Our Happy Rainbow Christmas

We had a beautiful bright Christmas full of happiness. Our house was full of friends and family which is a recipe for joy. Matt and I got matching tie dyed shirts from our neices which I LOVE LOVE LOVE and I will be wearing on high rotation. We spent the New Year with many friends under the giant oak tree in our backyard, with candles hanging from the branches. It was magical. I send my best wishes for your friends and families to have a fantastic 2012 full of all the good things and none of the bad things.

Christmas is 'spensive!

So Christmas is expensive and Matt and I are poor :) the point is that we have no where near the income that we did BC (before child) and we don't care because our life is so much richer and happier with her in it. So to be able to afford presents, pay bills, eat etc we have to cut back on other costs. I'm trialling some make your own washing powder that I got the recipe for on the Debt Free, Cashed Up and Laughing blog. Two dollars makes enough washing powder for 90 washes and it works, so they say. All the ingredients were available in my local Coles and I've used it on two loads so far. I think that it may have deglittered one of Lucy's tshirts so it really does seriously clean but it's probably not a good idea for your delicates. I used it on a load of poopy washers that we used to wipe Lucy's bum and they came out crystal clean and smelling delicately like soap with no poopy overtones (yes I sniffed them, so what :) it's a scientific test). They also have a recipe for dishwashing powder which I might try if this continues to go well. So check it out if you're interested in tightening your financial belt to make your pay go further.

Epicly Cute

Christmas Conundrum

**This post is rated C for Controversial if you are very religious feel free to read on but I won't be held responsible for any offence taken. **

It's that time of year and this time Matt and I are sharing the season with our little light Lucia. She was here last Christmas but she was only 3.5 months old and I don't remember Christmas (sleep deprived and first time parent addled) and I'm pretty sure she doesn't. This year we have to decide how we start to talk to Lucy about Christmas. As athiests (Matthew born and bred and myself an avid convert ;)) I don't really want to peddle the 'Jesus is the Reason for the Season' vibe that I was brought up with. I don't even really like the Santa hoo-ha, why do we raise our kids lying through the teeth to them about all these supernatural beings that bring shit, why don't we just say 'hey here's some money for losing a tooth, what an awesome milestone'. However I love the pomp and circumstance that goes with Christmas, the foods, the decos and the presents. I like the smoke and mirrors, the ambience, the tradition, just like I enjoy eating sushi because I like mixing the wasabi into the soy sauce and nibbling pickled ginger and I still have a warm place in my heart for choirs singing sacred music. Just because I believe that Christmas is about some imaginary dude doesn't mean that I can't appreciate it's beauty. I don't want Lucy to miss out on something that other kids are experiencing and I don't want her to destroy anyone elses Christmas dream either! So where lies the middle ground. Not the biggest problem facing the world today I know but still one that I think about a lot at this time of year. However... there are presents under the tree from Santa this year and I guess we have a couple more years to iron it out before we have to decide one way or another. Any suggestions would be considered with due respect.

Until then, check out my freaking delicous Christmas fruit cake liberally doused with Cointreau which I got from a magazine that was lying around at work and our first real live Christmas tree which we got a bit discounted because it was a bit spesh (more round than Christmas tree shape) but I wanted to bring it home and give it some love because Matt and I like to embrace the slightly outside the square things in life.

Summer Fruit is here!

Lucy is digging her first cherries and has also recently been devouring cheap mangoes, watermelon, nectarines, blackberries and peaches. Yay for summer!

Alowyn Gardens

If you are venturing out to the Yarra Valley for a day then don't just go to the wineries make a detour to see the beautiful Alowyn Gardens near Yarra Glen. Even as locals it has taken us a LONG time to get to these gardens but they were worth the wait. The garden is seperated into different garden 'rooms' with the ubiquitous parterre garden, some foresty areas, great little windy paths that lead to sculpture and water features. Matt and I are always particularly interested in food gardens and Alowyn has a beautifully designed kitchen garden with avenues of apples, crabapples, quinces and what not. In the picture above Matt and Lucy are framed by the wisteria and rose covered arbor. A great place to go for a nice walk to burn off the winery indulgences.

Tesselaar Tulip Festival

Today we went to the tulip festival on the penultimate day. The tulips were a bit blown but some were still at their peak and even fully open they're stunning planted on mass. It's beautiful to see these wonderful flowers in the ground doing their thing rather than as cut flowers. There were amazing collections of other flowers too, irrisistable were the poppies... Lucy found them a little too irrisitable as well as I parked her a little too close for this photo and she nabbed one.


We missed going on the weekend when it was family day, but having the place to ourselves held it's own charm and there was still a cute puppy bounding around, to Lucy's amusement and some stunt alpacas and a couple of alpaca breeders there to chat to about fleece and yarn.

There was awesome muzak duo (double bass/piano) playing for our amusement and they busted out into a bit of Wiggles and Bananas in Pyjamas for Lucy although she's not quite old enough to appreciate that they were for her and she was a little more interested in the jazz numbers they played before and after (and the ABBA too).

We brought some Peonies and Tuber Roses to start our own cottage garden so wish us luck.