14th of January

Today was a day of quiet productivity.  I was awoken by Ted before the alarm went off.  I only had the alarm on because I had a shoot at 8am, but Ted likes to thwart the effectiveness of machinery.  So I went out for the shoot, then headed straight to the Stash and Treasure Market in Marrickville.  So much fun!  I saw my gorgeous friends Jen and Jay there and then ambled around chatting to loads of similarly pottering vintage fabric nerds.  I think I had a little conversation with most of the stallholders and they were all so lovely.  I walked away with some gorgeous doilies and fabric as you can see here.  I'm on a mission to acquire loads of purple fabrics to make a specific purple bunting for Ted's purple birthday party in February, but I didn't actually *think* of this mission until after I'd left the market.  Hmmm... methinks the brain should kick in sooner on weekends.

Arrived home to find that the car alarm down the street was still going strong, more than 12hrs after it started.  And also found out that the old Greek woman down the road had her husband hospitalised the other day for pneumonia, so we were happily chatting outside when I arrived home for a little bit.  Poor Cheryl, our long suffering neighbour, can hear all of Ted's musical interests and Harriet's vocal exercises as they occur, yet is remarkably patient about it all.  She is the dream neighbour. Unfortunately she is also a very light sleeper, so I had been worried about her sleeping the night before with the blasted car alarm.

I went inside and made many cups of tea, as did James.  I only had to throw out three due to bad timing with Ted's sleep.  I have a specific brand of tea I like (it's organic, Fairtrade, and strong) and I have a specific cup I like to drink it in (big.  read: very big).  And yes, my fingernails are that dirty.  I'd been out lying in the wet dirt at the park at 8am, remember.

 

 I managed to sew together a couple of pairs of shorts for Ted.  He has suddenly run out of clothes.  Seriously, it was just a sudden thing.  I think he's had a growth spurt and then whammo - wardrobe free. I made the blue paisley ones a couple of weeks ago and they've featured pretty heavily in this month's photo feature because they're about the only pair he really fits into.  So I made sure that the next two pairs I made were purple (of course).

Ted loves his pillowcase.  Oh man, he loves that thing.  And then one day I was in an op shop and found the same material in a sheet!  Oh happy day!  So I made him a pair of shorts from that material finally.  Here Ted and James are photobombing the above photo, but it luckily allowed me to photograph the pillowcase shorts. I may have issues trying to get them off him in the future.

I also finally attacked the tray of organic mangoes that have been slowly rotting away on our kitchen bench for the last week, but what with all the hospital visits, I haven't really had the energy to work on in the evenings.  But today was the day!  I cut all the good flesh off them and popped them in the freezer, adn froze loads of full cheeks too.  Harriet loves to sit there sucking on one of those frozen cheeks whilst absorbed in a book.  I seem to remember a certain girl of a certain age who liked to sit, absorbed in books and eating a jar of pickled onions.  I know which one I'd rather be locked in a room with afterwards...

 

 The strawberries were also ready to be harvested again.  I say again, because I pull about half to a full punnet of strawberries from our little patch every few days.  Seriously, it is incredibly prolific.  Weirdly though the children don't like to eat them, so I just cut off the green and freeze them to use in smoothies and juices.  Yum.

I have been meaning to get around to these little hair clips as well.  Having the button making kit here from LAST CHRISTMAS (*sigh*) I managed to move my butt into gear and feel sufficiently motivated to actually make the clips I've been wanting of late.  I likey likey.

 And as if I couldn't get enough of this creation roll, I also made some cashew butter.  This stuff is a major hit with the children spread thick on a rice cake.  Ingredients are soaked raw cashews, coconut cream, some Himalayan salt, a little coconut butter if you have it (we didn't have any left which is a bummer cos it makes it so yummy and creamy) and maple syrup.  There are worse ways to spread your rice cake, I can tell you now.

 

And at the end of our day we kept looking with trepidation to the increasingly greyscale cloud cover.  We were planning on going to see Mondo Cane at the Domain and we were all pretty excited to go.  Unfortunately the weather just didn't hold out and we tried to think of a suitably exciting (and free) event we could organise ourselves at short notice.  

Well we had all of the ingredients for a picnic.  And we had a clean playroom.  The answer was obvious - a playroom outdoor cinema experience!  So we dragged the television into the playroom, pulled out the food we were planning on taking to the Domain, and watched Matilda.  It was awesome.  Ted was exhausted by 8pm so I'm glad we didn't end up at the Domain for that reason alone (as well as the rain that fell).

Harriet was thoroughly enthralled by the movie.  She has this tendency to watch movies and want to constantly work out how they're made.  She never falls into the illusion of the film and its narrative but instead constantly asks how the makers of the film did a certain thing or other.  In Matilda she was particularly interested in how they managed to: kick a cat / glue a hat to someone's head / have someone be dead / have small objects move around seemingly on their own  - among others.

Yep, we have her pegged as a scripwriter/director when she's older.  It involves storytelling AND telling people what to do.  How perfect is that?  And I guarantee it will be the safest worksite in the Western world.