Ooh Look At That. I Made Something!

And about time too! My incentive was the imminent arrival of a small person. Let me explain.

One of my dearest friends had a baby blessing (Forget the baby shower concept; we do blessings) last weekend and requested that we each bring a small animal to hang on a mobile for the baby's room. There was no pressure to make anything but as most of us did I think there was an outpouring of creative energy for this yet to be born babe.

Maybe a macro shot was a bit much to expose my dodgy stitching skills but I was working with some extremely temperamental silk there. The green business is a net bag that previously contained avocados but I thought it kind of resembled fish scales and could help me out. The trouble was I had already done the eyes, fins and the bit on the side by the time I decided to use it so I had to stitch the avo bag on and then snip it away from all the decorative bits. I think a few more goes at this and I could have a rocking fish softie design.

Still needs its guts stuffed...

I'll make sure I get a snap of the full mobile once it's done.

Ooh, did I mention I'm going to be at the birth?

Alice is Wunderbar!

I was lucky enough today to have a kiddie-free afternoon and dive down the rabbit hole! I can only gush about how amazing and lush the costumes and sets are. Actually can you even call them sets these days now that they're virtually all CGI? Whatev, it's beautiful.

I love Johnny. I love Helena. (Always have since Room With a View!) And the Aussie girl who plays Alice has a quirky graciousness about her that I found appealing. Anyway, loved it!


Look here for a sneak peak.

We Have Nuts!

It was to my great delight that I discovered the big shade tree who's canopy hangs over the garage is actually a prolifically fruiting walnut. So for a few days in Summer, the girls and I delighted in gathering the fallen nuts and as the photos show, ended up with quite a harvest.


A bit of interwebs research told me that I needed to don stain proof garb and get to hulling and washing the nuts before leaving them to dry out before they would be ready to eat.


Alas, due to my time restrictions/procrastination/sheer laziness our harvest has been neglected and as I did not get to hull and dry them quickly enough the walnuts have either become dessicated or gone mouldy. I resolve next year to set aside a day or two after harvest and finish off the process in time so we can enjoy the omega 3 packed goodness from our garden!

Believe me, I'm kicking myself.

Discovered

I might be a little late to the party but I am smitten by the lovely Emiliana Torrini whom I discovered via a beautiful birthing video by this special lady. And total buggeration, she has just finished an Australian tour!

It seems I have a thing for kooky Icelandic singers. You know who else I'm talking about.

Lovin' Summer

Happiest of new years to you lovely, patient peeps who still may drop by here (Yes I know February starts next week!).

We hilltop hoods have been busying ourselves with a lovely balance of activities at home and away, with company or not, and I've even managed a little time to myself!

Here's some of our summer adventures and activities so far......


A trip to fairyland by way of the Fitzroy gardens.

Painting sessions.

A teddy wedding.
Where some of the guests were found to lack a little self control!


Garden tea parties involving sickly sweet, mouth puckeringly sour, gooey but somehow highly addictive lemon meringue pie.



I am slowly coming to terms with how slow my oven is, but obviously I have had this realisation since making this pie. The meringue was more foam than chew (but we devoured it anyway!)

Many a moment relaxing in the garden.

And swinging at the park.

A trip to the ballet for a small girl.


Divine homegrown dahlias. Note to self - next year, stake the flowers before they sprout so they don't fall over.

And many an evening pondering nature.

For someone who occasionally complains of too little time to read these days, I have managed to demolish the entire Twilight saga in under two weeks and I must say, thoroughly enjoyed it! I had no intention of reading the series until they were foisted upon me by my sister who said something like, "Read. You will love." Ah, and I promptly found myself back in the teenage
world of delicious angst, drama, fantasy and romance...


Finally, we've spent lots of time in the company of this lovely fella, Ambrose, and his accomodating family who also happen to be my parentals. They put us up whenever our fire plan says we have to leave the mountain, and I get the sweet bonus of spending extra time with my mum! I hope she doesn't mind too much.

A little Golden Time

This week the girls and I were lucky enough to spend a couple of days at a beautiful beach house for my dear friends birthday week. We had to leave the baby-daddy behind to work but thoroughly enjoyed our little break from daily routines.

It's amazing how even a small break can be a breath of fresh air into your life, especially when spent in good company.



Munchkins on beach patrol. Man in background is the pied piper.


Dork on a swing


View from the deck. Nice.

Looking with intent!


A moment later Willow was in the pool, instinctively dog paddling but underwater. No photo to show it as I dropped camera in a flash to fish her out (fast as lightning automatic mum response)!
Gratefully (me grateful) she recovered quickly and was fine but geez I'm going to have to watch that one. I suspect she's responsible for the missing Christmas tree decorations from the lower branches of the tree. Anyone else having that problem with their littles?

We've dusted off the old fakey and put up the decorations to the dulcit tones of Bing Crosby.

Somewhat of a tradition now if I think back to last year.

I never imagined I'd use a fake Christmas tree, and I never imagined I'd enjoy Bing singing Christmas carols in such a big way. Maybe my tiny house elves are inspiring my mood.
There's one above with a magnified eyeball. And one below in a basket.


I hope you're enjoying the season so far. xx