Taking stock January Edition

These are always fun to look back on!

I’m definitely in holiday mode right now. This is my current view..

I love the afternoon light in this room. I’m resisting packing away the Christmas quilt from our bed. I really need to clean knitting projects off my chair so that I can sit there and write or read.

Anyhow..

Making: acrylic charity hats for Bags with Dignity
Getting: tired in the afternoons (nana nap anyone?)
Cooking: boringly mundane meals, spag bol, curries, mash and vege

Sipping: too much - need a few alcohol free days me thinks
Reading: Lights Out Liverpool (enjoyed so need to find the sequel)
Thinking: I need to get my brain in Kindy Director mode. Lazy holiday days are numbered.
Remembering: That I still need to post some Christmas presents
Looking: At windows that need washing and floors that need vacuuming.
Listening: to the birdsong, so many birds now
Wishing: Peace for this year
Enjoying: extra knitting time, and time in my garden
Appreciating: quiet time
Wanting: the cleaning fairy to visit
Eating: too much chocolate (put on 3 kilos over Christmas when I was doing so well before that!)
Finishing: a few WIPS and odd jobs
Liking: the possibility of baby cuddles soon
Loving: my new wisteria pergola
Buying: bunny hay and tomato seedlings - if they all grow we will have tomatoes coming out our ears
Watching: daggy movies on Netflix just for glimpses of Italy

Hoping: the cleaning fairy visits
Wearing: summer dresses despite it not being summer weather - thank goodness for cardigans
Walking: nope. Should be though. I miss it.
Thinking: I should clean out the pantry
Noticing: I am lacking motivation for aforesaid task
Saving: breadtags and soft plastics 

Waiting: for Summer weather
Wanting: my craftroom magically clean and organised
Coveting: Nothing really - just loving the feeling of abundance in my own life atm.
Feeling: Loved and lucky

Happy Thursday to you,

Keep smiling,

Nell

Xx

 

Happy New Year from our sweet Haven on the Hill.

I know it has been a loooooooongggg time. To be honest, I thought about giving away blogging altogether, but you know, after the fires, when I had only the clothes I stood up in, it was so wonderful to c ome back to this space, and see photos of my babies, and read Stories of our everyday life.

I’ve realised that I really only write for me, as a way of memory keeping, and keeping me grounded. I feel better when I’m writing.

At the start of the year I like to learn new things, so I’m teaching myself how to blog on the iPad, in the hopes that if it is easier I might do it more often.

Right now I’m enjoying lazy Summer holidays as the calm before the storm because this year I’m moving back into leadership at work - I’m equal parts terrified and exhilarated. I know that it will mean a steep learning curve, but I’m excited by the possibilities and looking forward to teaching the way I want to teach. I have a warm, funny, enthusiastic mentor, so it could be a year of amazing things.

A New Year always means new projects. I’m going to aim to make something each month out of my book collection “A year with my bookshelf” and also something from my Ravelry queue “A year with my craft queue”

2022 felt like I got the work/life balance right. I managed to finish more quilts than I ever have before (including a collaboration with Kirsty on a panel for Kat’s grandson, and a quilt for Narelle’s 50th) and getting 4 Christmas quilts done - one for each of the kids and one for the couch. I managed a few crafty weekends away too which was good (but I really miss Aldinga!)

Close to My Heart is ticking along. I’m running my regular workshops and thoroughly enjoying odd full day crops with my team. I’d like to do a weekend away with them this year!

I find “staycations” or holidays at home to be such wonderful things, because right now, three years on from the fire, and 20 months after moving into the rebuild, we are feeling quite comfortable and pleased with where we are at. We recently got lawns, and paths, and retaining walls, and the garden has come into its own. The house feels more nestled in with green growing things around it, and it has lost the “newness”

We had a lovely Christmas and New Year (my friend took this photo from the lawn on New Years Eve) It felt so good to be surrounded by family and friends, and for the entertaining to be effortless. We have everything we need. Life is good.

Happy New Year!

 Happy New Year!

Looking forward to 2022 with optimism.

I am still trying to work out passwords and photos and such for this space but we've reached that comfortable point of the holidays where the floors are crunchy underfoot and no one really knows what day it is?

