More renovations!

Does this count as a WIP Wednesday? I'm desperately seeking time to sew, but instead my house is full of renovations. I'll put up pictures of both, I swear...

Anyway, linking up!

So the work has continued apace, and the pace at which it has continued is...excellent! Except the tiler fell and fractured his ankle and then fell again and sprained his wrist. So my laundry has only been screeded whereas I should have had a functioning laundry room (with a toilet) by now!

But that's the only hiccup, so I should be thankful, right? And in a way, it's kind of fine that the tiling has taken so long, because instead of focusing on getting the bathroom ready, Clark went and put my kitchen in.

I painted the walls in the kitchen blue. Glorious, Dulux Shampoo blue.

So glorious with the light from the window coming through! And since the films on the cupboards are blue, it's very much like living in a pool at the moment.

I have had lots of help from the tiny tradie though. She's been coming along like a trouper, eating biscuits and pulping bits of cardboard and being generally very patient with her very patient mama.

She sits up all by herself now, and she has finally sprouted a third tooth! It's her upper left eyetooth, of all teeth to sprout, and she's had a miserable week and a bit of fussiness. I'm glad it's broken the surface, and I'm sure there are another two or three on their way...poor kid.

The bathroom does need finishing. Check out my raw skylight. It needs walls!

The board around it was swollen and waterlogged, and it came away like Weet-bix. It will be replaced with waterproof Villaboard in the future.

And, LAMP! It's done, and when I came in the other week, Gary had hung it up for me!

I think it looks so great, the blue of the metal against the stark white ceiling. I'm really proud of what we've been able to recycle, and of how my efforts are turning out.

I'm not the only one who is excited. Piper loves the new pantry. We played "Baby in the cupboard!" while the tilers were working hard!

She is also super excited about her new bright green bedroom, with its beautiful beaded pendant light. Oh, so cute and sweet and still girly!

The only sad room is the bathroom. It's so sad. The floor needs to come up before they put down a new screed and the cast-iron bathtub took three days alone to remove. You can see all of the work that the plumber has done; those are all new pipes and he's even packed the wall out to sustain the wall-mounted sink. Bless.

It is coming along. I know this. I am there every night with some little task. Last night it was drawers; the night before I was painting the kitchen. I'm at Spiders' Group tonight but I'm secretly hoping to head up and see if I can't get some trimwork done in the kitchen. Or some windows painted. Or something. It's so addictive.

Well, in the sewing department, I am still knee-deep in my challenge with Pinky. She is kicking my toosh in this challenge! I have a finished top but I am terribly undecided about the backing. I've been back and forth to Craft Depot picking out backings but none have matched my expectations. Sigh. SIGH. So this is as far as I've gotten.

But! I have a treat! I have photos of the fabric I picked up in AMERICA!

Check out all of these beauties...

And these DS Quilts fabrics from Jo-Ann's...

And some sweet boyish puppy dog fabrics and a few little bits and bobs...

And pretty pink and girly prints....

And sewing literature. Holy pants. I saw that blocks book and snapped it up so quick I gave myself whiplash. Boom.

And this spool holder barely survived in my suitcase. It has a slight lean to it....yikes!

Finally, I picked up a ruffling foot. I've wanted one of those for ages, to make ruffle-bottom pants for Piper!

I had so much fun buying this fabric with Sarah and with my Aunt Rose. I wish I could do it all the time! I got such a good variety that as soon as we're moved into the house with the sewing room sorted out (and everything unpacked) I'll be able to put these projects to good use!

Hopefully my blogging will get back to a normal schedule, sooner rather than later...I'm excited to be finished, and I'm really keen to get all the furniture built, the painting done, the floors polished, and the tradesmen OUT. (Though they are lovely!) I can't wait to just come home and be home, and not have to make two trips back and forth every day. And I can't wait to wake up to my east-facing bedroom windows pouring light over the foot of the bed, and my little family all curled up around me.

It's going to be so amazing.

(PS Sewing, I miss you. FREALS. Let's get together soon.)

Cheers, and happy WIP! Hope your days are less frantic than mine! :)

Drudgery, part the millionth

I'm scooting through house renovations as quickly as I can, but the past week has been a haze of getting 'er done.

Tuesday we had the asbestos removed, which meant we could see straight through the kitchen wall into the laundry! And I felt like I could REALLY BREATHE, for the first time ever. All that nasty asbestos, gone!

