Owl Family visit Thornbury

Last night my husband came in from the back yard and excitedly told me about how he had spotted some owls on our fence. Owls! On our fence! Very Cool! I wished that I could have seen them too... then...

This morning as we were piling into the car to head off to Kinder, some locals walked past and invited us to come owl watching. 

 

There is a family of Tawny Frog Mouth Owls roosting in the trees about 3 houses away. There seem to be two little ones and a mum.

 

Was a great start to the day, although the Northcote Leader wasn't impressed enough to come and take pics of them....  So enjoy mine

Green thumbs

This afternoon after a big morning of our favourite music class, Stomper Room and then the park with friends we came back home and decided to harvest some of the delicious and bursting-with-goodness broad beans that have taken over half the veggie patch.

These plants tower over my little ones, and picking the beans became an adventure in the broad bean jungle. They are at an age where they are excited about participating in all things green and tasting food straight from the garden.





I hope that we are instilling a love of home grown food and also the desire to eat what they grow - so far, we have had success with them eating peas and carrots, but not parsnips, leeks or beetroot!






Shelling them was also enjoyable and quite peaceful as we discussed how we might make them for tonights dinner.

It was decided to have them as a salad with a bit of lemon and perhaps some mayonaise on the side.

now I'm crossing my fingers that they will actually eat them!

My Creative Space 4 November 2010

My creative space is a little all over the place this week;
I have redesigned this blog which I am very happy with!

I have found a name for my caravan - thank you Willy Wag Tail!!
Her new name will be Gypsy! and I hope that under my ownership, she will resemble her name.



This morning I have taken Lucho to his new primary school for his transition program... and much to my surprise I bawled my eyes out as he excitedly walked away with his assigned buddy... they grow up so fast!
I had to call the hubby to calm down, and now wonder what my reaction will be the day he starts school next year!!??


But the most pressing creative item for the day will be to get a quote for redesigning a pair of earrings into a pair of rings.

These earrings have been gifted to my sister and I by our aunt in Chile.

They were my great great grandmothers earrings!

My aunt gave them to me when I was there this year and asked that we make rings out of them, so that my sister and I could share the gift.

They are beautiful earrings and I don't really want to destroy them, but hope that by keeping the flower and stone part intact and adding a band to it, I will be able to keep the original design intact.

Take a look at what others are doing today over at Kootoyoo....

New Look!

In my last post, I had decided to let the business of Little Cooties rest.

To celebrate my new decision, I have changed the look of my blog.

Now that my business is on hold, and this blog is not necessarily to market myself as a maker, I thought I would update it.

It feels cleaner than my previous layout and I love the highlighted post area at the top! I would like to tweak it a little and put beautiful images there, but for now, it is a little taster of things to come.

I wish I had taken a snapshot of what it looked like to show here, but, we will all  have to rely on our memories now!.

What do you think of the new look? I hope you like it.

So come and say goodbye if you can at my last market - Thread Den in North Melbourne. Every item will be 50% off the market price - you can't do better than that!

 So, its been a quiet month for me.

I have been mourning a few things and taking stock of what is important to me.

Mourning the loss of my aunt has been the most painful thing. Travelling to Chile in a rush, forging new relationships with family I have not seen in 20 years was wonderful, and saying goodbye to my aunt was so important, but as yet, still not quite assimilated into my brain. I light a candle for her every day and speak a few words to her, wishing that I could pick up the phone instead.

Back in Australia, i have decided to let my Little Cooties business fold. I have learnt much with this business, and met fantastic women and makers during this time, but financially it is not feasible and it takes to many hours out of my chosen job of motherhood. If I am dedicating my hours to sewing rather than growing the two most important projects of my life, and financially it is not paying off, then why am I doing it?






In any case, I am pleased to let it go. I know that I have the skills, and the knowledge that I can return if I please when the kids are at school, and I have more free time.
My last three markets are to make sure that I sell off as much stock as possible, and the Made n Thornbury market was very successful, where I moved about 50% of my stock. My last market will be at North Melbourne Market - Thread Den, where I hope to sell not only stock, but also my clothes racks and table!

