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!

Too Much Knowledge?

I think I've got a problem.

You know I work in a bookshop..well there are lots of books I feel drawn to read. Mostly they are up & coming new young adult titles, sometimes they are Australian contemporary literature, sometimes beautiful, shiny and gorgeously illustrated picture books...cookbooks (yes I have a few), but the dreaded, shameful and possibly not exactly helpful genre that I am magnetically attracted to is, PARENTING SELF HELP.

Before my squids were born, I armed myself with titles such as What To Expect When You Are Expecting, Miriam Stoppard's Conception,Pregnancy & Birth, some other assorted blah about childbirth (like you can plan for it, HA) and Mother Love.
After the birth, I devoured more, more, more! There was one particular one which I was convinced was my saviour. A Sydney mother wrote about her (at times) hellish new mum experiences, including a diary listing occasions where her son bawled for hours at a time (I hear ya sista!) I read What To Expect In The First Year, Touchpoints, Dr Spock, How To Solve Your Childs Sleep Problems, Toddler Taming, How To Behave So Your Kids Will Too, too many other books extolling the virtues of Star Charts to mention, I'm OK You're A Brat, The Mask Of Motherhood, Mothers Behaving Badly, Buddhism For Mothers, Raising Your Spirited Child, Tricky Kids, Secrets Of Happy Children, etc etc etc.

Have you fallen over in hysterics yet?

I remember in one of my first visits to the Maternal Child Health Nurse, she commented that she thought I seemed a little anxious... Well I requested a different nurse for the next visit, but in retrospect I think that her history of raising four boys put her in a fair position to judge.
It occurred to me more than a few times that maybe if I just trusted myself, I would somehow muddle through. It seemed a big risk to take with the precious young lives of my babies though. And then a new title would catch my eye in the library (during storytime) or hit the shelves in the bookshop, promising the end to all that wishy washy-ness, indecision; uber parenting secreted between the covers.
I wanted it! I wanted a recipe or a rule or a rap over the knuckles that would quell my self-doubt and show me the shining path to perfection.
Our first New Mothers get-together had the nurse standing before a whiteboard asking "what is a good mother?" The diverse collection of mostly shell shocked new parents sat either blank or pondering, but I raised my hand with conviction and stated "NOT ME".
When I think about that moment, I cringe at myself, yet I think it was true in my mind. I had no idea what babies were about.
I needed instructions. I am an only child, I never saw sibling squabbles, bad behaviour (I was of course perfect?), crying babies, wet nappies, sleepless nights.
I kind of suspect that reading all those books might just have been a way of clawing back a bit of time for myself. I mean, it wasn't really being selfish when it was all for the good of little Mackie & Pepper. I also wanted to somehow unlock the secret of EASY parenting. If you can tick the box here..and here..and here, then you have hereby done all the you could possibly be expected to do and therefore you are now A GOOD MOTHER.
So, teetering on the brink of my kids' teenagerdom, I think I not only love my kids, but I also LIKE them. They are great people and mostly our relationship is warm and open, I'm proud to know them, but did those books have anything to do with the way they have turned out so far?
All that reading kept me informed of what sort of behaviour and issues are out there, but I can't honestly pick any one thing that has altered what I would have done were I left to work it out myself.
No book or publishing company knows your brilliant, unique creation the way YOU do.
And no collection of dry dusty paper can give the sort of cuddle that I enjoy with my son & daughter every night.
I love them.
xxxxxxxxxxx

ooops I did it again

Gee, I got carried away.
D is out at a work bbq. Yeah, I know..Monday is a weird night for it.
So I thought that I'd give the bootie pattern another go. It's certainly quicker the second time around! Also, the colour hasn't come up very well. The green of the front panel is MUCH more vibrant than this photo suggests. So I'm ready if someone has a boy now.

Red Booties

Well, after I tackled the ironing, I still had time to muck around a bit before school pick-up time.
I decided to FORCE myself to follow a sewing pattern. And what better way to go than with the Allison Jones baby shoes from the Meet Me At Mikes book? I love it that I didn't need to resize the pattern before getting started and I LOVE the result.
Look at these little cuties!
Now I just need someone to pop out a baby of the pink variety. There are two pending in the street, both with boys as first babies (big brothers).

celebrating excess again!

I received a post pack last week, full of the silver clips that I use for Utter Puffery biz. I have been ordering from Ribbon Queen in the States and I must compliment their excellent service. So quick!
I had also had a frenzy of puff sewing the previous week so I thought it time to get the production line going. I love photos of many multiples of things. I'm sure there must be more succinct way of describing that . So here are the little puff soldiers lining up. They are most jolly and bright.
Hope everyone's enjoying this gorgeous shiny day.
I have to finish up now because despite the beaming sun, my fingers are just about frozen to the keyboard.
Best get on with the ironing.
Last week my Mum did my ironing for me, while she was hanging with the kids after school. This week she is in Bali. Is that fair? You be the judge.
Hi Mum, hope you're having fun!

celebrating excess!

