Music Mondays #2

I hope you all had a lovely weekend (still going in some parts of the world, I think...)

Today, I'm sharing another favourite song of mine for the second week of Music Mondays. You can see last week's here if you missed it.
This song is by Canadian band, Land of Talk and it is incredible. It was on a play list I put together for our trip to France and Spain in 2009 and I can still picture myself on the TGV whizzing through the French countryside whenever I hear it. It's the sort of song that you play once, and then just have to put it on one more time. And then just once more. I recommend significant volume.

(oh, and a word of warning... it regularly makes me cry).

one more thing...

And another update before the weekend arrives...

The voting is now open for the Umbrella Prints trimmings competition. There are some Amazing entries made by a whole lot of creative ladies. If you feel so inclined, you can have a look at my entry, posted about here and give it a vote!

Thanks y'all and have a lovely weekend...

xx

Sleep updates (and others)

* photo from last Christmas at the beach house, courtesy of a sneaky hubby. 

A little while ago, I posted about starting a new sleep plan after having had the little fella in our bed and waking up every two or three hours for a feed, since he was born (almost 17 months ago). We were happy to keep him in our bed, but it was time to do some night weening, so that he wasn't waking so regularly for the boob. A friend of mine put me onto this article, and so we bit the bullet and put some changes in place. There were a couple of hard nights initially, as both Leo and I got used to not having the magic potion to get him back to sleep quickly and easily. But, amazingly, he adapted quite quickly and even after a couple of nights, was sleeping for longer periods. And it didn't take long (about 10 nights) for... drum roll please... the little man to be sleeping through the night!!

Woo Hoo!

If you're in this boat, ie. you're doing an attachment parenting kind of thing, but are at the point of going a bit nutty with all the night wake ups, I would recommend having a read through the article and giving it a go. It really wasn't as painful or as protracted as I thought it would be, and although there was a bit of crying and fussing involved, even that wasn't too bad. We just cuddled through it.
Please note... I'm not having a go at those who do the cry it out method. It just wasn't for us.

So the take home message... it IS possible to do attachment parenting AND have a good night's sleep at the same time. Even if it does take 17 months to get here! (though really, we could have done this ages ago).

And in other updates:
Amazing news... You may recall, that I posted here about losing a quilt in the post. Well, over two months later, it has turned up! Yes indeed, it's the prodigal quilt. Bananas.

xx

Music Mondays #1

So. Thought we might shake things up a bit.

Every monday in our house is Lundi Leo, where "Leo" writes an email to his French grandparents and Aunties letting him know what he's been up to during the past week, and sends photos. A nice way to keep them in the loop on his shenanigans and general growing-ness, when they're so far away. It's also a good French exercise for me (you know, for when I check his spelling). 

So while I'm at it, I thought it might be fun to have a regular monday thing here too. 

I think I have mentioned here before that music is a big part of my life. There's usually always something playing in the background (or foreground). Leo and I do lots of dancing, drumming, strumming, singing. I'm hoping he'll take to it too. 

So every monday, I'm going to post a song here. It might be something new to me that I'm currently loving, or an old favourite that still gets high rotation, or a lost classic that I think needs resurrecting. It's also a bit of a motivator to get me posting regularly! 

Kicking us off is a new to me band, Bahamas. I am LOVING this song, Lost in the Light, particularly... the harmonies give me goosebumps. So whack it on, turn it up loud and enjoy! 

(I'd love to hear what you think about it, so comment away!)

Umbrella Prints Trimmings Competition

Holy moly... two quilt posts in a row.

So this is the latest completed quilt, made for a work colleague who's about to bring a new little boy into the world. It is also my entry into this year's Umbrella Prints Trimmings Competition. (One of the judges this year is Joel Henriques who I'm a big fan of and blogged about a while back here, which makes me slightly queasy). Anyway, there were so many amazing entries last year and I'm sure a whole heap more this year, so I'm not expecting anything, but it's fun to join in anyway.

Thanks again to my photography assistant...

Bloggers Quilt Festival

I know I've posted about this quilt here before, so my sincere apologies about this... but I'm going to post about it again. Because I have just found out about the Bloggers' Quilt Festival... thanks Leslie (you think YOU'RE out of the loop!) Anyway, I'm trying to be a little more dedicated to this quilting business, and get myself out there a bit more. SO...
Here's a few more photos of the 'Guess How Much I Love You' baby quilt (and a few outtakes featuring my little helper):

It's quite special to me, this quilt. It was my first commission, and the first time I had made something to someone else's expectations... in this case based upon the colours in the book "Guess how much I love you". A beautiful book, and one which is also a favourite in our house. I also love that the quilt uses quite a few fabrics designed and printed by Melbourne locals. The quilt is machine pieced and quilted, and bound by hand.

It really is a wonderful feeling knowing that something I made with my own hands is now keeping a newborn baby warm and cosy.

Apologies again to regular readers for the repetion, and hello to new readers. Stay tuned for some new quilts, coming soon...
x joanna

blessings

Sometimes life reminds us just how precious and fragile it is, and how quickly it can be taken away or changed dramatically. We had that reminder recently, but luckily, our worst fears weren't realised and so we breathe a huge sigh of relief and are grateful for our blessings. Thank you for your thoughts and comments.

My poor hubby had his 40th birthday in the midst of the hardest of those days and so there was little celebration. But this past weekend we got away with friends and family to a gorgeous old homestead in the Grampians - one of our favourite places - and caught up on the celebrations. Kangaroos, wild deer and birds of all colours and sizes visited us, we feasted and ate our weight in cheese, relished in claw foot baths and bay windows, drank good wine, went for hikes and climbs in the surrounding mountains and were thankful for life and loved ones...