a pink canary's nest

Making Mondays: Sunprints

2009-05-11T18:45:00.002+03:00

Hello! I have just put a new post up over at my new blog: www.thelightgarden.blogspot.com. I hope you make the trip over!

A present for me?!

2009-05-01T14:09:00.002+03:00

I have just posted over at my new address...hope you make the journey over: thelightgarden.blogspot.com

Making Mondays: Fabric Bread Bag

2009-04-27T20:49:00.003+03:00

Hi everyone!

I have just put a new post up on the blog at my new address: http://www.thelightgarden.blogspot.com/

Hope you make the trip over!

Moving to a new address ... my new blog!

2009-04-24T14:11:00.008+03:00

Can you believe I have been posting for over a year here at a pink canary's nest?!

It has been wonderful. I have made some fantastic friends, been inspired by some amazing people and I have been able to show my family and friends (and anyone else that is interested!) what our life is like here, what Yashar has been getting up to and how he is growing. Thank you all so much for reading, looking, commenting and for all your support. It really has made such a difference to my life here.

I am hoping this will all continue over at my new blog: thelightgarden.blogspot.com
I would love to see you all over there.

p.s this change is all part of the exciting leap I am about to take of opening an online shop. Aaahhhh! Exciting but also a little scary! More on that very soon!!!

The World According to Mom: Around the World in 80 Clicks

2009-04-23T12:55:00.003+03:00

As today is Children's day here in Turkey I thought it was an appropriate time to post this.

I was recently asked to be part of 'The World According to Mom: Around the World in 80 Clicks'. Basically it is about finding at least 80 bloggers in 80 countries to describe 5 things they love about being a mother. It all started with this candid post at Her Bad Mother.

And like 'Her Bad Mother' I do not love everything about being a mother. Sometimes it is hard, sometimes things don't go according to plan, sometimes I just want a break. But it is all part of a package, a life changing, all consuming package that I don't regret opening.

So, apart from the obvious...the love I have for Yashar, the strong bond we have developed and that basically I think that he is the most amazing and wonderful being on earth...here is the top 5 things I love about being a mother (in no particular order):

1. A rediscovery of the simple joys in life. The pure, untainted emotions. Stopping to look at a flower, or a rock, or a piece of grass. Taking things slower and being forced to live in the moment.

2. A connection with my community. Turkey is a very special place where children are truly adored. Because of Yashar I have been able to feel connected to a place so different from my home. Because of him I know our neighbours, local shop keepers and baristas. Whenever we leave the house we are stopped by numerous people wanting to say hello to Yashar, to have a quick chat, to ask how we are. Because of him I have been able to build new relationships with so many people, people that I can meet with if I'm having a hard day, or if Yashar needs a playmate, that help us when we need it, people to enjoy our life with.

3. Having Yashar has allowed me to live a more creative life, to give me time to explore what it is that I really enjoy. Of course, at times it is hard to be creative when so much time is taken up looking after him. But for the most part he drives my creativity, both in my limited spare time and through being creative and playing creatively together. I no longer work for the man and that is something I love!

4. I love that, because of Yashar, getting outside every day is mandatory. We go to the park, go for walks and soak up the sun every day we can. I'm not in an office, in artificial light, that I don't leave until after the sun goes down. We notice the seasons, breathe the fresh air and listen to the birds.

5. The smiles, the love, the hugs and the laughter.

I was also asked to nominate other mothers to participate so I have picked three women who have given me inspiration and support as a mother:

Keryn from eightydaysdesign
Simple Answer
Tanya from forty-two

if you have time (and I understand if you don't!), I would love to hear what you enjoy most about being mothers.

Tulip time at Emirgan Park

2009-04-21T11:42:00.023+03:00

It is tulip festival time here in Istanbul. Although tulips are mostly associated with the Netherlands, they are actually indigenous to Turkey and central Asia. And so tulip season here is celebrated, especially at Emirgan Park.

It is so gorgeous there! If you ever have the chance to visit Istanbul at this time of year don't miss it. We always take our guests there and when we took my mother in law there she cried!

The park and the three restaurants within it (I have posted about one of them -Sarı Köşk- and some of its history before) are all run by the council and they have spent a lot of money recently improving the park, building new playgrounds and preparing for the tulip festival.

The amount of tulips alone is amazing. What a gorgeous way to spend a morning!

Yashar weekly photo: amongst the tulips

2009-04-18T16:46:00.004+03:00

Little Lamb Cards

2009-04-15T17:41:00.001+03:00

Some little Spring lambs! I know, I know - a little late for Easter, but these are fun to make for any little Spring lambs you might know! Yashar and I made these – last minute of course – for his friends from our wonderful Saturday playgroup. Yashar actually really got in to this activity- I think it was because the cotton wool was so tactile and because he knows what sheep are he could make little ‘maa’ noises at them – very cute!

I’m sure you can work out how these was made pretty easily, but I have put it down step-by-step for your easy crafting pleasure! For the non crafty types, please look away!

1. Firstly, while Yashar was having a nap I quickly drew a little lamb and then traced a few of them on to some thick paper (I used watercolour paper). If you would like to make some of these cards and don’t feel like dreaming up the lamb yourself, please feel free to copy my one.

2. Now get the glue stick out! This is a favourite activity of Yashar’s! With some guidance from me he put some glue on each of the lambs’ backs very nicely. Then I had to sneakily tempt him away from the glue stick and give his hands a quick clean so that the cotton wool didn’t stick to his hands instead of the cards.

3. Yashar loves pulling things apart so we then spent some time breaking up the cotton wool.

4. And then I showed Yashar how to put the cotton wool on the lambs’ backs and away he went. For some reason, saying ‘pat-pat-pat’ as we went really gets him into doing this activity.

Yashar also liked ‘patting’ the lambs afterwards hence the slightly bent card in the photos!

Yashar Weekly Photo: Party Time!

2009-04-14T08:44:00.003+03:00

Yashar had such a wonderful time at a little friend's birthday party on the weekend, which included an Easter egg hunt! I couldn't believe how quickly those little kiddies were at picking up all those eggs!

I just realised that I tend to pick the calm, peaceful photos of Yashar as my favourites (I wonder why!)...I mean I could have picked one like this where he looks like he's about to go have a slug of some red cordial, shove some cake all over his face and go rip some dolls heads off... ;)
ps. since there is no Easter holiday here I have claimed one for myself! So I will be posting 'Making Mondays' on Wednesday this week - yep, I'm really shaking it up around here ;)

What it means to be a good mother...

2009-04-08T22:31:00.001+03:00

First of all, thank you so much for your emails and comments about what it means to be a good mama. They really meant so much and for me, they articulated many of the thoughts swimming around in my head. I loved how it was put in this comment:

"I think that deep down, a good mother is one who makes her children feel loved completely and utterly...is their biggest fan."

Also the importance of patience, encouragement and living in the moment were mentioned. I plan to remind myself daily of all these things. For most of us, I think, parenthood is an amazing learning experience, a time when life is shaken up and changed forever. Patience, support and finding joy and peace in small things every day is so important.Looking back, some of things I really appreciated (and still do appreciate) about my mother is that she was always there for my sisters and I, to encourage us, support us and love us, no matter what. I liked that she had a life outside of parenting and a strong independence (a good example for us I think), but no matter how busy she was, or what else she had happening in her life, we knew we could count on her and that we were her first priority. She gave us so much love and such a strong foundation for us to go ahead and live happy lives. So thank you Mum and well done to all the wonderful mothers out there.

The Pebble Vest for Spring

2009-04-06T12:05:00.003+03:00

I decided Yashar really needed a little woollen vest for Spring. I found the free pattern for the Pebble Vest at The Thrifty Knitter (via Soule Mama). I really liked this pattern. It was so quick and easy to knit up. I'm a pretty slow knitter and this was complete in less than a week -I just worked on it most evenings while watching a movie or a couple of shows.

The pattern is sized for a baby, but I just used a thicker wool and larger needle size (5mm), added two extra stitches to the front and back (so CO 84 instead of 80) and it worked out perfectly. The finished vest measures 33cm lengthwise and 30cm across.

There is something about the vest that makes Yashar's little round tummy look so cute!

Yashar weekly photo: Still loving bath time!

2009-04-03T20:45:00.001+03:00

I'm bringing back the 'Yashar weekly photo'. Yay! So...now that the weather is warming up Yashar is enjoying his long bath times again -(remember this?). Only now he gets to control the shower head (a very important job) Oh and he can splash waaay bigger now!

On being a mother...

2009-04-02T12:52:00.003+03:00

Sometimes I find it hard to believe - not only did I have a baby, but now he's not a baby anymore, he's a little boy! This is him at 3 weeks old. So small, so fragile. At sixteen months, he has really started to become so much more independent, running around at the park, throwing himself face first down the slide, learning new words everyday, wanting to be able to put his shoes on himself...

Something that is often in the back of my mind is whether I am doing a good job as a mother...and what on earth does that mean? I think that people are often quick to judge mothers (and fathers), to jump to the conclusion that if a child is behaving in a certain way that then the mother must being doing something wrong, that if a child is crying then the mother must be doing something wrong and so on.

I also know that mothers can be so hard on themselves. I know I can be. I often feel guilty for wanting time to myself even though part of me knows that this is important. And then there are those times when Yashar starts screaming in the supermarket, or tries to hit me in the head with a toy or snatches pencils away from other kids at playgroup and, even though I know these things are 'normal' for this age, I wonder, am I doing something wrong, could I be doing something better?

So what is a 'good' mother?? Of course there are the basics - Yashar is fed, safe and generally healthy. But then more difficult questions emerge. Am I providing him with enough opportunities to develop and learn, and is he learning the right things, does he get enough attention from me and his Baba, am I strict enough, am I too strict, does he need more structure and organisation to his days, am I too 'go with the flow', is he having enough fun!? When is enough enough? And what about me?!

Everyone has their own way of dealing with it, there own style of parenting. But it's also so valuable to learn from other people's experiences. So, for you, where is the right balance? What do you think makes a good mother? What was it about your own mother that you are thankful for?

I would love to hear from you all.

Making a Kusudama

2009-03-30T16:17:00.005+03:00

As soon as I saw this on Folding Trees I knew it was my next project! You can find the tutorial on how to make the kusudama here (part 1)and here (part 2).

I used this pretty wrapping paper that you might remember from my little paper hand project. It worked really well for the kusudama because the back of the paper is a darker blue colour which you can see in the centre of each flower.

The tutorial doesn't specify what type of glue to use but you need something fast drying because you need to hold the paper in place until the glue dries. I used superglue, which was great because it dried so quickly but not so great for breathing in fumes :( and then there was the time I stuck my fingers together, um, make that three times. Argh!

In the tutorial beads are used to tie on the bottom. Instead I used some wooden buttons - you can see how I tied them on -just threaded the string through two of the holes and tied a knot above and below each button.

This project took a little while but was perfect for doing on the way to and from my mother-in-law's (much safer than knitting in the car!) and while we were sitting around there on Sunday (because just sitting around doing nothing much tends to drive me slightly insane!).

Got a spare 3.3 million?

2009-03-29T08:41:00.006+03:00

Last night we went out for a quick walk just as the light was fading. We headed to a little parcel of vacant land that we spied about a month ago. It's in a quiet little area close to where we live at the moment.

The light at this time is so beautiful.

We talked to a couple of locals and found out that the land belongs to the government but the land adjoining with four rundown (and badly built in the first place) houses on it is for sale...a cool 3.3 million Turkish Lira (very roughly 3 Million Australian dollars or 2 million US dollars).

Sure the places look pretty ramshackle (and apparently there is a condition on the land that you are only allowed to 'restore' them)

But the views!
At the moment we're just going to keep on dreaming!

In the spirit of 'free-ness'...

2009-03-26T21:49:00.005+02:00

I thought I would continue the theme of free things with a link to this great project called 'Feed Your Soul: the free art project'. The project is being organised by IndieFixx and has some cute little prints ready to download and many more in the works.

