The Wombats: Let's Dance to Joy Division
it's ironic but oh so fun
The Killers: Sam's Town
rock it
There is an amazing offer at the Commerical Pattern Archive. One week of free access
I love vintage childrenswear patterns so can see this being a time sucker if I am not careful
I suggest you pop on over and have a look, I am sure you muse will soon join you.
It's been a busy week at the theoretic household
Mr C went to ENT on tuesday and we decided to get the grommets done.
He had 5 or so infections in the matter of 6 weeks that led to perforated ear-drums and as a result his hearing was affected. We gave him a month to see whether the middle ear cleared itself but it had not improved at all so he went off on Friday for the operation. It is only a minor operation but the whole general anesthetic was fairly tough. Apparently he was going somersaults in his cot in recovery.
The staff were great and he was up and about in no time.
He seems so much happier and has already added quite a new few words and phrases to his vocabulary which is really encouraging. Even better, he has slept through every night since the operation :-)
Mr D goes in for part 2 of his leg operation on wednesday so I will lose my helper for 4-8 weeks. I am sure Mr C will find a heap of new ways to annoy Mr D whilst he is incapacitated.
In foodie news mr D discovered the joys of bread-making.
My lovely crafty friend Maree, had bought a loaf of her homemade rye bread when she visited and Mr D loved it. She just happened to have a spare bread-maker lying around and she kindly lent it to us to have a play.
The Light Rye mix turned out great
We will try a 2/3 Dark rye 1/3 white blend next. The Mixing Bowl staff were lovely and we have a small selection of different mixes to try over the coming weeks.
Ok so it's not the type of bread I go raving about in the same manneras my sourdough but it is better than supermarket offering and who can complain about having piping hot bread ready with minimal effort. I will attempt to get my sourdough start off and running again once the weather warms up. It took a lot of effort to get it right and lets face it 2 days to get the loaf sorted is an effort ompared to 5 mins with the bread-maker.
Mr C has always been a bit ahead of the curve when it comes to the physical side of life.
Lately he has been riding anything he can get on top of whether it is designed to be ridden or not.
So in an effort to harness this energy an enthusiasm a constructive manner.
We were always going to get him a wooden balance bike so we decided to investigate whether there were any smaller versions on offer that would suit the pipsqueak.
Wooden.net had two on their site and luckily they are fairly close to us so we were able to go check them out. It is a lovely store.
and comes complete with a small cafe area which DH and Mr D gave a thumbs up :-)
The staff were really great so we can totally recommend them.
We ended up deciding on the Early Rider over the like-a-bike.
And off he went.
Before you go all silly on me and ring social services, Yes we got him a helmet as well. His Dad was just a little too excited to give him his first ride to pop it on.
I love modern design and DCA's flickr stream is just so inspirational.
I am tired of looking through all the banal offerings on domain/realestate.com each week. I am really starting to think it isn't such a bad idea to buy a knock-down and build something fabulous. The dilemma is then do we buy something for the interim period or just keep renting.
I would really love to do this on a 2-10 acre property with spectacular views but that would make life too difficult with the commute to the cbd, schools etc.
I did find my version of a dream period home: On a huge block, pretty front but ripe for a modern extension but it disappeared weirdly off the market along with being a bit over budget.
In the meantime I will just keep drooling over the fabulousness via flickr adn my fav design/architecture blogs.
Well wonder no more.
I stumbled on this great little tutorial on the cute sewing blog Dana Made It which
tells you how to turn all those lovely shirts where DH has stained or
worn out the cuff's and collar or they just don't fit anymore.
I am a huge fan of shirt fabrics.
I have a few boxes of shirtings in the stash.
Lovely crisp cotton usually in plains, subtle prints, stripes or gorgeous tone on tones. Even some subtle florals similar to the one I used to make this dress.
Shame I don't have a girl to make one for, then again that has never stopped me.
A great PDF by Connie Amaden-crawford on interfacings.
I have been hoping to try out her dartless blocks for a while but they remain untouched on my drafting table along with a few hundred other projects.
My lovely family has been struck down with a rather nasty virus. Unconfirmed but thought to be swine flu. Frankly whatever it is doesn't really matter we have all been rather ill.
Once the fever has come and gone, the malaise has set in during the drawn out recuperation period. This has given me a bit of time to reflect on many things that have happened to and around me this past few months.
