Random Thoughts from A Few Days of Photos

This photo gives you an idea of the haircut I gave the Cherub. Surprisingly for a home cut it has turned out quite well. He had 8 days of school swimming last fortnight and was unable to swim the first day because he kept stopping to stand up and push the hair off his face. No time for our regular hairdresser so I just took him out the backyard and went the hack. It's a pretty terrible cut but his wavy hair has concealed the true damage! I'm letting it grow out a bit before we take him to our lovely hairdresser, but she won't be fooled.



This (sneaky) photo, taken just before the first tap class on Saturday, reminds me that I need to stop slouching and stand up straight. Shoulders back Stomper! (Did you straighten yourself up as you looked at it? I did)

Climber took that last shot with spy-like stealth from the back room at the Tap Hall where he and Cherub like to get arty on the whiteboard while Fixit, Nell and I do set-up. While he was there with the camera recording disposable art for posterity he also took this shot...



...which I just like for the composition, the little left-handed artiste in the corner and Climber's reflection behind his works.



This shot reminds me that I need to tell you about Mister Fixit and the Great Job Application. See, he has progressed through all the rounds of the Recruitment Company and is off next Monday for the Big Interview with the Prospective Employer (back story here, here and here). This meant we had to buy him a suit! Somehow he got to 40+ and has never owned one. He also needed a new tie; the last tie he bought was a skinny one from the 80s. So we took the boys to Nell's house (that's Climber playing on her laptop computer and drinking lemonade, they love Nell anyway but this babysit was extra popular) while we went to nearby Bridge Road, an excellent seconds shopping strip in Melbourne. We bought him a very nice charcoal coloured wool suit with a subtle blue stripe and a nice greeny-gold tie that brings out his eyes. I swear he looked a different man as he tried it on and I felt a little bit shy of him. If he lets me, I will take a photo on interview morning.

Book Launch Action Shots

The lovely Louise M Cooper was the official photographer at the Arcade Book Launch we did last week and she sent through some gorgeous shots. If you would like to see more photographs of the evening, including the original pin-up girls and the vintage frock loveliness from the fashion parade, then go here

Our Girls Book Launch

I'm not much chop at putting in hot rollers...



..but the 'do came out all right anyway.



Here's the gorgeous Miss Kaye and me backstage at the Order of Melbourne last night, in our purple sparkly mini-dresses, about to tap our little feet off to help launch a new book by Madeleine Hamilton called Our Girls; Aussie Pin-ups of the 40s and 50s.

The gig was great fun and I'm hoping to post photos soon of Kaye and me in action, as soon as someone sends me some. Meantime, let me tell you that we went over very well! Lots of whooping and cheering and loud applause. We danced our 2 old-fashioned high-heeled numbers to fit in with the vintage theme of the night, and in between we watched from side of stage as the lovely Candice, Nicky and Becky modelled some divine vintage outfits supplied by Circa Vintage Clothes. The cocktail frocks were my absolute fave, tres chic.

Some of the original Pin-up Girls of the age came along - some of them are quite elderly now and all still gorgeous and glamorous. Here's a great interview with the book's author about the book which is worth a read. When Madeleine gave her speech last night she talked of the very respectful letters sent by diggers to the Pin-up Girls (so different to the page 3 culture of today) and how heart-breaking it had been in her research to find how many of those letter-writers had died horrible deaths in warfare.

When the gig was over and I'd caught up with nice people in the audience and cooled off with a couple of gin-and-tonics, I decided that the evening was so beautiful that I would walk from the venue in Swanston St to the tram stop at St. Vincents in my pretty purple high-heeled mary-jane shoes. I think I might have quite sore feet after tap class tonight!

You can buy the book here. And a crew from the ABC's The 7.30 Report were there filming the event, and hope to screen it in November or December.

Louie the Fly

My sister and her kids left today for Canberra. The house is suddenly quiet. Quiet and messy. It's been an action-packed, fun-filled 11 days, which I think exhausted all of us. At some stage I may find the energy to blog some bits and pieces. But today I am still mildly whacked from a full and tiring day at our School Fete yesterday in 35 degree heat. So I am just posting a funny sequence of photos (taken by my sister) of the finale of my Tap School's performance at said Fete. The performance went very well despite the heat - luckily we were the first act but even at 10.30am that stage was pretty hot and I all but burnt my hand handling the metal tap-plate on my shoes at the end of the gig. Anyway. Here you can see the Cherub and the Son-of-The-Guy, giving their all as Tapping Flies who have just been sprayed with (pretend) flyspray, with full artistic interpretation of the instruction lie down on your back with your hands and feet in the air and buzz like a dying fly.

Halloween in a Hurry

My sister and nephew and niece are staying with us for 11 days, while Bronnie photographs the horses at the Spring Racing Carnival. So please forgive me for this very rushed blogpost, which is pretty much just my Halloween Show and Tell - mostly Show. I'm too busy keeping 4 children in line to have any words flowing nicely from me; but if you need someone to nag you to eat your dinner, insist you say please or thank-you or chivvy you in or out of somewhere (the car, the bath, the bed) then I'm your woman.

Here is a picture of Climber and myself on our way to Elda's magnificent Halloween party.



Here is a shot of Elda doing her hostess with the mostest stuff. All the kids got a turn at hacking up the severed hands (chicken schnitzels) as well as putting their hands in a bowl of slime to get lollies, taking their turn at acting out Halloween charades (walk like a zombie, lie still like a corpse etc), eating doughnuts off a string and then trick-or-treating. The trick or treating was great fun (they even trick-or-treated the local supermarket) and the stack of lollies they came home with was staggering.



