Life and death

Just as we have experienced birth this week we have experienced death. Today we found this dead mouse in our shed. I showed the children and we talked about it and then I buried it in the garden.

Our newest babies

It all started last December when we decided to get the children some Guinea Pigs. We received a hutch off Freecycle a good year or so ago and had been waiting to move to our new place before committing to getting any animals. Both my sisters have owned Guinea Pigs and both had very, very different things to say about keeping them. Put it this way, only one still has them.

Anyway, we decided to give it a go. I didn't think much about where to get them. I presumed pet shops got them from breeders and that was probably better than someone selling them from their backyard. We wanted two as I had read they like company and I thought two females would get along better. We headed off to our local pet shop to find they only had one small black and white female. Star Girl said she wanted that one, so we decided to take her. As the assistant popped her in to a box he laughingly said "She's a bit fat, or maybe pregnant"

We headed off to another store to see if we could find another one for Star Boy. No luck. All males. We took our new pet home. Star Girl named her Fonzii. She settled in straight away. The following day we headed further afield and found a store with many females. Star Boy selected a lovely orange Guinea Pig, with a white blaze on its nose. He named her PeeCee and we took her home to meet her new room mate.

Boy can Guinea Pigs eat! They love to eat, but we noticed Fonzii could way out-eat her companion PeeCee. After about two weeks I started to suspect she was in fact pregnant. I could feel kicks! Being unsure about Guinea Pigs let alone pregnant ones, I thought a trip to the vet would ease my mind. The vet confirmed my suspicions. We had no way of knowing how far along she was, so we took her home with strict instructions not to handle her and to wait.

We only had to wait two weeks though. Early one morning I popped out to check on our pets only to see a small blackish shape skitter off to hide at the back of the pen. Fonzii had birthed her babe some time over night. Only one, but he was huge! About one third her size and so precocious. He was eating and running around only hours after birth.

Baby Guinea Pigs are gorgeous! They are alert, eyes open and hair covered at birth. At 3 days of age I had a look to see the sex of the babe. I was fairly sure we had a boy. Star Girl got to name him. She chose Arki. Just for comparison sake though, I thought I would have a good look at both our females to make sure. This was where things got complicated. PeeCee was not a she, but instead a he! How did this happen? The pet shop checked at the point of sale and confirmed that we were buying a she. What had we done?

They had been together 3 days post birth and Guinea Pigs are exceptionally fertile post birth. I immediately separated them. Poor PeeCee was put into a small cage, where he fretted and pined for his love. I had to find a new hutch or make the decision to give away our female. What if she were pregnant though, and I was burdening someone else with the same thing we had just been through?

I turned to ebay and managed to find a double story hutch. At 3wks of age Arki needed to be weaned from Fonzii so as not to get her pregnant. He went to live in with PeeCee and we waited. It wasn't long before we started to suspect another pregnancy. She was eating and drinking a lot and growing too. I couldn't use her nipples as a gauge this time though as she has just weaned a babe. The weeks felt like agony as we waited to feel familiar flutters, but they came. Excitement, worry. Back to back pregnancies are tough on Guinea Pigs. Would she be ok? Would the babies be born alive?

She grew and grew and grew. We all tried to guess how many she was having. It had to be more than one this time, she was HUGE. Two? Three? Maybe more?

We waited and watched, checking on her often. Then late last Monday night I popped down to see how she was going and spotted a wee babe sitting next to her. I raced up to get Dadda Star. The children were asleep. We tried not to disturb her, and squinted in the dim light to see what was going on. She seemed to tuck her bottom under towards her belly as the babes came. We were having trouble working out if she had just birthed one, or if another was coming. Gradually we noticed more babies. How many were there? Were we seeing the same one multiple times? She was busy cleaning them all and doing a fantastic job. We spent about 30 minutes with her before deciding she had finished birthing. There were four babes! We couldn't wait for the children to wake in the morning to show them the new arrivals and here they are:

We think this was the last born babe. He is a boy, Star Boy has named him Milo.


This babe was number 2 or 3. She is yet to be named.


This is the first born babe, he is a male and Star Girl has named him Levi.


Meet Cinnamon, a little female born somewhere in the middle and named by me.


And lastly, this is Arki. Only 10wks old, but so much bigger than his siblings. I think his Mum was about this age when we got her. He is just lovely.

Although we have had a crazy initiation into Guinea pig ownership I wouldn't change it for a thing. They are the loveliest pets, all with different personalities. The children adore them, and so do I.

Sewing and a new camera!

I have been doing a lot of sewing and really enjoying it. I also have a brand new camera! I hope to be back in this space more regularly this year. We sold our old home and moved house last year so blogging took a back seat while so much was happening. I would like to return to documenting our lives again here this year now that we are settled in our new home.
Hope you are all well.