My house is made from what they call "Oregon timber" here in Sydney but I know it by its true name: Douglas fir. I was so pleased to hear my house was made of the same trees that I grew up surrounded by. These two-by-fours aren't the smooth sweetish pine of modern times, though: they are splintery and rough-hewn, scratchy and dark. Still, to me, they are beautiful.

We made our mark on the house. We are now part of its history. I've spoken before about the previous owner, and a few more little stories have come about. The house was built by the previous owner for his bride around 1950. She was the kind of neighbor who loved to garden and have cups of tea. I feel a bit like she haunts us, but only in a nice way. Houses move on to other people. We bought a house with a wonderful history.

And we've been magically able to keep a lot of that history alive.

Here is the old bathroom door. We are putting a toilet into the bath and leaving the existing one in the laundry, but there was no point having three entrances to the laundry room (outside and inside) so our builder Clark has closed up this door. It's Villaboard on the other side, but he recycled the splintery, rough-hewn timber from the wall he took out to frame this in. I love that he did that!

But of course, the old plumbing had to go. The hot water line was running up the OUTSIDE of the kitchen wall. Yikes! So our fantastic plumber Laurie spent Friday snipping, welding, drilling holes and making bends. And in the end he took the old, crappy (heh) toilet out and capped the hole in the floor. Ready for making new.

This is for the kitchen. Isn't it just super? Shiny and new!

I haven't been idle, either. I spent yesterday feeling sorry for myself (Mr Poppleton is away on a business trip) so I took the baby to Nanna & Granddad's and painted undercoat on most of the living room walls for three hours. I stopped at the rendered brick because I ran out of time.

I just love the difference the white makes. That whole room will eventually be sky blue, but for now the white is just so bright and cheerful!

And Mr Poppleton would like everyone to know he has not been idle, either. This week he and his mum and dad spent three evenings building my kitchen cabinets.

They are awaiting doors and handles, but Clark will manage that when the flooring is up and the kitchen walls are reclad!

More painting. I should really be flicking back to the "before" images, where everything was dark and moody because the timber was stained really heavy. Having it all white just freshens it up so much.

Those are Clark's two by fours in the floor there, but those boxes? Those are my living room tiles. Brilliant! I'll order my bathroom tiles as soon as I get a quote in from the tiler. He is mythical at the moment, but this week will be the week I get this house on track!

If a certain someone complies, that is.

Oh man. She's so perfect. I hope she understands someday how most of this work is for her. We are making a home for her.

Well - off to work I suppose! Today is more undercoating. Going to get the living room and hallway 100% primed. Boom. It's good to have goals, I guess. But just before I go, a sneaky look at something I did while husbandless-induced-insomnia had me in its clutches last night:

Hmm, it looks like a Nicey Jane quilt top...hmm...we shall see I suppose!

Cheers! xx

Asbestos

Today's the day it goes away!

I'm sitting on my front stoop waiting for the removal guys to turn up. Oh! My builder will be there as well. Hooray!

It's all happening...

I'm still alive, I promise!

Renovation. Renovaaaaation. Aside from the cripplingly bad cold I've caught (I really should be in bed) I've spent the last few weeks out at the new house. We have had to get quotes in from builders (our builder sings and I quite like him!), electricians (charmingly called "sparkies"), and plumbers.

On top of that, we've had a few things to do before we get anyone in. Like demolish the existing kitchen to make room for my sexy new nook. But I had some great helpers. My lovely husband is a king among men. Look at him destroying this kitchen! That's my equally awesome father-in-law making those cupboards understand who's BOSS.

And hey, I haven't been so idle, either! Check out what our old windows looked like BEFORE I got my stain-killer paintbrushes busy...

And after.

I am shocked at how much this has changed the way all of the rooms feel, and they are only undercoated. I have two more coats plus the Aquanamel to put on before everything is white and crisp on all my edges! We have a lot of paint to work with though. No worries about any errant paint-spills in the car...there was no room for any of that nonsense with all that paint packed cheek by jowl!

That's not even ALL of it. I still have to buy kitchen paint and laundry room paint and decide what colors the third bedroom and the study/sewing room will be. For now my focus is the front of the house, which is fine, even if it means I spend hours caulking, spack-filling, and sanding so every surface is smooth and perfect. Not to mention scraping paint drips. You try to be careful but sometimes there's a squidgy bit extra....yikes!

Every time I get cranky though, I just take a deep breath, and go look at my kitchen plans.

