To market, to market!

I love markets. A lot!  Whether they are trash and treasure, car boot, or filled with stall upon stall of handmade goodies, I can spend hours at them.  It's funny what you come across, some things you shake your head at while with others you wish you had a couple of hundred dollars in order to bring something exquisite into your home.

Today my dear friend T-Dawg (haha), myself and the long suffering Mr K and Mr J, as well as both of our PPs left our houses at 7am in order to hit three various markets around Perth.  The first adventure was driving around to their house, and finding someone's car in the middle of the road! Handbrakes are wonderful things, cars sitting stationary in the road... not so much.  Knocking on their door yielded no results, so our big strong husbands pushed it back onto the lawn and I left a note on the door. Being so excited about heading to the markets, I even left a smileyface on the piece of paper. :)

Good deed for the day done, we headed off.  Mrs T is a market fiend too, we're a match made in heaven!  Things I found, that I would have loved to have brought home (Mr J is a lot more restrained than me!):

- A spinning wheel.  It was made of awesome!  Even Miss Delaney stroked it lovingly, as it was all Sleeping Beautyesque. 

- Antique pram.  So pretty, and girly!

- A military ammunition box.  As well as a huge mounted sword.  For Mr J.  He said that he's been spoilt enough lately with things, so he wouldn't even let me get prices! Spoilsport.

- Lots of paintings. Om nom nom!

There was plenty more, but we spent a minimal amount and came away happy!

My quirky kitty.  A lady was selling hand carved animals, so Mr J bought me one!

The girls all got a handknitted teddy.  Anyone who knows me, knows I am addicted to handmade.  Plus the proceeds from the sale of these teddies was going to The Heart Foundation.  Happy girls, happy hearts! Win, win all round.

I have been trying to find a mini wicker chair for Molly's room, for what feels like forever. Expensive on ebay, gumtree yielded nothing.  Spotted this, Mr J haggled, happy Mish!

Miss Georgia utilising my find!  Just needs a pretty cushion, which I will eventually get around to making.

Mr J's precious dipping sauce.  It's full of masculinity.  He also came away with some smoked jalapeno chilli powder.  I need to get some for the parentals!

We also picked up a bowl for the ratties, perfect size and unable to be tipped over.  So every one came away with something.  Well, almost everyone! Three members of our family seemed to be hopeful, sorry guys!

Not sure when we will be forgiven, but the PP are more than happy!

Just to clear it up...

I wasn't actually unhappy or sad when I wrote my previous post.  Instead, I was just reflecting.

To lighten the mood, here is a smiley kitty!

Grey, Red, Arctic.....

Sorry for the lack of blogging, I did actually write up an entry a week ago but it got eaten.  Somehow.  Not impressed.  I couldn't be bothered to type it all out again!

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago Mr J, the PP and I were at the shopping centre.  We love checking out the book store, as do the princesses.  Mr J made his way to the spiritual/religious/new age section, and I took the girls to look at Mr Men, Beatrix Potter and Diary of a Wimpy Kid.  Once the girls had chosen a book each, we went to find Mr J, who has been searching for a specific book.  I started pulling out different titles to see if anything else was of interest to him, when a cover caught my eye.  It was a simple cover photo, of a wolf.

I read the back, and decided it would be one to add to my kindle.  However I was disappointed to see that it wasn't available so I went to my next source, The Book Depository.  I impatiently waited for it to arrive, which it did two days ago.  Since then I have begun to devour Estes' writing whenever I get a chance.  She talks about how "within every woman there lives a Wild Woman, filled with passionate creativity and ageless knowing, but repressed for centuries by a value system that trivialises emotional truth, intuitive wisdom and instinctual self-confidence."  She shares stories and folklore that show us how we may imagine ourselves to be, and how we truly are.  That's the general gist, without me rambling!

Last night after the girls were in bed, I continued reading and highlighted those passages which resonated with me.  Needless to say, the first few chapters that I've managed to read so far, are filled with green highlights!  I think this book appeals to me, because I see so much of myself in it.  I constantly feel the need to be what I'm expected to be, and to do what I'm expected to do.  I hide aspects of myself that I feel I should be ashamed of, and constantly worry what people think of me.

What are some things about myself that I hide?!

* I rarely share that I love and believe in most of the aspects of attachment parenting.  Sometimes I feel I'm a bit of a closet hippy!
* I don't enjoy general nursing, I really don't.  The thought of returning to work on a surgical or medical ward makes me feel ill.
* I want to change the world (Mr J knows this, and likes to remind me that I can't help or save everyone).  Especially in regards to animals.  I would have a houseful of foster cats if Mr J would let me!  Instead, I make do with dropping food off once a fortnight to our vet (who takes in dumped cats and kittens.) But it's not enough.
* I hide the fact that my endometriosis and adenomyosis is causing me so much pain.  There's people a lot worse off, so suck it up!

I need to stop caring what people think of me.  I need to start living life the way I want to, without trying to keep everyone else happy (excluding the PP, who rely on me for everything).  I need to start "running with the wolves."

I need to just get brave enough to do it.