Jikana Damaru

21 Week Bumpdate

Photo notes: This was before the jar of spaghetti sauce and I fought for fifteen minutes...it won...and my white shirts became splattered red. Oh, and all this only two days after I spilled orange Fanta on another white shirt. I should add "clumsiness" to my symptoms...

How far along: 21 weeks!

Baby: Is the size of a banana!

Total Weight Gained: Unknown. As of last doctors appt...a total of 0 (back at starting weight)...but I'm pretty sure that I'll have a jump by my next appt. in 3 weeks.

Sleep: Some nights better than others. Wedged between two pillows really helps support the belly and back. 
Maternity Clothes: Pants are becoming a must, unless they are are (non-maternity) stretchy pants. Luckily I have some gaucho capri's for work, they're my fav. to wear during the week.  No shirts yet. 

Best Moment of the Week: Hubby feeling her move more and her furniture arriving! AND on Mothers Day, Addison's gift was making my tummy move with her kicks :) First time I have seen that and it was so amazing.

Food Cravings: Anything cool and fresh...water with lemon, fruits, veges, salads.

Aversions: shrimp and I don't know why... maybe because I'm afraid of the smell. And thinking of hot dogs grosses me out.

Symptoms: indigestion (much less thanks to Pepcid), back pain (increasing), round ligament pain (ouch), and preggo brain.

Movement: pretty often, I'm feeling her movement higher in my stomach now which feels even weirder :) I love every one of them though, especially when I'm just laying there quietly.

Gender: Little Girl Addison Mae.

What I miss: sleeping on my back

What I'm looking forward to: starting her nursery! Now that the furniture & mattress is in we just have to paint and everything should fall into place fairly fast! I'm going to enjoy each step of this process :)

Weekly Wisdom: the "good parts" of pregnancy does come! Hang on if you're in the first trimester. It gets better by the day. I feel like I'm actually starting to enjoy being pregnant, minus a couple things. It's getting much more exciting!

Milestones: In the second half of the second trimester! On one hand 19 weeks seems like a long time to go, on the other hand I can't believe in only 19 weeks I will be holding my daughter!

My sweet pea is getting bigger!

That biker guy

So, that biker guy won the People's Choice award over at the Sydney Writer's Centre. Ah well, I can't compete with motorsports. I have enough trouble with that at home.

Does your husband watch the Grand Prix? LOML is its number one fan. Or actually, he's probably like fan number 1,156,789 owing to the fact that he goes down to Melbourne each year for the practice and qualifying sessions, takes 1,156,789 photos, laps up the noise (like my pun) and then comes home for the actual race and watches it on TV. You don't get to be Number One fan if you're going to do stuff like that.

Anyway, I kinda digressed away from the purpose of this post, which was to grovel for you to vote for me in the Kidspot 50 Top Bloggers awards. I'm pretty sure that biker guy isn't nominated this time, so I might just be in with a chance. Mind you, there is an incredible line up of blogs nominated. I think I'm a follower of every single one of them, so really, you can't go wrong! Good luck to everyone.

Click on the image to go through to the voting. Thank you! I promise this is the end of Maxabella's Awards Season. I think I've only got one more rejection left in me.

[Image from here. I kinda get the feeling that biker guy wouldn't like my choice of pics...]

Inspirational Pins - Playhouse

Today in my series of posts "Inspirational Pins", I bring you the prettiest play kitchens and houses. I started my playhouse Pinterest board a few weeks ago when I found out that my cute little niece, Molly, was getting a playhouse from her sweet parents. How exciting!

They plan to paint and decorate the little play house and place her hand painted jungle bench I gave her for her birthday last year inside along with her pastel wooden kitchen. I can't wait to help by making pretty pastel curtains for the windows, decorative bunting for the walls and pom pom trimmed cushions for the floor. So stay tuned for updates on Molly's little cottage!

For more playhouse and play kitchen Inspiration check out my Playhouse Pinterest board!

Have a sweet day!

thank you

to the lovely Rhi @
$Hummingbird\$
for this award

& part of accepting this award is to tell you seven things about me you may not know & to pass it on

1 : Monday is usually the day I clean the house from top to toe & bake lunch box treats for the week ahead.
2 : My perfect weather day is blue sky, sunshine & little to no wind.
3 : I love spending time in my studio crafting or working on photo projects. Keeping busy creatively soothes my soul.
4 : I love to shop online including my groceries. Best time saver ever.
5 : My husband & I went on our first date Nov 4th 1992.
6 : I feel really old after typing point 5. I was 17 at the time!
7 : The smell of 'Eternity for men' makes me weak at the knees.

& now I pass this award on to

Lou @ Sunny + Scout

Ashley @ Ramblings & photos

Cinderella at Brindabella

Emma @ Cinderella & Brindabella

m.e

Cathie @ Melbourne epicure

This week.

