Running with Scissors

Vandalism with a social conscience...

2008-04-20T15:49:00.001-07:00

Probably trying to take photos of graffiti on a busy road kills too, but I just couldn't resist!

2008-04-16T14:25:00.000-07:00

This week in NZ, the trial of Chris Kahui for the 2006 murder of his twin babies has begun. The things that are coming out in evidence would curl your toes, Chris Kahui is saying it wasn't him, it was the babies' mother that inflicted the fatal injuries, she's throwing her hands up and saying it's nothing to do with her, she wasn't home. When she did get home to find the babies hurt, she hung aroung at home for a day or so and eventually decided to make a family trip to the hospital via McDonalds for breakfast. (?!) Both babies later died in Starship hospital of horrific injuries, definitely no accident.
So many things wrong with this picture, I've been really struggling to process this and all the other hideous stuff that seems to dominate the news at the moment.

I've finally realised that although I can't save all these babies from bad parenting, abuse or even death, I can do my best to raise Kane to be a good husband and father. I can handle him with care and empathy and love so he will know how to treat people in his world. I think the proudest he could possibly make me would be if he had the courage and conviction to get involved and stand up for what is right in his community. And I guess it's all down to what we teach him about the world right now.
For my own peace of mind, I simply have to think that those little babies are in a better place, spared from a life of abuse and lack of love, and also spared from growing up to inevitably repeat the cycle with their own children.

Check this out!!!

2008-04-04T17:22:00.000-07:00

I just bought one of these beanies on Trademe from a lovely lady named Glenys. Her Trademe name is gade, and she's absolutely fantastic!!! This one is going to a friend's little girl for a birthday present. Glenys will make any size/colour combination you want, for boys or girls or adults, and it only takes her a day to make and post your order after the auction closes.
Here's some more of her work:

They're under $10 and I'm just stunned at the quality. And it's so great to support someone producing NZ made stuff!! Love it. Go buy something from her.

Mad about the boy

2008-03-30T20:56:00.000-07:00

2008-03-24T20:26:00.000-07:00

Woah. Today I just feel like the whole world has landed on top of me.

I used to love watching forensic detective type stuff like C.S.I or Special Victims Unit. Thrillers...Horrors...I even watched "The Saw" and "The Ring" without an issue. I guess (I thought?) I was able to make really clear distinctions between real life and TV-land.

Fast-forward a couple of years- we haven't had a TV for more than 2 years now. Tony got rid of his about 5 years ago, and I got rid of mine shortly before we met-I was just sick of the time it took up in my life. Except for the net, I'm almost a complete media/popular culture free zone now.

I've really noticed since before Kane was born, that my tolerance for terrible things has almost disappeared, and I think the absence of TV has contributed a lot to this. During January and February in NZ we've had murder after murder after murder. A while ago I would have been able to hear about them, think "Oh thats so sad" and get on with my day- but now hearing about these things disturbs me so much.

Quite a few other things have happened here in the last few months too- the day after Kane was born we went into town for lunch and I witnessed a vicious assault on a woman, (by a guy twice her size) while Tony had popped into a shop. An acquaintance's child was molested by their neighbour. More stabbings/murders/rapes on the news, a 25 year old guy on trial for being NZ's worst ever child pornographer, with images of abuse of newborn babies. At least three NZ babies dead from horrendous abuse and neglect by their families, probably more, I can't look at the news any more. All these things are tumbling round in my head, every time I hear more I feel more and more sickened at the world we've brought our beautiful boy into.

I know there's nothing new under the sun. I know whatever sick behaviour people come up with in 2008 has been going on for thousands of years, perhaps only helped along now by the advent of technology like the internet.

I guess what is truly bothering me about all this is the fact that all these people were somebody's babies at some point, and I equate it to my baby. I wish I had some kind of a release valve on my head to let the garbage out. I've almost completely lost my faith in human nature and I'm feeling more afraid every day.

Tshirt pants

2008-03-04T18:36:00.001-08:00

I just dusted off the sewing machine this morning and tried out a tutorial that seems to have been making its way round the blogosphere for a while. I have no idea who started it but I found it at rookiemoms. This is an adult Tshirt destined for the rag bag, recycled into babies/kids pants.
They turned out not too bad at all, WAAY to big because I allowed too much for seams, but he'll grow into them I guess!
They are seriously easy to make, this is my very first attempt at sewing clothes and it was no drama at all. And as always it's turned into the latest obsession, this could turn into no Tshirts for Tony and way too many pants for Kane if I'm not careful! Give it a go.

Mercury-free kid

2008-03-04T17:29:00.000-08:00

I found a site yesterday selling kid's Tshirts with little slogans on them- "x-box-free kid" "sugar-free kid" "TV-free kid" etc... They're pretty cute, but "mercury-free kid" really got my attention.
We've decided not to immunise Kane, and we've had a wee bit of subtle, indirect flack for it. Nobody's come straight out and said we're irresponsible, but it's been implied in ten or twenty different ways by different people.
We're very clear on our reasons for not choosing to immunise. We've done the homework and made our choices- but we're definitely not out to convince anyone else that they shouldn't do it, it's just what we've decided for our family. I guess what we're not yet clear on is how to live in a pro-immunisation world, with an un-immunised child? Where does one get the intestinal fortitude to take their kid out proudly advertising on his little Tshirt the fact that they've chosen not to go there? Isn't that asking to be challenged? Is it not asking for awkward, pointless discussions with partially-informed people? Immunisation in my experience is a more emotive topic for lots of people that religion and politics combined! Would it not be best to just leave it be?
What do you think? Lurkers- de-lurk and let me know how you've handled this!!

What do you think? Can anyone who's not immunised their child let me in on how they get by?

IF....

2008-03-04T14:00:00.000-08:00

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same:
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

Rudyard Kipling

2008-02-28T19:28:00.000-08:00

I don't know if anyone's familiar with the lyrics to songs from "The Sound of Music" these days, but I have a fair bit of it etched in my brain from listening to the record a thousand times at my grandparent's when I was a kid. There's one song that goes something like 'nothing comes from nothing, nothing ever could, so somewhere in my youth or childhood, I must have done something good' (it's Maria and the old guy trying to figure out who was more lucky to be with the other, etc etc)
ANYWAY, that song could have been the soundtrack this evening while my beautiful husband made hamburgers because I was so tired I was nearly asleep standing up when he got home.
Usually I cook because he works pretty long hours and, well, I'm home and he's not, but it's such a treat when he does. HE BAKED THE ROLLS FROM SCRATCH! I really must have done something good to have pinned down such a treasure.

Heck! I just made Ricotta!

2008-02-23T20:56:00.001-08:00

Oh my goodness, who knew you could make this stuff yourself! How come nobody told me? I love Ricotta with jam or marmalade on toast, and I just found this recipe- I was dubious, but gave it a go and it's YUM! Go try it!!!

Perhaps I've just answered my own question about gaining weight while breastfeeding.........

Ricotta

2 litres of blue top milk
Heat slowly to 93° in a thick bottomed pot, scraping the bottom as it heats up
Remove from heat
Add in the juice of one and a half lemons
Stir only twice - as in 1 stir, 2 stirs - that’s it
Leave 15 minutes
Line a small sieve with cheesecloth and scoop the curds into a colander that you’ve also lined with cheesecloth
Leave to drain for twenty minutes
Fini

DELICIOUS on Vogel’s toast or a nice sourdough.

Hey-la, Hey-hello-ah......

2008-02-19T18:31:00.000-08:00

This last week has been one of those 'through the looking glass' experiences, straight out of Alice in Wonderland!
I was all set, ready to go to Art in the Park, but as always before putting oneself out in public to be criticized or admired, I started to have MAJOR second thoughts. What if nobody even looks at my stuff? What if they make rude comments about it right in front of me? etc etc. Poor Tony spent most of his free time convincing me that it would be a nice day out in the fresh air, I should just ignore rude people....

Well, people did more than just look and not make rude comments, they bought stuff!! Lots of it!! I sold more than two thirds of what I took down there, I have some orders for more, made some great contacts, met up with an old friend I haven't seen for years....it was blimmen fantastic! And we have a nice little pile of loot to put away for a rainy day too.

