my little super hero

Photography Challenge, Day 11 of 30: Something Blue.









Will in his new shiny blue super hero cape! :)

He is just delicious, this little boy. I'm surprised I got any of these shots in focus at all. I would deposit him down one end and snap snap snap as fast as I could while he bolted forward towards me. I would get two or three shots each time (usually blurry) and then catch him just before he launched himself off the end of the bed. He thought it was all ridiculously funny.

I have, however, fortunately ended up with these first two which are my favourites. I'm finding it hard to decide between them. Any thoughts?









You may recognise the cape? I have been in love, for some time, with the Pip and Bean capes I have seen on Lanie and Nella Hampton. I have checked them out on Etsy and been meaning to order one but at the last minute today I decided I'd have a crack at making my own version. Similar, and not quite as cool, but inexpensive and fun! The construction is shabby (as is usually the case with my sewing) but the end result is what I was after. I made an 'all one piece', quick and easy job (maybe an hour tops). I'll show you what I did at the end of this post.

What is it about a shot of a baby in something ridiculously over sized? I love it!

Have I shown you enough photos yet? Believe me I did narrow them down. I had a really hard time choosing today.

And then there are all those other ones. You know, the ones you can't bear to 'trash' because they each show some other cute little side of the moment. To mum anyway. Everyone else just sees like fifty shots of the same baby. Sorry guys, I've included them all. But I have made them small for your sake! :)

There was someone else who fell passionately in love with the super hero cape. It was all for her really. I started making her a green and pink one but part way through it got coffee tipped all over it so that'll be a job for later.

Here's what I did:

1. Cut out a cape shape with little flaps to tie around the neck and a lip at the end to create a bit of a collar. I cut half of it freehand then folded it down the centre to cut the other half (to match the sides up). Good sides together.

2. I traced a 'W' off my computer screen (because our printer is not in action) then used the baking paper as a template to cut out a felt 'w'. I sewed the yellow 'w' on to a piece of black felt and cut it out to create a black trim around the yellow. Then I sewed the 'w' on to the good side of the blue piece.

3. With good sides together I sewed around the entire cape and left a few inches to pull it through on itself. (Do a few little cuts under the 'arms' of the 'neck tie' before you sew it together so that it stretches out properly when turned right side out.) Sew up the gap then iron. Voila!

Sophia's one is going to be quite cute I think. Will show you a few pics soon. Meanwhile, I'll be back tomorrow with: 'Sunset'.

Hope your weekends have been lovely so far!

:)

x

OH YES! I nearly forgot to mention that it's Wordless Sunday tomorrow! Yay!! I'm really looking forward to viewing your pics...! :)

dining

Busted!







There is a photo much like this one of my brother as a toddler--caught bitting into a french stick. I think he was sitting on a potty surrounded by bags of groceries at the time. Priceless. My husband went to cut this loaf later and found bite marks at each end and in the middle. He chopped square shapes into it to remove the bites and served up a block of tetris bread. :)

So today, given the things I have been working on this week, I thought I'd start the first of many posts on a favourite topic of mine: dining. There really is a lot to be said for sitting around a table together, sharing food and conversation. It creates a natural pause in the busyness to listen and be fully present. It is and will be a key, I think, to keeping the connections with our kids alive and strong.







The above pic was of our first family meal together in the new home. The biggest challenge for us is the long hours my husband works. Often we eat without him which makes the nights we spend with him all the more precious. And things are always more fun with Dad around.

Over the last week or so I have begun a bit of a revamp of our dining area. When Nat and I first got married we bought a dining table. I liked it in the shop but once it arrived at our house a bizarre thing happened, I realised that it was very different in reality to the picture I'd built of it in my mind. In my head was a nice plain wooden table with nice plain, normal legs. Somehow in the shop I'd managed to completely over look the fact that the legs had random silver strips down them and were all turned in differing directions. I was hearterly disappointed. Strange, I know. And it's not the first time this sort of thing has happened. I remember a trip to England as a child where my mum took me out to look for character ballet shoes (they were reportedly cheaper in London). Well, we went to every ballet shop we could find and I wouldn't let Mum purchase any because they were not black suede. My ballet teacher had shown me black suede character shoes. I was adamant. Needless to say on return I discovered that the navy blue canvas shoes we had seen everywhere in London were the shoes my teacher had shown me. Mum was right, and she had to pay twice as much for them here.

