31 July 2009

Three years, two cakes and a tawny frogmouth

So little owlet turned three...She has been an amazing lesson in patience, acceptance and flexibility since before her birth. So many things we thought and did are now quite opposite in our house and I'm so glad for it. She's an amazing little soul. An absolute delight to spend each day with. So naturally, as with any birthday around here, we extended it to a festival. It began with cake.


Honey cake with lemon icing. The lemons were picked by the owlet herself from her own tree in the garden, planted (with her placenta) on her first birthday. Amazingly, the first lemons ripened just in time and the cake was delicious.

So here she is about to open her first present. A dolls house! Unfortunately its not the one I had planned to renovate for her. It was just too big, and it didn't have stairs which are the most important bit when you're three... Oh and life got in the way and I just couldn't bear the thought of working on it in the shed on freezing cold winter nights... *sigh* But gosh she loves the one we picked out for her.


Thankfully someone did handmade - yay Marie!! The skirt is beautiful and twirly. :)


Then a meeting with little owlet's favourite bird, the Tawny Frogmouth. She's been able to identify them since she was two and is really drawn to them. Later we said hello to a cockatoo, who said hello back, and passed her a little eucalyptus branch through the wire on his cage. She held it all the way home...


The day finished with more cake... same cake again because it was just so yum, but this time with a rainbow, candles and animals, as ordered. Happy birthday little one. I'm so looking forward to whatever happens next. xxxx

30 July 2009

My creative space



I'm parenting solo while Huz is in the bush (owlet being a kangaroo, boinging over my head as I type), so my space is minimal this week... only doing bare essentials...

So here's the latest winter skirt and my button bowl, which follows me around. Its fun at markets when people stop by to pick out their faves and we have a chat and wonder who collected so many of these vintage buttons, and for what purpose... Wonder what I'll do when I run out?

More lovely spaces at Kirsty's. Check them out!

28 July 2009

Rainbows, candles and markets...


Busy days here! I have some catching up to do... We're in between owlet birthdays. Rainbows, candles, animals and surprises! More about that later, but for now I'm prepping for Market day again this Sunday. Its at the Masonic temple on Sandy Bay Rd, near the corner of Davey St, between 10am and 3pm. Looking forward to another lovely day... Hope to see you there!

23 July 2009

My creative space


I'm crafting on the go lately. There's lots going on, so it would seem, and I'm feeling a bit quiet and hibernate-y too... So I manage a tiny bit here and there in amongst the kid craft, outings and reflective moments on the lounge. So my knitting is sitting on the mantelpiece waiting for me to pick it up on my way past. Its very plain, but so soft and lovely and so very therapeutic. I have so many other creative things locked in my head right now (I'm dreaming crafty stuff!), and I'm so looking forward to seeing them happen sometime soon...

Pop over to Kirsty's for some inspirational creative spaces.

Dancing shadows...


We're rather enjoying playing with shadows this winter... We've moved on from frost shadows, to shadow puppets and now we're looking at how our shadows move through the day... and I'm loving watching my two little shadows move through their days, from one thing to the next, constantly exploring and learning in their own time. It won't be long before they won't want to be with me, following me, always by my side... so until then, I'm happy to play with them, dance and enjoy them, watch them grow, stretch and move through the days...

18 July 2009

Changes afoot...


Just tiny changes, but we've had some quiet midwinter moments to notice things and make some minor changes around here. So I guess that explains the quiet week...

* There's been some furniture moving, nothing major, but enough to make our nest seem more spacious... and my creative space less cluttered.
* The little owlet has finally relinquished her favourite shoes (pictured above). It took some convincing, but she is three sizes to big for them so it had to happen eventually.
* The big owlet has a wobbly tooth! Her first!! Its the most exciting thing when you are nearly six... Time for me to make a tooth faerie pillow I expect...
* Our noses are less blonky. Yay for quiet moments and clear heads!!

