looking and listening

looking at leanne shaptons' month of tuesday blooms and discovered that she does a lot of lovely work.

listening to bill callahan's new album apocalypse

autumnal cleansing of house, garden and mind continues....

stuff

another lovely family weekend as K had friday off. too busy enjoying it to remember about my camera! had all the good things that constitute a lovely weekend. I even did a morning of WORK for the first time since LP was born and it was great. hope to do a few more little bits and pieces if it works.

also continued to do more de-cluttering, re-organising and taking stuff to the op shop. thinking of imposing some sort of a 'no-buy' pact on myself. not that i spend much money, its just i'm a sucker for op shopping which generally means you bring home stuff you don't really need but just takes up space being beautiful. which has its place, believe me, but i need to get realistic in this new life of ours and its surprising how much space a little baby takes up physically and emotionally!

saved a pip to make a little avocado plant, just like Lotte's pictured above

colours & chats

COLOURS // seen on yesterdays walk with Lottie Pearl...amazing how far and wide we roam in the pram

CHATS // little existential and observational chats with K, late at night, about what it feels like to be a parent (me: concept of not being my own entity anymore and being inextricably linked to another human k: the giant responsibility of taking care of us girls)

making & doing

been really getting stuck into some sewing lately. I guess I know I have to appreciate this time where Lottie Pearl is napping loads and isn't all that mobile. So i'm crafting ahead....

yet another great pattern from simple sewing for baby and I delighted in sewing it over a couple of days and made sure I followed it step by step and gave it my best.

quite happy with the results but Lottie's head definitely needs to grow a bit more! Lucky we have a long winter ahead....

party

i love living in melbourne - but i do hate being away from my sister. i wish i could be there to help with parties - amongst many other things.....imagine all the crafting, op shopping, partying and general frippery we could get up to together if we lived in the same state?

she's having a 70's birthday party and here are a few sources of inspiration i'd use if i had to get together a costume.....

(apologies - small baby inhibited crediting these images....hopefully i can do so later on!)

on my mind

beautiful orchids in nakameguro, tokyo

japan, you've been on my mind..........you were there for us and turned a tough time into an amazing time.

yesterday was family day and we went opshopping (found some amazing cookbooks!) and went for a walk at a park along the yarra. it was fun to get out just the three of us but we're still learning the ropes when it comes to messing with Lottie Pearl's routine. She was a very tired and mixed up lil bubba when we got home.

We had a bath together last night - what bliss!!! Froggy kicks and loads of smiles...

fruit glut

i love when there are gluts of certain fruits or vegetables amongst our neighbourhood and friends. that combined aim to find a new recipe for zucchini or the common mission on what new to do with figs? conversation quickly turns to "have you tried making apple butter?"

i've had cucumbers, capsis, zucchinis and cherry tomatoes going gangbusters in my garden so to have armfuls of figs, apples and green beans in return is lovely!

fig jam and fig tea cake were made and shared!

people who don't engage in their garden and life in this way just don't know what they are missing!

good day / tough night

{new toys i made for LP....from simple sewing for baby}

yesterday was a public holiday so we spent the day pram walking, fig picking, jam making, family napping, cosying, crafting, studying, playing and cooking! but we had a terrible night with Lottie Pearl being incredibly unsettled thanks to an insanely early tooth that is coming through! she is barely three months old! she's always worked to her own schedule.....

and then i wake up and see the horrible pictures coming out of japan and my sleepless night doesn't seem so bad after all. our hearts are with you japan. if we didn't have the responsibility of Lottie Pearl we would be over there to help you recover.

don't know what you've got til it's gone....

i've been wanting to take a photograph of this silly little window, a few streets over, for 2 years now. i've walked past it countless times and it always appeals to me. i think "i need to take a photo of it" and somehow it always escapes me. yesterday i finally took the photograph.

my uncle john suddenly died on 2 MAR 2011 after falling, hitting his head and sustaining so much brain damage he would never wake by himself again.

i flew back home to be with family and it was a hard, weird and exhausting time. our first time away from K.

all these things lead to yet another reminder to take that photograph, to love that loved one, to appreciate everything before, during and after you have it. life is way too short not to.

xxx