*e*

ice & fire

before the snow came last week, we had the crazy (ie crazy exciting for the kiddies, and crazy-scary for mumma) experience of ice-skating on the very lake we swam in during the summer! so weird to walk down the beach and put on ice-skates! everyone loved it - there is something very magical about a huge frozen body of water in the dusk light! rest assured we were not the only ones skating and the firemen promised me it was very safe and thick (and then probably rolled their eyes as the crazy aussie lady walked away from them). mick fancies himself a bit of a figure skater so i'll be sure to have my camera ready next time for the twirls and mid-air high-kicks.

and then to offset all the freezing temps i got to try something completely new and thrilling...hooping with fire! oh my gosh it was amazing. its one of those things i have always been in awe of - twirling and dancing and spinning fire...never ever thought i'd ever have an opportunity do this...my new amazing fire twirly friend promises i can become a gorgeous fire hooper myself...and you know what? i'm gunna do it! here i am at the beginning of a new journey...learning new things, saying yes, being brave and finding comfort and acceptance in this 32 year old body.

ice and fire. yes, we are living life here!

dads here

and he brought gifts!

we've been enjoying the past few days with swervin' mervyn back in town...fresh from a hot aussie summer he was in for a bit of a shock with the cold! lucky for him - ivy knitted him a sweet beanie, and i took him thrifting for a coat...

the kids are loving having grandpa here for tickles, teasing, cuddles, book-reading, bowling and early morning entertainment (while mumma remains in her coma).

i'm loving having my dad here doing my dishes, teasing, buying me lunch and telling my kids to stop slacking off around the house!

i've been organising my studio room over the last few weeks (it was so bad! we moved in and i threw all the boxes in a corner then started madly sewing for my craft fairs so the whole room was a complete disastor!) and finding all sorts of hidden gems! photos, notes, ticket stubs, cards, kid art. a highway of memories. this teeny photo of tara and i (circa 2003) came floating out of one box, it cracked me up because we look so - well, different?!! and so i put it on my desk to save and show her later. ivy came in to sit and knit with me later and picked it up...studied it for a minute and asked "how did you meet tara anyway?"...to which i told her the story (she loved) and i then found my journal and wrote it down.

ivy found this picture in my studio the other day and i couldn't believe how young we both looked! she asked "how did you meet tara mumma?"...to which i realized i'd never told her the story before of how you contacted me through 2peas - i was shocked and so pleased as i'd admired you for so long. we started emailing leading up to our move to LA, you answered some of my questions and freaked me out even more at the thought of living in such a big city! after we arrived in LA we ichatted a few times and then had an immediately-not-awkward phone call that lasted over an hour. you convinced me to be brave and drive down to your place, so we made a date. i was so nervous to drive on the freeway for the first time, but you stayed on the phone with me when i got lost until i found my way there. i remember feeling so worried and nervous as i got to your gate. but there you were (i still remember what we both wore!), we hugged and instantly felt like we were old friends instead of new. ivy and i stayed the night at your house because none of us wanted to part so soon! the girls played side-by-side like a pair of siamese cats. the beginning of a magical and life-changing friendship.

i love the space to be able to write out some of these random memories. if you want to join in, i'll be posting a new page each week - there is a group discussion and place to share your pages here. come, join!

 

...speaking of tara AND journals...ivy & i are headed to so-cal next weekend as a surprise for anna's birthday! (i'll try not to squeal with delight as i type that)  i'll be holding a fun little workshop in north-county can diego on friday night (jan 27th) - sewing a messy happy journal. there will also be cheese and chocolate! a few spots left. $35...email me if you'd like to come (emilyfalconbridgeAThotmail.com).

warm winter dreaming

theres all sorts of penny pinching and saving going on here for the kids and i to head back to perth this year! in my layers of wool and uggboots all weekend i daydreamed of warm summers night picnics, icypoles, barefeet, swimming and seeing all my lovies as i did a mammoth organise of my studio - time to get sewing!

there are a few warm and soft (i'm not into itchy) wool skirts in my etsy shop, as well as custom listings if you'd like a special skirt made just for you.

i've also been working on a little-somethin that i planned to do last year...and well, it never happened! an online upcycling/sewing workshop...yeeee! i'm excited about it. most of the sewing and photographing has been done - but now for the boring sitting behind the computer uploading part. would you help and indecisive girl out and go to my facebook page and answer a question for me? cheers!

heres hoping you are either warm or staying warm!

(i love my winter boots - they make such a huge difference in my not-being-grumpy-and-cold. my mum got them for me here. thanks mumma!! you're the very best)

snow day!

we awoke to a mystical magical new world this morning...

winter feels so different this year. so so much better than last year. making me a happy camper this time round is partly due to the following:

*we have a woodstove! so coming in from the cold is nice when you have a warm spot to gather round.

