Hoopy Love

What do you do when it has done nothing but rain your whole holiday?

Make hula-hoops of course!

A trip to Bunnings for some pipe, connectors and tape. Less than $30 later you have supplies to make about 10 hoops!!!

It was getting a bit crowded undercover, so yes, we are hooping out in the rain.

We got all our hooping inspiration from here.

Thanks for the iphone honey. xxx

My wonderful, very naughty husband, surprised me with an iphone yesterday.

There was total shock, which may have even resulted in some high-pitched squealing!

Thanks honey, I love it. I look forward to being able to capture more of the day to day moments of my life as they happen and hopefully share some of them here.

Cook Cook!

I had been toying with the idea of getting Ben a play kitchen because he loves to 'Cook Cook' so much. 

There is a nice one at IKEA, or I could send Dave up to the Salvo's to buy an old cupboard so he could make one like Planetbaby's funky kitchen.

But really, could this little man be any happier? He has it all worked out, no play kitchen necessary.

Retromummy giveaway!

What a generous giveaway from Retromummy!

Enter now to win 20 fat quarters of the new Flower Sugar Range.

Under the tree...



This bag is waiting under the tree for ME! I love almost everything that Kikki. K sell. Their calendars, diaries and notebooks are my favourite. They have a great gift guide if you are stuck on a present for someone in particular.

Ikea Curtain Christmas Dress

That IKEA curtain I bought on the op-shop tour is now a Christmas dress for Sarah.



 She did some of the sewing herself. It was basically a seam up the back, and a casing for the elastic. I sewed the straps, and VOILA! A Christmas dress.

  



A bit thick.

I have been wondering why nobody has been commenting on my blog lately, not even my Mum!!  I have just discovered  37 comments awaiting moderation, starting way back in August. I had been getting some spam comments so had turned comment moderation on. Whoops!!

Chicken and Fishhead.

A friend took me here yesterday as a treat for my birthday.

 The food and coffee was superb, and Ben was in his element with a pink cupcake and babycino. (Now that he has grown out out his dairy intolerance, the world is full of amazing delights.)

 And check out these gingerbread biscuits. Too cute.

S.S.A.S

Simple. Sunday. Afternoon. Sewing.

 Vliseofix is your best friend if you like instant gratification like me.

Red Lantern

Dave and I recently snuck away for a couple of nights in the city (thanks Mum!!), and we were able to go to Red Lantern, a restaurant that I have been wanting to try for ages.

 We couldn't get a dinner reservation at such short notice (you have to book a couple of months ahead), but we were able to go for lunch.

The food and the atmosphere were great, and it made our little getaway just that bit more special.

Orange Granita.

What a hot and sweaty afternoon it was yesterday here in Sydney! Not the kind of afternoon you feel like standing over a hot stove in.

 But maybe, just maybe you would, in order to make this...

Orange Granita. YUM!

 It is very simple (even an 8 year old can do it). Put 300ml OJ, zest of 1 orange, 50g caster sugar, 150ml water and 30ml of lemon juice in a saucepan. Bring to the boil, reduce heat and simmer till sugar is dissolved. Let it cool. Pour it into a tray, whack it in the freezer and when it is just frozen, scrape up the yummy crystals with a fork and put into cups and EAT!!! It is so deliciously cool and refreshing.

And here is Ben who thought he would try a bit of cooking too.

Note to self - Ben can reach up on the bench now. Beware!

New House Blog

I have started a new separate blog to follow the build of our house. You can find it HERE.

Unfortunately, the block still looks like this even though plans came out of council weeks ago :(

Op-Shop till you drop.

Yesterday I headed out on an op-shop safari with the lovely Pippi and Cathy. We hit the Salvo's at Hornsby first and were greeted with this fabulous sight -1/2 price today! Woo hoo.

 Part of my haul. An IKEA doona cover set for Sarah (she loves it!), a quilted comforter and 2 pillowcases, a hobby horse, plenty of PB Bear and DK board books for Ben, and an abridged version of Gulliver's Travels.

 We visited 5 op-shops, and had lunch in between. It was a fab day, thanks girls.

And I scored these little guys, $1 for the lot!

Junior Masterchef

Afterschool cooking has been running hot this week after the kids watched Junior Masterchef on Sunday night.
Yesterday, Jonty made Lemon Meringue Pie and it was GOOD!!!!!!!!!

I heart Queenstown!

We have just returned from a week in Queenstown, NZ. Wow! What an unreal place.
It was so spectacular being constantly surrounded by snow capped mountains, and perched on the edge of a beautiful lake. We took my mum along as our travelling 'nanny' as ben was too little for lots of the activities.

We went skiing, jet-boating (twice), on a helicopter ride, quadbiking.... and a few other less extreme activities like winetasting, and plenty of delicious food.

This is our luggage. We don't travel light, but it is my aim to from now on. A friend who recently MOVED to Hong Kong with 4 kids said she took less than this. I also met a family in NZ who had recently done Europe with their 2 kids for 6 weeks with CARRY ON LUGGAGE ONLY!!!! Woah.

I might start my new regime this weekend by turning up at KWC just with a sleeping bag and the clothes on my back??? Wonder how my roomies will feel about that?

Viking Dinner party

We belong to a Foodie Group, (which evolved out of our Bible Study group) that meets every couple of months to cook and eat together. We have a theme, and in the past have done French, Indian, Australian, Spanish, Italian etc..
This month was Scandinavian Viking! I decided to have a go at making gravlax, a cured salmon dish.

Apparently the Vikings would just bury theirs in the sand for a few months and eat it when it was nice and fermented. I decided to go with the hygenic glad-wrap/fridge metheod. It was delicious!!! I used this recipe.

Someone brought a bottle of Mead. I thought it tasted awful, like bay leaves, but some people really liked it.

Here is my plate before I pillaged it. From left, walnut flat bread, roast boar, roast meat, vegetable stew, red cabbage, and the gravlax on bread. I am not sure whether the Vikings would have served it with creme fresh, caviar and capers though...

I think one of these would make a great housewarming present to myself.

Should have been an architect!

My husband Dave that is. He is constantly surprising me through this house designing process with his good ideas, I have pretty much let him go for it with the architect, and together our new house is slowly coming together.

And as the weather gets chilly, I found the need to make a cosy blanket to snuggle under while watching TV at night. I used up some of my fabric stash, and bought some grey polar fleece to back it with.

Here is my littlest boy, busy with the very serious business of watching the Wiggles. As I approach my uni exams later this week (I have 2 on the one day, yikes!!!!) , I am very thankful for the Wiggles.

A bit teary

I have been stalking Rach's blog for news, and found myself all teary this afternoon when I logged on and saw her beautiful new baby. Well done, he is so divine. xxx

Busy Busy.

It's been two months since my last post, this blog neglect seems to be happeneing a lot lately. Hmmm...maybe it's the combination of 4 children, travelling husband, university, and everything else that fills my life.
And if we weren't busy enough already, we have just bought a block of land, put our current house on the market, and are designing a new house with the help of an architect.

It is very exciting planning a new home. My only real wants are lots of north facing windows and lots of cupboards. Bliss!
We have been doing lots of decluttering around here, and letting go of lots of stuff, it is wonderful.

Organisation with school age children (part 3)

"Go and clean your room!"

The words that strike fear into the hearts of children. Not only because they would rather be doing something else, but sometimes they simply do not know how or where to start.

For this reason I made a little sign for Sarah's bedroom so she does know where to start.

If she works through each item on the list, her room ends up pretty tidy, and she ends up pretty pleased with herself.