Lately (a catch up..)

You know it's time to write a blog post when people start emailing to see if you are alright (thank you!).
I AM! I'm actually pretty good! I've just been in a bit of a funny headspace for blogging.
Shall I catch you up a little bit?

We've all been battling the common Winter ailments - coughs and snuffles, a minor dose of the Winter Blues... head lice. Haha. Maybe not so Wintry, but definitely an ailment. Those things are NASTY!
We have come through it all, though. One of us with a bald head, and one who still has a tinge of green in her nostrils, but we're all ready for Spring now.

I've been sewing. I've filled lots of custom orders, made some readymades, and have plenty more on the go. I'm still struggling to find that balance, and things are taking much longer than I would like them to.. but I'm getting there.

We've been doing a lot of assessing of our lives the past few weeks, setting some goals, figuring things out. One of the major things to come from this, for me, is that we decided to put Mollie in daycare for a few hours a week - so that I can spend some more time sewing, put a little more energy and effort into my little business/hobby.
It has been a time of conflicted feelings for me.
While I wish I was the type of person who could thrive from being around my kids 24/7, I'm not. I feel ridiculous amounts of guilt about that. I also feel like putting Mol in care, even for 6 hours a week, is making her grow up even faster - not what I want at all! But the little miss is such a social creature, she gets incredibly bored and frustrated stuck at home with me all day and I, in turn, end up frustrated with her. Not ideal! So yeah, she needs the social time and I need the sewing time (read: the money..) Ugh. I know I don't need to justify any of this to you (you, kind blog reader, wouldn't judge me, aye?) but I'm kind of more still justifying it to myself!

The past few weeks, we've been doing bits and pieces around the house. Windowsills got painted, kitchen light got fixed, trees and plants got planted, vegies went into the ground..
It's starting to really feel like home, despite there still being a long list of things we'd like to do. Guessing that list never really gets shorter!
I think the next things on our short term list are hanging a pinboard for the kids artwork, hanging more pictures on the walls, and painting that horrible blue strip around the bottom of the house!
Midterm plans include more garden/vege beds and replacing the gas fire with a woodburner.

I'm not sure if I've even mentioned it here, but I've been on a bit of a weightloss/healthy eating mission. I completed the C25K program on the crosstrainer, and have joined WeightWatchers.
I'm struggling to stay on the wagon a bit this week (highs and lows!) but I've lost just under 10kg so far (in 10 weeks) and am excited to be starting to see the difference in my energy levels and how my clothes fit.
This Catherine Campbell print was a small reward I nabbed for myself. I've been trying to treat myself to a little something every 2kg loss : )

I think that's about as much of a recap as I can manage. Otherwise, we've just been bumbling along like usual. Mostly, anyway.

What have you been up to?

Mollie's Space (Photo heavy!)

We are, slowly, starting to do some little projects around our new home - and it is, slowly, beginning to feel like our own.

This week, I decided to get stuck into the kids rooms, have a good tidy up and move a few things around. It felt good to pack away a few real baby things - the cot bumpers, some of the toys that are no longer played with, and the mobile went, too, after I took these photos.

Mollie is starting to actually play in her room, rather than just following her brothers into their room all the time. I'll often find her pottering with her books and pulling things off the shelves. Her latest trick is climbing onto the rocking horse, clever little one! She sits and rocks back and forth - she'll be neighing and shouting 'giddy up', in no time!

(How cute is her cardigan? Knitted by the super clever Clare. Amazing!)

One of my favourite features of Mol's room is the wooden kitchen. We've had this since Aesop was 2. It is an ex-preschool one (Pintoy brand, I believe), gifted to us by some family friends.
The second, smaller, unit is a washing mahine, but I've turned it around so it works better as a shop counter. Otto is quite into playing shopkeeper at the moment, so we often grab the Eftpos machine out of the cupboard, find the toy phone, and set up shop.
Making cups of tea is a favourite, too.

This little nook, is where I feed Mollie. We sit here, snuggled up under a duvet, twice a day (or more, if she wakes in the night!). She will usually point to a toy on the shelf, and snuggle with it while she feeds.
The quilt is single bed sized - I made it while I was pregnant with Otto. I have not sewn a yo-yo since, and have no desire to! Haha.

(See that wee stack of wooden plates and bowls? I scored the whole lot for just $2 at the Sallies last week. I pretty much love it.)

I'm trying to surround my family with beautiful, vintage and handmade things. Mol's room is a great example of this - spot the Tiny Eyes doll, the Emmamakes kitten, a Deb quilt and various lovely vintage wool blankets.

A recent addtion to the room has been the tiny cluster of things on the wall. I hope to add to this as I find things - but, for the moment, it is a flower mirror Mol was gifted when she was born, a stunning Holly Hobbie embroidery I thrifted a few weeks back, and the 'M' from Stella's alphabet set.

Lastly, Mollie's bed. She's still not such a huge fan of sleeping here - I don't know why, I would love to have such beautiful bedding!
The vintage 'Love is..' sheet was a gift from my friend Amy, the bunny was made by the talented Helen and the vintage Heidi duvet was a lucky thrift find.

I'd love to paint this room, and change the curtains, but these things will have to wait a bit longer. We have other projects on the go/on the list that take priority!

Corners of my (new) home.

Why, hello! Fancy seeing you here! It's so nice to bump into you again.

We've been in our new home a few weeks now and are almost all settled in. Phoneline dramas are sorted, nearly all of the important boxes are unpacked, a few things have made their way onto the walls.. it's gradually beginning to look like home.

It's hard moving into a new space, especially after an extended time in the previous one. I spent four years looking at my belongings in our (beloved) rental, and they all seemed to fit so nicely. It was a slightly bigger space, and had so many lovely, retro, features that worked so well with our things (built-in china cabinet, wooden pelmets, 70's patterned carpets.. oh I miss these!). Our new place, as it is, lacks the character of the old one.

