shop and stuff

I have been incredibly slack in the whole keeping my Blue Caravan 'shop' stacked full of deliciousness, but wait no longer, I have finally added a few new tops as well as some of my headpieces (due to many requests). Here is a sneak peek.

I didn't quite realise that it would be quite a bit to juggle; the balance of sewing for markets, completing orders, being a present mother, partner, friend, all matter of other stuff, oh yeah me and ahem (and I use this very lightly) a house keeper and maintaining an online shop, but I do hope I will get there.

Ahh, a keeper of the house, when I was living in Sydney, I was, as some of you could attest, a pretty diligent housekeeper, I do enjoy clean spaces and the feeling I get when there isn't stuff everywhere, I was not anal, not by any means, but I did like finishing the day with a pretty clean house. Yes, it was hard working out that balance with children but I was determined and I did it. However interestingly since moving up here, in particular since I really started sewing (to sell things) and since I have someone else to do the housework with me, I really just don't care as much.

Sure I still love it when the house is freshly cleaned, everything in it's place, with little corners of beauty everywhere I look BUT when I weigh up whether I would rather do pretty much anything else or clean, pretty much anything else now wins me over. I think finally my priorities are in a better and more relaxed position. In saying this we don't live in squalor but I happily leave clean washing in the basket begging to be put away for a few days, dishes can stack up around the sink,  I don't constantly pick stuff up off the floor, it can stay there for a while, the bathroom floor often has dirt marks on it (a beautiful bathroom but somebody thought it was a good idea to put unsealed tiles on the floor, these are so so hard to clean, so often I just leave them, knowing that as soon as I turn around they will be dirty again), sometimes I even just throw an item of Poe and Ilo's that has been left around the place into their room (if the room is in a state of disarray anyway), yes throw as in chuck on the floor with little regard and that's okay.

I do go through my argghhh moments*, when things do stack up and everywhere I look makes me cringe,  which usually lead to a big house clean (usually this strikes once a week, usually on a Friday) and luckily I usually have a few helpers. And I love it when this happens, I delight in it as well as the decluttering that often happens when a big clean sweeps through the place and it does last for a couple of days til stuff just starts flowing out of doors onto floors and random surfaces and as I am relatively newly 'cleansed' I see it and I just walk past it.

The other night when we went out for Thai on Father's Day, Poe piped up with a birthday present idea for him, "I would love the house to be clean, that would be good,  could you just let me sleep in and you all do it whilst I am sleeping so that I wake up to a clean house". Ah, yes, I am sure that can be arranged.

He was also the one who rose early the day I was getting back from Sydney to clean his room, Scott could hear him pottering about, sweeping under his bed, all because he thought I would like it, I did (he also enjoys it as well, he loves setting up little displays in his room, sometimes he even takes out all his clothes, folds them all and puts them back, other times there are just clothes strewn everywhere in the desperate bid to find just the right outfit to where to school, to dinner, to a band, to bed, just the right one).


* I also find reading other blogs (like this one or this one) can lead to arggghhhh moments, feelings of inferiority and uncleanliness, especially when you see beautiful light, amazing objects, spotless floors and dust free spaces, but then i remember that often i only show these things too, which means they too must have dust bunnies hiding under couches and cobwebs in the corner of their windows, unless of course they are super human beings, which might also be a possible explanation.