Serenity Sunday

I am NOT a winter girl.

I hate the cold. I hate being unable to move three feet from the heater because otherwise my fingers will drop off from frostbite.  I hate having to pay SeventyHundred dollars for my power bill.  I hate not being able to spend any time outside for fear of freezing solid. I hate the dark days. I get S.A.D. And I get it BAD.

But I hate being trapped inside with two very active and very bored pre-schoolers even more.

Ella lovin' on some rocks

Felix writes the initials of all his friends in the dirt.

"This is the T-Rex bone and this bit is the thing that shoots out water."

 Basil loves wool.  REALLY loves wool.

So today we ventured outside as soon as the temperature got above ten degrees (at midday) and the wee-uns played in the Digging Patch and I sat in the sun. Then we went for a walk to the op-shop, where of course I found things to buy, and then took Felix's trike to the bike track and playground.

It wasn't so much Serene and Not As Bad As It Could Be, but that is far too long a post title.

Except for Basil.  I think he was rather serene indeed, sucking on that wool.  If you know what I mean.

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Reader's Blog Roll: Put Your Blog Self Here

Do you read SparklePanda Design? Do you have a blog? Would you like other people to read your blog?

I'm betting that the answer to all three questions is: YES

So here's what you can do: you can put your very own blog on this here list of lovely blogs people should read.  Yes! You can!  That way you don't have to ask me to do a link exchange with you, and I dont have to remember to put your link up.  Win/win.

I know, it's totes awesome!

Link away, peeps.

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Friday Finds

Another week, another collection of treasures from the op-shops.  This week, my local had a whole basket of awesome vintage sewing patterns out for 25c each.  It was pure heaven.

Have a closer look at the little girl on the top one. How adorable is that jumpsuit?

This is the piece de resistance really.  Check out the legs! 

Did the illustrator never see a real woman before?

I love Paua shell.  What should I use this for?

All these beauties were 20c each! I'm going to turn them into pincushions. Yes! Radness!

There was also much in the way of clothing for me and some fabric for making clothes for the shop.  And a totes awesome tablecloth which I plan on turning into a skirt for myself.  That picture will have to wait until said project is on the go.  Then you will swoon with delight at how totally awesome it is.  You will. You'll see.

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My Creative Space is Back

Which is kinda scary because it sure as hell doesn't feel like a whole week has gone by.  Dont ask me what I did; I couldn't tell you.

Today in my creative space there is some finishing going on.  Some of the finishing perhaps should have been done 2 years ago.  10 minutes was all it took.  Not sure why I couldnt find 10 minutes 2 years ago.  Perhaps it had something to do with being heavily pregnant and in 10/10 on the pain scale 24/7 and wanting to die.

Yes, that might've been it.

If you want to play along, head over to Kirsty's.

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Serenity Sunday

This week, Sunday was quite serene thankyouverymuch.

Coldest morning this year, it was. 

Even the butterflies froze solid.

For the most part the kids behaved: I pruned the grapevines, the kids behaved, I made a new advertising banner, the kids behaved, I cooked dinner, the kids beh...oh no they didn't behave for that bit.

 Hide and Seek, Felix style.

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My Creative Space is on Holidays

I've been busy all day and there is no time! no time! for My Creative Space this week.

9am: Get all excited because we have our first female Prime Minister. Realise am running late because of said excitement. Drop off 4 year old at Kindy, spend quality time playing with daughter socialising bitching at Playgroup, hurry to Rheumatologist appointment an hour's drive away, get horribly disillisioned at appointment, rush back to Kindy via Dan Murphy's (cheapo chain booze store) and Hungry Jacks (Burger King)  to pick up 4 year old, have 4 year olds Bestie come round and play and stay for dinner, get kids ready for bed, wrangle 4 year old away from his car pictures and into bed.

Now its 9pm and I dont feel particularly creative.  Perhaps a little spacey.  Even a little "My!"  So I'm not doing it.

According to Dr Rheumy, Disease Most Likely is not Ankylosing Spondylitis, but Fibromyalgia.  OK, its a name, but I didnt want to be told  "There is nothing we can do.  We just handball you back to the Pain Management Clinic."  I wanted to be told "You have disease X and you take these drugs and it will get better."

Seriously, sometimes you just have to wonder who the hell you were in a previous life.

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Disabled Parking Space

Today is an important day.  Not only because I'm off to my Rheumatologist to find out what the hell is actually wrong with me (disease most likely is Ankylosing Spondylitis), nor because today the petition I wrote about in my last post will be presented to our government.  Today is also important because it marks a BloggersUnite event called People First: Empowering People with Disabilities.  Today, people all over the world will be writing blog posts about the experiece of living with a disability (their own or a loved one's) in order to educate, empower and...um, another "e" thing... enable.

Actually, these three important events share a common ancestor, and that is this:

You can't tell just by looking.

You can't tell by looking at me that I have a disability.  You can't tell by looking that I have a spinal injury.  You can't tell by looking that I have nerve damage. You can't tell by looking at me that I have a mental illness.  You can't tell that I am in intense pain.  You can't tell that I struggle with debilitating anxiety at times.  You can't tell that I am so tired I feel it in every cell of my body and have for 20 years.  You can't tell that the demons from my past resurface again and again and again and affect me still, decades later.  You can't tell that some days I hate my life.  You can't tell that some days I want to die.  You can't tell that if I walk from here to there I will pay for it for days or sometimes weeks.

You can only see that I do walk from here to there.  You see me smile.  You see me talk intelligently to people.  You see me graduate from university. You see me start a business.  You see me create.  You see me move through the days like any other mother.  You see me as unremarkable.  You see me park in the disabled parking space, and you look.  And I know you look.  And I know what you think.

And I know that you are wrong.

I am remarkable.

I am remarkable because you see me smile, you see me talk inteligently to people, you see me start a business, you see me create, you see me move through the days like any other mother.  I am remarkable because those things happen despite what you dont see.

I am disabled.  I am also able.  The trick is finding the balance.

Not in my own mind, but in yours.

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