when the sun shines and kids get on well
Wednesday 28 September, 2005
Today was the sort of day every mother hopes will happen in the school holidays.
My friend Rachael came over with her children. I set up a table of art materials for them. The sun shone, after days and days of rain. We made sure there was lots of low-sugar, healthy and easily accessible food and drink for them to help themselves to. Here is what happened...
The kids all played really well. They made collages and stamped pictures. Then they rode bikes for a while. Then they played hide and seek for ages. Magnus was relaxed and happy watching them. We didn't have to direct their play or break up fights once. There were no tears. Not even from me - ha ha.
Rachael and I were able to chat over peppermint tea. Then, we did a photo shoot of all the vintage/retro clothes that I got from the theatre (a few entries back) so I can sell them on trademe. This took over two hours, but we got it all done in one hit. Then we had a big picnic lunch outside together...the kids ate and took off again and me and Rach finished with coffee and vegan chocolate cake.
I feel a rare and peculiar sort of bliss...the kind where a day has gone better than you could have hoped for. I wonder if it will ever happen again in my lifetime?
Here is a photo of some of Rachael's beautiful tattoos, framed by a fetching 1970s disco dress...
Posted on 28 September, 2005 | 6:00pm | 1 comments |
competition update
Tuesday 27 September, 2005
This is Chuckie - the resident dog on the farm we stayed at, and a whole lot of gumboots. (The Uppertons have four children!)
Only a few days now until the close of the Stripy Sock Competition! When the first entries came in, I took great care to reply to the emails and say "Thanks for entering..." but then they started coming in faster and I got real busy with work and so I haven't managed to reply to everyone individually. So THANKS for your entries, lovely people, and I promise I will send emails to everyone when the results are out! And Amanda, I love what you've done in photoshop with your 'superhero' entry! There is a stripy sock revolution going on out there, and I'm proud to have had a hand in it!
I've been marking all day (in between breastfeeding/laundry/making food/playing with Willo/cleaning up etc etc) so now it is time to stop, get off the computer, rest my aching back by laying it flat on the floor for a spell and maybe indulging in a nip of whiskey beside the heater.
Posted on 27 September, 2005 | 7:55pm | 0 comments |
just lie back
Tuesday 27 September, 2005
Here is the bath at the farm. Willoughby and I enjoyed five bubble baths in three days! I wish we had a bath at our place, so badly. I've always been a bath-girl rather than a shower-girl.
Now that we are back home the neighbours houses look weirdly close! There is something lucious about being surrounded by green fields everywhere you look.
Back home to piles of laundry, an in-box full of work emails, another stack of papers to grade whilst simultaneously entertaining Willoughby (the school holidays can be a mixed blessing when you work from home!)
But in between attending to today's business...I'll be mentally back in that deep bubblebath, looking at the serene green walls, with the sound of rain pelting at the window. Aah...bliss.
Posted on 27 September, 2005 | 8:24am | 1 comments |
gone country
Saturday 24 September, 2005
We're at our country house-sitting gig! I had the pleasure of collecting eggs this morning. They were warm! My heart melted. The chickens are very cute. So is the benign old dog, the frisky kittens, the doleful horse, the picturesque sheep...you get the idea...
I'm only six weeks away from the end of the academic year, which means the end of my tutoring for 2005. I'm starting to dream about the summer, about my writing 'career' and how to crank it up a few notches, about how to get juicy and inspired again...
I'm going to make the most of this mini-retreat to take a good look at myself, as you can only when you get away from home...give myself a good shake-up and see what remains when the dust settles. This will involve several soaks in the claw-foot tub, a few hill-climbs, some chicken-chasing, several pots of tea and a lot of scrawling in my journal.
Viva la free holiday! Adieu for now!
Posted on 24 September, 2005 | 3:39pm | 4 comments |
birthday goals and wishes
Thursday 22 September, 2005
Like I said earlier, it was my birthday on Tuesday so Iíve written a list of 33 things Iíd like to do during the year I am 33. Iím a bit addicted to these sorts of listsÖ
1) Write (not counting blog) every day.
