Slip sliding away

Time has got away from me again, and I really have nothing to show for the last couple of weeks except some cute photos of Thomas. These should at least please my mum.



Showing off that one tooth


and splashing in the new big bath



The snow has hardly stopped falling this season, which has been fabulous. We have been given an old sled contraption for Thomas which Warren can pull behind him while he skis. Thomas really enjoyed it, and ended up being so relaxed he fell asleep. I like this because it slows Warren down enough for me to keep up with him.




We are off to Melbourne and to the snow again in the next two weeks, before I finally head back to work. I am looking forward to shopping and creative inspiration in Melbourne - I love that city.



We are still enjoying watching a family of Rosellas, who visit our bird feeder every day. This one is a baby, with its green feathers, which will eventually become just red and blue.

And finally, in this random and rambling post, the lovely Kate tagged me to list 8 facts or habits about myself.

I have been procrastinating about this one, but here goes:

1. I love learning new crafts, and get wildly enthusiastic about every one, buying all the books and paraphenalia, but after I have mastered the basics, and starting several projects, I often find myself losing interest and getting hooked instead on something else. The only saving grace is that most of the time I will eventually come back to that craft and those unfinished projects again one day.

2. In recent years I have tried sewing, quilting, knitting, crochet (didn't get very far with that one) screen printing, batik, marbling, tie dye, mosaics, shrink plastic, silver jewellery, enamelling, acrylic painting, watercolours, pastels, polymer clay, pottery, embroidery and even cake decorating. You should see our garage.

3. I have a thing for animals, and get quite worried when I see dogs roaming around - I always think they must be lost, and have in the past rescued (Warren says kidnapped) a few wandering dogs and taken them to the vet to check their microchip and find their owners. One of these pups happened to live right where I had rescued him from - he was sitting right outside his home. Warren thinks that is pretty funny.

4. I am not a morning person.

5. I have had my drivers licence since I was about 20, but have never quite mastered driving - I still feel like I should have P plates on. Today I was driving Thomas home from childcare, and I got stuck behind a bus, but I was too nervous to change lanes in heavy traffic, so I stayed behind it and stopped and started all the way home. Luckily we weren't in a hurry.

6. I have developed a bad habit of watching Dr Phil while I have lunch. It's a good thing I'm going back to work next month.

7. I can't sit in a cafe or restaurant by myself unless I have something to read.

8. Once I start a book, I find it almost impossible to put down, and I can't do much else until I've finished it. I keep meaning to borrow some talking books from the library, so I can at least get some other things done.

Well that's it from me, time for bed. I won't tag anyone else right now, but please join in if you like.

A busy week

The first days of childcare went pretty well. My initial anxiety was instantly soothed on meeting his main carer, a lovely woman who has worked at this centre for thirty years, and has such a kind and reassuring manner. Thomas loved playing with all the new toys, especially some mobiles strung on elastic from the roof which had colourful shapes and bells attached. Funny how it is often the simplest things that kids enjoy most. I stayed with him the whole time during this orientation period, but next week I will try leaving him there for an hour or two.



Yesterday we went to a first birthday party for one of his little friends. Lovely food and wine for the adults, and amazing toys for the many babies - what more could you ask for! Here is Thomas sitting in the inflatable ball playland thing -at the back. He is now sitting up by himself and almost crawling.

I made a pop up card for the birthday boy. Thomas chewed up my first effort, but this second one worked ok.



The pop up part is very simple but kind of fun with the beak opening and shutting 'talking' as you open the card - I can't remember where I learnt this - I think it was a craft book I had as a child. I've drawn a couple of pictures to explain it at the end of this post, just in case you want to try it.



And, as you can see, after months of us thinking he must be teething, Thomas has finally got his first tooth. I hope the next ones don't take so long!

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Very simple instructions for the pop up bird card

You make the beak on one layer of paper, then stick it to another backing card and decorate - you can add a layer of a different colour behind the beak for the inside mouth colour. Have fun!

The Ski Season is upon us

I have become a very bad blogger over the last few weeks - I'm blaming it on the ski season, which has well and truly arrived.



We took Thomas to the snow again last weekend, and this time there was plenty of it. Sadly Warren used up the camera batteries on racing photos, so we didn't get any of the very cute Thomas in the backpack laughing as Warren gently skied down a little slope with him. This is the only photo we managed to take - inside the nordic shelter at Perisher.



I had a lovely lunch last week with a friend and her gorgeous little daughter - we went out to the nearby country town of Murrumbateman, on a beautiful crisp sunny winter day. This is a photo just outside the restaurant. Thomas really enjoyed having a little friend sharing the back seat and entertaining him, and both kids behaved amazingly well.