So I've been spending a bit of time working on another blog I set up just for my artwork- it's over at wordpress, also called Running with Scissors (because my baby brain didn't extend to thinking up a new name!) I'm all inspired to finally do something serious with my artistic ability. What a difference a week makes!

In other news, Kane has discovered the joys of the jolly jumper- he gets so excited he looks like some kind of demented leprechaun performing in Riverdance!

Also- I'm gaining weight while breastfeeding!!???!! What's that about?????

I've been tagged......

2008-02-12T01:04:00.001-08:00

Megan at Parenting Style has tagged me for a meme..... so here I go.

The Rules

1. Link to the person that tagged you
2. Post the rules on your blog
3. Share 6 non-important things/quirks about your kid
4. Tag at least three people at the end of your post and link to their blogs
5. Let each person know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog
6. Let the fun begin!

Ok.

My little guy is only 3 months old, and he hasn't been exhibiting too much quirky behaviour just yet, but he does keep us laughing!

1. He pulls this absolutely adorable little face when he stretches- he arches his whole body, puts his hands up by his head like little bunny ears and raises his eyebrows way up- looks like a little old man. SO cute.

2. He plays this funny little game with my Dad sometimes- Dad tips his head one way, and Kane copies him, then the other way and Kane follows, etc etc. They both sit there grinning at each other like goofballs and tipping their heads from side to side!

3. One of his favourite activities is looking at himself in the mirror- I wonder who on earth he thinks the little bald guy looking back at him is! They have a great time together anyway.

4. I'm struggling a bit here.......Um...He's just started getting some teething pains, and when he's about to launch into a big crying session, his whole face crumples and little bottom lip quivers for a few seconds and it's the most heartbreaking thing to see. I wish I could do teething for him!

5. He has little goo/gee/gaaa conversations with anyone who will listen to him, especially with his Dad and often with his reflection in the stainless steel rubbish bin next to where his bouncer sits.

6. Another favourite activity is when Dad puts a little chicken toy on top of a record that's playing- it spins round and round and is apparently one of the most fascinating things in the world- we can watch that one for ages!

So I'm tagging Andrea, Luckybeans, and Artsy-crafty babe.

I haven't forgotten to nominate people for the excellent blogger award either, I'm just a bit snowed under at the moment! I'll do it soon, I promise!!!!!

2008-02-11T23:27:00.000-08:00

"Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking outside your body." -Elizabeth Stone

The man in the mirror

2008-02-03T17:59:00.001-08:00

Kane's just discovered mirrors. It's the most hilarious thing, as soon as he sees one he starts yabbering and singing and cracking up laughing at his own jokes, SO cute. This is such a lovely time, he's two and a half months now and its fantastic to be able to make him laugh and have little nonsense conversations with him- he's such a happy kid and all the hard stuff in the beginning is forgotten when he smiles. Absolutely the light of our lives.

Holy smoke!

2008-01-29T20:30:00.000-08:00

Well. I had no idea that anyone but a couple of friends and maybe my Mum (Hi Mum) ever looked at my blog, but hello: I've won an award!

Corin at The Human Pacifier has generously awarded this blog with the Excellent Blog Award.

By accepting this Excellent Blog Award, I have to award it to 10 more people who’s blog’s I find Excellent Award worthy. I can give it to as many people as I want but please award at least 10. Thank you out there for having such great blogs and being such great friends! You deserve this! If chosen, you agree to the same information above. If chosen, also feel free to award people who have already been awarded…

This is what Corin very kindly said about this nutty little slice of life in Rebecca-land:

Running with Scissors for the most enjoyable, consistent pictorial content (meaning cool/pretty photos in almost every blog post.)

So I'll have to rummage around in my bookmarks when I get a minute and put my list together. Watch this space.

Thanks so much, Corin :)

Slice of Heaven

2008-01-28T17:59:00.000-08:00

We just got back from Kane's first camping trip, in the Whirinaki Forest- a particularly beautiful little part of New Zealand. The kid's only been around for two months and he's already had two holidays! I hope he's not too disappointed when he finds out there isn't a holiday every month all the time!
We stayed at a Department Of Conservation camping ground next to a waterfall near Minginui. It's an area that's been in the news a bit lately: dodgy characters setting up training camps for terrorist activities etc, but the friends we went with have been camping there for years and assured us that the part we were going to was well clear of all that nonsense. And it was, we had a fantastic weekend.

2008-01-18T18:29:00.000-08:00

I know, I know, New Years is a wee way back now, we're almost into February and I'm sure we're all onto new subjects already! But baby-brain reigns in this house at the moment, and I'm only just getting my head around this 2008 thing.
I don't usually buy the whole New Year's resolution bit. We've made a couple this year, but they're really only continuations of things we were already working towards: Being more hospitable/stop neglecting our friends (our house is only just almost-finished enough to even have visitors and most of the last year has been consumed with wedding stuff, pregnancy, and house renovations) and getting rid of the junk (we got married in November 06 and have been struggling to find storage for our combined empires ever since)
We're doing ok so far on both these things, we've turned a heap of junk into a couple thousand dollars on Trademe so far, and there's more to go too. We've even remembered a couple of birthdays.
But why is it that we think a calendar date rolling over is going to be motivation enough to make real change in our lives? Is there something magical about opening that new year planner to the first page, that suddenly allows us to drop the bad habits of the previous year and soar like an eagle? I think not.
But all this brain strain in between nappy changes has inspired me to start a project for this year- a bit of research perhaps. What is it that creates the motivation for change in human beings? How do we ever get out of the ingrained life-long habits that keep us down and do us no good?? Watch this space.

Mmmmmm...baking

2008-01-18T17:00:00.000-08:00

Tony's off at the A1GP Motor Racing in Taupo with Dave today, so Kane and I are entertaining ourselves with all sorts of fun activities.Like Banana bread.....sitting cooling on the bench as we speak, and muffins...which I don't really want to talk about except to say they taste better with jam.

And sleeping.
And getting rid of some of our junk on Trademe.

And I've had a bit of time to get things organised for Art in the Park, in Rotorua on the 17th of Feb- it's an art market that's on every year, with real live artists at work and lots of stuff for sale.

I'm taking paintings, jewelry and mosaic hearts, plus anything else I can think of between then and now! I just have to stop selling stuff in the meantime or I'll have nothing to exhibit!

I just sold a couple of pieces to friends who called in today !

Some of the jewellry is going to be for sale on the Sugar blog pretty shortly too.

Just a couple of gratuitous pics of my favourite bebe'

2008-01-18T16:32:00.000-08:00

"The days are long, but the years are short"

2008-01-09T19:17:00.000-08:00

"The Happiness Project" by Gretchen Rubin is a fantastic read- go check it out.
I particularly like Tips for being a more light-hearted parent- I think we've all seen the results of strung-out, heavy handed parenting, not fun for anyone involved.

Two of my favourites:

11. Say “no” only when it really matters. Wear a bright red shirt with bright orange shorts? Sure. Put water in the toy tea set? Okay. Sleep with your head at the foot of the bed? Fine. Samuel Johnson said, “All severity that does not tend to increase good, or prevent evil, is idle.”

12. When I find myself thinking, “Soon, no more stroller,” or “Soon, no more high chair,” I remind myself how fleeting this is. All too soon the age of Cheerios and the Tooth Fairy will be over. The days are long, but the years are short.

We're baa-ack

2008-01-06T01:41:00.001-08:00

We just got home on Thursday from a FANTASTIC holiday in the South Island- we went down for Tony's Dad's wedding and stayed a few extra days so Kane could hang out with his Grandad, Great Grandparents, Great-Great Aunt and various other relatives. The wedding was great, the weather was awesome and it was SO GOOD to see everyone- I have a real shortage of Grandparents so I'm really glad Tony's happy to share his! They're lovely.
We stayed at Hokitika Heritage Lodge for part of our time there, it was absolutely beautiful. Kane's a great little traveller, didn't bat an eyelid at plane travel or the three hour drive through Arthur's pass from Christchurch to Greymouth. We had a slightly mortifying incident with an overflowing nappy on the flight home, but I won't go into detail on that one in case anyone's eating their lunch!

Here are some pics:Flax flowers- they were in full bloom everywhere, just beautiful.

