Love Mummy xx

Dear Princess Cupcake Sweety Darling Pumpkin Butterfly Strawberry Muffin

This little angel, it seems so long ago, but only yesterday.  About to start school you were in this picture.  Now tomorrow is your first day in Year 7.

I know you are nervous, but just shine dear one.  You are so loved and valued, I will be there to pick you by the court at the end of the day.

I hope you are sleeping tight tonight as I type this.  I don't know if I will get any sleep.

Time has gone quickly - looking at these shots I can hardly believe it.  But you and me, we stay the same. Full of love and blessing, that will never grow away as you and I grow older.

Be confident in the lovely person you are.  Be happy knowing you are important.  Those around you are blessed to call you a friend.  Be wise my sweet, trust yourself and your feelings.  Be true and honest as you are.

You are loved and are special and kind.  Blessing and peace are with you on this journey my sweet.

I thank you for being you.  I thank God for the blessing you are to our family.  I praise Him for leading us to the blessed school for you.

Keep on smiling that smile and shining your light.

Your brothers love you albeit being picking their nose, hit you with a wet crocodile and spit on your leg kind of love.

Remember I tried to pass you off as twins?

Our beautiful girl.  Beautiful.

Years have passed, and they are just getting better.  Blessed are we.

Your peace will shine and have faith in who you are.

There is only one you Miss G.  Only one.

Brave you are.  The challenges you have faced, the changes - the stronger they will make you and lessons you have learned.  It is time for us to be still now.

And dream lots of dreams.  Bake lots of cakes and keep on dreaming.  Dreaming of wonderful delights, sweetness and sunshine and fairies if we want to.

And just being you.

The calling and change, to where we are now.  Your future is blessed and bright.  You are amazing.

Let's keep on eating ice-cream and enjoying the good and happy things.  When things are hard, lets just make more ice-cream!

I'll take another photo in the morning, your first day of Year 7.  You will see your dearest and all will be great.  The other kidlets are nervous too.  Enjoy your slice, I'll have an icy-pole ready at home and maybe a trip to the pool.

Love you Honey xxx  Praying your day will be that one day.  Just one day.  Nothing too big, if it's getting through hour by hour, or minute by minute.  Remember - don't smile too much! (haha)

Love Mummy xx

my window

I love my windows.  I have been quite the complacent one these last few months.  Focusing on my desperately-needing-renovation-bathroom and shoe-box laundry.  How pathetic really.  I stood still today and  remembered how I love these windows.

We have been socialising with new families from our new community this week.  We discovered a local, within walking distance extraordinary park with a free public (clean) swimming pool.  We are becoming locals.  We needed to stay grounded this week, staying at home and connecting with people in these hills.  It has paid off.

Complacency.  An interesting feeling really.  Not much matters apart from love and life.  A babe lost it's mother in childbirth here in Melbourne a few days ago.  They need some help.  A milktree of breastmilk donations is being organised by this lady.  Please contact her if you can help.

My youngest babe is sleeping soundly with a fan blowing cool air on him, an early night in preparation for school on Monday morning.  The two big kidlets are reading Deltora Quest together.

I need to not be complacent.  In these last few days I have realised I have some big issues with house pride.  Not good.

My window reminded me of this today.  Or perhaps it was something else that reminded me.

Much Love Rach xx

providence

It looks like I may try my hand at some regular special event and VIP corporate functions decorating in an eclectic and earth-loving style.  I think it is nice to know there is more of a sustainable twist in the decorating side of things too.  It did not dawn on me that people in special events may indeed like a bit of Squiggly Rainbow in their presence!

The Beehive Marquee at the Mornington Cup is taking off a buzzzz - and it is so encouraging.  I'm a little bit shy to head to this even personally - maybe one day I would work up the courage!  Hehe! 

Milly cat likes to keep me company while I'm creating!

The ladies receiving beautician attention will be lovingly looking at a divine huge candy jar miniature garden with it's very own handcrafted miniature bee hive by me!

The theme for the marquee I am decorating for is - you guessed it 'the beehive' and raising money for wigs cancer patients wear.  A great cause!  So of course it is the 'beehive'!

Happy Friday to you and yours xx

Rach xx


ps.... no news on the house front 

5 days left

There are five days left of my children's summer holidays from school.  Only five days.  We have visited our closest friends and stayed at their houses, stayed with family and visited them on day-trips.

We have had our darling faux cousin/sister/niece staying for five days.  A trip to the movies, an introductory session to Irish dancing.  More cooking.  

Billy cart time trials, some op-shopping and markets.  Playing army men under the birches at a besties house.

Some trips to friends and local swimming pools.  We have eaten lots of ice-cream.

Cooking; muesli bars, ice-cream, flour-less orange cake, flour-less hazelnut chocolate cake, pizza's from scratch to name a few care of Miss G and co.

The birches, I love them, they are being woven into the giant bee hive too!

