Thinking about Easter

Hey you lovely reader!

I have been away for a while haven't why? So many apologies for that... Life and running around after two extremely energetic kidos just gets in the way of your favorite hobbies. I cannot believe that my oldest is already in primary school. I still feel that just yesterday he was a little toddler and moving to a big cot! I have really been missing writing and updating my blog. And yes, also my crafting and DiYing has been sidetracked. I will during time fill you in in recent changes and updates...

But for now, is all relating to crafts and easter crafts... Decorating the house with very cute and funny, but most importantly, reusable and ecological friendly easter evoking bunnies, chicks and eggs! And if the kidos can help me with is, better, as we all be crafting and enjoying ourselves... and keeping them busy! My oldest notices when I decorate and change little things around the house, and he usually does ask me to join in and help me. I have been making banners to mark important days, as birthdays, or recently, the 'World book day'. I make these with paper and craft thread! when it is finished and hanged, when they see it they all cheer and try to read it. Besides a colourful decoration with its bright paper and letterings, it is very didactic. The banners helps the kidos  get more familiar and confident with letter recognition and overall helps them to be confident readers!

Since Easter is approaching I am getting all materials to decorate for Easter, and started to cut out bunnies and circles for my Easter banner. The lidos very often want to join me with these activities. I am certain that if you have more time you can make these preparations faster and closer to the event, but since I am managing more things besides decorating, I am taking things slower and requiring more time... Just taking things very slow!

I am also preparing for a Easter egg hunt. I have bought last year egg containers to put treats inside, either chocolates and sweets inside,  and a puzzle. I will spread these randomly. I will not be only adding sweet treats... As puzzles can be so much fun to assemble together! They loved it last year so I will once again follow the same idea. For my Easter egg hunt I have already prepared some signalling bunnies, but this years I also added some eggs to identify the places where the eggs really are:

 In true honesty, I don't really know who does have more fun with this... Me getting all this prepared or them, really looking for the eggs! Hoping that both! I will add a template with all my designs if you wish to make these.

My favorite Easter project is an embroidery Easter hoop that I anted to hang as well. I inspired my design from a series of images that I googled...I am also attempting to do some new stitches, hoping that this will be finished in time...

Just a few little craft projects Easter themed that I am working on... Are you preparing for Easter as well? Let me know...!

xx

100 Blog posts!

Hello there!

This is my 100th post! Oh my, who would say that I would get so far, writing 100 posts?

 I still have many goals to achieve with my little blog, but I am proud of what I was already able to create so far...

It was a bumpy ride, not only for my little blog, but for my family life, we have been thru a lot, but it was a happy journey nevertheless. 

And where I am going now? I know that the goals for 2015 posts were suppose to be online during January, but, I don´t see these as 2015 goals, but general goals that you can set yourself to accomplish anywhere on time... And here are my goals:

1 - I aim to increase my audience, and for that I plan to participate on more linkys. I believe that the linkys that I was able to participate so far helped me a lot not only on my stats, but allowed to  know many interesting blogs, and what other mummy and crafter bloggers are doing around the blogosphere.

2 - I also hope to become a more active blogger by interacting more with other bloggers. For starters I will be participating for the first time on the Very Berry´s Artist Trading Card Swap. I am quite anxious about this one to be honest! I was browsing the Flickr group created for this swap, and the previous cards made are simply gorgeous! I am so scared that I am might not be crafty enough… Here´s a little preview of my ATC :

What do you think?

3 – I will be writing at least on a weekly base. It’s quite difficult for me some times to do this, as I am also working, and I am so behind on my research...! And without mentioning all the house chores that have to be done...That means that working on my blog os not my very first thing to do... and is really easy to leave it unattended. But at least one post should be manageable. My Sunday post, which is usually a picture taken during some time the past week is the one I am aiming to be post on time! 

On a more personal level, I want/desperately need to be more organized, not only my blog needs some more organization, but my life in general... This is a difficult one to achieve to be honest... And it is a goal that I set my self every now and then...It is incredible hard for me to be organized...

But I am juggling so much at the moment that I need to organize my life.... And succeed on it!

What about you? Planning any changes on your life?

I am linking up with these amazing bloggers:

Friday's thoughts:Am I the perfect mum?

I am aware that this post title will be misleading…or maybe not?

Today I have loads of dirty laundry to make up for a really busy week. My little one may be wearing the last perfectly sized clean outfit, and tonight he might be eating a pre-preraded meal, far from a mummy cooked meal. My kitchen is in a state of pure chaos… And I am coping with the worst cold ever…! However I still managed to leave my little one in the nursery this morning and head to a normal work day. Literally, I feel  that this past week I was crawling everywhere... I still have tons of Christmas shopping to do, and I barely had the time to decorate my Christmas tree. I still haven’t bought my baby´s Christmas gift. But I managed to decorate the Christmas tree and this year I had a precious little help, and we had lots of fun while decorating it! 

So can I claim to be a  perfect mum? Well, in the end I am not a perfect mum, but this is rather just a note that maybe not every mother has the perfect living room, all organized and perfectly decorated. And Christmas ready. That not all moms prepare and cook every single meal that our precious little one eats (really, I will be running out of Cow and Gates ready meals this week)… And be ready to entertain our little one endless hours until the day is done. Some moms (me included), only manage to arrive home from work and play for a little while before it is time to bed! And does this make us lesser moms? Or just another ordinary and normal real mom? Or are all really, a perfect mum?

I will be frank; I do feel that I am not a good enough mum for my little one most of the times. When I check other blogs, I feel inspired with playful ideas to try and have fun with my baby, but  I also feel overwhelmed with pressure to achieve the same or even more than the rest all these amazing super-moms out there are able to do/craft/bake/and so much more….! 

