threadsforevie

Giving craft

2011-06-24T22:57:00.001+10:00

This is something that I've grappled with a lot recently.

Found a blog post from another which really sums it up for me. Don't forget to read the comments too.

Past days

2011-06-17T20:59:00.002+10:00

When I started this blog, I had a list on the sidebar of things that happened each day. I liked re-reading over this but got sick of it clogging the side bar. This post archives all those days. Most passed in a fog when the littlest boy was a babe in my arms.

_______

Watched the last episode of West Wing

Zoo

February already

Museum

Australia Day

In a bad mood

Two sleepers

Considering a move to Iceland

It's too hot to have a laptop on my lap

Bang noodles

Scorcher

I like the word yikes

6am on a Saturday is just plain rude

Facebook you are a time waster

Exercise? Or no?

Rockin' the suburbs

I'm on the B list

Short sleeves

Windy

Bringin' home the bacon

Office politics

Mamma Mia!

Going on a date with the Mr!

Sunshine outside, cold inside

Ants are back!?

Kisses, kisses, kisses

The house is quiet

I have wheels - yipee!

The Mr is back!

Birthday party in the park

Borax...please work

Beware! Crazy woman with talcum powder on the loose

Pumpkin and fetta. Yummm

It's business as usual

I've eaten 3 blood oranges and 3 passionfruits

Has lasted for about 36 hours

Was so much fun

It is sunny!

I wish I was knocking out some zzzzz's

I'd like to feed the bub

I'd rather be in a chamber of silence

Hiatus...over?

2011-06-13T19:15:00.006+10:00

So...it's 2011. And no post. I've tried a few different strategies to get me motivated but nothing has done the trick. You see, I really like blogging. I do. So why don't I do it?

I don't know.

This year, the Mr and I decided that we wouldn't 'do' New Years resolutions and to my surprise he suggested a monthly resolution. Now this is much more of a commitment - yes?

We tried it in January. The rules were simple - think of a few things that we've been wanting to get done for ages and write them on the calendar. All sorts of things made it to the list. Here's a sample of January:

* finish building the drawers in the kitchen

* put the baby clothes away

* order a TV bracket for the big arse TV that Mr bought

* find a way to get the kids in bed (and possibly asleep) by 8.30pm

* change phone companies

So you see, nothing major but every single thing on this list made a big difference. We'd been talking about changing phone providers for 7 months! And it took about an hour to actually action.

January got a big tick. So did Feb, March, April and May. We have been a bit slack with June but still have 17 days to change that.

You might be wondering what made me hit 'New Post' and actually pen this entry? I have two boys (4 and 20 months) and they LOVE cars. They love to watch cars drive up our street, cars on a highway, cars parked, cars being towed. You get the picture.

They will flip out when they see this:

Nuffnang have an awesome promo where they are sending bloggers free family passes to see Cars 2. And this is the thing that got me back to the blog. I really want to take my boys to see this movie but movies are expensive these days! We've just had a huge party for Mr 4 which involved obscene amounts of Lego, my 30th, the car rego x 2 and insurance renewals. June is always a hard month financially.

I loved the original movie. It is probably the only kids movie I have seen that doesn't have scary bits. So it is great to pop on for Mr 4 while I put the little one down to sleep at lunchtime. The boys have lots of the cars die cast cars which have been favourites for a long time. Who knows how much Cars 2 merch will find its way into this house?!

The plot looks a little deeper than the first movie and perhaps it will have a few scary bits....once we see the movie I'll report back!

Thanks for reading this far and I look forward to writing more posts soon!

Small town, big heart

2010-09-06T15:20:00.003+10:00

We just returned from a week away in Phillip Island. I went there with my parents when I was younger but can't remember much (strangely I remember that Mum bought a Gucci t-shirt...). This time, the Mr and I took the boys. We hired a house and two other families joined us for a few days. It was chaotic at times but a brilliant thing to do - all the little boys (5!) had such fun climbing up sand piles, looking in rock pools and generally just mucking around.
After the other families left we had some rainy days where we layed low and I went into town with #1 and visited the CWA shop. Two lovely older ladies were knitting and crocheting while I looked around. #1 proudly showed them the contents of his backpack and started a long detailed explaination of just how much he loves Lightening McQueen. When the conversation started to die (the ladies clearly were not well aquainted with Lightening), #1 began to tell them how he helps mummy with knitting and terial (material). And sometimes he and mum do cooking together and we make yummy pancakes. And then he proudly announced, I love knitting.
So cute. It made me realise that those moments during the day when you share something with them - let them have a go of the knitting needles or a press of the sewing machine button - it's those times that they cherish more than I realise.
Later in the day he said to me, 'Mum, I like those girls.'
'Which girls?' I said.
'You know, those nice girls in the knitting shop.'
I bet they'd love to know that he called them 'girls'!!

Division of responsibilities

2010-08-26T16:19:00.002+10:00

It's funny how the jobs are divided up within a family. We are going away on a holiday tomorrow and it got me thinking about who does what in this household.

I definately take care of the lists. I like lists. I look after the food (generally) and the social calendar (who am I kidding...that should have said, the kids social calendar).

Packing is the Mr's domain and he is so good at it. If packing were a game show or a reality TV show - well - we could be millionaires. He can fit pretty much anything anywhere. His golden rule is that he MUST have everything in one place before the packing commences. Nothing frustrates him more than someone (ok, me) saying 'Oh, here is another saucepan for the dishwasher.'

So that brings us to other household jobs: tidying (me), hardcore cleaning (him), changing lightbulbs (him), setting mousetraps (him), shopping list (me), remembering things like pyjama day at childcare (me), sewing (me), washing (both), nappies (both), making the peppermint tea once the kids are in bed (him), cracking the Tim Tams open (me).

Grocery shopping (me), Bunnings (him), outside stuff (him), paying bills (me), putting out the rubbish (both), remembering birthdays (me), writing letter to (his) grandma (me), writing on the birthday and christmas cards (me and this is a commitment that he believes was written into our wedding vows), figuring out how things work (him), map reading (him), driving (both), making appointments (me), choosing the music (him - he always makes the best music choices).

Turns out that for the most part I suppose we are pretty traditional.

Love that I'm really happy with him doing his jobs and I think he's pretty happy with me doing mine. Meant to be.

2010-07-31T16:25:00.001+10:00

Sleeping babe

2010-07-23T12:14:00.000+10:00

Recently, #1 had a nasty fall and his chin was pretty badly hurt. We needed to put special antibiotic cream on the wound but of course, how do you do that to a 3 year old. He would not let me near it. So I put the cream on after he'd fallen asleep. It was a very sweet moment in time.

There is almost nothing I love more than watching my boys sleep. There is something so amazing about children when they are asleep. So peaceful. So innocent.

It reminds me of a time when they were just newborn babes in my arms. That feels like so long ago.

Putting pen to paper

2010-07-22T15:42:00.004+10:00

Although you'd never know it, I actually write blog posts in my head daily. However, it seems that they rarely get beyond my mind and actually posted onto my blog. Sometimes that gets me down. I think that I'd love to post more frequently but it seems I don't often have everything in one place - the camera might be elsewhere, the picture might not have been taken, the camera cable misplaced, the big boy wanting to watch Thomas on the laptop, the dinner not made....things just get in the way sometimes. So I got to thinking today that if I just didn't worry so much about posting images, more posts might actually make it to the blog.
But a picture says 1000 words and posts without pics aren't always that interesting or inspiring. I love looking at other people's beautiful blogs. But I figure that I'd rather have a post up, a thought out of my head and actually documented than not. So you know what? This is my blog and I can do whatever I please with it.
So I'm going to.

Pretty rainbow

2010-06-19T20:53:00.002+10:00

I meant to post this pic ages ago. Discovered it again when I was downloading the memory card. On this day, there were three rainbows above our house - this was the clearest one.
I love rainbows.

Tape

2010-06-08T15:19:00.003+10:00

image from notemaker.com.au

Well, life got in the way of posting in May. We've had lots going on this past month...a new nephew, my birthday, my son's birthday, my sister's birthday and what seems like weeks of a household with at least 2 people sick - damn colds.

