mess and the good stuff

Ok, here's how it is. One three year old has been hustled out the door to kindy, one 7 month old is crying in his cot and I am in that agitated state where all I can think is please sleep! please sleep! I can't fully focus on anything else until you sleeeeep! This babe was up for the majority of the night, running a temperature, which has finally broken. His sister has been sick since Friday, as have I. The house is littered with tissues and throat lozenge wrappers. And piles of used clothes. The odd nappy. Dirty dishes. And random pieces of cheese and half eaten crackers.

Is an image forming? Sorry about that...

But I haven't finished. The garden hasn't been tidied since we had ten little people over on Friday last week, so the majority of the sandpit still cakes the patio and the side of the house. The grass is littered with buckets and spades and bikes and a few random colouring in books that I can see through the window. Soaking wet. Dead. Yet still out there on the patio. I am sitting here, cup of tea in hand, wearing some random ensemble I pulled off the bedroom floor, and I have my fingers crossed that no one comes to the door. I am actually surprised that I am out of my pjs to be honest. And it's 9.30am.

Oooo is that sweet silence I hear from the bedroom...bless. So that's where we're at this morning people. And I haven't even started on the bedrooms. But I'm not going to go any further because you don't want to hear it and I would really rather not share it. I'm sure the perfect mother would be cleaning her God forsaken house right now, not sitting at her computer writing about it. She would probably also have fed her sick babes the delicious chicken soup she lovingly whipped up yesterday instead of the happy meal that my daughter got served. To avoid having cheese and crackers for dinner. Again.

So there's a snap shot. Not so nice but real. And I could dwell there a little longer but that's really not what this blog is about. Cause as much as there is all that stuff (the real and the mundane and the everyday snotty noses and moldy crackers kind of stuff) there is the good stuff too. And that is what I like this blog to be about.

The quality time that Sophia and I drank up last week (before we all got sick). When I chose to leave the washing so that I could say yes to the requests to build castles out of blocks for the third time in an hour. When we baked and brushed dolly's hair and drew pictures and spent time with friends and cousins and grandparents and went on fun outings. Continually. The sort of thing that is impossible to always do every day. And is exhausting but so needed every now and then. Like a detox. We spelt love: T-I-M-E. Which is not always the way I try to communicate love to my kids, but it is generally always the way they spell it.

And I am actually relatively comfortable with the mess. I'll clean it up before long, but I am really not the sort to live in a constantly tidy house. Just the way I roll. I imagine a whole bunch of you busy mum, creative types are much like me. Aren't you?

But I'm sick of talking about mess so I'll stop now and show you, instead, a few of the pics of the good stuff.

Yes I am the sort of mother that lets my child ride her bike in the supermarket and draw on the condensation. Ah well, the windows weren't clean to start with and I wasn't planning on washing them any time soon so the girl may as well make art!

On a different note, thanks to those of you who participated in Wordless Sunday! Please do continue to do so--it's gonna be fun! And speaking of fun...I came across this photography challenge via Fat Mum Slim. It starts tomorrow (1st of June) and I am so taking part. It's going to be a huge linky via the White Peach blog or through the Flickr group. Here is the challenge if you are interesting in joining in:

Ok, it is now a long time past 9.30! Somewhere in between all that the babe woke and played and had lunch and is now back to sleep. And I am going to post this quickly so that I can actually have a shower and a cuppa and maybe even put on a load of washing before he wakes. :)

See you tomorrow then with a self portrait! Eek!

x

Christmas wins!

A couple of years ago I read about an idea (I think it was one of Ian Grant's) for a pre-Christmas adventure--get your kids up out of bed one night and drive down Franklin Road to admire the fairy lights. I am all about memory making moments (especially those related to Christmas) so on the eve of the eve we bundled our sleepy (yet extraordinary excited) little girl into the car and headed out. And of course it all fell completely to custard. Don't you just love it when the adventures you plan for your kids end up being anything but fun? On the way back home, with two screaming babes in the back of the car, I felt like I could have submitted my much anticipated 'eve of the eve' fairy light extravaganza to Fail Blog. Parenting...FAIL.

We made two fatal errors: 1) by the 23rd of December the traffic is backed up for hours from every possible direction. And error 2) I assumed that my baby would sleep beautifully in the car the way his sister used to. We now know that this is not so. :)









So we never made it to Franklin Road (managed to pull a U-turn through lanes of standstill traffic), however we did spot some pretty lights. Traffic lights and street lights and such. Of which I took a few pictures that remind me of Monet paintings. And Sophia points at them happily and exclaims 'look at the Franklin Road fairy lights'. Bless. :)










And the other little bit of pre-Christmas fun I had planned was to make coconut marshmallow, package it up and deliver it to my friends as a gift. Hmm. Take 2 at pre-Christmas fun = marshmallow FAIL. Actually, although the end result wasn't gift worthy it tasted pretty good. It was the fact that I blew up the electric beaters (literally--explosion and black smoke) that accounted for the fail. That and the heavy consistency that flattened into a marshmallow flounder on the tray. It was salvageable however (just) and I am game to have another go soon. After I've purchased some new beaters.


