california

Good citizens

| poppypeach

I was jamming it last week with writing my 2nd essay for Indigenous Education and Perspectives with this essay focussing onThe Stolen Generations and bringing light to its relevance in education. I researched The Stolen Generations and its relationship to the Sorry speech by Kevin Rudd the PM in 2008, what a speech that was and so long overdue! It was an intense essay looking at racism and discrimination and I had a so much to draw upon with the connection to the Dumpo era here in the U S of A.

So with all that writing, I needed to focus and needed to eat well and drink matcha tea and made this delicious coconut milk matcha tea in the Vitamix after leaving it on for a while – beautiful, frothy and warm! And with my lack of time dinner has been super easy with taco Tuesday and tonight’s cool soba noodle salad topped with a fresh bantam egg.

Over the weekend we went to Open House for Missys week-long science camp coming up soon and we checked out the nature lab to touch this Trans-Pecos Rat Snake – it was so friendly. As as the kids have toyed with the idea of owning a reptile I found this info sign to share with them, it will remain here on the blog for reference if they have serious thoughts of snake keeping in the future. It is quite an expensive outlay and lucky for them there is an aquarium near our place in Melbourne and they can go an visit the reptiles there or maybe volunteer to give food to the snakes.

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I found this in a binder from my daughter’s 1st-grade class – if only this was the mantra of all humans! This is why I love being with kids they know where it is at and how to behave.

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As I have been cleaning out so much stuff and getting rid of boxes of everything from fabric to books to clothes and kids stuff, I found this lovely little scrapbook that Ash made when he was in Kindergarten – it is super cute. Our friends are in the pics but I have blurred their faces as they may not want to appear here 😀 respect! The kids are so cute and so young and he has captured some good times from the redwoods to the snow even with our green car!

 

Thoughts for the future

| poppypeach

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Slowly I am getting used to life back here after our fantastic time back in Australia – one step at a time…

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My plan is to go back next year once our house in Oz is complete and a little big bigger, and we have a place to live in Melbourne. Many people have been asking me what the difference between Australia and the USA is?

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My answer is always that Australians are very relaxed, friendly human beings. Americans take a little while to feel acquainted and are always on the go – an energy that to resonate through the community even on the freeways. Gotta go here, there and everywhere all at once.

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So I have done a little bit of reflecting about why I cannot feel settled here and why I want to go back home (my birth home).

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Culturally the differences are vast where here in our little bubble of Silicon Valley ego seems rather significant. Understandably people are working hard, and they define themselves by what college they went to – this always perplexed me, but college does cost a lot of money here, so why not talk about it. Australians do not really talk about themselves so much but as my friend pointed out Aussies do like to speak about other people 😀

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Whereas back down under people will say hello to you on the street and smile, just because. The friendliness of conversations even with shop owners really makes me happy. When we were visiting the main drag where our house is in Oz, I spoke to a book shop owner about living in the area, and she mentioned her kids go the schools I was interested in going to. It was such a serendipitous moment as it confirmed my decision on wanting to return to Melbourne because she spoke so highly of the school communities and had been a resident there for 27 years!

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So fundamentally it is ego (in the Valley) vs. authenticity (down under), and for me, I know where I would rather be. It has taken me a while to feel comfortable here in California these last 10 years so having a connection to an amazing school community really helped me with a feeling I was amongst “my people”. Our elementary school is an incredible community – multi cultural, open minded, supportive and loving, so it has been just perfect.

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I want my children to grow up in a school that embraces the arts, music and humanities as I feel it is important to have a whole education that develops the whole child. I feel that once my son hit middle school here, the education is just OK – he is missing out on art at school, but he has had some great sporting opportunities like cross country and robotics/engineering. Hey, he can create his art (graphic novels) at home!

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Touring the schools in Australia made me realise that I want my children in Melbourne to complete their education as I feel it will be well rounded including a true appreciation for the arts – which is what that city is about! The arts, friends and family are what my heart aches for when I am in California having the beauty of art around me in the form of gorgeous architecture and the accessibility to amazing galleries embracing arts everywhere.

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Here in California, there is art in San Francisco at the SFMOMA and museums around the city that I am yet to explore but time is slim in my life, and it’s tricky to get out and about just for fun these days with study and now work. I am excited to be starting a job as a Teacher Assistant at a local school in August, this is an incredible opportunity for me as it aligns with my Education degree, to be completed way in the future…

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So weighing up the positives which are the perfect weather and nature in California and the negatives, where I really miss my time with my family. I feel the decision to move back will be beneficial for myself as I can do my Education placements and the kids will have access to well rounded 21st-century education. A 21st-century education you might ask? It is teaching for the future, and the children learn skills that prepare them for a life of uncertainty in their careers where jobs that exist may be something else in the future.

