abundance

At the moment I have a carnival of sweet peas climbing up my front fence.
Instead of using any type of moderation, I planted heaps of seeds and to my delight I now have what looks like a jungle of sweet peas engulfing the woven wire fence.
They have emerged in the lovely and very fragrant pink & white variety, then a wandering patch of blowsy white ones, then an eye-popping hot pink collection with the addition of a gorgeous purple/magenta bunch as well. There are even a few very blue ones thrown in for good measure.
I have tried to photograph them but the photos don't really convey the joyousness of their display.
They have taken a bit of a battering in the wild wind and weather of the past couple of days. They are about 6 feet high and have grown beyond the reach of the fence, so a section in the middle has now flopped back into the garden. But the flowers aren't ready to give up yet. They have changed direction so that they are again climbing sunwards!

Happy Halloween too. We had a delightful neighbourhood get together last night with bbq and friends and marauding kids dressed as goths (the big girls including Pepper), a caveman (Mackie), a cat, a ghost, a couple of draculas, a corpse bride (in her real wedding dress), me (a decapitated dolly) and Minnie Mouse (our bbq hostess). Good fun & community spirit, I love it)

craft stall pix

Well the craft stall went off with a bang. It was a blast and earned the school a big chunk of money. Thank you to everyone that came along. The community spirit of the school is fantastic. We are all patting ourselves on the back of course. It was so much fun.
Here we are in our stylish get-up.

the red sticky tape dispenser is gone

Packing up.
Choosing, deciding, discarding.
Cleaning up.
Having a wine.
Going to work.
Putting things in storage.
Cooking, vacuuming, washing.
Looking at real estate.
Lacking the ability to be gorgeous, thin, witty, good with finance, productive in craft or blog.
When a blog dies, where does it go?
Can you print it out and keep a hard record of the madness of blog-osity?
Can it be a book or file, something else on the shelf that someone else will one day look at briefly then pop regretfully into the recycle bin?
Yeah maybe it meant something to you..
Why do we keep anything?

last reminder

St Kilda Primary School Fete. Tomorrow. 10 til 4. Cnr Brighton Rd and Chapel Street near St Kilda Town Hall. Super Dooper Craft Stall, Rides, Food, Best Cake In Show Competition, Beauty Parlour, Secondhand Clothes, Toys, Books, Rockwiz Show & Live Music, Enterprising Kids' Creations, Ya Mum (hardy har har), Spooky House!!!!!!( it really IS spooky, believe me I helped spookify it yesterday). Happy Community Goodness. I'll be on the Craft Stall, 1 til 3. See ya there.

ST KILDA PRIMARY SCHOOL FETE!

We have had a very productive morning, bagging, tagging and generally pricing all the various beautiful creations (BARGAINS) made by school parents (LEGENDS) for our upcoming fete.
St Kilda Primary School are having their fete (blockbuster extravaganza) on Sunday, October 18th.
I will be there, proudly selling wares at the craft stall. What a delight it has been, working with a dedicated and passionate bunch of lovely (hysterical) Mums to produce a rip-snorter of a stall, jam-packed with handmade goodness.
There will be a cornucopia of Xmas gift ideas! There will be a VERY competitive cake competition (YUM), rides for the kiddies, second hand books and toys aplenty. There will be great food.
You don't often head out to a school fete with bags of cash, but I would highly recommend it in this case!
Hope to see you there.
Sunday, October 18th.
Yay.

school hols

Considering we have had some devastating losses during the past two school hols, I was trawling the net last night for something fun to do. Something memorable for the kids to keep in their minds as they head back to school for term 4. NOT GOING TO THE MOVIES. Something DIFFERENT!
I found a site for the Melbourne Stencil Festival and they were advertising the final of their kids stencil making workshops. I emailed requesting a place for three squids and straightaway they emailed me back and booked us in.
It was fantastic! While the organisation of activities in the beginning was a little casual, the friendliness of the arty helpers was delightful and my two kids and their friend got totally stuck into the process of choosing/creating a design, cutting a stencil and transferring it onto stickers and t-shirts with SPRAY PAINT!!! Banksy look out!
These photos, apart from the spray paint and the kids, do not in any way represent what we did today. We found this artwork in a local laneway on a walk last week. A sunny day..see the shorts and thongs. nice.
They had a ball. They brought home examples of their art & a t-shirt each. We are all feeling a trifle headachey now, despite the use of masks. It was worth it though.

I have been...

Making toffee with the kids and watching Mackie defrosting the freezer, catching up with the washing and wishing I had a hot cup of coffee wrapped in my frozen little fingers.

I have just been to visit my blog and many of my favourite blogs for the first time in a while.
The first surprise I discovered was that someone has left comments on a number of my posts. That someone's comments are composed of links to chinese porn. Don't bother following any of those links, unless of course you enjoy that particular form of entertainment (??) I have now disabled my RECENT COMMENTS widgety thing in disgust.