My favourites so far are this one by Mandy Sutcliff (from Belle and Boo)

And this one by Jessica Rose

I had a look at the upcoming schedule and am also looking forward to the contribution by Ryan Berkley (Berkley Illustration).

Yay! Free art!

Notepaper: A download for you

2009-03-24T23:15:00.010+02:00

Yesterday morning I made some mini note cards - not too big, not too small. They are about 10cm high and 9cm wide. Just the right amount of space to tell someone you miss them, or you love them or to thank them very much.

I thought you might like to send some little notes too, or leave a list of jobs for your partner (hint, hint!) or put a note in your little one's lunch box. So here is a download for you. They print six to a page. Just click on the link below, click on download and print away!

Click here for the mini notes download.

This is the very first pdf download I am posting - so fingers crossed and let me know if you have any problems.

**edit: reposted now and you should now be able to print without having to deal with setting up an account or anything like that. Yay!**

Technical difficulties...

2009-03-23T21:53:00.002+02:00

Due to technical difficulties Making Mondays will be 'Making Tuesdays' this week. (technical difficulties = a little boy who does not want to go to sleep!) See you tomorrow!

It don't mean a thing...

2009-03-22T10:29:00.009+02:00

...if it ain't got that swing!
I got inspired while at my local coffee place when they were playing a track that sampled this classic jazz piece.

This was the result - some cool little cats playing some swinging tunes on the roof top.

I am having a little trouble getting these pics for the net to look crisp and clear like the actual work (it's all a learning process I guess), but I wanted to give you a peek in the meantime.
What have you all been up to? Making anything at the moment? Spring cleaning? Having fun on the weekend? I would love to hear from you...

Minestrone for Spring

2009-03-18T14:36:00.008+02:00

I love having a fresh tasting Minestrone in early spring, when the sun is starting to shine through but there is still a chill in the air. Minestrone comes from the part of Italian cooking called 'cucina povera' - the poor kitchen and it can vary a lot depending on the chef and what vegetables are in season. This is my Spring version.

Olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic
1 leek, chopped
3 carrots, chopped
2 potatoes, chopped
3 ripe tomatoes chopped (you could use a can of tomatoes, but I use fresh tomatoes to keep the flavour a little lighter)
1 1/2 cups of water
2 1/2 cups of vegetable stock (I prefer the kind bought in liquid form, it is so much tastier, but here I am stuck with cubes)
1 cup of pasta
Spring onions, chopped -about a handful for soup and extra to serve.
Grated Parmesan (to serve)
It is also delicious and fresh tasting with basil stirred through it just before serving - I just couldn't get my hands on any.

Cook onion and garlic in large saucepan until onion softens. Add leek and carrot, cook for 5 minutes. Stir in tomatoes, potatoes, water and stock and bring to the boil. Simmer uncovered for 15 minutes. Cook pasta. Stir pasta through soup. A few minutes before serving stir through spring onions. Serve with spring onions, parmesan and pepper on top. And of course some delicious thick pieces of bread.

Perfect after a morning working in the garden or running after a certain 16 month old at the park!

Making paper flowers for Spring

2009-03-15T21:41:00.001+02:00

OK, so I am crazy in love (with the emphasis on crazy) with this weeks project - paper flowers in blossom branches made using the tutorial from Dozi Design. I knew that I had fallen head over heels when Senol caught me staring lovingly at it. Lol!

This little crafty project would be great to make with kids -it is so easy. It just involves drawing a swirl on some paper, cutting it out and then rolling up the swirl of paper.

Yashar is a little young to be wielding scissors just yet but he had a great time collecting the branches with us. The blossom petals were falling down on us like little snowflakes. It made my heart all tingly.

And Yashar loved being held up in the branches to give the blossom a closer inspection.
After making the flowers I just arranged them on little twiggy bits on the branches with a sneaky bit of blue tac when needed (not often). I think a long thin vase would be great for this but the jug (which I love) was all we had. I used paper that was slightly thicker than standard printer paper and that had a little bit of texture to it which I think this worked well. Once the blossom falls off I will put some smaller paper blossoms closer to the ends of the branches. Hello Spring!

Election time is here again...

2009-03-14T12:12:00.006+02:00

The most popular campaigning method appears to be flags...everywhere! So fortunately the flag makers of Turkey need not worry about the current global financial crisis just yet. And what looks and sounds like a party bus - with loud Turkish music that makes you want to dance like you're in a Shakira film clip - definitely an essential campaigning tool.

And then there was the report on the news about the candidate that gave people new washing machines to 'win' their vote. Except the people he gave them to didn't have running water in their houses so they had to traipse through the snow and carry buckets of water back to their house to fill the machine (still beats washing by hand I guess).

I would like to say 'only in Turkey' but I have a feeling that's not quite true!

A little fishy...

2009-03-11T14:01:00.010+02:00

The area we live in is packed with fish restaurants and has some little stalls by the side of the water where you can get some really fresh fish!

Fish are pretty popular as is fishing - the banks of the Bosphorus are usually packed with people from early in the morning until late at night -rain, hail or shine. These people are committed to their hobby!

We took Yashar to one of the little stalls on the weekend to get some fish for his dinner. He had a good look at the live fish in the tank and got pretty excited about it.

While we waited we watched the fishmonger scale and fillet our fish. I love their light fitting!

This guy pulled up on his motorbike while we were there - and ordered drive through style.

And we looked at all the birds flying around the boats behind the stall.

Not a bad way to wait for your fish!

2009-03-09T13:03:00.003+02:00

I really enjoyed making this! It's a terrarium - I found the instructions over at SmoothPebble (via Maya*Made).

I bought a jar at the pazar (local market) with what would have to be the most ugly lid known to man, so I quickly covered it up with some linen. Then I used a little Eiffel Tower my sister brought me back from Paris and I cut some clouds out of an old milk container. I thought this would last better than paper because there is so much moisture in the terrarium.

Of course Yashar had lots of fun doing a bit of digging for this project. And then carefully putting the dirt into the jar for about 30 seconds before deciding to tip the rest of the dirt over his head!

I snapped a photo of him just before the 'incident'. I think this is his concentrating face!

I put it all together very late one night - which was lucky because if I wasn't so tired I could have spent hours on it. I am slowly coming to the realisation that I adore all things miniature - especially those totally overpriced miniature designer chairs you can buy in art gallery shops. I had thoughts of little flying birds and city skylines made out of wire...next time?

The search continues...

2009-03-04T13:46:00.009+02:00

Not so long ago I told you about the ridiculous amount of hats I have been knitting for Yashar and my search for the ultimate knitted hat.

Along the way I made a hat using this pattern from SouleMama. This hat is really cute and quick to knit but I just couldn't seem to get it to fit right. :( I first made one that was too small and then made this blue one but it always seems to slip off. It kind of looked a little girlish too I think - and we can't have that! If I made it again I would use a thinner wool and it would probably be suited better to someone that didn't want to pull their hat off all the time!

Then I really thought I had found the one. I used the Thorpe/Topper pattern and it was so promising - a hat and scarf in one with lots of ear cover but... I am going to make it again with some modifications. Next time I will make the split for the scarf at the back of the neck a little lower, will make the ear flap parts come in closer around the face, will make the ribbed band around the top of the face a little longer and I think I will make the scarf parts longer. This one is a kind of weird length that means we usually end up tying it in a knot at the back. I will also try to find a nicer yarn next time -definitely something a bit thicker.

Then my mother in law made this and blew all of my hats out of the water! You might have seen this one in a few other photos I have posted here- I especially love the photo of Yashar wearing it in this post. I think this hat is so cute, the cream really suits Yashar and she also made a matching scarf with pompoms on each end.

But I am still continuing the search! Maybe by next winter I will find the ultimate hat??

Exactly!

2009-03-02T09:03:00.002+02:00

I discovered this idea on Maya*made and all the instructions are here. Maya has a gorgeous blog with so many ideas ...I'm sure I will be making more of her projects soon! Some flowers were just what we needed - hello Spring! They didn't have any bulbs at our local nursery (wrong time of year I think) so we just grabbed some that had already started to grow and I used some linen I had in my stash to cover the tin and plastic containers we used.

Yashar had so much fun getting some extra dirt for these from the garden today - can't wait for the weather to really warm up. He is going to have so much fun!

And I think he is going to like watching them grow.

Finito!

2009-02-27T13:02:00.000+02:00

Quinces are my new favourite fruit. The colour of them cooked and uncooked is gorgeous. And the taste - I like them cooked but my husband likes them raw - he likes the dry fibrous texture - yep, sometimes he's weird like that;)

And I especially like that they remind me of this painting, which I love. There is something about the subject of kitchens and food like fresh fruit and vegetables that appeals to me. Maybe it is something to do with their symbolism - of home life being worthy of our attention, of a warm kitchen, a productive garden, of growth and nature and the natural beauty of a pumpkin or some eggs (subjects in other favourite paintings of mine).

I have been meaning to make this recipe for a long time. Sorry I'm not sure where it is from - I have had it written down in my recipe book for so long now - but it seems like a basic jam recipe I think.

Quince Preserve:
4 quinces (about 1 kg total)
5 cups sugar
5 cups water
3 tablespoons of lemon juice

1. Bring quinces, half a cup of sugar and water to the boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer for approximately 1.5 hours. Put quinces on a plate to cool and reserve cooking liquid.

2. Coarsely chop quinces, and return to pot (including seeds, cores and skins). Bring to a boil. Slowly stir in remaining sugar and lemon juice. Cook, stirring, until mixture is thick and deep orange (about 25 minutes). Put through a fine mesh sieve. Discard solids. Let cool.

3. Transfer to airtight containers - refrigerate for up to 2 weeks.

Changes: Next time I make this , when the quinces are cool and I am chopping them (step 2) I plan to remove the seeds so that when it comes to putting it through a sieve the left over solids are ready to eat - I tried a little of them from this batch and they were so delicious and would be perfect with ice-cream or on muesli. Such a waste not to use them.

The preserve was so delicious. It didn't totally set but is beautiful and thick - for my first attempt I was very happy. If you have any jam making secrets let me know.

Today I had some on toast with parmesan cheese and we had some with yoghurt for dessert. So good! Quince and cheese are made for each other.

Making Mondays: His little hand

2009-02-23T09:46:00.011+02:00

I love this - it was so quick and easy, looks gorgeous framed and is a special little Yashar keepsake. I came up with the idea when Yashar and I were drawing and I was tracing around our hands.

All you need to do is trace the little one's hand on the back of some wrapping paper (some nice fabric would also look great). Ok, this was actually a little harder than it sounds - Yashar does not keep still for more than 2 seconds!

Then cut the hand shape out and glue it on some nice textured paper (I used some thick water colour paper). I also wrote Yashar's name and the date underneath.

I put it in a plain box frame from Ikea and put it on some shelves where we keep some of Yashar's books and toys. I think it would be so nice to do one with a few hands lined up in it - either as he grows or with 'paper hands' from his cousins. Yashar is growing so quickly, it will be so good to have this record of his little hands. I hope you make this one too!

p.s. thanks for the new name!

pps. I have now moved to a new blog address: www.thelightgarden.blogspot.com
I hope you come over for a visit!

Come and spend a morning with Yashar!

2009-02-20T11:36:00.007+02:00

Now that Yashar is walking our daily outings are so much fun! I thought I would share what we did on Friday morning with you, which is pretty much a typical weekday morning for us.

This morning, knowing our usual routine, Yashar got his shoes and sat down by the door trying to put them on - so cute! Then he carried my scarf over to me and then tried to put his shoes on me. He loves to go out for a walk!

We got rugged up and quickly headed out the door and walked down the steep hills with me holding his hand very tightly and making lots of stops along the way to say hello to neighbours. The area we are in mostly low rise apartments (3 or 4 floors) - many have a different generation of the same family living on each level. Others are rented by professionals and students. Most of the gardens are full of fruit trees, especially mulberry, pomegranate and cherry trees. One of our neighbours even has beehives in their front yard:
I love the faded pink paint on this place.

