Happy Annivesary Andreas

Today, Andreas and I celebrate 17 years being married (22 years together).

The last year has certainly been a full one for us. A new baby, selling the house that we built, moving into a rental, and all the emotional strain that goes with that. But I have my happy place back (my sewing room) and with it renewed energy to create my little "hobby" businesses into something more sustainable.

We are fortunate to be surrounded by genuine friends who have also been in long term relationships. Granted, it is not easy at times. Growing old together has it's ups and down's, but as I tell the kids that I teach, anything that is worthwhile tends to be hard.

The next year will bring it's own strains with the pending house project. But we are now closer to our support system and in a space which will allow us to live and grow the way we want to.

Andreas, I love you.

A very different Birthday Gift

When I awoke Wednesday morning I didn't think that I would end up in Sydney, or even climb the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

It was my 40th Birthday this year (on the 4th), a significant one .. My hubby gave me a present, it was a frame and a picture inside it that my daughter drew. It was of me on the Harbour Bridge. What the? I was to be whisked away to Sydney to do the Bridge Climb at dusk followed by dinner a swish restaurant.

The easiest bit of the climb is the Bridge bit. The hardest is going up the step ladders and ducking underneath and around the bowels of the Bridge. But once you are on the Bridge, it is relatively easy and whatever fear you had is washed away with the beauty of the view.

Bridge Climb run a slick operation, with some training of the equipment before you make it onto the Bridge itself. There are a lot of checks and balances along the way and people to help you out at the difficult bits of the climb. All up it takes about 3 hours including changing, training and collecting your photo's afterwards.

What an adventure! I am back in Melbourne to pack my house up so that I can move Friday week. Lots of boxes to pack, but I am looking forward to my sewing room.

Day 3 #JANphotoaday - Something you Adore

The theme for today is "Something you Adore", and while I adore my children and cats, it's probably my hubby that I adore the most at the moment.

We have been together since 1990, and I loved watching him grow and evolve into a loving father.

Mr Kammel's Modern Steam Engine

Any excuse to share a gorgeous picture of my hubby.

Take in the Engine room of the Steamboat Wattle, moored at Docklands. Photo taken by the very talented Kerri Valkova.

My hubby the model ...

I didn't take this, but I had to share ..



Two of my favourite things in the whole wide world ...

16 years and counting ...

Another year has flown by rather fast and we find ourselves celebrating our Wedding Anniversary yet again. 16 years married, 21 years together ...  I am currently reading Kerri Sackville's new book and there is a line in it which says that when you are married for a while it is like reading the same book over and over. For us it isn't like that, we are both changing and certainly with the arrival of Nicholas, life is definately not the same book over and over.

In previous years I have posted some actual wedding pictures, but this one is perhaps my favourite. Can you guess where it was taken?

Andreas, I love you and feel I blessed that you chose me to share your life with. Even when we are operating on very few hours of sleep at the moment, you make me feel special and loved.

Headspace

From my point of view, expressing breastmilk regularly means freedom. It means that I can go to a movie or shopping and leave Nicholas with someone else so that I can regain my "headspace".

But for Victoria it was an opportunity for the "big sister" to do something (almost) completely by herself. When I showed her the small bottle sitting in the fridge yesterday, she was really excited and all day she kept on telling me that she was going to give Nicholas a bottle of "Oobie" milk for dinner.

So I did the same trick that I did with Victoria, held him close and quickly substituted my nipple for the nipple of the bottle. It took him a few minutes to adjust, but then he guzzled down the bottle (60ml).

I am looking forward to a "date night" soon ... there are too many good movies out there at the moment. What do you do to regain your "headspace"?

Off on a big adventure

My little girl and hubby are off on an adventure to Germany for 2 1/2 weeks leaving Mummy all by herself. Just Mummy and her sewing machine.

Tori was very excited that she could "drive" her own case!

The determined little thing that she is, she wouldn't let Mummy help.



Not sure where the hat came from, but she felt the need to wear one.



Using the colouring in books I made.

Wordless Wednesday

Japan April 2007

Long live the film photo booth!