Then, because of what's been going on with me, I'm going to share this quote that brought me to tears.
"There are things that we don’t want to happen but have to accept, things we don’t want to know but have to learn, and people we can’t live without but have to let go."
Anon.
I read this quote on Jacinta's one little acorn blog. You can read about the heart-breaking reason for it's inclusion on her blog here.
For me..within a period of 4 months, I have let go my own father and suddenly last week D's father also. From being a blissfully death-ignorant kid to being the closest authority on the subject is a very steep climb. I never imagined that my experience would be called upon so soon. But I was sincerely touched by my mother-in-law's gratitude. I have never felt as though I had anything of real worth to offer her, until now. My poor kids have lost both their Grandfathers at the beginning of each of the past school holidays. It doesn't seem fair and yet it is just a small touch of a harsh reality compared to the experience of others.

What's goin' on

The latest craft stall inspired triumph!
The banner for the front of our marquee. Each letter is roughly 12 inches square.
It's actually all in one big long strip, but I couldn't get it in the photo like that. The pink background fabric was donated to us crafty laydees by another school mum and most of the rest is from Nell's and my combined stash. It was great fun doing that speedy whizzing through the sewing machine, no great care required....but it looks fab! Can't wait to hang it up.

Then I must show you our new favourite mugs. Cuppa tea time has never looked so stylish.
D is The Big Sleep and I am proudly The Common Reader. So sleepy. So common.
I have just finished writing a super brief review of a couple of books for a Childrens' Reading Catalogue. I am stressed out because I find it very difficult to write in a succinct & interesting way. I can blab on face to face about why and how much I love a book, but I worry that I sound a bit "thick" in the written form. Still it's for the good of the kiddies, and they were very enjoyable books to read. The Undrowned Child by Michelle Lovric and Beatle Meets Destiny by Gabrielle Williams.

Dad's Day minus Dad

I have continued on my non-blogging but fete-crafting way of late.

I have been hanging out in my head (quite dull & echoey) and enjoying the snap & buzz of the beginning of retail christmas. Things are busy as they always are at this time of year.

I had a fabulous weekend away with some of my quality laydee friends. We left town on a Friday night and stocked up on trashy mags. We walked on the beach, had a few wines and lots of talking. We turned up the music and cavorted drunkenly around the lounge room. It was hysterical.
The next night we cooked a huge spectacular fishy, ate ourselves silly, more drinks and played some kind of game like "celebrity heads", until they was not a drop of wine left, not a chocolate nor a dry eye in the house.
In the morning only one chickadee was up early to enjoy the sunrise view from the enormous windows and while we other slobs were just rolling over for a bit more shut-eye, the call was heard....THERE'S A WHALE!!!!!! Well I'm surprised no one seriously injured themselves, tumbling with closed eyes and headaches knocking, down the steps into the lounge to see the wondrous sight.
Not only did the whale cruise in a leisurely fashion to and fro in front of our window for an hour, but as we were watching, a huge storm front blew over dumping rain and amazing us with a rainbow show big enough to span the whole ocean! We felt blessed. Great company, incredible sights and peace & quiet to enjoy and appreciate it all.

Today is Father's Day AND my Dad's birthday and for the first time ever, I don't have a Dad. It left me a bit befuddled. I wanted the kids to shower THEIR Dad with love and attention, but I didn't really feel like doing much to help them. So, sadly they didn't exactly jump sensitively to the party. They didn't want to "help" me make brekky in bed. They wanted to go out to our thriving cafe strip for brekky, so we did. And then they wanted to go to the movies to see "UP", so we did. I think D was happy to avoid the "active family" outing (bike ride/big walk/ice skating) in favour of early movie for the kids and then an afternoon watching the footy. So, while it felt very emotionless and self-serving, it worked. We went to MY Dad's house and we watched footy and I got to potter around in his studio and mentally be with my memories (interspersed with adjudicating extreme sibling squabbling). And MY SAINTS triumphed. And we could hear the roar of the crowd from the backyard.
So it was good.
Here are some tiny little purses that you could buy from the St Kilda Primary Fete Craft Stall on Sunday October 18th. They will be a bargain because we want to sell everything (and there is a LOT of handmade love) and it is for a really nice school with a beautiful friendly vibe and a passionate crafting community.

craft & garden

craft & garden
Originally uploaded by lovelybutton

nature's been working on this explosion of magnolia flowers and I've been pottering about with badges for the school fete!

