Going on holidays....

At 2:30am tomorrow morning we will wake up & hop in the car to drive all day!
We are going on holidays for a couple of weeks, so I may pop in for a brief update or to say happy new year or something, but if its all quiet here on the home front dont worry. I havn't fallen off the face off the earth. Hopefully!!

Bye....

A belated Merry Christmas!

I didn't get on line yesterday to wish y'all A Happy Christmas, so I am here now on Boxing Day morning saying:

MERRY CHRISTMAS BLOGGY FRIENDS

Fired!

Remember my excitement a few months ago when I recieved my new job? It has been a great job, one that I have been enjoying very much!

Yesterday my friend who also works there full time got fired :( Not because she was naughty or anything, but because the boss can no longer afford her. It's very sad.

She found out 2 days before christmas! How rude is that!

Now I dont want to work there anymore, and besides I wouldn't be surprised if she asked me not to come back too.

It's christmas Eve & I feel crap :(

Santa Gifts....

How do YOU deliver them? Or should I say, how does SANTA deliver them at your house?
Our kids have Santa Sacks. They have kind of become family heirloooms. Chestnut Cheeks' used to be his Dad's and before that it was his mum's.
Almond Eyes' used to be mine. That's as far back as it goes so far...
Last year I was worried that CC's sack would rip if I tried to stuff all the gifts into it so with permission from my mother in law I got creative. I cut out the picture on the sack & sewed it onto a bigger stronger sack, then embroided her name & birth year, Swift Jim's name & birth year and CC's name & birth year all on the back. There is plenty of room for more names.
I also did the same with AE's, except there is only two names on it so far :D

Do you wrap the gifts that go in the sack/stocking?
When I was growing up my Mum didn't wrap them. They just went in unwrapped, but SJ's mum did wrap them. I decided to wrap our kids. More fun that way...
For the first couple of years I used to wrap them in santa-y type paper. But you can never get the same each year. Then last year I read somewhere a GREAT idea...
Now I wrap the Santa gifts in brown paper. It's easy to find & it can be the same every year. I wanted to get a stamp made up this year with the children's name to stamp onto each gift, but alas didn't think of it again until it was too late.
So I decided to print them up on the computer this year with the intention to aim for the stamp next year before CC gets too much older to remember the inconsistancy there...
I have run out of ink! D'OH!!!!! I may just have to get the old calligraphy pen out. It's been a while!
Where do you put the sacks/stockings for Santa to fill?
Ours go under the tree. Growing up they went at the end of the bed, I however dont want to run the risk of getting caught, so they have always been put under the christmas tree here.

Two sleeps til christmas! Please share your traditions with me :D

Summer is here!

Here in sunny Queensland we get a rather warm summer. I love it :D

Last summer we got one or two days of HOT weather. Only 1 or 2 days of 40 degree heat. I felt jibbed. I mean I whinge & complain about the hot weather when it's here & we have have had 4 or 5 40 degree days in a row, but I feel like we missed summer last year all together.

Other QLDers were happy about it. They hoped every summer could be like last year.

I however disagreed! I like the distinct differances between seasons.

HOT days are great! Well they are when you have air conditioning I guess!

Bring it I say!!! And I will try very hard to not complain about the heat!

Honest?

My blog has been awarded the Honest Scrap Award by Dee from Downunder!
Scrap means left over, fragments, discarded material. Many times truth and honesty are discarded material, considered fragments and left over. People like us need to tell it like it is, and let the scraps fall where they will.
There are 2 guidelines for receiving this award. One, you are to list 10 honest things about yourself. Make them interesting, even if you have to dig deep. Two, present the award to 7 other bloggers.

