Chatting with Cezanne

When we were in Perth during the week, I took the girls to the Art Gallery of WA. I know. I am still recovering.

 

But I desperately wanted to see the exhibition "Van Gogh, Dali and beyond" which is full of artworks currently on loan from the Museum of Modern Art.

 

I loved it!!

 

Even before we walked in, while we were waiting in line to enter, I caught a glimpse of the entry artworks through the door. Oh, my!!! There was the Van Gogh, but wait! Right next to it. There, glowing on the wall, a Cezanne still life!!! Ahhhhh!!!

 

*sob*

I could have stayed in front of this painting, blocking everyone else's view, for hours. But I had the girls with me, and standing still is not something they are renowned for! And so, on we went.

 

The girls found the kids' art activity section - yay....

 

And Miss E thought the view through the window into the next room was far more compelling than the stunning artwork on the wall. Hmmm.......

 

The second half of the exhibition was viewed at a rather rapid pace, but that wasn't too bad. I had to exit the room to take the girls to the toilet, which meant that we had to re-enter, past the Cezanne, in order to see the remainder. Really? I have to walk past the Cezanne again? If I must :) !

 

I haven't felt such an emotional response to an exhibition since I saw a Brett Whiteley show at the gallery in the late 1980s. I think. And the biggest difference in those 25 years in terms of gallery etiquette would have to be the plethora of technological devices that people now take with them into exhibitions, and the NUMBER of photos that they take - hey, I'm one of them (obviously!), but it just seemed, well, wrong.

 

Great exhibition, great day. And great buddies - my friend Julie and her son came with us and I am eternally grateful for her kid wrangling assistance while I was being hypnotised by Cezanne.

 

This exhibition is worth every cent, and, if I manage to get myself back to Perth before the exhibition closes in early December, I am going to have another chat with the Cezanne painting.

 

xx

Handy parenting hint

 

 

One of the best bits of parental advice I have been given by a friend is this:

 

If your child is having a case of the attitudes, if they shout or speak to you in a rude manner, if they forget to say please, or thank you....

 

to help them think about their manner and give them time to take a breath and regroup,

 

 

say, "I think you should try that again."

 

 

This has been brilliant for me with my sometimes moody brood! It helps to diffuse overwhelming emotions - on both sides! Of course, there are times when a little person's emotions are completely out of control and in need of a different strategy, but 4 times out of 5, this works a treat.

 

So, thanks, Deb! Mwah!!

 

 

Do you have a favourite handy parenting hint to offer?

What helps to calm your little people down?

 

 

On another note, we had another 'magic day' yesterday - the weather was glorious, and we took the opportunity to head east to Cheyne's Bay/Beach, hence the photo at the top. Beautiful day!

 

Hoping you all had a lovely weekend.

 

 

xx

 

 

 

 

Easter Outings

 

If we weren't painting the front room* this Easter weekend, then we were playing with friends, new and old**, eating chocolate, or spending time at the beach.

 

I gotta tell you, I've been thoroughly enjoying this landscape painting, material collecting, research caper! And while the weather holds, I am planning some more field trips this week. Yippee!

 

Hoping that you have all had a wonderful weekend.

 

 

Sam xx

 

 

* It looks amazing! Shame about the furniture.

** Loooved seeing friends from our old Mundaring stomping ground.

Easter Baskets aka Paper Plate Playdate Joy

 

My girls have been making their Easter Baskets, as we do each year, and this year I decided to 'magpie' the idea of how to make them from Miss M's basket that she made last year in Pre-Primary. We set ourselves up outside and invited over two of their new Kindy friends to make it a very social occasion.

 

How simple is this?

 

A decorated paper plate with cuts aimed towards the centre, evenly spaced around the outside edge, and then overlapped and stapled into the basket shape.

 

If you want a smaller, narrower opening to your basket, make more cuts or overlap more of each cut segment when you staple them. If you want it larger, make the cuts shorter, don't make so many, and don't overlap them so much.

 

The handles are made from strips of strawboard (card) that I have gently pulled over one of my fingers to give them a soft curve before stapling them on to the basket base.

 

Once the basket is constructed, it can be embellished to a little person's heart's desire! One idea is to use coloured tissue paper to mache over the staples. In our case the girls raided the glitter supplies. Yes, glitter is sprinkled from one end of the house to the other, but special occasions require such abandoned glitter application!

 

 

 

 

Yay! Easter Egg Basket Paper Plate Joy!

