2nd Birthday

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So just over 2 week ago Finn turned 2 and its true what everyone says, time really goes by quick.
We organised a small birthday party for him and with his much loved interest for 'things that go' decided to go with a transport theme. Incase its not clear there its meant to be a fire engine on the cake (cake decorating is clearly a skill I don't have, ha!)

I will admit my planning and to do list wasn't at the level of last year (this pregnancy isn't giving me much energy) but I did managed to get a paint brush out and create a few cardboard vehicles (pic above), which we stuck on the windows. It was so worth it as straight away Finny started pointing and listing them (last year's painted animals weren't such a hit). For other decor we put up the bunting from the last year and a load of balloons. Thankfully most of the food was taken care of by Gaga and Fafa (utter life savers), so all in all there was no stress for me.

Present wise we decided on a play kitchen (Ikea) as he is always keen to make tea (for me) and coffee (for mark). We included some pots, pans, fruit and veg and thought it best to build/set up everything the night before meaning I spent most of the evening constructing (always love a good ikea challenge though plus Mark never reads instruction so really can't be trusted to help :)). Mark put up the decorations and when the morning came Finn excitedly came upstairs and headed straight over to the first balloon he could find, which he played with most of the morning…I love how sometimes its the simplest things.

I would say the day/party was a clear hit, he ate all his favourite sweet things, got to play loads with his best buddy Emil and throughly enjoyed us singing 'Happy Birthday' to him (which he also sang to himself several time through the day), come bedtime he was asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.
I do have one regret though that we didn't take more pictures, I always find it the case when theres other thing to do, next celebration I'm holding a camera permanently in my hand.

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Pampers to Potty

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Some big news at the moment is that Finn is officially starting 'school' this coming February (which is actually having me in tears now). I keep thinking its too early for him to be away from me, but in truth I think it could be too early for me to be away from him :). What is easing this new stage is thinking how fun it'll be for Finn to spend his days with other children, as well as the much needed alone time I'll get with our next bundle and to do illustration.
On the school, we have decided to go with a local Flemish (Dutch) one and are lucky enough to get a place there. Everything obviously is taught in Dutch (I understand enough) and with a lot of French speakers going there we're hoping he'll pick up both languages. We did think of expat schools, but with them being so costly (a lot of companies give allowances for this, unfortunately not in our case) and not equipped with the facilities I expected, we didn't see its worth at this age.
So for the moment the school search is over (thankfully because filling forms, meeting deadlines and visiting schools were a little hectic), we'll see how Finn gets on and in the worst case we can always move him.

That all being said we now come to a dilemma...

Children are expected to be potty trained before starting school, which is giving us a clear deadline for a dry boy! We initially had a goal for Finn to be out of nappies before Sep (when bundle 2 arrives) but hearing how things like this can go back a step, when new siblings arrive means it might take a bit longer
How are we handling it? At the moment we're getting him interested in the potty, we talk about it, make him sit on it in the morning and read stories, as well as ask him if he's done things in his nappy. Next stage will come after his birthday (this weekend..yay!) where we'll try him only wearing pants. I'll let you know how that stage goes, but pretty sure it'll involve a lot of cleaning...ha!

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Porto Santo

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So as our family will soon become 4 we decided it would be best to take a last little holiday as a trio. Relaxing and spending quality time with Finn and as a family.
When deciding the type of holiday we were thinking: all inclusive (so no worries about where to eat), sun, swimming and the beach, and after a little search we ended up booking a week away to Porto Santo. If you haven't heard of it (I have to admit I hadn't), its a small island of 5000 people just above from Madeira.
The 4hr flight was a little longer than we would've liked (we had to stop in Madeira to let people off), but thankfully Finn did his usual thing and slept most of the way.

When we arrived the weather wasn't the best (you can see from the left pic) but thankfully the clouds lifted and we had really sunny days from then on.
Now I must say I'm always one for the sun, I could happily lay down and sunbathe all day, but it seems that this might of changed. Being pregnant I couldn't stand even half an hour in the sun, and trying to relax on the beach or a sun lounger when you can't lie on your front or back is pretty frustrating. I constantly covered Finny with high factor and made him wear a hat and then ended up doing the same, which was great for setting an example plus the fact I couldn't exactly sunbathe made me more up for doing things.

