Evelyn

Springtime chaos. It’s fun, but you know. Chaos.

by Veronica on October 13, 2014

in Evelyn, Soapmaking

Evelyn is obsessed with cows. Cows and butterflies, and flowers and outside.

Basically she’s obsessed with Springtime.

“FWOWERS!”

“COOOOOWS!”

“BUFFERLIES!”

“OWWWSIDE!”

She is over the moon to have a paddock filled with calves and their mothers across the road. She spends a lot of time demanding to go outside and watch the coooows. Failing that, she will stand forlornly at the window until they wander into view before she loses her mind and makes everyone come and look because COOOOWS!

It’s adorable.

I showed her Mount Gnomon Farm’s instagram feed last night and she was in her element. FOOD! COWS! SHEEP! PIGS!

It doesn’t take much to make a two year old happy.

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I spent the morning making soap today (Sweet Vanilla, and Passionfruit) and the afternoon packing soap. Evelyn sat next to me while I bagged soaps and added stickers.

“I HELP YOU!” over and over again until I realised she was demanding to help, not telling me she loved me or asking for something. Her speech is a little slurry still, but the muscle tone is improving and language leaps are happening.

She pressed down stickers after I put them on and it was going fantastically until she found a Sharpie on the table and nearly defaced the afternoon’s work while I sorted the pre-ordered soaps from the sellable immediately soaps.

It could have been a drama, but crisis averted. Mostly. She did shout a liiiiitle bit about the loss of the sharpie, but details.

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It’s looking like our hallway and living room carpet are going to be replaced. A few weeks back a lightbulb exploded molten glass all over the place, leaving burned carpet and melted in glass everywhere. Insurance has been through to make it safe (unfortunately covering molten glass shards with duct tape doesn’t work so well) and they’ve just been in contact to say someone will be out to measure my main two rooms for new carpet.

On one hand FREAKING AWESOME. It almost makes up for almost having the house burn down (okay, hyperbole, but it definitely burned the carpet and I’m glad Nathan and I were awake with a puking/rotten sick Evelyn at the time, otherwise it would have been even crappier) and the subsequent cut feet as we found all the melted shards.

On the other hand OH MY GOD. All my soap curing shelves are on the carpet which needs replacing. As is most of our furniture.

It’s going to be chaos.

Chaos with a point, but still, chaos.

I’m torn between a panic attack and happy dancing.

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

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New soaps in the shop!

Cardamom Sandalwood is back in stock with a make over and a new recipe to add even more luxurious bubbles.

Cardamom Sandalwood Soap

Up The Garden Path is a springtime smelling floral sensation and absolutely gorgeous pretty at the same time.

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Chocolate Soap

This only went into the shop this weekend and it’s almost sold out! Smells like brownies, or the best dark chocolate.

Chocolate Soap

That’s life for me. How are you?

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Soap, Spring and Sunshine

by Veronica on August 19, 2014

in Evelyn, Life, Soapmaking

A month on Cymbalta (give or take a few days) (take, mostly) and things are slowly evening out. My pain is back under control, I’m no longer feeling quite so scatty and distractable and if my jaw is dislocating a hundred times overnight, well at least it isn’t aching all day as well.

Spring is sprunging here. My fruit trees are trying desperately to squeeze out some early blossoms and the sight of the swelling buds brings me so much joy. The nights are icy and there is frost on the ground in the morning, but the days are long and sunny and there is a patch of sunlight in my bedroom I can spend hours lying in like a contented cat if I need to.

It makes the bitterness of death a slightly easier pill to swallow. Nathan’s grandmother died last week and he will miss her. She was lovely and we named Evelyn for her and my grandmothers together, which soothes the ache of missing them a little. Their names will live on, even as they don’t.

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Yesterday was full of sunshine. Nathan spent the day grumbling about the dirt against the side of the house as he pulled weeds and discovered exactly where the wood boring grubs are causing issues. He excavated an old hole into the foundations of the house and we shoved the cats down there to hunt mice and chase each other.

Evelyn happily followed him around the yard, throwing weeds into the wheelbarrow until she got bored, pulled her gumboots off, sat in a pile of freshly turned dirt and began digging. By the time we were ready to come inside she was covered in mud, but it was okay, because she had successfully completed her quest to fill her boots up to the very top with dirt. I admire her ability to stick to a task as the cats ran over her, the dog nearly sat on her and the dirt she was sitting on got progressively damper.

