M IS FOR MANAGEMENT - TIME MANAGEMENT

Ok so today is actually day 14. Which means it's the letter N and not M. But I just need a moment to pause and recap what I missed during the week. 

K is for Kafka. Franz Kafka.

What an interesting man and a fantastic example of the modern day artist. Although he considered writing his calling, he had to devote what little spare time he had to it and hold down a day job. I love that.  

I also loved his novella "The Metamorphosis" (Die Verwandlung) when I first read it as a teenager. If you haven't read it, please do. It isn't long and it's quite funny in a black comedy kinda way. It's also hailed as being one of the seminal works of fiction of the 20th century. I gotta say I love the illustrations on 1960's Penguin books. They are rad.

L is for Labour.
One of my close friends went into labour on Wednesday the 12th which was L day. She has had a beautiful baby boy. He is stunning and fluffy and she is the gorgeous, smitten, calm and loved up mother I always knew she would be. xxx

M as I said is for Management. I need to somehow get better at this. You know... I am not sure that it is so much a time management thing. It could be more a case of not enough hours in the day - yes yes everyone feels that and what a boring statement, and also the fact that I can be lazy. Sometimes when I have the time I find I would just rather sit on the couch and veg out watching 4 Corners or some documentary eating frozen yoghurt and playing with my iphone.

N is for Nicole. Me. Nicole.
Pretty original. Ha! There you go. Tomorrow I will try and come up with something better. I have been under a cloud these past few days with a foggy, groggy head. Come on Christmas and holidays and no routine. Just a relaxed, take it as it comes couple of weeks!

J IS FOR JIBBER JABER

Day 10. The letter J.

I had to make this post about my little J-dawg. He is the J of my life and such a wonderful, lovely, funny little man he is. Affectionate, a little explorer, always on the move, a bit of a book worm (when he sits still), loves music and musical instruments and seems to have inherited his mum and dads set of lungs. Man is he loud! We love him to pieces and can't imagine our lives without him.

I IS FOR INDOORS

Day 9. The letter I.

INSIDE Petersham Bowlo Sat night.

I was yesterday's letter and I ended up being for Indoors. After a very quick outing to the markets, J and I escaped the windy wiley and spent the rest of the day pretty much indoors. We played with his blocks and made a city for his trains to drive through - before they were smashed down and pulled apart by a giant toddler. We danced to the Beatles did some tickling and hid in the lounge cushions. It was a nice afternoon chilling out at home after a rather LARGE weekend. D and I watched a movie in the evening before going to bed (at a reasonable hour).

And what a large weekend it was. Work Christmas party Friday lunch, gig Friday night, lunch at the Petersham bowlo with friends Sat, a play at a friends house Sat afternoon then back to the bowlo Sat night to see Mike Noga and Ben Salter - which was GREAT! Had an awesome and very very late night which I will probably need all week to recover from.

I hope you all had a great weekend too.

H IS FOR HANGOVER

Day 8. The letter H.

 A little bit what I look like and lot of how I feel today.

Unoriginal but that is what I am nursing after yesterdays work Christmas party lunch AND last nights gig. I was up bright and early at 5:30am with J this morning and did quite a bit of playing with the 'bawl" and his "choo choo" train when I would have much rather have been asleep.
Coffee coffee here I come.

G IS FOR GIGS

Day 7. The letter G.

G for gigs seems rather appropriate today as not only do I have a gig tonight with my band Juniper at the Newsagency in Enmore BUT I purchased tickets to see Nick Cave at the Enmore Theatre this morning. FLOOR TICKETS! WOOHOO! Can you tell I am a little bit excited? I haven't seen the marvellous Nick Cave before. I have somehow missed all his shows these last 15 years. Crazy I know.

Gigs gigs gigs gigs gigs. So many fun musical times coming up over the next couple of weeks/months too.
Ben Salter this Saturday 8 December at the Petersham Bowlo,  a Tumbleweed show in Wollongong in January which I am looking forward too as one of the support bands is Dropping Honey. A plug for my partners band yes but they are tremendously good I promise. 
They are also playing a show at the Petersham Bowlo with another friends band Your Loving Tyrant which I have yet to see in this current transformation. They used to be known as Traces of Nut. Another great band to come out of the Wollongong music scene.

Here are some tracks to listen to as you enjoy your day. Man am I excited about all these gigs. Just have to line up some babysitters! Any takers?

The Coward from Ben Salter's debut album The Cat
Daddy Long Legs (an oldie but a goodie) Tumbleweed
Dancing with the Black Rabbit Dropping Honey
The Bureaucrat Traces of Nut
Dry Juniper

F IS FOR F

The musical note F of course. It's also for forte.

(I know C is in the middle of the photo but it's the angle I took at the time.)

Happy Thursday!

E IS FOR ELEPHANT (Noises)

Day 5. The letter E.

J has been dishing out new words almost every day now. Like pearls before swine, he drops them here and there for mum and dad to pick up and giggle at and sometimes be amazed at just where on earth he learned them. Apart from "Dah-dee" and "Mmahmm", one of his very first words was "St'ah" (star). What a great word! I have probably said that word around him once or twice but not enough to have had an impact I would have thought. He also loves to say "Bawl" (ball) and does a pretty good "Doode" (dude) Now that one he did learn from me.