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It will be a bittersweet farewell to California though I know now after visiting Australia two years in a row that I feel more grounded to Australia and that is where I want to be. California has been a great experience, and I have really enjoyed my time here growing up with my family but the time has come to decide on the future and where I see our family. I had a glimpse into the future when we were in Melbourne, and I like the fact we can:

  • walk/bike to school
  • walk to the shops
  • walk to the train
  • public transit into the city
  • a gym is on the way to school
  • a fruit and veg market is down the road
  • my sister in law and her family is a drive away
  • there are bike tracks close by
  • a beautiful park is a walk away complete with a flying fox.

We just need our house to have a couple of extra rooms! That plan is coming along with my friend who is an architect who can help us with our project, so the ball is rolling along.

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I really miss my family, and because they do not travel we have to go to Oz, it will be much better to be 2 hours away by plane from my family rather than a whole day travel time. Time is ticking away, and I have investigated our options and feel that the opportunity for the children to enjoy their tween/teen years back in Australia will be a good thing for them, having them appreciate the arts and the academics hand in hand.

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As for now, I have a job for the next few months that I have to juggle with part time study, my family and volunteer duties. It will be busy but the time will fly by, and before we know it, the time will come to go back to Australia for good.

 

Back to Life, Back to Reality

| poppypeach

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So we arrived back home to our house in amongst drama and a house infested with mice and a couple of nasty rats. Those nasty rats took a liking to the pantry and decided they would gnaw away at anything that might deem edible in the pantry totally destroying containers in their wake. This was something I did not expect I had to deal with when we came home – so after a good nights sleep, it was time to clean the pantry of mice and rat poo… what a god damn nightmare!!

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An urgent call to the exterminator and he came by as soon as he could – the first thing he saw was the cat door and said that is how they come into your house! Excellent time to close the cat door I say… Then out to the yard and holy hell, there is a jungle growing out there – apparently a haven for mice and rats. So I said OK time to employ these little munchkins and cut that jungle down!!

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After dealing with the pantry and the jungle in the back garden the next morning I found a rat scurrying across my bedroom floor, so I yelled: “Quick get a cat up here!!” And another call to the exterminator and he says it’s wandering looking for food… go on, lay out a trap and when we came home from our morning errands that rat was caught dead. Hopefully, now we have got the mice and rats trapped or in places where they cannot escape – I just want my house back minus the vermin.

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And the day finally came to send the kiddos off to school after our wonderful time in Australia. To say I am homesick is an understatement and if I could leave to go back to Australia tomorrow  I would. Still, the value of spending quality time with family is something that cannot be taken for granted and the times we spent together is going to live in my heart for a long time. We just need to align the stars and we will be back home soon…

A piece a Week – Time out to the De Young

| poppypeach
Fashion and Alpacas – yes!
Free tickets from my friend
Exquisite
My favorite fabric in this cocktail dress
Another fabric I love
Love the pockets in this dress
I love the colors

What a special time to go and visit the DeYoung with my friend from Oakland last week. It was my second last week to enjoy time before the chaos of summer kicks in and I have the kids for over 2 months. Time out to enjoy art is truly something that I cherish and the fact that clothes are involved it was even better! I really enjoyed the Oscar De La Renta show with all the color he used in his clothes and the fabrics – I just wanted to touch the fabrics they were exquisite. Working with textiles is like that – you just want to feel everything.

Kay Sakimachi in textiles
Kay Sakimachi in textiles
Ruth Asawa

After checking out the show my friend and I had a quick wander around the De Young and found an inspiring textiles exhibition by Kay Sekimachi – student, teacher, artist with lots of woven textiles in various hues. Before we left the De Young in San Francisco we enjoyed Ruth Asawa in the downstairs foyer of the observation deck.

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Silkworm cocoons and moth

On the subject of fabrics we were visiting the farm at McClellan Ranch on Friday to get some chicken coop training. While we were waiting we visited the Nature center where there was a silkworm moth hatched from its cocoon. It was fascinating to learn about the life of this silk moth – it has 24 hours to find a mate and then it will die. I found this post about the lifecycle of a silkworm and I did not know there was such a thing as Peace Silk where the moths are allowed to emerge from their cocoons and live their life cycle.

When life gives you lemons…
make a lemon shrub

And thanks to the lemonade project my daughter was doing at class I scored more lemons so I have decided to make a lemon shrub for cocktails this summer! When life gives you lemons (especially Meyer lemons!) then make a Lemon Shrub. Friday I went out with the ladies and had a watermelon shrub so what better way to understand what I was drinking – so I make my own.

