Catch up.

Hooking: An enormous flower. Two strands of eight ply held together, a six mm hook and a very sore elbow. Loving the chunky factor though.

Eating: Coriander on everything. Fresh out of the kitchen garden.

All my life I hated the stuff. Except for the nine months of each pregnancy when I loved it. For some reason after Miss Pepper was born I was surprised to find that I still love it. LOVE it!

So at the moment I'm making up for lost time and eating it on everything. Oh my that smell, that taste. YUM!

Sewing: I'm starting to cut big squares out of old sheets to sew together and make new sheets for the caravan. It's going to be one mixy-matchy patchy van, that's for sure.

Singing and dancing and walking and playing: We are loving our bush kinder morning so much. We had a ball this morning in the Autumn sunshine but we loved it last week in the rain too.

Squealing with delight: I was going to say squealing at the best present ever from Bren's Mum, but of course she already gave me that about 15 years ago.

I have been researching which interchangeable knitting needles to buy for months now but have been overwhelmed and unable to decide. Can you imagine how thrilled I was the other day when she sent these home for me.

Thanks so much Rene!

Knitting: Another Farmer Boy beanie.

Cooking: Apple leather, tofu schnitzels and pear crumble.

Also knitting: A sleeve. Three plains, two purls, three plains, two purls, three plains....

Reading: This book. Holey Moley.

Loving: Miss Jazzy's huge smile while singing at assembly this morning, positive reports from my Dad's heart surgeon, Pepper's caravan obsession, coffee, my Farmer Boy, the thought that there is only just over a month left of this routine, the new Indi, sunny days, neat stacks of split fire wood...

So that's me. Well the part of it I feel like talking about here anyway.

What are you up to?

Ciao. x

Twirling.

I've just gotten back from a whirl wind, 26 hour trip to Melbourne. I had a ball catching up with lots of crafty bloggy girlies, walking the city streets, hanging out with the parentals and drinking lots of great coffee.

Before I go and get changed into my Farmer Kate clothes I thought you might like to see the new skirt I made last Thursday.

I made it from some of the fabric scraps Michelle sent me. I didn't have enough of either the grey or the red to make an entire skirt so I mixed and matched. Like the red skirt it has a zipper fastener, a lined facing, three layers and a couple of darts.

It is very full, almost tutu like and pretty short and boy is it fun to wear. After my Mum and a couple of my bossy sisters assured me that I am not too old to wear such a skirt I decided to make some more and wear them often.

This skirt makes me feel happy and twirly and dancy.

It doesn't make me want to stack wood, or comb lice out of hair, or deal with crate loads of apples and pears and persimmons, or make dinner and play Uno though, so I'd better go and get changed. Jeans and a hoodie here I come.

Have fun y'all.

Land ahoy!

This is me at school pick up time today.

I was wearing my current winter school Mum uniform (as opposed to my farmer girl and Melbourne city girl uniforms). My Hunter boots, stripey leggings, a skirt, jumper, scarf and that's my puffy jacket on the ground over there.

Earlier this morning I had seen myself in a shop window wearing the same thing but a black skirt and thought; How boring! You need a bit of colour to brighten up your day Miss Kate!

So I came home and instead of hanging out the washing or soaking the beans for dinner, I made myself a red skirt.

It has one zipper, three layers, four darts, no unflattering elastic, a lined waist band and it is red! I didn't use a pattern but sort of took it off and on and made adjustments along the way.

If you ever see a dress making dummy that needs a loving home, please let me know.

And it twirls and whirls like the best skirts do! This afternoon Miss Jazzy told me to stop twirling though as I was embarrassing her.

I think I need one in every colour.

Ok, stitched, worn, twirled, blogged, off to finish the beans for tacos.

Do you wear the same thing most days? Do you have a uniform? A theme? What are you having for dinner tonight?

Bye bye. X

Thanks for the pic Meg. x

Makings in macro.

I declared yesterday a housewife day. All day long I cooked and cleaned and washed and baked and shopped. That meant that today after bush kinder I had a chance to play with my new, but very late, birthday present macro lens.

What a great way to show you what I've been making.

Knitting the sleeve of my Ruby Red Ribbed.

Crocheting the hem of my Farmer boy's pillow case.

Baking afternoon tea cookies.

Ahem.

Mama and baby.

The very first photo I took with my new macro lens once I got it home was of these #$%^&ers. I guess they have become immune to that essential oil mix spray I've been swearing by for months now. Bum!!

Knitting Farmer Bren another beanie. Man it's cold here.

Playing around with some crochet.

Book marking ideas for brooches.

Sewing manchester for the caravan.