I also feel overtaken by guilt. I don’t do enough. I have to do more. I have to push myself harder. I have to do and achieve must more. Or do I?

Sometimes we do forget that what we blog about is just a small part of our busy life. And we often just blog about what we feel is either interesting to show, like some glamorous outing, or our outstanding achievements, or our babies amazing milestones, or how fantastic are our playtimes.

And of course is far from inspirational to blog and post about your untidy kitchen and how your meal was just a quick take-away, our some frozen pizza (you will not post how you just micro-waved a slice of pizza will you?). And so I am posting about it today. How today was a far from fabulous, but pretty normal day and the end of a pretty busy week … but just as a happy day. Managed by a perfectly real normal mum.

I could blog that I prepared the little one’s dessert…: mango and yogurt!

 
And behind I also have all of this to deal with!

Tomorrows outfit is ready…: such a smart outfit, he will look gorgeous!

But we are definitely running low on clean outfits!

I have a Christmas tree…..and some Christmas décor….! My home is looking pretty Christmassy!

 And right next to all this Christmas decor it is today´s breakfast leftovers!

So yes, I have loads of laundry to do, I sure hope that I don’t have to cook dinner today, and I don’t know if I will be able to face the chaotic kitchen today. But I had time, but mostly the energy to play a bit with my little one (one hour before bed time).

I don’t have the most glamorous life and the glowing kitchen...
I don’t have the perfectly tidy home.... I just manage our home the best I can.

I can have it done, and I am able to have a super tidy home, but only when I have the time and energy to do it... Definitely not by the end of an exhausting week.

I don’t spend the whole day playing with my baby, and with entire new games and toys. I have to work. But I love my little one to pieces, and I enjoy every single second of our play time. And he has the time of his life when we are at it! 

So, I shouldn´t be consumed by guilt if I don’t present my little one with the most tidiest of homes every single day, ....and if this Christmas he will not be showered by Christmas presents (I still have to buy the one gift)....or even if we don´t do amazing games or crafts every day...!

I manage our home the best I can. I work the best I can. We play whenever and however I can.
But I love my little one to the moon and back, with all of my heart and soul! And just that makes me an awesome perfectly real mom!

What about you? Do you feel pressured to be a perfect mum?  

And to excel at every daily task?

  

 I am linking up with these amazing bloggers:

 

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Friday's thoughts: My experience in breastfeeding in public

Baby and me: The world´s cutest alarm clock!

Friday’s thoughts: On Daisy Lowe and the notion of studying later in life, when you have babies....

I posted some days ago about going to London. On the way back home, I was browsing the newspaper London´s  Evening Standard and I came across this interview with a young model, DaisyLowe, where she states that she´ll go back to education when she has kids.

You know that I am a recent mum... I am also a post-grad student... This means that I have to balance motherhood with my research and studies. Which is quite hard both emotionally and physically. And I am not even mentioning the current landscape were motherhood is discouraged in the work space (I wrote a bit about it here)....  And Daisy Lowe seems to think that will be easy to balance both, studying and having kids. I don´t know whether to think that she is a super woman or simply away from reality - I am afraid that it may be the latter. 
 
It’s not easy, far from it really; at least for me (again I will only mention my personal difficulties).  Moreover if you want to do both properly. 

In one hand, I do prefer to think that Daisy Lowe is contemplating this because she is empowered enough to think that is possible to balance both, and that being a mother does not mean that both professionally and academically your life is over. This is great really! To feel that you will be provided enough support, institutionally or more, so that both motherhood and your academically pursuits can co-exist. And again, I learned quite recently that mothers are more productive at work than their childless peers (read about it here). So this is not far from reality. 
But this is not the whole picture. 

She is also sending a message that it is alright not to study now. That you can do it once you have kids! It’s a message that states, well, once you have a baby, on your spare time you can study. But let’s face it, there’s no time to spare when you have a baby at home. There’s always something that you have to do, either get him to sleep, cleaning some spat, changing a diaper, feeding, and so on. And when there are no baby related chores left to do, there are the regular house chores that increase exponentially when your baby is in the equation! And that is without considering the exhaustion you feel afterwards. And then there’s your work, your studies to do. 

So, if you are given a choice you should study when you are young, and when you are kids free, more available. That’s when you can concentrate, dedicate yourself and focus properly on your studies. If you decide not to study and follow a modelling career that’s great to, it’s your choice, and your life. I certainly was not a modelling material, so that definitely was not a choice for me! But don´t go spreading the idea that you can study easily later in life, in your “kids free spare time”. Don’t misunderstand me; I am not claiming that it’s impossible to do so, as I am doing it! And so are hundreds of other mothers too, that not only are studying but also working. So of course it’s manageable. 

But far from easy, and most certainly really draining, both physically and emotionally.  Emotionally because I am constantly either missing my baby when away or plunged by guilt feelings. I feel that I am not being a proper mum, away from my little one! I am always thinking that I am missing important milestones, when at work. And this time that I am missing I will never get it back. Physically, because it is exhausting, there’s almost no time to rest, your free time is virtually non-existent. 

To be a mother and to keep on study is not a decision to be taken lightly. It requires strength, commitment and a lot of support (thank you so much, my other half!).  And unfortunately the institutional support is still far from perfect. There is much to be done in order to help mothers to continue their academic endeavours. I will write about my experience and thoughts on this some other time... 

But back to Daisy Lowe, as I said I would prefer to think that she was feeling empowered enough to consider this, or that it was even a career choice, going on modelling.  But no, and this was quite disappointing... What really made her decide not to pursue her studies now was....

.... to sleep in during the mornings... 

Oh Daisy, well, you certainly won’t have this once you have a family (more about this here)...! 

I am linking up with this amazing blogger: