On the Road.... again!

I love a good caravan.  There's one driving around our neighbourhood that's the mobile performance venue of a Gypsy Music group and it gets parked randomly around town Lolo The Gypsy Caravan Stage - I get a kick out of it's carefully placed bright red spots every time I come across it:

Our family used to go on caravaning holidays when we were kids.  I suppose it was cheaper than putting up 4 kids in motels all the way to Brisbane or Melbourne and back, visiting family for weeks at a time.... and more fun!  I remember "bagsing" beds in excitement when the van first pulled up in the cul de sac out the front of our house, Mum taking a whole day to pack the clothes, food, toys and lives of 6 people inside, ready for our big adventure.

We'd stop at roadside parks, pull up in country parks, overnight in caravan parks along the way, Mum preparing our meals from the cute little kitchen (pumping the water - such fun, we thought!).  Now that I'm a Mum I can appreciate just how much work it was - all that packing, moving and pumping...

Isn't it the journey that counts?  The road along the way - who doesn't still talk about fighting on the back seat with siblings?!   Playing "Ping!" counting white horses, I Spy! and the alphabet sign game.

We play all these games in the car with our own kids now - still such good family fun to pass the time (although on a recent trip to Adelaide, Stephen Fry got us across the State with his reading of Harry Potter books - love that man!).  We take a bit of Spike Jones for laughs, we all contribute to the music selection and occasionally just chat and look out the window.  So relaxing!

Is it simply like how washing up someone else's dishes is always more fun than doing your own?  Does a mini mobile kitchen give more appeal than the real thing, simply because of it's novelty?  Same as camping - lots of planning to keep things simple, but doesn't it pay off?

We're still just a family hanging out together but it seems more fun on the road, with a different backdrop every day and new horizons each morning....

Do you love a road trip?  Have you got or used a caravan for a trip away?


Photos via Design Sponge

A Stitch in Time

Something goes on at my place every Tuesday - we call it Stitch and Bitch.  It's a meeting of minds and bodies, hands and hearts, to share, catch up, support and sew (well, mostly we eat cake...).  Lots of tea is consumed, lots of laughs are had, lots of problems are solved, plans hatched...

We love an excuse for a proper Tea Party - Melbourne Cup (champagne and hats), one of us leaving for a Parisian holiday (eclairs and berets), a new baby due (pink frocks, pink plates, pink cakes - she's a girl!).  Whatever productivity we lack in terms of thread in cloth, we more than make up for as the threads of friendship are woven together, reinforced and overlocked as strong and colourful as any tapestry you can name. 

My oldest son is coming up to twelve, so for almost as long, what started as a Mothers Group has burgeoned into an institution that not one of us would be without.  Lives have changed, houses have been bought and sold, kids have grown up, moved schools, but we remain a group of women who are alike and unalike, similar and different - all having something to give and something to take away.

It's school holidays now so we generally have a break (alas, my house no longer fits all the growing bodies of our children!) or we all meet together in a local park one Tuesday during the holidays for a good run around and a picnic.

Many of us have returned to work and can no longer come on Tuesdays - some make the odd cameo appearance when rosters permit, but we none of us are prepared to give up our little group entirely.  Kids and spouses all know the drill - Tuesdays are sacred, even if just for a few stolen hours.  For my part, I value the support and wisdom of my fellow Stitchettes enormously - seek their guidance, their input, cherish their style, their sense, their sewing ability...!

Speaking of, I recently indulged in a spot of online retail therapy here and am itching to start my next project (above) after the holidays.  It's been a while between cups of tea, but I think I can still remember how to cross stitch....  Wish me luck!

To Plunge or Percolate...

Can we really be bothered to renovate?  Or should we buy that other old house in the next street that actually, really is next to the train tracks??  It's bigger.  It's just as falling-down as ours is.  Well, not that I've been inside and not that I know for sure if ours is sliding down the hill (I'm just assuming, since all balls roll into the same corner behind the TV).

How do you make the decision to move or renovate?  How do you take that plunge?  What's the catalyst?  How many times do you talk yourself into love with another person's home before it really does become yours (and all the problems they didn't tell you about)?

I love our home.  I love it's old leaking roof, it's rotten weatherboards, it's wonky ceilings, it's jammed windows and 100 years of DIY dodginess.  I love that I can't put anything new into it's rooms without it shrieking loud and clear against knocked-about walls and cornices.  I love how it forgives all my decorating faux pas and rejoices in my successes.  It loves me back too - fits us all in, stands still whilst we paint it, breathes in while we hammer stuff into it's armpits, turns a blind eye when we don't bother with a second coat...