And Yashar found the beehives mesmerising!

Then it was on to the park.
With a stop to look at all the birds and dogs around.

Then over to the local cafe to warm up and to have my essential coffee for the day. Lots of the customers stop to chat to Yashar and one lady helps him to pat her gorgeous and friendly dog. The staff there all know Yashar well and play with him while I relax. Love it!

Then the walk home, today through our Friday market. I stopped to do a little fruit and veggie shopping while one of the stall holders, a beautiful older lady that brings in produce from her village, gave Yashar a cuddle (like she does every week!) and then she showed him some sheep in a yard next to the market. Yashar was so excited!

By then Yashar was pretty worn out so I carried him up the last few steep hills and he fell asleep in my arms not long before we got to the front door. A perfect morning!

New work

2009-02-19T12:00:00.011+02:00

I just put the finishing touches on this girl and her little friend. I think I will do one more, find a really good printer and then open the etsy store. Ahhh! I am so excited!

Thank you all so much for your kind and encouraging comments about the illustrations. You all really made me want to jump in and try it!

Crafty Monday

2009-02-17T09:39:00.003+02:00

Yashar and I have been getting so crafty lately - as in making stuff, not using sly moves and Yashar's cute smiles to get me free coffee (although that also works well for us!) So I toyed with various ideas - 'make it yourself monday, 'take a bedazzler to it Tuesday', and finally decided on Crafty Monday! (I'm taking submissions for a new name as this one kinda sucks!)

I am hoping to share a little project with you every Monday and I hope you join in with us now and then and get all crafty too!

This week we made some cards for all of Yashar's cute little playgroup friends. These were for Valentines Day, but I could also imagine using them for birthdays, fathers day, any day!

First of all we used the idea for 'Jell-O Fingerpaint' that Tanya gave us. We used Raspberry flavoured jelly for that sweet-heart colour and just slowly added hot water to it until it was a nice thick consistency. I let it cool, put Yashar in a tracksuit that I detest, spread some newspaper down and let the finger painting begin!

Yashar had so much fun doing this! I would drop the fingerpaint all over the place and he went crazy smudging it all over the paper (and himself!)

I let the masterpieces dry over night and prepared small cards from some thick watercolour paper I already had. Then I cut little hearts out from Yashar's artworks and stuck them on the front of each card using a glue stick. I wrote each of Yashar's friends names on the front and a little message inside.

I think they are pretty cute! We have one that we made for his Baba hanging up and I love it!

Oh, and can we pretend it is Monday today...

Handmade Help

2009-02-16T16:21:00.004+02:00

There has been such an amazing response to helping all the people affected by the bushfires.

My blogging friend Keryn emailed me about the blog 'Handmade Help'. Through this blog people can donate handmade goods that are then sold, with the money going to the Red Cross and Wildlife Victoria. They are also coordinating some other projects and have a great list on their right sidebar of so many ways to help. What a great idea.

Through this blog I found the 'OzBushfireAppeal' etsy shop. Many generous people have listed handmade items in this shop and all sales go to the Red Cross. They have already raised an amazing $10,000. Wow! Here are some of my current favourites from the shop:

I love the atmosphere this Winter Tree photo block conjures up.

These pears look so soft and tactile.

These whales would look so good in big white box frames in a little boy's room. Grab them before I do!

What an amazing photo! And the tones are beautiful.

Turkish home cooking - my favourite dish

2009-02-12T23:11:00.000+02:00

Of all my mother-in-law Sevim's Turkish home cooking this is my absolute favourite. It is called Karnıyarık which means 'split belly'. Sounds a little scary when translated into English but it is so yummy and the split belly being referred to is the belly of the eggplant (and maybe mine after I eat so many of them!).

I actually never have to cook Karnıyarık because Sevim is always sending some home with us - she knows we love it. But I asked her to share the recipe with you all and she proudly obliged. All the measurements are approximate - of course Sevim never uses a recipe, she cooks it by heart.

Karnıyarık

4 or 5 eggplants - the thinner type are best
2 onions
Oil
Mince -about 250g
Salt, Pepper
Lezzet - literally translated this means 'taste' - it is a spice mix usually made from paprika, pepper, salt, dried tomato powder, grissini flour, semolina, dried parsley and dried thyme -If you can't get lezzet I think some paprika and parsley would be fine.
Large spoon of tomato paste
Water

1. Chop tops and tails off eggplants and put in a large pot. Add enough oil to come about half way up the eggplants. Cook on the stove until the eggplants are soft (making sure you turn to allow all sides to cook).

2. While eggplants are cooking, dice up onions finely, then fry in pan until golden, add mince, salt, pepper and lezzet and cook mince well.

3. Take eggplants out from pot. If they are large chop them in half length ways. Take off a small slice along one side to make a flat base for the stuffed eggplant. Lay the eggplants down in a casserole dish.

4. Slit eggplants down the middle (don't chop through the ends) and fill with mince mixture.

5. In a small bowl mix tomato paste and 1 cup of hot water and then pour this over the eggplants.

Bake in the oven for about 15 to 20 minutes.

We love to have it with thick slices of bread. This recipe is definitely worth trying (if you don't have a Turkish mother in law to cook it for you that is!).

In search of the ultimate knitted hat

2009-02-10T13:38:00.007+02:00

I have been knitting a ridiculous amount of hats for Yashar lately. This is attempt number 2. I saw this wool at the local Pazar (our local Friday market) and suddenly I had the impulse to make something bright and colourful for him, instead of in the pale blues and greys that I would normally choose.

This one is pretty simple - I just knitted from the bottom up in a rib pattern on circular knitting needles. Once it got to be about 15cm long I started decreasing by knitting two together at the start of each rib on alternate rounds. I had wanted to it to fold up at the bottom but it isn't quite long enough (although it is long enough to keep his ears nice and warm). I think it looks like a little tea cosy!

I have knitted two more hats for him that I will take photos of as soon as we get some light enough weather. Despite all these hats, I need to make more! None of these have been quite right. So I had a good look on ravelry.com - a website I had known about for a while but only just got into. There are some really gorgeous patterns to be found on there (after a bit of searching). I especially love this owls jumper.

I think/hope I have found the ultimate hat for Yashar. It is on the needles at the moment. To be continued...

Victorian Bushfires

2009-02-09T22:16:00.003+02:00

I have been hearing from my family about the horrific fires that have been burning in Victoria and have been reading about them in the paper. Even though I am so far away I still feel the shock of something so devastating happening so close to 'home'. My heart is heavy and my thoughts are with all of those affected by the fires - the family and friends of those that have died, the people that have been injured and the people that have lost their homes.

Donations to the Victorian Bushfire Appeal can be made through the Red Cross Australia website.

Make a wish...

2009-02-05T13:01:00.017+02:00

I just finished this little illustration and I am so happy with it. I hope you like it too. I think I must have been dreaming of warmer days when I did it.

I really feel like I am progressing with the illustrations I have been doing. I have been learning so much along the way and, most importantly, it has made me so happy. I think that this is the first time I have felt like I have found something that I would be happy doing forever and ever. I am seriously thinking about trying to make 'it' happen - with the first aim being to open an etsy shop.

I love the idea of etsy - people from all over the world being able to sell their handmade goods - and would love to be a part of the 'handmade revolution'. I am thinking I should just take the leap...

ps. thank you for the comments on playdough, especially all the recipes from Tanya (who writes a really interesting blog about living in Cambodia) for playdough, including yummy edible kinds (which will be perfect for Yashar!) and the recipes for fingerpaints - edible and non edible.

We are going to have so much fun with these! Check out the comments from yesterday's post for all the recipes.

Yashar Update: Playdough!

2009-02-04T13:25:00.005+02:00

Yesterday we finally made playdough! I had been wanting to make this with Yashar for a little while but hadn't been able to find food dye or cream of tartar which most of the recipes use. Five supermarkets later I decided to improvise!

I diluted some powder for a flavoured bright red drink and it ended up making a pinkish dough. Now I just have to find some more colours! The recipe I used was:

1. Put 1 cup of flour, half a cup of salt, 4 dessert spoons of oil and a third of a cup of water (mine had the red drink powder in it) in a large bowl and mix (Yashar did the mixing).

2. Knead until it forms a nice dough adding more oil if it is too crumbly.

3. Play time!

Yashar loved it and I am glad I didn't just buy the playdough ready made - making it was definitely half the fun for Yashar (and me!). We were also lucky that there was the perfect play surface already in the house that made clean up easy. It was a big board left here by the owners that's used for rolling out the large pastry sheets used for making desserts like Baklava and savoury 'borek'.

Does anyone have a different recipe? I would love to know what it is.

I feel an emotional post coming on - about being a mother and how much Yashar has grown - but I will leave that for another day when I have time to contemplate it all.

Soup making weather

2009-01-29T15:42:00.009+02:00

Usually my posts are inspired by the photographs I take, but it has been pretty overcast and grey here lately. Often I look out to fog blanketing the Bosphorus, only just being able to make out the huge cargo ships moving through it. They sometimes sound their fog horns to warn the little fishing boats.

So it is definitely not photo taking weather, but it is soup making weather. This version of Avgolemono was delicious! I believe that Avgolemono refers to the egg and lemon base used for soups and sauces (Avgolemono is the Greek name) and that in Turkish it is called Terbiye.

I actually got the base of the recipe from the Martha Stewart website and changed it a little. The main change I made was using burghul instead of orzo which I think worked really well. Martha Stewart actually has some really good recipes. Her show is one of a few English language shows that are free to air here and it is repeated three times a day so I usually watch at least a little of it. She often has chefs from great New York restaurants (the show is made in New York) in to make some of their recipes and they often look so delicious! So don't knock the Martha!

Here is my version:
5 cups chicken stock (I would usually use the fresh non-powder type but that is all we had last night)
1 chicken breast (sliced into strips)
1 onion
1 clove garlic
1/2 cup burghul
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
Freshly ground pepper

Fry onion and garlic in olive oil until soft, add chicken and fry until just cooked. Let chicken cool slightly, and then shred (I pulled it apart with my fingers). Cook burghul as per packet instructions.
Bring chicken stock to a gentle simmer and add burghul and chicken mixture. Simmer for about fifteen minutes. Then reduce heat to low.
Beat together eggs and lemon juice in a medium bowl until smooth. Ladle 1 cup hot broth into egg-lemon mixture, whisking constantly until mixture is warm to the touch. Stir the egg-broth mixture into the broth in the pot. Make sure that the broth doesn't start to simmer again as the egg will curdle. Season with pepper when serving. Martha's recipe also added dill which sounds nice.

I have a confession to make. I have been serving my soups with thick slices of bread that I have fried in olive oil - I know - probably not particularly healthy but soooo golden and yummy - like a giant tasty crouton. Mmmm. My excuse is we don't have a toaster. Ok, one more confession, I then have the left over pieces of fried bread for dessert with thick lashings of nutella on them. OK I think I have said enough.

Another favourite...

2009-01-25T08:49:00.002+02:00

One of the highlights of our trip back to Australia was being able to see an exhibition of my great grandfathers work on at the Art Gallery of South Australia.
Before moving to Turkey, Senol and I spent many weekends with my Dad framing prints of my great grandfather's work. It was a wonderful time for us - up in the mud brick studio, which is surrounded by gum trees and garden, far away from the noise of the city where we spent our weekdays. The only sounds would be the birds calling out, the occasional possum on the roof or the classical music that would usually be on quietly in the background. Senol would cut the glass and prepare the backing boards, Dad would make the frames and I would cut the mounts. We would spend time together deciding which frame would suit a particular painting and which mount would bring out the colours of the artwork. And of course there were plenty of coffee breaks.

Now every Sunday we go down to our favourite coffee place and I love that they usually have Mozart playing and I think of Dad and miss our weekends framing together.

