Wild Dogs:  There are plenty of wild dogs around here, they are more 'dog like' than the packs around Nhulunbuy which have a real a dingo look about them.  We were told that at certain time of day there a heaps at of wild dogs at the tip... but on the day we visited, there was only one.

We had one try and get into our rubbish bin at about 4am last night, but my personal security team ... Reuben and Chris... scared it away.

Sleep: Until that moment, I'd been having a pretty good night's sleep.  A fairly uncommon experience for me at the moment as I just can't get comfortable.  Also, my hands get swollen and my fingers get pins and needles in the night.  It's pregnancy induced carpal tunnel syndrome yay!!!.  Suprisingly, the lack of sleep doesn't really worry me, probably because I'm free to nap during the day :-)

Preparations: Baby J is due in 6 weeks. Im not doing much to prepare, though we purchased a basinette and a baby sling last weekend. I do have lots of clothes washed and sorted, but the change table and cot are still to be painted (by Chris)... until then, the baby's room will continue to look like a junk room.

Last night I wondered if I should make a single bed quilt for the (as yet unpurchased) spare bed.  Chris' mum will be coming to stay for 3 weeks in June and it might be nice for the bed to have a quilt.  I'm thinking yellows and white.  Just thinking mind you...

This Saturday we are going to an all day birth class in Darwin.  We're going down on Friday so Chris can get new tires for the car and I can see the obstetrician. 

Did you know that I have to go to Darwin to wait out the last two weeks before the baby's due date?  Somebody suggested to Chris that he try and arrange to work out of the Darwin office during this time.   Now why didn't we think of that!  It might not work out, but it could be worth a shot, if only so he can avoid a 3hr drive to Darwin (with no phone reception) while I'm in labour.

I think that's enough random thoughts for today :-)

In my last post I mentioned that I had an itch to do some embroidery.  So, in my usual fashion, I tossed the zig zag quilit aside and started putting a simple embroidery design together.

After a few iterations I came up with this 'tulip' design.  I then embroidered this design into each corner of a baby wrap I had made out of double muslin.  The stitches used here are buttonhole stitch, stem stitch and feather stitch.

This muslin is SO soft, much softer and thicker than the commercial muslins I have.

We've been given quite a few muslin wraps, apparently they can be used for swaddling, pram covers, breastfeeding modesty covers or spew rags... sounds pretty versatile!  

I've also been told that for swaddling, the cloths need to be bigger than most of the ones which you can buy... but I've been given some big ones, so hopefully I'll be right.  The ones I've made are on the smallish side, but I think they might be good 'tropical' substitutes for basinette blankets.

I enjoyed the embroidery so much I immediately started a second one:

This is a full view of the design which is much bigger than the tulip motif but is simply outlined in stem stitch and filled with fly stitch.