New arrivals Wednesday

Work started afresh for me today after our long Easter and ANZAC Day break - so I got these pieces up onto the website this morning. The rest of the day was packing, packing and more fabric packing - and I'm not finished yet! I have more cutting and wrapping before me tomorrow before I catch up...phew!

The first change

I awoke this morning to see the first mist of the season. It took me a while to warm myself up to take some shots and the mist had largely cleared by then, but I thought I would post them anyway. I love Australian Eucalyptus trees - when you can see one of those trees and hear the squawk of the magpie or the laugh of the kookaburra you know you're home.



Today I am turning over my own leaf, so it was the perfect opportunity to take some shots of those leaves that are changing with the seasons - and of the branches that have been left behind. The above shot is our wonderful plum tree that so generously gave of her fruits some months back - now is her time to clear the past and regenerate for the future. Below is my favourite tree - our huge magnolia - that is also shedding her past to bloom again in the future.

I hope you have a wonderful day where-ever you are :)

xNess

Spent-a-saurus

Today is the first day since mid-last week where I've had some time to catch up with the business. I am fiddling around with my blog template as I feel the need to declutter it - again (and excuse us while it looks a little ugly over the next day or two). Can't half tell I am a minimalist type of gal. I am spent after a very busy, but wonderful Easter. Today is definitely sitting on the couch with a DVD type of day.

Yesterday saw us all traipse off to Dinosaurs Alive in Docklands, Melbourne. We have been blessed with beautiful weather and Melbourne was at her best after a foggy start to ANZAC Day. Seven large dinosaurs, all mechanical and roary, delighted the kids. This photo is of Spinosaurus - maybe due to his big spine-fin-thing? He was a meat eater. Yum yum humans if we were running around then...

I am getting myself all sorted today with emails etc - my, orders flooding in over Easter! Thank you, dear customers. Back to normal programming tomorrow.

A Happy Easter to all!

I am the Mama who forgot to buy the baskets to collect the Easter eggs. Yes - I am the one who supplied the very versatile green shopping bags to collect the billion or so dollops of chocolate in every nook and cranny of our backyard. Yes, I am the photographer-Mama who couldn't keep up with her sons as they screamed around the yard collecting the eggs. Yes, I am the Mama who stepped on eggs trying to get some Easter photos of her sons, husband and Mum careering around the back yard. Yes, I am the Mama who adores Easter - a time for piping hot roast lunches, too much chocolate, too much bubbly and sweet hot cross buns for breakfast and dinner. Yes, 'tis me - I am the Mama who is now reaching for bed after a 6am start with boys exchanging eggs the bunny had left. What an Easter! Wonderful family times - I wouldn't have it any other way...

Happy Easter to you all - may you be merry, safe and on your 400th Easter egg when you read this post!

xNess

PS. Note the feathery girls checking out the 'colourful' eggs above. Priceless. For once we wanted other oval shaped things instead of theirs!

Versatile? Who....me?

I am not sure if I am versatile - especially at blogging - but the lovely Rel at Cricketty Snippets has given me a versatile blogger award. I have to share seven facts about myself and hand the baton over. Here's some bits about me:

1. I have a vegetable oil intolerance.

2. I don't do dresses or skirts or skorts or knickerbockers or anything of the like. I am a simple gal - Thai pants and jeans and khakis are enough for moi. And they're even better in basic black. And I live in Birks and thongs. I hate shopping, you see.

3. I didn't get my license until I was 27. Well - when you lived in inner-city Melbourne you didn't need it. But as soon as I left Melbourne I couldn't get behind the wheel fast enough.

4. I wasn't supposed to be able to have kids - and now I have two.

5. I was called Bigbird, Legs, Stretch and Joel Garner at primary school cos I was 5'9 in grade six. Lucky I finished growing that same year.

6. I think I can remember the moments after being born. Someone wrapped me too tight in a blanket and I remember thinking 'they do this still?'. I have spoken of this memory since I was a toddler. My memories go back to the age of two.

7. I am drawn to Heide and Sunday Reed and Albert Tucker and Joy Hester. I have no idea why. The Angry Penguins have been a part of my life for longer than I remember.

I have been taking a little break away from the business and business things. I couldn't help myself. Still working behind the lines, though - just not up front, in the media, so to speak. But, fear not dear peeps, things are going up and up in the world of Retro Age...hurrah!

Do you have the perfect home for this little man?

There is a story to tell with this little man (the knitted version - not the two little human versions modeling him). But we don't want him - and I don't want to donate him to op shops and I don't want to throw him away, either. As you can see he is made beautifully - by a lovely old-timer lady :) - and he has lots of detail to his little radio and hamburger on his head. I don't know why he is carrying a plug or the plunger (I think that's what they are!)...maybe it's just an old-timer clown thing?

We are looking for a loving home for him. If you live in Australia and think you've got the right person to look after this wonderful little man, please leave a comment detailing why you would want him by this Friday 22 April and I'll get my boys to choose the winner. Postage is paid - all you have to do is hug him when he arrives :)

More news on us to come - I just wanted to get this post up today!

Seasons

I didn't realise I was so preoccupied with the sky until I started looking over old photos. These were taken in December 2010 and are an amazing analogy for my life at the moment. The past six months have been wonderful, but very frustrating. For example, there is much movement I want with the business but I have been unable to act on ideas.



With my Grandmother passing it removed a rock I have had my whole life. My world seemed to lose some shine. But now, with each day, I am finding life is richer, again. Everything is getting clearer.



Now I know the time is right for life to move down a more liberating pathway. I know I am moving in the right direction - a rich direction - and my life is starting to sparkle once again. I want my life to be awe-inspiring, breath-taking and a life lived well.

If, at my own sunset, I can't leave the earth with a better view, I know I should have done more. And the last thing I want at that time is regrets. I don't have any to date and I don't intend to start gathering them now.

Which way are you going?

Today we chose to take some time out and took a 10 minute drive to ye old beach, lazy beach community and beach playground. There were swings, slides, potatoes, bread, old wooden 1950s jigsaws galore and lots of sand, surf and sunshine.

That was the up-side.

The down side was coming home to find out eldest son's mouth plate devoured by our whippet pup, Syd. There's a visit to the orthodontist tomorrow, methinks. Apparently lots of dogs find teeth plates yummy to chew.

New homes and the urban sprawl.

What do you think about suburbia?

As parents of the next generation, Justin and I have a growing concern for our land. Some countries have got it right and they are building 'up' - but Australia, ever in love with the quarter acre block, seems to have capital cities that are expanding instead of rising. Melbourne is one of them.

What is going to happen to our food when we use our food bowl land to live on?
Where are our indigenous animals going to go when we build structures on their dirt and bulldoze their trees?

Earth is about living and sharing - it is not meant to be a metropolis. Why don't more people reuse the houses already built and live multi-generational? Is that the very essence of reuse, recycle and sustainability?

Now I'll go outside and look at the stars.

Ready to bloom

It's strange that I haven't felt my usual daily 'urge' to blog. For the first time in years, I haven't felt like writing on here about this and that. Life has still been fabulous and we have a lot in the pipeline keeping up very busy, but this one part of my daily routine has simply dropped off.

Where did it go?

I think I am focusing so much on my day-to-day life and loves and growing the business over the next three to six months that the blog has been put aside. Sometimes you need to nurture the important things in life to ensure they bloom when you want them to.

I miss the blog. I'll be back tomorrow :)