april showers

For the last week Sydney has been in the grip of crazy wet and windy weather which extends up and down the coast for miles. Its left damage and destruction in its wake, though we were lucky to be spared any damage here. p.s. I started writing this post before Saturday's crazytown hailstorm which blew up out of the most beautiful sunny autumn day. Its been wild!

Its also made me feel even more blessed that on our getaway to Jervis Bay we lucked such lovely autumn weather. Somehow we slotted our week in between a wet Easter and the following drenching windy two day storm and afternoon hailstorm.

In contrast on our time away It was warm enough to swim and we only had one wet and windy day.

Its a tradition to spend time at our favourite little 70s decor beach house each year, and a tradition to post my photos from our time down south here on the blog. Here are some previous trips to our magic beach. here, here, here and here.

It is also one of the lovely things about having older kids, making these family traditions which live in their imaginations. They love this place and it is layered with memories for them and for their father and I, who can remember walking this bush track with a double stroller!

Luckily my camera was fixed just in time to take it along. This place is so photogenic it would literally be torture for me without it!

adjustments

Did you join us in meat free week last week. Perhaps its something that you already do regularly. A couple of people mentioned Meat Free Mondays, which sounds like a great way to keep this issue front and centre in the everyday week.

We managed a week of vegetarian dishes, and it was great. I really enjoyed the restriction and how it made us pull out a week of meatless meals from our repertoire. We ate falafel wraps, Malaysian egg curry*, fried eggs on toast (the night we had an early band performance), minestrone, nachos, marinated tofu stir fry and spaghetti squash with something else, hmmm, sorry can't remember!

During the week the Mr and I did something else for our health, we took a day off and drove down the coast together, had lunch at Stanwell Park and swam in the surf. Bliss! It was meant to rain all day but amazingly we had the most perfect weather! And it was such a great way to recharge. We had tried to have lunch for his birthday the week before but things were too busy. I'm glad we waited, it was a perfect day.

This week is another birthday week at our house, a momentous one in fact! My little baby boys turn 13 tomorrow, they will be teenagers!! When I started writing this blog they were just seven, in fact it only seems a blink ago that we found out I was even having twins. I must share that story some day, talk about a surprise!

And now, as my sister helpfully pointed out, from tomorrow we parents will be outnumbered by teenagers! Wish us luck ;-) Actually I love teenagers. Its such an exciting time, difficult in some ways but also an amazing period of growth and discovery. And they are great to talk to and laugh with... on their good days ;-)

There has been some making this last week, of course, there is always making round here!

Cath put the call out on instagram the other day for volunteers to help crochet washcloths for a really fantastic cause directed at young women. I pulled out some cotton from the stash and my dodgy crochet skills and I've made four so far to contribute. Visit her blog to find out more about this wonderful charity which you also might like to help.

I have still been potting away on my wheel too. I like to think that each time I do my skills improve just a little bit. I'm even starting to have slightly more control over the shapes I'm making. My nine week course finished last week, but I don't have all my pots back to show unfortunately as they were still in the kiln at our final lesson.

I've also been working away on some sewing for myself. It feels very self indulgent especially as I'm trying to alter patterns and learn more about how to do that, which takes a lot of time and brain space. As a result the bits of paper and fabric come out every so often and then get packed away mid alteration.

Despite that I think I might just have managed to do my first successful Full Bust Adjustment. I'm hoping this is the missing link in my garment sewing and that from here I will be sewing less shapeless sacks or bandage tops!

I've been experimenting with the Built by Wendy Simplicity 3835 pattern, and I've just finished a fourth muslin which I'm finally happy with. I'm keen to go back now with this new knowledge and sew a Tova or a Banksia top, two patterns I've attempted before with qualified success. When I have some better photos I fully intend to share what I've learned here. I think its such a good thing. If you are anything more than a B cup this is an invaluable modification.

Anyway that's what I've been doing. How about you? How is autumn/spring treating you. Its still muggy here in Sydney, but the nights are finally cooler which I am loving! And the garden is producing its autumn treats, the grasses are flowering and the camellia is out. I do love seasonal change.

* not sponsored but this was a Marion's Kitchen curry. We love these packs, they make a really authentic curry without too much fiddling. I'm so pleased to see she is expanding the range to include some other cuisines alongside the red and green Thai curries we love.

holidays * part two

Part two of our annual holiday roadtrip entails camping on the Central Coast.

Our camping days started way back on my husband's bucks weekend (17 years ago). Mr Flowerpress' brother in laws and friends took him camping at the National Park campsite down the hill from his parents' house.

Mr F is the youngest of four kids, and a few months later all four siblings and their families came together to camp at this park situated on the most beautiful beach. Some of us were kid free in those days!

From there it quickly became an annual tradition, and every year since then we have camped together.

It gives our families who live in different parts of the state a chance to come together and time to catch up on all that's happening in our lives. Mixed in are friend's families who came to camp one year and just kept coming back.

We swim together, we cook together, we walk together, we laugh together and we live together.

There's no housework, no school, no work, no tv. There are waves and stars and bush turkeys and trees.

Some years it rains, some years its hot. Last year they shut the park to daytrippers when it hit 46 degrees. Another year we celebrated Miss A's birthday under a flooded tarp after a week of solid rain. A small tent collapsed under the weight of the deluge while we were singing Happy Birthday. You have to laugh!

One year I camped while six months pregnant with twins and well, this year those twins are going into high school.

I think it really hit us this year how long we've continued this tradition. We understood again how blessed we are for this special escape and company. And we celebrated that the big kids with lives of their own are still coming back to camp and still dreaming of this magic place.

I really hope I'm camping in another 17 years.

p.s. yes that is beer on tap, peroni actually, courtesy of an a b-i-l who was a publican for a while. And pps, pretty beach is on the bay, but still quite a pretty beach!