{weekending}

A few snippets from our weekend:

There was sunshine and rain clouds
There was laughter and tears
There were tantrums and dancing.

Our dear friends came for lunch, and stayed all afternoon.
The second-hand ride-on-mower we have been waiting for arrived. Now the jungle out there looks like a proper lawn (and Sam is enjoying the mowing job!).

I have been enjoying the sunshine, and the way it is slipping into our home in new ways as the Earth shifts, and the Autumn light changes direction.
I have been inspired by this intense colourway (above), of a page from a current read combined with a flower picked from a neglected garden along our road. {The owner - our bus driver when we were in primary school- of the garden died last year, and no-one has moved into the home. His garden blooms on.}
I made hummous after reading Kate's adventures at mid-night on Friday. (The dried chickpeas were put on to soak at mid-night, the making of was left until the next day).
We made popcorn, and gnocchi. And enjoyed brownies made by friends.

I did no stitching on my poncho, but it is patiently sitting waiting for the few moments I have to work on it. And boy does it make me happy knowing it's sitting there waiting.

What did you get up to this weekend?
I hope you had sunshine, and saw Spring time blooms, or Autumn leaves.
I hope you had some creativity - be that making a salad, stitching some fabric, drawing lines along a page, styling a shelf, taking a photograph, or simply enjoying the art of tea and conversation.

Here's to a wonderful new week my friends,
Ellie xxx

{sun}day-ing

What glorious sunshine. So good. It warms the soul and lifts the spirits.

I can't believe how much I love love love these sun images. I took them from the moving car (it's okay - I was the passenger!), with the full afternoon sun streaming through. The trees cut the sun into slivers of shafts of light. The iphone works for some things like that as the camera is so slow at taking photos (often I miss the shot I'm after due to the slow shutter speed), but it worked so well in this instance. I want to print some of these - once we have a wall to put artworks and such on!

Of course there was some crochet work happening. I am working on a small collection of these - planning (perhaps) to sell some. What do you think?

Also - my 10 things I love for this Sunday at up on the Hey Maker! blog if you want to check it out.

it's sunday :: around about

Life in snippets at the moment. Dreaming of other places, and different things, and wishes and hopes. Living in the now is sometimes hard.

+ It's raining here. Lots and lots of rain. Creeks overflowing and bridges being flooded sort of rain.
+ The kids start back at school tomorrow - I'm feeling sad about that, also can't wait for it. Little Mishi will be starting kindy on Thursday. That little one in a school uniform - eeek... And the boy - he's moving up to year 2; that's big isn't it.
+ I haven't sat at my sewing machine for much much too long. I'm really missing her - but not having the thought process for that at the moment. Hoping it will return in a week or so.....
+ I have been crocheting, which is so so good. I'm slowly working on a make-up-as-i-go string shopping bag. We'll see how it works out. if it works I'll try to write a pattern, as I'll be making more. due to being flooded in, I have almost run out of yarn rations! that's bad isn't it....
+ I'm still totally addicted to and enjoying Instagram. But it's not an addiction that I'm embarrassed about - it's a good thing. I know. I'm enjoying the process of stopping to think and plan and style a photo - I wouldn't be getting out my big camera to take photos of my breakfast, so it's good that I am.
+ My sister gave me this so so good book. I'm planning on making dress C and top L, but think it might need to involve some fabric buying.....
+ Sam + I have been watching season one of 'six feet under' from the library. I really want to see 'mad men', but haven't yet found it at the library. What are you watching, enjoying?
+ The boy took an excellent, so so excellent, video of visiting the over-flowing dam the other day. But my annoying, slow, country internet won't let me share it with you. And I so want to share it.
+ The girl sang me a sweet song yesterday about how she loves mummy. I tickled her sweet still baby puffed tummy.
+ I'm slowly working on re-jigging my blog, new header and all. Come over and have a look (if you read this in a reader or some such - which I really know nothing about. I like visiting people's whole house - blog - rather than just one part.)

Hope you are enjoying your weekend. Tell me, what did you do..... xxx

it's Sunday, and I am ::

+ eating watermelon
+ finishing another crochet rock - a big one to use as a door stop
+ crocheting old t-shirts into a kitchen floor rug, slowly slowly
+ enjoying the quiet stillness after my family rushed out the door (for the local second-hand market)
+ thinking and sending love to my dear friend.sister
+ planning photo shoots with our newest cushion collection
+ enjoying the sunshine - perhaps a visit to my grandma + the beach this afternoon
+ packing the swimming bags for the week long swimming lessons that start at 9am tomorrow (eeekkkk chlorine......)

what are you doing my dear friends xxxxxx

important things to do to remind yourself you're still a girl

> Give your man a really big, long smooch goodbye (cause he's taking the kids away for the weekend, and cause giving your man a big, long smooch is a good thing to do!).
> Pack your basket of things for a night away on your own.
> Remember to include a good book or two to enjoy. And some fresh lemons for your grandma.
> Turn the music up nice and loud.
> Put your sunglasses on. Enjoy the look of the road behind you, in the rearview mirror. And look forward to the road in front with a light heart.