*i have snow boots and a coat - who knew you needed these to survive?!!

*yindi is happy and willing to go outside and play! 2 out of 3 ain't bad.

*winter came late. feel free to leave early too if you don't mind. all good things in small amounts i say!

*the kids and i are going home (home!!!) to perth for my brothers wedding in march. that's not too far away...i am beside myself with excitement.

*my dad is arriving next week for a month. he too thinks he will be fine with no boots and no coat and to that i say "we'll see!" (and to the op-shop we go...)

*natural light comes into this house. last year i lived in a cave. and i was a bear.

*we have a life-long supply of milo in our pantry.

*little people like to snuggle me for longer in bed in the mornings to stay warm.

*i'm making stuff again (and journalling!), and it feels good.

*i'm trying harder to be grateful and cherish every moment life gives me, cos really what else can ya do?!

reclaiming my body.

it.is.TIME!

exercise is not my favourite.

i'd prefer to be whipping up a crafty concoction, reading on the couch or (full disclosure) eating chocolate.

but i am not 25 years old anymore. body does not bounce back. it just bounces.

and - i have been asked on several occasions in the past year if i am pregnant...one such inquirer- upon seeing my aghast face- quickly added "or just keeping the house?" yep. keeping the whole mansion here lady!

on any given day my attempts to exercise are entirely sabotaged by my children.

yoga? hey - let's launch ourselves off the couch and onto mumma's folded over body!

hooping? why don't we keep slamming our little selves against her and make the hoop stop twirling!

mini trampoline? thats mine! (*insert hysterical 2 year old meltdown*)

a walk in the stroller? sitting here's no fun - i'll howl, unbuckle, climb out and make her carry me the whole way home, while i continue to howl!

childcare at the gym?                                 NOFREAKINGWAYAREYOULEAVINGMEHERE. nice try!

 

slowly, i am creatively trying to find ways to work in fun ways to move my body while not strangling my children. it's not easy! i started going to a dance collective about a year ago. it was the start of what pulled me out of my ever deepening funk. a group of women - all ages and body shapes - meet each week with music and open minds...we dance, and move, and sometimes cry and sometimes it truly looks like a scene out of a lunatic asylum and we share 'feelings' at the end which sounds eye-rolling but is SO therapeutic. i love it, and my little ones come with me - and some weeks i dance with banjo on my hip the whole hour, but every time i'm glad i made the effort to go.

my other fun thing (it has to be fun, or i will never do it!) is hooping. i've wanted to learn hoop dancing for years but have never felt like my body was skilled/graceful/coordinated/*insert-other-excuse*...because i have never been athletic - and you could say i'm kinda clumsy! this time last year i couldn't even keep the hula hoop spinning around my waist...meanwhile ivy was rocking out all the little tricks with her sparkly rainbow hoop. so about 6 months ago i got myself a fancy hoop, started watching you tube tutorials (i like this guy, his tutes are easy to understand) and hooping for a few mins whenever i could. i'm still feeling awkward and nowhere near cool at it - but there is definite (slow but definite) progress happening. and woudn't you know it i've just recently made a new friend here who is an a.m.a.z.i.n.g hooper and fire twirler...so i'm gathering lots of inspiration and motivation!

i really want to find a way to do yoga too - another thing that has gone by the wayside since childbirth! i need it need it need it. still figuring out how to get some peaceful time to do this (aside from waking up at 5am which i cannot do. i tried it).

what inspires you to move it, move it? and do your little sweetones leave you be? please share!

so this it is. this is the year...this body has been on loan and neglected for too long...it's time to claim it back!

 

ps not pregnant.

ooh so i finally got my journalling ON this afternoon - been waiting for the magic moment all week and finally had a small window of stillness and silence in my house (so rare). i plopped down in front of the fire with journal, crayons and this random basket of, er, stuff that has been in there for several years and just started making some colour and sticking in some stuff without thinking. IT FELT SO GOOD! it has been so long since i have done this!!

i had to dedicate the first entry to my nanna, who i have been carrying thoughts of lately. so many memories swimming around but this one came straight to mind as i'd told the story several times over christmas. feels good to have it written down.

nanny has been on my mind a lot lately, especially this christmas. several people have asked me about our 'traditions' from home, and i always think of nanny's christmas pudding. no kid really enjoys the taste of a boiled and soaked in brandy old fruit pudding! but she would wrap 1,2,5 and maybe a 10c piece in foil and bake it in. so exciting to get a piece and find a coin! after a few years *and i'm guessing too much wasted pudding?) nanny was onto us - the cousins only ate it for a coin and she stopped doing it! sad but at least we weren't expected to eat the pudding anymore! i think of all the work and love she put into her kitchen cooking whenever i think of her.

come and join the 'remember when..?' flickr group! each week i'll post my journal page (perhaps you want to stick with the same theme? perhaps you have a completely different theme? whatever prompts you to journal a memory!) - come and share and squizz at what others are doing...

