Worth It

We were stranded this morning after Dave took my only set of car keys with him to a building site far far away. It was stinking hot but the kids were restless so we decided to make the most of being carless and take a walk. We trotted up the street stopping to collect sticks and jump off sandstone walls. I sweated while the lady baby fell asleep in the sling.

It was bliss.

* Dave drove home as soon as he realised my keys were with him- a full 1.5 hour mission. Then he bought me flowers this afternoon. I'm into him. fact.

** It's River Cottage night tonight and hairyyoss is cooking.

Giveaway from Rowantree Designs

Roberta from Rowantree Designs makes the most stunning children's clothing imaginable. Each piece is hand made in Sydney, Australia from fabrics sourced from around the world. I speak from personal experience when I say they wash like a dream, look as good as new after an iron and have that perfect vintage feel. The Lady Baby is lucky enough to have almost the entire summer collection and Zeph often sports his Clayton shorts.

Roberta has very generously offered to giveaway an item of your choosing to one lucky reader of The Beetle Shack. All you have to do is follow her blog if you have a blogger account or 'like' Rowantree's facebook page if you're on facebook. Check out her Boys, Girls and Organic range and leave a comment below letting me know what item you choose. Winner will be announced sunday week.

* how are those conditions for you rumballs? Still got your metaphorical nuts intact? 


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* The Franglaise has one her choice from the Rownatree designs range. Hit me on the email with your address, choice and the size you need!   

Happy Birthday Lady Baby

Little Lady Baby, it was one year ago that we first met. You were teeny tiny, pink and oh so deliciously soft. When they lifted you from my tummy and put us nose to nose I could feel your breath on my face, it was rhythmic, sweet and warm. We stayed there for an eternity, you and I, just looking into one anothers eyes. Your gaze did not break and neither did mine. How proud I was to have grown you in my body, amazed that such perfection had come from me. 

That first night you slept soundly on my chest. When the nurses woke me to check my vitals it was with pure joy that my bleary eyes looked upon your face. You were calm and a little bit peely on your fingers and toes, a sure sign that you missed your due date by a couple of days. January 26th was the perfect day for you and you are the perfect girl for us.

Happy Birthday little Pippi

xxx

all the boring stuff a mother likes to remember

• Your first word was dadda. 
• You took your first steps weeks and weeks ago but insist on crawling
• You love the ocean as much as the rest of us
• To entertain yourself you spin in circles on the floor until you are dizzy and topple over. A constant source of amusement for the rest of us.
• You adore your big brother and play wrestles with him like any good tomboy would.
• you have just learnt to make the 'mmmwaa' noise when planting kisses. For this i think you are totally adorable.
• Sleep escapes you most days.
• If ever I can't find you, you will be on my bed spinning amongst the pillows.
• You eat more than your big brother each and every day.
• Smiles have always come easily for you.
• You have a better wardrobe than I do.
• Out of all of the beautiful toys you have, it is with a synthetic pink poodle that you have become attached. This makes me question your taste.
• You are little for your age.
• When Zeph is a pre school you miss him. I know this because you spend more time clinging to my ankles than usual (and because i'm your mother- you will hear this phrase often).
• Your face truly lights up when your Dad gets home from work. You lunge into his arms in fits of gleeful giggles.
• I'm pretty sure you and your brother are the best thing i've ever made.
• I love you.

Celebrity Sightings @ The Beetle Shack

That's right- we had Brad and Ange visit The Beetle Shack this week. Well, the Brad and Ange of the blogging world anyway. Claire, Paddy and Lalie came to stay and it was truly delightful to have their company.

I have loved Claire's blog from the very first time I visited it. Filled with honest and genuine accounts of her everyday life, journey into motherhood and stories of raising her first daughter, Lalie. She writes with ease, has the style of a stylist (funny that) and is witty beyond words. Oh, and a total babe.

I've gotta say- these guys are even better in real life than they are in cyber land (i'm pretty sure Brad Pitt would be too but whatevs). We had such a fabulous time eating and drinking and chasing noisy children together. Dave and Paddy exchanged beard notes while Claire and I talked about politics in the middle east (okay, so it didn't go quite like that), the children played and slept and life was beautiful.

Thanks for coming dudes, and seriously- how great do you all look here ?!

