Time stood still.
I’m learning again though, to appreciate the wonder in my life.
Thank you friends, old and new, for being there when I learned how to reach out.
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Category Archives: Family
A Tale of Two Cakes
You may have already heard the tale of the (thankfully not chocolateless) chocolate cake… it’s already quite famous, you know. But on my return from the stashbusting expedition*, I found another waiting:
Sponge cake with strawberry jam, fresh strawberries and cream. Drooooool……
(Dermot’s first ever sponge cake, he will have you know. What do you think Liesl, should we enter him for next year’s Melbourne Show?!)
My birthday (one with a 5 in it) is, in fact, tomorrow, but Sunday is a much more celebration-friendly day, which is why we did it all today. (There is, however, an ominous bag of goodies awaiting kids-in-big-bed time in the morning. In the immortal words of Lola,I can’t wait, I can’t wait!)
It was delicious! (There’s none left, by the way… but it’s not quite as bad as it sounds, we did have guests come for yummo roast-chicken dinner as well, we didn’t polish off the lot by ourselves!)
All that and the Finders Keepers market yesterday with Niamh too. An entirely satisfying weekend!
*If you follow that link you can find a picture of me blowing out the candles – I am clearly moving very fast… which is when I am at my most photogenic, I think**! Thanks Cam 🙂
**I also have quite the photogenic foot, as seen over at Bec’s place. I point this out only to reassure you that I am not kicking Houdini-dog in this photograph, but merely scratching his chin with that foot (which left him in raptures, and my hand quite untainted by Houdini-dog smell!)
Thanks!
He’s a Blogging Superstar…
…and pretty good kid (mostly!)
Thank you for all the wonderful comments on Finn’s post. He was over the moon to receive each one. Every time my phone bleeped with incoming email, I had to check to see if it was for him :giggle:
He also ‘Show and Tell’ed the blog at school – an, um, interesting side effect of letting him guest post, which I probably should have foretold. Not sure how I feel about being ‘outed’ to school! I don’t think I’m in the habit of using naughty words though, so the Year 2’s should be relatively safe.
Being involved with the blog certainly made Finn a more enthusiastic model today! He’s showing off a top I made from New Look #6932 (the same pattern the PJ pants came from). The fabric is awesome too, no? I found it at Spotlight amidst all the boring stuff, and it brightened my day no end 🙂
Heh. I just noticed he’s wearing this backwards – there’s a seam in the center of the ribbing because it’s the back! It looks otherwise the same – I guess I should think about creating/acquiring myself some labels so the kids can differentiate front from back.
Finn Blogs!
My first ever *guest post*! From a boy of very few words. (Except of course when he’s talking about HTML. Or CSS. Or Java. Or pretty much anything computer related 🙂 ) Enjoy!
Hi, this is Finn. On the weekend Mum taught me how to knit. I learned garter stitch. I made a blanket for my sister’s baby doll. While I was making it Rohan pulled the needles out. Mum put them back in.
Do you like it? 🙂
Off Kilter
It’s been a funny old week. I’m feeling a bit off-kilter. I’m not 100% certain what a kilter is, nor do I know whether I’d like to be on one, but for the moment, I’m definitely off.
I did fully intend to write up a review of my lovely Sling bag made at Sewjourn, for Nikki’s Review Round-Up Competition. Somehow that deadline slid out the window while I was distracted by kilters, but get yourself over there and vote for a winner anyway, won’t you?
In lieu of that, and of anything else of substance for the blog this week – please accept an offering from last week:
Anticipation:
Installation:
Sandpit is Go!:
My Dad built, and then he and Dermot installed, this long-anticipated addition to the backyard.
The weather even came to the party with a couple of brilliant days earlier this week (I love this Winter-with-a-promise-of-Spring time of year so much). So the kids got to hang out and build sandcastles as much as they liked.
Well. Two of them liked. Mr Fifteen-and-a-half-months-and-I can-climb-out-of-my-cot-now seems to have some kind of bizarre sand-phobia! We’re working on it.
Useful Swap (Part 1)
After the ickiness of last week, once Dermot got back from Sydney, we took off for the mountains and spent a few days doing blissfully little. There was a little bushwalking, and a bit of scenic driving (with ulterior motive), but otherwise we stayed in, kept warm, watched movies, and enjoyed the view (a bit more sleep was had too… although not on night three, that was dreadful).