 

and in other journalling news, i opened the family journal to discover this little number! hoping it was actually meant to be a witch, i complimented the artist herself. to which i learned the frightening truth "its a pikcha of you mumma!"

(i have been a bit of a witch lately)

but journalling is going to be good for us all!

a house of sticks

we spent a few mornings of our 'staycation' (dontcha love that word?!!) out in the woods working on some teepees made of sticks. it was a lot of fun working together - and each finding something we were good at to contribute - gathering, directing, weaving, designing.

(i heard a secret plan being hatched by dadda + daughter to sleep in them one night when they are covered with snow...to that i say good luck!)

i felt like a mumma bird weaving a little nest for my loves. there is something so pretty and comforting about sticks and twigs all woven together, isn't there?

a cosy week

since our first christmas in america, we've gone on an annual 'after christmas road trip' to make the most of that week off work, and to see some sights. this year we had absolutely no desire to do anything but be cosy and lazy at home all week...and we loved every minute of it. pajamas all day every day, the woodstove, playing with new toys, movies, games by the fire, watching the snow fall - then melt, an excessive amount of sweet treats! daily walks to check on the frozen status of the lake, and snuggling on the couch whenever we could...

nicest week there ever was.

a new year, a new jourmal

i used to be all about the journalling, the documenting, the scrapbooking - the savouring and preserving. but somewhere along the way - lively children, ginormous piles of laundry, neverending snack-making, blogging, managing an etsy shop...well - those things took a backseat. like-way-at-the-back-of-a-really-long-schoolbus-backseat.

high on my list of goals for 2012 is taking care of myself (me?!! ME!!) - body + mind + heart + soul. part of this involves taking the time to sit and write...handwrite...and i am excited to have not one but three lovely journals to take me on this journey...

i have a daily/'whatever' journal (sweet one on the right i got for christmas years ago) - because its been way too long since i kept one of those. in this i can write all kinds of rantings and ravings, as well as funny things my little people say, dreams + goals, and i have also written out a rather un-characteristically sensible 'schedule' for myself - ie laundry, baking, vaccuming, crafting...because as you may or may not already know - i am horribly disorganised and scatter-brained. "off with the fairies" they call me. and so in order to stay on top of all the craziness that is life i now have a schedule. lets see how long it lasts!

my 2nd journal is a handmade number, whipped up sunday afternoon before some friends came over for a potluck. i made them one too - see when you come to my house for a potluck i not only feed you cheesymite scrolls, i give you a journal. i'm hospitable like that! see, i've been wanting to have one juicy family journal for a while now - one we can take camping, or on road trips, we can write funnies, and draw pictures. and it will be a nice time capsule of our year. so far yindi has filled half of it with rainbow scribbles. perhaps we will need volumes?

it was a simple-slapped-together (my favourite!) bunch of papers randomly layered and stitched into a file folder, which i had previously covered in thrifted fabric (via the ol sewing machine). big enough that it should be easy to locate under couch cushions or coffee tables.

and then last but not least we have the 2012 journal challenge journal! i debated long and hard about which format to do this in - and out of simplicity chose a nice colourful journal i've been holding onto since i bought it in thailand 3 years ago! if you are going to join in this challenge then ANY format will do - i almost went with a big glass jar to stuff scraps of paper into, as i'm prone to losing journals (jars seem harder to lose?). so anything you choose will be just dandy.

the theme for this year is "remember when...?"

because lately i have been thinking a lot about my nanna, who passed away 18 months ago. i have been having dreams about her, and remembering all sorts of sweet memories - none of which i have ever written about. and this is what i do - remember things, random things...and while these memories have their 10 seconds of designated time inside my brain, i want to write them down. so when i am even more doddery i can open the pages and read and smile...

i will be writing in these pages whenever a memory pops to mind. and each week i will be sharing a memory with a weekly theme (ie nanna!) to perhaps jog a memory of your own. because, if you are anything like my husband...when someone starts telling a story you just HAVE to chip in with one of your own, even if it is entirely unrelated (to the audience mind you)..."i've got legs!" (see, i'm remembering something funny already...)
just to keep things interesting (also because i generally rebel against my own deadlines), i won't have a specific day to post the journal challenge. but they will be here weekly - and i can't wait to get all journally together this year...!

ps gimme a yell if you want to help organize a flickr group for this. and let us know in the comments below if you'll be joining in..!