What I've Been...

Making :  Two quilts, a crochet blanket and a mess.

Eating: A yummy burger and brownie from a cute little cafe that I haven't been to in years. We went on Saturday with one of my dear friends who I haven't seen much of lately due to us working and me living in the sticks. Her kids are so gorgeous and so close. They obviously love each other a lot. It makes me want to have another baby soon so Archie can have such a lovely sibling relationship.

Cooking: Baked salmon and veggies for dinner.

Wanting: More space. More room to move. Time to go faster and to slow down.

Looking: At the weather. It is so freaking cold in Melbourne right now. I can't wait for sunny days, with bare legs and no coat.

Wishing: That our house was finished and we were living in Brunswick already, next door to our awesome neighbours. They are a beautiful couple, one is a fabulous cartoonist and the other is a beautiful, eloquent creative writing professor. They have been super friendly right from the first day we got the keys.

Enjoying: Not doing my hair at all, and realising that it doesn't look too bad completely unbrushed, unblowdried and untouched. So liberating!

Waiting: For my dad and brother to get home. They left to hike the Kokoda trail on the weekend and I am so excited for them. What an adventure!

Liking: Working. I like the rituals of it- packing my lunch, getting a hot chocolate from the cafe down the street, bunkering down and writing writing writing before coming up for air and a banana.

Wondering: How Archie can eat four Weetbix for breakfast one day and then just one grape  and three spoonfuls of yoghurt the next.

Loving: The exhausted-but-happy feeling of a day spent digging holes in the mud. Am I mad ?!

Hoping: This yuck head cold that Lee, Archie and I all have goes away soon

Thinking: About travelling around Australia in a cute caravan when the kids are a bit older. I am obsessed. I woke up in the middle of the night planning which route we will take. It's about eight years away but still! So excited.

What I've Been...

Eating... I have a mate who works at Cadbury as an important marketing lady. She is awesome, for many reasons, but the Cadbury thing pushes her over into freaking brilliant territory. One time, we met for brunch and she opened her bag and pulled out pretty much the entire Cadbury's range, from giant blocks to bars. Lee and I now call that cafe 'the place where Audrey brought the chocolate'. As in, "Oh, that house is on the same street as the cafe where Audrey brought the chocolate."

Anyway, I digress. I am a big fan of the Marvellous Creations range, and recently sampled the banana, peanut and chocolate biscuit bar. 8/10. It needs more banana bits and less biscuit, but is still better than the jelly and popping candy one. You will be pleased to know that I have passed on my comments to my Cadbury friend.

Visiting... Heide. On Sunday, we went to the Heidi Gallery in Bulleen. I hadn't been there for years and had forgotten how awesome it is. It was crappy weather, but Arch loved running around the sculpture garden and jumping in puddles. We had a fairly mediocre lunch at Cafe Vue and then went for a bike ride in the rain. Wet, cold and happy.

Making... this quilt. And a crochet blanket loosely based on this one. I have to crochet 154 squares and have made 84. At this rate it will be finished when Archie moves out of home.

Pondering... Friendships. I am a tad isolated living out here away from all my peeps. And having a kid does change friendships, regardless of all my high hopes. I have made stacks of gorgeous mum friends, but don't see my old crew as much as I used to. I had a yuk experience earlier in the year when a close friend did something inexcusable and was totally unrepentant, and we haven't really spoken since. I was really upset at the time but remember reading a saying that was something like 'some friends are for seasons, some are for reasons and some are for life' that makes it a bit easier to let go.

Reading... This really easy-to-read book called Women in Black by Madeline St John, which is set in Sydney in the 50s. It's okayish. I am just about to start finally reading Tina Fey's Bossypants though, which I've been meaning to read for aaaaaages. I  do love La Fey.

Celebrating... My great-great-aunt's life. She passed away on Sunday aged 98. She lived in this rambling, falling-down old mansion in Hawthorn and was the picture of eccentricity. To her 90th birthday party, she wore a bright red skirt and jacket which was covered in red cowgirl fringing. I took Archie to see her - she is his great-great-great-aunt- when he was tiny and she wore full make-up, a twin-set and pearls. Absolutely fabulous.

She was a mad Hawthorn supporter and was chatting to her daughter about how the Hawks went in the footy, then commented on how she felt a bit tired. She closed her eyes and was gone. What a life.

Cooking... Lemon slice. Good old fashioned biscuity, coconutty awesomeness with condensed milk and loads of lemon. Yummo.

Planning... Our house. We are arranging to meet with the town planners soon so we can go through it all and get cracking on the planning permit. Woop!

Watching... Offspring. Oh my lord. I was at my mates house and we were totally expecting Billie to die, then, um WHAT! So many tears. I don't even know if I will be able to watch next week's episode. A baby and a funeral might push me over the edge.

Buying... New clothes. I am sick of not fitting into anything and only having holey, dirty crap to wear, so went on a mini shopping spree on Monday. I got new black ankle boots (because I have eleven pairs of boots and obviously need more), a gorgeous black and white shift dress, a knitted sweater and a spotty chambray shirt. I finally feel somewhat myself when getting dressed in the morning, instead of trying to match my pre-baby wardrobe (bombshell-inspired, wiggle skirts, tailoring, lots of red) with this whole new working mum thing (skinnies, leather jackets, boots, lots of black and stripes).

What I've been...

Eating... M&Ms and boysenberry choc tops at a film preview on Monday night for my new job. The job is pretty wonderful. Everyone is super-friendly and the work is interesting and fun. Plus, on the first night, I got to go to see a film with endless free snacks. Not too shabby for day one!

Reading... I have just devoured Caitlin Moran's How to be a Woman. SO GOOD. In the past few years, I have become more and more of a strident feminist, and Caitlin is like the hysterical, ballsy, take-no-prisoners warrior chiefess of modern feminism. I will post some of my favourite quotes from the book soon.

I've also been reading Dear Zoo about 23 times a day. Archie makes all the animal noises, including going 'hoo hoo hoo' and poking his armpits in a mini-me version of a gorilla. Caaaa-ute!

Hearing... Because my commute is a bit of an epic drive across the Eastern suburbs, I've been listening to podcasts a lot. My favourites are still Totally Laime and Totally Married, but I also devour This American Life, Radiolab, Sunday Night Safran (although it's on hiatus at the mo so I've been listening to old episodes), Life Matters and The Architects. Plus a bit of Smooth FM, because that's how I roll.

Enjoying... Having a reason to get dressed up nicely to go to work. When I stay at home with Archie, I can tend to get a tad, um, relaxed and wear leggings, a hoodie and uggboots for the entire time I'm at home. I do put on decentish clothes when I leave the house, but it is only a matter of time before the uggs and hoodie become acceptable supermarket wear, and that, my friends, is the beginning of the end.

Having a reason to wear a moderately clean, neat and poo-free outfit twice a week helps stave off my inner slob, who is just waiting to take over and justify wearing banana-stained holey flannelette pyjamas to the post office.

Worrying about... My amazing husbo is super-busy at work and a bit stressy as a result. He needs a long rest and a lie down. And also a dirty, sweaty mountain-bike ride and some quality family time in nature.

Watching... More wedding videos. Our amazeballs wedding photographer sent down discs of the outtakes from our wedding, including all the bits I didn't see, like when Lee announced the surprise wedding. I totally teared up watching it and got nervous and excited shivers!

And a heads up: Because I'm working more now, and have loads going on with houses and businesses and babies, I am going to look at taking a step back from this old bloggeroo for a while. I wil still write stuff here, but maybe not as regularly or consistently. Or I might really miss it and bombard you with posts everyday. Who knows? xx