Banana Runkin

A little Cooking

2012-02-02T22:11:00.001+10:30

There has been a little cooking going on around here. Cinnamon scrolls were made for the boys to take to work and school. I used Melissa Goodsell from 'Day to Day's' recipe.

And made cheesy mite scrolls too using a recipe from the Woolworth's ap. But it was basically the same recipe, a simple scone recipe flattened out rolled up with the topping of your choice in it.

There were some spelt pikelets made on the weekend, Yum! Seriously love spelt!!!

And there have even been roasted home grown tomatoes.

There has also been some Nigella inspired cooking and a bit of fish going on around here too :)

A Treat.

2012-01-31T16:24:00.001+10:30

Today was Luke's first day at Kindy for the year so with both the boys off my hands and after I had done the food shopping I took myself to the book store and treated my self to a few books. I have been hanging for a good read and then I also came across this awesome crafty book, I couldn't leave without it. There may be a few hours spent in the hospital next week, my mum is having an op and then staying with us for a few weeks to recover so its the perfect time for a new book.

If only I could have treated myself to some fabric so I could actually make some of the things in the book, but Christmas money only goes so far :)

On My Table

2012-01-30T14:21:00.000+10:30

There have been lots of flowers from the garden. We have 1/2 an acre of land and I have a very small patch of daisy's, roses and a few other little bushes and a small veggie patch.

I guess that is something more that I need to commit to- spending more time in the garden, cos I sure do love bringing in flowers from the garden

Not the usual day!

2012-01-23T15:14:00.000+10:30

Today I am trying desperately to toilet train Luke. He is four. He is going to kindy.And Blake is staying with his grandparents for a few days. But boy oh boy it is tough. Blake was so different to Luke, Blake just didn't want to and as soon as he decided that he wanted to then he did. Since Luke doesn't have the same kind of understanding I have simply put him in jocks today hoping that a few accidents might make him realise. I have been taking him to the toilet every fifteen minutes.

AND every single time he has done a wee before I take him- that's a LOT of wee people not to mention the #2's!!! I am tired, I'm thinking about just popping a nappy on him for the rest of the day and then going again tomorrow, but will that confuse him more?

Will I have a breakthrough later this afternoon? Ahhh so tired.

Today I made

2012-01-17T15:02:00.000+10:30

So I made a bag, a nice large one that will hold lots in the car, to the beach or even a bit of shopping.

It really just started sewing up a few colourful scraps.

It felt so so good to be making something, so good!

I'm looking forward to doing some scrapping this week hopefully!

Happy Birthday

2012-01-16T07:37:00.001+10:30

Today is this little guys birthday. He is SIX!

We have just eaten delicious pancakes for breakfast.

He is going swimming with special nanny and his cousin today.

He will have a fun day and some cake at the end of it.

Blake at six is super sweet and kind to others. Still never stops talking, moving and asks a billion and one questions every single day. He drives me crazy! He never does what he is told, he always pushes the boundaries. He does things other kids wouldn't think of including naughty things. He is very smart, nearly smarter than me already, he is brave when he wants to be. He is super cool. He has crazy hand gestures when he explains things to you and crazy expressions when he is mad or frustrated.

He is sweet and beautiful.

And we love him very much.

Happy birthday Blake!!

I have been in a bit of a funk last week, by Friday I had had enough so I finally sat down to do some crafting, I will share soon! :)

An Award

2012-01-09T17:17:00.000+10:30

Sami Awarded me the ABC award, Thanks Sami! I'm not going to be passing it on but as part of the award I am to share an abc of things I love, so here goes:

A- Amy, but I prefer Amie

B-Banana's (yup we were the people buying them when they were $15kg)

C- cupcakes!

D- Dancing crazy with my boys.

E-eating dinner with Paul.

F- fresh flowers esp. from the garden

G-gardening

H- handmade

I-Imagining

J-Juice, home-made orange

K- Kissing ;)

L- Luke and Blake.

M- Making things.

N- nice happy people

O-October,my birthday month.

P- Paris, I have wanted to go there for forever.

Q- Quiet time without my boys, sometimes I just really need it.

R-Recipes, simple ones.

S-Soaking in the bath for a really long time with lots of bubbles

T- Thankful

U- Under water goats, just for Paul.

V-very cute boys (mine)

W-Wednesdays cos they are hump days.

X-eXstreamly crazy laughing sessions

Y-Yes, I too often say NO

Z- Love the way you sign Z

Blake's Party

2012-01-08T20:17:00.000+10:30

The last few days have seemed extra busy and I am looking forward to a quiet week. Friday was spent preparing things for Blake's birthday party which was a shared birthday with his cousin. Saturday was the party and we had a lot of fun. Really it was 8 adults and 4 children, all family- that seems enough though. Then today Blake had a school friends birthday party, they own a bouncing castle business so Blake had tonnes of fun jumping away while I took the opportunity to go food shopping with no kids- lots of running around!

This was a guess how many legos in the jar game. Wanna take a guess?

In my garden

2012-01-05T19:49:00.001+10:30

I was so excited today when I went to water the veggies and there was a tomato ready, two zucchini and some beetroot ready to be pulled

I putting that little yellow tomato on my pizza for dinner tonight!

On My Table

2012-01-03T20:50:00.001+10:30

Since I haven't done an 'on my table' post in a while and today has been really busy, I thought I would show you our Christmas breakfast table.

Since we weren't entertaining anyone this year I thought it would be nice to make our morning a little special, a little bit of time for just the four of us.

I was up Christmas eve hanging pink tulle everywhere and not one of my three boys complained that it was all pink. Sometimes Mummy just needs a little pink- or a lot LOL ;)

We had fruit salad and croissants and it was nice being together.

Home made Pasta

2012-01-02T15:57:00.000+10:30

For Christmas my in-laws bought me a pasta machine. I have wanted one for ages so I was very excited to make my own pasta a few days ago.

It turned out quite well, I think I over cooked it a little but it cooks so quick I wasn't expecting it to be ready so fast.

I made quite a bit of dough so some is in the freezer.It was very yummy much better than bought so I will have to try some spelt pasta sometime soon :)

The Word 2012

2012-01-01T21:00:00.002+10:30

Commit is my word for 2012.

Paul suggested it after I was giving him a description of the type of things I wanted for my year and it has somehow stuck. Its not a pretty word, its not super inspiring but it is what I need to do.

I want to commit to myself, no one else.

I want to run the city to bay so I commit to running everyday.

I want to blog more so I will commit to taking more photos and being here more.

I want to save more so I will commit to being more frugal.

I want to commit time to myself, I will be investing a lot of time in Luke this year and I want to remember to take time for myself and remember to keep balance and happiness in my life. And as always be thankful.

2011 Favourites

2011-12-31T15:51:00.000+10:30

I thought I would share some of my favourite photos on this last day of 2011.

Blake's first day of school , he was super excited and has had an amazing school year, learning so much and making a tonne of new friends

Blake learning new things and I just had to put this picture in because he is looking so grown up in it.

Luke birthday this year was a huge milestone- he was actually interested in opening presents! Starting Kindy was another huge milestone.

We spent a lot of time in the garden this year ( we still have a very long way to go) and the boys were always begging to go in the wheel barrow.

My crazy munchkins on Christmas day!

Daddy's birthday, it was around this time that Luke began to say happy birthday to people.

I have decided on a word for 2012 and I will share tomorrow- do you have a word?

Christmas around here.

2011-12-19T08:58:00.000+10:30

There have been pressies wrapped and decorated

In red and blue, wish I would have come across some pink polka dot patty pans then they would go with my tree but they are sweet anyway.

There have been more ornaments stitched up. A few have been sold at Blakes school Pasaar.

There have also been some tags made

I am almost finished all of my wrapping, I am trying to take my time and make them look pretty.

Ahh I love this time of year.

The Gingerbread House

2011-12-15T10:00:00.000+10:30

This year I let Blake and Paul decorate the gingerbread house Id bought. Usually I love getting in on the action but Paul is so technical and everything has to be done so perfectly that it annoys me far to much.

So I let them go for it. I think that this is the best we have ever decorated a gingerbread house.

Gingerbread houses are seriously not easy to decorate! They are always trickier than you think they are going to be.

Our visiting elf likes the house to.. I think she wants to eat all the candy off it!

Today I Made

2011-12-09T20:57:00.001+10:30

We now have owls floating around the house. I am making some kits for Blake to sell at the Indonesian Pasar he is having at his school next week, like there isn't enough going on at this time of year!

Again I did look at the Fa la la la Christmas Felt book but didn't use the template etc. I have kept it simple so little ones can sew these up.

On My Door

2011-12-08T09:50:00.001+10:30

Christmas is happening over here, the lights are on the house, both the trees are up (and Paul admitted that this year he prefers the pink tree to the traditional one in our bay window! OMG), advent calenders are in full swing- with one counting down and the chocolate one counting up makes me a confused mummy! There have been some Christmas crafts and we even have an ELF staying with us until Christmas eve.

I managed to whip this wreath up right before December First, it is wrapped in glittery aqua fabric and then divine twine around it.

