Nesting

This is the calendar that's hanging in our kitchen, from Creative Thursday. I think it might be trying to tell me something...

Here's January, obviously an image about NESTING... right what I'll be doing!

And here's February: a family of five (albeit different species)! Perhaps, just perhaps, this baby is planning on coming early!

I pulled out the suitcase of baby clothes (and toddler and little girl clothes!) yesterday and sorted it all into sizes. Another day I'll wash it all and fold it lovingly! I'm determined this time to use the little vintage woolen dresses and cardigans, even though they're higher maintenance. Otherwise what's the point of keeping them?

I couldn't resist taking a shot of this little jacket and booties. The jacket is a new addition, actually, the most fairly traded purchase of my life! It's knitted from yarn that's spun by a woman who raises her own alpacas; she then passes the yarn on to a women's auxilary who knit it up into these beautiful pieces (I bought the softest brown vest for Jasper, too); then some of the proceeds from the sale go to women in Africa, to do with maternal and child health issues! How's that for a lovingly made garment?! It didn't have a brand, and I don't have the tag anymore, but I bought it from a fair trade kids clothing and toy shop called Mine Kids in Olinda, Victoria. Lots of lovely things to buy there!

So yes, nesting, making room for this child whose imminence I can finally feel!

Lessons learned (or learning)

Well, this experiment of an attempted daily blog directed at a wider audience than before is already teaching me a few things. For starters, as I was composing and posting my previous entry about our trip to the beach, I was conscious that this is not really what I want to be putting up here, because I can't imagine that it's interesting for anyone else to read, beside family and a few friends, and maybe not even then! I wasn't adding value to anyone's day with that post, which is what I'm aiming to do here.

The photos were straight family shots, not anything artistic, not framing anything in a new/unusual/beautiful way. And, I didn't have anything super interesting to say! I think that sums up why the post didn't work!

I was talking about it with my partner later, and he wondered whether the pressure of blogging every day might lead to me posting boring stuff, just for the sake of getting something on the blog for the day. I've been wondering about this too, wondering how to work my way towards a a sustainable blogging practice while recognising that posting something regularly makes a blog more interesting. Soulemama is a case in point - I love that she posts so often; I often check my Google Reader to see if there's anything new over there. The difference is, she has interesting stuff to say!

I reckon, with a bit of planning, you can sustain a daily/regular practice by drawing on different creative streams. So for me on this blog those streams might be: ideas/musings on the simple joys of domesticity; things I've made/acts of creativity; ideas for more things to make - more of my original ideas, say, not things I've made where I'm following a pattern or someone else's idea; and formulaic but fun posts, like interesting things found on Etsy, or cool tutorials found on the net, or Thrifted Thursday, or Ten Things I'm Loving Right Now, etc.

However, even if I had a plan like this (and I may well experiment with that soon!), there's still a total art in taking a photo that captures a moment, and combining it with text that's inspiring and beautiful, and doing so almost every day! That's what Soulemama is able to do, and why we're all in awe of her!

Anyway, it's all good food for thought. Cos the trip to the beach fitted right in with the kind of life I want to create this year - spontaneous family fun, outdoors, in touch with nature! But how to document it so that it's useful or interesting to anyone else, that's my question?

What makes a blog valuable to you, especially if you don't know the person writing it?

A trip to the beach

Today we headed to the beach to make the most of these last few days before Gord goes back to work. We ended up in Seaford, one beach up from Frankston on the bay. It was the perfect space for young children (and their parents): calm, low-tide, sandbar, cafe right there! I love how the kids are happily entertained for hours in this environment. (Note to self: get camera serviced so those dots don't show up on our shots!)

Burying sleeping beauty.

A beach must-have: hot chips and gravy.

It was good to be outdoors, and to have a fun plan for the day. But right now, I feel the tiredness of being outside in the sun and wind. Could also be to do with the fact that I woke up at 6am, excited by the light coming in around the curtain, excited to creep out of bed and have the silence of the morning to myself. Life is full of trade-offs, eh...

Aspirations for 2009

My single New Years resolution was to read through a book called Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy, by Sarah Ban Breathnach. At her urging I spent time last night writing down some of my aspirations for 2009, some of my 'eager desires and lofty hopes'. Bit of a dreaming space, in other words. After beginning with 'a calm, beautiful birth at home,' I listed a few more things but ended up just writing down images in my head, images of my idealistic life:

domestic, harvest, preserving, baby, cosleeping, reading to children, fresh
bread, goddess, customising rooms, friends gathering, healthy food, handwork, reflection, slow and small focus, creativity, breastfeeding, rainy days by the woodstove, sunny days on the deck, planting throughout the year, envisioning outdoor/garden spaces, women's circle, sense of season and cycle, kid space, craft, flowers brought inside, shared meals, loved food lovingly prepared, orchard, making jam, homeschooling, rhythm...

I often doubt I'll achieve any clarity, when I undertake an exercise like this, but it's clear to me that even if ALL these things aren't achievable right now, that this year is one of inward descent, into the domestic and into myself, in a way. And having a baby makes that a vital process anyway...for a time.