I thought I'd share an image of the present my two little boys gave me for my birthday...a beautiful, beautiful sticky tape dispenser. Infact the most beautiful sticky tape dispenser I have ever seen.

I saw this tape dispenser on NoteMaker a while back and absolutely loved it. The Mr remembered and sneakily bought it for my birthday. Such a fitting gift to be given from my sons. #1 LOVES sticky tape.

I keep telling him that I love the gift he gave me and he keeps insisting that he did not give me Spencer. Still doesn't quite understand what dispenser means....

Tutorial: easy ironing board cover

2010-04-22T22:16:00.005+10:00

As you can see, it has been a while between posts here on this little blog. So I thought I'd make this post a goodie.

Remember a while back I posted pics of our old laundry? Well it is now finished and looks brilliant (will post pics soon). I've been loving the new laundry and admire its beauty (and cupboards and bench space and concealed dirty clothes hamper) on a daily basis.

About a fortnight ago I was trying to decide where to store my ironing board - oh the decisions that one has to make!! I decided not to store in the laundry and then I realised that was a really dumb idea. The reason I didn't want to store it in the laundry was because it was ugly-ing up my lovely laundry.

So I decided to make a new cover for the ironing board. It will now look lovely in the new space.

Here is where the craftopia starts:

This is a REALLY REALLY easy project. I would say it is totally suitable for a beginner sewer. As long as you know how to use the straight stitch on your machine you'll be ironing on a new cover in no time.

You'll need:

- a sewing machine
- coordinating color thread (actually, you won't even see the stitches so if you want to be all uncoordinated in your thread choice - go right ahead)
- 1.5 m of 100% cotton fabric (or if you use 150cm wide fabric, you'll need about 70cm)
- some thin ropey stringy stuff (I used some cord I had leftover from the blinds)
- scissors
- pins
- your ironing board

Now this is hack craft at its finest, so if you are a person who isn't comfortable with winging it, you might be best to ditch my instructions and find a more detailed tute online. For those of you who are happy to give it a whirl....read on.

1. Firstly get your ironing board out and lay your new fabric over the top. Position your new fabric the way you want it.

Oh, sorry I didn't take 'in progress' pics... but the instructions are so easy you won't need them.

2. Now, cut your new fabric in the rough shape of your ironing board leaving a very generous seam allowance (I left about 10cm all around).

3. You can do this next step one of three ways. The first option is the neatest, the other two are quicker and the end result doesn't really matter because you won't see the stitches:
a) Turn over the edge about 5mm and sew a little 'hem' all the way round OR
b) Zig Zag stitch around the edges of the fabric OR
c) overlock the edges of the fabric

I went with option a. And honestly, do not worry if it doesn't look neat and tidy.

4. Now make a hem by turning about 2cm your fabric over. Pin the hem in place. Make sure you don't make a hem narrower than, say, 1.5cm. You are making a casing for the cord so you need the hem to be wide enough to pass the cord through.

5. Sew the hem in place. Remember to leave a 2cm gap somewhere. I put my gap on the widest end of the board. This is where you'll stick your safety pin in to thread the cord through.

6. Get your trusty cord

And singe the end of the cord. I read on another site that this means that the cord won't fray while you are poking it through the casing. To determine how much cord you'll need, measure all the way round your old ironing board. I added on about 30cm (I always over estimate when I'm making things up as I go along.).

7. Get your safety pin and poke it into the end of the cord. Now thread your cord through the casing that you made.

8. When you've threaded the cord all the way to the end, put your new cover on top of your old cover. Pull the string tight and WOW - you've got a new ironing board cover!!

I should have mentioned at the start that my old ironing board cover still has lots of good padding so my new cover will sit on top of the old cover. If your ironing board needs new padding, it might be a good idea to try quilting wadding.

Give this project a go, it honestly took me about 40 minutes to do - and I was multitasking - watching West Wing at the same time :-)

I love the new cover. Cost next to nothing to make and looks splendid. Do try it.

Finishing touches

2010-03-10T10:39:00.000+11:00

The big boys room has been a WIP for a while. It started as the junk room but when #2 was in utero we (ok, the Mr did the lions share) did a brilliant job of turning it from zero to hero. The wall decals are the final touch. They look amazing. Get yourself some here.

Cut up

2010-03-08T07:37:00.001+11:00

All washed and cut up. Ready to join.

Sisterly love

2010-03-06T12:31:00.000+11:00

Here are the fabrics that I've chosen for the quilt I'm making for my sister's wedding gift.

Mother love

2010-03-04T16:55:00.001+11:00

I've had a week of uncovering some truths about mothering. I am a firm believer that the moment that you think you can start predicting what little ones are going to do - they change their mind. So never count on a two hour sleep because it won't happen ok? But one lovely thing about my experience of mothering is the unspoken connection between a mother and her children. In our ante-natal class, one of the other mothers-to-be said she was a deep sleeper and was worried that she wouldn't hear her baby cry in the middle of the night. I'll never forget what the midwife told her 'Even after the birth, there is an umbilical cord between a mother and her baby. It's just invisible.'
I think this is so true. Often I wake about a minute or two before my little baby wakes in the middle of the night. Today I was driving home from the market and halfway home I just knew that #2 was asleep (very rare - he's not a car lover). I think the atmosphere changes in some way or your instinct tells you something that your eyes will confirm at the next red light.
There have been so many times over the past 2.5 years that the invisible umbilical cord has been there. And hopefully it will keep me connected to my boys forever.

All quiet on the western front

2010-02-21T22:21:00.004+11:00

3 boys asleep. I'm ironing and measuring and cutting and folding. And imagining what this quilt will look like when it is pieced.

Little baby elephant

2010-02-17T21:43:00.004+11:00

Today I took the boys to the zoo to see the baby elephant. I was thinking that it would be quiet - mid-week and all. WRONG. To quote my dad: every man and his dog was there trying to get a glimpse. We lined up for half an hour and surprisingly #1 was on his best behaviour (probably due to a full lunchbox being trust in his lap) and #2 slept (bless him).
Anyhoo, the queue moved. We made friends with the random people behind us in the queue. I trusted them to hold our spot and look after all my worldly possessions while I took #1 out of the queue for a few minutes to stem his boredom.
The baby was worth the wait. She was super playful and the big elephants (mum and, I'm guessing, one of the aunty elephants) were very active too. They kept making big noises and the baby climbed a dirt pile much to the glee of #1. She also splashed around in the water. #1 was a little disappointed that she didn't fill her trunk with water and spray us though.
Can't win 'em all huh?

My buttons are being pushed

2010-02-16T21:32:00.001+11:00

By a whining two year old who won't go to sleep.

My computer buttons however, are not being pushed due to the laptop screen being broken. (Again, some of the credit goes to the two year old).

Hence the blogging break.

Craftopia

2010-02-03T14:40:00.001+11:00

Two crafty gals are coming round tonight to do some stitching. Now...if only I could decide which project to start...

In progress

2010-02-02T11:19:00.000+11:00

Some quilting, some piecing, some cutting and some sewing.

Summer love

2010-02-01T22:10:00.000+11:00

One thing I love about summer is the fruit. I also love the community of gardeners and friends who swap their excess. These strawberries are from my mother-in-laws hairdresser, they were so tasty. One of friends gave me a whole swag of stewed apricots, two other friends gave me more plums than I know what to do with. In exchange, I am the lemon and zucchini provider.

First harvest

2010-01-31T10:30:00.000+11:00

Passionfruit is my favourite fruit. This is the first passionfruit we've had off our vine. It was sublime.

A week of freezer: day 7

2010-01-30T08:41:00.000+11:00

Zucchini lasagna

One of my favourite recipies. It is from Bill's food and is so quick to put together. I used lasagne sheets from the freezer, zucchini from the garden, spinach that needed to be used up and tomatoes left over from our felafel dinner. Healthy and delicious.

