Hi there! I'm still here and baby and I are still happily cooped up together.

Tonight we went for a little walk around our neighbourhood before dark and took these photos. I love living on top of the hill if only for the beautiful views. Launceston puts on quite a show for Autumn too. Unfortunately it looks as though we might have to move again in the next few months, as our landlord is trying to fix up part of the house (that is ever so slowly falling down the hill) and then they're going to sell it and we'd prefer to move before that all starts happening, having a newborn in the house at the time. I'm not sure where we'll be moving to, but we have actually been having a little look at what might be available to buy, as interest rates and housing prices here are ridiculously low and it's pretty much a buyer's market. Launceston is the only place I've ever lived where buying a house has ever seemed like a possibility, especially on our tiny income.

We've been getting out and doing some fun things over the last few days which is making the time go a bit faster. Last week we drove to Hobart to stay with our friend Mel for a few days, hang out with my friend Andrew and see They Might Be Giants in concert. Very few bands, especially international bands, come to Tasmania, and TMBG are one of C's very favourite bands so he couldn't miss travelling down to see them despite it only being 10 days out from my due date. Initially it was just going to be C, but I decided to join him at the last moment and we had a great time. I'm not sure if the baby loved or hated the loud music but he danced around a little bit in response. TMBG were excellent (the concert even featured a puppet show!). I was worried I might've had to leave early or try to find a seat outside (they didn't allow seats inside the venue, wut?!) especially because we spent the whole day walking around Hobart. There was a girl standing next to me who was really pushy and trying to get in front of me the whole night (it really wasn't very crowded and I am quite short) and I ended up outlasting her - she wound up sitting on the floor looking like she had exhaustion. 3 months ago I don't think I would have lasted a whole night standing up and dancing around at a concert, so I think that is a testament to just how great I'm feeling right now! I wish my whole pregnancy had felt like this. The only real complaint I have is finding comfy ways to sleep.

+ coat: tokito/myer + dress: vintage + hat: cotton on + boots: doc martens.

We also went to film society this week to see 'Searching For Sugarman' - an excellent documentary about the American musician Rodriguez. He released two albums in the early 70s that barely sold a copy in the US and was assumed to have died (one rumour was that he lit himself on fire on stage) and he had no idea that his records had sold half a million copies in South Africa or that some of his songs played an important part in the anti-Apartheid movement. I highly recommend the documentary and now I can't stop listening to his albums.

Baby is showing no signs of arriving any time before due date, so I've been organising having people over to visit for little coffee dates. The entire house is clean now, so that's something I don't have to keep stressing myself out about (nesting hard). Next week we're doing something every day, but I'm also trying to force myself to laze around and relax, not because I feel like I need to (I have a ridiculous amount of energy right now!) but because I know once the baby comes I'll wish I'd let myself indulge in this time.


Here are a couple of photos from our walk:


A happy window.







These two boys were sitting at the window when we got back, wondering where we'd been.

Despite my impatience, I hope this baby stays in just until he's ready. Hopefully by this time next week I'll have something exciting to report and a picture of a tiny little squishy head to show you!

