going under the knife, crafty surgery 101

Greetings all,
When it rains, it pours in life, right??  We've accepted an offer on our Darwin apartment, exciting news, but our 2 favourite farms (both on the market for ages) just sold - all in a matter of days - i'm a big believer on patience, time & place, it just wasn't meant to be.  Then this book arrives in the mail (to be reviewed next week with a giveaway) . . .  

 well these are my hands: mother, designer, crafter, patchwork quilter for 13 years & suffering carpal tunnel syndrome for the past 8 years . . . swollen, achey & about to be sliced up & fixed.  Feel so silly i left it so long.  Such a typical craft related injury!!  We need to look after ourselves better people!!

 My hands drop things, are numb & can't grasp, + i've managed to give myself Tennis Elbow.

 So it took all my strength to lift & purchase this stone pear today (a birthday gift with money from my parents).  But when i picked up a sheet set at Sheridan, the weight almost broke my arm.  I frightened the sales assistant as she innocently passed the sheets to me & they went thump on the floor, straight through my hands. 

Other exciting purchases today included cotton knickers for theatre & rubber gloves for showering.  Did you know silk underpants can create an electrostatic charge in a surgical theatre??  I did, but wasn't planning on making the effort of dressing up down there, for a hand surgeon.  Moving right along, who knew i loved biscuits?? 

  Jan-Maree of Cherry Red Quilter blog & amazing leader of the Aussie Hero Quilts must have baked all weekend to overnight express an amazing variety of fresh cookies 'to help out with my children's recess'. What a lovely surprise, how gorgeous!!  Thank you Jan-Maree, you are so thoughtful.  Can you believe she got her girlfriends together & organised to make laundry bags, patchwork quilts & endless treats parcelled up for all of my husband's soldiers in Afghanistan??  Of course you can, she's an unstoppable force of love, care & generocity.  More on Aussie Hero Quilts later!!

 I've sampled some crumbs, they are delicious & Caramello koalas - tonnes of them.  Mmmm, thank you Jan-Maree.

 Finally, a treat for my hair, i've let it grow, so i'll need to pin back my fringe post surgery, what better way to do it, than with a giant diamonte heart??!!  The other clips will be shared with my girls - including my middle daughter who scored Vice House Captain (she's only in year 5) for red house at school.  The Seed red bow clips will be adorable for the up coming Swimming Carnival. 

So folks, i've dropped off my admissions paperwork & now just have to wait for the surgery.  The hospital is amazing, like a fancy office style hotel, the kind of place Hollywood folks would go for 'proceedures', very glamorous.  I'm going to take a little break in blog transmission as my hands are truly numb, clumsy, with shooting pains up my wrists & i'd rather be a princess, rest them on ice . . . than take drugs to power on.  I'm exhausted!!  Have gorgeous weeks everyone, don't ever take your precious hands for granted, love Posie

i'm grateful for 'slowing down'

Greeetings all,

Ah, life, it's only as busy as you make it, 'tis my new bohemian approach to slowing down life this week.  I've only ever had one nanny in my world, for my first baby when i was an oil baroness fueling the mining industry.  She said "don't rush, be organised & make your children feel special, not an inconvenience you have to hurry".  I grew up with a neighbour who was always rushing her children around, honking the car horn, it was constant chaos.  My mother, she floated around raising the 4 of us, in constant calm, we were happy, organised & punctual.  I don't like being busy, I loathe rushing.  I like to tick things off my 'nice to do' list & centre myself.  I think it's a good example to my children too, don't overschedule or overcommit.  Leaving the P&C wasn't easy, i've had phone calls & emails asking me to stay on, sorry, i don't want the responsibility anymore. 

So i'm a short hair girl who is low maintenace (irony) & had the most fabulous & graceful Japanese young man cut my hair this week.  I like his work, no more boy band hair cuts for me & lots of friends have noticed, my dead-straight-thick-hair has bounce & life again.

 I made another batch of hot water bottle covers, international flavour.

 Oh, pretty butterflies with a Bambi button & a transport one with a car button.  I got to school early each afternoon this week to do some hand stitching in the car, therapeutic & a great car spot too.  Love not rushing!!

 We spent two whole nights ditching homework for Lego.

Even the car got a pampering at the drive through car wash.

 Farmers Market on a brisk Saturday morning, oh the orange juice will do my itchy throat the world of good.  Have to admit, i've felt run down all week, but always better after the gym.

 We picked up fresh flowers & all the ingredients for homemade carbonara (free range eggs, leg ham, mushrooms, Italian bread) which i'll make with my youngest daugther tonight & test drive our new cutting tool to make frilly fettuccine.

 With handsome soldier in town & his fear of freezing (this is a man who has ice climbed in Canada & patrolled through -20C Afghan Winters) he made good on his offer to replace our newly wed underlay & doona with luxurious new ones from the David Jones preWinter 30% off sale (if you ever want to sponsor me DJs, don't hesitate).  Well, um, $2K RRP (gulp, no wonder we only replace this stuff every 15 years & wait for sales) we will dive onto this gorgeous Summer/ Winter reversible woollen underlay . . .    

 under a new wool quilt + new pillows, new doona cover & this new silvery quilted bed coverlet tonight - we're using it as a throw, but there is double doona potential.  I don't sleep well when i'm on my own, but i think this can only help.  Beautiful bedlinen, ah, heaven.