The cable knit jumper is progressing slowly - I've finally finished the back. I'm already starting to worry about whether I will have enough yarn to finish it. Our local shop has run out, so I might have to order some more.



Thomas has his first morning of childcare tomorrow. I think he will love it - fingers crossed.

Now to go and catch up on all the blogs I've missed reading over the last weeks.

A lazy Sunday afternoon

I'm sitting here with Thomas at the keyboard, helping me to type. The sun has finally emerged after a lot of rain, and we are enjoying watching some little visitors (Crimson Rosellas) play in the garden.



I wish I had more to show on the crafty side of things, but at the moment I am struggling with this cardigan - which has yet to be sewn up and a collar knitted on.



Unfortunately, although it's a bit hard to see here, the sleeves have turned out to be a slightly different shade to the body (even though the dye lot of the yarn was the same). It is taking on a disconcerting camoflage look, too. I am thinking that I might just leave the sleeves off and turn it into a vest, once I've done the collar.



In the meantime, I've just started a new cable jumper from Debbie Bliss' Simply Baby. I am enjoying this much more, and the yarn feels much nicer.



We had our first trip to the snow last weekend, and managed to find Thomas some second hand ski gear in a community sale. Here he is all dressed up.



There wasn't much snow, but he quite enjoyed the change of scene anyway. He was a bit fascinated with the goggles - I guess it must be strange the first time your whole world turns a different colour.



This weekend we have just been pottering around - yesterday we visited a new park in our area, where Thomas had his first solo swing.

The big news is that we have finally been given a childcare place for Thomas, after months and months on the waiting list. This will start in July, which should work out well for my return to work part time in August, giving us time to get him used to the idea. I have mixed feelings about going back (I work as a legal academic, currently on a project on local human rights legislation). In some ways it will be good to have a bit more structure to the week, but I worry about how Thomas will adapt to being at childcare all day. At least it is only for two days a week at this stage, and it is just down the road from my office, so I can visit him at lunchtime.

This does mean that I'd better stop procrastinating and finish the craft projects which are still lying about the place. That quilt is definitely top of the list!

What's in a name

I got tagged by the lovely Rachel to…

Give the meaning of your kids’ names, and write about what or how or why you gave the name to your kids. Tag five people to play along and leave a comment at their blog to let them know they have been tagged.



Thomas

Actually this is the first time I've looked up the official meaning of our son's name. Apparently it comes from the Greek for "Twin", which is not particularly apt, as he had the womb all to himself, and is definitely one of a kind. It is also the name of the Apostle "doubting Thomas" who was sceptical about the resurrection. Our Thomas is not especially doubting, except about nap times - he does give us that "you've got to be kidding" look every time we put him in the cot.

For us Thomas has more significance as a family name as it is my father's name (and our bub's middle name 'James' is Warren's dad's name, so we kept everyone happy)

While I was pregnant, the ritual was that I would think up possible names and Warren would look at me as if I was completely mad. The last straw was when I suggested "Jasper" which I thought was cute, but made Warren shudder with horror (apologies to any Jaspers out there, I still think it's a lovely name!)



We still hadn't settled on a name when all of a sudden we were in the hospital having our baby delivered six weeks early.

When Thomas was delivered by caesarian, the doctor held him up and Warren looked over the curtain to announce that it was a boy. Someone asked whether we had a name for him, and Warren apparently thought he had to make the decision then and there, so he chose Thomas. Luckily that was fine with me!

I will tag Kate and Susan, just in case they want to join in...

More knitting, and a walk down memory lane

I have not done much to report in the last couple of weeks, but have learned to knit cables. Hooray! This is a scarf I knitted for my mum's birthday. I'd always imagined cables would be very tricky to do, but in fact there is not much to it, just using an extra little needle to swap some stitches around every few rows, and then the twisted rope just forms itself.



I was knitting it right up until I gave it to mum, I pretty much cast it off the needles and then handed it over, so I didn't take very good photos of it - it is made from a really soft alpaca yarn which was lovely to knit with.

We have been visiting family in Sydney, which is always really nice - I sometimes wish we lived much closer to my parents, they are such willing babysitters, and Thomas just loves them.



While at mum and dad's I found this paper mache zebra I had made as a teenager. Mum had kept it all this time. This was another of my many crafty phases - for a while I really got into this and made all sorts of animals - I loved the fact that you could make pretty much anything you could imagine, using just newspaper masking tape and glue, even though craft wasn't very fashionable at that age. I have a secret hope that Thomas will enjoy doing some crafty things with me when he gets a bit older - we will have to wait and see.

Finally some progress

I've finally sewn the rows together with the sashing on the quilt, and am very happy with how it looks - thanks to everyone who made suggestions. It took so long because I am not very good at cutting and sewing straight lines - lots of unpicking!



