It's oh so quiet

It's been way too quiet these days in my little corner of cyber-world, but time has been hard to come by. Always someone needing something, something needing to be done and me needing to rest from these somethings and needings. My silence does not mean nothing has been happening. On the contrary, things have been happening that I've wanted to share. Discoveries, milestones, creating, inspiration and such.

:: Discoveries. My frequent visits to the local second hand store finally paid off. I've been on the prowl for fancy china - gold trimming and petite flowers, something that makes you think of mild-mannered old ladies with white hair tied in neat buns and well-manicured fingernails.  I want to start a tradition of celebrating special occasions by eating from our lovely old-lady china, but I don't want it to be something I'm afraid the kids will break - hence all the visits to second hand stores. I was hoping I'd find something before my sons third birthday, but no such luck. Instead I found this 48-piece set of plates and cups for a whooping 150 crowns. Wow. I love the retro look, the set has just the right touch of  "the 70's called and want their china back". Perfect for everyday use! The search for old-lady china goes on.

:: Milestones. We celebrated this biking fanatics third birthday. Third. It's such a cliché, but time really has gone by too fast. I'm always a bit down around his birthday, I guess I sort of grieve the year that has gone by. I've had to say goodbye to two year old Sebastián, and reminisced about one-year-old Sebastián, baby-Sebastián, the birth, the pregnancy, the longing. At the same time I'm so proud of all the progress he has made and look forward to seeing what this third year has in store for us.

:: Creating. Birthday boy ordered a crown for his birthday, so I took Claire out of the storage room. Claire is my sewing machine, named after the friend who sold her to me (You do name your appliances, don't you? Perfectly normal behaviour). Claire and I don't really get along. That is, the sewing machine and I. Sewing brings out the worst in me, but I cut and sewed and swore and glued and swore some more; and it was so worth it. Birthday boy loved the crown (and I loved that I had made it). I found instructions for this crown in Amanda Blake Soule's book "The creative family".

:: Inspiration. One blissful morning I woke up to the sound of my new coffee machine grinding beans for my morning coffee, it was a lovely sound to wake up to. I actually got to drink that coffee in peace and catch up on some blog reading. Ahhhh the small luxuries in life! While reading, I came upon this post, which touched upon photography. I'm no photographer, half of the time I have no idea what I'm doing, but I do enjoy exploring the world with my camera. So, since I have little time to sit down and write these days, I've decided to jump on board on this 30 day photography challenge. I'm way late, this challenge was posted in May, but better late than never, right?

So, here we go. Day one: Self portrait