A week of freezer: day 6

2010-01-29T10:10:00.001+11:00

Felafel with fresh tomatoes, beetroot relish, tzatziki and spinach

I bought Larder Fresh felafel at the market. They are very yummy and are free from almost everything: preservatives, dairy, gluten, wheat, chickpeas... joking.

5 minutes in the oven and they are done. I reckon dinner took me 15 minutes to cook and that includes chopping up the tomatoes, make the tzatziki and put everything together.

A week of freezer: day 5

2010-01-28T09:22:00.000+11:00

Rustic winter soup

In summer. I gave #1 two chicken nuggets for lunch (from the freezer of course!) and after putting them infront of him, he turned to me and said 'can I have soup too?'. Now, for those of you out there who have children who hardly ever eat, you'll know how I feel when I say - this is music to my ears. So one little container of soup promptly defrosted. Win-win. One more thing in his tummy and one more thing out of my freezer.

A week of freezer: day 4

2010-01-27T08:30:00.000+11:00

Spaghetti with spinach pesto and prawns

When we went to the market a lovely lady from Verde Provedores gave us two containers of spinach pesto. She saw that we had a newborn and figured that cooking great dinners wasn't really a priority for us right now! She suggested that we pop the pesto in the freezer and stir it through pasta when we needed a quick meal. I decided to go a little up market and team it with some prawns and mushrooms. I pan fried the prawns and mushrooms in a bit of butter and then scattered some basil from the garden over the top of the dish. It was definately the nicest freezer meal we've had this week. If you see the Verde pesto's around, I recommend them. The spinach one is delicious.

A week of freezer: day 3

2010-01-26T21:00:00.006+11:00

Image from Grill'd

Another day, another freezer meal. Today we had homemade hamburgers from patties I'd frozen a few months ago. And quite fittingly for Australia Day, we made them on the BBQ. This pic is not the burger I ate. It is a representation of what I made but ate too quickly to photograph. My all time favourite burger is the Mighty Melbourne (with beetroot) from Grill'd. It is absolutely delicious and I wish there was a Grill'd in Northcote so I could get my fix a little more often.

A week of freezer: day 2

2010-01-25T14:12:00.000+11:00

Pancakes with lemon and sugar

The Mr is the Pancake King. His pancakes are rather legendary. #1 is a very keen helper now too (egg cracking seems to be one of his favourite things to do). We have a lemon tree in the backyard that is FULL of lemons but all of them are green at the moment. Luckily I had some frozen lemon juice in the freezer.

A week of freezer: day 1

2010-01-24T08:03:00.002+11:00

My freezer is bursting at the seams. We are at the point where you put something in and close the door quick smart before everything comes tumbling out.

I've decided to post A week of freezer. Every day this week I'll be making a meal using frozen ingredients. The aim is to have lots of room in the freezer by the end of the week!

Day 1 was soup. I had three different vegetable based soups in the freezer left over from a big winter cookup. Popped a container of each in a saucepan and voila! Dinner done.

A better blind

2010-01-23T07:48:00.002+11:00

Now that #2 is here, #1 is in his big boy room. The Mr spent some serious time in there transforming the mission brown wardrobe, pinky/creamy walls and blue ceiling to a much nicer color scheme of white (sorry - Lexicon) walls and ceiling, and charcoal for the window frame and wardrobe. It looks so much better and bigger too.

His room faces has the best view in the house, it looks straight over our backyard. The sun streams in and it is a really nice space. But not too good when you want your toddler to have a day time sleep. So we had a crack at making some roman blinds. I chose the fabric, a beautiful Echino print and the Mr did a series of complex calcs to come up with a plan. It took us forever to make them. Roman blinds have ALOT of boringness in the construction. There is hardly any sewing - just straight lines. The most important part of the process is the measuring and the marking up. Ours was double trouble: the window is really big - over 2m wide- so we needed to make two identical blinds.

Now the blinds are up and we use them every day. I love them, the print on the fabric is great. It isn't too kiddy so should last for a long while yet.

Here is a closer look at a small part of the pattern:

Aren't the colors great? The zebra is my favourite.

Before

2010-01-21T17:10:00.005+11:00

Very much looking forward to posting the after photos of our laundry.

Frenchy window

2010-01-19T22:09:00.002+11:00

When we travelled to Paris I saw so many window boxes overflowing with geraniums. I loved the color of the flowers and the big round leaves. My window box is a little work in progress. But I love it all the same.

Update on crappo project

2010-01-17T22:08:00.002+11:00

The good news is that the stupid window shade did eventually get finished. I threw a bit of a tanty (blaming it on the pregnancy hormones - not the bad measuring) so engineer husband stepped in and saved the day.
The second piece of good news is that the shade blocks out all that 5am sun. So no more waking up to sun in the eyes.
Later this week I'll show you a really good craft project.

Almost a year goes by

2010-01-16T08:40:00.001+11:00

Last year I mentioned a craft project that took me to hell and back. Well it has taken me 10 months to post the pics of this little ditty.
Our bedroom has a small window that is quite high and faces east. In the morning, the sun shines through the frosted glass and tends to wake me up. I don't like a light room. So I decided to do a quick crafty fix. I wanted to make a blind for the window and I thought it would take me an hour or so to whip up....HA. The craft gods were not smiling at me that day.
A seemingly simple (too simple) process:

measure window
measure fabric and blockout
sew fabric to blockout
insert wooden rod
hang

First I measured wrong (how??), I cut the incorrect amount of fabric (of course, I only had JUST enough fabric in the first place). Then I cleverly thought that I'd use viseoflex to stick the fabric to the blockout - yes, I thought, that will save me pinning it. Well that did not work. At all. I had bits that were stuck on, bits that were bubbling, bits that couldn't be unstuck. GRRRR.

Ripper Christmas

2010-01-14T12:18:00.001+11:00

This Christmas was lovely. It was our first Christmas as a family of four. It was a really special time and great to spend it with our loved ones.

Boy #1 is 2.5 so is now plenty old enough to know what all the fuss is about. Although, he is a bit afraid of the big man in the red suit. He strictly told me that 'Santa is not allowed in my house Mum.' And then instructed me that the protocol would be as follows:

Santa to ride up our street on the sleigh
Reindeers eat the food that we left out for them on the driveway
I meet Santa on the footpath and tell him what good boys I have
Santa to hand over the gifts to me and I must take them inside and put them safely under the tree

Everything went to plan and Santa delivered two lovely gifts for each of the boys. Alas, boy #1 did not get the Lightening McQueen skateboard that he'd be hankering for. Santa said he was a bit little for that this year (but was quick to add that boy #1 is a VERY BIG boy).

Boy #2 is not so big, only 8 weeks old at Christmas. He still had a great day and much to boy #1's delight, Santa delivered #2 a Percy of his very own.

This year the Mr delivered. Big time. He took boy #1 on a journey across town and bought me a beautiful salad bowl and salad servers. Very very spoilt. The bowl is pictured above with a lonely grapefruit from the market. The macro pic is my favourite section of the bowl.

Want to know a sure fire way to get more salads into your diet? Buy yourself a gorgeous salad bowl.

To market

2010-01-12T09:12:00.003+11:00

Depsite the hot weekend, we decided to spend Saturday morning at the farm. Boy #1 is obsessed with 'clip clops' (horses, donkeys, ponies - you get the picture) so we bundled both boys into a hot car and went in search of said clip clops.

The farmer's market was on and for those of you who haven't checked this market out - it is well worth a visit. The fresh produce is beautiful, heaps of organic stuff and lovely stall holders (who must have melted, it was so bloody hot). We bought some delicious oranges, grapefruit, peaches, nectarines, falafel, honey and icy poles.

Back to the horses: after our market sojourn, we discovered that the farmers had put the clip clops in a different location that was just too far to walk in 36 degree heat with two babes. Of course we couldn't tell that to the boy so instead I did what any good mother would do - I lied. Those clip clops had gone to the beach for a swim in the hot weather. Yes they had.

