changes

if you have been visiting this space for a while now you may have noticed some changes recently. i have spent a couple of (late) nights at the computer trying to figure out the intricacies of blogger. i am definitely no computer genius and really don't even pretend to come close. probably the changes that i made may have taken someone else half the time it has taken me. 

its still not how i would like it to be. i still can't work out how to make the images bigger even by following these instructions. also how does one change the header to anything other than font? i am sure it can't be all that hard but i seem to be stuck. blogger will not let me do anything in that department!

any suggestions?

these days

  

colours in our world... this week

1 & 2. even just one tiny stem in a vase makes me happy.

3. i have been making felt ball after felt ball. its quite relaxing really.

4. down by the seaside

5. jessica wasn't sure if she really wanted to touch the crab shell.

6. queen b candle in the dear little pot that i received as a christmas gift.

7. a little rearranging  happened upon the chest of drawers.

8. my grandmother's handwork

9. felted rocks in the morning sunshine

10. tea time at the sandbox.

11. oh those little legs!

12 & 13. a little pink, a little blue

14 & 15. drawing time.

4/52

"A portrait of my littlest, once a week, every week in 2013" 

joining in with jodi over at che and fidel

jessica: "i will just be on the swing mum"

these days...

 joining in with the lovely em this week. 

1. a box of these bought from an old italian guy at the market who obviously knew a thing or two about tomatoes.

2. spot painting 

3. ready to roll. my first attempt at making passata.

4. look mum i've painted my hands (again!) much more fun than painting the paper.

5. i kept waiting for an explosion of tomatoes (it didn't happen)

6. time to start eating sprouts again.

7. "tilly doesn't want the stick"  

8. oh yes she does! teasing the dog.

3/52

"A portrait of my littlest, once a week, every week in 2013" 

joining in with jodi over at che and fidel

jessica:hair matching the golden honey browns of the 'burra hills', cardi matching the grey summer day.

2/52

"A portrait of my littlest, once a week, every week in 2013" 

joining in with jodi over at che and fidel

jessica: finally riding that balance bike

hanging on

the season may be over but we have been hanging on to the christmas spirit a little longer in our home.

baking mince pies and wearing christmas hats... just for a little longer!

garden details

mid summer in our garden.

beginnings and endings.

beginnings: lush green growth of corn that seems to grow half a foot every day, new hollyhocks inching their way ever taller, sweet zuchinnis, beans climbing bit by bit, entangling themselves to their supports, basil for pesto, green butternut pumpkins baking in the sun and a tree full with green unripe figs.

endings: lots of seeds on worn out, dried out plants.  i am leaving them all as long as i can and trying not to mind the messy look too much. my hope is that they drop their seeds and next season there will be lots of new plants for free.

1/52

"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2013" 

joining in with jodi over at che and fidel

jessica: the serious look

busy hands

i have recently come to the realisation that i need to keep my hands busy. 

i need to be creative.

its who i am.

ever since i remember i have always made stuff, except for the years when i worked as a florist. i filled the creative cup up as i worked and when i came home at night i couldn't bring myself to do anything creative for myself except on a rare occasion.

when i stopped worked and was pregnant with jess i resumed my creative pursuits at home. then jessica was born, time was limited and although i have done bits and pieces in stolen moments i haven't done a lot.

in my pre christmas crafting frenzy i really caught the creative bug again and realised that i feel so much better if i have a project on the go. so this year i have decided i will keep my hands busy. 

i will knit (and get better at it), i will learn to crochet (again), i will craft toys for jess, i will sew, i will make time to be creative.

...because its what i need.

pictured above is my latest project, a vest for me, sitting in my new (to me) basket scored for a bargin at a thrift shop.

a new year

... and so a new year has begun!

the past week leading up to new year has been a busy one for me. i have been doing odds and ends around the house, almost in spring clean mode, attempting to do all those little things that i always notice need doing but never seem to get around. i have been cramming as much into each day as i can in order to be able to start the new year afresh. oh sure there is always more to do and i will never get to the end of the list but it does feel good to be productive. 

all this activity has made the week go faster, which right now is a good thing as we are counting down the days until alistair returns home from work. three more sleeps to go!

i have also spent the past week trying to get used to a new camera (well new to me). daisy and i did a swap for a few months as she needed a smaller one to take on a trip overseas. i have had trouble loading photos onto the computer from her camera, so today saw me take everything off the computer and put it all onto a hard drive, sorting it all out along the way. a good thing to do as my laptop is getting on in years and could crash at any moment. problem fixed. 

one of my intentions this year is to be more organised with my photo files. i never know what to keep and what to trash. i never date my photos and rarely give them a title. this year will be different. they will be organised!

 i have decided that project 365 is not for me this year. i did okay last year (being my first) but i did miss a few days here and there and i had a bad ending. in fact i think i got worse at remembering to take a photo each day as the year went on. this year i intend to join in with jodi and take a portrait each week. i can't wait to see 52 lovely photos of jessica made into a book at the end of the year. i am not sure what to do with my project 366 photos from last year. it doesn't seem quite right to put them into a book when there isn't a complete 366 photos. hmmm, i will have to ponder that one.

and a few days ago it became a whole year of blogging for me. i enjoy coming here and documenting our lives. when i started this blog i thought that i would give it a year and see how it went, whether i could fit it in time wise, whether i liked blogging etc. well, i do love it although i feel that in the coming year i won't be here quite as much. maybe just once a week, maybe twice, i am not sure. my original idea for this blog was to document our days (as ordinary as they are) and to document something everyday (well i soon found that that is just too much for me). i thought it would be a nice way for alistair to see home life while he is away too. i try to write for myself and not think too much about who might be reading and what they may want to hear or see. i write to document all the little things of ordinary days that i want to remember, years from now. i have quite a few readers that come to this space everyday but not many leave comments. thank you to those who do. i have been wondering for a while now why people come to visit, why they come back (if they do) and what they think. i would love you to introduce yourself and say hi.

this past week has also been one spent pondering my goals and intentions for the coming year. i really am no good at keeping resolutions, so this year its 'goals and intentions'. i have a bit of a list going on, lots of things i would like to improve about myself. i read a great article here about goal setting last night, very inspiring. 

and that's about my week as it has been... three more sleeps to go!

happy new year!