But words aside, he loves to make animal noises and has been singing along to Old MacDonald with me since he was around 9 months old. The first of the animal sounds was snake = "sssss" (of course). Then came pussy cat = "Brr'aow" and dog = "ha ha ha" (in the style of panting). Bee = "zzt zzt" was soon to follow, as was Cow = "mmmmm" (with rising and falling inflection) and then.... Elephant = "brrrwwww" (with the cow inflection). Hard to explain so why not have a listen here.

D IS FOR DECORATING

D and I decided this year we would upgrade the (much loved) Christmas stick to a real live plant.

Whilst wandering through the markets on Sunday I spotted a stall with $5 rosemary bushes and thought one would be perfect. They kinda have a similar vibe to a Christmas tree. They certainly share that nice fresh yet earthy aroma and the leaves/pine needles sorta grow in a similar fashion - spiking upward. So I rummaged up $5 with some gold and silver lying around the house (in the lounge!) and went back later to buy one.

Our usual decorations are hiding in the attic and as this year marks the start of a new 'making' tradition, little Christmas owls were made for the mantle piece using old toilet rolls. The clay ornaments were rolled, baked and hand decorated this evening on D day. You can find the tutorial over on A Beautiful Mess blog.

I added some old fairy lights I had lying around and a work colleague gave me some LED Christmas lights as a present that seem perfect for the rosemary bush. Just the right size.

So there you have it. Our small Christmasy decorated mantle piece pretty much all hand made. I am sure Jasper appreciates it. I am pretending it's all for him when mostly it's just for me!

C IS FOR CATCH-UP and CHRISTMAS

I have joined the A Month of collective. It's a month of A to Z. 26 Days. A blog post for each of them. And each of them themed around a different letter of the alphabet. Lets see how I go?
Why not join in yourself and do something, write something, take a photo or even create something for each letter, each day. Share it or keep it to yourself. Sounds like fun right? Right!


 Day 3. The letter C.

Three days in to this 26 days of A to Z posting and I have already fallen off the wagon. To be honest, I never hopped on the Wagon it seems. BUT it's never too late. I am climbing aboard now and posting three in a row. So C is for Catch-up.

C is also for Christmas. 22 sleeps til Christmas! My oh my. It has landed upon me this year with a thump. Up until the other day I hadn't really given it much thought but on Friday my work colleague was struck by Christmas bug. It happens around this time every year. I arrive at work to find Christmas carols blaring and boxes of tinsel out ready and waiting to be hung from the ceiling. The work Christmas tree is set up and adorned with coloured baubles and lights and there is even a little LED tree on my desk. It was a nice and colourful kick up the backside.

Normally I wouldn't worry so much. In the past I have put up a couple of decorations, found a stick (a bit of a tradition) and hung some paper baubles. But this year, I feel I need to make some effort. I am a mum now and with that comes responsibilities. Magical responsibilities. Santa responsibilities. And even though J is still quite young and may not really 'get it' all yet, traditions need to start somewhere and at sometime. Why not now?

When I think back to what Christmas felt like as a child I start to get really excited for J. There is such comfort in tradition. Safe warm feelings flood into my being of summer nights, family, fun, food, surprises, magic and togetherness. Making Christmas craft on those last few days of school and cleaning your desk in the playground with ajax, watching Christmas cartoons ALL DAY LONG when school had finally finished for the year, picking out the tree with dad from the local servo and then decorating it as a surprise for mum while she was at work, smelling the tree and watching the lights flicker every evening, listening to the Nutcracker and the sound of Christmas beetles hitting the windows at night, walking to Christmas Eve mass with Dad and stopping to admire the lights at that big amazing house on the way home, checking out what was in my stocking before the house woke on Christmas morning and then lining up my presents for show and tell when everyone arrived for lunch...

We are spending Christmas with D's family this year. No doubt they have many traditions of their own to share. I am excited! Kids make Christmas exciting again. It feels so nice to be starting our own Christmas traditions with J, melding together those of our pasts into ones of the future. I hope he looks back and thinks this time of year was pretty magical. It is!

B IS FOR BALLOON

I have joined the A Month of collective. It's a month of A to Z. 26 Days. A blog post for each of them. And each of them themed around a different letter of the alphabet. Lets see how I go?
Why not join in yourself and do something, write something, take a photo or even create something for each letter, each day. Share it or keep it to yourself. Sounds like fun right? Right!

Day 2. The letter B.

A IS FOR ALPHABET

I have joined the A Month of collective. It's a month of A to Z. 26 Days. A blog post for each of them. And each of them themed around a different letter of the alphabet. Lets see how I go?

Why not join in yourself and do something, write something, take a photo or even create something for each letter, each day. Share it or keep it to yourself. Sounds like fun right? Right!

Day 1. The letter A.
How funny that on the first day of the A to Z December posts that the letter of the day on Sesame Street happened to be A! Serendipitous methinks. I love Sesame Street and am quite happy that I have a legitimate excuse to watch it again. I particularly love the spin offs they do of adult tv shows.
Check this one out. It's awesome!