Wall uglyness

So I'm back at work now - 3 days per week and I must say that it is causing issues with the regularlity of blog updates...sorry post a day in May.
My office is brand spankin' new. New chairs, desk, shelving, carpet, computer etc. The walls are bare and I'm in need of a wall planner. But I don't want one of those ugly ones that you get through the office stationery suppliers. Any ideas or recommendations?

Frenchy

Today we went to the In-Law's for lunch and had French Onion Soup. Although I had my bread on the side which I am fully aware is against the spirit of FOS but I can't stand soggy bread. Anyhoo, it reminded me and the Mr of the BEST FOS experience we've ever had...think Paris, think small tiny cafe that we can't remember the name of.
So the story goes...we were going for a wander around the Opera Madeleine area and found a little cafe (I think there may have even been red checker table cloths) so we sat down at a street table and there was approx 5 cm seperating us from the couple at the next table. While we were looking at the menu, the smell of the guy's dinner was wafting over our way and it was AMAZING so I asked what he ordered and he said FOS - infact he said that FOS is his favourite soup of all time and he believed that this particular bowl was the best he'd ever tasted. So we both ordered a bowl and were not dissapointed. It was mind blowing. I wish we could remember the name of that cafe.


I think Amelia PS's version of FOS looks pretty good.

Beautiful buttons

As promised, more skirt pictures. I made two reversible skirts. The first one was ultra trial and error. I had a little run in with the overlocker which resulted in one rather ummm shapely side...
The patterned fabric looks v Marimekko I think but it was a Spotty special - $1/m. The other side is wool flannel, nice and warm for winter. The skirt has a hole in the middle that you step into so when the skirt is on you see a triangle of the alternate fabric.
It's all finished except for the daunting task of sewing the buttons on. I went to Buttonmania and bought some fab buttons. The ladies at that shop are so incredibly nice and helpful plus they have lots of patience with people (ok, me) who come into their shop with a very wriggly little boy who, quite frankly, is not the least bit interested in skirts or buttons. Infact, he'd probably rather eat the buttons.

The second skirt is the one that I posted about a week or so ago. It is Amy Butler fabric with black wool suiting on the reverse. This one is better made. The waistband is really good (if I say so myself!) and I just love the fabric. The buttons look better in real life, this pic make the green buttons look more green than they really are and it makes the other ones look quite yellow rather than limey green.

Now I just need to pluck up the courage and get my sewing machine to magically create 4 button holes for me.

I love my Miele

Late last year, we had a new addition to our family. A Miele dishwasher. Talk about life changing, this little beauty is a miracle machine. I absolutely love it and it is SO good that when I have the misfortune to pack other dishwashers (at work, friend's places etc) I look at the racks and cutlery set-up and just shudder. Miele is magic.
p.s. I should state on the record that I firmly believe that ANY dishwasher is better than the alternative of washing mountains of dishes.

Juggling act

Skipped another day in May so looks like today is a double post day.
Yesterday was my first day back at work - my maternity leave is over :-(
For all you mothers out there, how do you manage the breastfeeds, drop off's, pick up's, dinners, house work and paid work? Advice needed.

You let me down kid.

I've always been a white chocolate fan. Love the stuff. And since I've given birth, I cannot get enough chocolate. Some say it is due to breastfeeding - who knows?? After the little one goes to bed I indulge in a cuppa and some chocolate. I've always thought that Milky Bar was the superior choice but today I tried both Cadbury Dream and MB and I must say that MB severely let me down. Infact, I'd go a milk chocolate over a MB and that is saying something!

Au revoir studio

When we bought our house, we allegedly purchased a 3 bedroom home with a studio and a carport. Sounds great hey? Need help deciphering real estate agent speak. Here's a crash course:

- Studio = run down asbestos shack in backyard.
- Carport = loads of pieces of corrugated iron piled ontop of one another in ramshakle way with the odd bit of timber strategically place to keep it from falling.

