the outdoor life

As Winter here in Australia is in its final fling, naturally thoughts- well mine, anyway- are turning to the promise of Spring and the new life and fresh beginnings that it brings, warmer and longer days, more time spent enjoying the outdoors and hopefully less of the Artic-esque winds that have been blowing through town for the past few weeks. Brrrr. The thought of shedding some layers and not having washing hanging out on the line in the constant cycle of drying- getting rained on- partially drying- getting rained on again, and again and again, well it's all sounding mighty appealing.

I've been taking advantage of any dry-ish weekends to spend some time working on the garden. The veggie patch is in its second crop now and almost ready for harvesting. We planted parsnips which probably look the most promising at this stage, carrots which seems to be slightly stunted in terms of growth, beetroots which to my untrained eye appear be doing well, and broccoli which is pretty much a write-off, having first been attacked by caterpillars and then developing some form of disease whereby the leaves become covered in rapidly expanding mysterious yellow patches. Oh well, you win some, you lose some! I've been growing some flowers from seed and planting the seedlings in pots and scattered around the front of the house ready to add some colour and welcome the start of the warmer months. I'm most excited about the sweet peas flowering, strategically placed in mis-matched pots in front of the ugly metal shed to try and pretty it up. Painting it in beach hut inspired classic stripes is another project on the ridiculously long and over-ambitious list of outdoor DIYs and tasks we (I), hope (Curt) to complete before Summer rolls around. Along with creating a paved entertaining/ seating/ barbeque area and a path from the back deck to the shed to name just a couple.

And chickens, I am not giving up my dream of backyard chickens even though it was originally vetoed by the man of the house. I am steadily working on him and spending probably too much time researching the logistics of chicken coops and types of hens and their laying habits. Not to mention Lila's kindergarten just had a clutch of baby chicks born which will shortly be looking for homes- it's a sign! I am probably out of my mind considering one of my children absolutely refuses to eat eggs and the other one can only rarely be coaxed to eat them, despite having offered them up in every appealing form under the sun. However I am ever optimistic this may change in the near future with the excitement of collecting them freshly laid! There has also been talk of getting a dog, which there has been since we finally bought a home and moved here last October but now we have got as far as identifying a possible time-frame, which is at the end of the year. I think we may be the only people who live in our little town that don't have a dog, and I promise I'm not exaggerating. The ratio of dogs to people here is staggering but I suppose it makes sense seeing as there are no lack of beaches right on our doorstep there are some many great coastal paths and bush walks to take them out for a run.

Lastly, I am looking forward to some trips to explore some more of the amazing coastline we are surrounded by. Aside from a couple of day trips, every spare moment of our first Summer here was taken up with house projects, accumulating furniture and establishing our home (I shudder at the amount of money and time we have spent at our local home improvement store). So I am ultra-keen to make up for lost time by embarking on many adventures in the upcoming months. Even camping, which we have never done before due to an anti-camping husband who is not a fan of giving up his home-comforts. However, I know it would be so much fun and the children would love it, and so again, I am working to convince him to dip his toe in the waters. I am hoping all these beautiful images of Artemis and her family camping in the English countryside, well 'glamping' is more like it (from the lovely blog Junkaholique) may help to convince him that it doesn't have to be all dingy toilet and shower blocks, cruddy food and nylon sleeping bags. This is most definitely the type of camping I aspire to one day. Surely if camping was always this spectacular, no-one would ever feel the need to get on a plane again. We just need to lay our hands on that vintage VW camper and amazing canvas tent!

All images via Junkaholique


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life on the surf coast

There's nothing like living by the ocean to make you feel alive. One of my favourite things to do is to head down to the beach when Curt gets home from work and take a walk together as a family, feeling the sand underfoot, the wind blowing our hair and salt on our lips. Often Curt surfs while we play on the beach and watch, or if the waves are smaller he takes Lila out on her little board. When it's flat then we dig or build palaces and collect shells. I feel so lucky to be able to do this and give the girls an appreciation and respect for the water and nature.

