the kaleidoscope curtain

… at least that’s what it looks like when I stand back to admire the hot afternoon sun streaming through my FINALLY finished bathroom curtain. That and jelly fish - the ones in Finding Nemo - where they are so exquisitely beautiful and delicate.

I started this way back when - last October?  On the back porch in Brisbane.

The white fabric is a piece of inexpensive but delightfully heavy and prettily textured duckcloth.  The trim is from a largish piece of upholstery weight fabric I bought for half price at Material Obsession an age ago.

The doilies - they all came from one Friday morning at the St. John the Baptist Jumble Sale.  Aside from the pink and white one, the rest have been made by the same person - they all match and the thread is the same in each.  They were stuffed into the back of the bottom drawer of an old dresser in the “clothes” room of the weekly Jumble Sale and the dear old ladies who run it kindly sold them to me for a song.

I hand stitched each doily to the curtain (I started in the middle of each doily and worked my way out - most of the doilies have at least 3 rounds of stitching holding them to the backround), then added lots and lots of french dots in complentary colours. There are french knots around the outside of them as well as highlighting inner circles.  I also used some lazy daisy stitches, beads and sequins that were left over from my Sue Spargo class last year.

As I stitched - and more perle cottons found their way into my tin - the colours grew brighter and brighter.  Finally, today, I added the vibrant orange from our 2009 Halloween decorations.

Subtley? A feature I sometimes *think* I’m aiming for but rarely achieve :-)  Julian will testity to this. More is always merrier in Lilyville - until I go that bit too far.  The remedy?  Just leave the offending item for a few months to stew in its “too-farness” and then when I pull it out, forgotten and lonely, it’s busyness and colour are always such a thrill :-)

Such is the case with this here kaleidoscope curtain.  I was entirely unimpressed with the orange lazy daisy stitches around the lower, small yellow and white doily when I did them.  Bummer, I said, to whoever would listen, I’ll have to pull them out.  They’re horrible.  But, voila!, when I pulled it out this morning and noticed those sweet little petals - I loved them!  Yay for going too far I say.

Our bathroom is looking oh so lovely.  Do you know, we’ve never had a nice bathroom - they’ve always been dingy or dark or both.  This one is white, white, white and as sparkling as a new pin.  I have bathroom love.  So does Abby.  We even treated the bath to a wooden rack - we’ve always wanted one - and Abby’s about to test out its little lantern.

Ooh-er! Am I looking forward to a cold, blustery night, when I shall close the bathroom door, light some candles, sink into a lovely warm bath with some beautiful salts (still to make them, but do have the book) and read, read, read.  With my kaleidoscope curtain there to protect me from the cold and dark with its sunny yellows and blues and roses.  Bliss!

the first day in ordinary time

It is Monday.  We are not moving.  We are not visiting.  We are not being visited.  We are not holidaying.  We are not knee deep in back to school preparations.  We are not eyebrow deep in family celebrations and Canadian cousins.  After what has been a long time of un-ordinary, we Boots are, at last, back in ordinary time.

And ordinary time brings ordinary days.  That is good :-)  Abby went to school … Julian went to work … and I … well, I did what I do best.  Pottered.  Did some chores.

Last minute stitching … (even in ordinary times I excel at this)

Abby’s homeroom teacher asked the girls to bring a name badge with them this week so as to help the teachers learn their names.  Abby wanted hers to be made from felt and embroidered.

Early morning baking …

Truly these are the best cookies ever.  They are Granny Boyd’s Chocolate Biscuits from Nigella’s How to be a Domestic Goddess.  They are foolproof, unbelieveably quick (cookies on the plate and in the lunchbox in 20 minutes from go to whoa), easy, and delicious to play around with - I sometimes substitute 1/3 of the butter for peanut butter and almost always add a cup of dried cranberries.  Yum!

I finally found my way to Amitie …

mmmmmm … they sure do have some pretty fabric.  This sweet 30cm came home with me - I’m dreaming of a kitchen table runner.  I’ll save that for tomorrow.

Doodling …

Then filling it out with a hoop, a piece of the damask bedspread I thrifted late last year, some thread, cotton and felt.

This was pure, gleeful, indulgent joy!  Oh how good it was to spread out my scraps and threads and pins and stitch, stitch, stitch.  Come back tomorrow and I’ll share the finished piece :-)

Abby brought home her first pocketful of acorns …

We’re so looking forward to autumn and the changing of the colours.  So foreign and magical for us from the subtropics!

Soda bread graces our table this eve as a tribute to St. Brigid and her feast day …

After making soda bread for many years - and really enduring it, never quite enjoying it - I have found the ultimate soda bread recipe in Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall’s The River Cottage Family Cooking.  The secret - yoghurt and brown sugar.  Oh it is so good.  Delicious for dinner, especially with stews and soups.  And then perfect for dessert, still warm, with lashings of butter and blackcurrant jam.

And candle light flickers sweetly across our faces as we celebrate Candlemas and the introduction of the old to the new.

