14 days...

Well, I was going to try and post every Sunday as of my last post, mainly as I want to start recording the mundane, the boring and the good bits again. Looking back through my blog, I think that it is important to record it.... 

So, in the last fortnight we... 

 Still just keep loving htis rocky local beach. A few minutes drive from our home, but just lush...

 Painted wooden bits from Cheap as Chips... 

We love paint in this house...

 I keep working on this Granny Square blanket. I was inspired to use these colours because of one I saw that Mrs Woog picked up an Op Shop a while ago. I took a screen shot of it and keep checking back on colour scheme.... I'm half way through the last 6 blocks...

 A sick chook on the mattress in the lounge... 

Only to bounce back a few hours later... 

Packed up these babies and sent them off to Tassie for Woolies for Tassie... 

Started a new painting because the one I was working on in Art Class sucked big time. 

I got embarassed in class about the painting that sucked and cried.. Hot tears of embarrassment. Those who know me well enough know that is how I roll. I hate it but it is me.

And because I was painting, a little Miss thought she would too!! 

 A new purchase of a handy book. Well, heres hoping it comes in handy.

 Finding a photo of your big girl with your sleeping little girl. And to think she was worried about other kids waking Lexi up... (we were at a friends place, quite late!)

 A visit to another beautiful local beach, 25 mins from home... A popular spot!

 Soooo lucky. I don't take the sea for granted any more... 

 Another sick girl on the mattress in our room. Sore ear. They like to camp out in our room when they feel not so flash. 

 Donna Hay brownies whipped up in the thermie... A deluxe delish devilish sugary chewy treat. Mmm!!

 A quick little rainbow blanket for Lexi's coote little baby. (That's what she calls this particular little bub that she has)

 More tomatoes.. Man o man.. Remind me to never grow the tiny little cherry tomatoes. Ever. Again. So small and the plant produced hundreds. Quite sick of them at the end.. Especially when I can't persuade anyone else to help me pick them. And it's really not over yet. 

 Daddy and Lexi after Kindy. This little chicken adores her Dad, and is missing him in a big big way when he's not here. 

 Browsing yummy crochet on Instagram. Just yummy I tell you!! 

 A new cookbook for use with the Thermomix. I also won one on Friday night at a Thermo cooking class/demo. Happy lady!! 

 My Dad's birthday. Proud Pop with his littlest Grandkids... 

 Out for lunch for Dad's birthday. These two under the table is way better than them running around the restaurant!! 

 Blowing out the candles at morning smoko!! 

Then Lexi had a friend over for a play.. They trashed the place.. the floor around and behind them was covered in toys.. But they are cute, so they get away with it!! 

 A cute little face... 

 A feather for Eden.... 

I think of her with every feather we find.

 It feels wrong to be talking about alcohol after mentioning Eden, but I'm going to have a go at brewing some of my own ciders in preservative free juice.

 Sending some friends a map of how to find Elder Park in Adelaide, after seeing on the nightly news that Neil Finn and Paul Kelly were having a free concert there. I text my friends who were there, who knew nothing about it, and they had a great time!! 

 Chocolate chip Anzacs. I'm not into all the clean eating with a no sugar diet for my kids, BUT I'm going to stop buying crap with all the sugar, and the ADDITIVES, and have made an effort in the last couple of weeks to make my own home made sugar filled, preservative free food. At least I know I've made it myself. As for me, I have a little sugar here and there, but am no longer craving chocolate the same as I used to. (and it doesn't taste the same when I do eat it, the same for ice-cream) (Bummer, because I used to luuuuurve ice-cream) 

 I made Apricot Chicken Risotto in the Thermie to test on my guinea pigs (Mum & Dad) and they loved it, a new favourite. I asked them for tea on Thursday night, Brenton flew out at 2, so thought it might be a nice distraction for them to come up... It was very nice, so fresh in flavour which I think is what I really love about the thermomix. It's all fresh as a daisy baby!! 

 A scrap session with Kathryn produced 3 layouts. Which I was going to sub, but have decided against.  So here they are. I do like them! 

Thermomix cooking demo/class on Friday inspired me to make Chocolate Hot Cross Bums Buns early on Sat morning.. Yum, they were devoured within minutes of being at my Nanna's when I took them for morning smoko... 

 I took the girls to Wendy's this morning for icecream. (I didn't have any) And it was lovely for them to enjoy and icecream on the front street with the sea breeze around us... 

 My tropical corner. Just because. Why not I say? 

The elephant ears I am proud of. I pluck them out of our back garden when they are teensy weensy and pop them in pots and away they go. I don't really want to let them take over the patch where they keep popping up so will salvage them, grow them and even gave two teeny tiny baby ones to friends last night so lets see if they can get them to this size. 