Ahh. So nice. It will be my little nook. Everything is purchased (except the bloody dishwasher, Ikea you rats) and the boxes are lined up in bundles against the walls in the third bedroom, looking and smelling so gorgeous. I have a pantry. I have a microwave cupboard. I have a mothertruckin' porcelain farmhouse sink. And the best thing of all? Caesarstone benchtops. I just. Can't. Even. I am the luckiest little gal this side of the International Date Line, for having a husband who only sighs and shakes his head and then says, "Well, okay..." Many grateful smooches and cuddles ensued.

Anyway, as promised, this blog has become a renovation blog, but I SWEAR! I have still been trying to write...and sew.

Naturally, being Type-A and a glutton for punishment, I have agreed to begin a challenge with the lovely Pinky! I am so excited to do a proper challenge and with such lovely fabrics. It will be fantastic...if I ever find the time! I did whip up a few of these Modern Pinwheels though...

It was my first go at paper-piecing and while they are sweet and different, I think I will use them as corner posts. I still need to design and sew the quilt (gulp!) before April. I already know it will be stipple...that is just how I roll these days. The rest is a bit of a scared whirlwind at the moment.

As for writing, well, I was deeply inspired by our trip to Southern Oregon. I'm from those hallowed hills, and when I write, I always find my characters crunching pinecones with their hiking boots and swimming in icy snowmelt rivers. Almost everyone I write is of the pale, blue-tinted dirty-blonde variety of people I grew up with, or at the very least, is related to them. So going back was a giant kick in the writerly shins. I needed to soak up the smells and sights and re-center myself, and the whole time I was there I kept pointing places out to my husband from the book: "That's the bar they go into. That's where she works. This is the road she lives on. This is where her grandmother died." All real places, all quietly borrowed, and all secret. No, I won't tell you. I'm just glad I got to spend an afternoon (that was all I had) realizing my story's setting.

Even flying over the state is highly intoxicating. I'm sorry, are those just some amazing mountains hanging out underneath my propellor plane?

Oh why yes madam, there are a few little hills there among the Cascade Range. Just a few!

And on my parents' farm, just walking up the driveway is enough to make me catch my breath.

I wish I could see this all the time, mostly because I wish I could see my family all the time, but also because this is just stunning.

And finally, one thing I have missed even more than pine trees and icy cold rivers and actual mountains: fog. I love me some fog. The way it safely blankets a place, makes it ghostly but still welcoming, all of it just speaks to me. Fog and I are BFFs. Sydney is sorely lacking in this.

Just a view from like, the hotel parking lot or whatever. Not even kidding.

So: writing is slow but steady, sewing is sadly neglected, my poor kid thinks my friend Ellen is the bee's knees since she is spending lots of time over there with her friend Baby Olive (while I paint! ugh), and my house is slowly, surely coming along.

And I'm still alive, despite the chest cold and my blogging quietude. I'll try and post more often, I promise. For now, thanks for sticking with me as I undergo these changes. It's a crazy old life and this is just an extra crazy bit!

Ta-ta my lovelies! xo

A short trip.

It was a good trip, but it was too short. It's hard to assert that when it takes fourteen hours just to cross the ocean (fourteen hours during which, I might mention, that my daughter decided to cut her first tooth with no complaints at all) and another two to get to our first destination, but all of that time on the plane was not wasted. How can it be? I was visiting family.

Our first stop is always Idaho to visit my best friend, Sarah. She and her husband Jason always open their home so beautifully it feels churlish to even suggest staying in a hotel. Sarah and I are technically cousins but she's always been more like a sister to me – even when we were children and we regarded each other with mutual suspicion. It was only when we were teenagers that we became really close, and I couldn't tell you exactly when it happened, just that I'm thankful it did.

My goodness. I miss my best friend so viscerally sometimes. It's hard to believe we've lived in different places for seven years, because it feels like just yesterday we were flatmates navigating boys, boohoos, and brouhahas. It is nice to know that all those years later, married and motherhood notwithstanding, we can still stay up until four in the morning talking and drinking Emergen-C like old times! I still got it, baby. Who cares I needed, er, six coffees the next day.

Her babies are so grown up now. Emma has words. Emma can make choices. Last time I saw that kid, she was a five month old spud in a pink dress. She doesn't look like a potato anymore, that's for sure: she's all legs and ponytails and little girl logic. Like when I asked her "How's it going?" while she was eating her yoghurt cup and she indignantly replied, "Down my THROAT!" Well. That was...accurate. Haha. George was a reluctant talker by comparison. He had a few key favorites: "Mommy? Up? Down? Car?" Everything was a question. My favorite, for the record, was "Foffee?" Oh man. Everything a grown up drank was foffee.