Life around here is pretty good particuarly considering the complete mess it was in a few years ago. Business is good, the children are a delight and I get to share my life with the most amazing partner one could ever wish for. Ok it's not all beer and skittles we have our ups and downs. House hunting is more than a little stressful as we have cast a wide net but we have a reasonable budget so we will find something eventually. I am a reasonably patient person.
The only blips on the radar has been the complex issue of friendships.
I was quite happy with the friendship circles I had both on and offline. I managed to fall into a lovely mothers group locally and they really are the nicest bunch you would want to meet. They are intelligent, caring, sharing and genuine. We met by a accident of our children birthdates and geographic location but I can really see myself remaining in contact with most of these people for a very long time.
I also found a lovely online group which was traveling along really nicely. Yes there was the odd hiccup and I didn't always agree with what people said. Sometimes I would speak up about it, other times I would just say nothing and ignore the bits I didn't agree with for the sake of the group. I am not one of those people who sets out to be mean or thinks that my opinion is the only one that matters or that my way is the only way. I am also polite. I may not really like you or your behaviour but I will be pleasant and polite because life is too short to get into a bumfight over silly little things or be a complete bitch.
It was with great sadness that I watched the group implode. I really enjoyed their friendship but such is the lifecycle of friendships. Originally I was thinking it was just like every other internet group I had watched unravel but the lines between internet and real life were so blurred. We all met up with each other, sent each other gifts, texted and phoned. It may have started online but it had morphed into so much more. I do miss it but the ones I care about most have made an effort to keep in touch.
There are other events that have happened in recent months that I won't talk about openly that have caused me to think about what a true friendship is and who I want to have involved in my life. It also made me think about where I want my details shared, Social networking has blurred the lines between the online persona and offline reality even more. I have always used a nom de nets to protect my privacy and it was a huge move for me to put my real name on Facebook.
I do really appreciate my true friends no matter how I met you.
XX
Technically monsterboy is not a teen but it is only a few short months away. We already have the sullen moods, desire to wear only cool clothes, playing of music until the wee hours and knowing the obligatory can we paint my bedroom black so it looks like a cave conversation is coming up I decided to head him off at the pass.
We lease our current abode and whilst we are on a house hunt but that may take a while. We could have survived the bedroom as it was but MB had refused to sleep in his loft bed thereby creating a reason to do a little makeover. Like most rentals it was well past due needing a re-paint and as we have permission to do so who could knock back dome painting practice.
We decided against a dramatic change as occurred in the nursery as the previous colour wasn't that bad. The room still needs more sorting out but it is essentially finished.
Before:
After:
Details:
Dimensions of room: 3.9m by 3.9m
Feature wall: Blik/Threadless: We're not Savages based on Lord of the Flies
Paint: Original ( horrid) beige/cream
Green was freshened up with Dulux Chromatic grey range : Knave
Bed: Black futon that was previously used as a couch/spare bed in the room.
Linen: Aura in Jak black
Book shelves: Ikea Billy in brown-black
Shelf unit/desk: Ikea Expedit and deck in brown black
Chest: Ikea Malm in brown black --- can we see a theme developing yet?
Bedside table: Ikea Kullen in, you guessed it... brown-black.
Extra's mostly Ikea, Officeworks or previously owned items.
Not shown is a corner behind the door with a doorless Ikea Pax wardrobe in the wrong colour which I will make a black curtain for. We didn't see any sense in changing that as it is hidden by the door most of the time and we will be moving once we find a place and we have it livable.
All in all we are reasonably pleased with the transformation. Most importantly Mr D is ecstatic.
Setting the scene:
Mr C was being incredibly cute dressing up in his big brothers clothes so I go to grab my mobile to send a snap to his Dad to brighten what looks like being a crummy day. For some reason the mobile won't turn on even though it has been on charge overnight so I whip off the cover thinking the battery isn't connecting properly only to find there is no battery. :eek:
Ring DH he knows nothing about it. So knowing my weird obsession with finding lost things I will have to turn the house upside down to find it. Wondering how I will manage that with a toddler in tow?
Solution:
I grab the highchair strap mr C in and give him a big pack of his big brothers old pencils and some paper.
Results:
Apparently there was more than just pencils in the pack.
Being cheap school felt tips they aren't toddler friendly i.e not easily washable.
So now I have a child who looks like he is trying out for the part as the Jokers colourblind younger self for the next Batman movie.
And I still haven't found my mobile battery.