Resolutions

A wonderful friend of mine (one of my park ladies and the wife of this super cool dude) just sent me this text. 

Mostly I love Eliza because she is a total babe but she also just happens to be flipping awesome and normal 

* I've had some pretty awesome company for the last couple of days (explaining my absence... as if you care). I can't wait to tell you all about it and post that fabulous giveaway I promised.  Until then- i'll be drinking champagne from the bottle and having another slice of key lime pie. 

Vintage Baby

Nothing like sweet little baby girl clothes, especially when they are vintage. This sucker was a steal and i'm kinda wishing my almost 1 year old would shrink back to 000 so she could wear it. Not to matter.

It's all action stations here today with a spring clean in full swing. Who knew sugar soap could clean EVERYTHING so well?

*check back here to see if you won the giveaway. A new very exciting giveaway will be launched tonight.

Slump

I've got super itchy feet at the moment. It's been one whole year since I've worked outside of the home for money and I've gotta say that's pretty much my limit. As all my teaching friends head back into work I find myself kind of wishing that I was joining them (on a part time basis). The thought of getting up, showered, dressed and leaving the house child free thrills me. The idea of writing programs, researching art history and teaching teenagers about naughty, rebellious artists is overwhelmingly appealing.

I love stay at home mumming most days, my kids are excellent and keep me on my toes. But the endless piles of washing, sorting, dirty dishes, cleaning and toy pick-up-ing leaves me rather uninspired. In fact, my brain fogs over at the thought of it.

 Something new is needed here. A fresh start, an inspiring challenge. 

I'm working on it- but for now i'd better just untangle this slinky from the entrance table.

oh, and sweep the floors.

come on bloggie friends- tell me, what do you do when you are going flipping mental from mummy boredom?

Get In Line- Jenny Holzer

Neo- Conceptualist artist, Jenny Holzer is famous for her short statements, formally called ‘truisms’. Some are common myths while others are phrases on random subjects in the form of slogans. Her medium, whether formulated as a t-shirt, as a plaque,or as an LED sign, always is writing, and the public dimension is integral to the delivery of her work. Starting in the late 1970s with the posters that Jenny Holzer pasted on buildings in New York City, and up to her xenon projections on landscape and architecture, her practice has rivaled ignorance and violence with humor, kindness, and moral courage.


Often Holzer's work presents both explicit content and minimalist aesthetics that make profound statements about the world of advertising and consumer society today. By presenting an assemblage of phrases that mimic advertising slogans through vehicles commonly used in advertising, such as electric billboards, coffee mugs, and commercials on cable and network television, Holzer questions what our eyes can see and what we can't see in media, whether consumers today have any real control over the information that is provided to them.

Going back to her years as a painter at the Rhode Island school of design, Holzer says she was influenced by the ‘clean, simple variations’ of minimalist aesthetics in artists like Donald Judd, Mark Rothko and Morris Louis. (source)


Read a fabulous biography here, you won't regret it. The woman is fascinating. 

Jenny Holzer. Xenon for Florence, 1996.

Jenny Holzer. Installation for the Guggenheim, 1990.

Jenny Holzer. Inflammatory Essays, 1979.

 Holzer also tweets, but that also comes as no surprise. 

nor should it surprise you that i suggest you enter this.

Their Rituals

It was so long ago that we used to sit at our kitchen table together and drink our morning coffee, our rituals have changed as our family has grown. There are some traditions, however, that stand firm. This is one of them ...

Once a week, every week for over a year now, mum and dad have looked after the Young Man while I have some R&R. Once a week, every week, they take their sleepy faces out to the front porch and wait for the bin truck. The conversation is always the same 'what will happen if the bin truck comes up the stairs and into the house nanny?'

Less Of This

A sight that's seen far too often around here. Between Instagram, emails and facebook my eyes are scarcely off the screen. It's a hazard. Think of all the things I'm missing in the real world. As much as I love social media I really must limit iphone time. It will no longer stay in my pocket when we are at home, instead it shall live elsewhere... and get lost under piles of washing or eaten by small children.

Less of this

 and more of this

* this post was prompted by losing said iphone and realising that i missed it every 37 seconds. We have since been reunited, so don't worry, i've seen your instagram feed.

Cook It - Every Green In The Garden Salad

In keeping with our little dream for 2012 we have been doing our best to eat seasonally and frugally. Most of all, we have been trying to eat from the garden as much as possible.

