Jikana Damaru

Children's bedroom lust (the acceptable kind...)

I have a secret passion for decorating children's bedrooms. This secret is so well-kept that even if you visited my actual children's bedrooms, you would not realise this passion exists...

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Although, let's be real here, people. There is absolutely no evidence that a child has ever set foot in any of these magnificent bedroom showpieces and even if they did they would be instantly chastised for leaving marks on the air.

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I think sometimes I am just too practical and stingy to be a truly good decorator. Cappers bedroom is a lovely space, but she wanted pink, pink, pink and that's what she got (note absence of pink in stylish rooms above). There was a reasonable blue ticking roman blind on her bedroom window when we moved in and I managed to convince her that it was permanently glued to the wall. Turns out that blind saves the room from looking like a particularly messy marshmallow.

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For The Badoo's room, I made about 60 colourful printed butterflies (that's right, 60 of the little devils - see WMG for only possible explanation) and strung them back and forth across her room. They look beautiful and as a newborn she was fascinated, but that was the beginning and end of decorating The Badoo's bedroom. Make that practical, stingy and lazy.

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Maxi-Taxi's room is huge so the lonely bunting I hung in the window is the equivalent of hanging one balloon and calling it a party. But, you know, boys are hard work to decorate for if they're not especially nautical and oh my, have you seen the price of kid stuff these days? Besides, I have a book to read. Practical, stingy, lazy and unmotivated.

But I'll continue to dream that I'm none of the above. That I have both the capacity and desire to furnish my home in a manner that is individual, appealing and effortlessly chic. And practical. Oh, and cheap.

The tic tock of a boy's life

Yeah, so Maxi-Taxi has developed a new nervous tic. He's had tics off and on since he started school in January this year. Mostly on. He brushes his hand down his face and then the back of his head. Or he quickly touches both ears and then his chin. Or sometimes he touches each shoulder and opens his eyes really wide. He's very busy. Sometimes when he gets tired there's so much activity going on that I'm tempted to throw him in the bath with the washing.

The fact that I can make a joke like that shows just how far we've come. When the tics first started, we were horrified, baffled and frightened. Ahead I saw a lifetime of over-clean hands and shouting out fuck at old ladies on public transport. He was just so little and so new and we saw this tic business as just another overwhelming thing for the poor lad to have to deal with. We contacted the school counsellor who assured us that tics were relatively common children prone to nervousness start school. I googled the life out of it, of course. 6-8% is reasonably common compared to other weird (0.5 - 1%?) stuff kids get up to. Anyway, to reassure us, the counsellor met with Maxi-Taxi and gave us a call following their meeting.

"He's fine," she said. "Actually, he's beyond fine. He just described anxiety in the most articulate way I've ever heard."

He said: "T he world is a very big place and doing this makes it feel smaller."

My goodness. Were these funny little rituals the reason why my usually anxious little fella was coping so beautifully at big school? Indeed, they were Maxi-Taxi's comfort and friend and while I can't say we also became besties, I suddenly saw the tics in a whole new light.

Since those early days, they've slowly been reducing in number and frequency and they stopped altogether for a day or two over the school holidays. We can assume that they're probably just a temporary thing. With the threat of total life malfunction behind us, these days they're just something he does.

That said, I mentioned there's a new one. At football training on Wednesday I found myself saying, in reply to a direct question: "no, no he's been totally nit-free for a week. He's just scratching his head constantly as a comfort thing."

All eyes on Maxi-Taxi. Doubt in those eyes. Heeeeelllloooo Nit Boy.

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Summer ice cream delights

1. Blue pudding spoon
2. Strawberry lolly mould
3. Cuisipro® ice cream scoop & stack
4. Sandcastle bowls
5. Twenty English rose paper napkins
6. Maxwell Williams ice cream sundae bowl in pink

This week in my series of posts, "Fridays Finds", I bring you a collection of delightful ice cream finds. I am so in love with the sandcastle bowl; so retro and cute! How good would those strawberry moulds be filled with this yummy looking strawberry ice cream?

Don't forget you can click on any blue lettering in any of my posts to link through to the relevant store website or blog post for more info!

Have a sweet day!

Going Red

Millie at The Laurel Hedge has asked us all to go red as it is Go Red for Women Day - the Heart Foundation's campaign to raise awareness for heart disease - pop over and visit Millie to find out all about it.

