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tara made this today, (click to see it bigger on her blog) and it made me laugh and love so big! it was a great pick-me-up in my stressed out day...
i've officially gone into 'crazyfrazzledmama' status crafting like mad for christmas, ivy's birthday and another craft fair this weekend. oy! my family want to disown me. i posted off the last of the aussie gifts today so a small sigh of relief may be breathed. i'll share some of the things i've been making here soon!
this week, all week...camera straps are just $22!
i've been holding onto this last batch all year but really truly won't be doing them anymore after these sell, so grab 'em now for a happy christmas gift!
i'll be re-stocking the shop during the week, so if you are looking for a certain colour it should be there soon...
thankyou :)
oh and while i am talking "bizness" - if interested in a $20 ad space for december here on the ole blog, send me and email! emilyfalconbridge@hotmail.com - i do trades too :)
ohhh i am still on my happy cloud from our thanksgiving trip to NYC! it was so delicious to spend 2 days with the whitneys, we love them and miss them so so much...
the surprising of the girls was CLASSIC, i'm talking jaws to the floor and eyes popping out of their heads! (jeff caught it on camera so check tara's blog later for pics) needless to say, the pair of them were glued to each others side the whole time.
highlights included a lot of walking, talking, cracking up, photo-taking, ice skating in bryant park, MOMA, a d-i-y indian buffet in the hotel room, macy's parade, the staten island ferry, bad insider jokes, street snacks and staring longingly into one anothers eyes. oh, and banjo's calling jeff "the man".
you better believe that when a camera comes out (which it will!), we know how to work it...
(attached via invisible velcro. like mamas, like daughters)
it was so special and beautiful to explore this amazing city with our friends. to cry and laugh and squeeze each others hands. to see our childrens special bond and soak up the new memories they were making. to have the master map reader/subway decoder/clipboard-of-fun organiser "the man" (jeff) to put our trust in and enjoy NYC!
just some good good times with some good good people. our people!
because....today i get to see my best friend!!!!
yes, the whitneys are in NYC and i can hardly contain myself - eek! it has been over a year since we last had a love-fest...(banjo was so small!) way too long!
perhaps the most exciting part of all is that tara and i have kept this little rendezvous in the big apple a complete secret from our girls for the past few months! i've almost stuffed up a few times but caught myself just in time. we plan to walk around the corner from each other and have them get the shock of their lives! i cannot wait!!!
happy thanksgiving to one and all. it will be a VERY happy one for us!!
our new living room has a lovely (minus those 80's handles, don't worry i have plans to change) big built in bookshelf, where i am housing all things needed for a cosy winters day by the fire - books, games, puzzles, tapes & cd's, journals, wool for knitting, crayons & paper and other kid craft supplies. there is also a nice space for our 'nature table' to go - i always like to set up a little scene for the season, and the kids add treasures from outside or little things they find and make.
we found some beautiful moss last week so today yindi and i set about arranging it into a fairy garden...ohh this was fun! and so nice to bring some green indoors. i'm hoping that by spraying it every few days it will stay fresh for a long while...because there is nothing quite like a fairy garden!
yindi went outside and gathered a basket of 'fairy stuff' while i sorted out our pile of moss and cut a piece of black plastic to fit onto the shelf.
then we used a couple of pieces of wood to drape the moss over and create fairy hills...
it was fun fitting the different bits of moss together! after we had laid the moss, i trimmed the black plastic to fit, and we decorated the garden with our treasures, and a few little woodland friends...
with our leftover moss, we each made a mini garden on a plate - hers for the windowsill...(*swoon*!)
and mine as a little surprise for ivy when she came home later!
it's such a happy process to create with things from nature, and this was a lovely reminder to do it more often. we love our fairy gardens!
mondays, and housework, can be not-such-awful-things when the delightful sun is out, and streaming into the house. it's getting chilly here, but what a gift it is to have such a beautiful blue sky and sunshine.
it was a good day today :)
don't you hate those braggy blog posts with other peoples brilliant thrifting finds?!!