FLOATING WITH LOVE

At the very beginning of the school holidays my Dad died. He was the best Dad ever. I am an only child and I was very privileged to always have the love and support of my great Dad. He was the type of guy who was full of interesting facts and trivia. He knew lots of funny simple magic tricks to amuse the kids. He was very well informed on current affairs and always inquisitive and interested in my friends. Over the years I made school friends, work friends, play group friends, kinder friends and parents of my kids' school friends.
Dad remembered all of them and their kids and what made them special and wonderful. He had a relationship of his own with lots of those people because for most of the time he was collecting the kids from school or other activities while I was at work.
The partner of one of my closest friends is a hot air balloon pilot. The very special Chris, AKA Balloonman.
Less than a week after Dad passed away, Chris decided that D, the kids & I needed a big distraction. Our two families & Chris' photographer friend Andrew Chapman drove up to Hall's Gap in the Balloon bus. In the frosty cold of the morning before the sun came up we rugged up in all our cozy gear & drove up to the Wonderland Carpark. We all heave-ho'd and unfolded the balloon in the empty carpark. A group of international bushwalkers looked on in amazement. We climbed into the basket and with a long whooshing blast of the burners we climbed up and up and up over the Grampians. It was the most spectacular experience ever. It was a bit terrifying too, especially when we rose up to 10,000 ft to clear an outcrop called the "Asses Ears" only to find ourselves drifting back over the range very slowly instead of towards the pastureland we were expecting to reach. Lisa & I were looking desperately into eachother's eyes over the heads of the children.
Is this IT?
Don't be silly!
While ballooning leaves you at the mercy of the elements, rudderless so to speak, the skill of the pilot is the most important thing & Chris is a master of the craft. It was the best & I want to thank him for his love & care. Thank you Balloonman.

We went off on a trip to Rye last weekend. We were staying at a friend's parent's holiday house. But on the way there we stopped off at a Salvos shed/collection depot. As it was open (and we can't resist) we stopped for a peek. On the asphalt forecourt was a motley collection of mattresses, ride-on fluoro plastic toys, metal serving platters and moth-eaten carnival prizes.
AND
A beautiful wooden two-seater couch, two armchairs and a chaise! All in the most stunningly well maintained wood. All perfect, springs intact and covered in such truly awful chintzy fabric that we couldn't take our eyes off it.
How much?
Well, we're just here for the weekend...we'd have to somehow get it to our friend's house....we'd have to get it back to Melbourne....there's nowhere to put it at our place....when have we EVER fallen in love with op-shop furniture before?
"OH, don't you worry..we have a trailer over there...you could just borrow it to get it to your friend's place"
Thirty five dollars?!!??
"Yep, ya couldn't buy the firewood for that much"
So yes, somehow we organised the transportation and this delightful bunch of firewood has taken up residence at Dad's house. It completely outshined Dad's fugly black modular lounge.
So as we already had the trailer, the modular got a free ride down to our local Salvos.
Here is the lovely armchair doing a striptease.
It was covered so carefully and loved so much, but we had to strip-'er-off!
It was fun.

PROFILE UPDATE: I am 41

chicken tonight?

Today was my first day back at work and after the bombshell of my past 2 weeks it was pretty fantastically normal and cheerful. I really enjoy my job.
Somebody has reorganised the entire picture book section. Someone who probably looks at MY arrangement every time he/she comes in to work and finally couldn't stand it any longer. Maybe he/she thought I wasn't coming back. I have been gone a long time. I don't like what they have done with it at all. That gave me something solid and productive and busy to do. I didn't even feel cross about it. (though normally that would have really given me the SHITS)

from before

At the end the last school term, I was with some crafty laydeeeez getting some ideas and stuff organised for our school fete coming up in October.
I nabbed the felt birdy badges project. I used the red, orange, black & white felt supplied and my own ribbon collection to make these jolly little badges. I have been calling them "the chickens" because they look so plucky and clucky.

small break time

My beloved Dad died yesterday.
There are so many ways I would love to pay tribute to him and the way he enriched the lives of us all. At the moment I am feeling busy busy busy and do do do, but I will wait and consider things before rushing ahead.
No crafting this week.

more sunny monday

It was so beautiful today I felt inspired to photograph my lunch. Look, my eggs seem a little overdone, but when I cut into them they were perfect!
Still a tad runny.
So delish.
I made a yummy salad tonight as well. How good am I?
It had blanched snow peas, chick peas, coriander, red onion with crumbled feta and a little mixed lettuce. Lemon juice and olive oil dressing. With some very tasty snags. From ALDI.

On Saturday morning I was trying to encourage the kids to get out of their jimjams and get on with the day. Earlier I had slightly rearranged the bedroom, turning the big desk around from under the window to running out (from the window) into the room. It divides the room a little more and more obviously defines their "space".
But the lovely thing I witnessed was both kids USING the table from their respective sides.
Well Mackie had tipped out his container of textas (lots) and was methodically and painstakingly putting them in rainbow order.
It reminded me of how much I loved the meditative process of sorting, especially colour.
So this afternoon, I did a little bit too. Of course I messed it all up again. Don't want anyone to think I have strange uncontrollable compulsions.

