WIP Wednesday

With the gentle patter of rain on the roof, and a bleak, cloud-filled sky filling my window, I’m yearning for nothing greater than a cup of tea, some snuggly stories, and a moment or five to get messy, with a toddler at my feet.

On the agenda for today, a little painting that I started yesterday just needs the finishing touches. A gift for my sister with some bright cheery fabric to bring colour to our day.  A gift for a small boy, the pattern for which was also a ‘yesterday’ thing. I’m feeling the urge to make some pikelets & smother them with butter. Washed down by hot chocolate. Taking a moment to savour another chapter of my latest novel for the 50/50 challenge. A deliciously lazy, indulgent day with my two favourite small people. Let’s rock this Wednesday!

Rock, Paper, Scissors.

Ok, well, maybe just paper & scissors. And glue. Pens, pencils, a button or three. A couple of child-free hours.  And then, triumphant, I emerge from the studio, bearing a pair of cards – one, MIL’s belated mother’s day card, the other, FIL’s birthday card.

 

MIL’s card – a bit more 3D chippy action. It’s a bit simpler than planned – I wanted to add some ribbons to it, but just plain ran out of time!

 

And FIL’s b’day card

 

On the cards for this afternoon (ha da ha ha, I crack myself up!) is a bit of designing. Winging some measurements to make a gift. Sketching & measuring out another gift. Squeezing in a bit of housework while waiting for the boys to wake. Maybe a trip to the park to feed the ducks. If I can swing it, a visit to the fabric shop. Baking. I have a chocolate slice in my sights. I need to sort out a couple of gifts for TOMORROW. Eeek! Plotting, planning, wishing, dreaming. Loving it all. Except maybe folding the washing. But the maid has failed to turn up for the 1,279th day in a row, so it would seem that it’s up to me. And I’m itching to paint. My brain is whizzing & none of it will do itself, so let’s do this!

Yes, sir, I do have a note from my mother…

Well, not really, but, dearest blog, will you forgive me for being absent for far too long?

Creatively, life has been pretty flat lately, not from lack of project, nor of mojo,  but with various goings-on conspiring to keep me out of my disgustingly-untidy studio. However, on Saturday, with the realisation that the next day was mothers day, and that my sole responsibility was to produce a card for the maternal parental unit (3 thumbs up for chipping in on sister dearest’s present!), I threw caution to the wind, chucked the bulldozer into ‘drive’, and managed to plow a path from door to desk. Surprisingly, I managed to to find not only inspiration but supplies in the various piles which surrounded me.

 

The backing paper inspired the green hearts, which were three-dimensional – mounted on chipboard & machine-stitched around the edge – something I’ve been wanting to try for a while. I’m pretty chuffed with the end result.

 

Mothers Day for me was delightful, with my three boys spoiling me rotten. A ridiculously indulgent but long-wished-for gift, wrapped in paper decorated by my favourite 3 foot artist. Breakfast of my choosing, cooked to perfection. The sweetest card made by husband and children, complimented by freshly picked roses. Snuggles, kisses, games. No housework. No sleep-in, more’s the pity, but it also means more time to spend with those I cherish most.

 

With both boys asleep, I’ve got big plans for this afternoon. Sewing, and the satisfaction of seeing my very own design come to life. Photography & the stretching of my creative muscles as I learn new techniques. Plotting & planning for future projects. Some baking, a bit of housework, and wishing my children awake to run in sunshine, loving, laughing, remembering how truly blessed we are.

 

Joy in every moment, even the teary ones. Joy in each other, in God, in life, in creating and doing and being. Let’s rock this Monday!

heartbreak in the nest

Silence. After a night of constant waking, and a morning of relentless whinging, the children finally, peacefully slept. The silence is broken only by the excited chatter of a boiling kettle, followed by a soft “thunk”. Mug, sugar, teabag, water. A cloud of milk turns the liquid from deep brown to light amber.

 

She sits, tea by her side, a small (ish) Easter egg lying unwrapping in front of her. Sip. Bite. Sip, sip. Twitter. Bloglines. Inspiration. Google. Wool. Hook. Success. Sip, sip. Row 1, 2, 3. A rhythm develops, and the tea grows cold, forgotten.

 

The peace is shattered by the cry of a baby. He feeds, his eyes flutter closed, and he dozes.

 

He stirs, blinks, then wails at the horror of finding himself awake. He sits up, his eyes survey the desk in front of him, lock on that plain, yet interesting blue & white thing in front of him.

