Summer Days

The weather has been beautiful, for the most part, and 

we are thoroughly enjoying our Summer holidays!!!

Trips to the beach. Ice creams. Catching up with friends. Lazy

days... building lego, making art, reading stories, playing games.

Ten more days until school starts up for 2013.  So very sad to have

to say goodbye to all of this freedom... to play, cuddle, travel and

just enjoy each other's company. But! I am looking forward to getting

back into the studio, and to starting my new course. And to making 

some art and toys... maybe clothes and costumes too.  We'll see!!!

My sketchbook's brimming with ideas and my worktable's

spilling over with projects... some new, some old and some

barely more than an inkling. We're off to spend a few more

days at the beach and then I'll be back! Raring to start work.

Hopefully, I'll have a few new holiday snaps to share too! 

I've got a lot of ideas I'd like to share with you all this year,

so stay tuned. Twenty Thirteen is going to be a great year. x

field journal

Entry Five:  Summer in our garden

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The last few days have been scorchers 36℃ 48℃ and today 29℃.

In the midst of this heat, I find myself in the garden... picking fruit,

weeding beds, watering vegetables and am about to spend the day

bent over the stove, preserving. I'm hoping to find the time today to 

make jams, pickles and relish from the ever-growing Summer harvest.

I'm also hoping to take a trip to the seaside this Summer. Perhaps, 

spend a day collecting sea grasses, pebbles, shells and wildflowers. 

Maybe that'll be my next entry....

You can view other journal entries here and, as always,

feel free to create your own and link it in the comments.

These are a few of my...

favourite things.

Things that make me happy.

Things that I love.

Things that I'd love to own.

Things that I do own.

Things that I enjoy.

Things that I enjoy doing.

Beautiful ceramics by Lenneke Wispelwey ♥

 Feel free to play along on your own blog if you'd like,

I'd love to know what your favourite things are too! xo

A belated welcome...

to the year Twenty Thirteen: Year of the Snake

cute calendar by one of my favourite designers,  Misako Mimoko

Ah,  it has been a rather busy year already, many a change is a foot.

At home, in the studio, in the garden. No time to dilly-dally. Onward

and upward and forward and in fact that's my new year's resolution. 

To  keep moving  forward. 

To stop looking backward. 

Like everyone, there are aspects of my life that I wish I could change, 

decisions I wish I could reverse, opportunities I wish I hadn't forgone... 

I spend a lot of time in this country of the past. It's a land of memories, 

but not all those memories are correct.  Over time our re-collection can 

become distorted by our emotions and by our present-day experiences. 

Looking back can be more of a visit to the imagination, than a trip back 

in time and it can hinder our journey forward if we choose to spend too

much time looking back. Wise words? They are words of Walt Disney.

"Around here,  however,  we 

don't look back for very long.

We keep moving forward,  opening new doors,
and doing new things,  because we're curious
and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths."

One of our favourite movies of recent times is 'Meet the Robinsons'.

Based on the book 'A Day with Wilbur Robinson' by William Joyce.

It tells us the sweet story of Lewis, an orphan, who dreams of seeing his

mother again... if only once. Subsequently, he is taken on a wild ride to 

the future, where he encounters a world beyond his wildest imaginings

and in the end he realises- all he has to do to bring that world to life is  

'keep moving forward'

... classic Disney stuff, but the message never grows old for me 

or for Ari, and whenever we watch it it brings tears to our eyes. 

xox

red delicious

Their red goodness is just starting to bloom in our vegie patch. 

Last Summer, we were knee deep in tomatoes and it looks like 

we will be once again this year. Delicious, yes! But what to do? 

It seemed a shame to turn all those sweet little reds into sauce, and 

one can only eat so much relish!  Luckily this blog had the solution

↓

oven roasted tomatoes

I bagged and froze what we couldn't eat (we ate A LOT of these as

they were just so yummy) and what was left became our wintertime

staple. So flavourful. They needed very little spice added and were
the perfect ingredient for homemade soups... pasta sauces... pizzas...
tarts... muffins... risottos...  making everything just red and delicious!

For those of you in Winter climates be sure to bookmark the recipe.
Summer will find her way northward to you soon enough... xoxox