Ten honest things about me are:

1. I struggle to control the things I eat. There you go that's REALLY honest!

2. I am often lazy.

3. I wish that I had a sister to grow up with.

4. I dont particulary like pets. I dont think I would want to own one.

5. I have never been out of Australia. Though I'd love to venture off Aussie shores one day...

6. My most loathed chore is ALL OF THEM!!! But especially making dinner.

7. Fairy bread = Gross! Why do kids like it?

8. I haven't had the pest man out to spray for ants, spiders, cochroaches or termites. Ever. We need it though!

9. The thought of moving somewhere different excites me! Though I doubt it will happen anytime soon...

10. I used to write the Maths formulas in pencil on my calculator for highschool exams. Ummah!

I will now award seven of my other blogging buddies..... You may or may not have recieved this award before. Consider yourself very lucky to have recieved it twice if you have :D

Adelaine

Louise

Femina

BG Sydney-side

Long dark hair blue eyes

Jen

Hip-Jen

No pressure to accept the award, just if you want to :)

Gave me something to blog about ;)

Candy Canes at Christmas...

I love this post by Military Mama....

This Military Mama

Check it out...

This is what bubbles are for!

Yeah blowing bubbles is fun... but using it for shampoo is way funner!!

Thanks Givinya for the awesome bubble kit you guys gave Ella! I think most of the solution ended up in her hair though!! LOL She is starting a new trend....

The Beach

We rarely get to go to the beach. It's a little over an hour away from us, so we should go more. But we dont.

My good friend asked me to join her and her boys at her grandma's beach unit for the night last night. So after lunch we headed to the coast. Had lots of fun at the beach in the afternoon, then had fish 'n' chips for dinner. Today we were going to head back to the beach, then the park then Pacific Fair. A HUGE shopping centre.

Well plans changed :(

At 2:30am I awoke to Ella coughing & splattering "that doesn't sound good" I thought. So I quickly turned the light on and ran to her bed to catch the vomit in my hands just in time. YUCK.
So she had a couple of chucks, then slept until 5:30am....

We left the beach at 7:30am to come home. She sleeps in her own bed now. :(

Connor was very sad to leave. I was very sad to leave. It totally sux.

I guess the upside is that I can now do my housework. Is that an upside?

Three

Well the day finally arrived! Much fun was had... and even the annoying shower of rain didn't dampen the mood... though it did dampen the jumping castle!!

Enjoy...

The cake... well, I ended up doing a selection of flavours. Chocolate, strawberry, vanilla & rosewater frosting. It took 3 hours to ice them all... they were demolished in seconds!!!

Can you help me?

I would like to bake a Rosewater cake for Almond Eyes' birthday.

Do you have a recipe?

Can you believe this ^ little beauty is about to turn 3? I cant!!

Probably not so good for one's back!

Here is where I set up the sewing machine tonight to finish of a christmas gift for my girlfriend's 2.5 year old daughter...

No wonder my back is aching now... der!!

And the finished result!

I think it's pretty cute, wouldn't mind keeping it myself hehe...

The end of Pre-Prep!

I have such a bittersweet feeling at the end of Kindy....

Just wanted to show off Chestnut Cheeks at his concert last night. He played Joseph in the play & had 2, yes 2 Mary's! LOL He was gorgeous! He even sang into the microphone! We were very proud of him!

Here are some pics with his teachers today as they said goodbye....

It's off to big school now!

A mouse in the house?

I got the cheese out one morning to make CC's lunch for kindy. This is what I discovered...

What do you think? A mouse?

Party party party!!

Remember this post about organising a party for my very soon to be 3 year old?! I had decided that the main attraction was going to be bubbles. Well I think we will still have bubbles. After all I did purchase some cool bubble wands.....
However, check this out!!!

Target is having a sale this week, and last night Swift Jim & I purchased that there jumping castle!! HEHEHEHE it's way cheaper than hiring one!! I am so excited!

The end is near...