After spending so much time framing prints it was wonderful to see so much of great grandfather's work 'in the flesh'. The vibrancy of the work is what struck me most. And I was able to see many paintings that I had never seen before. I also loved seeing the development and change in his work when he started painting the Flinders Ranges.

This is the little summary from the Gallery's website:

One of Australia's greatest artists, Hans Heysen (1877-1968), is celebrated with the first major retrospective of his work in three decades at the Art Gallery of South Australia. The Hans Heysen exhibition features more than one hundred works created over the artist's seventy year career.

Born in Germany in 1877, Hans Heysen emigrated to Adelaide, South Australia with his family at the age of seven. After four years studying in Europe, Heysen embarked on one of the most successful careers in Australian art, becoming synonymous with the Adelaide Hills town of Hahndorf, where he worked and lived.

The Art Gallery of South Australia holds the largest and most representative collection of works by Hans Heysen, including more than two thousand drawings, oils and watercolours bequeathed by the artist himself. Included in the exhibition are many of Heysen's greatest oil and watercolour paintings, alongside rarely-seen
preliminary sketches and studies.

Testament to Heysen's national standing, the Gallery has borrowed masterpieces from every major collection in the country as well as from many regional and private collections, to tell the story of Heysen's art. In addition to his iconic ‘gum tree' paintings, the exhibition takes a fresh look at Heysen's lesser-known themes. Hans Heysen traces the artist's development from early student days painting in Europe from 1899-1903, including images of Paris and Venice, to the revelation of barren
landscapes and ancient mountain forms in the Flinders Ranges from 1926.

The exhibition will be touring Australia for about 2 years, including going to the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, the Ballarat Fine Art Gallery and the National Gallery of Australia.

PS. Recently Sharon, creator of the website Expats Moving and Relocation Guide, contacted me about putting one of my stories about living in Istanbul on her site. The end result - 'Manyak Misin?' - a post I wrote after one of my early driving experiences here is now on her website. Sharon sounds like she has many interesting stories to tell as well - she has been an expat in the US, Venezuela and Canada.

2009-01-21T21:21:00.003+02:00

There doesn't seem to be any tradition of card giving here in Turkey. In fact, the whole time I have been here I have not seen a single card given, received or for sale. So I was so so happy when Keryn sent me over some of the gorgeous cards from her business gryb at home. They are made using Japanese fabrics and are just so pretty! Thank you!

Keryn's blog is also a favourite of mine, with beautiful photos and great finds.

And while we are on cards and great finds, here are some of my favourite cards for the upcoming big L day (although I am more into year round loving!!)

2 from Sweetbeets

Octo love from Pearl & Marmalade

Valentine Invader by Anemone Letter Press

Snuggle up!

2009-01-19T17:19:00.012+02:00

Hey everyone! I think that I mentioned before Christmas that I was working on some 'projects' that couldn't be unveiled before certain people got their presents. Well here is the little illustration I did for my dear little sister Maia. Miss you Maia!

I used the same method I did for the eagle for this one - a sketch in ink and then digitally colouring it.

We had such a wonderful time when we stayed with Maia (and Dad and Barbara). Maia was amazing with Yashar - a natural with children that is for sure. I hope she enjoys having this in her room!

Some favourites

2009-01-16T09:51:00.006+02:00

My favourite photo from the trip:My second favourite restaurant from the trip (am planning to post about my favourite very soon): Libertine - French dining in North Melbourne. Mmmm, the lavender creme brulee - so delicious.

Favourite new recipe: This delicious watermelon and marinated fetta salad my Mum made on Christmas day. The mint makes it taste so fresh.

Was there a dressing on it Mum?

I will definitely be making this one in Summer here. Watermelons are sold from the back of huge trucks here in Summer, and of course there is no problem getting fetta here!

Just when I had given up hoping...

2009-01-14T21:28:00.006+02:00

(and had thought that the Turkish postal system had struck again!)...a heavy package arrived from Canada.

A little while back I asked for help finding a birthday present for Yashar on etsy and, after getting some great ideas, I ordered some wooden toys from Diamond Isle Treasures.

In her book, The Creative Family (on my reading list at the moment - I'm halfway through reading it), Amanda Soule encourages choosing toys that are beautiful, simple (to evoke imagination and creativity), and that are made of natural materials. And she says that "Finding toys that will hold up to lots of use and play - versus poorly made toys that will break easily - will encourage your children to value human work and experience over consumption." These toys fit so well with this approach.

The look and feel of the timber is gorgeous...so much more satisfying than a lot of plastic toys (although some of the plastic toys we have, especially the better quality ones, are lots of fun). Yashar has already spent hours stacking and unstacking the blocks, pulling the wagon around, giving me the blocks one by one with a huge smile on his face. I hope these toys will be around us for a long time.

Hello! Remember me?

2009-01-12T11:25:00.005+02:00

Just dropping in quickly to let you know that we are back after a gorgeous three weeks in Australia. Here are a few photos to give you a taste of what it was like (although it was actually a little cold some days - Melbourne weather is like that!). I am just getting settled back in around here but will be back with more news and photos very soon. And yes, things didn't quite go as planned with the posting while I was away... but I am excited to be back (and sad to have left Australia again). I have missed this whole blogging world and am looking forward to catching up on all my favourite blogs and to hearing from you all again!

Getting ready

2008-12-18T11:45:00.003+02:00

Look at this grown up little man! He is really not a baby any more. As you might have guessed things are pretty busy around here (and I'm guessing you are all pretty busy too)- not much time for posting on ye olde blogge. I have quite a few little projects on the go, but no unveiling before Christmas!

It feels strange to be digging out the bathers and summer dresses when it is so cold here - I keep thinking 'surely it won't be warm enough to wear this'. We have been packing ready for a trip home for Christmas which means seeing all my family that I have missed so much and showing them how much Yashar has grown, lots of yummy christmas food, kids playing at the beach, lying in the hammock, dinners with old friends (preferably outdoors and with the rosy glow of some good wine!), spending lots of time with Senol...I am so excited!!! I keep thinking of Yashar, with his little backpack on, walking out of the gate when we arrive.

My plan is to post a photo each day we are away, but you know, the thing about plans...

Chestnuts and persimmons

2008-12-12T20:52:00.000+02:00

Thanks for all the pumpkin soup ideas! I am definitely going to try adding some curry powder this week (getting more pumpkin at the market tomorrow) and I like the sound of adding some chilli and ginger. Yum!

Well I haven't been around here in a little while for a couple of reasons. This week is a national holiday here in Turkey for Kurban Bayrami - The Sacrifice Feast - where rams and cows are sacrificed. The traditions is that 1 third of the meat is cooked immediately, another third is given to the poor and another third distributed among relatives and neighbours. Of course I think that sharing the meat with the poor is a wonderful practice, and I like to think that I am pretty open to different cultures and practices, but...ah... I'm not so into the slaughter part. Don't worry - no photos here. In the morning we saw lots of cows in the back of trucks, but when Senol's family were calling me to see the slaughter in the backyard (a butcher came to the house to do it) I was like 'no way!' and hid in the living room with Yashar.

The other reason I have been MIA is that Yashar got a pretty nasty infection, and has been though a lot the last couple of days, including very high fevers, night time rushes to hospital, a blood test, cold baths (the paracetamol and ibuprofen wasn't working in getting his fever down) and generally getting poked and prodded too much :( He was such a good little trooper. Although he cried during the tests and cold baths, and even though his fever got as high as 39.6C, he soon gave us sleepy little smiles when we showed him the fish in the aquarium at the hospital. Poor little man. The doctor and nurses were fantastic and I am happy to say that he is recovering well.

So instead of taking photos of cows being sacrificed and an anxious visit to the hospital, I thought you would prefer some more photos of our neighbourhood that I took on a little walk and drive we went on just before all this. Warm chestnuts, winding narrow streets, the Bosphorus and persimmons hanging like lanterns from the tree.

Seasonal recipe

2008-12-03T09:28:00.008+02:00

Remember when I mentioned my brilliant idea a while back - a seasonal recipe each month. Well believe it or not - I actually got around to doing it! The recipe this month, while not exotic or mind blowingly original, is yummy! It is also so easy and spot on season wise here.

It's my Mum's Pumpkin Soup! My sister reminded me about it when she put together a whole lot of recipes for me because I was running out of ideas for food for Yashar (what a good sister I have - and Yashar loves it!).

The thing that used to put me off making pumpkin soup was chopping the damn thing up! But here at the Pazar (our weekly fruit and vegie market where I took the photo above) and even at the supermarket they have a guy whose sole job is to chop up the pumpkin for you on the spot - yay!

1 diced onion
1 peeled and cubed pumpkin
Chicken stock
Bay leaf
Nutmeg (I didn't have any, but added some paprika instead)
1 tablespoon of butter

Fry onion in butter. When soft add pumpkin and enough water with stock to cover and add bay leaf. Simmer until pumpkin is soft, take out bay leaf and vitamise with a pinch of nutmeg. Return to saucepan until ready to serve. Serve with a dollop of cream, a sprinkle of nutmeg and bread.

There are few variations with this recipe - I know my Mum sometimes adds curry powder and I think coconut cream (?). Sweet potatoes are also nice to use instead of pumpkin but at $20 a kilo here...

Do you know of any other yummy variations for me to try out? I am going pumpkin soup crazy!

Yashar Update: All Rugged Up

2008-12-01T21:09:00.003+02:00

I get Yashar all rugged up before going out now. The weather is starting to get cold! He has got used to wearing his little beanie now. He used to try to get it off the minute I put it on.

We are so lucky with our apartment because we have discovered that in Autumn and Winter the sun streams in our front windows in the morning, heating up our living room like a little glass house. Yashar likes to rest his head in the warm sun. I wanted to say that the sun, streaming in in the mornings, sparkling off the Bosphorus is glorious, just glorious - but really 'glorious' just sounds sooo uncool. So, you know, the sun is like, way cool... and stuff.

The watchful eagle

2008-11-28T16:19:00.009+02:00

This is another little illustration/artwork I have been working on. I am so happy with how this turned out. I think it shows what I love about a hand drawn sketch that I talked about in an earlier post, while also making the most of the strong, flat colour that you can get using digital colouring.

I really enjoyed the process for this one. I did a quick sketch and then took my time inking in the detail. Then I put it into photoshop and coloured it. As always, the detail shots give you a better idea of how it actually looks.

I had my dear little 2 year old nephew Riley in mind when making it (I can just picture his smiling little face as I write this!)- hoping that he might like it as a Christmas present. But I am not sure if it is too fierce looking. What do you think? I might try to see if I can come up with something a little more colourful and fun in time to suit the fun little boy that he is. Knowing how long it takes to get things done here though, it may not eventuate :( If not, then hopefully this will be something that he can grow with.

Photos from the hood

2008-11-26T19:08:00.005+02:00

I realised that I hadn't posted many photos of our neighbourhood, so here are a few before the Autumn leaves totally disappear.

The leaves on this very old wooden house are amazing - such a vibrant pink.

The house is very dilapidated and boarded up, with a Doberman and a Rottweiler guarding it - which keeps us from taking a closer look at some of the beautiful details we have spied :( I heard on the grapevine that someone on a neighbouring property has bought it and the next old house along and will probably pull them down at some stage. Until then we get to enjoy a peek as we pass by (and a fright when the dogs appear with a snarl!)

Yashar update: It's a tough life...

2008-11-24T21:17:00.006+02:00

The presents have been arriving from Australia for Yashar's birthday. It's been lots of fun receiving the packages (too bad for the postman though that has to come up all of those flights of stairs!) Thank you everyone! We miss you all so much. Yashar has loved opening the packages - although sometimes it can be a very serious business: Sometimes not so serious:

And sometimes he opens so many he just gets all worn out, it's a tough life ;)

Nerd indicator #2: Don't be evil

2008-11-20T21:26:00.004+02:00

To keep up the nerdy image (thick rimmed glasses and all) I just finished reading The Google Storyand I totally nerded out about it. I couldn't put it down!

