p.s. one thing you will need to know – see the little tag that says ‘pull’? Simply click on that and it will open up a whole realm of new opportunities. Don’t actually ‘pull’ it. Nothing will happen – one of the little works of progress. Fran x

Dear DJ,

Yesterday I was single and dreaming of someone like you, yet it feels like forever that I have known you…

Yesterday I was replaying your 1st voice message over and over again, yet it feels like forever that your voice  has been the soundtrack to my life…

Yesterday I was pulling together pieces of random furniture for our first home together, yet it feels like forever that they have defined our space…

Yesterday I was reading out silly baby names for our first child, yet it feels like forever that our gorgeous ones have been here…

Yesterday I was hopeful of a fairytale future and it is forever, ever after, that you came along and gave me…

Nine years, DJ.

It feels like yesterday and forever.

I am forever in love with you.

Happy {wedding} anniversary.

With love, always,

Fran x

This week I had the pleasure of collaborating with a group of talented, passionate and creative woman on a project that takes my breath away… 

Ava’s Tea Party, is to be an annual event,  to celebrate the life of Super-Princess, Ava Rosemeyer, on her birthday, August 22. The Beauty Full Collection is a collection of limited edition printable invitations from some of Australia’s premier paperie designers.  Pulled together by the very clever and crafty women at Details, details!  these beautiful invitations are being sold along side the most precious tea party kits and goodies so that tea parties can happen the World over.   Very generous donations will be made to Paradise Kids  from the proceeds of items sold.  It is such a lovely way to honour the life and birthday of a beauty-full little girl and her family from whom we can all learn an enormous amount. 

I hope you will visit all of the pretty places above and have a tea party of your own.
Put on your tiaras.
Make a daisy chain.
Dance with butterflies.
Drink pink lemonade.
Make a wish.
Be grateful.
Dream.
Spend time.
Together.

With love,

Fran x

There is something magical about watching two little people acquaint themselves.
Especially when they are siblings.
Especially when adoration is present.
Especially when it is clearly evident that they are already known to each other.
By heart.

We have had a lovely couple of days down at my Mum and Dad’s with my sisters and brother in attendance too. We don’t get to do that often enough so it was something to get rowdy about and celebrate. Get my parents, myself and family, and my three siblings together and life is bound to become a little colourful and LOUD.

I was serving up my daughter’s lunch at Mum and Dad’s yesterday when I was delighted to come across my childhood plate. I hadn’t seen it for many years (Mum just found it tucked away in a cupboard) but the memories all came flooding back as soon as I saw the little border of bluebirds, mice and mushrooms. I so vividly remember counting each little animal as I ate my meal and trying to decide which was my favourite. The bluebird most often won the title.

With it’s little bunny motif I thought it was a good post for this weekend. Isn’t it 70’s perfection? I am so grateful to my Mum for keeping little pieces of my baby-ness for me.

We are at home now waiting for friends to drop by for a wee ceilidh (a get together, for the non-Scots that read my blog), Poppy is suitably impressed by the chocolate left by the mystery Easter Bunny and we still have a whole day tomorrow to relax and soak up our togetherness. Life is beautiful and busy – just like a daisy.

Whatever your reasons for celebrating and relaxing this weekend, I hope you have a weekend surrounded by love and happiness.

With love from,

Fran x

We didn’t know until after we bought you that you have a name for yourself in our suburb. The Little Blue Cottage. Much admired in our street for your miner’s cottage character.  “Oh, you live in the little blue cottage. So pretty”.  You are well known and well loved.  Before I knew that, I wanted to paint you. After I knew that, it seemed wrong.

From the moment we stepped into the house we could feel your good past. You had a happy feeling about you. You were brought in from Charters Towers around the turn of the century - early 1900’s. You were a goldfields abode.

We were fortunate to meet the woman who had grown up in you; who lived in you through World War II – in the day when you had an invasion shelter underneath that was shared with others in the neighbourhood. Anna came for a cup of tea one day and showed us her pictures of you with a huge mango tree in the front garden. You were almost obscured and you are now slightly altered but it is still you. You were a happy place to live for her and for us too.

We didn’t change you much but we didn’t need to. We thought you perfect. We put in more airconditioning for the eskimo amongst us. We took down a huge mirror in the second bedroom to discover your original window frame hidden beneath and we used the frame to create a shadow box feature to display images in the space where old window panes had once provided vistas to the outside. We eventually made over your front garden, planting natives and a new weeping tea tree that we hoped one day would give you some of the shade your old mango tree had.

Your verandah is small but is filled with so many happy moments with friends and family. Many parties, barbeques, and quiet Sunday afternoon drinks. Your lounge room holds so many memories, both happy and sad. When I think of some of these moments – the moment the doctor rang to tell us our pregnancy test was positive, the moment my Dad rang to tell us my Pop had passed, the moment DJ’s Dad rang only one month later to tell us his Granny had passed – I realise just how many times we rearranged our lounge room furniture. So vivid are my mental pictures of these moments in you that I can see which way the sofa faced. What was on your walls. Whether there were baby toys present or not.