Today - a year and a bit after we moved in, we've finally gotten rid of the studio. The asbestos man came on Wednesday and took all the yuckky stuff away and today the Mr and the FIL braved the elements and did some good old fashion demolition.

This is the studio with the outer (asbestos) walls removed. I forgot to get a before shot. Note how it is smack bang in the middle of the yard?

The work begins...boys love to demolish.
All the walls are gone.
A chunk of asbestos that was left behind....naughty.

Voila! All gone! Now we need to do something about that fig tree, do a MASSIVE weed, plant lots of veges and flowers, whack a swing set in there and we'll be the proud owners of an enormously beautiful backyard! Thank you to the fellas who spent Saturday in the rain doing this.

Sheesh - who knew it was all so involved!

Herb is turning 1 soon and we are throwing a birthday bash for him. We are making him the train cake from the uber awesome Women's Weekly Birthday Cake book. The OLD one not that new crap version.
I was trying to think of ideas for the party so I googled 'birthday party ideas' and clicked on this crazy website. Do people actually do this?

Make me over Trinny!

Trinny is the only person I've ever seen who looks good in a dress with puffy sleeve (except for Princess Di). I wouldn't mind if she waltzed into my place, took me shopping and bought me a whole new wardrobe.
Suprisingly, in tonight's episode Susannah's hair is v fly-away. Perhaps she needs a good blow dry.

Backyard blitz

During the past few weeks I have had lots of men crawl under the house. We've had electricians, builders, plumbers and the like...
We bought an Art Deco house last year and it is lovely, albeit in need of some TLC (and a lick of paint on the inside - think brown meets pink, green and white, oh yeah - blue too). The drought has cause quite a bit of cracking in the kitchen which, to coin a phrase, fully sucks.
I saw a bumper sticker once that said 'The definition of poverty is owning a horse', I would like to change the 'r' in horse to a 'u'.
Pretty much, it will cost a squillion to fix the cracks so for the moment we are turning a blind eye. However, we have made some positive moves on the asbestos front. Asbestos man came round today and has removed all the nastiness from the back shed. YAY! My FIL and Mr will be a force to reckon with on Saturday as they demolish the rest of the shed and do some serious weed wacking in the backyard. After all the crap is gone, we can finally plant the backyard and make it look all pretty. I'm thinking lime tree, orange tree, plant another lemon tree (our house came with an ELT - established lemon tree) plus lots of other edible stuff. Maybe a compost somewhere? And pretty flowers too! I have an awesome companion planting book so I'll need to read up for some inspiration.
The yard will look so big without the asbestos 'studio'. Only trouble is that the previous owners were a little gung ho with concrete. So there isn't any grass out there. Maybe fake turf is the answer? No. That would shred Herbie's crawling knees wouldn't it.

Finally...pictures of my sewing

I've been beavering away at making skirts. I have to go back to work next week :-( and thought that I'll feel better about it if I'm wearing something nice. At work, I will not be used as a human serviette which is apparently what Herb thinks that I am. Therefore, I can wear nice clothes. A trip to Patchwork on Central Park scored me some lovely Amy Butler heavy weight fabric and using a bit of nouse and a lot of trial and error, I decided to make a reversible skirt. No pattern involved, just a lot of holding the fabric up to myself and deciding to cut here and there...

I did a few web searches and found some good skirt tutorial guidance. I meshed all that knowledge into my head, and forged on. First up - layed the fabric out, lined it up, drew my lines and cut with my trusty sewing scissors. You probably can't tell in this pic but my cutting was (ahem, get ready for some boasting) perfect. Yes it was. Both pieces matched exactly.

Then I got excited cause I thought I had lots of lovely left over fabric. But I decided to insert a waistband thanks to Distressed for the tutorial.

Next up - overlocking. Oh what fun it is to overlock and can I just state for the record: Overlocking beats zig zag any day of the week.

