Street walking
This weekend SNH, bub and I joined our lovely love-bird friends Robyn and Georgio on an Architecture Australia Assoc guided walk around Castle Cove, a suburb in Sydney’s north. Too admire and discover architecturally designed gems from the 50s, 60s (up to the 80s but we weren’t really interested in those). There are some super duper lovely mid-century modern houses in a relatively small area, all with amazing views to middle cove.
We had a lot of fun following our guide and standing on the sidewalk gawking at people’s houses. We plan to do it again on one of their other tours. It was very bub friendly, he happily sat in his pram and serenaded the group with ear splitting squeals and joyful yelling.
Design book competition
Just a quick update to let you know there is a competition over at the Australian Infront facebook page to win one of three copies of my book {Graphic Design} Australian Style Manual. It’s very simple to enter – just share the link on your own facebook site and hey presto! You’re in the running.
Foxy and the snag*
One sunday morning a month or so ago, I was marched out of the house for moaning about lack of time to myself (always being responsible for the baby, even if I am doing something for myself like shopping). After a few tears from me SNH told me to pack up my things and go do something by myself, he’ll look after the bub. At a complete loss of what to do, I headed in to Newtown and sat down to a luxurious lunch at Sushi Train. Luxurious because I wasn’t furiously stuffing food in my mouth, while simultaneously entertaining a baby on my lap and trying to get out of the restaurant as quickly as possible before said baby cracks the shits.
I then ate cakes from Black Star patisserie. Determined to purchase something for myself, I slowly browsed through every book shop on King St. Stopping to squee and text SNH when I found my book in Better Read Than Dead (very exciting!). But I soon became frustrated as every book I pulled off the shelves was for the bub. I seem to never really buy myself anything anymore, it’s always baby related. In a huff I got into my car and drove to Gleebooks in Dulwich Hill, hoping they would still have an interior decorating book in store I had seen months ago (they didn’t and I can’t remember the name to even order, poo!). But instead came away with two craft books for toy making! The first a book for knitting toys, KnitWit and the second a book for sewing toys, Hop Skip Jump by a lovely Australian blogger.
Yes, another purchase that would ultimately result in stuff for the baby but in the process I would have fun, feel crafty and get creative again. Exactly what I needed to brush off the baby-fog. So far I have sewn two of the toys and loved making them! They are very simple, yet beautifully designed so the final product looks quirky and lovely. The fantastic Mr Fox toy took a few evening to put together, with a lot of parts and fiddly pattern to cut out (I used left over curtain and quilt material to make him) and the sausage dog, Doris, was easily whipped up in less than a day.
They will live on baby’s bed, while not in use, for now until he is a little older and then I am sure they will get coated in a lovely layer of spittle from an appreciative bub.
Mr Fox and Doris are sitting on the quilt I made baby while I was pregnant. I will write a post about it another day, but it was my first quilt and a bit tricky and I finished it the day I went in to labour (talk about timing!).
Check out that ice cream cone night light! My fabulous sisters-in-law got it for bub for Xmas. Bless them, I must ask for some weird stuff and they take it all in their stride ‘Yes Astred, we’ll get your baby a 2 foot ice cream light for xmas…’
*Or alternative titles: ‘Toys, toys,toys (I’m looking for a good time)’, or ‘getting stuffed’
Looking back
As Archie gets older and every day develops more, he learns new things and as his personality emerges more and more I worry that I won’t remember every exact detail of what he was like as a little tiny baby. A lot of those first weeks are an absolute blur, even though the first few months felt like an eon. Years passed and he was only 2 months old.
I can still remember how he smelt at the very beginning. The cold mornings in bed when I would feed him and cuddle him as he slept, waiting for my mum to arrive to help me start the day. I remember the alert little baby that was always looking at things, trying to focus and understand the world. He was never a unfocussed, stare-y, not-there baby. If he was upset, all you had to do was take him outside and he would calm. To get anything done when I was by myself I would have to put him in the ergo and work around him – mainly it was just so I could make myself some breakfast!
