On The Shelf.

It’s about time I joined in with my own meme! This is what’s “on the shelf” in Suspence’s room.

…and this was what was going on while I was focused on the shelves…

We have a climber. First it was the couch, then “my” slightly taller armchair, then Punk’s bed, then our bed & now his chair & cupboard… he’s a squishy little parcel of mischief, this one.

I digress.

Apart from all the space robot goodness, I  love the shelves in Spence’s room because they are up HIGH.

They are tidy ALL THE TIME. I’m enjoying that while it lasts.

I bet he won’t even like robots when he’s bigger. I’ll keep them. It’s all good.

We’re playing My Place & Yours until Saturday, take a peek (…or a sticky beak)!

Mailfunction.

Yesterday we had a bit of a mail – malfunction; the parcel guy left two big parcels for ME at a neighbours house! Luckily, said neighbour knows The Boy from work & knew that the “Little Spencer” one parcel was co-addressed to was his new baby…! *phew!*

Anyway, when the parcels finally got to their rightful destination, their contents were revealed, making all joyful & full of good cheer….

A Christmas present for Suspense (Yup… that’s what I’ve been calling him. I can’t help it. Nicknames are my thing…), & WHAT a Christmas present! GORGEOUS, funky, funny, cute… the best robot ever pretty much, from Cath…

…& a special wee girl bunny for me to stitch up & stuff for Le Punk (Thank you sweetness – she loves it even now..!).

As if that weren’t enough to set my heart a-flutter, I had to take deep breaths when opening the next parcel… fluff!

A long-awaited nappy lay-by… lovely!

I am very concerned for the state of mind of our parcel guy however – I get quite a few parcels delivered here, you’d think he’d know by now…? Perhaps the Christmas postal rush is starting & making the poor guy frazzled… I DON’T CARE! Don’t give my lovely mail to other people! BAD PARCEL GUY! Yikes!

*coughs*

And now for something completely different, an irrelevant picture of my little chick magnet:

Have a great weekend kiddies, & fellow Victorians; don’t forgot to vote… if only so you don’t get fined for it later – there certainly isn’t much to choose from….

Blogging one-handed from an iPod…

…is much harder than one would think, but I promised lovely Cath that I would post about her mad robot making skillz when her fabulous robot plushie Victor made his debut over at Kid Independent for Plushie Palooza!

Isn’t he great?! And what about his name, eh? Whoever he is named after must be one awesome, if possibly sleep deprived & smelling of baby sick, individual, me thinks.

If you love ol’Victor as much as I do – & seriously, how could you not? – do head over to his post & let everybody know. If there is any justice at all in this world, the gazillion comments his cute self will elicit will win his creator the coveted hand felted Golden Plushie award, & bucketfuls of kudos & well-deserved glory, of course.

I think that’s everything…? Sorry if I missed something tres important Cath!

On a sidenote: I am the THE slackest post partum blogger in the universe, I’m sorry, & I miss you all immensely! I was shocked & dismayed to find last night, when clicking on my reader for the FIRST TIME SINCE SPENCE ARRIVED, that the blog world has not only continued on swimmingly without me, but is thriving & I am sure to have missed many important & interesting developments! The horror!

If my wee man ever decides that he might like to sleep someplace other than in my arms, or is content for longer than it takes me to take a shower or hug a Punk, I’ll try to pop in with an update or seven, but for now my loves expect any posts from me to be sporadic at the very least, & few & far between!!

xo

Ask and thou shall receive…

I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t remember, before my robot kick, ever seeing anything to do with robots at the oppy, yet in the last 3 weeks, four robot softies have presented themselves to me.

Meet Mr Bot & his buddy K-9, who were waiting at an oppy a little further-afield yesterday…

Just don’t look down…

Although I am still waiting on a few bits & bobs, I thought it was about time to show you the nursery – just, well, don’t look down. The floor is better than it was, but it’s still not great, so just imagine lovely polished floorboards where the icky unsealed ones are, okay?

Okay. Maybe also ignore the icky green walls…? Thanks. Let us commence with the small nursery tour, brought to you by the opshop, my craft room & various clever makers…

Does this cupboard look familiar…? The crow cupboard is now the robot cog cupboard…

Robot softie from Snow Machine on Etsy, blocks & board game opped.

Space themed fabric balls also from Etsy, robot bean bags from Milos Creations & specially made robot rattle from Chunky Chooky. Canvas & cup opped….

Above: Ikea hanger – opped – coat hangers – opped, Mama-made polaroids.

Bellow: Curtains made from opped doona cover & THE QUILT.

Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaappppppppppiiiiieeeeeeeeessssssss!!!!

Above: Mama-drawn bots in opped frames.

Below: The non-robot corner! Top shelf, animal matching game from Tree Fall, books, book case & panda toy all opped.

Opped & painted robot coat rack, opped robot tee.

 

Not sure how much the whole room cost to put together – practically nothing. The most expensive things are probably still coming – a couple of irresistible robot goodies from some lovely crafters – as the cot, change table & baby swing were Punk-hand-me-downs & pretty much everything else was opped or handmade. Let us call this ‘Bots for Bebe on a Budget’?!

So that’s what’s been occupying a bit of my time & most of my attention lately, I hope you’ll agree that it is a bit of a creative space… more of those (not necessarily nurseries though…) over here.

Not Just A Pretty Face.

This is my friend Lara & her two beautiful boys.

I say “friend” because even though we’ve never met in person, I’ve actually known her longer than I have known my favourite person in the world; Miss Punk! Lara & I connected on a baby & pregnancy forum when we were both pregnant, she with her second son & I with Le Punk & my only regret about that is that she doesn’t live around the corner from me (I’m sure she doesn’t regret that though – cold, drizzly south-west Victoria, or sunny everyday Brisvegas….?! Hard decision…).

