sausage dogs

oops.

So somehow that turned into a nearly two month break... 

Happy 2013?

And there's nothing all that exciting to impart. In short:

• High fived myself all January for marrying a teacher - all school holidays were spent at various other people's beach houses. Heaven.
• The home improvements continue, we're not doing anything major but it's totally overwhelming. We're still going backwards in order to go forwards... (so we tell ourselves).
• Gussy is 15 months tomorrow. He's been tentatively working on walking, and only in the last week or two is he really walking around. He now says teddy, bye bye, yes and no. He's getting more adept at expressing his displeasure if things don't go his way (loud screaming). He's also several shades browner after all the time at the beach, oops.

And that's it. I don't know if you're still there...

tree.

Inspired by OscarLucinda I found a way of having a tree without it being mauled by little hands. This tree was the only living thing in our backyard.. and I pulled it up. It was a very ugly garden tree, but makes a great Christmas tree!

In other news Gus is obsessed with our toilet. If we ever leave the door open he's in there like a flash, washing his hands in it. YUK.

garden.

Very exciting. And very good that some of our best friends happen to be in the landscaping biz!

mushroom update.

Remember this shot? Well about 2 days later they looked like this! Seriously the most satisfying things to grow - overnight results! I get a pleasant surprise every time I open my wardrobe : )

Seeing as the box cost $19 I need to grow a heap more to get my money's worth, but the second flush is coming through now. Unfortunately you get a couple of flushes and then they stop. I looked into harvesting spores and whatnot but it's extremely fiddly by the looks of it, and I realised all the super helpful websites were referring to the narcotic variety haha.

Meanwhile.. working on our "renovator's delight" in a very low-budget low-key way, enjoying the warmer weather, and loving our new locale more and more. Tim has school holidays coming up, and we're ... going camping. We had a pre-nuptial agreement I would (reluctantly) camp once a year. I thought this would not apply with a young baby in tow but apparently not. Anyone been mad enough to do it?! Help!

moved.

This is what my life looks like at the moment. Even though we moved mid-week the week before last. We're slowly getting there. Back soon.

30.

I turned 30 on the weekend. It didn't hurt too much. In fact it was good. Tim took me to a fancy restaurant and the next night my awesome friends turned on a lovely dinner and spoilt me. (and I spoilt myself also with this necklace, using some of my design award prize money)

Meanwhile Gus spends a fair bit of time stuck under the couch.
He's also LOVING his solids. Maybe it's the owl plate...

Gus' room.

Famous! Gus' little room appeared in the latest edition of Little One magazine (busted by Jess). I posted some photos of his room a while back (before his arrival), and miss Jodi asked if I'd like to go in the magazine. Why not. She did an excellent job of making me sound like not too much of a dill, and I love the photos by Louise Treacy. (But even more I love the magazine's graphic designer for cropping out my huge post-preggo thighs in our photo - bless him/her). 

I never did get around to getting a new handle for the drawers..

(He's obsessed with this car!)

The bed where he doesn't sleep very much in..

Thanks Jodi! We're also in good company with Lalie's beautiful room of One Claire Day.

Photos by Louise Treacy for Little One magazine.

first christmas.

Keeping it simple - family, good food, not too many gifts (perhaps not when it comes to grandparents and Gus!) - just as it should be. Gus won't remember his first Christmas but we certainly will.

I hope your Christmas is peaceful and happy too, and that 2012 is full of good things.

--

Thank you for all of the book recommendations, will certainly be getting Baby Love plus a couple of others I think. A big help, I appreciate it.

he made it himself.

Tim made us a new bed! It looks great, I love it! He is a clever clogs.

I bought the bedding from Dwell Studio in the US (who don't ship to Australia so I bought it Amazon), after lusting after it when it kept popping up in various interiors on Design Sponge. It wasn't cheap by a long shot, (hi Tim!) but matches the colours in my bedroom design perfectly don't you think? (I still have a fair way to go on realising that bedroom redesign, but this is already a massive improvement let me tell you).

the boudoir.

Now that I have dramatically improved one small area of the kitchen, I have been looking at the rest of our place with a critical eye. I think the worst room is our bedroom. It's super ugly, I can't even bear to post a photo of it. It's dark with feral old curtains which are mouldy. Mouldy. Ew.

In the words of my friend Kate, when you have a problem make a mood board of it. Or throw money at it.  This is how I'd like our bedroom to look:

One can dream. Well, some of it is achievable. The $69.95 Freedom curtains. The Bernabeifreeman rug not so much, that's just there for fun. And Tim could make a bed similar to the Mark Tuckey one, in a non-copyright infringing kind of way of course. Pillow cases and artwork by Rachel Castle are doable, and I've already made the quilt. Now if I can bring myself to do more painting ...