Some fondant, some lace and some sleep…

Firstly, thank you for all the comments on my ‘oh-woe-is-me’ post. Sheesh, pass me a violin… Of course it’s not that bad, but of course you realise this in the light of day, after you’ve hit publish, after you’ve strung four hours of sleep together. Seriously, there are some mum’s out there getting a whole lot less sleep than me, with much higher maintenance babies than Eleanor, count your blessings and all that. Thank-you for indulging me and coming to my pity party though! I’m pleased to report that we turned a massive corner in the sleep stakes last week, by me simply not rushing in to Eleanor at oh, the 10 second mark of her waking up. Kudos to my husband for pulling me into line and basically making me get a grip, telling me to let her grizzle for awhile, she won’t die, in fact she might even go back to sleep, she might even learn to settle without a dummy. Huh…

Of course, once I was standing on the winners podium, fist pumping and patting myself on the back, we went away for the weekend and it all turned pear shaped. And that’s ok. We’re starting again this week back at home. She will sleep well again, I will sleep well again. The sky is not falling. Phew. I’ve been reading ‘Babybliss’ and ‘Save Our Sleep’ and using a combination of both routines and settling methods (which are very similar/complimentary to each other anyway). To dummy or not to dummy – oh the debate! Thank-you for all your comments, emails, suggestions and kind words.

Speaking of this week at home…I have the mother of all to-do list’s list week (don’t worry, I’m being very lenient and kind to myself, hakuna matata and all that). Eleanor’s baptism is this weekend, which she is sharing with her second-cousin Ben who is flying in from the sunshine state (along with his parents…obviously!) Naturally I’ve got my party planner hat firmly on, but have relegated the post-ceremony festivities to my mum’s house in a pure stroke of genius – ha! Mum’s house is just a whole lot more party friendly for 50+ people and kids.

I designed some sweet little invitations with a loose pastel Noah’s ark theme – nothing fancy, printed at home on plain white card, handed out mostly to our immediate family and just a few friends. We will be having a barbeque (Matt’s department), perhaps a glass of bubbles or two and people are bringing a salad. Simple stuff. I had the grand thought though that I would make Eleanor and Ben ‘his and her’ cakes, and upon further research seem to have fallen down some sort of cake decorating rabbit hole…

I’m trying my hand at fondant for the first time – how hard can it be, right? Right?! Oh dear. Wish me luck, I have grand plans for some sanding sugar topped cupcakes too but we’ll see how organised/adventurous I get on Saturday.

My mum is making Eleanor’s baptism gown using the lace left over from my wedding gown. I know! Too divine. We seemed to have metres of the stuff left, and if I don’t use it for my daughter’s baptism gown than I don’t know what I’d use it for! My mum found the lace in the Istanbul Grand Bazaar whilst traveling when we were planning our wedding and I was losing my mind over how expensive the lace was that I wanted. I’m using a bit of the lace on the white stole with Eleanor’s name I’m making, as well as the candles which I’m jazzing up a bit with some printed vellum, lace from our wedding invitations, ribbon and little cross charm.

So, I’d better get cracking! Candles to adorn, stoles to sew, fondant to agonise over…oh and it’s our mum’s group Christmas party this week too and I’m making rice paper rolls. Any tips on those too?