Hot days, warm nights

2010-01-11T10:56:00.002+11:00

image from www.alwaysmod.com

It is going to be 43 degrees in Melbs today - too hot to do anything except sit on the couch and whinge about the heat.
In more crafty news: I'm thinking about my next big project. My sister just got engaged (!) and I want to make her and her hubby-to-be a quilt. I'm struggling to pick a pattern that will stand the test of time. This will be their wedding present and I don't want them to look at it in a few years and think 'Oh gawd! How 2010 is that?!'
She recently bought this beautiful Marimekko fabric and plans to turn it into a spot of wall art. So I'm thinking that I'll use Scandinavian-esque fabrics in the quilt. Anyone out there with some good ideas for a pattern, please let me know! I'm keen to get cracking on this project, the sooner I decide on the pattern, the sooner I can shop for fabrics...

Why?

2009-12-19T21:38:00.000+11:00

If I get asked that question one more time today I will explode.

Golden hammer

2009-12-17T09:30:00.005+11:00

We don't have many traditions in our little family. A few years ago the Mr and I decided to do away with all the tacko meaningless christmas decs and instead each of us bought one decoration that we really loved or meant something to us. Over the years we've continued to do this and as our family has grown, so has the decoration box. There are only two rules to follow:
1. each person has to contribute something to the tree
2. the decoration has the person's name and the year on it
The 2yo is all about tools. He loves 'fixing' and helping Dad. He is the only 2yo I know with two working drills. This year his contribution to the christmas tradition is the golden hammer. A friend of mine made it for his birthday, originally it was a badge (which he proudly wore) but somewhere in the chaos of this house the pin has gone AWOL. We've turned the badge into his 2009 decoration. It looks great on the tree. Each christmas it will be great to pull out the golden hammer and remember the things he loved to build and fix with his tools. A little trip down memory lane.

My garden

2009-12-16T11:18:00.002+11:00

The man who used to own our house had a terrific garden and vege patch. Our neighbour tells us that in the last years of the owner's life he let the garden go because his health was declining.

One thing that survived was this beautiful rose in our front yard. My mum gave it a really good prune and it has been amazing ever since. I'm not sure what variety it is but it smells like a true rose should.

Losing the art

2009-12-14T13:06:00.000+11:00

The days of receiving a handwritten letter in the post are pretty much gone. While I'm the first to say that I couldn't live without email, I do love the idea of checkingthe mailbox and opening up a letter on lined paper in somebody's scrawl or beautiful penmanship. The only handwritten letters I get now are from the Mr's grandmother. I really love getting her letters - they are super old school and contain (way too much) info about her health, the garden and her neighbours. Letter writing is therapeutic isn't it? I think the reader gets as much pleasure as the writer.
I always have good intentions on pulling out the lined paper and writing a long letter back but time gets the better of me and I end up typing a letter. Sad to think I can type a lot faster than I can write.
This letter is waiting to be mailed. Hope grandma pulls it out of the mailbox, smiles, sits down at the table with a cuppa and enjoys it.

Can't stop eating

2009-12-12T07:01:00.003+11:00

I blame the breastfeeding. Actually, I don't blame the breastfeeding - I thank the breastfeeding. Bring on the sweet food I say! This is one of Nigella's christmas cupcakes that I baked with my 2 yo. Mmmm cranberries are gooood.

Advent

2009-12-11T15:53:00.003+11:00

Inspired by Christie, I have finally hauled myself from the depths of craft despair. During my pregnancy I lost all my crafty mojo. No inspiration, no motivation and no energy. But now I'm back on the craft train.

Project #1 was an advent calendar for our little family. Not half as beautiful as Christie's but it does the trick. I'll take a pic of the finished product and post it soon.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder

2009-11-28T21:02:00.001+11:00

8 months since my last post. I'm terrible Muriel.
Anyhoo, camera found. Laptop battery almost dead. Post more another day.

MIA

2009-03-19T10:05:00.002+11:00

Camera is still missing....for once I have lots of crafty things that need photographing.
Will hunt for camera tonight.

All gone to buggery

2009-03-16T09:46:00.004+11:00

Lack of blogging over the last little while can be attributed to:
1. missing camera
2. the craft project that took me to hell and back (pics will be shown once said camera decides to turn up)
3. parents visiting
4. laptop charger broken
5. child going through a ridiculously long patch of nights where he was awake for hours on end

The good news is that once I find that damn camera, I'll be able to post some pics of a crafty project that is coming together nicely!

Till then, ciao bella.

Tile wall

2009-02-15T09:22:00.000+11:00

This wall is very moving. It is in NYC and we stumbled upon it on the way to .... I can't remember where!
It is a tribute to those who lost their lives in 9/11 and to the fire fighters involved. I like it because it shows a real sense of community.
Spare a thought for our firefighters too.

6th in the 6th

2009-02-13T21:09:00.004+11:00

Lou tagged me in 6th of the 6th. The 6th photo in the 6th folder.
Mine is a cool wall painting/collage in San Fran. I really loved this wall - it looks better in real life but hopefully you get the picture!
I tag Oblong Craft Collective and the clever folks over at Designers Emporium.

Super lovely buttons

2009-02-11T07:58:00.000+11:00

Louise covered some buttons for me, she turned them into brooches and now they are destined to fasten my beautiful Fibre Red wrap. Aren't they swell?

I gave her some fabric from my stash and I think that both brooches turned out perfectly. Very different looks but I love them both. Big thanks Lou!

On the table

2009-02-10T14:56:00.000+11:00

Cute Japanese fabric (bought from Spottie for a bargin of $6/m- can you believe it?) waiting to be turned into a pair of hot mitts and matching pot holder.

My little boy at the cricket

2009-02-09T08:17:00.000+11:00

Note this

2009-02-07T14:48:00.002+11:00

What else is there to do on Melbourne's hottest day? Clean up and organise the house. This is a never ending battle. I love to be organised and love to have a place for things and things in their place. However, this trait does not always rear its head. But today I am trapped inside. It's 45 degrees (and climbing) outside.
I unpacked several boxes that had been gathering dust and what did I find. Notebook after notebook. I found about 8 in total, most of them were unused.
I need to write more notes!

My 101st post!

2009-02-06T09:27:00.000+11:00

Even though I'm a slack blogger, I seem to have notched up 101 posts! To celebrate, here is 25 random things that I'm sure you are dying to know about me.

1. I love these kind of taggy things where you write stuff about yourself and read stuff about others
2. As hideous as it sounds, I really want a pair of yellow shorts
3. I love that Herb knows how to flash a fake smile
4. I have texture issues with wobbly food
5. It shits me that magazines like HOUSES never profile Art Deco homes
6. At parties I like to drink sparkling apple cider in a glass so other people think it's beer and lay off me for not 'having a beer'
7. I cannot stand Times New Roman and if I recieve a document in said font, I promptly change it before I begin to read
8. I miss my Nokia 3310
9. I think I love Duplo more than my son does
10. When I see a train or hear the boom gate bells, I think I get more excited than Herb does
11. I LOVE the name Herb
12. I wish my sis and Ade's would uproot and move to sunny Melbs. Hint Chinks.
13. I call my sister Chinks. And it is not racist ok?
14. My youngest Facebook friend is 20 months. Hi Lucas you tech wizard you!!
15. My New Year's resolution is to learn to knit
16. I love the city and all it's tiny lane ways
17. If I had the cash, I'd buy me a brownstone on the Upper West Side in NYC and live there for 6 months of the year
18. If I had the cash, I'd give heaps to my mum so she could go to Ireland
19. I don't get physics. At all.
20. I like to say thankyou to the driver when I get off the tram
21. I like the word Yikes
22. The Mr and I challenged each other to use the phrase 'And the rest!' as many times as we could in one day. It is surprising how you can work this phrase into conversation. Often.
23. I think that nice people get cancer. And that sux.
24. I miss shows like Charles in Charge. I love that you can get TV shows on DVD now.
25. I think ordinary people are sooo much more interesting than celebs.

So, to all you readers out there (there must be millions of you!) consider yourself tagged.

Cheating

2009-02-05T10:14:00.001+11:00

On a whim I bought some great Denyse Schmidt fabric, County Fair Patchwork Promenade. I decided to make my first cheat's quilt. All my other quilts have been hand pieced, hand basted, hand quilted and hand binded (bound perhaps?).

