Sunday night pizza and other odds and ends

- Andy is a pizza-making genius and our Nectre Baker's Oven has been getting a workout, being our main source of winter heating as well as a jolly fine pizza cooker.

- We love Dr Brian Cox and his Wonders Of... series. Dare I say he's the David Attenborough of physics?

- Jasper made a Tardis and Sonic Screwdriver.

- He celebrated turning 11 on the last day of school term by having two friends for a sleepover. They were all so exhausted they actually slept. Parental win!

- The winter grass and weeds are out of control so we're letting the tractors a.k.a. chooks have a bit of fun. Can't make the backyard much messier than it already is.

- Clem wanted to dress up as an artist.

* * *

Life has been madly exhausting. But Andy has recently finished up a few major projects and in the last two weeks (school holidays) I've taken leave from my 'corporate' job to focus on The Drapery and family. At the end of it all I've begun to feel more energised and focused. Today I actually got to the bottom of the washing and sorting pile and decluttered and cleaned an entire room of the house. (Plenty more to go.)

My mind had become a blur, unable to focus on anything except the here and now. The idea of planning anything a week away, let alone a holiday for next year, was causing me intense stress. I've been trying difficult dietary measures to try to help with back pain, eczema and puffy skin when maybe it's just stress-induced.

I've decided something has to give and I am about to resign from that corporate job. It will be some weeks with jobs I have to follow through before I can actually leave. And I will miss the very lovely people there. But now the decision is made, I can feel a weight lifting. Financially it will be tough but I have two tax returns in and we hope to be able to start paying ourselves a small amount from The Drapery fairly soon. I feel my sanity is at stake (not to mention the steadily deteriorating state of our house). It would be nice to spend Sundays doing fun things with my family rather than fighting a losing battle with household mess.

Life, hey? I do feel incredibly lucky though. I'm loving The Drapery and Fiona is the most awesome business partner and we could hardly have asked for a better and more encouraging start. We both just want to pour all our available time and energy into it. Our customers are so darn lovely. Sew-ish, art-ish, craft-ish people are just... the best!

It would be nice to have a bit more time to take photos, reflect on life and blog, too! I'm missing this.

- Jane xx

good stuff

Well, the giant show that Andy has been working on opened last night (and closes tonight) and the first review of it is excellent and shows a great understanding of the piece in all its complexity and weirdness. Hoo-flippin-ray because so many excellent people have worked their passionate guts out on this ... including myself holding the fort back here at home, I must add, ha!

In other Good Stuff news, imagine my surprise when in one day I received two emails from lovely bloggy friends saying they'd each tagged me for one of these blog award doo-dads.

This one came from Suellen of Sew Indigo, who has a great eye for vintage patterns and has fearlessly tackled projects from boat cushions to couture sewing courses.


And this one came from Mary at Biblioblog, who is indeed a versatile blogger with a love of reading and sewing and some delightfully thought-provoking posts.

Now, as Suellen noted, these awards can seem a bit like chain-letters or those emails you get where you have to pass it on to seventy of your best friends and something amazing will happen, and I've never been known to reliably follow through on any of those. (And none of my limbs has yet dropped off or anything.) The difference here - as Suellen also pointed out - is that somebody has taken the time to appreciate what you're doing in your slice of cyberspace, and that is indeed one of the lovely aspects of blogland.

So I am grateful to be appreciated, and I'm going to share the love in a small way of my own devising.

If you have a spare moment, may I introduce you to Harriet of Look What I Did Today. She is a mum of four and recently returned to blogging. I thought some people reading this might like to pop across and give her some encouragement to keep going. She does some fantastic sewing and keeps chickens and even lives in Adelaide too although we've never met in person... maybe one day :)

So Harriet, no pressure to do anything except, if you like, share seven things about yourself as per the Versatile Blogger rules, as I am going to do below.

1. I've worn contact lenses since I was 13. I kind of enjoy the soft focus ease-into-reality that being short-sighted gives me in the mornings, except I tend to not notice the mould around the bottom of the shower for rather too long.

2. I am not really a 'party person'.

3. I am the designated spider-catcher in our house and I'm fine with that.

4. I love reading chapter books aloud to my big boys and look forward to sharing many of the same books with Clem as he gets older.

5. I bite and pick at the skin around my fingernails when I'm anxious or thinking hard or sitting still for a long time, which is a yucky habit.

6. I love lots of different foods but I really dislike bitter almond flavour: marzipan, morello cherries, amaretto etc and I have a hard time understanding how anyone could tolerate it - surely some people must taste things differently?

7. I find cooking meals a chore and would gladly live on poached eggs and the like, but baking is another matter entirely. (Which is really just an excuse to post some yummy pics here.)

 We went blackberry picking at our usual spot along Brownhill Creek last weekend but the blackberries were past their best. We gathered enough, however, to put in an apple-and-blackberry pie just like last year's. Also, there were figs. Which called for fig and frangipane tart (recipe conveniently in the weekend paper).

I am lucky that when Andy is home, he happily takes care of the nutritionally-sound food provision around here. In fact he did the grocery shopping just now. Am I not one lucky girl?

- Jane x

PS I am also meant to be working on decluttering during the month of March, as invited by Faith who suggested we encourage each other on Project Simplify 2012. As yet March has been a bit frantic and I haven't got to any of this yet but it's waiting in the wings... really!

the house is out of control and threatening to eat us alive

on top of the piano

pram that's not been used for about two years that's missing a bolt so I haven't felt right about giving it away, plus bags of old clothes for charity

fishing gear that needs to go back to our neighbour, and other detritus

out of season fire = dumping ground

dust, er, spiderweb, er... toy corner

my sewing amidst other collected debris

the 'study'

potential archaeological dig site

And there's more, but you get the idea.