Thought I'd do a quick new years "taking stock" post:

Making: calendars for the inlaws and James' office
Getting: excited about being back at kindy next year
Cooking: not much at all - leftovers anyone?
Sipping: blood orange cordial and soda water
Reading: Paris Kiss (about Rodin and his models)
Thinking: That I need to take proper photos on my proper camera this year
Remembering: That I need to look for my SD card and the camera charger
Looking: at the crafty mess on the bedroom floor
Listening: to a far off mower, and the hum of James' electronics
Wishing: it would rain
Enjoying: my gorgeous new-to-me kitchen dresser (still can't believe it was such a bargain and perfect)
Appreciating: how blessed my life is
Wanting: to sort out my craft room
Eating: too much chocolate
Finishing: my test knit for Jessica (hopefully soon)
Liking: Summer dress days
Loving: Braless summer days at home
Buying: a kitchen dresser today, a Kris Kringle gift tomorrow?
Watching: Call the Midwife and Jane Austen films and documentaries on World War 2
Hoping: for trt work in term one (enough that we don't notice that I only have one more regular pay check)
Wearing: Summer floaty dresses and bare feet
Walking: around in my garden a lot
Following: more garden inspiration on instagram
Noticing: that the news makes me anxious
Saving: nice quotes on my phone
Waiting: for the cleaning fairy to do her thing in my craftroom so that I can make a new quilting mess
Bookmarking: funny about that - I received a treasure from my mum for Christmas, one of the original bobbin lace bookmarks I made Gubby when I was first learning bobbin lace, along with two of my early tatted doilies.  How loved did I feel that Gubby had put them aside for me. 
Coveting: Kelsey's kitchen dresser no more! (long standing joke on instagram whenever my friend posts photos with her gorgeous dresser in the background!)
Feeling: so happy and content and in holiday sloth mode and so damn blessed to be living in the lucky country

May this year bring good things for us all,

Keep smiling,

Nell

p.s. last post was written in November but not finished or posted properly?

Hello again!

 Long time no see?  I'm wondering what I need to do in this space?  I still haven't found a decent solution to easily get photos onto the blog, and I think I really want to be able to post to the blog from my ipad but I'm not sure how to make that happen.  Might be time to call my IT guru and book some more time with him over the Christmas holidays.

I also really don't know whether this should be a space for sharing CTMH creations, or knitting, or quilting, or garden and home stuff, and whether it is still okay for it to be a mis-match of all of those things?  I suspect that as no-one reads blogs anymore I can do exactly what I like and just please myself!

My garden is going crazy with the mild Spring weather and extra rain - the roses have come into their own and I love being able to pick big bunches for friends.  The native bee/bird/butterfly friendly garden is finally getting a bit of height to it and I love that I am seeing honeyeaters and finches and parrots again.  I wake to the cacophony of birdsong each morning and it is just wonderful!

We're hurtling towards end of year and Christmas and that feels scary and exciting too.  Big changes as we navigate 2 years post fire, and the first Christmas in our new home, and the first Christmas without the family beach house.  Aldinga has been a huge part of our children's lives and it will feel strange not to have it as a reassuring safe space anymore.  Big changes too as Maddie starts high school, and Hannah begins her final year of high school.  Potentially big changes for me too as I am not sure my contract at my sweet little school will be renewed next year.  I may be back doing TRT work. I have mixed feelings about that.  I am trying not to take it personally but I am emotionally exhausted at the thought of more change and frustrated that, despite teaching since 1997, I am still bouncing from contract to contract with no permanency in sight.  Some days I feel like maybe it is time to walk away - to find a career somewhere else, and yet I know in my heart of hearts that teaching is my passion, and that I can't work in any other field.  It is hard to be so appreciated by the families and children, and so unappreciated by the education system.

My crafting space is a shambles at the moment - I still haven't got my built in storage in there and I ended up with boxes of stuff from the beach house that have no home and are just sitting in corners.  Maybe that will need to be my holiday project?

I'm just hanging out for the start of the Indi Giftalong this year - kind of between big knitting projects and the mojo is at a bit of a low.  I'm contenting myself with a few little baby hats and crocheted hanky edgings.