You were our first home together. We had rented, but you were ours. We brought our first furry friend home to you. Our first baby home to you. Our life was rich. We would like to think that we continued the good history you had and that we are handing you over with more love in the walls.

Today you will be no longer ours. It seems strange, but true.  We can no longer give you the love you need while we are living away from you. Someone else will call you theirs now and that is as it should be. From everything we have heard she loves you – you are her ‘fairy house’. Everything she has dreamed of.

It is with relief and sadness that we hand you over to your new owner. For DJ, more relief than sadness. For me, the relief is peppered with a knot in my tummy and tears.

Goodbye beautiful home.

Fran x

…I was a bit down.  It was a Friday, I had plans to go out to dinner with some friends and they had cancelled. Then I remembered my friend Cheryl (also known as Chez, Chezalina, Cherylina) was coming into town and we had talked about meeting up for a drink after dinner. I gave her a call, and drinks turned into dinner and drinks. I cheered up and smiled. I had plans again. 

Ten years ago today, Cheryl was going out to dinner with the international conservation volunteer team she had taken away on a project that week. I was tagging along.  Dinner at Pizza Hut – classy huh?  The opportunity to see Cherylina made even Pizza Hut look good though, so bad pizza for dinner it was.

Ten years ago today, I had ‘nothing’ in my wardrobe to wear so I went over to my friend Cath’s house and raided her wardrobe. I borrowed a charcoal grey v-neck t-shirt to wear with my jeans. Over a glass of wine we chatted about the evening, ‘dinner at Pizza Hut? – claaaassy.’ I am pretty sure they were Cath’s exact words.

Ten years ago today, I pulled up out the front of a house I had never been to before. A house that was a temporary home to countless international travellers who made eight week stops in Townsville to undertake volunteer conservation projects.  As I walked through the gates I saw two guys walking down the front steps. I stopped and held the gate open. “Thanks” said the first guy as he kept walking. The second guy stopped. Blue shirt, small checks. Cinnamon eyes. Amazing eyelashes. Welcoming smile.  He took the gate from me and held out his other hand – to me. ‘Hello’ .

Ten years ago today, my heart skipped a beat as you introduced yourself. 

Ten years ago today, the only seat left at the table was beside me.  You sat down and again my heart did a happy little skip. Outwardly I think I looked confident enough, but inwardly I was made of marshmallow and was silently chastising myself for being so silly. Those who know me know that I gradually turn red when I am embarrassed or shy, and at that moment I was willing myself to not turn a bright shade of vermilion. We talked about travelling - an easy topic of conversation for both of us. We talked comfortably over slices of bad pizza and cups of coke.

Ten years ago today, I stood at the bar with Cheryl and laughed as you and your fellow Scottish travellers took over the dance floor to the dulcet tones of The Proclaimers.  The rest of the Exchange’s clientele fell back as you formed a circle and jumped up and down for 3 minutes and 36 seconds.

Nine years and 364 days ago I told my friend Cath that I was going to marry you. She laughed.

491 days later, I did.

Happy ten years DJ. Ten years. Almost a third of my life has been spent with you. More than half of my adult life. All of my happiest life.

Ten years ago today everything - every wish, dream and hope I had ever had - became real and very, very possible.

With love from,

Fran x

April 2000:

April 2009 (we really need a new pic, we look even more tired now!):* with thanks and love to Sheye for this image

… you choose such beautiful ways to show yourself to this world xxx

… so fast? November, you left far too quickly too. Apparently it was Christmas a couple of weeks ago. How? It was only June yesterday and I was holding my newborn baby boy.

December, you flew past in a current of colds, flus and gastro.  And yet, things still seemed to get done; life’s moments kept happening. Leo still turned six months. Poppy still stood like a little statue on stage while her dancing class friends danced around her.  Presents still accumulated under the tree and Christmas orders still managed to be submitted. Even my (iPhone)  December  Photo Challenge continued to chug along, though my computer decided to take a little rest for a few days meaning posting got a little behind.  Being sick and caring for sick little ones has meant that a few things have had to give. Blogging for one. Some days of work for another. 

So January, could you just slow down a little please? Bring the tide back in at a leisurely pace and let me enjoy and absorb the first month of the new year. Let the coughs, sniffles and general grumpiness of our little family dissipate and go away without any further ado.

And to remind me that you, December,  last month of 2009, weren’t all bad here are a couple of my favourite December Challenge posts. When I committed to participate in this Facebook challenge I decided that the only way I could possibly achieve it was to strip away all of the things that could be an excuse not to do it. So, for me, it became My (iPhone) December 2009. All I had to do was snap a pic on my iphone everyday that reflected what you, December, meant to me. I managed to take a snap everyday. Posting has been somewhat more challenging due to my computer’s mini vacation, however, I am not so concerned with that aspect. Just to take a pic everyday for a month was a feat in itself…

Fran x

Thank you. You fill my heart.

With love, from:

Fran x

Today’s simple wandering:

p.s. let’s just pretend that it hasn’t been a whole month since I last posted shall we?  Special thanks to Miss Sheye for ensuring it was not another month by politely demanding I blog this image – immediately – and for beautifully naming the audio clip. Very cute, yes?