8 months with Eloise.

To say Eloise has been on the move this month is definitely an understatement. Within the space of a few weeks, she has taught herself to sit, crawl with ease, stand and even dance. Our little baby girl can not resist a catchy tune and will sway back and forth as long as it is playing.

Meanwhile, Hugo's vocabulary is multiplying faster than mosquitoes on a hot night (which we are getting plenty of). His ability to express himself is improving in leaps and bounds at the moment. Hopefully this will continue to lead to less whinging from him, a habit that is becoming truly exhausting.

It is adorable of course to see Hugo delight in Eloise's daily improvements and ask to play with her. He laughs when she is being cheeky and cries out "Eloiiiiiise" when she is messing up his toys or chewing his shoes. She continues to think he is the very best thing since sliced bread, or in her case, mashed avocado.

I packed up my last market for the year yesterday which I am happy to say was a great success, turning my first profit as a craft-preneur. I am now giving myself a couple of months to decide how to continue on this adventure with a probably return to my market stall in March. I need to do a lot of thinking, designing and planning in the next few weeks.

Chris is almost done with work for the year as well. We'll be driving to Albury for Christmas on Wednesday at the crack of dawn. We are planning a super early departure to try and avoid traffic and hopefully have children sleeping in the back for the first few hours. We are both feeling nervous about the long car trip since Eloise is proving a rather unhappy passenger. We will see but in any case we are both looking forward to Chris' break.

At the same time my family festival continues with both Paul & Marc (+Sabina) joining us in Albury for a few days. It's just a shame we'll be farewelling Mothe + Lolo tomorrow after a four week stay that went by far too quickly.

Eloise's eight month and Hugo's 33rd was busy, fun and filled with family. Let's see what the next one brings...

Eloise at 7 months

At 7 months, Eloise is starting to be able to keep herself busy for little moments at a time. More in control of her body, she can twist and turn and crawl and slide all over the floor in search of toys to carefully analyse and eventually chew on. As a result, she is keeping me pretty busy too, having to constantly be watching her and fishing things out of her mouth. On the other hand, it means I don't have to carry her quite as much when she is awake. I still have to carry her when she is asleep though... Something I am slowly trying to address with very little success. Thankfully, our nights remain peaceful and we are all rested enough.

Hugo meanwhile is turning into a little chatterbox. While pronunciation continued to be approximative, he is able to make himself understood more and more. With Chris, we often laugh about some things Hugo has said that day. It is funny and adorable to listen to him express himself, but more importantly, it is a great relief for him. I have noticed that he complains less often and I think it is due to his ability to describe what he wants better. We have spent some time at his pre-school in the last couple of weeks and I am so excited for him to start. I think he will love it and I hope he thrives there. The staff are wonderful and the atmosphere friendly and caring. He will have plenty of freedom as well as structured activities. It should be wonderful for all of us. 

Chris continues to be very busy at work but he is still so helpful at home. I have been talking recently with a few friends who have extremely unhelpful partners and I feel so grateful with such a caring and loving husband and father. Despite it being a pretty ambitious goal, Chris was successful in passing his Architecture registration exams which is a great achievement, particularly when preparing for it with a newborn. At last, he can now call himself an Architect. 

And finally, after several frantic weeks of knotting, packaging, photographing, and planning, I set up my bright and cheerful stall at the Olive Tree Market yesterday and had a great day. The crowds were modest for the time of year but I still made plenty of sales and excitedly added up my earnings last night. In addition to the sales, I also received so much positive feedback that I feel quite confident that the next two markets will go very well too. I just wonder if I will have enough stock to sell... In any case, carving out this creative activity for myself has been such a breath of fresh air. It has also been very challenging and stressful at times but I love the challenge of making it work and finally gaining some first-hand insight into the life of the many creative people I have interviewed in the past. I feel that I will probably go back to writing for work eventually but for the time being, this experience certainly is food for my soul. I have no doubt it will lead me to other exciting pursuits later, in whichever form they take. 

Preparing for Christmas.

With the schedule I have prepared for myself, I will have earned my Christmas break this year. I actually already picture our week in Albury as uninterrupted chilled-out bliss by the river and eating pavlova leftovers.

In the meantime though... what I have to get done actually keeps me sleeping a little lighter than usual.

I have booked myself in, or rather my alter ego Josephine for three of the major Christmas markets (2 x Olive Tree Market, and 1x Hunt & Gather). They are massive markets and if all goes well, I am hoping to make a lot of sales on those days.

A lot of sales though means a lot of stock which for the moment, I have almost none of as I desperately await the arrival of my strings (approx. 4000 meters) from the UK (They will be at the post office tonight so the agonising wait will end tomorrow morning) to start knotting away.

The good news is that I have a pretty good idea of my plan of attack, which is in part thanks to a good friend of mine and the workshop he wrote and was trialling on me.

Over the course of a couple of hours, we mapped out the current Oh Josephine business model and came up with a strategy for the next couple of months. As I told him in my feedback, I felt empowered with clarity, optimism and direction. Always a good start.

I am also planning a workshop which will take place in a couple of weeks at a nearby cafe. Over the course of about three hours, participants will learn the basic macrame knots and get to work on their own plant hanger. I have also sourced some really lovely ceramic pots which come in beautiful colours and go perfectly with the coloured strings. So far, I have sold two spots and I am hoping for four more but haven't had that much interest this week. We shall see...

Although it's only been a few weeks since The Impossible Market, I feel like it's been a lot longer. There are so many ideas and thoughts going around in my head, trying to find the right balance between experimenting and going with what I know.

And of course, progress is so slow when combined with the needs of Hugo and Eloise. I do wonder about my timing once in a while but, if I can make it work at least a little the way I am doing it, then I should.

Below are some photos from the last couple of weeks from Etsy and the photo for the workshop with the black background.

Eloise, 6 months.

It doesn't matter how busy it gets, and it's pretty busy right now, I wouldn't miss Eloise's monthly photo session.

Like last month, it was hard to keep up with our wriggly little cherub but I was pretty excited to make her wear the little suit I had knitted for her after she was born. Sized for 6 months, it fits her perfectly and is adorable.

It is difficult to compare her temperament to Hugo's because I realise that I have forgotten a lot about the early months with her big brother. I suspect though that she is less placid and louder. She is getting better but still doesn't love being left on the floor to play for too long. She cries a lot in the car and in the pram but that's also improving now that I have realised she is much more patient when she has something to chew on.

Her feistiness aside, she is adorable. She smiles all the time and laughs often. While she always greets us with huge smiles and squeals, she reserves her special explosion of laughter for her very favourite person, Hugo of course.

Watching them together is heart-melting and the love and affection flows both ways. This is one of the most exciting things about having more than one child and I can not wait to see their relationship continue to blossom.

Here are a few very cute photos I took today.