Hola gorgeous Goddess!

So, you know how I was taking you on a tour of our new mermaid cottage? And we started off in the bedroom two months?

It’s only taken me two months, but we’re back! For another thrilling installment of mermaid cottage tours!

So when we lived in cold alpine city, we lived in a three bedroom modern brick home.

Now? We live in tropical paradise, my homelands, in a small country town, in a 100+ year old wooden cottage.

So let’s recap how this adorable little cottage came to be ours?

My grandmother lived in this cottage for 30 years. And then she decided she needed to party more & moved into a 24/7 party establishment cute condo blocks for retirees just a block from here.

I was four months pregnant. When Chris heard the news the cottage was being sold, he said “We’ll buy it!”

We had no idea how. Or why.

We were 2000 kilometres away. We already owned another house. We had a baby on the way. We had no idea how we could afford for one of us to stay at home to look after our little mermaid. We had no idea how we could move back across the country, leaving our government jobs in the city to live in a small town (4000 people) that has few jobs.

We had no idea.

But we just did it.

I had faith that this goddess business of mine would make it happen. And it did.

We went to the bank the day after we heard the cottage was on the market.

I buttoned a jacket up over my swelling belly to cover up that I was pregnant.

I don’t know why. We just did.

And it all happened. Remarkably.

On November 10 last year, we became the proud (if a little stressed out) owners of a new cottage.

Exactly one year ago, we are sitting in that cottage.

It’s our home now. I’m sitting in the little room that used to be part of the verandah, and now has been built in.

It’s our office/studio/music room/play room for Mermaid Daughter #1.

We spend a lot of our days in here. Just the five of us.

Me & my love alternating between wooden computer desk & studio bench. Mermaid Daughter #1 being passed between us or attempting to crawl on the rainbow playmats between us. Charlie & Angel puppies at our feet (They have been really good around Mermaid Daughter #1. She likes to look at them & laugh & poke their fur. They sit & ignore, or move away.)

You can see a peek into our studio here… it’s through the doorway with a fuscia sari hanging over the window – my mama gave me in India for my 25th birthday.

But I digress, as I am want to do.

I’ll take you through the studio soon.

But today?

Today, you get Ze Official Tour Of Mermaid Daughter #1’s Change Corner.

Once upon a time, when we lived in that 3 bedroom brick house in Canberra, we had a room that we used just for Mermaid Daughter #1’s change table (she sleeps with us, so no cot needed).

Now we only have 2 bedrooms, our bedroom and studio. So Mermaid Daughter #1’s change corner is now relegated to the long hallway between the kitchen & studio. Once upon a time, my grandmother had her dining table in here, but we prefer to eat all our meals on the verandah.

We got the change table secondhand through a friend. We thought about going without one, but it’s been uber helpful on our backs. Hurrah! All her Baby Beehinds bamboo nappies go underneath the change table, and there’s a box of disposables there too. I totally thought I would be a 100% cloth diaperer. But I’m not. And after feeling guilty about that, I’ve taken an Oath Of Being Easy On Myself. Now I’m cool with it. Mermaid Daughter #1 wears disposables at night & for naps & for going out. There’s a few reasons for it: I find disposables stay drier for her. Otherwise, I’m changing a nappy every hour. Also our tropical paradise is on average 80-90% humidity, so it takes a bazillion years for things to dry. And now that I have my love home with us, I don’t want to spend everyday or every second day washing. I want to spend the time enjoying each other, working on my business together, loving our daughter together. Washing gets done when it gets done – which doesn’t always work for cloth diapering. To sum up my Very Good Reasons Why I Don’t Do Fulltime Cloth Diapering, I just don’t, and that’s okay.

What I’m coming to learn about parenting is that the judgement – of ourselves & of how others should do it – is way more harmful than any ding dang style of parenting.

The more I can love & accept myself as a parent, the better for everyone.

