The heat is setting in. This morning it was quite bearable, and even quite pleasant while hanging little itty-bitty socks and singlets on the clothes line, the garden smelt sweet and the breeze was slightly sea-ish reminding me of the slick of zinc cream and coconut oil. I opened all the doors and windows to let the air in and Amelia kicked her chubby legs on the lounge room floor while staring out at the blue sky and waving plant tops. But now it’s getting hot hot hot. I hate this heat and it’s at times like this when I am oh so tempted to leave this otherwise comfortable lifestyle and take up the opportunity to live in Big-P’s home country and find a wild and freezing coastline – like out of The Shipping News. But the gals are coming over today… pea and bron and kylie. We are going to drink some of that punch I told you about and I am cooking a risotto (was that a stupid idea? I will have to stand over a hot saucepan to stir the stock into the rice) and have made little christmas chocolate balls out of biscuits and condensed milk and coconut like we used to make in kindergarten. I am looking forward to today despite the climbing temperature.

I forgot to mention that our tree is up! Last year I found a tiny little tree in a nursery that was about a foot high and covered it in weensy little decorations which suited our tiny little apartment down to the ground. Unfortunately I let it shrivel up and die outside in the water deprived courtyard. But this year I have decided to try again and we have a tree in a pot that’s about 4 foot high! Mum has offered to foster it during the year, and put it in a little cyprus copse along with her tree and grandma’s tree where they can all live happily and be regularly watered by Mum and Dad’s fancy watering system.

The tree is very Dr Suess – with waving, spindly branches reminiscent of the Grinch’s finger tips, or I can even imagine one of my childhood favourites Horton sitting on top attempting to hatch an egg. So I put it up in the front window and have covered it in miniature mirror balls and funny little ornaments from the Oxfam shop. A set of delicate lights are the finishing touch – Megan sent them to me last year in celebration of our wedding and they are perfect for the fine branches of the tree. It’s very christmasy around here despite the week of heat. 40°c is forecast for Saturday.

I am still going to make a doll for Amelia J – yes I really am – but today I went to check out a store in Prahran called AK Gallery as suggested by AC in my comments section. What an incredibly beautiful shop it is absolutely loaded with felt dolls, felt christmas decorations, quilts, mobiles… I was in felt / crafty heaven. The felt dolls come from very exotic sounding kyrgyzstan and are quite amazing, perhaps not everyone’s cup of tea but so lovingly made and so unique that I got all carried away and splashed out and bought a doll dressed to the nines in a hand knitted wintery outfit.

click me!

I am still going to make that cat doll but now the pressure is off to make it that very special first christmas doll.

Well, movement on the doll front has been very slow. I am still going to make a doll for Amelia J but I don’t think it’s going to get to her for Christmas so it will have to be more like for her first birthday. I have decided that I am going to make her a cat doll because she is particularly smiley when we make little kitten “meow” noises. Here are some preliminary sketches (doodles on the back of an envelope):

click me!

We had a most fabulous, festive weekend. Friday night we got together with M (who is now a doctor! woohoo!), Dr Beard and M’s new man for some sushi. Unfortunately our sushi plans were foiled when we ordered 2 huge platters to feed the five of us only to be told that they had run out of sushi rice. So Indian it had to be. Fortunately the Indian was good and the company was better.

Saturday was family christmas lunch part 1 with rellies who were down from Sydney and who won’t be back for actual christmas. We pulled crackers, opened presents and ate huge amounts of food.

Saturday night Big-P and I were incredibly brave and left Amelia J with Mum and Dad to be baby sat while we went to celebrate Big-P’s birthday. We had our sushi fix (tempura prawn california rolls are so incredibly fine) and then went down to the Rivoli to see Harry Potter II. Apart from trying hard not to fall asleep and having the most insanely uncomfortable boobs due to missing a feed (these things they don’t tell you when you first think about being a mum!) I loved the new HP with Professor Sprout’s Mandrake potting class and Ron vomiting up slugs making the film for me. It’s the little magical details like those which make the books usually so much more fun than the films. Really, I could take or leave the high action scenes – giant snakes, trolls and mystery solving (although I did find some of the spider stuff pretty scary) – but give me more of the playful, quirky little ideas that make up the basic idea of Hogwarts and the classes and I am in childrens’ literature heaven.

Sunday was christmas barbeque and kris kringle time with a group of good mates. We sat around in the heat and watched babies crawl around (or lie around in Amelia J’s case) and listened to 5 year old Raffy tell us a million nonsensical knock knock jokes. The more we laughed at his bizarre, freeform jokes the more bizarre they got. That kid is a true dadaist.

The weekend was finished off in the best way possible for me at the moment, with Amelia sleeping soundly from 8pm until 1am and me hitting the hay at 9. Lovely, blissful, twilight sleep.

The 20 things benefit auction — for one week only: 31 artists, 10 nonprofits.