A rainy Saturday and sweet pastry pies

Gosh I don't know what came over me. Well, OK, maybe I do. I've been eating extra carefully lately, and have started missing baking - the soothing activity of baking at least as much as the eating. So on a quiet and wet Saturday afternoon, when I couldn't not bake anymore, I decided to do something I haven't done for a while, and bake something I haven't baked before. If you follow me.

Why

A friend has asked me if I would like to be the next in a line of bloggers who are writing posts about why they write. It's a topic that I often consider, and have briefly tried to explain before, and so I was very keen. There was a list of questions, which I'm afraid I have taken very little notice of, but essentially, here is my answer. Much of it is also based on my writing on my other blog, Griefprint:

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  A portrait of my children every week for a year.

Discipline is freedom

It's a strange phenomenon, but I suspect it is fairly common and I suffer from it dreadfully. It really needs a name. It's the inability to adjust when you are hurtled from long phases of intensive parenting in to a period of (supposedly) blissful quiet. Many of us get it, and I know I am lucky to; it might be a few hours in the morning while the kids are at kindy, daytime naps or short evenings when the kids are asleep and you are not quite, an afternoon alone thanks to the grandparents, a quiet weekend day when Dad takes over, or many long days when the kids start school. Whatever it is, you are shot out like a cannonball from one world in to the other.

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 A portrait of my children every week for a year.

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 A portrait of my children every week for a year.

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    A portrait of my children every week for a year.

Shelving it

 For years now I have been totally obsessed with The Design Sponge's Sneak Peeks - a place where you can check out the interiors of some gorgeous homes that generally belong to arty/crafty/designer-y people. They're always lovely and outrageously tidy, but they're real and full of personality and often second hand bits and pieces, which I love.

Be encouraged, friend. Parent.

Hey lovely Mammas. What a heartfelt reaction there was to the lovely article I linked to on my facebook page called "It gets easier" by Emily at Jones Design Company. Gosh we all need some encouragement don't we? It can be hard having small children, and it is hard not to get stuck in the trenches. Isn't it lovely when someone pops over the top and tells you the view is pretty good up there?

A day in the sun

We visited Leacroft Nurseries on yet another beautiful Wellington day. All this lovely weather is getting me thinking of my new garden, though this particular trip was for fun more than work. We found plenty of beauty, topped off with some exquisite pain...