This year I decided to put more effort into choosing some Christmas/Summer solstice gifts for my nieces and nephews. We usually don't have much money to buy and post gifts, but lately I've felt like I really want to make more of an effort and plan ahead and also make at least part of my gifts. When I was a kid my Aunts and Uncles always sent me sweet little gifts and I thought it would be nice to send my nieces and nephews something at least every now and then, especially because I don't get to see them very often and I want to stay connected with them and know what they're into.




I decorated these two little sketchbooks as part of little bundles of gifts for C's nephew and my niece. Both of them are great little artists so their presents were mostly art supplies. The other nieces and nephews who aren't as into art were much more difficult to buy for! I know when I was a kid art supplies were ALWAYS my favourite presents. Other little gifts for my nieces and nephews included Roald Dahl books, new pencil cases and stationery, fabric pens, a fancy new lunch box, a dream catcher and I re-gifted a couple of great books. I had so much fun putting their gifts together and I set a little budget for myself so I didn't go crazy buying things.



My sister has recently started drawing. She started reading some great art books (like 'An Illustrated Life' by Danny Gregory) and I think they gave her the confidence to give things ago. Her drawings are great and her ability is getting better and better and I'm so proud of her because it's so hard to persevere with creative pursuits when you don't have a huge amount of confidence or practice. I was looking for fun art books for her and I saw the book '642 Things To Draw' in a bookshop and while I really liked the idea, I couldn't justify paying almost $30 for a book of blank pages with some prompts. So I thought I'd buy a nice hardcover journal, decorate the cover and make up my own prompts and write them in it for her. I filled the entire book with prompts from the top of my head (although I did ask C and my friend Tess for some suggestions towards the end). Earlier in the year I went through a long period of feeling totally lacking in creative ideas, so it was really nice to be able to think up over 100 different ideas of things to draw without having to Google for ideas. I think I'll have to make a book for myself and attempt some of the drawing prompts too.

Here are some of the ideas I filled the pages with:

+ A hand-painted postcard on a piece of cardboard for a lovely lady named Maria.


+ A little letter for Kate. I love cutting out the letters of words and sticking patterned paper behind them.


+ A package for the fantastic Miss Mary. I can't wait for her to receive this package. She has sent me many lovely things in the past and is such a sweet person. I hope she likes the contents! Also, it never fails to amuse me that Mary lives in Maryland.


+ A painted canvas postcard for a sweet lady named Monica.

Remember when I used to send lots of mail? I really enjoyed it - it was a good time in my life and it made me be creative every day and I think about it fondly. However, I know I can never return to letter writing in that way again (writing 10+ letters per week) - it was a bit like a full time job and I didn't have a job at the time, so it kind of was my full time job! Very occasionally I still send a postcard or letter, but I don't put any pressure on myself to write them. Sending and receiving so much mail was (often wonderfully) overwhelming and it has taken me a long time to get back to wanting to send mail again. I see lots of lovely blogs about mail popping up (like Letter Loves) and it makes me happy to think about the wonderful correspondence they are having with people that they've never met, who live in other parts of the world. I loved playing mail tag - it was a game that I started based on a really great TV show called Our Hero and there are lots of people out there still playing it. Writing letters really made me feel more aware of the world - of the differences and similarities between places and people (and I am so much better at geography now). It gave me a social outlet when I was quite antisocial. There are some people I've written to (like Missive Maven) who I felt like were total kindred spirits. Letter writing is wonderful and so enjoyable and one day when I have more time I'd like to write regularly to half a dozen people (at one point when I was writing letters I had a backlog of over 100 letters to respond to). I still receive beautiful mail and when I can, I like to try to at least make a fun postcard to send back to people who write me ridiculously kind things (like Monica in Chicago) or send me ridiculously lovely things (like Maria in the UK). If you've sent me something and I've not responded, I do apologise - life at the moment is not very conducive to letter writing, but I really appreciate each lovely epistle that has been sent my way.
Who was the last person you wrote a letter to?

+ The obligatory aeroplane window photo (flying over Tasmania).

Last month we went to NSW for two weeks to see family and friends. I don't usually find the idea of doing 'travel' posts particularly interesting, but I thought I'd share a couple of bits and pieces from our trip. Sometimes it occurs to me that I don't like to record things like this in my blog very often. When I first began blogging it was passionately for the purpose of documenting everyday things so that I could look back and remember things I was doing (my memory is so fallible) and so it seems a shame to self-censor what I document because I don't deem it to be 'interesting' enough to share. So, here you go.