And washing and combing Miss Pepper's hair. It is long! Past her bum-bum now. I'm not cutting it though. No way! She's my last baby and I'm hanging on to that new born hair for as long as I can.

So that's me.

What are you making?

Bye now. xx

Committing.

For obvious reasons I've been thinking about life and death a lot over the past few weeks. More specifically, I've been thinking a lot about the decisions and plans people make when they think they are going to die, or when they get a second chance at life. Plans to jump out of planes, to travel to far away places and to follow dreams and loves.

It's got me thinking about how I want to live my life and that I don't want to wait for something catastrophic to happen before I realise my dreams and live my life to the fullest.

So what do I really want to do?

I really want to go on this caravan adventure we've been planning. I really want to commit to going. To get excited and make plans and let go of the guilt and fear that's holding me back.

Yep, I feel guilty.

Why do we deserve to take off on a four to six month holiday?

We're just coming out of the worst organic farming season we've experienced since we've been here. We've only been doing the Daylesford Organics thing for 10 years. People wait their entire working lives to take such a trip. And we're leaving the farmer boys behind to work on our property while we go on holidays...

And I'm scared.

How am I ever going to get this house organised and clean enough to leave it to another family? What if our itinerary is too ambitious? What if my children drive me crazy? What if I run out of yarn? What if someone gets a cough or snores and I never get to sleep? What if it rains and rains and we are stuck in the caravan for days? What if something bad happens at home? What if Indi and Jazzy fall too far behind at school and have troubles next year...

Ok, now I've written it all down I'm leaving it here and moving on. From now on I'm going to be enthusiastic and excited. Tomorrow I'll write a to-do list and over the next 40ish days I'm going to work through it.

I am really going to try not going to coast through my life any more and I certainly don't want to wait until something bad happens to live my life to the fullest.

I know for sure that if I were to write a list here of all the positives of our travel plans, I could fill four blog posts.

So let the adventures begin!

Have a fabulous week y'all.

PS. The top two pics are of the vintage sheet pillow case I made my Dad. I'm about to retire to the couch to crochet the edge of Farmer Bren's which is the same.

The third pic is of our heart shaped Melbourne afternoon waiting for our la'heart'tes and h'eart' chocolates with my folks in the city this afternoon.

Heart shaped.

Wheat heart hottie.

Morning la'heart'tte.

My first born heart.

Milo heart for a brand new baby Otis.

Ravelled.

My sewing scraps heart.

Shopping heart list.

Pierre's Chook love art.

I called my Dad this morning to ask him how he was going.

He told me he was doing well.

He also told me there have been ups and downs and that he has always told his patients that recovery is never a straight line.

May your weekend be heart shaped.

♥♥♥♥

First day.

Mum's pic

I knew as soon as I opened my eyes this morning that today was a special day. I went through the motions of breakfasts, lunch boxes, hair plaiting, Melbourne clothes, but my head was somewhere else. Today was the first day of the rest of my Dad's life. This journey to Melbourne would be very different to my last.

We took a train to the city, Mum picked us up, we had coffee and beans on toast in Fitzroy with Emily and then waited.

Then it was time to pick Dad up from the hospital. It was scary and exciting. How amazing that only nine days ago he had had his heart opened up and re-plumbed and here we were about to take him home with us. How amazing that the constant fear of the disease that had killed his father, would no longer be a part of his life.

I walked into the hospital just as he was checking out. I saw him from behind and I recognised his clothes but not his shape. His pants and shirt didn't seem to fit him anymore. I remember being so careful not to hurt him when I hugged him.

The guy at the desk was asking him if he wanted him to cut off his wrist band and my Dad looked at me and said This is when I stop being a patient and start to be a person again. It felt huge walking out of that hospital with him. Carrying his bag as he navigated his first stairs, the footpath and then the car.

We brought him home. He was cold and my Mum wrapped him up in a rug. He looked skinny but he had colour in his cheeks and he was hungry. He was home. He was ours. Her husband, my Dad, her Ra.

My Mum made him lunch and me and Indi went walking.

She is obsessed with graff(iti) my girl is. Most of my next hour was spent down city alleys, looking at her back as she ooed and aahed and that's so cooled and snapped pics.

We bought coffee and sushi for the train and went back to the flat. Dad was asleep and Mum drove us to the station.

As we sat on the train about to leave he called. He was crying. He was so moved that we had come all the way to Melbourne to be with him and to celebrate his second chance at life and yet he hadn't said goodbye. I offered to get off the train but then reminded him of how much time we have ahead of us, especially when they move across the road.

All the way home I thought about the link between the physical and emotional heart. How deeply connected they are. If not the same.

So that's it. We're home. My own heart feels full and happy and relieved. Grateful doesn't seem like a big enough word this time.

