Making Christmas Ours...

This year, I’m making a pumpkin pie for Christmas Day desert.

And perhaps even a lemon tart, loaded with fresh seasonal berries.

There’ll be lazy after-dinner swims in the pool, iced tea in tall glass pitchers, old (sometimes scratchy) jazz records being played, and a string of lanterns glowing on the verandah.

I’ve been thinking about starting our own family Christmas traditions a lot lately – you know, the things that you do every year as a family (isn’t there just a loveliness in things that stay the same over time?), and the things that we’ll look forward to with delicious anticipation. The small things that will make Christmas our Christmas.

The babes are old enough now to be swept up in magical things, and we’ve been discussing Santa’s job (and whether Santa enlists the help of fairies to help him out), and all the childlike things that go along with it. Judah has decided that he wants to leave a present for Santa, which I readily agreed to – and Lou suggested that the reindeer might like some honey on toast, along with the traditional carrots and apples. Who doesn’t like hot-buttered honey toast?

Dave and I have been brainstorming ways to make the magic of the season real for them both. Inside, on our bright Christmas morning, there’ll be a note left from Santa, footprints leading out from the fireplace, and a pile of string-wrapped presents stacked under the Judah-decorated tree. The plate of homemade goodies that the little ones will make the day before, will have proved too much of a temptation for old St Nick; and outside, the reindeer feast will be all but a memory. There may even be some sparkly glitter in the place where they rested – evidence of their magical pit-stop.

As we lean towards the loveliness of Christmas day, the kids have begun making their presents for the people they love most in the world – with my help, of course. Their drawings are very person-specific, and done with such care and sweetness; some of them have been transformed into small artworks, some have been set aside for more intricate projects in the New Year. But most importantly, they are all wrapped up in the idea of giving to people, and I can’t help but smile at their enthusiasm.

Do you have Christmas traditions that you’ve brought into your family from your childhood? Or have you created your own special family traditions?

Nat

Image from here.

Slow Slithering...

(Lemon Jellie, this post is for you!)

So, some of you may know that our house is a mecca for creepy wildlife. There’s something about backing onto a creek that brings out the beasties, and among the hundreds of bearded dragons, giant spiders, and a myriad of birds, bats and lizards, are many, many snakes in all different varieties that I’ll often find in really unexpected places (and usually in places I need to be).

I have to admit, when we first moved in here, I was absolutely petrified. I already had a paralysing fear of spiders, and would regularly find them on the inside of the shower screen, the toilet seat, on a random towel or behind pots and pans, and once on a cardigan that I pulled out from my wardrobe. There was much shrieking and a whole lot of obsessive checking of things; but thankfully, as the years have passed, I seem to be coping much better with their surprise visits.

Just recently, we had a mad month of snakes at our house. We’d find carpet pythons, metres long, exploring the front verandah, slithering over the kids bikes, curling around our outdoor furniture. Snakes that sunned themselves in the backyard, mated in our side garden, used trees as ladders, and sneaked from one end of the house to the other through the guttering. Night after night, they’d mate in our roof cavity, sliding over beams, the rough sound echoing through the sleeping house. And there were plenty of nights that we sat up, at two in the morning, drinking tea or eating ice-cream because the noise of them was just too loud.

And then, nothing.

Not a trace of them around the house; no persistent scraping noises in the roof, no shrieking of local birds who followed and alerted us of the snakes when they were migrating in the garden. And weeks go by in blissful silence.

But this morning, look what I found:

Last year, we found baby pythons under the couch, or suddenly in the hallway, or writhing on the bathroom floor. The kids, ever fascinated, would sit on their haunches and watch as we tried to shepherd them into boxes or bowls, to be released near the creek.

Finding the first skin this morning was a cue to be a little more vigilant around the house – hopefully there won’t be too many of them wriggling into our lives this season!

Do you have interesting wildlife at your house?

Or got a snake story?

Nat

Grateful #22: What are you thankful for this week?

It’s been a crazy couple of weeks.

