Zombie Days and Inspiration Boards

Anyone with children will remember those first days, weeks and months of new life, when a tiny little sweet smelling but slightly alien like bundle of squishyness first enters your world.  Those drained, dazed days where you stumble from one incompetently carried out task to another, desperate for sleep but still buoyed by the love you feel for this little creature.

With children of 3 and 7 I thought those days were gone.   But I now have a son who almost never sleeps for more than a couple of hours at a time. 

And it is not that he is not trying to sleep.  But he is interrupted by nightmares and night terrors.   

Both of my children have had night terrors.  If you don't know what they then you are fortunate.   My husband gets them too.   Wikipedia gives this description:

A night terror, also known as a sleep terror or pavor nocturnus, is a parasomnia disorder characterized by extreme terror and a temporary inability to regain full consciousness. The subject wakes abruptly from slow-wave sleep, with waking usually accompanied by gasping, moaning, or screaming while waking. It is often impossible to awaken the person fully because they are so concentrated on waking, and after the episode the subject normally settles back to sleep without waking. A night terror can rarely be recalled by the subject. 

So, little P has these, and then also has trouble getting back to proper sleep, and then wakes hourly, it seems, and has a cough, and talks and sings in his sleep.  And gets very overtired, and then we start again the next night.

It is one thing to have no sleep when one has a little baby and is not working. It is quite another to try to function at work and look after other children and run a house on no sleep.    

I think that half his problem is that he has a big heart and a very very active imagination, filled with Bionicles, dinosaurs, bad robots, good robots and all things in between.  I need to find a way to calm him down, to slow down his mind so that bed time becomes a time of peace and calm.   

One idea I have is to remove all Merlin style stimulants pre bedtime.  Maybe I have let him get too involved in playing Knights and Horses, or robots fighting but he is just such a boy that he loves to be this way.

I thought I might use the idea of the ubiquitous inspiration board (and I do mean ubiquitous - Google it to find exactly 1 trillion happy wedding inspiration boards) to create a little place in his room where all the calm gentle things he loves have a place.

I love these three dimensional textural boards, and I thought I might try this for P:

I think rather than being inspirational, these are more like memory boards.   It might include a special drawing, some shells found at the beach, photos of family, tiny toys and other little treasures. 

This last one, by Cobi Ladner, makes me think of Anna Spiro's style. 

So, a plea from a desperate lady.  Apart from making sure he is not getting overtired, do any of you have tips on how to manage night terrors and nightmares in a 3.5 year old? 


(Images (1) House and Home (3) SculptressStudio.Blogspot (4) snakk.klik.no (5) StaceyStyleFiles.Wordpress (6) Thomas OBrien via Paloma 81) 

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Winter Series - Cashmere and Orchid Oil

I have been so caught up with other things that I have neglected to finish off my Winter Series.

In this one, clothes and smooth skin.

When I was packing for our recent winter holiday, I noticed something slightly embarrassing very striking about my clothes.

They are almost all grey.   5 years ago they would have all been black.  Now grey dominates.   How many grey cardigans and scarves can one person reasonably have?

In my case quite a few.  Here is just a small cross section of what I have been wearing during this cold and exceptionally rainy winter:

So, along with my Year of No Rubbish Purchases comes a supplementary resolution - no more grey clothes. 

In case you still want some grey in your life, these are the places in Melbourne for grey cashmere and merino wool knitted things:

8 Inkerman (cashmere and cashmere on sale now)
Sambag (ballet shoes, bags and knits)
Skin and Threads (fantastic basics in plain colours, great quality)
Pink Zebra (US brands like Joie and J Brand and lots of cashmere)

If you are like me, you have skin which, alien like, peels off in sheets the minute the cold weather starts.  I have tried various lip balms over the last 20 years, and I can honestly say that this is the very very best.  

My other great discovery this winter is this facial oil.  My mother gave it to me for my birthday in March.  It sure beats the pink vinyl handbags she otherwise tends to give me.   (Sorry mum).  This stuff is amazing.  I don't know what blue orchids are, but they have stopped my alien skin peel in its tracks.  

I am now addicted to all things oily.  Any other face oil suggestions?  Let me have them. 

This is my last Winter Series post because the daffodils are out, and spring is in the air.  In spite of the drizzly endless rain.

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Flowery Florals in central London

The new edition of Lonny contains a story on Cath Kidston's London home. 

Now many seem to like that red living room. Others have some criticisms of this edition. I do like a good on-line evisceration, check out My Favourite and My Best and If the Lampshade Fits for some entertainment.

But what I liked the very most was this brilliant Mies Van Der Rohe style super modern extension to her old home.  I love the contrast between ancient and new, especially that view out onto the old brick wall. 

This part is not at all what I would expect of Ms Kidston.   Let's face it a little Cath Kidston goes a very long way.  I am glad she takes my advice and applies her lovely florals in moderation.  

