#2 shoes. And a new player.

I took Ruby and two friends to a film making workshop at the State Library today.  I was walking along behind them thinking about the FMS photo prompt for today.....shoes.  

I had been thinking about a rush trip to the shops to take a photo of a truly worthy pair of shoes, but knew I wouldn't have time.  I was looking at the girls' shoes and thinking why not?  

Can you see the buzzing energy and excitement in these shoes?  They could barely stand still for the photo....very keen to get to the workshop QUICKLY.

And today, the big girl joins in.  Hooray!  Here's her quick pic.  Adjusted for drama ;)

Giving it another go.... a photo a day for July 2013 (Fat Mum Slim)

There has been more than one year that's started with me declaring to take a photo a day. For up to a year!  Imagine how cool that would be.  But how long did it last? Well maybe a day. Or maybe a few days more.  

Anyway, I'm going to give this photo a day thing another crack.  This time with prompts from Fat Mum Slim http://fatmumslim.com.au/july-photo-a-day-challenge-lets-get-this-photo-taking-party-started/  

These are the prompts - feel free to join in.

Let's see how it goes.

#1 Happiness is....reading in the car on a long journey. Making the most of the quiet time. Being quirky just because you can.  

Girls weekend away

A couple of weeks back, Ruby and I escaped to Byron Bay. There are many wonderful reasons to visit Byron, but we went down for the Children's Day at the Byron Bay Writers' Festival. It was a great adventure.

After a big lunch on Saturday, we thought we'd eat in on Saturday night.  Dinner was Ruby's idea, she made me do it. Ice cream and red wine for me. Ice cream and a milkshake for my beautiful girl.

We did a bit of shopping, a bit of eating, a bit of pottering around and a lot of reading and laughing and listening to some super fabulous children's authors.  Hurrah for talented writers and illustrators who invest their talents in stories for children. I was grateful for their energy, enthusiasm, joy, passion and kindness.

It was a delight to listen to Cate McQuillan (Dirt Girl writer, illustrator), Alison Lester (children's author extraordinaire), Edrei Cullen, Wendy Harmer and more. There were some very intense, but heart-warming, conversations between the children and the authors - all showed extraordinary respect for children.  As they deserve.

Alison Lester

Cate McQuillan

She loved it :)

To my delight, on this glorious Sunday in Byron Bay, when I thought the day would be as perfect as it could be, it got even better - there was a sculpture display in the grounds of the Writers Festival. Sigh. I love sculptures. Here are some of our faves.

Gorgeous anodised kitchenware

Lighthouse project - write messages of hope on red ribbons

Magnificent tile/ceramic sculptures

A tower of encyclopaedias!

Hanging lanterns - without light ;) Made from pages of novels

It was a magical weekend. My precious Ruby was wonderful company. Can't wait to escape with her again sometime soon.  

Wishing you peace and love xxxx

Ethel Carrick Fox and other glorious Sunday treats

There's a glorious exhibition on at the Queensland Art Gallery: Art, Love and Life - Ethel Carrick Fox and E. Phillip Fox.  Until next Sunday, you can see beauties like these.  I prefer Ethel's paintings to those of her hubby.  Her love of sunshine and use of light through flowers and foliage is joyous.

Image from QAG

Image of this magnificent painting is from QTIX

We ducked into the Gallery Cafe for afternoon tea, which looked a little bit like this and that:

Ruby and Max are kind and generous.  But they're still kids. Their tolerance is pretty low for walking around an art gallery looking at paintings that are 100+ years old. Sadly. So we made a quick visit to the Queensland Museum. It's always a hit. And with good reason.  As Ruby explained "they know kids. They know stuff kids like. They make it interesting".  

Despite the critics, I enjoyed the Gallery today. The kids enjoyed the Museum.  Win/win.

On our way back, we talked about the Louvre. Not really a fair comparison for the QAG, but they were asking for it when they installed a glass pyramid......

There were lots of peace signs being used today.  Max kinda lost the plot at the end and started doing this :O

We had a fun afternoon. Mark was madly pre-occupied doing census collection work. Shame he couldn't join us. Maybe on our next adventure.

We're enjoying this gloriously sunny, fabulous Queensland winter. 

Hope you're finding a little patch of sunshine too.

peace and love

xxxx

World's best. Right here in Wynnum.

We bought an after school treat at a favourite bakery yesterday.

As we were leaving, with 'the most fabulous carrot cake ever', Max said to the dear old lady (who maybe owns the bakery) "your bakery is the best bakery in the whole wide world.  Not just Wynnum. The world".

She was best pleased.  Beaming with smiles.

He was happy.  Carrot cake clenched tightly in his sticky, sweaty little hand.

And I am grateful for a kind and thoughtful boy who likes other people to know how special they are.

Rainbow inspired....

I can never choose just one favourite. Certainly not just one favourite colour.  I love rainbows, the beautiful co-existence of colours.