A long warm bath and she was clean again, with a bonus lot of fingernail cutting thrown in.

Winter hasn’t been cold exactly, but it’s been dull and weird, probably contributing to my dull and weird mood. More vitamin D is in the works, along with an iron supplement, because I always seem to forget I need to supplement with iron when I get too exhausted to eat well.

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The soap business launches in a little over three weeks and I am so excited. My shelves are full of soap ready to sell, and my other shelves (and the other shelves, and basically the entire house) is covered in soap still curing, packaging, label tests and various lists of things I need to do.

It’s excellent and exciting and I am so grateful to you, my dearest Internets, for supporting me and making the process of setting up a business so much fun.

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And now you are TWO!

by Veronica on July 28, 2014

in Evelyn

My dandelion headed, willful, gorgeous, cheeky, amazing girl is TWO.

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Eve opening presents 006

We’ve come a long way in the last two years and to hear her sitting next to me right now with textas and paper, demanding I draw her flowers is just fantastic.

She’s still recovering from the RSV and is more fatigued than normal, but she’s getting there.

Happy Birthday Evelyn! We are so glad we have you.

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In summary: No one died.

by Veronica on July 19, 2014

in Evelyn, Headfuck, Soapmaking

Internet, I cannot tell you how nice it is to be home. I’ve spent the last three days in hospital with Evelyn after she caught RSV and gastro together, making her horribly unwell.

Evelyn sick

Three days of IV fluids and a little oxygen and we were allowed to come home yesterday for a trial to see how she does. I am grateful to say she rocked the trial and we are still home and she’s feeling a little better back in her own routine. Not well enough to run around the house, but well enough to have opinions about putting on pants this morning.

We were worried and we’re so glad she’s on the mend now. It will take her a while to gain back the strength and weight she lost, but she’s eating a little and toddlers are excellent at bouncing back. Unlike Nathan and I, who are still getting over the effects of the gastro and RSV Evelyn gifted to us.

On the being home front, there’s nothing like sitting next to a toddler who is too unwell to do anything but sleep, watching her oxygen drop lower and lower to make you appreciate small things like a hot cup of tea and being able to potter around the house without worrying someone is going to cough themselves into unconsciousness.

Not to mention the bliss of sleeping in my own bed last night after the hospital pull out and previously, a mattress on the floor so I could monitor Eve’s breathing.

Things have been quiet here while I tease out what I’m doing. Evelyn update above aside, I’m not a Mummyblogger any more. So I don’t know what I am. Tired, mostly.

The fortnight of serious illness coupling as it did with the school holidays means I am seriously behind on soap work. There is 24kg of soap needing to be stamped and honestly, I’m not sure I’ve caught it in time. It might be too hard to stamp and I’m loathe to ruin any soaps trying. So I may just ignore it and send them out unstamped.

My routine is thrown out, and I’m struggling a bit, stepping back into the role of maker, writer, business owner, mother, nursemaid. Taking a fortnight was the only choice I had, but it’s hard now, playing catch up. That’s the problem with working for yourself – if you’re too sick to work, the work just waits for you. No one else does it for you.

It will be okay. I’ve only got eleventy hundred soap buckets to scrape out and wash, and like, five hundred soaps to label and wrap. When I get around to buying the paper for labels. And designing the labels. And printing them.

Holy mother of god but I need three more of me. And minions. Lots of minions.

 

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This baby ate strawberries. You’ll never believe what happened next.

by Veronica on March 20, 2014

in Evelyn, Food-Issues

YOU GUYS. The upworthy headlines drive me crazy. So crazy of course I had to use one, because IRONY. Or something.

(This isn’t ironic, it’s just annoying.)

Yesterday was supermarket day and Coles had strawberries on special. When we got home, I shared the strawberries with Evelyn and YOU’LL NEVER BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENED NEXT.

Oh wait, yes you will. Because of course she’s allergic to strawberries suddenly.

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I put her to bed shortly after these photos. 45 minutes later she was awake, screaming, with a sore tummy and a even splotchier face. No breathing problems or swelling though, so thank god for small mercies.

After panadol, cuddles and lots of love, she let me put some soothing cream on the angriest of the red bits.

Strawberry allergy. Grumble grumble grumble.

She had a bad night and today seems like her tummy is still causing a bit of pain, but the redness has eased, leaving behind a big eczema flare up.

On the upside, strawberries are much easier to avoid than peanuts or eggs.

And she’ll probably grow out of it.

And it’s not that big a deal in the scheme of things.

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