Kane and I at the beach in Greymouth

Kane and Great-Grandad

Viaduct in Arthur's Pass

Candles at Christchurch Cathedral

Pohutukawa flowers- it's not Christmas till you see a Pohutukawa in flower.

For the bloke who has everything........

2007-12-17T22:39:00.000-08:00

Don't get me wrong. I love Christmas as much as the next person. But when it rolls round every year and life becomes all about shopping I get kind of uncomfortable. I've got everything I need already. Everyone I know has everything they need already. If people I met in Uganda suddenly got teleported into our lounge I would feel absolutely mortified at the relative comfort we live in, actually more like the excess we've grown used to. And I would rather die than let anyone from Africa see how we celebrate Christmas! How do you tell a person who has no idea what it feels like to have a full stomach what a hassle it is feeling bloated after a big Christmas lunch?
I find it really hard to rationalise buying more stuff for people who already have too much stuff, and what for? To prove that we love them? And if so, why do we reserve this demonstration of love for Christmas? And why do we have to give them stuff to prove it? Why not just behave as if we love them all year long?

Anyway, I digress. This year, to help ease that uncomfortable feeling, I'm giving chickens. And trees. My brother lives overseas and has VERY firm ideas about global warming and consumerism, so I bought him 25 trees to be planted in an area of deforestation through the Oxfam website. While I was at it, I got a pair of chickens for my Dad, the man who has everything- Chickens are a great gift because they provide food as well as an income from selling chicks and eggs. Other options are goats, buffaloes, plants and school books.
I think I'll sleep peacefully tonight.

Feed a hungry person..

2007-12-17T21:59:00.000-08:00

This site absolutely appeals to the English teacher in me, and also my over-developed sense of social justice!
Developed by a guy called John Breen, who also created the Poverty.com website, it has no political, religious, or corporate affiliations- he just believes that a good command of the English language should be as available to all human beings as food should be. It's an online multi choice vocabulary quiz, and for every word you get right, they donate 20 grains of rice through the U.N to feed hungry people.
(Click on the banner at the left to play the game)
Poverty.com is also worth a look, it has some great practical info about what we can all do to help, as well as it has quite a chilling real-time running total of people who have died from hunger in the last hour.

"FreeRice has two goals:
1. Provide English vocabulary to everyone for free.
2. Help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free.

This is made possible by the sponsors who advertise on the site.

Whether you are CEO of a large corporation or a street child in a poor country, improving your vocabulary can improve your life. It is a great investment in yourself.

Perhaps even greater is the investment your donated rice makes in hungry human beings, enabling them to function and be productive. Somewhere in the world, a person is eating rice that you helped provide. Thank you."

2007-12-09T00:44:00.001-08:00

So the sun is shining, the birds are singing, the stiches are out and I'm slowly getting the hang of life with a little person... and I'm busting to get out in the garden. We've been talking with friends for months about the vege garden we're going to plant in our back yard, something along the lines of Jamie Oliver's one but considering we don't actually have a gardener on our staff, perhaps not quite on that scale! Just kinda wild and full of stuff that we wouldn't usually buy at the supermarket because it's imported or a million dollars a kilo. And I've just recently realised that all the friends we've been having these conversations with, now have their own very impressive vege gardens well underway, (one has a major back yard operation going including a greenhouse, loads of horse manure and plans for a chicken coop!) and we have........a couple of limp looking pumpkin plants sitting in a punnet round the back of the house and a very inadequate compost heap.

So I've found a lady on Trademe who sells heirloom seeds- strawberry spinach (pictured above) white carrots, blue beans, rainbow tomatoes, round yellow eggplants, cinnamon basil(?) - the pics look absolutely bizarre but I'm so looking forward to giving them a go! I've ordered a whole stack, I'm going to give some to as Christmas pressies to a couple of vege garden enthusiasts too because they're really cool.

What would Jesus buy?

2007-12-09T00:28:00.000-08:00

Here's a movie I'm pretty keen to see-whatever Santa thinks about it! It's not going to be out in NZ before Christmas I don't think (not that I'm thinking it would be a good idea to take Kane to the movies just yet!) but I guess it'll be here on DVD before too long. Looks hilarious.

Starring Reverend Billy, an anti-consumerism activist from the Church of Stop Shopping, and produced by Morgan Spurlock, Oscar-nominated director of the documentary Super Size Me.

Introducing......

2007-12-02T19:12:00.000-08:00

Well....He's a boy! Kane Thomas, born 10.05am 19th November, 8lb 11oz / 3.9kg
Kane was accidentally born in hospital, we were planning a home birth but the midwife sent us up to the birthing unit for a hot bath because I had nasty back pain with no sign of anything else happening....and she gave me a sleeping tablet because I'd been awake all night and she wanted me to have a good rest before I went into labour. He was born two hours after I got out of the bath! I wasn't even close to being in labour before we went up there. The sleeping tablet made things reasonably bizarre- I was dozing off between contractions and there are quite a few things I don't remember that well, except that sleeping tabs and pain killers are not the same thing!! I'm pretty glad I don't have to do that every day!
So it was all a bit of a surprise, all we had with us was the clothes we were wearing, we were pretty sure nothing would be happening for a few days yet. We were discharged a few hours later and went home for lunch. Everything went so amazingly well, our heads are still kind of spinning that we suddenly have this little person living at our house!
I suppose we're a bit biased but he is an absolutely beautiful little boy and we're all head over heels in love with him. Very very blessed.

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY!

2007-11-14T11:17:00.000-08:00

"Saturday (Friday in NZ) November 24th 2007 is Buy Nothing Day, It's a day where you challenge yourself, your family and friends to switch off from shopping and tune into life. The rules are simple, for 24 hours you will detox from consumerism and live without shopping. Anyone can take part provided they spend a day without spending!"

We all actually celebrated this last year inadvertantly- (it was on the 25th) we were up at some 4WD place for someone's wedding? Not much time for shopping that day!

This is something that's pretty important to me for two reasons: Having been to a few countries where most of the things we buy are made, I've seen the conditions that people work under- they really are horrific. Also the amount of crap that we are filling up our landfills with bothers me a lot- if you believe the statistics, our kids will be struggling to find somewhere non-toxic to ride their mountain bikes or paddle their kayaks by the time they're 40. Let alone avoid nasty illnesses from all the pollutants and carcinogens we're spreading everywhere right now.
What does this have to do with shopping? Well, by continually buying all this stuff, particularly plastic stuff, we're kind of saying yes, we're totally ok with people dying from the toxic fumes in a Chinese factory so we can have a Tickle Me Elmo. Or never mind that our kids and grandkids are likely to have major fertility problems and much higher chances of dying of seriously nasty diseases.

In the big picture, not buying something on one particular day is going to have very little impact on Human Rights or the environment. What we don't buy that day will almost certainly be bought some other day or by some other person. Buy Nothing Day just highlights the environmental and ethical consequences of consumerism. The developed countries - only 20% of the world's population- are consuming over 80% of the earth's natural resources, causing a disproportionate level of environmental damage and unfair distribution of wealth.

As consumers we need to question the products we buy and challenge the companies who produce them. What are the true risks to the environment and developing countries? The argument is infinite - while it continues we should be looking for simple solutions - Buy Nothing Day is a good place to start. The idea is just to get people thinking and talking about the real impact of our buying decisions and hopefully some change will come further down the track.

There's heaps more info here

Are shoe fetishes hereditary?

2007-11-13T17:40:00.000-08:00

I've got a serious thing for baby shoes at the moment- some days I think I'm channelling Imelda Marcos! There are just so many cute ones around.
Heather Bailey from Hello my name is Heather has VERY kindly given the world a tutorial for these GORGEOUS little booties- very generous and they're actually pretty easy to make. Good pressie idea?

Here are some other cuties:

And even more here at the Flickr booties photo pool. Am I weird?

The 'H' word...

2007-11-13T13:23:00.000-08:00

So we've decided to go for a home birth.

"AH!" you say in a squeaky voice, with your eyes popping out of your head and your heart rate through the roof. "Well! That's lovely!!!!!!!!"

