831

I love this quilt, love, love, love it. I will find it hard to part with, but passing it on to a long awaited babe will make the parting much much easier. Love the crinkly just washed look. Squaring up and binding to take care of. My binding has been a little freestyle in the past, but I'm going to look me up a youtube instruction and aim for perfectly mitred corners on this one.

830

Our little scooter girl loves her new wheels. Today, first day she's ever consented to wear pants, let alone jeans. "I look sporty don't I". Indeed you do!

829

Ella snapped these on Boxing Day and there was a story that went along with them.

There was a sad lonely boy.

He went to a disco and saw a girl. She danced for him.

He fell in love with her because she was such a good dancer.



They kissed and lived happily ever after.

828

Crazy Christmas Day sky.

827

Merry Christmas from me and mine, to you and yours.

Stay safe.

x

826

I was simply too weary to tackle gingerbread houses this year. We have made them every year, but this year I've been kind to myself and just said, I can't manage it. We did, however, made gingerbread trees. We've had an extra child on board, a dear child to us, for the past few days, but the dynamic of three is a little challenging. She's Ella's best friend and the two of them are very tight, so the little one feels left out. It's a hard balance, sharing, but allowing the older ones space.

I confess about 3pm I was wondering why I had to do extra things to drive myself crazy, like baking gingerbread in 30+ weather. But, they had fun and honestly, that's the reason why you do these things, or why I do at least.

Tempering chocolate for peppermint bark was a disaster in humid weather, so I'll give that a whirl again in the morning.

We're off to my outlaws for Christmas Eve festivities tomorrow but right now I'm going to sit in the garden and enjoy a glass of prosecco with a slice of lime. Chin chin.

825

What a difference a year makes.

Kinder Christmas concert 2010. Tears, not wanting to go, refusing to put on her tshirt or anything resembling Christmas. Me sitting with her in the performance, singing all the songs, doing all the gestures while she cringed behind me. The concert ended with me saying thank you to the teachers in tears, desperate at how poorly I was mothering my littlest child, not knowing whether returning for a second year was the right thing.

Fast forward to 2011. A little girl who couldn't sleep last night because she was so excited about the concert. Her outfit chosen days in advance and laid out in readiness. A little girl who didn't take off her Christmas hat once, despite the fact I know it and her tinsel was itching her.

A little girl who grinned from ear to ear, sang, did movements and beamed at her parents and sibling, and both sets of grandparents who stood watching her in awe. A little girl who ran over and declared today "the happiest day ever".

What a wonderful year it's been for her.

824

Ella's school have a secret Santa every year, with a limit of $5.00. It's quite challenging to find something good for that price and this year Ella was determined to make her gift.

The fabric and thread we had, but lavender we no longer have in our garden. We happened to venture to the Prahan market on Saturday and there they were selling bunches of lavender for ..... $5.00!

I hope the gift is received with the same warm heart with which it is given.

823

One day we'll have a woodfired pizza oven and a garden big enough to house it. For now we have regular gas oven and it does the job just fine.

Pizza night has been off the menu for a while, but whenever we sit down to it, I wonder why we don't do it more often.

822

Nougat has been on our Christmas baking/making list for the past couple of weeks. It's been scheduled as a gift for kinder and school teachers, along with mint and orange truffles, salted caramels and gingerbread snowflakes.

I haven't made nougat before, but was quite entranced when I saw the lady from Dolci in North Melbourne making it on the SBS Italian series. I thought then that I'd like to give it a go. I probably would have sooner than now, except I'm not terribly fond of nougat, and it's always more fun to make goods that you enjoy consuming yourself.


Today though, with tomorrow being the last day of kinder, was d day.


How would I describe nougat making? Not difficult, but a bloody nightmare to clean up and very hard to cut! In the recipe I used the pieces were completely square, perfectly, flat smooth and perfect. Our are a little more rustic and believe me when I say both mine and Geoff's backs went into cutting up the buggers - they're tough.

So, the taste, I actually don't mind it at all. It's so pretty. I think I'll have a massive wash up again as Geoff's family would love it. Tomorrow, truffles.

821

We started a little Christmas baking today, although only to try out some new cutters. We have a positive frenzy planned for the weekend, the idea being to gift to teachers and some friends and family. On the menu are nougat with pistachio and cranberry, espresso truffles (we've bought special moulds for those), salted caramels and we saw a great idea for hot chocolate on a stick, oh and another version of ganache in a jar. It's not really hot chocolate weather here, of course, but what the heck.

820

Our house is decorated and I feel very "of the season", but I find it hard to capture the look as they are smaller details rather than a full flurry of big statement items.

These pieces are all on our large built in unit in our lounge/dining, our main (who am I kidding - only) living area.

