good things

10 good things. (inspired by a little bird) :

1. I have managed to cross so many things off my to-do list, that right now I am sitting on the internet, sipping tea, without feelings of guilt or underlying stress. Ahhh :)
2. I can hear cheerful birds outside
3. The cup of tea I'm sipping was brought to me by my thoughtful man
4. My baby is sleeping (right now at least)
5. My Dad and his family stayed over last night, and the big Christmassy roast dinner we made was really yummy
6. The sun just came out after a rainy morning
7. That there are still so many of the little tiny fruit cakes, that my mother in law baked, still left over waiting for me to eat
8. While our back yard has been irreversibly changed, our front yard is looking nicer and nicer
9. I love Christmas time
10. There are presents :)

Merry Christmas. Hope you enjoy laughing with your families, and eating food in ways you shouldn't normally. .xx.

our tree. our gorgeously giant tree.

Today I found a feather from one of the three cute chubby tawny owls that have been hanging out in our gorgeously giant tree.

Last week Mr You discovered a nest cradling baby birds in our gorgeously giant tree.

Normally this would delight me. But right now it mortifies me. Why?

Because tomorrow we have to have our beloved gorgeous giant tree cut down. Sob.



One recent stormy night, a quarter of our tree tore off and fell to the ground. It completely crushed our fence, all but one of the other trees in our yard, and our brand new (built by a gardener only 3 days earlier) garden bed with lovely little stone wall, as it stretched across our yard and half way across the neighbours. Unlucky as this sounds, we were all very lucky that it fell where and when it did. A little this way or the other and it could have crushed our studio, or Millipede's bedroom, or had it been during the day it could have crushed the neighbours children.

We consulted lots of specialists, hoping desperately they would tell us all the tree needed was a little lop and it would be fine. But each and every one took one look at the tree and all said it is too dangerous to stay... at all.



This, the tree that (along with our studio) was the reason I fell in love with this house. The tree that everyone comments is beautiful. The tree that shades our yard in Summer, turns red in Autumn, becomes a sculpture in Winter, and feeds the bees in Spring. The tree that I had imagined we'd have Millipede's birthday parties underneath, hang his swing from, build a tree house in, and encourage him to climb.

The tree we buried Millipede's bellybutton stump under as a spiritual gesture on his 6 month birthday.



I have cried again and again that we have to lose our beautiful tree. That we are the ones who have to have to end it's long long life. That losing a tree isn't like when you lose a car, and are able to replace it with an even better one. That you can't put a tree out to pasture, letting it live out the rest of its days in a lovely field somewhere.

I really am in agony thinking about it. I don't think I can be here when it happens. I'm sure I will hear it moan and weep. How do you say goodbye to something so proud?

shhhh, don't tell

One of Santa's elves has let me in on a little secret...

Santa is bringing Millipede THIS for Christmas!!!


Camilla Engman cot sheet.

A bit of a splurge really, but one that will certainly help to ease my pain of having to get up to the little one with the shouty-mouth 5 times a night. How thoughtful of Santa! ;D

confounding

Screen Print by VWorkshop on Etsy.

YIKES, I really have dropped off the face of the internet haven't I? I have so so many months of Millipede catch-ups to do, and months and months of general life news to. But right now I am tired.

So so so so very tired.

Millipede has reached a plethora of "stages" seemingly simultaneously; teething, crawling, separation anxiety, and an apparent 9 month sleep regression stage. At least I'm using all those as reasoning for his horrendous nights at the moment. And when I say horrendous I mean I can no longer form whole words, let alone sentences.

Luckily during the daytime he is the cutest, most gorgeous, adorable thing on the face of the planet. It's a survival mechanism. A very very clever one ;)

But check this for a *can't think of a good word, insert one here, with your own well functioning brains*... during the night he will wake if my clothing brushes softly against a wall, and just every hour anyway, but today he slept through the smoke alarm going off right outside his bedroom door! TWICE!!!!!!!

the making of memories

The strangest thing just happened to me.

A little backstory first though...