Chestnut Cheeks started Pre-prep at the beginning of this year (kindergarten). The whole kindy experience was new to me. I didn't really know how a community kindergarten worked.
Basically the parents take care of the kindy. They run it, pay the bills, do maintenance on the grounds etc etc. This is why the fees are so reasonable. At a daycare centre you would pay twice as much. Not only that though, the atmosphere is lovely. The teachers form a wonderful bond with children & the parents get to know one another. Nice :)
In the first two weeks of term letters kept showing up in CC's locker inviting parents to the Annual General Meeting. I thought I would attend, as it seemed important & well after all I wanted to be a great kindy mum! So the night arrived & as I was walking out the door Swift Jim called out to me, "dont stick your hand up for ANYTHING!" I replied with, "dont worry! I dont intend to!"
Hmm well if you know me I have trouble saying no to things....
I deliberately sat in the middle of the group. I didn't want to be a nigel up the back, but I also didn't want to appear eager and sit at the front. I was happy with my choice, however I should have proceeded to SIT on my hands & button my mouth...
The meeting got underway, the president gave her speech, the director gave her report then the allocating of rolls started for 2008. First roll to fill was Presidents. No one wanted it, so they moved on & filled all the other positions and came back to the presidents position at the end. I should have jumped at one of those other rolls, like Fundraising co-ordinator or even Vice President. But I had come to the meeting with no intention to take on a roll so I didn't.
They came back to the presidents roll. There was me & one other lady left without a job. First they started harassing her, because up until now I had been quiet. However she was pregnant & didn't feel she could commit to the position. Right. All eyes fell on me. So I stupidly asked, "Ok, well what exactly does the position entail. Exactly what does the president do?" Well they made it sound sweet...
"Oh it's one of the easiest rolls! There is a bit of admin type stuff, you would chair the meetings & sign some cheques. It's mostly about deligating though."
I said...
" My husband will kill me!"
They said..
"no he wont, its really not that bad!"
So I said,
"I may regret this, but Ok."

I went home to Swift Jim. The first thing he asked was "What did you stick your hand up for?" (he knows me so well)... I reluctantly told him. He laughed! He laughed a lot.

President. PRESIDENT!!!!!!!!! *gulp*

So within the first two weeks I quickly learnt that it's not one of the easiest rolls. Infact, I'd say 3rd hardest!! The treasurer & secretary work harder than me. But I am there all the way helping them.
Did you know that when you are the president of a kindy you are the BOSS? Not the Director, you are HER boss?! YIKES. That means I have the power to hire & fire people!
I have not coped well at all with this responsibility this year, as I have had to execute these powers on a couple of occasions. Not nice!
I can quite easily admit that administration is not a gift or talent that God has gifted me with. I know that now! This year has stretched me in many ways, some for the better. However, the stretching of the waist band on my jeans is not such a good thing. I have put on almost 15 kilos this year. Stress is not good for me.
Now there is only 1 week left after this week of kindy. It is a busy one, since the beloved climbing tree decided to die & fall over with all the recent rain & storm events, but the end is near... and although I dont get to hand the roll over until early February, I am feeling somewhat excited at the prospect of not doing this ever again.
I must admit I have enjoyed working closely with the teachers & get to know them, as well as SOME of the other parents, but will I ever attend an AGM again? NO WAY!

Chitter Chatter

It was late, about 10pm. Chestnut Cheeks wondered down to the lounge room & asked for a drink of water. He had it & I told him to head back to bed. He asked me to come and pat him...

How could I resist? So I went...

After a minute or two he said to me with a cheeky grin on his face...

"Mummy, donuts are only a sometimes food eh?"

I agreed & said " You like donuts hey!?"

He replied with a giggle...

"Yeah!"

The promptly went back to sleep. Cute!

1, 2 now 3...

She will be three in only a couple more weeks....


The day she was born.

Her First birthday.

Her second birthday.

I still cant believe that my baby girl is almost 3. Where does the time go?

She melts me everyday. Even on days like today when she makes me so mad....

My Beautiful Ella...

Stay tuned for third her birthday...

I am here

But I just dont have a lot to blog about. Well I do have a few things, but I need photos & well I still cant upload off my camera yet.... Sorry to be a bore!

A gala event...

Every year Swift Jim's work put on a Staff Gala Dinner at the end of the year. They dont call it a 'Christmas Party' because that title may offend some people....