We've been even more lucky for the past couple of weeks as my parents have been visiting from England, so we've been able to share with them all that we love about living here. Today we had to say goodbye until we see them again in a year. Until then I will just have to treasure all the memories we made and throw myself back into daily life and working on our home and garden.

Next week the new term starts and Lila will begin kindergarten. I will begin painting again. My new easel, my best Christmas gift, has been sitting patiently waiting for me to find the time to pick up my brushes again and create just for the love of it. I also have a new Etsy shop waiting to be filled with images and listings of all my necklaces so I will be keeping busy to help to ease the emptiness and the inevitable void that is left behind after the farewells have been said and the aeroplane has departed.

Photos taken by Curt.

what our days look like

Here are some of my recent instagram pictures of the everyday goings on around here lately. @fayelarsen if you want to follow.

1 // Blanket forts are always the best place to eat morning snacks.

2 // Kitted out to help with some gardening chores.

3 // Now she is old enough to sit through a full film she can stay up a bit later for a movie night with us every now and then. We just borrowed Lemony Snicket's An Unfortunate Series of Events from the library for our next one. Pretty excited about that.

4 // Nothing better than a pyjama morning dance party to get the day started.

5 // When you have a house full of post-move empty cardboard boxes the obvious solution is to make a house with them (this one had four rooms, a front and back door and a back yard and required about a roll of packing tape to secure it).

6 // This weekend we took the girls to a fair at the kindergarten Lila will be starting next year. This involved pony rides, a bouncy castle and a stick of candy floss (or fairy floss as they call it here). I finally caved after saying no every other time she's come across it. Once it was in her hands it was barely around long enough to snap this shot.

7 // Rose has decided she is far too grown up for her high chair and now throws a strop unless she can dine at a table like the rest of us.

on living

"I’m not telling you to make the world better, because I don’t think that progress is necessarily part of the package, I’m just telling you to live in it. Not just to endure it, not just to suffer it, not just to pass through it, but to live in it. To look at it. To try to get the picture. To live recklessly. To take chances. To make your own work and take pride in it. To seize the moment. And if you ask me why you should bother to do that, I could tell you that the grave’s a fine and private place, but none I think do there embrace. Nor do they sing there, or write, or argue, or see the tidal bore on the Amazon, or touch their children. And that’s what there is to do and get it while you can and good luck at it.”

-- Joan Didion,

in a commencement address at the University of California, Riverside, in 1975

                   

               

Images found via here, here and here.

european road trip

Love the carefree vibe captured by these photographs taken by Nirrimi when on the road during the Billabong European Tour. I'm in awe of her skills, she surely must be one of the most talented photographers of our generation (at just 19 she has already has amassed an incredible body of work including other major campaigns), not to mention a cute baby girl called Alba. A very inspiring individual following her own path with a refreshing outlook on life. See more of her work and life on her blog The Road is Home. And wow, does this have me dreaming of summer time!

All images by Nirrimi Firebrace

memory keepers

As a fan of saving mementos and chronicling events and memories (usually in a more haphazard method involving stuffing everything in a huge box with the intention of sorting through it one day), these beautiful scrapboxes created by Darcy Miller are so appealing to me. She has framed her family photographs along with relevant objects- such as a birthday snapshot of her daughter with one of the candles she blew out, adding a whole new dimension to the stock standard photo in a frame and showcasing and giving meaning to the objects she has saved rather than just keeping them in a box to gather dust.

It takes a well honed creative eye to curate and layout these treasure boxes to such great effect, avoiding too much clutter and stopping them from crossing over into nauseatingly twee territory but she has absolutely nailed it. I'm now itching to get myself down to Ikea to pick up some similar frames and have a go.

Discovered via A Cup of Jo

escaping

I'm currently daydreaming of a little escape. As much as I love my babies, we all need some time out every now and then. Just me and him for a day or two. Some good food, lots of rest, getting lost in a book and maybe a spot of pampering. Not on the cards in the near future but hopefully we can at least manage a dinner out instead :)

Images from Toast catalogue 2010.