We're here ....

and safe and sound!! So a very quick post to let you all know that we're are all happily on firm ground again. I wouldn't say that we are all with it yet but no doubt that will come over the next few days! The flight, of course, was very, very long but the girls were wonderful. I think Cassia has developed a defence mechanism and every time the plane took off she fell asleep and stayed asleep - no complaints from me!

It's very surreal to be back here with both girls and to know that it's not just a holiday. The weather was freezing when we arrived and I hadn't packed any winter woollies but luckily the sun is out in full force today and I must go and get some sun block!

I'm posting this from the library because we have no internet access yet and we can't get broadband where we are - aaaaarrrrghhhhh what am I going to do? How am I going to keep up to date with all the lovely blogs I read? I see myself finding an internet cafe with good flat whites and no children - not so bad eh?!

Almost on our way!

The good news is that we are able to fly on Wednesday - hurray!!!

So I am just left with the last minutes things still to do - and there seem to be ever such a lot of them. We are leaving our house tomorrow to stay at my parents so I feel a late night coming on tonight. I had my first real panic yesterday and went into overdrive - it served it's purpose though because I looked for my Rescue Remedy to take and couldn't find it. Better yesterday than on the day we leave! All the boxes but 2 are packed and all the necessary paperwork/admin is done, the suitcases are another matter entirely!!!! Although I have been running down food stocks there was the inevitable items left and they have just been collected by a lady for the local Salvation Army Soup Kitchen, my last chance to extol the virtues of freecycle!

I probably won't get a chance to post again now before we leave and we don't have broadband set up where we are headed so I don't know when I'll next add to this, or have the time to read everyone else's blogs - I'm going to have a lot of catching up to do.

Please keep popping back to see because I've really enjoyed doing this and receiving all your lovely comments. Au revoir! xxx

A little glimmer of creativity amidst all the chaos!

My creativity has faltered unerringly to a long slow stop - I am doing nada, nothing, zilch! Starting this blog back in July I was really in to my sewing and that then morphed into crochet. I think it was reading inspiring blogs and of course finding out about, and subsequently joining, Ravelry. (To begin with I thought it was just knitting so imagine my delight when I realised there was crochet too - I sent off my 'application' straight way and was gobsmacked to see that there were thousands of people in front of me waiting for their invite to be processed - this knitting/crochet community must be huge!) Since the beginning of September, once we'd actually booked flights, I've not done anything crafty (in fact my sewing machine is almost in NZ as we speak!). So this little show is the only thing I've been working on and was shown as WIP here. Earlier this year I sent a blanket to Cuddles, see here, and I made a pledge to myself to make a blanket to donate each season. So this is the blanket for autumn (not autmmn themed mind!).

It was very different this time because I knew I was making the blanket to donate. This really focussed my mind on the reasons for the need for donations and, of course, made me count my blessings over and over again. With the general frenetic pace of life and the ensuing chaos of an international move, I haven't always looked beyond the immediate picture and have sometimes got bogged down in what are, taken at base value, inconsequential things. Last night as I sat finishing the blanket, I thought about the girls having chicken pox, the chance that we may not fly out next week, the amount of work left to do if we do fly out next week and realised how lucky I am to have these so called 'problems' to contend with. Life is so precious it really is too short to worry about things beyond your control. Wishing you all lots of love and a very peaceful weekend. xxx

Visitors to our home, the welcome and not so welcome ...

So we have new visitors in our house, the mouse below is a very welcome addition. A wonderful present for Cassia from her very talented Nannan! Thank you very much Mum it's fantastic.

The other visitors, chicken pox, are not so welcome! Well certainly not at this time - did you know that airlines do not let you fly with chicken pox?!!! I am suddenly very up to speed with everything associated with it. As a truly magnanimous gesture Maia has shared it with Cassia - when we went to put her pjs on after her 'birthday party' her whole trunk was covered in little red bumps! Now we're assuming its CP because it would surely be way too much of a coincidence for her to have something else, but it's presenting so differently from Maia that I just don't know!! Well here's hoping that they both get better soon because although we can get a medical note from our doctors (they are no longer contagious 5 days after the rash first appears) in an ideal world you wouldn't chose to fly a few days after a child had CP and as it stands today I couldn't, with a clear conscience, put them through a long-haul flight! Keep everything crossed for us!

A very happy, if somewhat spotty, birthday ...

Cassia turned 2 today and if there's anything I've learnt since having children is that plans are made to be broken! A family birthday tea party was planned but her big sister has chicken pox so just the 4 of us had a lovely day instead.

A Sunday afternoon of family art produced this lovely banner

Hollering down 'her' phone whilst Daddy was on the phone to her uncle in NZ

What to do when plans are sent awry? Decorate biscuits!

After much playing, lots of jigsaws and some art the birthday girl slept soundly - 3 hours later than normal naptime - and then only for 20 minutes!

Birthday crowns made earlier in the day

The birthday cake! Now how much guilt did I feel that Cassia didn't have a homemade birthday cake?!!! We'd been up during the night with Maia for the previous few nights, most of the baking things are packed and I decided to take the easy way out - much better for me so why did I feel so bad?!! I couldn't leave it totally shop bought so Maia and I made it into a caterpillar.

Making her birthday wishes

Shop bought or handmade? It certainly looks like Cassia enjoyed it to me!

Today ...

I've just found this whilst packing and thought I'd share. I'm not sure where I got it from, probably Parents Centre shortly after Maia's birth.

TODAY

Today I left some dishes dirty
The bed got made around two thirty
The nappies soaked a little longer
The odour grew a little stronger
The crumbs I spilled the day before
Where staring at me from the floor
The dirt streaks on the window panes
Will still be there next time it rains.

"For shame, O lazy one" you say
And "Just what did you do today?"

I nursed a baby while she slept
I held a toddler while he wept
I played a game of hide and seek
I squeezed a toy so it would squeak
I pushed a swing, I sang a song
I taught a child what's right and wrong
What did I do this whole day through?
Not much that shows, I guess it's true.

Unless you think that what I've done
Might be important to someone
With bright green eyes and golden hair
If that is true, I 've done my share.

Autmnal colours ....

Of course there are the wonderful leaves ...

and then I found some in some fabric I was packing ...

These are a pair of curtains made up in a William Morris print which have been hanging in my wardrobe for a year since I bought them at a Jumble Sale. I had been awaiting inspiration, and was secretly a little afraid of cutting into them and then wishing I hadn't, but they are now packed away so will probably have to wait another year, or two, before they are given new life!

Not sure of the provenance of this fabric, but again a pair of curtains found at a Jumble Sale.

Now these are another matter entirely. I do not want to cut them up I want to use them and would plan a room around them! I don't usually go for fabrics like this when making curtains but there's something about them .... I don't think the photo does it justice but they are a beautiful rich green with the floral pattern picked out in white, pink and gold - in fact they don't sound great when described either. We'll have to wait and see where they eventually end up!