On Saturday night we went along. It's usually a great night out. We all get dressed up. The food is delish, there is awesome entertainment (this year it was a steel theme, so tap dancers & drummers etc), and usually prizes.
The first year that Swift Jim & I attended one of these functions, the theme was roaring 20's and I was 5 days shy of giving birth to Almond Eyes. We had a fun night & won a bottle of wine! Nice! Except I started to get contractions at about 10pm & freaked out, so we went home (it turned out to be a false alarm). Trouble is we forgot to take our bottle of wine home & some other lucky person got to take it home instead. That was the first & last time we won something.

Until Saturday night. They did the token look under your bread plate for a winner sticker & guess who got the prize?! Yep yours truly! I was soooo excited! I never win anything!! (except that one time).... The room was elated with excitement ! The MC guy really hyped it up, then he announced what the prizes were...

First of all the room made a "Huuuh" sound.... then laughter!

It turns out it was the only prize for the evening and it was somewhat of a boobie prize....

Can you tell what it is? Probably not. This lovely piece of plastic was the centre piece for the table. It was sitting on top of a light so it was kind of a cool table centre piece for a engineering company's Staff Gala Dinner, but apparently they didn't want to keep all 108 of them, and thought the staff would? Interesting! Anyhow, I thought it was hilarious! So there ^ is a picture of me & my prize! Needless to say, we left it there!

Chitter Chatter

With the remote control up to her ear....

"Doctor? Hello Doctor, where are you? Oh in your room. Well... hmm... the girl has a sore ear. Ok? "

To me...

"She is in her room." [nodds and heads up the hallway]

Back!!

Last Night Swift Jim cleaned out the PC. Which means all important stuff got put a a disc & everything got wiped! Nice to have a working computer again, but now I have to remember what all my favourite websites are....
Thats ok. I'd rather spend some time browsing the web than have annoying (and some yucko) pop ups all the time...
I will post something interesting soon.

Sick Computer

I will be offline until it's all better.
My PC has a virus. It sux, it's slow & I keep getting nasty pop ups and the keyboard wont recognise what I am typing properly.
So I will see y'all around, soon hopefully...

Tamborine Treasures

I promised I would post some pictures of the treasures I got on the Women's retreat....
These are my favourite things...

I have wanted a clock for a long time. I loved this one when I saw it a few months ago. I was umming & ahhhing about it. But decided to wait until the Women's retreat, if it was stil there then, I would get it. This isn't where I will put it, but I just wanted to show y'all how it goes....

The same shop had this little sign which I decided would look great on my deck. And it does...

And I couldn't come home without a gift for the kids. These Koala's were just too gorgeous to leave behind! They have been oddly named by my children as "Connor" & "Ella"... I wonder why ;)

Confetti Head

Over at Where the blog are you, we are having some fun today! Check it out....

Today I am going to choose to write about a memorable high school moment...

Well there are several I could choose from. I remember being dacked in the year 12 locker room. Quite embarrasing since I was wearing really daggy undies! I think Aunt Flo was visiting too, so of course I panicked!

But instead I will blog about my band "Confetti head"....

In year 11 & 12 I did contemporary music as a subject. It wasn't 'proper' music. It was just a school subject [not the board subject]. I loved it. Mostly because it was prac. Hardly any theory!! My type of thing! For one assesment we had to form a band. Two bands from the class stood out. There was us. We were originally called 'Solitary Confinement' but we decided our songs weren't hard core enough for that name, and changed it to 'confetti head'. Then there was a band called "The Farmers Handshake". They were punk. Between the two band we performed on assembly quite regulary. Ours got more gigs, probably coz our songs were'nt so hard core!

Here's us on assembly. I think from memory, now this is going back 11 years, but I think we were doing a cover of Zombie by the Cranberries. I also think from memory that we murdered it! I also remember worrying during the song that I would get in trouble for wearing doc Martens on assembly. I was always in trouble for wearing them to school.

