Happy Sunday...

I love this time of year when you can taste the change of season in the crisp air.  The sun starts to lose its intensity and all the world's colours seem to slide a little further into the blue/grey end of the spectrum.  Daylight savings is finally over and the sun tucks itself into bed nice and early, sending a clear message to tired little bodies that sleepy time is here.  

Today was one of those days you wish you could bottle.  My parents came to visit and we took the kids for a walk around Churchill island.  It really is a restful place, where time seems to take a rest from its usual unrelenting pace.  It's hard not to fall just a little in love gazing into the wise old eyes of the highland cattle and have your heart skip at the sight of a tiny, shaggy little calf.  Wishing it could be forever Sunday…

In which we dig up the lawn to plant onions...

I thought it was about time the kids had their own little patch in the garden, so last week I took them for a walk to the nursery and they chose some plants.  After much deliberation they decided on some daffodils and some onion seedlings.  Today was the big planting day.  We dug up a small patch of the lawn (well I dug and the kids wielded trowels in a haphazard fashion - thankfully only resulting in one minor bonk on the head).  Then Minty and I carefully planted the seedlings.  By this stage Turi had lost interest and had wandered off to ride his bike.  I'm not really expecting to yield any onions from this exercise, though if we do get a crop it will be a welcome bonus.  I just think it's nice for the kids to get out in the garden, get dirty and start thinking about where vegetables come from.  I suspect some of the seedlings were already killed as a result of Minty's over zealous watering!

Today's photos were taken by the Mr (my hands were too dirty from all the digging), with a little post production love from me.

This week...

This week we've been…

...enjoying stewed plums with whipped cream

...reading May Gibbs' Gumnut babies till my voice gives out - the kids can't get enough of those bad banksia men!

…rugging up for the cold weather on our walks

...and having fun with visiting friends.

Hope your week was just as much fun!

Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match!

I've been a bit lax about posting activities I've been doing with the kids.  So today i give you not one, but two games to play with a three year old (sadly not really appropriate for the one year old set due to choking hazards and insufficient communication skills, so Turi had to sit these out).  These are perfect activities for wet day play or to calm the kiddies down if they have started going a bit loco.

The first game is a sorting activity (originally found on this Montesorri site).  Basically you put a heap of different beans, legumes, dried pasta etc. in a bowl and then get your child to sort them into small bowls.   When I introduced this to Minty I was fully prepared for her to reject it as a tedious, boring and pointless exercise.  Boy was I wrong.  She approached it with a quiet diligence I've rarely seen her exhibit.  I'm fairly sure this is the Montesorri equivalent of dead fish.  The house was deliciously silent broken only by the ping of dried beans hitting the bottom of the ceramic bowls.  Minty kept at it for half an hour and I even had trouble getting her to stop and have lunch!  I'll definitely be keeping this one up my sleeve for when I'm in need of a bit of peace!

Game number two is one I devised to have a bit of fun stimulating the sense of smell.  Basically you fill some little bowls with different herbs and spices.  The idea is to blindfold the child and get them to match the scent in the bowl with one of the scents from the jars.  Minty refused to wear a blindfold which kind of defeated the purpose of the game and made matching the spices way too easy.  She still had a great time sniffing all the bowls and adding extra sprinklings of spice from the jars.  Plus we got to talking about what all the different herbs and spices were so I guess that was educational in itself.  We'll give this another go with a blindfold when Minty is feeling a bit more compliant.

In which there are aliens, a girly skirt and a bird dissection...

On Sunday we went to my nephew's 6 year old space themed birthday party.  The kids had a great time playing pass the parcel, making alien headbands, launching space rockets and eating luridly coloured alien cake.  I was shocked by how grown up all the kids looked.  I don't remember 6 year olds being so tall - I guess it's all about perspective and compared to little Turi they are like giants.

