Hannah's birthday

I just wanted to quickly share a few photos from my fellow mama friend Hannah's birthday picnic.

Week 21.

I swear she is getting more delicious in front of my very eyes.
The round, fullness has finally decided to greet her face and legs.
Her body is gaining the kind of strength that to her, means just one thing; possibility.
As each day passes, I note the new skills she has acquired. One morning, as if out of nowhere, she found her voice. Not the soft and sweet babbles we were accustomed to. Now she entertains herself squealing and yelling.

I have been a bit distant from this blog space. I have been investing most of my time with friends, in my garden, & trying to get as much rest as possible.
I have a few photos from the last few weeks to share, which I might post a little later on.
H x

Roller skates

Week 20.

If we look a little rough around the edges/tired in this photo, it's because we kind of are.

We had a pretty huge work week, staying well into the evening trying to pull everything together in time for the book launch. Work is piling up and I'm not quite sure how to achieve everything I need to with a baby on my hip. I only want to do this whole work thing if it's fair to her, and she's still getting the best care possible. Because Chris and I share a work space, we are often passing her back and forward in order to be productive. There is also so much happening at work, stimulation overload & it's tricky for us to get her to sleep as much as she needs. 

Plum has also had a big growth spurt so I've been awake most nights feeding. We've started introducing a few foods to her palette, which is hilarious and messy.

On top of this I'm stressed trying to pull together a body of work for an end of year exhibition in a few weeks. 

And ! to top it off, Willow pulled a bowl of hot curry onto herself today. Fucking. Stressful.

She's fine, we're fine. I just needed to write some of this down to digest it a little bit.

We're still trying to nut out the work dilemma. As much as I adore being around all my best friends and family every day, along with the satisfaction of what I do & the affection that she gets from everyone that walks in the door, the most important thing is that Willow gets my undivided attention. Plus, I really want my house to be tidy! & I want more time for my garden. And yoga. And friends. 

They say that women with babes can't have it all, and I don't know if that's true, or if women just have to make really important decisions about what it is that they REALLY want. 

Anyway, lots for me to think about. 

It feels good to type it all out, haha.

By the way, 5 months old ! When did that happen? That's almost half a year. Already so many itsy bitsy onesies have been put away. I just want to freeze this moment forever, even though it's hectic.

x

Preserved Lemons

I keep finding myself in the company of bountiful citrus tree owners.
Aside from our daily fruit/vegetable juice, I couldn't use all the tangy little suckers, so I thought I'd give preserving them a go. I'm yet to reap the rewards, as it takes about a month or so in a dark place for them to do their thing, but they look so pretty.

The method is pretty basic:
Sterilise a large jar & fill the bottom with salt. I used rock salt, & I'm pretty sure that's the best thing for it. Apparently regular running salt gives it a bitter taste. Scrub your lemons & cut into quarters, leaving them connected at the tippy top.
Pop a tablespoon of salt in the middle of each lemon, and squash as many lemmys as you can into the jar. Try and avoid leaving any air pockets, you can fill the jar up with lemon juice or olive oil & any aromatic herbies you like. Bay leaves are more traditional, I just used rosemary from my garden.
I kind of think garlic and chilli would be nice in there, too? I'll see how this first batch pans out !
They last pretty much forever, but best to refrigerate once open. Remove the pith and just use the rind in cooking.
H x

Week 19.

Family.

I forgot about these photos that Samara took of us in her cute little house in Melbourne.

I'm not exactly sure when it happened, probably somewhere in between caring for another human being together & watching breaking bad in our pyjamas drinking cups of tea. But Chris and I stopped being boyfriend and girlfriend, & became family.

It's pretty awesome.