*e*

lilies-of-the-valley * august sponsor giveaway

remember banjo's awesome little kaftan? 

tatyana from lilies-of-the-valley is offering one as a giveaway this month! 

 

Lilies-of-the-Valley is an inspiring business creating Babywearing Clothes, Renaissance Clothes, Sun Protective Clothes for baby and mama.

i am a big fan of tatyana's style - she picks amazing fabrics and has such an earthy-exoticy way of designing, with really clever functional ideas. cool sun cover-ups? LOVE THEM! coats to include your baby while wearing them? BRILLIANT! multi-purpose items for pregnancy, breastfeeding, sling-using or just regular? SO smart!

have a look around her site and see what i mean ;)

 

a little bit about lilies, from tatyana...

Lilies of the Valley studio was founded in 2008.
I am proud to say that all our creations are hand made in Canada, by one mama for another :)

All items are made by hand by me in our smoke-free, pet-free, perfume-free, chemicals-free home.I'm a work at home mother of a 2 years old little girl. Bachelor of Arts in Graphic Design and Illustration; plus 4 years of Theater School studying stage costume design.

My family originally comes from Eastern Syberia - they came there in 17th century from the Central Russia and settled there near Altai mountains in a secluded Taïga village. I was already born in Moscow. I loved theater since I was a child and my first education was stage costume designer.

Being an avid babywearer since 1985, I created a couture line of Babywearing clothes first for my family and now, Lilies of the Valley sport elegant Babywearing Jackets, Babywearing Coats and vests have traveled to all parts of the World! I have custom made Babywearing Clothes for mamas in North America, Europe and Australia.

I also specialize in Infant, Baby and Toddler Baby Sun Protective Clothes. I have created Baby and Toddler Sun Protective Dress and Infant Bathing Covers, Baby Sun Dresses, as well as Renaissance Clothings for mamas and babies and Summer Babywearing innovative outfits.

to enter the giveaway, simply leave a comment below (winner will need to pay postage), and make sure you include your email address! a winner will be chosen at random (ie by yindi's chubby little pointer).

****WINNER, WINNER! finally...drum roll please...

congrats sarah! please email me to claim your awesome prize :)

doggy-love

this is our gorgeous old dog eshe who we finally went to visit the other day. i'd been putting it off due to the inevitable heartache of seeing her again but it really was so lovely to visit. isn't she beautiful?

while pregnant with yindi over 3 years ago, we were in perth for a visit and happened to visit eshe the day after she gave birth to her puppies! the family who took her in kept one of the pups, a girl they names lulu who is so amazing looking!

 

 

i grew up with a rhodesian ridgeback and i love love love them. one day we will get another one. we talk about it all the time. mick wants to get a chihuahua instead but i can tell you right now who will win that battle! (not him)

we really miss our crazy old doggy.

would you let this family into YOUR country?

well, despite these horrendous mugshots, the US government have decided to issue us with visas to live in their country! it's always a barrel of laughs at the consulate...not...

glad that one's over!

who is missing you ask? well, our little american girl has dual citizenship so she is all set. she felt left out of the photo taking process though and struck a pose for me anyway...her 'photo eyes' are a new thing, one that brings me great amusement i tell ya!

personally - i think we should have kept our attire from last weekend's pirate party and worn it to the interview instead.

ARRRRR!

arrrrr?

walking the pipes

my brother ollie and i took the kiddies to a park we love from our childhood - it's a big bush park where we used to have many bbq's (once a kookaburra flew down and stole a sausage from ollie's plate - hilarious to me, not so much to him!) and most importantly - climb and walk on the water pipes.

i remember learning about these water pipes at school when i was about ivy's age. designed by c.y. o'conner in the late 1800's, they were to carry water from perth to kalgoorlie (far away!). what makes this story memorable though is that poor old c.y topped himself because he thought his design was a failure. everyone was waiting eagerly on the apparent day of water arrival and it never came. so he shot himself while riding his horse into the ocean (a dramatic way to go, ya?). and then of course, the next day the water arrived...it was a success after all. 

i'll save ivy from the dramatic suicide story until she is older i think. for now she can be all peace and love with the pipes.

oh yeah - this is the best bit...sliding down on your bum...wheeee!

