Sunday Lovelies

A sprinkling of lovely from a very busy week:

1) Girl with balloon.

2) Neglected houseplant comes back to life.

3) Why, it's a scarecrow in a field. Thank you for asking.

4) Girls in dresses, climbing. (And those are stockings in December, yes.)

5) Gifts for small playgroup friends.

6) There'll be beetroot on the menu on the 25th.

Wishing you a lovely lead-up to Christmas day. There is still much to do in this house before Santa visits. What about you?

One Year On

One year ago today, I watched as our home was up-ended and shaken out into the back of a truck and sent off down the highway. I piled my babes into the car, filled every empty space with the last bits of stuff, plonked the fish in its plastic bag on top of the teetering pile on the passenger seat, squeezed in the still-warm foil-wrapped food offerings from my inconsolable mother-in-law, and set off after the truck.

We've worked our way steadily through four entire seasons in our new country home. I've been frightened by a couple, and entirely mesmerised by the others. A pathetic chilly summer that had us questioning the decision to move. Enchanting, misty autumn with all of that colour and crunch. The depths of a winter, the first of many, I suspect, in which my toes will feel perpetually cold. And then spring, incredible spring, abundant spring, show-off spring.

The vineyard on the drive into town tells of it perfectly - leafy green turning to red and brown, dropping back to nothing, then bursting forth again. I grew up in a town with four seasons and, having found myself in such a place in adulthood, now I get what all the fuss is about.

This country life hasn't been all it was cracked up to be. There aren't 27 hours in the day like I thought there'd be. The weeks are still only seven days long. Life is busier than ever, more relentless than ever, as exhausting as ever, just with a prettier view out the window and far, far less traffic. The questions of 'where' haven't been answered entirely. We may have started here, but the decision now is where to finish. This region? This very village? In town or on the land? An old house or a new one?

For now, I'm not going anywhere. A year in and I feel I'm a small part of the neighbourhood. We've made friends, real connections. In a little over a month we'll join the thriving local school community. The people at the local shop know our names. I've finally memorised my own phone number.

And my babies haves stretched from chubby sausages into talking, thinking, proper people, naughty as ever, minds of their own, as ever. My big girl gets to start her formal education in a perfect, tiny country school, with a paddock for a playground and the best-stocked library I've seen anywhere.

There is still much work to do, much to improve. Sometimes it feels like we left so much opportunity behind and I have to remind myself why we're here. Despite it all, one year on, I know we made the right decision.

Lunch Date

Yesterday I drove up the Hume Highway, blissfully alone, to meet a friend and her sweet baby for lunch. It was a last-minute opportunity to catch up before Christmas, and at last a chance to check out the much-hyped Grounds of Alexandria.

We were tucked into a corner of the heaving restaurant where we ordered cooling ginger beers and delectable salads. The littlest of our party generously shared her fries with me. Later, we took coffee and cakes out into the rambling garden so she could play.

How lovely it was to pass a few hours in good company, eating the freshest food and drinking perfect, proper coffee. Ah, Sydney, some things you do very well indeed. 

Shop Update

Just popping in to let you know I've updated the shop with lots of new hats. The Chubby Pixie is there now in baby and kid sizes. And there are a few new colours as well. I'd love to hear what you think. My Facebook page is here if you need to stay updated - I'm expecting an order of lovely new yarn in the next few days.

Also, it's the 12th and last day of Christina's Christmas giveaway, and guess who's featured today! Pop over there quickly and enter to win a Typically Red hat custom made in your choice of style, size and colour. It's open internationally, and you can enter till early tomorrow morning.

And if you're visiting from Christina's blog for the first time, welcome! Grab a seat, I'll pop on the kettle and see if there are some of those gingerbread trees left in the cookie jar. Though I suspect the monkey in the red hat might have polished them all off yesterday...

Trees

I know it's a cliche, but Christmas has been creeping up so quickly, and I've been struggling to get into the spirit. So much so, I wouldn't have been disappointed if Santa rang to tell me the whole thing had been called off. Everyone says it's your kids that make Christmas special, but truth be told, it isn't the same for me without my family around. I miss my mum at this time of year, and it's getting harder and harder for the rest of us to get together. We try to make up for it at other times of the year, but it's never the same.

But with a freshly cut tree lighting up our lounge room, and freshly baked gingerbread ones in the kitchen, things are starting to feel a little more festive around here. And even though my big sis will be on the other side of the world, I've arranged to spend a couple of pre-Christmas days with my little sis at her holiday house. We'll sip champagne and break into the ham a few days early. 