The book starts with the development of the system and technology of the search engine while the Google duo (Sergey Brin and Larry Page) were at Stanford and then goes through the rise and rise of the company. The book claims on the back cover that "This book was not created, authorized, or endorsed by Google Inc." But they wouldn't really have anything to complain about and I totally wouldn't be surprised if they funded the whole thing. The author even attempts to make the whole computer/software/business story a little risque and sexy (attempts not succeeds) with a chapter called 'Porn cookie guy', another called 'Playboys' and another about the 'burning man' festival with mention of getting naked around a burning effigy. He also quickly argues himself out of the small amount of criticisms he makes and provides many favourable comparisons with 'evil' Microsoft. And despite the obvious bias I still bought in to the whole 'don't be evil' Google mantra wholesale! It makes Google look like the cool guy from the Apple Mac ads and Microsoft the PC guy.

I loved getting info about how the ranking of search results works, the conditions at Google offices (massages, time to work on your own projects, free ice-cream days etc) and the floating of the Google stock which made many of the employees super rich. There is even a whole chapter on the apparently legendary chef who cooked up nutritious organic food for all the employees.

And now that I have finished with Google I dipped into Sacre Cordon Bleu: What the French know about cookingand I am already addicted. It starts with the burning of recipe books by celebrity chefs and then Micheal Booth, his wife and two young children are off to Paris so that he can study at the famous cooking school - Le Cordon Bleu. By the time Madame Raffarin shows them around the Parisian apartment full of shelves of dusty antique books, vast oil paintings and fading velvet curtains with views of the Arc de Triomphe and Eiffel Tower (and then they excitedly spy the boulangerie and chocolatier on the street below) I was hooked! I am already dreaming of moving to Paris or at least having an extended holiday there.

Some things I am loving at the moment

2008-11-19T10:48:00.006+02:00

My glasses! After wearing my contact lens way too much I decided to give my eyes a rest and dug out my glasses. Bordering on nerdy, the rims of these are pretty prominent and the arms are nice and thick. I forgot how much I liked them! And now I can pretend I am super intelligent!

And this book looks sooo good! It is bills open kitchen- bought by my sisters for Senol's birthday last weekend. I love the glowing fading light on the cover and my favourite photo inside is this one (sorry about my crappy photo of this gorgeous photo - it looks a hundred times better in real life):

I love how he writes about the relationship between food and family. He writes "I want my family to grow up with good memories around food. A freshly brewed cup of tea with a slice of cake still warm from the oven or a tart made from freshly picked apricots will become part of a happy memory..." I want that too! I have some very happy memories of making cupcakes with my mum. I am so looking forward to when Yashar is old enough that we can bake yummy memories together.

Yashar Update: A little bit of Possum Magic

2008-11-15T07:35:00.000+02:00

Yashar was enthralled by this book (Possum Magic) that arrived in the post for his birthday. The illustrations (by Julie Vivas) are gorgeous and I love this story - I remember reading it when I was little too. It starts with "Once upon a time, but not very long ago, deep in the Australian bush lived two possums" and later leads to eating vegemite sandwiches in the far north of Australia and lamingtons in Hobart. So Australian and very, very cute.

Water for Constantinople

2008-11-13T10:03:00.002+02:00

Belgrade Forest (Belgrad Ormani) is amazing because it is so close to the crowded streets and busy traffic of Istanbul but is so green and fresh and, well, it's a forest. It was fairly crowded around the main picnic area where there are also a couple of restaurants, but once we started walking it was so quiet and peaceful. We saw many people carrying huge bags of mushrooms they had picked - but we weren't game. I remember reading somewhere - maybe in the book A Year in Provenceabout places where you could take the mushrooms you had picked to be checked to make sure they weren't poisonous. I wish they had that here. Am I being too cautious??

Because the paths were rough and Yashar was still sleeping when we arrived we stopped off at the picnic area for some rice pudding - best in warm weather, but always a favourite of mine!

The forest was part of the setting for the water supply system for the Byzantines and Ottomans who used aqueduct bridges to supply water to Constantinople. Parts of the bridges are still standing like this one we drove under on the way to the forest. History really does permeate everyday life here - it's so easy to forget how rich and interesting the history is when you drive under it and walk past parts of it every day.

Yashar loved looking at all the Autumn leaves and the lake and touching the bark of the trees. We loved it too - a little bit of stillness to take back to Istanbul.

A party in the forest

2008-11-11T10:59:00.006+02:00

I am still amazed that Yashar is now 1. What a year it has been. Lots of changes. Lots of adjusting and lots of fun and happiness.

For his little party we put up some autumny forest decorations after being inspired by our recent visit to Belgrade Forest (which was so pretty, calm and green that I will definitely be posting a few pictures from there soon). Nothing overboard with the decorations - at this age the kids didn't even notice the decorations were there and, of course, I think handmade decorations are the best kind! Yashar and I went for a walk and collected some gorgeous Autumn leaves that are blowing around and piling up on the paths at the moment. Then I sewed some together just using a needle and thread to make the chains of them and attached the rest of them to the walls using blu-tac.

We got the poster on our trip to Sweden - so gorgeous! And the little boy in it has something Yashar'ish about him. It is by Elsa Beskow who wrote and illustrated children's books and I think this illustration was originally from a song book. Her illustrations are some of my all time favourites. Some of the books have been translated into English and are just beautiful. (We also bought Children of the Forest while we were there.)

And of course there was the cake! I made a bunny from the same book that my mum made our cakes from - Australian Women's Weekly Childrens Birthday Cake Book -
we used to love looking through the book and choosing the cake we would have that year - I particularly remember loving the piano cake with the little music book sitting on it. The cover looks a little dodgy but this is a great book! I cheated a bit though and bought the cakes to make it up - no oven makes baking pretty hard!

Happy 1st Birthday!

2008-11-10T20:02:00.005+02:00

What a happy weekend we had. Yashar had lots of fun opening his presents and playing with all his friends. I can't believe he is already one year old. I'm so proud of him. I will tell you all about his birthday very soon!

Parenting Books

2008-11-06T15:55:00.000+02:00

This book - Baby Love by Robin Barker - has been my guide for the past year. I read it and reread it constantly. My sister gave it to me after finding her own copy so useful. Particularly being here in Turkey, far away from my family and friends' support and guidance, it really was my source of advice and information that I felt I could really trust. I liked its approach - relaxed and realistic - and also how comprehensive it was. My sister-in-law would often ask me questions just before rushing to the doctor and the book always seemed to have the answer and saved her many unnecessary trips. Saying 'my book says...' became a running joke between us.

Before coming here I had romanticised ideas about what looking after babies and bringing up children would be like here. I thought that because of the strong family focus here, having babies and parenting would be more natural and easier, with good experience and knowledge being passed down from generation to generation. This has not always been my reality here though. For example there is a startlingly high rate of cesareans here (according to this article around 39% which is double the maximum rate recommended by the World Health Organisation - in some private hospitals the rate is as high as 95%!) and many doctors are notorious for their over prescription of medicines. Old wives tales also abound. Apart from that, my own ideas about parenting have meant that I need other sources of guidance. Plus I just love books!

Now Yashar is almost one year old and I have found myself rereading the last section (9 - 12 months) of Baby Love and wondering where to next? I have copies of Raising Boys (a book recommended by my cousin who has three boys) and The Creative Family by Amanda Soule on their way. But I need more! I guess I am fairly relaxed in my parenting and don't enjoy being preached to or a one-fits-all approach.

Do you have any suggestions?

Rubbish Stuck

2008-11-05T20:47:00.001+02:00

I often wondered how the rubbish trucks made it around the narrow streets here three times a week - I have enough trouble squeezing my tiny little car between the walls and the precariously parked cars...

and now I know...

they don't always make it!

Technique: More about that little painting

2008-11-04T09:18:00.005+02:00

Warning: this may get vaguely technical ;)

I cut myself off in my last post about this little painting because I didn't want it to become an essay...but I still have more to discuss!

This time I experimented a little more with the technique I used. I applied the paints much more thinly (they are watercolours but last time I used them more like acrylics). And I used a brown pencil to outline and do some detail and shading (last time I used grey lead). What do you think?

I also messed around with Adobe Illustrator ('messed around' being a very apt description). I was trying to use the 'live trace' and 'live paint' tools but I really wasn't happy with the result. Live trace is a tool that converts an imported bit map image (in this case a digital photo of an ink drawing) into vector content (lines and fills on Illustrator). You can then use live paint to colour the drawing 'intuitively'.

I tried varying the settings for live trace but just couldn't get a result I was happy with and the whole process just gave me no happiness. Painting usually makes me smile. This just made me frown. This is one where the lines were closest to something I was happy with and I quickly filled in some colour to get an idea of how it would look. But I found no matter how much I changed the settings for live trace, the result just looked too computer generated for me. I think there is something special and real about a hand sketch and this just didn't have it.

Thank you!

2008-11-02T17:16:00.007+02:00

I wanted to say thank you for all the comments about my latest illustration. They made me so happy and were so motivating - I think I might do some more!

And I also wanted to thank Shannon Lowe, a contributing editor at BlogHer and writer of the blog Rocks In My Dryer for mentioning me and my blog in her recent article Expat Moms Chronicle Raising Kids in a Foreign Country. What a nice surprise and a great article!

Flowers for you all!

Yashar update: Busted!

2008-10-31T21:10:00.001+02:00

He can't even walk, but some how he manages to climb into and stand up in his Baba's sock drawer! What are you up to mister?? Nothing, I promise!

I have climbed to the top of the tallest tree...

2008-10-30T15:45:00.003+02:00

I finally managed to finish another little painting/illustration type thing (photos still not quite right- maybe I need a scanner?). It really is a slow process - because I am doing this while Yashar naps - it always seems that just when I have got everything ready and am starting to get into it I hear a little voice and the door to his room rattling as he tries to grab onto the door handle from his cot. But that's ok - it's fantastic to be able to have this time to spend making things and then time to spend with Yashar as well.

I was inspired to do this one when I heard this song:
I have climbed to the top of the tallest tree
And no one knows I'm here
And I could hide for hours and hours
And I can see for miles
And I have never fallen
And I will not come down
And the sun is shining

I don't know the name of the track or who made it so if you know please leave a comment - I would love to know.

While I was doing the last picture I think I mentioned that I wanted to work on colour with this one. So I looked at magazines and just around the place generally for groups of colours I liked. Then I spent a lot of time just mixing paints and making little swatches to play around with. Of course I still want to work on colour more, but I am happy with how it turned out.

I made it for my dear little niece Ruby and thought the colours would be cute in a little girls room. I am so sad to be missing out on seeing her grow (she is just a few months younger than Yashar). So I hope my sister can point to the picture and tell Ruby about her Aunty Verity.

Access denied

2008-10-26T21:31:00.004+02:00

I feel like Mark (Christian Slater) in Pump up the Volume running a pirate radio station - Blogger, (the site I use to publish this blog) has been banned in Turkey. When you try to access the site here or any of the blogs hosted by Blogger a notice comes up saying that access has been blocked. I'm thinking about swapping to a different blog host, but until then I have connections, ways and means - so here I am bringing you a controversial post about handknits Pump up the Volume style:

I bought this yarn and linen a few weeks ago to knit a scarf for Senol. I was aiming for a cosy scarf that said "I am a man, and I am man enought to wear a cool handknit scarf."

But now that I am knitting it up I think that I might be borrowing it too. I'm not sure what I will be doing with the linen yet - I'm thinking Christmas ornaments - but we will see if that eventuates.

Knitting is very popular here and I was hoping to find some gorgeous natural yarns. So far though I have been pretty disappointed - acrylics make up about 90% of the stock at the places I've been to. And the quality of the natural yarns I've seen so far hasn't been great. So if anyone has any ideas of where I can get some beautiful yarn please leave a comment!

I'm thinking I might need to head to a nearby koy (village) to source some...haha, lets see if I can talk Senol into that one!

