plunket & portraits

you may have noticed in the previous post that sweet D'Arlo looks a little cross-eyed. well plunket (bless their fantastic confidence-building abilities) pointed out at the last visit he has a 'suspected squint'. *deflate* (i thought he was beautiful and perfect)

anyway, since pointing this out his dear sweet big sister has been churning out real-to-life portraits:

i'm not sure whether to laugh...or to cry!

(the stuff hanging out of his mouth is drool, also mentioned in previous post. i promise he's sweeter in real life!)

baby cool

out of nowhere Danny Arlo has become the reigning world champ of droooool (ack! teeth already??!!) and Because He's My Last (it really isn't that big of a deal to me...can you tell? ha) i decided i didn't want him wearing la-de-da naff PP embroidered ones.


sooo, Ta-Da!


scarf bibs!

although, as expected, this is not an original thought...introducing Skibs.

wordless weekend

xo

MAKE my week #12

i am playing BobbyRobin's fun game of making something every week for the entire year of 2010. these 3 ladies are week 12's effort. (the poor lass on the right looks like she has something tumourous like growing her chest though...oops!)

is anyone else playing? i'd love to see what everyone else has created this week.

happy saturday!

xo

winter survival plan

i don't do well with winter. i must have a vit D defiency because i craaave sunshine.

sooooo, here's my plan to get through winter:

redecorate~!

yayayayay.

i'm feeling teal at the moment:

especially teal + red

which reminds me....this! :

an adorable free no-glue gift box from li'l magoolie. isn't it Just So...

..............

what is your strategy for getting through winter?

sneak peek

i'm so excited about MAKE my Week this week...

wanna peek?

i was dying a thousand million deaths of cuteness last night while i was making these.

just putting finishing touches on (but need to feed kids first!) so will reveal all as soon as poss

xo

dee is...

.... a baby hog.

well, only with my own babies. mostly.

seriously, i'm really reluctant to share my babies. with anyone! and not because i'm freakish about germs or anything...i just enjoy their warm little sweet-smelling bodies close to me so much that i can't bear to share! and if, by some unusual occurance, i do share the baby, i have a fantastic range of excuses to get them back - from "oh, time for a nappy change!" (even if i've only just changed him) to "oh, feed time!" (even if i've just fed him) to "oh, sleep time!" (even if i've just walked out of his bedroom from picking up from a nap)

i know, i know, i'm so mean, selfish, etc

too bad...he's my last :)

(oh and then there's my pet-peeve...which is having my babies be returned smelling like they've been baptised in the perfume section at the local department store. ack!)

mamahood #2

following on from yesterday's post - i LOVE this:

you tell this esty artist what you did on any given day and she'll draw it up for you!

i actually did it a couple of weeks ago because i wanted to have a go at doing something similar. besides the fact that i was stumped on what to draw for "breastfeed" i soon realised i'd need a fairly decent sized wall to hang it on as there was a LOT of stuff on that list!

a wonderful keepsake for when we're all alone and 80 (or to thrust smugly at our kids to prove that we actually did take care of them when they accuse us of doing differently!).

mamahood

i was talking to a first-time mother the other day who had gone from working a 50 hour week as a doctor to being a stay-at-home-mum. i asked how she was finding the transition. she remarked how tired she was and how little time she had and that it was "an achievement" if she got the laundry done on any given day.

i smiled because i understood. i remember feeling exactly the same way when Jada arrived.

i smiled also, because i think of how much busier life is now with four children. i smiled because i thought i was tired then (see above picture..."hey JR, take a picture of us both "sleeping"...yawn...i'm so tiiiiirrrred"... haha, pft! i mean, seriously there isn't one single wrinkle on that pretty little over-slept face - i'm referring to mine...wistfully! - sheesh). in fact, i think if i knew the mind-shattering depths of exhaustion i would reach in the years following this dreamy picture, i wouldn't have believed it could be possible for me to cope. i've honestly surprised myself. it's astounding what one person can consistently achieve in one day, on consistently 6 hours of broken sleep. even though the workload has increased with each child, it has somehow gotten easier also.

i guess you learn to redefine "achievements" and boy do you learn to juggle! and a lot of the time you simply just Do The Next Thing.

cu-ute!

remember my Twenty10 resolution to wear more dresses?

how cute is this?!

(do i lose Blogger Cool-Points if i let you know it's only $35 from The Warehouse?)

