Oh, that was easy!

my new home is

http://tulpenpink.blogspot.com

join me there!

what's in a name?

I decided to change my blogging name! Péitseoga, the Irish version of my nickname, has some disadvantages, namely the fada (the accent on the e) and also pronounciation, also, I feel I should have a more German sounding name... so, 'Irmhild', I decided, is sufficiently German sounding, easy to spell, and to pronounce! ...and I like the sound of it!

I'm doing this on a whim, and might regret it, but I have posted so little lately, nobody's going to miss Péitseoga!! The blog name will change to 'Tulpenpink'. It's German for 'pink tulips'. Tulips always put a smile on my face, brave little things, sticking their heads out on a cold grey winter's day!

nearly forgot!

the mittens!!

and the wool i used was manos del uruguay silk blend. so nice to work with!

stella pixie hat and yoga

Oh it's been a long time since I last posted! I just don't seem to have the time to read and post... During the day the lap top is off limits as M likes to take the keys off it with her little fingers, and if I don't let her she gets very annoyed! And in the evenings (if I'm not out), after the dishes and tidying up, I'm often so tired, blog reading or writing is just not on the agenda! I did however manage to knit this 'stella pixie hat'

and I am currently working on a 'little sister's dress'. It requires a lot more concentration than the hat did, but I'm ready for a challenge!

On Monday I went to my first yoga class in over 15 months, the last one being my last pregnancy yoga session! I felt like it was the first time i did something relaxing for just myself since I've had M! I was lying on the mat, focusing on my breathing, and of course wasn't actually supposed to think about anything, but this thought popped into my mind!

I'm very excited about starting yoga again, it just feels like I deserve doing something for myself! I'm hoping to find an audio CD to help me practise at home, too, something I haven't done with any of my previous yoga classes over the years. But now, I am actually at home during the day, and most days there is an hour where I could maybe fit 20 minutes of exercise in, if I put my mind to it! Usually I use M's nap time to catch up on laundry and dishes and tidying, but maybe it would do me good to take some time, and calm down and focus on just one thing at a time.

I'm reading (when I'm getting to read) 'buddhism for mothers' at the moment, and I hope to bring some mindfulness into my life. It'll be hard for a seasoned multitasker and well known scatterbrain like me, but I hope it'll benefit my parenting, and our quality of life! Time is flying so fast, and I worry my career break will be over in a flash and I won't have used it as best I could, if I just carry on being dragged through my days by trying to catch up with housework and little tasks, while keeping lots of random thoughts and lists in my head and never really being in the moment, enjoying time with my daughter. It's often only moments, one moment during the whole day, where I realise how lucky I am to have this time with her, and that I haven't been fully there all day!

before and after pictures (the attic conversion)

hall


guest room

attic

christmas ornaments

little santa hat, pattern on ravelry
tiny sock (cast on 8 stitches!) the original pattern is also from ravelry, but i changed it quite a bit.

these are going into an advent calendar that us stitch and bitch girls are making for one of us, who's moving abroad. i'd say the tiny sock would be great on a card, too!

armchair cover

here we are, the armchair cover, finally finished! it's not great though... i made lots of mistakes, and i'm not that happy with the fabric, maybe the print is a little too big, really... it's a nice splash of colour though!

power cut

We had a power cut last night, 9 hours! It was a nice evening actually, maybe we should voluntarily switch the power off every now and then! Emm had her first candle lit dinner, and loved it! Our neighbours dropped by for a cup of tea (gas hob, how lucky!) the stayed, so we ordered pizza, opened a bottle of wine, then we got out the cards and played '110'. It was so nice and relaxed, no distractions, no fussing or cooking (didn't want the fridge to get warm!), no background noise, just candles and friends. when they left, we looked up at a beautiful starlit sky, we rarely get to see the stars properly, because of the light pollution! i wonder will there be a baby boom in the area, in 9 months time!

a new room!!!

wo-hoo! the builders are gone and we are left with this new room, and lots of storage, and a lot of walls and ceilings and woodwork to paint! (and still a lot of dust, i've started to get rid of it, but it's literally on every surface and with a teething baby clinging to me it's not an easy job!) am thrilled, hoping we'll get two desks in there, one for p's computer, one for my sewing machine, and a sofa bed, eventually, or a futon that can be made into a seat. or maybe just an armchair, and keep space for a blow up bed? we'll see. as we'll be pretty broke once we've paid the builder it might be a while before we get it all kitted out...

dust dust dust...

my whole house is covered in dust! but on the upside, the attic is nearly finished! there's plastered walls and ceilings, there's stairs, and doors and cubby holes! there are still a lot of bits to be done, the devil's in the detail, but it's great to see it progressing. i'm truly sick of tasting plaster dust. or saw dust. or glass wool when i'm stepping into the hall! can't wait for it all to be finished...

then i can move all the boxes out of the living room, and start thinking about moving books, and the sewing machine and the computer! i'll have a less cluttered downstairs (hopefully it'll last for a little while!) and i might be able to host one of the mother and baby coffee mornings (so far i haven't dared, as there's too much too break, and too many dangerous things stuffed into bags and boxes in the corners and behind the couch).