But in amongst some out-of-this-world temper tantrums (toddlers – sheesh!), was the loveliest, food and wine filled holiday spent in the company of the most wonderful people. It’s given me so much to be grateful for this week, including….

The comfort and contentment of home. We had the most delicious time away, and absolutely loved exploring and spending time with our beautiful family in Adelaide. But how nice is it to come home to familiar spaces, well loved things (and to a beloved husband who was lonely without two rambunctious children)?

We arrived home late, on a warm, clear night, and as soon as the bags were inside, I crawled into our bed with the smile of a happy traveller. In the morning, I couldn’t help but marvel at the growth in the garden (our tomatoes and snow peas are in bloom!), and even allowed Ella, our stinky mastiff, to lie smiling on my feet.

I baked, drunk tea, and pottered; did loads of laundry and watched a snake wind its way around a tree in the garden. I took up my needle and began to sew.

I like travelling, but I’m not ashamed to admit that I’m a homebody at heart; and it made me even more grateful for our patch of the world, and all the love and life it contains.

Lyra. The littlest and loveliest of our family turned two a couple of days ago – Lyra (or Lou) spent the day in a sea of colourful balloons and pink wrapping paper, talked loudly, giggled and squealed, ate dreamy vanilla cakes with chocolate butterflies perched on top, drew all over her legs and face with new felt-tip pens, and was loved up by lots of people who think she’s just the bees knees (Judah, on the other hand was so distraught that it wasn’t his birthday that he spent most of the day crying, and/or stamping his feet with the injustice of it all; which is actually pretty funny).

But our sweet Lyra-Lou – goodness, I love her. She wakes with a smile on her face every morning, charms the socks off anyone who meets her, and is just the loveliest, most delightful little person. I spend all day thinking about how very, very fortunate we are to have this precious girl as our own, and how much light and love she’s given us in the two short, blink-of-an-eye years that she’s been here. And that she’s my child: my heart almost bursts with gratitude.

How about you? What are you grateful for this week?

Nat

Ps. Want to play too? Link your grateful post back to Maxabella Loves, or write your grateful list in the comments section below x

Grateful #19 – What are you thankful for today?

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve done a grateful post – and I’ve missed it! It’s such a lovely thing to get into the practice of doing - pausing at the end of each week to be thankful for the things, people and experiences that enrich our lives.

And this week I’m grateful for:

Mini stay-at-home holidays. One the reasons I’ve been a sometimes-poster in blogger land lately is because I’ve been sewing like a loon for weeks on end. Sometimes that happens; no matter how much careful preparation I put in the lead-up to a big market, I still find myself sewing in a slightly obsessed and panicked sort of way the week or so before.

When the market wrapped up beautifully last weekend, I could see that it was time for a break, to get back to some kind of family and headspace normalcy.

So this week, I put away my diary and decided to bake. I turned my phone off for two whole days, took the kids to the park, caught up with beautiful friends, cleaned the bathroom, folded ten years worth of laundry, wrote a couple of blog posts, and had lazy cups of tea while flicking through junk mail. I watched funny movies, played Lego with Judah and dinosaurs and tea parties with Lou, cooked a roast with all the trimmings, and went to bed early one night with a good book. I ate the best Banoffie pie, pottered around in the garden, made a couple of presents, read lots of picture books with the wee ones, and sat in the sun one morning and admired the bees fussing over our new flowers, while the kids covered themselves in cobbler’s pegs (on purpose).

It was a slow but productive week – the best kind of week - and I’m feeling so much better: recharged, renewed and ready for the next sewing and market timeframe.

So very grateful for the chance, every now and again, to slow down.

What are you thankful for this week?

Nat

PS. Linking up with the delightful Maxabella Loves – and you can too! Link your grateful post here, or write your grateful list in the comments section below.

And don’t forget to enter our first BIG giveaway! To be in the running to receive a parcel of Quill & Ink Handmade goodies, including one of our gorgeous signature dolls, fill out our quick survey here, and ‘like’ us on Facebook here. Entries close Monday 22^nd August, and the lucky winner will be drawn on Tuesday, 23^rd August, 2011.