Once we got to grade 12 we started writing our own songs. Well. They were interesting. One was actually quite good. It was called "Everyone is like the wind". My singing teacher was impressed with it! But we were most famous for our song, "Raindrops, stripey sock & skittles".

I wish I had kept a copy of the lyrics. You see I am an anti hoarder, and at the time I was sure I would never need them again. Who would have thunk it! I can kind of remember the chorus. It went something like this...

"Raindrops, stripey socks & skittles making me hap-py when skies are grey, Raindrops stripey socks & skittles .... la la la"

[imagine my bright red embarrased face here]

We had a lot of fun! My most fun music lesson was when we were making a film clip for our hit song. We wandered around the school grounds with a giant video camera, with coloured celophane over the lense for special effect, looking for butterflies and things to record. We were so cool!

This is a picture of me. It was the night of our school's talent show. Confetti Head was one of the leading acts (along side the Farmers Handshake of course). We were going to do a cover of Frente's Accidently Kelly Street, as well as RDSS&S. I looked cool! My hair was bright pink. You really cant see it in the pic, but my eyes were covered in glitter, and my outfit rocked! I had a tight knee length skirt on with knee high socks & chunky spice girl type shoes on... mmmmmmm LOL... I must have looked great coz I remember EVERYONE made a comment!

So it was our turn. I was on stage, the band started. Just as I was about to open my mouth my youth leader walked in and sat right infront of me. I forgot the words. Eventually they came to me, but it wasn't until the band got the the chorus. The shame of it. I think my cheeks matched my hair!! We had fun any how. But I am not sure I sang on stage again that year!

In all due respect...

I am Australian.
I get that the US election is important to Americans. Of course it is! The Australian election is important to me. I also get that today marks an important day in American history. I do, I get that.
But I am AUSTRALIAN and I dont see why my kids favourite t.v show "playschool" had to be interupted to see Obama's acceptance speech.
It could have waited til the 6 O'clock news.
Does American television go on & on about the Australian election? I am just curious?

Dont get me wrong, I am interested, after all Australia and America are good friends... I just dont get why our lives have to stop today?!
Rant over.

Refreshed!

On the 7 November 2007, pretty much a year ago I booked the Tamborine Lodge for our Women's retreat. We had been there once before & the location was lovely! The views spectacular! I though it was a good place to have it again!

So for a year I have been anticipating this weekend, planning and preparing. Fifty six ladies registered for the retreat! Awesome number. But that changed in the last week and became fourty six. It was a bit of a shame, but that is life. I was excited anyhow!!

Now in part of the preperation I had purchased some glow sticks.

The reason you ask? Well, the road on which the retreat is located is rather dark at night, and since the retreat wasn't going to start until after dark, it would be tricky for all the ladies to find there way. The purpose of the glow stick was to notify the ladies that they had reached their destination. I thought it was a great idea! .... What I hadn't taken into account was that, friday was Halloween. Now normally us Aussies dont celebrate Halloween. But up on Mt Tamborine, it was celebrated quite well. So when I started recieving phonecalls saying "we are lost! Where are the glow sticks?" I started to get suss.... trick or treaters had nicked them!!! Cheeky little buggers!

There was also a dirty big black snake stretched right across the road out the front, which freaked a few of our ladies out (including moi)...So that was the start to the weekend...

But it didn't set the tone. We had a wonderful time. We laughed. A lot!! Which is good really, because the theme after all was, "she who laughs, lasts!".

People asked me was I missing my kids? I replied with, NO WAY!! Haha... I love them dearly, but It was only 2 days people!!! I enjoyed my break :)

Probably my favourite part of the weekend was the little shopping expidition we went on during free time on Saturday afternoon. There are lots of lovely little shops along the main street. And I purchased a few delightful treasures. I will post pictures of them in another post. I was going to take some pics today but unfortunately it is rather overcast & the light isn't doing them any justice.... I will however leave you with a couple of photos from the weekend....

This one I took out side a wine tasting shop. It was the cutest little rose bud! And it smelled amazing!!

