My Other Life

I thought today as a nurse a sick baby ( and can't do much of anything else except type one handed) that I might write a little about "my other life" - my life away from CouCou/sewing and Facebook.

My goal/dream is to live a simple life - where we make what we can, mend rather than replace, grow our own food and basically tread as lightly as possible on the earth.

We left the hustle, bustle of the Gold Coast with this idea very much in our minds - moved into a rented house on 17acres with very grand plans. Well we got off to a flying start planting out vege gardens, buying some pigs and chickens, making our own bread, jams etc. Today things are a little different - I still want all those things - even more than I did before - but I have learned a few things - okay a lot of things about myself and we will be starting again from scratch very soon I hope.

Firstly I learnt - I hate renting, now I know it works for lots of people but going from our own home to renting has proven difficult for me. It doesn't feel like mine and I can't fully relax here. Don't get me wrong I love this ramshackle little run down place - but I am never fully comfortable. I worry what the kids are going to break, draw on, or ruin next. I don't want to spend money on planting trees and veges knowing I could be asked to leave at any time.

Second lesson - we don't like pigs much, sure the piglets are cute, but they eat a lot, are smelly, and not very cooperative. We no longer have pigs, we sold some piglets but most of them and their parents were given away. Happily the mums and dads went to a not for profit organisation that teaches school kids about farm animals etc and they will breed from them again.

Lesson 3 - I like to jump in at the deep end when I should be taking baby steps. I try to do it ALL now and end up burning myself out.

So where are we now - we are looking to sell our Gold Coast property and buying somewhere to turn into OUR home again. We don't want much - I don't need all the bells and whistles - just needs to fit us all in and have a bit of land :). I have also learned that we can't afford the kind of land that i would like so my dream of a milking cow is out the window, but instead will focus on trying to find someone to supply me with raw milk.
I still make most of our food from scratch but have noticed more convenience foods creeping in to our diet, which is okay but would like to reduce that again. I am very proudly still shampoo free and will soon start making my own soap and laudry detergent.

I just can't wait to stop working and have more time in my day to little by little start back on the road to my dreams. The biggest lesson for me so far has been - one day at a time and that those changes that I make slowly and gradually are the ones that stick. No more jumping in the deep end - I will make changes one at a time and when that becomes habit, I will make another change.

xx

Constellation Kids

In case you haven't heard I/we have taken the big brave step of getting our own website - very professional - yes I know. Constellation Kids is designed to be your one stop handmade shop for clothing, cloth nappies and accessories - and just between you and me I am sure if you don't find it one of us can make it :).

We have a slightly different concept than the other mall and multi seller type stores. In the past the other places have either been a mall with each seller doing their own thing or multiple stores doing themed stockings. Our concept is a little different in that each store can and will stock whenever they can but we will also have market nights or stockings all together as well.

Just quietly I am very proud of what we have put together - each of us has our own strengths and specialises in different products - the 4 of us are a perfect combination :)

Anyway without further ado - I will introduce you to the other constellation kids members in case you are not familiar with them :)

Alysha from Inkidink has a great selection of both boys and girls clothes
Rhoda from Draigerai does awesome work with knit fabrics - I can't wait to get my hands on some of her hoodies for my boys
Susan from Nifty Naps makes gorgeous cloth nappies and her ultimate blankets - well you need to see them to believe them

And just to top it off we are sponsers of The cloth nappy hunt so exciting times ahead ++++. If you are not a clothie or even if you are - if you are not familiar with the nappy hunt  I suggest you click on the link and check it out - it runs for the month of September and is a lot of fun, you don't need to be a cloth nappy user to take part. You can discover a lot of great stores and also informative sites that you may not of been aware of, and even test your brain as some of those pesky icons can be hard to find. And the best part - most sponsers offer some kind of discount so its a great time to start Christmas shopping.

And last but not least shameless plug - stop by the Facebook page to stay up to date with everything

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/ConstellationKids

xx