Haha. Actually, we've had really good, positive reactions from all the significant people we've told. I know it's not exactly your average birth plan these days, but I really hope I've managed to get across to everyone that we're certainly not shooting from the hip- like everything Tony and I do it's accompanied by thousands of hours of discussion and reading and questioning! We wouldn't be doing it if we weren't sure it was the best option for us.

We've had a couple of midwife visits at the birthing unit at the hospital, as soon as we're inside the building our stress levels go through the roof, all my senses seem to be able to focus on are the weird stains and splashes not properly cleaned off walls and furniture, the strange noises, the atmosphere of fear and tension and uncertainty, the nasty hospital smell, and the gadgets. I think they're what I object to the most- machinery and monitors and tools that take away the need for listening to your own body and trusting God and your own instincts.

8 out of 10 babies in the world are not born in hospitals, and despite what a lot of people think, NZ actually doesn't have better infant/maternal mortality stats than other countries. We do a lot of things here without ever asking why, we have shocking statistics for Caesereans, birth injuries and unnecessary interventions. The World Health Organisation strongly recommends avoiding fetal monitoring if possible, not lying women on their backs during labour (as it interferes with blood flow and contributes to 'failure to progress'- one of the #1 reasons for a C-section), avoiding inductions and interventions especially oxytocin and pitocin as they are found to have more negative than positive effects, as are drugs for pain relief, the list goes on. ALL these things are routinely done in NZ hospitals to this day. (World Health Organisation Care in normal birth)
(W.H.O Care in Labour)

We've spent months working on our house to make it a home, we have a really peaceful happy life here, as soon as I come inside the whole outside world just disappears and all that matters is us in the home that we live together in because we love each other. We trust our midwife, she's an absolute legend, it's really easy to choose which environment to bring our child into.

Ok. Here's what I'm gonna do.

2007-11-12T19:36:00.000-08:00

Make a tree ornament for each of the babies. Something with felt, embroidery, sequins? Ribbon?

Make a stocking and a tree ornament for Ziggy .

Make boxes of Christmas bickies for friends/family. Really classy ones, I'd make Martha proud.

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!

2007-11-12T19:14:00.000-08:00

Yikes, I've just had one of those moments of panic where you realise that Christmas is just a bit over a month away, I haven't even thought about it, and I'll be giving birth between now and then. I'm sure this happens to you all the time.

Which means I either have to
1) Get my almost 9 months pregnant butt out amongst it and get some shopping done sometime in the next week (not that appealing)
2) Deal with the crowds later on with a newborn and a Christmas-hating husband in tow, (even less appealing)
or 3) Do it online? What the heck would I buy?
Is there a 4)? Maybe I could just do baking for everyone?

I was thinking about making some sets of Christmas wine glass tags for friends, and little hairclips for the girl babies....not sure about the boy babies yet. Making stuff would probably be the smart thing to do, considering there's not a lot else I can really do at the moment!

EASY Christmas candle idea.......

2007-11-10T16:15:00.000-08:00

You need:
Cinnamon sticks
A glass the same height as the cinnamon sticks
A rubber band
Some raffia or ribbon
A tealight candle.

Put the rubber band round the middle of the glass, tuck the cinnamon sticks under the rubber band, tie the ribbon or raffia round to cover the rubber band, light the candle and bask in the glow of everyone's admiration. Simple.

Self esteem

2007-11-10T12:43:00.000-08:00

Some ideas for building children's self esteem from Carolyn McLean, Director of the Co-operative Family Centre in Melbourne. Unfortunately not available in NZ, she runs short courses on topics such as 'How to Talk so Kids Will Listen' and 'How to Stop Your Kids From Fighting'

Ms Mclean comments, "we are jolly good at drawing attention to negative behaviour and pointing out mistakes, but the evidence is that people don't learn from failure, they learn from success." However, Ms McLean does not recommend praising children as a tool to build self-esteem.

She explains, "When we say, you've done that wonderfully, what a good boy, that's fantastic, that praise is like fairy floss. It looks good but it's empty in that it doesn't feed the child's identity. People only believe praise if they themselves are already convinced that they are competent in that area."

One simple technique which really works, says Ms McLean is "mirroring" - telling a child what they actually did. If it's true without exaggeration, the child can't refuse to believe.

Jenny tells how "mirroring" turned around her six year old's self image as an incompetent reader. While Jenny was cooking dinner, her daughter Marie requested a story. Jenny said she couldn't read right now and suggested that Marie take the book and read to her four year old brother.

Jenny went to check, Marie had read the whole book. Jenny told her, "Marie, you have read 34 pages all by yourself and James has sat still and really enjoyed your reading." That was a revelation to Marie. she shrieked, "I did! I did!" This was the beginning of a positive 'I can' belief for Marie.

Ms McLean urges parents to appreciate the ordinary rather than the exceptional. She says, "one of the fundamental reasons few people have high self-esteem is that right from infancy, self esteem gets tied to outstanding performance. When we praise kids we focus on what is exceptional, devaluing what a child can ordinarily do. We build in a notion that you can't just be who you are and still be good. This pressure can be very perilous for kids."

Ms McLean recommends that instead of ignoring a child as it does twenty ordinary good things, then blasting forth with negative attention as he or she spills a drink, for instance, parents can appreciate ordinary behaviour twenty times a day. She says," when you take the time to tell a person what is accepted, you are helping the child to value him or herself, not just for things that are outstanding."

2007-11-09T12:51:00.000-08:00

This is a post from Joy's blog Breast and Belly that really reinforced all the things I belive about birth and hospitals and doctors and the medical system.....

Comments received after the midwifery care and gentle homebirth of our baby:

You must be nuts
Whatever floats your boat
You're braver than I am
You're lucky it all went ok
Why would you do that?
Yikes
Were just so glad everything went ok,
You really had us worried having no doctor
Don't they let you even see one doctor?
I wouldn't go around telling the world that you did that.
I couldn't have done that, too scary
I couldn't have done that, too risky
My husband would never have let me consider that, too risky/scary/dangerous.

* * * * * * *
Comments received after my three other births, with epidural anesthesia, internal fetal monitors, urethral cathterization, intravenous pitocin, Magnesium Sulfate, Nubain, Stadol, Phenergan, complete immobilization, 2, 4, and 11 piercings to the spinal column at each birth respectively, preventative antibiotics, 2 open abdominal surgeries, a scissors to my vagina, (then whoopsie they sewed it almost shut and made me threaten lawsuit before I could get in for a repair)teams of strangers with knives and soldering irons and sucking tubes and needles and masks and --oh yeah-- the crochet hooks to tear open my babies' water sacs:

Thank goodness you were at (insert name of big impressive hospital)
So glad it all went so well!
Sounds like everything worked out.
Aren't you glad you ended up going to the hospital?
Good thing you didn't end up trying to do that homebirth thing again, huh?
My neighbor had a c section and she loved it
My neighbor's daughter had a c section and was completely recovered in about 5 days
Your babies are just too big, I guess.
Good thing
Good thing
Good thing
Good thing

2007-10-04T14:48:00.000-07:00

It turns out today's beeswax/almond oil experiment was basically lip balm- add a bit of honey and you're away! It's beautiful to use. Here's the recipe.

Almond oil/Honey Lip Balm
1/4 cup Almond oil
1/3 cup grated beeswax, loosely packed
1 teaspoon manuka honey

Melt oil and wax in a Pyrex jug in the microwave- try 30 seconds/stir/30seconds until they have melted together. Add honey, mix well and pour into a container.

Wooden blocks

2007-10-04T13:31:00.000-07:00

Dad helped me make some wooden blocks for the future grandchild the other day- We cut bits of wood into cubes and slabs and erm...long cubes? Whatever the technical name is!
I discovered that Dylon Dyes are a pretty safe way to colour wood products- I rinsed them out about a million times after I dyed them and left them to dry in the sun for a couple of days.
I've been really stuck on what product to use to seal them- I'm thinking they need to be a bit waterproof but I'm definitely not keen to use any kind of varnish, considering the amount of time they'll spend in somebody's mouth!
So this morning while having a cupboard clear-out I discovered a block of beeswax I got from the organic shop in Wellington a few weeks ago. I grated about half a cup into a pyrex jug, added about 1/4 cup of Almond oil and microwaved it for 1 minute- after it cooled it's this really nice polishy kind of mixture- actually I'm tempted to try it out as lip balm! It's that kind of consistency. So the project today is sealing 50-odd brightly coloured blocks.

