hot chocolate...

Hot chocolate 

hide & seek

and story telling by Pearl

in the forest 

on an icy day

x

on the weekend.....

We held a birthday party for Dave's Mama and a surprise party for a friend (who ended up coming through the back door and surprising us!) and then on Sunday just a jump over the steam train track and under the bridge to the "Little Weirdo's Picnic" at lot 19, the Art studio/gallery space/cafe etc love child of (furniture maker )Mark Anstey.
We loved it all from the antique wind-up gramaphone DJ to the "Itchy Scabs" punk rock for 10 year olds with songs about Dinosaurs and how you think that maybe your Baby Brother is from Outer Space.
It was all by donation and so many people put so much love in to create such goodness on an otherwise freezing Sunday.
Even through a haze of Flu delerium I still had lot's of fun, but by Sunday afternoon i admitted I was done and retreated to bed.

A slightly mystical birthday wish

Sunday morn lego session

the beautiful exhibition space at lot 19 

blurry butterfly tiger Pearl

x

                                                                              So these are the little dollies we have been sewing and painting. The cardboard is a good thickness for teaching sewing on as well as other thicker art papers(they can keep their little fingers on the edge and manoeuvre from there) while mastering the pedal.

We've also been busy making Art for Nana Beth's Birthday (Dave's Mama)and getting ready for her Birthday Party as well as a friends surprise party, which is why our kitchen has lounges in it and the lounge room is bare ready for dancing.

I'm still sick so will be making lot's of spicy warm orange juice and curry to get me through.

x

 

winter transitions

We have all been a bit ridiculously sick with the Flu.

It's a doozy! and a few -2 degree nights haven't helped. 

I've been guzzling a red clover,thyme,liquorice root,echinacea tonic and Dave has been making some very awesome hearty soups to get us through it.

The bath has been our sanctuary with a steamer filled with eucalyptus,thyme and lemon myrtle.Pearl has been making her own mix to put in the bath of Daisy's,Rosemary,Lavender and potato vine.

Pearl says pretty flowers in your bath make you forget you're sick...Oh bless x

Amongst all of this i have been working on Photography for a local dance schools website and designing and making insect costumes for a(different dance school)dance performance later in the year.

Oli & Pearl at dance class with the lovely Miss Kate

I moved my sewing machine onto the kitchen table and it was so special to share the process of designing and making with Oli & Pearl (I think they were somewhat subdued by the flu and so more open to quietly observing and tinkering). I realised part way through that my Mum always sewed on our dining room table and how i loved watching her placing out the pattern, pinning, cutting and making my clothes. So i went and grabbed one of her scarfs for my hair and sent a thank you out in to the universe to her for having such patience with me as a little one during all her sewing and creating(because really it can get pretty crazy with the whole children, electric moving needle, fabric, scissors, pins etc combo). I haven't taken any photo's yet to share but we had some plain white paper dolls and Oli thought of sewing on them...it was a great idea! They looked so beautiful and then we painted on to them. Photo's soon...

So winter is coming and the frost has killed most of our vegie/herb/flower garden.It was our "Bloom where you're planted garden", we thought our time at our house may be 6 months or so but we decided to put lot's of love into it anyway. I'm glad we did.

then the frost came

Pearl watering our once humungous pumpkin patch from the garden shed

 This signals a big transition we are about to undertake.

 We are moving in to a friends tiny cottage that sits at the back of her garden.

Here it is....Oh so tiny!

We lived in the main house last year, Oli & Pearl are good friends with her beautiful daughter and we thought it would be nice to live more communally during these really cold months. They will be in the front house and between us is a garden and outdoor room with pot belly stove that we will share as well as the chickens, Guinea pigs and our dog Ginkgo.

Adventures to come I'm sure.

I hope the beginnings of winter are treating you gently and a big thank you to all those beautiful blogs out there, you give me such inspiration and fill my days with such beauty!

Thank You.

x

the botanical gardens

We have ourselves here in this lovely little town a very old and beautiful Botanical Gardens. Last year after 10 years of drought, the rains came and filled the gardens with an Ocean of water. Some of the very old (100 years +)big trees just fell down.

It was so sad to see these beauties laying the wrong way on the Earth.

We explored them and when they cut some of them up we counted their rings to see how old they were.

The smaller tree's and branches were used to make a new children's playground. 

We watched and waited for many months while so much love went into making the playground with sculptures to honour the trees that had fallen. 

Yesterday we played there, blissed out in the exquisite Autumn and

Oli, Pearl and friends explored all their secret worlds where the pixies live.

I relished the last moments of sunshine before winter kicks in as well as my found gifts from Oli & Pearl of Pomegranate's and duck feathers.

We can feel the icy wind from the mountains today and are preparing for time spent indoors and are madly felting for the making of snuggly outdoor coats for winter exploration.