Today: the high's and lows...

Augh.

That's the only way I can describe my day. Some highs, some lows...but as the night draws to a close, I can't help but reflect on the day and feel a bit overwhelmed.

 

 

I woke up this morning to find out that my album "Parts of You, Parts of Me" received a really scathing online review yesterday. This guy didn't hold back. He clearly didn't like my music and really went to town on hanging it on the album. I'd like to say I'm tough, I cop that stuff on the chin and forget about it, but unfortunately I'm quite a sensitive soul, and took this criticism to heart. I'm also in the process of recording and playing more music again after a 2 year break, so this has the potential to shatter my confidence if I let it. I know this is silly. I know that when you're an artist you put things "out there" for people to respond to. I also know that a hell of a lot of people, including many industry folk whom I actually respect really love the album, and I know I need to remember all the kind words that have been spoken about my music over the years. But words can cut deep and this one hurt today.

Determined to put it behind me and not mope around all day, I headed up to the hills for a picnic with my 2 little ones, and my gorgeous sister in law Taz (aka Butter and Buntings) and her wee little man. We had a beautiful time in a great spot and with great food (complete with vintage picnic baskets, rugs, mugs, and thermoses of course!!) Unfortunately my nearly 7 year old Coleman Jnr's "quirkiness" got the better of him for a while today, and it was a battle...but, we worked through it, and all in all had a lovely time together. (Thanks Aunty Taz, for being so wonderful by the way! I often find that I can get highly stressed when my "special" child struggles, and it's amazing how often his Aunties and Uncles are in the right place at the right time, and able to step in with love, warmth, humour and distractions when I am running out of all of those things!)

The drive home took ages (over 90mins) and my 2 year old Little Miss was crying all the way home. Yep, the whole time. I was sure it was just tiredness so tried to ignore it and kept driving. When we got home, I realised my poor, poor little girl's tummy was covered in blood. I freaked. Trying to figure out what an earth the problem was, I ripped off all her clothes and found (would you believe?) that there were three leeches on her tummy, sucking her blood. The fact is, she is totally fine, but it was just horrible. I felt bad about the car trip home, and its never nice to see your child in any sort of discomfort.

So they are my lows.

But you know what? Even in a day that's been a little off, I can see lovely and wonderful things in all parts of my day, and I feel so blessed. There is always love and beauty in my life...sometimes I need to look a little harder, but it's always there.

Some of the highs from my day....

 

Spending time with wonderful Taz

 

Kookaburra's laughing at us while we ate lunch.

 

Spending a bit of time outside of my usual urban environment, the fresh air and gum trees did me good.

 

Community meal with friends (I nearly didn't join my friends tonight, but in the end I did, and am glad!!)

 

Hearing my dear friend Sara, sing for the first time.

 

A wonderful, wonderful hubby who picked up on my vibes today and has just gone out to get me some chocolate!!

 

a bag of vintage material from Taz!! (will share later.)

 

Remembering that my problems really aren't that bad.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for reading my little rant.

Mezz xo

Lots and lots of pretty things!

Hi there. I hope you've had a nice week. I certainly have, once again being reminded daily how lucky I am to have all the lovely people in my life I call friends and family. I have also been doing quite a lot of op shopping, and here are my most recent wonderful second hand finds (all bargains!!)

 

 

Dresses!!

 

 

 

a woolly cardie for winter

 

A very cute Apron!

 

I thought I was buying this vintage sheet for $3.50, only to get home and open up the bundle they'd tied and realised there were 4 of them (Queen size!) I'm in vintage sheet heaven right now!

 

 Craft supplies...colourful and cute elastic, big buttons, doilies and velvet ribbon.

 

 Lovely sun hat for little Miss Coleman

 

 2 amazingly wonderful vintage (one even Australian!) handkerchiefs.

 

 a basket...

 

...which became our "Easter" basket.

 

 I found this very old and pretty vintage address book, amazingly its never been used so I can't wait to fill it and get busy posting letters to all my wonderful peeps!!

 

Old school recipe book

 

Don't you love when you find a second hand book, and out falls little cut outs and notes that the last owner had kept between the pages?!

 

I love the look of this typed up recipe for raspberry shortbread. Think I'll give it a go soon!

 

Before I go, thought I'd let you know that I have currently started using Instagram (shock horror!!) I'm trying to post a photo a day of whatever tickles my fancy. Feel free if Instagram is your thing to come find me! Look for mezzcoleman if you do!!

 

speak soon

xx

 

PS thanks for all your feed back re Bloglovin. I will endeavour to set it up soon and let you all know so you can follow "MezzMakesStuff" with it if you wish.