Regarding the food, our expectations weren't too high, (food is never amazing when somewhere needs to cater for lots of people) but there was always something good enough to eat, and the fact there was food from 7am-11pm was perfect with two hungry boys. Plus lots of choice meant if Finn didn't like something there was always something else to try.

As is usually the case our daily routine revolved mainly around Finn, so we spent our mornings swimming in the pool and afternoons at the beach ('building sand castle with dada').
The life vest you can see above was a purchase we made the day before, it had me running all around the shops trying to find one and resulted in me paying a vast amount for the only one I could find. When Finn finally did get in the water with it on, he hated it so much that we ended up using it for 5 mins and it spend the rest of the time packed away (at least theres room to grow).

To break up the week one day we went on a jeep safari around the island (pic above), which was well worth taking as Finn loves being in a car, plus it was interesting to hear about the area. Then another day we took the custody bus into the town centre for a look around followed by a long leisurely stroll back to the hotel via the beach (pic below).

The holiday was exactly what we needed, Finn enjoyed it (especially the waves, which he went mad for) and I loved the fact the three (and a half) of us were all together somewhere else than at home. I think another all inclusive beach holiday will be on the cards once our next one is ready.

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Weekend trip - Copenhagen

Brussels Life

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Another weekend took me on a solo trip to Copenhagen, this was my third time there and I have to say I really love this city. Apart from the fact my best friend Nin lives there, Denmark undoubtedly has the most amazing design taste. Most of my favourites brands come from there (Ferm Living, Arne Jacobsen, Stelton, Royal Copenhagen and Hay), which always has me at a constant battle not to buy everything I see when I visit.
Even glimpsing into passing homes (please say we all do this) makes me look at their style, with all their individual designer pieces and make me just wish I have the same at home (our home is more the Ikea showroom type).
Another thing I love is the great family vibe, young children and babies are everywhere and more dads are with prams than mums (though with the size of their buggies its no wonder). It just gives that sense that having and being a family is very important seems so safe and relaxed there.

I always have a real feast when I'm over there, we do brunches, have hotdogs, smørrebrød (the pic above is the Royal Smushi Cafe) and always coffee (which usually end up me drinking more coffee in one weekend than I do the whole rest of the year). And I always come back with types of salty liquorice such as Lakrids (I blame growing up in The Netherlands for my love of that) and now I have a new favourite of Bonbon boiled sweets.

There was also another reason for the trip, Nin managed to get tickets to the Eurovision Jury Final. Basically it was a full test run of the performances, with fake results included (Montenegro won btw).
It was such a fun night and it had an amazing vibe in the place. From that night it was pretty clear who the winner was (shame I didn't put money on it). There was also lots going on around town that you couldn't help but join in with singing a Eurovision song or two.
No doubt I'll be planning another trip to see Nin/Copenhagen soon, and I can't wait!

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25 Weeks pregnant

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Weekend trip - Nice

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With our new bundle of joy coming in September and Finny turning 2 mid July we realised that our benefits of a free passinger and me even being allowed to travel by plane were drawing to a close. So we became very organised and booked a load of trips to see friends/family, with a sneaky last holiday as a trio thrown in.

One of the weekend included a trip to see our friend in Nice, France!

Last time we went to Nice was back in the day when Mark and I were child and care free. We would relax in the sun with drinks in hand and party hard into early hours. Our mornings would involve long lie in followed by large brunches to ease our hangovers.
So here we were heading back again, but this time with a child and a half, I think we both knew that we would be seeing a different side to Nice.

I do love the way the streets are set in Nice, narrow alleys with little restaurants and bars along them, its like stumbling upon secret places every time you turn the corner.

