*e*

deliciousness

to celebrate the official start of summer and say yes to tradition (we started last year), the kids and i went strawberry picking. it was a beautiful morning - oh how i love these three very different little berry babies of mine, and felt so grateful and alive this morning to be their mumma walking alongside them in life. holding their hands (for now!), sharing these moments. i adore them so deeply. being here in this field had me reflecting on picking here on a warm morning last year, finally feeling a breath and a small corner turned in living life here. how far we have all come in a years time, how fast life whizzes by. how much time i have wasted on sadness and anxiety when i could have been embracing so much. but, we learn. and grow. and keep going...

the strawberries were much smaller this year but just as delicious. many more got eaten than picked, perfect living-in-the-moment moments!

could this mischevious boy be any cuter? after tiring from picking, he sat down and filled the rest of his basket with everyone elses loot! and then offered us all the white ones he'd gathered in exchange! he's good like that.

so...i know i'm not in this space on a regular, reliable schedule. i'm spending less and less time on the computer these days and more and more living in the moment. licking up every last juicy drop of my three amazing children, and exploring the world with them. i love to share and connect here, but this season of my life does not allow for much time spent online. i hope you understand! sending summery love your way..!

magical days of summer

(thrifted rashie top goes girly to cover up the words 'surfer dude' with a circle from another pair of worn out bathers and stem/leaf from the sleeve hem)
summer has arrived in new england! (...or has it? wool cardigans and footsie pajamas are still being worn at times), school has broken up for the summer and i am loving having my three chickies all home together.

laying our heads under the apple trees, soaking in all the glorious green-ness everywhere (green! in summer!), eating chippies and reading books on a blanket, walking to the stream, hanging out at the lake, being entertained watching our dog bound through the water! we have been making the most of these first summer days, sandwiches for dinner and all!

these are the memories i hope my children look back on when they are adults, and remember the beauty and magic of summer days at home.

(and hoping they block the memories of me yelling/stressing/messing up!)

 

i'm thinking sandwiches and icypoles for dinner tonight to celebrate summer solstice outside on this beautiful day we are having!

wedding gift

what to get, what to get?!! i love to give gifts...and wanted to find 'the right' gift for my brother and his wife who i love so much. they've just bought a new house and so i thought it would be fun to give them some art for the walls. i knew i wanted to get em rooney to custom make a big sign for them - her bold and grungy style is perfect for my bushman bro and kez. trying to decide on the perfect phrase was tricky (decisiveness not being my strong point) - my bff tara has a poster in her bedroom stating 'we are so good together' (and yeah, we are!...but i get the feeling she means her and her fella...), and well, if tara says it's cool, then i think its cool, and so that is what i got em to make! (it is huge by the way and only just fit inside my most enormous suitcase...oh but i love it so much!)

ollie and kerrie both love biking and so this print from the big harumph on etsy was perfect (so many cool prints to choose from). i got an inexpensive frame from target for it...the sillhouettes looks just like them, i swear!

these little books i found in paper source ages ago and had to buy them because they were so hilarious.

for example, kerrie's life will be so much easier upon reading advice such as:

Don't let your husband wear a violet tie with grass-green socks. If he is unhappily devoid of colour sense, then he must be forcibly restrained.

Don’t vegetate as you grow older if you live in the country. Some women are like cows, but there is really no need to stagnate. Keep both brain and body on the move.

Don’t be afraid of cold meat. A few cookery lessons, or even a good cookery book, with the use of a little intelligence, will make you mistress of delicious ways of serving up leftovers.

and i know ollie needs to hear these tidbits:

Don't 'talk down' to your wife. She has as much intelligence as your colleague in the office; she lacks only opportunity. Talk to her of anything you would talk of to a man, and you will be surprised at how she expands.

Don’t sharpen pencils all over the house. It does not improve either the carpets or the servants’ tempers to find pencil sharpenings all over the floor.

hehe! hours of laughter in two teeny books.

i do love finding good prezzies to give!

ps emily rooney is offering 10% off her signs - use the code GET10OFF when you shop!

ollie + kerrie

my brothers wedding was the #1 reason for our trip home to perth - the first of my three little brothers to get married, so exciting! he and kerrie have been friends since high school and a couple for the past 6 years so we are so happy she is officially a HILL now! it was so much fun being there in the weeks leading up to the wedding, shopping for ivy & yindi's flower girl outfits, helping with decorations and plans. the big day came and was a gorgeous one, it was a calm, simple and really special celebration of these two amazing people. my family means the world to me and i hate living so far away from them...so to all be together like this was really such a treat!

my little loves were crazy adorable in the wedding party. banjo and yindi came down the aisle first (banjo is wearing the sailor hat ollie wore as best man in my uncle's wedding when we were kids), followed by ivy looking so beautiful! i was a fluster taking photos, bursting with pride, stressing that banjo would run off in the other direction, holding back tears!

(hooray banjo made it down the aisle!)

to be honest i don't even remember the ceremony i was a blubbery mess and then banjo did run off so i had to chase him down without causing too much of a scene. (note the girls giggling and probably gagging over the kiss!)

oh these three looked so adorable!

so did my brother sam and his ladylove bridget (8 months pregnant and you can't even tell!)...

and my baby brother toby with his pretty pretty ange...loved seeing everyone dressed up all fancy!
all of us together - seriously when did we become grown ups, because i remember dressing these three up as my "sisters", doing their short hair in ponytails, bossing them around and sneaking into each others beds when we were scared at night, and now they are MEN!

(with my mum and my dad. yes, swervin' is wearing and m&m tie...that guy is in a class of his own...)

at some point after the adrenalin was wearing off (it was quite an ordeal dressing those kids and myself...and keeping everyone clean before shuffling them into a limo), i started to miss my husband...a LOT. there may have been a tear or two! i hadn't seen the guy for 4 weeks plus there were all these happy couples and lovey-doveyness going on...but i did have my cutie little man-date who was more than happy to hang out with his mumma...until he spotted one of his uncles or a car!

yindi took her job as flowergirl VERY seriously. i'm pretty sure she thought it was *her* special day and kerrie was just there as a supporting role. wherever the bride was, yindi was there - fluffing, posing, twirling, smelling the flowers...i doubt there is a single photo from the day without her in it!

and while ivy conked out on a couch by 9pm, yindi was the life of the party till the very end! she danced her heart out from the time the dj started playing music until the wedding ended at midnight...she was making the most of her wedding high and better than any entertainment money could have bought us!

i'm soooo so grateful to have been there for this magical occasion, and to all my family who chipped in to help us get over there for the wedding...it was a really special time and we will carry all those memories and love in our hearts every day.

and yay i officially have a sister now!