imaginary sewing

heather bailey's nicey jane wash day ticking, tula pink's plume bird cage, jennifer paganelli's dance with me kimberley

the postman delivered a bundle of fabric to my door today, my first big online fabric purchase for quite some time. i look at it and i see a dress for mae, sheets for sophie, quilted pillowcases for mae's bed... imaginary sewing to keep my brain busy when my hands can't be. sophie is still sleeping in my sewing room but now that the back of the house, including the guest/play room, is functional we are getting ready to move her cot into mae's room. tomorrow is the day and i have no idea how it is going to go. mae can talk up a storm, playing in her bed for up to 2 hours before falling asleep and it will be interesting to see how that works with both of them in there. yes, interesting... that's the word...

pretty

i bought myself some lovely, new, soft grey dishware and wrapped it up to leave under the tree. a fitting tribute to my new (not quite complete but functional) kitchen, i think.


lazy pajama days at home, with more ahead as both kids have come down with a nasty cold in the past 24 hours (doll by emily martin of the black apple).


bouquet of native flowers i picked up well before christmas and is still going strong.


the dining room pendant that took me forever to decide on. very, very happy with the choice, it makes me smile every time i see it and looks lovely lit up.

light

the light peeking through mae's curtain was so lovely yesterday. and no, i'm not down with making beds, for people big or small.

merry northern hemisphere christmas

while we relax on aussie boxing day, it is weird for me to think that it is still christmas day back home in canada. we had such a lovely day yesterday, probably the best christmas that i've had in years and years. kids really do make the holidays so much more fun.

and it is amazing what i can get done in an hour of kid free time these days. shane took both kids with him to pick up his sister across town and i managed to get the turkey stuffed and in the oven, vaccumed the whole house and brought out all the presents to open when they got back. piling the gifts in the middle of the room just seemed wrong so i grabbed some kraft paper and crayons and hastily got to work on a last minute tree for them to discover when they got home.



much more festive, i think : )

holiday {celebrate}

i normally sign off for a few weeks over the holidays but i'm going to stick around this year. the light flooding our new extension is inspiring me to take more photographs, which in turn inspires me to blog more, now it's only a matter of finding the time to fit it in the day. so i'll be around, getting back into the regular blogging swing of things, making and unveiling plans for 2011 and enjoying lots of family time as my husband has the week between christmas and new year's off for the first time in 5 years - yippee!! happy holidays to you and yours, thank you for sticking around to read my meager posts this year and, as always, offer your kind words of support, advice and commiseration.

box playhouse

we finally got the plumbing hooked up to use our new fridge last week and, while pretty excited about the fridge, i was actually more excited to get my hands on the box the fridge came in. it's MASSIVE and i had so many weeks to gaze at it and plot what it could become once vacated. on friday, during the kids' naps, i got to work:



using a box cutter (utility knife), i cut the top flaps off first - we'd had to pull the seam of the box apart to get the fridge out but i actually found it easier to work with this way as i had something to grab onto when cutting. then i guessed what height would work for mae and measured and cut the roof angles.



for the roof sides, i scored a line across the cardboard where i wanted it to bend (just ran the knife lightly across a line i'd drawn from side to side, cutting the first layer of board only).



then i could measure how much needed to be trimmed off to make the side meet up with the point of the roof and then score, bend and trim the second roof side.



i again had to guess how big to make the door since mae was still asleep. and you can see where i had to do a little tape patch up job as i started to cut it to the floor before realising that, since the box doesn't have a bottom, i needed to leave the door in a bit for stability.



and yay! maesey woke up so we could tape up the seams (i used super wide masking tape so that i'll be able to paint it) and cut in the windows together (actually i cut in the windows while she stood far, far away from the super sharp knife blade). i had planned to do the traditional four pane window design but after cutting the two top ones above the door, i was a bit worried about structural integrity so decided to leave it as is and mimic the design on the side.



oh, and i cut a little doorknob in, too, after watching her play in it for awhile.



do you think she is happy with it? : )

let's cross our fingers for some decent weather this week so we can take it outside and paint it up!


note: our box had a written on it that because of sharp corners and staples, children should not play in the box (i love that you can read that type right under mae's cheeky face above) but we had already pulled the box apart by its one seam and it wasn't even put together with staples, only glue so i'm assuming that was a general "to avoid potential lawsuits" disclaimer from the manufacturer. still, if you decide to make a boxhouse yourself, watch out for staples. and sharp corners, apparently.

bringin' in the cheer

so i did it. i found a couple of boxes of our christmas stuff stashed away in a closet (which sort of makes me wonder where the rest of it could be... ) and while i didn't really decorate, i did all the present wrapping! such a nice feeling to have this done with so many days to spare. i usually stick with kraft paper for wrapping, i always have a huge roll of it on hand and i like that it is actually recyclable, unlike many other wrapping papers. i was planning to have mae help me decorate some sheets but she is a bit off colour this week and wasn't into it. i got one precious sheet done by her and that i am saving for the grandparents' presents (okay, so i'm not done wrapping, i still have those to arrive). anyway, in my boxes of christmas goodies, i found the kikki k christmas sticker book that i bought last year - pretty christmas stickers and tags that are just perfect to add a bit of festive cheer to my kraft paper wrapping. add the baker's twine that seems to be a must-have this year and i think they are looking pretty sweet.