2) Get something published in The Listener. Because a) several of my friends have already, so I know its possible! b) it would impress my Mum and Dad (and we never grow out of that need for parental approval, do we?) c) it has a HUGE readership!
3) Learn to make a cafÈ quality flat white on our coffee machine. (Fraser can already do this and leaves my efforts to shame. He can do freakiní latte-art! Little flowers and hearts and all that!)
4) Ride a horse. I havenít been on a horse since I was a teenager, riding my auntyís old farm horse bare back and falling off every five minutes.
5) Do Magnusís baby photo album! Yikes! Heís nearly nine months and his album is bare.
6) Get some sort of pet/s for Willoughby.
7) Knit something more complicated than a scarf. (I have a mental block about reading knitting patterns because Iím really bad at maths/science stuffÖI look at the patterns and my eyes go all blurry and my brain starts to panic, thinking Iím back in my school C maths exam in 1988 or something!) Must progress beyond scarves...
8) Do the SHE Triathlon on Feb 5 2006.
9) Have my vegetable garden productive all year round. Iím almost there with this one ñ I just need to get better at weeding it in the chill of winter!
10) Meditate more regularly. Lately Iíve been only doing it when Iím really stressed. If I got back to doing it every dayÖI wouldnít GET so stressed! Duh!
11) More yoga, more swimming, more running, more dancing, more movement.
12) Make a will.
13) Go to the dentist. (Ouch! financially and Ouch! physically!)
14) Work on my Creative Journaling/Writing workshop. At the moment I only teach this a few times a yearÖin the future, Iíd like to be teaching it all the time, all around the country!
15) Sell things on trademe every week. (Extra $$ for my wee family for minimal effort!)
16) Get my sewing machine fixed. Iím liking all the hand-sewing Iíve been doing, but there is only so much you can do with a needle and thread.
17) Read more novels, less non-fiction. (For someone who claims to be a fiction writer, I read A LOT of non-fiction. Iím addicted to biographies.)
18) Learn TEN new Indian dishes. Indian food is my favourite cuisineÖthey really know how to do good vegetarian food in India.
19) Tidy / sort / re-energise my studioÖespecially the desk drawers! SCARY!
20) Take a holiday to Auckland. (Friends, art galleries, St.Kevinís Arcade on K Road, Cherry Bomb Comics)
21) Learn to make pickles and relishes. (I have this idea that I wonít be a real domestic goddess until I can give people jars of homemade relish!)
22) Floss my teeth everyday, instead of just the days when I have the ëtimeí.
23) Make Christmas presents way before Christmas, throughout the year. In other words, be organized!
24) Get some reviewing work for the local papers. (Free books! Free CDs!)
25) Begin reading chapter books to Willoughby, like Roald Dahl, J.K.Rowling etc.
26) Acquire a guitar. (Either an accoustic or an electric bass.) Teach myself to play it.
27) Photograph my children more often.
28) Clean out the towering piles of tanglement that is my linen cupboard.
29) Send snail mail to my parents and friends even more often.
30) Go on dates with Fraser. We always put ourselves after the kids and itís not good.
31) Do a bush-walk and hut stay as a family.
32) Swim in the sea at least ten times this summer.
33) Go and see at least FIVE live bands. I miss live music so bad.
Plus, one for luckÖ
34) Make fewer listsÖbe nicer to myselfÖhave realistic expectationsÖha ha ha! (*rueful grin*)
Posted on 22 September, 2005 | 12:38pm | 4 comments |
yum yum
Wednesday 21 September, 2005
Magnus thinks stripy socks are so cool, he likes to eat them!