Our experience this time of Nice was we felt more like locals then tourists, we spent our days walking around the markets and backstreet, enjoying long lunches and copious amount of ice cream (think pregnancy allowed me to get away with that one). The rest of the day we focused on activities for Finny, which would involve a lot of time in the Park. The new one in the centre had great things for him to play on, funnily enough it had fake grass (shown in pic above), which looked so real and kept it perfectly green. We also took a trip put to a view point on the little white train (ok pretty touristic) which Finn was thrilled about. Evenings varied, one night was spent in another out and about and our last evening we relaxed on a hotel roof terrace with amazing panoramic views.

One difficulty we did find on the holiday was our routine with Finn, with us being out and about he ended up with broken naps and bedtimes of 10pm. This resulted in a decreased appetite and him being a little fussy in the day, though considering it all he always had a smile on his face.

By the time we started to settle and relax, our long weekend was up (I hate it when that happens). No doubt we'll be booking another trip to Nice soon, but next time it'll be Nice with 2 children in tow.

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Expecting!

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Second big change is come September there will be another little member of our family! Whoooooo!
I actually found out a few days after my last day at work (feelings of nausea pretty much gave it away). Indeed probably not the best timing with our limited income right now but we are still over the moon, we were planning on trying sometime this year so now is just as good as any.

I can't believe I completely forgot how horrible 'morning' (more like 'all day') sickness can be, I remember being ill with Finn but not this bad. Throwing up countless times a day is not a pleasant past time, but when looking after a toddler is thrown into the mix it can really take it out of you.
This was the main reason I took a step back from blogging, getting the energy for anything those months was a challenge. Its a good thing the brain blocks these bad times from memory because remembering I'd feel hungover for 3 months would be hard to take.

Its funny how different first pregnancies are to second. I look back on my pregnancy with Finn, everyone congratulated and asked how I was all the time and all I did was lie around relaxing and deciding what my next craving could be. This time round its like there isn't time to think about being pregnant, its only when I get sudden bouts of thirst or finding I'm exhausted from walking up the stairs that I remember. I love the moments when I have a bath and get that time to think about the little one growing inside and those times when Finn does something that makes me think how amazing a big brother he will be.
With Finn being only 2 when this one is born I did worry that maybe the age gap would be too small. My ideal spacing was 3 years (my brother and I have this and it worked great), but when I read up about it there were pros and cons at any age difference. I guess for us, the baby products are still out and the challenges with Finn are still fresh in our minds so already prepared for the next!

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Work life

Brussels Life

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The first change is...I officially quit my job! (above is a pic of my official 'home' office now, sorry for the quality)

You might remember from a previous post I considered leaving before and was kindly offer the chance to do part time. This arrangement work really well for 6 months, then I realised my thoughts were still elsewhere (being with Finny and doing illustration). Being part time is brilliant, but it can have its down sides: I found that things were moving on without me, I didn't know what projects were going on and as it was difficult to give me long projects, I ended up doing mundane/monkey work. This resulted in my enthusiasm dropping and as someone who hates not giving my all, I knew something had to change.

Its scary when you realise what you're doing is making you unhappy and due to the financial security you stick with it. That decision to stay or leave was one of the hardest to make, all I could think was how hard it is to get a job in the first place…but truth was web design was just not for me.
After a lot of discussions, list making and huge support from Mark (seriously has been the best) and family I decided to take a risk, thinking if I didn't do it now then I never would.

I've had this dream of being my own boss, having a business doing illustration, producing children's books or illustrative products and knowing that what I was produced was all from me. It was only after having Finn that I realised that my interests had changed. I spent my days looking at blogs from other mothers, and website showcasing the latest must haves for children. Spending more time at home also resulted in me looking at designed things for the home and even my Pinterest searches seem to focus on 'illustration', 'home' or  'children'. All in all it was pretty clear where my passion was and what line of work I should be in.

So my business plan is to create a brand which produces a selection of illustrative homewares and products for children to sell on Etsy. My research is in check, and with the help of 'Build a business from your kitchen table' I am finalising the full business plan, etc (the worse job to date). All is still in the early stages but hopefully there will be designs to show soon.

