My creative space....

The thought of taking a child to the store to purchase a birthday present for their sibling fills me with dread. Spunky Monkey's birthday is on Monday, so I took the same approach as I did for Miss Moo Moo's birthday last year, and asked Miss Moo Moo to a draw a picture for her brother. I am embroidering it to hang on his wall.

I will finish it off tonight. I am party planning today, for some reason his birthday celebrations are stretching over 4 days!

If you want to see some more creative spaces, go over to kootoyoo and be inspired.

AND.....

Perhaps you would like to make a doll or softie for the Queensland Flood Appeal Dolly Drive. There is still plenty of time. The close date is the 18th of March. We would love you to join us. Please read more on my original post.

If you need more time, the close date is flexible, please let me know. I now intend to send some dolls to North Queensland if I get enough. Please read more about this here. Go here, here and here to see some of the dolls/softies that I have already received.

And if that is not inspiration enough. This week I have been contacted by a sewing group in Spain and a seven year old in New Zealand, all are going to be making dolls for the families in Queensland who have lost everything.

Thank you so much to those special people.

Happy little accidents

(Princess cake at Ikea - this image is from here.)

It was my cousin's birthday on Wednesday, as she lives 2 and a half hours away, we had planned to meet at Ikea, which is kind of half way. We would have lunch, a bit of a shop and generally have a nice day together.

But things don't always go according to plan, do they?

Day One

I rang her at 8.00am to wish her Happy Birthday and tell her that we were leaving. She said she had to take her two older kids to the Gold Coast and that she would meet us at Ikea at 10:30am. That was fine by me, as I had wanted to stop at a few other places on the way, anyway.

However, we got stuck in very bad traffic and it ended up taking us two and a half hours instead of one and a half hours, to get to Ikea. I pulled off of the highway just before the Ikea exit. I wanted to stop in at an old haunt, to stock up on my favourite Swedish berry jam. From here I rang my cousin and said I will be at Ikea in 5 minutes. She then told me, that she hadn't even got to the Gold Coast yet and had decided to turn back instead - she too, had been stuck in traffic. OK, not the best start to the day, but we would get there eventually.... or so I thought.

I drove 100 metres down the road, the clutch on the car started to stick, the gears wouldn't change, a high pitch screeching noise filled the car and then there was, smoke!

RACQ came, my cousin came, a tow truck came, at the mechanics a man almost reversed into my recently towed, parked car. Once the car was safely inside the mechanics workshop, me, my cousin, her two older children (who were supposed to be at summer camp), my kids and her baby girl headed off to Ikea. It was almost 1 pm.

It was lovely, we ate lunch, followed by princess cake and daim cake and a well earned coffee. I put my kids into the play area and off we went for a shop. Then the mechanic rang. It wasn't good. The cost was going to be astronomical and we wouldn't be going home tonight.

Time to ring Mr Moo.

With our Ikea shopping done, we all piled back into Karen's car and headed to her farm. While driving we watched as the sky turn black and the winds pick up, minutes after arriving home, a storm hit and the power went out. It did not come on again until the next morning.

We were able to hook up a hose to one of the tanks (no pump) and get some water. Out came the barbecue from the back shed to boil water for the childrens baths. We stuck the hose through the bathroom window to fill the bath and then I brought in the water. I think I lugged about eight pots of boiling water though the house. There were seven children to wash and 3 adults. The same boiling water heated the baby's milk and cooked soft boiled eggs for the kids dinner. It was a crazy, fun night. At 8:30pm, the big kids, the little kids and one sick husband were all in bed. My cousin and I sat down and ate a chicken and salad sandwich by candle light. We also tried her latest batch of homemade feta and enjoyed a glass of wine. I don't think I can ever remember a glass of wine tasting so good.

(Daim cake from Ikea - this image is also from here)

Day Two

We woke to a paddock blanketed in fog. This lead to a hot day and another furious storm. We kept our power this time, but my ears are still ringing from the biggest bang of thunder I have ever heard. We just hung out waiting for the call that my car would be ready. I got the call after 4pm.

We collected the car a 5:30pm. More storms were brewing, I knew that it would be at least two hours before we would be home. Down the road from the mechanic was a KFC. The kids had their first and last KFC. I hadn't eaten this for at least 15 years and I now remember why, but it was just there and we were racing against the clock. The drive home was harrowing. I rarely drive at night, so driving through pouring rain and peak hour inner city traffic at night was not my idea of fun. I was nervous that we would be faced with more storms, thankfully, it was just rain and a lot of lightening.

I pulled into our driveway at 8 o'clock, relieved to be home. In our absence, Mr Moo had put twinkle lights in the trees in our front yard. It was a nice greeting. The kids were both fast asleep and were transferred straight into bed. They were hot, sweaty and still wearing the same clothes they had left the house in yesterday morning. As for me, I had a long hot shower, flopped into our soft couch and with a tub of Maggie Beers ice-cream and a period drama on the TV.

I was happy to have spent some lovely time with my cousin, but also happy to be home.

