Four

Yay! I've been tagged. Nothing I like better than talking about myself.

4 jobs i have had

1. Myer Miss Shop Chick
2. Stocktaker
3. Babysitter
4. Telemarketer

4 Movies I could watch over and over

1. Love Actually
2. Pride and Prejudice ( ok its a bbc series but its going on the list)
3. mon oncle
4. anything by Pixar ( cos I have to - although I am digging cars big time, and the incredibles is a classic, nemo, monsters inc etc.....)



4 places I have lived apart from where I live now

1. Hobart
2. Elwood
3. Perth
4. cheltenham


4 tv shows that I love

1. Oprah
2. Dr Phil
3. anything with Jamie Oliver's face in it
4. Oprah


4 places I have been on hols

1. Coles Bay - my favourite place on earth
2. Greece
3. France
4. England

( and don't get too excited the last three were when I was 15 and I have barely left the island ever since)


4 websites I visit daily

( i don't visit any daily, but these are my most frequent)

1. my bank
2. yahoo
3. aunty cookie
4. lingofranko


4 favourite foods

1. slow cooked lamb
2. surprise freddos
3. cake ( most cake)
4. anything anyone else cooks for me

4 places i would rather be at

1. any beach, sipping a fruity cocktail with my husband, paddling my feet in the water, the soft warm breeze blowing on my face, with my happy,worn out children sleeping somewhere safe and nearby
2. a room with a more ergonomic chair - my back is killing me
3. out with friends in Melbourne preparing for a night of dinner and dancing
4. talking to my beautiful Flitty and finding out all about her life and all her kids

4 people I am tagging

moo
mummy danlella
the flyleaf
?

Where's the baby??

I just found this baby picture of the GooGoo.
Where did this little guy go?

He has been replaced by a smiling, blue-eyed, blond easyrider with an eye for the ladies.

Bliss

There are big plans afoot in the Smith household. Moving plans, renovating plans. The luthier is thinking of converting the garage into his workshop and bringing his work home. I like the idea of it, a lot. It fits in with my new philosophies of life - that work should not be so far removed from family, that if two parents are present then they share responsibility for home, family, childcare and livelihood.


We also plan to create me a beautiful office/craft space. Man, is it going to be girlie! I'm talking wallpaper, perhaps a screen, flowers, matching stationery, the worksburger - all in raspberry and teale.

A room of my own, in which I'll be working for dear friends, listening to my sleeping baby in the next room, with a view of my husband in the workshop crafting beautiful looking and sounding things. Bliss!

vegie garden blues

My tomatoes have spots.

Bloody hell! They have only been in for a week or so and they are already blighted.
Bloody gardening. I just want to stick the plants in the ground and watch them grow and produce an abundance of tasty organic produce. It seems that the kitchen garden is a little more complex than that.


What happened to Neil the hippies simplistic description on the Young Ones
" We sow the seed, nature grows the seed and we eat the seed."

It sure sounds easy.


The good news is we went to the kb girl's birthday disco last night and had a blast. J and I tore up the dancefloor. It was grouse.

Vegie Garden Bliss

It's happened. Those bloody island hippies are getting to me. The words organic, mulch and compost are now part of my regular vocabulary.

I have a vegie garden!!

Well, I'm not exactly Felicity Kendall in 'The Good Life' but I have planted six tomato plants and done a lot of digging and weeding and talking gardens.

There is dirt under my fingernails and I am loving it.

Next will go in a collection of leafy green things, some climbing peas on tripods of cane and some potatoes under pea straw. The promise of homegrown vegies is thrilling. I see a beautiful image of my boys picking and shelling peas and eating them all before dinner like we used to as children.

Hmmm, the island idyll ... just the lifestyle I had hoped for.



Below is irrelelvant but funny picture of the J.

Beautiful Birth

I just read Aunty Cookie's post about beauty treatments before birth. It left me speechless. Buth then I remembered the birth of my youngest son and it put the idea of a bikini wax and manicure prior to the joyous event even further into perspective.