I love the medieval nature of these feast days.  I feel as if I am only around the corner from Cadfael and his herb garden, and any moment now, I will see him hurry past, late for mass, whilst the brothers of the Abbey are already in full song.  Ah candles.  Isn’t it marvellous how transforming they are :-)

Yep.  It is the first day in ordinary time and as many of you dear folk assured me all those weeks ago, we would recreate our home.  It would be different but it would be ours and we would make our way with love and joy.  And we are.  I look around me and our new home is filled with our old things, and Julian and Abby and I.  Just as it should be.

That is good.

the prettiness of a good ruin

As I walk through the city, let alone my own home, I look up and around and am constantly in awe at the level of decoration we have blessed our buildings with over the centuries.  It doesn’t matter which civilisation you study, the human love of adornment is everywhere and ever present.

Our drive through the east coast countryside of Australia provided us with many beautiful churches, post offices, pubs, and farmhouses to admire.

And admire and photograph we did.  I particularly love how such attention was lavished upon utilitarian buildings.  Both Julian and I especially love the skill and artistry that was put into brickwork.  I often think of it as the “boy” version of knitting :-) All that marvellous texture and pattern.

Even more enchanting are the ruins!  Boy do I love a bit of tumble-down, paint that is barely holding on to weathered boards, fences that have crumbled to their knees, roofs that have accepted the wild dominance of the vine, whole houses that shelter shoulder high grass rather than families.

This has a wonderful, still beauty and our drive was punctuated with many shrieks of “Pull over!”  followed by both of us backtracking to “the spot”.

And then the competition was on.  To see who would get the better shot - the Nikon D80 (lily) or the Ricoh GRD (julian), and who was prepared to go that bit further, i.e. braver or nosier!

We would hop back in the car and share pictures - and I have to say, there was a lot of graciousness and learning opportunities to be had from each side. Here’s two of Julian’s beauties …

Then there was the oddly delightful … clearly a very unfortunate fellow :-)

Not to mention the plain annoying … come on Taree Shire Council, pull up your socks.  This was the only colonial lighthouse we saw on our drive that was poorly maintained, shabby, lacking any kind of historical information boards … and they’ve even pulled down the lighthouse keeper’s cottage rather than turn it into a guest house or museum.

I visited this lighthouse frequently as a wee girl (my paternal grandparents lived in the nearby fishing village of Harrington, which I must say, also looks greatly unloved) and I am sure it was bigger and grander and whiter and more noble then!  Time and carelessness, plus 30 years of growing up, sure do change things :-)

ready

There’s been so much readying lately here in Bootville.  This week’s readying has been both exciting and daunting.  As a muma, I am filled with amazed pride and wistful memories that here we are, ready for highschool.  Oh my goodness, wasn’t it only the other day that we were ready for 3 year old kinder.  It’s oh so trite, but the time has simply disappeared.

Abby and I have spent marvellous days together, sitting at the kitchen table creating unique covers for her notebooks.  Over the years we’ve had wrapping paper, scanned images from favourite picture books, and cut-up picture books from thrift stores adorning the covers of Abby’s notebooks.  This year - perhaps in a statement of individuality - a positive resolve to reveal to the 175 fellow 12 year olds she will spend the next six years with who she is, what she loves, and how she spends her time - Abby wanted us to draw the covers of her books.

Out came the family draw paper (honestly, this is the best value purchase I have ever made from Ikea - it is carted around the house to be used for all manner of things - it was even taken to Brisbane on our recent trip!), our favourite colours of pens, pencils and crayons piled up in front of us, and we divided the pile of notebooks in half and drew.  And drew.  And drew.  Abby declares her finger is sore from drawing!

Even if I had sat and mulled over it for hours, I don’t think I could have come up with a better way of sharing the days before this huge new adventure.  It gave us hours to chatter and just sit peacefully with each other.  Every now and then, a new topic would come up - all manner of things.  We discussed the books she has read over the holidays, the films we have seen.  We reminisced about the people we spent our holidays with and how we will keep in touch - Abby and Sacha are big fans of the written letter.

We pondered the horrors of war and genocide (I’ve just finished reading “The Book Thief”, often with a pointy chin resting on my shoulder whilst someone reads along with me) and the power of words.  We’ve talked about “knowing” people and keeping safe (after seeing The Lovely Bones together - yes, there were elements that were terribly frightening and soul breaking sadness -and it sure wasn’t the best film ever made - but with Abby starting to catch public transport and visiting the local shops by herself and with her friends, it was a timely topic.  Not that I believe the world to be a dangerous place full of people that must be feared and thus ignored - but I do think it is important to at least talk about that murky line that can be so hard to find).

I could feel us moving into a different part of our relationship as mother and daughter.  Even richer and closer.  And yet I understand, that with the coming of highschool, there will be difficulties and dramas - that’s what happens :-)

And last night, to celebrate this milestone, I hung new streamers above the kitchen table especially made for Abby - her school colours and emblem - and we shared her at-the-moment-favourite dinner - free range Charcoal Chicken and Chips.  Then, Abby took one of the felt appliques and stitched it onto her new school bag.  A little bit of muma-made homeliness perhaps, as she finds her place in a new, huge and busy community.

