The Spice of Life

Exploring.....

...Cape Nelson, Portland VIC.

Another year older

 
Yesterday was my Birthday! I turned 31. Last year, on my 30th, I was excited. It felt great to be turning 30. This year, as that number ticked over to 31, I have to say the excitement was missing. The enthusiasm was lacking.......

I spent the day in Adelaide in work meetings. Not the ideal way to celebrate! But when I got home, I was given these...

Handmade by Jaime and Ash! They are getting very good at cardmaking and I couldn't be happier with these precious little gifts. To top it off they wrapped the gift them selves, decorating it with ribbon and butterflies (they know how mummy likes a welll wrapped present!).

And today I picked up this.......

My new sewing machine! Yay. I go on leave at the end of this week and if I'm lucky, I'll get some time to play with my new toy and maybe whip up a skirt or two my skirt loving 2 year old princess.

The Perfect Evening

• The christening of our firepit
• A BBQ dinner with some home grown vegies
• Th e toasting of marshmallows
• Lying on the grass under the stars

I hope you're enjoying your weekend too!

Getting Organised

Each year for the past 4 years or so, I've been making my own calendar to record the kids school dates, birthdays etc. I decided to design my own, because I can personalise with school term dates, birthdays, anivesaries etc.

Here is the calendar for 2011.

 In previous years I've simply used a template from Microsoft Publisher, but I wanted to try a new formatt this time so I put this calendar together in MS Word.

I even popped the lunar calendar on the bottom of each month. Now we are ready for another busy school year ahead.

Something special for a princess

Charlee loves to dress up. She loves bling, and fairy wings and necklaces and things that jangle. What better Christmas present for a little princess than a mummy made pair of wings, crown, necklace and tutu.

Here she is, fresh out of bed, with wild hair looking even more crazy, all dressed up and ready for another day as a fairy princess (even if she is still wearing pajamas).

My favourite part of the costume? The wings! In a Google Images search for felt fairy wings I found these. So I set about making a pair similar. I'm pretty happy with the end result though I think the originals are much better.

Charlee likes them too! Everyday she gets up and puts her Princess Fairy kit on. Sometimes, with two fairy skirts and sometimes, like yesterday with a fluffy scarf tied around her waist, because sometimes littles girls like to dress up as Princess Fairy Kangaroo's.

Mini Garden Makeover

This last week Greg and I (along with some help from Greg's Dad and of course the girls), have been working in our backyard. I've wanted a paved area near the kids cubby house and sandpit for quite sometime and Greg has wanted a firepit.

We have had quite a few stacks of used pavers stored around the yard for the last year at least, just waiting for us to have the time undertake a job as large as paving. Greg had collected the pavers from building jobs he's worked on. If he doesn't collect them they end up in landfill, so I'd much rather find a use for them around the yard.

Here is what this section of the backyard looked like mid 2010. To be fair it was mid winter so everything looks depressing then.

Here is what it looked like mid way through the mimi make over.

In the top of this photo you can see some of our fruit trees. I've been waiting to extend this part of the garden for quite some time. When we first moved in it was overgrown with flowers, shrubs and grass. We removed that, put in some trees and added the vegie patch and chook house which you can just see in the top right of the photo. Want to see what the chook house and vegie patch looked like when we first started?

And here is what the garden looks like now.

The garden beds are all mulched and waiting to be filled with plants. I'm thinking some shade loving Dianella's, Bromeliads and a Birds Nest or two under the tree. Some Diosma's in the front and some Acacia Limelight up near the cuppy house.

We are really happy with it. In the photos of the paved area above you can see the firepit. We will cover it over with cement sheeting when not in use so the kiddies can't fall in and Greg has plans to make a fire gard to go around it while it is in use. Can't be too carefull when you mix kiddies with fire!

Some of the fruit trees you see above are just starting to establish. It will look wonderfull and full once they fill out.

The last thing I want to do here is rip out the old hills hoist and put a row of lattice screens up along the garden edge. I want to grow some lavender or rosmary under the screens and jasmin along the top.

As our house and garden are a continual work in progress, I expect I'll be waiting some time for that to happen.

