slow saturdays

We’re taking it slow today. It is hot and humid and a cyclone might me on its way. There is an unrelated storm coming too!

We have been downing lots of icy drinks.

  … and eating pita pizzas cooked under the grill.

Icy poles have been popular with the two littler folk too.

All this while watching the storm clouds roll in. Beautiful.

I love watching storms. I love the sound of thunder – well I love it until it gets too scary. I love watching lightning crack on the horizon too. I have so many fond memories of living in Darwin, sitting on the beach watching the afternoon storms roll in during the wet season. Sensational. Such a dramatic landscape. We don’t get that many storms here in Perth.

I am so grateful for slow Saturdays. Those kind of Saturdays where everyone can just be. Lovely.

Gratefulness abounds @ Maxabella’s.

yesterday

my boy turned 4!

Where did that time go? Wasn’t it just yesterday I was holding him to my chest for the very first time, his little fingers wrapped around mine? My my. I am so proud of him. He is kind, thoughtful, imaginative and playful.

We had a little party to celebrate.

There were cupcakes, fairy bread and lollies. We had fruit skewers too.

There were four candles on an ice cream cake, and we all sang Happy Birthday really really loudly because we love E. so much.

E’s dada organised pass the parcel, a game of cricket and lots of pool time fun too. Everyone had a blast. 

… and today? Today we’re going to practice riding his new bike. What fun and adventures lay ahead.

Happy birthday my dearest sweet boy. There are not the words to tell you just how much I love you.

so very grateful

This week I am so very grateful to know that Kylie @ 3 Sheets is a-okay. I received the most darling parcel from her the very day Brisbane started to flood. It didn’t take me long to notice that the people in the suburb Kylie lives in were being advised to prepare and evacuate. I couldn’t bring myself to open the package until I knew she was okay. In hindsight that seems quite strange but at the time I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. Odd no?

Inside the parcel, patiently waiting for me to open it, was this most gorgeous dress. It has been made so beautifully. So many delightful details. Lovely!!!

I am so very grateful that Kylie was generous enough to gift this dress to me, but so much more grateful to learn that Kylie and her family are alright. Phew.

Gratefulness abounds @ Maxabella’s.

summer daze

It has been a fortnight since I’ve popped by to blog. I took the liberty of indulging in an impulsive bloggy holiday – and have much to catch up on. It has been nice relaxing in a summer daze – a lovely way to revitalise and start what will undoubtedly be a very busy year.

So what have we been up to?

Well not much really. Lounging about under clear blue skies.

Mowing the lawns.

Running over sprinklers and listening to squeals of delight.

The meat eaters have been bbq-ing their breakfasts and relishing the freshness of summer morning, while I enjoy my weet-bix with sliced banana…

… and of course there has been lots of swimming and frolicking in the pool and at the beach too. 

We have left the house. Already in 2011 we’ve visited the museum, the aquarium and the zoo.

And there has been a little crafting going on too… not much though – the tiniest bit of hooking and some stitching whilst watching the flooding events unfold in the eastern states.

So there you go. The first fortnight of the new year has been spent relaxing and reviving but now alas it is time to get our groove back on… 2011 here we come.

favourite fifteen

These are fifteen of my favourite pics from last year’s 365 – a photo a day project. They’re fifteen favourites today anyhow. On different days I have different favourites – seeing different aspects of the images deepening on my emotional state.

I started the project on a whim after reading this post on Megan’s blog at the start of 2010. I thought  “hey why not? I’ll give that a go”. I didn’t fully understand what huge challenge it actually was and I paid no consideration to what I actually wanted to get out of the project. There were times when the challenge was a burden and a frustration, and other times when it enabled me to see things that in other circumstances I would have taken for granted.

Over the 365 days I missed fifteen days in total – pretty good really.  Today for the first time in twelve months I didn’t take a single photo and I didn’t worry about it all. Fabulous. I’m looking forward to taking more photos – but just because I want too, because I am filled with inspiration, not because I’m meeting a challenge.

Nonetheless I’m glad I did it. I might even do it again one day.

01.01.11

Well here we are at the start of another new year.

Is it just me or are they passing quicker? (…and to you young ones out there you’ll be making exclamations like that too one day so stop sniggering!!!)

We had a lovely first day of the decade and year. A brilliant last day of the week. Yep – we were poolside and beach bound again today. Geez I love summer.

 

… and geez my family were being difficult about having their photo taken today! Humpf! Not to worry – there will be plenty more opportunities to get happy snaps this year.

2010 was the year of the “a day” challenge for me. There was the ‘a photo a day challenge’ and the ‘granny a day challenge’, and then there was also the monthly sewing challenge. This year I’ll be taking a different creative direction and just mixing it up a bit. All the challenges were awesome – teaching me new skills and more interestingly showed me parts of myself – in particular discipline – that I just didn’t even imagine existed.

I found writing down some goals at the start of last year really useful, and whilst I didn’t attain all my ambitions even knowing what I didn’t have time for is beneficial… because I can put it on this year’s list!

So here goes for my 2011 creative goals:

Crochet: hook something for myself to wear, a blanket for Ms. M

Sewing: make more things for myself, learn to use knitted fabric, have a go using a twin needle

Embroidery:  keep practicing french knots and smock something!

Photography: do online photography course and spend more time learning about photoshop

Printing: get back into it!

Around the home: finish the native garden at the front of our house, paint the house, paint my bedroom, paint the lounge room. Blah! …oh yeah – and get a new oven.

Overall they’re pretty vague goals but I don’t want to be so regimented this year … I want to go more with the flow.

Cheers to a creative 2011.