 

Time slows. He reaches out and makes contact a split second before his mother does. He grasps, pulls, and then, in slow motion, Tea Cup meets Lap Top. In a performance that would make Romeo & Juliet proud, their tryst ends in tragedy.

 

Yep, keyboard died. Shut down the computer, restarted 2 hours later, still dead. Shut down, restarted this morning, still not working. So off we trundle to buy a new keyboard. Set it up, type most of this post using new keyboard, accidently revert to laptop keyboard for the last paragraph – the flipping thing works again! AARRRGGHHHH! Murphy strikes again!

Worming through the books

What with sick children & visiting relatives over the last week or so, I’ve been unable to scratch my creative itch. And itching it is. I’m about 2/3rds of the way through quilting D9P (who knew straight lines could take so long?), there are a couple of very rough sketchs I’m hanging to refine, and an idea for a little watercolour painting. I’m feeling very inspired at the minute, and my brain is working overtime thinking about the 300 or so projects I want to tackle. (Ok, so maybe it’s only 30, but it feels like a lot!)

 

One thing I did manage to do though, is churn through a few more books. So, as of noon, Monday April 20, my reading challenge list looks a little like this:

 

1. The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald (fiction, opshop find) *** (Jan 09)

2. Fishing for Stars – Bryce Courtney (fiction, new/gift) ***1/2 (Jan 09)

3. The Time Travellers Wife – Audrey Niffenegger (fiction, re-read for the 736th time) ****1/2 (Feb 09)

4. The Adventure of English:A biography of a Language – Melvin Bragg(non-fiction, re-read for the 312th time) ***1/2 (Feb 09)

5. Vet in a Spin – James Herriot (non-fiction, memoir, re-read) **** (Feb 09)

6. Let Sleeping Dogs Lie – James Herriot (non-fiction, memoir, re-read) ***1/2 (Feb 09)

7. Various Flavours of Coffee – Anthony Capella (fiction, library find) ***1/2 (Feb 09)

8. How to help you child read & write – Dr Dominic Wyse (non-fiction, library find) *** (Feb 09)

9. Before I Wake – John Scott (fiction, library find) (in progress, contemplating giving up!)

10. From Here to Maternity – Sinead Moriarty (fiction, chick-lit, library find) **** (March 09)

11. Dog Stories – James Herriot (non-fiction, memoirs, re-read) *** (March 09)

12. The Planets – Dava Sobel (non-fiction, astronomy, new/gift) **** (March 09)

13. Creative Play for Your Baby – Christopher Clouder & Janni Nicol (non-fiction, Steiner based play & craft, new) ***** (March 09)

14. The Writing Class – Jincy Willitt (fiction, light crime/homour, library find) **** (April 09)

      I quite enjoyed this book. An engaging writing style & well-thought-out plot had me hooked, as well as all the red herrings. I had a few ‘suspects’ in mind, and thought I wouldn’t be surprised, but I was! Explores the themes of trust & the idea that people aren’t always who or what you expect. I’m thinking this one will get another visit sometime down the track.

 

15. Australia Street – Ann Whitehead (fiction, drama, library find) **** (April 09)

    Another enjoyable read, exploring family relationships & dynamics. Well developed characters are easy to empathise with, and I found myself ‘taking sides’ in one of the marriage breakdowns!

 

16. Behind the Bestsellers – Jenny Bond & Chris Sheedy (non-fiction, literature history, library find) ****1/2 (April 09)

    Very interesting to read the histories & motivators behind some of the books that have had an impact on our culture. I also like it as a reference list for important books that I would like to read some day.

 

17. But Wait, There’s More… – Robert Crawford (non-fiction, advertising, library find) in progress.

 

 

If the boys will sleep a bit longer for me, I’m hoping to get this quilting finished & binding attached so I can stitch it down tonight. Then I want to hit the paints, plus I have a few ideas in mind for prettying up the blog a bit. Autumn is definately underway, and I have a few ideas for some clothes for the boys (particularly the toddler – baby has enough hand-me-downs from big brother that he could change 3 times a day and still not run out of clothes!), that I’m hoping to design, draft & sew myself. Plus I want to have a go at crochet again, and try a granny square or two. Try & knock out a few projects to clear my brain a bit.

 

Watch out Monday, I’m here, I’m ready, and I’m not thinking, just doing!

Don’t think, just do.

Seeing as winter was upon us, it was time to upgrade Bear’s winter shoes. The boxes were too good to chuck in the recycling straight up, and I couldn’t be bothered storing them, so out came the craft bo, and the boxes became a house (left box is an open plan lounge/kitchen, right box is bedroom with ensuite), complete with a spoon person, aptly named “Person”.