With Sacha I was induced at two weeks over due. I was massive, tired and more than a little bit surly. I had not indulged in beauty treatments and even a vague attempt at a tidy up "downstairs' was fruitless as I hadn't seen that region of my body for months and was trying to deny its existence altogether, quite frankly, in light of what was about to happen to it.

Sacha's birth was fast. An epidural was falsely promised to shut me up. Completely nude, on all fours, swearing like a fish wife and primal screaming. And there was I, not even thinking about the comfort of everyone else in the room which would have been provided had I been waxed and manicured.

The head emerged and I heard a gurgling noise and the midwife cried out in an amused tone " Hey Phil, take a look at this!" Phil peered at the place where the gurgling was coming from to see a wild scene from a c-grade horror flick - a tiny disembodied gurgling head amidst a veritable gushing fountain of amniotic fluid which covered the room, the midwives and the floor.

The bubba then emerged quickly, fed, hugged. I got stitched up, showered and prepared myself to forget about the whole messy incident and to focus all my being on my new beloved baby.

Considering the presence of so much gushing bodily fluids, the midwife wiping my arse and everyone in the room getting to know my innards intimately, I can't believe I didn't think to be shaved down, perfumed, powdered and manicured for the event.

That would have kept my dignity intact.

DJ GooGoo turns one

It was my baby's birthday and we picnicked in the sun. We ate too many party pies, too much cake and played with the family and friends. It is strange to think the year has gone so quickly. The first half of the year was so dramatic and the second, for the most part was so peaceful, prosperous and happy.

I think I was the one who grew up this year.

Word #4

Supercalifragilisticexpiale-douchebag

Thanks my 8 year old neice.

Tag: Secret

I have been tagged by the beloved Aunty Cookie. A secret tag.

Aunty Cookie's secret was about babies. Mine is too.
I'd like to have another. A girl one.

Now I tag The Fly Leaf and Lingo Franko.
'Fess up ladies.

Morning Off

Joshie is at school. Sacha is at Granny's.
I am showered, wearing clean clothes and about to go off into town to look at girlie stuff and drink coffee by myself.

I really love to be with my kids and I really love my morning off.

Uncle Rohan has been here this week, visiting from Japan. A very jolly visit. J turned on his magic charm and then convinced us all to go off to the pub for dinner. I think the pub is J's spiritual home. We played a gmae around the table at the pub where J yell's out "who loves me?" and the quickest to respond with " me" wins. I had visions of him playing a similar game in about 13 years time.

Little Sacha turns one very soon and I am quite excited about it. Ther was a moment where we didn't think he would make it this far which makes the day's imminence even sweeter. He is so well.

Our other visitor this week was Brownie, J's class puppy. It was J's turn to bring him home. He was rapt. J was quite excited too.

Whirl

My head is in a whirl at the moment. Someone we know died and the shock and grief left behind has set my head and heart in a whirl.

Its strange how in times of stress my brain plays tricks on me. The critic residing in my head amps up and I can do nothing right. My life is all wrong and must be changed IMMEDIATELY. I have to do more, I have to be more Nuwanda. And you know what the most fucked up thing about this response to a situation, is that the real guts of the situation has nothing to do with me whatsoever. That's the stupid thing about anxiety. It makes things that have nothing to do with you, all about you. When you should be there for others you are turning in on yourself. How pathetic.


I have learned a lot in the past week. I've learned that pain is a process. That compassion for all is the key. That truly great people are in my midst and I shall not take them for granted.

I wish I had photos of all the people that I love so that I could put them on this site and whenever they were feeling unloved they would have written and visual proof to the contrary and would be filled with a warm and safe glow. I wish life were that simple.

#3

Babinga


while it sounds like something Andrew O'Keefe would cry out on "the deal", it is, in fact, a type of timber (also a bar in Brooklyn according to Google).

I just like the sound of it.
J thinks its the sound our hearts make.