And today, back to the rocky lush beach for a swim and a Sunday afty chill... 

Check out this mermaid... She's lovely! 

My strange addiction as I like to call it.

Smooth glass I pick up from the beach, along with a bit of coral type stuff. I do love some sea glass. Smooth and eclectic, and all pieces would have a story to tell if they could.

Another little mermaid. (copy cat) 

There is a quick wrap up for any one who happens to read this. 

Do you have a strange addiction? 

I dare you to tell me. 

x

This week....

What an up and down week... 

On Monday I found out that a couple from Roxby that we know had a stillborn baby. 

Absolutely heartbreaking. I don't know what happened but really think in this day and age, should things like this happen? Unfortunately they do and it just isn't fair. N&K have been in my thoughts all week. How could you go on? But they just have to. The world keeps spinning while theirs would be in a state of utter emotion. Not fair. 

My week in pics.

 Sunday I made passata in the thermie. 

I have had that many tomatoes, I've been making relish, passata, and other tomato preserves. I'm ready for them to be finished but have heaps more!! Next year, only two plants instead of 4!! 

 Saturday and Sunday we went to the Lions' Hostel for a family reunion where I found this gem in one of my Nanna's scrapbooks... Far out!! I laughed at the stew being up to normal standards...

 This little girl loves Kindy!! It's great!! 

 Wednesday I cut down one of my giant sunflowers to take it to school for Mia's teacher and when we got to school we discovered a catapillar on one of the leaves. The kids all really enjoyed the sunflower, it was quite trashed by the end of the day because I think there were many hands all over it during the day. 

 Milkshake and donut for this little girl. Oh and a babycino too!! She had the lot!! 

 Lexi also painted with those little paints hard paints.. 

This ones mine!! I love it!

 I started art class on Thursday with Jill P. I was feeling a little down before I started but who knew that art could boost you up? Well, I did know that being creative helps out in that sense but felt much better afterward. I don't love my start but will paint over a bit of this next week and get on my merry way!! 

 Flowers from hubby on Valentines Day. Such a lovely surprise and I'm missing him quite a bit and so are the girls, these came along on the right day!! 

 A kindy excursion to the front beach on Friday. The kindy has been reading Grandpa and Thomas, so they made sandcastles at the beach and went for a walk up the beach to look for treasures.. A lovely morning...

 My nephew came over for a play yesterday while his parents went to the Theatre to watch Jack Reacher. These two had a great time, and loved clopping around in Lexi's 'glass slippers' as she calls them. And a play under a barely running sprinkler kept them amused for some time too!! 

 I made this yummy salad for tea Friday night. Mango and chicken, corainder and chilli, cucumber, red onion, salad leaves. It was a winning combo. Oh and lemon juice all over too. Mmmm....

A new quilt cover always makes me feel good, and I really love this one!! 

And today? I'm thinking a beach visit later just to one of the local beaches around 4 when the tide is a bit higher. Finish off my last granny square for Woolies For Tassie then stitch in the ends, then am going to maybe try and learn granny stripe... Mel Goodsell gave me a link last night on Instagram, and the blanket looks divine. I love Instagram, lucky for me, Mel responded to my question in record time, which led to me laying in bed looking at Attic24 for quite some time when I should have been going to sleep!! Time to try to learn how to read patterns I think. Eeep. I know I can do it... 

I'm so looking forward to E2C soon too.. Getting slowly organised for it. Knowing me, I'll end up packing in the last day or so, but trying to get organised already.... 

Thinking of N&K and also another friend who is going through a hard time, why life throws such things at us, I'll never know...   

Happy Shiny Sunday... 

What's your week been about??

x

Hells Bells, it's 2013

Happy New Year!

I haven't been blogging much lately and to be honest, not sure it's high on my list of priorities anymore.

I've had a bit of an up and down year. Really struggling to deal with the FIFO lifestyle, am organised and calm and then things seem to fly out the window when Brenton is home, and of course I want him here ALWAYS, but I am still trying to learn to work my life into the FIFO ways of things. I do have to let go more. But I am a person who likes things done in certain ways around the home and get enormously pissed off when I have to re-explain things every 3 weeks.... Anyway, that's my problem, and it's not going to change, so I guess I have to be the one to learn and change...

2012 did see me learn to crochet granny squares which was/is hugely rewarding for me!! 

I even made a baby blanket for a very special baby!! 