Made a fantastic stack yesterday! Look at these beauties.
We need to have a hearty breakfast before footy, which inconveniently starts with warm up at 12 noon.
When we get up in a relaxed fashion at around 8.30, there's not really time or inclination for lunch beforehand, so we've taken to having a slap-up late lunch, usually with my Mum & Dad after the game. It's excellent, but not so flash for the FAT.
I think it's nice to get together with food, and a late lunch just screams CAKE to me. The good thing is that we don't really need Sunday dinner. (especially after all that cake) Yesterday I made a roast potato & chorizo frittata. Then we scoffed a choc chip and berry pound cake from the Everyday In The Kitchen book. It was still a little bit warm. We ate it in the backyard of our friends' house while watching highlights of Eurovision.
I know I haven't mentioned this yet. Mackie has been a vegetarian by choice for the past two years and we were convinced that he would never go back to eating meat. He has not TOUCHED anything even remotely meaty in all that time. Challenging for the chief cook round these parts, but still a stand point I think worth respecting.
You could have knocked me down with a feather a couple of weeks ago, when he announced at the late lunch table "I had a sausage in bread after footy"
Since then, the floodgates are open and every meaty treat he has denied himself for the past two years has become a request. Grandad's guacamole which has chunks of fried bacon in it...roast lamb...spaghetti with meatballs...ham sandwiches...chops!
They keep you on your toes, don't they? Now if I could only convince Pepper to eat pasta or rice, my life would be easy.

Off I went to an old favourite op-shop this morning.
Vinnies down in Hampton St, for those of you are interested. I must note that the prices have gone up quite a bit since I was last there. I have become a bit lazy on the opping front. Since the Sacred Heart shop opened 5 minutes walk away, I rarely venture further afield. Still, the real treasures are few and far between sometimes, and I haven't been picking up much at all. (apart from a very nice Ben Sherman cardie for D last week, oh...and a very cute hoodie for Pep in charcoal grey with skeleton bats all over it!)
So today I was delighted to find a replacement pyrex pie dish (broke the other one...not exciting), a pair of very soft black trakky/yoga pants; and this little darling. He needs a good scrub on the inside, I didn't want to embarrass him by revealing his stain.

comes back to bite you..

A couple of days ago I was feeling pretty pleased with myself. I felt GOOD and kind and worthy.
I wrote a letter of praise to Connex, drawing to their attention the lovely service I have so appreciated from one of their staff members. I thought "Yeah, that's what everyone should do..Give thanks for little nice things" I also may have posted on my blog how much I would appreciate it if someone took the time to likewise thank me. After all, sometimes working in retail can leave you feeling a little drained and I always try my very best to give attentive and thoughtful service to my customers.
Well, yesterday I got a shellacking.
In the bookshop (which I might add is a business where you BUY things) we often have customers with their children who enjoy their time browsing happily, perhaps reading some books with the kiddies, perhaps buying gifts to give beloved little darlings. All good.
We also have customers who leave their kids to roam free amongst our products while they go for a coffee, chat on their phones or browse around in other sections of the shop. Sometimes the parents are close by, but distracted and sometimes they treat the shop like their personal toy library, handing a pram-bound toddler a plush toy or a book to suck on happily so that they can give their attention to the business of choosing something else.
Believe it or not, we don't receive a sample copy of every toy or book from the publishers or suppliers. And we don't have a magical tardis-like area out the back from which we can produce items that have never been touched by human hands. Our stock is out there, in the shop. It's there so you can see it, touch it (carefully), turn it over and read the contents. We spend all day, every day reshelving and sorting books so that you can find them and making sure they don't get damaged. Many books with interactive sounds or bits come with a plastic tab that is designed to be left in the book, protecting the batteries from wearing out until someone lucky gets it home to play with. (so people pull the tab out, press the buttons, then buy one which hasn't been pulled. I often pull the tab on ONE copy, put a DISPLAY COPY sign on it, and still they pull another tab!!) Lots of books are wrapped in clear cellophane protecting the delicate paper folds of pop-ups, so you can take it home and thrill at it's beauty for the first time. Those ones have lovely photos of the insides, on the back! Boxes of games have clear instructions detailing contents on the back. On the whole they don't need to be unwrapped or flicked through. The publishers realise that it is important for the product to remain pristine in order to get the sale.
Still, where possible we DO have some sample books, especially pop-ups, so that you can have a little experience whilst choosing.
The next bit of this rant stems from the fact that some people, recently some people with prams, have been stealing big expensive boxed toys and other stuff by plopping the box on the top of their pram, flinging a blankie or jacket on top, then blithely strolling out the elevator without paying.
What??!!??
These people don't have any identifying features such as big neon signs pointing to their guilt.
They look much like mums and dads with kids in a pram. They are.
So, yesterday, I notice a woman who shops in the store frequently. She always comes in with two kids in a double stroller. She smiles, she is quite beautiful and usually friendly. Her kids usually treat the store like their own private playgroup room, not in a horrible destructive way, just like kids who are familiar with a place and all the treasures within.
Last week I redirected her kids to our Thomas Train table to distract them from rolling the other toys across the floor. She got cross. "Are you addressing ME? What's the problem?" I tried to briefly explain that the toys strewn across the floor were for sale and she said "That wasn't MY children" I walked away, fuming a bit.
So yesterday I saw her. Another staff member approached her child who was scooting on the tiles sitting on a Shaun the Sheep plush toy (for sale) and asked whether mummy was planning to buy it. No. The mum made a purchase of someting else, then walked toward the lift. She had a kids book sitting on the top of her pram (maybe from the shop, maybe not) but didn't buy it. At the lift one staff member stood, in another direction, the store owner. It wasn't meant to be a showdown. It wasn't. But she did seem very flustered.
After she left the shop, she rang up to speak to the manager. She was livid. She directed most of her anger toward me and after two more abusive phone calls, announced that she would be writing a formal letter of complaint. And that she would be shopping at Borders in the future, where they are NICE to her.
Bye.