I am now going to step away from my pink self and GO RED - have a lovely weekend everyone.

Looking Through Your Window

At 17 months, Fern is a child well established into a routine. All the experts will tell you that children thrive on routines... and by-damn if they are not right! Our routine changes and fluctuates, of course, and from time to time goes completely out the window. But it remains a routine nonetheless.

I'm lucky (and unlucky) that my child likes to have two daytime sleeps as part of hers. These days, she sleeps about an hour-and-a-half between approx 8.30am-10am and then again from 1.30pm-3pm.

So, I get two small windows in the day in which to organise the lives of my household and get 'stuff' done. Inevitably, my morning 'window' is 95% taken up in cleaning up the house from the morning tornado, doing some washing, having a quick shower and throwing some clothes over my bod before my window closes and Fern is UP.

So, it's not really until my lunchtime 'window' that I ever get to do anything for myself. In an ideal world, I'd take the phone off the hook, make a (decaf - I've forced myself off coffee temporarily) coffee, ring a friend, start a craft project or catch up on a magazine/ novel or even (gasp) watch some mindless TV. There's no reason why I can't do those things... except that most of the time, I don't.

In my hour-or-so that I get to myself each day I normally feel too guilty to do other than throw a sandwich down my neck and make myself busy around the house. The ironing. The folding. The sweeping outside. Paying bills. Organising dinner for Fern. Writing blog posts!

The problem is, I feel too guilty to relax.

I have magazines sitting on the rack from 6 weeks ago that are still inside their cellophane (hello, free tea-towel edition of Inside Out). DVD's I have never watched. Neatly folded squares of material inside their original brown paper packaging.

Why do I feel too guilty to take proper time-out for myself?

What do YOU do while your children sleep? Be honest - how much time do you take for yourself??

What I learned* this week including the benefits of procrastination

In a week of redheads, sister-lovin' and afternoon teas, here's my top 10 things to know.

1. Some people just aren't that nice, including (shock!) in etherspace.

2. Since "mede-tai" means happiness in Japanese, sea bream ("tai") is traditionally served at weddings. (For more utterly fascinating things to know about Japan, contact Maxi-Taxi whose class went Japanese for the 'World Cup Week' at school.)

3. It's possible to like OTT bitchy, gay males after all. Michael K over at dlisted is hysterical and not too annoying.

4. Not that I really care, but I when I learned that "Kendra Wilkinson believes her sex tape will make her a better parent" I had a little chuckle. Especially when she goes on to say "We're not going to have kids just because a sex tape came out. That's just stupid." Gold.

5. The kids clothes at Ivy Design are fall-in-love beautiful. Look out for The Badoo in the little number above come Springtime.

6. 'Jedi' is an official religion, with over 70,000 followers in Australia. A little concerning, maybe it could be the new Scientology?

7. LOML is a saint. (We really should get around to The Badoo's christening!)

8. Fancy hairdressers charge obscene amounts of money to essentially do something that Cappers does well. Cut stuff. Maybe Cappers can cut my hair next time...

9. Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise. Thanks for jamming my head with this fascinating fact, Mirg. I especially appreciate the lecture about Venus not fitting in with the entire rest of the universe while Mars is fitting in just fine.

10. Companies such as 3M and Google have cottoned on to the amazing creative power of procrastination. A portion of every employee's working day is set aside to 'work on anything they like' (apparently most of the geeks play chess) and the distraction alone is often enough to get their creativity firing again. 3M estimate that this 'bootlegging hour' produces up to 40% of new innovations for the company. Breathe again.

What did you learn this week?

[Image: Ivy Design]

* There's been some debate about whether this should be 'learnt' or 'learned' and I admit I've spent countless sleepless nights tossing and turning it inside my restless, weary mind. I think 'learnt' is old-school correct, but either is acceptable these wanton days. Mum? Anyone?

Desserts

Just over two weeks until Indi's first birthday party so my head is filled with so many ideas - I keep finding gorgeous photos of lovely dessert buffets and and with each picture I head in another direction - I just need to stick to an idea and go with it - no changing the menu.

This time the table will be filled with more desserts as opposed to lollies as it is afternoon tea with lots more adults. I spied this lovely photo today over at My Sweet and Saucy - so beautiful - look at those macaroons and what a table!