Word/s of the day #2

Root (thanks Mrs d)

Detritus (thanks G)

Douche-bag (with traditional french spelling - thanks mummy danlella)

Confrontatory (thanks Kath&Kim-style bogans in launceston cafe)

word for the day is my new word collection.
all contributions gratefully received.
now that I fancy myself as a writer (pronounced RA-teh), and for my own amusement I am collecting words.


oh yes and


toggle

just cos I like the sound of it.

What's your favourite word?

well, of course

Well, of course the evening was grouse. A little 'rustic' but quite fun. I was fabulous, of course.

Sacha came out and cruised the ladies for a while.
Joshie moved his bed so he could see what was going on through his bedroom the doorway.

One lady complimented my spread ( ....yes the food) was in her top three. Noice one.


Socialising at home is fun.

Word for the Day #1

Poojabbers

What no cabana ...!

I am hosting book group tonight.
I have entertaining anxiety.

Is it because the house is a pit and still has the faint waft of 'rodent' from our recently discovered and baited little friend behind the fridge? Or is it becuase my husband will not be here to avert either possibility of J bursting in and wanting to give us a few bars of the latest tune by "The Veronicas", or little S cruising the snack table for hours becasue he doesn't want to go to sleep? Or perhaps its because every time anyone comes anywhere near her house my mother goes into anxiety overdrive, cleans the whole house to within an inch of its life and then produces out of thin air platters of delicious nibbles and fashionable wine.
Pressure.

Maybe I just needed a full nights sleep.

Hope the ladies feel good about the $10 bottle of white, a bit of supermarket cheese and bickies, lollies and, the ubiquitous bookgroup treat- the TimTam.
My problem is actually better titled 'catering anxiety'.

(I think this falls into the category of crap you get caught up in that doesn't really matter. I hope the ladies have a nice time but I guess I don't have to add perfect '50's-style hostess to my list of achievements. )

What no kebabs of cabana and cubed cheese inserted, decoratively, into a grapefruit. What no freshly baked savoury scrolls for your nibbling pleasure! No martinis, sherry or indeed, any offensively-titled cocktails on offer either.

And I don't have a clean frock.

Prende Ta Doleur

I don't have much to say today. I love my friends. I love my family. My life is sweet and slow. I am in full winter hibernation. The island sun came out today after covering us with a grey mist, bleak and cold for days. My life is dull in many ways,its certainly not filled with travel, grown up inner city style, fashionable clothes or lots of lovely things. But I have these three really amazing Smithy boys that blow me away every day.

• The smallest Smith stood up by himself today.
• The middle-sized Smith decided that girls can't play with cars. And when berated by his women's-studies-style feminist mother for his appalling sexist attitude said " But Mum, sometimes girls just make me tired." Sounds like his father.
• The biggest Smith is snotty.

I am burning cds for a favourite friend, as I type. How very techno-whizzy of me. They are a far-too-belated gift for her 30th birthday and I hope she likes them. I wish I could give her something better - peace of mind, a bottle of fancy red wine and a packet of tim-tams, or a really beaufitul tea cup on a tray for her sole sipping pleasure. The intentions are grand but my means do not allow. Anyway, what greater gift than love, french film music ( it's frenchy, it's chic) and Kanye (she ain't messin' with no broke niggah)? I hope she loikes.

I do have something to talk about, something that is bothering me. I have a few friends, mostly women, who are high achievers in some area of their life - work, home, relationships, study, sport, craft, whatever and it sometimes makes me question my life so sweet and slow. I know I have been guilty of not putting enough pressure on myself, or giving myself enough credit to achieve big things. Now I see these people putting so much pressure on themsleves that their brains are short-circuiting and it worries me. I don't know where the balance lies, but I guess that is the point of life, to work it out.

One thing I do know is that we all are children, just like my baby, that I thought for at least one day, I was going to lose. Our existence is everything to the people who love us. We should all let ourselves feel like the most precious child in the world, just a little. It might help all that unnecessary crud that fills us up, fall away. I believe that in the end we are just spirit. Its the spirit we need to take care of.

Apologies if philosophical offends, but it does my spirit good.

Chillax Mamma!