How cool is this?

2007-09-24T21:13:00.002-07:00

Spell with Flickr

Just type in the word you want to make, and somehow this program searches Flickr for pics of all the letters you need! Very cool I thought.

Worth remembering.......

2007-09-24T15:31:00.000-07:00

A friend recently had a day she wished she could erase from the family history forever- she discovered her child had been looking at.....ahem......some objectionable material. She called round later to debrief, as we often do- and as she told us how she'd dealt with it I realised this is something we are going to have to think really seriously about as parents.

Sex is everywhere in our culture. It hides behind innocent-looking disguises, and jumps out when you least expect it. It seeps in through the smallest cracks and crevices, it drips through tiny holes in our consciousness. It arrives in the form of the Farmers catalogue in the letterbox, primetime TV is riddled with it, it's all over the net. Every advance in media technology opens whole worlds of new options.

Maintaining a healthy view of sex in a culture that is doing everything it can to twist and warp us in new and more bizarre directions is not an easy thing to do. And blocking it out and pretending it's not there is beyond ridiculous, and in parenting terms- downright dangerous.
I realised, listening to my friend, that her reaction sent her son such a bigger message than just the words she used. Her reaction will have coloured how he sees himself and sex for many years to come.
A big round of applause for my friend, please, because she managed to send him the message that sex is a completely healthy and normal and very logical thing for a young bloke to be curious about. I think sometimes in all our 'morality' we forget that sex was actually God's idea in the first place- he came up with it and pronounced it 'good'. It's just how we approach it and deal with it, how we abuse and devalue and don't apply boundaries to it that is a problem.

Imagine if she, as so many parents do, had recoiled in horror and disgust that her little boy was a sexual being? Imagine if she had shouted and punished and made him feel disgusting for the drive that God had programmed into him? What would that have taught him about himself and God and sex? This was a great opportunity to talk about making good decisions and taking responsibility for his mind and for monitoring what he absorbs from his culture. A brilliant parental guidance opportunity, handled brilliantly.

How this all relates to us, I guess, is that it made me realise that this really needs to be a life-long lifestyle. If we don't guide our children through this stuff, who will? Friends at school? Hugh Heffner? MTV? And if we make these things taboo and awkward and embarrassing and BAD, and don't provide a loving environment for honest discussion at home, how the heck can we expect to guide our children? Why would our children ever want to talk about that stuff with us??????? And how will we ever know if they're heading in a destructive direction?

Good on ya, my nameless friend.

Baby wrangling

2007-07-03T21:49:00.000-07:00

Yesterday a friend we hardly ever get to see came to stay. He and his wife have a beautiful wee baby. We were talking about all the usual stuff that new parents and parents-to-be cover, and he alluded to a few highs and lows, a few things that had worked really well for them and a few others that hadn't. I was kinda surprised, but in a good way, to hear what was going on with them. In all the furious research I'd been doing since I found out we're having a baby, I'd read a lot of theories- accepted a few, rejected a lot. But I realised that I'd assumed that the methods we chose would go exactly as described in the books- which is ridiculous really, considering the fact that babies are not ipods or remote-control toys. They're random, spasmodic, and each one is completely unique.
Which got me thinking about another couple we know, who are doing things completely differently to the first couple, and their way is working fine for them too!
Two couples who's intelligence, ethics and parenting skills I totally respect and admire- two different, but equally valid parenting styles- and BOTH obviously right. One style works really well for one baby/set of parents/family, but absolutely not the other, and vice versa. It was quite an epiphany because I realised I'd been totally guilty of handing out judgements on people's intelligence based on what they'd decided to do with their kid. "Surely no intelligent parent would think it's beneficial to do ________ or ________" "Haven't they done any research?"
So hopefully as a result of this new-found knowledge that I have, I'll be able to stop wasting my energy on worrying that people are not going to understand or accept the way we raise our child- it doesn't matter if they don't understand, and it's not my problem if their research and instincts and education have led them to do things differently to us: All that matters is that our kids are thriving and developing like they should be, regardless of what theory their parents subscribe to.

The con of controlled crying

2007-06-28T20:31:00.000-07:00

The con of controlled crying is an edited extract from “Sleeping Like a Baby” by Pinky McKay. Pinky is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant, Certified Infant Massage Instructor and mother of five. Interesting stuff.

"Despite the popularity of controlled crying, it is not an evidence-based practice. In a talk at the International Association of Infant Mental Health 9th World Congress held in Melbourne in 2004, Professor James McKenna, director of the Mother–Baby Behavioural Sleep Laboratory at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, and acclaimed SIDS expert, described controlled crying as ‘social ideology masquerading as science’.

What this means is that despite a plethora of opinions on how long you should leave your baby to cry in order to train her to sleep, nobody has studied exactly how long it is safe to leave a baby to cry, if at all.

Although many baby sleep trainers claim there is no evidence of harm from practices such as controlled crying, it is worth noting that there is a vast difference between ‘no evidence of harm’ and ‘evidence of no harm’."

Great idea via Angry Chicken

2007-06-11T22:41:00.000-07:00

In my recent baby-induced sewing mania I whizzed up a whole lot of flanellette baby wipes, with dreams of not having to buy the packaged ones, (packaging to get rid of...thousands of stinky wipes sitting round till rubbish day...pointlessly filling up the landfill...etc) but the inspiration kinda ended there. As in, can you wipe a little bum with a dry wipe? Or do I need to go run it under the tap first every time, or carry wet wipes round in a plastic container, or what? Perhaps not such a big drama except if you've never actually had the sole decision-making responsibility of looking after a baby's rear end, it's all a bit of a mystery.

So I was pretty happy to read how Amy at Angry Chicken does it- a spray bottle, of course.

Her baby wipe solution recipe:
3 cups cups water
1/8 cup olive oil
4 drops tea tree oil
8 drops lavender oil (not for baby boys, it can affect hormones)
1 tablespoon baby shampoo

Pour into a spray bottle and shake. Amy doesn't use this until baby is older, just water for a few months.

More reasons to stay out of The Warehouse

2007-06-11T17:12:00.000-07:00

In case any of us needed another reason to avoid shiny, plasticky, mass-produced non-recyclable stuff to play with, eat from or decorate our homes with: how about the fact that they're killing us? Not only are they ugly, they're downright dangerous. If this article from Best Life magazine by Susan Casey doesn't make you want to stop shopping, what will?

'There’s growing—and disturbing—proof that we’re ingesting plastic toxins constantly, and that even slight doses of these substances can severely disrupt gene activity. The fact that these toxins don’t cause violent and immediate reactions does not mean they’re benign: Scientists are just beginning to research the long-term ways in which the chemicals used to make plastic interact with our own biochemistry.'
Worldwide, we produce about a billion pounds of chemicals called phthalates a year, despite the fact that California recently listed them as a chemical known to be toxic to our reproductive systems."

4.5 months, and counting......

2007-06-07T14:14:00.000-07:00

The belly- 17 weeks

I was just having a quick read through my own archives, (doesn't everyone do that?) and had a few wee chuckles to myself at the things that seemed such a big deal to me all those months ago, waaay back in December last year. It's really amazing how the whole babymaking process sorts your priorities out: I certainly wouldn't have agreed to this a few weeks ago but in retrospect all these months of puking, threatened miscarriage, feeling like my body has been taken over by some kind of alien invader, and a thousand weird food issues have been a pretty effective way of cutting out the crap! Worrying that I'm not operating at my full potential seems a million miles away, and that elusive clarity I was trying to pin down seems to have just floated in all on its own. I've got this purpose that I've never had before, and suddenly I have all these things I can do that are really worth something. And knowing that Ziggy feels all my feelings makes it pretty easy to decide who and what I shouldn't be wasting my time on!