So, dearest heart, whether your babe’s bum is 100% Huggies, 100% organic bamboo diapered, 100% naked (EC style) or hovering anywhere between them on the Great Bum Wrapped Spectrum, I think you are utterly perfect & doing The Very Best Job Ever.

Let’s lay down our nappies & huggle each other. And then huggle ourselves.

We totally deserve it.

Apparently I am just giving you a tour of our mermaid daughter’s Change Corner, but I digress. Ha!

So anyways, her clothes are in those two white + seagrass basket bedside tables (from Target). They are cute, but I wouldn’t recommend them to anyone living in tropics… the seagrass swells in the humidity & don’t seem to stay totally unmoist.

I like to try and pop the word moist into unexpected places, because I have friends who have aversions it.

Moisty moisty goodness.

Where was I?

Oh yes. Tour time.

So, ze painting is one I did as a love letter to myself the night before my 22nd birthday.

And cute rainbow mobile that is now less mobile-ish & more of a reach&grab play toy for Starlight. This one was a gifty, so not quite sure where to get from.

Hanging above the change table is:

Two prints from Daisy Mabel. A white hanging mermaid mama + merbaby statue that I’m pretty sure is a Selina Fenech design. I saw that mermaid years ago, and fell deep in love with it.

That, I thought, is what mamahood will feel like.

The next time I went back to get it, it was gone.

A year later, I was visiting a friend & her new babe, and it was hanging in her babe’s nursery.

It made me smile to see it again.

More time passed. Then, before our my mermaid was born, I saw similar statues in a little store.

I was with my goddess sister Sone, and I told her how much I was longing for my own mermama + merbabe statue.

Ask for it, she said.

She’s practical like that. It had never crossed my mind to ask for it to be ordered in.

So I did, and a week later, I had them. I adore.

The End.

Large painting above window by my beautiful love. He’s one talented hot man.

Tiny green painting on left by me.

Angel windchime scored at the cheapo store.

Tiny goddess prayer flags from Wild Earth Arts.

This is what happens when you photograph stuff with a babe in Ergo strapped to you. Tiny, adorable fingers.

On the right is an old timber herb rack I bought in Canberra. It’s my souvenir from our time there – I bought it at one of my favourite markets that was held on the paddock of a sheep station. Before we left, I painted it in the same colour our old bedroom was. That’s what I kept from 8 years living there. That, & a bazillion delicious memories, & an adorable goddess daughter.

Anyways, precious souvenir keeps our Baby Butt Cleaning Utensils.

We don’t tend to use many baby wipes anymore – I cut up a whole heap of sheets, yoga pants & flannelet wipes into squares, and we dip them in water.

The other side of the drawers keeps:

My birthing painting – I painted this the week before my little mermaid was due, continued it after my waters broke, & finished it the day before she was born. (Yup, there was three full days between waters breaking + baby arriving.)

Also shown: a pretty square bowl my love’s parents gave us an engagement gift. We keep Mermaid Daughter’s hats on it.

A statue my goddess sister Sone gave me when I became pregnacious.

Butterfly, because that’s cute.

Old mug that we use for wipes water.

Oh, and because I know you really, really want to know what that sweet babe looked like in her Ergo…

your wish is my command…

So yus. There you go. A change corner.

*

This morning when we awoke & lay in the dawn glow together – all three of us, my love said to me:

You do know it’s your birthday in only 2 days, right? How do you feel about turning 28?

And I lay quiet for a moment.

I feel at peace with it. I feel like I have really, really earned 28. One year ago, on my 27th birthday, we had our first ultrasound & found out we were having a girl. And one year later, we have this magnificent, magical, strong 7.5 month old goddess in our arms.

My life has been incredibly transformed since my last birthday.

It’s been the biggest year of my life.

So I walk into the Year of 28 a little bit worn, & a whole lot of strong. I’ve learned a lot of things this year. But mostly? I’ve learned:

I am a Lioness.

I can do anything.

love,