+ On our second day in town we met up with my brother Luke and my 4-year-old niece Rose for coffee at Suspension in Hamilton. I gave Rosie this tin carousel as a belated birthday present, which she loved because she used to have one but it broke. The box said 'not for children under 14', which I thought was a bir ridiculous (it does have some sharp edges), but Rosie is a particularly advanced and sensible 4 year old and only uses it while supervised. I wish I had one!


+ I'm a big fan of Trevor Dickinson's drawings and really enjoyed seeing his murals nearby to the Newcastle Museum. C also made me take a photo of him under the 'Least Attractive Person In Newcastle' sign.


+ C, Theo and I drove to my Nanna's house in Swansea and all of the family came over for dinner which was so lovely. It was so nice to introduce Theo to his Great Nanna and his great Aunts and Uncles and second cousin. While we were there I had a look through one of my Nanna's old photo albums and I thought this picture in particular was gorgeous. She said that she was working at a paint shop and they got her to pose for an advertisement. I didn't have a scanner with me, but I took a lot of photos of the photos in the album in case I don't get a chance to see them again, there were some beautiful pictures of my mum growing up too.


+ I also found this note and photo of my brother while I was looking through my Nanna's albums and it made me smile (Boompa was my Grandpa's nickname).


+ We stayed with my sister for most of our time in Newcastle and she took us to the Maitland Regional Art Gallery and there were these beautiful sketches on postcards which really caught my eye (but, of course, I didn't record who they were by!).


+ We spent 5 days in seaside Forster with C's brother and sister-in-law and their sweet family. It was their first time meeting Theo and 10-month-old Moby was pretty smitten with him and tried to eat him on several occasions. We also tried to take Theo for his first swim but he fell asleep in the pram on the way there and had an enormous nap on the shoreline with his Aunt while C and I had a 40 minute swim at a gorgeous place called 'The Bullring' (swimming with C is one of my absolute favourite things - we've only ever done it on about 3 or 4 occasions!).


+ A tasty beverage from Frankie's on Beaumont Street.


+ We took Theo to his first Jets (the soccer team we support) game while we were there. We met up with all of C's old soccer buddies that he used to attend games with at The Bennett pub for dinner beforehand and the game was excellent, despite the drawn scoreline. Going to see games is surprisingly something I've really missed about being away from Newcastle. Before I met C I was vehemently anti-sports, but when we were first seeing each other, we'd go to watch the Jets play and there is just something about the atmosphere that you can't help but enjoy.


+ We took a quick day trip to my country home town to visit my parents house and see some old friends. We had a dinner party with my family and some of my mum's old friends and one of them pulled out a folder full of all of the drawings I did for him when I was a kid (there were A LOT). It seems that every time we went to his house I'd draw a picture of everyone who was there. I think the drawings probably ranged from age 6 to 9 and were quite a novelty to see again.


+ It was so lovely staying with my sister and watching she and Theo interact. I miss her so much. Also, I think that her legs are literally twice as long as mine. Ridiculous.


+ We flew back into Tasmania, and because we were late, the pilot flew really high above the clouds to go faster and we could see an indication of Tasmania's crazy weather beneath us - an enormous swirl of clouds. Silly me didn't bring a cardigan on the plane (because it was 30 degrees when we left Sydney) and froze to death when we re-emerged in Launceston.

I say this every time that we go back, but next time I'll ONLY VISIT IN WINTER! I have entirely acclimatised to the Tasmanian weather and cannot function in that heat anymore.

Obviously, this post won't be particularly interesting to anyone who doesn't have a baby or isn't planning on having one - if you're in that category, please feel free to skip this post - but I wanted to share some items I've found really invaluable in my 6 months of mumming.



When I first found out I was pregnant I incessantly Googled, trying to figure out '...BUT WHAT DO I ACTUALLY NEED?!'. I read a lot of posts including items that different mothers thought were essential ("YOU MUST HAVE A BABY WIPE WARMER!") and eventually I just felt like I was being sold a whole lot of stuff I didn't need and couldn't afford. I really just wanted to work out the most economical, environmentally-friendly and hassle-free way to raise my baby. Not really finding the answers to my questions, leading up to Theo being born I collected a bunch of stuff that I assumed we would need - some things I used for one week (in-bed co-sleeper) and other items have been used to death. 6 months in, there are a couple of items that have really made things a lot easier and that I'd recommend...





