And then there were two

I've been sitting on this blog post for some time now. It is quite an emotional one and I guess it has stopped me from regularly posting.

We got Anastasia in November of 1995 and on the 10th of October 2011, she passed away. She was effectively our "first born".

She was always quite reserved and hated to be picked up. Probably due to being picked up as a young cat, she strugged and landed on the tiles and fractured her front paw. So if she wanted to smooch you, it was entirely on her terms. She was never a lap cat, but would happily sit next to you.

This photo was taken when we lived in Noble Park. Not long after we got Boris he instantly fell in love with our Russian princess. Boris was a street cat that we found a home for. Battered and bruised we brought him into our home and instantly they became a couple. Whenever I look at this photo, I hear Lionel Richie and Dianna Ross' Endless Love.

Ana and Boris are together again under the rose bush in our front garden. I miss her terribly, but in the end her kidney's had shut down and whilst we could have put her on a drip and prolonged her life for another month, it wouldn't have been fair. So we had to make the call, and it was such a hard one to make.

At least Natasha has Vladamir. It makes it easier on them to have someone to play with. I caught Tasha washing Vlad the other day the way that she used to wash Ana, he wasn't too thrilled with the experience but I suspect he liked the attention.

So that is what I have been upto ... not much craft happening, lots of interior decorating, Nicholas and I did sleep school and he is sleeping much better. But I guess I haven't felt like blogging much and now you know why.

My Green Room

I have been enjoying the colours in my Green Room lately.

This rose is called Cardinal.

I think I grabbed a cutting of these daisies from someone ... they grow like weeds!

We have Gerbera in a pots out the front and they are older than our house!

I love the way that the freesias grow up through the African daisy.

We only ended up with one tulip this year.

What does your green room look like?

Just in time for Summer

Lots of things have been happening at our place lately, just in time for summer! Garden bed borders, paving and then tomorrow morning turf arrives.

I can't wait to feel the grass between my toes on a hot day, or to lie down on a picnic blanket with Nicholas. Victoria is chuffed about the paving out the front of her cubby house and is already planning red and pink flowers in pots to decorate the front!
Are you playing along with Blogtoberfest? Head over to Tinniegirl and check out what others are posting about.

North of the Yarra Quilters Guild Exhibition 2011

If I have a moment to spare, I am hoping to zip along to the North of the Yarra Quilters Exhibition on Saturday 8th & Sunday 9th October. Open from 10am to 4pm at the Eltham Community Centre - 801 Main Rd, Eltham, Melways Ref: 21 J6.

I keep an eye on their blog and there always seems to be something interesting posted. On my to-do list is to complete a quilt that is "show worthy", preferably one of my own design. Until then I will lurk around quilt shows and dream of achieving that goal when I get a little time to indulge in sewing.

So if you are not up to anything on the weekend, head on over!

Playing with Goo

The theme for Camera Club this month is "Fluid in Motion", so we took the opportunity to play with Goo this morning. When you leave it, it hardens, but when you pay with it, it goes liquidy. My hubby could tell you scientific name for it, for us it was just fun!

Ingredients

1 packet of cornflour
1 cup of warm water
Food Colouring

Instructions

Add water with a few drops of food colouring slowly while mixing to get the consistency needed. The water doesn't have to be warm, it is just easier on your hands! If the goo dries out, add more water! For something different, you can make it white and then experiment with food colouring.

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Thank-you to the emails about Nicholas and his sleep (or lack of), last night was another shocker with him waking every 45mins or so. Sleep School can't happen fast enough for me!

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Why don't you join us for Blogtobergest? It's not too late to join, head over to Tinniegirl and sign up and start blogging. What? You don't have a blog? Then sign up!

Welcome to Blogtoberfest

We are nearing the end of the year and blog entries have become far and few between. Blogtoberfest occurs at the right time to heart-start your blog again and hopefully score a few giveaways along the way.