And this one....

Well, I will let Givinya & Crazy tell you about it!

Scatterbrain , splatterbrain.... what was I doing?

Oh yeah! Women's retreat stuff!

Tomorrow we head of for our women's retreat which I am the main leader of. I do have 3 other ladies helping me with stuff. I am very excited & looking forward to the weekend, but today my brain is mashed! I keep forgetting stuff!

I have called so many people this week with last minute requests, simply because I havn't thought of them earlier! Things that could have been organised AGES ago! God bless those helping hands :)

Today I KNOW I have heaps of last minute things to do. But I am so unsure of what! I wish I had written a list last week.

So in the midst of my confusion & excitement (never a good combination) I will leave the land of blogging until next week. Bring on tomorrow evening when I can relax!

Look what Mr Postman delivered today...

I love getting parcels in the mail :) Look what arrived today!!

I have to say! I need that tea towel to remind me to Keep calm!! Especially in the kitchen! I also got the magnet for my fridge for those times when the tea towel is hanging on the line!


I got some funky hair clips for me! Yes ME, not Almond Eyes (for once). The cute vintage buttons are for a project I have in mind. The cute christmas decorations I havn't decided whether to gift them or keep them.... I think I will keep the toadstool :)

Check out Lark! You'll love Allison's shop :)

Childhood Memories

Did your Grandma make one of these? My brother had one & I had this one. Recently my mum cleaned out her linen cupboard & found it.

I love it, mostly because my late Grandmother made it, but also it kinda looks funky...... Now for winter to return so we can use it!

Dont forget to tell me your favourite funny movie moment in my previous post!! :D

HELP!! I need to pick your brain!

Can you tell me a couple of your favourite laugh out loud chick flick moments!!
I am compiling a video for our ladies retreat which is THIS WEEKEND! I am having a mental blank...
So far I have....
*Miss Congeniality - When she trips coming out of the shed after her make over.
* Legally Blonde- The bend & snap
* Sister ACt- When they sing 'Hail Holy Queen'
*Charlie's Angels- The opening clip where they dance to "cant touch this"

Now I KNOW there are many funny moments out there, but I am struggling to remember them.
They need to be relatively clean & no swearing. (It is a church event after all)
Thanks in advance friends :)

Quiet Time

Do your children have quiet time? Or more to the point are they supposed to have quiet time?

Chestnut Cheeks decided before his 2nd birthday the he no longer required a day sleep. Mummy was very disapointed by this.

I did however decide to enforce quiet time. A period of time after lunch where he had to stay in his room and play quietly. Usually while his baby sister slept. The rule was he could come out when Almond Eyes woke. Sometimes I would go & check on him to find that he had taken himself of to sleep anyway.

This was a treat! It was rare, but I loved it!! These days he wont sleep at all unless I confescate his glasses & sit on his bed until he falls asleep. Needless to say that is rare too. Usually only happens if I know he will be having a late night.

Almond Eyes is getting bigger. She is almost 3. She still likes a sleep most days. But I can only let her sleep for an hour, otherwise she rages on until late into the night. However, when her big brother is home from kindy, she doesn't particulary enjoy a sleep. After all CC gets "quiet time" why should she? Hmmm...

The trouble is she just doesn't 'get' it. She thinks its normal playtime.

So today instead of having a sleep or proper quiet time.... they have been playing dress ups with Canteen Bandanas...

Notice how AE's pants or on inside out? What's with that?

CC: "Mummy, I am Mighty Mouse!"

AE: " I Mighty Mouse too"...

And they proceeded to race around the house.....

I fear my beloved "quiet time" is becomming extict also.... I hope not!

7 things...