> Drive nice and fast*, with the wind in your hair. Sing as loud as you want, and make sure you tap and bang your fingers on the steering wheel.
> Swing past the post office, in town, just in case there's a nice little treasure for you. (Ooohhh, there is.) Ignore the phone bill that came with it.
> Head on up the coast. Wind, music, sunglasses, mountains all about you. Doesn't the car feel just that little bit lighter without the car seats or the kids.
> Stop off for a dip in the ocean. All on your own. At the best ocean spot in the whole wide entire world. Jump about in the waves for just as long as you want. Feel the sun on your back, as you sit on the sand. All on your own. The sand under your feet as you look for rocks along the water's edge. (Ignore the fact that your body doesn't look exactly the same as it did when you where a girl. Or even a bit younger than you are now....). Wrap your sarong around you, and head on back to the car - don't have to worry about drying/dressing/cleaning sand off any body but yourself.
> Head on further up the coast, just a little bit. To your grandma's house. Visiting your grandma is a good thing to do. You still feel like a girl, even though you are the one now cooking the dinner and cleaning the dishes, compared to her doing it for you when you were a girl.

Being a woman is really really good, of course. But sometimes, being a girl again (of indeterminate age) is really really important.

Enjoy your weekend. I'm staying at my grandma's for just one night, then heading back home for some peace and quiet until the noise arrives back on Sunday afternoon. I'll be lapping up every moment of the quiet that living in the bush brings.

*though of course, not too fast, stick to the speed limit please. One of the good things about country living is those road signs that say 'drive to suit conditions'....

a very nice lunch indeed

 {love how the sunlight came streaming in, just as i was taking this photo. glorious}

now that Mishi goes to preschool three days a week, we have a few times of quiet at home without constant chitter chatter of the little ones.

mostly it seems that between Sam or me, we are running here and there doing things (into town for shopping, picking up our new fireplace, gas hot water system, helping out at preschool rostered days, doing reading with school kids, helping the school kids in their little garden projects, yoga, mowing the large expanses of grass, doing house plans, planting seeds for a Winter garden.........).

but sometimes we've found ourselves quietly settled in our little home, at our lovely wooden dining table*, looking out the window to where our new house will be built.

we found ourselves in just this spot, on Friday. with the house just tidied and swept, the rugs taken outside and beaten, the beds all made, and the warm late Summer sun shining down on our roof.

a simple lunch of toasted bread {as we have no electricity we have no toaster, which means we use a camp toaster over our gas open flame cook top. camp toast tastes so different to machine made toast}, with homemade pesto {more on that later, a lovely saga i'm enjoying}, delicious farm-bought tomatoes, the last of the Parmesan cheese (Australian + vegetarian = no animal rennet), and fresh basil leaves. of course a sprinkling of freshly cracked pepper and pinch of Himalayan pink salt.

combined with the bird calls, the warmth of the sun (we've had a lot of rainy days here), the cicadas, and the scent of the basil. looking at these trees that i am loving more each day.

it really was a very nice lunch indeed.....

{and a few photos of the delicious, juicy lychees we've been nibbling on lately. i'm really loving this spot on the table; lighting our candle for dinner each night,  and adding new flowers, stones, collections to enjoy.}

{this aromatic basil has part of our life for the past few days. lovely lovely}.

 

{camp fire toast..... yum yum}

 

{a corner of our little kitchen}

*we found it under our last house, covered in mud, with an ugly laminate cover that we removed and sanded back to beautiful timber.

happy {rain.wet} sunday

the house is quiet.
sam has taken the kids down the coast, to pick up a friend.
they will be gone for hours.
i wish i could lounge and read and sip tea and listen to music and enjoy the peace of the {relatively} tidy house.

oh no.
i have to head over to the studio. some more printing. and cutting. and packing things up to take to my new machinist this afternoon.

i'd best get off my b.t.m* and get going.

oh. but sitting in the quiet of the still from the rain on a sunday. that's just so good.

i hope you are enjoying your sunday. and if you live near melbourne, you shouldn't be reading this (come back and read tonight!), you should be at finders keepers. say hi to nina if you do happen to go, as she's there with her lovely lovely pieces. 

xx

* b.t.m. is a little line from 'under milkwood' by dylan thomas. i was in a performance of it during my final year at school. except, that we got flooded in at our house during the whole week of the actual performance dates. so i only really did the months and months and months of rehearsals and making costumes and learning lines, and not the one week of lime-light on the stage. oh well.
** images are from the studio. on a sunny day last week. which tea pot shall i use today.