What we wore {maroon and minnie mouse}

Me-
dress: thrifted//belt: thrifted//jacket: Alpha60//shoes: Swear//rings: antique + Julia seville
Violet-
top: Pumpkin Patch//jeans: Pumpkin Patch//shoes: Zara

Man, I am so busy with this birthday party! Rob and I switched Violet's room and the dining room/study over the weekend so that she would be in the warmer part of the house. We also wanted her to finally have an awesome bedroom. I thought the room at the back of the house would be too small for a dining room AND study but with winter rolling in and the nights getting colder we actually no longer had a choice. We have ducted heating but it doesn't seem to do enough in the back rooms and Violet has been playing a human ice block at night for the last couple of weeks. The room at the back fits our dining table and a computer desk just fine and we've decided to turn the weird room (it's like a room sized hallway pretty much and totally useless) into a craft/sewing room. All for me! I'm pretty happy about that. Rob also reorganised the shed while I did my best to put the house back together. Now all that's left to do is decorations and baking. I've spent the day making lollipops! I found my dream-pop on

Sprinkle Bakes HERE.

I added a little too much colouring into the first batch (though they're still pretty!) so I'll be toning it down a little in the next lot. I used the powdered sugar method she discusses with total success and ease. That probably has a lot to do with the fact that I am a confectionary and baking noob due to mad laziness so I was expecting my kitchen to be coated in various sugars and hard candy. It was not!

Much baking, painting with chalkboard paint and crafting hessian tablecloths to go, better hop to it. I love birthday parties!

This week

How awesome is that picture?! We were in Myer so Rob could make sure something we purchased at JB HI was a good deal compared to what Myer had on offer (boys...) and they had these big mirror pillars. Violet was all over them, kissing herself and flirting like a little girl in lurve.

This week is so busy, I've predictably left all the planning of Violet's first birthday until the week before (her party is on Sunday the 6th of May, though her real birthday is on the 9th) and there is a lot to do. Violet and I tried to go to the cake decoration shop yesterday but the mean cake lady says no strollers in the shop (though she was a fair bit ruder than that). I thought that being a mean cake lady was pretty much against the rules of the universe but man, she breaks the mould! Unfortunately she holds the monopoly on awesomeness when it comes to edible glitter and purple-only sprinkles so I have to go back on Monday. Luckily my brother and our friend Thom where in the city already so we salvaged the day by grabbing some coffee in Degraves St and wandering with them. Today is for picking up some hessian (burlap) by the metre from the hardware shop to make tablecloths and loving on my sweet little girl who is extra clingy this week. She has mastered the art to wrapping her legs around us and gripping with actual strength with her feet and hands whenever we try to put her down. Who would mind though, baby cuddles are the best! On that note, top tooth number one is all the way through and coming down every day while top tooth number two is just starting to break through the surface. This time around we done the teething pain killer free, not for any reason other than that she hasn't seemed to need it, cuddles have been the medicine required.

I need to ask my blog pals for some help. I'm annoying both myself and Rob with my repetitive music listening. It's a well-joked about semi-fact in my circle of friends that I haven't bought any new music since 2004. It's not strictly true BUT most of the music I've bought since then has been new albums from bands I was already listening to prior to 2004. I'm not up with any kind of current trend and if you know where the pulse is you can look for me at the furthest point from it before you hit die-hard Guns n Roses territory. Folks, I still have all of The Shins albums on heavy rotation. Help! I realised last night while laying in bed listening to the music played at 40th birthday party at my next door neighbour's house that I do not want my life to be summed up some years from now by a playlist dedicated exclusively to cock-rock and all the lamest hits of 1987-89. Or the equivalent of my musical taste currently. Please suggest me some new stuff! I like the following music the most of the stuff I listen to, plus I'll be your best friend. Manchester orchestra, brand new, joni mitchell, rilo kiley, first aid kit, the shins, billy bragg, bright eyes, the national, the stone roses, fleet foxes.

Roses.

