Where else...but Queensland

Where else..
to slip away for a bit of family R&R
to wake up to the sound of the surf and warm skin
to explore the rockpools and the creatures there-in
to take a deep breath and enjoy the sunshine





ah yes, we have had a little break in that lovely state and come back feeling wonderfully refreshed.

How Does Your Garden Grow

Kate's party this year was a gardening party. It was a beautiful spring day, the best all year and we all had a ball.



Each child had a pot with potting mix and a set of gloves. We potted a mixture of flowers, vegetable and herbs in the pot. The balloons were arranged to look like flowers on a stem and each child put a 'flower' in their pot when we were finished.



Kate asked to invite her prep teacher who was so obliging as to actually come. I think that only a prep teacher would be invited to a child's birthday party...and only a prep teacher would have the dedication to turn up. Thanks Miss Kelly!

Note: I received a few questions about the invitations. The font I used was a free downloadable front from dafont. The cards were some sweet scalloped cards from our local $2 shop, such a great find. The flowers were cut out using my girlfriend's Cuttlebug machine - boy is that thing addictive! The boys stamps were also hers which she bought from Stampin' Up.

There's a Party At Our House....

..tomorrow.

Hey Frenchy

I cannot believe it has been three weeks since my last post. Now, don't go assuming that becuse there has been no blogging there has been no crafting. Quite to the contrary. I have been flat out with my new summer range and suppling an ever growing list of retailers. Flat out with summer sewing for the girls, a lot more than I normally sew. And flat out preparing for Kate's birthday party.

So, finally I post. Here is a little creation I made for Kate. These oh-so-comfy French inspired jeans and a little swing top from this Japanese book. I also used the pattern to create nighties for my girls, but I will post about those another time.



For the jeans, I just adapted her pajama pants pattern to give it a flat front and then based the silhouette on an existing pair of pants to create the lovey flare. A big hem at the bottom and oversized pockets at the back were a must. Kate loves these jeans, becuase they are so much more comfortable than her other pairs.

I find this outfit totatlly irresistable when teamed with her dotty mary janes, red cotton cardi and polka dot bow. Perfect for spring.

Fail-proof Sponge

My sewing circle girls were having a high tea birthday celebration for one of the girls. With lovely china, embroidered tablecloth, ribbon sandwiches, strawberries and petite fours, the birthday cake simply had to be a sponge.

As mentioned before, I really haven't got a light hand in the kitchen. But lately I have been making a special chocolate cake which uses whipped egg whites. At times it is almost sponge like and so I thought this might be the key to my success. This, as well as my Kitchen Aid. I googled 'fail proof sponge egg whites and came up with a suitable recipe.



I can now say that I can produce an acceptable sponge, not super light, maybe one day. I filled it with lemon curd (I had to use all of the egg yolks from the friands for something) and cream and 'iced' it with cream and fresh flowers.


It was all a lovely sight and such a perfect day.

Self-suffiency

Edward and I enjoyed our little adventure very much!

It was special for him to meet his great-grandparents who live in the Blue Mountains and he loved their attention.





We also visited my uncle (who is only a few years older than me and more like a cousin) and his wife (who was one of my best friends at uni). Yes, I can add match-maker to my title.

They have two gorgeous boys and live in a very isolated valley in the Blue Mountains. Their 100 acre property is almost totally surrounded by beautiful cliff faces.





Their lifestyle is one of almost total self-sufficiency; tank water, solar-power, they farm 36 cattle and so eat their own beef and chickens (the meat birds are bread just for their own eating). Rachel's vegetable gardens are almost the size of my backyard and they live almost totally off their produce. She has fruit trees, nut trees and berry bushes. She bottles the excess fruit and cooks up the tomatoes into relish, pasata and tomato sauce. Rachel grinds her own flour and of, course makes the bread. Mitchell(7), is home schooled and the youngest will follow when he is school age. It is truly amazing to behold. In her spare time Rachel build dry stone rock walls. These are all over their beautiful property and she has collected almost all of the rocks herself.

