This is...what makes me happy

Thanks so much to Jacinta from One Little Acorn for a brilliant This is... theme this week. So. What makes me happy? My goodness, so many things from the huge stuff to the tiny little things I am lucky enough to take for granted every day. But to keep things simple, here are just a few things that have made me feel very happy lately:


Kate's second birthday. With eighteen extended family members. Watching my kids feel so happy and loved, surrounded by both sets of grandparents, and all the people who love them best. Oh, and seeing both Granddads wearing birthday tiaras to please the birthday girl - now you don't get much more happy than that :P


Yummy pudding made by my sister, with beautiful crispy-on-top meringue...


Followed by gooey meringue underneath, with lemon curd, blueberries and custardy filling....mmmmmm..... happiness in a bowl!


Making puppets of our family with the kids (the puffy white-haired person is apparently 'Dad'...he he he... and for some reason, the 'Kate' puppet had to be a 'superhero baby', complete with a cape!).


And then, of course, sitting back and enjoying the puppet show. Kate and I were the audience, and Kate sung along and clapped with gusto. And at the end the puppeteer came out and took a bow. And that was ear-to-ear happiness my friends.


Finishing a project.This particular one is for the shop, but really, it doesn't matter if a project is for the shop, for myself, or for someone else - just 'finishing' something always feels so great. There are not a lot of jobs involved in a stay-at-home mum's role that ever get 'completed'. Raising happy, healthy, beautiful kids, doing housework, cooking food....these things are always 'works in progress'. Which is fine. But it's also nice to be able to tick things off a list sometimes and get that short-term sense of achievement. It makes me feel happy :)

Thanks again Jacinta for reminding me to walk down happy lane and appreciate all the good things along it. And now I'm off to enjoy more happy moments from everyone else's blogs. Cheers!

Birthday bliss...

Do birthdays get any better than this?



I don't usually like putting up proper pics of myself, but this was such a happy occasion, and I think I look as happy as I felt in this picture. Had a big family birthday lunch. Mum made vanilla and chocolate profiterole cake...oh my..it was amazing!!!


With toffee drizzled all over it!!!!!


I was given some amazingly thoughtful presents from everyone. Above is some vintage japanese fabric (this is just a portion of the stash) from Matt's family. From a very cool shop in Richmond (Melbourne, Australia) called Zigusagu.



Matt ordered a custom-made knitwit bangle from Liana Kabel (to fit my teeny wrists). I can't tell you how much I love this! Matt also said that Liana was so very friendly and easy to deal with, and that she made and shipped the bracelet the same day that he ordered it, and he received it the next day. How good is that!



Presents from Lee and Kate included these two books that have been on my wish list for quite some time. Apparently Matt suffered a lot of embarrassment searching for The Gentle Art of Domesticity by Jane Brocket (of Yarnstorm), which is no-where near as 'anti-feminist' as it sounds. In fact it is really the opposite, and is just interesting and intelligent musings about how there is as much art, creativity and intelligence to be found in domestic arts (such as knitting, cooking, gardening etc), as there are in the corporate world. But when Matt asked the 19 year old salesgirl for this title (and mentioned it was for his wife) he said she looked at him with such horror and revulsion, like he was some guy who wanted to force his wife into some 1950s 'barefoot in the kitchen' way of living (or like he was John Howard...well, kinda same thing really :P). But being the lovely boy he is, he gritted his teeth, smiled, and waited patiently, bearing the daggers while he waited for the girl to look it up...he he he...what a guy!



Had to show the back of this book - I mean, how can I ever resist a book that celebrates the beauty and goodness of buttons?

Anyway, Matt had no such embarrassing problems with buying Cool Hunting Green, (although he was a bit disappointed that this book was sitting, easily accessible, on the bookstore shelf, so there was no way to regain his 'cred' by asking for it). Cool Hunting Green, compiled by Dave Evans, is a book featuring all sorts of recycled, repurposed and renewable objects, and includes a website for each so you can find out more info, or even buy the stuff. Some very cool things in this book.



Like these little bobby pin flower rosettes made with reclaimed cashmere and a vintage bead centre. I think I may have to visit Remnant Clothing to pick up a couple of these.



And how amazing is this chandelier made of BiC pen rolls! Check out Enpieza for more details.



And lastly, do you recognise this one? Yep, Liana Kabel has lots of her work featured in this book, and Matt and I were both amazed to see the bracelet in this book was EXACTLY the same as the one made for me. Another one of those nice synchronous things!

Thank-you to everyone for your wonderful company, and ever so thoughtful gifts. I've been a very lucky girl indeed!

Five (really) good things

Liz, over at be present, be here, had a lovely post about five really great things on December 12. Well, being without a computer I missed my chance to leave my five on her blog, but it got me thinking.

So, here are my five (really) good things for today, Friday December 14.

1. Walking barefoot on our new kitchen floor - we've had the bamboo floor for a couple of months now, and I walk on it every day, and I still love the fact that it just feels wonderful.