I love glass boxes.   Partly because I live in one at home.  There is something about the combination of large walls of glass and a grassy outlook.  Here are two more I rather like:

Farnsworth House by Mies Van Der Rohe

The Glass House by Philip Johnson (1949)

The other room I loved was her master bedroom.  This is quite a conservative room, and I think that is okay.   It is still really restful, incorporates a wonderful antique really well, and still has little modern touches.  I can relate to this mainly because I actually don't want my bedroom to be faddy and super trendy.  I also agree with her view that the bedroom is a place for very special things.  Just don't keep them in your bedside table drawer.  That is very first place the burglars look.  Trust me, I know.

And this is her red living room which is certainly eye catching but am not sure I could live in it.  I like her art work though. 

Whenever I am in London I visit one of her shops.  She also ships to Australia, although the shipping costs are extortionate.  I tend to prefer her little bags and accessories rather than the major items like bedlinen.

In particular, I love her IPhone cases.  I have searched high \ low for one which will assist me to stop confusing my phone with everyone else's. 

I have also just ordered this wallpaper, to cover a hideous brown Ikea shelf in my daughter's room.    I am doing wallpaper outside, and paint inside the shelves.   Mainly because I think it will be easier.  I will show you once I have done it. 

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A Sunny Spanish Fairytale

Once upon a time there was an Australian girl who travelled around continental Europe with a backpack, some sturdy shoes, a beaten up copy of Let's Go and a Walkman packed with up to the minute musical compositions by The The, Black Box, Nirvana and New Order. 

By and by she found herself sitting on a bench in Parco Sempione in central Milan, on a cold crisp blue day.   She spent some time wondering whether to visit the Dead Christ by Mantegna in the Brera, her favourite painting in the whole wide world, or perhaps some shopping in the Via Montenapoleone.

In spite of her father's admonition to never speak to strange men, she soon found herself chatting to a young man from Florence, in Milan on a weekend holiday.  They had much in common.  Soon they were travelling a little together, to Livorno,  Pisa and in Florence and walking everywhere in the cool crisp sunshine.  They spoke of books, and the strangeness of language, and philology, the study of historical linguistics and of corruption in Italian politics and the wonderful taste of salty cured meats.

(warm salad of roasted capsicum, onion, garlic and tomatoes)

Like all adventures, it had to end sometime. 

Melbourne seemed very boring and pedestrian on her return. A bit sad and lonely, the girl simply had to go back to Europe, this time to Madrid in winter, where the boy was now living, to stay in a little apartment near Calle de Toledo. The days were spent in the crisp blue coldness wandering around the Centro de Arte Reina Sofia and shopping in Calle Serrano and the nights were spent dining at 11 pm, drinking gin and tonics and dancing till the sun came up.

(chicken in onion and sherry sauce, saffron rice)

There is a certain time of year in Melbourne, in August, when the sun shines, and the air is sweet, cold and clean.  It reminds the girl of that time in Madrid.   In memory of that time, the girl sometimes cooks a Spanish feast for lunch.

(sweet lemon doughnuts)

All dishes thanks to this cookbook, which is really growing on me:

The end.


(image (1) via La Femme Blog) 

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Each Little World

It has been a long, tiring, tension headache kind of week. 

In the midst of this, on Wednesday I found myself stuck in the junior library waiting for my daughter to finish ballet because the finish time had arbitrarily changed that day, which was kind of annoying because I had torn through early peak hour traffic to get there on time because she was unwell.

I sat on the tiny little plastic chair and picked up a book from the nearest shelf.  

The Secret Garden. 

Given to the school by Judith Bruns, in 1990.  That was a coincidence as Miss Bruns, with her horizontal shelf bosum, was my Year 7 teacher.   A confirmed spinster, with very few people skills but a wonderfully kind heart. 

I read the first chapter while I was waiting.  You remember, it begins with the description of Mary Lennox as yellow skinned and pinch faced, and selfish and egotistical.

It is a traumatic start to a children's book:   a cholera epidemic breaks out in India, where Mary is living, her parents die, and those servants who are not struck down flee the house.  Mary is forgotten and left abandoned for days on end.    She wanders the house in a dreamlike state,  encounters snakes and drinks a left over glass of wine as she is so thirsty and falls down and sleeps again.   

Once discovered she is sent to live with an English clergyman, and then ultimately to Yorkshire to her uncle's windswept stony abode.   And we all know what happened then.

This chapter transported me, just for that five minutes.   To a world of little girls who are not loved enough, and a different era where life was cheap, short and hard.   I read this book many times as a child and that horrendous first chapter had completely escaped my memory in place of the happy secret garden activities in the end of the book.  Isn't it funny what your memory retains? 

Reading this, trivial little things like waiting for my sparkly pink ballerina girl, and peak hour traffic, and challenges at work melted away.   We are all fortunate, and largely blessed. 

(Images (1) EachLittleWorld.com (2) not sure sorry  (3) Flickriver.com)

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Megan Park cushions are now just a short walk away.....

I love making my own cushions.  I truly do.   