Etsy and Toggle

2007-06-01T21:01:00.000-07:00

CUTE stuff by etsy seller neverenoughhours

It always amazes me as an artist/craftsperson how little value people put on your time, talent and effort. People expect to have to pay good money to have plans drawn up by an architect, or to have their tax stuff sorted out by an accountant, or to have their spine adjusted by a chiropractor, but the same people think they're doing you some kind of a favour by displaying your work in their home or office? What the?????? It's ridiculous.
I've just found Toggle, a New Zealand equivalent to Etsy.
There isn't a huge amount of stuff on there yet, and it's slightly different in that artists/craftspeople are specially selected to be listed there, but cool nonetheless.
It's awesome to see people actively promoting the 'buy handmade' message, and also ensuring the artists and craftspeople get a fair price for their work in a notoriously underpaid industry.

More Photoshop

2007-05-31T23:17:00.000-07:00

Anna's baby shower invites

2007-05-31T23:04:00.001-07:00

Whipped these up in Photoshop for Anna's baby shower invites, Janine at Ditto printed them for me, they were kind of concertina-ed and I'm so happy with how they turned out.

Jewelery

2007-05-31T22:54:00.001-07:00

Is that a highchair in your pocket? Or are you just pleased to see me?

2007-05-19T23:15:00.000-07:00

Man, if I ever wished I could read Swedish, it's now!
I found this great website via Swiss Miss
It's some kind of harness thing that turns an ordinary chair into a highchair for an older bebe', then folds up and fits in your pocket or bag. How cool is that!
It's at In the pocket baby

Stuff I've been making

2007-05-19T22:41:00.000-07:00

These are gifts I've made for Anna's wee new baby April- Using old familiar skills with paper and glue for the decoupaged 'A' ( I was born snipping up paper and gluing it to stuff) and new found skills with felt and Wendy's sewing machine for the bird picture.

I've also made a few bibs and a couple of blankets for Ziggy- (That's little Shrimpton jr's current nickname) All those years of disappointment I put Mum through thinking her daughter was never going to be a sewer- I guess I just needed a reason!
And I certainly do have a reason now- I've spent way too much time looking at amazing baby gear on the net and the stuff available in Rotorua at the moment is lame, to put it mildly. We're planning on having a pastel-ducky-and-licensed-character-free home if at all possible, and that's really gonna mean doing everything ourselves.

Tony's Mum has been helping me knit a wee rainbow beanie, I've never worked through making mistakes with knitting before- usually I just flag the whole project if I drop a stitch but thanks to Wendy it's not looking too bad!
The next project is learning to crochet- I think I'm going to have to get someone to teach me because I can't understand the patterns and even beginner's tutorials seem to be way beyond me. I'd love to make heaps of cute little bright coloured beanies for Ziggy.

Something else to think about...

2007-05-19T22:29:00.000-07:00

Whether you know it or not, you live an extraordinary life. The fact that you are reading this means you are "more blessed than over two billion people in the world that cannot read anything at all. If you have any money in the bank, in your wallet, or spare change in a dish somewhere, you are among the top 8% of the world’s wealthy. If you have food in your refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof over your head and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of the world."

From www.thereddragonfly.com

Counting my blessings.....finally

2007-05-16T15:36:00.000-07:00

The last two months have zipped past in a blur of puking, feeling like puking and trying not to puke in inappropriate places (like the supermarket, or the gas station). I must admit there have been moments where I've questioned the sanity of this decision to reproduce- there have even been times when I've just come straight out and said "What the heck were we thinking?"
But on Thursday night, about dinner time, there was spotting. Just a wee bit, but any blood at 13 weeks pregnant is not good blood. So we headed for the hospital, had an all-round horrendous experience that I won't record here because I'm trying to block it out (except to say if you can possibly avoid dealing with the Rotorua Accident and Emergency dept I would strongly urge you to do so for your own health and wellbeing!!)
Arrived home past midnight feeling traumatised and not entirely sure what had happened.
We're still not entirely sure what went on actually, nobody seems to really know what the story is, but we've heard the heartbeat and a few good kicks, and nothing else dramatic has happened so hopefully little Shrimpy is hanging in there.
What I do know about what happened on Thursday night, though, is that when suddenly faced with not being pregnant any more- a bit of nausea and vomiting seem pretty minor and it dawned on me that this baby is already part of our family. It might just be a bundle of cells to the disinterested, ready-to-go-home A&E doctor, but this is our child and we made it because we want it. We've made decisions about how to care for it, we've dreamed about it and planned for it and we can't wait to see it's little face and get to be it's parents.

Racking my poor baby-addled brains..

2007-04-04T15:38:00.000-07:00

Ok so I think about now would be a good time to take a deep breath and remind myself why we chose to go down this baby producing track.
I am sure there were some good reasons in the beginning, I've just lost sight of them in between feeling like crap and struggling to do even the simplest daily tasks.
So I'm racking my brains here...............................

We are having a baby because:
1 We love each other.
2 We are both 'family people'. We want to be a family.
3 People from my gene pool who don't have kids tend to get kinda weird.
4 We've travelled, we've achieved most of the stuff that we planned to do. We're not teenagers anymore.
5 I am absolutely convinced that Tony will be an amazing father, and I'm really hoping that will make up for any shortfall in the mothering department!
6 Think of all the great stuff I can make for it!! Having a baby is an artist's dream!
7 We like kids.

We are NOT having a baby because:
1 We have nothing better to do with our days.
2 We don't have careers or plans for the future.
3 We think it will make our relationship better.
4 We have any illusions about life with babies being all coffee mornings and pixie photos.

Interesting.....

2007-04-02T15:37:00.000-07:00

This is a quote from a blog I've been reading a bit lately- I'm learning new things every day about life with kids. I'd really like to remember this.

Indisputable

Tuesday, 23 May 2006

Sometimes I am overwhelmed with the feeling of wanting to tell Leta how remarkably stunning she is. Every parent I know feels this way about their kids, that their children are undeniably beautiful, but I’m often told that I shouldn’t use such quantifiers because she will grow up thinking that her sense of self is directly tied to her beauty, that if I keep commenting on her looks she will learn to think that beauty is more important than it actually is. But when I comb her hair into pigtails and the ends curl in perfect circles under her chin, it is hard to hold back the truth, that she takes my breath away.

Jon likes to tell Leta that she is smart. And she is, she can count to ten in Spanish and put together a 30-piece puzzle. But is this any better than telling her that she is beautiful? Smart is not a neutral quantifier either, and when I was an awkward teenager with crooked teeth and a padded bra I worried just as much about how smart I was as I did over whether or not I would ever have a good hair day.

I’m not so sure it’s a bad thing that we tell her that she is beautiful or smart, as long as she knows we love her despite those things. They have no bearing on how much we love her. The bigger challenge is making her feel and understand something that has taken me a lifetime to learn, something I would have rather heard than any comment on my looks or intelligence. I want her to know that she will always be good enough.

The fun begins...

2007-03-26T15:39:00.000-07:00

There's no denying it- I spent most of yesterday hugging the toilet bowl in various locations around Rotorua- at work, Tony's office, home, Mum and Dad's place.......anything including water that went in, pretty much came straight out again.
The faint pink line has turned into a very definite, very red line, and I've spent the first day in my entire adult life parked firmly on the couch with no plans to move anywhere.
Internet research has concluded that I'm just plain unlucky- some people get no nausea and vomiting, some people get a bit, some people get hit by a plague of vomiting and unbearable headaches that makes their life a misery for weeks on end.
We're off to the doctor this afternoon, to confirm what I already know and to find out if there's any hope of an end to feeling like garbage.
The few people we've told have made excited references to cuddly babies and cute outfits and knitting, I have to admit that all of that stuff feels completely unrelated to watching swirls of green bile float in the bottom of a bucket every 30min or so.

Reasonably positive....

2007-03-13T15:40:00.000-07:00

This morning I've been trying my absolute best to concentrate on the GST return but analysing the faint double pink lines on the pregnancy test we did this morning has been far more compelling! We did the test mostly for entertainment's sake- didn't take it particularly seriously, forgot to check the timing etc...but there it was, a bright pink line and a very faint pink line. So after Tony left for work I started what will probably become the latest research project- (nothing either of us does ever happens without thousands of hours of analysing every available bit of information -ad nauseum.) The results seem to be conclusive: even a faint positive result is still a positive result. So I did another one just to be sure, followed the instructions to the letter and yep- it's there again. So barring any unforeseen turns of events......Holy smoke, I think we're pregnant!!!!!!!!!!