Happy Mothers Day to you -- I hope you had a lovely day, whatever you did! I got to lay in while hot buttermilk pancakes with a berry compote and a steaming coffee were prepared and brought in to me on a tray. Divine... we then had a long and leisurely lunch with family, so essentially I just ate the entire day! Luckily, everything is fat-free on Mothers Day. ;)

My parents-in-law are away in the Blue Mountains this week, and I've managed to convince them that they need house sitters, so I'll be spending a couple of days up on their beautiful property. I could really use the break, and I think the kids could too. There's horses, sheep and goats; a dam; garden walks; and best of all -- peace. And quiet. I'm taking my new sewing machine (have I told you yet? I scored a new machine for Mothers Day!) which I've had for over a week and am yet to use. I've got lot's of projects on the go and I'm sure I can convince Fern to do a little painting with me while I get my fabric on! But I'm going to force myself to do nothing too. To just sit and enjoy the sunshine without obsessing about washing floors and folding clothes and cleaning bedrooms. I don't 'do nothing' well. I'm going to give it my best shot!

What are you up to this week?

Harry Potter party for Maxi-Taxi

Whoa, Nellie! Happy Mother's Day to me (and to you too, if you're a mumma). I've spent the day cleaning up after Maxi-Taxi's 7th birthday party yesterday. My sister-in-law Lucia, LOML and I went Harry Potter mad and had a fabulous time at Hogwart's schooling 10 little Harrys and 4 Princess Harryettes.

The invitation to attend Hogwart's school of Witchcraft and Wizardry was despatched by owl delivery.

The students arrived at Hogwart's Castle and were requested to knock three times to be considered for entry.

Once their name was checked off the roll, they were invited to change into their uniforms.

And sign up for the House Competition and Potions Class.

The Sorting Hat decided who would be a Gryffindor, a Slytherin, a Hufflepuff or a Ravenclaw. None of the Harrys wanted to be in Gryffindor so it was decided the Harryettes would be the snakes. Each student received a house badge to wear on their robe.

Then it was time for the house competition. It was a treasure hunt race to see who could find the quidditch snitch first. Each team had a different set of clues that sent them on a hunt all around the house and garden.

Gryffindor stumbled on their final questions, mistaking the white wishing chair on the front verandah for the lounging lizard chairs on the back verandah (it's a common mistake). Their error cost them the snitch and they limped home in fourth place. The medals went to the Ravenclaw boys in first place followed by the lovely Slytherin girls and the Hufflepuffs in third place.

After the excitement of the competition and a bit of mad free play involving rock climbing in the Forbidden Forest...

... it was time to use their wands to burst the floating bubbles...

... followed by a flying lesson on the trampoline.

A refreshing drink of Butter Beer saw everyone ready to settle down for class where Professor Lucia taught them all how to make their own Minstry of Magic memo owls.

Then it was over to the chocolate fountain to coat breadstick wands with chocolate and dip them into cauldron pots of surprise sprinkles. The wands were washed down with a magic potion drink (two drops of food colouring dried on the bottom of the glass, covered in ice, lemonade turns coloured in the glass!).

Following dinner of Oozy Parcels (sausage rolls) and Goblins Fingers (mini-hot dogs with tomato sauce), we hit the dessert table for the real food!

Hedwig Owl Pops (raspberry cake pops decorated as owls)

Dragons Eggs (left-over easter eggs!)

Quidditch Balls (cheezels)

Goblins Boogers (popcorn)

Wizards Hats (cakes with mini-ice cream cones filled with marshmallows)

and Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans (jelly beans).

Stuffed to the tips of our wizards hats, we settled in for Professor Moody's Potions Class.

Professor Moody showed us an amazing dragon's egg that was lit red from within, a volcano in a bottle explosion, a breathe capture and firework's in a jar. We cracked open some glo-sticks and danced around while the volcano exploded.

The sparkler-ladden cake made it's entrance and Maxi barely got a look in as the candles were blown out by his over-excited friends just as the final school bell sounded.

Hogwart's lessons were over for the day, which was just as well as the Professors were absolutely exhausted!

Lessons learnt:

1. You can never have too much fun at a child's party.

2. You can never have too much fun preparing for one either.

3. But, oh no, the clean up! And the sore feet! And the sheer exhaustion! Argh!

xxx Happy Birthday, my sweet Harry xxx

Kids Play Kitchen

This week on Flickr Faves Sunday, I bring you pretty kids kitchen pics with these gorgeous pics. My cute little niece Molly is a lucky little girl and has just been bought a playhouse for the garden by her Mommy and Daddy. I am so excited! They plan to make it super cute and pretty and I have offered to make curtains, throw cushions and bunting in sweet pastels. She will be having her adorable pink kitchen from the playroom put in there, so I am hoping to make her some fabric cakes and more, for her Birthday later this year!