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A few months too long!

Brussels Life

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I'm back, the sun is shinning, we are hitting the 20 degree mark and my veranda doors are open to the garden!!
Huge apologies on it being nearly 4 months since my last post, it is unacceptably too long and has completely thrown my oath to write more out the window. A lot has happened these last few months (as it would of, considering the amount of time). For Finn, he seems to have fully transformed from the crawling, babbling baby to a walking, talking toddler, with a whole new array of challenges and stories. For myself, there have been two major changes, which are going to make 2014 very interesting, I'll explain more in the next post!

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DaWanda Design Market

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Last Sunday ended up being a spontaneous day (which is pretty rare nowadays), Mark had mentioned seeing a sign for a design market the day before so with a bit of googling and a lot excitement from me, we wrapped up warm and headed there after Finny's nap
The company doing the event was DaWanda, honestly I hadn't heard of them before this day, seems similar to Etsy though as its a marketplace selling unique goods (plus handmade). Also the events are happen frequently in Holland and Germany with this being the first time in Belgium (good for us).
The location was at the Meiningher Hotel, also a part of Brussels I didn't know, but came across as an up and coming area canal, quite north london and even the hotel itself reminded Mark and I a bit of The Hoxton in London.
The event used the hotel rooms like shops, with around 100 mini shops to wander into. They were selling anything from handmade clothes and jewellery to home wares and artwork. With a good atmosphere, food and drink available and a modern/arty setting (I mean just look at that carpet) we were some happy chappies. Only issue of the day was we managed to get stuck in the lift (didn't have key cards to go to some of the floors) and as someone with slight claustrophobia, it wasn't the best experience.

On arriving we thought this is the place to get Christmas presents, which quickly turned into this is the place to get presents for us, errr I mean Finny. We ended up buying some pieces from the shop Knallbraun, well 5 to be exact (pic below). I was sold straight away with great illustrations of quirky characters and monochrome buildings, plus she came across as a lovely person who clearly cared and enjoyed what she did so even more of a reason to buy some. Even had to force myself not to buy too many, but then again can always buy some later…hush hush.

So its hats off to Mark for mentioning this event, would've never gone if he hadn't (wasn't much advertisements around). Considering this is the type of thing I hope to get involved in, in the future it was a perfect way to spend a Sunday! Lets just hope Brussels hosts another event soon!

Btw incase you wonder, I'm never offered any incentive to write about these things (maybe not enough viewers haha) so all thoughts and opinions are my own.

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Take away - Makisu

Brussels Life | Things to do

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Its been a while since Mark mentioned seeing a new sushi place and we thought lets give it a try. Now being a lover of classic sushi, when I first saw the menu I wasn't exactly tempted…I mean foie gras in sushi, not something I would put together! But like most things you can't knock it until you try it and after trying it Makisu has now become one of our staple takeaways! We seem to call it the healthy option, as the other choices are either pizza from Dea's (really good btw) or if alcohol and a late nights are involved the occasionally friterie (well we are in Belgium)!
Both the interior of Makisu and location (plus tram stops right by) are great! So perfect for if your eating there or taking home, plus price wise its bang on.

Our usual order is: Spicy Pablo, Dragon Roll, Makifornia, Alaska Roll and Up The River, all of which I would highly recommend! Mark always adds the WTF(G)!? (foie gras) which seems to acts like his dessert, and I love hearing him correct himself every time he orders it (lets just say he doesn't use the abbreviation).
If you haven't been yet, and are looking for something different I would definitely give it a go. Plus its perfect for people who eat sushi regularly and others that aren't so keen, as the tastes aren't too traditional.

