more good stuff

went for a walk in the sunshine today, to the shops with mum, and dropped into the local vinnies as we always do, and scored the above loot. Apparently I am doing something right lately and the vinnies gods are smiling upon me. (Or would that just be St. Vincent himself? hmmn). Just the other day I was giving my very thrifty mister instructions to find me some red fabric, because it seems to be very hard to come by, and lo and behold, I walk into the local and there are two lovely specimens just waiting for me. You gotta love that. Also, a knitted school cardi I took a punt on for the willow, which he surprisingly loved and wore immediately, and says he will wear to school, as the school jumper hasn't been a big hit. Not cold enough yet, I guess.

Oh, and we're doing this now:
and also this:
I do apologise for that blinding light in the top right hand corner, but it was a bit hard getting him in the shot with all that new-found bounciness.

a pleasant day

finally had a good day today after a few ordinary ones (won't go into too much detail here, except to say that there was a dissatisfied ebay customer with very poor communication skills involved, amongst other things). Rearranged the kitchen successfully this morning whilst the baby slept, and then reluctantly had to go to the shops for nappies and other necessary supplies. On my way out the door, glanced at the rather large bag of stuff to go to the oppy, which has been sitting there for some weeks, and decided that I would in fact take it there on my way, as I'm a little tired of looking at it. I tend to have these big clean outs and get rid of things that we don't use or are sick of, and put them all in a big bag in the front room, where they inevitably stay for weeks, or even months until I finally get sick of looking at them and actually get rid of them. Does anyone else do that?
Anyhoo, since we were at the oppy anyways, we had a little look, as we often do, and found the very thing I was about to have to go and buy brand new, a size 0 bonds suit. Would you believe that when fin was a baby I didn't know about the tucky-in hand cuffs? That is one clever idea. Also found these very groovy pants, mmm, velour! After that we went to the big scary shopping centre and found a "parents with prams" park right outside the front door. What are the chances of that? All in all, nothing outstandingly marvelous happened today, but things went smoothly, and smooth is what I like.
in other good news, this lovely book arrived in the post for me last week, and I've been quietly devouring snippets of it mainly while feeding jasper, which seems fairly appropriate I guess. I'm really enjoying this one, just for the simple fact that it inspires me and has reminded me of some everyday things we can do as a family to make life more interesting (although I'm not sure we really needed much help in that department!). And guess what, it's a signed copy!! I did consider pre-ordering this one when that option became available last year, but that was never really going to happen, because I always forget to do these things. So, when I saw it in her shop recently, I went ahead and bought it. Well, actually to tell the truth, I told the mr to buy it, for mothers day. So, I guess good things really do come to those who wait.

my corner

another week's gone by, and although it's been a rather busy and fun-filled week, this little photo is all I have to share today. This little corner, where I'm sitting quietly tonight, after a late one last night. We (as in mr.arran, myself and the jasper) went to see that most luscious of bands, the audreys at lizottes, a great little restaurant not far from us, which manages to pull some really great gigs. It was dinner and the show, oh how civilised to sit at a table and be entertained whilst sipping away at my one glass of wine (designated breast-feeding driver). Well, that was the plan anyway. That was what everyone else got to do (they with many more glasses of wine). I spent most of my time settling the baby, who clearly didn't think it was a great idea to be out at night with only a sling for a bed. He managed to go to sleep long enough for me to eat my dinner, which had to be cut up for me by the mr, as it's hard to use a knife and fork with your arms full of baby, and we joked that we would be doing that for each other when we're 80...how romantic. After missing most of the support, j walker from machine translations, who I might add was most wonderful, I finally realised that I could in fact stand at the bar, behind everyone, and have a clear view of the band and also be able to gently rock my babe to sleep. And it was in this way that we managed to turn a near disastrous evening out into a perfectly enjoyable one, and one we'll remember for a while. Here's some pics hot off the press from the photographer.