There has been a bit of Christmas shopping too, and the girls got the Christmas ornaments out of the shed and Hannah has already put up a small tree in her room.  She has a Christmas playlist on Spotify so we will be humming along to Bing all month long!  Maddie requested that I replace the Marg Low advent stockings so there has been a bit of embroidery happening.  I guess I need to think about a Christmas card photo too? 

Home Sweet Home

 It feels like the past month has gone by in a delicious blur.

We are "home" and it feels wonderful.

I wasn't sure how I would go with moving "home" but not home.  This is such a different house to what once stood here.  We've been here enough now though, that I am finding sweet, simple things that work.  I will always miss the old house, but creating little spaces and places here has been wonderful.

My new reading/writing/knitting nook in the bedroom

This table was supposed to be a temporary solution in my craft studio, but when I positioned it under Nanny's window the wood just glowed.  Sitting here, creating, just makes me so happy so we've let go of the idea of built in shelving and will instead go with storage units either side of the desk.  Dean is designing fairy wren stained glass for the outer top window panels and I have plans to plant the red climbing sympathie rose (that came from Nairne as a cutting, and survived the fire) outside the window.

This week, 6 volunteers from Habitat for Humanity SA came and helped me to rescue the old garden walls and replant and mulch.  I cannot believe that it took only 5 hours to recreate something beautiful when all this time I had been looking at it as an insurmountable task.  Not more than 15 minutes after they had left the Magpie family moved in to inspect the new Native garden.  Before I even went to pick Maddie up from school the bees had found the hebe!  Since then we've had so much wildlife returning and it gives me such great pleasure to have a cuppa out the front and just watch the birds and watch my garden grow! I've had a permanent smile on my face ever since.  It is amazing the difference a garden makes to my wellbeing.

Today James helped me to plant the citrus trees, and the Japanese maple and two avocadoes down the front.  He hung the wrapping station baskets in the butler's pantry.  Only little things, but all things that make me feel like we are achieving, and like this is becoming more like home.

Life is good,

Hoping your week gets off to a good start and the sun is shining on you,

Keep smiling,

Nell

Taking Stock - March

 Taking Stock

Making: a replacement baby blanket for Maddie (last 200g ball to go)
Getting: Excited
Cooking: Salmon, and chicken mini roasts, and more Autumnal dishes now that the weather is cooling
Sipping: lemon and ginger cordial with Adelaide Hills Soda Water
Reading: "The Night Portrait"
Waiting: for the house rebuild that never ends (14 months and counting)
Looking: forward to making new memories!
Listening: Norah Jones, Van Morrison, and the relaxation playlist I've created for rest time at school on Spotify
Wishing: We could move into the new house tomorrow (be patient Nell)
Enjoying: Maddie's excitement over the smallest of house things - a $3 hedgehog pencil pot for her room made her so happy!
Appreciating: That I have wonderful friends who are going to put Easter plans on hold to help us move
Eating: Dark chocolate with roast almonds
Liking: How easy our oven baked salmon with beans and tomatoes was for tea tonight - easy and delicious
Loving: the Autumn colour in our beautiful Adelaide Hills
Buying: kitchen stools and mixmasters and lemon squeezers and so many things we have been waiting for
Managing: to juggle work, renting, house project management and all sorts of other crazy bits
Watching: Anne with an "e" - it took me forever to disassociate it from the books and then I was okay to enjoy it
Hoping: The new season of Handmaid's Tale comes to SBS the same time as it hits the U.S.
Wearing: Summer dresses and skirts while I can
Following: Too many vintage/antique/secondhand places on fb and insta
Noticing: That Daniel is almost taller than James
Sorting: clothes, china, books...everything!!!
Getting: Impatient
Bookmarking: The meagre chapter of "The Night Portrait" that I read every night - feels like it is taking so long to read!
Coveting: chesterfields, rocking chairs, cute blue and white lamps
Feeling: a bit lost and discombobulated
Hearing: birdsong this morning when I went to let chooks out

Dreaming: of being "home" soon, so soon!

 

Happiness

I found this old blog post that somehow never got posted. It was written back in 2019 before our lives changed so dramatically but I want to post it now (even if it is out of order) because it is a glimpse into how my life was right then.