Winter already?

Where is this year going? I cannot believe it is already Winter. I have blogged so little about this year. I stopped posting and have found it hard to get back into it. We have been doing lots and my hard drive is full of photos, I just haven't had the desire to put them here. I don't want to look back and regret not keeping it up, so I am making the effort to get back here. This is what our Autumn table looked like this year. Maybe I will get a pic up of the Winter display before Spring arrives!

Happy Easter

May the glad dawn of

Easter morn bring joy to you.
May the calm eve of
Easter leave peace with you.

A most favourite time of year here. It is also a 5 day weekend here in Australia, as ANZAC day falls straight after Easter. We have been enjoying the lead up to Easter. I have been doing some crafting. I tried my hand at some crocheted baskets. The first one I did was in twine and boy was it hard to work with!


Feeling somewhat frustrated, I switched to wool and came out with this result. It actually sat better when turned inside out.


I ended up making two of them. One has become a nest for a mumma hen and her chicks. I might try making some large ones too.


I made another felt rabbit to add to the ones I did last year. This time I used brown felt. I needle felted the tail on too, not that you can see it in the photo.


I also tried my hand at some seed pod candles. I have had the beeswax here for ages and the pods too, I just needed to get around to getting some candle wicks. They were super easy to make, but will not burn long and must be watched carefully as the pod could burn too. These might be good as floating candles.


I made a large candle with an old jam jar also. It was a really lovely jar with very straight sides. It made a beautiful looking candle. Looking forward to lighting it.


Last weekend I went to a needle felting group with a friend. I have wanted to try this for so long. Now that I have, I wonder why I waited so long to try it. We made a little acorn person first and then an angel figure. She was designed to be hung up, but I felted her base solid and now she stands up.


The eggs I made via wet felting wool over a polystyrene egg. They were not as easy as I thought they would be and I ended up using needle felting to fix the imperfections.


Just another picture of our table. The chicken was made by me as part of our play group craft. She is filled with cloves and other wonderfully aromatic things. The smell wafts through the room during the day and it just lovely.



We have immensely enjoyed having Dadda Star home today. It's just so nice having everyone home together. I have spent the day cooking. I started with hot cross buns first thing in the morning, after awaking to the sounds of Star Boy in the kitchen. He helped me make the dough and requested some be made without raisins. My recipe uses icing for the crosses, nice added sweetness.



For lunch we had prawns. The children and I took a trip to the market yesterday to buy the seafood. We always eat fish on Good Friday. Not because we are religious, but because I like the tradition of it. I got to the fishmonger and could not remember what fish are the more sustainable types to buy. I know Snapper is not a good one, but we rarely eat fish and I like it and I know how to cook it nicely. I knew the children would eat it too. I will make more effort next time to make sure I purchase a more sustainable fish.


I cooked it in the oven, with tomato inside as my Dad says this is a good way to cook fish. I once again made the dill and walnut pesto to accompany it...Yum!


After our trip to the market yesterday, we did our egg dyeing. I had purchased a lot of dye satchets last year and not used them. I only experimented with red dye last year, so decided to try the blue and the yellow dyes.


I picked some various leaves from the garden and also used some Dill from the market. I read that herbs are used traditionally, but wondered whether they would block the dye as well as a thicker leaf would. As it turned out, the Dill worked really well. The leaves from the Potato Vine gave good results too. The Rosemary and Lavender were not as effective. They look lovely though and the prints are even more amazing in the flesh.


After I finished dyeing the eggs, I threw some fleece in the dye pots! The first lot came out very dark. I then added another lot and got softer colours. Finally, I mixed the blue and yellow and got some lovely green shades. Looking forward to some needle felting with this wool.

Lost time

So I have been absent from my blog awhile now. I must get back to making time for it more regularly. Here is a whole bunch of what's been going on in our life. It was birthday time when I last posted. Here are some photos of the cakes I made for the children. Baby Star wanted a cement mixer.


Star Boy had a sting ray.

Dadda Star had the day off work for Star Boy's birthday and we took him to the zoo. A friend told me they had Rays there and we had already been to the Aquarium this year, so a zoo trip was nice. We sent a lot of time at the Ray tank.



Here is the finished library bag I made for Star Boy's birthday. He chose the materials from my stash. This was the closest one to red that I had, red is his favourite colour. I think I may have got the measurements around the wrong way as it is a bit wide. Star Boy isn't happy with how the handles work either and I think he is right. But I am new to sewing and enjoying what I am making, so I will stick at it.


Play group days. This particular week it was the puzzles holding Baby Star's attention.


A morning at home building. This is a train building set, but the children create all sorts of things out of these pieces. Some tussles ensue and I am forever finding the pieces all over the house, but it really is something they enjoy.


