bye, bye boat

Another chapter in our lives has finished. Hubby's much sort after dream and goal to achieve before he hit 40 has come and gone and he has had some great fun. It has gone onto another good home.

birthday bonanza!!

November is the time of year in our house that has countless birthdays happening including my two gorgeous girls! We celebrated this year with a party double. Turning 9 and aquatic mayhem......such a blast! Turning 11 and climbing walls....very challenging and very impressive with the determination of some 11yr old girls to achieve a goal. They are growing up fast!!

a great quote...

I saw this today and I really liked it......

"People will forget what you said; People will forget what you did.

But people will never forget how you made them feel."

I hope this is true as I often open my big mouth and put my foot into it.....

Verge Gold

When our local council has a verge collection I often wonder if I will ever be lucky enough to find something that I can recycle into something creative and useful for my house. I see these recycled ideas all the time in magazines in other people's houses. My luck has come around and look what I have found. Now all I have to do is revamp them....a coat of white paint and some fresh, updated fabric and then I will snuggle into my new chair with a hot cuppa and a magazine! Just bliss...

I have already given this chair a coat of white paint...only the new fabric on the cushions left to do.

My plan for this long table is a lick of white paint and some funky wallpaper and estapol for the top...Voila..a luggage stool!

Renovation Update

Hubby has been very busy!  We have frames now ready for new walls to go up this weekend and the plasterer has been to finish off our corners and make them all smooth, ready to paint! I just LOVE the new look and it can only get better as it gets nearer to finish!  Lets in so much more natural light and I can see the kids climbing the tree in the front yard now!  Check it out!

Fun in the mud...

Stinky Rotorua lived up to it's reputation with our visit to Hell's Gate for a mud bath and sulphur spa......we did come out all silky smooth but a few pegs would have been handy.....  It was a memorable time with our good friends covering ourselves in mud!!!

Waitomo Magic

Wai - Maori word meaning water
Tomo - Maori word meaning sinkhole      

These absolutely magical limestone caves are said to be over 2 million years old and are home to an amazing display of glow-worms. We spent alot of our time on the SPELLBOUND tour using the word...WOW!!

Happy Holidays

....back to the grind next week after a much needed break from the Ho Hum.  Hubby and I and the girls have been jet setting to QLD, NZ and VIC. What an awesome time we have had. We have done so much.....including a roller coaster and water slide or two at the theme parks on the Gold Coast. We are now all well practised at queues!!

Reverse Windmills

It seems quite fitting that as my god-daughter turns 4 this week I have FINALLY finished my first 'Real' quilt. I have had it professionally quilted and have sewn the last stitch to finish the binding on my Reverse Windmills. Yes, it has been 4 years in the making as I think, (it has been a while) that when I started this quilt, little Lucy was still in her Mum's Tum. Let me just add that I have had other projects completed inbetween stopping and starting Reverse Windmills but I am so happy with the final result!!!  YAY for me!

THE hole....

When we moved to our existing address, we had always planned to knock down part of a some walls and build some new ones. This process began with hubby knocking out a brick up doorway last month and this week our favourite builder visited to make an awesome opening in a structural internal wall. I am so delighted with how it has opened up our internal space and is starting to spread the way to more renovations which include some more storage space, a theatre room and a study with a built-in desk, not to mention opening up the space from the front door to make it all feel so much more welcome! I just love it. Thanks Chris!

Treasured Friend's 40th!

We surprised Nicola on Saturday in advance of her 40th birthday! Myself and 2 other of Nic's special friends, hatched a plan and surprised Nicola with a yummy lunch by the beach, foot massage, champagne and a spot of shopping and coffee. What else could a girl want? We topped it off with a glass of bubbly overlooking the Swan River at dusk. Just superb!! Happy Birthday Nicola! X

new recipe

Cheese, bacon and herb muffins!! I made a delicious batch.....mmm.....with a dob of butter fresh from the oven....yum!!

more renovation works,,,

Another project finished outdoors this weekend. Old pilar gone....new pole and screen erected! This has opened up some space in our carport ready for a new fishing cabinet and tidied up out outdoors area too. I, of course, directed proceedings, whilst the project was under construction....

Afternoon Tea

Winter can be dull, cold and blowy but this is also a good excuse to hide indoors, slide on the apron and cook some fluffy, fresh scones and enjoy with a hot cup of tea and friendly neighbours. Today we actually had to buy them from Asha's shop....lucky they were cheap!!  Jam and cream inclusive!  xx

Cauliflower & Broccoli

I have not been to the green grocer in a long time....we have been feasting on cauliflowers, broccoli, pumpkin, snow peas and sweet chillis that seem just like capiscums. Yummo!

