Trick or Treat

2 fairies and a pirate (who insisted on wearing scary vampire teeth even though he had a devil of a time keeping them in his mouth).

This is the scene that greeted trick or treaters on our street tonight. J considered it to be a spruiking opportunity and was shouting out to everyone to encourage them in just as if he was at the fruit market. I feel confident that when he's older he'll always be able to get work screaming 'Strawberries! Strawberries! 3 punnets for $6!'

Halloween

I made some vanilla cupcakes for the cake stall at the Moonlight Markets tonight. We put together a a few plates of 6 and then wrapped some individually. I just noticed that I forgot to list sugar as one of the ingredients, oops! Hopefully that won't turn off any hungry souls looking for a cupcake fix!

Today's post brought to you by shoes

I found this beautiful photo in my inbox this morning and had to share it with you. Isn't it wonderful?

Sneak Peek

Here's what I have been working on. It is a finished stroller quilt and the matching cot quilt (that isn't quite done yet). I pulled out of the markets when I realised that morning sickness was going to make it difficult to build up enough inventory to fill a stall but I had already started on a couple of stroller quilts and had bought some fabric with the markets in mind so I am going to try selling some quilts online. That's going to be a bit of a leap for me and I am not yet sure how I will set it up but I am excited about it! Do you have any advice regarding selling through etsy or madeit or should I just set up my store using a service like big cartel? I'm leaning towards setting up my own little shop and linking it through my blog but I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Powerhouse

We visited the Powerhouse Museum today to see the new exhibition of images of the universe taken using powerful telescopes and space probes. The pictures are amazing and the children had such a wonderful time exploring. We went to Chinatown for yum cha since we were already in the neighbourhood and stuffed ourselves with gai lan and dim sum. I love this so much I think I might make it my banner picture, that way I can admire it without having to dust it :-)

The bear

That's better.
Thanks so much for all your kind words yesterday.

Longfellow

"Be still sad heart and cease repining;
Behind the clouds the sun is shining,
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life a little rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary."
- Longfellow

We've had a couple of dark and dreary days this week Chez Duyvken. But to explain why I have to take you back to Father's Day. A wonderful confluence of holidays and cycles meant that Father's day morning saw me using a home pregnancy test, getting a positive result and being able to give Mr Duyvken a truly memorable father's day present. He was so thrilled that he actually squealed, and that's not easy for a 34 year old man. Morning sickness kicked in at about 5 1/2 weeks as it usually does for me and I was laid low. The subsequent weeks are a blur of oranges, schweppes bitter lemon, anti-nausea meds and trying to keep the house neat and the children fed in spite of the trials of the first trimester. I cloistered myself and just concentrated on the tasks at hand as I watched the days slowly count up to 12wks.

I first met with my obstetrician on Monday (at 10wks) and after discussing a few basic things and having some blood tests the ultrasound showed a beautiful 9wk 5 day baby but no heartbeat. The fluttery flitter that should light up the screen just wasn't there. I knew it was missing before Dr B said it but I was hoping against hope that he hadn't turned something on or pressed a necessary button or something.


And so here we are, after many tears, disbelief, a general anaesthetic and 2 days, feeling OK most of the time and very teary a little of the time. The little knitted bear was given to me at the hospital while I was waiting to go into theatre and he's very special to me. I think I'll restitch his face and replace his pink ribbon with a blue one because he seems like a little chap to me and because, for no good reason, I felt like the baby I was carrying was a boy.