It definitely stands out you can see it from the road! I love this time of year it is so nice to sit down at the end of the day and enjoy the twinkling lights, if only there was snow! Fat chance of that happening here in the middle of summer :)

Today I Made

2011-11-29T09:35:00.001+10:30

I have been organising some Christmas tags to put on gifts, if only I could get some plain white wrapping paper! I managed to get my hands on some divine twine so my gifts will probably be wrapped with brown paper and then finished with twine and tags

Blake is so into Christmas this year, so I am going to be taking full advantage of that and we are going to have a few special goings on over here. Its all kinda exciting. The countdown is on!

The Adelaide Pageant

2011-11-22T10:56:00.001+10:30

I thought that I would share some of the photos that my mum took while we were at the pageant.

She took lots of floats but not too many with the boys in, lots of the back of there heads. It was a warm day so there were a tonne of people, more than we expected but the boys still managed to squish right up in front :)

This Santa was in Adelaide Arcade the boys were really excited to see anything christmassy, Blake especially loved being in the city since we don't go there very often any more. Doesn't he look so grown-up here ?? OMG

Of course I had to add Santa's Sleigh!

We have given in to peer pressure this year and put up one tree (yes we have two!) Usually I put them up on December First but we have family that always put up the tree when the pageant comes to town, I felt like I was missing out especially since I love Christmas so much!

When do you put up your Christmas tree?

More Ornaments

2011-11-20T10:26:00.001+10:30

They are multiplying!!!!!

Eight of these little babies are headed to my mum for her to give as gifts.

Now I just need to get my hands on some more red felt :)

Today I made ! Christmas Ornaments

2011-11-17T08:07:00.001+10:30

I am enjoying making some little babushka doll Christmas ornaments.

I think they are cute :) They are a mixture of ideas from the fa la la la Christmas felt book and my babushka measuring cups. I am off to make some pink ones for my tree ;)

This week

2011-11-11T13:15:00.001+10:30

This is Sam my last (no one else is having babies right???) little nephew.

This week has been a little crazier than I anticipated.

There has been appointments for Luke.

And days of kindy for Luke.

Play dates for Blake.

A baby was born, a chubby new Boy.

Food consumed so fast that mummy felt guilty when Blake exclaimed "you need to go shopping to buy some food- there is no food!!!!!!" I cant keep up. I hate to think how much food they will consume when they are teenagers !

Lunch order dramas long story short this mummy didn't know that it was only possible to do lunch orders on SOME days resulted in us being late for school and a whole pile of tears.

A brand spanking new car arrived in my driveway which Paul had driven home from the dealers to show me (just for a test run) there was much excitement.

There are looming appointments for Luke and I am not looking forward to the brain draining process to go through Luke's history yet again. Also more organizations that I need to get in contact with. Like we are not in contact with enough already, boy they are demanding too! I am really looking forward to getting a diagnosis and finally getting something in place to begin working with him to help him but it seems to be a long process. I already suspect that they wont be able to pinpoint exactly what is wrong with him and that they will label him with a global developmental delay. If only I had some image in my mind of what that will look like when he is an adult. How much he will be able to function....

Also I am missing scrapbooking, I am really going to have to carve out some time to scrap.

Stressing that I've not done more sewing this week.

Lastly Blake and I are going with my mum and my (other) nephew to the Adelaide pageant tomorrow. I am super excited, we haven't been for a few years. That is Blake last time we went :)

Christmas Sewing

2011-11-06T10:29:00.000+10:30

For Christmas I am making each child a bag to put some goodies in. I wont be able to reveal what I am putting in the bags because my family read this blog on the odd occasion but I will be able to share with you each bag. My SIL is past due to have a baby so by Christmas there will be 8 children including my own.

For Ruby I also made her a hat which has a pretty floral pattern on the inside and can be worn either way

So one down and 7 to go, I hope to get all the bags done this week so lots of sewing for me :)

The Cheerleader?

2011-11-04T13:54:00.000+10:30

I have a bit of a long story to put down here and am struggling with where to begin..... (I hope its not too deep :P ) As you know I have been meditating lately and it has been helping me a lot during the day to stay calm and be productive. I had been thinking that I should be running and feeling guilty that I hadn't been. Lets just say that it was on my mind! I had been thinking that as a mum isn't it crazy that I can find the time for one of these activities but not both! How on earth is that finding the balance- I can look after my mind but not my body that is just crazy! I had short conversations with both Ali and Kathie Link (in my sidebar) about running and I was getting the running itch. Then with everything that has been going on with Luke ( my focus has really been on him in the last few months) I have been having some conversations with his Kindy teacher who reveled to me that she is in training for a marathon.

Blake had no idea what this contraption was for, he kept asking "is this what you are supposed to do on it?"

Digging a little deeper she explained to me that she had overcome some large obstacles, last time she was in training for the same marathon she tripped and shattered her knee and had to have a pile of major surgery and was told she would never run again. Yet here she was in training for a 42km marathon. Can I say I'm impressed. So I just had this all going through my head, not only that but the big 3 0 is looming and I feel like I still have a lot that I want to do before then also on one hand time with Luke means that there are things that I wont be able to do (like starting selling handmade stuff suddenly got pushed to the bottom of the priority list) but on the other hand more time at kindy for him and school only just over a year away I am beginning to see the light of getting some more Mamie back and being able to fit more into the day whilst they aren't here.

After discussing all this with Paul my question was should I 'just do it' ? should I make a goal? Well I have. Yep. I am thinking I might do our city's fun run which is only 12kms, next September. That's a small enough goal right? I certainly don't want to bite off more than I can chew! I cant possibly get my feet on the road everyday with the boys here but I do own a cross trainer so I most definitely can hop on that everyday.

Any way after all this I finally come to my point.... Over the weekend I told my family that this was something that I wanted to do, quite honestly this is something that I have thought about doing for a very long time (but fat gals don't run do they?) and often even dream about running. Not one of my family members were encouraging! I got a whole lot of YOUR CRAZY and YOU CANT , even though I politely mentioned that just before winter we were hiking 7 kms up mountains with often a 20kg Luke on my back- but anyway!

I totally get where they are coming form and It made me question how often am I encouraging to the people around me- How often do I cheer them on? How often do I tell them that they can do it- that they are amazing and strong. How often do I tell them that they are doing a great job? Truly no where near often enough! Not even close!

How often do you encourage others?

Me and my Boys

2011-11-01T21:13:00.000+10:30

Paul took this photo yesterday. After the weekends business my actual birthday was very quiet. My mum unexpectedly drove up and had dinner with us. Paul made my fave chicken parma and we had some cake. I loved spending time with the four people I love most in the world.

Today I spent some time in the garden and even picked some strawberries, radish and snow peas.

Twenty Eight

2011-10-31T17:14:00.000+10:30

So wanna know what happened??? Well mid way through October we were told that my mum is going to have an operation, nothing too serious but still she will have to stay with us for up to 6 weeks after the op, this will happen sometime before Christmas but a date has not yet been set. Also plans were made for my in laws to come stay for my birthday and OH NO i had a pile of spring cleaning to do and another pile of appointments for Luke. So the last 2 weeks i have been in cleaning mode, feeling like I was running out of time to organize a (small) birthday party and knowing my mum is gonna be here soon and Christmas is coming, I felt a bit like the sky was gonna fall on my head, so something had to give and that was blogging. But now I am back! And since Sami has tagged me to tell you 10 things you didn't (need to) know about me and since today is my 28th birthday I thought I would give you 28 things you didn't know about me including some of my favourite things.

1. I love dried bananas you know the ones that look like shriveled willy's- cant get enough of them yum!

2. My music taste is wide and varied I love cold play, Norah Jones, Moloko, Jack Johnson (LOVE), Ben Harper, Taylor Swift and at night Paul drifts us to sleep with classical music.

3. As a teenager I watched the movie "sleepless in Seattle" more than two hundred times!

4.As an adult I have watched the series of "pride and prejudice" the one with Colin frith almost as many times.

5. I love Audrey Hepburn- breakfast at Tiffany's and Roman Holiday are my favourites.

6. Blake and I love to dance crazy in the family room- it is a sight to be seen!

7. I almost died when I had Blake and am totally against home births- before I had children I would have said the complete opposite.

8. I refuse to watch any News or current affairs or read newspapers because I don't believe in feeding into the media. I prefer to have a positive mind!

9. I hate people who pick there nose!!!!

10. I prefer to sleep with the blankys tucked under my feet because I am scared of the snakes biting my feet (i had lots of horrible nightmares about that when I was a child, and crocodiles in the toilet!) :)

11. I knew I was going to marry Paul from the first week Id known him. He is my best friend.

12. When I was a teen I wanted to be a florist and did work experience at 3 florists shops. Alas I get hay fever too easily.

13. I get called the tissue queen by Paul and my SIL they say I have tissue issues- but I just cant help it.

14. I also get called Crazy Mamie by Paul and my SIL- I am a little loopy but as I say- You love me anyway!

15.I have always wanted to run a marathon and have always wanted to go in a hot air balloon. I wish I was a runner and I really want to run a short marathon next year- I am gonna have to get running. This is my next goal.