While I was pregnant I was certain that we would use cloth nappies (for financial and environmental reasons) and I did a lot of research into the best kinds, but I knew that Theo being born into a Tasmanian Winter meant that sunlight for drying clothes would be scarce and we couldn't really afford the cost of buying and running a drier. We settled on a hybrid type nappy called 'Gently' which is made from sports grade nylon and you buy packs of inserts to go inside which are made from bamboo and biodegrade in two months (you can even put them in your own compost). They were very appealing to me because knowing that from the time your baby is born until they are toilet trained you'll use approximately 5000 nappies and regular disposable nappies take somewhere beyond 100 years to biodegrade. Other biodegradable nappies I'd seen were prohibitively expensive. Once you buy the outer shells (about $5 each) the packs of inserts cost significantly less than disposable nappies, so win-win. They're a really good fit, very absorbent, very light and extremely hardy. They're so light, they dry in half an hour and we just rinse them if we need to and don't have to put them through the washing machine very often. If you're in Australia and you're interested in using them this website sells them cheaply and has very minimal postage costs.



Before I had Theo I thought nursing pillows were totally unnecessary, but I quickly changed my tune after nursing for a few weeks. I spent a lot of time browsing eBay and Gumtree looking for a good and affordable pillow, but postage was always prohibitive. Lo and behold, I was op-shopping one day and as soon as I walked in the door I saw the exact nursing pillow I had been looking for - for $10! I had been using a V shaped pillow but really wanted something firmer and that attached to my body, to make feeding more comfortable. This one has been great (it's brand is Easy Peasy Designs, if you're interested) and it's actually designed for twins, so you can nurse in different positions. It also means that I can have my hands free to do other things if I need to. My only issue with this design is that when Theo has fallen asleep after feeding and I want to take the pillow off, the sound of undoing the velcro wakes him up! A possible design flaw, but otherwise, an investment I would highly recommend (especially if you can get one secondhand too) - it makes nursing much more comfortable.





I saw the Arm's Reach Mini Co-sleeper online when I was first pregnant, but thought that it was out of my price range new and couldn't find any second hand in my area. I kept looking online over the past few months and ended up seeing one at a really good price in my state and jumped at it (hooray for eBay bid snipers). It is basically a cot that has one side that fastens down and you push up against your bed (it has straps that secure it in place and can be raised to fit most bed heights). It basically means that we can have Theo in close proximity but not have to share our bed with him. I can feed him or change him during the night and then just pop him straight back into his cot beside me and when he stirs during the night, I can just reach over and re-insert his dummy or rock him back to sleep. We haven't had it for very long and he will eventually grow out of it, but so far it has been an excellent investment. He is at the age where he'll start pushing himself up, but he sleeps in a Woombie (something I'd also recommend - there are lots of different brands, but they're basically a light sleeping bag with a zipper and they keep them nice and secure) so he can't push or pull himself up while he's wearing one. I would have really liked to have bought one of the larger sized Arm's Reach Co-sleepers, but due to regulations, they're not available to purchase in Australia anymore (perhaps due to the fact that they can be used for older babies, but they could possibly pull themselves up and fall out). Ps. Theo is always supervised around the cats.



Another item which has been a godsend for us has been a Jolly Jumper. Our child health nurse doesn't recommend using them (however, she said when her children were young they all used one and it was a godsend for her), but we use ours for short periods of time, completely supervised and it is literally the best part of Theo's day - he enjoys it so much and uses lots of energy. We were given ours by a friend and I highly recommend them.



The pram we use is a Stokke Xplory. Before I was even pregnant I was a bit obsessed with this pram. When I was a couple of months pregnant I hunted one down secondhand in Sydney and got my parents to bring it down for us on the plane when they visited when Theo was born. Even though I bought this pram second hand, it was my one BIG splurge and I definitely could not have bought one brand new and it took me a long time to feel like the outlay on it was justified. Ours came with a ridiculous amount of extras (a blanket, cup holder, rain cover, mosquito net, extra textiles set, two bags, a basinette, a parasol, etc) which I would never have forked out for otherwise (um, $40 for a cup holder? $100 for a blanket?). I am still really in love with this pram - it keeps Theo up really high (or can be adjusted lower), is really hardy, can be used as a high chair, manoeuvres around really well, the wheels can be clapped together to help in pulling it upstairs, faces forward and backward and of course, it's pretty cute. Probably my only issue with it is that it's definitely an urban pram and not for any terrain besides the footpath/road. C has become a bit obsessed with a really fancy pram called an Origami, but I'm committed to the Xplory. I am definitely not a pram snob and think that there are a number of much more affordable prams that would do the job just as well, but this was my one spoil. I wanted a really fun, practical, cute pram so that it would encourage me to get out of the house and go for walks and it has done just that. I will say though that if you're considering getting one, be prepared that people will always be telling you how cute and 'space age' it is but often forgetting about your cute baby inside it!

They're basically my only big recommendations. Everything else (e.g. wipes, clothes, etc) I don't really have a preference for.

Do you have any recommendations to share?