Tag Archives: celebrations

Too Late?

Is it too late yet to say Happy New Year? And, uh, Merry Christmas, as well? (I don’t do ‘Happy Holidays’ – despite my pagan leanings, I’m pretty firmly in the ‘Merry Christmas’ camp!)

I kept meaning to blog, truly I did. I missed so many important moments. Here’s the ten-second run down of that-which-was-never-blogged:

  • Finn’s birthday party (Ten pin bowling, wheeee! The birthday boy bowled 96 to take the game – never mind the assistance of bumpers and a ramp!)
  • A little bit of frantic pre-Christmas crafting (Bags, bags, bags… I do promise photos, once I liberate them from the various cameras about the house)
  • Niamh deciding a week before Christmas was a good time to start climbing out of her cot, thus introducing us to a whole new set of bedtime challenges
  • Christmas itself (Cue yet another emotional meltdown from moi – 3-days of family festivities (his family/ my family/ my other family) is just a wee bit more than I can take, apparently)
    Finn turning 5
  • Finn’s NYE birthday (My boy is five! Last year Scienceworks, this year the Museum. Lots of fun, but I wish we hadn’t been so rushed)
  • NYE party and overnight stay out of town (Thank goodness – we were about an hour and a half out of Melbourne, so no overnight low of 30°C for us – we had a pleasant drop down to 17°-ish)
  • Resolution making (Yes really – me! Never mind that I apparently jinx myself out of achieving goals – I’m quite determined that two-oh-oh-eight is going to be a whole different story. Stay tuned)

So Happy New Year then. May it be a wonderful and productive one for all of us. Also, may it bring more blogging and less blah-ing for me. Back soon with those photos, and not far around the corner, a name change and a facelift.

Erm… for the blog, that is, not me 😆

Thirty-two

brthday-gifts
Yes, it’s true. I’m another year older and another year wider wiser. Happy Birthday to me 😆

For my inner-hippie, Dermot and the kids gave me a permaculture book. For my inner-geek, a GPS navigator (also from Mum and Stepdad). Actually, perhaps that’s for my inner-hippie as well. To, you know… “find myself”!

Anyone who knows me knows I have the World’s Worst sense of direction. Absolutely shocking. Thankfully I married an excellent navigator, but now, when he’s not available, a lovely man named Tim is going to tell me exactly where to go :giggle: Hooray for birthdays. Now, can someone tell me exactly when I am going to feel like a grown-up?

Later That Month…

The Blogger’s block continues. But I have been stitching. A few secret things – more on those later. And, surprise, surprise, I dragged something out from beneath the mountain of unfinished-finished-things:
Bookmark-1

I stitched this Teresa Wentzler freebie bookmark back in 2004. Finally, I actually made it into a bookmark! And used it, what’s more:
Bookmark-2

I used this stuff to fuse the fabric together:
Bookmark-3

I don’t know how kosher that is with regards to longevity of the stitching, but watch me not care. Also not caring about the lumpy seam up the back of the bookmark. The front looks good, and it does what it should, and that’s all that matters 🙂

Also in the interim since my last post, I spent a lovely afternoon meeting some fellow Melburnian stitchers – Junette, Anne and I descended on Tannia’s house where she plied us with food and wine, and we whiled a few hours away chatting and getting in some quality kitty time. Niamh came along, and made short work of befriending all and sundry, except perhaps Banjo, who remained unconvinced. It was lovely, and I hope we do it again sooner rather than later.

Then, we spent this weekend just past away for a couple of days with Dermot’s (large) family. Annually, on the weekend following Queen’s Birthday, we hire a school-camp facility (dorm rooms, communal showers and kitchen – you know the kind of thing) and spend two days eating, drinking and being generally merry, all in celebration of his grandmother’s birthday. She was 87 this year, and we all had a wonderful weekend. Here’s to many more like it 😆

The Birthday

   “Will report back with photos, hopefully.”

That last word of the last post may have been a bit premonitory! Important events in this family’s life seem to be marked by a distinct lack of decent photographs. (Don’t even ask me about our wedding. Just don’t.) In this case, as with Dermot’s 30th birthday three weeks ago, we were so busy trying to keep people fed and happy that neither of us got behind the camera much. We did, however, have a really lovely time, and everybody was well fed and happy, so that and the memories really are all that count. I did manage a few photos – this first one is on party day – the day before her birthday.
Niamh-Birthday-2
Legwarmers, courtesy Babylegs. These things are great!
Cute red dress, courtesy my wonderful friend Jane
Wiggles DVD, courtesy Uncle Stu
Dinky red cap, courtesy Grandpa
Backwards-cap-wearin’-style, all her very own 🙂

And here we have our gorgeous 1 year old and big brother on her birthday – note the Russian dolls we gave her. I must get a good photograph of these to show you, they’re beautiful.

Niamh-Birthday-3

And then there’s this last one – which is something I wouldn’t normally show you, as it is such an unattractive shot of myself (note bags under eyes, and yes, my eyebrows need serious attention – and yes, if you look closely, you can see Niamh has inherited those same crazy eyebrows, poor girl!) But something about this photograph really works for me – it was taken the afternoon of her birthday, after we experienced a pretty rough night following the party, and I think it sums up the feeling of the last year pretty succinctly, don’t you?

Niamh-Birthday
For what it’s worth, she went on to sleep eleven hours that night, so all is forgiven again 🙂