Loving instagram

I'm always last to the party. In fact often the party is over by the time i arrive. Metaphorically speaking.
So last weekend we got new his'n'hers android phones and i am excited to have a better camera, faster internet and apps like instagram.
Here are some things i have been snapping and instagramming about...

Sunday night treat by The Belgian

I had to treat myself after a blood test this week!

A sneak peak of a layout I made about Christmas 2012

Bargains picked up at the NCT sale yesterday - don't you just love the little shoes. I was super pleased to get the Next babygrows at £1 each as my friend said they are the best ones as they have pull down sleep mits attached.

So feel free to follow me on melmakes21 and let me know if you're on instagram and I will follow you back!

Maternity Mondays: Bump at 28 weeks

 Finally - after being subjected to hours of slide show reels at my family's house - he has realised the importance of taking pictures and recording things for our future posterity - hurrah! So he even agreed to taking some self timer pics of our new family of three.

As I have entered the third trimester I have found that:

• I can no longer see my toes when I look down!
• It is getting harder to bend down and pick up stray exercise books, glue sticks or discarded worksheets at work
• It is taking a lot more effort to get out of bed or up off the sofa
• I am shorter of breath when climbing stairs or doing too much (like walking up the Chevin to take these pics)
• I somehow have loads of second hand baby clothes from friends, a buy, sell and swap forum on facebook for my local area and charity shops - here's hoping we have enough!
• I am slowly, but surely, getting over my fear of needles - more blood tests due this week.
• The baby is enjoying beating out a dawn chorus for me every morning! 

I have been packing up my hospital bags ready just in case- any advice fellow bloggers? What should I pack?

Eden in bloom...

When I was ill a few weeks back I spent a lot of time with my laptop in bed catching up with scrapping videos on Two Peas in a Bucket and one of the mood to scrap videos by Lizzy particularly inspired me as I liked the composition, the misting and the border effect on her finished layout.

On our recent pre-baby trip to Cornwall we were lucky enough to visit the Eden Project and I particularly loved all the colourful flowers and so we both posed for a picture in front of the blooms which co-ordinated best with our outfits! What a scrapper hey?

I liked the idea of getting messy with paint and stencils and so used a doilie as a mask

 and 

smooshed yellow paint on.

I was hesitant about using purple, yellow and red together but I love it.

I used the rule of three with Amy Tan embellishments to add interest to the page.

I liked the idea of creating washi tape flags to embellish the photo.

Hopefully it doesn't look like too much of a scraplift - I just really loved the original layout and it worked really well with the bits and pieces that I picked out from my stash.
Thanks Lizzy and Two Peas for the inspiration.

Maternity Mondays: The bump at 26 weeks!

And here it is in all its stripy glory...

Soon to be found on a layout near you...although one of my Easter holiday projects has been packing up my scrap room (sob) and so all of my crafty supplies are now in Ikea boxes on a bookshelf in our hallway. The nursery is being painted and then hopefully it will start to take shape.
I think it will be harder to scrapbook now that its not all out on show or easily accessible, I liked to be able to just leave a project and come back to it. Luckily I have lots of layouts stacked up, photographed, edited and ready to be blogged so in between pics of my rapidly growing bump there will be still be some scrappy goodness.

The satisfactory surprise!

So you may recall back in October I hit the big 30 and my husband whisked me off to London for the weekend to see Matilda and eat lots of yummy food.
Now when I was a teen my dad used to refer to me as High Maintenance Mel - I have no idea why. But I had a bit of a rep for having high expectations from boyfriends and just life in general. I think I'm pretty chilled, but there you go...
So a weekend in London would have been great if he hadn't tried to throw me off the scent by hinting at a weekend mini break on the continent somewhere. I think it was at the moment that I was putting all of my liquids into plastic bags that he realised perhaps his 'surprise' was going to backfire. Needless to say having grown up 20 mins from London and having a sister living there meant that London was no *quite* as exciting!
But it made for some good hidden journalling and here are two mini layouts from the trip.

 Click on them to see them in more detail.

Both of these layouts used lots of paper scraps that were leftover on my desk and so were quite thrifty - I was pretty happy with both of them though.
Have any of you experienced a surprise that backfired?

Maternity Mondays: The bump at 16 weeks

So, the sister who is abroad, has been nagging for more bump layouts or pics. Even though she has seen my vast girth via skype - I prefer it when it is on a layout!

So here is my 16 weeks layout:

This layout was largely completed using American Crafts Dear Lizzie range. I created a paint frame for the photo mat - a technique I picked up from watching one of Shimelle's many online tutorials. A lot of my recent layouts feature paint effects as once i have a certain supply out I tend to use it more often. I even painted the little Studio Calico wood veneers - cute huh?

Now for some musings, or mumblings, about pregnancy in general from an almost 27 weeks along pregnant lady:

• Why, oh why, is the maternity section always on the top floor of the shop? Don't they know that pregnant ladies and stairs are not a great combo?
• Why, oh why, have so many high street stores confined their maternity wear to online only? Don't they know that we like to try things on and see how stretchy they are?
• Why, oh why, have I got lots of little spots undcer the skin on my face? I have always had a good complexion and suddenly it is blotchy and enflamed. However my hair is doing very well and I am not having to wash it as often as it is shinier and healthier looking in general - win!
• Why do people think its funny to call you chubby or say that you are looking fat? 
• Why do other women think I want to hear their nightmare stories of childbirth?
• Why does everyone want to rain on your parade by telling you all the negative things about having children?
• Why don't men, or husbands more specifically, understand that you after working a full week its normal to fall asleep at 8'o'clock in front of Question of Sport and then sleep in till 10?

On a more positive note though I can now feel the bubbs kicking a lot and I find that quite reassuring and I am  really excited to see the little human being that we created in about 13 weeks or so. Yay!
More recent bump pictures to follow.
Feel free to add some of your own pregnancy gripes...