2007-02-07T14:50:00.000-08:00

.
From Keri Smith @ The Wish Jar

1. Document what you are responding to regularly. *journal/sketchbook, blog, listmaking, photo journal, bulletin board collage, internet bookmarks, Allow yourself to go deeper into an idea. Find influence outside of your field. Consider that you are ALWAYS working for yourself.

2. Start to challenge yourself on a regular basis to try new things, (not just for work. *i.e. new foods, colors, processes, classes, travel, become a guerilla artist, etc. Your hobbies are your greatest source of play.)

3. Go back to your childhood, (the formative years). What were your favourite things to do? In this lies some clues as to where you want to focus your energy as an adult. What makes you burst with energy?

4. Do something that is not for money. For your own enjoyment. (Your greatest work will come from here!)
*examples…
-newsletter
-zine
-website
-x-mas card
-product concept
-toys
-gifts for friends.
Design for yourself. *See handout on guerilla art.

5. Use sources that are based on your daily life. Your life IS your art. What are the things that are most important in your current life?

6. Become a collector. Collecting allows us to look at one thing in a contemplative & mindful way. Giving you new insights and perceptions. Examples: Maria Kalman -purse contents, Steven Guarnaccia -shoe sole
rubbings, Ian Phillips & Grant Heaps -Lost & Found pet posters, Mark Ulriksen (former art director) -misspellings of his name, Charles & Rae Eames -toys from other countries

7. "Pay no attention to the man behind that curtain." Ignore what other people are doing. It has no bearing on your existence or vision of the world. The times we feel the most discouraged are usually due to the fact we are comparing ourselves to others. Most times reading awards annuals, and industry mags only serves to make us feel inadequate. Try cutting it out entirely. Designer Bruce Mau recommends not entering awards competitions. His reasoning, “Just don’t do it, it’s not good for you.”

8. Don't promote to target your audience. By all means send things out into the world, but don't think in terms of "promoting to get work". Send stuff out because -you're proud of it, -you want to share something with the world, -it's fun to get mail, -to have good karma, -you want to spread your germs, -you like licking stamps. Try sending a postcard of something you made for fun, (i.e. directions on how to make a finger puppet). When thinking of subject matter for promotions look to your current life. If you deal with topics that are important to you a piece will have much more life to it.

9. Take a lighthearted approach (Don't take yourself too seriously). If you feel stuck, you can always reinvent yourself, (re: try something else).

10. Study other artists or creators who followed their own vision. Research.

2007-02-07T14:44:00.000-08:00

Candles.....

2007-02-06T14:36:00.000-08:00

These are pics of Easter Sunday Mass at beautiful St Patrick's Cathedral in Melbourne- I'm not a Catholic but the cathedral is the most amazing building I've ever seen, and the atmosphere was unreal- candles, incense, Mass in Latin, several hundred mostly Greek people dressed in Gucci or with black lace mantillas, pretty incredible.

We arrived right on time for the service but the church was already packed and all we could do was stand in the entrance- you actually almost can't see the alter from the fromt door, the building is so huge. The acoustics are pretty amazing though.

Batik pillowcase

2007-02-06T14:25:00.000-08:00

This is by Cathy Cano Murillo of Crafty Chica- It's a very cool idea for a valentine gift- I think this may have solved the problem of what to make for my husband! Our wedding song was "you are so beautiful" (Joe Cocker version)

Love Song Pillowcase

Supplies 1 white pillowcase
Cardboard to slide inside the pillowcase
1 bottle of Batik EZ resist medium- (there should be some equivalent product in any big craft store chain)
Lyrics to a love song
Newspaper
2 bottles of permanent spray-on fabric dye (red and pink)
or just ordinary cold water dye.

Directions: Slide the cardboard inside the pillowcase. Work on a flat, smooth surface, such as a large tabletop. The resist medium comes in a bottle with a skinny nozzle, perfect for writing. Begin to write your lyrics on the pillow. The resist medium is thick and will spread when applied, so make sure to write large letters with enough space so they will not bleed into each other. Once you have all the lyrics written, let the resist medium dry for 24 hours. Choose a work area outside and line it with newspaper. Cover the pillowcase with the spray-on dye until it is thoroughly covered. Let dry, then repeat on the other side. Add a layer of spray-on glitter, let dry over night. Wash the pillowcase in the sink to remove the resist medium. Turn inside out to wash and dry. Embellish the rest of the pillowcase with trims or embroidery as desired. Alternatives: Instead of fabric resist, you can write the love song using fabric markers, or letter stamps and/or stencils and fabric paint. If you don't want to write song lyrics, write a poem or romantic saying.

More inspiration...........

2007-02-06T12:59:00.000-08:00

I found a great quote today- "Better to light a candle than curse the darkness" and I think I feel a wee series of artwork coming on........ That would make such a great theme! I was a bit gutted last week, after having spent a fair bit of money and time getting ready for Art in the Park on the 18th of Feb, to find out that although the official applications haven't closed yet- all the places were filled in October 06! I was so busy with wedding preparations in October that Art in the Park was the last thing on my mind. And there's not much else in the way of art markets coming up in Rotorua or the Bay of Plenty until this time next year.... Ah well. I've decided to just carry on with what I started and see what happens.

New Year..new me.

2006-12-26T13:47:00.000-08:00

OK. I have a head full of ideas for projects for the new year. If I don't get them written down I'm going to get a slow leak and end up with NO ideas for projects. So here I go: recording ideas!

Stick to what you know: Painting.
Try some different mediums incl. Glass paint and liners (Deb Fuller), different stencils,

Try something a bit different: Ceramics. Letters, pod/boat shapes (Renee Boyd), etc.
Screenprinting on canvas.
Printing t-shirts.

Themes that are interesting to me at the moment: Landscape, love, water, sky, native plants.

What not to bother with: Any of the bath products nonsense- I'm not a pharmacist. Importing, exporting.

A Hodge Podge

2006-12-20T15:36:00.000-08:00

A mish-mash, if you will, of stuff that I like. In an attempt to recognise some patterns and get a hold on that slippery little sucker called "Clarity"

I like bath products. I like Open Sundae's solid bubblebath cupcakes.
I like Lush
I like things that smell yummy.
I like natural products.
I like the idea of having some kind of yummy-smelling-natural-products-outrageous-decor beauty salon/spa.

I like homewares. I like art.
I like underwear. I like clothes. I like jewellery. I like girly stuff.
I like making stuff and designing stuff. I don't know how to reconcile this with my dark, anti-consumerist side.
Every man and his dog is already doing all of this stuff anyway!!!!

I like the internet. I love the internet, actually.
I want to know how to sell stuff via the internet. I can't reconcile that either.

I really like the idea of importing stuff. (?????!!!!!!!)

I want to know how to stop following trends and start starting them. I see someone else with a cool idea, and I get so fascinated with it that it kind of blocks me from thinking of my own cool idea.

Quarter-life crisis day

2006-12-20T14:01:00.000-08:00

Ok. Today's the day. I've been faffing around for...hmmm...28 years now, always sure that the 'perfect idea' that's going to make me happy, keep me fed, clothed, constructively occupied and bring peace to the world is JUST round the corner. RIGHT on the tip of my tongue. Just a few more hours of research, and I'll have it nailed.
It's not happening, and this morning after a cup of coffee and a wee weep on my husbands shoulder (making him late to work and slightly soggy) I decided that it's time to inject just a teeny bit of reality into this situation!

So I'm spending today trying to figure out why I've spent all the thousands of hours (not to mention dollars) on researching and trying all these aborted projects. I am secretly very glad that I don't have any kind of record of my activities, because I would hate to have to explain any of it to anyone!!!! But I've begun to wonder if that's the problem- I'm forgetting things as fast as I learn them, I repeat myself, I don't build new projects on what I've learnt from previous ones.
So it's out with randomness and un-disciplined-ness, and in with structure, focus, deliberate actions and processes. And keeping records.

So a good place to start, I guess, is a goal: what am I trying to achieve with all of this busy-ness?
I want flexibility. I want to be creative. I want to be challenged. I want to enjoy waking up in the morning. I want to use my God-given abilities in a constructive way, because I think that's almost a responsibility that comes in the small print along with the abilities: You can do xyz really well because that's what you're supposed to be doing with your life!
I don't ever want to do retail again. I don't want fixed hours. I want time to take really good care of my husband and make his world a really nice place to live.