Here is the little sewing project that grew very organically over the weekend. Climber announced he wanted to make a little toy ghost so I set him up with felt and needle and thread.



My nephew walked by and became very interested so he decided to make a pumpkin.



Then Cherub wanted in too, so he made a blue ghost with evil red eyes.



My 4yo niece also wanted one but didn't feel up to sewing so once I got through the flurry of helping 3 boys sew at once (you know, knotting, threading, teaching them backstitch, snipping, knotting, rethreading, turning inside out, finishing off: it got pretty frantic for a while there) I made her a lallow one. Here they are, see if you can guess which one is mine.

Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain

I've been working away for a while now on a Crafty Project. I know, who'd've thunk it? But the lively and lovely Trashalou emailed me one day and asked did I want to join a rainbow swap, and I thought why not? One, I like rainbows, so I thought I could come up with plenty of ideas. Two, I've looked on enviously from the sidelines (so to speak) as crafty bloggers everywhere either made or received gorgeous things in blog-swaps. I wanted to come to that party.

I love rainbows. I love working through the spectrum, I love saying roy-ja-biv as my little memory aid (RedOrangeYellowGreenBlueIndigoViolet). So I used the idea of those colours, in that order as the base for all my projects.

My first item was a book cover. Version II of this one. I used a much easier plain black fabric to make the cover and embellished it with rainbow felt.

RedOrangeYellowGreenBlueIndigoViolet


My second item was bunting. There is something so cheerful about coloured flags hanging above your head. I'd seen someone else's bunting and they'd made it with pinking shears and stitching over the top which I could see meant it would be very quick and easy to whip up, but I didn't really like how it looked. So despite being a very novice at this sewing thing I went the whole hog & sewed my triangles together inside out and then turned them. I had quite lot of help, firstly talking through the mechanics with Jenny, who also assisted with stash (she runs her school's fete craft stall and everyone gives her fabric so she was quite glad to give some of it away), and then from Nell (and spasmodically the kids) who kept me company me as I sewed a billion triangles, and was very good with suggestions and advice and turning the triangles out and ironing them.

RedOrangeYellowGreenBlueIndigoViolet


I also folded some masu boxes in rainbow spectrum and then nested them. I'm not sure what practical use they'll have but it seemed a pretty, if frivolous, idea. I used them to hold a bit of trim which said celebrate in rainbow colours.

RedOrangeYellowGreenBlueIndigoViolet


Then I put together a Rainbow cd...

RedOrangeYellowGreenBlueIndigoViolet

My last great project, and possibly the one I'm proudest of, was the rainbow apron. Cherub's adorable teacher let me take some buttons from her class stash so I had a rainbow spectrum of cute buttons. With these I decided to use the rest of the black fabric and a fat quarter in rainbow stripes to make an apron. I took my ingredients (is there a better crafty word than that?) and my ideas to Jenny, and she said it was good and would work and she supervised me and advised on correct ordering of sewing. But the apron is my own (very simple) design and is therefore my favourite of my crafted children.

VioletIndigoBlueGreenYellowOrangeRed :: mirror shot so it appears reversed.




Here's the finished products just before posting. I was giving to the lovely Jan from Sewjourn, and she emailed me the instant she received them with kind words.

Got the sun in the morning and the moon at night

Joining in once more with the What's Hot and What's Not Wednesday from Loobylu.

What's Not:

Kids without manners. I had to take one to task recently for speaking rudely to me in my house. I said, fairly mildly, do you think that is a good way to speak to someone else's mummy? and he looked shamed and said No. Then I said When you come to my house you speak nicely to me. Not that he was that bad, just he spoke to me like I was his mother and I'd said something stupid to him. My kids aren't allowed to take that tone with me, buggered if I'll put up with other people's children doing it. I think I'm putting a blanket ban on playdates on the nights I teach tap, otherwise I can't quite shake off my irritation in time to be fresh and smiling for class. Unless I know the other child is well-mannered, obviously.

What's Hot:

Finally getting round to buying frames so that I can display some new artwork, including the Judy Horacek print from my siblings (over 2 years ago!) and this lovely photograph sent to me by the talented and generous Mary. Isn't it divine? I can't tear my eyes away from it.



Having a cleaning lady. It's so ace I can't believe it. People keep asking me is she good? and I have to say that actually I did a better job. But she is lovely, she charges less than anyone else I know of and the point is I Don't Want To Do It so I don't actually care if stuff is gleaming. It's clean, that's good enough. Also. When I floated the cleaning lady argument with Fixit ages ago I mentioned that not having to do the fortnightly toilet cleaning/vacuuming drudgery would free up my time and energy so that I would finally get around to neglected tasks like sorting out cupboards and boxes and stuff. I wasn't actually sure if this would be true, but turns out I was right, and nasty corners of my home are being put right, bit by bit. (By the by, I've just re-read that post with the excellent Get-The-Cleaning-Lady comments you all left and have the biggest smile now. You guys rock.)



The Guy. My Mac computer died but one word to The Guy and I have a newer improved G5 Mac with all the stuff from the G4 and lots of new space and gizmos, in return for some tap tuition for his charming son. Gotta love The Guy. And the barter system.

Spring! Sunshine and drying the laundry in one day and smelling honeysuckle when I get to tap and cutting lovely roses from our garden.