1st day back

Yesterday a collective sigh of relief filled the air from Mum's sick of the school holidays - Yay our sweet darlings were headed back to school.

Above is #1Son all ready to head off in his oversized shirt, new shoes & hat. Cute hey? And he is all sweetness & light until teamed for over 6 long weeks with his brother....then we have a version of WWIII in our house which had me at wits end.

So it it was all smiles from me as I dropped him off yesterday - the chaos of the room with all us mums distributing books, stationary & folders into their appropriate boxes strained it just a little but then the catch up with old friends at the 'Tea & Tissues' put it back in place.

All would have been about as perfect as it could be if *Boy hadn't been acting like the nastiest child in the world...... just over tired - I hope (I can just hear others hoping he won't be in their child's class next year!).....

For Le

ImageChef.com Poetry Blender

3 birthdays, 3 presents...

My Xmas gifts went down well so yesterday I finished off these 3 food fly covers for 3 of my girlfriends for their birthdays.

I did the pink on 1st with the little roses but then a) couldn't remember where I'd got them & b) couldn't find them anywhere else.
So I compromised with the purple & white & maroon & rose flowers for the others. I think the work just as well, altho a bit chunkier but decided not to add them at the bottom centre (like on the purple/white) again as I don't think they look quite right.

So as Miss Le 1st put in an order for one for her birthday she may now choose which she would like best (because I can't really decide!).

Flower Friday

a beautiful pink Hydranga growing in a post at my outlaws place.

why do my children....

Why do my children become devil spawn the moment visitors depart???

After having a lovely morning with them playing with a school friend and his brother for hours on end while I helped indoctrinate another hapless Mum into the blogging world, they departed and we made ready for lunch.

5 seconds later they were at each other, pushing, hitting, pinching....yes they can be truely charming! (I am a good mother, I am a good mother, I am a good mother!)

Now I have just found them playing in the rain when I thought they were securely on the back deck. I don't have a problem with them being soaking wet as its a stinking hot steamy day but I am distressed that the security of the yard has been breached by #1Son climbing up and opening the automatic garage door. Another lock will have to be enforced now I guess....another thing to put on YD's 'list'.

great Free stuff

Today I forgot my camera - this post would have been full of happy #1Son shots if I hadn't.

For some bonding time while *Boy was at kindy, #1Son & I and my Mum went into the South Bank Arts precinct which includes MOMA (modern art), Brisbane Library, Museum & Art Gallery. He had a BALL!

First up we had the ever exciting bus trip - well there was a new detour to my old route on to the new busway then thru all the new tunnels under the city.....not sure if I know where to catch a bus from any more in town, it has all changed so much! #1 was delited with all the buses.

Modern art isn't really my thing and I didn't really get a lot out of what was on the walls but the stuff they had for kids was just great. We drew in textas the 'unseen heros' onto cards, planted wheat grass in paper pots full of shredded paper, coloured in a 3d card castle and made creations out of board in a 'bluelight' flouro room - where the joys of wearing white and the colour of teeth were an amusment on there own.... There were other drawing options but #1 wanted to move on.

We stopped of a somewhat overpriced lunch (but it could be forgiven with what was on offer) then moved over to the Library. Again there were options to do collage, make crowns or masks but #1 wanted to try out juggling and plate balancing..but not the hoola hoops.

From there we detoured thru the art gallery where the water features intrigued #1...''how does the water get in there"'won't it spill on the floor".....then looked at the Humpback Whales suspended in the walk thru before doing a fairly quick (ie at 5 yo pace) thru the Museum. It was a joy to hear so many "oh wow"s (and we have been there beore too!)

So Mum & I wound up with some very tired feet but it was an enjoyable & hopefully memorable day and best of all it was nearly all free. gotta love that!



ps. * Boy also had a nice day at Kindy .....I'm thinking I might take him in for the day once school starts back....

more Aussie designs

Here's the last of my Australia Day designs.


A Rainbow Lorikeet


a Redback Spider


and thanks for the idea Katy.....
a Thong !

My new thang

The other thing I've been spending my cleaning the house time doing is learning the basics of making blog backgrounds.....

When Le@thirdontheright started changing her blog I couldn't let her do it alone, so together with the help of (mostly) Cute Blogs we worked out how to do it.

Spurred on my that sucess I went on to update other of my families blogs- YD's fencing, his mums dressmaking and my facepainting businesses all have blogs and are now all looking a bit spicker.

Along the way I have discovered there are heaps of wonderful sites with free downloads for digital scrapbooking - I didn't try them all as I'd reached our download limit and was going very s l o w.... but I plan to visit some and start downloading some of their clever stuff.

SO I have put all this new knowledge and the results into a new blog Posh It Up. It's not quite finished yet but feel free to go look and use anything you may find there.

this week

My Blogging time this week has been mostly spent visiting/lurking in various places and not spending anytime writing. It hasn't been an exciting week - 2nd last week of school holidays and the boys have had enough of each other (and probably me!).

We must have done something last weekend as they both dropped where they stopped....

