Muşmula

2008-10-21T21:07:00.012+03:00

These are Muşmula (pronounced Mush-mul-la) and they are in season now so Senol rushed to get some at the market before it was too late. I love the sound of the name. Muşmula. But the taste of these isn't what I'd call delicious. Sort of like eating raw quince if you've ever tried that. They make your mouth all dry and the texture is fibrey (is that even a word?) fibrous perhaps. Either way not particularly tempting!

I have been surprised by how many varieties of fruit and vegetables there are here that I have never even heard of. I thought we pretty much had everything available in Australia now - although maybe they are there at the market, and I just never recognised them.

I love that the availability of fruit and vegetables is so seasonal here. It just makes sense - they taste better and are generally locally grown. Shame on me for not knowing which fruit and vegies are in season apart from the basics! But I'm learning - seeing what's available at the local market, what's weighing the trees down in the neighbourhood.

Ooh I just had an idea - I might start a monthly post where I look at what is in season here and maybe even cook something and include the recipe. It might get me a little more inspired with my cooking too. Brilliant!

(and it makes me want to buy this book even more!)

Puppies!

2008-10-20T20:30:00.000+03:00

I've been tagged by Renai to finish off these sentences. And sorry, I suck at these sort of things. And I admit, I never forward chain letters/emails, including the ones from friends where you fill in bits and pieces about yourself and forward it on. Even where it says at the bottom that bad luck will come your way, or that if you are good friend you will forward it on. I have this reflex that just deletes automatically. So here is a picture of some cute puppies to distract you from my answers, which I am sure will mostly be lame. This is the puppy I saved from the bucket of water by the way! I finally managed to get a photo of him cuddling up with some brothers and sisters early this morning.

At a certain age women should stop wearing hot pants.

At a certain age men should stop watching cartoons and playing computer games (apparently my husband is not aware of this).

When I was a kid I thought playing the drums was so damn cool!

Now that I am older I wish I had learnt something with a little more melody.

You know you are too old to go out clubbing when you would rather be at home by the fire with a good dvd and a glass of red.

You know you are too young to drive when you mistake the accelerator for the brake. Oops!

When I was in high school I listened to the music of Kris Kross - remember them?? Kris Kross will make you jump, jump, uh-huh, uh-huh... (the kids that wore their clothes backwards). They were the coolest.

Nowadays I find I like the music of Missy Higgins, Joss Stone etc.

On my last birthday I had moved to Turkey not so long ago and ate lots of cake.
On my next birthday I plan to eat more cake and enjoy the day with Yashar and the evening with friends.
The best birthday present I ever got was my now husband making it to Australia in time for my 21st birthday celebrations.

The first time I felt grown up was when...ahh, who am I kidding, I don't feel grown up at all.
The last time I felt like a kid was see above

Last year was spent mostly looking like I had a basketball stuffed up my top (pregnant).
Next year I hope to have an uninterrupted nights sleep.

Yashar update: He's more than just a happy face...

2008-10-19T10:15:00.000+03:00

Yashar wanted me to let you know that a happy face is not the only one in his repertoire, he can also do a teary face quite well (when Mama won't let him play with the camera when she is trying to take his photo)...

and of course he can also be thoughtful and serious in a pursed lip kind of way (so funny because this is exactly the face I pull when I am really concentrating!).

Present time!

2008-10-14T21:23:00.010+03:00

I have noticed that lots of people are already getting into gear for Christmas - which is probably a good idea especially when I am trying to make things. My projects always, always end up taking me so much longer than I first thought. I started small - making a few little present ties to make the parcels I give extra special - kindly modelled here by Yashar's night light:) I got the idea from the ties on some little booties that Senol's mum made for Yashar. The shape reminds me of a flower from an Iznik tile pattern.

Thank you so much for the present ideas and for the kind comments about the illustration I did last week! We decided on what was sort of a combination of the ideas you gave: A set of blocks and a wooden long haul truck from Diamond Isle Treasures. I think Yashar is going to have lots of fun with these. I can't wait until they arrive!

*For all the cool crocheters out there - this is the pattern: Ch3, slip stitch into first chain to make a circle. For first petal: Ch3. Working into circle 2tr. Ch3. Slip stitch into circle. Repeat petal two more times. (First flower is complete). Chain as long as you want the tie to be (I did about 35 stitches). Repeat as per first flower. If you like you can then slip stitch back along chain to create a thicker tie (this is what I did). Hope this makes sense!

Happy Chappy (Yashar update)

2008-10-11T11:26:00.000+03:00

Yashar is definitely a happy chappy. Full of smiles and laughs. His newest little habits include trying to pick up my eyelashes with his newly developed pincer grip (ow!), wanting cuddles (aww!) and trying to stick his finger in my mouth (eew!).
It's not too long until his first birthday now, looking at these photos, I'm thinking pirate theme.I really wanted to get him something handmade for his birthday and have been scouring Etsy the past few nights, but am having trouble finding anything fabulous. Sometimes it's hard to find the really good stuff on that site - I feel like there are great things there - I just can't find them. Any ideas?

Knock knock

2008-10-09T00:07:00.014+03:00

I have been getting into a bit of drawing and illustration type artwork lately. I have really been wanting to create a sort of moment in time. An illustration that has a little story to it I guess, or that is part of a story.

This is the process I went through for the one I just finished.

An idea, sketched in the back of my Wallpaper City Guide for Stockholm (if I haven't said it already - and I think I have - I love these guides!)

A stuff up... (I started to outline the boy's face in ink but it went all blotchy so I ended up outlining in pencil instead and I wasn't that in to the owl either)

Finished!

I would have liked to have put more outline detail on the owl but I painted too thickly there :( And I really want to work on my colour more too. Anyway, this one is finished and I am happy about that! And man it is hard to take photos that show what these really look like (more stuff to learn!). It half makes me want to colour these digitally. The detail shots probably give you the closest idea of the real thing.

And a little more from Sweden

2008-10-06T08:57:00.004+03:00

Just wanted to post one last thing about the trip to post...well actually I just wanted to show you a few of the cute little things we picked up in Sweden.

We went all out on the souvenirs ;) This is a packet of crisp bread - love the packaging and we discovered Yashar loves chewing on it. And then there are the tins of 'Makrill'...which lucky brother in law will be getting those in their Christmas stocking?? (hehehe).

And a cute little wooden helicopter for Yashar of course.

Midnight puppy rescue!

2008-10-04T22:16:00.000+03:00

This post was meant to be all about the fancy schmancy scarf I made, but then I went and SAVED A PUPPY!!!! Oh my goodness it was so cute!

Last night I woke up to the sound of little squawky puppy yelps. We had seen a mother dog walking down the street with lots of puppies chasing after her earlier in the evening. The yelping kept on going for a while so I put on my big winter coat over my pjs and, using my camera display as a torch, I went to investigate. Eventually I followed the sound to a neighbour's front garden. I ventured in (hoping there wasn't going to be a big mama dog ready to bite me!) and found the pale little puppy stuck in a tall bucket of water. The poor little thing was all wet and cold and pitiful. So I pulled him out to dry ground and off he pattered home. What a nice feeling - I was so excited to have rescued him I couldn't get back to sleep!

Anyway, back to the scarf...since it took me so freaking long to make it still deserves a mention. I managed to get it finished just in time for our trip to Sweden (and I was so glad I did -I needed it!). And yes(!) it is crocheted. I mentioned a while back that I wanted to learn to crochet and I even put it on my 28 things to do before I turn 29.

And now I have done it.

Well actually I just learnt the two stitches required to make this but I'm counting that as learning to crochet achieved. Tick! It was pretty slow going, although I did get faster and the stitches got looser as I went along. And it was very repetitive, I just wanted to get that darn thing done! I was like a crocheting machine! Any car trip we went on (and there were quite a few lately) I braved the possibility of looking totally uncool and slightly crazy and madly crocheted as fast as I possibly could.

For some reason I think that crocheting is safe to do in the car but that knitting is not. I guess the crochet hook is not all pointy and long like knitting needles, but I'm really not so sure. Airbag, crochet hook, Istanbul traffic...I really don't know if they are the best combination.

I'm so glad that I decided to do a test run on a scarf before attempting the blanket from Vintage Crochet...hmm let's just say that a blanket will not be getting done any time soon (read as I would be totally insane to attempt that). But if you have more patience than me the blanket is still gorgeous - especially the version Alicia Paulson did which I love. So go ahead and get blanket crazy - and then you will have something around any puppies that need rescuing!

2008-09-29T12:46:00.000+03:00

One of the locals we met while in Sweden said that 'this is Stockholm at its best'. And it was beautiful while we there. Although it was very cold in the mornings and evenings, we had some beautiful days. The sun was shining and the leaves were starting to turn golden. Stockholm is fairly peaceful and we spent a lot of time at Djurgarden, a gorgeous tranquil island with woods, gardens and museums.

One day we stumbled into the Nordiska Museet, which I really enjoyed. It wasn't a 'wow, you have to go there' type place, but it had a lot of exhibits that were just the sort of thing I liked. They had a exhibition on shoes (what's not to love about that!), Swedish homes, Swedish interiors (a history of Swedish interior design), a gorgeous dolls houses exhibit and another with amazing examples of folk art - all that work done by hand that is really worth the description 'art'.

The carved wooden sculptures exhibit was inspiring. This is a huge wooden sculpture of King Gustav Vasa -the first king of a united Sweden. So many of the characters and creatures looked like they were just waiting to be in a children's story. A story with snow and forests, bears and mittens and warm cocoa by the fire.

2008-09-28T13:26:00.005+03:00

We are back from Sweden and glad to be home. Actually I was discussing this with Senol in the taxi on the way back from the airport - about whether it feels like he is coming home when he gets back to Istanbul - and, strange as it may seem, we both agreed that it was like coming back to our second home. Australia (Melbourne to be exact) still rates above Istanbul for that coming home feeling even though Senol was born and grew up in Istanbul.

Stockholm was refreshing. It made me think about and compare the positives and negatives of Istanbul. So if I had to generalise -ok I don't have to but I will anyway! - I would say that Stockholm is more organised, has way less traffic, has cleaner streets, lots of bikes (yay! Sweden is very environmentally friendly as far as I could see) and excellent education. Stockholm also has a ridiculous number of tall, thin well dressed people in that very Swedish, thick rimmed glasses, designy, slim pants kind of way. Do you know what I am talking about at all here??? So cool.

But there was one thing I really missed about Istanbul - it was all the love and attention Yashar gets from everyone. Here in Istanbul every time we go out and about Yashar gets smiles from everyone. If we go to have a coffee the waiter or waitress will come over to say hello to him and play a few little games with him and will often pick him up and carry him around to say hello to all the other staff and customers! We are stopped on the street every single time we go out by people wanting to say hello and tell me what a cute little boy he is. In Stockholm, it was kind of sad to see him waving away at people as they went past, his eyes bright with anticipation, and often they would give him nothing back. Of course there were some lovely people we met in Stockholm that were friendly with him, but it was no where near the kind of attention he gets here. Children are truely adored in Istanbul.

Stockholm is a gorgeous city, made up of many small islands so that beautiful water views are intertwined with the city streets. This post is starting to get essay like though - so more on what we got up to next post!

In case you were wondering where I had gone...

2008-09-23T21:39:00.005+03:00

I had a bit of a stressful time last week, which I am now going to unload on you - sorry! Instead of being a good story teller and letting the suspense build up, I will tell you right now that I am ok.

Anyway, you might remember me posting about how tired I was because of the sleep 'issues' with Yashar. Well early last week, while we were over visiting my sister in law for Iftar, I was a little shocked when I weighed myself and discovered I was 7 kilos less than my usual weight. I had also been feeling nauseous and getting head aches so decided that I should visit the doctor to make sure it wasn't anything more than just being totally exhausted.