Those audreys, oh my.

slowly, slowly

this little guy just made his way over to etsy...should be joined by some friends very soon.

birthday boots

so here's the shoes I bought myself for the birthday...campers. Oh my, what a seriously fun pair of shoes. For anyone who knows anything about campers, yes, I will be paying these off for the better part of winter, but boy are they worth it. The thing you need to realise about me is that it's all about the shoes. Have I mentioned this before? I like clothes and I kinda like jewellery, but I don't tend to go nutty over a good skirt or a pair of earrings in the same way I do with shoes. I first saw these in a little shoe shop in bangalow on our north coast oddysey. Sadly they weren't in my size, so that was the end of it. Well, that should have been the end of it. But no, I get back in the car and before you know it, I'm gazing out the window, picturing my little (although not little enough for the ones in bangalow) feet sporting a pair of these babies, and here we have the beginning of a shoe obsession. There was no rest to be had until I had said shoes in my posession. And, needless to say, I had them within the week. All the way from new zealand, no less. The last pair in the southern hemisphere, maybe. Now, I know how ridiculous this situation is, and I know what a fickle creature I am, considering what's actually going on in the world as we speak. All I can say is, life is too short for boring shoes.

happy birthday dear us

today was the "royal birthday", as it's become known around here. For anyone who doesn't know, arran and I share the same birthday...a fact which was kinda cute for the first few years we were together, but now is wearing a bit thin. It just occurred to me today that we've probably subjected ourselves to a lifetime of joint presents from our kids. They had the mothers day stall at school today, and there was also a bit of mothers day craft going on, and I think willow may have become a little confused with the whole thing and given me my mothers day present for my birthday. Who can expect a five year old to differentiate between a birthday and mother's day? After all, I'm a mother and it's my birthday. I think he may still have something up his sleeve, though, which he was trying very hard to keep a secret on the way home from school...apparently it's really special, because you can use it again and again, and you have to light it with a match. Hmm, wonder what it could be???
We are displaying quite an interest in matches and candles lately, now that we are five. It's funny how you forget how much development happens in six months at this age. Last winter he barely showed an interest in the lighting of the fire, yet this year he's getting the match out of the box for me and helping me to get the fire going. (I must add here that we are very wary of young children handling matches and so forth...but I am of the opinion that children must learn about these things rather than not be allowed to touch them).
Anyway, this has the potential to turn into one of my ramblings, so I'll leave off with some of the things I've loved about my birthday::
getting to spend the day with my partner-in-birthdays, and what a yummy sunny day it was,
my birthday shoes (sorry, no photos yet),
birthday vouchers for massages and/or pampering (thanks mum and ana!)
finding a whole lot of flowery loveliness on my back table this morning from all of my loves, dogs included, which will tomorrow make they're way into my newly refreshed vege garden,
a perfectly well-behaved baby during a perfectly lovely birthday lunch and also a sleeping baby during an evening with friends, oh you've gotta love that,
one or two or four glasses of bubbly,
sharing my birthday with my best friend, even if it does mean that I don't get to be the centre of attention... I hear that can be over-rated anyway.

hmmpff

sorry for my absence last week, I had every intention of blogging regularly when we came back from holidays, but as usual, that only lasted momentarily. It seems that my pre-pregnancy hormones have returned now that the little man is four months old, if you catch my drift, and I've been feeling pretty low the last few days. Nothing major, just a bit flat. Little things are niggling at me, things that really shouldn't, like gyroscope suddenly appearing on my husband's random playlist at 9.30 pm, when all I really would like is a little bit of nick drake. Gyroscope for christ's sake, what is he, 15 years old? I'm all for staying young at heart, but not when it involves screaming young-boy bands. Oh, I'm so gonna be in trouble for this one.

the thing about my hormones is that they usually cause me to become totally dissatisfied with my surroundings, and I generally can't rest until I've changed something. Over the past three days, I have completely rearranged our lounge room, I've moved the boys' beds back into the same room, at their request, and created a "play room" for them in what was fin's room. The whole place looked like a bomb had hit it (actually, parts of it still do). But, I feel much better, the house feels much better (and cleaner, I vacuumed as I went), and everyone's happy. Well, almost, I still have our bedroom to go...

p.s.the funny photo of jasper was taken the other day, he's wearing a very cute jacket made for him by a dear friend. As you can see, I'm having trouble finding things that will actually fit his well-rounded head!