I wish I had of taken photos of her wonderful work. It was amazing to see it all and I came back feeling very energised. Ready for a very busy five weeks ahead.

My Other Breakfast

OK, so my morning routine does vary occasionally. There is another option; toast.



This is how I like my toast, with vegemite and walnuts. An unusual but delicious and nutritious combination that my Grandpa taught me. You aren't allowed to turn your nose up until you try it!

I am off to visit my wonderful grandparents this week. Eddie and I are off on a bus, plane and a train for a little adventure to the Blue Mountains. Along the way we are catching up with Ingrid and her gorgeous two little ones.

I am most excited about it all!

Enjoy your week.

Sunday Craft

The girls and I have been enjoying these wet Sundays with a bit of crafting in the afternoons. Eddie goes down for a nap and out comes the craft.

We have particularly been enjoying some papercraft. Like Jo, scrapbooking has never taken my fancy but we are discovering the plethora of other paper projects out there. Hey, if you love fabric, you have to love the beautiful papers around.




Last week, we covered some plain clipboards with gorgeous paper, ribbon and mod podge (which I now know is available from Riot Art & Craft, not Spotlight or Lincraft!) This is a fun and simple activity that we saw over at A Spoonfull of Sugar. The boards will be most handy for clipping up the girl's schedules and morning reminders.

We've enjoyed making cards for birthday's, neighbours and really, whoever pops into our mind at the time. My children, like most, love making deliveries of handmade messages to whomever they can think of. And there is usually a sweet posy of flowers (and weeds) attached.

Sunday Craft, hopefully we will meet again. You are most welcome in our home...especially on rainy days!

Simple Things - Tree of Happiness

Ingrid tagged me, for a meme I am happy to be tagged for. You see, gratefulness, as I have mentioned before, is a very important attribute in my books. I believe that it is only with a grateful heart that you can really achieve happiness. To be grateful is to see the glass half full, rather than half empty.


Everyday I feel grateful for these things. I will warn you, they are very basic but I think that without them happiness would be a search.



These things make me grateful;
1. Love in my life; from my man, my family and my friends.
2. A healthy family, nothing to be taken for granted.
3. Being able to feed my family enough food and healthy food and to cook each night what our hearts and stomachs desire.
4. Being able to keep my children and my house clean. OK,maybe this sounds a little obsessive. And don't think that I do always keep my house clean (you should see the floors right now!) but at least it is only my laziness stopping me; not illness or poor living conditions.
5. Time to do the things I love and spend it with the people I love. I would like a bit more of this though, pretty please.
6. Living in Australia because I truly believe this is the best country in the world and one of the reasons I have all of the above.



There are other little daily delights like these flowers, kisses and cuddles and cups of tea and chats with friends. They certainly put a smile on my dial, but the six points above can sometimes be taken for granted and for which I am very grateful.

Organised - Part Two

Procrastinating....

This Sunday night's task was to organise our photos in to photo albums. Hmmm, the type of task I have been meaning to do for about three years, the type of task I don't actually enjoy doing and the type of task that I know will feel soooo good when it is finally complete.

I actually feel pretty chuffed that I have managed to sort the photos for printing, print them AND purchase three photos albums.

But instead, I am sitting here checking my growing list of bloglines and writing this post. I am such a wonderful procrastinator.

As another addition to my posts on organising, here is a little brainwave I came up with. The Bits and Pieces Box.



It's for all of the bits and pieces you find lying around that belong to games once played, jigsaws once put together or polly pockets once dressed. All those annoying bits you find after the tidying up has been done. Rather than digging out the box they belong to and putting them away, which takes too much effort for me, these pieces go into this box. Safe and sound for next time. And I particularly love using this Huggies box for this purpose because of it's little opening. It's sort of a one way hole.

So, there you have it. A little attempt to make life simpler and sweeter. Now, on to those photos.