Going off Givinya's meme...
Seven random things about me:

1. I am terrified of snakes. Terrified. So much so that I usually will have a nightmare in the days following if I see one on the t.v. Though I have become somewhat immune to Bindi the Jungle girl, who always has one wrapped around her neck. [though it took a while].
2. Peas. I hate them, they are disgusting!!
3. When I was in high school I was in a cool band called "Confetti Head"... I was the lead singer & we wrote really gnarly songs like "Raindrops, stripey sock & skittles" HAHAHA
4. My favourite colour is Pink, and yet I only own one pink piece of clothing, not including underware & pyjamas.
5. I had great aspiration when I was 11. I either wanted to be an astronaut or a hairdresser when I grew up. And I most definately wanted to get married. My year 7 teacher laughed at me.... I wonder why?
6. I have a lot of tupperware, so much so that my husband has put me on a ban.
7. I often wish I could escape to a remote country. It seems life would be much simpler there.

So there you go. Want to join in? Go on!

WOW!

I got an award!! My first ever award! :D I have seen these cute little awards around, and today I was surprised to have recieved one myself!! How chuffed am I!!

The amazingly crafty/artist jewelstreet awarded me! I love looking at her beautiful jewellery designs! She is one clever lady....
So it's my turn to share the love and hand out some awards that I think are deserving...

In order to recieve the award, here's what I'm supposed to do. I have to post the rules then nominate some more people.
Here's the rules:
1. The winner can put the logo on his/her blog.
2. Link the person you received the award from.
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
4. Put links of those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message on the blogs of the persons you've nominated.

Ok, so here are the seven blogs I choose to nominate for an award [in no particular order]....

Approximately none
Antique teacups, diamonds & recipes
BG Sydney- side
The Lark
168 Hours
Operation Skinny Cow
Snap in to it photography

NOw pass on to seven of YOUR favourite blogs :) Have fun...

Introducing....

My good friend Tracey!

We met just over 3 years ago via an internet forum called bubhub. We hit it off right from the beiginning. We were both pregnant, due a month apart & we both already had a boy each, who's birthdays were only a month apart.

Over the past few years we have become so close even though she lives in Melbourne & I live in Brisbane. We have had the pleasure of meeting in real life twice! And what a treat that has been...
The first meeting was in Melbourne. Swift Jim gave me the BEST birthday present & we both flew to Melbourne childfree & spent 5 days! We had a blast! (except for the freezing cold!! That in itself is a post all on it's own!)

Then in June this year, Trace & her family had the holiday from hell up here in Sunny Queensland. ( I am sure that is a blog post all on it's own from her point of view!) But we had a wonderful time with them!

Tracey is very talented with her camera & took some lovely photos of our family at beach while they were here...

Tracey has set up her own web shop & blog! Go check her out! You may even get some christmas gift Ideas :)

Tracey's Blog and Tracey's Website and Tracey's Redbubble

Enjoy! Love ya Trace xo

OUCH!

You know when you kick your toe on the door!!!!!!!!
OUCH!
How often do you do it? I just did it now, it hurts!
You know I got the idea for my blog title after Swift Jim kicked his toe on the door.
But it happens to us all... all 1,2,3,4 of us!

Our Weekend...

Swift Jim's sister is turning 21 soon. She didn't want a big party, she just wanted to go to the beach...

We had a wonderful time. The whole family was there, 10 of us all up. We spent most of saturday relaxing at the beach and had a BBQ dinner on the massive deck.
Sunday morning we had a cooked breaky and then we all went to some local markets. I love markets! The kids thought it was awesome - there was a jumping castle and Blue slushies to drink, what could be better!?
I had a lovely time too. I picked up a few bits and pieces. Including some fabric. I am not exactly sure what I will make with the fabric. But it is kinda cool..
This piece is particulary cute!


Then there were these...


And this one has little blue birds, the photo doesn't do it any justice but it's pretty cute...

Before heading home on Sunday afternoon, we called into Fingal.... the beach where Swift Jim & I knew we'd be together forever. It's been years since we have been there, but it was just as beautiful as ever.


Us and the lighthouse behind. Such great memories!
We even saw some dolphins...
I think we are going to make it an annual trip. I hope so because it was so much fun!

And now we are home. And I have a head cold.