La Mammina

Young Blood

Tilly, Frank and I went to the Young Blood: Designers Market at the Powerhouse Museum on Saturday. There were 20 stalls there supposedly "dedicated solely to Australian designers producing the most creative products for kids". I don't know about "most creative". There were some nice things there, but really nothing new. Nothing innovative. Don't get me wrong, there were some lovely things there, but nothing I hadn't already seen before. And to be honest, I think many bloggers out there are doing more interesting things - or does the blogosphere lead and the rest of the world follow?

The shoes above are from a little outfit called All About Heidi. I love her colour range and they are made from a single piece of leather. No seams.

Tilly saw some wall decals that she really liked and wanted. I didn't take a picture but I did get this image from their website. They are called Wonderwall and they are doing some really cute things that are worth looking at if you are after some locally made decals.

The tree trunk is made up of the letters T R E E, the fruit are made of the letters A P L E and the leaves with L E A F. Tilly is enthralled with letters at the moment so this would be perfect for her.

I did buy this Once-A-Year album from Laikonik. It's a concertina folder to place a photo a year for 18 years as well as a small space to write significant happenings in that year.
It's a pretty simple concept, and I'm sure I could apply it to something of my own. But the thing is, I haven't yet and Tilly is nearly four. I do not have an album or anything. So I thought by buying this it is a simple enough project that I don't actually have to make in order to get started. I just have to chose four photos to get it up to date. I think I can do that.
The deigns are based on Polish folk art and there are some really nice monotone red ones that I have my eye on for Frankie. Tilly chose the tree design for herself.

As mentioned yesterday, there were vintage inspired dresses, stenciled singlet suits, bibs and place mats. I must admit, I wasn't expecting the whole market to be so crafty. Nothing wrong with crafty, just not what I was expecting.

Red and white stripes

The colour red has slowly crept into my life. If you out right asked me what colours I love, I'm pretty sure red wouldn't feature in my answer. But red things keep appearing in my life. Like the red blanket from Pendleton Woolen Mills in Oregon that we have on our bed. Or the red velvet lounge suite that I got for a song at a church jumble sale that is scattered through out our home. (One of the arm chairs is in the kids' room and that is where Feather has all is feeds. It has become a pretty special place).
And now it has finally come that I go out deliberately seeking red.
Red and white stripes to be specific. Anything in red and white stripes.
And look what I found. Tights for Tilly. Mind you, they came with a completely hideous red lace trim (think cheap, revolting ladies lingerie) around the bottom which I hastily removed and replaced with the little frill.

I can't do everything red for Tilly. She is still a green girl, though she tells me that she is going to like blue when she is four. A friend found this great hat for her at Vinnie's. It is so perfect for her.

So we donned the little ensemble and headed out to the Young Blood: Designers Market at the Powerhouse Museum. It was focusing on designs for children so we thought we'd go have a look. Nothing really innovative there though some cute things which I will show later. It was all very "bloglike" ; vintage looking dresses in liberty fabrics, paper crafts, stenciled "onesies" etc.

Excursion to Reef Beach

Set off from 40 Baskets Beach

Meet local fauna along the way

Cute boat house.

View from the track

Admire the native flora

It's always best to go with a good friend

Spot some paragliders

The sign says "Reef beach has lots of trees" and "Don't go out too deep" according to Tilly and Finn

Such a pretty beach

Lunch and a little snooze in the sling on the way back to the car.

Told you I was going to the beach today.

Beachy

Oooh, I love a beachy bottom!

Now, I know there is a lot of talk of spring on all the northern hemisphere blogs, but I'm not quite ready to welcome the autumn here. So it was off to the beach today. And we are going again tomorrow. I've really got to make the most of it before it really does get too cool.

I do wish we had the distinct seasons that you get in other parts of the world. And I wish the holidays were more geared to the weather. You know, like Christmas in the cold of winter, with maybe some snow. It would be nice to have a big festive occasion to break things up a litte.

The problem with living in a place where summer is so long and important is that it makes winter such a non-event. There is nothing to look forward to. Everyone is just sort of waiting for summer to come around again. We don't really live it. There are no snow days to get excited about, no special wintery, sentimental food holidays to plan for. Not much really. Just waiting.

So I'm not ready for that yet. I'm holding on to the summer. And when I read about some northern blogger's latest rays of sunshine or spring flowers popping through, I'm just going to ignore it and get on with living my summer (which is officially autumn).

So if you could excuse me now, I'm off to rinse off the cossies ready for another day at the beach tomorrow.

Building Zoe's House

On Good Friday we went to this little installation at the Power House Museum. It's basically an interactive playground for kids to build a house together. There were huge foam bricks, conveyer belts, cranes, boom gates, trolleys and wheel barrows. The basic idea was to collect bricks, transport them around the place and rebuild the house. We went with another family and the kids all had a great time. Afterwards we went for an early dinner in Chinatown which was oh so easy. A great way to spend the day really. Andrew has had time off over Easter, so we've been able to do a lot of fun, family oriented stuff, including a trip to the zoo.

The pictures were taken on Andrew's phone, so aren't spectacular.

Speaking of unspectacular...my rseponse to comments has been just that. I just wanted to put a general apology out there. I'm going to make a big effort to reply to all comments from now on. I do love reading them, and you have all been so encouraging lately, please know that I really appreciate everything you have to say.

Oh, and also, I have made a step to restore some of the old Allison. Before getting married and having children, I spent six years in Italy. I worked in film there and spoke Italian fluently. I've been back in Australia for nearly five years now, and while I can still understand it and can bumble my way through a conversation with an Italian Mum at playgroup, it is not up to the same standard that it once was. I think that is a big shame. So I'm on a bit of a mission to maintain it. So, a trip to the library today saw me bringing home books and toys for Tilly and an Italian film on DVD and book for me. Now all I have to do is find time to watch and read!