Excitement

I have found so many amazing blogs lately. I feel scared clicking links within them pointing to new exciting inter-places, because it makes me feel like I am teetering on a precipice and about to fall into a bottomless canyon of exhilarating inspiration, and my children need me.

Here are a few beauties:

fine little day

emma adbage

kindra is here

hoping for happy accidents

lena corwin

And some nutty Polish experimental radio music via hoping for happy accidents.

This morning...

This morning...

It arrived!

Inspired

Inspired by this, I have decided to make "A Week of Mornings" here, starting today. Join in if you like!

This morning...pollen.

Letterbox Joy

These arrived in our letterbox today. From Pomadour24 at Etsy (check it out for more pix).

This one's ISBN978-4-579-11194-7 (oops forgot to crop)


This one's ISBN978-4-277-72252-0

This Past Fortnight

Where did those two weeks go??

Here are some places they went:

Popped drawn-on balloon

Mothers' Day angel (awww! MissM chose it for me!)

Found on creek bank

Couple of cute cats

Our dog's 7th birthday torte

Manic post-dinner crayolathon

Ominous autumn afternoon sky

Birthday present (1 g of paracetamol...caught whatever is doing the rounds)

My dad's present for me! Yeehar! A serotonin molecule necklace. Testament to my geekiness. Found here

Before...

...After.

Illustration Friday: Electricity

We all know this feeling.......right?

Free Softie Pattern: Calico Kitty

Just print out to whichever size you like. For my calico kitty, I just fitted the pattern onto A4.

Have fun, and if you make one, let me know -- I'd love to see it!

My Vintage Australiana

When I was six years old, my parents decided to come to Australia. They didn't tell me until we were at the airport. Not only was I uprooted from my idyllic peaceful childhood existence, but I didn't get to say goodbye to my friends, most of my toys, my room, my pet dog. This might sound very unfair, but we were living in Communist Poland where people had very little freedom and things were becoming very restless. To cut a very interesting story short, we got out HOURS before a "State of War" was declared and the borders were slammed closed. My parents had been too scared to tell me in case I mentioned it to anyone, or chances are they would have ended up in jail (or "disappeared").

We arrived in London and stayed six weeks over Christmas, during which time we applied for a visa to Australia, which was granted just days before we would have had to leave England back to Poland.

Thus we came to Australia.

My last memory of Poland was of sitting in the car at the airport, clutching a few coins in my hand and refusing to get out, and my parents pleading and threatening, themselves feeling on a knife-edge.

My first memory of Australia was the impression of a martian landscape. There had been a drought, and as the plane landed I peered out the window looking for kangaroos jumping over the dead red-brown landscape (mind you, we were landing at Melbourne Airport heh heh!).

Some other things I remember clearly of that time are the HEAT of that summer, the first huntsman I ever saw, and watching Playschool (Bonita, Noni and John sure sounded funny when they sung their guttoral la-la-la's compared to the flatter European "la" sound).

For the first couple of weeks we lived with some (distant) family friends who were very generous to share their house with us, then we found a house to rent in Springvale. This is a picture of me enjoying the summer at the Springvale house (the days before water restrictions! Remember?).



So that's my little piece of vintage Australiana. It means so much to me -- I'll never tire of declaring my deep love for this country and the incredibly rich mix of people who live here peacefully together.