I'll post more pics of the progress tomorrow but thought I should finish with some images of the iron and my great sewing scissors. No project is complete unless you have some type of craft injury. I burnt myself with the iron and actually snipped my finger with the scissors. Must of been a reallllly good craft day!

Looks like I'm going to have to stay late after school

I forgot to post yesterday! I have been a bad arse and ignored the pledge to Post a Day in May. Naughty naughty. Infact I didn't forget to post yesterday but life caught up with me. Spent a day running around doing boringness i.e dropping in dry cleaning, buying nappies, returning something to Ikea etc. Then Mr. had a bit of an incident on his bike which meant that I had to drop Herb off at a friends, drive to pick up Mr. and the bike, remove Herb's baby seat so bike could fit in the car, drive home, pick up Herb then we had to make dinner, bath Herb and on and on and on. So I didn't post. So sue me. Or not. I don't have any money anyway so if you did sue me, you wouldn't get much.
I'll post twice today ok?

Lola Lola Lola!

This is what I got for Mother's Day! Plus I got a lovely cuddle from my wriggly little boy and a drink bottle holder for my bike. Oh and chocolates too. And flowers from my mum and another bunch from my SIL. And a Red Hot Poker plant from my MIL. How lucky is this mummy?

I love this Charlie and Lola book. It stars Lola of course. Lola is my hero. I luuurve her. She is so kind hearted and hilarious. She jumps right in where others might stand back.

In the book, Lola makes pink fairy cakes and long time readers of my blog (yeah I know, I've only been blogging for like 5 minutes) will know that I LOVE pink cupcakes. LOVE THEM!!

The Mr and the boy also took me to Apte for breakfast. How is this for fate? My favourite soup of all time is mushroom. I cannot get enough of it and for some strange reason, cafes do not seem to feature it on the menu often. But today it was the special at Apte! Yummmmm. It was delicious.

And to top off a perfect day, we got a pink cupcake for takeaway. I'm eating it now with a cup of Orange Pekoe. Perfect.

p.s. I've decided not to call the hubby DH. Could be misconstrued for dick head. So he will now be referred to as Mr.

It's found!

Guess where? In the bloody laptop bag.

Still missing!

Our camera cable is still AWOL and it is annoying. I've learnt to be ALOT more patient since Herb was born. For example, about a month ago the second phone handset went missing. We looked everywhere (even in the garage) but to no avail. After a while we just accepted that it had fallen off the edge of the earth. Then yesterday dear husband (DH) found it in the spare room underneath the bed. No idea how it found its way there.
On a more crafty note - hey, this is supposed to be a craft blog - I trekked out to Amitie on Thursday. Lots of nice things but I think I prefer Patchwork on Central Park - everytime I go there I get inspired to make a new quilt before I remind myself just how many projects I have on the go.
Must get started on crocheting the beanie for DH's b'day. B'day isn't till October but I think it will probably take me that long!

Beautiful noise

So many beautiful noises out there. Like the one I'm listening to right now....total silence. Little H is in bed tucked up - he is sleeping soundly.

Other noises I like:

- the sound of his chatters. Made up words that sound so sweet.

- voices of my loved ones.

- rain (of course).

- Neil and other fav singers.

- the sound of the car blinker - odd I know.

- tapping of the keyboard.

- mixy sound of the mixmaster

- boiling water

- clocks ticking.

Ok, this is getting far too mundane now. I'm gonna stop.

I wish we could find the camera cable! I've been crafting and I want to post some pics!!

I'm a believer

Oh yes I am. I am a believer in lots of things. Let's count them:
I believe:
- that most people are pretty nice and decent
- that children are little miracles
- that the rain soothes your soul
- that cuddles and kisses from loved ones are the best medicine
- that laughter is also pretty great medicine
- that people weren't designed to work 24/7
- that a good meal cooked lovingly at home is far better than anything a restaurant can serve up
- the taste of a perfect apple is second to none
- that your body is amazing and is capable of extraordinary feats
- that spending time with your family and friends is time well spent
- that craft is a lovely escape and the finished product always contains lots of nice thoughts and love
- that the camera cable will turn up so I can upload pics to my very wordy blog

Girl...you'll be a woman soon

Ok...it's opposites day so lets pretend that Neil sung a song called Boy....you'll be a man soon. And now let's switch that to Baby...you'll be a boy soon.