But to be homest, what I like even more is ogling and then buying other beautiful cushions.  And the very best are coming to my local shopping strip, thanks to Megan Park, Melbourne based textile and fashion designer, whose work takes inspiration from embroidery in Delhi, antique markets in France and the London design scene. 

Her new shop in High Street, Armadale, designed by Suzie Stanford, another excellent and talented Melbourne person about whom I wrote here, opens this week.

There will be cushions galore, delicately embroidered, one of a kind, little stuffed pieces of beauty. 

These cushions are just the thing for this kind of interior:

And I expect that there will also be beautiful clothes for me to gaze upon longingly:

This dress seems to me to be directly descended from this Turkish crewelwork wrap Megan created in 2003:

This is from Vogue Australian January 2010: 

And here is a glimpse of her Melbourne home as featured in Home Beautiful last year:

Target this is most definitely not.  But these are pieces to save up for, treasure and love.  I have many times made the mistake of buying cheap cushions. I know people say that is okay because then you can change the look of a room but I don't agree.  

Whilst I have nothing against a perfect tea towel cushion,  I think cushions shouldn't be throwaway and poor quality.    They age and date badly, go lumpy in no time and look like rubbish within 6 months.  Now, I am coming around to the thought that they should last and last and be treated like an investment.    What do you think?  I know this is hardly world hunger on the importance scale, but it is very interesting how people choose to spend their hard earned money. 

So now I get to the important part. 


My plan for the next year is to only spend money on things which are high quality and reasonably timeless and which I will use or return to again and again.  No Ikea.   No Target.  No Sportsgirl.  No nylon-y underwear.  No cheap knitted tops from Witchery.  No Howard's Storage World.  No cheap chardonnay.   No OK or Hello or Grazia.   No braindead chick flicks.   No cheap plastic play cars for the children.  No Party Animals (if you don't know what these are consider yourself blessed).   (Actually I may make an exception for storage because I keep needing so much of it).    This will be my year of no rubbish purchases.    Depending on how my discipline holds up it will stretch out for a lifetime, or compress into 6 months.    Only time will tell. 




(Images (1) to (4) from Megan Park (5) Not sure sorry (6) EmbroiderersGuild (7) Vogue Australia (8) Home Beautiful)

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Coppery Potness

I recently cleaned out some of the high inaccessible storage cupboards in our kitchen which need a ladder to look into (thanks Mr Architect!) with the aim of throwing out or giving away those items no longer needed, moving not so much used stuff in, and creating more room in the everyday part of the kitchen.

There were many things up there I had forgotten about, including novelty Y2K champagne glasses (remember Y2K? All the contracts we drafted had to have special Y2K clauses in them just in case everything re-set to Year Zero!  Seems so silly now), a huge lobster pot, old emission globes left by the previous owners and these two copper pots:

Okay, I obviously hadn't forgotten they existed.  They were there, in the deep recesses of my brain, but we had not used them for so long, they had slipped into a limbo area.  I got a nice surprise when I found them but they were almost black (with some green bits) and needed a really really good clean.  I got my husband to do that, and as you can see they are still not perfect.  

I have a very minimalist kitchen.  I don't really have anywhere to display these beauties.  But sometimes open shelving beckons me because I really love copper pots against stainless steel.  Something about the contrast of industrial modernity v an almost Gothic patina of age.  I so love this kitchen. 

This is a bit judgmental I know, but I just feel that someone who colour codes their cookbooks probably does not get much use out of these beautiful hanging pots. 

A lot of US and UK kitchens have a central hanging pot arrangement. It is not very common at all in Australia.   I don't think I could live like this but if you used your pots regularly it would be quite practical.   When I was a little girl I saw a story on Farrah Fawcett Majors in US Vogue.  It must have been about 1978 and she was at the height of her fame.  The story had a picture of her in her 1970's kitchen with a huge set of hanging copper pots.   She spoke of her love of cooking, and it made me look at her in a completely different light. 

This is a very English kitchen, complete with an Aga stove. 

This is Martha Stewart's kitchen at Turkey Hill.   Many famous chefs have kitchens which are copper pot heaven. Julia Child's, with her pegboard hanging wall, is very well known.  And this is Elizabeth David's:

Every kitchen should have a copper pot.  They are things of beauty not just practicality.  And they last forever. They are a pot to pass down to your children, if you can keep it clean enough! 

Apparently copper bowls are very good for whisking eggs.  But in fact I feel I only need one, the little pot, which can be used for cooking sauces.  These pots distribute heat really well, and can also be brought to the table for serving, just as is done at Vue de Monde as you can see below:

I must get out the copper cleaner again this weekend.  What a pity there is no miracle quick and easy way to clean copper. 

(Images (1) Marie Claire Italia (3) Raimondkoch.com (4) Badgley Mischka's kitchen via Decorpad (5) Coastal Living (6) House to Home (7) Martha Stewart (8) JohnnyGrey.com (9) Vue de Monde)

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