These Two

They make my heart happy. They make me smile.

After a week of neglecting a fair amount of housework in favour of doing photoshoots, graduation and end of school celebrations, and quality time spent with people I love, suffice to say the house was not in tip top shape.

After the drudgery of cleaning early on a Saturday morning (which I hate, but I hate it more when it interferes with time that could be spent with Chris) it made me happy to hear a familiar tune. Through the kitchen window I could see my handsome husband playing the song he wrote for me to walk down the aisle to at our wedding, with Tavi sitting his lap mesmerized by the piano and slapping his legs (presumably accompanying his Daddy on the leg drum)

In a week we will have been married for 3 years! It really doesn't seem that long. Through all the ups and downs, our travels and adventures, and most recently launching into the whole parenting thing, I couldn't imagine anyone else by my side.

Although now its better, I have two loves of my life, to have and to hold, to cuddle and laugh with, to struggle on and cry with, to make my heart happy, to make me smile :)

Gallavanting around the garden

My camera has been commandeered by my parents to take more photos of Aisling at her formal in the Hilton, so until I get my precious cargo back here is a look at our place.

Now that the shock of having a baby has become our new normal (as tumultuous and sleep deprived as that often still is) we are starting to get back into the things we love, which for me is my photography, Chris is starting to do more drawing, and we are both enjoying starting up our veggie patch and spending more time out in the garden. Cara is loving the extra company.



So here is a look at what has been happening in our backyard lately: Wheatgrass grown from seeds, I reckon paying $13 or more for a tray is a rip off, much cheaper to just buy the seeds and let nature do its thing.



Once thought to be beans, now possibly cucumber. We have a tonne of these that sprouted from our compost area and I can't wait to see what the end up being. I'm hoping for cucumber, Tavi noms away on it all the time so our own patch would be handy, not to mention better with no nasty pesticides to worry about.

Mini lettuces. The soil isn't so great where we live (for now) so these little guys are taking their sweet time getting ready to be my lunch.

 

Pretty flowers. They came with the house, along with some secret aloe vera that I discovered a few weeks ago.

Mister Oliver did not dissappoint, our basil has sprouted through and hopefully soon will be big enough to eat.

 

We also bought a small chilli plant and within a week there was a chilli. I've dared Chris to eat it raw but he has neither accepted nor declined my challenge as of yet.

But this is probably one of my favourite parts of our garden. Free plants in free pots makes me very happy. We went to the nursery in Maleny with every intention of buying some seedlings but then I saw a bunch of rather sad looking plants with a sign saying 'free to good home' so we scored some purple basil, chives and thyme without spending a cent. Regretfully the chives didn't pull through but with a bit of watering the others turned out just fine. And the wall planters? I procured them from freecycle and Chris hung them up on the wall in our undercover area, it adds a nice bit of life to an otherwise bland brick wall. Practical and pretty.

Lesson 1: ALWAYS look for a 'free to good home section' when buying plants.
Lesson 2: Freecycle is a wondrous invention, forever and ever Amen.

Happy gardening!

The Last Mac Court to Leave Mueller

It still hasn’t fully sunk in, but here is photographic proof that my little sister is little no more (well expect that she always will be to me). It is done, over, finito, 12 years of work, learning, laughs and love culminated in her graduation last night and I couldn’t be more proud of her. It seems like it was only the other day that little Ash with her fountain of blonde curls started reception at Windsor Hill P.S. on the other side of the world. So much has happened between then and now but everything that matters has stayed the same, I still adore my little sister and wouldn’t trade her for the world.

The ceremony was held in the Mueller auditorium which is HUGE! Tavi was quite enthralled with the holey walls, no not that kind of holy, with actual indents maybe for sound or something? Who knows but they kept him entertained way past his bedtime so that was good.

Tavi stayed awake all through the service but then apparently decided that Uncle Luke was a good pillow and promptly fell asleep.

 

The best thing about being the big sister is getting to enjoy moments like last night while also reminiscing about your own graduation. During the day I caught up with a dear friend who I've known since grade 8 and it really doesn't seem that long ago that it was our graduation night, but now we are both married with babies! Ok so it was 7 years ago but it has just gone so fast and makes me wonder where will my sister be in 7 years? What will have happened in her life to grow and change her. 

The other great thing about being the older sister is that you get to treat your little sister, especially on occasions like this. Graduation bling from us:

Aww romance

 

And friends

 

Proud parents

And cake...

Baby Homie Pants

About half way through my pregnancy I had an insane urge to sew ALL THE THINGS! However its wasn't until this weekend that I finally made Tavi something to wear.

Try your very best not to be too jealous of my iphonetastic photos, I'm not sure where my normal camera was at the time so these will have to suffice. Normally I avoid any and all types of sewing that involve a pattern, I'd love to say this is because of my fancy free nature but really it is simply because I have the spatial awareness of a brick. No wait, that is too generous, but the point is I'm so very bad at translating a bit of paper and instructions into creating something nice. Thankfully Chris is usually there to save me and bring a bit of logic to the situation. He also provides some lovely tunes and entertainment for Tavi while I sew .

I finally found a boy pattern that I thought I could manage in amongst the abundance of girlie girl patterns online. I won't lie, there was some redirection and unpicking involved but after an initial minor hiccup it was all good and actually fun to sew. No swearing at the machine involved! To make some pants for the little guy (or girl) in your life, check out the tutorial and free pattern along with many others here.

