Thursday 30 June 2011

Stamped, Self-Addressed Envelope

Yesterday I carried this envelope around in my pocket all day long.  It's not really the envelope that excites me though, it's the contents.  I've been accepted as a stall holder for the Steampacket Gardens Art and Crafts Market in November and December, whooooooop!

Wednesday 29 June 2011

PS

Lovely Sisters,

I love our blog.

I love reading about your lives on the blog.

I love seeing the randomness of the images of your lives on the blog.

I love reading the comments that you put on the posts.

I love you.

Lots.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Calli Strawberry Jam

The Imagination of Blankets and Clothes Dryers

Langlan has come down with a pretty fierce cold, along with the occasional vomit, so we're not heading to playgroup today and we're not heading down to play at the beach with mother's group. 

Instead, we're staying home and playing Cowboys and Indians with our wigwam, or if we get bored of that we'll play Armies with our fort, or if we get bored of that we'll have a Mad Hatters Tea Party in our cubby house. 

Any which way, it looks like we're in for a fun day!

Land & new clothes!



Oops, got the order a little wrong...but you get the idea!

New shirt below! Loved it cause it reminded me of London!

And all the other pics are of our favourite block of land...that we are buying in our dreams!

Love you all lots xoxox

















Tuesday 28 June 2011

Lamentable

Our back yard is definitely lamentable. It has no glorious flowers like Calico's, it has no big Christmas tree like Kt's, it has no snow or special garden boxes like Linny's and it has no awesomeness like the farm. Sometimes I walk out and despair, pull my hair out or just sob, depending upon the time of the month and just how messy it is. This morning I had put the washing out and was doing some inside work when I heard delighted cries coming from outside. I peeked out the window and could very easily have lamented over my very bad back yard....however I delighted. The 'on school holidays- yah' kidlets had turned the back yard into the moon, donned their space suits complete with breathing apparel (thank you Mr Youldon) and were playing. They never despair over the backyard. They just enjoy it...every weed and dirt patch becomes their playground and that is good enough for me. I love what my kids teach me...everyday.

Monday 27 June 2011

Multipurpose tools

Andrew started rendering the 'studio' the other day.  His little drill bit just wasn't cutting it for mixing the render so he used my kitchen whisk in the drill.  I don't think I'll be using it to whisk anything in the kitchen anymore!

What the grandparents get up to

Sunday 26 June 2011

BATHROOOOOOOOM

A huge big thanks to Mum and Dad for all their work to produce

from a pile of Minnamurra beach stones

Boxes of tiles

Buckets of glue

And a full days hard work...

Drum roll........

This (1/2 completed!)

Oooooo Auuuuuur!!

Saturday 25 June 2011

My Boy

Connor has just finished his first half of Year 5. I gave birth to this kid yesterday. I thought you might like to read a piece that he wrote about himself. All the sisters get a mention. Did I also mention that I love this young man who is a delight and a scream and a champion.My name is Connor Somerled. I have 1 sister and a Mum and Dad. I have 3 aunts and 4 grandparents. I have brown eyes and the same colour hair. I have no pets but I used to have 2 fish. My favourite sport is cricket, but I like watching NRL when it is in season. I like history and am interested in the army and its history. At school I like sport, maths and art. I have made it into the Newcastle Rep. team for cricket. I have tried out for the NSW independent schools rep team in cricket but did not make it. My favourite game at school is hand ball.

Running......not so fast

The other morning I had to run early......not so early that no body else was up....just the sun wasn't. I probably won't do it again, but it was kind of fun and I felt good. All the other morning runs have been postponed due to lack of enthusiasm on my part....man I need a running partner, but still at least 1 morning run and 1 bike ride is better than 0.

Thursday 23 June 2011

A Sneak Peak

Andrew and I are putting together a book for Mr Youldon.  When we were in Newcastle he gave us a copy of a poem that he had written, "A Little Bit of Australian Nonsense".  Andrew and I loved it so much we thought it needed publishing.  So that's what we're doing. 

Hammond T Organ with 4 foot pipes by Andrew
We've knocked together a few illustrations and we're using Blurb (oh how I love you) to publish it.  It's mostly done.  We've just got to finish the title page and the front and back covers and we're good to go. 

It's been great fun working on something together with Andrew.  We've done a few other creative things together, our wedding invite, a quilt for Sarah, a few short films, and it's always great fun.  I love seeing how our different ideas come together to create something unique.

Wednesday 22 June 2011

What do you get?

For four bucks at the op shop?This scrummy pile of goodness. Along with my lovely assistant. Now I need to find my sewing machine in our mountain of boxes so I can make something with the pile of goodness, and probably without my lovely assistant!

Tuesday 21 June 2011

It's Always More Fun to Share with Everyone

Or the story of how this:
became this:I love freecycle. I've given, I've received and I've wished I had received! I generally try to give a little thank you in exchange for whatever goodies the person is giving me so last week Little Langy G and I jumped in the car with a bag of homegrown lemons and herbs and headed off on an adventure to pick up some sourdough starter.

I've wanted to try making sourdough for ages but the whole starting and growing and feeding a starter just sounded plain old scary so when a lady on freecycle offered some starter I was in! The starter is from the first sourdough bakery that was started in Melbourne and it's about 40 years old. Starters change and evolve depending on what you feed them and where they are (they pick up wild yeast from the air so sourdough tastes different all over the world) so my bread probably won't taste like the Melbourne bread.

I love that the bread I now bake has a history, different people would have cared for and loved this starter over the years so there's a little bit of all their stories included in my dough. Now it's my turn to add to the mix.

Sunday 19 June 2011

How Does Your Garden Grow

No cockle shells or silver bells in our garden but it's growing anyway. Here's a little peek... Our tomatoes look pretty mangy but we've gotten plenty off them. The chooks aren't laying but Andrew thinks they're fattening up nicely for the pot! We gave 3 shopping bags full of lemons away the other day and still the tree is loaded. Beautiful things keep on popping up in our garden that we didn't know about, these jonquils (I think that's what they are, or eggs and bacon) are the latest surprise.Our mystery tree has blossomed and smells divine. And lastly, Langlan seriously loves the Hills Hoist.

flooded-picts say it ALL





Some people are idiots! There were cars stuck/flooded/abandonded on every flooded road.

Finally, almost, basically...

ready for tiling, we are 50% water proofed

thanks Dad!

Fingers crossed the messy balling fiberglass and 1/2 price pond waterproofing work!

Yummy...

and for the very BIG mouth-ed...

Mummys HUGE and scrummy raviolli (took me 3-4 mouthfuls to eat 1!!!)
That is a medium to large saucepan, ha ha ha!

Saturday 18 June 2011

My Blood






We don't need sugar, flour or rice or anything else. We just want to see our dear ones.

- Hafiz of Persia

Friday 17 June 2011

And the winner is...

Sompty!

We broke out Balderdash on our trip to Newcastle and Dad wiped the board clean. Like, seriously. We had to play a second night to regain our credibility, Dad didn't win that game but he was a hot contender. Congratulations Old Macdonald!