16.I am the kinda person who loves with my whole heart and if you hurt me too much I will simply push you out of my life so I don't have to deal with your crap. I seem to only really have a small circle of family- I love them so dearly they are very close to me and know everything about me.

17. As a child we were quite poor due to my parents divorce (my mum would say we weren't deprived though) as an adult I am truly spoilt. Paul would buy me anything I asked for. Sometimes I cant help it, it is a hard balance trying to find a simple life when you have money and you were once poor. I have issues with second hand because of my childhood and I remember what it was like to make do and miss out and to use everything to full use.

18.I have PCOS and was told that I would never have children, I have two little miracles running round my house right now.

19. I believe in love, above all love.

20.My fave junk food is corn chips but not the ones with all the flavourings I love the original ones.

21. I have an incredibly sensitive nose-my sense of smell is crazy. I tell Paul I should work for a government agency like the police to sniff out smells- like how they have physics help them (or sniffer dogs LOL)

22.Things that make me happy are making things, fresh cut flowers, birthdays and huggles.

23. I try to always smile while I'm driving- people on the roads can be so impatient and grumpy!

24. I was vegetarian before I met Paul, now life is different. Sometimes we have 3 (whole- both cheeks) cow bums in our fridge. I could easily go back to being vegetarian and wouldn't miss meat. We eat the best meat in Australia I can honestly say that the meat Paul gets is export (and amazing) quality meat from work and I do believe that if you couldn't kill it you shouldn't eat it- most people have become completely removed from what meat really is and where it really comes from and how it is killed.

25. On the topic of meat working in an abattoir- cleaning it was an eye opening experience and I often say to myself when doing a yucky job like picking up the dog poo "nothing is as bad as cleaning an abattior" it always helps.+

26. I love board games, I am waiting for the boys to be a little older so they can play with me. I love monopoly!

27. Sometimes my eyes are green, sometimes grey and sometimes blue, it depends on the light and who you ask.

28. I love birthdays, life is short you never know what is around the corner, celebrate what you have and who you are . Life is sweet!

Did you make it to 28?

Christmas Ornament #2

2011-10-20T08:14:00.001+10:30

AHHHH where have i been????? At the end of last week there was a whole lot of cleaning going on over here and not much to tell. At the beginning of this week Luke has been the complete focus- appointments with an OT and physio and Kindy with a one on one support person. But I did manage to sew this on Monday! I am starting to feel like I am taking some small steps to be on the way to being organized for Christmas!

This was a combination of ideas from the fa la la la Christmas felt book again.

Today I made

2011-10-13T10:34:00.000+10:30

Yesterday my Internet wasn't working... But there was lots happening here. I made some homemade mayonnaise for the first time, I used a recipe from 'not dabbling in normal' (check it out in my sidebar)and it is really very nice.

My SIL requested a bag for storing bags made out of red gingham and also a door snakefor her b-day so that was all whipped up.

And I also whipped up two new shopping bags - I cant get enough of these!

There was also a batch of brownies made last night but when I got up this morning half of them were gone!! There are some cheeky monkeys in my house!!!

Today I am hoping to get some Christmas sewing done :)

Today

2011-10-11T21:55:00.000+10:30

Today has been a busy day, there has been:

washing
playing
menu planning
food shopping
cleaning
mopping
cooking

and lots of other fun, sadly there was no photo taking so I will have to remember to take some tomorrow and share with you then. Hope you had a happy Tuesday :)

The Last One... I promise

2011-10-10T22:53:00.001+10:30

I really promise these are the last birthday piccys- I'm gonna have to scrap some I think :) Last weekend we had a shared party for Luke and Joshua who are only a week apart. My SIL made this cute cheeky monkey cake (in the jungle) isn't it great!!! I wouldn't have the patients to do the piping so perfect :P

Luke loved blowing out the candles and loved having a piece of birthday cake.

So his birthday was kinda stretched out and all over the place but it was thoroughly celebrated!

I have been sewing today.. will share tomorrow.

Finally all done!

2011-10-10T12:22:00.000+10:30

Luke's Quilt was finally finished the night before his birthday- I was so tired! I am happy with how it turned out and I kinda wish I had one of my own....but that's not gonna happen for a while as I will be focusing on sewing some handmade gifts for Christmas now.

He is still adjusting to the new Maggie, we all said goodbye to the old Maggie but she really only went in the wash then she will go in the back of the cupboard somewhere, I'm not quite ready to throw her out just yet.

Hopefully I will be back again tonight to catch up with what we've been up to today.

On My Table

2011-10-10T09:32:00.000+10:30

Today I'm going to have a bit of a catch up here and at home. Our weekend was very busy, I did manage to get a little sorted for Luke's birthday, gifts wrapped and table ready for breakfast. There were balloons hanging and shenanigans from the boys. We had to go out all day (unexpectedly but it was still a nice day) so I knew that breakfast would be all the time we would have to celebrate.

Luke received a bananas in pajamas softie, some new abc kids Cd's for in the car and the quilt that I finished in a rush the night before. He was happy. Blake was a little jealous that he didn't get any gifts but it will be Christmas soon :)

I will be back around noon to share.

Friday

2011-10-08T22:28:00.002+10:30

Yep I am behind, Oh well I might catch up tomorrow. Friday was all about finishing the quilt and I only just finished it tonight. But there was still a little sewing going on...These are the pants that I made for Blake a little while ago:

And here is a bag I am whipping up- not sure where I'm going with it we will see how it turns out :)

Hope your weekend is happy and spent with people you love!

Bunting and Stitching

2011-10-06T22:13:00.001+10:30

I have be meaning to make some bunting for ages, today I finally decided to make some. I was going to use fabric but didn't have enough pretty scraps so I figured why not use paper- I have lots of pink paper! :P This was much simpler and only took 5 minutes to whip up by simply stapling the paper to the ribbon. I love the cute pink that is now above my large kitchen window.

The rest of the day was spent stitching up Luke's quilt and I'm still not quite finished- I must have it finished by the weekend. Luke's birthday is on Sunday and we are going down the hill Saturday so I want to have it all wrapped up tomorrow night. It will just be the 4 of us on Sunday we will have a quiet birthday but I want to have a few pressies for him to open. Usually the boys get just one gift from us for b-days. They are very spoilt by our families and there b-days are both quite close to Christmas. Last yr Luke was so un-interested that all we got him was a knife and fork and I didn't even wrap them they went straight into the cutlery drawer! lol!

Looking forward to Friday... the best day of the week (another happy dance :P)

Us. Today.

2011-10-05T23:51:00.000+10:30

Today we had a quiet day.

I spent the day we these two.

I finished reading pride and prejudice for the 5th time.

They played dress ups.

I spent the evening stitching my quilt.

They ate all the cinnamon scrolls I made last night.

It was nice.

hoping still to get some crafting done hoping like crazy!!

One happy Thing

2011-10-04T21:30:00.000+10:30

This Is an Amazing photo- a giant milestone for my little banana runkin

In the past Luke has had almost no interest in opening gifts, this last weekend Luke receive presents from Paul's family, his birthday is next weekend but they are working. He was excited ( he was most excited about the freddo frogs- that boy LOVES chocolate) he said WOW a lot. This was so super dooper to me- oh my poor heart.Christmas will finally be exciting to Luke.

Things are moving along with Luke. We have had hearing tests but he wouldn't sit still or quiet so we only got 1/2 the results but I'm not real worried I know he can hear... the Dr wanted to know if he was just a little down then that may affect him. We have received a lot of help from his kindy they have been fantastic, next term he will have 2 1/2 hrs of support. The kindy speech lady is going to assess him and we are booked in to see a occupational therapist.

It is strange to have one child who is very smart and one who has challenges.

It is hard to find a balance for Blake who is so ready to do and see more but is held back by his little brother simply not being able to participate. So many things we don't do. Blake has his own life lessons to learn because he is so smart he lives mostly in his mind and he needs to remember peoples feelings, he needs to remember to be kind and to love, unconditionally.

Luke loves with all his heart , he feels fiercely and he is happy.

Reminder to self: he is happy he is loved that is all that matters.

On My Table

2011-10-03T16:05:00.001+10:30

Since it is the start of school holidays today I thought I would mix it up on my table this week and make it a little more child friendly. There are all sorts of things that the kids can play with/ be inspired by and this week the table will probably be a work in progress of sorts, I am sure the boys will add to it and the table will need to be tidied more often this week but that's ok.

At the moment we have: crayons, water colour paints, cupcake candles, native pine cones, shells, paper, cutlery, a jug of water, a frog and some patty pans.

Today I made....a gingerbread house

2011-10-02T19:45:00.000+10:30

Today has been a strange day here, Daylight Savings began here so we are all out of whack.Paul goes back to work tomorrow and I'm not sure if I'm happy or sad. I did manage to sew up a little gingerbread ornament that will be a small gift, may be put with teachers gifts. Its quite cute and comes from the fa la la la Christmas felt book.