Party Bunting from Lark that I got for Tori's Birthday Picnic

So why has my blog been so empty? I have a matter of days remaining on my first Teacher Librarianship subject and I am frantically trying to finish my second piece of academic writing. It has been tough going. Nicholas *still* isn't sleeping or settling like he should at 7 months and we are booked into sleep school in the next month (don't worry, I have a strategy for Blogtoberfest). My reward at the end of all this is a nice facial massage which I will book once I hand in my essay.

I have been compiling of crafty projects to finish once my sewing machine is allowed to be switched on again. I keep on telling myself that it will be worth it when I am fully qualified to be in the school library. At the moment things seem doubly hard due to Nicholas being so temperamental.

Why don't you join us for Blogtobergest? It's not too late to join, head over to Tinniegirl and sign up and start blogging. What? You don't have a blog? Then sign up!

Etsy Friday Finds

Some new things from some old favourites ... enjoy!

London Bus Cot Blanket by Sally Nencini

Sally's work is just gorgeous, check out her cushions!

Venus Necklace by Zippan Designs
I got one of their butterfly pendants a while back and everyone comments on it. This will be my next piece from them!

OOAK Imagination Ring by toolis jewelry

This ring costs a fortune, but can't you see why? Toolis Jewelry have an amazing selection of different contemporary rings.

ABC Pillow Cover by Helen Rawlinson
I have noticed this fabric popping up everywhere at the moment.

Fish and Chips Teatowel by Mr PS
I think that this would make a gorgeous wall hanging, if only the tea towel was in red!

Have a great weekend guys!

Over the Rainbow

She wanted a Wizard of Oz party for her birthday. But we were not too crash hot on a big gathering. Birthday #5 can be big, but the rest can be smallish. So she was given the opportunity to identify a handful of friends and we held a small afternoon tea in the local park.

Even though not many came dressed up, she had her Dorothy dress and that is all that mattered.

The difficulty was actually getting a picture of her, she kept on running away to play on the huge playground.

But we did get a few snaps of her!

I had the most amount of enjoyment with the baking. Making a cake for her on the theme Wizard of Oz. I'm no good at the fondant stuff, so I opted for a smartie rainbow and a meadow of flowers on a vanilla cake with cream and raspberry jam

Outfit Notes:
The blouse and petticoat was from the German Dirndl outfit that I made last year. I popped some light blue Ric Rac on the blouse and I unpicked and sewed up the petticoat so that it was more flouncy. The dress was a simple pinafore style dress with an invisible zip up the back and interfacing in the waste band. the pinafore used about a metre and a half of fabric. The skirt was just a length gathered, no fancy half circles or anything. The top is similar to an apron with straps that crossed over at the back.

Happy Birthday Victoria

I still can't believe that my baby girl turned 4 today.

The last 6 months have been jam packed with learning curves for her and now we are having full intellectual conversations with her. Now she is a little girl and this time next year we will be preparing her for school in 2013.

We picked her up early from Kinder, washed her, dressed her and decided to take a few photo's early knowing that she probably wouldn't be up for it later on in the evening. She has been battling a low grade fever for the last few days and was understandably tired. This is not unusual, we always seem to be sick around her Birthday. Two years ago she ended up at the Royal Children's with dehydration due to a bad case of gastro that we all ended up getting.

She has been wonderful with Nicholas, rarely showing jealousy. She sings to him, gets down on the floor with him and is quick to put a dummy in when he cries. She takes her big sister responsibilities seriously and likes to help at nappy change times.

Victoria is quite crafty and loves to create things and then play with them. Her craft desk is always a work in progress and once when I was doing hand sewing she came up to me and asked me to teach her. So I hope when she gets a bit more dexterous I can teach her to hand stitch and crochet.

And of course she loves to sing and dance. She has wonderful memory recall for songs and wants us to sing to her each night. She is always excited to learn a new song. Her favourite CD's are the Justine Clarke ones at the moment.

For my reference, here are the blog posts for her Third Birthday and Second Birthday.

My Creative Space

Life has been a bit frantic this week leading up to the 4th Birthday of my daughter. Lots of creative things happening including a moment of quilting indulgence using some vintage Sesame Street Fabric.

Baking has also been high on the priority list, playing around with making gingerbread pops for my daughters birthday.

More creative spaces here ...