Late Nights, Hot Weather and a return to School!!

Just another late night up doing some sewing! It seems to be a bit of a habit lately. Unfortunately I fell asleep on the couch watching "The Jackal" and after I woke up, of course I was wide awake - so what else is there to do but sew! I have another market on 13 February so I need to do alot more sewing in the next two weeks to have some stock to take with me! The picture along with this post is some gorgeous dolls that I have made this week from the Bit of Whimsy pattern, 'Mae'. Isn't she so cute. And of course there is 'John' in there with the girls, another Bit of Whimsy Pattern, who is also adorable!

The weather is heating up here this week, just in time for school to return. It was 37 today and tomorrow is forecast to be 42 - YUCK! I love living in Adelaide, but I hate the hot summers. And I hate it even more that it is just in time for us to go back to school, when we are in and out of the car during the day, struggling with the heat!

As much as I love my children, they have driven me a bit crazy these holidays (whose idea was 7 weeks of holidays!!!!) and I am really looking forward to them going back to school. Of course, part of me feels a bit sad because Georgia is heading off to High School this year and that makes me sad that she is growing up so quickly!!! My little girl isn't so little anymore! Instead she is growing into a beautiful young woman, of whom I am immensly proud of and love to bits (as I do with all my children!). So a new chapter starts in our lives in two days, not sure how i will juggle it with two drop offs and pick ups each day, but we will get there!

Just have to get through the next couple of days of this disgusting weather now!

Oh my gosh - 4 months since my last post!!!

Okay, I know that it has been AGES since my last blog - yes I have been slack!! I started making soctk monkeys before christmas and they have just gone nuts, I was absolutely gobsmacked with how popular they were. So everything else took a backseat (yes, you should have seen my house!!!) and I was flat out making monkeys! I am so thankful to everyone who has ordered one from me and I love making them and now I am trying different animals which I am hoping to have for sale later this year.

Over the past week, as with the rest of the world, I have been absolutely devastated by the footage of the floods in Queensland. What a horrific and terrifying experience that so many people have suffered and my heart and prayers are with the victims and their families. It is so important that those of us who haven't been affected by these floods do all we can to help and what is needed most now is donations to the Queensland Flood Appeal.

I want to do everything I can to help and to encourage othes to do the same, so I am going to offer a GIVEAWAY through my blog! This is a giveaway with a twist, for anyone that makes a $5 donation to the appeal, leave a comment with your receipt number and you will go into a random draw for a large rainbow sock monkey! You can enter as many times as you make an extra donation.

Here is the link to the appeal: http://www.qld.gov.au/floods/

Please give all you can, the recovery process in queensland is going to be a long hard journey and they need all the assistance they can!

I will be doing the random draw on Friday 20 January at 8pm so be sure to get your entry in before then.

My most favourite time of the year

Outside of our back window, is my favourite garden bed.



I love it in Spring when the trees blossom and the bulbs start coming through.



It has been sadly a bit neglected this year but surprisingly enough it has still come through looking beautiful.



I love to sit in my lounge and look out at it. I love when I walk through the front door from being out that it looks so beautiful when I walk down the hallway.




I wish our whole garden could look this nice!


This garden makes me happy - I love spring!

Trying to stay above water

Well, it is back. The familiar signs of that empty hoplessness have raised their ugly head again. I am pretty sure that I am suffering from PND. After suffering depression before the signs are fairly easy to pick, and I have noticed them getting gradually worse over the last few weeks. So I am off to the GP tomorrow to talk about going back on meds, not ideal but I don't want it to get any worse.

Hopefully this will help me get back on track, back onto craft and back into my blog! Stick around, this little black duck will be swimming away again in no time!

Just too cute!!! Awwww.......

Just couldn't resist! How cute is our little man in his superman suit?? Just absolutely too adorable (okay I might be biased!)

I know that I haven't been keeping up my promise but it has been hectic here. And I have been spending wayy too much time reading other peoples fantastic blogs and feeling jealous whilst ignoring mine!

Honestly I have been blown away by some of the wonderful blogs which I read and the talented women in this world. So many wonderful mums out there working from home and creating amazing things to make this world a lovelier place to be in!

One day, maybe I can find my thing and use it to contribute towards the household. As much as I love my felt things, they just don't make any money and even though I do it for the love of it, it would be awesome to be able to find my own thing that I could earn a living from! Just need to find 'IT'!