On Monday, I came home to my package of goodies from Susie’s very Useful Swap. I hoped to blog those today, but the day has got away from me (again), so I’ll just have to give you the what I sent version, and leave the what I got part for later. Dreary old Melbourne weather has made photo taking a bit of a pain of late, so please overlook that and marvel at the fantabulous oven gloves and fingertip mitts I made for my swap recipients (I’m not quite sure who got which yet, though I know Suzie has the fruity ones. I love that fabric – I picked it up from Earthgirl fabrics at the Stitches & Craft show). I checked out a bunch of oven mitt tutorials online, and ended up basically using Suzie’s method – simple and effective. ‘Nuff said.
My personal favourite is in the top left, that cream and green flowery print. I’m making a set of gloves for our kitchen in the same fabric this weekend. This weekend, when I go away to Sewjourn with some other crafty peeps. Yes, that’s right… kid free for two whole days and nights! Sewjourn! Yippee yay! I am loading up the boot of my car with far too many projects, and it won’t matter whether I achieve a lot or a little, it will be nice just to be able to leave the (good) scissors out with no danger of someone chopping off a finger 😀
(And to finish a whole cup of coffee before it goes cold.)
Oh, by the way, if there happens to be anyone (a cross-stitcher type anyone) out there who owns the Dimples Designs Wee Beasties part 6 design (Blue-eyed Darner dragonfly), I would be forever in your debt if I could get a copy of the key… mine has gone awol, and I kind of need it if I’m ever going to finish the darn thing!
Posted in Family, Other Craft, Sewing
While I Was Gone
Parenting has been kicking my butt lately. You might have guessed, based on my absence. Every time I think about breaking the blog-drought, I’m either too exhausted, or I can’t seem to form two sentences, or I get a bad case of ‘if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything’.
There’s nothing special about tonight, except perhaps all of the above apply. This week is kicking my butt even more spectacularly. Husband in Sydney, School holidays, and kids all sick. Monday night I had a miserable Niamh in bed with me with a suspected ear infection (though she did seem okay by morning, after medication and a night with Mum). Last night was Ro’s turn in with me, and tonight, well… he’s currently napping fitfully on my lap (one-handed blogging, y’all!) and won’t go down in any bed. This is after the excitement of a few hours ago when his big brother coughed until he vomited. Awesome times.
Blah. Let’s have a little recap on some of the good stuff that’s happened since I was last here, shall we? Good then. Point form ahoy:
:love: We moved the babe out of our bedroom and in with his sister. This was monumental. And, of course, led to him finally, finally sleeping through the night. I should have remembered that from last time, really. Ok, so I did remember. I was just really reluctant to boot my baby out. So the sleepless nights – all my fault. Obviously. Next!
:love: My blog turned five. FIVE! That’s a really long time to be saying nothing much at all. Less than 400 posts total… gosh, I really am a crap blogger! (But really… I have got to say, blogging was way less pressure back in the days. Now… I don’t know. Every now and then, I see a favourite blog go ‘pro’. Or ‘pro-ish’. Suddenly there’s Sponsorship. And Product Placement. Cash for Comment. Or competitions to enter, but only if you ‘Follow’, and Twitter and Facebook about it. Often, the original, entertaining, unique voice of said blogger is lost amongst it all. At which point I mercilessly drop them from my feed.) Ok, sorry. Rant over.
:love: My best girl turned four. Way, way more exciting than the blog turning five. Niamh is such a party girl, she always has been. We had pretend party play for weeks around these parts. Culminating in a totally fun, but also totally soggy pink-and-green party at the Bundoora Children’s Farm. Kids don’t care. Rug ’em up, they’ll have fun no matter what. And we did.
:love: I am quite bad at point form-ing my thoughts!
:love: Someone introduced me to the Sookie Stackhouse series. Thanks, Someone 😛 I read the books almost without coming up for air (don’t worry, I still managed to clothe and feed my children. Just.) Then I went out and bought Series One of True Blood on DVD, and we watched that over a week, then rinse and repeat with Series Two. Totally loving it. Series Three, of course, isn’t on in Australia yet, so we’ll be (cough, cough) waiting for that for a while. 😉
:love: After 44 months of breastfeeding, I finally closed up shop. (That’s non-consecutive months, obviously. I meant the total for all three children). I truly thought that would be harder for both Rohan and I than it was, but I just knew time was up, and we just… stopped. Now he goes to bed with cuddles and a few sips of water, and even (sometimes) for Dad, not me. Another monumental step. (And I just realised I can burn my maternity bras now. Or, you know, just bin them. Probably more environmentally friendly that way.)