MAKE my Week #11

it's been a busy week. i designed this lil pirate in my sleep (as is usual for me!) on Sunday night and made him up on Monday evening after the kids went to bed.
i love how he turned out. he's been adopted by a family of 3 boys who didn't have any "dolls" and has been named Billy Bones (isn't that brilliant? love it)

i also had an order to make more of these tag dolls. a girly one and a boyish one. to be honest, i'm kind bored of making these and they're fiddly but they are always best-sellers.

and they still look so purty once all sewn up.

(BobbyRobin did a taggy creation this week too!)

xo

hello, autumn!

sheesh, you just jump the ditch for a second and when you get back, voila!

leaves! crunchy brown ones. everywhere!

in korea they say that the sky gets "higher" during autumn and it makes everyone wistful (some would say "beige" :) ) and filled with a longing for love. there must be something instinctual about love=warmth i suppose? *shrug*

autumn, to me, always feels like staring desperately out the back window of your parent's car (Holden Kingswood in my case) after they've picked you up from your Best Summer Holiday Ever, willing with every fibre for it not to be over, while knowing you are heading back to your Worst Nightmare Ever (girls boarding school in my case).

anyway here's crunchy brown leaves, high skies, wistfulness and lots of love-warmth (which is very eco-friendly after all i suppose, so gets two thumbs up from me)

xo

3 months later

guess which handsome little boy is 3 months old today?

this is the age when we stop saying his age in weeks and start saying months

(and just like that, we're back to trying to close those darned chapters again!)

and oi! we finally have some baby legs!!

yes, that's right..say it with me..."because he's my last".

you're catching on quick ~ :)

holiday snaps

...it was so wonderful to be in the South Island again and visiting my sister and her family at her own home...

oh, and i won't be "discovered" via last week's Woman's Day magazine after all. they only printed pics of the bride and groom.....pft!... :)

lessons from the land

Ty was horrified when he saw the pruning I had done in the garden yesterday.

"...but now we don't have a beautiful garden to look at!..."

and he was right, it does look awfully battered.

"I have to do it honey, so that it will look extra beautiful next spring and summer"

there are a million lessons about life and God in gardening.

.....

No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful.

Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace

for those who have been trained by it.

Hebrews 12.11

MAKE my Week #9 and #10

due to our wee excursion down (even further) under, i'm playing catch up

here's week 9:

my sister and i were able to paint from 9am until 4pm entirely uninterrupted. it was bliss. Danny Arlo loved it too (when he was awake!).

....

and week 10:

i made the girls their own slings to carry their dolls. these were a **huge** hit! they came about because i'd gone into Invercargill and forgotten to take Danny's sling with me (ack!). he's just a little guy, right? doesn't weigh that much, i can just carry him, right? wrong! he got heavy quick and wanted to go to sleep so badly but couldn't get comfy. soooo, i ended up going to the curtain section in the local department store and buying a lightweight end-of-roll fabric on special - $5 for 4.5m (perfect length!) - Danny was asleep within 3 minutes. for serious!

(oh, and then i walked past an uncomfortable a commercially produced sling in the baby section and it was priced at an astounding $130!!!! scandalous!) and because you only need half the width for a sling, the girls got the left-overs...everyone happy (especially my arms!)

.....

check out the Creation a Week for a Year instigator here

xo

and the winner is...

congrats dahlin!

email me and let me know your addy.

xo

thanks again to random.org

op shop hop

really hoping to make it inside a cute little

op shop at the local village (Tuatapere)

this afternoon. i've been drooling in the

window but so far we haven't caught it when it's

been open. i'm hoping it's full of delicious things

at ridiculous prices...wish me luck!! :)

if i find something lovely i might add it to the

giveaway.

anyone keen??

xo

Brrrrrrr Island

greetings from the deep dark south!! we almost didn't make the flight but that's a Whole Other Story (one that aged me at least 58 years. at least!).

yes, the fire has been cranking but company is well worth the weather conditions.

my sister has booked us both into art classes with this amazing artist (who also happens to be my sister's-husband's-father's-sister's-husband, or more simply put, my brother-in-laws's uncle, or even more simply, uncle wayne)

his skill is way way beyond my comprehension but i'm looking forward to being challenged and stretched another way. yay!

going away give away!

the 6 of us are off for a wee jaunt to the very south of the South Island to visit my sister who lives there. we'll be there until next thursday.
SUPER DUPER excited (but a lot to do before the 4:30am wake-up call tomorrow morning!)

soooo...in celebration of the once jet-setting rolstons making it back into an airport and onto an airplane i'm going give this sweet lil gal (pictured above) away.

you know the drill...leave me some love and i'll announce the lucky winner next friday (12th march)

see ya then! xo