Here 'tis:

It is a weird thing isn't it, that humans are so resistant to change..I mean, from the moment we are born we are in a state of change so you would think we would be more used to it.  As many of you already know, this year has been a huge year of change.  I kind of had "change" forced upon me when the job I loved was no longer available and through no fault of my own I became essentially unemployed.

I began doing TRT work - back in classrooms after a 17 year break, often teaching Grades that I had never taught.  In one week alone I managed to teach every age from birth to year 7, and to teach specialist music, drama, art, PE and cooking!  After that I kind of felt like I could take on the world..
As I did more and more TRT days something magical began to happen.. I found that I really loved it.  I was enjoying the challenge.  I was enjoying the wonderful support offered by school staff and parents.  I was enjoying the kids. In fact, I was myth busting a lot of my self-made assumptions about children and learning, and myself as a teacher.  I have always said kindy is my favourite age but what I found was that I have LOVED working with lots of ages.  I actually don't just like kindy kids, I really like kids.  I like that "Ahha" moment when they "get" something.  I like the funny stories they tell.  I like when they feel comfortable to share their stories with me. 

Being a TRT/classroom teacher has had its benefits.  I have been home earlier for my own kiddos and been able to do mum things like make pikelets for afternoon tea, or play a game with them after school.  I have had more nights at home (and in Winter, when it is cold and dark and often wet, it feels like I need to be home and pottering about at night more)  I am definitely not as tired by the end of the week and most often when hubby gets home I am still happy and bubbly and wanting to talk about my day.

2019 brought another significant change.  A friend asked if I would be interested in helping her son with High school assignments and project planning.  At first I felt quite underqualified but then quickly realised that I have an Honours degree in Arts, History and Literature, and a 16 year career in mentoring and coaching about time-management and planning etc through my paper crafting team.  Once again, I surprised myself by actually enjoying spending time with teenagers.  I hadn't long been working with this young man when I was asked to take on a few hours a week with a much younger boy with ASD.  This has been life-changing.  Seeing the world through his eyes is amazing.  Those few hours a week feel like a gift.  He fills my bucket.  He makes me look at the world in ways I have never imagined.  I am learning so much.  I think it is the start of a beautiful friendship.  I am hoping that as we move on his beautiful Mum might let me share more about our rambles here.  I am even reading lots of texts on Autism, and doing my own research into different strategies and approaches.  It feels good to be inspired by something again.

Oddly, whilst I was quietly terrified at the start of the year, and still mourning the loss of a job I loved, I now feel like I am in a really good place.  A happy place.  I have been offered something more ongoing at one of my favourite sites next term, on days that will fit nicely around our life, and I am looking forward to the excitement of having my own classroom again, with kids that I already adore, in a supportive community environment.

Life feels good, and for that I am profoundly grateful.

I have even had time to indulge in reading more books lately and thought I would share a few of my current favourites.

"Why I Jump" is written by a teenager with ASD. Very insightful and a quick read. Fascinating for anyone who works with or lives with people with ASD.


"The Colour Mixing Companion" - gorgeous for teaching, but equally colourful eye candy for anyone who loves art and colour.

"A Year Between Friends" - Beautiful, every time I read it I want to cry, and laugh, and ring my besties.  I love the seasonal nature of this one. Perfect bath reading

"Wordsmith" - a new find.  Janet Clare is a logophile.  Exquisite typography, words, pictures.  Coffee table happiness.

Last but not least, I visited Twisted  Fibre Festival on Saturday and came away with an 1860s copy of "The Knitters Magazine"  It has, among its many patterns, instructions for a "bonnet preserver" and a set of "ladies mufatees"  I adore the primness of the language, the quirkiness of the content and that old book smell.  It is a rare treasure.

So what else is making me happy?  I recently purchased a sweet little slow-stitched journal, which has on its blue and cream cover a dear little squirrel.  It makes me want to do some slow stitching, but more than that, it has me scribbling again - new words that I want to remember, ideas, snippets of my day, random thoughts.  It feels good to be writing again.

I acquired a $7 bunch of poppies from my favourite local deli (which also sells my knitting and cards, and a great selection of plants, and the best hot chips and gravy anywhere!)  They've been on my kitchen table for a week now. Their silken petals make me smile every time I see them.

So what is making you happy right now?
I hope whatever you are doing with your one glorious life you are making the most of it?
Keep smiling,
Nell