We drank lots of foffee.

We were lucky enough to have time to catch up with my cousin Jesse and his wife (also named Sarah) and their boys Jesse Jay and Toby. I can hardly believe how big their boys are! Time flies when kids are concerned. Turn your back on them for two seconds and they are tax-paying voters. Sheesh.

We also had dinner with my mom's eldest sister who lives in the area. Aunt Karen and Uncle Tony are in some of my earliest memories and it was lovely to organize a meal. Piper loved my Aunt Karen – it was first time I'd ever seen my kid dive into someone's arms – and it was nice to catch up with my grown cousins Brian and his wife Nicole, and Danny and his wife LaChelle, and all my little second cousins *deep breath*: Brianna, Annalynne, Zack, Zeke, and Andrew!

It was way too soon for it to be over. I felt like I had only scrabbled a little at catching up, and I was swallowing a big lump in my throat as we hugged quick and tight at the Flying M, Sar going in her home direction with her red mug, and my matching white one safe in my suitcase so that someday we could drink tea together from a distance, and it would make us think of one another. I indulged my tears very quietly on the plane and watched as the propellor bore us upward and over the mountains, west toward the land of my birth.

We had rented a car in Idaho so we could get around and we did a lot of getting around. I felt a lot more confident in town now that I've had to drive a bit, and it helped to have lots of practice being on the right-hand side of the road after, um, six years driving on the left! Unfortunately we ended up accidently getting upsold at Avis (BAD AVIS) which cost us a lot of extra money! We learned our lesson after that, though, and when we'd said our goodbyes to our Idaho family and friends and headed west, we were prepared. I stared Mr Car Rental Guy down in the Portland airport and made him understand that under no circumstances did we want to have to pay anything extra. Voila! Glare worked. Boom. Funnily enough, we liked the car we had chosen better than the "upgrade" option.

So: home. Home as in the place I grew up. Driving south after four years away made me really look at everything. So much had changed! The city I moved to out of high school was still navigable but peppered with large new stores: Cabela's, Lowe's, new Starbucks on every other corner. It felt like a lot of bigger, bolder businesses had moved in around the fringes. We don't really have fringes here (everything is city or suburbs) and it was strange to see it all so open.

I was so excited to see my family that even though our four-hour-drive-in-theory took roughly six and a half hours (two baby feeds, a dinner with my gorgeous friend Katie and her partner David, another baby feed), and we had to stop at the hotel and check in, I wouldn't even let Mr Poppleton take our luggage up to the room. It was only twelve more miles at that point and it was good, clear freeway driving, all through the mountains. My eyelids were stuck to my eyes, and I felt like a thousand years' worth of travel gunk was stuck all over my person, but IT WAS ONLY TWELVE MORE MILES. I kept the car idling during check in and maybe, just maybe, I sped a little. (Or a lot. Shh. It's the interstate. It's smoooove.)

My parents live on a piece of property down a lane in a town so teensy it barely has a post office. When I got to the end of their driveway and saw the lights on it was a lot of effort to remember to get the baby out of the car first, not just go running in there willy-nilly. Still, after four years, it was pretty amazing to go running up to the front door in my little travelling outfit, baby squished in my arms (and totally confused at being woken up and then taken JOGGING), to hug first my sisters, then my dad, then my mama. So wonderful to see them after so many years.

All of my sisters are grown up girls. It is amazing. And they LOVED Piper, which is even better. Boy, she sure got a lot of love when she visited!

I made myself useful: we cooked a dinner for my folks, I made cupcakes and a cake (though my mom absolutely kills at cake-making, so I should have stuck with a pavlova or something), and I even helped my dad out by driving the tractor behind him so he could shovel gravel into the potholes in the driveway. Yep. I drove a tractor. I even got to third gear! (Well, it was still pretty slow).

The rest of the trip was short but crammed with visiting. I met my family's church friends, celebrated my mom's birthday party in style (J3 and I made her a tombstone cake, complete with "RIP" and fifty black candles mourning the death of her youth – her idea, not mine!), went fabric shopping with my Aunt Rose, forced W to tell me about her crush over icecream (where I ran into a friend from junior high!), bought a panda hat for J4 with little claw mittens that are attached (!), did a late-night talk and Dutch Bros run with J3, and spent far too little time with J2, who was busy with family of her own. I understand, but I'd still hoped to take her out for coffee or lunch! I got to visit with my cousins Matthew, Jonothan, Angela and even briefly Adam. I got to cuddle my nephew Johnny and my nieces Sissy, Jayden, and for a precious half-hour, little Maggie, who is just so tiny. (Piper was never that tiny!) We visited my Grandma D and saw my Grandma B a couple of times, and though it is never enough, the time I have with my family, it is always precious.