Lying in bed last night I was musing about the crux of all this: finding creativity in everyday life, in the small things. This is what domestic bliss is about, I think. Musing about the two blogs I keep, and how I could experiment with bringing them together, a symbolic merging of family and life, with my creative pursuits. Thought I might try blogging here each day for a month, or the best I can do, and see what happens when I'm thinking about my everyday life more deliberately. I found when I was taking photos of my life in Canada for a week (Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs, Fri, Sat, Sun), that my creative eye was switched on and creative possibilities seemed everywhere. I'd like to carry that with me more often, that ability to see.

So this is a New Years experiment, a step that may take me towards some of my aspirations, although I can't be sure of that, that's why it's an unknown. Today my domestic bliss lay partly in talking for a chunk of the afternoon with a lifelong friend in a warm loungeroom (her with a whiskey toddy, no less!), in pulling out a quilt begun years ago and putting in a few stitches, in lying in the sun at the skate park enjoying the kids enjoying the outdoor space. And later, picking up the needles in a small space before the kids' bedtime and working a few rows on what I hope will become a coffee plunger cosy.

So yes, may the New Year be a bright one for you, bright with exciting aspirations, or at least with the glimmer of change approaching, change that always brings creative possibilities. And I'll stop waxing eloquent right here!

More knitting...

Look! Jasper's jumper is all done! I finally sewed up the last underarm hole this afternoon, while having a cuppa with my Mum. He's actually already worn it, despite the holey pits - but it felt good to finish it off totally, even though I wasn't super happy with how I did so. Those final seams don't look as good as they could, but hey, who's going to see?! Better just to be done, cos my attention and motivation had already moved on to other things...

I think he looks pretty good - I'm still loving the colours...

Last week, seeing as Jasper's jumper was almost (but not quite!) finished, I had the urge to start something bigger, with plenty of mindless knitting. What I really want to make is this Jo Sharp cardigan from her Knit 6 book (see the third piece along, with the two buttons?), but instead I'm knitting the one in the photo (above), from her Knit 1 book, cos I bought the yarn for it years ago and have never gotten around to knitting it up. Feels good to use what I have, but I still want to knit the other one, so I think I will, once I finish this one, and then I'll have two handknit cardigans, right when I'll need all the cardigans I can get, breastfeeding through autumn and winter!

Incidentally, Jo Sharp just put out another book, Knit 7, but I really can't see myself making anything from it! Bit too frou frou for my current stage of life - what would a posset look like on one of those pieces, I wonder? Or bits of dinner from when one of my kids has grabbed me?? =)

Advent x 3

I thought I had a day up my sleeve, when it came to Advent, so I was caught by surprise, this morning, when I realised that today was actually the 1st of December. Only last night I'd been online looking for ideas of things to put in our Advent calendar. Kids Craft Weekly always has cool stuff, so after paying a bit more attention (as opposed to ignoring the fortnightly emails - life's too busy to deal with all the stuff in my inbox!), I decided to buy the Christmas Craft pdf. Lots of fun ideas in there - you could get it too!

Now, what I'm wondering is whether three Advent calendars is too many?! The kids have one from my parents last year, where each day you get to velcro on one more character in the nativity. And I really liked this idea...

...sticking a star onto the night sky each day until Christmas Day. So in a bit of unexpected free space today, I cleaned up the loungeroom and created a space for our Peruvian candle-lit nativity scene.

Piper can stick a star on tonight.

I found the idea in this book, Crafts Through the Year by Thomas and Petra Berger, which I found at Brunswick Bound. (Man, that is a fantastic bookshop, if you get a chance to wander round in there! Be warned, you will probably leave with less cash, but some beautiful books and ideas!). Lovely book, but suited more to the Northern Hemisphere. Still, I didn't want to pass it up.

Anyway, that's only two advent calendars! The third is one I sewed from a panel years ago, but it has pockets, and I like the idea of putting little things in there, like occasional chocolate but also fun things to do together as a family. Lots of idea out there, once you look a little - I might post the list I threw together here once I format it a little. So I think it would be fun, but still, three calendars - is that overkill??

Creative weekend

I've been working away on bits and pieces for Christmas. Skirts for presents and tree ornaments for some friends and family. I brought this green fabric and white buttons back from Canada (good old Tanells and the MCC thrift store!) and had the idea of making little trees for ages. Then I rediscovered this tutorial, which simplified things a lot - always helpful when one is making more than a few. I do have a tendency to complicate things!

So this mess...

...becomes this...

...becomes this! I was eyeing up the bottlebrush when I took this - it's such a christmassy flower, but I don't think it will last til the 25th. I'll have to wait and see.

So, little trees, still under production, but I've got enough to send to Canada now (shhh, don't tell those people). I'll hang them in a window in the front of our family newsletter, which I have also managed to pull together this weekend. Bummer the printer has run out of ink!

Managed to make some girly skirts for a few of Piper's friends. Squeezed the sewing in amidst breakfasts and dinner prep and colouring in. Little bits of time are more on offer round here than large chunks. I really really love the simplicity of this pattern - it really facilitates giving a handmade gift which hasn't taken too much out of you! Thankyou, Liesl.

Last but not least, we were creative in the kitchen, with Piper making her first ever batch of pikelets and cooking them too, until the idea of a wrestle with Dad became more interesting. She did really well - good to be reminded that her capacity to do stuff increases without me realising, and new possibilities emerge...