did a great selection of games to keep us all amused.  I've got pictures drawn by the girls of Baby Brown, really hope he doesn't resemble any of the artist impressions!  There were some scary premonitions.

We had to tell what flavour the baby food was - this has made me realise just how bad baby food is.  I think they probably make a big vat of "slush" which they then add a minuscule bit of the main ingredient.  Think I'll really have to try and make my own.

We also ate melted chocolate out of nappies!!  haha. So wrong, but really funny.  I loved the way my mate Jo tucked into hers without flinching.  We all got to spit our dummies out - not that this is anything new for us lot.

The weather was smashing, and we all had a go in the rowing boats which was brilliant fun.

Really wonderful day, plus I was treated to some lovely pressies from my wonderful friends.  Thank you ladies xxx

baby food tasting!!

All the girls spitting their dummies out!!

Josi, loving the chocci nappy

Aww, brilliant Michelle.  The only one who made the effort to dress up (Aina did pop her baby suit on as well so Michelle didn't feel left out).  Michelle looked ace and really made my day

Getting ready for dummy spitting

Rowing

Hypnobirthing

As a consequence of my irrational thinking and anxieties during pregnancy I decided to join a hypnobirthing class in Chorley, led by a lovely lady called Rebecca at Peaceful Births.  I was a little apprehensive about the class but thought it was worth a go.  We learnt about the history of woman and birthing, why and how you can have an easier, more comfortable and safer birthing expensive with the aid of deep relaxation and hypnosis.  These methods can help you to stay alert, but at the same time shut out the world and focus on your body.

https://www.facebook.com/#!/peacefulbirthslancashire

I feel very positive after my first class and am really looking forward to the next one.  I can’t thank my sister Leonie, enough for agreeing to be my birth partner and travelling up from Peterborough to support me in the first class.  All being well I would love my sister to be my birth partner, as well as Carl, as she’s on my wavelength, able to offer emotional support and may be less upset by seeing me in pain than Carl.   

In next week’s class Lancashire Life (magazine) are doing an article about HypnoBirthing and would like to come and take some photos in class and possibly ask a few questions!!! I broke this news to Carl last night together with the fact we would be watching vaginal birth videos together and he went very quiet, he said something about a pink panther giving birth to a watermelon hence the fact I need my sister there to say the right things!!

Crafty Vintage

Crafty Vintage, Helmshore Textile Museum, Rossendale

Crafty Vintage came to Helmshore, Rossendale recently, and the weather was scorchio !! We soaked up the atmosphere and the cocktails (they had some cracking non-alcoholic ones!!) in the historic mills, saw the machinery at work, whilst enjoying the nostalgia and finest display of vintage, collectibles and handmade wares, vintage cars and street food. It was a great opportunity for the many local artists, crafters and collectors to meet the local villagers, as well as each other.

The Fayre included some fab quirky gifts that I didn’t really need, but I really wanted, cocktails served in wellies (not the people serving, the actual glasses), street food, cookery demo’s and our local enchanting celebrity singer Kiki Deville: http://www.kikideville.com 

I obviously fell in love with the Herdy sheep range from www.tipsycake.co.uk which is down to my unhealthy obsession with everything sheep related.  I am also on the lookout for something a bit different for my little unborn (Charlie Brown, to be confirmed) and stumbled across the fabulously talented Bella and Mr Tom and bought Charlie his first pair of spaceship pants!!  www.facebook.com/pages/Bella-Mr-Tom

Baby brain has well and truly kicked in this week with an array of new irrational non-related thoughts and anxieties which I know are irrational, and yet I struggle to convince myself of the more logical and reasoned answer to questions such as:-.

·         In this warm weather, will the sheep have enough water ?

·         Why does the satnav not re-correct itself even when turned upside down ?

·         Why do you never see any baby pigeons, am I just looking in the wrong places ?

·         Why doesn’t glue stick to the inside of the bottle ?

·         Why is it that people say they "slept like a baby" when babies wake up like every two hours?

T     This is a selection of my mixed up thoughts....there's plenty more where that came from!!

       I'm still really busy at the moment, filling my time with lots of friends and visiting.  It's taking me quite a while to sort the craft stuff out Nonie has given me...but I'm getting there.  Anyone interested, then check out my ebay site, and my Etsy.  Just bear with me....especially with the Etsy, it's a new venture!!  If you need any help though, please drop me a line (if I can't answer at least I know someone crafty who can!).  All the links are here:

      ebay:http://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/teelamai?_trksid=p2047675.l2559

      Etsy:https://www.etsy.com/uk/people/craftystash2013?ref=hdr

      Email: craftystash2013@hotmail.co.uk

      Right, lets get some ribbon loaded, night everyone

 Musical happenings at the Crafty Vintage day out

 New pants for baby Brown!!

 Wellie Cocktails!!

   Fabulous felted sheep!!

Being Pregnant

Babies, bless their souls, have always given me the creeps -  but here’s hoping my own wont!!

Over the last 7 months me and Carl have been through, and are going through, an incredible journey.  We got married at Samlesbury Hall then found out over New Year that I was pregnant !

