double sleepover

 Every so often, I organise a double sleepover for my girls. Sometimes it's a disaster, but mostly it's great fun.

It usually starts with a play in the afternoon, dinner and a movie. My eldest then often chooses to sleep in the hut, a charming separate room at the end of our garden. She'll take herself off with her buddy, secreting treats for a midnight feast.

My youngest and her friend often immerse themselves into fantasy worlds of fairies and fables.

This morning, they built a beautiful fairy garden, and left notes. They're secretly hoping for little treats. 

They are becoming suspicious of my involvement so this morning I roped in the older two to help me out..

After the fairy fun, all four decided to construct a pop-up restaurant on the deck

tables were set beautifully with cloths, menus and reading matter, weighted down with beach paraphernalia.

pretty aprons were donned..

Orders were taken and duly delivered.

 And after the meal, a place to rest...

this week

This week in Instagram:

 1. braid for school photos

2. plaited frizz, for fun

3. early morning walk

4. cooking, pizza scrolls

5. baking, nectarine cakes

6. fairy garden

7. cafe @ home

11/52

pop-up cafe

Stella: customer

Ruby: waitress

"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2013."

Joining in with Jodi, here

my favourite this week..stella's blog and photos.. just beautiful.

a garden at the beach

There's a garden, a large productive veggie patch, taking up an entire vacant block in the heart of this expensive beachside suburb in which I reside.

It seems strange, but amazing. What is it doing here?

There was no-one here this morning on my way home from my beach walk, so I stopped to snap off a few photos..

The patch is abundant, with all kinds of goodies. Passionfruit clings to the front fence, and behind I can see, amongst other things, pumpkin, sweet potatoes, strawberries, tomatoes, all kinds of herbs..

In the afternoons, I often spy a man toiling away in here.

I want to stop and ask him all kinds of questions.

I want to offer help..

But I feel a bit silly..

Maybe one day I will.

morning

This morning I woke before my alarm, before the rest of the household. It seemed too good an opportunity to pass up...

I quietly chucked on some clothes and escaped on tiptoe, ignoring the baleful stare of the cat at the back door, waiting for her breakfast..

And headed for my home beach.

The sun was up before me, but I wasn't far behind...

At the northern end of my beach is a steep set of stairs, leading into the National Park. I went up, quickly, to warm up my muscles and to look at the view.

By the time I descended, the sun was beating down and the beach was smattered with dogs and their people..

Our open beaches have taken a pounding over the last few weeks. The ocean is still swirly and messy; large sand cliffs have appeared as the beach erodes away.

It's still beautiful, and it always energises me, but I'm hoping as we head into autumn that the ocean returns to it's peaceful state that characterises the cooler months of the year.

See you next time.

10/52

Stella: perpetual motion, launching herself forward; becoming reluctant to be photographed and overseer of all I take, deleting the ones I've sneaked..

Ruby: has discovered Instagram and is fascinated by the effects (captured in Kelvin for this week).

completion

I'm a great starter of projects. My house is full of half-completed tasks. Pages torn out of magazines, photos in bundles; frameless. Half knitted toys, scarves and beanies. Scraps of fabric for clothes for the girls. Bags of crafty leftovers. Recipes cut from old magazines. Recycled beads and old jewellery. ..

Even my ideas board is half done.. painted, covered in inspirational snippets.. but not hung. Stacked up against a wall, with other frames to be re-painted.

But I finally finished something. Something I started and documented in an earlier post (see here). Something with a time frame. And I'm pleased to say I finished way ahead of schedule..

I actually finished the knitting part of it some time back. But I'm not a big fan of the sewing and stuffing part. I find it a bit tedious, and often I'm a bit haphazard and slapdash.

But it was on my mind. And I knew, if I kept putting it off, it would loom larger in my life than it should. And it would be more difficult, as I would have forgotten which bit goes where and which bit is which...

So it's done. It didn't take very long at all. And I think it looks great.

Meet Harry Elephante.

He'll be heading to Sydney in the next week or so.

I even have time to knit a scarf for my friend's stepdaughter. I hope she likes it.
I've picked this pattern from Pinterest as well. This is the first time I've knitted a scarf using the YO technique, creating this intricate webbing design. It's been incredibly frustrating and I've had to unravel it completely three times. If I'm not concentrating and forget to yarn over then it seems to be impossible to work out where I've gone wrong. A bit like a sudoku puzzle....

I felt like giving up. But I think the pattern is really pretty and my nine year old really likes it. That's got to be a good sign. And really, I don't like to be beaten. I'm a bit pig headed that way...

When it's finished I will knit a flower to sew on. That's the plan, anyway..