Preparations

Well, I'm starting to tidy up the house again now hubby is back on shift. Only another 2 shifts and he's off on paternity leave for a month!
I'm starting to hand over some of my bigger commitments now, as I know I won't have time for them once the baby arrives. After things settle down I want to focus more on projects that will make me money, along with a couple of key voluntary roles that really benefit my children.

SO, the jousting group (Company of the Lance) is on the back burner for the foreseeable future, and the Great Lakes Tournament Market is being arranged by another member (phew, I'm glad that's off my hands at last!).

The Toy Library will be having their AGM pretty close to when baby is due, so I doubt I'll be going. All I need to do for this is write my Chairman's report and letter of resignation. I'll get on to that this week I think.

Mainly Music is now being run by a group of other Mums, but I'm going to go along so BabyM can participate, even if I can't. One of my good friends has offered to take her too, when I can't.

That should free up more time for craft projects as my friend Liz and I intend to start having a regular market stall from around November (depending on how I go with Baby2), so I have a deadline to work to at last. First off is to use up all my wool making finger puppets or other little toys I think. Then I'll move onto sewing.

OH, and we're getting a piano!! I am so excited! We could never really afford to buy one, but on of hubby's relatives are moving overseas and are getting rid of theirs!! I didn't think we'd have room for it, but hubby has worked it out that we do, so I am JOYOUS!

Back to the grindstone

Well my wonderful Mum has headed back to the UK for another 5 months, so it's back to work for me! I feel very well rested after her visit though, and I've got my motivation back for getting on with projects and things. Baby2 is now head down and making preparations to enter the world (36 weeks along now), and I'm hoping for a reasonable early arrival (38 weeks would be lovely, thanks!).

Project-wise I'm in the middle of knitting a pixie-hood for a friend's baby, and also slowly making half a dozen wool nappy covers for the newbie. I also have a gift for hubby's Grandma to finish off (it's a 3D picture of a witch as she collects witches), which I should have done tomorrow.
I'm about to hand over the Jousting Tournament organising, as I really don't have the time to devote to it that I did last year, and I don't want to leave it too late before passing it on. We've only had a couple of stalls confirmed, so it really needs someone to start canvassing more potential vendors, and I just don't have the hours in the day to spend doing it.
My scrapping is STILL on hold as I've not really had evenings free enough to work on it, but now Mum's gone, I won't have anyone to chat to when hubby is working, so I'll have no excuses then!

Usana is slowly ticking along, sold another stock item which I think I can safely start ordering in every 2-3 months, as the customer doesn't want to sign up for a monthly account, but will be taking the calcium fairly regularly. He's finding it's preventing his cramp which is a great side-effect I was not aware of, so Mum may well add that to her order too. I've put my autoship on hold for 3 months, as I won't be needing anything til then, and I don't have enough one-off orders to put on it.

Other project updates:

• Toy Library AGM - Ican't set a date until we've heard back from the Auditors apparently, so that lets me off the hook somewhat.
  
• SIL window sign - this is now done!
  

A bit of R&R

My lovely mother has been with us since 17th July, and I tell you, it's bliss. I've hardly had to do anything around the house, BabyM is constantly entertained and is saying loads more words, and the freezer is gradually filling with family-sized meals in preparation for the arrival of BabyLentil.

Project Update

• Scrapbooking - still got the journalling to finish on this, probably won't get round to it until after Mum's gone.
  
• Mainly Music program - ALL DONE! Animal theme and Father's Day themed programs are recorded and in the folder all ready for use, we've done the Animal songs for a couple of weeks now, and the kids are loving the new ones!
  
• Great Lakes Tournament Market - this is going very slowly, but we've had a couple of confirmed bookings.
  
• Knitting - Current finger puppets are yellow chicks, I'm knitting the body/head and then going to make wings from feathers and beaks from felt, and probably stick googly eyes on.
  
• Photography - nothing done on this yet
  
• Website - I'm going to build up my stock first, then get this finished and online once I have something to use it for!
  
• Bubs Bulletin - Still on hold til other projects done
  
• Toy Library AGM - I really must set the date for this. I need to give people a months notice, so I've got til mid August really.
  
• SIL window sign -Two coats done, I just need to take off the stencils and tidy up any rough edges.
  

Projects are GO!

Now we have BabyM sleeping again, I feel like I can get on with my projects again. Today I have my "day off" where hubby takes charge of BabyM for the day, leaving me to get on with whatever project I'm working on.

The first thing completed was a few more emails about the Great Lakes Tournament. This is a jousting tournament organised by Company of the Lance, and involves jousting, foot combat, re-enactment and a medieval themed market. My job is to book the stalls for the market. I organised it last year, and it went reasonably well, but I'm hoping this year will be much better. The guys know I won't be able to be on site to organise (due to Baby2), but I'm going to get all the bookings done and sorted so all they have to do on the day is direct people to their sites.

The craft projects are about to start too, I've finished knitting BabyM's hooded scarf, and it's come out very well considering I didn't have a pattern to work from, so now I'm onto making little knitted balls for babies. I'm going to fill them with different things to make interesteding textures and sounds and then add them to my stock ready for a stall in the summer (or to add to the web catalogue, depending on what comes up first!)
I've also finally got back in touch with my scrap-booking buddies, and we're all getting together on Tuesday night, so I intend to get my UK trip scrapbook all finished then.

Photos soon!