How the universe kicked me in the guts

I’m pretty sure the universe is playing games with me. Like seriously trying to mess with my head. After a string of bad luck last year with injuries and illness, I was hoping 2014 would see us back on track. Then this week, the universe lifted its big old, booted leg and kicked me in the guts.

The good news is that we are only about 7 weeks away from moving into our new house. I cannot begin to tell you how happy this makes me. After feeling like a nomad for the past 18 months, I’m so close to my own home I can taste it. It kind of feels like those last few weeks of counting down when you’re pregnant – knowing something awesome is about to happen and you just can’t wait. It doesn’t help that I’m a terribly impatient person.

The bad news is we found out four days ago that water had gotten into the shipping container storing about 95% of our possessions – and the damage was extensive. My husband and I naively had an idea in our heads of what this might mean – maybe a few things that needed to be chucked out, maybe some cleaning. We had no idea, I mean NO IDEA what we were about to witness when we walked into the warehouse where our belongings were now strewn across a concrete floor.

It was actually the stench that hit us first. From about 60metres away actually. It was putrid and suffocating. Then we saw a pile of what looked like our furniture, linen, clothes, toys – basically every material item we possessed; bar some basic clothes, shoes, toiletries and some toys that we have with us now – only it didn’t quite look right. Everything was destroyed. Black and white mould encasing furniture, clothes literally falling apart, toys looking like they’d been dipped in a swamp. It was shocking and horrible. We spent the next four hours wading through the remnants of our lives – with gloves and masks on. The end result is our one and a bit shipping containers full of possessions has now been reduced to pretty much what would fit on the back of a ute. Talk about an ultimate de-clutter!

 Yes, that IS a two seat Phil & Ted pram in there. I'm seriously spewing about that. And that wooden thing sticking up was a piece restored for me by my late grandfather. 

 My great hockey comeback might be delayed a bit. 

 These were going to be storage in my new sewing room *ahem* I mean, study. My daughter's bed and son's cot in the background. 

 We dragged those blimmin' clay pots all the way back from Vietnam

Mouldy kitchen stools anyone?

We were lucky in that somehow most of our photos survived. Our wedding photos, including the negatives, appear to be mould free. Thank goodness for those brilliant plastic boxes I’m so fond of! Our wedding was 10 years ago, before the digital photo revolution, so if these were gone, we would have had nothing. Also saved seem to be the prints and negatives from our travels before we had a family. Most of the treasured furniture that my late grandfather made will make it, after being professionally restored. 

Unfortunately, the little table and chairs he made for my mother and aunt when they were little girls about 55 years ago, was not so lucky. It’s now a sodden, filthy mess and will sadly become landfill. Just a little piece of furniture that served three generations of my family.

I’m well aware that many people will call me shallow and tell me that I should be grateful I have my family and that I was able to save those few treasured items. And I absolutely agree. I shouldn’t measure my happiness by the material goods I have displayed on shelves, hung on walls or even worn every day. In fact, I’m acutely aware of this.

But I’m also mourning the loss of many, many sentimental items that whilst being of little financial value, are completely irreplaceable. The artwork, embroidered linen and jewellery we collected in Vietnam, the Eiffel Tower fridge magnet from Paris (I know, how cliché!) and the vintage brooch I got at a market in Belgium cut deep.

But even deeper, and what’s keeping me up at night, are the baby blankets knitted by my great aunt for me when I was born and my children when they were born. The cards from friends and relatives congratulating us on the birth of our children. First birthday cards, the 50-year-old mixing bowls that belonged to my late grandmother, and the framed photograph that a very dear friend gave us for our wedding. A very dear friend who is no longer alive. Every hour I remember a little something that was important to me that is now gone forever. 

My head is telling me it’s just stuff and I need to get over it. I’m even rationalising it by thinking about families in war-torn countries who literally have nothing. Nothing! But this is my reality, my life and this is how I feel right now – heartbroken. Right now I’m upset about all the things I no longer have to remind me of events in my life. And that’s what they are. Memory joggers. And they were very special to me and my family.

Yes, as friends have pointed out, I’ll get to go and buy new ‘stuff’ for my new house (although it will be on a very strict budget because we were SERIOUSLY under-insured, like 1/5 of what we should have had – make sure you have adequate insurance folks!) but right now I’m just not in the mood. So I’m going to wallow in my misery for a little bit – and that may or may not include eating copious amounts of chocolate. I will get over it but just not quite yet. Will someone pass me those Lindt balls please?

So here's what you've missed.....

Well first of all I'm disgusted that it's been over a year since I last wrote on here. Shameful!! But here's a few words........oh and here's a pic of Milla's birthday cake from this year. Terrible photo and terribly rushed cake. I think I'm jinxed when it comes to her birthday parties - last year a broken finger 3 days before and this year the worst sinus infection I've ever had.