I've been super-inspired by Rett's colourful catalogue of holiday photos. So starting soon'ish, I'll start posting some photos from our holiday (I promise they'll be ones you haven't seen before).  Tricky thing is that, on our *winter* holiday there was a LOT of grey and I'm going to have to search hard to find photos for each colour. There weren't too many opportunities to take photos like these.....

But what a blessing that I got to take these!  Before the snooty woman came and told me to stop taking photos. What a cracker.  You'll never guess where we were.......

peace and love and rainbows to you xxxx

We have a resident artist

Our Ruby is a creative little soul.  She loves to paint and draw and doodle and create.  Here's a sampling of her works.  

This first is her most recent canvas, created in a school holiday workshop at The Art Shed.   There's a common theme through Ruby's art.  See if you can pick it ;)

Her art teacher isn't teaching locally anymore and we're on the lookout for someone new. If you know of a fabulous art teacher in the Wynnum/Manly area, let me know!  

Wishing you peace, love and a healthy surge of creativity this week.

xxxx

A lazy Sunday morning

Lazy Sunday mornings are my favourite type of morning. Pottering around the house in jarmies, reading the paper, drinking cups of tea - perfect.

It's nice to live at a slower pace, even if only just for a few hours.

I'm not the only one who loves Sunday mornings. Here's the miss listening (and singing loudly along) to her new itunes purchases while she trawls through monsoon kids clothing online :o. Mr Max is playing the DS. Again.

Mum and Lloyd have been visiting us this past week. And spoiling us. And doing lots of jobs at our house. Very pleased about the new power points in the laundry. And super excited that before they left this morning that Lloyd put my sweet ducks up (from The Collective Store). I stalked the store for about 3 months waiting for ducks in the perfect fabric. I love these ones. They're flying north. Of course.

I hope you're enjoying a gloriously slow and peaceful Sunday too.

Peace and love from us to you.

xxxx

About a boy

About Max.

My boy. He's kind. Loving. Adoring. Generous. Thoughtful. Passionate. Intense. Suffocating. Infuriating. Possessive. Relentless. The king of what's fair and just. Very competitive. But only when he knows he can win. A mass of contradictions. Highs and lows. He can bring great, great, great joy one moment and mind-numbing frustration the next.

He's a fast thinker, a smooth talker and a master negotiator. He knows it and he works it well.

Here he is below cunningly disguised as a regular 6 year old boy.

He's kind, sweet and loyal and his love is fierce. As nutty as he is, I couldn't ask for a better boy-child.

peace and love to you and the boys in your life

xxxx

p.s. I know he reads this blog :) Hi Max. I love you. x

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Palm Island

I went to Palm Island recently. Naturally, a magnificent lush tropical island. Anthropologically, it was deeply troubling. I didn't take a single photo while I was on Palm because it felt like it would have been disrespectful to do so.

I went there for work. We're setting up a centre for families with young children and I was grateful for the opportunity to talk to mothers, teachers and some very passionate and committed community and government workers. The issues on Palm Island are complex, layer upon layer upon layer.

This photo is from abc.net.au It shows the airstrip which runs across the full length of the island. On the day I was there, once I arrived I was told all flights off the island were cancelled (no reason was given) and there's not really any accommodation available. The small motel, in a compound surrounded by a high wire fence, was booked out. I was able to get a seat on a small chartered flight - a 4 seater - back to Townsville.

I was only there for a day but I know that what I learned, felt and saw while I was there will stay with me for a lifetime.

For more about Palm Island, visit here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_Island,_Queensland

peace and love xxxx

I'm back

It's been a while between posts but I think I have mustered the energy to start again.

Life is good for us. Always chaotic. Often overwhelming. Happy. And good.

We've had some marvellous adventures these past 18months (since my last blog post). One of the greatest was our big trip to France, the UK, Italy and Sicily. A happy adventure. This photo, taken in Palermo near the very end of our trip is one of my faves. We were relaxed, happy and enjoying ourselves. Food was a highlight and in Sicily it was fabulous. We never knew if we were going to get what we'd thought we'd ordered! The people at this restaurant treated us like family, they were generous and thoughtful and very kind to us. We enjoyed it so much that we went there for dinner every night we were in Palermo.