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Last of the Summer - Malta

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At the end of September we took a little trip to Malta (with my parents), it was one of those holidays you book early May to guarantee some summer sun, as we all know the last few years have been pretty hit and miss for good weather. It was Finn's first sunny holiday, first try at swimming and also include my first plane journey alone with him (Mark joined a few days later).
I thought travelling alone with Finn would be easy, but in reality two pairs of hands are definitely better than one. It really was like a series of obstacles and challenges as soon as Mark left us.
Holding a toddler while folding and placing a buggy on a conveyer belt not easy. Going to the toilet with hand luggage and buggy, like a game of Tetris (Brussels airport doesn't seem to have toilet access in the baby changing room). Eating a plane meal while holding a sleeping boy, who lets be honest takes up all the room, impossible! And lastly trying to push and pull the buggy and suitcase, both with minds of their own, tiring. At least next time I know what to do…bring Mark!

On Malta, it gave us exactly what we needed: sun, swimming and pure relaxing. I have to admit that embarrassingly we didn't see much of the island/surroundings, as our days consisted mainly of sitting by the pool sunbathing and having conversations about when and what we should eat next. We did take daily walks though to some local harbours and beaches (pictured), which were lovely, so a return visit could be on the cards.

My biggest joy of the holiday was that Finny loved it, he spent all day swimming, or more like bobbing up and down in an inflatable, 'eating' (pic above), and napping in the shade. With Gaga and Fafa being there a week beforehand (so already relaxed and ridiculously tanned), they were fully ready to entertain Finn to the max, which meant I could have the rare treat of doing nothing, a real holiday!

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Happy Halloween!

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I'm sorry that this 'not posting for over a month' has become a trend, it seems that one busy week is followed by another. Then the posts I quickly jotted down in the moment seem to become outdated a week later (clearly its telling me I need to publish sooner). So I have decided to take an oath, after this period of big changes (end of Nov) I will commit myself fully to posting more.
Incase you're wondering what's distracted me the last month: we've gone on some short breaks away, I've had a last minute illustration project and then spare time has been focused on starting my own business, all of which I will mention in upcoming posts. 

Regarding Finn he is no longer our little baby, but now our little boy. A boy with a lot of independence and personality. I'm still shocked how much he changes everyday and love how like Mark, he can make me laugh continuously.

With that being said I hope everyone is in enjoying this cold but lovely sunny Halloween. I have to say that the chill in the air and the fact there's celebrations has got me smiling from ear to ear (even if I'm not the biggest Halloween fan). I also seem to find myself saying 'how can they sell Christmas stuff now? Its months away!' anytime I head out, but secretly I love the fact Christmas is 'here'. All this pre build up will have me putting Christmas decorations up by December 1st.

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Goodbye Summer

Brussels Life | Things to do

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So Summer is officially over (can't believe the drop in temperature from last week), the winter jackets and closed shoes are coming out from hibernation and I am still praying I won't have to put the heating on for another day.
This Summer has been a great eye opener for us, its weird to say but I don't think I really knew Brussels before having Finny. It seems like something has been happening every weekend, unfortunately for us we would find out about it the day after, but the ones we did manage to go to were brilliant, e.g. Belgium National Day, Comic festival Parade and Belgium Beer festival (which was on the same weekend).

I guess after this Summer we've realised that having busy weekends equal a happy Finn, not only because he got to see loads of new things, but he ends up sleeping better (which lets admit is a big bonus for us).

So its now got me questioning what we can do as a family on colder and darker days? Finn will clearly be dying to get outside no matter what the weather and there is only so many walks around the park we can do.
One place we know and have visited is the Brussels Natural History museum, which shocked us at how close it was. I would say its probably better for older children (a lot of educational things) but still Finn really enjoyed it, there were so many animals and dinosaurs to see that you could spend a full day there.

Then from what day time events I can see, the rest of September is mainly about Food and Design.
This weekend 13th-15th is Eat! Brussels we went last year and it was great day of relaxing and eating. There were a wide selection of dishes (reasonable prices) that sometimes choosing just one was difficult. Not sure how it will be in the rain but we might just chance it. Then throughout September there is Brussels Design September which seems to have different exhibitions, markets, lecture, etc. So definitely something interesting to go to one of these weekend. Clearly Visit Brussels will be top of my site to visits this Autumn/Winter.

