Sunday, April 14

Did you say....?

Anyone else, have funny little word games you play to diffuse moments can that spoil your time together?

At the risk of being told, we may in fact be the only people doing this, i will share it anyway, to me its hilarious. A total stress reliever. A time to bond with my loved ones, in a way no one else is.
It's memory making.
Its goofy.
It's incorrect. In a fanatical world, with abounding rules, its so so incorrect. I love it.



My husband, was really quite disillusioned when he met me, he did believed he was highly literate and spoke correctly. This was incorrect. To my utter, endless joy.
Sadly for him, little hints over the years had not given him an inkling,  much to my delight!

May i enlighten you with some?



'Nano' nap: meaning; an exceedingly brief sleep.
So called because scientifically a nano is a measure of time.
Therefore to go down for one's nano nap is to sleep for a short time as a refresher.
Oh, the merriment, when i discovered that rather than saying 'nanna nap' quickly, my sweet man was instead calling it a Nano nap. You can imagine that kept me going for a long time, until...
Snickering.
When put in context the sentence would read: "For goodness sake, stop snickering at me!"
Meaning: To tease, and chuckle meanly at someone.
You may be forgiven for thinking this referred to a person who is consuming one or more Snickers bars, but you are wrong.
Rather, this was said by my husband for many years under such a mumbled breath that it was not detected until our marriage union was well and truely underway, making it impossible for me to retreat. When i led him, very kindly, to the correct word, 'sniggering', we BOTH enjoyed a number of days of laughing and clutching our bellies while wiping away tears.
What else had this darling man been mis-using for all these decades?

"In the walls".
This is a corker. This phrase lay dormant until our eldest son turned 2 and began to disregard warnings that he would hurt himself if he continued to balance on the footstool, on the stairs, with drumsticks in his hands....
Low and behold, he would come a cropper and have bruises and lumps the size of eggs and the shade of aubergines to show for it when Daddy came home.
"My, you have been in the walls, haven't you son?". You would think that when i referred to his lesions as 'war wounds' that he may have been given significant pause to consider whether 'walls' was perhaps misplaced in this context. No. So ingrained was this phrase that having listened to my explanation of why this is incorrect, through torrents of laughter and a little bit of jeering, he remained adamant for a little longer until hilarity led to his surrender.
Suddenly, "In the WARS" made a lot more sense, but doesn't nearly sum it up. You see, quite often our son does hit the walls and so in our family it will remain, "in the walls".

Another?
"Characture-ture"
This beauty was very recent and the additional impact of this little number was the vehemence with which it was delivered. Let me set the scene...
One Saturday afternoon, on the sofa, kids are all sleeping...time for some adult conversation and weekly catch up.
My husband was keen to share a funny with me and i am poised.
Most of his stories are not altogether amusing for me a) because i have heard them before (or a version with alternate subjects and nouns inserted) and b) because his idea of funny isn't always mine.
This was one of those times.
But amidst the waffle sprang the word that would make my day; 'Character-ture': Meaning; a cartoon over-embellishment of the real article or truth. Also known as 'Caricature'.
"Wait, what did you say honey, character-what?"
"CHARACTER-TURE" he repeats with a loud, slow deliberation as if i were hard of hearing. But the greater effect came from the Afro-American style head jiggle and neck jutting (Ricki Lake-esque) which was highlighting for him that he had once again stumbled across a word that i didn't know!
Then came the silent type of laughing you do when you are trying to get air and stay alive. In the middle of this i tried to correct his faux-pas, and to add to the funny-factor, there was no fight on my hands instead a dawning of truth on his face followed by his own fit of air stealing laughter!

I am sure there will be more of these vocabulary delights, and i am also sure that there are plenty of hooters locked away in my memory which will burst forth randomly so please be advised for further posts.

Merriment to you all

Shan x



Friday, April 12

Good humour

Living with good humour, has to be one of life's secrets to success.
Especially when your house if full of tiny, little people under 5 years old.
But really, very especially when your husband is one like mine.

Mine is, slow to act, in fact when i met him he was vertically horizontal he was so laid back.
I have spiced him up a little, a lot actually.
More fool me, he began training for Triathlons about 18 months ago.
Being dis-satissfied with this he is about to embark on his first Iron Man in a matter of weeks.
His training schedule has been like something out of the Russian SAS training manual, and naturally it must be done during all weekend hours!
I am very so slightly, over it.

Last night, in those sometimes hilarious conversations you have when just about to fall asleep, i say "Do you think you will actually finish the race?", after he had voiced his concern about the mammoth distances involved.
"Yeah, i will finish, may not be the best time though. " Then there was a tangible moment of male pride surge through the air, and a rumble in his throat.
"Then i will be...an IRON MAN" he rasped.

