Matryoshka's and Kokeshi's

So, here is the final, finished product.  I've had fun tearing and painting and gluing and stitching.  They've been made into little brooches, with pins on the back.  I think these will be kept for Queen's Day.  

I got the thoughts from Free Encouragement (I so, so love that project).  And the last pic is for size comparison for Kt Mac who thought they were large.  Very large.  So large that they may have even covered Kt Mac's breast.  That's big.

The Post in Which a Bunny Appears

Hello peoples,

The house is still a mess, even more so than yesterday.  And it's not even my fault this time.  It's the psycho bunny.  Yup, he made me do it.  Little clouds of fluff flying through the air.  Random eyeballs rolling about on the couch.  Sharp scissors strewn across the couch.  The bunny with the killer eyes came from all this chaos.  Andrew has named him 'The Demon Rabbit of Milton Keynes'.

After all that craziness, I needed a little retail therapy to calm down.  I bought some new glasses.  The old ones are getting a little blurry on it (not to mention the green stuff I found growing on the part that rests on my ears this morning, eew).  So the top pair in this picture should be zooming my way soon.  Hopefully centred right, although it was ever so fun with Andrew and I trying to measure the distance between my pupils with a ruler and a texta.

Lastly, I went into the little sewing shop the other day to show a friend.  I had absolutely no intention of buying anything but these little beauties found their way into my bag before I left.  Nice, no?  And in the background is the hot water bottle a beautiful friend gave me to keep me warm when Andrew is away.  Aaaw.

And then they became...

Matryoshka and kokeshi dolls!  I'll probably turn them into hair clips/key rings/brooches.  These are the things that I do on holidays when the house is a mess and I don't get out of my pyjamas until after lunch.  Oops, I've forgotten lunch...and maybe breakfast too.  Must. Remember. To.  Eat.  

(Sorry about the rubbish photo, the camera is lost somewhere in this bomb site so I've resorted to using the camera on the computer.)

Right here, right now

On my table at the moment...

Time Wasting

I found this great site called The Photographic Dictionary. Go take a look. I love it.

Swimming

Photo's later, but Connor came second!!!!!! In a 25m race at the swimming carnival......I know it's not up to my sisters swimming standards, but last year he came second last just beating a boy with a kickboard! Next year...who knows! I am just proud that he went in it and came out smiling. That's what it is all about really.

The thing you can do

Yummy milkshake

While I am still feeling at loose ends with my little travelling buddy now at school I do get to go out and have a milkshake with my Mum, without having to share!
We went to Rolador, a little cafe in Beaumont Street that has a roll-a-door and darn good milkshakes. Mine was banana, Danish chocolate and honey. It was delish. Mum went the coffee option and said that was nice but strong! The cafe is decorated with lots of retro/found stuff. They use souvenir spoons with their coffee. The lights shades are red versions of the green one 2 lovelies found at the recycle centre once upon a time. It was lovely and a change from all the house work I am doing - yep the year of organisation is coming together, bedroom down, playroom to go because I have time and no one to play with! No pictures from me, because no camera back yet!

Recently This is What Happened

I'm sitting at the computer shivering and shaking in my boots.  Why?  The doors are wide open and it's about 3 degrees outside, and now about that temperature inside.  I'm trying to freeze all the germs out of the house.  Andrew and Dani have both been sick over the weekend, so now that they're both out of the house I'm sending all the germs packing too cause I don't want to be sick for the last few days of my holiday.  

So, other than making soup for the sickies over the weekend (recipe to follow at the end of this post, not that it's soup weather in Oz or NZ but maybe in a few months!) we threw a Valentines bash on Saturday night (check out all the pyjamas and bed-heads above!).  

We somehow squeezed about 25 people into our little house for a dessert party decorated with lots of love hearts (and a little birds nest to warn all our tall friends about the low hanging light fixture).  

I went the inexpensive route and painted newspaper and cut out paint and wallpaper samples to decorate with.  

Nice.  

I didn't get many pictures, too much going on.

Yesterday was Dani's last day here, most of which she spent on the sofa bed watching Doctor Who.  We did venture down the street for a little souvenir shopping and one last photo opportunity.  She flew out this morning, now it's back to just me and Andrew in our little love shack!

Sickies Chicken Soup Recipe

• Heat 1 tablespoon vegetable oil in a large pot.  Cook and stir 1 teaspoon of chopped fresh ginger, 2 minced cloves of garlic, 1 teaspoon minced chili, and 1 finely chopped chicken breast for about 5 minutes
• Add 1 tablespoon curry powder, dash of ground coriander, a few grates of lemon zest, a few grinds of black pepper,  1 tablespoon vinegar, 1 tablespoon fish sauce, 1 teaspoon sugar, 500 ml chicken stock, coconut milk or cream (just however much you want, i used about 4 tablespoons of coconut cream), 2 cups cooked rice
• Allow the soup to simmer until it thickens, about 15 minutes

Mmm, this all disappeared very quickly and I'm sure all that goodness in there is good for sickies!

Skin Head and all things KT!

This is the end result...but it wasn't always this good! (Sorry I forgot to turn the photo's)

Ice Sledding

Yup.  Yup.  This is what we spent after dinner doing.  Tiring, but oh so worth it.

Discipline 101

This photo will be explained in the following story.

Last night we visited KT at her housesitting home. The kids had a great time chasing chooks, being attacked by small dogs and playing with some lego that was at the house. Apparently though, my children decided last night to resort back to their convict roots and decided they couldn't do without some small pieces of lego and so some ended up in both their pockets (Actually Connor just informed me that his was in his undies!) We had a big talk about just how wrong stealing was and how very sad it made me feel. They both had consequences like a ban on the computer which they normally have time on the weekend to write and play on. Kenzi then says, "I think I should be banned from going under a bridge in a boat forever!"
What do you do with that!
I'm off to give breakfast to my little convicts and to keep plugging away at those life lessons.......and to completely rethink our boating lifestyle in which we are constantly going under bridges in boats!

The Other Bits

My other kringloop purchases:

Two beautiful glass jars to hold my flax seeds and almonds that I eat in the morning (I've seriously turned into a bird, give me a few nuts and seeds and I'll chirp all day long).

A big, fat green jar to hold my recently made lime cordial.  The label says (faintly) 'Celllulose lijm' which means cellulose glue (don't worry, I washed it real good).  It's cool though, cause 'ij' is pronounced 'y' in Dutch so it reads almost like the cordial that's in there now.  Cool.  And if you want the recipe, here it is (taken from ABC Tasmania's website):

* 6 large limes (or 8 small)

*1.5 kgs (3 lb) sugar

*4 cups boiling water

*1 tablespoon citric or tartaric acid

Finely grate the lime rind, taking care not to include any of the pith. Squeeze the juice from the limes and set aside.

Combine the lime rind, citric or tartaric acid, sugar and boiling water and mix well to dissolve the sugar. Add the reserved lime juice and mix through. Leave to stand until the mixture is cool (or overnight). Strain the mixture through a fine sieve (line the sieve with muslin if desired).

Pour into sterilised bottles and seal.  

I would probably use a little less sugar next time, 1.5 kilos of sugar makes it really sweet!