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Ethiopian date night!

Brussels Life | Things to do

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Last Friday I had the whole day to myself (the first time since being pregnant). Gaga kindly was looking after Finn so I could spend time sorting upcoming projects (stay tuned for that). This included Finn staying at my parents that night before, which meant Mark and I could squeeze in a rare 'Date Night'! (how we cherish these)
We decided to go for dinner at the Ethiopian restaurant Toukoul. If you haven't been to an Ethiopian restaurant before it involves eating a selection of spiced dishes with traditional flat bread or 'Injera'. Its all about sharing with the Injera as the utensils ( meaning prob best eaten with someone you know well).
We had the menu done for two, ('Cornise', 54 euros). The picture above doesn't include the two other dishes that go with it and really doesn't do the platter size justice, it is big! Mark and I were bursting after eating it, and trust me Mark can eat a lot!
It's definitely another place I would recommend, its a great experience and has delicious food.

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Own room

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When it came to Finn's sleep situation, I have to say that it hasn't exactly been text book.

Pretty much from the start we went with co sleeping, for us it seem logical, I was breast feeding and instead of having to get up and out from bed every 30 mins, I could just roll over and feed. What we weren't expecting was how long this situation stayed. Even when Finn got older, we were placing him in his own cot (in the corner of our room) and at around 02:00 I would be lifting a crying boy out of his bed and into ours. I will whole heartily admit this was all due to us, at that time in the morning we were always up for taking the easy option. 

With Finny turning one Mark and I have decided that this would be a good time as any to move him into his own room (finally all that painting and nesting I did for his room, will be worth it).
The first night was interesting, I had prepared myself for a rough night of making countless trips to his room and was prepared to act strong by not letting him come back to our bed, Finn had other plans...he slept! even when he did stir all that was needed was the dummy. So in reality I should of prepared myself for constant check ups to see why he wasn't crying (is he still breathing?) and then the emotion of mourning the fact my little boy didn't need me anymore.
So it has been over a month since his cot moved and things are good, he might still wakes up once at night and on occasion joins us in the early hours but from what I can see he gets a better sleep and is less likely to be woken up. It's funny, but looking back co sleeping might of been better for us than for Finn, I guess at least now Mark can get ready for work without me shhhing him anytime he moves.

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Party planning

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As you might of read before I had quite a long list of things to produce for Finny birthday (I guess all parents want to make the 1st one special). This list included:

• Bunting
• Woodland creatures
• Letter bunting
• Cake bunting (you can see that in the previous post)
• Plus wrapping which didn't really work out, I actually just bought nice designed paper (oopps), though it was keeping in theme.

It was an intense three days, and to be honest I loved being that productive. It was great to really get stuck into a project and to have more than just an hour (when Finn naps) to do something.

The bunting has to be credited to Gaga she was the main one slaving for hours to get it ready (there was a lot to do). It made the place look lovely and now the plan is to use the bunting as decoration for Finn's room, which reminds me that still needs to go up (I'll show pics when that goes up).

The woodland animals were great fun to paint and worked perfectly painted on cardboard. I wanted them to go on sticks in the garden (instead they were placed around the room) but then again I can always do that later when Finny would appreciate it more.

The letter bunting was hand drawn, and again made great use of the old cardboard boxes. Putting them up was a bit of a nightmare (not enough ribbon) and getting them to stay up was even worse, but they did look good against the plain wall.

Lastly the food (sausage plait, couscous salad, vegetable tart, etc) went down very well, especially the amazing bread rolls/burgers by Fafa (my dad).

I can't wait for the next birthday now...already have loads of ideas!

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Birthday boy!

Brussels Life

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So as you might know it was Finn's 1st birthday on the 13th of July (sorry as usual a little late on the post). It went brilliantly and from what I could see Finny enjoyed it.
We had a small amount of lovely guests, lots of yummy food and gloriously sunny weather.

The picture above pretty much sums up Finn's highlight!

