sweetness and sunshine

yesterday we caught up for coffee and a chat with the lovely jodi and che, and enjoyed some very sunny sunshine overlooking the beach. They're such sweeties those two. Unfortunately, I have no photos, as we were too busy chatting...could of at least got one of the babies together, oh well. After we left them, we went looking around the shops, and I had to bring home mr.squirrel, from this cute little shop. I really have my eye on this particular piece, but I need to be realistic here.

confessions of a sewing addict

since the mister was away for the weekend on a surfing safari (like he really needed a holiday), I decided to make the bed all fresh and spring-like in his absence, and took off the big quilt and replaced it with the little one that I made years ago. That was all good and well, until I realised halfway through the night (on my third or maybe fourth awakening by jasper) that it's not yet warm enough for the wee little token quilt that doesn't even cover the bed let alone keep two (or four) people warm. So, I woke up all twitchy with an idea to make a quilt cover, because once I have taken the old one off and it's already in the washing basket, there's no way it's going back on, and besides, I didn't really like it anyway. And that's how I came to be making a patchwork quilt at 7am this morning. Jasper was a good boy and slept until 8.30, probably because he was awake for half the night, and I managed to get it all pretty much done in that time. How, you may ask? Well, it's quite simple. I sewed the whole thing up on the overlocker. Yep, no sewn seams at all, just whizzed right through it on bernette (yes, that's really the name of my overlocker). We're good friends now, bernette and I, since I have come to understand her needs, and she has proved herself to be invaluable as far as need-it-now sewing jobs go. Now, I'm not going to pretend that this will become an heirloom quilt, let's face it, the thing will probably be lucky to see the end of summer with my boys crash-tackling each other all over it, but do I care? No. Like I've said before, I'm a fickle creature, so when it comes time to replace this one I won't have to worry, becasue it didn't cost a cent, and I didn't spend four months making it.

bernie and bernette.

I had a giggle a few weeks ago, when I saw this picture over at the lovely tiny happy! Why do we all seem to have our stuff squeezed onto these ridiculously small tables?!

it's all about me

I was tagged almost (ahem) a month ago by jodi, to write six quirky things about myself. Apparently I'm more slow than quirky, because it's taken me this long to get around to doing it. I did this meme a while back, but I think I can manage a few more random things... 1. I have my husband to thank for much of my fabric stash. He often comes home from work with a bag full of goodness for me, and I get all the credit for having such great fabric.
2. I have an intense fear of sinking ships, shipwrecks, in fact anything that's under the water that shouldn't be. Makes me shudder just thinking about it. Arran thinks it's a past life thing.
3. I also dislike those big tankers that just sit on the horizon, and then turn the other way when you're not looking, like it never actually happened. Sneaky buggers.
4. I can't drive a manual car. I just don't see the point.
5. All three of our boys were born with one blocked tear duct. Fin's cleared up after a year, willow's only took a couple of months, and jasper's took about seven months. They all had green gungy stuff in the eye constantly, and everyone always thought they had conjunctivitis, and I was constantly explaining what it was. When fin was a baby, I had doctors trying to tell me that it would need to be operated on to clear it, but we patiently waited for a year and it went away by itself, and so it did with willow and jasper as well, so if there's one little bit of advice I can pass on, it's that these things really can fix themselves without intervention.
6. I give the impression of being someone who doesn't swear a lot, but in actual fact, I'm just a gutter mouth. I've had to curb my swearing quite a bit lately, as one middle-sized child has become quite fond of it, but I do still swear when I'm driving. Can't help it. I especially hate it when I'm trying to do a reverse park in the main street and a car drives right up behind me so I can't get in. Hate that.

Now, let's see, who to tag?
How about leah, fi, rach, julie, and anyone else who's interested. Oh yeah, the rules:
1) Link to the person who tagged you
2) Mention the rules
3) Tell six quirky yet boring, unspectacular details about yourself
4) Tag six other bloggers by linking to them
5) Go to each person’s blog and leave a comment that lets them know they’ve been tagged

happy...

anniversary baby! Today was our second wedding anniversary, and we had a really special day together, enjoying the spring sunshine and reminiscing over the things that have happened over the past couple of years. We decided last year that we would do the traditional gift thing, because it's quirky and fun, and we like that.My gift was "ada", from mamasita, isn't she wonderful. I can tell you, the mister scored some mega brownie points for this one. I just have to hide her from the kids...she's all mine!
since the category fell well within the hazyjane realm this year, I felt it was high time I rocked up something big for my man, who is always spoiling me so much, so I made him a surfboard cover, something which he has been hinting at for a long time now, and which I have been tactfully avoiding because of the sheer scale of the job. And you know what, it wasn't nearly as difficult as I had imagined. The appliqued design is loosely based on the board he built a few years ago, and that part was what took the longest. (well, obviously). The cover itself is made from some vintage suiting, padded with wadding and lined with vintage sheeting (of course). As he pointed out upon inspection this morning, he could sleep in the thing.
We had a really lovely day. We divided the boys amonst the grandparents this morning and went out for brunch at our favourite local place, which was divine, and realised that it was the first time we have been out sans enfant since the arrival of jasper. Nearly ten months and we haven't been out alone together, it felt weird and wonderful, and after an hour and a half I was ready to come back to them all!
I like the anniversary, it feels kind of like a birthday, a day where you get presents, and you can eat cake for breakfast if you want to and do fun stuff all day with the people you love, and drink champagne in the afternoon just because. Yes, I do like that.

weeee jasper

oh yeah, about that funny little road trip. Sorry , got a bit side-tracked there by a baby with a temperature.