I am totally ready for lots of crafting but I think a bit of a clean up is in order- we will see what wins out tomorrow :)

October

2011-10-01T22:12:00.000+09:30

So Today is the 1st of October! LOVE LOVE LOVE October LOVE! Why? Because its my birthday month!!! LOL. This is about when the people I love around me would say "crazy Mamie" And this year I refuse to repress, this year this month there will be more than 31 happy dances ( lol wouldn't you love to see that) and let me explain why. At the beginning of this year I read 'the happiness project' as you know being happy is a great way to help find your balance. I did find that the book in my opinion a little on the side of shallow happiness- rather than deep happiness but in saying that there are so many ways to be more aware of what will make you grumpy in a moment and what will make you happy and that in the overall picture can boost your happiness. So over the last few months I have been popping in to Gretchen Rubins blog 'the happiness project' and one of her posts this week struck a note with me. The post was titled "Do you often (or ever) feel a Wonderful, Joyous, Childhood Feeling of expectancy?' I am exactly the type of person who easily feels this way, but since becoming an adult I have been repeatedly told that I shouldn't feel that way anymore, that that feeling fades, that adults don't get excited about Christmas and they don't want to get up early on Christmas morning or get excited that its there birthday, bah humbug they say. WELL NOT ANY MORE!!! I am that kind of person and I think that I need to rub of on some of those boring, grumpy adults.

Today is the perfect day for all of this The First, for those of you who haven't been round here my birthday is the 31st- yup Halloween and the last day of October. Today is also the first big party day of October, we are going to one birthday party that is celebrating 3 birthdays and 1 retirement then in the evening we are going to my SIL party, all with just family but still its a great time to be excited.

For all of this month everyday I am going to be doing three things- blogging, running and meditating. So expect to see lots of me here! :)

Happy First of October !!!!!!!!

Our Wicking Beds (its a long one!)

2011-09-30T17:49:00.001+09:30

Last week while the weather was still sunny we finally decided to have a go at creating a wicking bed. Quite honestly if I didn't have Paul I would have no idea what a wicking bed even was, he has be thoroughly researching them over the past few months and finally convinced me when I bought a miniature version from Tupperware (yeah you know when you feel obliged to buy something) and started growing some flat leaf parsley on my window sill, where I have previously had a great deal of trouble killing poor plants by unknowingly over watering or completely forgetting about them and letting them dry out on the hot sill. So my flat leaf parsley has not only survived but truly thrives in the little Tupperware pot that has a wicking system. Basically how it works is that the water is in an container under the soil and is wicked up through the soil to the plant which is then able to drink as much or as little as it needs! This saves lots of water ( it uses about a third of the water) which is so important for people who live in dry South Australia and who live on tank water, we cant afford to waste water on anything!!

So we began digging out our first bed.

Wicking beds can be made in all sorts of ways - you can make above ground beds but this was a really cheap way of doing it.

I helped with the digging of the first bed but Paul mostly did the second. A seriously good workout we dug down 30 cms of clay rocky soil!

The beds were then lined with black plastic to hold the water then pipe was cut to fit and slots were cut in the pipes to let the water out.

We then filled the bed with gravel all the way up to ground height. Also a good workout bringing gravel in a wheelbarrow down a steep hill.

Both beds were filled with gravel and as you can see the pipe runs all the way down. You fill at the high end and as the water fills the beds it travels down to the second pipe hole where you can check that the water has made it into both beds.

Then a weed mat was put on top of all this so that the top soil wouldn't seep down into the gravel

All the soil that was dug out was then shovelled back on top of the weed mat and added some organic matter.

Once we were done I planted it out quite heavily and we filled it up with water. Since then it has been raining quite a bit and has been cold again. You can see my other veggie bed (a normal one) next to it we will see which does better- although my bed has already had a set back with something eating at some of the seedlings I planted- possibly rabbits maybe a bug still not sure yet ...do millipedes eat plants?

Next week it will be back to crafting and hopefully some scrapping!

My Nook

2011-09-29T07:02:00.000+09:30

This week has been so strange with having Paul home,I love having him here and I don't really want him to go back to work but I have also realised that I generally have quite a strict routine throughout the day. My routine allows me to get a lot done, to keep the house cleanish and to cook and even to have craft time around what the boys are doing. There are days when I am here at home just having a quiet one with Luke and that is fine, there are lots of days when I procrastinate over a job i don't want to do or even something crafty that I have been wanting to do but get stuck. With Paul home everything is different, I realise that we are in Holiday mode but I feel like I ma getting nothing done (including blogging!) I hate that!!. Anyway I thought that I would show you a little project that Paul completed (almost) last week.

As you walk through my front door to the right there is a nook. There are three nooks in our house this one is the largest, it is the deepest and I have been struggling with what to do with it. I have had all sorts of things there different little tables and even had the easel there for a while

I decided that it would be a perfect place for some book shelves, I have had little piles of books scattered around the house- a gardening pile, a sewing pile, a cooking pile and a few others. So when the shelves went up I couldn't help myself but to get my books straight in there and a few other bits and bobs just to see what it would look like.It turns out that I don't have as many books as I thought I did, I am gonna have to find myself some more :) All of it is gonna have to come down so that I can paint the shelves

Its nice to have something done around here- something that I wouldn't normally do myself :)

Cordial

2011-09-25T11:57:00.000+09:30

This week has been very productive and super busy, I have lots of photos to share but I need to organise them. Last year when we went strawberry picking I made strawberry cordial with some of the strawberry's we picked, the cordial was beautiful but strawberry flavoured cordial was too weird for my plain Pauly. Since I had some oranges sitting not being eaten I thought I would give orange cordial a go. Paul LOVES this cordial, he loves that it tastes orangey- like real oranges and this has no preservatives or flavours (yay).

This recipe is super dooper simple and ANYBODY could make this (this recipe comes from 'a slice of organic life')

Simply take 500grms of fruit - whatever you like I want to try lemon next- cut it up and put it in a bowl.

Sprinkle over 40grms of citric acid.

Then 900grms of Sugar- I used caster

then pour over 500mls of boiling water

Stir until the sugar is dissolved, cover and put in a cool dark place for 3 days

After three days strain off (i had to squeeze all the juice/cordial out of these oranges as I went) and pour into a bottle. This will last in the fridge for 6 months (my strawberry cordial lasted longer but I doubt the orange will last two weeks) and it made 1 1/2 liters

Hats and Things

2011-09-19T13:09:00.001+09:30

A few weeks back I treated myself to an online purchase of some books I have been wanting. My list of books I want is quite long right now and am hoping that Paul might get me some for my birthday. I think I have a bit of a book addiction (Paul is working on a place to store them right now, I will share tomorrow- I am super excited)

I decided that the bucket hat from 'little things to sew' would make great Christmas pressies for my nieces and nephews and my boys since it will be hot here then. I had no one here to model the hat so I enlisted Blake's bob the builder :)

It turned out quite well and I'm really happy with it, it was a fairly simple pattern and was quick to make.I have another almost finished!

Luke's quilt is on its way too. I have sewn it all together and have pinned it up ready to hand stitch the top.

There should be lots going on over here this week. With Paul home it has eased the atmosphere- he is doing most of the parenting and we are about to begin some projects around here which is all making me very happy. I love having him home, though ask me again in two weeks and my answer may be quite the opposite.

One Happy Thing

2011-09-17T19:49:00.001+09:30

Friday Afternoon rolled around pretty quick and the boys and i were in the need of some pikelets and some dancing music.I found a recipe on Melissa Goodsells blog and whipped them up they were the best! yum (we also made the brownies- just look in her sidebar for recipes!)

I'm so glad that we are finally on holidays (Blake still has school :P ) I wish I had more to share, I have been sewing but haven't got photos yet and today was spent planning all the jobs we want to get done round here and taking a trip to the hardware store to pick up the gear for the jobs. So I shall be back tomorrow with sewing shares!

Pajama fun

2011-09-14T17:50:00.000+09:30

There has been a little sewing going on over here in the last few weeks. I sewed up a pair of pajama pants from the Oliver and S pattern that I have and also sewed up some pants too.I will have to ge a photo of them soon :)

Had to put a crazy photo in!

And Luke's quilt is coming along too, hopefully I will be ready to stitch the top by the end of the week

I'm hanging for the weekend, Paul starts two weeks of holidays and we are both keen to get a heap of gardening done!

A weekend Away

2011-09-13T15:43:00.000+09:30

Over the weekend we stayed here, just Paul and I amongst the vines in the barrossa.

My mum had the boys and we had a much needed, well deserved little Holiday away. It has been nearly two years since we have had a holiday and more than 5 and 1/2 years since we were away from the boys for 2 whole nights. It was fantastic, it was quiet and it was lovely. We ate, drank, slept and relaxed and that was all. BLISS :P

A little balance

2011-09-12T12:35:00.000+09:30

This Year I have been focusing on finding my balance and really sitting in that balance of happiness everyday. I fail often, very often but overall I have been finding it easier to bring myself back to a happy place and getting there quicker with practice day by day. One of the things that I had intended to do this year but hadn't been making a priority is to meditate. In the last week I have been meditating for up to 20 minutes every day. I keep meditating very simple all I am doing at the moment is sitting and breathing and letting breath be a gift to myself. I have found it a huge gift! Especially with two noisy little boys running around all day it is easy to become stressed and I have found that there are so many times throughout the day when I have somehow forgotten to breathe. Also I have noticed that on the days that I meditate my day is so much smoother and I get far more done. It is easy to feel like you are running so fast but you are getting no where.