Lara is a vegan warrior, super-Mum & sassy business woman – she is one of those WAHMs I told you about the other day, churning out adorable Modern Cloth Nappies for all, starting with her own kids, even though she’s close to popping with bubba#3. I know that can’t be easy, in fact, I know EXACTLY how hard it would be – we’re due on the same day!

I thought I’d give lovely Lara & her nappy business – Extremely Nappies – a shout out today for two reasons, the first being that this lovely piece of fluff, my first new piece of fluffy mail, turned up on the doorstep yesterday.

Can you see what that fabric is peeps?!

…and look who she addressed the envelope to;

…cheeky! So not-Arnold has the first of his very own MCN stash thanks to Lara. For reasons best known to her, she agreed to make this for me in exchange for some original art/illustration for her soon-to-arrive third born. I think she’s getting a raw deal, but hey… I’ve got a funky robot nappy!

The second reason I wanted to post about Lara is that she is supporting a fantastic initiative I only recently discovered called My Green Nappy.

I think this is absolutely brilliant, from the website;

My Green Nappy is a simple environmental initiative encouraging all families to have one green nappy for their baby to wear.

One will make a difference.

Every time it is worn, a single use disposable is kept out of landfill.

It’s Simple: Start with ONE!

Simple yet profound! How did nobody think of this before?! Everyone, EVERYONE, no matter how pro-the-perceived-ease-of-disposables they are, could handle using & reusing one cloth nappy, every little bit helps & surely just giving it a go would lead to new perceptions & behaviours… it’s win-win, really.

Quite apart from the wonderful idea, My Green Nappy is running a giveaway called The 100 Green Promise Nappies Initiative; where you can play along to WIN one of 100 green nappies generously donated by sponsors, one of whom is indeed Lara (her lovely contribution below). Go here for more details & to register.

So, I urge any of my cloth-nappying readers to check out Lara’s gorgeous nappies, & any of my disposable-using readers to really have a think about just ONE green nappy. For the rest of you, you can all admire her pretty face.

International Talk Like A Robot Day.

(I dare you not to laugh at this song… I dare you. Especially the binary solo…)

I read somewhere that today (a very computer-y ‘101010’) is International Talk Like a Robot Day, & I have to say, I don’t need to know it’s true to be excited. Or should I say;

Hello. I am robot. *whir* Today. You can. Talk. *beep* Like. A. Robot. Too.

Or, if that is just too much effort, why don’t you make your computer talk like a robot instead…?!

Still feeling rubbish, but whatever, we’re off out & about today if it kills me. Punk seems to be full of energy this morning though (due to her absurdly healthy fruit-fuelled wee body I imagine, not the slow-chocolate-burning beast I have…), so at least she won’t be whinging about being dragged around.

Back on the robot-theme (…& when aren’t we, lately?), I painted that coat rack thingy I got at Le Oppy a few weeks ago – it’s stoopid hard to photograph due to the early hour & it’s long shape, but I’m living on the edge here. I’m wild & crazy & I do what I want. Word. *beep*

Last Night…

…or, more accurately, this morning, I stayed up pretty late drawing & painting the final ‘bots for Bubba#2’s room. I picked up a few $1 frames at Le Oppy the other day too so if I can find some hooks or nails they’ll even get put up today. Maybe.

I love it, LOVE IT, when I get into ‘the zone’. When I can’t do anything else except focus on what I’m doing, & I can’t rest until it’s done. It happened when I made the storybook drawers for Miss Punk, or more recently when sewing up her reversible pinnie, but as much as I love it, it doesn’t happen all that often. Most of the time when I finally manage to convince myself that ‘now is the time!’ to make, draw or create I am so preoccupied with other things I should be doing, or things happening around me that the zone remains sadly unobtainable.

I think that if I could get into the elusive zone more easily I would be encouraged to create so much more, both in volume & time commitment, but when it happens it seems to be more by accident than active choice.

Do you reside in ‘the zone’ when you create? Is it easy or hard for you to get there?

(For more creative spaces, or 'zones' perhaps, Kirsty is back - woohoo!)

From NOW.

I’m joining in with Lauren & making one thing a day for the next two weeks. Drawings count. She said so.

This is, obviously, a robo-cat. I drew him last night, which means I still have something else to make or draw today. Hmmm.

NEED

Robot nesting dolls…?! Um… so I totally need these. I mean… bubba#2 needs them. Yes. That’s what I mean.

We are SO going with robots. They are so frikkin cool.

My Creative Space.

Wow, it’s been AGES since I’ve played along with Kirsty’s ‘My Creative Space’ – Apart from not blogging, Thursdays are pretty busy for us so even if I’ve been doing something creative I generally forget to post about it… am up early today though so thought I’d quickly share a couple more ‘bots that I drew last night; the ratio seems to be two robots I’m happy with to three that don’t get past a head…!

I was also eagerly perusing pretty, bright, spring-type fabrics for ages last night, I know exactly what I want to make for my winter-banishing craft swap (…join in, if you’d like!) & I’m already very excited about it. Just browsing through pictures of all the fabric that scream ‘sunshine!’ made me feel happier, even as I could hear the constant pounding of rain on the roof!

..and now I must be off, busy, busy, busy day ahead – if anybody pops by with a moment to spare who is also playing MCS, I’d love you for always if you could throw my link into the list for me (..that’s not an illegal meme practice, is it?)?! Else wise I’ll do it when I get home… there is surely a certain prestige that goes with being number 247 on the list…??