My littliest guy is already not so little...he has started moving in the past few days! He's not crawling, but he gets on his tummy and pushes himself around. Unfortunately, he can only go backwards. You can imagine his rage and indignation when he sees a toy that he wants, spends five minutes pushing and pushing with all his might, and then looks up to see the toy even further away than when he started! I shouldn't laugh at him, but I do - it's very funny.
This year has been a total blur, but now that Magnus is a moving boy, I'm realising how far we've come. I'm also thinking that the newborn/tiny baby stage is over so fast! Especially with the second baby.
Every time my children reach some developmental goal, I feel a mixture of pleasure at how well they are doing - growing and thriving - and sadness that the last bit is over. (Except maybe the 'sleeping through the night' bit - I'll be throwing a cocktail party when that one happens!) Never is the 'enjoy the moment' stuff more important and relevant than when your children are growing, I reckon.
Posted on 21 September, 2005 | 10:30am | 1 comments |
snip snip, gluestick
Tuesday 20 September, 2005
Yesterday was my birthday and it passed in a fog of sleep deprivation (marking papers until after midnight, two night breast feeds and then Willoughby up and bouncing at 6a.m.) and grinding period pain. Happy birthday to me! Ha ha!
But nice things happened too, hugs, kisses and lush gifts from my little family at breakfast time. Some more lovely gifts in the mail from Tania and Sarah. My friend Leah fed me bagels, a deli platter and then chocolate for lunch. Yummmm...and in the evening, I curled up on the sofa and enjoyed my new Bjork DVD.
Another good thing that happened is that the free box outside my local opshop was FULL of amazing old childrens' books. I think they are very unsavvy about what is precious and what isn't in that shop! There were so many, that I left lots behind. Some I'm got for Willo and Magnus, like a beautiful giant coloured 1950s book about insects. But the rest are for chopping! I cut up a cool old science textbook and made a mini-art installation in the toilet (yes, the toilet - don't you think it is important to have interesting things on the wall of the toilet?) of things like plant diagrams and the family tree of mammals etc. pinned to the wall with cute ladybird pins.
And while I sat kneading my sore tummy and watching Bjork twist her hair in her fingers and say "I have a craving for the tiniest beats" etc about a million times on the DVD...I snipped and chopped and tore away at the books and now have the biggest pile of beautiful collage materials!
(I know there will be people out there who cringe and gasp at the notion of destroying books, but can I reassure you by saying that often they are in very bad condition, or are books that are so out-dated they are no longer useful or relevant?)
I can feel a big collage binge ahead in the next few days!
Posted on 20 September, 2005 | 9:56am | 3 comments |
the colour purple
Sunday 18 September, 2005
Please keep those entries for the competition rolling in! You have two more weeks, entries close at the end of September.
So far the categories of 'Stripy Sock Nature' and Stripy Sock Urban' are well-represented, but there is only one entry in 'Stripy Sock Superhero'.
Above is a picture of my purple socks, purchased at the Leeds market, sent from the UK by dear friend Angela, modelled next to the violet bed at Willoughby's school, taken while I was sitting waiting to collect him. And yes, all the other mothers stared at me funny when I sat there photographing my own feet...but that's okay, I'm willing to suffer for my art. Ha ha!
Posted on 18 September, 2005 | 10:43am | 2 comments |
making art from kiddy scribbles
Saturday 17 September, 2005
After feeling volcanically stressed yesterday, it occurred to me to look at my calendar and sure enough, it turned out that alongside some genuine work-stress, I'm suffering from that monthly three lettered acronym that begins with 'P', ends with 'T' (or 'S' if you live in the USA) and has the letter 'M' in the middle. I'm feeling more rational now that I know there are hormones involved.
You know how when you have kids they churn out hundreds of paintings, doodles and scribbles? There is no way you can save all of them, and yet I always feel guilty if I throw any out. So lately I've been using Willo's art in my art. Using some of his scribbles and paintings in my collages, and here is an example where I cut up a painting he did that was a bunch of splats and scribbles and tried to see a pattern/shape in each square and then I drew over it. It was fun! And yet another form of recycling, too.