I feel like I am making the right decision. for my sanity and for my family.  Like I will have time to dedicate to the things that are important to me.

so to my customers... THANK YOU!!!!!!
to my crafty friends.... I am so happy to have met you!!!!! and hope to continue our friendships

for myself, i hope to have something interesting to say here. I  hope to develop this blog into something that is not business driven, but passionate never the less, and that documents my time with my little family and life.

see you soon!

Proud moments

This weekend was a strange one in Melbourne.
The weather turned cold and wintery again, after giving us all a taste of the spring that is coming, there was  lots of rain, wind and dark heavy clouds. The temperature dropped and the heater was turned on again.

Never the less, we ventured outside to the park in hopes that we could have a few moments in the sun, or before the rain started again, and during one of those outings, Lucho graduated from training wheels to "I'm a big boy now bike".










Ever the proud  mum, I took a hundred photos, hoping to catch the moment of take off.

My husband took on the typical role of dad running after child in the "catch you if you fall" position.





And we even got Eva riding her bike - which she has been too short to do ever since we bought it over a year ago - but now no longer.

My creative space: Caravan Heaven

 My creative space is about the adventure of a caravan and all that we could do with it! Take a look here for other creative peeps....

I while  back we were gifted with a caravan. My lovely cousin used to be the owner and she kept it near Bright where it was a base for her snow getaways. She has decided to live in London and will no longer be needing it. So it is now ours to love and travel with!!

It currently has this as it's home:

 It looks like this:

And this is the fabric I will use to make new curtains!!

I have decided to theme it up and make it bright. 60's - 70's inspired. 

We have plans to bring it muuuch closer to our home and holiday at the beach.

All she really needs now (apart from some major redecorating!!)
.... is a name....

Beryl perhaps?

Ode to Spring

Spring has arrived in Melbourne.
I searched my wardrobe for shorts and tshirt and spent the morning in the back yard thinking about harvesting the abundant silverbeet.



Today the weather invited one and all to venture outdoors and celebrate the warmth of the sun, marvel at the blossoms and let rays kiss visible skin.







While at the park, I promised the kids they could have ice cream at home (a very rare treat)...

    
I used frozen berries - raspberries and blueberries, mixed in a bit of milk and then a touch of sugar, and served it straight from my new Magimix









It was an immediate hit with the kids and I loved it too!


Hope your Sunday has been spent in the sun and relaxing.

My Creative Space

My Creative space this week has been to document my trip whilst in Chile.
Here, I'm with my dad with a pic of the Andes in the background (excuse the smog...) It looks much clearer after it rains and washes away the pollution.

 

I have free time in the morning and also in the afternoon, and I have gone on many errands and of course shopping for gifts to take home to the loved ones. Amongst all of that, I have been snapping things of interest on my handy and small mobile phone. The large camera which I thought I would use is tucked safely away and only used when travelling by car to visit relatives, as I would not have it for long if I were to walk down the city streets sightseeing.

 

Here is a hair salon

A cart selling candied and roasted
peanuts by the side of the road

 

A replica of the Easter Island Tolomiros

 

 

Here are some of the VERY delicious foods I've been consuming....

 LOMITO

CHILENITO (merengue and caramel biscuits)

SUSHI wrapped in avocado - not Nori as I am used to seeing - Was very nice

CHACARERO with PISCO SOUR

Eva has a replica of this carousel at home, sent by her Chilean great grand mother and grand aunties

 

not long to go now till I head back home - 4 days till I see my much missed and loved family again.

 

And while I'm online, I'm going to take a look here.... you should too :)

Living in an Antique Shop

Here at my granny and aunt's house the apartment is full of relics from our ancestors that have survived the passage of time and the many earthquakes that rock the country from time to time.

I am surrounded by these pieces of history as I write today

In the background of this photos is a reflection of a portrait of my gran when she was a

young lady just introduced into society.