(for safety reasons i thought it best not to try it myself with banjo in the sling)

after all that fun these two besties had some cuddles, and we all ate strawberries and  chocolate milk :)

blank canvas no more

it feels like it's been SO LONG since i made a collage/painting. my art stuff has been packed away for over a year, and with banjo being attatched to me 24/7 (did i mention he is a little mumma's-boy?), time for art-making has been on hold,

but i did find this cute little chunky canvas on sale...and i was so longing to make something on it! so with some junk mail to glue on as a background, a few tubes of paint, some twigs from outside, thread from ivy's craft bag, and these messy hands of mine i got to making (always better with a friend, too!).

my groove seemed gone at first, but slowly, slowly came that old thrilling feeling as ideas began to churn and appear. i love that feeling!

i'm completely obsessed and inspired by indigenous australian art right now. i have always been fascinated by it but seem to be more affected by its mystery and magic lately. i've never attempted dot-painting but thought it would be fun to try out on my tree leaves. i cannot imagine creating an entire canvas this way! so much patience!

especially in love with this artist.

(if you have a favourite artist leave me a linky!)

i can't tell you how happy it made me to get my hands covered in gel medium and paint again. i hope the art-making drought is coming to and end!

have you made anything lately?

friday funny photo: baby high-kick

he's got his 80's groove on alright!

juicy journal workshop!

 

 

the awesome thing about being back in perth is i can do all those things i ran out of time for 6 weeks ago! like this workshop!

nicole and i have planned a fun, jam-packed morning for you!

learn how to make this awesome felted book cover which will have you hooked on wet felting (these would make the best gifts!), and combine collage, painting, doodling and freestyle journalling techniques with lots of happy bits and pieces.  bind it all together and the result is a fat, juicy journal!

saturday, august 28th from 9am-1pm in mahogany creek.

cost is $65 which includes ALL materials and morning tea.

if you live in perth and would like to sign up, please email me - emilyfalconbridge{AT}hotmail.com

didgeridoos + gelato

on the weekend i got to go on a date with my two boys to fremantle, my favourite place to go here in perth! our mission was to get a didgeridoo for mick...a little 'yay-you-finally-got-a-job-babe!' present, something he has been wanting for many years. i love love the sound of the didge, and mick can rock the birdy/weird animal noises. it's HOT.

but first stop - the wharf for fish and chips, how could we not when the chips are this good?

 

the little boy has a cold and is all yummy and dopey looking, poor babe.

we stopped in at japingka and wished for thousands of dollars to buy a cool painting...

then onto didgeridoo breath to choose a nice one for micky! it's a great little shop, the people there are crazy-friendly and know heaps about didgeridoos...plus free lessons on saturday mornings. mick and his new bff from the shop wandered around chatting and searching for 'the one'.

it was soon found.

more chatting and male bonding followed, while banjo played a drum and did a really stinky nappy (not shown, lucky you).

...we had to hit up awesome gelato shop on the way back to the car. cutest thing ever was when big burly italian gelato scooper gave me this free little gelato for banjo. at first he was like 'wha?'

then realised - 'that's MINE?!!'

he devoured it like a pro. first ice-cream ever and not a drop spilled.

successful date all round!

home :)

yes...it's true! we are all the way back home in western australia. we flew in a week ago and i am just now recovered from that flight (oh THAT FLIGHT!), and the excitement of seeing everyone again and eating cheesymite scrolls.

this past year and a bit has been such a journey for our family. moving back here to australia...mick unable to find work, having to dig deep and question ourselves and what we could do to carve out a life of happy for our children. we went back to the US six weeks ago unsure of whether we would be living there again, or packing up our stored possessions and heading back to australia. everything was up in the air! but after almost 18 months of of nothing, mick received 2 job offers...hooray! with lots of family discussing we all decided that new england was definitely the place for us to be right now. we fell in love with the open spaces, the green (so much green!), the simple living, the community spirit and the abounding nature. so back we go in a month, to start a new adventure together...

but for now, we need visas - and frustratingly we cannot get them in canada or mexico (ie the close and cheap countries to get to!). so back in perth we are! enjoying the feeling of finally knowing what we are doing, and being back with family and friends for a last hurrah. living LIFE!

where in the world...

 
 

(hair + styling by miss ivy)

i will give you three clues!

1. it's not in america

2.  we came to get our visas

3. the food here is really, really yummy!

*bonus clue - JETLAG, bleh!