This fabric is a single print and it's pretty groovy. My neighbour is a quilter too and swears by tagging guns to baste. You know those little plastic tags that keep the labels to clothes in shops? Those annoying little ones whose ends fly away when you snip them?

Miss Skeptical (moi) decided to give it a crack but hand basted the straight, across and diagonal before turning to the tagger. What a success - after 40 mins the quilt was tagged to within an inch of its life. And what fun I had shooting those little tags in and essentially going crazy with the tagger. You'll be pleased to know that said tagging gun is now safely in the hands of my neighbour.

Keeping with my cheating resolution, I decided to simply quilt it by stitching in the 'ditch' - well the fake ditch in this case. And I'm not doing tiny stitches like I did on the hexy quilt - these are big ones, about 1cm each.

Hoping that this one comes together quickly.

Pasquale

2009-02-05T09:32:00.000+11:00

I've been itching to make a Sock and Glove softie from the book I gave my sister last year. She recently spent a week in Melbs and we went to my local oppie and picked up some UNWORN Scottish pure wool gloves. We also grabbed a used pair of cheap Chinese gloves.

The result? Well a few short hours later, two dogs and one strong personality were born: Pasquale and Unnamed.

Pasquale (left) is my creation, he has a good heart but is very misunderstood. He hails from France and enjoys topiary and jazz ballet - among other things. His abruptness can sometimes make others thing that he is being rude - but that's just Pasquale!

Unnamed (right) is a glove puppy made by my sis. He's alot taller than Pasquale, I think it must be the Scottish in him. Poor Unnamed - we couldn't settle on a name for him, nor could his personality shine in the midst of Pasquale.

These cuties are on their way to a good home. My friend is expecting twins in June. A blessing - Paquale and Unnamed will never have to be separated. Together forever.

New beginnings

2009-02-01T22:02:00.002+11:00

Clearly February 1 2009 is a fabulous time to finally put into place those pesky resolutions that were floating around one's head in late December/early Jan.
Committing the resolutions to the blog is like going on the public record - practically forcing me to keep them. So here goes:

learn to knit - and actually knit something
learn to Granny Square and make a little blanket
figure out how to take good photos on my camera so my blog pics look all profesh
think about doing some community education
get a bit more motivation in the kitchen
make our garden a lovely place to be
make gravlax
swim, swim, swim with the Mr and the little bloke
ride to work. Often.

Nothing earth shattering there - but it's the little things that make a difference isn't it?

Mission complete

2009-01-24T08:05:00.000+11:00

Before I fell pregnant with my lovely boy, I began to make a hexagon quilt. I saw one in a magazine and loved the old-school look. It reminded me of exactly what quilts should be - lots of memories and scraps lovingly made into something that can be passed down from generation to generation. I cut out countless hexagons from 1930's fabrics and began to hand piece them on the train to work.

Not too long after that, we found out that a little bub was on the way. The quilt became my gift to the baby and I set about piecing it with more gusto and a deadline! I imagined wrapping my little baby up in the quilt, all nice and cosy.

Days flew and my motivation for finishing it was swallowed up by my exhaustion. I simply couldn't prioritise anything over sleeping (um, except eating). By the time I was 40 weeks, all the hexagon flowers had been pieced, all the white paths had been pieced and most of the paths had been sewn to flowers. My trusty sister-in-law and husband pitched in and pieced with me. We would watch telly and the three of us would stitch so this little baby could come home from the hospital wrapped up in the quilt his mama made.

But it was not to be. On the night I gave birth, my SIL finished piecing the two halves of the quilt together. Fate perhaps? I had Herb at 10.23pm and she finished her last stitch at 10.30pm.

The quilt top was finished and it sat on its lonesome for a while. After about 4 months (memory hazy but let the story go on), I basted it. More time lapsed while I debated how I should quilt it. I decided to quilt around the flowers and inside the centre hexagon. So for the next 15 months I quilted.

And now it is finished. A huge labour of love and something my little boy cherishes every day. The quilt was wrapped up under the Christmas tree, when he opened it, his expression was priceless, something I will never forget.

My heart swells when I see him pick it up and take it to his bed - tucked in and wrapped up in my love.

Something for the boys

2009-01-23T08:07:00.000+11:00

In yesterday's post I mentioned Lou. Well she's the brains behind ButtonsbyLouLou. What started off as a few buttons/hair ties/brooches has now spun out of control and she is racking up the sales on Etsy faster than you can say 'Wow - those robots are cute.'

And can I just say a few things:

FINALLY there is something cute that you could use on projects for little blokes.
She has two small boys of her own and somehow finds the time to churn out these cute accessories without total neglect of her offspring.
She's nice and she deserves your custom.

So off you go. Check her out.

Kick up the pants

2009-01-22T11:56:00.003+11:00

My friend Lou has kindly bestowed a blog award on me. It is very kind and I'm thinking of it less as a 'blog award' and more of a 'keep on trying' award. I can't think of the right words - you know when you are at school and you run in the athletics carnival and come dead last with a very embarrasing time (in my case, being lapped on the 1.6km run - still have very vivid memories of that day) and they give you an award which basically means 'you really sucked but at least you tried'. Well maybe that is like this blog award. A bit of motivation from Lou. I was telling her how I wanted to pretty up my blog, make a New Year's resolution to do more craft and post more regularly, master widgets, take better photos etc. So I think she's given me the required kick up the pants now!

So people - expect more from me ok?!

This is blowing my mind

2008-10-23T22:20:00.002+11:00

I stumbled across Ric Rac today. And saw her selvedge project. I nearly fell off my chair with crafty amazement. See that beautiful dress? It is made of selvedges! Probably 1000's and 1000's of tiny pieces lovingly made into the best dress I've seen in a loooong time.
I think that this is bloody amazing and deserves lots of lovely feedback. So if you think this is great too, I think you should pop on over to Ric Rac and give her a big pat on the back.
I love love love this project and it has given me back my crafty mojo.

This is...my favourite film(s)

2008-10-21T21:44:00.003+11:00

I'm uber slack on the 'this is' but I couldn't resist this one.
I LOVE lots of movies and my criteria for fav film is:
- can I watch it over and over and over?
- can I recite it ad nauseum?
The only exception to this is Little Miss Sunshine, I've only seen it once but I lurved it.
Other movies I love are:
- Pretty Woman
- Sound of Music
- Bridget Jones
- Four Weddings and a Funeral
- Ferris Buller's Day Off
- Grease
- Dirty Dancing
- Love Actually
Can you see a musical/romantic/comedy thread running through this list?

My boy is a genius

2008-10-15T08:05:00.000+11:00

He didn't have any help. I swear.

Brown Owl - metaphorically and literally

2008-10-14T09:57:00.000+11:00

After months of swearing that I really was going to make a softie for Mirabel, this pic is proof that I finally did. My craft hiatus well ill timed but luckily Brown Owls ran a lovely evening on sewing a softie by hand. This was my Brown Owl. I've delivered him to Pip and I know she'll find a nice home for him and his lime green edged feet.

Chance encounter with a car boot

2008-10-13T21:48:00.002+11:00

It's been a long time between drinks hasn't it?
During the past few months, I have wanted to craft it up but frankly, I haven't had the motivation. Sad isn't it.
WELL no longer. No siree. Because guess what - I struck gold today.
My friend gave me a lift home from work and before we jumped in the car, she put her gym bag in the boot and guess what was in there? This rad (isn't that word an oldie but a goodie?) Sesame Street sheet. Conversation went a little like this:
Me: Wow, that is cool
Friend's boyf: Really? We're using it as a drop sheet for painting
Me: (after picking my jaw up from the ground) You are kidding?! Can I buy you a new drop sheet and take that home???
Friend's boyf: You want it? Sure - take it.
So I have it here safe and sound. There isn't any paint on it that I can see.
Goody gumdrops...this sheet has all the old faves - Ernie, Bert, Grover, Big Bird (my least favourite - why? he's a big bird - enough said), Oscar, Snuffy....

