First harvest

Our zucchini plants are producing prolifically, as zucchini plants always seem to! We really want to respect the abundance of this garden and use all that it produces, so zucchini has been, and will be, on the menu for a while at our place!

The vibrant yellow skin was a welcome surprise - I guess I should have paid more attention to what we were planting!

So, our first harvest from the garden becomes part of a thrown-together-with-whatever-we-had-on-hand Split Pea and Zucchini soup, consumed with family and friends. Lovely.

Dressing up

A pirate costume for a movie night with friends, coming together just from what we had. I love that.

Five years together

One shopping trip.
One Kids Movie night at Jane & Steve's.
One space to ourselves.
One game.
Two steaks, later.
One handwritten letter.
One movie: Slumdog Millionaire.
One full moon.

Five years together.

Friends for dinner

Friends for dinner calls for a session with the pasta maker...

...freshly picked flowers...

...chocolate cake...

...and consumption!

Photography: step 1

We were at some friends' place last night and I took the liberty of taking a few photos...

I'm aiming, in 2009, to focus on my photography and try and get to a point where I'm taking better shots. In particularly, I'm realising that there's an art to setting up a shot, stylising it, if you will. Not just taking a photo of a cake, but teaming it with some vintage loveliness in the background, say. So none of these shots are amazing, but they are a step - the first step of taking the camera with me and at least trying! And with two young kids, soon to be three, and the amount of stuff I already have to remember when I walk out of the house, taking the camera is a big enough step for now!

Christmas haul

Look how lucky I was this Christmas!

Three delicious craft books to peruse most pleasurably, with a cup of tea, perhaps... More Softies compiled by Viking, Last-Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson, and The Gentle Art of Domesticity by Jane Brocket.

Softies are new territory for me, but I'm eyeing off this little pup, by Myra Masuda.

And these scrapbooks...

... and this quilt - the colours of the fabrics don't grab me, but all those lines do!

The Gentle Art of Domesticity touches on a myriad of different topics and encourages all kinds of domestic artistry. It will be a total joy to read through it slowly... Lucky me! Thanks heaps, Kathryn, John & Anne, and Sharon!

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!