Aaaaaah Outside

We have been taking advantage of the beautiful Spring weather we've been having, to get out in the garden and get amongst it. It's breakfast, then on goes the 'old clobber' and then outside. We've been planting our seedlings - ready to plant out when the last frosts disappear.We've been busy in and out of the sandpit.We've roped Grandma Loz in to put some final decorating touches on the cubby house of architectural merit (more on this later)...So we can host high teas fit for the Savoy. 'Quel surprise! Tea and mud tart! Delicieux!'Perchance would there be room at your table for one more?We've brought in the big guns to relocate some wood to our shed.and basically eaten and smeared ourself with more dirt and mud than is on offer at a day spa. Oh Spring - I salute you! This year I have made a pact that this is the year of the garden.... and with a start like this - clearly it will take alot to get us back inside!

Sewing Inferno

It's a flurry of sewing activity around these parts. I've commandeered the kitchen table. My brain has become a hive of haberdashery activity. I am in a constant state of couture planning and implementing. This one calles me the 'House of Burns' (for couture, please press one). As explanantion, I blatently relocated her copy of this fine book... and well it seems me likey alot in there. So I thought I'd test out the wrap skirt with a jolly old sheet I'd picked up at the local oppie. Here is me in my pensive pose, honed from my days as a swimsuit model for Sports Illustrated (you can see me here)* I wasn't kidding about taking over the kitchen table. And the skirt ... I love it ... because 'House of Burns' says this season is the 'Summer of the jolly frock and skirt' ... oh, and yellow shoes (where do I get me some yellow shoes?) And here is the hat for the wee girl. I pulled out all the heavy weight fabric and asked her to choose. Whilst I wasn't backing this pink number (I'm not a real pink person)... the girl's eye clearly is a good one ... she choose to line the vintage pink extravaganza with a lilac drill. Ripper, no?

The hat itself, it's very snug. She is nonetheless thrilled with it. It doesn't blow off in the wind, tick! Shall see how we go with the adult size hat - but this size is perfecto for the wee lads. As for Sew La Tea Do ... I'm getting me a copy. One shouldn't push good friendships. Plus, she can crochet hexagons ... and I'm still on the granny square...

*Tell me you didn't really click on that link?

Here

Things have levelled out a little round these parts. Since the boys arrived it's all been a bit day to day. Twins do that to you. I've never really written about our experience of finding ourselves parents of multiples. Never quite found the words to describe how it all goes being flung from mother of one to mother of three. Occasionally I have gone to write it all down for the record, but never quite know where to start. As my better half so aptly stated, it kind of sounds as if you are having a whinge or asking for a pat on the back - and really neither of us feel the need for either of these things, so we tend to just keep things close. But for the best part of 15 months we have lived a life that can be described as nothing short of perpetual motion; bewildering at times; intense and all consuming, a little lonely in parts ... but an experience that has stripped us back to recognise what gets us through and what keeps it sweet. We have become Team Burns, wearing the t-shirt that sees us rely so seemlessly on each other we rarely stop to ponder how we got here intact. But here is good. Here three smalls slumber by 7.30pm. Here three smalls wake after 7.15am. Here two wee boys slumber for 2-3 hours in the middle of the day. Here dinner is at 5pm and bath time follows. Here we sit on the couch together in the evening silence and hold hands. Here a routine guides our day like a ticking clock. A metronome to keep us dancing in time and singing in tune. Here we have embraced routine without embarrassment. Here we don't deviate often. Here is not there. To get to this point was a whirlwind of second guessing and experimenting. There has been endless questioning, both spoken and unspoken, whispered, laughed and sobbed on how would get through. A dialogue; just two. Words and fears rarely shared with others. It was just hard to explain. We clung to the belief that we would get some sort of space back. Space for a breath or two.

So here we are.

Breathing.

If I had a sewing bucket list .. this was on it

Yesterday marked a monumental day in the vast sewing world. A tiny drop in the ocean for some seamstresses, but for moi, monumentale. I sewed a pair of pants. I know, remember to b-r-e-a-t-h-e. I found a vintage pyjama pattern, adapted it from a size 2/3 down to something resembling a size one and ticked 'pants' off the list that contains things that I think may be hard and have thus not tried. They worked. So today I tried another pair. I know, outrageous. But one pair of pants won't cut it in our house. Someone ends up going nude. They worked too. Chasing two wee boys around to get some photos on the other hand proved more difficult. The red checked pair were my 'test pair'. They were from fabric given to me way back here. When they were a success I went with the 'batik'. (Mum had picked up the fabric in Sarawak, Malaysia, when my Dad worked there). I enjoyed getting lost in 'the details'. I made a couple of 'faux' pockets at the front. Don't think I'll repeat them. I figured, at this stage, they didn't really need anywhere to put their keys. That back pocket was going to be a circle ... but after sewing two bits together and turning it in, I was struggling to make the circle look all neat, so I cut it off. Then I ricracked it up.As mentioned, photography was based on speed, rather than accuracy ... but the next shots at least showcase my new skirt ... whipped up in vintage curtain fabric, found way back here, it's my new favourite. The pattern is awesome. My sister even whipped up two. She has hips. They don't show in this skirt. It is tres flattering. You get the picture? It's A line....

...because sometimes you need a good place to hide ...