Also a bit of advice, if you plan on doing any major sewing, quilting, or just want to make life a bit easier invest in a rotary cutter and mat, I got my cutter on clearance for $5 and it was well worth it. It came in handy particularly for making these pants, no pinning or marking involved, just hold the pattern firmly on top of the material and cut around.

The original motivation was to make some pants for him firstly because he has grown out of pretty much everything, and secondly to make some pants big enough to cover his huge cloth nappy covered butt! I also liked how these were 3/4 length, so not too hot but long enough to cover his knees when he gets a bit more mobile. Speaking of which, he has started a crawling action but minus the arms which lay flat by his side, resulting in him looking like a deranged caterpillar. I'm sorry my love but its true.

 Ok, a very cute deranged caterpillar. 

Sadly there was no way the green ones would cover his ample rump with a cloth nappy on so I made him a bigger pair too which he wore to church :) 

So there you have it, easy to make and undeniably cute baby homie pants. Next time I might try adding some more details, cuz you know, bright green and blue polka dot pants are definitely not attention grabbing enough ;) I also have a few more sewing projects in the works, that might help give you some ideas if you are thinking about doing any handmade Christmas presents this year but I need to wait until they are gifted first so hopefully I'll be able to post about those in the next week or so.

Summertime Photography

In anticipation of my first somewhat serious photo shoot I asked Chris last night if he could think about some ideas for a logo and this is what he came up with and I love it.

What can I say, I married a talented guy. For more proof or to get your very own logo check out his art here. As for the photos I was really happy with how they turned out. Sienna was a little sweetheart and Tavi was very much thrilled to have another baby for company, the little socialite that he is. I'm also trialling a website so I'll have somewhere other than here to put my photos, cuz seriously I take a lot! The grand total today was around 400... I blame Sienna for being too cute, you're ok with that right hun?

I choose to take that happy baby drooly face as a yes.

My website hasn't got a whole lot on it yet but I'll soon fix that as its going to be a very full on week and my camera is going to get a good workout. I'll be taking some beach pics of one of my favorite little guys tomorrow and its also the week that my baby sister is graduating!! I still can't believe it, and I'm pretty sure she is also in denial since she hasn't got her makeup booked for the formal on Friday. Yes that's this Friday. I know, I'd be freaking out too, but I guess she got the majority of the laid back genes in our family.  Stay tuned for some homie pants, strawberry plants and many pretty dresses if you're in to that sort of thing :)

My very own makeshift studio!

These are exciting times in the Summertime houehold, we did a big rearrange yesterday and I now have the beginnings of my very own studio!! The original plan was to find somewhere better for Tavi to sleep (who, coincidentally is snoozing away in my arms while I write this) because although his room is lovely with lots of natural light, it is also at the other end of the house and far away from the air conditioning which makes an already hot and tired baby a seriously cranky one when it is too hot for him to sleep his own room.

As a result of this he tends to have most of his day time sleeps in our room as its cooler but then it is only a matter of time until he rolls off our bed and onto the floor...not good. So for now we have him back in our room till we decide what is the best solution and I might just take my sweet time figuring one out because I'm loving not having to traipse through the house bleary eyed for his night time feeds, plus I just love having my sweet little snoring baby in our room :)

But anyway I had plans to go over to a friends house tomorrow and take some photos of her gorgeous baby girl and while I was trying to sort out the logistics of taking photos of another baby while keeping my own happy and not resorting to carrying him in the ergo the whole time it dawned on me that Tavi's vacant room would make the perfect place to take photos. Thankfully I'm a bit of a material hoarder (hello instant backdrop) and I just have a few more things to sort out and then it will be all good to go for tomorrow, although I couldn't resist taking a few pics of Tavi while I rearranged furniture in there. Those blue eyes just melt me.



I might have missed out on something essential but for now its a start, and hopefully I'll be able to share some photos from our session tomorrow if my friend is cool with that of course. Really looking forward to doing more photography now that I've got a bit more head space available and now that I have a space set up for it hopefully I can start developing more skills to get better photos. Very excited about a prospective shoot featuring many many tattoos soon so stay tuned for that.

Also just putting it out there that I do not consider myself a pro in any sense of the word, I have so much more to learn, but I do love taking a ridiculous amount of photos so if you want to help me build my portfolio and gain experience while capturing some memories of your loved ones then email me janesummertime (at) gmail.com

Did I mention it was for FREE? Oh ok you can pay me in baked goods if you must! Now to attempt transferring my little snoozy baby into his nice cool bed without waking him...

Pot Noodle Planters

Gardening snobs avert your eyes because there is nothing fancy or refined about these whatsoever. 

I was intrigued and since they were reduced to $2 I thought I'd give it a try and see if they actually work, so I guess we'll see. In other news our normal (non-styrofoam encased) garden is going well too, although what we thought were beans might in fact be cucumber but either way it'll be great when they start producing some fruit...or vegetables. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly things grow, I planted a tray of wheat-grass and broccoli a few days ago and the seedlings are already sprouting through and leaning towards the sun.We have become those people who actually enjoy going to Bunnings. Yesterday we came home with more organic potting mix, seeds and a set of shears. Now I know why our garden always ended up hacked to bits when Dad went to 'trim' the trees and bushes: it is so much fun!

The additional benefits of gardening (besides providing food for our family) is that going outside to water our sprouts or weed out the grass from in between the lettuce totally calms Tavi down on the fussy days and gives me a reason to go outside for more than just hanging out another tonne of laundry and nappies. Definitely recommend it as a nice relaxing family activity with a purpose :)