Craft Country, here we come!

This is where I have been. Stuck behind a sewing machine!
The Craft Country market is this weekend, and I will be there. I'll be there with all this stuff, and more!
I have had so many moments in the past few weeks where I have thought I might pull out, where I decided that I must be mental thinking I could muster enough stuff for a stall - but I got there. Proud as punch.
(I still feel like I have both too much AND not enough at the same time though. How does that work?)
So yes, if you happen to be near Greytown this Saturday from 10-3, pop into the library and have a nosy! It would be wonderful to see you, and I pinky promise I won't even freak out if you introduce yourself as a reader of my blog!
Failing that, I'll hopefully get my Felt shop re-stocked and open again as soon after Christmas as possible.

Thanks to everyone who has offered me words of encouragement, and even more thanks to those who have helped me in other ways to get ready for this market. Turns out I'm not superwoman - trying to look after three young kids, run a household annnnnd sew fulltime just doesn't happen easily. I'm well looking forward to a wee, well deserved, break. I'm excited about how things are going though, I have a feeling next year will be a big year for Croutons. Eep!

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!

Dressed to, erm, thrift.

I have a terrible habit at the moment (probably more than one, but for the purpose of this blogpost, let's just say it's one..), and that habit is buying dresses that noone in my house fits.

The number of dresses I have bought recently that are too small for me, and too big for Mollie, is quite ridiculous. I mean, sure, Mollie with grow into hers but there is no guarantee she will let me dictate what she wears at three, four five.. and I miiiight lose weight and fit into mine, but that would involve a little effort on my part, and who has the energy for that?!
At this rate I could almost open some sort of online vintage store, but then again, if I had that much energy I might fit the dresses. Haha. Such a catch 22.
In the meantime, they sure are pretty to hang in the closet and daydream about wearing..

These are the dresses added to the collection this week:



One for me, a fifties silk frock that is so close to fitting it almost hurts.
Put down the cupcake, Rhiannon. Honestly!




And these two for Mollie aged maybe 4?



This one is for Mollie too, but how cute does it look on Iron man? I especially love it with the dino socks - such a fashionable superhero! Cutie-patootie!

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!)

Mollie's Chair : 7 Months

Mollie
7 Months

Another month has flown by already. Scary how that happens.
Mol is growing and learning in leaps and bounds - learning to move and pull herself up, learning to make different noises (usually roaring and farting noises, her brothers influence?) and exploring and discovering the world around her. Every day her personality seems to shine through a bit more, and we are reassured that she is just as nutty as the rest of us. Hah.
Still no teeth, no interest in beginning to eat ... and no improvement in her sleep. But we'll get there.

We've started going to Mainly Music and Mollie is LOVING it. She gets down like the best of them, clapping her hands and wriggly her hips.Wonder if she will be musical like her clever Dad?  

She is also lapping up being outdoors a lot more. We spend quite a bit of time on the back lawn sorting pegs and watching the big boys play. She's going to adore the swing she's getting for Xmas, and the paddling pool when the weather is warmer.

Oh Mollie, I love you so. I say it every month, but please, please slow down and stay little just a bit longer. Please?

Yes, that is a 70's gingham pantsuit. With flared pants. In buttercup yellow. Mhmm!

This is me.

A typical scene at our place. Reality.

I've thought about my wee blogging dilemma. I've weighed up the pros and cons of it all, and tried to dig deep and figure out quite why it is that I blog, and who I blog for. I've come to a bit of a decision.

This is me.
(That was my conclusion.)

I write my blog mostly for myself, but I'd be kidding myself if I didn't acknowledge that I love and appreciate the reassurance that your comments bring me. It really just wouldn't be the same without you guys. I like that my blog enables my friends and family to keep up with what we're up to. I love that it gives me something to reflect back on. I love the thought that it might maybe inspire someone, somewhere, sometimes.

I thought about your suggestions. I considered making it less about the kids, more about the sewing. I thought about toning it down a little - but I just can't. I need to come to terms with the fact that I'm just someone who likes to have my life out there for the world to see, and, in doing that, I need to accept that I can't pick and choose who sees it. (Obviously, what a dork for feeling like I could!).

So, here's the deal: I'm sticking around. I'm still going to bombard you with a million pictures of my cute kids and write about our life, and my day-to-day ramblings.
I have a favour to ask though; If you do like to read along, if you pop in every now and then, I'd love it if you'd say 'Hi!'. It would make me feel an awful lot better about babbling on if I knew who I was babbling on to. Mmhmm.

I'm still here.

I'm here. And I'm busy but happy.
Those aren't the reasons I've been quiet, not really.
Every now and then, someone in my 'real life' will make a comment about something they have read on my blog. I'm not talking friends and family, I'm talking friends of friends or random shop people. It throws me everytime. I start to thinking about why I blog, and who I blog for. And how much information about my life I really want people to know.
For some reason it's different to think about people around the country, and further afield, getting a glimpse of our lives. It's is a lot creepier when I walk down the street and realise that everyone I walk past might know that my baby doesn't sleep/ that it was my kids birthday last week/ that I wore a purple dress yesterday. Once, when I was working in a kitchenware store, a customer came in and we were chatting about how she was here on holiday from Wellington. Then she said ' You're Rhiannon, aye? I recognise you from your blog!'. Um, I didn't even know what to say. I didn't blog for weeks after that.
I guess I could do what some others do, and not get so personal on here, less pictures of my kids and less talk about our lives - keep it crafty. But I'm not sure that is the purpose of blogging for me. I blog mostly for myself. A sort of open journal, if you will. I love the glimpses of other people's lives that I get through their blogs and I want to give others the same joy I get. Maybe the fact that this means it's possible the Plunket nurse already knows how we're doing before seeing us, is just collateral damage?
I'm going to sit it out for a few more days and see how I feel. How do the rest of you cope with this issue?