So here goes......you know at the start of Glee where one of the characters super speedily gives you an update of the past few episodes? Well here’s my super speedy, almost breathless update of what’s going on at the Millamaloo show.

"So the craziness started when my darling Milla broke her arm at school. Two weeks later my dear husband severely broke his arm. Surgery, 2 plates, 2 pins, 16 screws, 12 weeks off work, and 6 months of rehab later he’s kind of back to normal. Then I was diagnosed with Ross River Fever (probably because I was pretty much a single mother for 3 months - my hats off to single mothers everywhere. Frankly, I'm not cut out for it!). Little boy Dane (3) diagnosed with a speech delay and started speech therapy. And all the while we’re busy demolishing an old house and designing and building a new house – and moving house 5 times in 16 months. On top of that I’ve got my ‘real’ job as a research analyst for a media company and a wee little business selling orthoptic eye patches that I started in July last year. And that’s what’s happened in my little life in the past 6 months."

So now that you’re kind of caught up, here’s where it’s at at the moment. My little eye patch business has gone ballistic. Like, totally NUTS! Here I was thinking it would be an order a month and I’d do it just to help other patching families out (little boy Dane has been patching for 3.5 years). But apparently there are about a billion kids in Australia having to patch an eye. Okay that might be a slight exaggeration but you get the drift. So my little community service venture has ended up being a real business. Unfortunately not real enough to quit my day job but that’s okay since I really enjoy my day job. But I certainly have learnt a lot about setting up commerce websites, setting up companies, getting insurance etc etc. Good learning curve. 

This is my bubba boy when he was little. His eye is so super blue because he wears a contact lens in it. It's tinted blue so it's easier for us to find in the carpet, on the grass, in his bed etc (yes, that happens). 

So this strange little turn of events, discovering this tiny little niche market, has meant that sewing & creating time for me is almost non-existent. I spend my mumma days being a mumma (who am I kidding, that's a 24 hour a day job!), work days working and my evenings working (or folding mountains of washing). Add to that the fact that we’re living at my mother-in-law’s until our house is finished, and my sewing ‘space’ is a small desk shoved into the corner of a store room and I’m not feeling particularly creative. Space is probably a bit of an exaggeration there actually. It’s more like a spot. Or a piece of carpet. Sure, I've made Dane a library bag for kindy and Milla a new dress but other than that it’s been ‘real’ work, ‘real’ work and ‘patch’ work all the way.

My fantasy of course is that when we move into our new house in a few months, I’ll also win lotto and not have to work at all. And then I can sew to my heart’s content and enjoy my totally awesome new sewing room. 

This is my craft room as of about a month ago. 

It has external walls now and hopefully plasterboard by the end of next week. Yipee!

I’d say the reality will be that my sewing room becomes a bit of a shrine to that creative spark inside of me and when my kids are grown up and I’m semi-retired I’ll be able to use the 5 gazillion metres of gorgeous fabric I have piled neatly in lovely shelves around my beautiful sewing room (at the moment they’re piled not so neatly into cupboards in the aforementioned store room).

Such is life though isn’t it. Sigh. So anyhoo that might explain why there’s not a heck of a lot going on in Millamaloo land. But I tell you what, if you need some eye patches I’m your gal!  Hopefully see you in a few months when my new sewing room is finished, I've won lotto and/or I’m semi-retired ;)

Milla's Mary Poppins Party

Just wanted to share with you some pics of Milla's 5th birthday party from last week. Ever since her grandparents took her to the Mary Poppins musical for her 4th birthday, she's been in love with all things Mary. So she was pretty keen on the idea of having her party themed around Mary Poppins.

I got the great printables from Cutie Putti Paperie and the wonderful Wendy from Party Carousel worked her papercraft magic on them for me (while all my papercraft tools still sit in storage, aargh!).

Milla was thrilled with her party and despite chucking a wobbly when she didn't win pass the parcel, had a great time. And we finished the very hot day (I really did NOT plan her due date very well) with a lovely swim at the beach with some of the party guests.

I was a bit disappointed with how some of the treats turned out after I injured my finger 4 days before the party so was working with only my left hand (I'm right handed). Mum helped me out heaps but it was still a little frustrating that things didn't look the way I wanted them to. Oh well, mister 2 is turning 3 in March so I can hopefully do better then :)

 My first attempt at a 'buffet table'. 

 Best and Less dress 'hack' to make a summer friendly, Mary Poppins inspired Jolly Holiday dress for the birthday girl. She loved it but it got too hot so only stayed on for about at hour. 

 When I iced these cupcakes it was 34degrees celsius and 78% humidity. NOT ideal conditions LOL!

 Yes, these are supposed to be carousel horses ;)

 Plan D for the birthday cake. I was going to have my first attempt at covering a cake in fondant but it was a little tricky one-handed so I gave up. 

 Mum and I got sick of rolling out the melting cookie dough, hence the squashed round cookies. 

Goodie bags with chalk inside (if you're not familiar with Mary Poppins, Bert does chalk drawings that Mary and the kids jump into).