i used to not mind having a small house (1000sqft or 93sqm, i think), but since Emm came along it seems to have shrunk! the study was made into her room, so all the things happening and being stored in there have been moved downstairs. then there's all of M's toys, the buggy, the play pen, the bobby car... we'll be banning our grown up stuff to the attic, computer games and sewing sessions will take place there, and a whole lot of stuff can go up. oh, and ideally there will still be space for a guest bed!! because little Emm is nearly a year old and there will be guests for her birthday party!

peaceful lunchbreak

as we are getting our attic converted m and i were escaping so she could have a sleep, not possible in the house, where the builders were making noise right above her head. i got myself a coffee, sandwich and cupcake (eek 10 quid! not going to be doing that every day!!), parked up at the sea side and listened to lyric fm while having my lunch. m slept for about an hour, then i wrapped her up warm and we went for a long walk, taking a break to have a cuddle and for her to have a feed. i still enjoy feeding her so much, but am getting more and more comments "you're STILL feeding her?" and "WHEN are you going to stop". Well it's national breastfeeding week here, this week, and while i didn't make it to a special coffee morning (apparently there was one in IKEA) i did nurse her on a bench, in the sun, overlooking the sea, and maybe somebody walked by and thought how happy the two of us looked, and considers breastfeeding their next baby, or encourages their wife to feed. only 55% of women in ireland attempt to breastfeed, but even this small number drops significantly as there is no sufficient support available, and family, partner and friends often aren't supportive, either... here a few links of organisations that are trying to change this and make it easier to have a good breastfeeding experience in ireland:

http://www.breastfeeding.ie/
http://friendsofbreastfeeding.wordpress.com/
http://www.lalecheleagueireland.com/
http://www.cuidiu-ict.ie/

and these are some great sites for general breastfeeding support

http://www.drjacknewman.com/
http://www.kellymom.com/

a weekend of activity

this weekend we cleaned up the garden and the shed, and then proceeded to clear our attic (a lot of it is now in the shed, which of course you can't see in the photo! i cleverly took that before we started moving in junk from the attic). together with our neighbours we hired a skip, and it's fairly packed now! we came across loads of giant spiders, oil for a motorbike (we've never owned one!), broken garden tools, a shed door, pieces of carpet from 4 years ago... the things you hold onto... the attic especially was scary, it's where things get thrown and then forgotten... out of sight out of mind. i labeled almost every box and crate that went back into the shed, hoping we'll have more of an idea of what's there.

now i've got to clear the guest room, so we can begin the next adventure: the attic conversion! i'm so excited. we'd gotten quotes for it a few years ago, but prices then were mad, and we had nowhere near enough saved up. but we contacted lots of builders again this summer, and prices have come down! it's going to be an inconvenient 3-4 weeks, emm and i will be out of the house as much as we can, but i'm hoping it'll be worth it. i went to see some attics in the same type house as ours, we'll lose some space from the guest room, but we'll gain a decent extra room, and storage. since emm's arrival we've had no study, and we have to keep the guest room for our parents and relatives, so the computer, the sewing machine and lots of other things are cluttering up our downstairs space, making it difficult, and maybe also unsafe, for emm to crawl around. she seems to be able to reach new heights every day! i feel like i'm constantly moving things out of her reach! eventually the guest room will be in the attic, well, if we brave the adventure of trying for a second baby!

picasa 3.5 - great fun to be had

i downloaded the new version this eveningand of course had to try the face tagging. the pictures on my harddrive are mostly family photographs and it's great fun to see who's getting tagged as who! you get to confirm or decline. it's making me feel woozy, seeing so many versions of one person's face...

http://picasa.google.com/

a weekend with friends

two friends from college came to visit this weekend, we had a great time! there was less going out and less hiking than during previous trips, and a lot of emm entertaining! everything is so much easier with two friends around, to entertain the baby and help with the dishes or cooking... i wonder would communal living be like that. i was surprised how i had time to finish a cup of coffee or eat my dinner while it was hot!
we went to skerries and carlingford for walks, and food, and emm came with us. i didn't take many pictures, but the girls got a few nice ones!


we went into dublin without emm, but i didn't enjoy it as much as i had thought i might. i missed her, and i just couldn't work up any enthusiasm for shopping, it just seemed quite unimportant! i used to love trawling around the shoe shops, and buying clothes and accessories. i never bought very much, or very high fashion stuff, but i used to like hunting for the perfect cardigan at a good price, checking out what's on offer and buying when i saw what fit the bill. on this occasion i just couldn't be bothered with the 'checking out what's on offer' part, i didn't really want to look at all the runners in all the shoe shops to see if there was a pair to replace my worn to bits and recently thrown out green golas. i'm actually wearing an even older pair of cheapo dunnes stores runners, and i don't mind at all! it must be part of the mother hormones...
i had been hoping to maybe go to the art gallery, but we never got around to that, with no train running we had to rely on the buses they put on, so we had to leave quite early. maybe i'll go in with emm, and visit the art gallery.
i find time runs so fast, and i still haven't any proper structure to my week, with scheduled outings or fun things, i go with the flow and it works to an extent, i get the important things done, but i fear i might fritter away my career break without making the most of it!!

my friend took this picture of the clothes line, another mother gave me lots of girls' clothes, and i did a red and pink wash, to make sure none of the rest of our clothes get died pink!



my friend's lovely scarf, i admired it greatly,

as she only just got it in her town, and she said the shop had loads more, she left it for me! what a nice gesture, now i have a souvenier of their visit!