My little bloke was 11 months old yesterday which means he is just a stone throw away from being 1. How exciting to think that he has been in our lives for a year and how that year has seen him go from a tiny newborn to a kid who can climb into the bath on his own. But on the otherhand, he is growing too quickly!!! I remember when his little mouth was all gummy and cute and now his mouth is only for the foolish and the brave. You put your finger anywhere in the vicinity of his mouth and WHAM! Expect to be bitten.

I didn't think gender would be so defining at this age but let me tell you - this boy knows cars. He is obessed with cars, bikes and trains. His vocabulary includes the sound broooom- broooom.

I love you Herbie, no matter how young or old you are.

I like your old stuff better than your new stuff - mostly.

Back in my hey day, the fella bought me a great b'day prez - tix to Neil's Tennessee Moon concert in Sydney. I was wrapped. We went out for cheap chinese (students you see, therefore have to do everything on a shoe string - by necessity not choice!) and then we were treated to a Neil spectacular. He was on the revolving circular stage so everyone in the audience got their fair share of some Neil lovin'. Anyhoo, he sang a few tunes from the album but then everyone was cheering for the old goodies - Cherry Cherry, Sweet Caroline etc. SO MUCH SO that he sang Sweet Caroline not once, not twice but THREE times. Let me tell you, everyone in that stadium (even my fella, albeit reluctantly at first) was on their feet singing and dancing.
Why would anyone bother with drugs when you could just go see Neil - or turn up the stereo reeeeeallly loud and sing your lungs out to Sweet Caroline?
p.s. I actually really like the Tennessee Moon album now. But I still love the old stuff better.

Hey Louise

OMG! Pip has dropped a bundle of joy into my bloggy lap. A week of Neil Diamond inspired posts.
My fav Neil CD is the Jazz Singer. I love every track on that CD. In particular, the one that ND sings especially for me...Hey Louise. I think it is the only song I know (aside from one oldie called Lovely Louise) that has my name in it. I'm sure Neil wrote it just for me. Let's not get into the finer details that might throw that argument out the window. Like the fact that the CD was released before I was born.

How many tunes do you sing to?

After I'd written my last post, I started singing along with good old Neil and it got me thinking...how many songs do you know the words to? I haven't listened to this particular CD in ages but I still know all the words. Do you think that we all know the words to thousands of songs? I reckon I know all the lyrics to most Elvis tunes (thanks to my Dad playing the CD's to me and my sister during our very Elvis-esque childhood). I'd like to pop a question out there - how many songs do you guestimate you know the words to? I'm taking a stab in the dark and saying 2000.
p.s. Given that I think I have only one reader of this blog I don't expect floods of comments but hey - you never know.

I'm a Mix

I'm sitting on the couch while the little man sleeps, beavering away at the hexagon quilt (which I'm determined to get done before he turns one) and am listening to a wee bit of Neil Diamond. The thing is - I love all that kinda music. Bit of Elivs never hurt nobody. You know the kind of artists I'm talking about...Neil Diamond, Elivs, Buddy Holly, Roy Orbison, Connie Francis, Patsy Cline, Jim Reeves and all those great one hit wonders from the 50's, 60's and 70's.
I married a bloke who is more in touch with the music scene from this decade. He's keen on Triple J where as I'm a bit of a Mix 101.1 or 774AM. I just don't get alot of modern music. You can't sing along and the lyrics aren't as nice. Don't get me wrong - I love Madonna as much as the next girl but I'm not into that head pounding music. No siree.