Mothers Day Magic

My mothers day was pretty magical this year. My kids have reached what appears to be the best ages for producing copious amounts of home made cards and goodies. They started with these flowers from our local flower market, never before have I seen these two-tone gerberas that Roboboy chose for me.

They followed up with a positive bounty of home made goodness. There were cards,

(it seems I have been upgraded from "best little mama in the world")

breakfast in bed ( the handmade variety), followed up by a real buttery croissant and cup of tea,

artwork from school,

and even some time playing with watercolours together on the day.

My mum and I even popped out to a gorgeous art exhibition at the Botanical gardens, this is the card mum bought me from the artist Nadine Sawyer,

and a lovely much wanted gift from Legoman and the kids, handmade by  Betty Jo at Lino Forest.  I couldn't choose between the sewing machine and the budgie brooch, how lucky that she was having a 2 for 1 Mothers Day sale. She makes these intricate brooches from salvaged linoleum.

All in all, probably the most colourful, love filled Mother's Day I have ever had. (This would be Liongirl's painting from kindy of our new house and Roboboy and I worked on that gerbera painting together).

Crochet cushions and holiday musings

I learnt to crochet at a class nearly two years ago. I was a very slow learner and of course did not manage to finish the class cushion during the three sessions. By that time I decided that I did not actually like the colours I had selected and could not force myself to finish it. Then I fluffed around making bits and bobs but not really starting anything that could be termed a project. I went to Spotlight and was not overwhelmed by the wool colour options there either. Finally I found a pattern for a cushion cover that was not too holey as I didn't really want to see the cushion through the crochet and chose some colours that seemed more me.

And then it just took another year or so to finish it. The back is crocheted too, same pattern, slightly different combination of the same colours. (And somehow with about 20 extra stitches per edge). I  had no idea how to actually join it and ended up just chain stitching the sides together ( with a bit of leapfrogging over those extra stitches, hence the puckering). To be honest I'm still not totally sure about this colour combination. I think it's the egg yolk orange that is giving me pause. Although it does rather compliment the bird house. And it is actually finished, woohoo!



Meanwhile I have been letting the kids loose on the deck with the paints.

And with home made slushies. (Anything to counter these hot hot days we are having).

I stumbled across this lost art work done about  18 months ago  in prep and popped it in a frame.

And we managed a quick holiday trip to Ikea and came home with these two glorious duck egg blue velvet cushions. Velvet + duck egg blue + Ikea are three words I would never had put in a sentence but look at that for just $36 for both including the inserts. Love love love.

In other news, our plans had the engineering completed just before Christmas. Now we are just waiting on certification and unfortunately we just found out that the certifier is away until the end of the month. The builder has  seen the plans and given us the option to continue to live in the house or move out and we are completely in two minds about whether to stay or go.

And of course we are counting down the months left using our dogs breakfast of a kitchen.

The art is the heart

Roboboy brought his self portrait from art home this week. I love it so much that it's already in an Ikea frame and hanging on the wall. He even drew in his lucky curl (as he calls it). Whenever I cut his hair, we always have to make sure not to cut off the lucky curl  as it gives him all his "extra power". Here is a comparison shot.

We are so,so lucky to have a wonderful art teacher at his school who embraces colour and collaboration. Here are some of the collaborative art works she helped the students create before the school fete art show.

Earlier in the year she introduced the grade one class to the work of Yayoi Kusama who had been featured at our Gallery of Modern Art. The kids then did their own interpretation of her work. It is freakish when your six year old comes home rabbiting the obscure name of an artist you have never heard of as if  he just had morning tea with her that day.

Roboboy's version is on the left hand side, second from the top. He was so happy to do this work because he just loves all this colour. He brought this one home recently and asked me if it would be ok to colour it in as all that black and white was bothering him.

It's not just Roboboy and I though, someone else seems to be showing signs of the colour bug too. Here is a recent birthday card that Liongirl made for a friend.

You can imagine our excitement when the school had a little makeover a few months ago.  Us colour lovers feel right at home at this little school.

 Not only that, they still send home school readers circa 1977, check out these glorious vintage pictures.    I think we kept this one home for two nights , just so we could both swoon over the pictures a bit longer.

It appears that Cornflakes and Special K have not changed their packaging much  over 30 years.

