Reinvention

So I am not going to say anything about how long it is since I last did a post, nor am I going to mention how far into this year, we are already.

Things happen, things change.

Here are a few photos from the past year:

We ended up visiting Iain's home town Ohope, in NZ, 4 times in the last 12 months.  First time was with the boys as Iain's mum was in hospital.  

About 6 weeks later Iain and I went back this time for his mother's funeral.

                                                         In February we went back again, Iain went a bit earlier than me to sort through some things  and of course found some 'old treasures'!

 The main reason was to attend our niece's wedding - the weather was perfect for the garden wedding and it was a lovely day and also a lovely reason to be in NZ

 In April we went back AGAIN, for 2 weeks.  This time we took my brother Stephen and his family and we did the 'tourist' things that we never get time to do.

And Nicholas - went bungy jumping!!  He's 12!         

How not to dress on a cold day

The kilt and all the regalia, has arrived.  Now we  just have to wait for Lord Lyon to do something to Iain, before he officially becomes the Chieftain of the McQueen clan!  It sounds  as if it will be a drawn out process, as there has to be some family history investigating, especially as there is now a contender for the title who lives in Scotland.

Possibly some DNA testing involved too, I must let someone know that I am happy to fly to Scotland with a hair from Iain's head, so that it can be tested!!

Market Baking

The new season for the Stansbury Seaside Market has begun, with the first market last Saturday. After having a couple of years break, we decided it was time to earn some pocket money again. Marion is still on holidays so I tackled this one myself....boy was it hard work! The next one will be much better now I am in the swing of it again. Here are the biscuits ready to be packed up - Empire biscuits, Rock Buns, Puffed Wheat biscuits, Gingernuts, Custard Creams, Monte Carlo's, Peppermint Creams and Afghans.

This was my pie baking day - Chunky Chicken ( using 4kg chicken and 3 kg vegetables) and Chilli Con Carne. To finish off that day, I made 4 trays of Vanilla Slice - it was good for the arm muscles stirring 4 litres of thick custard!

I ran out of time to take other photos but I also made mixed trays of slices, boxes of mixed macarons, and Roast Almond Tarts.

The boys helped me on the stall and they sold some of their old movies plus polka dot biscuits, caramel slice, rocky road, flavoured fairy floss and bottled water. What a team!

Emerging from hibernation

It really can't be nearly 2 months since I did my last post, I'm sure there is a blog post thief out there somewhere.
I haven't been sitting around doing nothing all that time though, I've been making costumes for the school concert next week and - I have been trying out some new recipes for the upcoming market season like the toffee apples.

And mini lemon meringue tartsMarion celebrated her birthday a couple of days before she left on an overseas trip - she of course, made her own birthday cake - as you do!

I know you want to see a better photo of her cake................... It was huge - about 8 layers with a tempered chocolate flower on top.

Marion is currently in Venice - poor her!

My eldest cherub turned 12 a few weeks ago and instead of a traditional birthday cake, he asked for a macaron tower! At the time I couldn't think of anything to fill in the gaps with - if he had been a girl, I would have used flowers but since have thought that I could have used strawberries or marshmallows.

His friends didn't seem to notice the gaps and were quite impressed.

Love was in the air..........

Amongst a few showers of rain and chilly winds,on Saturday, our nephew James married Steph.

Here they are photographed with James' grandparents (my parents) ~ Pappy and "O Wise One"!And here I am with my 3 gorgeous men.

The boys begged to wear suits and we found these ones on ebay for $42 each -

complete with waistcoat, shirt, bowtie, jacket and trousers.

Pity we couldn't find the same deal for Iain!

Trying to get back into the swing of things....

After a wonderful month's holiday, it's hard to get back into routine again but we're getting there.
I enjoyed making a super quick card for a birthday yesterday - the brooch is supposed to be taken off to be worn - hope the recipient realises that.

Cherub 2 has a new regime for his spelling homework - including this one.

He hit the nail on the head last week by saying that if he never learnt the words, at least he would learn how to make ransom notes. It's so good to see what they are teaching our children at school!!....and it's a very interesting group of words for last week. One of the words for this week (the only one I can remember off hand) is genocide - what the?