(Sorry there aren't more photos of the party here but most of the shots I took had other people's kids in them and you know the whole privacy issue blah blah)

The night before the party Minty asked me to make a 'twirly-whirly-girly' skirt for her to wear.  It wasn't exactly the task I had planned for Saturday but I am trying to encourage her enthusiasm for handmade clothes.  I'm well aware that soon enough she will probably think anything I make is very uncool.  The skirt was inspired by this little thula thula number that I sadly didn't win.  The skirt is made with soft dreamy voile cotton, and is lined with a pink underskirt.  It has a flat front waist, with an elastic back for easy wearability.  I've finished it with french seams so it will endure the regular washes and active play that comes with toddler wear.  It's exciting to finally be reaching a point in my sewing where I don't have to rely on other people's patterns all the time.  I'm really happy with the finish on this and all up the materials only cost about $10 so I think I might make Minty another couple for winter.  I think it will look really sweet with some cream cable knit tights.

I took Minty and Turi to Silverleaves to get a few better shots of the skirt but was quickly reminded why I rarely try and take posed photos of my kids.  While I had my back turned Turi managed to dissect a wing from the carcass of a dead bird and by the time I turned back around was wielding the feathered appendage about like a sword.  It was clear neither of the kids had any interest in cooperating with my plans.  After a few more failed attempts at directing the children into a photographable location I gave up and we went home.  The handful of shots I did take were some of the worst I've taken in a long time.  Lesson learned - unplanned photos taken during the course of a normal day are infinitely more successful!

The bird dissector is wearing a deceptively sweet hand knit vest from his granny!

In which I want man hair...

I'm seriously considering chopping all my hair off.  I'm so sick of having to deal with grooming it every day.  The feline equivalent of my hair is probably a persian crossed with a stray - long, mangy, with a tendency to mat and cause hairballs.  Most days I toss it up in a messy bun and try and pretend it's not there.  The only time I comb it is after it has been washed because otherwise I end up with uncontrollable halo of frizz around my face.  Perhaps cutting it all off, man-style will only exacerbate these issues, or maybe it will free me from my bad hair rut.  I guess I can't be sure until I try it.  My husband bluntly pointed out that he thought I had a strange shaped head which he felt would be accentuated by having short hair (he is nothing if not honest!).  Frankly I'm not sure that I care… for ninety percent of the day I can't see myself anyway.  Thoughts anyone?  Is cutting my hair a stroke of brilliance or a brief moment of temporary insanity?

Today's photos are of my precious niece Lilly.  I've been wanting to have a photo shoot with her for ages now but somehow haven't been able to arrange it (maybe the fact that we live an hour and a half away may have something to do with it).  This wasn't exactly the photo shoot I was hoping for - more like lying around on an old nappy in the middle of a wild 6-year old birthday party - but I'll take what I can get.  Lilly is pretty dang cute so I don't think the photos suffered too much from the lack of planning.

More about the wild party and a look at Minty's new 'twirly-whirly-girly skirt' tomorrow - stay tuned...

My creative space...

Turi's name is Spanish in origin and means 'bear'.  This is largely why I chose it (seeing as my husband put his foot down and said I was absolutely not allowed to name him Bear.  I think he was worried people might think we had named him after Bear Grylls - though seriously what would be wrong with that??)  Anyway, I digress.  I often call him 'little bear' - so I decided It would be fun to make him a winter hat inspired by his name sake.  It is made with lovely soft chestnut coloured wool I picked up at Tessuti and lined with cream coloured flannel.  The pattern is from Liesl Gibson's Little Things to Sew.  Don't be at all surprised if you receive one of these from me for your baby  - I'm getting cute overload seeing Turi wear it and want to share the love!

Also this week on my sewing desk…

some amazing girl's vintage patterns I picked up at the op-shop in Wonthaggi for 50c each!! 

some fabric treasures from my recent shopping trip…

and the beginnings of a little skirt for Minty.

More creative spaces here.