Toastandcupcakes.

Abraham turned 26 yesterday!
In the seven years I’ve known Abraham we’ve been through a lot.
We’ve separated and gotten back together multiple times, we’ve shared some pretty intense tears and some incredible laughs, we’ve been through thickness,through thinness, through sickness, through poorness and through health ( although we’re still waiting on the wealth…)
Abraham has stuck by me through the times where I was so close to not even sticking by myself and he’s forgiven me for things I will never forgive myself for. He’s given more back massages than most masseurs, he’s mopped up after me, held the bowl and dabbed my brow, he’s given into my (usually bad) dvd choices, put up with my whiney folk music, educated me in the world of hiphop, gotten used to my eccentric style and obsessive thrifting, learned to put up with my parents (who are lovely, but rather complicated) and always told me I’m beautiful no matter how large my bottom was.
Oh, and did I mention he’s the most amazing Dad? From the moment he caught that child he’s been besotted. And the feeling is very mutual.
He is (you are) my soulmate and the most incredibly human being I’ve ever met and I’m so very blessed to have you.
Happy Birthday baby!

I scored these two gorgeous cardis this week at the op shop, brand new with tags! They’re by my favourite ever cardigan makers Glengyle. They’re 100% pure virgin lambswool (aren’t all lambs virgin?) and they’re made in New Zealand which is awesomely awesome. I have quite a number of cardis by these fantastic people now, after inheriting some from my nana when she passed. So good, I really recommend them.
I recently went on a bit of shopping spree and bought a few ‘new’ things for Winter (plain black cardi, plain black skirt etc.. basics.) and from now on I’ve decided I’m going to try and only buy things which will see me through the first few months of a pregnancy. No, no I’m not pregnant yet but I’m doing some positive thinking (or is it wishful thinking?) and hoping that it’s not going to take us too long to conceive and I don’t really want to be left with a whole bunch of stuff I can’t wear until afterwards.
It’s been talked about a fair bit in the blogging realm lately, how lacking in style the current maternity scene is. Since the ever-lovely Tricia became pregnant she has been looking into it and is working on changing this and I love that. (and I love this new flickr group!)
 
I, for one, was hideously style-challenged during my terms. I was as big as a house and dressed accordingly. I think alot of it has to do with the lack of motivation during pregnancy, the tiredness and the generally feeling huge, bloated and gross. But I’ve made a solemn promise to myself that should we have some luck and fall pregnant again, that I’ll not resort to wearing the same full stretch yoga pants and tshirts everyday, but will endeavour to make and buy things which will result in me still looking as good as ever. Any thoughts ladies? What did you/would you wear (or what are you wearing?) and what would you do differently?

My grand plans for the week have unfortunately been a little mislaid due to Aesop’s case of the pox and his subsequent time off from preschool (or work as he would have you call it.) I had hoped to get some serious sewing done, and have another lot of things listed by this weekend, but it’s looking more and more like it’ll have to be before next weekend. These things happen, huh?
The poxed boy seems to be feeling just fine though. The itching is yet to start and the mood is fairly chipper for someone so spotty. And I’m pleased to report we’ve done pretty darn well stuck inside together the last two days which would normally have been spent apart. We’re both such strong personalities that it doesn’t take much time for us to drive each other completely nutty.
I have, however, managed to cut out another pile of the (very successful! thank you!) brooches, and nearly finish two cardigan/hoodie hybrids. And of course post off the piles of orders I received after the last update. I’m very humbled by how much interest there is in my work at the moment. Thank you!
A few said things occurred yesterday though. My trip to the post office was the final straw for me, and I had to give in and put up my postage prices after ending up $15 out of pocket once everything was sent. I despise the fact I have to charge such ridiculous prices, but I really just don’t have any choice. I hope people understand.
And the other sad thing? I realised I’m running out of cotton, and felt and that I need a blind hemming foot for my machine. Not the end of the world, right? Yeah.. except when you look into how much these things cost, and how much they’ve gone up in the short time since I last bought felt and thread! Shivers!
Looks like I’ll be buying a lotto ticket this weekend.

Our poor boy has been struck with a case of the chicken pox!
The little spots started appearing yesterday morning, after two days of being a little bit grouchy. So far he’s a little miserable and easily upset but luckily he’s not too itchy yet and doesn’t seem to feel too bad.
Poor thing! And you know what? I’m feeling a little sorry for myself about it too. I don’t feel old enough to have a child with chicken pox! To me it feels like just a few years ago I had chicken pox!

I’ve been feeling this way a bit lately.
Part of me thinks having a child/children young is the best thing ever. I mean, I’ll have time to make up for anything I might be missing out on once the kids are out of home, right? Even if the next one takes a year or two to arrive, and doesn’t leave home until 20, I’ll still be under fifty! But on the other hand at the moment I’m watching all of my friends heading offshore and studying, and planning their lives out, not including children for another five or ten years!They basically can head off and do what they want when they want and they are making the most of it.
And the friends I spend the most time with are all in their thirties with children even younger than Aesop. They’ve travelled, partied, and done the things they needed to do and now are settled down and conversations are filled with talk of buying houses and mortgages, things we’re a long way off even being able to consider.
I guess there’s nothing I can, or probably even would, change about the situation but it does get me down a tiny bit down every now and then. I guess I should take a leave out of Aesop’s book and just forget about it.

Who needs to think about chicken pox when there’s dvds to be watched, morning tea to be eaten and toys to be played with!