We have had an outbreak of gastro at our place and the latest casualty was my poor husband through the night. So today armed with the best chemicals money can buy, I am on a cleaning mission to kill whatever bug has taken up residence in our household.

I am coming across all sorts of things in my cleaning adventures, including these old pictures that I thought I would share. Every once in a while Andreas and I end up at a cinema that has an "old fashioned" (read film) photo booth there. When we can we get a pic taken, three in a row .. some good, some bad!

Far left was taken in 1990 (taken in Dandenong "Hub") when we had first started to date, I was 19. Middle picture was 2005, far right picture was early 2008 after Tori was born (still carrying the fluid from several blood transfusions and definitely breastfeeding).

I know that we have better pictures of us, but I love these photo booth pictures, they are raw and weathered and if you are lucky you get just one good picture out of the three. Reminds me that it is about time for us to do another picture.

Long live the film photo booth!

Happy Eve of All Saints ....

In Australia, we celebrated Halloween yesterday by attending a lovely party. A friend from Sydney took a quick snap of the hubby and I which turned out reasonably good, so I thought I would share.

In the area where we live, trick or treating is welcomed. There are rules though. We like the kids to have an adult with them and if you are participating in festivities you are meant to pop something on the front of your house or gate to show that you are celebrating Halloween. Last year there was a note that went around saying these things, but probably due to busyness the note never appeared this year. There was however, a healthy amount of kids roaming the streets who had gone to great lengths to look the part.

There are lots of people in Australia that cringe at the thought of Halloween and claim that we are just taking on another countries traditions or just encouraging another hallmark holiday. Mind you, these complaints are often heard from similar people who openly celebrate Christmas and Easter but have never set foot in a church.

As Halloween often happens around the time of Melbourne Cup, many radio shock jocks complain about the fact that the "race that stops the nation" is in the shadow of Halloween and that we should be celebrating the cup rather than this "American holiday". They would rather we celebrate gambling, getting drunk and living excessively than dressing up and paying respects to the dead ...

Reading up on the origins of Halloween is an interesting exercise and there are many web sites with lots of information. Understanding that it is a two day celebration ending with a dinner to celebrate those who have died in the past year is important, and a tradition that I would love to incorporate into our yearly celebration calendar. Unfortunately, just like Christmas and Easter, most people will celebrate the entertainment aspect of this date in our calendar. In our household, we subconsciously ended up eating a meal which reminded us of our very dear Boris who passed away last year.

But for the crafter in me, Halloween is important because it gives me yet another opportunity to craft away and also buy up all the lovely gothic style fabrics in the post Halloween sales (*giggles*). If you haven't worked out by now, I tend to lean towards the quirky fabrics for my creations.

So what does Halloween mean to you, do you celebrate it or frown upon it?

An afternoon at the Museum

I worked Monday morning and in the afternoon we hit the road and ended up at the Melbourne Museum in Fitzroy/Carlton. Taking the 96 tram down to the museum was an exciting adventure!

Tori is going through a stage of not wanting to be in the pusher, but that is ok, because we have a back pack. Probably a better workout for us!

At the museum there is a children's section where the kiddles can get all dressed up like a dinosaur and parade around in front of a mirror.

A very large sandpit, which is secretly an archaeological dig site ...

Of course afterwards we had do do coffee and cino once again ...

It was such an exhausting day that Tori fell asleep on the tram on the way home ...

We somehow managed to get her into the backpack for the walk home ...

And then we carefully lifted her onto the couch where she slept for another hour!

Ahh, that's the life!

Harmony Day Pinny

I had a real "Sound of Music" moment on Thursday night. The place where Tori goes to childcare had "harmony" day on Friday and they requested that we all dress the kids in orange. The only fabric that I had was this Ikea Fabric ....


So I made her a pinny to wear ... rough around the edges, but it met the criteria .... 1) orange, 2) hardwearing, 3) using a pattern that I am developing ...


I lined it in black cotton and the back of the pinny is black cotton with a metal snap closure. Trying to get a picture of her was hard ... she kept on running around. Back and forth from Dadda to Mammy ... she calls me Mammy ...


Tori loves her Dadda .... I love this picture .... the bliss upon my husbands face is priceless!