While I'm on the topic, here are a couple of other Christmas fails from Fail Blog... Hehe.











As for the pre-Christmas WINS, there are many.

#1 nothing quite like Mum's Christmas Mince Pies.











#2 a bit of pre-Christmas painting.











#3 pre-Christmas BBQs when the weather is warm until late.

#4 taste testing the practise run of Dad's Christmas day potatoes.











#5 the Christmas Eve sunset.











Have I said the word Christmas enough?

And then, of course, there are the many many wins of CHRISTMAS day...






































































































Well done Christmas, you win.


I had a few wins with my camera also and I'll post them shortly. To view more Christmas pics click here.


Hope your Christmas was filled with many many wins also. (Christmas Christmas Christmas.)


x

rainbows, gifts and fun

So, I'm not finished with the 'art kit' kiddie gift idea. Sophia's friend's birthdays all seem to fall around this time of year--I guess we're on a roll. Thus, I have two more to share.











I thought we'd make Sophia's little friend Abby a Craft Crate. I got a little crate for $8 at Farro and thought it would look cute filled with jars. Fortunately Mum's handy used jar box was full of old baby-food jars (great size for little bits and pieces) and I was inspired--after playing around with sand art a little and trying, unsuccessfully, to dye it with food colouring--to fill them with coloured salt. Sophia and I have since discovered that coloured salt is a super fun and vibrant alternative to glitter. I'll detail the process below, but it's quick and easy and Sophia practically made it herself.

So, we filled five little jars with brightly coloured 'art salt' and I covered the jar lids with pieces of scrap fabric (see craft jar post for details on how to do this). I grabbed a couple of extra jars, one for buttons, another for two little pottles of glitter, and in the third I put a bunch of paper doilies. I've been hankering to make things out of doilies for a while so watch this space for a few activities.











That's all! I figure once all the salt has been used the jars could be refilled with other crafty bits and pieces. And really you could stick anything you wanted to in them, for me it's all about the packaging, the idea and the hours fun to be had for the little recipient. See the next gift (below) or the craft jar post for alternative things you could fill the jars with.

For a card I spray glued a doily to brown paper, folded it in half and tied the gift together with string. Cute--want one for myself.
























As for that coloured salt. I googled how to do it and found this tutorial. But Sophia practically explains it visually in the next few pics. Took a minute or so to make each colour and the process was an awesome toddler activity in itself.











We filled some jars up for ourselves and had fun making 'art' with it.























So then we got on this rainbow kick and since I included jelly in the kit below, I thought we'd make some rainbow jelly. Just for fun.

Since jars seem to be my thing at the moment we filled them with the jelly and invited Sophia's little friend Emma to share it with us. Now, I did include jelly in Ben's gift below with the intention of it being both a fun thing to make and potentially to smush and mash around a bit. Because why not, really? I didn't actually expect the girls to go there. I guess I expected more of our own jelly version of a tea party.

We were all quite civil to begin with.

















But it didn't last long.























Conclusion: rainbow jelly is art. Yummy art. :)

As for Ben's gift, I wanted to go that get your hands in and get messy route. So I made this Things to Slush Mush and Mash kit.









I Mod Podged punched circles onto the box and used my stamps to write the label. Again, see the Craft Jar post for more details on this idea. (Mod Podge is great fyi, both a glue and a sealer so you can kind of paper mache and varnish all with a couple of coats from one bottle.)











I filled the box with the following: a tube of finger paint, a bottle of pva, some playdough, a sponge cut into shapes for stamping, a few collagy bits like cotton balls, a jar of sand, a can of shaving cream (will explain) and yes, a bag of jelly.

Just to make them all look nice and coordinated I Mod Podged circles onto the bottles and cans of pva and paint etc. And we covered the jar lids with Sophia's potato stamp print work.

















And to finish it off I used the circles again as a gift tag.











So much fun to be had inside this little box. Sophia tested out the sponge stamping. Not as crisp as potato stamping, but fun none the less. And reusable, just wash out the sponges and store for next time. I would stick to plain shapes like squares, circles and triangles etc. We cut out some stars and little people and trees but you would never know it from the end result.

















Loved it though, and Sophia is so proud of all her little master pieces.

As for that shaving cream, I read in a magazine somewhere (Littlies I think) that it can be great for 'shower art' on a rainy day. Finger paint away then wash it off with the shower hose. So...











Twas great!


Well, there are a couple more toddler gift ideas for you. And don't worry, the birthday parties are only just beginning so the theme's not over yet. ;)


Thought I'd end with a few super cute pics of little Miss Emma.











And a couple from today of those two little buds sitting on potties and giggling away together like little girties. Love it!





















:)

x