essay writing for procrastinators.

any tips??

I'm loving the green smoothies at the moment.


This morning's had orange, grapefruit, kale and baby spinach.


Yes, it's a bit flouro.

Don't let that put you off.


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Start them young.

How cute are these little sewing cards!


It's never too early to get your kids sewing, even at 2 1/2.





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Cubby House

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we are in!

Yes, we are in the new house and I promise a tour soon. It probably won't involve as many feathers as this one though :)

friends. fabric. food.

friends.
My friend the wonderful, clever, crafter JenPen has moved to Sydney from NZ and we have been doing lots of craft together. I feel like I have my very own sewing/knitting/crochet teacher available day and night.

fabric.
She was heading out to the recent Mathilda's Market where I knew Retromummy was going to be selling some of her fabric cheap. I asked Jen to get me some that was suitable for Ben, cute, but boyish. I love what she bought me!

food.
I buy a lot of mags, but have never actually subscribed to any. That is until I bought the first edition of the new SBS food magazine, FEAST. It has wonderful recipes as well as the sories behind them, it's really special.

A few more house pics

The builder is saying <3 weeks till the house is finished. Can you believe it???



The kitchen minus benchtops (which are now in, snow CS).


The finished wall unit.


Laundry.


The kitchen sink. I may need to wear sunnies, it's so bright!

Our new house is coming along

... Slowly.
Here are some of my favourite parts.


The wall unit that Dave designed, and our kitchen company built.


The bin. I think I'm in love. Is that weird?


The kitchen.

We love to eat!!! Some recent food experiences...

 Toad in the Hole

Pho Pasteur

A cafe in Melbourne (not sure of the name)

Bar Italia



Jonty completed the Mad Mex 1kg burrrito challenge...easily.



Dave cooking Kylie Kwong corn fritters on Mothers Day. (not many guys can rock the pink apron)

The Ugly Beautiful.

The Ugly:

 Ben, our 2 year old, pulling a bowl of boiling noodles off the kitchen bench onto himself.

 Me, holding him under cold running water in the kitchen sink, him screaming, me watching the skin on his chest bubble and wash away.

 The older 3 kids panicking waiting for the ambulance to arrive.

Multiple hospital visits to the burn clinic.

The tears and obvious terror of your 2 year old, and not being able to do much else, other than cuddle, soothe and try and distract with bubbles, books and wiggles dvds.

The Beautiful:
Knowing that God was and is with us, and that he is still good.
The prayers of friends and family around the world.

Friends and elders at Church laying hands on Ben, anointing him with oil, and praying for healing.

The way that God chose to answer those prayers with better than expected healing, and the avoidance of skin grafts, after we were told it was almost certain he would need one (or more)

Japanese Scarf

I dragged the gang off a couple of Saturdays ago for a "family afternoon" in the inner west. My ulterior motive was to go to the Yoshi Jones warehouse sale in Enmore.

I managed to pick up a few bargains like a cardigan for Sarah reduced from $139 to $10!!

I also bought this bag of scraps ($10) which looked like it could make a great scarf.

And here it is! (As with all my sewing, it could use a good iron and the threads cut off).

 

The awkward self portraint. I'm looking a bit like a Ninja.

I went to check out Matt Blatt furniture this week.


That place is nuts!

Parkour gone bad.

Matt has been asking if he can go to Parkour lessons. I am wishing I had said yes...


It's not for amateurs.

School Holiday Fun

On no? Oh yes. One child only though. Could be worse.


Tonsillitis for the 2 grown ups. Dave went to the Dr, got the AB's with a repeat and we are sharing. True love.



On a positive note, the house is coming along. Not sure where this girl came from, but she is keeping an eye on all those tradies.

Vegetarian Love

 Clockwise from top left: veggie kebab, spinach lasagne, morrocan chickpea and carrot salad, bean nachos and greek salad.

I cooked this feast for my Bible Study group.

New Habits

Something else I have been doing lately is working at forming new habits. Apparently it takes 100 days to form a habit, basically a whole season.

After reading this post from Ann Voskamp on developing habits, I chose 3 daily practices to work on:

1. Reading my Bible
2. Eating 2 pieces of fruit
3. Doing some kind of exercise

                                 Ben loves helping me read the Bible.

The one habit that I have struggled to develop is the fruit eating!

What's been happening?

There has been a lot happening around here lately.
Thanks to the fabulous knitting teacher Jen (who has recently moved to Sydney from NZ - check out her blog, she is very clever!) , I am now rocking the knit 2 purl 2. My rib scarf may actually be finished by winter...




I am a newly converted Veggo, and loving it. I feel great!



Our MAKEDO arrived and we have made so many great things with it. Put this stuff on your Christmas list!

Love to read…

I discovered this blog and the author Ann Voskamp not very long ago. I feel incredibly blessed. The way she writes is beautiful, and the words point me in the direction of Christ and his Word.

I have ordered her new book from Amazon, and if it is as good as I think it will be, I will order copies for my girlfriends too.

Japanese Birthday for Ben.

We threw a little Japanese themed party for Ben's 2nd birthday. We all love sushi, and anything Japanese.

Matt taught the kids how to make sushi using the susheezi (very non-traditional of course!!).

Dave and I decorated the store bought slab cake with Sushi we made using LCM bars, lollies and fruit leather.

Sarah did a sushi craft with the little ones.

I bought a couple of sushi platters which were yummy!

The birthday boy wearing his outfit Dave bought him in Japan. These may or may not actually be PJs?? But who cares, he looked the part.

I decorated these noodles boxes with origami cranes. Origami is my new favourite hobby!!

I found these great wind-up sushi toys at Yoshi Jones to go in them, along with a few lollies.