The doctor decided to run quite a few tests, including doing an ultrasound. So there I was, lying down having the ultrasound, and the operator kept holding the ultrasound thing (that's the technical term) in the one spot. She asked 'Do you have back pain?'. Me - 'Sometimes, I guess'. Her - 'ah-ha' - in a tone that said 'well of course you do'. Me - calm on the outside, freaking out on the inside.

I went straight back up to see my doctor to discuss all of the test results. He had a small stack of papers in front of them. Then like a game show host he started flicking them, one by one, to the side...'this test was fine', 'everything is normal with this test' but... ‘the ultrasound showed a sist between your liver and your pancreas. I would like you to go for a further test straight away....etc, etc...yes it is possible that it is cancer, but if it is anything bad we will operate and take it out straight away.’ Ahhhhh! I was trying not to panic, it might be nothing...but the thoughts that were running through my mind.

I won't go on with more details, except to say that we spent the rest of the day at the hospital, getting the scan(I had to drink a bottle of white stuff - more technical terms - over two hours). Sorry about my complete lack of medical knowledge but I think it was an MRI - it looked kind of like this. Anyway my Turkish isn't good enough to understand everything they said, and it seemed like half the time they didn't try to explain it anyway, which left me feeling even more stressed and helpless. I wanted information! At the end of all of this they said 'its nothing bad'. So I am now still exhausted but very relieved!

But moving on to much more exciting things...I am in now in the home country of Ingrid Bergman, where the temperature was 5 degrees when we landed, where there is the highest ratio of unmarried people in any country in the world, home of the dala horse, good design, plenty of herring and meatballs!

Any guesses?

the namesake

2008-09-16T19:56:00.004+03:00

One of my sisters recently sent me a surprise gift in the mail. It was the amazing book by Jhumpa Lahiri called the namesake. I flew through the book (woo hoo! Another step closer to achieving the '28 things I want to do before I turn 29') - it was a fantastic, easy read. Very briefly summed up: it is about the Ganguli family's transition between India and America and it explores themes of dislocation, heritage and escape from that heritage.

Although the story told in this novel is quite different to my own situation, I found the passage below particularly striking. I often found myself thinking about it and how Ashima's thoughts fitted in with my own experience.

Ashima has recently arrived at the hospital, soon to give birth to her first child.

Dr. Ashley pokes in his head from time to time. "No need to worry," he chirps, putting a stethoscope to Ashima's belly, patting her hand, admiring her various bracelets. "Everything is looking perfectly normal. We are expecting a perfectly normal delivery Mrs Ganguli."

But nothing feels normal to Ashima. For the past eighteen months, ever since she's arrived in Cambridge, nothing has felt normal at all. It's not so much the pain, which she knows, somehow, she will survive. It's a consequence: motherhood in a foreign land. For it was one thing to be pregnant, to suffer the queasy mornings in bed, the sleepless nights, the dull throbbing in her back, the countless visits to the bathroom. Throughout the experience, in spite of her growing discomfort, she'd been astonished by her body's ability to to make life, exactly as her mother and grandmother and all her great grandmothers had done. That it was happening so far from home, unmonitored and unobserved by those she loved, had made it more miraculous still. But she is terrified to raise a child in a country where she is related to no one, where she knows so little, where life seems so tentative and spare.

Yashar update...it aint Rocket Surgery

2008-09-13T10:09:00.002+03:00

Did I mention that my Mum and her partner had been visiting? I was so sad to see them go back to Australia and I know Yashar will miss all of his 'Ni-ne's' fun games. Yashar and I both learnt so much from her while she was here. Mum just has the knack for teaching and having lots of fun with Yashar.

The books I have talk a lot about care, sleeping, feeding, illnesses and development (which is all great!) but not much about how to have fun with and teach your baby. It makes me laugh now to think that before Senol and I mainly just shook a toy at Yashar and then expected him to take it from there.

So now, thanks to Mum, I:
1. Get Yashar way more involved in the actual doing of things - like I press the button to make the music play on the toy (the music that will slowly drive me insane by the way) and then I physically put his finger on the button and say 'now you press the button, go on, you can do it - yay!'

2. Have learnt to not have such low expectations. I no longer think that he couldn't possibly learn it because he's 'just a baby'. It is amazing how much he learnt in the short time Mum was here and it has to be one of the most rewarding aspects of being a parent so far.

3. Do silly stuff! I now know that Yashar thinks it is soooo funny when I stick his bathers on my head...or anything on my head actually!

OK, I know, it's not rocket surgery, or brain science for that matter, but I guess we had never really thought about it...at all. Before this we were students, spending our time listening to lectures, drinking coffee, working in crappy jobs where a name tag was required but no brain necessary, eating kebabs from Charlie's in the Agora, going out. Then we were both living in the inner city, working, going to movies, having after work drinks, drinking coffee... We really didn't have that much contact with babies. So, now we know.

Bunnies

2008-09-09T14:52:00.008+03:00

I mentioned a very cute little book in my last post called 'Softies: 22 friends for you to sew, knit and crochet'. So that finally got me motivated to finish sewing these cute little bunnies.

Aghh, now that I see the photo I wish I had stuffed around the ears a little more to get rid of those crinkles. Ohh well, I'm sure Yashar won't mind.

The pattern is by Sarah Bowe. I just had a look at her blog and it is gorgeous - I am very jealous!

I made the pink one pretty much according to the pattern, except I stitched the eyes instead of using beads and put a little bell in the middle of it so that it could be used as a nice soft baby rattle. I made the blue one a little smaller and changed the face to that it looked all sleepy and peaceful. Hopefully this will motivate Yashar to sleep a little better! ;)

I know, it's still hot but...

2008-09-07T13:31:00.002+03:00

Even though it is still 30 degrees here most days, the evenings are getting cooler and I am definitely in the mood for Autumn to arrive. I'm dreaming of thick woolly scarves for me and cute knitted beanies and corduroy coats for Yashar. Here are a few favourite Autumny things I discovered on Etsy.

This one is from 'While She Naps' - what a gorgeous name. This little owl looks like it is cloaked in Autumn leaves. Amy's soft sculptures are beautiful and are more art work than toy. You can see more of these wise creatures over at her
blog, her website and the 'While She Naps' Etsy store. She also has a couple of patterns in the second 'Softies' book. I have the first book and it is so cute!

Aren't these little baby shoes cute? That hand-embroidering is gorgeous. I can't believe she is selling these shoes at this price - all that work! These are from Anneeta's Etsy shop.

And this little bear is looking rugged up and ready for the cold winter that is on its way. It is handmade by Shanna Murray and you can find Wintery bears, little dresses and fluffy pillows at her Etsy store, and read and see more at her website and her quietly beautiful blog.

Up in arms

2008-09-01T14:26:00.014+03:00

I made this cute little pair of pants for Yashar from the sleeves of an old business shirt of Senol's and I am so happy with how they turned out! I especially love the cuffs, they remind me of little sailor pants for some reason and I also love that Yashar gets to wear something that was his 'Baba's'.

Yashar needed some light cotton pj pants. His legs always seem to get a little cold at night, especially now that it is getting cooler in the evenings (what a relief!) and I wanted to keep off any mosquitoes that manage to get in at night. I couldn't find any at the shops nearby so decided to make some.

I cut the sleeves off 40cm up from the cuff (34cm for the pants length and an extra 6cm to sew in the top elastic (I based the measurements on another pair of his pants). I cut a wedge/triangular shape out of each arm, with the point approximately 22cm from the cuff end of the sleeve and the wider end of the triangle at the top of the sleeve. The wedge was slightly more curved on one side to allow a little more rounding for the seat of the pants. I then sewed the matching edges of the wedges from each sleeve together (i.e., the two legs of the pants together). After that I folded the top of the sleeves/pants over twice to form a 3cm wide waist band and sewed around the bottom of that, leaving a gap at the back to insert the elastic. I threaded the length of elastic through using a safety pin and, once in, sewed the two ends together. I then sewed over the gap.

Voila! A pair of cute little pants. Hope you like them!

Yashar update

2008-08-31T11:52:00.007+03:00

Yashar loved the water, having swims every day in Edremit. A little water baby! And we've now discovered that he loves to push his stroller along - very funny!

I have also included a few more shots from Edremit. There were lots of different fruit trees, vines and lots of crickets! It would be so fantastic to have a garden that produces all sorts of delicious things (instead of the bare balcony we have at the moment). At the place we rented there were grape vines covering the terraces, pomegranate trees (that's a pomegranate tree behind the pink gate), nectarines... so good to stand barefoot on the grass on a warm summer morning, pick a nectarine and eat it on the spot.

We discovered this little friend one morning on Yashar's little floaty thing. I think it looks like a little alien, don't you?

2008-08-28T10:15:00.006+03:00

One idea I stumbled on while we were away that I loved were the rosemary hedges lining so many of the holiday houses. In the evening, while I was pushing Yashar around in the stroller trying to get him to sleep (yes still having trouble with that!) I would skim my hand along the top of the hedge . It smelt delicious and reminded me of roast lamb. Mmmmm....

Rosemary is pretty tough and usually doesn't need too much water so perfect for Australian summers and my gardening style! I don't know how they kept them looking so green and bushy though. And I wonder how long they take to grow.

Ok, so obviously I'm just an armchair gardener at the moment. I've already managed to kill my only pot plant here. But I have high expectations and aspirations. Rosemary hedges are definitely going on the list for my dream home/garden, along with chickens, a day bed and fruit trees. I want a garden that would be the perfect setting for these little cuties. Is it wrong to love babyGap?

Olive Groves and the Aegean Sea

2008-08-26T21:18:00.007+03:00

Enough relaxing already! Back to the sticky Istanbul heat. We just got back from a beautiful place on the Aegean Sea in the midwest of Turkey. The area is close to Edremit and is about 7 hours drive, 5 near misses, 2 crying episodes and 1 Iskender Kebab from Istanbul. It's well off the beaten track for foreign tourists but is popular with Turkish holiday makers, many of whom have a holiday house there.

What I loved most about the area was the olive trees. They were everywhere! On the beach and and back into the hills as far as the eye could see. Their trunks were so wide and twisted and their branches heavy with hundreds of olives. I can't even guess how old they were.

Yup, they are all olive trees on all of those hills.

So of course I was hoping to find beautiful olive oil soaps and creams, but wasn't quite as successful as I hoped. We did pick up a huge block of olive soap from a stall on the side of the road which was definitely handmade but I have to admit that it looks and smells pretty feral! I did have one great find though on the long road trip back which I will share with you as soon as they are washed and cleaned!

Don't be jealous but...

2008-08-21T23:02:00.002+03:00

I am on a small holiday at the moment in a gorgeous little holiday place near the sea. I probably won't post for another five days and will catch up on emails etc early next week. It is so nice to escape the Istanbul heat! Hope you are all keeping cool (or warm!) and thanks for all the comments!

Thank you!

2008-08-20T14:01:00.000+03:00

I just wanted to say a huge thank you to all of you commented and emailed following my post 'It's a sleep thing...'. I was so happy that you all took the time to write. I have to say that I started to feel so much better about the whole thing straight away! Not that the sleeping is getting any better! But my outlook has changed and I have started looking at the websites and books you recommended too. The support makes such a difference. So thank you!

Here is an appropriate photo for this week's Yashar update:

Vintage heaven

2008-08-16T14:25:00.008+03:00

I have found the best place for everything retro, vintage and antique in Istanbul! Finally! You might remember that when we first moved into our new apartment I was on the look out for some second hand/vintage furniture. Well, at the time I didn't have much luck, but I have now found the spot! It's not just one shop - there are streets and streets of shops!

If you ever come to Istanbul this is a great area to visit (if you're into this sort of stuff that is). It is a little off the tourist radar, but only a short taxi ride from all the standard tourist sites. Just ask one of the locals to direct you to Çukurcuma. Recently gentrified, it is full of steep and narrow winding streets and gorgeous old buildings, some renovated and well maintained, some just asking me to move in and care for them!