Ever since I decided I liked the name "jasper", which, incidentally, has been a long time, I just had to wait until I had my third boy before I was actually able to use it, I have wanted to visit wee jasper. I had a vague idea that this magical sounding town was somewhere in south western nsw, but never really paid much attention to it's actual whereabouts.

So, on the sunday, we drive out to the second day of skate board action at mt. stromlo, which is to the west of canberra, and I promptly drop off the boys and head off in search of a coffee. No mean feat in the outer reaches of canberra, I can tell you. Anyway, I manage to find a suitable coffee house and, feeling much refreshed, head back to the family. And halfway back to them, what do I see, but a road sign saying "wee jasper, 72". I tell you, it was like finding the holy grail. 72 km isn't that far, right? I mean, it won't take that long, right? So, I get back to the boys, all excited, because we're going to see wee jasper, after all this time, and I pile them into the car, and off we go. after driving for what seemed like an hour, we came to a sign saying "wee jasper, 55". Oh, so it's a bit further than I thought. That's ok, the day is yet young. Then the road turns to dirt. Then we come to the mountains, the mountains with no guard rail that is, and then, just when I think we must surely be there, we come to a sign that says "wee jasper, 27". "Another #%*!ing 27km", I exclaim, where the hell is this place, in victoria? By this time, the wee man himself has decided he doesn't really want to see his namesake after all, and he wants out of the car, now. So, another 20 minutes or so go by, and finally we come to the above sign. Needless to say, I have to feed the babe to console him, and while I am doing this, the willow decides to go for a bit of a rock climb. Of course, he gets stuck halfway up, and I order the fin to go after him, and just as he is reaching out his hand to help the brother in need, he looks down and discovers that the entire cutting is made up of fossils.
so, the boys are now in fossil hunting heaven, the baby is happy and content once again (at least until I try to put him back in the car seat), and I have my much sought-after wee jasper photo. After a few celebratory snakes and a drink of water, we pile back into the car, turn around and brace ourselves for the return trip, which I must say, did not seem to take nearly as long, especially with some fun music to keep us going. Even saw my latest dream home on the way back.

I must say, I'm so glad I bothered to take this little road trip. It's good to get out of one's comfort zone every now and again.

home again

yeah, we're back, it's just taken me a few days to catch my breath. Still not sure I have, really. Canberra was good. Actually, far better than I imagined it would be. I was really close to not going on friday...the main reason for the trip was a skateboarding thingy, the details of which I won't go into here, because I'm not really all that up on the lingo, and as excited as I was about attending that little soiree, I thought I might just let the mister take the biggest boy off on a boy's weekend. But, we do like to do things as a family, so I dragged myself down there, and ended up having a great weekend. Watched a bit of crazy skateboarding, which, I have to admit, was pretty impressive, and saw a few of the sights as well.
it's hard to fit too much into two and a half days, with three children in tow, but we did manage to visit the national museum, questacon, and do a couple of drive-by's of parliament house and the war memorial. I know we are very slack parents for not actually stopping at these very important places, but we did make a point of explaining to the kids what they were all about, and quite frankly, after about the fifty seventh back arch from banana-boy jasper, I was all for staying in the car once we were in it. I did also take the three amigos on a funny little road trip on sunday, I'll be back with details of that one...

swimming

the last couple of days have been stinkers and we were forced to spend our afternoons doing this. Tough, I know. We're off on a little adventure tomorrw, to canberra. I think this may just be the first holiday we've ever been on where there are no surfboards on the roof racks. There are, however, three skateboards in the back of my car. I'll be back next week with a full report. Have a great weekend!

loving

these feet, that went for their first ever swim today;
this smile, that renders me useless when I try and get mad with him. Today we were pigling bland, and off to market we went;
these hands, that take so much care with the words they write and the pictures they draw. Oh how I love these boys.

stacking

today I found myself with a rare couple of hours to myself. Fin is doing a tennis camp for the week at our local courts, mum took willow for a while and jasper finally gave in and had a little siesta, so I set about tidying up some of my fabric stash which had become a little, shall we say, dishevelled. It's one of those jobs that seems just too huge to even think about, especially with now crawling baby in tow, but once I got started, I actually found it very therapeutic. I found so many pieces that I had frogotten about, and I now have a mind full of projects for the summer. Hopefully I'll actually get around to bringing some of them to frution. For this task, I needed three milky ways (the little ones) for sustenance, and my chosen musical accompaniment today was catpower, you are free. An oldie, but such a goodie.
And just in case you were thinking "she doesn't really have that much fabric", there's also this,
a very tall chest of drawers that is also full, and two or three suitcases as well. I must say, it is nice to have options. Many options.