I especially like the dinosaur at the bottom right. He looks shocked and the red 'splats' look like a comet hitting the earth, heralding his demise. (At least in my weird brain, it does.)
Having children rocks, I tell ya'.
Posted on 17 September, 2005 | 9:59am | 0 comments |
I need me some buddha juice
Friday 16 September, 2005
My stress has now spiralled out of control. I can't believe how quickly I can go from feeling blissed and chilled out and relaxed, to feeling like my nerves are tight guitar strings. I have a lot of work to do, due in on Monday, and it is proving very difficult to get time between the kids, the house and other distractions that pop up. (Yes, I did get out and vote today! :) ) I will be parked here on the computer for most of the night. This is not what Saturday evenings were like in my 20s - ha ha.
Who in their right mind would attempt to do paid work from home at the same time as doing fulltime childcare? Nuts, absolutely nuts. I'm so not calm, not centred, not in the now...I needed to post this picture to give myself a buddha injection! Yigh!
Posted on 16 September, 2005 | 6:35pm | 3 comments |
time for day dreaming
Thursday 15 September, 2005
I've been extremely busy this week with piles and piles of marking for the two university papers that I tutor...plus the usual routines of children, housework, meals etc.
When I'm swamped with work like this, life gets a little dry in terms of the 'juicy' stuff. I don't have time to play, noodle around, to daydream.
I particularly miss the daydreaming. I'm definitely one of those people who lives a large part of her life inside her head! I've always been this way. I couldn't survive in the world without it.
I believe that a bit of daydreaming everyday keeps you young, thinking, inventing, imagining, fantasising, creating, hoping, planning and wishing. And what is life without all these things?
I must get back to the paperwork. Push, push, push...but at the end of it all, I'm going to shut myself in the sunroom, lie down and do nothing but surf the inside of my brain for at least half an hour.
Posted on 15 September, 2005 | 7:58am | 0 comments |
go upstairs and kiss your dolly
Wednesday 14 September, 2005
Here she is! Isn't she fabulous? (and also slightly menacing?)
Her name is Zuwaylah and she was made by my incredibly talented friend, Lawson Kelly. Lawson has a doll company called 'Go Upstairs And Kiss Your Dolly'. (That is what the words on her skirt say.) He makes the dolls with his teenage daughter, Flora. The dolls all have either a punk / goth / alternative / fashionista feel to them - dark but with style and humour.
The detail in the clothes of Lawson's dolls is amazing - he makes tiny woollen coats, kimono tops, miniature Jean Paul Gaultier kilts and the tiniest, most detailed jeans. All the dolls have names beginning with 'Z' stitched along their backs.
So thank you, Lawson. I've been lusting after your dolls since I first laid eyes on them, and I'm thrilled and excited to OWN one! Especially one with stripy socks! (Lawson said he had to buy a little baby doll from the $2 shop in order to steal and modify her stripy stretch'n'grow to make little socks!)
Zuwaylah is officially SSS's patron saint and I will be sharing some of her stripy sock adventures with you in the future!
Posted on 14 September, 2005 | 7:53am | 5 comments |
new patron saint of stripy sock studio...
Tuesday 13 September, 2005
Stripy Sock Studio has a new guardian / mascot / Patron Saint and I will introduce her properly tomorrow, but in the meantime here's a first glimpse. Like all good things in life, she a) came in the mail and b) was a total surprise...
Entries are coming in for the competition. It's very exciting...so far there are entries from New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the USA. Come on Europe/UK - you are very unrepresented right now and I KNOW there are great stripy socks over there, because it was the UK's 'Sock Shop' chain that re-ignited my stripy sock love, when I lived there for two years in the 90s. (Some people went on a working visa to London to travel, I went to buy socks.)
