Comfort food.

4pm. The school bus grinds to a halt at the end of a gravel side-road. The young girls, the last on the bus today, peel themselves from the cracked vinyl of the seats, and slinging backpacks laden with school books over one shoulder, they amble towards the front of the bus and clamber down the steps. Impatiently they wait for the bus to lurch away, and they break into a run, up the driveway and through the gate. They burst through the door, the previously almost-silence shattered by the clattering of school bags and shoes hastily discarded. The scent of promise wafts in the air. Their mother grins at them. How was school? The question is ignored, more pressing matters on their minds. What did you cook? Is it chocolate cake? The ends of the cake are quickly sliced. Slathered with butter. And, gone.

Now it’s I that does the baking, with my own two little ones at my knees. And I’m the one baking the comfort foods, the recipes that are copied from spidery writing on delicate, yellow paper. Wrapping it in checked tea-towels, and taking it to share with my mum. Completing the circle.

Today, we were blessed with yet more rain. Cabin fever threatened. So we bundled the children into the car, and set off in search of adventure. Or shops. Unfortunately, it appears I have used up my current “drag-husband-to-fabric-store” credit. But we managed some productive shopping nonetheless. And coffee. With some yummy citrus tart. And only two tantrums over who had the better biscuit. Tomorrow is our last day with daddy on holidays. So we are making it count. Trains. Long breakfasts. Family time. Painting. Stories. Hopefully not too many “that’s MY toy” moments. Enjoying every second. It’s 2010, the rain has arrived at long last, and all is right with my little world. Monday is still a whole day away. Let’s do this!

Been scrappin’

During a recent beach escape, on a warm afternoon, I left two gently snoring boys in the care of their daddy, and made my escape to a favourite little craft shop. I planned to be good, honestly I did, but somehow, I still managed to waltz out the door $75 lighter.

 

My illicit haul included some very yummy scrapping paper, so at the first opportunity, with both boys conveniently napping together, the washing pile growing larger, and the dust bunnies gathering to plot their takeover, I made myself a coffee, and shut myself in the studio.

 

Forty-five minutes and three pages later, I was renewed, refreshed, relaxed, and ready to knock the nearest dust bunny over the head. Amazing what a good creative burst can do for the soul.

 

Holiday mini scrapbook

Yep, I’m slack. But I have been working like crazy, and unfortunately, with the amount of work I’ve had, something had to give. And despite wishing the housework would disappear, it didn’t. Leaving my creating and blogging being the only area I could really afford to cut back on.

 

But, before the proverbial hit the fan, we went on holidays. To the beach. Headed north for the winter, to milder climes, hoping to defrost, just a little. The mornings were spent cruising the beach, building sandcastles, sampling the local cafes, playing games. The afternoons, with two little boys tucked up in their beds, I would grab my memory cards and hit the streets. A quick stop at the nearest printers, a quiet coffee while I waited, then back to the apartment, where’d I’d pass a lazy hour or so scrapping the previous 24 hours activities. All I had to do when I got home was to make a cover for the book, and all our holiday snaps were in an album, no fuss, no stress, no procrastinating!

 

My little 6x6inch book was bulging by the end of the week – 160photos, plus scrapped pages, index card with notes, brochures and souveniers – it’s very full!

 

I was chuffed to come across this gorgeous paper – to me it seemed to hum with the essence of a winter beach escape – the blue, teal and yellow sang of the beach, and yet with the brown, their muted tones whispered that it wasn’t quite swimming weather yet.

 

And a couple of layouts – luckily my simple style was easy to downsize to the half size pages, so I didn’t need to think too much, or spend a heap of time on each page.

 

Today is a bit of a catch-up day. Boring stuff, mainly. Plus some fun stuff. Making honey crackles. Enjoying the warm sunshine. Catching up with friends, and dear little babies. Dreaming big. Planning projects.  Nursing slepy babies and cuddling active toddlers. Eating jelly beans. Living, loving, laughing. Enjoying a beautiful Monday and cherising possibility. Happy Monday everyone!

High up in the gum trees…

…if you look very carefully, you will see tiny people. They are rarely seen, and very easily frightened, but oh so cute if you manage to steal a glance.

 

As a child, I loved “Snugglepot & Cuddlepie”. A constant favourite, it was re-read many, many times. The imagery the story evoked was (and to a certain extent, still is) enthralling, as was the joy of imagining these tiny, plump little babies running around. Hmmm… I think I need to go raid my mum’s bookcase & have another read, for old times’ sake!

 

So obviously, this little fellow was inspired by the classic May Gibbs characters. The story was brought to mind by a good friend over the weekend, and I couldn’t help but try my hand at a little gumnut child of my own!

The Bonus Quilt

Why the bonus quilt? I was rifling through my mum’s scrap stash, looking for fabrics I could use for an applique of Maisy Mouse for a library bag I was making for my toddler, who is madly in love with “Maise, Mummy!”. I came across 18 completed, trimmed, ready-to-be-joined blocks from a “crazy log cabin” class my sister and I did many years ago, more than I care to recall. These blocks were from my sister’s effort, and were in blues & reds, perfect for a little boy. So after a quick call to my sister, which revealed she barely remembered what the blocks looked like, let alone having any desire to finish the quilt, I commandeered the quilt for myself (after checking with mum – after all, it was her stash, and she was the one who bought the fabric, my sister and I being teenagers at the time). Six days later, with a huge sigh of satisfaction, a glimmer of pride, and a renewed passion for the domestic arts, I gently lay the completed quilt over my son’s sleeping form.

 

It is not quite a single bed size, but for now it is large enough, with the boy still being in a toddler bed. It is a bit long, so I lay it sideways, and it drapes beautifully all the way to the floor. Once he is in a single bed, it will be used as either a bed topper, or an end of bed quilt.

 

Being my first quilt in over 5 years, I was quite happy with the result. It is far from perfect, but not too bad, a few puckers on the top, which I can live with. The binding is made from the fabrics of the blocks, making for a very time consuming task to piece them together – 5-odd metres of 4-inch long pieces, the widest being 2.5 inches, the narrowest 1 inch. Tedious is not the word! But I think it was worth the effort, I’m really happy with how it looks.

 

I do need to buy myself some safety pins though, hand basting is the pits! I had forgotten how long it takes (my teacher was very old-fashioned, and insisted hand basting was far superior to pinning – pfft, couldn’t be bothered!).