A bit uninspired

2008-09-10T10:28:00.004+10:00

You may have noticed the lack of posts...
No, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth - just uninspired.
Hopefully inspiration hits soon.

Piklets!

2008-08-28T10:31:00.000+10:00

My mum used to surprise us with piklets. We'd get home from school on a rainy day and she'd have the electric fry pan out and piklets would be bubbling away. My sister and I loved these tasty treats.
The other day I thought I'd surprise the Mr. It was raining, he was riding his bike home from work in the cold and wet. So when he got home, this is what was waiting for him. The three of us munched down on the whole batch.
Want the recipe? Commonsense cookery book has the BEST piklet recipe. So easy.

What did I do?

2008-08-27T10:19:00.002+10:00

Ok, I left you hanging on a thread with my last post.... what did I end up doing?

You'll be pleased to know that I crafted. Here is the result of my efforts:

Well, that is stretching the truth a little. I made this cute t-shirt in June but it needed some reinforcing - the petals on the flower were a bit tempting for little hands so I hand stitched them down. Not sure if you can see the detail - but the stitching is in red and it looks super cute.

This is a prezzie to lovely 2 year old little girl who is now a big sister!

What to do?

2008-08-15T10:17:00.003+10:00

I'm in a bind. The little man is asleep (after a small 'raw fettucine poke in the eye' incident) and now I'm trying to decide what to do. I am VERY torn between:
1) sleeping
2) crafting
and I know that I must wash my hair which means that if I choose option 1, then I need to do hair washing after sleeping - otherwise wet pillow issues will arise.
If I choose option 2, then washing my hair can be done whenever. But I know that if I choose crafting then later today I'll be thinking Gee, I'm tired, why didn't I have a sleep this morning? And if I choose option 1 then, quite frankly, no craft will get done.
Dilemmas.

Look familiar?

2008-08-07T21:03:00.000+10:00

Yep, I haven't progressed. Still firmly on the to-do list.

Sheet cubbies

2008-08-06T19:04:00.003+10:00

The boy is big enough to play sheet cubbies! I don't know who has more fun: him, me or his dad. One of our super duper basquillion thread count sheets ripped recently (mega peeved but all is swell b/c the company sent me a new one) so now the old one is our designated sheet cubby. You can see the rip in the pic held together nicely with pegs.

Little surprise

2008-08-02T19:25:00.003+10:00

Today I had to work. Yuck, work on a Saturday means no playing with the little one or the Mr. I got home this arvo, put the boy to bed for his arvo sleep - then the Mr and I went straight to bed. Don't be getting the wrong idea...it was purely for sleep purposes. We are both uber tired - perhaps due to the fact that the little guy woke up for 2.5 hours the other night. I wish I could make him understand that 1.30am-4.00am is not playtime.

Anyhoo, back to the story. Both boys are sleeping (still!), after an hour of snoozing I woke up and decided to make (or actually, bake) them a surprise.
This is what is waiting for them.
Stephanie Alexander's blueberry muffins. The best.
They are super easy and don't require a mixer or a food processor:
- 220g plain flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 125g sugar
- 3/4 cup oil (I use melted butter instead)
- 3/4 cup milk
- 1 egg
- 200g blueberries (I use half blueberries, half dried cranberries)

Put flour, baking powder and sugar in a bowl. In another bowl, mix oil (or melted butter), milk and egg in another bowl. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix (quickly - don't overwork the mixture), add the berries.
Put into muffin pans and bake at 200 degrees for 25 mins. Voila!
This great recipie is from Stephanie's book, the Cooks Companion. I love that book.

Pretty magnets

2008-07-29T07:13:00.000+10:00

These magnets are on my fridge (except when they appear in photoshoots for blog purposes) and everytime I look at them, they make me smile. The spotty fabric is Kaffe Fassett, the brown and lime almond shape was a fabric in my stash and I got the purple arcs when I was in Japan.
These little circles cheer up my fridge. I gave some to my friends last Christmas - I hope their fridges are more cheery now too!

One word meme

2008-07-28T08:46:00.002+10:00

I was crusin' the suburbs and found this on Curly Pops' blog, and Pip's and some other crafty gals. I will share a secret with you...I love these question/answery things. But keeping to one word answers will be a struggle. Here goes.

1. Where is your cell phone? Bench??
2. Your significant other? Tour de France
3. Your hair? Brownish
4. Your daughter? Hopefully!
5. Your son? Snoozing
6. Your favorite thing? Family
7. Your dream last night? Weird
8. Your favorite drink? Tea
9. Your goal? Happiness
10. The room you’re in? Lounge
11. Your church? Nope
12. Your fear? Birds
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Here
14. Where were you last night? Home
15. What you’re not? Sad
16. Muffins? Cupcakes
17. One of your wish list items? NYC
18. Where you grew up? Albury
19. The last thing you did? Chocolate
20. What are you wearing? Jumpie
21. Your TV? On
22. Your pets? Nope
23. Your computer? Essential
24. Your life? Rosy
25. Your mood? Contented
26. Missing someone? Sis
27. Your car? Driveway
28. Something you’re not wearing? Shoes
29. Favorite store? Books
30. Your summer? Camping
31. Like(love) someone? Yesssss
32. Your favorite color? Yellow
33. Last time you laughed? Tonight
34. Last time you cried? Tonight
35. Who will repost this? ??

This is...something I'm working on

2008-07-27T00:21:00.001+10:00

Not sure if you can tell what this is.... it's a work in progress.
Now that I've made three and a half beanies, I feel like I'm ready to tackle a new crochet project. I've decided to make Herbie some arm warmers. Should I follow a pattern? Heck no! Make it up as you go along I say! The cute thing is that his arms are so tiny that I only needed to do about 15 chain stitches - hopefully they'll fit - he'll probably be 14 by the time I've finished.
No seriously - I must finish this before the end of the week. A self imposed deadline and now that I've committed to it on this blog, I'll feel a sense of responsibility to finish them. And if the end of the week rolls around and there is not a picture of a young boy wearing yellow and blue arm warmers, it is up to YOU, the crafty public, to leave snitchy comments about my lack of crafty commitment. Ok?

'This is' proudly bought to you by Three Buttons and lots and lots of other players.

The votes are counted, it's official: the Mr is one good looking man.

2008-07-26T15:12:00.002+10:00

The Mr returned from o/s about 2 weeks ago - so naturally today was the day that we both decided that his bag full of washing really did need to be emptied and laundered. Cleaning out all the bags and associated bits and bobs uncovered this little gem:
Obviously in their haste to crack onto the Mr, the 'lovely F/A's' had a mind blank when it came to spelling passenger.

Ants...a reflection

2008-07-25T13:21:00.004+10:00

So the ants are back. They are stubborn little buggers and they are SMART. Speaking of smart things, I love smarties - love them more than M&M's (except the white M&M's) and often indulge in a little smartie goodness once the little tacker is in bed. The other night I thought I'd reached the end of the packet and stupidly left it on the coffee table - next morning ANT PARTY. They had demolished the shell of the 2 remaining smarties. Clever and good taste hey?
I went on a killing spree last night with my friend Mortein. I sprayed the sink and got about 100 casualties. And it made me a little sad. I kept thing of Z, the cute little worker ant in Antz and how he was a pretty good guy and that humans did terrible things like stepped on ants, dropped water on them etc. I'm not sure I can remember Mortein featuring in the movie but damn that stuff is powerful. It literally kills them in their tracks.

And then I started thinking like an ant....I thought devious thoughts. I decided not to wipe up the dead ants because I think that if I were an ant marching along and saw 100 dead friends, I would think 'STOP. THIS IS ENEMY TERRITORY.' and I'd go back to my safe little nest, tell my alive friends and we'd all make a decision to uproot our camp and move to Switzerland.
So I'm in a bind - kill them and rid the house of them OR try to beat them with mind games OR let them do their thing and wait till they naturally get sick of our place and move on?
Who knew ants were so complex? Or do I have too much time on my hands?

Image from lookingcloser.org

Cat

2008-07-22T11:57:00.003+10:00

A one line drawing of Cat. The Mr did it. Isn't it sweet?

