Endings and Beginnings

Ah, those long, lazy days between Christmas and New Years that just seem to fall off the calendar.  I honestly think they are my favourite days of the year.  This year of course they are doing double duty as "packing days" and that is kind of fun and kind of painful.  They are also a welcome respite after Christmas with gastro - the gift that kept giving! Christmas was somewhat of a write off so I am especially appreciative of these slow crafty days to recuperate.

Unfortunately my camera is dead (dropping onto slate floors from a bar stool will do that I'm told)  I am trying to be brave but I adored that camera and I feel almost bereft without it.  The plan is to sell a heap of stuff we don't need and use the money towards a slightly smaller, newer model.  It will still be a nikon as I don't think I can do without the Nikon portrait feature.  The loss of the camera means that there won't be a lot of photos of us looking green and bilious opening presents LOL I do always complain about having to scrap 5 lots of Christmas photos so I suppose every cloud has a silver lining!

There has been plenty of crafting - I knit another fluffy little cardi Christmas afternoon, and then yesterday I did more on Hannah's red flannel mitts and Maddie's school cardigan.  There has also been some spinning as I try to get the stash under control before the move.  And I have dabbled with a bit of papercraft too.  Just throwing around ideas using January's SOM and our beautiful new Charlotte range which will be available January 1st.

Mealtimes have been erratic while we were all sick and now they are about to get unusual as I make an attempt to eat from the freezer and pantry.  The freezer seems to be full of chicken drumsticks and bits of mystery meat (possibly lamb backstraps?) and lots of frozen cherries.

I am feeling quite wierded out by the move - are we doing the right thing? Are we crazy? Will the house feel "right" once we move in?  Will there be things that drive us crazy about it?  Will I ever get over leaving my beautiful craft room (sob sob sniffle)?

The 3 times I have been there the peace I feel is overwhelming.  I hope that stays with us when we move.
Wishing you a wonderful start to 2016.
Keep smiling,
Nell

Ridiculously Happy About..

I honestly feel so blessed with my life right now.  After an extremely busy year at kindy we have 6 weeks of holidays stretching out before us!  So many good things are happening right now.  

It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas..

The Christmas tree is up and decorated. Briony's "B" is front and centre thanks to Kate from Fox's Lane.  It has been a great way for my children to remember their friend.  The kids did the bulk of the decorating this year which felt kind of strange as I like to take a moment to reflect as I put the special decorations up.

I decorated the front room for our Christmas workshops.  Some of these goodies will go to the Twilight Market at the Lobethal Lights this weekend.

The Nativity is conspicuously missing Baby Jesus this year.  I have tried explaining the significance of that short falling to my children LOL afterall, JESUS is the REASON for the SEASON.

So blessed to have so many lovely gifts over the years - we have a collection of snow globes, bears, angels, and reindeers!

I was showered with beautiful and generous words and gifts from my beloved kindy kids and their families.  It is making me so happy!

And there has been crafting this weekend - I even FINALLY managed to get this year's scrapbook pages into their rightful albums.  There has been lots of knitting too.  Some for the market and some for secret Christmas business.

I have been doing my first ever Indie Giftalong on Ravelry and I am loving it! So much inspiration in one place! I was even lucky enough to win a couple of prizes.  

So see, lots and lots and lots of great reasons to be ridiculously happy but I have saved the best for last.

We are moving..

We are having a "tree change" and moving onto acreage.  This country girl is moving back to the country.  We are just far enough out of Lobethal to be considered "rural" but still close enough to walk to school and work.  We have our own gumtrees, and fairy wrens, and a resident koala, and lead light doors, and a balcony with French Doors.  I am soooooooo ridiculously over the top happy about the move.  Let the packing begin!

Wishing you every reason to be ridiculously happy as we catapult into the "silly season"!

Keep smiling,

Nell

For the Love of Librarians

It's been a long time hasn't it?
Life got a bit crazy there for a while.  Too crazy.
Next year I am determined that will be different.  Next year I will find more balance.
I'll talk about next year and good things to come a bit later on but for the moment I just wanted to share something I've been mulling over here.

Last weekend the world lost someone fabulous. Someone inspirational.  Someone I was proud to have known.

I love books.  I love libraries.  Disappointingly though, sometimes librarians don't live up to my expectations.  Which is why Zellah was so amazing.  Zellah was like my own "personal" librarian.  She ran the Baby Bounce sessions at my local library when my kids were small.  First baby Hannah, then Dan, and finally Maddie fell under Zellah's spell.  Me, well we just kind of clicked from the start.  Zellah was the sort of librarian who really cared.  She had the same reading taste as I did and often when I would go in she would have a book she thought I might like put away for me.  Often when I was checking out a book she would say, "Oh! I want to read that one soon, tell me if it is a good one!"  She was the sort of librarian that didn't comment when I borrowed the same books over and over, or when I had to extend and re-extend my magazines because life had been too busy to read them.

I remember being heavily pregnant with Maddie and standing at the counter with books piled high in my arms while Hannah whined and a toddler Daniel threw himself on the ground and chucked a massive tantrum.  I remember feeling soooooo tired, and sooo frustrated and thinking I was going to cry and then Zellah's voice said "Just think Nell, next time I see you, you will have a sweet little baby bundle in your arms!"  and she smiled the sweetest smile and squeezed my arm, "you'll get through this, and one day you will look back and love these days."  She was so right.  So non-judgemental. She cared.

I remember borrowing "Tickle Tickle Tom" for the thousandth time and saying to her, "This book is our favourite and it is out of print so please if it ever gets decommisioned can we buy it?"  and her looking at it, and at my children, and saying, "gee, it really IS getting tatty isn't it? I think it is even too tatty to sell" as she stamped it with the "cancelled" stamp and passed it to my children.

Zellah was the sort of person the world needs more of.  She was not a best friend.  She was not even a close friend, but she touched our lives immeasurably and she will be forever missed.  Every life, no matter how brief, has the potential to change the world forever.

Thank you Zellah. My three little bookworms and I will not forget you.