27th October 2008
We had such a perfect, gentle weekend. It’s always hard waking on a Monday and feeling that wrench as the realisation of the upcoming rush-to-get-out-the door kicks in. This morning we woke late and got to school just before the second bell but we somehow managed to keep things cheerful.
This is the list on the door inside one of the kitchen cupboards which Amelia refers to almost every day when getting ready and packing her bag for school. She kicks around all morning; drawing, playing the piano, constructing elaborate plans for tree houses or performances, gazing into the plastic container where her pill bugs live, slowly getting dressed in unbelievably drawn-out stages while all the time chat chat chatting. Thankfully, when we hit the urgent, last minute race to get away, there is this list for making life easier. As Meg (who is an old friend and author of my new favourite blog) wrote, the world can be divided into those who keep lists, and those who don’t. Amelia has most definitely inherited my keen love of all things list-like.
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Speaking of kids - Mixtape - The Kids Issue is now available for preorder at the Mixtape online shop. I did the cover illustration and if the content is at all like that of the previous issues, it will be a rad read.
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
7th March 2008
Rosa’s nice ribbon.
This was one of the few luxury purchases I made in February while undergoing “No Spend Month“.
Other things which forced me to break the rules included:
- Brown Owls Membership
- Coffee (or hot chocolate) and cakes at Laurent for Mum, Dad, Amelia, Lily and Me one Saturday morning (Mum spotted us for all other Saturday mornings in Feb. Thanks Mum! That was a bit naughty of me really.)
- Sweeney Todd at the Rivoli
- DVD rentals (Die Hard 4, The Bourne Ultimatum and Once)
- An apple tart to take to a dinner party on a weekend when I had no time to cook.
Things I held back on even though it made me miserable:
- Green and Black’s White Chocolate
- Fabric (even with a visit to Patchwork on Central Park)
- New shoes to replace my completely trashed campers
Things I thought I would miss but strangely had no effect on me:
- Life etc. and various other nice magazines
- Books from Dymocks
- Take away food
- Chai tea at Macro
- Clothes on sale
Things that surprised me:
- We reduced the amount of rubbish we put out for collection by half for the month!
- Amelia stopped asking “Can I have (insert toy/video game/treat/donut/etc.)?” all the time. She doesn’t do it at all anymore.
- I got a little boring and evangelical about it (actually, perhaps that’s not so surprising).
- I really do feel compelled to buy less.
No spend month was quite good. It kind of reset my “Need to buy, must consume” button, but I do have a renewed respect for those who do the Compact challenge. I have already got back in to the swing of purchasing a few things that really I shouldn’t have… but ya gotta live a little… right?