The house has been re-arranged twice in that time.  Lego built and packed away.  New delights cooked and grown.  Books read.  Screen time (ipad, tv and computer). Time spent with our chickens introducing new girls to the flock.

Why does it feel like we have not done much.  Do you compare yourselves to other families?  We have not spent lots of money taking the kids out.  My boys often choose to use screens rather than socialise with me or anyone.  Sometimes it is hard to break away from that - looking back through the photo's I guess we have done pretty well.  As I type though, Master J has just finished a tantrum over the ipad restrictions.  I miss connecting with my boys - a meaningful connection with good eye-contact.  I savour it when it happens.

I often feel saddened with the lack of connection at times.  My 'niece' while she has been staying has joined in on time with the chickens.  Yesterday she set up on some bed linen under the fruit trees with paints and spent a few hours with Master S enjoying the outdoors.  It was music to my heart.

Miss G connects all day, what blessing she is.  So are the boys, but it's different.  Maybe it's a girl thing, not just an Asperger's thing.

I had to ponder why it meant so much to me.  Maybe she reminded me of me.  Maybe I wished my kidlets would sit and do something so peaceful for a few hours.  She is a bit older - maybe this will come with age.  I do hope so.

Do you jam pack your holidays with taking your children to exciting places - or do you keep it simple?

Rach xx

Yellow

Remember I was going to share about yellow?  The week got away - and so did the context of my saved post...

I do have some very exciting news to share with you though.

Don't you love this great mirror I picked up?  It was originally white.... but oh - yellow is my favorite at the moment!

A teensy tiny scratch rescued with a glorious piece of wall art!

I must tell you about the hundreds of vintage handkerchiefs I picked up last weekend.  I discovered a new market, a  market I had never been to before.  We did not have time to ponder through all of the stalls, as I spent my $50 within 10 minutes at one stall.  A man had his aunts bits and bobs from a lifetime of collecting and not doing away with anything.  Fabric is usually at the top of my browsing eye.  I saw some colour and upon investigation - he said they were boxes full of old hankies.  My kidlets were disgusted that I would even go near them, they had all been pressed into neat rectangles.  So off I went with around 400 Vintage handkerchiefs.  Oh the craft project ideas abound!  I sorted through them as I sat on my front door step - disposing of the severely stained and plain white ones.

Here are some yellow ones!

This week everything was being up-cycled in yellow!

My kidlets were doing time-trials in our $5 billy cart.

Are you ready for the exciting news?

Squiggly Rainbow has been asked to set the scene in an exclusive VIP venue for the Melbourne horse racing carnival at the Mornington Cup.

The designer and milliner of Annette Sanfilippo Millinery Art requested I design the centerpiece and entrance decorations for THE BEEHIVE marquee.  I am busy making ceramic bees and weaving huge bee hives out of willow.  Very fun and exciting!  It amazes me how blessings when one least expects them; coming out of the ..... well I know where they came from.  The blessing happened at just the right time, when I felt like packing all my materials away and calling it a day until the kids are older or I have more space for a studio.

Here is my first bee for one of the giant size bee hive decorations!

My dear Master S surprised me with shapes of hearts and flowers from the garden.  This one was from his flower garden, the first yellow rose of the summer.  Precious. 

I up-cycled two gorgeous antique chairs, they were extremely tired with stuffing and springs coming out of the original upholstery.  I am so happy with this patch-worked re-upholstery and the yellow timber!

The kidlets are gearing up to get back to school.  Master J has really missed his routine and friends and teacher.  Most probably he has been the most difficult this summer break.  It makes my heart break that we are not connecting - I think all his sensory defenses are on red alert and he cannot make sense of no routine.

On that note - we watched a really interesting short documentary on facebook.  It helped us understand our boys much better, albeit they both are extremely verbal - but have many extraordinary sensory issues and quirky behaviour.  This explained alot.

Much Love Rach xx

It was going to be yellow

My pictures were all taken, the exciting news is ready to be talked about... (no, not the house - hopefully there will be news on that soon).  My camera and the ipad won't upload to this computer - so the yellow post will have to wait for tommorrow.  The funny thing was as I read my regular blogs this morning.... Kate had also posted about yellow yesterday!  My post is saved, and you can read it tomorrow!

I love books, we have been doing lots of book reading over this Christmas break.  The children received some new ones for Christmas and they are delightful.  I bought Mr DCT four magazines on Green living and Sustainable building - and again Kate starred in some of the pages!  So many wonderful articles.

Our kitchen garden is taking great shape in our pots (protection from the wombats).  In one of the articles, the author talked about his childhood where his mother gave him a list and a basket to collect the vegies for dinner that evening.

Miss G has been delighted to begin this tradition.  Such sweet simple things - nothing beats this type of blessing to our family - simple things.

This is one of the books we are reading - it's a great accompaniment to our Stephanie Alexander childrens book.

There are always books I stumble across as I browse book depository - doesn't this one look good?

Much Love Rach xx