Farmstay

Every winter we trek to a fabulous farmstay near New Norcia. We enjoy the long weekend with valued friends and this year my sister and niece were able to join us for the fun. The boys take Go Karts and Nic and I take quilting or knitting and magazines!! The kids get dirty and jump on the trampoline, feed the alpacas and lambs and collect the eggs after scaring them silly chasing them around the chook pen trying to pick one up! We are all able to escape from the city to pretend to be country folk and slow down the pace. As usual lots of racing debrief and stories around the bonfire with our hosts and plans of what we are going to do next winter.....

new scarf

I spent a little time this weekend on a quick scarf. I was making if for myself until Amy got "dibs" on it. Now I will have to make some more. It is very soft and cuddly.

Zap, zap, zapping!

Hey Mum, check this out.....we went shopping!! At long last!!

holes in walls

Here we go again....getting on that renovation round-a-bout..... This time we are trying to create more storage and open up small rooms. This is how we have started.

You Can Do It

This term at school, the girls were invited, as were all classes, to participate in a You Can Do It project where you had to create something and submit it to be judged by the school councillors. This was to raise funds for a children's home. Amy participated in the challange with her friend Tess and won a prize !  $20 each!! They spent hours constructing a snow man out of paper mache and it looked great. I think it is reflecting how we are feeling in Perth this week as the temperature in the early morning is hitting Zero or below.....BBRRrrrrrrrr!

Pumpkins!

Have you ever seen such a big pumpkin? My talented hubby has two green thumbs in his vegie patch this year! I will have to find some more pumpkin orientated recipes! Pumpkin soup, pumpkin pie, pumpkin scones, pumpkin risotto......  There are two of these and we have started to eat one......next month we might make it to the second one....

Queensland quilt

Well I think it has taken me about 5 months but, I have now finished the Hot Possum Quilt to be donated to the flood victims in Queensland. Hot Possum donated the fabric and I have donated my time and tomorrow the quilt top will travel to QLD Quilters Inc to be backed and quilted and distributed to someone affected by the floods.

Chinese Tallow Tree

It is June. The leaves are turning those gorgeous shades of yellow and red. Our Chineses Tallow trees are in those autumn shades today....that's why we planted them.....

Max.......our loved maximus cat!

We have the most beautiful, chilled cat one could ever want.... we all love him lots! He NEVER scratches or hisses or scrambles out of our arms. Asha, our talented artist, made a sculpture today of Max, our cat. She modelled him while he was on his perch in the sun by the window.  We had made pizza dough for dinner, so she used the dough as her modelling clay...

Tidying Up

Some warm, sunny winter days we like to plod around and clean up around the house. This weekend just past, was very productive in doing a few odd jobs around the house including putting up some new lights for our "alfresco" and making the outside look neat and tidy. Perhaps when we are hiding inside and the rain starts.....fingers crossed......we can look out the window and see everything is in it's place. I think hubby may have gone to extremes with making it look clean but you got to love him!

Winter branches

My good friend Nicola, gave me this delightful little cushion. I have added a running stitch in some Sashiko cotton that I bought at the Quilt and Craft Fair the other week to make bare, winter branches. Sometimes it is just the simple things in life....

Baked Cheesecake

What an AWESOME cheesecake we had for dessert tonight! Yummo! Glen and his friend Donna Hay, made a smooth, lemony, delicious baked cheesecake. We will put that one down as a Winner!

Glasses

Amy went for an optometrist appointment last week. She has never had her eyes tested before. Here is what she looks like having her eyes tested and then there is a photos of the result of the appointment.......... glasses!

 

New Ironing Lady

.20c a tea towel...........bargain.....will have to work up to the shirts!

Pottery Class

During the Easter holidays, the girls did a couple of art & pottery classes. Here are the pots from the Pottery Wheel class and Asha's gorgeous little hedgehog!  I picked them up this week from the Art Gallery, now that they have been fired. Ready to paint and varnish.

Choir

We were entertained a couple weeks ago with Amy's performance with the Australian Youth Choir. They have to dress up in these "gowns" that Amy cannot stand but they don't look too bad when they are on stage. The evening produced songs from various choirs with the NIYPAA and it was great to hear the songs that Amy has been practising at home. Amy is second from the left, front row.....little blurry as it was a quick snap on the iphone.

Netball Season

It is netball season again and the girl have both started in a team with their friends from school with Breakers Netball Club. They really look forward to saturday mornings now and even the prospect of the temperature being 6deg tomorrow has not put them off! Asha's little team had a win last weekend and Asha scored 5 out of the 9 goals......very exciting. In Amy's game, the score difference was quite a big gap and so they took the win quite comfortably that week. Here's for an enjoyable season.

Guitar Groove

At last Amy is all smiles as she has been given a groovy guitar so she can have lessons. Not to be out done, the smallest one has a new recorder so she can start developing her possible musical talent. Amy is very excited about her lessons to begin soon so stayed "tuned" for more (once she has her first lesson on how to put the guitar strap on)!!!!!

Colourful Cushions

The girls and I have had a busy mother's day finishing some very colourful cushions. They each sewed their own and I helped with cutting and pinning. I am very proud of them and they have acheived lots of satisfaction completing them and now having the to use. Amy's is the squares and Asha's is the strips. The look fabulous on their couch!!