 

 

 

 

 

help! me! Please!!

Hi lovely, wonderful, sweet, good looking, clever, creative blogging friends!!

Feeling special!!?? good. You are!!

I am being extra lovely and sucking up a little bit......because I am having a big technophobe freak out and am I need of some TLC and advice.

I keep reading all of your posts about the "reading list" on Blogger disappearing real soon. Augh. I have only just figured that out, and thought it was the best thing ever, so am feeling pretty sad about that, and confused about what to do next.

How are you dealing with this change? How are you going to invite Followers to join your blog now? I've seen a few people mention Bloglovin, but I haven't quite got my head around it and am not sure what it is and how to go about adding it.

Sorry for the shout out, but if you are in any position to reply with some ideas/info/love that would be awesome!

Thanks friends! I love the way this crafty diy blogging community help each other.

Mezz x

Our Simple Easter Traditions...

I love this time of year. The weather is changing (cooling down here in Australia) the school term is over, and there's a certain level of peace here in our home. Easter is a fairly significant celebration for me and my family, I though I'd share with you the simple ways in which our family celebrates each year......

-A community meal during the week with our neighbours. A chance to catch up, reflect and eat good food together.

-Home made Hot Cross Buns (this was the first year I made these, I'll be doing it again!)

-Simple handmade decorations around our home. I crocheted some Easter Eggs using this pattern, and the kids brought home a few handmade creations from kinder and school. I also cut some beautiful Easter pics from the my new favourite British mag Pretty Nostalgic and popped them up on our front door to welcome visitors...

-Fresh flowers in the home (a nod to our northern hemisphere ancestors who celebrated Easter in Spring)

-Fish and chips on Good Friday

-We keep the chocolate thing pretty simple. This is for a few reasons. Firstly, because my kids go mental when they eat a lot of chocolate, secondly because I'm not quite convinced that mass production of chocolates is what Easter is all about, and thirdly because we are committed as a family to only buying fair-trade chocolate, which cuts out most Easter eggs! Tomorrow, we will melt up a block or two of fair trade chocolate and use Easter egg moulds (which I found a few years ago at the Op shop, of course!) to make a few little chocolate Eggs for Sunday morning. Yum. And totally enough!!

-And we will have a nice breakfast of real eggs on toast on Easter morning.

Apart from the general friend family and community catch ups and time off from school and work, that's about it for us! Whether Easter is a time to have a break, celebrate the change of seasons, or has a some spiritual significance for you, I hope it's a happy one!

How do you like to celebrate? What "traditions" do you and your loved ones have?

Mezz

PS- One tradition that makes me smile is my sister in law Ash, who gets the kids new winter  PJ's every Easter!!

 

Community Crafting...

(the back of my head and the lovely Mayra and Maria...Ash is off to the side!!)

I love my community. I've blogged about it before, so feel free to skip this bit, but for those of you who don't know... me and my family live in a Community House run by the Salvation Army in Footscray, Australia. In this house we currently provide housing to a mother and son who are Asylum seekers (Refugees) from East Timor. Many people from the neighbourhood also participate in activities held here during the week including backyard soccer, community meals, kids clubs and community gardening. (We live here as House Managers, but I'm not superwoman, other people involved in the community organise most of these activites-not me!)

In a very culturally and economically diverse community such as Footscray, I guess this space and the things we do here are about creating a sense of family for those who may not have much family, equality for those who don't often feel equal to those around them, and for all of us a place of safety, warmth and love. It's pretty special, and I'm so passionate about seeing my kids grow up in a world where diversity is NORMAL!! (I grew up in a very white middle class suburb, and so have experienced a lot of this much later in life then my kids.)

Anyway, a few months ago I discovered that my housemate, Maria, crochets. Oh, what joy! She was taught by her grandmother in East Timor, and her style is very different to what I know, but we both discovered that it's just lovely to sit down side by side and do a bit of craft together, and its often in those times together that we have great chats about life, and learn more about each other’s stories. This year we have been inviting other women (nieghbours) to come round once a month in the evening for a bit of crafting with us. There are no rules, no set projects (yet!) or expectations. We just hang out and craft for an hour or two while chatting, learning more about each other, sharing our skills...and drinking tea -of course!!

If you're at all like me, I'm sure you'd like crafting with people in your community too! Why don't you find out if there are any Craft groups in your local area you could join? Or, start one!! Women all over the world a making small (or is that big!?) differences in their communities one Crafternoon at a time!

Mezz xx

PS- I’d love to hear of any experiences of craft groups/community crafting etc. Feel free to share!!