I also visited my grandfather's grave. I don't take flowers to his grave, but he wasn't much for flowers anyway. I think I'm the only member of my family who goes up there. I cleaned his gravestone and told him about Piper, about where I live now, what I'm doing. I like to think he'd like my visits, but I don't visit for him. I go up there for me. He is buried on the hill under a tree and the sun shone so brightly during my visit that it made the trees ache with color.

On our last day in Oregon, we drove north quietly, and I thought about why it didn't feel like home. I clearly don't belong in rural Southern Oregon anymore. I'm from there but not an Oregonian. I documented our last day there: the maple bar from The Happy Donut, coffee from Pony Espresso (my high-school haunt!), breakfast at Brail's, a quick lunch at Cafe Yumm!, a pit stop at Starbucks in Keizer, then the horror of Piper throwing up everywhere and us nearly missing the flight. I left Oregon in a hurry, panicked and perspiring. I was relieved to get to Los Angeles, relieved to be on the flight to Sydney, and more relieved to discover that our checking in at the Alaskan Airlines gate meant we'd been put into premium economy! We had leg room! Consequently, Piper slept for ten of the fourteen hours of that flight (as did we).THAT is a good international flight! I had a good visit but I felt alien, other. Not American, no matter what my passport says. I felt weird.

But all of that displaced feeling disappeared when we finally landed in Sydney. I miss my family terribly. But I was home. And the shape of the gum trees scabbing the land beneath the plane was a welcome sight; the sticky air that enveloped us as soon as we walked off the plane a breath of life to our dried-out lungs; the shriek and chatter of the birds a glorious refrain. We cleared customs in no time flat, got on a train, and met Mr Poppleton's parents at the café to catch up and say hello. Home. Home where I can unpack and lovingly gaze at my new sewing stuff, home where the air smells just musky and just sweet, home where the cockatoos strut up and down my balcony like the cheeky devils they are. I used to think the birds here made such a racket. Now I've come to realize, all the other birds are just too quiet.

I am so glad to be home. But I am so glad to have gone, too.

It was a good trip.

Americaaaaaa

Well, we are here. It feels so strange; I'm from this country but it feels quite foreign. In the customs line I was coaching myself on how to speak like an American: untwist my vowels, flatten and straighten my words, find all the Rs and Ts. I don't really know what to do with myself just yet.

But, we have only just arrived! It is sunny and coldish here in LA (basically, perfect weather) and I had a dreamboat baby for the flight. She was so good...especially since she decided to CUT A TOOTH. Not even kidding! It's just a little speck in her mouth but hey, it's through!

Right now I am counting down the hours until I get to see my best friend and those hours grow shorter and shorter. I'm unbelievably excited. I have been looking forward to this part for MONTHS.

So: good flight, good baby, new tooth (!), and we are tired but that's why they invented under-eye concealer! To Idaho we go!

Settling.

We settled yesterday. I picked up keys at 3:30pm. The house is ours.

I am literally sitting in the car in the driveway making lists of all the packing we have to do this afternoon for our trip tomorrow. I'm not even in our house. I just want to be near it.

Gah, life is GOOD.

Manic Monday!

Oh well. WELL. How on earth did this week creep up on me? It's THE week. We settle on the house tomorrow, we leave on Thursday...egad!

We had our last inspection before settlement this morning, and to our delight, there were beautiful roses blooming on the path up to the house! I'd never seen our house in the sunshine, owing to this absolutely crappy summer we're having, but the house was so much lovelier in sunlight. I mean, the carpets are still ugly and a colony of spiders have staked a claim on the back porch, but it's OURS. I pointed out the design wall to Mr Poppleton and he said, "ooh, it looks fancy." (It's going to be a blank piece of batting...and it's covering a very UGLY wall!) I can't wait to finish it...and move in...and wake up to the sunshine streaming in through our east-facing bedroom window...and have breakfast in the new kitchen...so many wonderful things I can't wait for! As we left, Mr Poppleton remarked, "It feels more and more like OURS every time we visit." I know exactly what he means. That familiarity is creating attachment.

In 22 hours, though, it will be ours! So not much more waiting at all!