People would describe Mr You as a collected, calm, generally co-ordinated "got it together" kind of guy. Though sometimes, once in a very very blue moon, something, well, strange happens.

The first time it happened was waaaay back in the very beginning. We had been good friends at uni for a year and a half before we became a couple. I count the first time we kissed as when we crossed over into couple-dom, and it was during this first night...

...I was working on a Photoshop piece for uni, way back before Photoshop even had layers (yes folks, I'm getting a little long in the tooth). Mr You had his own computer at home at the time, and being skilled and generous as he was, he invited me to come over to borrow his computer to finish off my work.

It was during this evening (before the kissing started) that the first "strange event" occurred.

I was sitting at his computer, he was crossing the room towards me, he said something I swiveled in the office chair to face him as he spoke, he tripped on the corner of the rug and head-butted me with his big noggen on his way down. I broke his fall and was almost concussed in the process.

I tried really hard to not cry infront of him, he blushed bright crimson, and after the shock and awe of it all wore off we laughed, hard! We still laugh at that.

Somehow we ended up kissing that night. Perhaps he thought he needed to give me a concussion for that to occur?


Flash forward another year... Now we're a couple. I'm hanging out with him in his funny little uni-student-share-house-bedroom, it's morning and we're getting ready to go out for the day. He pops the top off his deodorant bottle, flips the bottle high in the air intending for it to spin, him catch it, and then apply it to his manly-pits all in one smooth impressive move. What actually happened was as he flipped it high in the air he lost control, it spun and hit me square in the head. Again, pain, but eventually, and to this day, many tears of laughter!

Getting the pattern here?


So just now, baby is finally having a day sleep (HALAY-JULIA), I'm sitting here quietly at the kitchen table replying to emails, Mr You comes in from his office an we have a quiet whispered chat as he makes himself a cup of tea. All seems safe and well, right? Wrong!

What happens next is the single strangest thing, I'm still baffled and laughing...

He comes up behind me and gives me a little kiss on the back of my neck, goes picks up his full cup of tea, pauses, walks back towards me purposefully, is half way through saying "hang on", then POURS THE CUP OF TEA DOWN MY BACK!!!!

I can only assume the rest of his sentence was going to be "Hang on, you'd do well to taste more tea-like".


I'm in tears of laughter typing this now. I still can not explain to you WHY this happened, or what his original intention was. All I know is that one minute I was safe, the next I'M COVERED FROM EARHOLE TO BUM-CRACK IN HOT TEA!!!

We both yelped, jumped, queried, exclaimed, wiped and laughed... all in hushed don't-wake-the-baby tones.

Thankfully Mr You drinks his tea very milky or I could have suffered a nasty scold and be left trying to explain the whole soggy incident to Family Protection.

little papercup

Oi, if I was more on top of that illusive notion that is time, I would have told you all about the grand opening of a gorgeous new shop who will be selling my wares.

Little Papercup is a new shop/gallery space, run by the incredible illustrator that is Jo Dyer. I was tickled pink when she invited me to be involved.

Anyhoo, the shop opened just yesterday, and now it's alive and kickin'!!!






If you're in or near Newcastle, stop in for a cuppa one crafternoon!

Shop 18/19 Market Square Terrace Level, Hunter Street Mall, Newcastle, Australia 2300.
Hours: Tues - Fri, 11:00am to 5:00pm. And Sat, 10:00am to 2:00pm.

If you're not near by, you can always be facebook friends anyway :)

through rose coloured glasses

I've returned from our month away, (we've been in Sydney) all keen and eager to get back onboard the home renovation train. We don't really have the skills, time, or money to do anything major at the moment, so I'm directing my ambitions to smaller corners.

Our front door has bad yellow 1970's glass panels in it, but it's otherwise a pretty nice door. So I'm thinking of replacing the 6 yellow glass panels. Mr You was thinking of normal clear frosted glass. I, on the other hand, am thinking colours. Mr You said I'd need to sell the idea to him, so here goes...





















Image sources: Historic House Parts, Wallpaper for Windows, DIY Designs, Mama's Happy, and ezl.com. Thank-you.