But there's only so much love a 2 bedroom weatherboard with a postage stamp garden and small back deck can give a family of four.  We squeeze over 50 people in here every Christmas and though it never complains, it's a big effort all round!  Those 2 boys can't always share a room, can they?  Pretty soon they'll look like the guy in the Dr Seuss book whose feet hang out one end, or head out the other. 

Maybe I'll just percolate the idea some more.....

Or did I dream it.....?

It's been a long while and lots has happened, and nothing really - that's life, isn't it?  This bench seat, for a start, is a project so long completed it's almost time to re-recover (note to self, water/stain resistant fabric required for outdoor furniture). 

The colour was the driving force behind the decision to use that fabric (and the fact that it was already the perfect size so no excuse to procrastinate further) so I could be forgiven for thinking it would last in its pristine state.  It still looks great though and has brought to life our "outdoor room" in a way nothing else has.  Having a comfy seat at the outdoor table is so much more inviting than the hard outdoor chairs and we've all been spending more time out on the deck as a result.

The other addition is this chandelier (featured here with Moore & Moore Wallpaper). 

Whilst my outdoor space is nowhere near as divine as this setting, I just love the difference candlelight makes to an evening of entertaining - we all like a little ambience, don't we?  Save for the pathetic Sydney summer we're (not) enjoying - too cold and/or rainy to sit outside much, day or night.  So sadly the chandelier hasn't had a chance to come into it's own.  Although a friend (who spent an evening with us, juggling plastic cups to protect our precious flames from wind) found this idea...

Here, and I thought that could work. I'm now on the lookout for jam jars - though a warm, still summer evening would be preferable...

The Great Outdoors

We had a wonderful weekend.  Looking over at Absolutely Beautiful Things I see we're not the only ones enjoying the beginnings of warmer weather.  A soccer presentation got us all out of the house nice and early and applying some serious sunscreen to stand on the oval waiting for formalities and trophies.  Luckily the sprinklers were running on the grounds so the kids all went for a run through to cool down afterwards.

Home again to do some more work on my project - very exciting!  I'm refreshing a bench seat we've had on our back deck for several years.  I've recovered it before and last year threw a temporary rug over it to hide the worn out cover but now I'm doing the real thing.... here's the "Before":


 Here's the inspiration for the new colour scheme (remember the little bowl from Bison?).  I found the fabric in my sewing box - no idea where it came from... perhaps someone will recognise it?!

So, a bit of a sand and tidy up and the undercoat is already an improvement:

I've chosen a lovely paint colour - Dulux "Adrift" which is quite fitting for my state of mind at the moment.  Watch this space...

So, a resting husband, happy kids doing house swaps back and forward all day with friends and me out the back with a paintbrush.  Still managed to put a meal on the table and all sit down together to enjoy - now, that never happens... just who is that woman?  She's not around here very often!

Hope you had a good weekend too.

Blogs I have loved...

It's so long since I blogged I forgot my password.  But that's not saying much - I'm always forgetting passwords.


There are so many blogs I follow and people I feel I relate to, mostly written by creative-type women, often mothers.  I feel I have this secret community all to myself.  But I don't contribute... why is that?


I think most bloggers consider their blogs something of a journal, a note to self on what's currently going on in their life, a way of both sharing and remembering, throwing a line out to see if anyone bites.  Like me, many are Mums who do a thousand other things and perhaps also like me, sitting in quiet contemplation in the evenings, or day times, or wee hours, is a way to relax and recharge; filter the days happenings and renew oneself by seeking inspiration elsewhere.


I love this piece on Life in a Pink Fibro about growth - our selves and our lives, acknowledging the passing of time. We're not unlike our own Mums, are we?  It may look different on the surface but we all have our support groups, filled with likeminded women who share similar lifestyles and dreams, reflections and challenges.  We may not have on a frilly apron, but when we share our lives the sentiment is the same.

Anticipation

I've just bought a new book.  It happened by accident.  We were shopping for other people's birthday presents, which is of course the best time to buy an unbirthday present for oneself - inevitably finding the ideal gift for... me!

Emily Chalmers has been a favourite for some time.  An innovator of the Vintage aesthetic, Chalmers' styling, her books, her sense of vintage style are all influential and inspirational for me.  Stumbling across her latest offering has me in flutters of excitement but I can't sit down to devour it just yet - lots to do before I can steal some time so I just put it aside and look where it landed: on my Grandmother's sewing table, next to a vintage doily topped by one of my actual birthday gifts - a gorgeous and perfectly formed bowl from Bison - now how's that for modern vintage?!