 When we build we will might reupholster this bedhead (i still like the shape & style) but it's a decade old & now has custom design additions - an alien drawn with green texta & a chap stick love heart, i.e. it screams "we have children who jump around in here" rather than boudoire.

 The doona cover is actually a jet green (the darkest green ever) & very masculine.  Yes, i'm the floral patchworker who loves Cath Kidston, Amy Butler & Rachel Ashwell, but i can't imagine handsome soldier feeling at all sexy in such surrounds, so i've never inflicted florals on him.

Finally, as per last week's Grateful post 'breaking point' i marched the broken bed base into Harvey Norman (yes, the WHOLE FULLY CONSTRUCTED bed base, which made for an interesting ride to school that morning with 3 children trapped under it) & the staff could not have been more wonderful, professional, understanding & quick to say "we'll replace it completely".  Glee, mind you, i did look like a woman who was not going to take no for an answer.  Now this mattress stands in the hallway, waiting it's new bed.  Ah, have a dreamy weekend & find more gratefuls at Maxabella Loves. 

Next week i'm spending more time thinking up other ways to slow down, which will contradict me screaming "run run run" as my 3 youngest try out for Cross Country.  My biggest girl is already in the regional high school team, yippee.  Love Posie
PS not so grateful that Blogger stole 48 hours worth of comments & denied me leaving any comments anywhere in blog land, sigh.

it's my birthday . . .

Greetings all,
Yippee, it's birthday time, not my blog, but ME!!  Having a blast, especially with my husband sending flowers on Valentine's Day & flying home for my birthday.  It's been a great week, month, year already!!  So what did i get (read: buy myself) . . .
a new day handbag (my night handbags don't see much action, they sleep safely in their Oroton dust bags).  I wanted something fun to replace my small Fossil green leather satchel, due for retirement.  I went to the regular Fossil store, didn't really see anything that suited me, so went to the outlet & picked up this beauty plus 2 new purses, all on sale.  I love it, it's small with excellent internal pockets & it's sweet how my children plait the tassels while i drive (or they suffer through another school meeting or information night). 

 I've always wanted a simple angular hat stand in the hall, can't believe my husband let me get this, as his dream is a full on mud room in our homestead plans . . . but this is fabulous & does the trick.

 I'm very easy to please, my love for Sheridan coloured bath towels lives on - can you believe one still exists from the original half dozen we bought when we got married!!  So when David Jones had 30% off Sheridan this week, we picked up these for the children's bathroom, so soft & fast drying!!  We chose gorgeous grey ones for our ensuite, slowly replacing the towels in the house.  I like rainbows for the children, matchy matchy for us.

 When handsome soldier was visiting we did a big lap of the Canberra Centre & i picked up this cute lantern, i am a bit of a lantern addict.

 My parents sent me Country Road vouchers for my birthday which i cleverly timed with my "spend $300 get $100 off" coupon, picked up a new anorak, maxi skirt & knit top.  Then headed to Trenery with my complimentary "Happy Birthday $30 voucher" & got this cute scarf for the $10 balance.  My husband bought me the camel coloured cape, how cute is a wool cape in Winter??

Darling Sindy (not her real name) sent me a Country Style subscription, love it, will put my feet up tonight & start reading, after i sign about 25 notes which i've dug up out of school bags!!  Thanks Sindy, it will be inspirational for our farm planning style.

 How happy does this blue tin jug make you feel??

 I've always loved flowers, fresh from the garden.  As a child i'd follow my English grandfather around, pruning & nurturing our garden on his visits to Australia.  He was a professional gardener at a huge estate house in Yorkshire, a very proud man indeed, but so willing to answer all my questions cheerfully & flick worms at me.  He would constantly look at the sky & say "look how blue it is, all that blue".   

 Finally, this is me, aged 36 & feeling pretty grown up.  I've never worried much about my age as the baby of my family, i've always felt youngish.  Well . . . until i walked into Esprit yesterday morning, looking for Tshirts for my daughter's year 7 camp.  The sales assistant burst out from behind me with a loud & ambitious "hello, can i help you" & i said "i'm just looking at extra small Tshirts for my eldest daughter".  She said "your daughter, i'm guessing, she's 20??"  OH YOU GUESSED WRONG SALES ASSISTANT!!  Of course my husband was in his own private hell, in a clothing store, sitting on the 'boyfriend chair' outside the change rooms & didn't hear it.  I thought, oh, i was feeling pretty hip today in my maxi skirt & cute cardigan, no, i look old enough to have adult children.  I did find a XS T, it was reduced from $40 to $12.45 so i took it & ran.  I told handsome soldier on the way out of the store & he laughed so hard i thought his head was going to explode.  

So i thought i'd come home & show the world that i really don't care, this is me, no make up, aged 36 & so long as my husband still thinks i'm beautiful, that's all i need!!  Judging from the fact my high schooler lets me get out of the car, hug & kiss her each morning & afternoon, i'm feeling pretty hip too.  Love Posie