Ok so its time for me to come through with that giveaway I posted so long ago now... It would seem even the owlets are too random to help pick at random, so I have three winners with the help of Random.Org. So... the winners are comments 1, 6 and 9... otherwise known as Cindy, Gina and the women at HIPpy Central Watch those mailboxes peeps!!

(pic taken by the big owlet)

13 July 2009

Old fave...

We're a house full of sickies right now with the inevitable winter cold... or as the little owlet put it, or "special breath is sore" and our "nose is all blonky"... So its snuggly, resty indoor days and we're looking for things to do... Looking up fave vids on youtube has been fun. Here's and extra specially fave oldish music clip by Lambchop. Perfect for a winter morning...

Misty mornings


Dew drops hanging from spider webs like strings of glass beads...


Almost certainly the work of faeries!

My lovely Huz has his say...

Well, SouleMama's loving him at the moment, so I suppose I should too... (yep, seriously, this little vid found its way onto one of my all-time fave blogs! Woot!)I kinda feel funny putting him out here on my blog, like its really personal or something, but his mug's all over the place now, so what the hey?! Its for a good cause!!

So he has a little chat and sings a little song. Go watch!

9 July 2009

My creative space


I feel like I have a little space to think about new things and to look around me this week. A little moment to gather my thoughts a bit... We visited our favourite Japanese fabric shop the other day and I picked up some lovely pieces there that have sparked some ideas. The yarn that has haunted me for months is still featuring in my creative space this week because I have a new idea for it. There's a little reading there for inspiration too. Hooray for quiet moments and looking around!

Look around here for some lovely inspirational creative spaces.

8 July 2009

Me and my shadows


Huz has been away almost a week now and these two little people have been stuck to me like glue every minute of the day... Weeks like these its very easy to imagine what life would be like if the owlets were off at school or daycare like most children in our neighbourhood. What I could do with all that extra time...

Then we wake up to a morning like this and we're rushing to get out into it before the sun melts the frost, rather than rushing to the classroom like the other children we meet in the street as we take our time wandering. We stand with our backs to the sun, making frost shadows like we saw in an Andy Goldsworthy book.

We stop to look at icy puddles that bikes have shattered on their way through. We watch the day take its time and we amble back home for breakfast. We have freedom and time and we enjoy these moments and they make it all worthwhile...

7 July 2009

Mushie Love



My friend Cindy from kiss the birdie knows how popular mushies and fungi are around here... What a lovely surprise to find in the mail!! A tea towel she couldn't bring herself to cut up (and I'm not sure I will either), and a gorgeous ramekin with more mushies! Love them. Thanks Cin!

You can find more evidence of our mushie love in my etsy store. I've just restocked it and added some long sleeved onesies and tees for babies. Some have mushies. There are birds, leaves and trees too. And more skirts, corduroy ones for winter. Yay!

One little thing...

Well Market day was lovely as usual. The atmosphere was warm and friendly which is more than I can say for Hobart weather on Sunday!! The quality of stalls and products out there is quite astounding and intimidating. Have a look over at the market blog for some lovely pics of the day and you'll see what I mean. I was lucky to be sitting next to Under the Shade of a Bonsai Tree aka Pippi Langstrumph. We've met in real life before we met in blogland and have only just put two and two together, but I had a lovely day chatting and getting to know her while eyeing off this lovely bookmark she made...


I've promised myself one little thing at each market and Huz beat me to it, but its lovely. So me, and just what I needed. Bus tickets just weren't cutting it!

1 July 2009

Off to The Market again!


Well I've barely unpacked my case, but I'll be at The Market again this weekend. Its at the Masonic Temple in Sandy Bay road in Hobart between 10am-3pm. Its a really lovely market and some fantastic designers will be selling their wares there.


In the meantime, I'll be head down at the sewing machine adding some new skirts and clips to the collection... Hope to see you Sunday!!

Hello Lovely


I love stopping for a moment every now and then to catch up on my favourite blogs. I did just that the other day and discovered that I'd been nominated for not one, but TWO lovely blog awards!! Gosh, wow, me? Really??!! I'm awfully flattered :) This blog fulfills so many purposes for me... Keeping in touch with friends and family, recording our home educating adventures, encouraging me to keep making stuff... and meeting lovely people. So the rule in accepting these awards is that I pass them on.

