Wardrobe Wednesday!

Hooray! Wardrobe Wednesday returns! Thank you, Lovely Nin at Sailor Spy :)

We have a theme for January - the latest addition to your wardrobe. This fab dress is new to me, but not to the world - it's a late 1950's Carol Brent frock my amazing husband bought me for Christmas this year. (Yes, he chose it totally independently - the only reason I had to see it before Christmas was so he could check my measurements & I might have noticed if he were pursuing me with a tape measure...). 

So, so lovely...the only problem is it's quite a tricky business breastfeeding a small baby in it, but even that can't stop me - I just have to wear it when hubby is home to assist with unzipping it! (1950's metal zip technology..not so hot. Will get an invisible zipper put in it asap, way too chicken to do it myself in case I do something dreadful to my new treasure!). 

So... dress - awesome pressie from husband

        petticoat - trade me

        shoes - thrifted

        necklace - a mystery! one of my only surviving necklaces - all others are in zip lock bags waiting til my      babies are big enough not to bust them ;) 

       hair & makeup - shocking! hairbrush stolen by two year old, make up a vain attempt to cover up a very long night! (cheers, big shiny full moon - shining on Olive's face so she thought a) it was morning, or b) the police were up in their helicopter looking for her!) 

Find more Wardrobe Wednesday action here!! And do feel free to join in :) 

x

Being, Not Doing...

A lovely friend of mine wrote a sentence in her blog yesterday which resonated with me - nothing earth shattering, but something which I think it's good to remember from time to time, especially when life gets crazy!


She had taken her gorgeous gang of boys down to a beautiful lake in their Very Small Town, which they just don't manage to get to enough. 'We must go down more.  Its right on our door step!  Too much time doing "stuff" and not enough time just being!!'  Yes Yes Yes!!!

It's so easy to get wrapped up in being everywhere all at once, and trying to do seven million things, especially with small kids. I don't remember going to organised activities every day when I was little - I went to my music lessons (which I loved - hence I now teach music to small folks myself!), but the rest of our time was spent climbing up the trees in the garden, making magical potions from mint geraniums (which is such a strong memory I now have a pot of them which has shifted from the North Island to the South Island with us!), playing cricket with the set Grandad made for us (hitting a ball over the wall into the neighbours goldfish pond was an instant out!),  and riding our bikes at breakneck speeds down our super steep driveway. 

We weren't scheduled into activities every single day, we didn't spend time staring at flashcards that will help you become a genius before the age of two (and we all turned out pretty smart, I reckon!), we watched a bit of telly & our brains didn't fall out, and despite our tree climbing & racing down driveways, none of us ever had an actual broken bone. My sister came close once, but even that didn't warrant a real cast much to our disappointment. 

I want Jarvis & Olive to look back on their childhood in the same way - I want them to remember being pixies in the garden, digging up potatoes with Daddy, and riding their bikes off the deck (Jarvis' new fave activity). Once I get myself organised we will go back to teaching a music class once a week, because that's something I love & Jarvis loves too (and I really really want to share it with the Mums around here!) , but we don't need to be traversing the countryside each day to attend a myriad of organised activities. 

Next on the list for today - go down to the sandpit & hang out there. There's a tree stump carved into a chair right next to it, perfect for Mamma to sit on while Jarvis does sand pit stuff, and Olive lies on a blanket & talks to her mate the faery. Choice. 

Thanks to my gorgeous friend Nikki for the inspiration x

Mamma, Jarvis, Olive...

What I Wore...

Just before Christmas I finally found some time to get my sewing groove on! Hooray! Thankfully Olive enjoys watching the sewing machine (strange cookie), and Jarvis enjoys watching the Wiggles. Whew. 

Skirt - Colette Patterns 'Ginger' Skirt

Singlet - Supre (I think?)

Shoes - donated by some kind person who didn't want them any more! Cheers!

Cardie - Portmans outlet store in Brisbane

Necklace - the fabulous Rhiannon - Croutons  (thank you, lovely husband, for taking the very unsubtle hint!)

View - out towards the mountains. Lovely. Sigh...

Boxing Day

Another perfect day. Instead of spending Boxing Day driving around the country, we packed a picnic & went to a most fabulous park in town. Surprisingly we were almost alone, the little shops & the pub weren't open, I guess we were the only ones who saw the potential of park sans organised events? 

The playground was abandoned, aside from one small boy who was overjoyed to have it to himself. 

No trains were running, so the station was ours. 

Station Master Jarvis? 

Doing some final checks before heading off on our Imaginary Grand Train Adventure. 

Bike riding is also fantastic in an empty park. Nobody to accidentally run over means free riding!

One beautiful lady, watching the carry on with a huge smile on her face. 

My family are amazing, and I'm the luckiest girl in the world to have them.  There's nothing more wonderful than spending the day with them, especially in a huge park with nobody but us to enjoy it! 

Love love love. x

Christmas with our Babies.

Note the super fab dress...thank you gorgeous husband! x

Champagne breakfast with whitebait fritters...mmmm (fizzy water for the small boy, btw!)

Tool Bench - made by Daddy. 

Fireman Sam

Such a super awesome Christmas. No family this year (as we've moved to the South Island it just wasn't going to work), just us - we stayed home, ate lovely things, drank some lovely wine, and just hung out together. Absolutely magic. 

On a mission to try and upload some more pictures before both small children awaken, hopefully a post with some actual writing will follow before too long! x