The Family Treehouse

I spent Sunday morning reliving my childhood memories with my 2 year old as we played with the Family Treehouse. It was probably one of my favourite toys as a child and my mum has lovingly stored it for me over the years just waiting for a time when it might be enjoyed again.

Essentially it is a doll's house in the shape of a tree but the features would have to be the wind up and down lift, the outdoor swing and the car that holds the whole family and even the dog in the centre if you squash it inbetween.

I think I am having just as much fun as my little one as we arrange the furniture and put the little people up and down the elevator. I am loving the Miffy-like interior but am not sure about the mum dressed in an apron and the dad in a business suit - it is a toy of the 1970's so definitely a reference to that era.

It is nice to be able to take the time to play and go back to a time in my life where imagination was everything and to see the wonder and enjoyment of my own child at play.

Possibility

A couple of weeks ago I got out a selection of coloured paper I brought over with me from Japan with which I optimistically believed I would handmake all my Christmas cards. Gone are those days. With two little ones to occupy my time and an awful cold thrown into the picture I realistically only ended up making one card which I sent to my mother and father-in-law in Japan. But I did manage to make some Christmas gift tags for my family and after Christmas a wedding card for my cousin who married recently and was coming back to Adelaide to celebrate with family and friends.

I love choosing the colours and I love the delicious possibilities when I see the paper. I feel enthusiastic for the new year. 2010 is full of wonderful potential and possibility. I have not had so much time to create this year but I feel very hopeful of achieving much more in the year ahead.

Happy New Year. I hope anything is possible for you in 2010.

A Good Day

Today was a good day.

I baked. I sang. I laughed with my 2 year old.
My husband had a job to go to.
I ate dinner surrounded by these beautiful yellow flowers.
I visited a new friend.
I went to the supermarket with my 2 year old. He had a good time.
I sang Jingle Bells at bath time.
I sang Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to my 7 month old.
I hugged and was hugged.
I saw rain and I saw sunshine.
I talked and laughed some more.
Yes, today was a good day.

Designing in my Dreams

It usually takes me a lot of time to design something I'm really happy with. It will start with an idea and a sketch that I may draw and re-draw numerous times to make changes until I am satisfied with the final result. And then the making process itself may determine that more things need to be altered or adjusted slightly. So it comes as a great surprise to me when I have these dreams where I see whole jewellery collections or exhibitions. As far as I can remember they are not pieces or designs that I have ever seen before but there they are as clear as anything in my dream as perfectly finished pieces of jewellery. Sometimes in the dream they are my pieces or sometimes they are pieces belonging to other people or friends - but strangely I must conjure up all the shapes myself.
The other night I had another of these kinds of dreams. This time it was not jewellery as such but an evening dress. Of course when I wake up I lose the details of the design but what I remember was a beautiful white evening gown with a strapless bodice and pleated and folded fabric. Around the waist was an obi like band with a big black bow. The bodice was then joined to a wide belt-like collar with coloured strips of fabric. Now as I'm typing this it sound really bad.
I have little interest in designing fashion but I love the way my brain dreamed this one up!

Back to Work!

Well, my littlest poppet is 6 months already. How time just passes so quickly! And while I blog in my head all the time its been 2 months since I have put letters to keyboard so to speak. If only there was a direct download cable available from my head to the computer. I guess there will be one day.

So the question amongst fellow playground and playgroup Mums is not, "Will you return to work?" but "WHEN will you return to work?" We are the mums who as children believed we could grow up to be and do anything and everything and now we are trying to prove it. Somehow it seems we not only have to be good little homemakers but have the other "real" job -ie the one that pays money! Someone asked me recently if I was working or JUST a stay-at-home mum. I know they didn't really mean it that way but there is sometimes this feeling that it is not enough to be doing the best job you can to raise your children to be the best that they can be.

My little ones are growing so quickly and I am trying to enjoy every moment with them. So I am choosing to work only in their nap time or at the end of the day when they are fast asleep. The last few weeks I have tried to make a bigger effort to spend some time on my Etsy shop in the evenings. It's not easy! When you have been up since 5.30am sometimes and are not likely to get any uninterrupted sleep anytime soon I am often tempted to go to sleep at the same time as my 2 year old.

But I love working on my Etsy shop and I will keep on trying to capture all the minutes I can in a day to keep doing that! I'm definitely moving at snail's pace but I am back at work!

Great Great Nanna's Blanket

My friend Tia has been crocheting a beautiful blanket for her little boy. It reminded me that when I was a baby my Great Nanna (my Mum's Dad's Mum!) had crocheted a blanket for me. Now I have been using it to cover my own baby girl at night and the first time I used it I was overwhelmed by a sense of its history and the love that had gone into making it. It felt as though I was blanketing my little baby in generations of love. My Great Nanna was very artistic and made lots of things that we still have in our family. Although I have photos of her holding me, I was too young to remember her. Now I have her blanket out again I wonder what she would be like if she were living in this generation - the things she would make and the conversations we would have...

The Best Things in Life are Free

We took our little ones down to the beach a few weeks back. It was a sunny Winter day and crowded with lots of people thinking that Summer had arrived already. What I saw that day reminded me of something important. What I saw that day was the happiest little face and the biggest smile on my little boy. It was the first time he had seen such a large congregation of sea gulls. He had such a good time playing amongst them and didn't want to leave. It reminded me that indeed often the best things in life are free

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