Lately the site seems to have garnered a wider readership, which has been lovely for me and I just wanted to say thanks so much for reading/commenting/emailing...letting me know that you are out there reading and enjoying the site. As an at-home Mama, this site is my thread of connection with the world, and right now it is bringing me a lot of joy. So THANKS to you!
Yigh, I'm getting all mushy. I'd better get back into the marking and back to 'reality'...stay tuned for the unveiling of the gorgeous new site mascot tomorrow...
Posted on 13 September, 2005 | 9:46am | 0 comments |
pet advice
Sunday 11 September, 2005
This is Bunny the lop-ear rabbit modelling the hottest spring fashion for rabbits - the daisy chain.
She was the star of the baby-shower on Sunday, languidly hopping around our legs as we sat in deckchairs eating cucumber sandwiches and drinking tea.
Willoughby was in raptures - he's been asking for a brown rabbit for about two years now.
I have been thinking lately, that it is about time we got him some sort of pet. Bunny was a very charming rabbit, but our neighbour has two dogs and I worry about a rabbit getting harrased/killed by the dogs. Cats make good pets for children, but we go away reasonably often, so I wonder how we would cope with that problem? I've always had a dream of being a chicken-owner - I like the idea of walking among the chickens, throwing them grain, collecting the eggs...
My friend Tim has asked us to housesit his lovely 'farmlet' in the school holidays and we'll be looking after a horse, sheep, a dog, two black kittens and lots of hens. I'm very excited because I'll get to 'test-run' being a chicken owner! Also, it'll be a good chance for Willoughby to hang out with various animals and see what he'd like to have. (Although space prohibits us getting a horse!) I'll definitely be posting lots of cute chicken photos when we're out there...
What makes the ideal pet for a gentle and affectionate five year old boy. Any thoughts?
Posted on 11 September, 2005 | 7:47pm | 3 comments |
I want to do some spring blossom and bird paintings...
Sunday 11 September, 2005
I wish I could draw better so I could make the art on the page look like the art in my head...but in preparation for attempting some more paintings, I've been doodling and sketching away...
I must take some art classes one day...after the book gets published and the kids are a little more self-sufficient and the garden looks better and I learn to make relish and the tax return gets sent in and the linen cupboard gets its spring clean and ... and ... and ...
in the meantime, I'll keep doodling.
Posted on 11 September, 2005 | 10:40am | 5 comments |
sugar high
Thursday 8 September, 2005
This is what happens when:
a) you are making Belgian Biscuits for your friend's baby shower and you figure, "Hell, why not make a double mixture so that there is some for us as well"
and
b) your hand slips while you are dripping the 'one or two drops' of cochineal into the supposed-to-be subtle, pale, pastel baby-pink icing.
= violently pink biscuits for miles and a very sick tummy from eating a spoonful of icing at the end of the icing session. Urghk.
One and a half hours, way too much sugar and an extremely flour-dusted messy kitchen later, I am thinking that the $4 or so it would have cost to buy some fancy biscuits would have been money well-spent.
Sigh. Homemade-schmomemade.
Posted on 08 September, 2005 | 2:40pm | 1 comments |
trash and treasure
Wednesday 7 September, 2005
The first eight boxes (!) of the ex-theatre costumes arrived last night, so I spent a sneezy but happy evening in the lounge in front of a mirror in my underwear, trying things on and organising the clothes into piles. The eight boxes got condensed down to two massive boxes. All the old suit jackets and togas and white tennis skirts will be going to the op-shop. BUT! my goodness there were some treasures, and everything was in beautiful condition. Highlights include:
a two-year-old-sized blue satin and chiffon ballet dress : a 1940s yellow child's dress : a 1950s cocktail frock like a black version of the famous white Marilyn Monroe dress : a fabulous 70s dress with a black top half and bottom half of wafty orange poppies : a cream coloured 'mod' coat from Paris with exquisite detailing : a floral printed cashmere 1950s top : an oyster-coloured satin 1950s ball dress with trailing hem : a hot pink 1970s bridesmaid dress with flared sleeves and a detachable train and more, more, so much more...
my absolute favourite thing is a vintage 1930s black evening dress with a sequined rose and beautifully draping frill down one side. It is breathtakingly beautiful, the sort of thing Edith Piaf might have worn.