Our recent cooking! Date breakfast muffins. These are so wholesome and yummy. A pity the children won't even try them, but all the more for me!


More choc chip biscuit making at Star Boy's request.


I have found myself becoming interested in raw food recently also. I have borrowed a few books from the library. Some of the foods require a lot of preparing and dehydrating. Until I can dedicate myself to it more I am sticking with the easy things. The deserts have grabbed my attention the most. I made this raw berry tart for our wedding anniversary. They were individual serves.


And this Banana Pie was heavenly. It's a pity you cannot see the base in this photo.


Green smoothies have also been on my agenda. This one contained banana, kiwi and spinach. Trying to at least have them each day.


The children find a fruit and nut platter more to their liking! With a few pieces of white chocolate thrown in.


Another healthful thing I have started is to get back into walking every day. I started on our anniversary. I knew walking at night would quickly grow thin with me, so I did something really difficult and committed to getting up every morning and walking early. I now get up at 6am and walk for nearly an hour. After a month of this it is now becoming second nature to me. I didn't realise how much I was in need of this. Early morning walking is a great start to the day, it really clears your head. Here are some photos of where I walk.


So peaceful.


Yia Yia and Papou have had no baby chicks hatch this year so they purchased 3 young hens from the market. Star Boy shows little interest in animals, but Baby Star was drawn to them. Here Papou is encouraging her to pat them. Unfortunately there are only two now as one died a few days after this photo was taken.


Star Boy prefers to make things. Here he is at the Stiener School fair hitting some nails.


Our local community centre also had a woodworking display set up one weekend. Knowing they had things on for children, we went along to check it out.
They had boat building for the little ones. Each child helped make their own boat.


Baby Star had watched closely as Star Boy's was built and she was able to help out with her one.


Back home we tested them out in the bath and it wasn't long before the children wanted to get in, as you can see in this photo. The boats did not float and they are now painted red and green!


Now for some crafting. Remember all that raw fleece I had stashed away? I finally got it out and tried my hand at dyeing it. I used saffron for the dye. Not sure what I will use it for yet.


Another thing I am planning to make are some purses for the children. This is what I want them to end up looking like.


Here is the one I have started.

Three little Librans

Myself and the wee ones are all Librans (poor Dadda Star). So it is birthday season for us. For my birthday we went to Kalista and visited Epoche. What a lovely store! I made a few small purchases as I could not resist. We had milkshakes in a cafe for lunch. My Mum was with us. We didn't get many photos that day as Star Boy was all out of sorts.


For Baby Star's birthday we went to Bundoora Animal Farm. Dadda Star had the day off work and it was a lovely sunny day. We enjoyed seeing all her favourite farm animals. We all had the best day ever.




Aren't the goats just adorable.


This year was also my year for giving only handmade or secondhand gifts to the children. I had big plans, and not all came to fruition, but I will share them here.

I purchased this doll bed in January from an op-shop for $6. The next task was to make the bedding. The pillow and mattress were made from an op-shopped chenille bedspread. I then made a calico lining and stuffed it with sheeps wool. The crocheted rug I have posted about before here. The wool for it was a mixture of re-purposed and op-shopped.

And here is the doll who sleeps in this bed. She was made in Canada by a wonderfully talented doll maker. I used the children's birthday money from last year from my in-laws to buy her and her brother, who you will get to meet soon after Star Boy's birthday.

The moment after the presents were unwrapped. Sharing some cake together. The blurry yellow box is her jewelery box I painted. You might remember it from past posts too. I didn't get to put any new jewelery in it though.


This Echidna was another op-shopped gift. It was brand new.


Other things that we have been doing include cooking, of course! These biscuits were made by the children and Dadda Star. Plenty of homemade jam still in the cupboard.


Many a butter cake has been made in these parts recently too.


We also tried our hand at some crayon making, or rather recycling. All the children's old crayons were broken so we sorted them out, melted them down and made some funky new ones.


Cooling down after coming out of the oven.


The finished crayons.


Testing them out and seeing who gets which colour!


In the garden we have been planting out the dill seedlings. I just put them in amongst the plants. Now I just need to keep the snails at bay!


We paid a visit to the cat shelter in Greensborough one day too.

I thought it might be nice for the children to see some cats and have a think about whether we should get a new one. We didn't get one, but we had a nice time there anyway.



We have had a bad run of illness at our place over the past few weeks. Star Boy came down with a tummy bug first. After some wayward vomit ended up on Teddy, we finally had a reason to wash him.


On a trip to Hawthorn to drop some stock at one of the stores, we stopped for a treat of macaroons. They were all so beautiful, but at $2 each, we all had to settle for one each.

Star Boy chose lemon and I think his was the nicest. The rosewater one was very sweet.


As always, I get to the end and feel I have not taken enough photos, or posted enough lately. Hope to amend that over the next few months.