sorry to do it to you, but i had the score of my thrifting career this weekend - i almost, almost didn't bother stopping, because i was there only a week before and i had mr banjo with me, a no-no for any successful shopping trip. BUT...how could i betray savers like that, when i was driving right past it?
so in we went.
and there she was...
the champion juicer i have been wishing for for over 3 years now! i always, always check the kitchen gadget section of the thrift store first in the hopes of finding one of these babies, but have never spotted one before. i'm pretty sure i squeaked when i saw it and grabbed it off the shelf like nobodys business. score score score!!! oh i can't tell you how happy this made me!
and just when i thought things couldn't get any better, i found a lovely green wool blanket, a bunch of well priced wool jumpers, two adorable vintage sheets and some work pants for my man (not pictured, because they are boring. but needed).
i also found a lollipop at the bottom of my bag which made this boy very pleased, as he was to line up rows of cars while i browsed...
(don't freak out mum, i was holding onto him the whole time...i promise...apart from taking the picture...he was safely wedged onto the wool blanket..!)
i will feed off this day of splendid bargains for a long time, and let the sewing and juicing begin please!
i loved to play shopkeeper when i was a kid, and i still love it now! i had a booth at a local craft market last weekend which was very exciting for the girls and i (they were my models and lovely assistants!). i made mostly happy childrens clothing out of recycled tshirts and wool that i felted down - skirts, cosy pants, cardigans. for the past few weeks my studio has been a flurry of scraps and piles and threads, and i've had lots of valuable input from these two little clothing designers of mine! we loved meeting new faces and seeing who the clothes went home with...as well as seeing all the other fun things at the market (i may or may not have spent most of my earnings on other handmade goodness!).
i'll be listing some leftover items in my etsy shop tomorrow afternoon/thursday EST. i'd give you a time but that is really up to mr banjo and his unreliable naptime...
in the meantime here is a peek...
ooh it's fun to sew new things out of old, and have a colourful little shop for the day!
i think i might have the craft market bug...
(stealing the milk we put out to lure the neighbours cat back...we have mice, eek!
we are making this house of ours a home, slowly but surely!
there are still so many corners to unpack, spots to paint and photos to hang - but i am not worried....we have plenty of winter time coming up soon to spend indoors doing thats sort of thing. for now we play in the few cosy (sunfilled! yes!) spots we have made, enjoy the fleeting 'warm' weather and sunshine out there...and cook, feed, clean, wipe, wash REPEAT!!
oh, and should someone in my family ask - yes it is beans for dinner again!! i just learned that i can throw my dry beans into the crock pot with water late morning and they will be perfectly cooked by dinnertime. goodbye overnight soaking (+planning) and pressure cooking-slash-i-burn-the-beans. my world is rocked.
**edit! here is the scoop on the beans: i rinse the dry beans and then chuck them in the pot, and cover with water. add bay leaves. put on high and leave for maybe 6-8 hours...check them throughout the day to see if you need to add more water. i add lots of salt and pepper and we have them with rice, a dollop of sour cream, some grated cheese on top and fresh cilantro/coriandor. i normally do a big batch of them and put half in a bag in the freezer for a quick meal another night.
theres a junk shop i've driven by several times over the past year and never stopped to have a look - as much as i do love junk, there have always been three children in the car with me! who would probably reduce me to tears in such an environment!
but...this time there was just one little boy in the car - and the junk was calling me...
held tightly in my arms we wandered together (i convinced him we were looking for trucks), which is pretty much my favourite place for him to be. so generous with his smooshy kisses this day.
to this scary looking doll he pointed and with glee declared "mumma! dats mumma!" is it the raised eyebrows or the tightly pursed lips?
i'm on the hunt for a granny square blanket like this one for the girls room - i found a wool one recently and would love a matchy-matchy.
after about 20 minutes my arm was going dead and the wriggler could no longer be contained so we skidaddled out of there...
spontaneity, you are a good thing.
as are cheeky little boys who love their mamas.
