Something I love...

...about these two is how much THEY love books. Ash in particular will often grab a book, sit himself on the couch and flick through it.



Some of our faves are:































































































































Here are some on my wishlist:









My favourite places to shop for books are at Borders (Knox is our local store) and online at the Book Depository - free delivery worldwide, and also from some websites that sell all sorts of kids things, they have a fun selection on My Messy Room and Tinypeople (which I've mostly just browsed through so far). We also pick some up from op-shops now and then, we don't have any great book shops with kids books around here, unfortunately. But there are a couple of bookshops in Adelaide I like to visit when we are there - Mary Martin bookshop on Rundle St is one of them.

And huge congrats to my friend Bek on the recent arrival of Benjamin James... you are incredible and he is pretty darn cute!

Fun finds and stuff being made

Here are a few things I've saved lately - for inspiration or just because I like them. First this poster from Elsie Flannigan reminds me of my hubby

And so does this poster from this seller on etsy, LOL, though I could equally use it to remind myself some days!

This is gorgeous, and inspiring... from madeleinesargent on etsy (and she's a local)

Love Natasha Morton's art...

And this lady's ceramic designs are kind of folk-lore ish and I find them really cheery and appealing...

I keep thinking this head cold is actually a sinus infection, and then deciding I am getting better - until the next morning when I realise it has actually not progressed much at all and maybe I should go to the doctor. But I can't be bothered really. This has been going on for a week now, and when I think about it not much has changed, LOL, so probably I should have done something about it LAST WEEK. There doesn't seem as much point now. Is that a contradiction? Well, whatever. It's still better than the whole-body flu thing that everyone in our house had a week and a half ago.

This girl had her school photos a couple of weeks ago - here is her headshot for Prep. As cheesy as it is, she is a bit cute!

Following up on my whinge about her various tests from the last couple of months, Sienna had a surgical consult on Monday evening. At the end of the day, she has got a blockage limiting the function of the tube between one of her kidneys and her bladder, resulting in an uneven function of the kidneys. Instead of them each working 50%, one is working 60% and the blocked one about 40%. While significant, it is not a stress - she is a generally well and healthy child. The next step is an investigative procedure under general anaesthetic, which she will have in a couple of months, so her surgeon can see exactly what is happening where the tube meets the bladder. Actual surgery will likely occur later in the year.

I made up this new crumble recipe last night - it is apple with Outback Pride Australian Wild Fruits, and an oats / brown sugar crumble. Very wintery and yummy! The trouble is light - as I tend to make recipes at night it doesn't make for fabulous photography.

This is what I've been working on the last week or so in the evenings, as well as some work for SC which I can't share yet. 'My Focus Journal' is for labour, I am trying to think positive! After a couple of kind of messed up labours (or at least the tail end of them, with PPH and whatnot), I have a new doctor and wanted to remind myself of various things to reduce the fear factor. Here are a couple of pages from it.

And these two came to stay a couple of weeks ago, I didn't take many photos but snapped these just before they headed home - my little sister Hayley and her 2 year old son Caden. Awww.... Thanks for visiting, sweets :)

SC and me

These are my layouts from the current Scrapbook Creations , issue 67, where I have an article on using up alphabets in different ways.





And this one is the colour team assignment - Peach and Burgundy.


As for me and mine, we've all been sick with nasty colds since last Thursday. Today I am more tired than anything, because the blocked nose and coughing are making it hard to sleep, and it has turned into more of a head cold now. Many many tissues :) Tomorrow Sienna will be back at school and Ash has kinder, the two of them are basically down to runny noses and a bit of a cough now, but are happily playing and seem to have plenty of energy, so at least we're at the tail end of this thing!

My little sister from Adelaide came to stay, along with her 2 year old, for a long weekend so that was busy and fun (despite the house being overrun with tissues and panadol!). I took a few photos before they left yesterday morning so will try and pop them on the computer today.

Other than that I have started thinking about packing a hospital bag and that sort of thing ready for July, it's supposed to be less than 3 weeks now, which means (from my personal experience) that it will be about 4 weeks if Cedar goes the same sort of time as the other two did. So I have some things to pop out and buy to be more prepared for that, on my to-do list this week as well as making an article deadline next week for SC. Time for actual to-do-lists of the written down variety!