We bought an old Millard Pop top Caravan (Gertie) which we loved but ultimately was too small and too old for us. So we bought a fantastic Coromal off road pop top about a month or more ago and have really fallen in love with it. I call her Maggie. The beds only pull out to doubles, so I sleep in a bed with Mia and Brenton sleeps in a bed with Lexi so we all have lots of room... It is a fantastic addition to our family. We sold Gertie and she was gone within 24 hours of advertising her for sale so that was good too..

We had a huge amount of renos done to the outside of our house and it looks fantastic. We just need a few screens and a new side gate/fence to finish it off in a couple of months and I will feel happy. Then I can really get stuck into the front garden. We also had a lot of landscaping done in the backyard wasteland, and it is so much better now. I love the addition of 3 vegie patches, I truly love the feeling of getting all we need out of the backyard to accompany our dinner. It can be a fair bit of work and the garden has been sadly neglected over the last few weeks, but I will get out there soon to pull weeds, and a bit of maintainence. I've been enjoying making my zucchini pickle and just yesterday I made beetroot and onion relish which I must say was deluxe on my bbq meat last night. We've added a cubby house for the kids and Father Christmas bought the girls a tramp which they love. Not sure why he bought such a HUGE one which covers up most of our new grass area, but there you go... It might have been the cheapest on for him to buy in K-Mart... 

We had 3 weeks holiday in Darwin at the end of June and into July. I was honored to be Chief Bridesmaid or Matron of Honour or whatever I was called. I regretted being so far away from Amber as she prepared for her most special day. I did feel a bit 'out of it', but that's what happens when we live so far apart. But to be in Amber and Mark's wedding was the biggest honour, and I would do it all again, although I might have slipped in another quick weekend visit up there to see her before she got married!! Just to be greedy!!

I attended E2C in April last year, I just love this retreat! People who get to go, know what I mean. I always come home in a totally different frame of mind, at least for 24 hours!! LOL!! I also attended the mini in October, and can't wait for March, the women who organise this retreat Amanda and Meredith, are sanity savers!! With a huge amount of flair and organisational skills to boot!! 

We went to Adelaide and did touristy things with the kids in the last lot of school holidays, it was a great break. Ice-skating, Central Market, a night with one of my best friends in Mt Barker, A day shopping at Harbour Town, Zoo, Art Gallery and SA Museum. All good stuff. 

Lexi had another yearly checkup, she's going fantastically, and no need for further surgery, but we will be having 12 monthly checkups for who knows how long. As long as is needed.

We spent Easter in Pt Neill and have just come home from staying up there over New Years. All good stuff, getting away and it's only an hour up the coast. Great for the kids, to swim and just be a little feral. Mia learnt to Jetty Jump this last time we were there. A fantastic feat, she did it one step at a time. We are so lucky to have such fantastic places around here and wonderful friends to share it all with!! 

Mia turned 8 in August. I am so proud of the way she is growing up, she's a normal girl, popular with her peers, by the end of the year she was writing fantastically and was particularly great in a debate!! 

She's friendly and loving, and while she had a few issues this year with a girl, I hope next year is different in that respect. She did hip hop classes last year with Ashlee, as well as art with Jill, both of which she loved very much. She also did a term of Basketball skill, which she loved too!!

We will continue to let her choose the direction of after school activities. I think kids have the rest of their lives to be busy busy busy, I don't think it's neccesary to have them too busy to be able to entertain themselves... We love you MIA!! 

Lexi turned 4 last week. Our heart baby is growing up, she's a delight, if a little crazy, knows how to tell white lies already, and if she tells you she wants a vegemite sandwich, when you bring it to her, she'll say 'I wanted peanut butter' Little Miss Contradictory I call her. She has loved 2 morning sessions of childcare for the rest of the year once I stopped working, and is quite a social little girl, warms to everyone she meets... She is totally ready for Kindy which she calls Kindygym. I am sad that she's not little anymore, but to be honest, I love the independence that growing up gives them..

Me, I am now 37, but still feel like I am in my early 20's. I have kind of a bad attitude at times, and while I have a sympathetic ear to friends in need, I also tire of bullshit fairly quickly. I'm quick to fire up and slow to cool down. I am me. I am Ali. And that is that.

This year, I want to keep crocheting, sewing, and scapping, growing veggies and keeping my little family happy, while teaching them some skills so that they can look/do for themselves a little more. 

Happy New Year, here's to more Meatless Mondays, no added sugar, more Quinoa, not many carbs, and lots of protein. And lots of learning about new things!! 

Oh and being more organised!! 

This is a no photo post as it seems to be taking forever for me to find the photos I want to upload and to be honest, I just can't be bothered!!

Happy New Year. 

x