new here

sweet little pocket on my new t-shirt and a big square floppy knit jumper. all from our family travels up the end of sydney road.

i know its wrong to love cheap imported clothing so much. but most of my clothing is op-shopped.

does op-shopping for clothes help balance it out at all?

do you have a moral quandry at the minute?

weekend

of course weekends are the best. it means i do this whole baby thing with kee by my side for a whole 2 days in a row!

//drinking super strong coffee with old italian men on sydney road//cruising smith street//listening to gil scott heron records//watching footy and movies//walking//saying goodbye to a friend//giggling at our super banal conversations//

and more importantly.....with this new lease on life (aka SLEEPING and SLEEPING BABY) we are starting to uncover ourselves, become a lil more comfy with this new family life and even though its winter right now......it almost feels like spring!

(saw these amazing MANIMAL moccassins in OBUS)

gil scott heron

"Blow wind blow, between the pages of my life" (Song of Wind, Bridges, 1977)

rest in peace gil scott heron

i never knew you existed until i met my (now) husband. we fell in love over and to your music. i know there will be much more living room dancing, road tripping and life living to your beautiful music. my daughter will grow up knowing who you are.

rewind

some beautiful chyrsanthemums from the royal tasmanian botanical gardens back in may nestled amongst one of my faves maiden hair fern

whilst there my father in law heard a mini person ask his mum what 'botanical' meant. she replied "oh you know, when things are flowery and pretty".

i guess thats kinda true!

livin' local

we live in thornbury and we are blessed with sooooo many great local cafes, shops and characters. its such a lovely place to be a stay at home mama in. such a feeling of community and everyone is really friendly. no one is too cool for school and i like it that way. a beautiful blend of old and young people and a lovely blend of cultures. oh and how could i forget the great op shops!

we were discussing in perimeter last night how it will be a shame when the people who have made this area such a great place to live will be priced out of the rental market......we've been here for 2 and a half years now and just can't imagine living anywhere else. people used to laugh when we told them we lived "all the way up in thornbury" and it was even dubbed as North Northcote. Bah!

two places that are just really ticking my boxes at the moment are:

el joyero - such lovely people, a gorgeous interior and divine coffee
perimeter books - beautiful art/indie publications, along with japanese books and a lovely shop owner

it feels nice to have these places as part of our daily landscape - so check them out if you happen to be in our 'hood! (perimeter has been blogged about fairly extensively about the place....i love it - my mum who lives in a small town in western australia told me about it over the phone this morning!)

uno momento

realised that maybe i should pay a little more attention to this blog.....after all - it sometimes is my only connection to the outside world!

i've never really wrote toooooo much stuff on here, always in favour of pictures and the like but maybe it might help. things just seem very much 'one step forward, two steps back' but we gotta make the best out of the small victories and as someone wise told me "catch the moments of happiness"

i guess i'd really love to catch some zzzz's

(meanwhile, i love these bags from baggu! and thankyou blogland for keeping me sane during all the bouts of sleeplessness and in our time away from the real world out there! don't know how my mum did it without the internet :)

sleep or lack thereof

long time between drinks on this here blog.....

battling booby problems and sleep problems but somehow muddling our way through!

last night we had a home visit from someone to help us sort out some of Lottie Pearl's sleeping difficulties and my was it tough. the night started off well - her first night sleeping with no dummy or wrap! but after around 3am it just disintegrated. so hard not to feel disheartened. that silly thought "are we the ones who have that baby who can't be tamed?"

lottie pearl has an amazingly fierce and expressive heart. she's so fun to be around. she really is. i'm so happy we can have such beautiful awake time. we just need to work on the sleep time! we'll get there baby girl!

so after a horror night and after a big LOOOOOOONG play (even though she was ready to go back to sleep 30 mins after she woke) she fell into bed, no dummy, no wrap, just my big beautiful 5 month old. no protest. nothing. 1 1/2 hours later? she's still sleeping :) first time ever she has slept for that long. EVER!

thankyou lottie pearl. you are my wonder girl xxx

(don't this family look amazing? homemade clothes for everyone by shisomama......this pattern looks like a goody and an easy too! c'mon craft - i want you back in my life!)

we're baaaaaaack

okay - so after a really stressful couple of weeks, we had a really beautiful 10 days. first in the grampians and then in tasmania. just what we needed. we decided just to break all the rules in terms of what to do with your baby and we just went with it. sure there were still loads of tears, only the super mini-est catnaps and what has turned into the usual nighttime scream attacks....

but HEY! flying by the seat of our pants just made us feel normal and spontaneous again.....

we enjoyed bushwalks, baths in random sinks, way too much food, art (oh MONA how you are awesome) and got to do some lovely things like have long showers and day time naps whilst the grandparents had bebe.

lottie pearl may not be so good at the whole settled thing but she is super stirling to travel with!!!

now, back at home i feel refreshed, more confident and even though this whole motherhood thing is relentless i'm feeling like things could be on the up! well at the very least, our calendar is jammed with fun things in the immediate and not too distant future!