I thought I'd share some photos of a couple of items of mail I've posted recently. I don't send much mail any more, so I'm trying to concentrate on quality over quantity; writing to a couple of established penpals once every couple of months.



A little letter for lovely Adeline. For the envelope, I cut the letters of her name out of cardboard and put different coloured paper behind each letter. The card was a fun, quick collage.




I sent Ann-Marie a very overdue letter, some mix CDs, a paper pack that she kindly purchased from my shop and a painted canvas square sent as a makeshift postcard.



Two hand painted canvas postcards for two ridiculously generous bloggers that sent me little packages over the last few weeks - I am so grateful. I am still obsessed with these little canvases!

I've been wanting to scan some ephemera for my own use in Photoshop and thought I'd share some of my scans. I hope you can find a use for some of these bits!








For use in Photoshop, the files are in high quality (and pretty large) .tif format and each ephemera item is in an individual layer - download each image here. Alternatively, you can access the lower quality .jpgs by clicking on each image above.

N.B. The copyright information attached to some items can be a bit sketchy or hard to find - no breach of copyright is intended - exercise your own discretion when using - only for non commercial use.

I'm not quite finished decorating the baby's nursery yet, but I thought I'd share some pictures of some of my favourite little parts. I'd like to buy a big colourful rug and a nice rocking chair and some other not-entirely-practical items, but they'll have to wait until baby is born and I have some spare coins (thanks to my 18 weeks of paid parental leave). I'll do a proper reveal of the room after then. I hope he gets to spend a little bit of time in this space we've created for him before we have to move. Our real estate (who knows my due date) was kind enough to send us a letter today informing us of an upcoming inspection to take place while I'll likely still be in hospital... :| I'm hoping they'll be kind enough to let us postpone! I have had a lot of fun with this room and I love spending time in it. I think I might have mentioned before that both this bedroom and our bedroom don't have windows to the outside, they just have huge skylights in the centre of the room that have blinds you can pull over them - they're make the rooms really wonderful and bright. I am still a bit concerned that our house will be too cold for a little baby in this Winter - it has really ineffective and expensive heating. I do have a million blankets!


















The lockers are definitely one of my favourite parts, as is the $10 opshop sideboard I painted. I will miss the overabundance of shelves when we move - they are great to store and display things. A lovely lady from my work gave me most of the books. She said she always hoped her sons would love reading as much as she does, but they prefer computer games. There are some classics in there - I am especially fond of Dr Seuss. I'm also hoping to get my hands on some of the old hardcover Sesame Street books I had when I was a kid. The yellow coat in the top photo was a beautiful gift from Marguerite. Every time I hang it up in the lockers I just take it back out again to peek at it - adorable!

I had some Braxton Hicks contractions the night before last and then basically had a panic attack worrying about not being ready for childbirth. I had considered trying raspberry leaf tea, which people claim can help tone the uterus muscles and ease labour, but I decided not to interfere and that whenever he wants to come out is fine by me, no rush! Four days 'til due date!

PS. My camera is on the way out - it was such a struggle to take/edit these photos! Another thing I'm hoping to be able to save for after the baby arrives!

PPS. Yes, his name does begin with a T! We'll spill the beans soon.

Hi there! I'm still here and baby and I are still happily cooped up together.

Tonight we went for a little walk around our neighbourhood before dark and took these photos. I love living on top of the hill if only for the beautiful views. Launceston puts on quite a show for Autumn too. Unfortunately it looks as though we might have to move again in the next few months, as our landlord is trying to fix up part of the house (that is ever so slowly falling down the hill) and then they're going to sell it and we'd prefer to move before that all starts happening, having a newborn in the house at the time. I'm not sure where we'll be moving to, but we have actually been having a little look at what might be available to buy, as interest rates and housing prices here are ridiculously low and it's pretty much a buyer's market. Launceston is the only place I've ever lived where buying a house has ever seemed like a possibility, especially on our tiny income.

We've been getting out and doing some fun things over the last few days which is making the time go a bit faster. Last week we drove to Hobart to stay with our friend Mel for a few days, hang out with my friend Andrew and see They Might Be Giants in concert. Very few bands, especially international bands, come to Tasmania, and TMBG are one of C's very favourite bands so he couldn't miss travelling down to see them despite it only being 10 days out from my due date. Initially it was just going to be C, but I decided to join him at the last moment and we had a great time. I'm not sure if the baby loved or hated the loud music but he danced around a little bit in response. TMBG were excellent (the concert even featured a puppet show!). I was worried I might've had to leave early or try to find a seat outside (they didn't allow seats inside the venue, wut?!) especially because we spent the whole day walking around Hobart. There was a girl standing next to me who was really pushy and trying to get in front of me the whole night (it really wasn't very crowded and I am quite short) and I ended up outlasting her - she wound up sitting on the floor looking like she had exhaustion. 3 months ago I don't think I would have lasted a whole night standing up and dancing around at a concert, so I think that is a testament to just how great I'm feeling right now! I wish my whole pregnancy had felt like this. The only real complaint I have is finding comfy ways to sleep.

+ coat: tokito/myer + dress: vintage + hat: cotton on + boots: doc martens.

We also went to film society this week to see 'Searching For Sugarman' - an excellent documentary about the American musician Rodriguez. He released two albums in the early 70s that barely sold a copy in the US and was assumed to have died (one rumour was that he lit himself on fire on stage) and he had no idea that his records had sold half a million copies in South Africa or that some of his songs played an important part in the anti-Apartheid movement. I highly recommend the documentary and now I can't stop listening to his albums.

Baby is showing no signs of arriving any time before due date, so I've been organising having people over to visit for little coffee dates. The entire house is clean now, so that's something I don't have to keep stressing myself out about (nesting hard). Next week we're doing something every day, but I'm also trying to force myself to laze around and relax, not because I feel like I need to (I have a ridiculous amount of energy right now!) but because I know once the baby comes I'll wish I'd let myself indulge in this time.


Here are a couple of photos from our walk:


A happy window.







These two boys were sitting at the window when we got back, wondering where we'd been.

Despite my impatience, I hope this baby stays in just until he's ready. Hopefully by this time next week I'll have something exciting to report and a picture of a tiny little squishy head to show you!