I still have to put on the borders, not to mention actually, like, quilting it, but it still feels good to get this far. I am thinking that I might make it a single bed size quilt for when Thomas eventually moves out of his cot. It should be finished before then anyway.




I think I might have to try something quick and easy for my next sewing project. I love the look of the binding on these clever baby shirts, they are quite similar to this wrap top of his which I just adore and have been thinking of copying. I can just see a shirt with Japanese fabric binding (how predictable am I becoming!)



I have been enjoying knitting lately, because it is something I can take with me anywhere, and I can pick it up easily when I have five minutes, or while watching tv in the evening. It is also less intimidating to tackle baby size knits.



This is the latest, a little cardigan for Thomas. I seem to have a thing for variegated yarn - you never quite know what patterns will form when you start knitting it up, so it keeps things interesting.



And finally, some fallen leaves outside our front door. More variegated colours. While Warren looks forward to the winter snow (not where we live, but in the Snowy Mountains, not too far away) I love this time of year, glorious leaves, cool enough to enjoy walking, and not yet that biting chill in the air.

Winter on the way

After weeks of staying home, we have now had two weekends away in quick succession. Last weekend we went to Perisher Valley for a working bee to get the Nordic ski shelter ready for the upcoming cross country ski season. We stayed at a lovely house in Jindabyne, this is the view from the balcony. Warren is a very keen cross country racer, and I think he will have Thomas skiing as soon as he can walk.



I took some knitting for the long car ride, and managed to finish a hat to match the jumper, from some wool I had left over. Poor Thomas looks very serious in this photo, he's probably wondering what he will be forced to wear next, knitted underwear?

Making the pompon for the top was fun, I hadn't done that in years, but I made the cardboard circles too big, so it turned out to be enormous, practically as big as Thomas' head. I'd used up all the blue wool, so instead of starting again, I had to trim it back to size. Our house is now covered in a layer of blue fuzz.




My mum dropped off some children's books for us a while ago, and I was looking through them today and found this craft book. It has some very seventies fabrics and styles, but some of the dinosaurs look quite cute, I might have to try to make one someday.

A short sea change

We had a great couple of days away, driving through the mountains to some lush green countryside - this is Tilba Tilba, and then on to Narooma.



It was the first time Thomas had really seen the water, or a pelican and he seemed quite intrigued by it all.



Now we are back home and have had our last visitor for a while, and I've finally got back to the long neglected quilt. I was inspired by Rachel completing her beautiful calendar project. I need a bit more of that kind of staying power to finish this off.



We have been enjoying this banana bread recipe, now that bananas are affordable again (for a while they were a luxury item in Oz). I hadn't made a cake for a while and I was reminded how fun it is to bake things from scratch. A lot more instant gratification than quilting, that's for sure!



one and a half cups plain (all purpose) flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon bicarb soda
quarter teaspoon salt
125g butter softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 large very ripe bananas
half a cup buttermilk (or quarter of a cup each of plain yoghurt and milk if you don't have buttermilk)

Preaheat the oven to 170 C or 325 F
Grease a loaf tin (9x5inches or 23 x 12 cm)
Sift together flour baking powder, bicarb and salt
In another bowl cream the butter and sugar with an electric beater until pale and fluffy
Gradually add beaten eggs, mixing well after each addition
Add mashed bananas, then add flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk, beating well after each addition
Spoon into the tin and bake for 55 to 60 mins or until the top of the bread is firm and deep brown, and a skewer comes out clean. Cool in the tin for ten minutes then turn onto a wire rack.

We found that it tastes even better after a day or so. Keeps for several days wrapped in plastic wrap in the fridge, or can be frozen.

Happy baking.

Back again

Wow, three weeks has flown by since my last post. We have had such a busy time here with lots of visitors, there has been no time to open the laptop.

Thomas has been loving all the attention. Here he is with a little friend - it was fun but hectic having two babies in the house for a while, and none of us got any sleep.

Somehow in the quiet times I managed to finish this jumper for Thomas. It was a very basic design, but I hadn't done a neckband or buttonholes before, so it was a great learning experience. I'm quite keen to do another one now, but perhaps something a bit more interesting.

It is still too big for Thomas right now, but should be about right for winter.

We had a great time with another friend last weekend, and we all went on a bushwalk to the top of Mount Majura - Warren managed to carry Thomas all the way - he was quite happy looking around and taking it all in.

I was given these beautiful tulips as an early birthday present, and am really enjoying watching them slowly open up.

Tomorrow we are off to the coast for a couple of days. It will be too cold to swim, but it will be great to get away for a while.

Right now I'm going to have a quick look at my favourite blogs, while Thomas is still napping. Can't wait to catch up on some crafty inspiration.