*Boy had his 1st day a his new kindy where he seemed to settle in just fine - didn't even look back to see if I'd gone. It's within walking distance so #1son practiced his scooter riding when we wandered down to pick pick him up.

We had been to see 'Madagascar' earlier in the day which seemed to appeal to the 5 yr old but i'm afraid I wasn't all that taken. It did seem a little long but I couldn't say just what didn't do it for me.....I didn't really like the 1st one either for that matter......

The cries of 'I'm hungry' finally became to much one day and I shared with the boys my culinary skills....yes, we opened an instant muffin mix, added 2/3 cup of water and stirred! Obviously no food intolerances for my boys - and a mum that will feed them anything. The boys did of course 'help' with the stirring and cleaning up!

















Thru the week I also started on labelling all the stuff in #1son's school book pack..... 3 sets of pencils, 1 set of crayons, 10 lead pencils, 2 sets of textas......oh don't forget 5 glue sticks and the bottle of Clag paste! So ater I'd gone cross-eyed peeling stickers I called a stop beore the book covering started.
I started on that yesterday, only to discover all my well honed skills of the past had fled during the 25yrs of disuse and my first few covers were pretty much wrinkly disasters. Stupidly I had read Rhubarb Whine's advice on contacting books and failed to follow them -especially the bit about a nice full glass of wine being close at hand!

giveaway alert

This morning I came across theCreativeJunkie who has some beautiful bursts of creativity.

Luckily for us, she has decided to do her first ever giveaway and has a gorgeous range of magnets she designed to share.

These 'Funky' 'Groovey' & 'Retro' are my faves.

Well I just went back to enter the giveaway but it has just closed now.....but go have a look anyway!

photofunia.com

somewhere else to waste time!



































just upload a pic, choose a background and voila, you are art (or on tv or a t-shirt)!

getting ready for Australia Day

So, I just thought I'd start getting ready for Australia Day celebrations and do a few designs......

































some green & gold....... flag variations........ wattle & gum blossoms ..... a koala ..... the southern cross...

any other suggestions?

and Just on the odd chance someone is searching for Australian designs & stumbles by here...

If you like my designs please make your own versions to photograph - DO NOT USE MINE!
I have permission to use these kids faces - you do not.

flower Friday

A Flame Lily-native to Africa, now blooming along our beach fronts and apparently harming our wildlife.

handmade gifts

I made these for Xmas presents for YD's Mum & Aunt who was visiting from Zim.

I thought it would be a light present to carry back but still pretty and useful.

They both got used Xmas day and if I can find some cheaper beaded ribbon I may make some more....

around our 'hood

Taking a page out of Le's blog I took my camera along when I rounded the kids up and herded them outside to the park... It was only suposed to be a short walk bit ended up aound 90mins which while having the advantage of wearing the boys out it also found them lacking in sunscreen and my poor wee *Boy got a bit burnt across his neck and shoulders. (Bad Mother!)


























So we wandered along our closest bike/walkway, trying out the new scooter and jumping around puddles
and crossing bridges. This is a part of the middle-aged section of the suburb, lots of big nice trees and the creek to explore, its such a lovely place to live.
We can across this huge tree stump and could see where the nearby house had been damaged by it -probably in the 'big storm'.
There's no really nice architecture like around Le's to show, just standard modern housing. This new section is only around 6years old but is greening up nicely. The boys were quite taken with those huge yellowy spikey plants in this front yard.
And over we go to 'our' side of the hill with all our trees and nearby bush reserve and the slightly older housing styles.
Oops, didn't take a pic of our castle -its a fake colonial style in brick with a long bull nosed verandah across the front -brick kinda like the ones in the fence above actually- and with the woodwork creatively painted in traditional 'heritage' colours of maroon, cream & dark green.

So that's a bit around my neighbourhood, come visit some time!

Jokers

Just before Xmas I did a job for a bunch of crazies getting ready for their work Xmas party.......

.....there were 12 of them and they walked thru the city like that in 32' heat!

growing a giant

OK I knew my *Boy was going to be bigger than #1Son,
he's a chunkier version all round


I could see it in his clothes, he can wear a size 4 when YD puts on the wrong bigger shirt


but today I did a measure on the boys growth chart on the wall behind their bedroom door


and he's grown a wopping 2.5 inches in 6 months!!!

resolution #1 - BUSTED

So I'm not sure when you are suposed to think of your new years resolutions but I was thinking I should make one or 2 while in the shower this morning........

#1 I thought maybe I could make an effort to keep the house a little cleaner/tidier.......I know a brave commitment with 2 boys but it would be nice.....

#2 make my bed more often -I don't mean change the sheets, I'm pretty much on top of that but actually getting up and making it each day seems to escape me......

#3 try to be happy - and that will affect all other aspects of my life....won't it?

I thought 3 is a good number and possibly achievable , however..........
upon dressing and kind of making the bed I went out to face my family on this the 1st morning of 2009 and was faced with ........

oh I know, 'its only 136+ pieces' but they were strewn across my living room floor and looking at them I felt my resolutions being to crumble .......

maybe I'll just try for #3.

Happy 2009 !