turning 5

Turning 5. Now there's a little bit of a big deal. Half a decade of running our beloved little textile studio, helping it slowly evolve into something that we can be truly proud of. I wouldn't say "growing" because to be truthful there hasn't been a whole lot of growth. Economy aside we've never wanted it to become some big unyeildy thing. More importantly the last 5 years have been about doing what we do better and better. Better practices, better processes, better basecloths, better designs.

I'm the type of person that needs things to feel streamlined and organised before I feel ready to tackle new things. And it feels like I&S is really getting to that stage where everything makes sense and is there for a reason. Sometimes I imagine the way our business moves being like a little inchworm - it reaches forward a bit, pauses, contracts, then reaches forward again. I'm looking forward to seeing what the next "reach forward" stage will look like.

I was off work sick with a nasty cold the other week (cold + pregnancy = ugh!) when I realised we urgently needed to make a poster to promote our upcoming birthday/open studio (which has already been and gone, sorry!). I had some beautiful gifted native bouquets in the house and big piece of paper. A bit of careful rearranging later and #5 came alive. It was the most fun I'd had in months!

Snipping and arranging stems on the coffee table


A handy window spot and an overcast day made for easy photographing

xx Lara.

A little bit of big news

It's been over three months since my last post. That's gotta be a new record. But this time I have a pretty good excuse:

Say hello to the tiny person growing in my belly!

Whew! It's been a fairly trying few months that's for sure, though I think I've had it a lot easier than most people. A bit of morning sickness but no vomiting, lots of feeling extremely tired in the afternoons and falling asleep at about 8:30pm. No exciting food cravings (not sure if Laughing Cow Cheese counts; I've always had the capacity to eat a whole wheel of that) but lots of food aversions and a lot of difficulty cooking or thinking about food. The worst has been the indigestion and having to avoid some of my favourite foods - tomato, citrus, chocolate (!!) and even onions. Add a gluten free diet on top of that and it does make eating times a little tricky! Thank god for avocados (especially delivered ones from Barham Avocados - they're the best!).

That all said, we're 15 weeks along now and starting to feel more human again. It's been exciting to finally share the news. And I've also finally had some energy to plan our rather impending wedding (got a shotgun, anyone?). Only 6 weeks away now and getting excited, looking forward to sharing more about that and all the lovely creative people involved in putting it all together!

Talk about knocking a whole bunch of life milestones on the head all at once. Feel like a walking cliche  ;)

Stay tuned for a bit of a blog-post-backlog, i.e. all the things I would have blogged about over the last 3 months if I'd had the energy!

xx