(this felt streamer is super quick and satisfying to make … using wool felt, I drew 24 white circles and 24 navy circles with a glass tumbler and coloured pencil.  I cut them out.  Then I made a star template out of paper (scraps of family draw paper from the notebook covering), pinned it to the red felt and cut out 96 stars - this was a wee bit time consuming.  Then I simply placed a pile of navy and a pile of white beside the sewing maching, with a pile of red stars.  I placed the star in the middle of a circle, and started stitching on the machine (using my walking foot) from the edge and straight through the middle of the star.  Without cutting the thread, I fed the next circle (alternate colour) and star through.  I have two streamers of 24.  Then I turned it over and added stars to the back of each circle so the streamer is double sided - and looks pretty no matter which way it twists - I used red thread so it was easy to follow the same line of stitching on the back.  If you are tempted to try it and need some better instructions, please email me!)

So here we are this morning.

Hair is done.

Bag is packed.

It’s time to go.  My girl is ready.

making pancakes and good memories

Yee-ha!  I am sitting here on the sofa; Julian has pedalled off to work (god bless his hard working soul!), Abby is making the most of her last day of summer holidays and is sleeping in, Toph is curled up beside me, my very first issue of Marie Clair Idees is on the other side (found it at a newsagency in Brighton yesterday - never seen it before in Australia!), the fridge is making a very strange noise (but we won’t mention this in case it stops altogether - shush!), and we are ONLINE!  Awesome!  Just in time for my geeky boy and huge Apple fan to sit and watch Steve Jobs’ presentation of the new iPad.

But there’s more to life than wireless laptops -  yeah, really, there is.  Abby and I have been visiting Brisbane (which Abby said was bizarre given we had only just left) to spend time with my little sister and her wee babes who are visiting with my mum all the way from Vancouver.

Here’s Sam - he’s about 14 weeks old and truly divine.  His head is so round and velvety - I spent hours rubbing my check on it whilst breathing in all that baby loveliness.  When awake, Sam makes lots of little grunts and snuffles - especially when he’s feeding.  Oh how I adored it :-) Janie would bring him in to me each morning when he woke up and I would give him his bottle and then we would snuggle for a few hours, whilst he slept - absolute bliss.

And guess what both he and his big brother Oscar (almost 3) loved - my wool!  Sam would lay on the chaise lounge, between my legs, snoozing, his little feet massaging the ball of  New Zealand alpaca/wool that I am knitting bedsocks for Abby with.  He would end up with little bits of pink fluff all between his toes!

Oscar was completely intrigued by knitting - he loves all kinds of making - and would stand there inspecting the knitted fabric, the needles, the wool.  Then, whilst we read - we did lots of reading, Captain Pugwash, Hairy McLairy, Curious George - he held the ball of wool in his lap and would massage it with his hands.  It was so sweet.  What a shame I didn’t have my swift and wool winder there - Oscar would have been delighted!

But he and I had good times aplenty.  He loves to cook - this boy can concentrate for as long as it takes if there’s “making” to be had and we made cupcakes and playdough and pancakes and more.  On our last morning, it was apple pancakes for breakfast.  He donned his little apron (a Save the Children family hand me down from Aunty Jackie - it needed a few modifications to make it small enough and he LOVED it) …

Up at the bench with a chair, the mixing bowl, spoons and measuring cups - and not to forget the wet cloth to wipe fingers after breaking the eggs.  The best bit was grating the apple with our old Italian grater …

First he had to build it - pull out its tripod legs, insert the grating disk, and add the turning handle with its big red knob.  Then he packed it full of apple and turn, turn, turn.  I do believe it’s the ultimate device for getting little people interested in cooking.  Especially boys - every boy I’ve ever shown it to has been fascinated.  Beats the pasta maker every time.

An ongoing safety lesson about using the stove - gas makes it so very visible for little people and thus so much easier to understand the “hotness” of it.  Finally, learning to watch the pancakes’ bubbles form and pop.  Every single moment of standing at the stove was filled with wonder and joy for Oscar.  He never tired of it.

And what’s a little cooking without a little song!

Ten pancakes, cooking on the stove
Watch their bubbles forming, cook them nice and slow.
Along comes Oscar and gobbles them all up,
Lick, lick! Yum, yum!
Pancakes in his tum.

(now if you know the song “Wet washing, drying on the line” - a Playschool favourite here in Australia - that’s the tune to use - and change the name as needed :-))

Such a simple song delighted Oscar (and reminded me of the wonderful times Abby and I have had making our own music over the years) and when we were ready to leave that afternoon, he was playing on the back deck, singing to himself, “lick! lick! yum! yum!” over and over again.

Just as good as apple pancakes - the frozen raspberries.  Each one that he popped into his mouth on that hot and steamy Brisbane back porch, was greeted with giggles and gasps of “Oh!  Cold! Cold!”

Thank you dear Oscar and Sam for sharing your special holiday with Abby and I.  We made such lovely bonds and good memories.  And I had the chance to enjoy the magic of mothering little ones for just a few days.  -sigh-