Mackie taught Pepper how to play backgammon sitting up at the table too. It was very sweet. Then she taught me to play tonight.
Trying to butter me up just before we read her report! Super good report it was too.

Sunny Monday

This is my little darling in the very first quilt I made. Completely hand-pieced. Drove me nuts, but I went back for more..and more.
Suits for the fete. Wacky little babies would look suitably crackers in these! St Kilda Primary, October 18th!
My nephew Michael's quilt. Obviously I was feeling rather geometric and pointy when I came up with this design. I think it turned out surprisingly straight. I did piece this one on the machine. But it's hand quilted like all my others.

I need some colour!
What a stunningly gorgeous day. It makes me very happy to have Mondays off work.
Yes, I've done the weekly grocery shop, have the sheets billowing on the line and I've just finished reading a fab book due out in September. It's the sequel to an amazing YA novel called The Hunger Games.
I was so thrilled to be presented with an advance readers copy of it, I literally snatched it out of someone's hand. That's very rude I know.

Last week Mackie attended a French Day at school. He learnt Japanese at Primary School for 7 years and for the most part we only ever heard about his progress at report time. With the benefit of choice he has switched to French this year and I am astounded at his talent for language. It just all goes into his brain and sticks there! He can speak French. And he seems to delight in it, which is the most fabulous part.
So they were encouraged to dress up with a French theme and eat crepes for lunch, sing the national anthem. He went as Marcel Marceau. He looked beautiful, though my photos are pretty crap.
I got together with some Primary School crafty Mums on Friday too, and we started to work on Craft Stall ideas. Easy projects to start and pump out in front of the telly. I am making some felt badges.
I also donated my handpainted Lovelybutton bodysuits and 7 pairs of baby booties. Everything looks so shiny and nice slipped into a cellophane bag!
Pepper attends an after school art/craft class once a week and last term's project was painting and stamping with fabric paints onto fabric squares. The teacher then sewed the 6 squares together to make a quilt top. Great idea. I could just see it sinking to the bottom of the pile in the kids' room never to be seen again, so I got Pepper to choose some backing fabric for it and I'm busily trying to quilt that for her.
So there's stuff going on, but nothing to show off at this stage. Bummer. I'm bored with da blog.
How are you all going?
Oooh, on the renovation front...We have a quote. We can stay in the house during the works. The estimated duration of the works is of a bearable length.
I am beginning to feel a bit hopeful.

Today we did the tourist thing in Melbourne.
We don't go into the city as a family often, don't know why.
We should do it more often. I love Melbourne. It's so jam-packed full of interesting things to look at. Sights, sounds, people, food...shops..the list goes on and on!

As a belated birthday celebration for D, we went to Westlake in Little Bourke Street for the best Yum Cha.
Delish!
Even if our favourite calamari didn't materialise before we got too full to fit it in, it was still fantastic. Have I mentioned the newly meat-eating child? Well, he made up for lost time by trying everything and pronouncing it ALL scrumptious. I LOVE that.
We were with my mum & dad who are our Yum Cha companions of choice. As usual we finished off our meal with a flaky, warm and sweet Egg Tart each. MMMmmmmmmm.

We wound our way in and out of the Games Shop (new Carcassonne pieces) Babushka Shop, Haighs for the best FRECKLES in the world and the Doll & Bear Shop, quick peek in Douglas & Hope.

Next on the tour of our town, we used a long-held voucher (bought at a kindergarten fundraiser) for the Eureka Tower Skydeck. We went the whole hog and also experienced THE EDGE, gravity defying block sliding out into the open air 88 floors up in the sky.
Believe me, that was an experience I don't need to repeat. I wasn't going to participate, but then I sometimes think of myself as a bit of a killjoy/martyr, so wherever possible I say YES to things I find myself cringing at. So YES I got in that glass box with the magically frosted windows, and I just about wet myself as it pushed out from the wall of the tower into open space, and then "hiss" and the glass was transparent and we could see above, below and all around us. I didn't really like it, though it was spectacular, and I really hated it when the windows sporadically fogged and cleared to freak us out. Kids loved it, that's what counts.

Onwards we went, now with a clear picture (from our aerial escapade) of the route to ACCA. I have never been in the gallery and wasn't familiar with the work of the currently featured artist. Pepper has been a few times with her friend Leo and his arty parents.
Unfortunately the exhibition didn't really grab any of us. Mackie, who can be rather harsh and judgemental at times, exclaimed "What makes THAT art? That's put me off art forever"

Luckily a good energetic run up and down the planes of the Yellow Peril cheered him up again.

We hopped a ride on the Melbourne Tourist bus outside the NGV, warmed up a little, hopped off one stop down the road at St Pauls.
Back to the carpark and home!