Yashar update

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?

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

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...

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!

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

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

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...

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

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!!!

Good looking AND useful!

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...

"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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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.