Unfortunately only a few things FIT me (is it my imagination, or were women super-tiny in the early half of the 20th Century?) But I have friends in mind for lots of these things, and some (like the 30s frock) I will keep just for the sheer beauty of them. Maybe hang them against a wall as 'art works'.
I'm exhausted but happy. It was like all my Christmases coming at once...and there are more boxes due later in the week! Yigh!
Posted on 07 September, 2005 | 8:05am | 6 comments |
happy snail mail goodness
Tuesday 6 September, 2005
I've been spoiled over the last few days with delicious snail mail.
I did collage-material swaps with two internet pals. Jenny's arrived late last week:
There was so many delightful bits in here, including a big pile of vintage postcards, words she had hand-stamped and some lovely wee drawings and paintings she had done herself...
Then Katey's came! Yigh! There were so many cool things in this package: old cards from the 30s and 40s, mysterious photographs of mysterious solo women, vintage postcards, pages out of childrens' books, pretty papers...so, so much. Katey sells bundles like this from her site. I can't emphasis enough how great one of her bundles is! Full of delicious surprises. Go buy one now! She also threw in a super-cute owl badge:
Then - a package of wonderment from Amanda. She's a jewellery designer, so I swapped her a bag of beads outta my bead stash for some of the beautiful floral badges off her craft and design online shop, Champion. The badges are so great and I have to say, the photos on the Champion site really don't show how wickedly pretty they are in real life...and Amanda blew me away with a whole bunch of other goodness: witty stickers, a copy of her new 'zine, and the cutest stationary set I have ever seen:
Oh how I love and adore snail mail...thank you wonderful internet buddies, for a happy snail-mail swapping experience. May there be many more!
Posted on 06 September, 2005 | 9:00am | 3 comments |
news flash!
Monday 5 September, 2005
Holy crap, Batman...big excitement at this end.
Fraser's workmate's mother is in charge of the wardrobe for a local amateur theatre and they are having a big throw-out of surplus costumes...
FRASER JUST MSNed ME TO ASK IF I WANT FIRST DIBS ON THE SPOILS! (Need he even ask??)
I'm hyped!
Okay, so a lot of it will be threadbare pantomime horses and featherless feather boas...but who knows what might be in those boxes? Maybe some real vintage gems! Maybe adult-sized fairy costumes from productions of A Midsummer Nights' Dream? Maybe butterfly wings? Maybe 1950s brocade dresses!
Very, very excited...I can feel the need to decorate a wooden chest for a dress-up box coming on...
I'll keep you posted!
Posted on 05 September, 2005 | 1:39pm | 1 comments |
just the three of us
Monday 5 September, 2005
Here is Willo modelling some more of the 'precious jewels' we made together.
On Sunday night, Magnus slept right through the dinner rush. (Anyone with children will relate to that time between 5pm and childrens' bedtime - its usually quite mad, right? One friend calls it 'The Twilight Zone'.) Anyway, Magnus's afternoon nap stretched right through dinner...so it was just the three of us, just like the 'old days' and it was pretty special.
We had a 'Hell Pizza' for dinner on the lounge floor picnic-style, we played with Willo's train-track for a while, then we all had a cuddle on the day-bed in the new sunroom. We did the dishes, and Willo stood on a stool and dried the non-breakables along with us. Then I found Willoughby's 'light sabre' in a drawer (a stick for taking to dance parties that glows all different colours and flashes) so we went into our room and played 'crazy bat'. (Hmmm...difficult to convey this game - let's just say it involved lots of chasing and hiding under duvets.) Then Fraser read Willo his stories and he retired to bed one very tuckered out, but happy boy.