We're super excited that we're planning our next trip - to Spain, England and Ireland in May/June next year. Lots going on in our lives, but I'll be back soon.

peace and love

xxxx

A list for Sunday

Nablopomo's theme for November is: there is no theme. Quirky. :)

1. I miss my camera.
2. Watched Cat in the Hat today. Not once, but twice.
3. Heavy rain was very surprising.
4. I'm grateful Mark went to the shops.
5. 2009 has been a tough year.
6. Eight cups of tea today. And counting.
7. I really need a coffee.
8. It's confirmed - I don't like poo jokes. To Max's dismay.
9. Loving our big comfy lounge.
10. Do not want to go to work tomorrow. Weekends should be 3 days long.
11. Happy to have stayed home all day today. A rare treat.
12. Wishing we had less 'stuff' at our house.
13. Searching, searching, searching for a Christmas Day dress for Ruby. Showed her about 97 dresses online today, none are right.
14. I love Etsy.
15. Cannot believe it's November already.
16. Just sent Mark out to the charity bin with 2 boxes and 5 big bags of 'stuff'. Just a scratch on the surface here, but it's a start.
17. Making curried sausages - Ruby's choice for dinner.
18. Sounds I can hear - Ruby and Max squealing and laughing; lawnmower from neighbour at the back; neighbour across the street playing the saxophone. Lovely.
19. Kids and I spent some time drawing pictures for our Christmas card. Not sure we'll use the ones from today though, they're a bit dark. Inspired by Halloween no doubt :)
20. Loving the smell of summer in the evening.

a pic I love from November 2004 :)

Remember this

Here's my precious girl in her first ever bikini. She chose it herself :)


Remember this beautiful photo because she'll be famous one day.

School holidays were exhausting. None of us are ready for school to start back this week. It's a busy week: 2 birthdays, a day trip to Adelaide (yes I am mad) and a birthday party with about a gazillion kids coming. It looks like I have to make 4 birthday cakes (1 for Mark and 3 for Max - for daycare, kindy and his party). Send me wishes for lots of energy this week. I know I'll need it.

peace and love to you
xxxx

For Mark

Father's Day - with all kids, big and small. It was a lovely day. :)



xxxx

The search is over

I've been searching for perfect red boots for a while now - probably most of my life ;)

Found them today in the Valley in a Doc Martens store. Sadly the store was closed. *sigh*

Now the challenge will be to get back there in daylight hours when they're open - and before winter ends!

Yum Cha, Valley markets, good coffee and lots of sunshine. A good Sunday.

peace and love

xxxx

Well done Ruby

This is a post about Ruby :)

I went along to Ruby's parent-teacher-student interview on Thursday morning. It was lovely. Of course.

From Ruby's report card:

Teacher comments
Ruby is a very diligent student who always puts an enormous amount of effort into the presentation of her work. She has made exceptional progress in reading, achieving considerably higher than the expected level. During recount writing Ruby is able to identify most of the sounds when spelling phonetically and can read back her own writing with ease. She is beginning to experiment with full stops and will usually begin her writing with a capital letter. Ruby has also achieved excellent results in Early Mathematical Understanding and can confidently apply the concepts covered this semester. Time management with regards to desk tasks not being finished in the given time framew and speaking clearly at carpet times are two goals Ruby could work on next semester. Ruby uses a very loud voice during free play and needs to carry this volume over when delivering responses at carpet time. Ruby is a very sensible and trustworthy member of our class and continues to be an excellent role model for her peers. Well done Ruby on a very successful semester.

Student comments
I really enjoy coming to school because it is lots of fun playing with my friends and doing handwriting. This semester I have enjoyed learning the sounds, doing sums and doing Art. I am good at Go Maths, Soundwaves and Art. I would like to improve my handwriting because I would like to be neater. I prefer to work on my own because it is quieter and I can focus. I get along well with people in the playground because everyone is friendly. My favourite thing about Year One is free time. I am proud of the friendships I have at school. Next semester I am looking forward to having more fun.

As she did so well we decided she could have a treat. I thought she'd ask for a DS or a camera, as they are high on the wish list. But she asked for a Beanie Kid. Hooray!

Well done Ruby.

In other Ruby news:

• she's preparing for her first ballet exam on Wednesday afternoon. I wonder how much pressure is too much pressure when you're just 6 years old. The little ballerinas are being pushed towards little ballerina perfection. I've decided not to do the bun, but to outsource to Miss Annette (who's a bit like Miss Lily in Angelina Ballerina). Every bit counts.
• Ruby announced this morning that "this Barbie couldn't go to her marriage because she had to go to work". Cripes. What does that mean? I wasn't brave enough to ask.
• I watched one of the boys at school give Ruby a kiss on the cheek (while she was happily doing something else) on Thursday morning. I asked her if he kissed her often. Her reply "that wasn't a kiss. That was just Z putting his lips on my face. He does that every day". Oh dear. He is a very sweet boy though.
• she's currently obsessed with Beanie Kids, Masterchef, Darcy Bussell Ballerina books, rainbows and other fabulous things.

wishing you peace xxxx

Artists at work

There was a bit of scrapbooking action here last weekend. Ruby and Max have found their mojo. They proved they really are dedicated artists by spending hours rifling through mummy's photos and precious supplies in search of the most perfect, most glittery, most sparkly adornments. It was worth the drama.

Both children have shown great interest in glitter. Ruby has created a new technique called "lipgloss on a page" and has a penchant for butterflies while Max's specialty technique is cutting butterflies in half to edge the page. Beautiful work.

On this cold, wet and windy day - there are sure to be more beautiful creations coming soon.

peace and love

xxxx