He is now 19 weeks old – that’s 4 and a bit months – and is a hilarious, lovely, charming baby. He loves to stand (with assistance) and I spent a lovely and relaxing (ha ha) lunch at Bread and Circus last week, scoffing my lunch as he stood bouncing on my lap, drooling and yelling/singing at other café patrons. When they would look at him, he’d crack a huge smile and charm them utterly.
He blows raspberries, gives cuddles, chomps on air (that’s a new one today), is obsessed with our dog Knuckles (Dutch not so much), loves his change mat (squirms and giggles when you put him down, not very helpful when it’s particularly messy), is starting to self settle to go to sleep (sorta kinda!), recognises me and SNH, is getting MUCH better in the car and even falls asleep in his car seat most days (at a few weeks old car trips became harrowing experiences as he HATED the car/seat/who knows. A change of car seat and him getting a bit bigger has seemed to sort that out), stands with assistance (and loves it), sits up with assistance, has favoured toys, is always so serious when I pull out the camera, but giggles madly when SNH plays with him (melts my heart!).
In case we forget how little he once was, my lovely friend Ruth gave a baby shower gift of a photo shoot, to help us remember.
Ruth is an amazing photographer, who actually specialises in photographing dogs with her company Ruthless Photos (dogs, children – they’re all the same right?). I first met Ruth just after we had adopted Dutch, he was a rescue and his story caught a few people’s attention including Ruth’s (he was found dumped in a park, wrapped in a towel at 5 weeks old, then rescued from the pound by the same awesome lady who rescued these puppies). I became obsessed with her amazing work and eventually commissioned her to photograph a series of dogs for a Marketing book I was art directing. Since then my dogs have modeled for her on a few occasions and I have yammered on to anyone who will listen to me about how talented she is with dogs (she really is – gosh I am doing a lot of sidebars in this post, aren’t I?).
But this time, it wasn’t our dogs in front of her lens – it was our 9 day old baby.
I am so grateful for having these shots. We were a little overwhelmed when the baby arrived and forgot to take many photos. So at least we have these amazing shots to treasure along with our memories.
Thriftiness
It’s been a while since I’ve trolled through Op shops or junk markets. When SNH and I were first dating we would jump in his HG Premier (or my ’72 Triumph 2000 – both sadly now gone to the junkyard in the sky) and drive down the coast to Wollongong. Stopping at every Vinnies, Sally Anne’s (Salvos), Lifeline, Anglicare, Junky shop we came across. We would plot our courses according to the thrift shops and would come home with so many treasures.
These days Op shops are so picked through by dealers and others. And sometimes the good stuff doesn’t even make it to the floor – you gotta be in the know I guess. So Op shopping fell by the wayside for us, as it was no longer enjoyable. Plus we started to become very specific about the things we collected – you get that once your house is filled up with collectables and stuff – and it was rare that we found anything that we wanted.
But the other day, while driving around and around aimlessly while the bub was sleeping – sometimes you just gotta go with the naps they take and not disturb them – I weaved in and out of the streets of Rockdale looking at the council chuck out piles and scored two concrete pots (tree stump and faux brick wall designs).
Invigorated by my trash diving I drove past Rockdale Vinnies and thought ‘why not?’ So when bub awoke, I carried him in unsure as to whether he would pitch a fit (he gets over shopping very quickly) and much to my surprise he loved it! So much to look at, all the colours and stuff! I walked away with nothing except a sense of buoyancy that possibly, maybe I could entertain myself and the bub for a few hours every now and then trolling through charity shops in the future.
And have we ever! We’ve hit up a few old faithfuls from my uni days and a few new little junk shops and have scored lovely treasure every time. The best score was a 1960s Fisher and Price barn toy complete with silo and farm animals for $20 – the barn door even moo’s when you open it. Lovely. Other bits and pieces were 4 yards of barkcloth fabric ($10!!), Ship biscuit tin (filled with buttons) and early 60s clothing pattern catalogues – $2 each (such sweet illustrations, dig those hair dos!), a yellow breadbin to match our yellow/black/grey kitchen, and 2 x 60s floral scarfs – $1.50 each (to hide my grey hair – eep!).
I guess you could say I’ve caught the thrift bug again. To heck with collectables fairs and fancy shops. It’s time to push up my sleeves and start wading through the odds and sods for a real bargain again!