Both window and actual shopping

Some of my fave stuff I've bought for baby Cedar...(I like more colourful things too but these are the more nature themed stuff I've bought, I haven't actually stocked up that much!) I also got him a fun Where the Wild Things Are tshirt, you can see it here at the top right corner.

I have this suit on layby for Ash...
... and this pair of shoes I just bought on sale at FrockYou -
I am crossing my fingers that they really do fit (according to the measurements provided they totally SHOULD but I've learnt not to get too excited until this is proven), as I've needed a ballet flat style of shoe but haven't seen anything I've liked - that will fit - for a reasonable price, but I love these ones.
I bought one pair of these Baobab pants - above - at a discount sale (I love the seahorse top too!), and am thinking I should just make my own... off to Spotlight I guess to try and find some nice thick stretch cotton. I made fitted bassinette sheets out of unbrushed jersey fleece the other day, they seem so cosy to me that I might try and find similar fabric in other colours for comfy clothes too!

Other stuff I think is super cute (though some of it is just too expensive, even with my genetically inbuilt bargain hunting gene!)

I love fairytale style skirts for Sienna, this one has that beautiful lace trim underneath.

We are all sick at the moment with a yuck cold cough thingywhatsit, and while sitting on the couch by the fire I've been handsewing some doll clothes for my niece Alannah. Sienna has started making requests having seen the ball dress I made for Lana's barbies, so I think it's a project that may continue - though in future with the sewing machine, which should speed up the process, at least when it's a little less icicle cold in my bedroom!

Cute cute hats

Just a heads up that Perfect Amity are offering free shipping to anywhere in the world until 13 June - it has been SO COLD lately and Ash wears his Perfect Amity pumpkin hat all the time, super cosy!

Cool blog mention

Elsie Flannigan linked to my flickr in this blog post, and shows two of my photos of her Neverland painting which hangs framed in Ash's room.

Free hand-drawn calendar download

Here are a couple of images from the Desk Calendar I made for Willow Tree Crafts - I also doodled this calendar template (without the dates written in, so you can customise each month) which is a free download on their blog - to check out the rest of the calendar and grab the free download CLICK HERE.

If you're a Melbournite heading to the Good Food Show this long weekend, look out for Outback Pride products at the Reedy Creek Nursery stand (run by Ben's folks). We'll be popping in to the show on Monday and the kids are thrilled that they'll have 'Nan and Pop time' on Tuesday!

It's all about the cushions

A few weeks ago Ben and Sienna had a little 'secret' which ended up being an expedition to the shop to buy me some flowers and a card. Sienna chose the flowers - pink gerberas - and there are still 5 in the vase now, they are remarkably long-lasting!



This is a sneak peek of the baby corner in our bedroom. The chest of drawers were previously in Sienna's room, but we bought her a big vintage tallboy on ebay the other week, so this was spare. Ash "helped" me re-cover the drawers with vintage houndstooth wallpaper.



This window seat is just adjacent to the baby corner, we have a bit of yellow coming in to the room now, I just recovered this last week and made some cushions for it. Sienna is enjoying the novelty of new cushions in the pic above! These fabrics are from the Heather Bailey Pop Garden range 'Wallpaper Roses' in both yellow and turquoise.



These four cushions I made yesterday, along with another one for the window seat. It's been tricky getting good shots of the window seat in particular, as I keep forgetting to take them during the well-lit hours of the day! The fabric on the small cushions on our bed is the same as the window seat fabric, though the colour impression you get from the first photo (with Sienna in it) is more accurate - the top of the window seat anyway. The European cushion covers are made from the Anna Maria Horner fabric 'Garden Party Centerpiece' in turquoise, I bought all the patterned fabrics on etsy.



Since it's all about cushions at the moment, here is the cushion I just bought from etsy, from Australian seller Aunty Cookie - check it out here. I made the four other cushions a few months ago from Anna Maria Horner fabric 'Social Climber - Teal'. We just needed a fifth, totally different cushion to set things off and I have been really drawn to typography in decorating lately, so this was perfect. That throw rug keeps my legs cosy in the evenings, it is so warm and cuddly! There's a wider view of the lounge below, with the yellow kitchen walls sneaking into the background. We've been having lots of fires lately, which is nice. Mmm fire toast. And Neko sleeping on the back of the couch, as is pretty usual for him.



The new SC should be out soon so I'll have a bunch of pages to share from that, and a project I've just finished for Willow Tree Crafts - a desk calendar. Creative stuff coming, promise!