[I never really liked my pair of character shoes. I still want some in black suede. :)]

Anyway, all that to say, this table has been something I have been disappointed with for years. So, new house = time for a revamp.







Much better.

And beside the dining table is a large frame I have scrubbed up, taken the glass out of and am using to peg up family snapshots. I think I'll rotate them frequently, and add pictures and cards we receive from people we love. Kind of an alternative to photos on our fridge. One day I will find a great print to fill the frame, but this idea is doing the trick in the mean time.











I also managed to find these great stork-line chairs which I am thinking I might use as dining chairs for a while. I can't decide whether to paint them both or not...











And what would a post of mine be without a few 'pics of the week'?
























I had other things to say involving home cooked wedding anniversary meals and butter. Mmm, butter. Flavoured with anchovies and lemon and all sorts of good things. But alas it will all have to wait until next time... :)

So that's all for now. For some great family dining inspiration check out this blog: Dinner: A Love Story.



:)


x

revamped junk and the dream study

We have been living in limbo accommodation for the better part of a year now and next week we finally move. (Very exciting!) I have many projects on the go in anticipation. Generally revamped junk. $5 frames, $8 metal chairs etc etc. (Was nearly tempted by the inorganic rubbish last week but managed to restrain myself.) Best buy yet: $10 crates. I have been after the perfect crates for over a year now and, thankyou Trademe seller, I found them in just the right size, price and quantity. Can't wait to try them in their new home next week...!











So, amongst other things, I've repainted a couple of old chairs and picture frames and am in the process of creating a few prints to fill them. Honestly, why would you ever spend hundreds (literally) to get prints framed professionally when you can purchase large secondhand frames for $5 and scrub them up? I'll share more picks once we move (everything does look better on a wooden floor, after all).











I saw a post a while ago over at Annaleenas HEM and was inspired to paint some old candlesticks and bottles with blackboard paint. I am actually in the process of painting some old drawers and filing cabinets with the stuff as well. I might need to start restraining myself or I'll have a black-boarded house. (My daughter's dream, I imagine!)









Surprisingly enough (or maybe not if you know me), the room that I am most excited about decorating is the study. The long hours that my husband works at home mean that a study is a top priority in our family. The room that we have picked out for it is, serendipitously, large enough for two desks. Yes, two--one for him and one for me. And a wall of books--wall to wall and floor to ceiling. Heaven. I am trying to work out how to build these shelves cheaply so if anyone knows of any simple and inexpensive shelf DIYs to direct me to I'd be much obliged!

I keep a kind of 'scrapbook of ideas' in a folder on the desktop and drag images I like into it regularly. (So, unfortunately, I cannot link to all of these pictures--let me know if you have the links and I'll post them.) Here are a couple of the study spaces that have inspired me the most:























Annaleenas HEM










Running themes: trestle tables, angular desk lamps, painted chairs and clutter. Love.

x

getting a little festive

Nat and I are more than a little enthusiastic about Christmas. I have always felt this way but my once grinch-ish husband has a new found love that rivals my own. He'd be tying giant glowing candy canes to the roof given half a chance. Seriously. Well, now the pohutukawas are blooming, Christmas lilies are filling the garden centres and the first of December is around the corner. Weeee!









And we have been talking for weeks about the beginnings of our festivities. #1 = advent calendar. I thought I'd make use of the pack of origami paper I'd bought for Will's crane mobile. I found this tutorial for folding stars which ended up being the perfect shape and size for storing a note and a chocolate coin inside.