Don't get me wrong, it's a GREAT house. It has plenty of ticks in boxes. I'm just saying, it is very much a blank canvas in terms of style.
The walls are basic colours, the carpet is pretty non-descript, there are very little 'quirks'.
That will work in our favour, in the long run, but it's going to take a wee while for us to find the time and the money to really put our thumbprint on the place.

We are constantly coming up with ideas, and making lists of little things we want to do (once the essential, boring, jobs are done.. window frames painted, roof cleaned and painted..). It's both ridiculously exciting, and crazy scary at the same time! So grown up! I had planned to save money for more tattoos this year but, instead, I'll probably spend that money on redecorating my (pink?!) kitchen!

The kids are settling in, slowly. It has been a bit of a process, for Otto especially. We've had plenty of tears, and plenty of VERY long days and nights. That boy really doesn't do big changes well. Poor guy. Luckily he has started kindy, finally, this week and is not stuck at home with Mol and I full-time. It is making a huge difference to his attitude, and mine.

Phew, we had a real whirlwind of a month in March - and I'm looking forward to getting back into some sort of routine now. Part of that routine will mean spending a little more time in this part of the world, and also returning to the sewing machine. I'm very excited about both!

Homeowners FTW!

As most of you already know (Via FB,Instagram etc), this is the reason I've been a bit quiet - We've just bought a house!
It's been a very, very stressful week or so, getting everything teed up and all the conditions ticked off, but we made it. It went unconditional yesterday and we're soooo excited!

The house is on a gorgeous, tree-filled, cul-de-sac and is very close to Aesop's school. He'll be able to walk to and from school each day! He also has some cool school mates living just around the corner.
It has four bedrooms, which was really important to us. Got to have a sewing room, of course!
The yard is fully fenced, giving the kids room to ride their bikes etc. Our current rental has a shared driveway, so there hasn't been much room for them to play. (Also so, so looking forward to not having to lug groceries and kids up from the road in the pouring rain anymore!)
The bones of the house are good and solid, and it's a fairly blank canvas. Not many of the features are too distinctively once era or another, which is pretty lucky. (Obviously the dream would be to have amazing wooden floors, and a pastel coloured 50's kitchen.. but that might need to be the next house!) Once we find a bit of spare dosh, we'll be able to start painting and doing bits and pieces to it.
I CAN'T WAIT.

But for now, I have a TONNE of stuff to get rid of and a whole house to pack in the next 4 weeks.
Good golly, wish me luck!

(Pictures are from the real estate website, obviously. Consider them 'before' shots!)

A backyard barbeque.

A few of our goals this Summer include spending more time outdoors, and nourishing friendships with certain people we really enjoy. Hosting backyard bbqs are pretty much the perfect way to do both, so we're starting early!

Bunting, gazebo, flowers in a Agee jar, music, cute new blackboard table, smoochy couple shot - check.

Food - including sausages, meat patties, crash hot potatoes, roast pumpkin and chickpea salad, lamb chops, coleslaw, bread, green salad, chocolate ghana peppermint cupcakes and strawbery cloud cake.

The kids played touch, hung out in the tent and watched a Dvd. The brazier was roaring, the music was playing and I hear, while I was putting Mol to bed, there were even sparklers!
The company was perfect, the feijoa cider was delicious and all was lovely.

Such a brilliant evening. Here's to many more like it!

A baby girls room.

I love that  Mollie's room is finally coming together.
Up until recently it has been choc-a-block full of piles of clothing to sort, baby gear to return and random bric-a-brac. I've been working my way through the things, a box here and a box there. I'd love to say it's all gone to new homes, but I've actually just got it down enough to fit the rest in the cupboard! Whoops!

Mols has been sleeping in her cot in the evenings lately, too. Amazing! She is slowly (verrrry slowly) beginning to despise her bed less and less, occasionally even agreeing to lie down without a boo in her mouth! This might not seem like a biggy, but to someone who usually has to bend over the cot like a gymnast and slip the boob out of her mouth when she is asleep enough not to notice? HUGE step!

I haven't changed too much about the room since Otto was in it. We kept the jungle curtains and cot bumper, and continued with the 'bright pops of colour' theme. Just a few wee girly touches are starting to creep in - the dresses on the closet door, a doll amongst the teddies, a little purple mirror, and so on. I have no doubt the girliness will just increase from now on though, I'm not fooling anyone. Haha. I do hope to avoid being overrun by glitter though.. remind me of that in a year or two!

My absolute favourite parts of the room are the yo-yo quilt I spend a (very) long year making around the time Otto arrived, the amazing stuffed elephant I found at the op shop last year, my Cloud of Birds softie (the guy in the top set of pictures, with the rabbit ears and embroidered body), the vintage Fisher Price record player we bought when I was pregnant with Aesop, and the piles of bedding. There's something about blankets and quilts all piled up.
There's something about babies' rooms in general, actually. How on earth am I going to cope with getting rid of this stuff when my babies are all grown? Yikes, it doesn't bear thinking about!

(I took these photos to practise using the manual function on my camera - the lighting is terrible in Mollie's little room, so it was a good challenge. Still a bit of practicing to do though!)

Check the list - Change our bedroom curtains.

Sometimes such simple things make such a huge difference - especially when they have been bugging you for a long time.
I've been searching for plain curtains for our room for years now. The lovely 90's ones that come with the house are warm and clean, but hot-damn they are ugly.
I found these, nice plain, brown ones for under $20 at The Sallies and they were already the perfect size. Meant to be!
Tick!

(Photos are not great - the lighting in our room is dull on the brightest of days! But ypu get the general idea, aye?)