 

 

A piece a Week – A Pattern Remix

| poppypeach
Sidetracked is what happened to me last week – in a mass of projects I saw this beautiful fabric in my project pile and thought what can I make with this? Then a flash of inspiration came – why not combine your favourite top and skirt combination and see what happens? So I used the skirt of a favorite dress pattern of mine. For the top was a fabric a good friend in Portland gave me last time I visited. I really wanted to focus on the super cute birds in the print and used the Geometric Top pattern from the Burda Sewing Vintage Modern book – I pretty much wear the black version of this top every week to ceramics class and it can be layered with long sleeves and with its interesting cut it sits quite low and does not creep up when I am working on the wheel. This dress makes me so happy as yellow is my favorite color. Currently I am planning my wardrobe for when we leave the country to visit Australia in 4 weeks and it will be winter 😦 at least yellow is a happy colour!
Vintage chick fabric
The front of the dress has pockets – which I love
A V at the back of the top with a yellow fabric I found in my stash 

This was going to be a Mothers Day dress but the day was far from what it is today, which is lovely and sunny! Yesterday by the beach in Pescadero the sun was hidden by cloud most of the day so I made this top in a wool to be worn as a layer. I like the way it turned out and it is a lot of fun with a short skirt and tights – an easy layering piece for a Sunday at the beach in California. 

The geometric top in wool suiting
We had organized to meet our friends from Oakland in Pescadero for Mothers Day for lunch at Pescadero Country Store and after a feast we walked down to see the goats at Harley Farms. There were so many baby goats, way too much cuteness. After our 1 mile cruising walk we decided to go and hang out at the beach for a bit before heading home. Lucky for us we were there in time to see a family of whales swimming by in the shallows. We could see their little fins popping up out of the water and the air from their breathing holes – sweet! While we were at Pescadero there was a parade down the street celebrating the Portuguese community check out the mini horse taking these folks for a ride! 
Dudes strike a pose – loving your mini horse! 
We wandered up to Harley Farms to check out the goats as a tradition of ours for the many years we have been visiting Pescadero – no trip is complete without a visit to the goats! And we were in luck with seeing lots of baby goats and a trip up above the store to the hayloft where sat a huge table and chairs. 

Just like being in Alice in Wonderland 

As it was nice overcast weather we made our trip to the beach for a final farewell to Pescadero.

The pair of us on a rock – very rare photo op!

Missy finds clay and makes a cat

The cat closeup

Adding a bit of detail to the head

A bee in a poppy – one of my favorite photo captures

This guy found a whale bone – not really it is a stick! 

A piece a Week – Halloween Costume inspired by the Renaissance

| poppypeach
This week was all hands on deck to get everything done for my craft show. At least I only had one child to take care of as my eldest was in Science Camp for the week! As it turned out I had the time on minimum day to get a Halloween costume started for Missy. I let her loose in my craft room and she found two totally different florals that work together quite well. The idea for this costume comes from the renaissance fair and all the ladies there in their fine Victorian garb. I found a great tutorial online for the bodice and ended up making the skirt a circle skirt as the fabric on the skirt had such excellent drape that it cried out to be spun around. 
To me the outfit looks more Harajuku Girl  in Japan (not the Gwen Stefani kind!) check out the link for inspiration with the way they mix and match the patterns on their high fashion outfits. Still Missy loves it and has found the right shoes and tights to match the outfit – we worked together to make it happen and she was so excited to wear it! We went on down the park for a photo shoot and got some excellent pics of the outfit though Missy is looking way too serious in these pics 😉

The dress with the added apron on the front

Miss Harajuku

The big circle skirt with a ribbon down the center

Fun with the umbrella in light and shade

Swirling around in an action shot
So it was Sunday I wrapped up the costume as I had some free time to play and not concentrate on inventory! 
And on Saturday from 8:30am to 4:30pm I was at the FabMo Textile Art Boutique selling my ‘Urban Bicycling’ collection. I have to say that the show was an absolute success with 350 people coming through in the first hour and a half. I had a breather to eat lunch at my booth but afterwards it was all go, go, go. I spoke to so many people and got many wonderful comments such as you are very creative, the tulle skirt is just like Carrie from Sex and the City, you know what to do with this fabric (a lot of FabMo folks were inspired to make skirts with their fabric finds), you have such talent, the skirts remind me of Desigual a label from Spain (which was awesome to hear!) and gave out 21 business cards plus half my stock sold – I would say that the show was my best and I loved making the pieces for the show and it has given me faith that this is what I was meant to be doing all along!
My booth in the morning with all the stock ready to go – my $50 A line bedazzled skirt went to a lady who loved it!