I am planning to visit again as soon as the weather cools off a little (too hot for dragging myself and Yashar around too much at the moment). On that visit I will get the details of the stand out stores (I didn't think to this time - I was too excited at finding all these places to get any details). I did manage to pick up these two cute posters though - I particularly love the Orient Express one.

I think this area is my new favourite area in Istanbul.

Paper crane mobile

2008-08-14T15:37:00.013+03:00

Here is something I have been meaning to show you for a while, but these little creatures are a little hard to catch on camera! This is a paper crane mobile my Mum made for Yashar. It is gorgeous - so delicate and beautiful. And it catches the breeze so well. Yashar loves the shadows it makes too.

This is a quick description of how she made it. Hopefully the photos will help if you want to make it - otherwise feel free to email me for more details. She folded the paper cranes (you can find instructions with lots of photos here) and suspended them from the top using fishing line. The trick with hanging each crane is to put a hole through the middle of the crane with a needle, then poke the fishing line through the hole, thread a small bead on the bottom and tie under the bead.

The top is made from two wooden coat hangers with the wire hook removed and held together using a large screw. She made grooves on the top of the hangers using a knife which are used to tie the fishing line on and make sure it stays in place.

It was such a gorgeous present, handmade gifts are the type I love the most!

It's a sleep thing...

2008-08-11T15:23:00.007+03:00

Help! Yashar is now 9 months old. You can see a little glint of mischief in his eyes. He gets it from his Baba! (his Dad). He is a wonderful little baby but… I am tired! I need your advice and experience.

When he was first born he was such a good little sleeper, only waking once or twice a night until he was about 4 or 5 months old. He had even slept right through the night a few times and I was like ‘I have got this so sussed!’

Then for 2 or 3 months he was waking 4 or 5 times a night. This was not long after we moved to Turkey and then he got sick so I hoped the sleeping would just get better when we were settled and he wasn’t sick anymore. And it has got a little better. He now wakes up 1 – 3 times a night (and totally wakes up at around 6am). If you don’t have children –have I put you off yet?!!

It is often pretty hard to get him to sleep during the day too.

Ok, ok, I confess, I have probably been doing a few things that are not totally what I ‘should’ be doing – like feeding him to sleep, during the day and at night. Or walking him in the pram to sleep (on the way to my favourite café so I can have a quiet coffee). Or using a dummy (he has now stopped taking a dummy)…and there are probably more things...

So what should I do??? Should I just stick it out, or stop feeding him at night, ‘controlled crying’? Please! Tell me about your experiences or any advice you have. Even if they are not good experiences – at least they will make me feel better!

Small achievements

2008-08-09T19:59:00.010+03:00

I feel like life is lived on a smaller scale at the moment (hoping this is only temporary!). Some days it feels like an achievement just to get out of the house or to do some washing! Anyway I have managed to cross one of the things off the list of my 28 things to do before I turn 29, so that is definitely an achievement and deserves a blog entry!

I have put together a small illustration for Yashar’s room. I sketched away on the weekend and then digitally coloured it. I loved doing it. It took me a while, because I am a bit of a perfectionist and like to change my mind a lot! But I am pretty happy with the result (I will probably work on it a little more though) and think the rabbit is actually pretty cute! This is a little detail from the illustration:

The illustration is about Yashar’s much loved little toy rabbit that went missing - like so many other favourite toys that seem to disappear when we are out and about :( Where did it disappear to? To Paris of course! Wish we were there with it.

Hope you all like it as much as I do!

Peek-a-boo!!!

2008-08-05T18:07:00.002+03:00

Good looking AND useful!

2008-08-04T10:05:00.001+03:00

As I was dashing out the door and down all our steps this morning, baby in one arm, stroller in the other in a caffeine deprived haze (and you already know there are a lot of steps - enough for me to think about stuff as I stumble down them anyway) I was thinking I love how I can just dash out now, no need to carry a ginormous overflowing bag of nappies, spare clothes, blankets, toys, dummy etc. That made me think about one thing I bought in preparation for the arrival of our 'bundle of joy' that I have used a lot and still love. And then I thought...ooh I should blog about that. Such are the complex thoughts of a sleep deprived mother who spends her days talking to her baby "Ba-ba, Ma-ma, sleeeepy-time!" and to the walls "hello? Is anybody there?"

...Anyway it is this ChangeMate made by LimaBean. I use it everyday. It folds out to become a little change mat with pockets for a couple of nappies and some wipes and a zipped pocket on the front too. I just put it in my own bag and am ready to go get my coffee. How cool is that? Plus it looks so pretty and grown up (ie not with Mickey Mouse on it or something because I am so not in to that.)

I emailed Emma at Limabean and she said they are just about to release their next range – 6 great new designs and they have now made the front panel a little bigger so it is even easier to fold it up. I am looking forward to checking out the new designs soon!

I'm usually not that into crime fiction but...

2008-07-31T15:13:00.011+03:00

"I'm a licensed private investigator and have been for quite a while. I'm a lone wolf, unmarried, getting middle-aged, and not rich. I've been in jail more than once and I don't do divorce business. I like liquor and women and chess and a few other things. The cops don’t like me too well, but I know a couple I get along with. I’m a native son, born in Santa Rosa, both parents dead, no brothers or sisters, and when I get knocked off in a dark alley sometime, if it happens, as it could to anyone in my business, nobody will feel that the bottom has dropped out of his or her life."

This is Philip Marlowe. The Big Sleepwas the first in the Philip Marlowe series by Raymond Chandler who began writing his published novels during the depression.

Ian Rankin wrote the introduction and says that it is one of the best crime novels he has ever read and that it "opens with my favourite paragraph in all crime fiction and doesn't let up until a wonderfully written coda."

He also observes that Chandler is the "king of the one-liner." My favourite line so far is "Her eyes narrowed until they were a faint greenish glitter, like a forest pool far back in the shadow of trees." But I also love the one Rankin picked out: "He wore a blue uniform coat that fitted him the way a stall fits a horse."

I often pick books based on their cover (I know, probably not the best way but it seems to work for me) and I love this one! The cover artwork is by Steve Marking and seems to be styled after the design legend Saul Bass. Saul Bass did lots of film title design (think Hitchcock's 'Vertigo' and Scorsese's 'Casino', among many others). There is a great article on Bass over at the design museum. Don't you just love his work? I do.

We are all fine

2008-07-28T08:12:00.005+03:00

Just a quick post to let you know that Senol, Yashar and I are all fine. The bomb that went off was on the Asian side of Istanbul (we are living on the European side) and it wasn't near Senol's family either. The scenes on the news look horrific and my heart goes out to all the injured and the friends and family of the people that died.

**edit: Sorry, the bomb actually went off on the European side, but a long way away from where we are living. Thanks for the correction!

4 Mevsim

2008-07-24T21:59:00.004+03:00

I love this bed linen from 4 Mevsim (meaning 4 seasons). The website says that the design used symbolises 'manhood, power and royalty'. I just think it looks pretty! They also stock gorgeous natural soaps and beautiful linen, cotton and silk pestamel (the towels used in Hamams). They have a few shops here in Istanbul, but you can also buy online - yay!

Feed me! Feed me!

2008-07-21T20:13:00.004+03:00

I couldn't decide on just one photo so I picked a few action shots. I can't believe how quickly he is growing! He's starting to change from a baby into a little boy! Anyone have any good recipes to try out on him? (and Emily I don't mean feeding him a lemon wedge!)

Nonna Rosa's Lendichia

2008-07-17T08:33:00.004+03:00

We had some fantastic house guests recently. They were great company, kept Yashar entertained and made us all a yummy dinner! Even Yashar enjoyed it.
This is a lentil stew type dish that would normally be served with pasta through it. We had the left overs with fresh bread, yogurt and fresh tomatoes. Delicious!

I hope they don't mind me giving the family recipe away. Here is Nonna Rosa's Lendichia:

200 grams lentils
1 large onion (coarsely chopped)
2 carrots
2 capsicums
2 ripe tomatoes
2 sticks of celery

Soak lentils for 1 - 2 hours
Heat olive oil in a medium pot and sweat onion until soft.
Dice tomato and add to pot and cook for approximately 15 minutes (until soft).
Dice all other vegetables and add to pot. Cook for 10 to 15 minutes. Drain lentils and add to vegetable mixture.

Add water to pot to just cover mixture. Bring to the boil, then turn down the heat to simmer for 30-40 minutes.

My contribution was this yummy drink. Just frozen guava juice, some mint and a splash of vodka. A perfect summer evening!

How to bankrupt an empire

2008-07-16T15:21:00.001+03:00

This palace almost bankrupted the Ottoman sultans when it was built in 1853 and when you go there you can see why. Dolmabahce Palace was truly amazing. The scale of the palace was incredible and impossible to capture in photographs...well at least in my photographs.

Instead I tried to capture more of the detail. This was also hard as the palace was quite dark and you were ushered through the 110,000 square metres quickly. This photo to the right is a sink!

The fabrics were rich and sumptuous with beautifully detailed floral patterns. You could easily spend hours here.

The grounds are gorgeous, with well maintained gardens full of huge old magnolia trees in bloom, all right next to the Bosphorus waterfront.

The photo to the right is not the palace - it's just one of the gates! And below that is the head maid's room.

The real highlight though was the drive there! Well maybe not highlight, maybe excitement is a better description, or even better 'the drive that scared the pants off me!'

I was happily driving along, secretly impressed with my progress in driving in the crowded Istanbul streets. We took a few turns into the back streets to try to find a car park. Sure, I can handle this, I thought. The roads were a little steep, but fine, so we continued along. Until some how we ended up in the steepest, narrowest cobbled streets I have seriously ever seen. I truly thought the car was not going to make it up! My stomach was jumping, it was about a 70 degree incline! The car's engine was about to cut out, and half way up the 'cliff face' was a street going off to the right. Should I turn or continue up? No time for hesitation....how do I get out of here?!!!

We decided to turn and just as we started to go down another very steep little street we spied a guy hanging out of a window so stopped (with difficulty - the handbrake wouldn't hold) and asked him. He motioned that we should back up and continue on the other steep street. Aghhhh!

With a lot of difficulty and encouragement from the passengers, I attempted a reverse handbrake start (with the handbrake not holding!) and along came another car in front, flashing and beeping their horn. Give me a break!

With a lot of burnt rubber, a worn clutch and plenty of cheers from the others in the car I made it back onto the other road. Then we got some sweet revenge - the tooting car couldn't even make it up the hill! We all laughed (mostly from relief) and little Yashar even had a chuckle.

I was pretty much ready to fall over and be carried to hospital after that! Mum, I hope you are not reading this! But if you are, we are fine.

Windswept

2008-07-13T14:58:00.004+03:00

Yashar loves to have the wind blowing through his hair and the ferry trip over to the Asian side of Istanbul was the perfect opportunity. Although instead of a nice light summery breeze there were strong winds trying to blow you overboard! But the intrepid little traveller braved the winds with a smile. We hurried back into the shelter of the car straight after this!

Antalya

2008-07-09T20:28:00.004+03:00

Antalya was gorgeous.

Colourful and bright.

Relaxing.

The old part of town was beautiful to stroll through in the early evening.

It was full of natural beauty.

Blue waters.

First swims!

A perfect way to end the visit from my sister and her family. It couldn't have been better.

A liquid lunch

2008-07-07T10:50:00.007+03:00

Ok, so I have talked about smoothies before and, you know, it is such an important and potentially life changing topic that I thought it was important for me to discuss this issue again.

I saw this post over at Soule Mama about strawberry smoothies so quickly rang Senol to tell him to get some ice cream on his way home. We already had a huge punnet of raspberries so I thought 'perfect - this could be lunch!'

I like my smoothies super thick so for these I used about a cup of ice cream, a cup of raspberries and a teaspoon of honey, blended them and then I put a few more raspberries on top.

Man they were good, sitting out on the balcony, eating them (they were very thick - so guess more like a dessert than a smoothie), feet in the sun, head under the umbrella. What could be better? ...well...maybe a little vodka could be added to the mix.