Want to Visit?

This week my Pete and I ate our dinner at the Strand while we watched the sunset.

It was a little chilly, but it was beautiful.

This was the view over my kebab.

You can visit there too. You can go there right now. Go to googlemaps. Write this address:

The Strand, North Ward, Qld, 4810, Australia 

and then click street view. You can even see the very bench where we sat and ate and thought about life.

How amazing is that?

Warning: This is also slightly addictive…

Ponytail

Pip has taken to wearing a ponytail in his hair…

while doing manly things, such as mowing.

Stomper girl was recently musing about cool. What is it, how do you get it?

You just wear a ponytail…

Finished and Bound

I love it when I add the binding to a quilt. All the edges are neatly tucked inside a tightly stitched layer of fabric. It means that the job is finished.

This quilt is just lovely. I have worked on it throught the turmoil of the last month. Stitched into it are many thoughts about life. When I stitch by hand I imbue the quilt with a memory of that time. Every time I pick up a handstitched quilt my mind returns to the time when I worked on it. Maybe I remember a movie that I saw while stitching or a feeling that I had while thinking. Handstitching gives my mind a lot of time to wander.

I’d love to show you this quilt, but it is a commission. It will appear in a magazine at a future date. I’ll let you know when that is. Until then you’ll have to be satisfied with a sneak peak. SShhhhh.

On the Move

A couple of weeks ago my Pete had to take our computers to our computer guy for repair. While he was there he decided we need to upgrade.

My Pete is never one to do thing by halves. New computers means that we need new computer chairs, new computer chairs mean that we need a new computer desk. So…after visiting our computer guy my Pete hurried off to the office furniture store to buy not one, but two enormous desks. This week he brought them home in the trailer and began to construct them.

Inside the box were the panels he would need…

Lots of screws and important metal components…

and these instructions.

You put the back on the back, the sides on the sides and the top on the top.

Right, then…

A Gift

Some time in the past week a gift arrived from afar.

A parcel which contained a beautiful, girly bag. Just the thing for a girly girl like me.

I knew the bag was meant for me because a string of beads announced its ownership.

It gets better because inside the bag there were…

ribbons, trims and buttons aplenty. (There were some chocolates too, but they didn’t last long enough to be photographed.)

And, do you notice something special in there? Something remarkably thoughful?

A beauiful red lady beetle button. I know just what to do with this! It is perfect.

Thank you Dotty Cookie. You have made my day.

Acknowledging

Please excuse my absence from my blog and from yours. The past month has lasted a year for me. I have had to make decisions and take actions that I had never even considered. I have questioned my role as a parent, as a friend and even as a person in doing so.

This week I sent my sobbing, heart-broken daughter back to France. She went because I asked her to go. I made a decision for her knowing that it was beyond her capacity right now to decide for herself. I held her hand, I stroked her hair and I made a decision that I know was the right one. I don’t feel any satisfaction in making it. I don’t feel justified or right. I feel like the air is too thin to breathe and the sun is too cold to warm me. I lay exhausted in bed unable to find sleep as I think of her flying alone for almost thirty hours to a place that she believes she doesn’t want to be and to people she believes she doesn’t want to see.

In seven short weeks we will be in France with her. The world will turn so many times between now and then, and every turn brings change. I know that she is clinging to that timeline as tightly as I am. I am wishing time away to get me closer to my own thirty hour flight.

I spent one day this week re-reading my blog. I am surprised at how I often write with honesty. I have a filter here, I could choose not to publish my every thought. I am finding, though, that I cannot write anything, until this is written. These thoughts are consuming too much of my mind and writing them here is intended to relieve them.

I hope to be back to myself soon. I want to think about other stuff now.

We apologise…

for this break in transmission while BOTH of our computers are repaired! In the same week one needs a new cooling fan and one needs a new power pack. (that sounds computer-y) Don’t think that, in light of my previous post, the irony of having two broken computers in one week is lost on me.

…sigh…

See you soon!

PS. Stomper – with having no computer to read I decided to read Twilight. It was slow to start, but I didn’t go to sleep last night until the book was finished. I have already started the second one. I’m off to read again now!

This amuses me…

I have just spent two days training for an IT leadership role in my everyday job. I hope I don’t have to work with Angsar. (Although I fear that I may…)

On the Weekend

On the weekend Pip hacksawed a log (too big to be a stick!) so that it would fit into the bin.

My Pete rebuilt a fish tank.

Ashleigh read giant books that her favourite authors have published in English while she has lived in France.

I indulged in hand-stitching (and photography)…

and just felt thankful for the ordinary.

Memeeting my Obligations

An age ago M of Easternmax asked me to complete a meme. Life intervened and I have been slow to respond, but I have not forgotten my obligation – so here it is:

Six places I have lived: Rockhampton in Queensland (I was born there), Townsville in Queensland, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane – it’s only five, but as far as I am aware it is the complete list.

What I was doing ten years ago: Our house was just six months old and we were busy, busy, busy. We were establishing our home and gardens, working full-time, parenting full-time.

Ashleigh, the ever-fashionable, was seven…

and Pip, the ever-cheeky, was three.

We had our hands full, but it was an exciting time for us. My most sincere wish is that I could have had a digital camera and a blog at that time. We were all so happy. I am most proud of the fact that my Pete and I have been able to give our kids a happy life. In every photo I see their happy, confident faces, each with their own personality shining through.

Five things on my to-do list today: Buy some thread (done), go with my Pete to the pet shop to buy more fish (done), washing (two loads done, more tomorrow), hand-stitching on my quilt (an on-going job), pick Ashleigh up from her friend’s house. (I’ll do this in about half an hour).

Snack I like to eat: dried pineapple, paw-paw and raisins, blanched almonds, oranges (but only navel oranges), strawberries, lindt chocolate.

If I was a billionaire: I’ve broken this into three sections.

philanthropic: I’d set up a charity to purchase quality children’s books and provide them to famiies who need support. I hate to think that anyone considers books as a luxury – they are a necessity. I’d set up some scholarships to support students who have to move a long way from home to study in their chosen area.

family: no member of my family would have a mortgage and they’d have access to all the funds that they needed to travel. They could take care of their day to day expenses themselves. Billionaires are harsh like that.

selfish: I’d buy a warehouse in a trendy place and get my Pete to design a renovation to make it our studio home. I’d invite Kevin McCloud to record its progress. He would say it was the most exquisite design he had even witnessed. We’d live in our studio home forever and create beautiful art every single day while we listen to music on the most kick-arse stereo system in the entire world.

Lastly I am going to leave you with a most beautiful song. This is not technically part of the meme, but it is on a loop in my head right now, so I thought I’d share it.

I know I’m late to the party here and most of you have already done this meme, but if you haven’t it is yours!

PS thanks for my birthday wishes too. I had a lovely day. Having the four of us together was unexpected, but highly appreciated.