Lately our weekends have felt like we are running a race from the start of the first day until the finish of the second day. Except that sometimes we cave under the pressure and decide to do none of our to-do list tasks (which causes even more pressure later!). We have so many things we need to buy at the moment and so many of our things keep breaking and have to be taken back to be repaired or replaced. Seriously, in the last 2 months we have had something to return every weekend, we are unlucky in purchasing (but lucky in warranty coverage). Violet's first birthday party is in a week and a half and I've been working on that mostly in my head but slaving over handmade invitations. Rob works such long hours, often doing photo shoots or seminars on his days off, that he has little time to do the things he needs to do, let alone the things he wants to do. Maybe not having a car is getting the better of us after all. I guess we do live in suburbia now (not really, at all). Anyway, we decided to stop on the way home from picking up our replacement vacuum cleaner (the old one broke, we were not surprised. Also, one of the connection outputs on our TV broke yesterday. The TV is less than a year old, we were not surprised) on Tuesday to let Violet stretch her legs and take a break from running errands. She just loves the park, I guess all kids do. My friend Rosa from my playgroup showed up with her husband and their little boy, Leoma which was an odd chance meeting as we were in Clifton Hill which is not where either of us live. He and Violet played near each other for a while and then a huge thunderstorm hit and we ran away home to get warm and cuddle. Life is good man, especially when you stop to take it in for a while.

What the dad did {3}

More before-work fun for Violet and her Daddy!

what we wore {ships and bones}

Me- dress: Alpha60//tights: target//shoes: melissa//engagement ring: antique//bone ring: Julia deVille.
Violet- dress: thrifted//tights: pumpkin patch.

I love these photos that Rob took. When I look at them I think that autumn is really here, even though we're standing in evergreens. Around our house though the leaves are dropping all over the streets and I see people raking their yards. It's such a beautiful time of year, even if you're in Sydney and it's raining all the time ;).

I really want to tell you about something very special to me. For my "hey, thanks for having a baby!" present (is there a technical term for that???) Rob bought me a ring by jeweler slash taxidermist Julia deVille. Have you heard of her? She is amazing. Her work is influenced by Victorian mourning jewelry which incorporated stuff like locks of a loved ones hair and other materials that were once living, a Memento Mori- reminder of our mortality.

In her artist statement she writes: "I incorporate the symbols of death throughout my work because I think it is important to identify with the concept that we are in fact mortal creatures. The nature of our culture is to obsess over planning the future, and in doing so, we forget to enjoy the present. I consider my taxidermy to be a celebration of life, a preservation of something beautiful. I feel strongly about the fair and just treatment of animals and to accentuate this point I use only animals that have died of natural causes."

I have been obsessed with her turtledove bone rings for quite a long time but never got around to buying myself one (largely because I want two, a gold and a silver!). Given how long I've loved them for and what their creation was intended to symbolize I decided that the silver plated one would be the perfect gift to commemorate bringing little Violet into the world. And if I have another, maybe I'll get the gold (I've already hinted above and beyond subtlety to Rob)!


Latin for "Learn to Die".


You can check out Julia deVille

HERE.

If you're in Melbourne my friend Bernadette works at Alice Euphemia so we bought my ring there. Their website is

HERE.

Something sweet

These shots are kind of out-takes from a what we wore photo session in the park the other morning. We shot the photos in one spot and then moved to another to see if we could get some more but unfortunately the lighting was just TOO different to use the two lots in one set. They're much too cute to do nothing with though! So I hope you think they're as sweet as I do. We spent the day at the Ceres with some of our mother's group friends after Rob went off to work and then the afternoon at one of their homes drinking tea and practicing walking. That is to say, Violet and her little friend Poppy practiced walking, I'm doing ok in that particular skill.

Violet's first trip to the zoo!

I mentioned a few posts ago that on Easter Sunday we went to the zoo! A first for all 5 of us; me, Rob, Violet, Rob's dad Danny and Rob's step-mum Sue. This was probably a good thing for our group excitement level, seeing as Violet had gotten her first illness (a cold! I can't believe we made it to 11 months before getting sick!) the day before and also slept most of the trip. She was pretty listless but as usual she didn't complain and was pretty awesome given the circumstances. The zoo closed before we got to see the monkeys and the pandas (heart broken!) so I guess we'll just have to go back and see how Miss V likes it without snot dripping down her face. I personally liked the giraffes the best. Rob says he liked the limas the best, though I find that hard to believe since we only spied them for like, a second, across a river. I think he's still pissed about missing out on the pandas, ha. Plus I think he's forgotten that he already told me he liked the kangaroos the best. We did a great job of not taking any pictures of animals, didn't we?