so this little boy turned one yesterday. One whole year, where did that go? Of course, a celebration was had...we being people who will celebrate almost anything. We have been known to throw a party for the opening of a room. 
on each of our kids' first birthdays, we have had a party in their honour, for which the guests have had to dress up as something beginning with the first letter of the kids' name. And so we have had an "f" party, a "w" party, and now a "j" party. Oh, so much fun. We had everything from j-lo to to julius caesar, a jellyfish and a jolly swagman, and even a jack-in-the-box. I was jemima, and dad took it as yet another opportunity to let out his inner bogan and dressed as joe dirt. So funny.
a good time was had, and at the end of it all, there was nothing else to do but this. He may be a big one year old now, but booby is still his best friend.
and some matchy sets for some christmassing cousins. 
also made this little stocking for a certain little boy who will be joining us for christmas this year. Oh, so exciting. Can you see that fabric on top? It has squirrels, trees, mushrooms and birds. Now, that's just about all of my favourite things all together at once. That makes me very happy. It's a piece of japanese craft fabric, my current obsession. There have been a few etsy and ebay purchases lately, and I am building quite a nice little stash. The thing I like about these (apart from the obvious ridiculous cuteness), is that I can only justify buying fat quarters of the stuff because it's so darn expensive to buy here, so, a. it's very easy to store, and b. I am only using it for very cute little projects that only require small amounts of the stuff. But you know, the truth is, I would be quite happy to just keep it in a neat little stack on my desk and just look at it all day, without ever doing anything with it.
happy to you. (that was the message on the bag some of it came in. Ah, the sweetness).
yes, the holiday was just as holidays should be, albeit without the late sleep-ins and room service. Yeah, could have done with a bit more of that. Jasper decided that being away from one's own little bed is not a good thing, what is this porta-cot thing anyway? It shakes when I move and I can't crawl around in it like I can in my real bed. Will somebody please wake up and get me out of this thing. Now. That's kind of how it went, every night. And then up with the kookaburras, who conveniently sat outside our bedroom window and had their morning cackle at sparrow's fart. I thought it was nice being awake that early on the first morning, it felt kind of invigorating, but as the week wore on, the novelty wore off and it became more...aggravating. Still, we managed to fit a lot in with the days being that long.
even spotted a suitable farmhouse on the way home. Not a great picture, but you get the idea, right? And there is that flame tree. I do love a good flame tree, one that decides to flower and just does it. We have one out the front of our house which is quite big, but is showing no signs of flowering, not even one measly little flower on some high up, obscure little branch. But I know it will flower one day, and when it does, I'll be there, and there will be a celebration, because a flame tree in flower is one of the truly beautiful things in life, and oh dear, I just got carried away, didn't I. I'll be back soon with some craft...there's been lots of that since I got back. xx