 

And the title, you ask? My motto for this week. I think I’ve mentioned before that I am a procrastinator. Big time. I’ll even procrastinate about fun stuff. But over the weekend, I had an epiphany.  (And for those EBers playing along at home, not that kind of epiphany).

 

Don’t think about it, just do it. Then it’s done. It’s working so far. I had a very productive weekend, the house got clean, I finally caught up on all that washing, finished the top of the D9P, made an art smock for Bear, and also made him a little sleeping bag. Very productive indeed. Today is shapng up pretty good too. I may even get the D9P quilted today. But I might just have a coffee first…

Nope. No excuses. Let’s do this crazy little thing called Monday!

Fun Friday…

We had a blast yesterday. I got the blocks joined for D9P, and the border chosen. And much to the toddlers delight, we baked biscuits. Teddy bear and star and duck and people biscuits. I didn’t do such a great job of ignoring hte housework, but I suppose that’s a plus. Though I still have a massive pile of dirty washing to plow through. Seriously, where does it come from? Am I the only one drowning in washing? I also managed to add Twitter to my blog yesterday (sounds like it should be easy, huh? Well, yeah, if you use your brain. Something I struggle with constantly). If you’re on twitter, leave me a comment with your user name & I’ll follow you. Or you can follow me by clicking on my updates over there –>

 

At first I didn’t get the whole twitter thing, and to be honest, not sure I still do. But I find myself, having just hit the publish button, thinking, oh, should’ve said this, should’ve said that, so now I can tweet it instead!

 

Today, we’ve been like a tribe of chipmunks on a suger high. We’ve sung, we’ve danced, we’ve painted an old sheet to use for cubby houses. We still have a shoebox house to make, and maybe some puppets too. I really should attempt to conquer Mt Clothesiosko (both clean and dirty). And I really hope to swing a bit of sewing time to whack this border on, then head to the fabric shop over the weekend for wadding. I’m going to finish this week on a high note!

Book haul

Phew. We survived. Bubba Bear only cried a bit when the needles went in, and stopped as soon as I picked him up. I think Bear took it worse than his little brother – he was in hysterics as soon as we walked into the doctors office! I ended up getting a whooping cough booster too, and my arm is still sore. Yep, I’m a sook. On the upside, the dentist wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected, just a filling really, so that was good. I’d got myself all stressed about nothing!

 

And is it just me, or does washng seem to breed in the rain? I did three loads yesterday, and I still can’t see the laundry floor. Sigh.

We dropped into the library after the doctors, as I was desperate for some new reading material, and I ended up with the four pictured above – the top two are fiction, th bottom two non-fiction. I made a crack at “Behind the Bestsellers” last night, and I’ve found it quite an enjoyable read.

 

Today, I intend to finish D9p (anyone feeling a bit of deja vu?) – the blocks are done, so it’s just a matter of joing & deciding on a border. Bikkies to bake, books to read, a request for a green bus. Enjoying the sunshine, playng in the sandpit, maybe finding a few puddles to play in after all the rain. Ignoring the housework, including the self-propogating washing, because it’s a beautiful day with beautiful boys, and I’m going to enjoy every last second of today. Let’s do this!

Update #2 – Quilty Progress

Hello Wednesday! I normally love Wednesdays, but today, I just wish I could hide under the doona & pretend I can ignore the world until it’s Thursday. Today involves immunisations for baby, and a dentist appointment for me, that I suspect will end with a bill that hurts almost as much as the root canal I’m expecting to be told I need.

 

Sigh.

 

Ignoring that, I hope to get the top of my D9P quilt finished today. My mum is on holidays soon, and it’s a fair bet she’ll want to spend some time with the munchkins, so I figure if I can have it sandwiched & ready to go, I can hand-quilt it while I’m chatting to her – it’s not rude if it’s your mum, right?

I’m close to being finished – these are all the middle seams ready to be stitched to form the blocks. I’m hoping to sneak in a block here and there during the day if the boys are happily playing by themselves – that’s the theory, anyway! Otherwise, it will have to wait for nap time, if they go down together!

 

So a quiet day in all, no high hopes, but I’ll cont today successful if we can get through without too many tears!

Finally…

Ack. Internet died. Not good. But on the upside, my house is clean, I’ve read three books, done a couple of paintings, and am more than halfway through my d9p quilt! I’ll be back with photos and info when I’m a bit more up-to-date!