The first award was given to me by Lucy who I've been lucky to stumble across playing My Creative Space. Its for 6 newly discovered blogs so here are six lovely blogs I've stumbled across recently...

Greedy For Colour
Hugo & Elsa
The Bird Bath
Under the Shade of a Bonsai Tree
Edward and Lilly
Long Ago Tales

The second award is from Bec (who has a brilliant blog I'm really enjoying and would be on this list if I hadn't already just linked it!). This one is for my fifteen current faves, so here they are...

5 Orange Potatoes
Clutterpunk
Cheeky Beaks
kirin notebook
luckybeans
wisecraft
meet me at mikes
kiss the birdie
Her Library Adventures
Three Buttons
orange you lucky!
SouleMama
this inspired life
STARASHAN
NIKKI-SHELL

Happy Reading!

Dear Nicola...

Pinch and a punch for the first of the month! Putting on a political hat for today, so excuse the break in regular programming. Did you know that in exactly one year from today it will be illegal to have a homebirth with an independent midwife in attendance? Do you know why? Because the Australian government has just passed down a draft legislation which will make it illegal to work uninsured and independent midwives are not covered by insurance or medicare. Pretty dumb huh? It seems so to me, Swayer and our owlets. We'll be attending a rally in Canberra in September to try and get our voices across. Tricky to do when you are a minority, but as this issue is about more than just homebirth, but a woman's right to make an informed choice over where she births and who is there, it involves everyone. I'm hoping we can make a difference so that when our owlets are feathering their own nests, they can choose where and how they'd like to birth...

So why do we care so much? I'm going to get personal now and tell you about how the owlets made their way into the nest... The big owlet was born in a private hospital. We had seen our private obstetrician for uneventful 10-15 minute meetings once a month and on the last visit she told me I'd need to be induced because my baby was a week late and she had elective cesareans booked for the remainder of the week and me going into labour naturally would be inconvenient. For her. So I agreed, and after a relatively short but extremely intense labour, she was born. How I avoided the cascade of intervention spiralling into a catastrophe, I don't know. The doctor made it back from shopping for a handbag, just in time to catch her. She was perfect and after a quick feed she was whisked away to another part of the hospital for weighing, tagging and testing. Swayer went too. I was alone for a while. My Mum stayed and watched me shower. I felt bloated, exhausted, torn, puffy and weird. The photo below shows how my big owlet felt... more than weird. Cold, alone, freaked out by the gloved hands holding her like she's a cat or something...

The week that followed was all about Swayer, me and the big owlet trying to figure out how to be a family and fit that in around the procedures and schedules of a hospital. What had been a simple breastfeeding relationship turned into a confusing and painful one as midwives on shift changes came to offer differing advice... We didn't begin to bond until we arrived home. When we left the hospital we felt like we were stealing her and super naughty for WALKING WHILE HOLDING HER!!! The whole week seemed bizarre and my underlying thought was "but why am I in a hospital if I'm not sick??"

So skip forward to 2006. Little owlet was on the way and we wanted a different approach. One that felt more natural and included Big owlet as much as possible. We met with an independent homebirth midwife for an hour visit each month, more towards the end. She got to really know us and our environment. We felt confident in her abilites and experience, should anything go wrong, which is actually rare in a space where a woman feels supported. Little owlet was born at home, underwater, ten days after her "due date". Her sister was watching while Swayer caught her and handed her to me. It was one of the most simple, uncomplicated, magical events of all of our lives. I felt energised, normal, strong, content. We were supported by two brilliant women, the midwife and my Mum, who kept a close eye on us while we went about our lives and got on with being a family in our own space. Here's a little montage of the moments around her birth and babymoon. So different. I'd do it all over again in a heartbeat...



I'm writing to the Minister for Health, Nicola Roxon, as well as my local MP. I'm also attending the rally with my family and signing an online petition. What will your do?