As far as finding enlightenment or even finding God for right now I am happy to just have a quiet place in my mind and may be on my quest my path may meander down the road and trip over God somehow that may be nice but a little quiet is all I'm searching for right now. Generally in my normal life i am quite a spiritual person and this is quite difficult when you live with an atheist :) . My beliefs about God have changed very much over the last few years. I was bought up in a very christian family, my grandpa was a minister ( he is now retired and is 96 years old!!) I have an uncle who is a minister (and married Paul and I), my fathers family is also very religious, my mother recently forced me to say that I believe Jesus lived and died just so I will go to heaven with her! I have huge issues with religion- too many. May be it would be easier if I let you know what I do believe. I believe that we come from love when we are born and we go to love when we die (all of us!! for what type of loving almighty god would exclude anyone? its not a club!). I believe that I am a spiritual being having a human experience and therefore I believe that God resides in me as me (yes I have read eat pray love) and I believe that god is love.

Through the balance and happiness that I am continually searching out comes lots of questioning and that questioning has been leading me to a simpler life where I would rather make. grow. eat. simply because it makes me happier. Learning new skills and having something in my hands that I created makes me happy and has always made me happy since was a little girl and made things with cardboard boxes and poster paint. Following your bliss is all about asking yourself what really makes you happy (this year I also read the happiness project by Gretchen Rubin) and there are so many ways that you can question what you do in life and what you love but at the end of the day I am learning that I do not make.grow.eat (and I guess that I am learning to pray again lol) for political reasons or for environmental reasons or any other reasons but simply because I love it, simply because it makes me happy. And that is all the reason I need.

I hope that that is not to heavy for a Monday, over the weekend I was thinking about why I love blogging (following my bliss) and was thinking about how it is one place that I can be me. I can choose to share whatever I like here- it is not about being a mother a wife a daughter or a sister although I love being those things and share them here. It is not about censoring what I say but about creating some kind of journal about my life, I am no longer sharing just my scrap and craft shares, for a long time I have been putting more about me here. Its a really nice place to just be me.

The words Bliss and Nourish have been popping up a lot for me lately and I have been asking 'what is my bliss?' so...

What is your bliss?

Later I will share what I did this weekend!

A Cook Up

2011-09-08T09:42:00.001+09:30

Last night I pulled Blake into the kitchen and got him to help me do some cooking. I had a list of things I wanted to make and Blake sure does love to help! First up we made some beef stock which later got turned into a thrown together minestrone soup. We talked about where the bones came form and why and what we were using them for- he had many questions.

Then we made a batch of Anzac biscuits , Blake is staring to roll them into balls. Check out my bowl, I made that in my past life! If you are trying to have a more simple life like me why not think about buying some homemade ceramics- ceramicist are in general an amazing bunch of people who are very skilled and talented! The process is quite Eco friendly I would say and you end up with completely amazingly unique item that you will treasure:) Eventually I would love it if Paul would build me a kiln and I could pick up a wheel, I often still dream about wheel throwing, working with clay can be amazingly soothing and is a fantastic process....

Then Blake helped me make Rhonda's orange cake (from 'Down to Earth' you can check it our in my side bar) but we put it in cupcake cases this time, we all love this cake and it is super simple to make. You put everything in the food processor and buzz it, Blake loves that part.

Oh and we had a loaf of bread rising. Which was later eaten with some of the yummy soup!

Today I scrapped

2011-09-06T07:32:00.001+09:30

I am really enjoying scrapping in the smaller size of 20x20 cms. Yesterday I came across these papers that had been in my stash for quite some time and had a little fun tearing and distressing.

Today we are off to an appointment in the city to get Luke's hearing checked. I know his hearing is fine but the Dr suggested that if he is even 10% down then that might make a big difference to him. so of to the city we go :)

Sunday Gardening

2011-09-05T11:03:00.001+09:30

Yesterday was quite a productive day,
We dug a long vegie bed and planted some seedlings
We weeded
Paul installed some better sprinklers to disperse the grey water around the garden beds and grass
We made a batch of muffins
And a batch of bread for the week
We spent time together
And we had an enjoyable day

We now have
rainbow beetroot
capsicums
carrots
strawberries
lettuce x3 varieties
bok choy
snow peas
one tomato plant
parsley
sage
mint
coriander
chives
basil
That's not including all of the fruit I listed last time.I've a very long way to go, lots of seeds to get going but we are still having a bit of frost here in the mornings so I think I need to wait a little longer? Paul is on holidays in a few weeks so we hope to get at least one wicking bed done then :)

On My Table- for fathers day

2011-09-04T10:37:00.000+09:30

Over on the blog 'Make it and Love it' earlier this year I saw this cute pot with a sewn tie on the front and a cute flag, I knew that I had to make it when fathers day rolled around.

Blake decided that he wanted to get Daddy a new lunch sack because Daddy has been using Blake's old Kindy lunch sack and Blake thinks that Luke needs it now :) There were also some handmade gifts, Luke even made something for Daddy- the first time he has made a gift, too cute!!

Mummy cooked a nice breakfast and now we are going outside to do some gardening (Paul choose gardening over hiking today) and plant some rainbow beets and purple carrots!
Hope your having a great fathers day too :)

In my home

2011-09-01T10:21:00.001+09:30

Today I thought I might share with you my sewing space. I am a super lucky girl I have my very own craft room, the room is on the back corner of the house. It has two doors to it on one side I can see straight through to the kitchen and family room (where the boys spend most of there time) and through the second door is what we call 'our lounge room' this is where Paul and I spend time at night watching movies doing puzzles and hanging out.

So I can pretty much be in this room and still be a part of what is going on in the house and see if the boys are up to mischief. On the other hand if i want I can close the doors and have my own space.. I have to remind myself that I am lucky, I often see others craft spaces that are in bedrooms or just a small set up and I love how cute they are but I am sure that there owners dream of having space like I do. When we were choosing our home the room I have was a formal dining room, we have a large dining space in the family room and how often would we really use a formal dining room- were not that kind of people :)

My little janome is the cheapest janome that you can buy- and I LOVE IT! Paul's grand parents saw it advertised in the tv guide (as you do :P ) and wanted to buy it for me. Although it is very basic it is reliable and it does most of what I need, one day may be I will get a machine that can do more but for now it is great. See my little sewing basket that was also Paul's nan's sewing basket and is well worn by me, it could do with a little fixing. Ahhh and still so much to do in the garden, I will get there !!!! :)

Today I Made

2011-08-30T10:19:00.000+09:30

Over the weekend I purchased and new scrapbook album, lately anything that I scrap just ends up being put in the cupboard and I'm gonna have a bit of sorting to do quite soon :) The album is small, just 20 x 20 cm.

Because the page I quite small I have kept my lo nice and simple. I am still not sure weather I will make the album just about me or a whole family thing...??

I have been needing to make some more snack bags too, we are still using far too much plastic! I am gonna need to make a pile of these so that when I wash them I still have some to use.

I am loving the apple bag, so cute and it even stands up! I just sewed in the corners on the bottom, love it :)

Blake loved it too so I will have to make some that are cute for him.

Weekend

2011-08-29T09:44:00.000+09:30

Over the weekend we:
* planted out some seedlings near my back door
* cut up meat, minced and diced and put away in the freezer ready for meals
* spent almost all weekend outside cutting the grass (and digging up weeds)
* ate outside twice in the beautiful sunshine
* dreamed about all the sewing (and even some scrapping) I want to do this week!

Today I Made

2011-08-25T17:37:00.000+09:30

I finally finished my four heat/cold packs. I am happy with them and glad that they are all done ready to go.

Yesterday I took a trip to the local fabric shop and was super excited that they had some organic cotton, check out the bicycle fabric! Not only is it organic it is cute too and I am so glad that I can now buy this locally although I should have bought more!!

Not sure what I am going to make with my little bundle of fabric, it will be nice to dream up some new creations :)

Today I made (tuesday)

2011-08-24T14:59:00.000+09:30

Can you tell I am trying to keep up with myself. Seriously don't know how you working mums get it all done- I'm here all the time and still I feel like I am running and not getting anywhere :) Anyway I whipped up a quick library bag for Luke since he has started pre entry. This week I bought him a new backpack online and I am so happy I did it is too cute, it also has a rocket on it. So when it arrived I knew I had to make a library bag with rockets on too and I had just the fabric!

Hopefully I will be back later tonight with a post :D

Today I Made (monday)

2011-08-23T07:47:00.000+09:30

Today I made.....hmmm debating over what I am going to call it- a heat pack a cold pack or a soothing face pillow ( like in the crafty minx by Kelly Doust).

Well whatever you want to call it I made one, and there are another three to come. I am thinking of making some pamper packs for Christmas gifts and thought this would be a nice inclusion. Yay for getting ahead on Christmas pressies :)

Today I DUG!!

2011-08-21T19:40:00.000+09:30

Today we took a quick Sunday morning trip to the nursery because we knew this was really our last chance to get in some last minute fruit trees. so we spent the rest of the day doing this:

And Hurrying to get them in TODAY! Before spring hits!