 

Now, where's that vaccuum cleaner??

 

 

What are you making for Easter with your children?

Do you have any creative kids' activities to share?

Hoping you are having a great weekend.

 

 

Sam xx

A sense of Community

I love The Weekend Australian Magazine – when I can get to it - and this week I managed to steal some time on Sunday morning and actually read the articles. One in particular, “That’s the Spirit” by Miriam Cosic, a discussion about people’s sense of community, caught my attention;

“We’re losing our sense of community, it’s often said. But is it true?”

That made me think.

G and I moved up to the Hills 8 years ago. We based our decision on financial limitations and a search for certain lifestyle options. It meant a move away from my family and my main circle of friends. It meant we would have to find new connections in our new suburb.

Our initial attempts to form friendships with neighbours weren’t helped by the neighbour’s dogs’ incessant barking, nor the three cars of police who turned up early one morning to have a chat with another neighbour, not realising he had moved out weeks before. And just as well!

But it wasn’t until we had our first daughter, and I attended the local Child Health parenting classes, when I met other women who felt equally out of their depth as I did. I was naturally drawn to other mothers in my age vicinity, all of whom had had careers before children, so we felt a certain affinity and formed a Mothers’ group. One of these women in particular has become an amazingly loyal and dependable friend – we babysit each other’s children and help out each other when we can. I found community through having children.

In more recent times I have found an online community – other craft bloggers who are also trying to find a way to document their creative lives and have something that belongs to them. This is bringing me great satisfaction as I can dip into this creative world while staying at home with the children.

In the end, trying to find a connection with our immediate neighbours hasn’t been a total failure. Our most recent neighbours, R and L, moved in 18 months ago. Their children are the same ages as ours. We share life similar values. We all have a meal together every couple of months. We fixed the fence so the kids can talk and play without becoming impaled on the wire. We discuss the laying habits of our respective chickens. We discuss the imminent dispatching of roosters.

And on Sunday R helped us out when we really needed it.

G was collecting wood from the official Department of Conservation site – the girls and I bought the permit for that on Friday. Unfortunately, once ensconced in the bush, G’s ute decided not to start. He was stuck, but after a 4 km walk in steel capped boots to get mobile coverage, and another 4 + 7 kms out to the road, he managed to get hold of me, and I managed to get hold of R. And R graciously agreed to help us out.

Not such a cheap firewood experience as expected but, for the cost of the car trailer hire and fish and chips with R’s family, we all arrived back home just after dark, firewood in tow.

Is our sense of community disappearing? I don’t believe so. It just changes as our lives change. We find community where we make it and where we find people who have similar life beliefs. And I’m extremely thankful that some of them live just over our back fence!

Sam xx

Edited to add:: School P & C meetings are also a great way to develop community. Besides, you can find out some great .....information .....along the way!!

What do you think?

Do you agree that our sense of community is disappearing?
To what communities do you belong and how did you come to be part of them?

Friends, “friends” and FRIENDS!!!

I am lucky. I have six Very Good Friends and have known them en masse for over 20 years. Two of them I have known for over 30, since Year 8. These fabulous women are not just my friends, they are my FRIENDS!!

Last year we decided we needed a weekend away together. This year, we decided we needed another. Because, while we still manage to organise ourselves to meet every couple of months, that just wasn’t enough. Because we were missing things in each other’s lives. Because our own lives were so busy. Because we needed to!

So, we went away.

And we talked.

We talked about our families, we talked about our children. We talked about mothering, home management, food, recipes, time-saving strategies, husbands, marriage, friends, fears, schools, other mothers, books, news, extended families. We also talked about 'paid work'; the paid work which was ours, that we wanted, that some needed, and the reasons for that need. We talked about whether it was ‘worth it’; is there enough balance? No balance? Two of my friends decided to quit their paid work because there wasn’t any balance anymore. And we decided that, whoever is responsible for the saying was right – that you can have everything; you just can’t have it all at the same time!* And then we ate a LOT OF CHOCOLATE!

And we also recognised and acknowledged how lucky we were that we had the support around us, whether other friends, family or husbands, who helped to look after our families while we were away looking after ourselves. Thank you!

And then we went to lunch** and, funnily enough, talked some more!

Sam xx

* Was it Oprah who said that?!

**We had a fantastic lunch at the Aravina Estate, Yallingup - the photo above is the view from our table on the verandah. Yum!