Thank you so much for joining us on this journey. I'm hoping the rest of the story is really boring, textbook recovery stuff. Red wine, eggs, lots of walking, avocados, beans and so much love.

I hope you've had a great day too. xx

16 C's.

Colourful cup collection for the caravan.

Cookies made using my Mum's old biscuit press, using Lee's recipe immediately after reading this post.

They really don't look the prettiest but I haven't heard a single complaint from any of the gobbler uperers.

The third cabled baby Milo I've knitted in as many weeks.

The crappy disaster that happened when I tried to sew a pair of pants this morning. Think inside out and back to front and upside down.

The cheeky face that's getting in every photo I try to take.

I'm having a capital C for crappy day. Nothing big, just one of those days. Everything seems too big, too hard. I'm too tired. I can't be bothered. I'm needing those overemotional homeopathics too often. You wouldn't believe how many things I've dropped. I hung up on the poor man ringing from India about our electricity bill. My hair is really annoying me.

Once the pizza dough has finished mixing I'll pop it near the fire to rise and hop in the bath with the littlest. Isn't there a song about washing your cares away?

I'm going to Melbourne in the morning with Indi. My Dad is most probably getting out of hospital. Hooray!! We'll catch an early train, hang out with M and D, drink some coffee, maybe watch a film and then head home. That will be fun.

I can't wait for about 8.30 tonight when the girls are in bed, the dinner dishes are done and I can curl up on the couch in front of the fire with my boy and knit. Bring it on.

How are you?

xx

Happy Monday!

Have I ever told you that my Dad emails all his girls every Monday morning to wish us a wonderful week? Well he does. The last two have come through my Mum, but I can hardly wait to get his again next week.

So a happy Monday from me to you all too. I hope you have a fantastic and creative week.

Here a some of the things that are making me smile this chilly Monday morning:

What an awesome transformation our caravan took when the outside stripes were painted blue.

Farmer Bren's homeopathics kit. He did a first aid course recently, so now if you are overemotional, if you can't sleep, fall off the trapeze, or have a nasty cold; has he got the remedy for you.

I adore these three morning scribbles. Miss Indi's version of a Foxs Lane logo. Did you notice how similar it is to the Daylesford Organics one? I like it. Miss Pepper's portrait of me. Eeeeeeep, I am ridiculously excited to have these big headed people drawings in our house again, I can feel a screen printing session coming on. And Miss Jazzy's butterfly catcher. I love how dreamy that kid still is.

I have been smiling while reading through all the Genki T'shirt entries. I love all the crafty plans being cooked up.

The winner of the T'shirt is Fiona from Inner Pickle. Hooray!!!!!

You should totally check out Fiona's gorgeous blog and her knitted and crocheted cowls.

I am smiling about pretty little packages in the mail. Thanks Kate. x

And I'm a loving putting together piles of fabric suitable for boy pillowcases. Farmer Bren and Farmdoc, looks like it's your turn.

So that's me.

What's making you smile? I'd love to know.

Have a funday and keep warm xx

house/heart keeping.

I'm home!

The heart bubble has burst and I'm back to brush hair, do laundry, make food and turn off lights. They missed me terribly which is a great thing. Miss Pepper took a long, hard look at me and told me I still look gorgeous. Phew. Jazzy keeps asking me to spell icup (get it?!) and Indi wont stop cuddling me.

Life goes on here. There are so many stories and questions and jokes and fights and needs.

But its like there is a loooooooooong string tied between my heart and those of my parents. And while I am busy with life here, an enormous chunk of my heart is there. I never usually answer the phone but today I am. I am waiting anxiously for a scrap of news. Anything.

I am at home but I also feel far away.

Last weekend before I left for Melbourne I made Miss Pepper her caravan pillow case from a pile of fabrics she had chosen.

I wish I was brave enough to chose fabrics like she does. The brighter and more patterned the better.

She chose red for the crocheted trim.

At night while I was away I liked to think of two of my girlies fast asleep on their Mama made pillow cases. It was almost the next best thing to being able to kiss them goodnight.

Indi's is next but she's still undecided about what she wants.

I've got a yukky cold so this is probably the best place for me. I'm drinking coffee I brought back from Melbourne, knitting rows of Miss Ruby Rib, making toasties for lunch, cuddling my darlings and trying to be a patient, enthusiastic Mama.

It's such a shame blogger gobbled up the comments from my last post as I was looking forward to showing them to my Dad. As a blogger himself he totally gets it. But nevertheless I read them and appreciated them and thank you for them.

And finally, due to blogger's tantrum yesterday, I think I'll leave the Genki giveaway open for a little bit longer. Enter here and I'll choose a winner on Monday.

I hope you have the most wonderful weekend.

xx