I'm feeling very festive right now. I have a stiff neck from gift wrapping; the house smells like a delicious mix of butter, orange and vanilla as pannetone is out of the oven. The smell I'd love to add to the mix is the warm spiciness of mulled wine! Perhaps after 5.....

819

I've finished appliqueing the top for a friend's pending baby arrival. I am so pleased. I find the tree so appealing and know that when it's completed I will find it very hard to part with this one. I do intend to launch into another for a second friend and then my niece is expecting a baby (I was a very young aunty!) so there's another.

This is for a baby girl, do you think it would suit a boy as well? perhaps with blue leaf accents?

I'm now trying to decide on the backing fabric and came across the one below yesterday, although in a teal colourway. I dithered because it's 20% linen to 80% cotton and I wasn't sure how softly it would wash. Today I'd decided it would do and went to purchase to see it had gone offline. What do you think, is it a good enough match to warrant some searching?

818

Even at my age new acquaintances still ask how many siblings I have. I still answer three and I think I always will. Perhaps a qualification will come for some, at a later point, but I had three brothers and will always feel that I have/did, I'm not sure which sits best, both have issues.

We're not a religious family so I don't have faith to draw upon, I only have my own personal reserves, memories and hopes for the future. I don't have tradition to deal with death, for me it's just loss. There is no celebration of anything after, for anything after is simply less than there was before.


We had a small service in a chapel at the cemetary, but as Mike was cremated, there is no tombstone to visit. The cemetary is in Springvale, a long way from where any of our lives are lived, but it had relevance to Mike. Leaving him there, or his ashes at least, didn't mean anything to any of us.

We've all measured our loss and handled it in different ways. My parents have ordered a gorgeous custom made bench which they will install in their garden in a lovely spot with gorgeous views. Loved ones have provided small plaques to add to the bench with messages of memorium. We have planted a pomegranite tree which is growing like wildfire and we call it Mike.

For us, we have Mike sitting with us in our lounge room. It's a rare honest, relaxed photo of him from a couple of Christmas' ago and we're so happy to have it. He sits with us through the days and I talk to him, cry with him and smile at all he was to me. We light a candle for him in the evenings, we make sure he has fresh flowers, two things he wouldn't have been the least bit interested in. The girls also take care of him. Quite spotaneously they include him in our family events. At Halloween he was covered in fake cobwebs and spiders and now he's decorated for Christmas with the little elves arms around him. That's all Leila, they're taking care of him, she says.

Tomorrow marks four months since Mike passed. I feel about the end of the year as I did about the drive back after we'd lost him. As much as 2011 has been so dreadful to us, to him, it was the year when we lost him, but also the last year when we had him with us. Closing this chapter, beginning the first year from day one without him, feels a new challenge in and of itself. The measuring of time, for having lost last year, diminishing not one ounce the pain, but somehow a greater expectation of acceptance.

817

Far from perfect, kinda like me, but I love it all the same and so do the girls, which is what counts most.

It reminds me a little of my dear friend Lena, who's Danish, simple and yet stylish. Lena, if you're reading, I know I've been hopeless and I'm sorry, using the old cliche "it's not you, it's me". Let's try and talk before you go home for Christmas, let me know when that is. xx

816

Block printing is nowhere near as easy as I'd imagined it would be. Given that there's a lot of room for improvement in terms of my preparations, clearing a space, getting everything properly prepped. The reality of our life in a small house means that our kitchen table is where everything happens, so I just can't have it tied up for ages.



I loved the carving part and inspired by Leslie's prints (onegirl) I figured I'd give it a go. You can see the results are quite mucky. The bits around the edges can be easily fixed by using one piece per cut, whereas I squeezed three onto one lino piece. In terms of how to get a nice fully coloured clear image, not sure on that one. If I inked more heavily, the gaps that I wanted clear of colour became filled too.


I'm relatively confident that once edged and hung as a string of somewhat Christmasy flags in the girls rooms I'll forgive the myriad of muck ups. I'll let you know.

815

Some berries from our patch.

814

It makes me laugh and want to tear my hair out at the same time. The older one trying to hard to win and play according to the rules, the younger one not wanting to lose any of her pieces.

I'll be playing two games with them this afternoon. With Ella I'll be attempting to play by the rules which I've always had trouble remembering, but which she has a good grip of. The other with Leila according to her rules, which will include a story about princes and princesses.

813

Sunday morning breakfast at our place.

812

We made a teepee with bamboo sticks, blankets and garden trimmings.

This golden haired girl of ours. Her love for me is fierce. She is tender and thoughtful "no mum, I don't want you to lift a finger, I'll go get the afternoon tea". And off she trots coming back with "tea" and biscuits.


Today when we were coming back from dropping a friend home Leila said to me "when I grow up mum I'm going to live in the most beautiful house." Which I replied I was sure was true. She then said "but you know the most important thing about the house mum? It has to be close to you, because I love you more than anything in the world." May that always be so.