Colours to brighten my day

Last Christmas I had these Pantone mugs on my wishlist. The wonderful Miss F obliged and bought me my 1st one. My parents-in-law obliged by giving me some Christmas money towards the rest. I now have 10 wonderful colours which make me smile when I open the cupboard in the morning.



You may wonder why were they so important and why replace perfectly good mugs in your cupboard? Why because they remind me of my other identity apart from a stay at home mum. I design. I have been doing design for years and could feel that part of me slipping away as my identity became reshaped. So I have them to remind me that I am an important part of my family.



My eldest daughter also has fun deciding what colour mug I will drink from in the morning. I highlighted the red mug as a present to RoseRed on her Anniversary. Happy Anniversary!

Back Camera not great but taking pics again, had to post to mark Rs second birthday

Our beautiful little girl turned 2 yesterday. It was a very special occasion and a day that we look back with both fondness, happiness and wondering why her arrival was so awful. R as most of our friends know was born in a very very distressed state, instead of the initial joy and elation we had with our eldest daughter we were left praying that she would breath, cry and show signs of life. She was totally blue had an apgar of 2 and that was for tone, life stood still for a moment (they had to resus her heart massage, oxygen the works) and I kept saying this can't be happening. It has been 2 years of watching and waiting to make sure that she was not affected by her distressful delivery. I had a slight insight into how parents must feel when faced with a stillborn delivery but thankfully this was not us. We could never imagine when we arrived that it would be so traumatic and scary. Anyhow so much to celebrate and I really must remember this when she displays her tantrums!

A friend reminded me that we should measure R on her birthday I did and she is 98cm (7cms taller then her sister was at the same age) and E is 107cm so even though there is 25 months difference there is only 9cm between them. R is right off he growth chart and E is in the 95th percentile. I do not know where they get their height from as H and I are average height. Well H is probably a bit above average but not much.



We stopped into see Auntie A and the kids could have spent all day looking at the fish in her pond just loved it.



R was delighted with her cupcake Cake, wait till she sees her ice cream cake. We are having a family birthday BBQ next weekend to mark the special occasion of R being born on her Great Aunts birthday. GA turned 85, only 83 years between them!



We were going to take the kids to a wildlife park but the weather was not in keeping for walking round in the rain. The kids would have loved the muddy puddles I am sure, but we have unfortunately outgrown that sort of adventure. Fingers crossed for next Sunday. Took R out for Japanese has acquired a taste for Sushi since an early age, very daring young miss. Anyhow Happy Birthday Beautiful R so glad you are in our world you make me a better person.

Sad as all washed up

Had some little monkeys over today for a playday. Was distracted, not sure what happened but thought I would quickly hang the washing out before they arrived... found a BIG BIG disaster at the bottom of the washing machine! Our digital camera is sparkling clean somehow made it into the washing machine, my fault completely. Was relieved I had downloaded all our pics yesterday, but those of you that know me know that I take lots of photos so I am sad very sad... rang up Canon and everyone that I spoke to had said WHAT and I had to repeat the story over and over - talk about punishment.

To sad to blog without pics... not sure when I will return... thanks for your comments to date (which I love in the sometimes lonely world of a stay at home mum)!

Purring like a leopard

I visited one of my favourite secondhand shops this morning and noticed this object of beauty. Well in my eyes anyhow.

My younger sister is not very well at the moment and loves retro clothes as do I. She has dark hair and I thought it would look lovely on her this winter and most importantly it doesn't really matter what head size you have. So I bought it for her as a get well soon present. She has an appointment with a specialist on Friday so lets all think happy thoughts and wish her well. Scary stuff as I have three sisters and my twin sister spent 2007 recovering from an auto immune disease which resulted in her losing all her hair and nails, beginning of 2008 my younger sister was diagnosed with an overactive thyroid also an auto immune disease. We are all so young so really scary when your loved ones start to get ill.

Most people are looking forward but this is about looking way back...well 1996

I made this homemade diary in 1996 for H, came across it last week in his box of treasures. I embroidered the front with a Celtic cross as we are really interested and fond of Celtic images. I did my thesis at uni on the Book of Kells.

I even typeset the pages, handsewed the entire book.

Unfortunately it was never used, hopefully he thought it was to nice to use... thats what I have decided.

H has a significant birthday as do I this year the fun will start again. I love being the youngest in the next decade.

H wants family and friends to make gifts for him to mark the event, and as he actually celebrates his birthday for the first time in four years I am going to oblige. I did give him a homemade gift 4 years ago with the safe arrival of daughter E in January!