We also planted about 12 other plants around the garden beds. That's a total of 17 holes dug :P

So our grand total:
2 plum trees
2 peach trees
1 pear tree- with two pears grafted on
1 nectarine tree
1 apricot tree
1 orange tree
1 grape vine
1 passion fruit vine
and 1 raspberry bush

Yesterday

2011-08-21T19:25:00.000+09:30

I think that this is gonna turn into three posts in one day- I am trying to catch up!

I really hope I don't get in any trouble for posting this piccy , I haven't asked her if I can post it here but I just love it, so sweet. This is my MIL and Blake blowing out her birthday candles.

They came up yesterday for lunch and we all had a lovely time so Happy Birthday To You!

My week in Colour

2011-08-21T19:17:00.000+09:30

White: buds in my garden

Orange: flowers in my kitchen

Red: tea pot on my coffee table

Pink: lilies on my dining room table

Green: pears in my fruit bowl (been going through a tonne of these)

Blue: (sort of) blue berry muffins for a birthday

Been a busy week- crazy when I was expecting it to be a quiet one !

Today I Made

2011-08-17T17:52:00.000+09:30

Yippee! I made something! And I had a productive day in the kitchen too, I made a batch of bread, blueberry muffins and a potato bake to go with dinner tonight, ahhh nice to be organised. Any way back to what I made today... a journal cover Ta dahhhh :) This one is for my SIL's birthday who LOVES yellow!

If u were around last year you will know that I am headed into birthday season round here so I am totally happy that I may have one out the way ( though I might put something with this one) . It gets difficult to think of something for birthdays then have to think of something else for Christmas. Hopefully this year I can be a bit more on top of it.

On My Table Tuesday

2011-08-16T16:53:00.000+09:30

This is where I sit and blog, my lap top sits just to the left of this picture. I got Gwyneth's book last week and really love that she writes a little bit about each recipe and also love that there are lots of photos, I cant stand cook books that are all writing! I am just to visual and really need to see the recipe to get it, if you know what I mean? I like her philosophy on food- she eats real food but no red meat. Also trying to decide what to put in the Paris bag that my mum bought back- yes she went to Paris and some other totally amazing places!

A little bit on balance

2011-08-15T18:43:00.000+09:30

So this year has been all about balance for me. Although I seem to be always working on my own happiness I guess happiness and balance kind of go together, if I am not happy I am not balanced and If I am not balanced I am not happy. So some of the areas where I have been looking for balance have been happening and some not so much.

Meditating: Has been something that I really am struggling with . I really want to, really really! The problem is that every time I try I fall asleep. I fall asleep very easily!!! One night Paul found a meditation app on his i phone and it took you into a deep meditation, Paul later told me that at the end the voice tells you to awake from your meditation and open your eyes. Paul's says that he was immediately alert and I was lying next to him snoring HA. I have even tried to do short ones, sitting up right for 2 minutes and still have to wake myself- I get scared that I will fall into a deep sleep and forget to pick Blake up from school etc.

Exercise: Another one that hasn't been happening as much as i would like, I would really love to do a yoga class, I have an elliptical trainer but some times life just gets in the way and sometimes I just come up with too many excuses.

Organised Cleaning: This year I have definitely gone through the house little by little day by day and got rid of all the extra stuff that we just don't need. It has made less to put away and cleaner looking house and it has left me with the things I really love. Leaving the things I love has given me a clearer idea of what my style is and has made me much more careful with what I bring into this house, I don't want to be throwing things away just because i don't like it so I must be more careful when purchasing something.

Activities with Paul: We have really stopped watching a lot of TV often just going to bed earlier but we have also completed a few puzzles this year, that has been seriously nice. Sitting with Paul listening to music and having something in front of us to do has been great! you get close enough to snuggle and have great conversation and can even have a glass of wine. I think we are getting close to finding balance in this area.

Blogging: Getting there, my biggest issue here is remembering to take photos to share with you. I so often leave my camera behind.

Gardening: This is defiantly happening we have come a long way but there is still so much to go. Still need to find a good online source for seeds and someplace I can buy lots of plants (maybe tube stock).

If I were to add anything to this list It would be 1. more time looking after myself 2. more time playing less time being so serious 3. more time finding the pleasures in life- learning something new, baking because I feel like it or making something just because.

Almost lawn

2011-08-15T14:21:00.001+09:30

This weekend went so fast! Paul and I went out for lunch on Saturday which was super nice, he took me shopping and spoilt me with some beautiful new candles. On Sunday we spent all day doing this:

The area with the reddish brown loam is about 7x6 meters and Paul made us get out every single weed! We are about half way and this is going to be the grass area. As much as i would love to plant out this area with vegetables and fruit we need somewhere for all of the grey water to go and it will be nice for the boys to have some grass to run around on. As you can see around the grass is a garden bed and lots of huge rocks we used for edging, we moved lots of them there yesterday. I am pretty sore and tired today as you can imagine :)

Today I Made

2011-08-11T14:44:00.000+09:30

Today I have been playing with a bit of paint, a bit of photography and a bit of felt. It was fun. I must remind myself to PLAY more often just because it makes me happy.

I love that dragonfly stamp but the detail on it doesn't show up so well in this photo. :) Hope your having a happy Thursday, its nearly the weekend!

Luke

2011-08-10T16:49:00.000+09:30

Today Luke had his first day of pre entry Kindy, he had just two hours at kindy for the week. I had a strange glimpse of what life is going to soon be like. I got an hour at home on my own which was weird, I cant remember the last time I was home alone, my house got clean in a flash! But I also had a good glimpse at what life is going to be from here on in with Luke. We are in the process of getting a diagnosis for Luke, it looks like he has some kind of disability or disorder and today at kindy it was very evident.

I could tell you that I want to cry for him but.... he is happy, he is healthy. that's what matters. just I know that everything is going to be harder for him than it is for Blake. that people will judge him. that he will need support at kindy and probably at school, that he will need speech therapy and occupational therapy. that he is not normal. and that is hard for me to swallow. although to him everything is the same as it always has been.

Monday and Tuesday

2011-08-09T16:19:00.000+09:30

Monday: I whipped up two more shopping bags. I really like this fabric, the chocolate brown helps the other colours really pop! I want to make enough of these to have a trolley full. They are so much better than those green bags we get here, you can fold them up and put them in your purse.

Tuesday: We have been buying seeds up, all kinds as you can see. We are getting ready for spring and hopefully soon we will have our veggie beds ready and I will also buy some seedlings and I want to get my hands on some heirloom varieties too. Since this will be our first real year I want to give lots of things a go and see what works here.

We are starting to get little bits of sunshine here and flowers are starting to blossom, some small signs of spring beginning here

Saturday and Sunday

2011-08-09T11:25:00.000+09:30

Saturday: Blake and I went and picked my Mum up from the air port, we were both super excited to see her. We spent the morning with her and she spoilt us with some beautiful pressies including this little Eiffel tower, I have wanted to go to Paris since I was a little girl, some how I think I still have quite a wait ahead of me.

Sunday: We had my family up for lunch so that we could all catch up with mums holiday. At night I was super tired so we sat in bed watching TV and did some fun drawing with Blake's new crayola crayons. We bought a new pack of washable because Luke has taken to drawing on the walls! I cant help myself when it comes to new textas and crayons :P

Catch up day!

2011-08-09T06:59:00.000+09:30

These last few days have been super busy, although I have been able to get some making done in between the rush I haven't made it to the computer to blog about it.

Today I thought I would catch up by posting two days at a time.

Thursday: I finally finished my journal cover, as you can see I kept it quite simple. It is for my homemakers journal and I use it everyday. I want to try making some more of these in a bit of a different way.

Friday: It was super busy on Friday, my mum was arriving home on Saturday and I was organising some things for her, also we had people over for lunch on Sunday so I was busy getting washing out of the way and cleaning up ready for the weekend. I couldn't help making my sugar jar a little pretty, Paul says I scrapbooked the sugar!

Around my home

2011-08-03T19:34:00.000+09:30

So I thought I would show you my tissue balls (don't know what else to call them...may be tissue pom poms). I have made them all for one birthday or another and they are still hanging up. This black one was made for Paul's birthday dinner which we did in all black with a touch of white. It is hanging right above our dining table. check out my pink nook :D I have been thinking about making it a little less pink and maybe getting some cool silverish paint to go over it- but don't tell Paul I think I would like to torture him for a little longer :)

I think I made this white one for my mums birthday... it may soon be moved to a different location...

These ones are my fave. they hang right above my sewing machine and they look cute with my curtains.

So there you have it a few snippets form around my home.

On My Table

2011-08-02T08:12:00.000+09:30

There has been a bit of this kinda thing on my table recently. a little hand stitching my journal cover is almost finished.

And I am now about 1/2 way through putting the pieces together for Luke's quilt.

I think it may even become part of his birthday present, I might make him a dinosaur too.

One Happy Thing

2011-08-01T16:17:00.000+09:30

These muffins where whipped up just in time for after school snacks. Blake loved them and there were all eaten up almost before I could take a photo!

So I didn't quite make it for posting everyday in July although I did do much better, I think 19 posts might be a record :) So I'm unofficially giving it another crack in August!