 

 

New Years Resolution

I don't make New Years resolutions. In fact I remember writing a post several years ago about my thoughts on this. While I understand the New Year can be a great catalyst for change, I think we should make changes or resolution's because they changes we want to make and are ready to make, not just a resolution we make each New Year and then struggle each year to keep it.

So over these last few weeks and if I'm honest these last few months I have been thinking about making a resolution; not a New Years resolution but a decision to make a change in my life.

I want to make a concisous effort to be more sustainable, to make sustainable choices in my life. I want to make sure that what I'm doing, spending, eating are things that in the long term are sustainable. It's not about reaching a goal weight, going on a diet, resolving to spend less, save more, be more, do less. It's a decision to be conscious of my choices and think about whether each choice or action is sustainable over the long run.

 

Happy Merry Everything

Well the silly season is over for another year. I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and New Year.

Brisbane City

We spent Christmas in Brisbane this year. With all the wet weather QLD has been having, we were expecting lots of water. In the 10 days we spent in Brissy, we had two days of rain. There were other days where it drizzled, but being from the Limestone Coast where "it rains 9 months of the year" we are used to drizzle.

We drove to Bendigo and spent a day with Greg's sister and her family; helped our niece celebrate her 14th birthday before driving to Melbourne to catch our flight to Brisbane. Jaime and Ash were so excited about flying on a plane. While both have been on planes before it's been a long time and neither could remember the experience. On take off they laughed. When the plane banked they laughed. When there was slight turbulence they laughed and of course when it landed they laughed. It was like a two hour show ride. Charlee wasn't so keen on the whole flying thing. She fell asleep before take off and then objected (loudly and for 20 minutes) to waking up during the flight.

Ash waiting at the Airport

We hung out with my sister, did touristy things like visiting the Science Centre, the Museum, the Anglican Cathedral, Wet n Wild, Australia Zoo and Roma St Parklands along with little retail therapy.

The Anglican Catherdal

On Christmas day we indulged and dined at the Novatel. My goodness the food was scrumptious and it was nice not having to worry about where Christmas lunch will be held, battling the pre-Christmas crowds at the grocery shop, cooking or cleaning up. It was a real treat.

We flew back to Melbourne on New Years day with Charlee much happier this time. We then spent the night with Greg's cousin and his family before heading home.

Greg and I both came home feeling rested, relaxed and ready for a new year. 2010 was a busy year for us both and the break was exactly what we needed to recharge and ready ourselves for what ever 2011 brings.

And now she is seven!

My middle baby turned 7 today. 7! We celebrated by having two friends sleepover and then having family over to share cake.

She had such a special day. It is one of my favourite things to see that excitement build as their birthday draws nearer. Ash couldn't get any more excited. She came into our bedroom this morning just bursting. So eager to hear those special words, 'Happy birthday baby girl'.

Of course, the choosing of the cake is almost as important as the birthday itself. This year Ashy wanted a swimming pool cake. We found this one, while browsing the web. We recently bought an ice cream machine so it was put to good use when we made strawberry and banana ice cream. This would have to be the best ice cream cake I have tasted. It looked pretty cute too!

The irony is that today has been probably the coldest we've had this winter. It stayed between 5 - 8 degrees today, so ice cream was not the most warming of foods to be eating.

Weekends

I love weekends. 

I love to sleep in. Just a little. Not too late. Just enough so you know you've had a sleep in but not too late that it feels like you've slept half the morning away.

I love how we don't have to be anywhere. The days are ours. We can be as busy or as relaxed as we like. No school, no work, no sport - just us.

I love being productive. I think I achieve more because our days are free. I like to sit down on a Sunday night and know we accomplished something that weekend; gardening, baking, washing, painting; something, not always a lot, but something.

I love how the girls get to chill out. The TV is allowed on and they can play their DS (two things rarely allowed on, during the week), they create, play outside, ride bikes, throw the Frisbee, make believe and read. 

I love to cook big meals. Food that takes time to prepare. Food that is yummy, hardly ever low fat and just makes you feel special when you eat it. And of course, I love to cook dessert on weekends.

I love having Greg home. Weekends are our time together, as a family. Lately though, he has been working most weekends - picking up extra jobs. I'm looking forward to that settling down.

What do you love about weekends?