Ok, ok! So I blew a fuse in last night's close-to-midnight ramblings. In the cold light of morning I realised that its only a small time management issue and that, I do know who Nicola Cerini is. Phew! I think I had a too-long-on-the island-and now-completely-out- of-touch-with-culture moment.

I have calmed since. I think I need a holiday. Not sure when that's going to happen , but if anyone else says Byron Bay to me, I am going to squeal. Hmmmm! Byron Bay - my dream holiday - two weeks of sun, surf, yoga and hippie food. Schweeeetah!

I decided to do something positive about my writing and rang the island's writer's centre. They are obviously very busy as I had to make an appointment to ring back in the morning. Hoping for tips on securing a literary agent. I love the word 'literary'. It makes me feel quite posh about my kiddie nonsense poems - the could become lit-er-at-ure. I like that idea.

I am very lucky. My friends and family are giving me loads of encouragement which I am soaking up like a sponge. I have never had friendships before that are so supportive - in words and actions. It is a wonderful thing.

It's grumpy hour here. And I must get back to it.

Crafty Bastards

Are you allowed to swear on your blog? If you don't like it then be warned.. the next few sentences may contain blasphemey and unpleasant language.

CHRIIIIIIST! There are some crafty bastards out there in the land of blog. Just spent a few moments clicking the links from the utterly crafty Aunty Cookie and was gobsmacked by the sheer level of craftiness going on.

F#@k!

While I should appreciate it and be inspired and bask in the beauty of the blogcraft glow, it just leaves me feeling like a craftless git. (Because as everyone who knows me knows, it IS all about me.) Where are my natty little name boxes for my little angel sons, or those groovy appliqued t-shirts that I just whipped up! Huh!!?? I'll tell you where they are, they are in the same place as the cowboy quilt for my J. and those books I am having published - they exist only in my goddamn imagination 'cos I don't have time to scratch my own arse let alone whip up something gorgeous or try and get a literary agent. Bloody hell.

I think I am having craft jealousy rage.

Even the craft discussion went over my head- living on the island leaves me sooooo way out of the loop- what bloody bird silhouettes? and who the hell if Nicola Cerini?

I really need to get off the island.

Handsome Guys

How about these guys!!
Photos from a Christmas Island adventure walk about a month ago. We didn't realise it was a four km round trip so J did well to make it with only a leeeetle bit of whinging.

I have added more pics to my Flickr site, if interested.

Check out the luthier's blog. Not much on yet but plenty more to come.

Who'd'a'thunk?

Well, who'd'athunk that seepage marketing would pay off. The luthier sold his first cello last night. He proceeded to do the luthier dance of joy and cry " Suffer in your jocks, doubters!". A beautiful and touching moment.

I am very proud of the luthier. And, let's face it, it's all sweet for me. I get to pay a few bills and renew my hope for my secret ambition to be one day fulfilled.

So seep on, my bearded luthier, seep on.

Creating luthier's blogspot tonight. He is coming to join is in blogland.

Dreams Confessed

My truest, deepest, secretest dream (apart from my secret ambition for the luthier to become so successful that I can be kept in the lap of luxuriousness, or, of course, my other deep secret dream of spending a year living in Italy with the luthier and sons, growing fatter on pizza and gelati, and soaking up the beloved Italian art language and culture

... hmmmm, where was I , oh yes .... my dream.

It is to become a published author of children's stories.
Not long and tricky, clever tales of adventure, and puberty and being socially responsible, but silly, rhymey, poemy stories in which I can take outrageous liberties with words in an attempt at 'using 'umour'. I fancy to follow in the footsteps of Roald Dahl, Edward Lear and Spike Milligan and try to create some kind of wonderful nonsense that doesn't aim to preach or teach, but purely to amuse. (An audacious ambition indeed, considering my utter inexperience and lack of skill.)

Despite my literary shortcomings and that I have not the first idea about how to go about getting published, I am determined to try.

I can't sew neatly, I can't knit without dropping stitches, I certainly can't draw with any beauty or finesse, but I may yet add to this heavenly wave of women in the world creating beautiful things for children with a few well-placed words. Wish me luck.