For Monday

2011-07-26T11:37:00.000+09:30

I'm back :) I finally decided that I wasn't going to go buy fabric to make a new blankie for Luke. Maggie is his blankie, yes she has a name and she comes with us lots of places. Often she gets left in the car when we go places cos Luke really wants her when he is tired. She is a must at bed time and she gets included in playtime at home. Even though he is almost 4 I am reluctant to take Maggie away. She is a huge comfort to him, he can be a very scared child sometimes and she can calm him in an instant. I realise that the time they spend together is very quickly going to be shortened, but for now she is staying.

At bed time Luke tends to suck on the edges of Maggie and she is beginning to look quite tatty. So I have decided to make a new Maggie. This is a risk i realise that he may not like my new Maggie, but I want to give it a whirl anyway. If he doesn't like it it may end up becoming a quilt for his bed. If he doesn't like it I will go for plan b : make an exact copy of Maggie, she is a simple green gingham fabric on top plain green on the bottom and some large stars stitched on it. That plan requires buying fabric which I am trying to steer clear of!

So this quilt is inspired by green and is simply whatever green fabric I have in my stash, with whatever else I can find around the place added in too.

For Sunday

2011-07-26T08:15:00.000+09:30

Paul ended up working on Sunday, shutdown is always busy.

So I made bread! This batch took five minutes to mix up.

Then I left it on the bench to rise. Cut off a quarter of the batch and this time i didn't even kneed it into shape!

It was so yummy the boys and I ate it before Paul got home HA!

The rest of the batch went in the fridge and can be used in the next two weeks.

Today Blake Made

2011-07-22T16:14:00.000+09:30

Today I suggested that we make a softie to Blake and he was up for the challenge. We hopped on over to Mellisa Goodsell's blog 'day to day' because i had seen Bella had made some softies recently. As soon as Blake saw them he wanted to make one. I showed him that she had done a drawing first so she would know how to make it, so he quickly came up with his own drawing!

Both of these were whipped up in about an hour, he did all the sewing himself and he loved it. He made two so that he wouldn't have to share with Luke :)

After his new lizards had a jump on the trampoline and a look around outside :)

Smooth Days

2011-07-22T11:20:00.000+09:30

Recently we have started making a smoothie almost everyday. If i am really honest with myself( and I have only just discovered this) I don't really like eating fruit raw (esp apples, pears, kiwi, oranges and mandarins) but I do like fruit salad, apple crumble and all sorts of other fruity goodness- I guess I am weird :) . Bananas used to be my go to fruit but since they are so expensive here at the moment we haven't been buying them often, and when we do they get hidden from the boys lol. I love most summer fruit but straggle with winter fruit a bit. Any way I also had hopes of making some green smoothies and getting some more veg into the boys. Blake is keen but Luke not so much- figures since hes the one who needs more veggie.

We started off making some that had a mixture of frozen berries water and a handful of baby spinach. The next day Blake wanted milk in it so we replaced the spinach with milk and yogurt. we have made a variety of different ones and have liked every one - even the ones with spinach in were yummo! Today I had a left over juice from a can of pineapple so we used that to make a yummy smoothie

today we used
1 ripe pear
2 oranges
1/2 a banana
pineapple juice

It was just enough for Blake and I , I got a good dose of fruit and Blake has been getting raw greens some days- so all is well :)

Today I Made

2011-07-20T16:34:00.000+09:30

Finally I go the colour of this photo to at least be pink. My camera seems to see it as red. But it is hot pink! So frustrating since my fav colour (if u cant already tell) is pink- so much of what i make is pink and my camera wont pick up pink grrrrrrr :P

Recently I have been reading 'Organized Simply' by Tsh Oxenreider. The book has 2 parts the first is 'living simply in the real world' and the second part is 'ten days to a simpler more organised home'. The second part gets you to go through your whole home and clear out and clean up. The first part had an interesting section about coming up with a purpose statement for your home/family so a few weeks back Paul and I sat down and came up with one . It was an interesting process and completely unique to us. Yesterday I created this largish canvas , I covered it in pink polka dot fabric and then had some fun arranging and making things on it. I printed our purpose statement on some scrappy paper and put it on there to remind us. Although the purpose statement has nothing to do with clearing out clutter it does help, when you look at each room you can look at it through this lens and it helps to know where you are heading and what you really need, what is really important. And though I have not had time to go through my home the way the book suggests I have been slowly getting rid of things, stuff and clutter a little at a time. Also great that I am on a spending freeze right now, it helps to not be bringing more stuff into the home.

Today

2011-07-19T07:58:00.000+09:30

I just wanted to post a quick sorry for not being here. I have had a week of crazy news. I have had a bit of a heavy heart. But I want to get back into things and hopefully make up for the last few days of not being here. Because all that really matters is that we are healthy and happy. So today I am going to try and do a pile of things that make me happy. (hopefully I will be back later to share some of them)

One Grateful Thing

2011-07-15T21:22:00.000+09:30

Today I am grateful for good morning squishy huggles!

A little sewing

2011-07-14T11:17:00.003+09:30

I have some pink stools in my craft room, they are from ikea and cost about $9. I had been thinking that they would be more comfortable with some cushions on them. So yesterday I went about making a cushion for one of the stools. It is quite a tall cushion and wasn't sure that it looked right but when you sit on it it squishes down. I may make the next one a little shorter and jam pack it with stuffing.

I used some Riley Blake fabric that I picked up at spotlight a while ago and then added a button from the button jar. Underneath I sewed on some ties so that the cushion wont go missing(I have two sneaky cheeky monkeys around here) and it wont slip off the stool while you are sitting on it.

If you have been popping over here this month I would love it if you would leave a comment- say hello! :)

Today I Made

2011-07-13T20:31:00.001+09:30

Here is my offering for today. Tomorrow I will share some sewing.

For Nanny

2011-07-12T21:46:00.003+09:30

One Happy Thing:
This little boy makes us so happy. This little boy was super tired when I took this photo, so his eyes wouldn't stay straight for even one second. This little boy is such a pleasure to be around all the time, he has such a pleasant soul a happy nature a calm little spirit. He is in no rush to do anything. He is super dooper positive even at 3 and a half. He now exclaims "I LOVE ham" "I LOVE digging" "I LOVE huggles" or such and such is my favourite. Activity One:
Nanny has put together a special lucky dip activity bag for Blake, where he gets to choose one activity each day during the holidays. This has been super fantastic, great for those times during the day when you need to get something done or just need a few moments piece and quiet! Blake loves it I am going to add a few things in there too. They are just simple activities like some colouring in or dot to dot or even play dough, I guess you could adapt this idea to any activities that suit you and your child- sewing activities, cooking, crafting, even wrap up some seeds and get your child to plant them. She has wrapped each one up with recycled bags and recycled wrapping paper, he loves opening his activity each day so I thought we would share them here.

The entire Red Box

2011-07-10T18:48:00.006+09:30

Here we go the entire Red Party Box. It includes:

8 red and white badges

8 Wrist Bands
12 cupcake toppers

8 hair clips

8 Headbands

8 Key Tags

4 Heart wands 4 Butterfly wands

8 Party Bags

The Entire Contents:

I have so many ways that you could use this box at a party, I will have to take some photos of my ideas :) Hope you like my party box!!!!

The Red Box

2011-07-09T20:11:00.003+09:30

I missed yesterdays post......You know how I said that this was a busy time for Paul (shutdown as we call it) well he had to work today- seriously hate it when he has to work on the weekends, I know I shouldn't complain, I have it pretty good... but he works so much already. Any way so my plans were changed and yesterday was crazy busy- we had a very fast trip to the shops to pick up some holiday activities for Blake (otherwise he will drive me insane) and a crazy trip to ikea all on Blake's last day of school for the term and he had to be picked up early. Did I mention that we live just outside the Adelaide hills and ikea is in the city OMG that was a fast school pickup. So we have been finishing up on the red box and I thought I would share with you where I am at:

I am so close now I am just doing some finishing touches and getting things nice, adding a bit extra and hopefully tomorrow I will get some great pictures of the complete contents of the box!

Rainbows

2011-07-07T18:42:00.003+09:30

I had planned on doing some sewing today, I have been making a simple journal cover and planned on finishing it off today but there was a change of plans and I ended up spending the day putting some finishing touches on a red party box- that I am hoping to send off on Saturday. I still have a little more to do to get it just right, I don't want to send it off unless I am super dooper happy with it- but more about that later.
I just had to show you this because we have been seeing so so so many of them lately, like three or four separate ones a day! That's a lot isn't it? And just because I couldn't help but play with my photo:

Day Six

2011-07-06T21:31:00.003+09:30

Today I have been sewing, just a little. Will share tomorrow, but for now aren't these pretty?

On my Table

2011-07-05T22:05:00.002+09:30

The other day I made some Anzac biscuits I thought I would share the recipe here:

1 cup of plain flour

1 cup of roller oats

1 cup of dessicated coconut

3/4 cup of sugar

125 grams of melted unsalted butter

2 tablespoon of golden syrup

1 teaspoon of bicarb soda

1 tablespoon of boiling water

Mix dry ingredients, add butter and syrup. Mix bicarb and boiling water together then add. Mix until combined. roll in to tablespoon size balls and bake @180c for about 13 mins.