So I wrote 25 little notes, bought 25 little coins, folded my stars and filled them. One star for Sophia to open each day until Christmas day. Fun!














I stapled a piece of brown string to each star and tied them on to a cherry branch. I had originally intended to make a mini Christmas tree out of leafy twigs to hang the stars on but it proved a bit of a challenge finding the right kind of twigs. This branch would look good over a mantle, but laking one of those in this house I've settled for hanging it over Sophia's bed.














And so the Christmas build up begins! Hurrah!

x

p.s. I couldn't resist taking a few snaps of the bougainvillea that covers our back fence. Stunning.

change and moments and paper cranes

It is a time of change and of moving in to new things. I can feel it in that soft mixture of cool and warm in the air that promises the transition to summer. I can feel it in the way this baby shifts and nudges closer and closer. Any day he'll bring his little life into our world, transforming it to something different yet extraordinary in a new way. I can feel it in the quiet sadness brought on by the passing of a dear family friend yesterday. That still, yet slightly unsettled feeling where the day seems calmer, the birds louder and the breeze softer. I remember this sensation from before, when my grandmother passed, that we're not the only ones who know but the world around us has stilled itself a little. I can sense change all around me. Things passing and coming. Excitement and sadness and anticipation and peace all folded together.

And I know it more strongly than ever: the new things that are coming are good.

So on a different yet related note, I was seized yesterday by the sudden desire to ready myself for this baby just a little bit more. Other than clothing and a place to sleep and the basic newborn essentials I haven't made much else ready for him. We're in this house temporarily, hoping to buy and move in the summer, so he doesn't have a room. He'll be sleeping beside our bed and I have commandeered the space at the bottom of the stairs for his change table. Yesterday, however, I nested for him just a little more. And I made the bottom of the stairs his.









There is a fantastic guide to making paper cranes here. The first took a little time, but by the forth or fifth I was on a roll and each crane took five minutes to fold with no need for instructions (read the post and click on the link to the pdf instructions). I love the cupcake idea and the streams of hanging garlands.

I folded my cranes and used white embroidery thread and white tacks to hold it all together. The cranes have a little hole in the bottom that is ideal for the entry of a needle and thread. The embroidery thread was thick so one little knot at the bottom was enough to secure the crane.

That done I feel more ready for him than ever. I hope that my next post will usher him in...

This weekend we had a few little family moments. You know the sort that sneak up on you--you think you're running errands and doing the usual and suddenly realize you're in a memory making moment. We had been out in the car to tick a few jobs off the list. The day was warm and still and stunning. And we were hungry. Sausalito, I thought. I hadn't been there since a lunch with my S.I.L. three years ago while we were both expecting our first babies. A little cafe next to the Bridgeway Cinema in Northcote Point. Yummy caramelized onion pizza. So we went and lounged at the back of the resturant, ate a delicious lunch and headed off for a drive around Northcote Point and Birkenhead (which is beautiful on a summery day) then headed out to Cheltenham beach just because.

It was somewhere just before or around this point that we realized this little family outing may be the last one we have as a team of three. We are so excited about the next, the new and the many 'firsts' to come, but we sure did hold on tight to this 'last' so that it couldn't slip before we'd protected it a little.

(My husband took over the camera for the gull and plane shots. Love him!)

Sophia is having some Grandma time at the moment which gives me a chance to rest and write a little. She's had a bit of a fever and a cold this week. Bless her.

And I'll have to say Playmobile has been an absolute winner! Her Grandma and Opa bought her this for when her baby brother is born, but, we were a bit naughty and cranked it anyway cause we just really needed to. All I can say is LOVE. Playmobile is a new passion.

Thanks Grandma and Opa!

That's about all for now. Will end with a little sandpit montage of Sophia and her best bud. These two are indescribably cute together now, with their little girly giggles and squeals and arguments and chatter. :)

S'all for now. As I said before, the next time I check in I hope to hope to be announcing something...

x