weekend gardening

i decided to have a go at growing lettuce in our little vegie garden & had a few seedlings leftover, so thought i'd pot them up as something special and let them grow on our outdoor table. not sure how they'll go. we'll see.

18 month portrait on the eames rocker

here we are again. 18 months & such a cutie.. always smiling, laughing & following me around or totally lost in her own world of imaginary play. busy, busy, busy. knows when daddy comes home on his vespa.. hears the beep beep & runs to the front door making "vroom, vroom" noises. anything daddy does is gold. mummy is ok. i guess you could say i'm good to play with while daddy's not around. so what's new? our little gracie girl has started swimming lessons with daddy at our local pool. she loves to lay down on her tummy & kick her legs in the bath every night when we say "swim" & she turns her beaming little face up to us for praise. like i said. cutie.

mini ceramic vessels

my favourite is the apple. it would look pretty cute on my desk, no? they're from twine, who have all sorts of treasure. the question is, should i buy one just for myself, or should i buy one for kingsley too, who will be visiting over easter & no doubt might smuggle my new apple home with her if i don't?

helveti-cookies

man, it is pouring here. the rainwater tank is overflowing like there is a high pressure hose connected to it. good day for baking methinks & don't i wish i had some of these cookie cutters by beverly hsu to make some awesome helveti-cookies, as first seen on the awesome seesaw blog. you know how i love me some helvetica.

happy blog anniversary to me

hip hip hooray! i would have loved to have celebrated one year of blogging by lounging about in a cafe today, but instead i had another busy day at work. oh well. wonder if i have another year of ramblings in me to share? hope so. 

(i can't remember the name of this cafe, but i like it. it's on chapel street opposite windsor station)

update: it's called dino's deli. thanks husband.

sunday night thrill

so there i was, innocently half watching tv last night when a car ad came on.. causing me to yell out "hey that was the ... house!" "what? are you sure?" asked the husband. afterall, it was only a millisecond scene at the start of the ad. "i'm positive. i know one of my projects when i see it". so, what do you know.. suzuki thinks one of the first modern monster designs i worked on as a graduate architect is good enough to sell their cars. maybe too good methinks.. it could have been a nice alfa parked in the drive, but anyways i got a kick out of it. the clients were such great people.. totally trusting & positive during the whole process and that's the best kind of client.

kookaburra laughing

well at least smiling right? how could you walk past this letterbox & not smile? it might be a little rusty & seen better days, but i love it. i pass it on my way to one of the playgrounds around home & it always makes me smile. i think i'd like one just the same at the start of a long driveway on an old apple orchard somewhere in the country. a little ramshackle house with a big ol' fireplace and apple trees that still blossom, even if they don't produce much fruit anymore. the perfect winter weekender. one day. one day.

17 (& a half) month portrait time

our little gracie girl is developing so fast! the wobbly walk has gone, replaced with quick little footsteps that take her anywhere & everywhere.. and apparently no chair in the house is too high or too difficult to climb up in to. i can no longer sit at the computer in front of her, without her sitting up in the chair next to me in a flash, which is very cute, but means everything that was on the desk soon ends up on the floor. in the past month we've gone from having to spoon feed HRH food with only small lumps, to serving up real food that she wants to feed herself, to her now only wanting to eat what we eat. if i have vegemite toast for breakfast, then jam on toast is simply not good enough for HRH. no, if i'm eating vegemite toast for breakfast, then the little one has to eat vegemite toast too & from my plate. so here are the latest portrait pics on the eames rocker. kingsley gave her the sweet little sundress. it's zimmerman darling & how cute is her tiny foot poking out from underneath it? almost 18 months old, i can hardly believe it. oh how her funny little laugh makes my heart smile. happy.

new painting

if you remember, i blogged about how i love the huge old nylex sign here, which then found me checking out artist, sally joubert's website, which i blogged about here. well, the other day, the husband & i went to pick up our new painting. it was fantastic to pick it up from sally's studio in richmond (even if we did wonder if we were wandering into a private detective's den.. but that's another story) & have the chance to meet with & have a good chat with the vivacious sally. check out the view from her light filled studio.. no wonder there have been one or two paintings by sally of that big ol' sign. now we just have to find the perfect place for it at home.

happy valentine's

there have been lots of lovely posts today with images of flowers for valentine's day.. mainly of roses. i don't have any roses in my garden, but i do have lots of gorgeous ginger stalks flowering at the moment. such a nice soft yellow no? anyway, this one is for you happy readers.. thanks for sticking with me & leaving happy comments despite my slack amount of posting. i've been feeling great with this bubba & have been lucky enough not to have any morning sickness again, but i have had waves of full on tiredness. one minute full of energy, next minute bam!

oh baby

oh baby.. my funny little valentine. i thought today would be the perfect day to announce our happy news to everyone.. baby number 2 is on the way! well, not until august, but what better day than valentine's to share our news. i found these baby birth posters by printspace on etsy, which i think are really sweet. i'm planning on ordering one for the new baby once they arrive & also ordering one for mirka. chances are they'll be sharing a room, so i think these will look great framed and up on their wall. love.

cuckoo

man, it feels busy around here, hence the sporadic bloggin going on. i'm back in the office a couple of days a week, which means early morning starts, bundling the little one off to childcare, dropping the husband off at the train station & a full day at work.. all before the reverse at the end of the day. anyways i've been thinking that i need to find a friendly alarm to wake up to & thanks to this post, i think i've found it.. it's the bird box alarm clock by luckybits. it's a little home to sit your iphone in, with a cut out to see the clock & hear a recording of birds chirping. check out the video. how good will it be to wake up to birdies chirping? real good.

update: it's done. i can just imagine the husband's reaction to this one when it arrives. but, it only cost $19.92 including shipping from the uk. not bad huh? and that's with the aussie dollar being down a bit. 

happy river cafe

we went down to the happy river cafe for breakfast this morning and i have to tell you, it is the best place to go with kids.. we could actually relax & enjoy our coffee, without worrying which chair mirka would try and climb, only to want down again as soon as she got up there. the husband & i have given it a good go, continuing our pre baby, let's-go-out-for-breakfast weekend routine, i mean it used to be so easy when mirka was a baby.. we even took her out to our local cafe the first day after we came home from hospital.. but, not so easy anymore.. the last few times with mirka have been a stretch, so we were very happy at the happy river cafe. mirka played on the lawn amongst the mountain of toys, while we had a civilised breakfast. freedom.

out from hiding

blah. it's been a week already since my last post & i just haven't been feeling it, so i've been hiding down the rabbit hole instead. where to start? i think i'll just post some nice photos of water lilies i bought from flowers vasette in fitzroy, who by the way have someone quite funny in their office doing their twitter updates. you can follow them here. anyway, i love me some water lilies & it was fun to use the mirka mora vase for the first time.. and yes that's the husband in the background of one of the photos.. he is always trying to sneak in somehow.

little piggy

feel like a laff? well then, imagine yourself opposite your friend or lover while you enjoyed an early morning tea or coffee in one of these 'koppen' porcelain cups as first seen on bloesem, here.. right when you looked up to see your trusty companion take a sip you would be greeted with their little piggy face! tell me that wouldn't make you smile :) the only problem is, i can't see an easy way to buy them online. if you love them, i think you need to contact dutch designers freaks united & ask them. actually, if you like these, then i think you'll like the movie penelope. i did.

(image from bloesem)