This is...what makes me happy

2008-07-20T22:29:00.003+10:00

Lots of things make me happy but probably the thing that warms my heart the most is watching the Mr and the little man. He is so good with Herb, he creates fun games that I would never even think of, he encourages him gently and catches him when he falls (both metaphorically and literally). He is Mr Fun and it is pretty clear the joy that Herb feels when the Mr comes home from work.
At the zoo yesterday, we were holding his hands helping him walk. I am sure he is capable of walking on his own but I'm not sure that he thinks he is. The Mr hit his strides and before we knew it, they were bounding along.Other things that make me happy are:

Putting the little one to bed at night with no tears and no screaming
Going into his room when he wakes up in the morning and seeing his huge smile
Laughing
Rainy days
Cooking something really tasty and then eating it with loved ones
Loved ones
Family get togethers
Craft
West Wing, Scrubs and Grand Designs
Friends
Cups of tea
Caramel slice, smarties and white chocolate
Going to the movies, eating popcorn
Growing vegetables
Smell of clean jumpers
Playing with the little guy
Breastfeeding him
Making a dinner which he and the Mr really love
Pasta
Sharing meals with friends
Printing mailing labels
Getting handwritten letters in the post
Using the quilt I made
Going to the park
Not worrying about what time it is
Snuggling under the covers
Going out for dinner
Nice cutlery
Holidays
My blue and white stripey milk jug
Seeing people reunite at airports
Saying hello to people on a walk around the neighbourhood
Doing things on the spur of the moment
Sleeping through the night
Having a bath
Reading books that you just can't put down
Weekends
Christmas
Flicking through housey magazines looking for renovation inspiration
Watching Herb grow
Flowers - in the garden and in the house
Lots of things...maybe I'm just happy?!

Note: not listed in order of importance (!)

Kissy Saturday

2008-07-19T23:13:00.002+10:00

Today my little one learnt how to kiss! For a while, he's opened his mouth right up and every now and again, he'll press it up against my face and give me a big wet mark. But today I made a kissy sound at him and he turned around and gave me a (wet) kiss. It was soooo cute. Then the Mr said, 'Herb, give me a kiss' and what did he do? Planted one right on his lips.
We took advantage of the 10 minutes of Melbourne sunshine today and went to the zoo. What a different experience that is with a small person. We were there for 70 minutes and we pretty much saw everything (minus the birds...shudder).
Although the zoo has animals of the exotic variety, Herb's favourite seemed to be the carp swimming around near the otters. I must say, he took it very well when the lions roared and was very gentle when the kangaroo put a paw on his leg and sniffed him.
What an adventure it was. Happy days.

Image from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Lions_-_melbourne_zoo.jpg

I love my boy

2008-07-18T10:47:00.003+10:00

Wow, this must be my 'I love' week. So far this week, I've declared my love for Grand Designs, Pantone, Arial (well, my hate for TNR), and SATC. But today I declare my deepest love for my little bub.

This morning he was so lovely and in this rush of emotion, I thought I should blog about it. We had a lovely breakfast of porridge with pear and blueberries. And he fed himself most of it. I love watching him do that. When he gets the spoon in his mouth, he throws his arms above his head and smiles at me while I say 'hooray!'. Then he skeeted around playing with the esky handle, the picnic basket, the washing basket and his plastic hammer - so incredibly cute. After that, I thought things would quickly slide downhill because it was time to change the nappy. Ie. time to have a tantrum, arch his back and protest. But not today! He lay down quietly with his Casper Caterpillar book and played with Casper's googly eyes while I did the nappy thing. Peek-a-boo is something he's learnt to play this week. I've been peek-a-booing for a while now but lately, he has gotten the hang of it - so we played it for a while...he shielded his face with Casper and then flung Casper down in one swift motion and giggled himself silly.

We played with some empty boxes and put some things that don't belong in boxes, into boxes. Onto Playschool. We caught the last 10 minutes of it and he sat in my lap while I cuddled him and watched peacefully. My little boy is a wriggly worm. He really only sits still when he is sick but today we had a big cuds and the best news is - he isn't sick (thank god). After a lovely breastfeed, he is tucked up in bed for his morning sleep while his happy mama blogs the hours away.

Aint life grand?

Grand designs. Grand show.

2008-07-17T21:10:00.003+10:00

I love Grand Designs. Kevin is SUCH a good host, he is so gracious and kind. I love that he has such an open mind and is encouraging yet challenging with his ideas.
And boy did I love that episode with the crazy house in the middle of nowhere that had 2 pools and the most bizarre mis-match of styles. I didn't love the house, I didn't love the couple but I did love how unimpressed Kevin was. It's the first time I've seen that side of you Kev!

Damn you Times New Roman

2008-07-16T10:40:00.002+10:00

One thing I really don't like is Times New Roman. I think that Excel has the right idea - it defaults to Arial. But what is going on with Word??

This is...what scrambles my brain when I try to understand it

2008-07-13T11:12:00.004+10:00

This weeks theme is from Flightless Boyds and I must say, there isn't just one thing that scrambles my brain when I try to understand it. I've limted this post to two brain scrambly things...
1. Physics
The Perimeter Institute for Physics. Isn't the building cool? (Image from www.egodesign.ca)

Physics is something that I think is kinda cool but I just do not understand it. It makes my brain ache. I tried my hand at physics in Year 11 and in the first class was told that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. The example given was: 'See this glass on the table? It is putting force onto the table and the table is putting equal and opposite force onto the glass.' I DO NOT GET THIS! The table is a lot bigger than the glass so shouldn't it be throwing up lots more force? So shouldn't the glass shoot off the table? And why does the table need to throw force upward anyway? Can't it just let the glass sit on there without throwing up any force? I grappled with this theory for a while and then made the decision that physics was not for me. I went and changed my subjects. Ditch physics and enrol in drama.
I can see that the area of physics is interesting. I really love maths. I think maths is super clever and interesting and I know that physics and maths are practically best friends, so I don't know why I have trouble with physics. The Mr has tried time and again to explain different aspects to me. I can follow it for a while but then the brain goes scrambly and it is no use trying.

2. The Tour de France

Cadell Evans celebrating in 2007. (Image from www.theage.com.au)

I love the Tour. It is on at the moment and it is great to watch. All that lovely french countryside, that commentator who makes every meter of the Tour exciting. The bit with Gabriel Gate at the start of SBS's coverage making something delicious from each region of France. It is all great. So what makes my brain scrambly? The rules. I don't get the yellow jersey, the green jersey, the teams, the strategy, the pelaton.

Like physics, I know that this is all interesting. I know that if I understood it, I'd find the strategy really, really interesting. But right now, it is a mystery to me.

I think if you are fit enough to be able to bike ride a billion k's around France, why would you not want to win? Or at least try your hardest? The Mr has explained a bit of the Tour to me and I'm sure he said that they race in teams but some riders have the job of being the sacrifical lamb. Basically they are willing to sacrifice themselves and their spot in the race for the best rider in their team. On one hand I think that is very admirable - one of the few sporting events that seems to have such and element. But then I think of the dark horse. Who chooses the 'best person' in the team? What if another member of the team was having a great race and would have gone really well but instead they put themselves on the line for their 'best chance'? People put years of effort into training for this race, only to be a mere wing man.

But I suppose that the real achievement of the Tour is actually finishing the race.

Ok. While I've been typing away here, I've made up my mind that tonight I am going to sit down with the Mr and ask him to explain the tactics of the Tour. I will try my hardest to use my grey matter and understand all the confusion.

Then maybe tomorrow we'll tackle physics.

Sex and the city

2008-07-12T16:25:00.000+10:00

For those of you who haven't seen the movie - read on at your own peril....

I saw it a week ago with some gals from my mother's group and I have to say the expectation going into it was low. I was thinking about other TV disapointments eg. last episode of Seinfeld. How could the girls recreate the magic after such a long absence?

Who knows how they did it but they damn well did.

