As things have been rather crappy here lately I decided to cheer myself up with 2 Kimmidolls. They’re based on Japanese Kokeshi dolls and each one represents one of life’s true values.

The little one is a keyring and her name is Yoko and she’s all about positivity. The larger one is Sai and she represents being talented. I love this type of juju - so totally unnecessary but infinitely cute.

My sister’s baby shower was a few weeks ago and I’m pleased to say it went off without a hitch. I think the reason it went so well is because we had planned it to within an inch of its life, which for us, was a good thing. We had 8 or 9 games, lots of food and loads of presents so the 2.5 hours that it was supposed to run for was chock-a-block filled and seemed to fly by.

Over the coming days/weeks, I wanted to share a few little bits and pieces that we did in case anyone out there is looking for babyshower advice or ideas.

The Advice Pig

One of my favourite ‘games’ (although not technically a game) was Advice Pig. All guests at the shower write down little bits of advice for the Mum-to-be on slips of paper that are then put into the Advice Pig so that Mum-to-be can read them when she’s up in the middle of the night feeding etc. It’s meant to be a little pick-me-up and a handing down of womenly wisdom. Personally, I’m a big fan of things like this. I could imagine being a new Mum, up at 2am trying to calm a fussy baby, reaching for Advice Pig and being comforted by the fact that other people had gone through the same thing.

It’s really easy to set-up Advice Pig. All you need to do is buy a ceramic pig money box (Mum gussied ours up to make her look more fairy-like (our shower theme was Butterflies and Fairies)), prepare some slips of paper for advice and pop them on each table and let the guests pop the advice directly into the pig or another container.

Simple, easy to set-up and fun for guests, my sister’s Advice Pig is sitting in her nursery, awaiting the arrival of her baby.

If you do decide you’d like to do an Advice Pig for your baby shower, be sure to leave me a comment and let me know how it worked out for you! I’d love to hear.

I really wish I could live in a place that had thunderstorms each and every day. We had a small storm this afternoon. I went out the back and everything had a gold tinge. So pretty.

And here is another one of my dodgy videos. You can hear some thunder about 14 seconds in.

It was another cold morning this morning (although not as cold as yesterday’s 1.5°C). I poked my head into the bedroom a few minutes ago to see what the animals were up to. This is what I found.

And a YouTube video just for fun -

Stole this from Nicole @ Craftapalooza.

View it in all it’s glory here - http://www.flickr.com/photos/krissyb/2575352490/.

4:30am: I like the rain. In fact I’d go as far as saying that rainy days are my favourite days. Rainy days are so emo - so dour. I like dour. We had a lot of rain yesterday as shown in the pic above. Unfortunately there isn’t going to be too much rain around today which makes me

5:05am: Want to know something that makes me even more The fact that I’ve had 6 Panadol rapid and nary a wink of sleep because of a really, really, really sore tooth. As soon as the chemist opens I’m going to get some Nurofen Plus which I pray will numb this incessant pain. I wish teeth never hurt - that would be ace.

I spent the last day and a bit making a mini book for my Mum for Mother’s Day. Inside were pictures of us as kids. At first I had no idea how I was going to decorate the pages (it was a spiral 7 Gypsies book) but then I found a post by Ali Edwards in which she described how to take the book apart. I thought I’d upload some photos of the finished product while my spaghetti sauce is cooking.

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I’d never had an IV before. And I should’ve become a little worried when I had to sign a waiver prior to having one done yesterday. But we’d been sitting in the waiting room for over an hour and I was just thankful that I was getting close to seeing the Doctor. They got me when I was weak, you see. Boredom caused a momentary lapse in inquisitiveness. I’d been occupying myself by walking to the water cooler and looking at all the organic, cruelty free skin care products while sipping ice water from a crinkly plastic cup when they shoved the bit of paper in front of me and asked me to sign. I is stupid and have no legal recourse.

The Dr lent over me, my arm prone and extended, resting on a pillow that had a blood resistant coating. He was squinting and peering intently at the inside of my forearm, trying desperately to find a vein. Every now and then he’d slap me leaving blotches of rosy skin. I knew from past blood giving experience that my veins were elusive and I had a feeling that they weren’t going to make this easy.

After 15 minutes he managed to find a vein and he started the drip going. “If you feel a stinging, or it hurts you at all, you’ve got to tell me straight away”, he said as he left the room. “I’m tough.” I replied.

And then the stinging started. Slowly at first. I thought that perhaps it was supposed to feel like this. Irritating and sore. But then it got worse and my breathing quickened and I started feeling nauseous. “This isn’t right.” I thought to myself. I looked up at the fluid left in the IV bag and knew there was no way I could make it through this pain for another 15-20 minutes. By the time Dad had got the doctor I was close to pulling out the needle myself. The burning feeling was unbareable and I felt sick to my stomach. Something had gone wrong.

I looked down at the crook of my arm and saw lumps had formed near the injection site. Apparently, the Doctor had popped the vein which meant all the IV juice was going into the tissue in the surrounding areas causing them to swell and the skin to tighten. I felt sick for hours afterwards and had trouble sleeping last night because it felt like my whole arm was corked. No wonder they get you to sign a waiver.

The pic above is what I woke up to this morning. Thankfully it’s feeling better tonight and is only slightly swollen. And despite my doctor’s pleas and attempts at coercion there’s no way I’m going to attempt to try the procedure again. I may not be tough but I’m not stupid!