A Sketch of Milla

I was super enough to have Sarah Gauntlett (Blog | Instagram links) do a sketch of Milla a few days before Christmas.

How delicious does Milla look on paper?

As usual, I think Sarah nailed her subject, and in only a few hours as well! I'm hoping she will be able to squeeze in Katie too, but i'll keep my fingers and toes crossed in the mean time!

If you love Sarah's work, you can buy some of her talent for your own portraits. I've seen the rest of her work too, she wont let you down! She completely amazes and inspires me in every way.

Thank you SOOO much Sarah! This portrait will adorn our walls for the rest of our lives x

((photo:: from earlier this year, I photographed both my girls in my wedding gown))

The Press Summer Starter

A few weeks ago MrMoo and I walked 10km in The Press Summer Starter.

I was a bit dubious going into a "fun run". Running / dodging scooters and prams is not fun.

I really wanted to ace the training for this, since I only trained for 2 weeks leading up to a 14km at the beginning of the year which I ran alright in. I wanted to see with proper training what I was capable of!

Unfortunately. Life. That thing that gets in the way of good intentions. Sickness, busyness, holidays. Training was put on a hold and a week before the event we re-assessed our goals and decided to go into aiming to have fun and spending some time together.

We borrowed an extra buggy so we could both push the girls, went for a quick walk the night before the event and that was about all the preparation we had! Oops.

[[That's MrMoo there with the buggy. What a hottie.]]

And you know what? It was actually FUN!

The organisers had a different live music station every 1km, and on most of the lampposts inspirational messages. There was selfie stations and dog water bowls along the way. The girls sat happily the whole way. It was a great atmosphere!

And then we hit the bagpipes about 2km in played by two young boys.

Bagpipes man. Back in my home town they are played at nearly every funeral. I cant shake a feeling of emotion and grief when I hear them, and from that point on I had a lump in my throat as I walked the course.

I felt like crying nearly the whole way, there was just so much emotion around, walking next to my fellow cantabrians, down broken streets with joyful families waving us on in their dressing gowns. *gulp*

Surprisingly, I have continued to exercise following the summer starter, I have been for a few walks and runs since, and I hope to work on my fitness and strength over the summer time too.

It feels good to move, to release the days stress, to work my lungs and feel my muscles stretch. My body and mind feels much better for it.

Thanks Press for putting on such a great event!!

Mindless Sewing

Welp. It appears I'm not much of a "relaxed sewer". So many of my IG friends rave about their love for sewing straight line after straight line, letting it relax them with mindless sewing. 

I've found through this scrappy quilt that I loathe mindless sewing. I find myself grinding my teeth, hunched over, trying to sew as fast as possible, and then becoming frustrated that my last hour of sewing produced only a small square for a very laaarge quilt. 

Um. Sucks. 

I do love sewing, and I feel like it generally releases tension in me (unless I'm unpicking). But I think I need instructions, steps, different lines to sew, things to piece together, garments appearing before my eyes, satifaction! Ah yes, that all sounds SO much better than teeth grinding mindless sewing.

But alas, I plod along with my scrappy quilt, its not getting any smaller so that's something to take comfort in.

I have also started a luggage weekender bag (which is an insane pattern. The most complicated thing I've ever attempted.), and am re-doing all the cushions at Kindy, so I've got plenty to help me procrastinate from this mammoth scrappy quilt! Hehe.