Once a week-ish we have roast chicken for dinner. It's fabulous for many reasons, but the best thing about it is the pie made with the uneaten chicken. We all know how rewarding it is to make an excellent meal out of left overs and a whole chook happens to feed us three times.  This week we added an experimental garden salad to the menu. 

Here's the recipe- It's pretty much anything green from the garden and a few pantry staples.

A bunch of rocket
A bunch of baby spinach
A bit of lettuce Lettuce
A Handful of Basil, chives and parsley or any other herbs you have growing.
1/2 cup of pitted kalamata olives
1/4 cup of sun dried tomatoes
Some feta

Slice it all up and throw it in a bowl

*I added some chopped up potatoes as i had some lest over from the roast

Dressing

A splosh of olive oil and balsamic vinegar
A tablespoon of Dijon mustard

shake it up in a jar, mix it in.

Let me know if you make it. See other stuff we cook in the kitchen here.

oh and get some endota skin lovin' for free here.

over.

endota- Giveaway

It is with great delight that I announce this weeks giveaway from endota. 

For mother's day last year I was lucky enough to receive a never never land day spa package at an endota day spa - I've gotta say it was the most blissful three hours of my life. During the massage at the end of the session I kept jolting myself awake with the sound of my own snoring, only to realise that I needed to wipe away the string of drool running down my cheek. 

I walked out of the spa that day with a selection of the most delicious certified organic products imaginable. For this reason, I'm excited to offer you the chance to win some too.

The beautiful team at endota are offering one lucky reader of The Beetle Shack the chance to win this Glycolic package (available exclusively at endota day spas) including a polishing mask, nourishing oil, spotty toiletry bag and calendar full of fabulous discounts.

 Valued at over $145

To enter all you need to do is be a follower of The Beetle Shack and leave me a comment below

For extra chances to win:

 Write your own post about this giveaway, tweet about it, facebook it or knock on your neighbours door and tell them about it before 

leaving me a comment telling me that you have.

Trust me peeps, you do not want to miss out on this one. 

winner will be announced on sunday the 22nd, so make sure you check back.

*Winner is commenter 13 Sarah 

Today...

... i threw a mummy tantrum...

...and avoided responsibility in every way imaginable. I closed the doors to my bedroom, drew the blinds and sulked under my favourite fruity nanny rug. 

It was bloody brilliant, I should do it more often.

Mother Love

Tonight, I sat on the bed with the windows open and the sea breeze on my skin to feed the Lady Baby. Zeph splashed about in the bath for a while until he noticed the lack of activity and scampered out of the tub to snuggle in. I whispered,  'ssshhh, I'm just feeding Pippi so she can go to sleep'. His face softened  and his pace slowed. After planting a sloppy kiss on my lips he looked at his little sister and then back to me - 'I love her mum' he softly said before announcing that when she woke up in the morning he could 'play with her again' and that would make him 'so happy'.

 Photo's by Tim Coulson

My heart exploded right there in my chest. This boy is growing up, times like these are but a distant memory. 

I see a new tenderness in him and can't help but feel proud.   

Rock That Horse- Giveaway Winner

Thanks ever so much to Julia of Rock that Horse for offering up one of her beautiful prints for the greater good. It's always fun spreading some love around- especially when the product is fabulous. We have a bunch more giveaways coming up in the coming months that i'm pretty sure you should be excited about- I know I am. With future giveaways the winner will be announced and a note will be added to the original post on the specified date so make sure you check back.

The winner of a Rock That Horse Print is commenter 14. Congratulations Bec S! Hit me on the email with your address and I'll forward it on to Julia! A new Giveaway will be announced on Monday.

Have a fabulous weekend lovers.

See You In A Couple Of Weeks

The other night we had a little farewell dinner for our sister and brother in law who are moving to a new town for the foreseeable future. This town is a little far away for my liking and we are all going to miss them crazy.

This is the guilty couple right here. 

Each and every event in this family is marked by the sharing of food and wine. This was no different- we ate and drank and loudly laughed. We watched as sun turned the sky pink before casting our gaze to the glorious neon glow of the iphone - a brief viewing of a place we will visit often.

 See you in a couple of weeks, dudes. Love you too much.