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!

pear-shaped

life has been rather pear-shaped lately.
no time to take photos.
no time to blog.
no time!
sometimes i wish we were close to family.
sometimes i wish i knew just what our little baby Lottie wants.
sometimes i just wish i could sleep for a million years.

what did i used to do before she?
(i must have wasted so much time.....)

thank goodness there will be 9 days in a row of mama, papa & baby time ahead.

happy birthday sissy

happy birthday to my darling sissy....love all of our memories like rollerskating to phil collins, singing in the rain, dressing up, colouring in and just generally hanging out like a right royal pair of Bib and Bobs.

so proud of everything you have achieved and the person you have become. you are amazing, caring, compassionate, flippin' hilarious and so, so, so beautiful.

love k, f & lp xoxox

weekend lunching

weekend spent lunching and enjoying fine company and food! above is a sour cherry cake we made for a friends birthday. my omama's easy recipe again - just so versatile and easy!

omama cake
weigh 4 x eggs without breaking them....
then add same weight of: sugar, self raising flour, butter
some vanilla or lemon zest if you wish and depending on the fruit you use
combine and add a splash or two of milk to make a thick batter
pour into greased and lined springform cake tin and add fruit of choice
(think cherries, apple, pear, peach, blueberries.....anything really!)
sprinkle with raw sugar and bake in medium pre-heated oven until done!
finish with icing sugar if you like and find a bunch of friends to share with, along with a cup of tea!

marjee// don't worry, plenty of thought about baby and milk and sleep.....just need the cooking and crafting to balance it all out or else i'd go madder than i've already grown!

a common thread// doesn't take much - once you start you can't stop!

angie// we laugh so much about addie saying "thats awful/disgusting" to your food that its now a catchphrase in our house.....so of course you dread it when your little people will say that! but your creative solutions are giving us ideas for how we may have to deal with lottie in the future!

catherine// if only i had your food photo skills to take pictures of our creations!

food

one of the things i miss about being a non-mama is the amount of time we used to spend in the kitchen! we would set aside whole days to make big batches of curry pastes, experiment endlessly with sourdough breads and do what seems now outrageous, things like making pasta from scratch.

bit by bit we are working our way back. i made my first couple of sourdough loaves and am so happy i can easily fit it into our lives again. soooooooo sick of shop bought bread.

also enjoying loads of bits and bobs, such as these oven roasted mushrooms with home-made pesto, pan fried flat beans with garlic, chives and butter with a witlof, nashi and dill salad.

YUM!

outside in

i dont' know what it is but i most love gardening in the autumn/winter. maybe because you have to do little apart from snail hunting and you have great reward! well, thats how it goes here in melbourne anyway.

autumn is my favourite melbourne season. it makes me want to bring the outside in. love this big picture of leaves from a Dos Visit