I Dreamed A Dream

(Photo Care of This person)

I think so often we judge people by what they look like. We put them in a box. We think that because they are this age or dressed in a particular way they are like this. Below is a link that is amazing. You have to watch it. It makes me cry every time I see it. More importantly it reminds me that people are full of surprises when given the chance. I dream a dream that one day I will not judge, that I will see people as amazing individuals who have many things to contribute to society and that that will make my life richer and I in some small way will make their life richer because I didn't judge...that's my dream. Now listen to this lady's dream.

Hipidipip-hoera!

It's Always Better When...

There are flowers around.  See the to-do list in the photo?  It's long, but that's ok when there's bulging flowers to gaze upon every time I go back to check what's next on the agenda.  Spring, glorious Spring (and the joys of cheap, fresh flower-the ones in the pic cost less than 4 dollars!).

My Day of Days

Or more appropriately, my weekend of weekends!  Firstly, thankyou for all the texts, calls, facebook message, and blog posts, they all helped to make my day FANTASTIC.

We were away with Ben, Rebecca and Nafta in Ede (said Aida) staying at Ben's parents place while they were away.  Although my birthday was officially Sunday, the goodness started on Saturday with surprise drinks and AMAZING apple cake in this foresty area.

 Rebecca had arranged for her parents to set up a little table with a morning break.  I was clueless so it was the nicest surprise when we stopped to 'fix Rebecca's bike' and then she suggested drinks and cake.  Wow, it was great.

The rest of Saturday was spent exploring Ede and chilling out.  It was so nice to be out of the city for a break where there were more trees than people.  Mmm.

Then Sunday morning Andrew woke me up (that may just be the biggest surprise of all!) and then my adventures began.  As some of you know, Andrew prepared a treasure hunt for me to find my presents.  Texts and calls came in from friends and family giving me clues that sent me all over the house and garden to find my goodies.  It was really fun, and really suspenseful when I had to wait for the next clue!  I scored with a stash of Queen's Day goodies to wear and eat (all orange of course), a nice big spring-form cake tin for baking up storms, one French and one Italian bottle of great olive oil (mmm), Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food (so inspiring) and a very cool card with some birthday money.  And then came brunch, with party hats and streamers and good food.  I am the luckiest girl ever.

We chilled out in the house while Nafta slept and in the afternoon went for a big walk around another forest area.  Then pannekoeken, a very Dutch way to end my birthday.  Andrew and I went halvers in one apple and one ginger and cheese pancake.  And then back to Amsterdam for a bit more present opening (Kt Mac, I LOVE the skirt, although I'm wearing it as a top today!  I was expecting the elephant but everything was so much better than that, thankyou) and a bit of Queen's Day preparation (bezeting, reserving, the street area where our stall will be and finding a table on the street to use).

It was a full and lovely weekend, spent with beautiful people celebrating my birthday.  Twenty-seven.  Woh.

First Time Today

I think this is the first time that I have sat down for an extended period today.  I've been out buying hotdogs and camembert and juice and tomatoes.  Lots of tomatoes.  Starting today we have a crazy hectic week.  Today = buy enough groceries to last til Monday (there's lots of visitors coming and public holidays when the shops will be shut) on my bike, this means quite a few trips, drinks with Andrew's friends (I've never been so thankful for a delayed flight, they'll be late so we can't do this now, a shame but nice to have some time to actually eat tea), get the house spic and span, make last minute aprons and badge things for Queen's Day, meeting at Sonja's about the 48 hour film project.  Tuesday = more grocery shopping (including orange tulips for QD!), meet up with the wife of Andrew's friend and show her around, hang with Rebecca in the afternoon and finalise all QD stuff, dinner at ours with Joshua, small group.  Wednesday = more touristy stuff of Amsterdam, finish off all QD stuff and have it ready to go out the door, ring Trinny!, make sure we have enough bedding for guests, dinner at ours with Andrew's friend, wife and another colleague, maybe another friend of Andrew's from Eindhoven, see them off to the train station and then wait for Sarah and Dave to arrive and then go wandering around Amsterdam to celebrate Queen's Night (bands, parties, craziness).  Thursday: get up EARLY to get our stall spot, set it up, sell, sell, sell, collapse into bed at some point after all the craziness.  And then it's onto Friday when the 48 hour film project starts, so our house will see people coming and going at all stages, and I'm catering.  I'm looking forward to uni starting again so I can have a break!  But it's going to be good, it's going to be real good.

Birthday Treats

Great poses

Great food and family

Ditto

Great fun with chop sticks

Great Thai

Fun Photo's

Favourite Photo

Fun playing

Fantastic Visit (even though it was closed for Anzac Day)

Fun falling down Photo as directed by photographer Connor

I love that the kids can take a great photo - look at that water!

Great family

Ditto

Ditto

My most precious presents
I had an early birthday celebration on Saturday because I will be all alone on Wednesday - boohoo me! Our day out was great. Wish you could have all been here.

What we do After Dinner on Cold Winter Nights

First Day of term 2

Please don't laugh at poor Connor. His pants are hilarious - he needs fat to keep them up and he has none, but he needs the length. How funny!

I have a fetish

My fetish at the moment is old lady clothes. Look what I got today. I would like to think a little old lady made it and just grew out of it. The other option is unthinkable and I am not sure I could wear it! Cute Ha!

My Turn

As is typically the case I am last to jump on the band wagon with the naked happy birthday pictures!
However I did it!
I am blushing as I put these on and still am totally appalled at my saggy, baggy elephant skin body! However, it was done with the purpose of making one little sister smile on her birthday....either that or rush to the bathroom to throw up.
Happy Birthday Miss Calico Strawberry Jam.
We hope that your day was full of wonder and blessings and joy.
We hope you have a great year as God makes you older and wiser and more and more beautiful.
From all of us here HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUNTI, SISTER and FRIEND
Trin, Pobj, Connor, Kenzi

Just Another Bit of the Costume

I just whipped this up.  I've been dying for an excuse to wear this little birdie in my hair.  I was going to make a fascinator to wear to Cousin Rachey's wedding with the bird on it but Andrew kinda raised his eyebrows when I was experimenting which means that it wasn't going well.  Now Queen's Day has given me the perfect excuse to wear an orange nest of flowers in my hair with the little bird perched on top.  I think I might even wear this doing the housework today, it makes me feel so Springy and free.

Early

Two earlies.  Firstly, my boy gave me an early birthday present.  Secondly, I used it last night in preparation for Queen's Day.  Orange nail polish.  Yup, I'm going all out this year.  I even bought an orange quilt cover yesterday to transform into some sort of orangey-garment.  Oooh-er.

Better Late than Never

I've had my WONDERFUL crafty desk for a little while now, it's been the best thing EVER cause I can leave all my junk strewn all over it and not have to worry about finding a place to eat dinner when Andrew gets home.  

It's looking like a disaster area at the moment cause I had a creative frenzy yesterday that ended up with the contents of every box/basket/jar/tin exploding all over the place.  Anyways, I took some pictures when I first got it.  Things have been moved around a bit, and they'll probably get moved around all over again today when I try to tidy it and get things in spots that work for me, but here it is in all it's unfinished-first-set-up glory.

Art

We have been attempting to do an art project every day. Here are some of the results. We have learnt that paper mache masks do not fare well when left out over night and it rains! We have also learnt that some days our art is playing - we have perfected that! Otherwise we have been having fun doing different things in different mediums and extending ourselves.