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A bit of extra work

Brussels Life | Personal Work

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As you might of read for a previous post, I have always wanted to expand my illustrations. I actually studied illustration at uni (not the wises decision of my life) so technically it should be plain sailing( plus will be good not to feel you wasted three years and three grand). The issue that always comes up is time! Ah I remember being pregnant and calculating my maternity leave, all I could think of was, What could I do with all this free time? In reality that was a joke. Now Finn is getting older there might be more opportunities to (not exactly the case so far). To start off this expansion, above is a letter I did for a little girl named Amelia, my plan is to continue this and make the full alphabet (maybe slight adjustments to colour). Another project in the pipeline is to make large, colourful pieces of art with geometric shapes.
The big project for the moment is Finny's 1st birthday (can't believe its a year on Saturday!). I have completely shot myself in the foot by looking at Pinterest way too much. There is now cake bunting, letter bunting and normal bunting to be made (i know bunting overload). Complex ways to wrap his presents, and time consuming cake decoration and food ideas. To top that off I also have set myself a goal to paint woodland creatures to go in the garden. I'm not sure if writing it all in here is the smartest thing to do as now expectations are even higher.
So big fingers crossed in the next weeks there are a lot of creative posts on how great everything looked and how everything went to plan..ha!

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Back to work?

Brussels Life

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So it was around this time last year that I started my maternity leave!
The Belgium system gives you 15 weeks (which is pretty annoying when most people I know get 6 months), and the rule is you have to start your leave a week before your due date.
Okay honestly I actually started 2 weeks before my due date, lets just say hot weather and public transport didn't exactly make me the best person to be around. So all in all with Finny deciding it was better to stay inside (result me being induced), my final leave with baby, was 3 months (back to work for October).
Way too little! Bring on the next! Thankfully here there is another type of leave... governmental. It is 4 months and can be taken anytime until the child is 12. You can take it in one go, part time, 1 day a week, or spread it out over the years. I decided on the part time (2.5 days work 2.5 days off), which allowed me to still work, spend lots of time with Finny and have this situation till June 2013, basically a win win situation!

I have to say when October came I was less than enthused to go back. It was so hard to leave Finny (gaga was looking after him so I had nothing really to fear), but little did I know that wasn't the hardest thing. That instead came in the form of 8 piece appliance...a breast pump!
Pumping at work was the worst! First my work is open plan, with only a handful of closed rooms all of which have no lock and a large glass panel on one side. At the time this meant: find a free meeting room, cover the glass wall with paper, place a sign on the door saying 'please do not disturb', then quickly pump while hiding in the corner. Believe you me, there is nothing worse than a boob out, squashed in a device and an overwhelming fear someone will walk in on you, for 30 mins, twice a day!
Secondly these pumps aren't discreet, its like some constantly shouting out 'She's pumping milk from her breasts in here'. Ah the countless times I would hear people talking in the next meeting room (seriously paper thin walls) only to have them stop when I started pumping (its the worst when you have to get the rhythm right). Lets just say I kept my eyes fixed straight ahead when I passed that room after. So after all that I need to then clean the machine get it sterilised and ready to use a few hours later, and then find a suitable place in the fridge to store the gold dust I had collected (usually nothing) which wouldn't cause too much curiosity. Lets just say I'm glad my pumping days are behind me!!
A positive side to going back was the fact I can finally get a little 'me time', a chance to talk about things that aren't just baby related and actually a chance just to have a two way conversation.

Well June has come and gone meaning back to full time!
Like I'm sure most mothers felt, the thought of not seeing my little boy everyday was too hard to imagine (as well as not being able to lounge around in pjs all day, but we'll keep that one to ourselves), so something had to change. Mark and I decided maybe I could do something selfish. Could be a stay at home mum and expand on my illustrations?
Lets just say thats not how it exactly worked out! Instead an even better situation arose, after discussion with work they kindly allowed me to continue my days. So I can now officially say I am a part time employee! (2 days one week, 3 days the other). And lets be honest with those days off there shouldn't be an excuse for not blogging...so its a little less drafting (so many in there) and little more publishing to come!

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