It was lovely to have some time where both of us could focus on Willoughby at the same time. The best part was that it happened spontaneously. He was so full of chatter and questions. It made me realise that no matter how hard you work to avoid it, the elder child does miss out a bit. Also, Willoughby was four and a half when Magnus was born, so I think the transition from 'only child' to 'older brother' has been tough on him. He's handled it so well, and he loves Magnus a lot, but Sunday night made me realise that we need to make more Willoughby-focussed times.
He's so grown up already, just half a term into school. He can read all the numbers up to 100, he is reading (very basic) homework books and his art is amazing , he's drawing elaborate monsters and underwater scenes with whales and fish, and fish inside fish.
Aahh, my big boy, I do love him so.
Posted on 05 September, 2005 | 9:54am | 1 comments |
tea
Sunday 4 September, 2005
Fraser (husband and tech-support guy) was noodling with the site the other day and informed me that of the 75 entries on my blog, 25 mention tea!
Maybe I should have called my blog "A Cuppa Tea And A Lie Down"...?
Posted on 04 September, 2005 | 3:53pm | 2 comments |
room makeover
Sunday 4 September, 2005
We have a sunroom off our lounge and for the first year that we lived here we used it as a computer room/study, but in order to be able to see the screen of the computer, we ended up having the curtains shut most of the time. Eventually, we decided that it was silly to have the curtains shut in the sunniest and airiest room in the house. So, on the weekend we gave the room a 'makeover'. I wish I had a 'before' shot to make the transformation more dramatic, but visualise this. Before: the room had navy blue (my least favourite colour) curtains, it was painted half cream, half terracotta orange with a nasty 80s frieze in the middle, it had a computer desk with computer/printer/cables and all the ugliness that goes with it, a grey office chair, a bookshelf crowded with books, magazines and bits of paper. In short, it was looking baaaaaaad.
Our 'vision' for the makeover was 'in-house parental retreat'. The idea is that the boys can be in the main lounge, playing, making mess, watching a DVD or whatever and we'll retreat to the sunroom for a bit of peace, a space to stretch out and read, maybe catch a catnap. Plus now it has the advantage that it doubles as a pleasant guest room!
I seem to have accumulated a lot of Japanese things lately, so the room has a slight Japanese/Oriental theme, and I bought paper lanterns at the local Chinese supermarket to tie the colour scheme of the linen together. (Sorry the picture is a little dark, the photo I took with the curtains open revealed how filthy my windows are and I didn't have time to clean them for another photo!)
Fraser used it for the first time yesterday afternoon...he lay on the bed with the Sunday paper and a beer...and declared it a success! Ironically, I haven't had time to 'retreat' to my 'retreat' room yet...but I will, I will...and I feel happy knowing it's there for when the moments arise...all parents need a bit of peace now and then.
(Don't forget to enter the Stripy Sock Photo Competition (entry details to the left) and win yourself three pairs of stripy socks! Entries have started to come in...but we need more more more...)
Posted on 04 September, 2005 | 9:59am | 2 comments |
get snapping for socks!
Wednesday 31 August, 2005
You can win yourself a three-pack of the socks in this picture if you enter my photo competition! (See the details on the button on the left.)
My site needs more many more sock pictures and therefore I bought my first wholesale batch of socks (uh-oh, dangerous...I'll be opening a shop soon if I'm not careful) to offer as prizes for funky sock photos. So please! get snapping and get some pictures in to me this month. I'm happy to mail prizes anywhere in the world - so don't be put off by geography if you live in Tibet or Uzbekastan or whatever...
(One of my 'hilarious' friends thought that the socks on offer were the pre-loved socks in the picture to your left. I can assure you the prize socks are brand new with packaging still on them and are yet to have a foot pushed into them! That picture is my personal stripy sock stash - well, the top layer! Gawd, I'm so addicted...)
I'm so excited! Go for it!
Posted on 31 August, 2005 | 10:29am | 1 comments |