But before we can get started on the renovations, we have our trip! We're first swinging by my best friend's house for a few days. I have a lot of family in that part of the world so it's always a lot of fun to catch up with everyone! I have a few things on my list when we get to that part of the world. (Flying M, Hyde Park Books, any modern patchwork shop I can get to...) Then we scoot over to my Mom's for her birthday celebration and some time with the family there! All in all we'll be there just thirteen days, with two for travelling (why oh why haven't they invented teleportation yet?!) I wish we could stay for a longer period of time, but we must get the renovations underway. Any extra week we're not in the house is a week we're paying rent on the unit...and I'm a miser. I'd rather spend that money on fabric. Or a new bathroom. OR ANYTHING BUT RENT! (I hate renting.)

But before our trip we have the busiest week ever! We have dinner tonight with friends, Piper has injections tomorrow, and Wednesday is Spiders' Group. So it's going to be heaps crazy. I am just a dud today - can't focus or get anything really done, so I'm embracing my inner bad parent: we're watching Disney movies and I'm doing some odds and ends, pre-packing, stuff like that. Tomorrow I'll pick up the pace, but for now, it's fine to be lazy. Right?

I'll leave on this note - lest you all think I have a perfectly smiley baby, let me illustrate how hard she fights bedtimes. This is her Square Face. I love it, and it IS adorbs...even if it means she is sometimes cranky!

I know the feeling, kiddo! This is how I feel about the next three days. GUH.

I will try to blog before we get on our plane; until next time, cheers and enjoy your week!

a one-woman sweatshop

Okay, I missed WiP Wednesday which is just CRAY CRAY, right? I love it and I love to link up to it and I completely spaced it. I am sorry! I have been super bad with blogging but I have a list of compelling excuses reasons for not blogging! Preparing for a house settlement, renovation, my mom's birthday and a major overseas trip with my nearly 6mo old daughter count right?

I worked like crazy this week and in addition to everything I completed last week, I finished two more! I don't have proper pictures yet but I am officially done with the quilts I'm taking over to my family. So let's do a round-up of who is getting what!

• J3 is getting the Walk in the Woods quilt
• J5 is getting the Ultraviolet quilt
• Baby Maggie is getting Stepping Stones 
• My mom is getting the Tower of Roses quilt

My quilting to-do pile now looks like this:

My done quilts pile looks like this!

I will be honest: I feel completely at a loss for what to spend my afternoon doing.

It was time for a non-quilting sewing project so I opted to make a little bag for Piper's nappy clean-bags. I tried out my new invisible zipper foot and, guys? IT IS AMAZING. I will put invisible zippers in EVERYTHING. FOREVER.

SO CUTE.

I finished my last quilt this afternoon. It looks so great! J3 is excited and I am excited too. I love the way it turned out.

I especially love the binding - it was worth the trip to Hobbysew to pick up more of it! I also took the opportunity to sign up for the two-day quilting workshop with Deb Louie! It's in May, which is soon(ish) but I'm really looking forward to it.

This afternoon I should be finding something to do...because check out the nap this kid is swimming through. Two hours and counting! I love it when she has a nice big feed and falls asleep. She doesn't roll over in her sleep (thankfully...YET...!) so I just leave her on the couch and let her snooze.

Shoes on, arms up, cutest baby in the world.

I might make myself a cup of tea!

We stocked up last weekend. I love T2 and I think their tea is just beautiful - not only to drink but also to look at!

Finally, we might be the dorkiest family ever, but yes: we have matching shoes. And it is awesome. Piper's, naturally, are the cutest.

That's it for me! I guess I'd better go dig out some blocks and start piecing another top or two. Might a well get the ball rolling on my new to-quilt pile!

Enjoy your weekend! :)

Saturdays are lovely.

I do love this crummy weather we are experiencing here in Sydney. This summer has been cool, grey, and wonderful! I don't feel at all put out that we've missed out on sweltering humidity and billions of mosquitos.

Weather aside, today is a good day for errands. We had coffee with our beautiful friend Robyn this morning, and now that our crabby baby has been fed and is slumbering, we can run to Drummoyne to grab a few trip-related things. I think I'm good for winter clothes, but I do need new shoes. Who knew being pregnant actually changes your shoe size? (Okay, everyone, apparently.) I'll also take the opportunity to run to Material Obsession for a quick squiz.

Then home, to finish cleaning my dusty palace. We are only going to be here a few months more, but I mustn't let the cleaning go now! So today's weather is perfect: cloudy, cold, and grizzle-grey. It's even better with my family close by. All those cuddles!

Onward we go!