Good heavens.
Married to an IRON MAN.
Whatever next.

That got me thinking, i, amongst thousands of you, partake in a marathon of child-rearing, with a sewing IRON WOMAN on the side, everyday. Did you get a title and  medal?

So in an attempt to support this crazy man, without actually loosing the plot myself, i think the only thing for it is to give him his title, the respect his is hoping for and wear a little good humour in it all.

God bless the partners and children of imminent IRON MEN everywhere...






Thursday, April 11

Paying it forward

Paying it forward seems to be my theme of the week.
While on the party-gift shopping expedition i mentioned in the previous post, i bumped into a friend, who commiserated with me over the expense of endless birthday invites, but she now has older children than mine, and reassured me this time too shall pass.
Continuing on my way, i stopped for one of my 'holiday coffees' ~these are rare occasions when i get to sit and have a coffee with just one child with me, which to me feels like being on holiday!

In the peripherals of my vision i realised someone was approaching me, in fact they were right behind me and were reaching towards my bag, alarmed, i clutched at my bag, only to hear my friend's soothing voice, say "It's just me, alleviating some of those party pressure moments", as she slipped a gift voucher she had just purchased for me, into my handbag.

As i stood to thank her, hug or and splutter some useless words, wanting no fuss she waved and hurried off, making the moment truly poignant for me, and really in avoiding a display of appreciation from me, she showed herself to be utterly selfless and a real blessing to others. She had acted to bless and not to be blessed.

The same afternoon, a dear friend told me of a teenage boy, no older than 16, hearing from the back of the ice-cream parlour queue that she was short of $5 at a cash only local ice-cream parlour.
The owner, generously said she could return in her own time with the difference, but as she walked out of the doors, the owner, shouted "No worries on the extra this lad has paid for you".
Do you remember, being 15 and every cent being impossibly hard to come by and worth a hang of a lot more than it is now?
Fancy that.

I also read about the 'suspended coffee' initiative in most US capital cities, where you can buy your own coffee and pay for an additional one or more at the same time, which is given to anyone who is homeless, or transient or needs it, at the vendor's discretion.
Imagine that in Sydney or Melbourne...

There is an awful lot of paying it forward happening out there, and probably a hang of a lot more goodness holistically happening all around us than we will ever care to look for, in our hurriedness.
So my mission is to head out on those mammoth grocery shopping outings with 3 kids, or my rampages through fabrics stores, and to be something other than single-minded, maybe to be something resembling socially conscious, kind, aware, on a mission to pay something forward.

Shan x





An aside

There is such a crazy world out there.
And we are right in the thick of it.
For better or for worse, not that i agreed to that.
Here i am designing, creating, manufacturing products from a humble little home, which will be sent out (bought first!) around the country and even the world.
They will be loved, cuddled, and photographed along side many little children its a wonder to me that there is room enough for my growing business in this madly branded, plastic world that we call home.
Oh by the way, we are facing nuclear war...
But there are plenty of coffee dates, morning teas and dreams of house renovations and garden makeovers that i can distract myself with, so not to worry!

As mother of three, I am challenged daily, to juggle what is critical to my businesses, to my children, to my husband and to fit in moments of great humanitarian acts of kindness, naturally of course, don't you? Paying forward a coffee, sympathising with a stanger over an issue that disinterests you, picking up the phone to the high maintenance friend we all have, patience with your toilet-training toddler, letting the person who nipped in front of you take your car spot...
So, whilst walking through a high street store searching for yet another children's party gift, i feel overwhelmingly sad that the act of buying a gift is now so unpleasant.
I contemplated sadly that i never go and purchase new gifts for my children, just because.
I am always counting pennies out of necessity.
I am so disgusted by the volume of gifts, the volume of alarmingly scary dolls, barbies turned vampires, dolls turned into adults, baby toys that cost close to the hundreds of dollars, branding on everything from an eraser to a scooter.

I was just looking for a simple age appropriate gift.
Many hours later, knowing that the recipients' mother would never appreciate handmade, i relented to plastic.

So here i am, thankful again that i can indulge in handmade to my hearts content, that you support me, that you chose one of my fabric designs to give as the birthday gift, baby gift, christmas gift or easter gift that you needed to buy this year, thank you.

As long as my family let me keep on juggling what is important to us, and keep forgiving me when i drop the ball, and as long as you know that i put all that i am into all that i do, then we will be all be just fine.
Korean or no Korea.


Shan x