Image from here.

Grateful #14 - What are you thankful for today?

Happy weekend, lovely readers!

I’ve always been a big fan of getting things done around the house. We’ve got a list as long as my arm of things that we’re keen to do to our airy, light-filled home, but we’re realistic – some of our must-haves may never happen; others may take ten years to complete. I’m ok with that.

I’ve wished big wishes for a studio space here, and quite frequently lapse into crazy daydreams about building something wonderful in our leafy backyard. And even while my imagination goes haywire, I’m aware that my musings are not really about a fancy-shmancy space; it’s more about having a room that belongs to me - where my books are safe (from babes who have taken to sneakily ripping random pages), and where I can work on and leave out whatever project I happen to be doing, without the threat of inquisitive sticky fingers wanting a look too. A place where carefully cut material will stay exactly where I left it, bobbins won’t disappear, and pins don’t have to be monitored. A quiet place, with a door to close, and lots of light.

(Oh dear. Even as I’m writing this, I feel horribly selfish for all the mine, mine, mine! connotations in the previous paragraphs… but, creatively minded or not, I’m sure you know what I mean)

So, with all of that in mind, this week, I’m very, very grateful for:

My lovely new sewing space.  It started with a fold-up table I found in the shed, and the realisation that we actually had space in our bedroom for a sewing nook. Oh happy day! I eagerly scrubbed down the table, moved all of my bits and pieces into the bedroom, and set up right in front of the bright bay window, overlooking the vege garden and the street. I’ve been sewing in there daily, and it’s such a treat! A closed door to keep everything safe, and a cheerfully lit corner with a lovely, leafy view.

And then, Dave, partner-carpenter extraordinaire, found a bench top in the magic shed that he’d saved from a dismantled kitchen, and he spent an afternoon sanding it back to brand new honey-coloured wood. It’s going to be stained, sealed, legged and fitted to my bay window spot to make a semi-permanent sewing space.

I’m so happy; can you tell? And so grateful for a small space that’s all my own in the busyness and bustle of our family home. It’s my little, neat, organised piece of handmade heaven.

What are you grateful for this week?

Nat

Ps. Linking up with the wonderful Maxabella Loves – and you can too! Link your grateful post here, or write your grateful list in the comments section below.

Putting love into every stitch...

My mum, Nanette, made my youngest, Lou, a beautiful handmade cot quilt for her first birthday. To me, it’s a little work of art, in peaches and pinks, hand-stitched hearts, and small floral prints. And even though I helped Mum pick out the fabric, the first time I saw it all made up and beautiful, I couldn’t help but be emotional. I just loved the time and the care that had gone into it, and I could see her love for Lou in every stitch.

What I didn’t expect was how much Lou would love it too. She holds one corner in her small hand as she falls asleep – the corner that Mum had sweetly hand-stitched “Love Mama” onto. When she feels unwell or needs comfort, she will pull the quilt through the bars of her cot, and tuck it up under her arm, the rest trailing behind her on the floor. It’s been a constant companion for the first few uncertain weeks at day care, goes with us on long car trips, and needs to be checked-up-upon while drying on the line after a wash.

There’s just something so lovely about a handmade quilt. They’re soft, warm, traditional, and comforting, yes - but they also speak to me of rest, of a safe place, of family.

I also love the quilts that take pride of place in the home. You know the ones – draped over the arm of a couch, like an old companion; the more intricate ones, with months and months of work, hung with delight on a lonely wall.

A friend of mine has a beautiful marriage quilt hanging in her home – it’s a mismatched collection of decorated squares (each family had their own square to adorn), all sewn together. Nothing matches, and the individual styles are so varied - but it’s one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen; it shows the devotion of an entire family and their shared marriage blessings of longevity, lifelong happiness, and the sweetest of love for the newly wedded couple.

Do you have a favourite / comforting quilting story? 

Nat

Ps. Nanette’s beautiful handmade cot quilts will be available at our stall at Mathilda’s market on Saturday, 12th March.