Before some reality TV show comes and uses our house as a cautionary tale for the rest of the world, I think it's time I re-kick-started Mission Declutter.

You know, just as my work is cranking up again and Andy is about to go overseas for ten days. Nothing like unrealistic goals!

- Jane x

what to do with sewing scraps

Drape over one's arm, run about for a bit then say
"Mama, can you tie this around my head, like a headband?"

There really is quite a complete look going on here, perhaps misplaced by several decades:

sorry, still getting the hang of the exposure on my camera, I usually go too dark

Oh but look who's getting some loving since I've been decluttering.

Cleaned out more from Clem's clothes and linen cupboard yesterday. Rediscovered the cute vest he's wearing, not quite outgrown yet, yay.
Not regretting a single thing I've ditched yet, and it's been a lot. Onwards!

- Jane x

The story of Cocoa

When Clem was around two, he developed a strong attachment to a crocheted bunny called Cocoa.

what's not to love?

Cocoa was essential for sleeping and came with us everywhere. So beloved was this bunny that I became anxious about the consequences if Cocoa should ever be lost.

Okay then, I thought, I'm a clever mother. I'll buy another one as a spare.
I contacted the Etsy seller who made the original Cocoa and she whipped up another.

I hadn't originally intended on showing Clem the second bunny but somehow it happened. They wouldn't both get lost at once, right?

At first he was thrilled to have two Cocoas.

he called them Mummy Cocoa and Baby Cocoa

Twice the joy, right?

Uh-uh.

Before I knew it, the Cocoas had been abandoned.

when I looked for the Cocoas today, they were at the bottom of this pile

With the best of intentions, I was trying to shelter my child from the reality that beloved things sometimes get lost (broken/wear out/die).

What I actually did was devalue the currency of the original Cocoa.

And teach my child that precious things are replaceable.

I kind of felt it at the time, but reading this book has really crystallised it for me. I mentioned it in my decluttering post. It's been better than I ever expected.

Between this and my decluttering book, I've become determined to strip back the toys and possessions and options available to my children.

Ever since the first deluge of awful cheap plastic toys with our first child, I've been aware that our kids have become surrounded by so many toys that they are overwhelmed and barely play with any at all.

The book above goes further to say that this applies to many areas of life: our kids have so much choice surrounding them: books, toys, clothes, food... they are overloaded and will tend to default to the easiest or 'loudest' choice available.

Rather than confront the heaping mass of toys, they switch on the TV.

Rather than enjoy a simple potato, they are drawn to bright sweets and crazy, overflavoured snacks because they demand attention from the crowd of options.

Some children are able to filter the options better than others. I can see that in my own boys. Jasper, shall we say, could use a large amount of pre-filtering to shut out the 'noise' that distracts him. Clem, right now, is whining at me "I want to go on the compuuuuuuuterrrrrr". He's three and a half. I don't want that.

This book has so many constructive ideas on how to remedy these situations, that will suit all sorts of families. There has not been one moment when I have wanted to shout "shut up you smug hippy!" and throw the book away, like I suspected I might.

I have work to do. There might not be much sewing for a little while. But it's good to have a plan.

Oh and Clem has another favourite bunny in his life. He's had her since he was a baby. The one. And only. Never to be replaced.

- Jane x

Mission declutter

I've always been a clutterer. But as years go on and our house is cluttered with five people's clutter (not to mention, five people), I'm less fond of it.
The clutter fills our house and it also clutters my mind.
Need.
Space.
I don't kid myself that I'll ever live in an all-white house where nothing ever accumulates on the kitchen bench. But I ordered two books about decluttering and simplifying, and before they'd even arrived via Bob-the-Australia-Post-delivery-man, I had given our bedroom a pretty good cleanout. It felt great.
These actions tend to spark chain reactions and thus I was able to free up some cupboard space in our study and give my fabric stash a proper home.

all happy behind glass; below that the cupboard is crammed with Andy's paperwork stuff... who knows what

knit fabrics up top, interfacing & other fusibles plus small linen-ish pieces below

top left, quilting cottons. top right, flannel & miscellaneous warm stuff. bottom, voiles, lawn and double gauzes.

top: barkcloth and other vintage lovelies. bottom: chenille, and silks and similar lovely fabrics that I am afraid to use.

I probably shouldn't buy any more fabric for a while. But it's not too frighteningly hoarder-like, is it?

My two decluttering books arrived yesterday. (Am I cluttered now with decluttering information?)

In case you're interested, one is Organised Simplicity by Tsh Oxenreider (that's a real name). I was reasonably sure I read about it at Flossie Teacakes but in searching to link there, I couldn't find mention of it. (It's a lovely blog anyway so if you've never been, take a look.) What I've read of this book so far seems pretty good. It talks about an interesting concept called 'opportunity cost' which is another way of looking at the value of decisions and purchases. Of course I can't find that bit in the book now to clarify it but it's kind of about weighing up the benefits of having 'stuff' versus the benefits - really - of not having it. There's also a step-by-step plan to declutter, one room at a time. Perhaps best of all, the book is spiral-bound, so it stays open and flat. Someone thought that through!

hello, simple jonquil. thank you for breaking up my large block of text.

The second book is Simplicity Parenting by Kim John Payne, which I know for sure I read about at Small Things, another lovely blog with stunning photography. This book is a paperback with terribly small type and no pictures. I'm not sure how many people looking to simplify their parenting are going to find the time and patience to read it through. However, its principles seem sound and I know my kids could use some simplicity: fewer toys, less screen time, less clutter, to allow them to focus on a greater enjoyment of what's left. I'm going to dip into the book and possibly wade through start to finish. We'll see.
Aiming for less stuff.
And more of this.

Jane x