I may have caught myself singing some carols yesterday. Perhaps it is beginning to feel a bit like Christmas.

Sunday Lovelies

 

I've been digging deep for my Christmas spirit, and there are a few hints this week.

1) Attempts for a photo for the Christmas card thwarted by one sick bub and two cheeky ones. At least there were some fun out-takes.

2) I received my ornament from the swap. Thank you, Maria. I love it!

3) We went to our local carols by candlelight tonight. Guess who was one of the angels?

4) Abundant green in the garden.

5) Abundant green in the kitchen.

Thank you for all of your kind well wishes for my Stella. I'm pleased to report she is back to her normal self.

And please head over to Baby Space to check out the fantastic giveaway. There's a Typically Red bonnet to win, amongst lots of other great stuff.

Aaaaand don't forget Christina's 12 Days of Christmas giveaway as well. Only a few days left, and so many great prizes. I wonder what the remaining days could bring...

The Elephant in the Room

There's a bunny on the bookshelf...

A puppy on the floor...

A cow upon the kitchen bench beside the laundry door...

There's an elephant in the lounge room made from a cardboard box...

 And a little girl with a bug in her tum asleep with her favourite fox.

iKnit

I had a massage today. That's not something that happens very often. It was a gift voucher given to me - wait for it - two Christmases ago. (Thanks, sister-in-law! It expires tomorrow. Nothing like leaving things to the last minute.) I was given chamomile tea on arrival and ushered into a dimly lit, near-silent oasis for an hour of pampering. Bliss.

Not wanting the feeling to end, I took my desert-lime and mimosa scented self to a favourite local cafe for a soy latte. I should probably have ordered something cleansing and herbal, but old habits die hard. Besides, I still had to survive dinnerbathbed. I sat at the window bench and retrieved my knitting from my handbag. My iPad was in there so I grabbed that too. I've been a bit to reluctant to jump on the e-book bandwagon, but I have one that I started reading on holidays and promptly dropped once real life resumed - The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin.

And so I sat, sipping my glorious coffee, clickety-clacking away on another hat, and reading. Yes, reading. I'm not new to the knit-read combo, but I've always had to choose carefully. Something that lies flat. Something that doesn't need to be re-arranged every time you turn the page. Something with large-ish type.

It wasn't until I'd 'turned' three or four pages seamlessly - just a quick tap of the screen - with minimal interruption to both the knitting AND the story that I realised what I'd hit on. Are the Apple people even aware? The perfect device for the multi-tasking knitting reader. Or reading knitter.

I am delighted.

My book shelves may suffer as a result, but my 'book shelf' is about to get some new additions. What next? Audio books, no doubt.

Joining in with all the other lovely knitting readers and reading knitters here.

I did seriously consider getting my knitting out for the sitting-up foot rub part of the massage. Too much?

Kitchen Garden

Today we were gifted a bag of fresh broad beans. And a head of perfect new garlic. And the silver beet in our own garden was getting a bit out of hand. And a certain young lady thought it was high time we picked the snow peas that had suddenly appeared on our vines and were, even more suddenly, enormous.

I blanched the shelled broad beans, then cooled them and removed their little pale green jackets. The snow peas went in for a quick blanch. Then I fried off a little of the garlic and some chopped anchovies in their oil, and threw the beans and snow peas back in for a final hurrah. Meanwhile, I cooked off a huge bunch of the silverbeet and chopped it finely, then kneaded it into a dough of flour, yoghurt and baking powder. I rolled out balls of dough and slashed them, then threw them on a hot grill plate to cook. 

Smashed garlic and anchovy beans and peas on green flatbread. We ate it before I could take a photo.

I do have these photos of some hummus I made on the weekend. Roasted pumpkin and coriander hummus. I blitzed a drained tin of chickpeas with some roasted pumpkin, a crushed clove of garlic, a tablespoon of tahini, some ground cumin and fresh coriander. I added a thin drizzle of olive oil and some lemon juice. We've been eating it with Lebanese bread doused in olive oil, salt and cumin, baked until crispy.

Oh, how I do love to eat.

PS Did you see Eulalie in her Typically Red pixie hat? How gorgeous is she!

Sunday Lovelies

Some lovely from the past week:

1) They saw me making this and wanted to join in. I've been calling it 'Jane Austen Hour'. (It lasted five minutes).

2) Washing instructions...or should I say 'firm orders'!

3) Shadow puppets.

4) Blue times three.

5) It started out as a lunchbox snack and ended up as show and tell.

6) Practising her P's. P for Pearl, that is.

Hoping the coming week is full of good things.