Night life.

I'm so sure that, once upon a time, my Friday nights were spent out and about, socialising and having a great time. Or at least watching dvds and eating junk food with friends, or at all.
Turns out it is hard to sustain an active night life with two small(ish) children, unless you count stumbling down the hall way to comfort half asleep babies who have misplaced their dummy!
Last night I spent around 5 hours (yes, FIVE hours) attempting to build a giant tower using as many of our LEGO blocks as possible. I got it in my head that I was going to make a tower the same size as Aesop, using even parts like cups, wheels, gates etc. I wanted to finish it before Aesop got up in the morning, so I stayed up til after midnight plodding away at it. The saddest part about this whole thing is that midnight felt so darn late.

At least my five year old thinks I'm cool. Ha.

Recently acquired.

Firstly, two of my three goodies from Craft2.0. I must have been feeling sad because it is VERY unlike me to only come home with a few things.
The bunny, by Helen of Stripy Sock fame, was love at first sight. It was my present for Otto but, secretly, it was totally more for me.
The rosette is by Colleen of Dear Colleen. The woman is a genius, and lovely to boot! I had seen these online before heading to Wellington and knew it would be my gift to myself.
I also bought some of these pencils and a wee notebook, for Abraham, from Emma Makes. Another brilliant crafter who is as friendly as she is crafty.
Although, frankly, everyone I met/saw at Craft2.0 was delightful.. such an amazing group of people.

A few wee goodies from goodies from the op shops over the last few weeks.
They are all things to add to my 'to do something to' pile though. The wee kokeshi doll needs the sticker gloop removed from where the label was at the back, the wee case has been lined with barbie fabric which will need the be changed, and both the dresses don't quite fit. The blue one will fit by Summer, all going well, and the bottom one will, hopefully, be turned into a skirt or another style of dress for me. I just couldn't turn down that brilliant oversized pattern!

Another trip to the oppies gave me these lovelies. A wooden xylophone, that will probably find its way to my future niece or nephew that is due soon, and a rainbow of zips to make some little pouches and to use on the front of hoodies.
I picked up the frame because it was 50c and I thought I could put something or another in it. When I turned it over I saw the school pictures and smiled. I have a bit of a thing for vintage photos of strangers. We once had someone elses wedding photo hanging in our lounge, and a two albums of someones trip across the States in the early 70's on our bookcase! You can see some more photos of beautiful old strangers here and here.

Back to normality.

The past two weeks have been a blur of busy-ness, then travel and then huge sadness.
As I was driving to Wellington, two weekends ago, my Grandpa died.
Turns out no amount of lovely crafters or crafts can really improve ones mood entirely when all one wants to do is be at home with her family. (Not to say that it wasn't lovely to see you all, it really was.)
Last week was a muddle of trying to get back into routine after a month of frantic sewing and a weekend away and, of course, coming to terms with Grandpas passing and attending his funeral. All of which was made much harder by my parents being overseas and deciding not to return for the funeral ( which, considering their circumstances, makes perfect sense. Just sucks for me!).

But today has been filled with baking, washing, baby snuggles and the sweet smell of curry in the crockpot.
The sun shone beautifully and seemed to brighten up the whole house.
Ahh, life is getting back to normal, and with normal comes blogging again. 
It is so nice to be back.