Pregnancy is a lot of things. It is the gift of life. It is a miracle. It is exciting…to create a life. To carry that life within your body for nine months is so clever, to nurture it, to feel it grow, to create another human being. It is incredible and I do feel so lucky when others are not as fortunate as me.

It is also horrifying, scary, dramatic and bizarre. Things happen… strange things, not nice things, things you don’t expect, things change colour, things drop, things no one warns you about.  If women were warned, the human race would not grow as quickly, I am sure !!!

On finding out I was pregnant, I vomited from excitement, then chocked on the tears. Hid under the duvet, told my new husband (and allowed him to go to the pub for the rest of the afternoon) so we could make sense of the news.  I made everyone promise not to say a word, fell asleep, everywhere, on everything and watched countless episodes of One Born Every Minute - and cried again, frightened to death and already deciding I could not do this !!

I thought of a cute way to announce to my 2143 friends on facebook (that I never talk to) that I was expecting - I said "Woohooo !!!"

After the second month I finally felt out of the woods, after feeling like I was on a boat that wouldn't’ stop rocking, (no one warned me about that).  I also thought "I can do this, lots of woman do this, I have to do this".  Irrational thoughts, and baby brain, start to kick in such as " If/when Carl has a bath, will it fall through the ceiling if he fills it with too much water ?"  So I tell Carl to only half fill the bath!! 

I also feel very overprotective of Bob, our three legged cat, maybe this is me practicing ?   I worry about the sheep being cold in the winter and wet in the rain.   Drivers not signaling anger me to a new level, I now beep, wave, signal and wildly throw my hands in the air to them in disgust. 

I am now in month 6 and baby Brown is kicking.  Gone are the, “ooo shes let herself go since the wedding" , "is she just really fat?” days… now it is obvious that I am having a baby. So what happens? I get annoyed when people mention it, and offended when they don’t. Baby’s kicks are getting harder now. I can no longer breathe easily because the baby is getting bigger. Sleep happens sometimes. Not all the time. And when it doesn't, I fill my long nights with anxiety and worry about everything from Bob the cat, to the sheep being cold on the hills... to finishing work to.......... CHILDBIRTH !!!

 

Hello....and welcome

A bit about me

 

My name is Marianne Brown.  My maiden name was Pujol, which originated from Spain, and was always a cool talking point, however when I married my childhood friend, we thought double barreling Brown-Pujol was more of a joke than a cool talking point !  I am 35 years old, happily married with our first child on the way, living in Lancashire with the hubby Carl and our cat Oscar and ¾ cat Bob, (our a three legged rescue cat).  I am a marketing assistant during the day and a pint puller in the evening at our fab local pub, the Robin Hood in Helmshore.

More about me:-

LOVES: Cake; animals (of land and sea); the outdoors (nature drives me nuts); festivals with my sister; gurning; sheep in a big way (bordering obsessive); books on serial killers; family meals; vivid dreams; Christmas; Will Ferrell; fancy dress;  Rocky Horror Picture Show; Stephen Dorff; The Robin Hood pub in Helmshore; garden centers; dancing (not in garden centers);  the elderly couple I visit, Rose and Peter; Come Dine events with my brilliant bonkers friends; and most recently aubergines... in a big way !

HATES: Sandals on men; the Dentist; Sandra Bullock; cold soup; people not signaling grrrrr,; pernod; chick flicks; fun runs  (I don’t see the fun in it); boy bands; Blackburn town centre; animal cruelty; Ugg boots; people that don’t dress up for fancy dress parties; mosquito bites (I hate the bite but enjoy the itch).

This week...... as well as work !!!

We have been participating in a few friendly Come Dine events with our neighbours, and our turn is coming round fast.  I created my tapas menu to suit two pregnant ladies, a meat eater, an elderly lady who struggles with her false teeth, and a fussy husband who won’t eat anything that swims, any meat on the bone or anything in a creamy sauce!  The secret is, translate the menu to Spanish, the guests don’t know what there eating and get what their given !!! Next task is to find entertainment, I quite like Keith Lemon’s games on Celebrity Juice where guests form two lines to snuff out candles, the fastest to snuff wins.  The fun being the snuffer is tied between the legs, hilarious!  Don’t think the elderly lady would be much cop at this game.

I’ve also been searching for the perfect toy for my nephew, Luke’s, 4^th birthday, and want it to be different.  A toy to be remembered, and more importantly, so he remembers me as the best auntie who got him the greatest toy !!!.   He loves Fireman Sam and fluffy bunny rabbits.  On my fluffy bunny search I came across http://www.roadkilltoys.com/ where the bunny is described as follows:-

“ The blood and guts and gore are made using the latest high-tech stuffing and plush, to give it quite a realistic squidgy effect. The body and head and legs are made from specially sourced plush material, that gives them that tactile quality of mangy fur. The body is partly stuffed with beads, to give it extra dead weight. And unlike real roadkill it’s something you’ll want to take home and arrange on your bed.”

Wow!!

Think we will stick with Fireman Sam, he’s only 4 after all !!

Now, back to my tapas menu....and making up some Spanish words.