A new top!

I saw this post over on Sippycups are for Chardonnay a few weeks ago and I fell in love with this top.

I had so much trouble deciding which colour to get, but eventually stuck to the aqua.

I ordered it on Etsy and it looks just as good in real life as it does in the photo....now if we could just have some warm Autumn weather so I can wear it out!

And, in a slightly ironic twist.... I went to the Pregnancy and Baby expo on the weekend - no not pregnant just wishful thinking - and one of the stalls was selling cot sets made out of the same material!

Also at the pregnancy expo...I was looking at all the couples and was thinking "I shouldn't be doing this on my own, DH should be here" - then I was like "Hang on Provincial Homemaker, you're not even pregnant!". And, as DH pointed out on the phone that evening, if he had been here we wouldn't have been THERE!

The T-shirt and the Felon

I decorated a skivy as part of the birthday present for my niece's upcoming third birthday. I successfully interfaced the fabric to the top and was quite happy with my puff-paint application - an earlier attempt having gone awry. Not over the top, just some added sparkle. The packaging said to allow 24 hours drying time, so I popped it on the spare bed to dry flat. 30 minutes later I am witness to a dog having a wow of a time rolling all over my puff paint work. She is very lucky to still be with us....I was not best pleased.

Here is the culprit. It hasn't really come out in the photo but she has hot pink glitter paint all through her hair. I hope she is looking foward to a long bath!

The Brontes Went to Woolworths

I have become somewhat of a Virago Modern Classics fiend of late. If I see any I nab them straight away - case in point a recent visit to the UNSW book fair. This title, however, I have been on the lookout for for some time; ever since reading about it in Jane Brocket's The Gentle Art of Domesticity. So, when I saw it at a secondhand bookshop in Newton I grabbed it and expedited it up my reading list.

Rachel Ferguson has created a wonderful mix between reality and fantasy in The Brontes Went to Woolworths. It took me until some way into the book to work out which characters the Carnes actually knew and which they knew only in their imagination.

Amongst the ecletic visitors are Ironface - a doll who converses in French, Pipson - a music hall comic and Judge Toddington, or Toddy as he is better known. Toddy had been studied by the Carne household for some years - ever since Mrs Carne was called to jury duty in his court. They know many of his habits and much about his daily routine. They even keep photos of him.

Things become complicated when Deirdre, the eldest Carne daughterand a journalist, is sent to cover the opening of a charity bazaar. There she meets Lady Mildred, Toddy's real life wife, and a friendship develops between the two families. I loved Shiel, the youngest Carne, who when speaking to Toddy would get very mixed up between what was fact and what had been imagined about him.

And where do the Brontes come into it? The Carnes manage to get in touch with them during a seance in the country, and it seems that the Brontes didn't quite get to day everything they wanted to. They come back to the Carnes city residence to pay their governess a visit.....and then they go to Woolworths.

Loved it! Particularly this line "however modern or sceptic or advanced one may be, there is something about a church more likely to make wishes come true than anywhere else".

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And, in an update to my last post. DH has arrived safely in Baghdad - though I think the heat and dust are making him rather uncomfortable. When I got off the phone to him just over an hour ago they were in the middle of a dust storm. Just 5 months and 3 weeks left until he gets back!

All Alone Again

Well, my husband has now been in Iraq for a week. It seems quite a long time! But I still have 6 months ahead of me - or 25 weekends; not that we have a return date. The last time I heard from him - a one minute 32 sec phone call - he seemed to be doing ok, though the heat and dust was bothering him. He is based at an American Base in Baghdad. Anyone out there got relations serving there?

Lots of people have been asking me how I will cope with my husband being gone. My response is threefold - though I rarely get to outline all three:

1. I don't have a choice - there is nothing he or I can do to change the fact that he was chosen to go.

2. I got help. Me not coping would affect my husband's ability to concentrate on his job - potentially compromising his safety and that of his soldiers.

3. Lots and lots of prayer. We are members of a wonderful church and as a couple we have been put on the prayer points, as well as being prayed for by lots of marvelous Christians individually. I really believe this has made a big difference for me. I am still sad and miss my husband awfully, but I know I am never alone. Also, I know God has a plan for us, even if I don't always get the 'whys' of it.

Anyway, I have to run now...off to Bible Study.

Promise not to be so long between posts in future - work and my husband's leaving has just been draining my creative juices of late.