Skywhale

Warning: ridiculously picture-heavy post! Also, giant inflatable whale boobs.

Artist Patricia Piccinini's Skywhale came to the Adelaide Botanic Gardens for the Adelaide Festival - it was about a month ago now and I'm only just getting around to posting about this beautiful day.

The Skywhale was a massive, gorgeous, peaceful presence and the weather seemed to embrace her with mild sun and stillness. When we could tear ourselves away from the giant air-mammal, we set off to explore the new wetlands that have been built in a reclaimed piece of land right next to the gardens. Here, stormwater is being collected and filtered and stored as a resource to supply the water needs of the gardens; it is hoped that within a few years, it will be enough to water the whole gardens.

These are the kinds of things that make me hopeful for my children's future. Heaven knows there's enough to feel sad and angry about in our country right now. Sorry to wax political. I Marched in March. But I want to keep my eyes, and my heart, on the positive things, too.

Hmm... that ended up being a bit more than pretty pictures and hot-air boobies, didn't it?

- Jane x

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

Yep, I embroidered

I felt like a bit of soothing hand stitching and I wanted to try out some beautiful embroidery thread we ordered in for the shop. So yes, I decided to embellish my Linen Esme Top with a little crossed embroidery stitch.

The thread actually has a lovely subtle variation in colour as it goes along (I hesitate to use the 'ombre' word which is everywhere but I don't even know how to pronounce... omber? ombray? ombra? ormb?). It's hard to see here but because I did the bottom of the cross stitches in one go and then went back the other way over the top, sometimes the top and bottom of the cross have a pretty contrast.

I realised one of the things I love about the Esme Top so much is that the sleeved are bias cut, which gives them a lovely drape. Such a nice detail.

In case you are wondering about the necklace, it's this adorable happy sloth I got from Etsy here. A couple of weeks ago I was feeling majorly stressed and, you know, pulled in a thousand directions at once and not on top of any of it, so naturally, I was hit by a primal urge to buy something pretty for me! I'm fairly good at containing that urge lately but oh, sometimes, I give in....

We've had a heap of short weeks lately which have been a killer, what with Easter and a long weekend and a 'pupil free day' on Monday of the last week of term so it has been so hard to cram in all the work I've needed to get done. Plus Andy is deep in rehearsals for the biggest new show his company has ever done so he's hardly home. And, um, we're trying to get the shop open, and now it's two weeks of school holidays and, ack... so on that pupil free day I took the boys to my favourite haven of the Botanic Gardens and we had some welcome fresh air and sunshine, which I invite you to share. Breathe ..... :)

- Jane x