A piece a Week – A Back Pack Bag for my friend and the FabMo Textile Art Boutique

| poppypeach
Finally I can breathe without all the deadlines of having to complete pieces for the inventory for my collection for the boutique. Last Saturday’s Textile Art Boutique was wonderful at it’s new location in Palo Alto on El Camino with over 900 people attending!! I was so busy at my booth all morning and the day went by so fast. It was great to see people coming by to have a chat and checking out my booth. Even better was having my friend’s visiting and saying hello! The boutique is so well organized and we were saved by volunteer ‘angels’ to come by and look after our booth for us so we could have a break and eat lunch. I sold around half of my stock with the rest for the next couple of shows I am having near Thanksgiving and also at school. I also have to give some to the Mountain View General Store! 

The backpack bag was suggested to me by a friend of mine and I decided to make a prototype for her just to see how it goes. I presented it to her at the show and she loved it so much that she bought it! What a surprise that was!! So here it is on my friend giving it a trial run and since the show she says that she loves it and it is very comfortable 🙂 I love the velvet fabric!!

My friend ME with her new poppypeach back pack bag
The Textile Art Boutique was such a success this year with many guests and an incredible array of artisans creating so many amazing pieces out of re-purposing FabMo fabrics and more. I found these beautiful earrings that have a fabric back on these beautiful faceted findings. Also at the end of the show one of the artists who worked with clothes offered me this amazing leather driving coat that she had added some lovely velvet applique to the front for a very special price that I could not refuse! That is the thing with being among such wonderful work you have to grab it when you can, and of course support local artists!!
My booth overflowing with my stock! The 8 x 30 table was too small so I had to use the space behind me.

With this hectic week of deadlines I also had a couple of events over the weekend – Trunk or Treat at school and Diwali, Festival of Lights on Saturday night. For Trunk or Treat I went as an ’80s witch with my padded shoulder bolero and vintage Gunne Sax dress I found at Goodwill – boy it was hard to breathe in all that boning in the bodice. It is so much fun to dress up for Halloween, my favourite time of the year!! I am working on my official costume at the moment – it is taking a bit of time but is fun to have a bit of a play with some clothes until the next show…

Trunk or Treat – ready or not here I come! 

Missy wanted to be a magic black cat this year and here she is in her costume of a cat suit and ears and a tail with a treat bag full of goodies!! She collected all the pieces for her costume including the face paint in a bag ready for Halloween – now that we have had a rehearsal it is time for the real deal this Friday!!

What’s new Magic Cat??

 Mr Ash was not so keen for a costume – so his idea for a costume is an elven warrior from Lord of the Rings. He is using his hat in his hand for a treat bag! He has his ragged shorts on and was supposed to have a scar on his face but decided last minute just to go casual with the hat. Let’s hope it comes together this Friday. But the good thing for him this week was that he won an art competition to draw a Halloween monster and was thrilled to get $50 worth of goodies from International Arrivals stationery. Check out his scary monster below!!!

Looking for treats with his friend the creeper from Minecraft

Ash’s art – the original on ruled notepaper 🙂

A piece a Week – Something Small a Spool Necklace and a Mothers Day sale!

| poppypeach
The last week was crazy busy with a camp trip to Butano State Park on Friday with our Grade 3 class families, teacher and school principal. We had a lot of fun and I have not laughed so much in a very long time. I was laughing so much at our singing around the campfire trying to come up with songs for a campfire guitar?? Anyone have any suggestions?? We did the Beatles, The Eagles, Men at Work (for the token Australians), some European folk songs and ended it all with Oh Sole Mio! 
A Banana Slug strikes a pose

We also did this amazing hike in Butano Creek looking for newts, fish and banana slugs! It was very tricky looking at where to step next and which log to climb on and which rock to hop over – it was quite a workout! In the afternoon we went to the beach to see some waves and get some beach air at Bean Hollow. Pebble Beach at Bean Hollow State Beach felt so wonderful under your feet, it was just like a reflexology massage on many pressure points invigorating the soul or maybe it was just the icy cold surf?! The pebbles felt so good in your hands and the beach reminded me of Agate Beach at Patricks Point State Park way up north near the Oregon border.

An ombre seaweed in effect

Pebbles on the beach

A cairn made by the kiddos

The spool necklace is something I found and pinned on Pinterest a couple of weeks ago when I felt that I wanted a quickie project. So here it is inspired by the colors I was wearing that day – I may add a couple of more spools one day. The spools were given to me by a friend who likes to collect stuff for crafts that she may do “one day?” Lucky for me these now have a new life sitting on a necklace I found somewhere in my beading box.

