Just Sayin'

Is there anything more insulting than 2 flies making out on your kitchen bench?

I hate flies.

B.M.W.B - Stopping Myself

On Friday we had the best day. We spent the morning making over t-shirts at The Make Cafe. (You can see them wearing the t-shirts in these shots).

We stopped for a smoothie on the way home - our love-tanks were full, we had had a lovely time together.

When we got home the boys were playing so I whipped out the polar fleece for the 7 pairs of boy-trackies I needed to make. Like moths to the flame I ended up with 2 helpers. I got the trackies cut out but I got less and less gracious about my boys hanging about and moving things, and taking the scraps before I was finished cutting.... then, instead of letting resentment turn into angry words and sad attempts to send them to something 'more fun'...

I stopped myself.

I reminded myself it's school holidays - I'd achieved enough it was time to stop and enjoy my boys.

So I sent them to get teddies and I let them use my very special sewing scissors, and we turned the fought-over scraps into scarves. (FYI - no sewing required - cut tassles at each end of a long strip and cut a very small hole about 2/3rds of the way up to thread one end through. You can also make big people scarves the same way.)

They were so pleased. We even ended up whipping up a few hats on the sewing machine - Flip did his himself.

By Friday night I felt SO pleased with the day we'd had. I'm so glad I stopped myself and turned what was becoming resentment into a special time. (And on Saturday morning when they were out with The Atlas I sewed up 7 pairs of trackies - no stress, no grumping).

I love that this journey is helping me to stop myself in the ingrained patterns of selfishness and helping me to enjoy more time with these boys. I know most days I'm still not perfect but because I blog about it and because it matters so much to me I am looking for those little opportunities, and because of that I am becoming slowly, step by step, the mama I want to be.

Becoming the Mama I want to be is about taking time to enjoy the journey of parenting, to honour it's value and to hopefully inspire and encourage each other. 

Simple. Achievable. Intentional: becoming the mama I want to be

I look forward to seeing your linkies this week. If you want the code for the button is just on the right ------------>
There are no rules though - just a welcome place to enjoy the journey of parenthood. I don't mind a bit if you forget to link on your post. Do check back for other wonderful inspiring posts though.....

Seventeen

Little boy listening to Daddy read

2 boys always ready for adventure and exploration - following the green line

Big boy teasing his mama under the huge astro-turf 'reading table' in the city.

A portrait of my 'joys' (I mean to use the j) each week of the year. Watching them grow. Loving their progress. Hopefully linking in here (if I remember!).

This Week I'm Smiling

I do love school holidays, especially when there is a day off midweek and I have The Atlas home too.

This week these 2 things are my happy place:

A little boy who has 're-marked' his hand writing book from last year.

and these 2 bears "daddy bear" and "mummy bear" - they are sisters apparently. Bounce goes everywhere with them. Note the matching noses that are coming apart from love.

Hope holidays are happy at your place.

and look at this poster they made together on my ipad - so cute :o)

Joining in here

Make My Week - A Colour Book

I've admired busy/quiet books for a long time and had the urge to make my own.

When I saw one similar to this idea I was inspired.

With 2 first birthdays coming up for some special little ones I thought it would be a great project. The point of this one is to take the coloured balloon off the cover page and match it with the correct colour page in the book, all the while learning colours (hopefully). I was really proud of myself for realising I needed to use the fluffy velcro on the colour pages and the hooks on the back of the balloons so the pages didn't hook onto each other when the book was closed and cause pilling.

They do take rather a lot of time.... all that hand stitching. Although, a good project for watching TV by.

I'm really pleased with the finished product and using the eyelet system means I can easily make supplementary pages and the book can be fully taken apart to play with as well.

Not at all tricky, just a bit time consuming!

Joining in at Leonie's for some creative show and tell.

 

Wardrobe Wednesday - From the Shops

Okay so I've signed up for Me Made May which means I've got a whole month wearing of wearing my own creations coming up.

So this week I'm going for a shopped look top-to-toe - which is pretty unusual for me.

Details:
Top - Zara UK (7 years ago)
Dress - H&M UK (7 years ago)
Tights - Turkey (7 years ago)
Shoes - Andrea Biani (in summer)
Earrings - aren't they awesome? (gift)
Necklace and Brooch - op-shopped

I've also been auditioning fabric and patterns for all my handmade creations next month (at least one a week but I have got 6 things I'd like to make!)

Joining in with Lovely Kelly for Wardrobe Wednesday - click on the button on the right.

Don't you love my wee model? I just couldn't cut him out of 2 of the shots. :o)

B.M.W.B - Alphabet Art

I saw this idea on a great blog called No Time For Flash Cards.

Serviette/Handitowel/Coffee Filter and an eye dropper, and some felts

We also did some practise squirting just to try and get some dropper control. (I could have spaced the letters out further.)

I started by writing letters first and then I said a letter and Bounce dropped water onto the letter I called out

Then we got tricky and tried some words

and then finally he tried writing his own letters.

I knew that Bounce could write his own name but he amazed me with the other letters he could write too.

At the end of the activity we had some cute 'art', but most of all he had time with so much praise and one on one attention.

It was such a joy to see his pride in his achievements

By using words, colours or letters this activity could easily be adapted. It's also a great way to work out which letters/words your little person recognises.

We'll be doing it again

Becoming the Mama I want to be is about taking time to enjoy the journey of parenting, to honour it's value and to hopefully inspire and encourage each other. 

Simple. Achievable. Intentional: becoming the mama I want to be

I look forward to seeing your linkies this week. The code for the button is just on the right ------------>

16/52

One boy who had book day at school - raising money for another school that had lost its library.

Hopefully you can guess what he went as. Top and Shorts make overs from op-shop buys. 'Snowy' also and op-shop find.

Little brother needed to join in so he asked for penguin face paint

My painting skills could do with some refining.

Joining in with this beautiful portrait project

and Max's Op-Shop Show off because - well I'm quite pleased with my $5 costume. (helps that the model is  so perfect looking - just sayin!)

Things That Make Me Go Ahhhh....

This Friday I want to show you some of the things I loved most about last weekend.

It was such a joy to meet all of the bloggers who came but I was especially lucky to have 3 stay with me. And what amazing women they were. Both nights we got to talk until we turned into pumpkins. I love that more than once we needed the tissues as we shared time together... I love that even though we'd just met we felt that special connection immediately.

Here they are taking photos of each other. I'm hopeful I'll get some more pics of them because I didn't take any all weekend.

Stella

Talia (I stole this photo off her blog.... where are the photos of Talia??)

Jess

I loved every minute with you.

Swap partners - I luckily ended up with 3 of them. I didn't get to spend anywhere near enough time with them but they made the most amazing badges for me and my gifts were so perfect too!

Thanks so much Vanessa

Jackie

and Katrina

and I got some other little gifts from some special people too. The phone is mine and the cute pencil is from C1.

I got and amazing goodie bag and a wonderful hamper from lush too but I'll have to show you those another time.

Look at this amazing little stamp I bought from the shop at Addington Coffee Co-Op

Joining in with beautiful Meghan and other grateful people.

(photos stolen from Meghan, Kristy, Roz and probably other people too!)