Last post before we go go......

I think this will be my last chance to post before we leave on our o/seas holiday.

On Friday we leave Adelaide to fly to Los Angeles (via Auckland) and spend time at Disneyland and Universal Studios....then on to Ohio to stay with my brother and his wife. From there it is London, Paris, Cairo, Dubai and Singapore before we return home early May.

We have set up a holiday blog to keep in contact with family and friends so the 'cherubs' have to occasionally update it as well with photos and videos. Those posts might be 'interesting'!!

I am having fun trying to work out the clothing situation with temps ranging from 7C - 37C in the places we are going....layering, layering seems to be the order of the day.

If you want to follow our holiday, you can find our blog here: "Are we there yet?"

Non Fattening Easter Goodies....or googies

The latest Homespun magazine is available now and has our project for Needlefelted eggs in it. And an article about Marion and me - our photo looks like we have had a spray tan!

The eggs are a larger version of these ones, that some of you might have seen previously.My achievement this week has been to tidy husband's office.

Everytime I tidy, I threaten that it will be the last time 9 bags of rubbish were removed and the big reveal was

that there was actually a desk under the piles!!

Now how do you do this blogging thing???

It's been so long since I did a post, I have almost forgotten! It is so easy to get out of the routine and then struggle to get back into it again.

I've been working on pages for my journal...a lot of ladies that have done the class have gone on to make multiple journals and I'm still plodding along doing my pages, whenever I get a few spare minutes. I am really enjoying using some of the scraps that I have had around for awhile. This is one of my favourite pages - it includes an illustration from an Alice in Wonderland book and a cloth tag from Rivers. I've discovered that Rivers have great tags - metal, plastic, cloth = all wonderful for this kind of thing.....a good reason to go shopping?!

During my blog sabbatical, I have become a year older - see, that's why you should regularly blog!!! I received this lovely parcel from Melissa - it was so nice to receive some handmade goodies and especially ones that look this good. I've worn my owlie brooch several times.

What Style!

For some strange reason, I have never thought of vacuuming the house like this! I was assured it was a great method. He continued right through the house so I was hardly going to discourage him.

Husband and I had the opportunity to see "It's Complicated" on Wednesday

evening - a very enjoyable and funny movie.

Let's not talk about it.....

...the weather that is......as the temp is currently 41C outside and the hot north wind is picking up...I would rather think about something nice!

With the beginning of the new school year, just around the corner, it was time to get the boys some new stationery - and that means that Mum can get some too!

Some wooden rulers (much better than plastic), a set of watercolour paints, some of those pens that we had years and years ago, with all the different ink colours - and the best is this set of Staedtler fineliner pens.

Not only are the pens great for writing and drawing etc but the case they are in has been created like a "Jacob's ladder" - where you keep folding the lid back onto itself - so much fun.

If I can only stop playing with the case, I might get some work done..............

A Red and White Christmas

Our pergola has been decorated in red and white. Ikea had some great decorations this year and Marion had given me the large snowflakes last Christmas. The photos don't do it justice, but it looks lovely.Husband even got my 99c chandelier working!! Love these serviettes....I'm glad that my red embroidered trees, didn't sell earlier in the year

- they have now added to the colour theme.And this is my new, favourtist decoration - cut from paper. (I've blurred the photo a bit) I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas - stay safe and happy.

I'll catch up with you all again, after Christmas sometime.

Just lazing around....

I think this position of Spike's would actually be quite comfortable! And whilst he had been happily lazing around, this week has been very busy for the rest of us. Three trips to Adelaide for various reasons has made the week fly by and here we are now with one week of school left.
No time has been spent crafting.

Marion and I have a pattern in the Easter edition of Homespun, and they had requested a profile photo of us - this was the best we could manage last Sunday!!

Treasures?

It is now over a week since South Australia had a day that was declared a Code Red (Catastrophic) Fire Danger Rating. We had a fire start near one of our neighbouring towns and although it came within 12km of our town, we still had our bags packed and ready to flee if needed. The boys were able to take a box of their favourite things and it was pretty interesting to see what they considered to be 'treasures'.