Sorry for the epic length of this post and sorry that I have no photo's. I did take one (very bad) photo of our kids happily playing together, then my camera battery went flat.

Of course it did!

Mad Men Mania

Tonight we are going to a friends 40th birthday party. It is a Mad Men Cocktail Party.

I've always dreamed of hosting a 50's/60's cocktail party for New Years Eve. Tuxedos and glimmering evening dresses, someone like Cary Grant pouring the martini's.

That won' t be happening this New Years Eve, so I am pretty excited to be going tonight.





We only got the go ahead from the baby sitter yesterday, so I had done nothing about an outfit, I didn't think we could make the party. In the back of my mind, however, was my vintage red dress, bought before I had children. I knew that if we did get a sitter, it would be perfect. And it would have been, if I hadn't had two (beautiful) children. My body has changed completely, I knew that. I have gone up a shoe size, and given away many of my favourite tops that were either too tight or too short. So why was I so surprised when I could not do up the zip on the dress!

Ahem.... I'm talking about a five inch gap!

Panic. It's 1:00pm, the day of the party. The closest vintage clothing store is nearly 2 hours away!

A deep breath, a little velvet top, and the problem is solved. Skirt and top.



At least I am all set with my favourite vintage, black satin evening bag and a bit of vintage bling.

"Come on Dear, lets go have some cocktails!"

Brotherly love

I completely forgot to take a photo of this pillow to show you. It was Spunky Monkey's present to Miss Moo Moo for her birthday.

I asked him to draw a picture for her, things that she would like. I then embroidered it with a soft pink thread and made it into a small pillow for her bed.

She loves it, Spunky Monkey approved of it and I think I might be addicted to embroidering, in the most simplest form, of course.

Temperature's, sprains, snuffles and nausea

(this image is from one of my own childhood favourite's, 'Debbie's Dream', now one of Miss Moo Moo's favourite books as well)

Miss Moo Moo's fourth birthday came and went without much fun fare, I'm afraid. I'm sure we will make up for it this Saturday with her official birthday party.

Spunky Monkey was home sick from school. We had to cancel our afternoon tea plans. So the day was spent with a bit of dvd watching and a lot of playing with new toys when Spunky Monkey was asleep. The doll was a big hit. And so were a couple of ebay barbies and their clothes.

The weekend too, took a very slow pace. The reason for this: I spent until 2am on Friday night (Saturday morning) at the hospital emergency ward with Mr Moo who had sprained his ankle late Friday afternoon. Nothing is broken and we have piece of mind, but oh, the wait! And wouldn't you know it, my beautiful children, then woke during the night. Miss Moo Moo, twice and Spunky Monkey, once.

Then...... At 4:30am I woke to my son in the playroom, wrapped in blanket with a UFO book in his hands. Bright eyed and bushy tailed, he wanted to talk about outer space! It didn't matter that it was still pitch dark, "Have you seen these aliens, Mum?" He couldn't understand that he had had 10 hours sleep and I had had one hour sleep. "Mum do you want to see the page with the shooting star?" It was time to get up!

Miss Moo Moo woke up with the snuffles and the sneezes.

So, the weekend went about slowly, lazing in local parks, eating fish and chips and stealing small moments of rest when possible. Quiet play and a bit of pottering. Really nice actually, I would have really enjoyed if I hadn't felt so very exhausted.

Today, I woke feeling nauseous, so I stayed very close to home, being very unproductive. I hope to be back to normal tomorrow, and ready to tackle the week. It is the last week before the school holidays begin and just four days to organise Miss Moo Moo's party, that I haven't even thought about!

Our country weekend

With Poppy, there is always a big long walk. Bush walks, lookouts, red mud.



Old fashioned playgrounds.





With old fashioned gardens.



And way too much yummy food. Chicken adobo, pancit noodles, chicken stir-fry, ming soup, spring rolls with sweet chilli sauce, fried rice, chicken, steak, steamed vegetables. Corn chips and nuts before dinner. Mud cake and strawberries and ice-cream after dinner. Bacon and egg sandwiches for breakfast. Pink champagne to celebrate Tiya Ning's birthday.

This picture is just some of the food for lunch on Sunday. Friends for lunch. A lovely day sitting in the sun in the backyard.

Ladies who lunch

I forgot that I took this photo of my beautiful daughter. This was my birthday lunch on Friday. We always have so much fun on 'Girly Day'. We do love to eat out!



Pesto chicken and pasta salad, pumpkin, beetroot and feta salad and the Nosh house salad. Delicious! Crumbed chicken tenderloins for Miss Moo Moo.

Five days until five!

Here he is, Spunky Monkey, just 2 days old in the arms of his Grandpa. It seems just like yesterday, or does it?

In the last 5 years we have moved house 3 times. We have bought and sold 3 properties. We renovated 1 house (while 8 months pregnant). Mr Moo has changed jobs twice. Not to mention a few other major personal upheavals.....And all the while, this little one has been growing, growing, growing and will turn 5 years old on Sunday!

More like, where has this time gone? I feel as I have missed so much of it.

It's all to quick. STOP NOW and smell the roses.