For the love of Lauren and Lola

I cannot tell you how much I am digging the genius of Lauren Child and her brilliantly beautiful Charlie and Lola. I have just discovered the official Lauren Child web site and had to share it with my exclusive reading public.

I like it even better than the Charlie and Lola site, honestly and promisedly I do.

A Room of Mum's Own

I am trying to get some work done at home ... hmmmmm....

J is running around half-nude post-shower, jumping out from behind things and yelling out "WOMBAAAT!" at the bubba. The bubba is banging around amidst the toys, mostly ignoring J but letting out the occasional cry of annoyance. The luthier sits on the couch watching some "current affairs" show with its constant range of generic stories - the unemployed youth, the people with the house chock full of rubbish, or the shameless promotion of some product - tonight its a pillow promotion under the guise of a snoring/sleeping story. Add to the cacophany the whirrings and sloshings of the dishwasher, washing machine and heat pump.

No wonder I can't get much work done.

I've just read Virginia Woolf's A Room of one's own for book group. In it, she talks about women not being able to write as they never had the freedom of a room of their own.
I know exactly what she means.

Quotes from the Smiths

Luthier to me, whilst I sat knitting on the couch, complaining about my lack of craft time:
"Don't worry Mum. There's plenty of time for craft when you're dead."
J, out of nowhere, to me also knitting on the couch:"So Mum, what happens when Dad goes off with someone else? Then you'll have to find someone else too."
J, to the Luthier later that evening,
"Dad, what happens when you find someone else?"
The luthier responds : "I'm not going off with someone else."J replies " Yeeees, Dad, you might find someone pretty."
Teaching the J to write and explaining punctuation marks,
"But Mum, what are suppostraphes for?" I think he meant apostraphes.
J on seeing my hairy winter- neglected legs: "Mum , are you turning into Dad?"
Sachababy on seeing the Luthier in his shop "Oh, Dad!"

Me and the Smithy boys. (I roll my eyes and smile ...)

Tag Five

I can't believe its taken me this long to respond to the five tag. I love this sort of scheit. Talking about myself - my favourite thing to do. And now with my newly found, bolshy attitude to life and my decision to take no scheit from noone, you'd think I would have been right onto this. Too busy telling my mother-in-law how it is. (Now that's another story.)

Anyhoo, I have five minutes so I will answer my five questions tagged by Aunty Cookie:

Five minutes to yourself: how would you spend them, ideally?Dancing in my living room to the unfeasibly un street-cool pop songs on J's Now 2006 cd, or Golddigger (you know I'm down with the 911) or listening to my new So Frechy So chic cd ( Ta Doleur - c'est magnifique).

Five bucks to spend right now; how would you spend it?Knitting needles. I hope they don't cost more than five bucks. I bought wool this morning and that's about my needle budget.

Five items in your house you could part with, right now, that you had'nt thought of already?The paper scheit that lives in piles in every room; the kitchen cupboard scheit that I never use- old saucepans, more paper, miscellaneous kid's party remnants etc; old bed linen that's ugly and worn out; our old cd's which are total scheit and all our old clothes that are so bad that we probably shouldn't have worn them ever.

Five items you absolutely, positively could never part with in your house? I don't think their is anything I couldn't live without - but I do love the kid's books, the baby clothes and blankets (particularly the bubba's quilt handcrafted by me in pink before I got pregnant with the boy - the maternal, baby-gender equivalent of dancing for rain) and one of J's drawings that has me on one side of the paper and the luthier on the other.

Five words you love? unfeasible, bobble, nosepickles( J's genius new word for boogies), crank and slapper (and fuffenscheit of course)

The only person I know to tag is Aunty D.
I just haven't clocked up the crafty blog time to connect with anymore bloggers.

Wish me luck, for tonight I launch into the wonderful world of knitting. The idea of being able to sit on my butt in front of the tv and generate craft is tres appealing to moi. The sewing lark is a bit messy and requires loads of space, can't be assed with it at the mo'. The mother-in-law did show me how to use the sewing machine properly, so I should begin the cowboy quilt for J soon, before I forget. Anyhoo, tonight I knit.