N had just received this costume the day before, so it was on top of his 'treasure box'!

Husband was away that day, but he phoned me constantly, reminding me to back up our computer files etc and to make sure that I had this, and that, and this, and that.........

It was unbelievably hot that night and we experienced a terrible thunderstorm with lightning starting many smaller fires right around us. We stood out on our balcony watching the lightning and hoping that no fires would start nearby as most of our fire brigade were away fighting other fires.

It makes you realise that you need to have a plan in place, if you ever need to flee.

The lightning took out the tower of our internet provider so we have been without the internet for most of the week, so if you happened to email me and I haven't responded, then that is why!

Sydney

We recently enjoyed a few days in Sydney. I had won $10 flight to either Sydney or Melbourne and what could have been a cheap trip for one, turned into a not so cheap holiday for the family - but it was a good time. (Haven't we colour co-ordinated ourselves well with the background in the photo above??? Of course it was all planned...lol)

We did a lot of walking and ended up with sore legs. Most of the time the boys were happy but I think they were ready to sit down at this point! This photo was taken at Taronga Park Zoo and you can see the Sydney Harbour Bridge in the top right of the photo and a giraffe coming out of the top of B's head.

Of course we went to see "Wicked" as I mentioned in a previous post and the boys gave it a thumbs up with the comment it was "awesomely wicked - but not as good as Phantom of the Opera". And yes I have sold the other lot of tickets.....

This chair in the corner of our hotel suite was sooo comfortable, I wish I could have brought it home with me.

(Sue at Divajools is having a giveaway for some lovely earrings she has created - pop over and leave her a comment so that you have a chance to win them)

Paris

We have been planning our "holiday of a lifetime" for next year, and have just made the final flight confirmations.... Next year is a big one for us, with special events and we thought before cherub 1 gets another year older and we have to pay adult fare for him, we would 'bite the bullet' and 'head for the hills'.

Paris is part of our itinery and we are planning on spending 6 days there. I have been searching for the 'perfect' place to stay. We have already decided that we need to stay somewhere in the centre of Paris - and of course I have this vision that we need somewhere with a balcony & probably a cable TV (so that husband and I can sit outside with the cherubs being happy inside watching TV). I have found so many places that fit my requirements but why are they all over $2000 per week?

I've decided that here in Australia, we are very spoilt with the size of our residences and can't get over that a lot of the apartments that we have been looking at are 30 square feet or less! I'm sure the hotel room that we stayed in recently, in Sydney, was bigger than that!

Anyone want to join us in Paris and share our accommodation????? lol

Wicked? No - not really.........

It has been interesting to read on other blogs that some of you experienced a bad day last week too - was it something that was spread over the internet?? I couldn't talk about my 'stuff up' for a couple of days....but now I can laugh about it!

It all began when husband woke up thinking that he had wet the bed - instead we had a major leak in our water bed. All was sorted out temporarily & we were back asleep when one of our cats (Sam) started making a terrible sound. Our neighbours cat had come through the catdoor and was an intruder in our house. He delighted in weeing down our hallway, what a delightful aroma, that is. Sam was our defender and the catfight took place in our laundry. Water & feed bowls tipped over, cat fur everywhere and wee - yuck.

The next day was the day for cleaning the above, ordering a new mattress, finalising our holiday for next year and an unexpected call from our accountant needing some figures 'straight away'! Surprise, surprise I had thought that this day would be my play day, but it wasn't to be.

We are off to Sydney soon for a mini family holiday soon, and I thought I would surprise the family with tickets to "Wicked" - all was good - except I bought the tickets for the wrong day - we won't even be in Sydney then.

I don't think I should have been on the internet that day....so if anyone would like 2 adult & 2 concession tickets to see Wicked in Sydney on Thursday 12th November, please contact me....I will happily sell them to you at a considerably cheaper price! Or if you know anyone who might be interested.................. please????

A red, black and white theme here - the hat is ready to be posted to my giveaway winner - hope you like it Shirley? And the necklace was one that wanted to be made to go with a new jacket that I have!

I hope you are all having a better week, this week!