I studied Art right through to Grade 12 along side a heavy maths/science subject load. Art was my safe space, that place to relax and be free from cramming my brain full of facts and numbers. It warms the cockles of my heart to see the same love of art and colour in both my children, and absolute gratitude for finding a school that embraces and values creative pursuits.

Father's Day Makeover

This weekend past was Father's Day and we pulled out all the stops to show Legoman how much we appreciated him. There were homemade cards (I cut out the clothes and Liongirl did the rest), our cat seems to have received a few extra legs for good measure,

And then of course Roboboy wanted to make one of these too, (do not ask me what is going on with all our necks, but given that he rarely draws people we will take what we can get).

There was a sleep in for Legoman followed by French toast and gifts of the Bonds variety. And then Liongirl scheduled in him in for a little "Fashion B'Pashion" whereby she trots around wielding my old makeup pots and brushes and attacks anyone who sits still long enough. Poor Legoman.

At least she had been practicing on her dolls,

And her friends. Unfortunately this involved a real pot of blue eye shadow that was liberally applied as both a lipstick,

an eyeshadow,

and full facial mask. Thank goodness for best friends who are thoughtful enough to coordinate their frocks.

In other news I haven't been op shopping as much lately  as it  feels wrong to be bringing home more stuff amidst the great purge of our recent declutterings. However, I didn't pause in the slightest a few weeks ago before snaffling up this lovely vintage dolls rocking chair,

and some more of my favourite pyrex pattern,

with matching lid ( I have never seen one of these before, usually the lids are missing or are clear glass).

Back  soon with new plans, more pyrex and Spring in my step.

Peach, fuschia and a crochet poncho

Miss Liongirl received her first Barbie from her cousins for her third birthday. This Barbie came with a car but unfortunately she also came with a dress that finished at groin level and was, well, pretty skanky. How excited was I to stumble onto this vintage peach and fuschia wardrobe stuffed full of outfits, shoes and coathangers. And the outfits, well this little crochet poncho and maxidress ensemble is just the tip of the iceberg. Doesn't that dress just perfectly bring out her 80's eyeshadow? And I'm predicting peach and fuschia the new hot colour combo for Summer.

The great pre Spring purge is ongoing and after handing over four more bags to the op shop, I had a quick wander and nearly fainted at the sight of this pillowcase peeking out of the pile. I have this same sheet in the purple/blue combo and this one was on my wishlist. I practically pulled apart the shelves looking for the matching sheet in equally pristine condition, but no such luck.

We have been enjoying all this sunshine, climbing trees ( she is the fearless one who climbs higher, goes faster, pushes the boundaries, despite being three to his six),

making collages,

and for once sitting still long enough for a proper photo in the morning sunlight.

Hoping the weekend has brought sunshine to you all.

Drizzly grey day snippets

Did I mention that my entire lounge room is finally ALL white. I think amidst the general flurry I completely forgot to share this miracle. When it stops raining and there is some decent light,  I will share the wonder that is no more custard.

Roboboy went back to school, I did manage a quick oppie ferret this week. I often find a few of the same sort of thing in the one ferret. The colours in these blankies just seem to pop more with the drizzly grey days we are having. The top one is my favourite. If there was a remote chance it would be worn, I would attempt to turn it into a coat for miss Liongirl. I do have some other ideas percolating though.

Look what else popped up too. It looks like pyrex but it's actually Arcopal, all the way from France.

Perfect weather  for whipping up some teddy bear pancakes. With the kids sick for the holidays, I think I watched a lot more Playschool than usual. Or was it Peppa Pig? Miss Liongirl is in charge of banana slicing, Roboboy helps with the mix and they both get to decorate -those dairy free choc chips are a fantastic shape. We have experimented with cats and pigs too, these drizzly grey days just keep inspiring pancakes.

Roboboy has been designing computers again.

And I  have been photographing all his art and carefully choosing which ones to keep. This was one of the few paintings he did at kindy when he was four. I think it was an army tank. I love the  colours, I think I need to get an Ikea frame for this one.

Speaking of Ikea, we did  recently get a stool for Roboboy so he can reach to feed his fish. I even let him choose the colour, so there is also a bit of painting going on over here.

Back soon  to share it all when the sun comes out and I can take some decent pictures.