Holiday Blue

Staring into the windy world and wishing I was somewhere warm.
Easter was fun. Family, food and origami competitions. Roast lamb, crunchy roast potatoes and chocolate mousse cakes andloads of little chocolatey treats. Next day roast lamb became shepherd's pie. Doesn't get much better than that!
Snaps (of the family not the food) are on flickr.

Love the photos and words on Aunty Cookie. Reminds me of a too much fun had on a pre-kids camping trip.
Looking forward to photos from planetpun. Misspolly- planetpun- you have outdone yourself again. (Although there is always a chance that only I will find it amusing.)

Not sure what this week holds for us - soccer practice, first soccer game, day trip to the xmas island capital. Not sure what else.

Cello Baby #1

Here is the luthier's newest baby. His first cello. She is beautiful.

Today's Ramblings

Tuesdays are my favourite days. Its just me and the bubba at home. I don't have to go anywhere or do anything but play, tidy up, play, quilt, play and watch Oprah. It is toooo sweet.
Here is todays picture of bath-boy-bubba. The bubba is officially a genius as he can play peekaboo at 7 months. But you see him here in the bath today, brandishing his new tooth.

Just surfing the unbelievable web of craft blogs starting from the unfeasibly talented Aunty Cookie. It mostly makes me feel very dull and not very stylish -but its not all about me is it!? Granny is bringing back some new fabrics for me from the big smoke, so my little island crafty quilts may raise my blog craft profile yet. I think gran has selected a barnyard theme for me. Nice! Just found great fabric shop on ebay. Some very cute retro kids prints.

Went to the Dance on the weekend. Culture comes to the Island! The show was bloody fantastic. Entertaining, stylish (costumes by Akira Isogowa) and inspiring contemporary dance that does not dissapear up its own intellectual a*hole. The music was fantastic too - from Debussy to Gershwin. When you don't get out much its very gratifying to go out and be purely entertained. Graeme Murphy got loads of love from his hometown audience too. Quite touching really.

op shoppin'

How much do I love the op shop. I know I am mixing my styles/periods (whatever!) outrageously here, but the colours were too good to go passed. Op shop on I say!!

A thousand origami cranes

My boys are blessed with an uncle and aunt in Kitakyushu, Japan who never fail to send the most wondrous gifts for each birthday and Christmas. The remote control car, the coolest jumper ever and the most generous gift of all - the time and love it took to make and send to us the first 100 of a thousand origami cranes to help make the bubba well. (J calls it oralgami.)

My smiling bubba is recovering from neuroblastoma ( stage IVs) He was born with cancer - (what a start!) but the only type of cancer which goes away on its own. Who would have thought that were possible.

So, while we wait for our bubba to get completely well, Juri folded cranes, friends, family and complete strangers helped, prayed, worried and hoped.
For their time, thoughts, and help we are utterly grateful.

Craft

This is the cowboy quilt- nearly finished.

SDSS

Here's my beautiful smiling bubba! Getting better every day. His first tooth is breaking through and he can sit up on his own. He eats , he sleeps, he smiles. What a great little guy!

Birthday Boy

Well, the party went fabulously. Just J and 11 of his closest friends. Beautiful bunch of kids from school and his old childcare buddies. Presents were over the top as always - a soccer goal and a green-machine style bike from us as well as the compulsory set of Spiderman knickers, loads of loot form the family and friends. Presents are still arriving (a remote control car from Japan and a and more expected at the end of the week. We may need to extend the house to accommodate the sheer mass of plastic in the form of cars and action figures that have been received.

J was king of the table with his two girls on either side. He told me that the girls had to sit next to him 'cos it was his birthday. Fair enough!

The kids went mad in the backyard for a couple of hours, got well-sugared up and were sent home for their parents to deal with the comedown.

Stuffenscheit

So this is blogland!
Can't wait to upload and unload.
See the J in yoga mode.