of course, mae came home and was straight onto the mini tree. i picked this one up at borders (they usually have really great christmas stuff, by the way) on boxing day last year for a couple of bucks, thinking it could be mae's special tree. and yes, she loves it. i don't know if most of the thrifted wooden ornaments will survive the season though...

not really scroogey

again, a fairly unrelated photo, but they are cute, these two, so i can't resist.


i was just struck by the fact that i have posted not one single christmassy thing this year, shop update aside (speaking of which, there are still a couple of very cute goodies waiting to be snapped up before i shut down shop mid-next week) but, while i haven't been decorating, i have been shopping, celebrating and looking forward to a fairly chilled out holiday celebration at our house this year (one very small benefit of having not much family living nearby means we don't have to run around to visit everyone). and who knows, i may even dig out the few christmas decorations that aren't in storage tomorrow while mae is at childcare and hang a few things as a surprise for her. and next year, my friends, we are going BIG. full decorations, real tree, advent calendar, cookie baking, gingerbread house decorating... the works, canadian-style minus scarves and dark skies at 4:30pm.

baby beans

this sweet girl turned six months old last week and i can't quite believe it. i remember thinking when i was pregnant that i just needed to make it to december, when the house would be done (bwahahahahaha) and the baby would be six months old and all of life would be so much easier. but now that we are here, i'm a bit sad that it is all going to quickly. she has been such a great baby, IS such a great baby and i have enjoyed her so much the past few months, i'm sad to lose the warm bundle of baby chub that i can snuggle with any time i want. this easy sleeping, big smiling, happy to play with anything (but especially has her eye on the wipes pack and remotes), fairly immobile cuddly armful of delicious baby. love you big, baby beaner.

stray

this is the gorgeous little kitty living under our house. probably about 10-12 weeks old, super cute, curious and fun but still pretty scared of people. does anyone in melbourne know someone who would welcome a sweet kitten into their home? i think this one would come around really quickly with regular handling, it's already come so far with us just feeding and talking to it. mae and i had a great play with him/her yesterday, hanging a bit of fabric tied to string over the deck and then the kitty just sat looking up at us and purred it's little heart out. someone give it a home quickly before i get too attached, PLEASE. we seriously can't take it in and i would love to know that it has been successfully settled into a home rather than just dropping it off at lost dogs or the rspca.

::update! we have found the kitty a new home!! yippee! he/she is heading there tomorrow, if i can catch it that is... thank you, cindy, you are doing such a kind christmas deed and i just know this kitty is going to turn into the best cat ever. mmmmmwah!::

thrifty

i like to fit in an op shop visit a week, if i can, usually right after dropping mae off for her afternoon at occasional care. this week, despite a complete downpour, little soph and i managed to visit the brotherhood of st laurence on geelong rd and the lighthouse op shop a couple of doors down. we were rewarded richly for our brave antics:


sweet little red bedside table for mae, $10, and a wee vintage abacus for 50¢.


some super cute flannel fabric for 50¢, a baby wrap that will become pj pants for sophie next winter. very Yoshitomo Nara-esque, no?

as well as an armload of good quality basics for both kids (tshirts, singlets, etc) for 50¢ each, seven books for me at $1 each and a vintage, well worn but still lovely, floral sheet to help keep mae cool on these warm nights for $3. a very good haul, indeed.

this week:

just a random photo from a couple of months ago of the art hanging in mae's room because i didn't get my camera out much this week.

• i bought a scale and a full length mirror and the numbers and images revealed to me finally smashed my denial about my eating habits into smithereens. no, you can not keep comfort eating once you are no longer pregnant or breastfeeding. no. no more stovetop popcorn several times a week. no more full cream milk and two sugars in my coffee. no more chocolate, no more cookies, no more doritos and much less red wine. more fruit, more rice cakes, more cottage cheese, more salads. less calories and hopefully more clothes in my closet that fit me.

• i discovered a small peach and white kitten living under our house who is very cute and very shy. it looks about 8 - 10 weeks old and seemingly appeared out of nowhere. we've had a tabby cat hanging out in our roof and a white with grey and peach spots cat hanging out under the house so presumably it is the latter's kitten but mama cat is nowhere to be seen and since thursday was the first time we heard any mini meows, i don't think it was born here. i put out some water, some cooked rice and a bit of raw hamburger and am slowly trying to win it's trust. i'd like to bring it in so we can find it a nice home for christmas but, much to mae's future dismay, not our home. i'm at my full capacity for responsibility these days.

• i finally got around to listing my good old nikon d70s digital SLR on ebay, along with two of my nikon lenses that don't autofocus with my new nikon d5000. it was such a good camera for me and would be perfect for someone looking to get into DSLR at a great price, especially for taking really nice blog or online shop pics. i really only upgraded because i wanted to get back into taking a bit of stock photography and i can sell more by offering larger images sizes for commercial use. if anyone wants easy examples of what the d70s can do, you can check out my flickr profile, all the photos prior to september this year were taken with it (and all pics on this blog from august 2007 to september 2010).  i hope it goes somewhere where it will get plenty more use, it has lots of life left to capture - if anyone wants to give it a good home, the listing for the auction is here.

one

okay, so i didn't manage to photograph 95% of my new goodies to show you (yet) but i did snap a quick pic of the ink & spindle fabric that i snapped up from lara and teegs last sunday. my sister and i hit the markit at fed square and were a bit overwhelmed by the amount of talent and goodness packed into one little atrium - sooooooo much amazing stuff. and all i allowed myself was this chunk of lara's kangaroo paw screenprinted fabric. i am the model of restraint sometimes.