Happy Mother's Day Ladies

Hope you have all had a happy day if you are celebrating Mother's Day today.

My day was quiet and restful. It started with breakfast in bed {pancakes made by Liam} and I received some sweet presents from the boys. Liam and I had coffee and cake at the Cottage Garden Nursery and Antique Center earlier in the week and I found another puppy to add to our menagerie. We called him Bob after a little terrier who is the hero of one of Agatha Christie's books "Dumb Witness".
Little Luke chose this chocolate rose from his school Mother's Day stall.

My sisters and I celebrated our Mother earlier last week before she went on an overseas trip with Dad. She is at the moment visiting Denmark with the added purpose of doing some family history research into her danish ancestors. Mum has been methodically collecting information into our family history for over ten years including scanning hundreds of slides and ancient photographs. It will be a treasure for us all in years to come. I am eagerly looking forward to Dad's photos when they get back. Of course I miss them already. Mum is one of the biggest players in what makes my life work! She does a lot for me and my boys.

I would also like to mention all of my friends who are mothers - you all work so hard and always inspire me. You are the village around me it takes to raise a child. We all have truly had some difficult moments yet I am proud to say we all know how to laugh our arses off, have a good time, find as much joy as possible from the roles we chose and still somehow manage to hold on to what makes us the unique people we are. Our hearts have all grown bigger in the process and we always find a bit of extra room in our homes and lives for the people who need us.

And "Mummy Bloggers" this includes YOU! You are an extension of my friends and family. You are there all day and night with your stories, photos {pretty and messy} and are always a comfort.
I hope you all get how much value you are. Mums need people around them, people on their team. Doesn't matter where you get it from.

Brisbane writer Rebecca Sparrow has written a fantastic post on her blog called: Why I won't read "Mummy Blogs". You gotta read it. It's important. Maybe you feel sometimes, like me, like you don't have enough time to do all the things you need to do, want to do and why am I even wasting time writing this blog? Well, you HAVE to make time for things that you want, things that are important to you or you will go crazy, your brain will shrivel up like the dried apricots you are throwing in your kid's lunch boxes. People like me really value visiting your blogs - so thank you and thank you Rebecca Sparrow.

Finally, here are some vintage mummies for you to read about ~ Mrs Miniver, who is lovely and 

E.M. Delafield's Diary of a Provincial Lady, who is quite hilarious. If you like English fiction set in wartime, then you will like these. As a Mother, you will be able to relate to their antics no matter how removed from your 2013 lives, I swear. I particularly like the covers of both of these books, Mrs Miniver dating from, according to the dedication in the front page, 1941 and The Diary of a Provincial Lady, a modern copy done in vintage style by Cath Kidston. 

to the library!

What a great quote, I love it.

perfect sunday

The day started out promising with my early Sunday morning walk. I thought I would get so much done but as the morning wore on I got tired and ended up having a nap on my son's bed. I had sat down to watch him play in his newly tided room and well, one thing led to another. 

My little house was dark and cool today. We turned on the lamps by lunchtime to make it a little more cheery. It rained outside. I admired how much my herbs, tomatoes and bok choi my friend gave me for christmas have grown.

I took some photos of my bookshelves which I have just finished re-organising. Very satisfactory. 

Do you like my little twin bird salt & pepper shakers? My friend Leesa gave them to me for my birthday. 

She has her own blog again. Leesa Perry Photography. Leesa was my original blogging buddy back in, 

I think it was 2005 when she first encouraged me to start a blog. 

We had a great old time, blogging our socks off. We both joined in with the phenomenon that was Loobylu's Month Of Softies and one of Leesa's softies even made his way into a softies book! 

{Lucky Dog is right there on the front cover!} 

However we took quite an extended break from blogging but I am now so glad we are both back! 

She is a natural light children's photographer and has some really stunning images. 

She is currently doing the 365 photos project and each one is a delightful peek into her world.

A nice quiet day, thankfully nowhere to go. A perfect Sunday! I hope yours was too.

Lost in Austen

Watching the Royal Wedding was fun. I thought it was all quite satisfactory and loved seeing "The Dress" which wasn't a disappointment and thought the sister looked pretty nice. I loved seeing Prince Harry and William grinning away. My friend Michelle hosted a delightful dinner and I can't mention that without talking about the most delicious Coronation Chicken! {which I've never had before and am certainly going to be making in the near future} and a very scrummy Eton Mess {which I have had several times before and will be making again faster than you can say Beatrice and Eugenie, what were you thinking?}

On another note, Pip has announced a new book to read, Pride and Prejudice and I'm doing it - time again to get lost in Austen and I'm hoping to get as lost as I possibly can. If you'd like to follow along I have added her button to my side bar to the Meet Me At Mikes's Book Club. I just love Meet Me At Mikes, do you read her too?

My Bin Brimmeth Over

So - I am back at work tomorrow after about ten days off and am looking forward to seeing everyone again but I have been having a great laid back time at home - I don't want it to be over.
I've been cleaning out my office and that's been a massive job, bin loads and bin loads, loads for the op shop and still not finished!
I have found some treasures though! {to be shown at a later date}
I've also been doing all sorts of jobs around the house, sorting and tidying, it's never ending but it feels good when you get something crossed off your list that has been bugging you for ages.
And I've been doing some reading and, in between working on some graphic design jobs, spending time with the boys, gardening, we caught a movie...

A fanatstic and very handy poster from peppermint mag.

I got a copy for my birthday and am enjoying it heaps - just as fresh and minty as it sounds, heaps of good websites to discover, great articles, beautiful photographs and illustrations.

Anyhow - I ripped this baby out straight away ~ just perfect cause my little one does get a bit confused, bless him, as to what goes into which bin. Hopefully there will be no more need for me to be picking out soggy bits of cereal and drynites from the recycling!!!

This lovely artist, Burntfeather has a site where you can download the poster for free or purchase a print here!

I've just finished reading Cold Comfort Farm {one of the books I picked up whilst op 

shopping last week}.

Added to my pile of "Chick Lit" novels, the only difference being these are absolute classics and were all written early last century and even the one before yet just as funny and entertaining and endearing as the modern variety.

A writer from the 1930's has the exactly same sort of dilemmas and antics and quirky characters in her story as our contemporary heroines from the last decade or so are subjected to by their authors. Financial crisis, boy trouble, what to wear, uptight inlaws, all sorts of domestic disturbances. They go to parties, they keep diaries, they fall in love, they get their hearts broken, they make us laugh.

I found this notebook and have, with the help of some mt tape and a stamped tag, delegated it to be my reading diary for 2011~ one entry already!