Winner of the $5 Dress

Hope you all had a great weekend...we spent the morning at the beach which was just stunning. A good reminder of why we decided to move here :)

Congratulations to Kelly Evans who is the winner of the $5 dress! Her answer definitely struck a chord with me at the moment:

"For Xmas I would like a few extra hours in the day... Extra hours to do the household chores, extra hours to play and entertain my girls, extra time to spend with hubby when the cherubs go to bed, ..an extra half hour in bed.... Now that would be nice !"

Thanks to everyone that entered, I really appreciate it.

Kelly, I'll be in touch.

Want a $5 dress?

I'm getting into the Christmas spirit and giving one lucky person a Millamaloo dress for $5 - which includes regular postage within Australia. It will be a peasant dress (same style as the one in the picture above) and the winner can choose the size from 6months - 10 years. I'll pick the fabric but I promise it will be lovely. You will be able to choose whether it's a Christmas fabric or not.

Want to be in with a chance to win it?

All you have to do is :

1. share a picture from the Millamaloo Christmas Market Night album on Facebook
2. email/message me with what you want for Christmas

The writer of the most creative email (as judged by ME) will get the $5 dress.

You'll need to share/email by 9pm Friday 23rd November 2012 to be in with a chance.

Don't forget my Christmas Market Night is on:

Friday 23 November
from 7pm
on Facebook
www.facebook.com/millamaloo
All you have to do is be the first to type SOLD in the comments box after I announce Start Shopping on the page wall. Feel free to ask me any questions you might have about how it will run etc.

Note : I will choose the winner and no correspondence will be entered into. So please be nice :)
Oh, and I will be able to tell if you've shared the picture too, so no sneakiness ;)
The above picture is one from the Christmas Market Night NOT the dress you will get if you're the winner.

Two days ago I found out that one of my childhood friends has breast cancer. She’s 34 and has two children under the age of three. No doubt the shock of the diagnosis was far more serious for her but I felt like I’d been slapped in the face. Hard. Really hard.

Here I was moaning and feeling sorry for myself because we’ve just moved we’re living in temporary accommodation (which just so happens to be a holiday unit) and I’m anxious about all the new beginnings involved with the move. Then I found out about my friend. As often happens when we hear of dreadful things happening to people we love, our own challenges seem quite pathetic.

How on earth do you process the fact that a friend you had sleep overs with, talked about boys with, partied with and graduated with, is now facing the greatest fight of her life. How can I help her when I live 2000km away? What do I say? I just don’t know. I didn’t want to call her when I found out because I knew it would be a difficult conversation. I called. And fought back tears the whole conversation. Although we were close in school, our paths diverged after we graduated and it’s been a ‘long distance friendship’ ever since. But this friend has always and will always hold a special place in my heart – even if I forget to tell her and she has no idea how much she means to me.

We (or maybe it’s just me) get so caught up in our own lives and the things that directly impact us, that we’re just oblivious to what’s happening in other people’s lives. And it’s not until something so serious, so dreadful and frankly, so frightening, happens to a loved one that we stop and take stock of our own lives. And stop complaining. And stop procrastinating. And start living. Living for TODAY.

 

So while I try to process the idea of my friend going through chemotherapy, losing her breasts and her hair and possibly not getting to see her children grow up, I’m making it my priority to enjoy, or at least stop complaining about, what’s happening in my life. Because seriously, it’s just not that bad is it? If you read this, hopefully it will make you stop and think about all the good you have, like it did for me.

My friend is strong. And I’m sure if anyone can make it through this it will be her. I really hope so.

Introducing.....Millamaloo Littlies!

I know in a previous post I have complained about the difficulty of making dolls but after MANY hours of practise I have almost mastered it (Milla only has about 3 'rejects' now!) and I am so in LOVE with making them. I believe each one has a big personality for such a little doll (they're only about 30cm from head to tippy-toe). And it's so much fun working out what they'll wear and of course...their names!

I know I jump around from one idea to the next a bit, and it's probably a little confusing for everybody, but I do hope that Millamaloo Littlies are here to stay as I have some awesome ideas - ideas that I actually haven't seen anywhere else, so hopefully you haven't either.

We're moving house in 3 weeks but only to temporary accommodation (apparently I'm supposed to pretend we're on holidays for 2-3 months - how the heck can I have a holiday without my sewing machine????). But hopefully once we're settled and I get my dream house that has a sewing room (well, I did say 'dream'), I'll be able to see all my ideas come to life. My little ideas journal is starting to get very full!

So here's some pics of my Littlies so far. They are all adapted from a Dolls and Daydream pattern (Sarah's patterns are brilliant) but I hope you can see all their individual personalities like I can :)

Seth is part of the Collaborate for a Cause charity auction but all the other dolls will be available in a market night as soon as I can make a few more to go with them. I don't want them to be scared and lonely before they go off to their new homes :)