There’s probably more good stuff. Just can’t quite drag it out of the brain cells right now. Between up there ^^^ and here, I managed to get Ro back into his bed, and the clock ticked over to Thursday… Must. Go. To. Bed.
Oh, but before I do, I also managed to get a few crafty bits and pieces in:
I finally finished off the doll stroller seat for my friend’s little girl:
Seen being test-driven here by our recently arrived good friend Gracie, another Bamboletta sweetheart to keep Molly company.
Also, I joined in with Sooz’s Useful swap. My original plan involved crochet, but then I stupidly managed to sprain my crucial-for-crochet-right-index-finger. So since yarny stuff was out, I broke out the fabric instead. This is only a peek, mind you, but I’m hoping the recipients love these – I certainly do, and I intend to make myself one or two now.
Once my finger began to recuperate, I started back on those tricksy DPNs (to help the recovery, you understand!):
And emerged victorious, with a smashing pair of red fingerless mitts to bring some happy to the coldcoldcold mornings we’ve been having.
Ravelry details over here if you are so inclined. I love my mitts 🙂
And, folks, as Peter Cundall used to say, that’s yer bloomin’ lot.
Posted in Blog Blather, Family, Sewing, The Kids, Yarncraft
Bead People are Go
Success! But a little bit funny around the neck where their insides are showing (oo-er!) I shall have to make a whole gang anyway no doubt, since at present there is only one each for the bigger kids, and that is not enough to prevent ‘troubles’. So I’ll improve my technique a bit as I go.
The Steiner/Waldorf blocks (also affectionately known as ‘offcuts’ around here, thanks to Dermot being the son of a joiner!) were from Mum for Rohan’s birthday. They came from Winterwood, we visited for the first time last week. For the record – beautiful shop, beautiful, beautiful felt, but I don’t recommend driving from here to there and back again with a passenger prone to carsickness. Sorry Mum! (She couldn’t even drive us, since my car is a manual and I won’t let her drive it!)
Posted in Kid Crafts, Other Craft, Sewing, The Kids
Tagged crafting for children, waldorf toys
Now We Are One
Some months back, a small girl, perhaps two, pointed Rohan out as we meandered about the greengrocer, and made much of ‘the baby’. No, said her father, he’s not a baby anymore, he’s growing big, like you. He is so still a baby!, asserted I, clinging desperately to the fading days of Babyhood. My last.
But One brings definite change, doesn’t it? With the coming of One, not even I can deny any more – it’s over. No more baby. We’ve crossed the threshold and run face-first into Toddlerhood. (Rohan does have a tendency to run face-first into most things – hence the bruises, see above).
We had a small family celebration at the weekend. Robot cake was mandatory – our Ro gets “Ro-pop” quite a bit. His big brother and sister both made cards featuring robots. A RicRac discobot was on the cards, but in the end, none of my crafting plans came to fruition, and I decided not to beat myself up about it – he certainly won’t remember that his robot (or his quilt, or whatever else it was on that list…) came late!
Happy Birthday (+ 3), Mr Ro. So glad we made it through this year together intact!
Hoppy Easter
I hope everybunny had a hoppy easter!
(!!!Sorry!!! Not sure what came over me there!!!)
We had a lovely and far-too-chocolate-filled weekend at my father-in-law’s place in central Victoria. The kids got to run riot with the cousin they don’t see enough of, and I got bit more granny-squaring in, despite the (was it slightly derisive?) commentary from uncles-in-law. Pfft to them, I say. Also, there might have been a little bitty trip to the Bendigo Woollen Mills and Bendigo Spotlight somewhere in there… can’t remember… crafty amnesia has befallen me. (What stash diet?!)
Bunny finger-puppet project from the purl bee. A great little project for the budding crafter: Finn stitched his own, I just added the face and tail for him.
Posted in Family, Sewing, The Kids, Yarncraft
Tagged crafting with kids, easter craft, finger puppet