I loved it. I loved that it was a long movie, loved that I was chowing down on a mega box of popcorn in the dark theatre, loved that I saw it at the Westgarth, loved that it still felt a little TV episode-ish and LOVED the bit where Carrie hit Big with the bouquet. Hit him over, and over, and over again.

What I also loved about the movie was the good girlfriend vibes that went with it. I loved seeing it with 3 of my girlfriends and I loved seeing other women with their gal pals. It kind of felt like a grown up sleepover.

The Mr is o/s this week for work with instructions to lay his hands on a DVD of the movie. That way I can watch it over, and over, and over again!

image from http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/movies/galleries/

The ants are marching

2008-07-12T00:08:00.004+10:00

Bloody ants!
They are everywhere. I first spied a lone ant in the kitchen and then, on closer inspection there was not one ant, or even two - but approximately 50 squillion.
HOW do they get in? WHY do they come in? WHERE can I find out how to rid my house of these little devils?

I've tried several wives tales: Cayenne pepper, peppermint oil, borax but nothing works. The only thing that does work that is remotely child friendly is talcum powder. Squirt the buggers with talc and they seem to wobble around. Problem is, I don't know if they die from the talc or simply avoid it.

They are driving me crazy. Here's a list of where I've seen them:

in the kitchen cupboards
in the sink
on the floorboards in the lounge
in the toy box
on the coffee table
in my wool stash (why??)
in my handbag
on my computer - and in my computer
ON my son. (not happy with that)

You are probably wondering what squallor I live in. I swear this house is clean! And just to give you an idea of exactly how clean it is - I tell you this: my mum has just visited me for one week. She is a champion cleaner and has mopped, wiped, re-mopped, ironed, bleached, bi-carbed, vinegared, scrubbed and washed to within an inch of the houses' life.

But still the ants are here. Not even she could rid the house of them.

Anyone out there have a sure-fire, kid-friendly remedy?

image from msinsights.com

I love Pantone

2008-07-10T19:11:00.003+10:00

I love colors and my fine attention to detail (ok, some would call it anal) personality loves that colors are organised into one massssssive classification. It makes for such easy reference.
Plus the color wheel is so nicely designed - crisp and clear. In exciting news - a Pantone color wheel might be coming my way...

Pic from Babymammoth's Flickr page

No crochet today. No craft today.

2008-07-09T23:13:00.002+10:00

It's been a day of looking after the little one. He is sick and is needing lots of TLC. Although not 2 yet, he is well versed in how to throw a tantrum. Arch the back, bang the head on the ground, turn red in the face and give a good old scream.

Mint Slice vs Tim Tam

2008-07-09T07:55:00.001+10:00

Tough call ... I think I'll go with Tim Tam.

I just love this cabinet

2008-07-08T11:55:00.000+10:00

Remember the garage sale? Well, the point of having the GS was to get rid of stuff but somehow this cabinet snuck into our house. One seasoned garage sale bloke came and bought 6 items for a whopping $3 then asked me to carry them to his car (I think he'd had a hip operation - luckily cause I thought it was a bit rude to haggle down to $3 then expect valet service) and I spotted this little gem in the back of his station wagon. Turns out he'd bought it for $35 (!) at another garage sale that morning. He offered to sell it to me and I tried to act all 'oh...I don't know...I guess I MIGHT be interested' when all the while my insides were screaming - I WANT THAT CABINET. In the end we settled on $50. He drove a hard bargain but I still think that I was the winner of the day - a cheap price for such lovely deco-ness. God I love art deco.

Supermarket happiness

2008-07-07T09:24:00.002+10:00

Last night I did the supie shopping and stumbled across a very small craft section. I think it was in the same aisle as cleaning products - which may explain why I hadn't seen it before. To my great delight they sell crochet hooks! I love the idea that at any time of the day or night, crochet-a-holics can dash down to the supie to pick up an emergency hook.

This is...my most treasured childhood possession

2008-07-06T10:30:00.001+10:00

Cat.

Isn't he beautiful? I think I got him when I was 3. One of mum's friends gave this cat to my sister and gave me a monkey. I didn't like the monkey, sis didn't take to the cat so a happy swap was executed. Cat and Monkey were our best mates. And still are.

p.s. I love how kids call their toys by such obvious names. The Mr has a panda called Panda. I love Panda too.

This is....my best op shop find

2008-07-05T09:41:00.004+10:00

I bought this cheery dress to make a door snake. But I can't bring myself to cut it up! I think it was $5 from Vinnies. Maybe $3?? Anyway, the weave of the fabric is really cool and the pockets? So cute.

Would you believe that it is originally from Target? How times have changed eh? The cut is very 1960's, the top is quite fitted and the skirt flares out in a major way. I've tried it on but I don't think I could pull it off - maybe I'll have another preview in the summer time.

I could make a dress for a little girl - actually, that is a great idea. Now I just need to have a little girl!

Boys in the hood

2008-07-04T09:37:00.001+10:00

Herbie's beanie is finished and my addiction to crochet is still going strong. Next up, a beanie for me.

Art Deco comes to Melbs

2008-07-01T21:31:00.002+10:00

provided by: www.glittertools.com

Have you seen the Art Deco exhibit at NGV? Me neither but I wanna.

Wool glorious wool!

2008-07-01T10:16:00.000+10:00

Now that I've got the crochet bug I've also caught a related illness...the wool fetish. I've always wanted an excuse to buy wool.
I went on an excursion to Wool Baa in Albert Park, lots of nice wool to be had there. I had the little one in tow which meant I spent about 10% of my time looking at wool and the other 90% making sure that he was not eating wool.
I chose this beautiful blue Jo Sharp ball. I think the color is called Boheme, it is part of the Silkroad collection. Plans are to make a little beanie so the boy can match his dad.

I also bought another ball of Silkroad, the color is Emporio which is a really rich red/maroon with flecks of orange and brown. The camera just didn't do it justice.

Crochet love

2008-06-30T10:47:00.001+10:00

I've always wanted to learn to crochet. I remember my mum made a crochet blanket out of all of her scrap wool. I LOVED it. There was a lot of blue, a smidge of orange and lots of other great colors that she had left over from other projects. I love granny square rugs and all that kinda thing.

At Brown Owls Aunty Pat did her best to teach me how to get the hang of it all but to be honest, she was quick sticks with the crocheting. You know when someone tries to teach you and they say 'I'll do a few stitches so you can see how it is done' then you hand over the tools and their hands fly in the air so fast that they are practically a blur - well that is Aunty Pat. She is a whizz when it comes to crochet. And very kind and patient too.

So I knew I needed to practice before I could play with the great wool I bought at the Calico and Chintz closing down sale. Lucky for me, I have a friend who is v good a crochet and helped to start me off and remind me of a few tricks of the trade. Anyhoo, the beginnings of my first beanie were falling nicely into place. After a few nights of stitching....voila!

The beanie is for the Mr. I promised it to him last October for his birthday - and here it is. 8 months later.

The wool is called Free Spirit (I think). It is lovely. The colors are so autumn like.

I think I increased too much at the beginning so it is slightly too large but thanks to Lara's advice, I think I'll handwash it in some warm water and see if it shrinks slightly. If it all goes horribly wrong, I guess Herb will have a beanie!

This is why I love crochet

2008-06-29T09:37:00.000+10:00

All you need is a hook! And the wool of course. How transportable is that? You can practically crochet anywhere, anytime. Stop lights, waiting for appointments, in line at the bank (does anyone stand in line at the bank anymore?), on the train - you get the picture - ANYWHERE.

The worst looking soup...the best tasting soup

2008-06-28T14:15:00.000+10:00

Mushroom soup...my favourite.

Lighting up a winter's day

2008-06-27T08:40:00.000+10:00

I made this lovely lamp for a friend's wedding. I used Lara Cameron's lampshade tute which was really clear and easy to follow. The fabric is Japanese and it is a really nice weight and weave. The funny thing about it is that there doesn't seem to be a 'right way' up for this pattern. Some of the flowers are right way up and some are upside down. But overall, I'm pretty happy with it. I hope it is happy in its new home.

The train...in progress

2008-06-26T22:32:00.001+10:00