2. Experiencing a lovely 'worlds collide' moment when I took my children into my former workplace for morning tea. In fact, they didn't really collide as such - the kids were well behaved (or should I say, well 'entertained' - thanks Lee!), and I actually got to have adult conversations with people I really enjoy talking to (and don't catch up with enough).

3. Sitting on our couch with my two children watching The Upside Down Show (who doesn't love The Umbilical brothers??)

4. Christmas time in the sub-tropics. What can I say, I just LOVE LOVE LOVE it. No white Christmas for me, just give me green green green!!! By the way, the rainbow photo wasn't taken by me, but it is a photo of where I live (in Queensland). Image was found on the Our Brisbane website, and I'm afraid will have to do until I am back on my own computer...where all my stuff lives...

5. Thinking about everything that has to be done in preparation for Christmas, then being reminded (by Liz in her post) that perfection is really not the goal of it all. And feeling relief at the realisation...

If I were to be a bit pathetic then I would also add a sixth thing to be happy about, as I just had a call from Matt to say that my computer is coming home today - yay!!! (Currently I am using a clunky set-up that Matt cobbled together from our TV monitor and our Mac mini, which usually runs our TV - I think he was getting sick of my whining about my computer, and set this up for me before he went to work. Lovely boy!).

And for those who have never seen an Umbilical Brothers comedy skit, here's one I quite like. Enjoy!

What fun!

Just some freeform felt rosette brooches and bow and flower hair clips. Such fun to make, and they're all hand sewn, so very meditative. I like to stitch them up while Kate is feeding herself, as it stops me from getting frustrated with the mess, and with the amount of time it takes her to get the food from the plate, to the spoon, to the high-chair tray, to her spoon again, to her head, and then finally into her mouth (eeekkk!).

Had a fantastic weekend. First a gorgeous early morning family trip to the Rocklea farmers market complete with sit-down coffees and cupcakes while listening to the live jazz, and overflowing bags of veggies, organic chicken and fresh flowers - scrummy! We always buy flowers from the same flower stand, and Emma always gives Lee a free flower of his own. This week he was given a yellow and purple 'bearded iris' - very funny hearing a three year old trying to say this :)

Then I went to the Umbrella Collective's Annual Christmas Fair and did LOTS of wanting, but just a bit of buying. I LOVE my Jack and Jill bobby pins by Liana Kabel (aka Plastic Girl).



And I couldn't resist these Christmas tree decorations by Kylie Johnson from Paper Boat Press. They are thin ceramic pieces that feel like gingerbread cookes - I could almost eat them!


Then a trip to Funky Fabrix in Ashgrove to buy some...well...funky fabric! I then came home and made a tote, but no pics as it is a Christmas present for someone - don't want to spoil it. Did also make this little number. Not for anyone in particular - just wanted to try something different...



Saturday night I had everyone (ie. the extended family) round for a roast which I actually did myself!!! Yep, that's right. Usually it's Matt doing the cooking/entertaining thing, but this time he actually sat and drank beers with Dad and Ron, while I did the faffing about in the kitchen. Luckily my sister and my mum helped me pull it all together - and mum made a delicious apricot cobbler for dessert. Perfect way to finish a perfect day - I just wish I had have thought to take a photo. Unfortunately I was enjoying a lovely glass of Pikes shiraz while cooking, so WAY too relaxed to be remembering such trifles...

Things that are making me happy...

Still settling into our newly renovated house, so no time as yet to get back to my sewing (and I have a bag all cut out and ready to go, so I'm absolutely itching to get it finished).

However, I have made time this week to quickly take snaps of some of the things that are giving me a little lift every day - once I started looking around, I realised that there are so many things....but here's this week's top picks anyway:

Finally I have a big bare wall on which to hang my prized painting (before renos it was on a very small wall that was painted blue - not the best backdrop for it). It is by Alesha Cox, an artist who lives on the Sunshine Coast, and it is called "Inner Peace". It reminds me to slow down and be calmer every time I look at it.

This is a small and slighly scrappy bunch of jonquils, I know. But I LOVE jonquils - I love the way they pop up out of the ground every year down south, I love the smooth stems, and the delicate star shape of the waxy flowers. But most I all, I love the smell. Most people I know either love or hate the way jonquils smell, and Matt insists they smell like wee, so we never have them in the house....usually. But this week at the market, the lady we buy flowers from gave this little bunch to Lee. So this week, we have jonquils. And I'm loving it!!

And lastly, a sneak preview of our kitchen:

Ok, I know it's not much of a picture, but I don't want to take any photos of the whole kitchen until it is all finished, and we are still yet to tile the splashback. So in the meantime, just a small picture of the island bench. Actually, this picture incorporates two things that are making me very happy at the moment. For one, the corian benchtop was a big splurge, that Matt and I are SOOOOO happy we indulged in, as it is every bit as lush and tactile as we had hoped. And the green bowl was a Mother's Day present from the kids (and Matt) this year, and I finally have somewhere to show it off. It is by Dinosaur Designs, and is another deliciously tactile object made of an almost luminescent swirly green resin - yum!

Here's to happy things!