18th September 2008
Today involves:
Packing for the school holidays
Buying champagne for my bestie’s baby shower
Ordering cakes for my bestie’s baby shower
Starting an illustration for some nice girls
Attending a “linen party”
Returning library books
Entertaining sick children
Grocery shopping
Thinking about zombies (well, I am)
Filling in forms for the Child Care Rebate
Sorting out an invoice with a doctor
Laundry
Dinner (chicken and basil and cashews? Mmm yes)
Other things I would like to be doing:
Watching Project Runway (both US and Aussie versions)
Crochet
Eating King Island Dairy vanilla yoghurt
Starting secret project for my bestie’s baby
Listening to some music
A proper blog post
Reading a book
(rockin’)
Checking out my enormous list of favourite blogs
Pre-ordering Moomin book three
6th August 2008
In an unprecedented leap – both children have been sleeping until after 7am every day this week. I am quite delirious as I feel kind of normal again! Phil and I have been able to stay up until almost 11 each night (gasp!) watching The Lord of the Rings, in all its extended glory, and still manage to function perfectly well the next day. I really hope this lasts, but these things rarely do. I am sure now that I have blogged about it, we will be up at 6 again tomorrow.
On my desk today (or “on my table by the window” anyway) are a bunch of rabbits being worked on slowly for a shop release in September, and a box of yarn from my stash which I have been sporadically turning into granny squares.
I continue to love this chilly Winter, apart from the colds and coughs which have taken up permanent residence around here. Tonight I am making Shepherd’s Pie, and I may even make an apple crumble. Mmm.
4th June 2008
Amelia is collecting footy cards.
Curiouser and Curiouser.
It all started because she queues up for her after lunch library class on Wednesdays at the very beginning of lunch — just in case she happens to miss the bell and and then she’d be late for class. So she sits outside of the library waiting all lunch time. Of course, I was momentarily thrown into freaked-out mum mode by this news – Oh dear! Poor child! Her anxieties are interfering with her socialisation! (etc etc. Actually I didn’t do that too much, to my surprise. It was more a mild “oh, really? You funny kid.”).
But then it turns out that she’s not the only one who feels the need to queue an hour early for class and her new best mate Oscar and she play tic-tac-toe and “trade footy cards”. This was news to me! Footy cards? What footy cards? Apparently she and Oscar would watch the kids in the class opposite the library compare their enormous albums of footy cards and inevitably they found the need to join in. We had coincidentally found an el-cheapo footy card in a packet of chips one day which I immediately forgot about but not Amelia. She took it off to school and that became her footy card collection which she traded back and forth on the steps of the library with Oscar who also seemed to have had an equally limited collection. Her card was for a player from the Sydney Swans so that became the team she barracks for. And Oscar, apparently, barracks for the ‘gold cards’.
Yesterday she hit the big time when my Mum bought her a whole packet of footy cards from the Newsagent. She opened it like a Willy Wonker’s chocolate bar. It contained only one Swans player (“doesn’t he look nice and friendly mum? And if you hold the card at a distance he even looks kind of cute!” – cute as in teddy bear – she is yet to determine the meaning of cute as in Brad Pitt.) She has filled an old ratty photo album she found in a drawer at my parents place and slept with it under her pillow. She is off today to attempt to gain a few more Swans player’s cards, with some trading tips from Phil. Luckily she has picked a team to collect who would have to be one of the least popular teams in a Melbourne school. But then again, what would I know? I didn’t even know the answer to her question as to how many player’s cards would she need to collect to get the whole team. And lucky Oscar! There’s a gold card in the pack with his name on it.
PS. On my desk today is a granny square in progress. YES, you can believe it ! Thanks to a little help from Youtube and Kim who sacrificed a couple of important moments in a doctor who episode we were watching to remind me that I needed to go through that donut one more time etc. It’s absolutely addictive. I have been checking out the granny-along flickr pool with growing enthusiasm. And next I want to try flowers. Woo!
3rd June 2008
Don’t these strawberry tops look like flowers? I think this every time I cut them and Amelia said to me the other day – “You should take a photo!”, so I did.
And in other news, last night I buzzed along to the Brown Owl’s club house for a little crochet lesson.
And, … ahem…
I just wasn’t very good.
I showed Phil what I achieved in the good two and half hours (above) and he looked at me like I was bonkers. I sat opposite my good mate Kim who seemed to have been born to crochet and busted out a fabulously frilly khaki square. But honestly … I think I got the knack of it… in the end – thanks to Jess and also Kirsty who sat beside me saying “through the donut and back through the donut, now catch the yarn… etc”.
But I think it might be a while before I can give Alicia a run for her money.
But it was FUN! And I got to meet some new crafty people, and catch up with some old chums and drink champagne and I laughed a lot. I was so happy that when I got home I couldn’t sleep and then today I feel pretty good. I like Brown Owls.
22nd February 2008
I have an old article from Life Etc. snipped out about dream-green holidays which includes Vintage Vacations in the UK. In a parallel universe where I get to go on dream holidays I would be choosing and booking a vintage American trailer, packing my sketch book and drawing paraphernalia, prepping the children for a holiday sans tv and heading Northwards. While you don’t seem to be able to tow the enormous trailers around the countryside you can stay in field on a dairy farm on the Isle of Wight, play vintage board games, enjoy mod cons and snuggle up under a crochet rug every night. I have found all the crochet rug photos because they are very appealing.
This last photos is lovely – it makes me want to find a vintage trailer and park it permanently in the yard. What a fab studio it would make!