For now, the nightly routines need to start, folding washing, hanging washing, loading the dishwasher and getting school stuff ready for the morning!

Night xxx

LIfe can be a puzzle!

A few weeks ago I was listening to the radio when I was out and about doing things and there was an interview with Susan Maushart who wrote a book called 'The Winter of our Disconnect'. Basically for 6 months her family took a hiatus from everything digital and electronic, the phone, internet, tv, handheld games, you name it, they got rid of it! It was amazing to hear her talk about how even her teenage children learnt the beauty of having less technology around and had me craving for the same thing. I am so sick of constantly telling the kids to step away from the tv, get off the internet, turn of their DS's and basically learn to 'play' again!. Well the arrival of Grandma Joy has definately helped my cause. Not only are they loving playing with their Grandma (or showing off to her!) but she arrived bearing gifts. Pick up Sticks, Marbles, Cards and Puzzles have been such a hit in the house. All of the kids have been playing games which don't involve electricity and it has been fantastic. I think they are even enjoying it too! Unfortunately the internet is still getting a bit too much of a work out but in general they are doing some other activities too. This puzzle is our second to be undertaken since Joy's arrival and it still remains incomplete, but it is getting there slowly.

Sometimes the most simple things can be the most fun and I am glad that the kids have gotten to see that you can play fun games that aren't electronic! I don't think I could ever give it all up completely but less time wasted on these types of things would be wonderful - well a girl can dream can't she?

Reconnecting!

I realised today that it was time to start reconnecting to a few things in my life. My blog being one of them. I have spent alot of time lately whilst feeding my darling boy Finn reading other peoples blogs and marvelling at how committed and dedicated they are to updating them, something that I have lacked lately. So, I am making a new promise to myself that I will be blogging at least twice a week, hey it will be a great way to reflect on what I am doing and what I have done. God knows I need to slow down and start paying attention to what is going on in my life, each day is just flying by and weeks are becoming blurs. My gorgeous little boy is already 3 months old and I cannot even begin to fathom where that time is gone! So I am committing to doing this more often.



It has also been time to reconnect with family. My lovely Mother In Law is staying with us and reconnecting with the kids again. Sadly she lost her husband to cancer in April, so for her it has been a hard time, but I hope that spending some time with the children and meeting her latest grandchild has helped a bit. It has been lovely catching up with her again and the kids are revelling in her attention! (the cry of "Grandma Joy, come and see this" rings out every few minutes at the moment!). Because she is here we have had the opportunity to catch up with other loved ones in our lives that we don't see very often and it has been lovely to see their latest additions and how their older children have grown.

I also had the chance to reconnect with my sister in law today when she rang me from Darwin. My Brother and Sister in Law moved up there last week with their two little girls to start his first posting with the ADF! Feels so strange to have my long time confidant and friend away, thank god for technology as I know she is only a phone call away, but it still isn't the same. However for them this is a chance to reconnect as a family as my brother has been away at training for 9 months and now they are finally back together as a family. I hope that they are relishing every minute together!

Lately I realised I had underestimated again the impact that a new baby has on the family. Finn is a pretty good little man but still a 3 month old baby that loves his mumma. So craft just isn't really happening much here lately and I swear this little man has a craft radar so as soon as I pull something out to start on he wakes up or gets fussy and wants his mum to hold him!!! I am finding it a bit stressful to complete felt food right now so after I complete my current orders I have decided to take a step back and just do some things for myself. I have so much that I want to get done for the kids and am just not finding the time. I also have so many things that are half finished and want to complete them all so that I can safely begin something new! It is time for me to reconnect to my craft again and for doing it for the love of it rather than by request! Probably not great for establishing my business but I just cannot juggle everything at once!

It is also time for me to reconnect to budgeting and home care again. I need to get my life back in order, I think being so tired during my pregnancy gave me an excuse to not worry about all of this and now that I have had the baby I really need to get things back in order. This goes for my running as well, however with Darrian being soo busy it is making life hard and it isn't quite so fun to run on the treadmill as when you go out around the neighbourhood with the ipod plugged in and immerse yourself in tunes! If only I didn't remember how much work it was to train and get to a point where running was just fun rather than hard work! I am sure I will get there eventually!

And now it is time for me to reconnect to my bed. Way too late for me to be up and tomorrow we are out with the kids - as much as school holidays are doing my head in, I know I will miss them when they go back.

I promise I will be back sooner rather than later!