'How To Be Creative'

2006-12-20T00:58:00.000-08:00

Some of my favourites from 'An Incomplete Manifesto for Growth' by Bruce Mau.

Allow events to change you. You have to be willing to grow. Growth is different from something that happens to you. You produce it. You live it. The prerequisites for growth: the openness to experience events and the willingness to be changed by them.

Process is more important than outcome. When the outcome drives the process we will only ever go to where we've already been. If process drives outcome we may not know where we’re going, but we will know we want to be there.

Love your experiments (as you would an ugly child). Joy is the engine of growth. Exploit the liberty in casting your work as beautiful experiments, iterations, attempts, trials, and errors. Take the long view and allow yourself the fun of failure every day.

Capture accidents. The wrong answer is the right answer in search of a different question. Collect wrong answers as part of the process. Ask different questions.

Drift. Allow yourself to wander aimlessly. Explore adjacencies. Lack judgment. Postpone criticism.

Begin anywhere. John Cage tells us that not knowing where to begin is a common form of paralysis. His advice: begin anywhere.

Don’t be cool. Cool is conservative fear dressed in black. Free yourself from limits of this sort.

Ask stupid questions. Growth is fueled by desire and innocence. Assess the answer, not the question. Imagine learning throughout your life at the rate of an infant.

Stay up late. Strange things happen when you’ve gone too far, been up too long, worked too hard, and you're separated from the rest of the world.

The work you produce today will create your future.

Think with your mind. Forget technology. Creativity is not device-dependent.

Listen carefully. Every collaborator who enters our orbit brings with him or her a world more strange and complex than any we could ever hope to imagine. By listening to the details and the subtlety of their needs, desires, or ambitions, we fold their world onto our own. Neither party will ever be the same.

Take field trips. The bandwidth of the world is greater than that of your TV set, or the Internet, or even a totally immersive, interactive, dynamically rendered, object-oriented, real-time, computer graphic–simulated environment.

Imitate. Don’t be shy about it. Try to get as close as you can. You'll never get all the way, and the separation might be truly remarkable. We have only to look to Richard Hamilton and his version of Marcel Duchamp’s large glass to see how rich, discredited, and underused imitation is as a technique.

Break it, stretch it, bend it, crush it, crack it, fold it.

Explore the other edge. Great liberty exists when we avoid trying to run with the technological pack. We can’t find the leading edge because it’s trampled underfoot. Try using old-tech equipment made obsolete by an economic cycle but still rich with potential.

Sugar Cookies

2006-12-19T11:30:00.000-08:00

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 cups butter, softened
2 cups white sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.

Buy Nothing Day

2006-12-19T00:07:00.000-08:00

Saturday November 25th 2006 was Worldwide Buy Nothing Day. Unfortunately, I missed it, but I'll know for next year! (Actually I may have inadvertently celebrated it...it was my wedding day so I was definitely not out shopping!)

Anyway.

The message is simple, shop less - live more. The challenge is to switch off from shopping and tune into life: spend time with family and friends, rather than spend money on them.

Once upon a time, we used to buy what we needed, and nothing more. Now that we have all we need, we buy for other reasons: to impress each other, to fill a void, to kill time. Buy Nothing Day is a simple idea: try not to shop for a day, and see how your view of our world changes.

Where does all this stuff come from? Where will it go? Why do we buy it?
Aren't there better way of spending our time?

Buy Nothing Day also exposes the environmental and ethical consequences of consumerism. The developed countries - only 20% of the world population are consuming over 80% of the earth's natural resources, causing a disproportionate level of environmental damage and unfair distribution of wealth.
It's not shopping in itself that's so harmful, it's what we buy. We need to worry about the way our goods are produced. Increasingly large companies use labour in developing countries to produce goods because it's cheap and there aren't the systems to protect workers like there are in the west.
Also, the raw materials and production methods that are used to make so many of our goods have harmful side affects such as toxic waste, destruction of wild life, and wasted energy. The transport of goods internationally also contributes to pollution especially when many can be produced nationally.

Interesting reading:
NZ Buy Nothing Day
Consumer Monster
Affluenza
Enough
Ideas for 'free' or cheap gifts
and more here

Christmas Puddings

2006-12-18T00:40:00.000-08:00

The project of the week: Mallowpuff Christmas puddings.

Ingredients:
Mallowpuffs- as many as you plan to eat
Jaffas- Same number as Mallowpuffs
Spearmint leaves/any kind of green jellyish lolly-cut into 5mm strips.
White chocolate, melted.

Mine will look much cooler than the one pictured- (it's from the Nestle' website) you may find that hard to believe after the Soda bread post, but I've made these puppies before.

These are my ones :)

Soda Bread

2006-12-16T15:16:00.000-08:00

The Soda Bread didn't quite look like the picture, but it was a small scale hit with the Husband anyway! It's pretty dense, probably more like a scone than bread as we know it, bit it's steadily disappearing in thick slices with butter and jam! If I made it again, I'd probably take it out about five minutes earlier too.

Today's obsession.....

2006-12-16T14:49:00.000-08:00

Just found this amazing Portugese design/craft blog called 'Wishes & Heros'
Its all obviously in Portugese, and Babelfish wasn't much help- I guess Portugese doesn't translate that literally into English! So I'm not exactly sure about the ideas behind what they make, or the intended purpose, but how cute are these?

Looking at the pictures inspired through-the-roof excitement levels from the 9 year old...we zoomed down to Ajays Emporium for some felt and other bits and pieces and produced quite a respectable looking and much-loved bunny!

The family hearts would make pretty neat Christmas tree ornaments?

More lights

2006-12-14T15:11:00.000-08:00

Felt lightshades from Mary Ann Williams at Illu-stration

Slipcast ceramic lights from Moonstruck

Lamps of unspecified materials (but very cool nonetheless) by Artsquad

Inspiration

2006-12-14T15:06:00.000-08:00

How cool are these lamps? I just found them on a design student's website called 'Bright Lights, Little City'

The cocktail umbrellas are dipped in phosphorescent paint so they glow in the dark, and they're sprayed with a protective lacquer and a fire retardant spray.

Helena Bay Hill gallery

2006-12-12T23:41:00.000-08:00

On our honeymoon (two weeks ago) we did a road trip round the north of the North Island of New Zealand- it was absolutely beautiful and we had a fantastic relaxing week.
One of the places we stopped off was the Gallery on Helena Bay Hill, just before you get into Russell in the Bay of Islands.

FANTASTIC coffee, AMAZING views of Helena Bay, BEAUTIFUL artwork by New Zealand artists. So worth a look if you're in the neighbourhood.

Domesticated bliss

2006-12-11T12:50:00.001-08:00

Married life is definitely getting the better of me! Yesterday I spring cleaned the house like a madwoman, this morning I am baking bread and for the last week I've had an overwhelming urge to own a sewing machine! I can't even sew!

This is the bread I'm making- it's still in the oven so I can't tell you what it's like just yet. This one looked good to me because it doesn't have yeast- I may be a domesticated housewife now but I still definitely can't be arsed with fluffing round with yeast. I skipped the currants too.

Irish Soda Bread

4 cups organic gluten flour
1 tablespoon salt
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup raisins or dried currants (optional)
1 1/2 - 2 cups buttermilk (or use regular milk combined with 2 teaspoons white or cider vinegar)

1. Preheat oven to 375 F / 190 C. Butter a baking sheet or cake pan.

2. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, salt, baking powder, and soda, then stir in the raisins, if desired. Add enough milk to make a soft, kneadable dough.

3. Turn out the dough onto a floured surface and knead it briefly. Shape it into a round loaf and place it on the baking sheet. Cut a cross in the top of the loaf with a single-edged razor blade or a very sharp floured knife.

4. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes. Remove from oven and cool on a rack.
Makes 1 loaf.

With any luck, my Soda bread should look something like this:

Incidentally, if you're Irish, apparently you don't say "loaf" of soda bread, you say "farl" of soda bread.

Welcome!

2006-12-08T01:44:00.000-08:00