praise

Have you ever written a letter to praise the actions of someone you don't really know? Have you ever felt so happy with customer service that you were compelled to seek out the manager or superior of the staff member to draw attention to their exceptional work?
I (not so) secretly wish for such a letter to be forwarded to my boss.
Well, tonight I went to the CONNEX website to fill in a customer feedback form.
I wish to lavish praise upon the wonderful woman who works the morning peak hour on our train platform.
She says hello to everyone as they pass through the gates onto the platform. Sometimes she decorates the whiteboard with cooking tips. Often she write up some cheery little quote to get us thinking or put a smile on our faces. I feel as if she has personally made the morning rush at our station into some micro community instead of a scowling, grumpy mass of Connex haters. She updates the information regarding train times and will run down the ramp to urge folks on if she knows the next train is going to be late.
She blows the whistle....and yells ALL ABOARD!!!!
She is the human face of Melbourne public transport.

2009/011479.

what is this?

Ages ago, in a country op-shop, I found this awfully cute thing. It is a cotton cover, made for something, with an appliqued flower in orange gingham.
It is roughly semicircular and the only thing I can make it fit on is the fan that lives in the kids' room.
Any other suggestions?

finders keepers

As I mentioned in the last post, I was feeling pretty happy with myself today. I was feeling so productive (started the day with a pap smear at 9.30, uuurrrgghhh) that I got off my ever expanding arse and took the dog for a walk.
We live in a neighbourhood with a high proportion of flats (apaaaartments..if you don't mind). One of the by-products of flatty neighbourhoods is a large and constantly changing variety of STUFF left on the side of the road. Today we passed a once-handsome wardrobe, which was empty except for this little canvas, still wrapped in plastic and some very noice wallpaper scraps with a lovely bamboo green woven pattern.
Well, I consider it a community service to pick up bits and pieces which would otherwise blow about, littering the streets, wouldn't you?

out with the old

In my early days as a mum, apart from feeling extremely anxious about how I was going on the parenting front; my creative outlet was inspired by the need to give special heartfelt gifts to the children of my wonderful mother's group friends.
For one little darling's 2nd birthday, I came up with the idea of designing and handpainting a t-shirt emblazoned with the chap's extremely long and interesting name.
Well, if you've ever seen a personalised t-shirt made JUST for your baby,especially if your baby has FOUR rather wacky christian names, you will know the appeal.

These days, it's a big industry supplying personalised stuff for kids, and I think that I was pretty much at the forefront of that trend. Of course MY product was rather superior.
To begin with, most of my clients were personal friends and their babies were beloved members of my world, or their friends having babes. At some point, things took off and I was busily drawing and painting and shipping little suits off all over the place. I never planned for expansion, I barely advertised (the cherubs wearing the onesies and t-shirts were advertisement enough)
Often I would find my days off taken up with trips to the post office and Target stores in far flung locations in order to find onesies in the right size to complete an order. I learned to loathe Target in a big way. If I had an iota of business sense I would have found a manufacturer to supply the suits & t-shirts, but I had no capital and the prices I charged for the finished product ensured that I was never far ahead of breaking even. Sound familiar?

As my friends tapered off their procreating ways and my own children grew up, I found that the orders were continuing to roll in but there was no love there anymore. It was a chore to source the garments, and I found it difficult to get motivated to create for people who complained about paying postage to receive their order delivered to the doorstep. I even had one customer who, more than once, payed by cheque on receipt of their order omitting the price of postage. Geez, talk about cheap.
So, in recent years I have had to tell folks that "No, I am not doing the t-shirts anymore. No, not even just ONE more for little Isabella"

But guess what? I actually had a small secret stash of onesies in the cupboard.
I have decided, in order to completely sever the ties of Lovelybutton Utterly Gorgeous Handpainted T-shirts, I will donate my remaining suits to our next school fete.
On Saturday, while D's folks were dozing on our couch after lunch, I got busy and dashed off a few simple designs which I drew onto the suits with alacrity (great word).
Today I have finished painting them and slipped them into their little cellophane packets.

Definitely limited editions.
For a good cause.
Oh, I feel so good.
I don't even know the date of the fete, but I'm ready.

hearts

Go over and visit Angela's Three Buttons blog to see the magic of heart-shapes in the everyday. This is my contribution, a milk container that got squashed on the way home from the milk bar.