All in a Day

The past is sailing off to sea, 

the future's fast asleep.

A day is all you have to be,

it's all you get to keep.

Underneath that great big sky 

the earth is all a-spin.

This day will soon be over 

and it won't come back again.

So live it well, make it count,

fill it up with you.

This day's all yours, it's waiting now...

See what you can do.

This is from a children's book I just read to my

  daughter, called All In A Day by Cynthia Rylant.

It was so lovely I just had to share it with you.

Pink Skies

We recently moved house. There are many things that I like about our new place, but best of all is the view from our kitchen window....


....it almost makes you want to do the dishes. Almost.

Ringing in 2012

Finally, a new year. I have to tell you 2011 although you brought with you many blessings, I am glad to see the back of you. You were hard work. But you are over and 2012 is here and I "shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to encumbered with my old nonsense"



I spent the last evening of 2011 at our shack, sipping Moet out of a plastic cup. Can you feel the entire Champagne region of France cringe?

Happy New Year everyone, I think 2012 is going to be a good one. And I know about these things.

Tumbleweeds

This week my two babies and I went to visit my Nanna. I am very lucky to be nearly 40 (good God – can this be true??) and still have grandparents to visit. This is one of the many advantages to having young parents.

My Nanna resides in the first town I ever lived in. It is tiny. Tumbleweed tiny. And it seems to shrink further every time I visit it.

This is the sign that welcomes you to the town. The first time my Dad saw this he was indignant – they had down-graded the town to a village. As you can see Bute is so small they don’t even declare the population. I think it is a statement of the highest optimism to say that the population is growing.

Bute is bordered on one side by distant rolling hills and on the other by endless wheat plains…

My Nanna lives across the road from the wheat silos and, strange as it may seem, I love the silos. There is a certain majesty to the way they rise up out of the wheat and stretch into a endless blue sky.

Bute has some lovely old buildings that smack of South Australia….

The Town Hall

And the RSL hall

But the business side of the main street makes me sad…

When I was small there was a bank, a hardware store, a deli with a toy section, a supermarket and a shop selling farm equipment. Now just the supermarket remains.

Meanwhile, the nearest town, Kadina,is going ahead like crazy. They even have a Target and are building McDonalds. I was looking through old photos while I was at Nanna’s and was almost overcome with nostalgia for a lost time and a disappearing place.

Does this happen to you? Or am I just a sentimental fool?

Roots

My family have a shack on the beachfront in a teeny tiny town on the lower Yorke Peninsula. This week, I packed the Amy Butler Weekender and the next generation and we drove down to spend a couple of days with my dad who was there fishing for a couple of weeks.



I find that some people use the term "shack" very loosely. I remember going to a friend's shack at Goolwa when I was about 16 - they had air-conditioning and Italian ceramic tiles on the floor. Shack indeed! Rest assured that I am not one of these abusers of terminology. Our shack is just that - it hasn't changed much since our family acquired it 50 years ago.

This is our air-conditioning....


I kid you not. And let me tell you - it does not cut the mustard on a 40 degree day in a shack made of fibro with a tin roof and no insulation. Talk about sweat! In my day I have bitched long and loud about going to the shack in the Summer - but still every Christmas I drag myself down there for about a week.

This week Dad was re-cladding our toilet...no such luxuries as a flushable potty at our place...we have a drop toilet. Here is the old one - it hasn't been in use for as long as I can remember and is now home to bees.


But on the flip side this is our view



At this time of year the weather is gorgeous - nice sunny days and nights cool enough to light a fire. And best of all we have the entire beach to ourselves. Perfect for collecting shells....




Or doing a spot of sewing....



Or walking a constipated, screaming baby to sleep...



For letting time stop...

Air-conditioning and a flushable toilet aside, we're lucky.

Anticipation

This week saw me put the finishing touches on this..............




This bassinette has seen some action. My friend Kellie gave it to me. She herself has placed 4 babies in it plus it has been lent out to numerous others. Scarlett spent her first 5 weeks in it - until she became so large that she needed to upgrade to the jumbo cot.




I decided that for this baby I would paint it the perfect shade of blue (which in case you were wondering is Dulux Wild Clary). Blue for boys and because blue is my favourite colour. Of course, all of this painting took place during the recent heat wave - painting semi-gloss enamel in 42 degree heat is no fun I tell you!

I can't believe that in less than two weeks there will be a baby lying in that lovingly painted blue cot. My baby.

The little pillow slip was hand embroidered by my Nana for her first baby over 60 years ago.



60 years and three generations of anticipating delicious babies.

Adoption

This is Kuta.


He's very handsome isn't he? He is not actually our cat. He just thinks he is. About a year ago we did get a cat, her name is Lizzie (but that is for another post).

Back to Kuta.


About 3 months ago he started just passing through our backyard. Then he started to hang around and do pussy things - climb trees, play with our cat. Before long he was venturing inside and helping himself to the kitty buffet in our kitchen.

We began to have concerns that he was the unfortunate victim of a deceased estate nearby, but after some investigation we discovered that, no, Kuta belonged to a perfectly good family 2 doors down. (This is how we discovered his name - previously we had been referring to him as Gandalf the Grey).



Now it is common knowledge that cats are stealthy and I can attest to this as the latest development in the not-so-hostile takeover of our family has been playing out over the last couple of days. Kuta has been sneaking in to our house at about 6pm, hiding in my wardrobe only to present himself on the bed at about 2am. As he wears a little bell around his neck this has scared the crap out of me!

He is currently on our lounge watching ABC kids with our daughter. Operation infiltrate complete.

Has this every happened to anyone else?
Do cats just decide where they are going to live?
Imagine what he'd be like if we encouraged him with food?

Chevron Quilt Tutorial

A few weeks ago one of my very favourite people had a pretty impressive Friday Finish of her own. My friend Alex gave birth to her first baby, Connor.


This is the quilt that I designed and made for him and today I finished stitching on the binding.




You can download the free tutorial for this quilt HERE


When I was thinking about what to name this quilt I got to thinking about pop songs, poems and romantic love - heavy stuff, but bear with me. A few years ago I saw an episode of Oprah (it always comes back to Oprah!) in which the songwriter Diane Warren was talking about the inspiration for her songs. The song which I want to talk about here was "Because You Loved Me" which was sung by Celine Dion and was the theme song for "Up Close & Personal". The movie was a very gushy, romantic film and I am sure that couples all over the world danced their bridal waltz to Diane Warren's song. However, this song was not written for a lover but for her father who had encouraged and supported her. This got me to thinking about how many other seemingly romantic love songs are not written for a lover at all, but for a friend, a parent or a child (Steal My Kisses by Ben Harper is a perfect example - written for his son).


So in my mind, Marvin Gaye's "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" is the perfect anthem for a mother to her child and that is what I named Connor's quilt.



Remember to drop by Amy's and check out the other fab Friday Finishes. Enjoy your weekend everyone!