+ Our new cat becoming friendlier and curling up with us on the couch (he has the softest fur!).
+ Sending off some fun mail.
+ Watching episodes of Call The Midwife.
+ Sixties and seventies home decor (my father in law cringes every time he looks at our seventies dining room sideboard - he is the opposite of nostalgic!).
+ Making my own face scrubs (I have really dry skin - I've been mixing a spoonful of honey, a spoonful of brown sugar and a tiny bit of oil with a squeeze of lemon juice and using it twice a week and my skin feels so much better).
+ Having a bouquet of chocolates delivered to my door, sent from some lovely friends interstate, out of the blue.
+ Having dinner ready when C finishes work (he usually does all the cooking, but I'm feeling the urge to be more housewifey since I'm home all the time and trying out new recipes).
+ Sending C texts with silly jokes (e.g. what do you call a guy with a rubber toe? Roberto!).
+ Painting my nails with bright colours, using nail stickers (see above) - I can't stop looking at them now when I'm typing!
+ Terribly worded, spammy robot blog comments.
+ Leaving blog comments - using Bloglovin is encouraging me to leave more comments because I actually visit each blog to read their new posts. Blogging is more fun when its interactive.
+ Adding pages to my pregnancy collage journal (see above). It's sometimes hard to know what to write, but when I can't think of much, I just try to give an idea of our mundane weekly happenings in each entry - I remember getting a kick out of reading some entries in my mum's old journal a few years ago that just documented daily happenings from when I was a baby. I really recommend keeping a journal to any pregnant (or planning to be) ladies out there.
+ Long back to back phone conversations with my mum and sister.
+ Tiny baby outfits and socks that fit on my thumbs!
+ Finding our two little cats curled up sleeping together. And watching them play fight and grooming one another.
+ Arranging books on the shelves in baby's room, picking the ones that are my favourites and imagining reading them to him (Seuss! The Hungry Caterpillar! Tiddalick!).
+ Week 39 being just on the horizon!

Here is a messy little drawing I made for an internet friend (Kelly). She said she'd like to collect drawings of artists' tools by different artists to stick on the wall in her studio and I thought it was a very fun idea. Below is the original drawing (sakura gel pens on black paper) that I sent to Kelly - I scanned it and redrew it in Photoshop to make it a bit cleaner (maybe too clean, I kind of like the roughness of hand drawn). Now I'm going to go make something else with some of those tools and listen to some Feist.

Whoops, I kind of forgot to take any photos of this giant belly of mine for three weeks. Though it doesn't really feel like it's gotten much bigger since the last time I took photos. I had forgotten all about this dress and I wish I'd remembered sooner; I probably would have worn it a dozen times more during pregnancy - something that fits! (I have had one or two of those weeping "I HAVE NOTHING THAT FITS ME!" days lately).

Yesterday we had a check up and the midwife poked and prodded me and seemed fairly sure that baby boy was breech and hadn't turned around yet. She started making preparations for me to have a formal ultrasound and to have him turned around and began explaining the risks associated with it and I was a bit disheartened, but thankfully I got to pop into the room next door for a quick ultrasound and it turned out he's happily head down - I guess heads and bottoms are kind of hard to tell apart. He's just very high up and is very long (which is possibly why my belly is very rounded. I kept feeling confused when people would say "wow, your belly is ROUND", thinking, aren't all pregnant bellies? But mine does seem particularly round). Perhaps he'll be six feet tall like his dad? (I'm 5'4").




I am so happy to be so close to the finish line. Except for some minor sleeping problems, a sore tailbone and getting the occasional stitch, I really haven't had much to complain about in these last few weeks and I'm really grateful for that. I'm still doing a lot of walking about, going into town and I even walked up and down the gigantic hill to and from my house last week (so very steep!). I don't think I'll be doing that again before the birth (I had to sleep for the rest of the afternoon afterwards), but it feels good to still be active. I think I'd go insane if I were bed ridden or told to limit my movements.



So, baby boy just needs to work on moving a little further down and he should show himself in the next couple of weeks - apparently more walking and sitting on an exercise ball will help with that. We took a tour of the labour ward a couple of weeks ago and it's really lovely there and has some beautiful artworks. I know that I should have packed my bag by now, but I guess I'm still using all of the things I'd put in it. I should definitely get around to that this week (Lauren and I were due to have our babies in the same week but she had her daughter 5 weeks early!). Tomorrow we're going to the open house inspection for a place I am dreaming of living in (though unless a lottery win is imminent I doubt will happen).

Ps. My cute brooch was a present from Holly. She's going to be finishing up her sweet Pannikin range of jewellery and moving on to different things shortly, so you should check out her cute wares before they're all gone.