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 :)

My first sugar hangover

WARNING: The following post is entirely contradictory to anything and everything in line with full on 100% healthy eating...and if you are a total health nut, I salute you! But if you eat healthy most of the time, leaving wiggle room for experiences that may not be technically the healthiest but allow much needed chill out time to grow healthy relationships then join the club :)

Last night was a real treat, I spent some good quality girl time with some ladies that I adore, making gingerbread houses for our families. I'll have to admit, I was a bit apprehensive. Yes, I sew and take photos and whatnot but I definitely do not think of myself as being 'crafty' whatsoever and I wasn't too sure how it would all turn out, but then again I was coming home with a big box of sugary treats for my husband so either way I knew he'd be happy.

So after baby boy had his bath, I got dressed up, kissed them both goodbye and promised to return a few hours later with sugar galore for Chris. Maybe next year you can have some Tavi, till then you're a milk man with some avocado, banana, cucumber and broccoli on the side. Oh and the duck you do love to chomp so much.

We were actually early which was amazing and the place was packed! But soon enough we got stuck into constructing our houses. Thankfully there was no baking involved, just decorating with copious amounts of icing sugar and lollies.

 

I think the key to this is packing as many lollies on as possible, which I think we all succeeded in doing in various ways.

 

Here are the lovely ladies...

and their equally lovely gingerbread houses :) 

 

I think we got a bit carried away because soon enough everyone else had packed up and gone so we quickly went over to get our little babies wrapped up and add a dash of icing sugar and red ribbon. Speaking of babies... hello baby Yarrow! 

 

As you can see Chantal looks ridiculously amazing for being pregnant, although she is also ridiculously lovely so you can't really hold it against her...well not too much ;)

 

Short blondies to the front!

Thanks Chan for inviting us, it will be a cherished memory and even though I did wake up with a sugar hangover I'll definitely be back again next year, I might even rope in a few other ladies to come, anyone keen...?

(Gingerbread house kits were purchased from here, and oh my goodness they taste so yum!)

 

Things are looking JUICY!

To start chronicling the substantial changes we have gradually made in our lifestyle I thought I'd go back to where we started, with juice.


It was just a regular old weekend, and my lovely teacher man had come home to a sick wife...again, who was feeling rather tired and achey and miserable...again. Really at this point it was getting ridiculous. I can't remember the number of times I have been sick since giving birth to our baby boy as it just seemed to be so constant. I had one massive bout of the flu that lasted for 3 weeks (and made feeding a screaming baby in the wee hours of the freezing winter mornings all the more less desirable) but even after that it was a regular occurrence for me to catch a cold or whatever was going around at the time. Since two of my go to people work in schools I secretly cursed the parents who sent their sick kids to school, and that me and my baby were suffering as a result. I wasn't happy and it wasn't good.

So there I was sniffling away, settling a baby who was feeling not so great either, and mindlessly trawling facebook when I saw one of my friends had posted the trailer for 'Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead' and something clicked. I watched the documentary, and then I watched it again, and then once again just for good measure. I'm not sure if it was the simplicity that appealed to me, or maybe it was the charisma for his cause and compassion for other people that Joe Cross exudes but that was it, I wanted to start juicing! I wanted to feel good and healthy not settle for feeling average at best and sick most of the time. However, we had no juicer and I was still feeling too horrible to get off the couch never mind about launching in to a new health program so I thought I would just leave it till I'm feeling a bit better.

The next day my amazing husband was kind enough to take our baby boy out of the house in the morning to give me an extra few hours sleep, which in itself was glorious! I'm pretty sure you will never fully appreciate a good sleep in till after you've had kids and it is no longer an option. But as if that wasn't lovely enough, he came home with fresh fruit and veg from the local markets, a juicer and a resolve to help me get healthy. I fell in love with him all over again :) So we got juicing. We juiced everything, firstly starting with recipes but then trying our own combinations, and it tasted so good! Although word to the wise, avocado really isn't a good idea, just don't.


I was surprised that even things like kale, cabbage, cucumber and lettuce when mixed with other fruit and vegetables tasted really nice in juice. It might sound a bit mad to enjoy drinking cabbage juice but from the start I decided that I wouldn't eat or drink anything I didn't like the taste of, I figured there are plenty of juices that I do like so why would I force myself to have something that I thought was yuck and it works for me. I'm also pretty sure my tastes have changed as I have cleaned up my diet so that is a bonus.

At this stage Chris was on holidays and we were juicing 2 or 3 times a day. We were feeling great, had lots more energy and our compost heap was loving the sudden influx of vegetable scraps. There were lots of other knock on effects from this initial step of juicing which I'll go into another time but seriously if you want a quick way to start feeling better, craving less sugar and getting more vitamins and nutrients into you then juicing is the way to go. There is criticism out there that juicing is 'bad' because the fibre is left in the pulp etc and of course if you have time to sit down and eat copious amounts of fruit and veg all day long then by all means try that, but for the average time poor person who needs a bit of a natural pick me up then give juicing a go. All I know is that it has helped me to feel better both physically and mentally and I'll be forever thankful to my darling husband for supporting me in this new venture.