Spools close up

Goes well with the orange top!

And last but not least a mothers day sale is happening at the http://beehive.coop with lots of special goodies for yourself or your mama. Feel free to shop locally with 5% of all sales going to our local Community Services Agency. And if you are reading this check out the information on my etsy site for a special code for zero shipping.

Some of the goodies available on my etsy site

Relaxation for the end of the year at Morro Bay and a very Happy 2014!

| poppypeach
Happy New Year and it has been a while since posts! I think the idea of holiday was not doing anything except finishing up knitting UFO’s (unfinished objects). We went on a great holiday vacation to the Central Coast of California for some relaxation and chilling out from the regular schedule. 
Heading out on our hike up the beach to the pier

The hike to the Cayucos Pier was long and apparently only 2 miles long, it ended up being twice as long and some! Lucky for us there was food at Cayucos and my hubby had his wallet so we could get some tasty fish tacos at Duckies and some ice cream from the Cayucos Candy Counter.

Christmas Day at Moonstone Beach, Cambria

We had a relaxing Christmas Day and up early with the kiddos to open their gifts from Santa and later in the afternoon we went driving up to Cambria to check out the beaches up there. We found a reserve that we could check out some tide pools with hermit crabs and plenty of kelp. As the sun was going down we headed over to Moonstone Beach to see if we could find some moon stones, instead of moon stones we found some lovely rocks for the garden.

Sassy the cute cat living on the pier

We had checked out what the embarcadero had to offer and went to the visitors center to see what fun stuff Morro Bay had to offer. We wanted to see the sea life so we opted for a cruise as Missy Moo cannot be trusted on a canoe!! The guys who took us on our cruise were the Lost Isle Bay Cruisers with a Tiki theme boat – that I loved! We saw sea otters and their babies and seals and plenty of birds – our captain took us to a a secret beach across the estuary to hang in the sand dunes for some solitude.

Ready for our cruise in the estuary

We knew we were back in Morro Bay when we saw Morro Rock on the horizon – it is huge but it used to be a third bigger until the military blew it up to use the rocks to connect the land to the rock as a tourist attraction many moons ago. Still it is a illegal to climb it and you will be jailed and fined if you do – which is fair enough as it is a burial site for the indigenous people and a nesting ground for a peregrine falcons.

Morro Bay’s icon Morro rock – a volcanic plug

The seals that we encountered on our boat cruise were sequestered to a dock that was built specially for them to hang out on. We found out from our cruise captain that sea lions have ears and that is how you can tell the difference between seals and sea lions.

Sea Lions hanging out in the winter sunshine

We had a couple of friends visit after Christmas so we decided to take a trip down to Pismo Beach to see the Monarch Butterflies over wintering in the eucalyptus trees. What a special thing to see as we saw plenty of butterflies fluttering about in the warm sunshine as we were checking out the butterflies in close up through the huge scopes the visitor center had set up.

Clusters of monarch butterflies at Pismo Beach

I had seen many a monarch flying around but I had only seen the caterpillars in pictures and never in real life and here is one of the superbly designed caterpillars grazing on a leaf of the milkweed.

A Monarch caterpillar – so tiny in real life!

Some wonderful photo opportunities were to be had on Pismo Beach with it’s collection of wind blown eucalyptus trees. Being familiar with eucalyptus trees I did not know that they could grow on the beach and be shaped into tree sculptures that are just perfect for climbing or just hanging out in!

Eucalyptus in the sunshine

There were plenty of sea otter photo opportunities – if only I had a telephoto lens with me!! This is one of the better pictures of the sea otters, I love them as they are so cute and a wonder to watch. They eat 25% of their body weight daily and are constantly grooming their fur to distribute natural oils to repel water. The cuteness of them somersaulting while grooming was such a pleasure to watch 🙂

My favorite animal – the sea otter – doing it’s thing 

Another wonderful bird to watch is the Great Blue Heron – these guys have a stunning coat of feathers and their shape is so distinct.

A great blue heron checking out it’s prey
When our friends visited the older kids and the guys were keen for a kayak the girls did another cruise on the bay to visit the rock and the otters. Here we are on the sand dunes playing around. 

On the sand dunes by the rock

At our vacation rental we had the pleasure of using this vintage gas stove. I loved cooking with gas!!

The gorgeous vintage stove at our vacation rental

The day we left it was sad to leave the beach so we filled our lungs with lots of fresh beach air before we left the central coast to head back to the bay…

Our farewell to Morro Bay