I work Sundays and Mondays at the cafe, so my blog is always a little quiet over the weekend.
It’s hard to find time to take pictures, especially now that it’s almost dark when I get home! So most weekends I’ll give sunday and monday a miss with posting, or just post a few pictures I’ve taken over the week.
(Like these ones of my op shop haul on Friday. Some fabric and a really amazing book about crochet with great photos and even better diagrams and patterns.)
Hope you all had a great weekend. I’m really looking forward to this week, I have grand plans. See you tomorrow!

I’ve just added seventeen things to my etsy store. Just thought I’d boast a little about how I’m finally getting that mojo back and being a productive human being. I’m really happy with how the brooches turned out, and I can’t wait to finish off the other sort too and put them up.
I’ve just downed a moro bar (sorry waistline!) and downed a lift plus in hopes of getting in another few hours of sewing tonight while Abraham is out playing poker with his friends. Next weeks Etsy update should be just as awesome, now here’s hoping I can start selling a little more! hah.

This week has been one of those strange weeks. The weather has been absolutely terrible, with rain and thunderstorms for three days. The combination of the gloom that comes with such weather and being stuck indoors with a over-energetic three years old has really taken its toll on me. I’m all muddled and fairly grouchy.
So here is my few-days-late WIP Wednesday entry because, quite frankly, on Wednesday I just didn’t have the energy to do much more than complain!

Sewing-wise I’m taking trying to take pictures of the brooches and finished tops I have waiting to go on Etsy (though the lighting has been much less than helpful), and am working on a few little short sleeved, hooded cardi type tops. I’m also making a few short sleeved hooded t-shirts. Short sleeves aren’t really a style that I get into personally so it’s been a little bit of an inner struggle, but I’ve had a few requests so I thought I’d give it a go!

In the garden the little caterpillars are all very close to becoming butterflies, and the plants are lapping up the extra water! My garden has mostly been pulled out to make room for new Autumn veges, but I still have the odd courgette, eggplant and capsicum. I’ve got some seedlings ready to be put out this afternoon and I’ll try to get some more this weekend, but most of my favourite things to grow are already finished. I think perhaps I’ll try to grow things I really don’t like and do a little green dollaring and see if I can find someone with fruit trees who wants to swap!

I went op shopping yesterday and had a little luck. I found a few things for a swap I’m doing with Amy, a hand knit blanket, some books for Aesop, some kitchen bits and pieces, some fabric and some records.
I mostly bought the records for their covers which I’m going to chop up and hopefully frame.
Don’t you think the picture above looks like some hip and swanky print you’d find on Etsy or somewhere? (Maybe not, but I did.. hah) well it’s actually a really old record cover I scored for a dollar, and a black frame I got on special and the warehouse : ) I’m so pleased with it.

What is it with me and auction sites? I seem to get burned way more often than everyone else.
The perfect example is when my sewing machine broke down last year. I thought ‘oh, cool I’ll have a look on Trademe’ you know, as you do.
I happened upon the exact same ancient model I had just had blow up and bid my little life away. I won the auction, smiled, paid, still smiling, even received it and used it for two days, still smiling. Then after what can’t of been longer than four days the machine stopped. It stopped dead in it’s tracks never to work again.
The repair guy said he would bet his bottom dollar the people had been told it wasn’t going to go much longer and to fobbed it off to some idiot over the net… which was, of course, me.
So last week I saw an auction for a bulk amount of fabric. I asked them if they’d sell the ribbing and sweatshirting separately, they agreed and offered me a price. It was a fair bit of cash but worked out pretty good for the amount I was getting, and the postage was even pretty reasonable. It was sent on Monday and all was gravy.
It arrived this morning.
The postie/courier guy had left the cardboard box on my front step in the pouring rain, so I heaved the big soggy lump into the lounge and tore it open. To find, naturally, an equally big soggy pile of fabric.
I picked up the top piece and found that not only was it neither sweatshirting or ribbing, but it was also bright blue and had left a huge blue stain on the piece underneath it (which was also neither of the fabrics I wanted!).
So it turns out they sent ribbing and somehow got very confused and thought very cheap quality polo shirting was sweatshirting. Which would be fixable if the ribbing wasn’t also faded and covered in marks which I had specifically inquired about before accepting their offer.
CRAAAAAAAP.
Here’s the part where most people would go ‘Okay, well I’ll e-mail them, sort it out and if that doesn’t work I’ll just contact trademe.’ Well yeah, that would be great if I hadn’t accepted their offer by e-mail. 😦 Oh, man.
So please keep your fingers crossed for me that I can sort this out.
I had to take the day off work today because it was raining too hard to ride my bike, so all that money I spent on crap material would have made a big difference. Damn it all.

This weekend has been pretty good to me.
(My weekends finish on Saturday evening because I work all day Sunday and Monday!)
On Friday night we were lucky enough to be child-free, and decided to go out to dinner at a fancy restaurant.
It wasn’t without dramas (the taxis running late and having to postpone our reservation, walking at fast as we could to get there, me ordering something not as nice as abraham’s and wanting to eat all of his, not being able to afford drink or dessert, and most dramatic : me dropping a glass bottle of soy sauce at the supermarket on the way home (!) and having to walk home with legs and shoes splattered in soy!) but despite all of that it was rather pleasant and so nice to spend some time with just the two of us.

Last night, on the other hand, ran completely smoothly. We spent the afternoon setting up some of our thomas track, making yummy scrummy pasta, salad and garlic bread, baking cookies (from the ‘how it all vegan’ book’) and tidying the house. Then in the evening out friends Julie and Gareth came round and our other friends Donna and Lee came round with their little boy too. We sat around, eating up, laughing and playing with the trains. One of my favourite ways to spend an evening!