RoseRed is going to help me with a special project for H this year in the form of helping me follow a pattern (can't read patterns at all), buy the correct stuff and be encouraged to complete it.

Things that start with F and makes the Fours Fun!

FRIENDS, FAMILY, FAIRIES, FUN!!!

On Friday our eldest daughter turned 4. It was a day filled with frantic preparation for her birthday party! It was going to be a small party BUT it exploded into an event with a life of its own. One of our friends commented to my H yesterday that you are meant to follow the rule of inviting the amount of children reflecting the age of the child. Good in theory but when your neighbours and family make up far more then that then the theory does not work! So we ended up with 16 kids and 20 adults. We both were very very stressed on Friday night, both being shy, both worried about it being a success. I tossed and turned all night slept in various rooms trying my hardest for sleep to come but thinking way to much about the need to sleep.

Anyhow our guests said they had a great time and there were no tears, so I will say it was a success unless I hear otherwise.



Pictured are the teacups that H made for the party (What a SNAG he is!). The mothers thought they were great as did the kids.
Thanks H for your fine culinary delights which delighted even the littlest fairies!



I hired the girl next door and one of her friends to do facepainting. They are both going into year 12 this year and were excited about being asked. The kids related well to them and it made for a relaxed environment. As I was seeing a friend off a couple of hours after the event finished a man approached me and said I am here to pickup my daughter from a fairy party I thought I can't remember any kids missing (had slight heart pulpitations at the thought of losing someones kid) then worked out that he was the father of our second facepainting fairy - phew make that double phew.



I only had a few activities as the kids seemed excited enough to do there own thing and just play together in the backyard, whether it was chasings, or in the cubby, decorating, climbing, playing on the swings. The organised activities we had were a treasure hunt, Pinyata where they just pull on a ribbon flowing from the bottom of a box. Decorate your own star shaped shortbread biscuits, unfortunately I do not have any photos of that, but the kids loved icing their own biscuits and decorating them. lastly there was pass the parcel, which caused me alot of stress I had tried to make it that the kids had a lovely wooden ring for each girl and spinning tops for the boys. Unfortunately due to additions and deletions it got muddled and the music didn't dim in time with the kids needless to say I was overjoyed when it finished. I was criticised for making it complex by a couple of people who said I should have just stuck to the traditional lollies. Maybe I was to consumed with detail but I wanted to make it really special for the kids. I was a bit upset by the comments but one of my friends said to me all the kids got a prize and that is all that matters in the end isn't it.



Special thanks to mys twin sister J who made an amazing cake, I do not have a closeup of it so am really disappointed about that, It was four dolls with marshmallow skirts. She took so much stress away from us and to make it for our daughter her niece filled my heart with joy. She offered as we don't have an oven that is working so things get to be really tricky. Also a big thanks to Hs sister A who made her first ever Chocolate crackles, none leftover so that is a big thumbs up to her skills.

Pictured below is some cupcakes which I bought and had frozen for the event. It was an easy put together ice and decorate and delight!

A few Chrissie till NYE images

You may have noticed I have changed my template... a new template a new year...hopefully will have the chance to make it more appealing and more tailored to me... this is only the beginning.

This image shows me and my niece J. I am wearing a top that Miss F gave me and I love it. Makes me feel luxurious and the colour is just awesome. Best of all she thought of me while on holiday in the UK and bought it from my favourite shop NEXT. Did I say I love it I really really do. I also got a PANTONE mug which was on my wish list now to buy the remaining 9 myself very excited about that and the extend that she went to get me the perfect Kris Kringle present ever, you legend.



Miss E fishing from our deck with her new fishing rod on Christmas Day while wearing her new Ballerina dress.



E and R both modelling their new Ballerinas' while having a bit of rough and tumble on the stairs. R got new gold shoes but has managed to pick nearly every gold flower off the front of them.



Took a day trip to Avoca to drop some baby supplies to a friend due to have a baby any day now. Travel awful, kids restless, beach packed but the joy at watching E enjoy the beach so worth it. Those of you may remember 2 years ago we went to Noosa on holidays only to have E scream every time we tried to go on the sand, in the water, had to be carried to a deck chair on the sand and just sat sobbing for the whole time. We had driven up and R was only a few months old, needless to say we haven't attempted it again. So when we have a good beach experience we get overjoyed.



Last night we kept the girls up to see the early fireworks they wanted a lie down prior. E was terrified of the fireworks and raced off to her room, we coaxed her back. We were watching it on the TV but can see the top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge fireworks from our deck so she got scared.



I am excited about the arrival of 2008.
2007 was not a great year for me so here's to a brand new brilliant year.

Happy New Year my friends old and new