Simple and yummy!

Day 4

2011-07-04T20:37:00.002+09:30

I made a second loaf of bread and a hearty winter casserole for dinner, so nice in this rainy cold weather.

In my Garden

2011-07-03T17:41:00.003+09:30

Today we spent a good part of the day in the garden. This morning this area was FULL of weeds. Paul helped dig them up and lots of rocks too. Then I dug about 24 holes and planted a pile of daisies both white and pink, four roses, some grasses and a few other bits and bobs. The area is about 10 meters long and just under 2 meters wide.

While I was planting up top Paul was down the back digging one hole for this Valencia orange tree. I didn't mind since it is much harder digging down the back. I still have to plant 1 grape vine, 1 passion fruit vine and a raspberry (is it a bush?)plant.

We bought some soil in and dug that in and then as you can see mulched around everything. So good to get a big patch done but we are still only scratching the surface. Before we did all that I made a batch of the bread from the artisan bread in five minutes a day. And have just taken the first loaf out of the oven, cant wait to try it!

Saturday (day two)

2011-07-02T19:28:00.004+09:30

A few weeks back we ordered Artisan bread in five minutes a day, Paul has been bugging me to make more bread instead of buying it and I am really happy to learn while the weather is cooler. So today he took me to general trader and bought me a stone some new measuring cups because we have those babushka doll ones and they are not so good for the scoop and sweep technique that the book uses.... and that cute little teabag tidy ( he let me get that since it was $2) but I did have to pass on the amazing babushka doll containers OMG and the pink baking dish- oh to make apple crumble in a pink baking dish ahhhhh. He took me out for lunch too. Mum had the kids for the last time b4 she goes away- she just wanted to spend a little time with them and who am I to stop her :P LOL

A Weeks Worth (day one)

2011-07-01T16:11:00.004+09:30

One Happy Thing :
Tulips, arnt they so pretty. Oh it makes me happy to have flowers around especially since its so cold and wintery round here. On My table:
This is in a corner of my crafty room, gotta sew some things from these books.

Today I Made:

Butterfly polka dotty wands- why cant i get a good piccy of these??

From My Garden:

Finally we are getting somewhere. Last weekend we put down some gravel paths and made two garden beds. We have a looooonnng way to go but at least we have finally made a start and it feels real good.

One Grateful thing:

Living out here! Happy that my 15min drive to pick Blake up from school has beautiful scenery and I don't have to look at concrete jungles anymore!!!

Ahhhh now I feel all caught up :)

A note

2011-06-30T10:41:00.003+09:30

Recently I have started a few things and I would like to share them here.

1. I started a 30 day experiment: going no poo (no shampoo- or conditioner) I am probably 3/4 of the way through and am never turning back. I am using bicarb and vinegar solutions about 1 or twice a week. I have noticed a huge difference in my hair it is not as oily as i thought it would be and my curls have improved dramatically! I did have one slip up one day when i was sick I was feeling yuck and so washed my hair and I can say that i regretted it!!!! The smell was SO strong and my hair wasn't nice anymore.

2.I put myself on a self imposed (30 day)spending freeze....But Paul is holding me accountable, which means that I had to start again cause i was naughty :P If I am naughty again I have to start again and next time it will go up to 60 days :O!! I am doing this for a few reasons: I want to save, I was spending far too often and really needed to put a stop to it and I have found that I am so much more creative when I have limited funds, I use what I have more and I have more ideas.

3. I have started a journal! It is a once a day journal and it is just to record one snippet from our day( you could do one sentence a day but I found that a sentence isn't quite enough to record something nice from our day), a great way to remember the good things that happen in a day. I have to say that I am really enjoying this and am so glad I started. Already I am looking back and thinking 'oh yeah that was really nice'. Also its the kind of journal that the boys can look at or Paul can look at, it has already started many nice conversations with Paul, since hes not here all the time, which is really nice for both of us.

This brings me to why I wanted to share all this here I have never in this blogs history posted here once a day for even a short space in time, I really want to ! So I am going to stop worrying about what I post, I worry that its not crafty etc and for all of July I am going to post EVERY DAY. Its gonna be one crazy month- Paul's work is shut down for maintenance, which is his most full on time of year. My mum who is my biggest support is off on an amazing overseas Holiday for the month and the boys will be on school holidays. So lots of fun to be had!! But I am really looking forward to adding another 30 days!

Today I Made

2011-06-30T10:26:00.003+09:30

Finally I got a little mojo. I have been sick for about 2 weeks, one yucky thing running into another. Anyway I am feeling much more myself now and have a pile of projects that I would like to get going on. One of them was to make some headbands, so I came up with a few cute ones. These two might go into the Etsy store. But I couldn't help myself, this one is already on my head :)

I have 2 black bands that I'd like to embellish, maybe I'll get round to that today!

On My Table and random bits!

2011-06-24T10:02:00.004+09:30

This week I have lost count of how many rainbows the boys and I have spotted.Yesterday I think we saw at least four separate rainbows. Now when we get in the car Luke says "rainbow where are you?? I cant seeeee you.." Last weekend we finally bought our first trees (I own 2 trees YAY!!) a nectarine and an apricot tree. We also got some soil and gravel delivered so we are beginning to get our garden underway. Hopefully we will be ready enough to plant out a vegetable garden this spring. CANT WAIT!!The last few weeks with all the birthdays I have left up the decorations, just because they make me happy. And have added in some flowers, I am reminding myself to buy flowers on a weekly basis (until we get more garden going) because they make me so happy. Also need to remind myself to make some more napkins to put on the table instead of the tissues! My boys are super dooper messy!!!

I finally got all the headbands for my boxes done- yellow red and purple!

Also I have a note for Ali: I have tried to leave a comment on your blog about 30 times this week but my computer is running me round in circles. So I have to let you know here that You are the best!! Thank you so much for your comments (esp after what you are going through right now) BIG HUGS xxxxxxoooooo!!!!!!

one grateful thing

2011-06-17T09:07:00.003+09:30

Last weekend Paul had to work all weekend. I hate it when he works on the weekends and last weekend it was worse because it was a long weekend here- so I knew that everyone else was having lots of fun. He ended up working a long 27 hour day to get everything running by 4 am. I am so grateful that he made it home safe and sound, I always worry, I cant help it. Being that he is working with electrical things and that he had to drive himself home at the end of it. So so thankful.
Secondly last weekend our computer fried, yup thank god for my amazing sense of smell. I realised the horrible burning smell was coming from the computer and not from our neighbours burning off or there wood fires and quickly turned it off, managing to save all my precious files! Paul since went and bought me a beautiful new laptop! how lucky am I !!!? But I still haven't worked out how to load up my photos so I haven't posted here. I somehow feel bad if i don't have photos to share so I end up not sharing at all! Do you ever feel like that?

On My Mind

2011-06-10T09:27:00.002+09:30

Today I am linking up with the down to earth (Rhonda Jean's) Blog :)

On my mind today: finishing up my party box's so that I might, just might be able to start up an Etsy store. This has been on my mind everyday for months and months.

I still have so many ideas about what I could include in the box, so I am still working on that.

Today I Made

2011-06-09T17:17:00.002+09:30

Its been a bit since I posted some things that I have made. Finally today I gave myself some time to do some sewing and really enjoyed it. Its my mums birthday coming up and she is also gonna be travelling next month so I thought I would make her some things that would be useful while travelling. For Christmas my brother got her a new camera but she is still using the case from her super chunky 90's camera (you know one with a film!) so I thought I would make her one that would fit her new camera better.
While she was up here last time I secretly traced around her camera so I would know just the right dimensions. I popped a bar of soap in there just to see what it will look like with something in there.
Also been trying out some tissue holders. I'm a bit of a tissue queen! but I am not sure if I like this more traditional take on the tissue holder- think I might try something else tomorrow.

I love the red polka dots think I might make another camera case with this fabric for myself :)

Our Adventures

2011-06-06T07:14:00.004+09:30

In the last few months we have been bush walking quite a bit, any weekend that we get the chance! We have done some hard walks and some really easy walks.
We have climbed huge waterfalls and gotten lost!
We have had almost accidents and we have fallen, tripped and hit our heads!
We have carried Luke most of the way, and Blake has run ahead the rest of the way!
We have gone bush walking with the kids and without and even once just with Blake.

It has been so much fun and really challenging for me. Paul tends to set the pace then I have to keep up! This clumsy little Mamie girl spends most of the time looking at her feet and bumping her head on branches above.lol!

One Grateful Thing/ One Happy Thing

2011-05-23T14:27:00.003+09:30

So grateful and happy that this man is back from New Zealand safe and sound! I picked him up from the airport on Friday and we had a lovely quiet weekend together.Also want to wish him a very Happy Birthday for tomorrow!!

A little more Srapping

2011-05-19T14:12:00.003+09:30

Today I did some quilling, goodness I haven't done that since I was a kid. It was fun, might have to try it again sometime. I kept it very simple!I also added a little felt too.

Thanks for looking! :)