Char's Crafty Days

Happy New Year

2011-12-31T17:01:00.001+10:00

It's New Years eve 2011 and it's a time to reflect on the year that has almost ended and think about the coming year and contemplate what things we would like to change and what we would like to happen.

I have been doing quite a lot Of thinking these past few days and have decided on a few things that I need to do for me in 2012. Things that will hopefully make me a better person and learn to appreciate what we have.

We know that 2012 is definitely going to be a year of changes for us. Andre was told 3 days prior to Christmas that they would not be renewing his contract. So that means a move is definately on the horizon for us, to where - that is the question but I am sure that we will figure it out? One of my resolutions is to just be grateful that he has a job until May 29th.

I really need to stop worrying about it so much it's doing my head in !!!

Next I have decided that I really need to blog more. To come chat about my thoughts and feelings, and also share my craft projects. I have just discovered that I can blog from my iPod ( and this post is a trial post from posting from my iPod )it's a tad painful but it can be done and therefore makes blogging more accessible.

Next I need to overcome this feeling I constantly have that I never get a chance to relax or do my crafts and the only way to overcome this is literally to make time.

Here are a few things that I hope to achieve in 2012.

1. Finish Seaside Treasures ... Which is currently at around 50% completion.

2. Finish the baby blanket for my sisters baby girl whom is due within the next 6 weeks. So this is a bit of a priority and I will share a photo soon promise.

3. Finish the blanket I started at the beginning of last winter for Micayla.

4. Finish the blanket I started for our bed.

5. Find the mistake in Aurora Cabin and keep working on it.

6. Start whatever takes my fancy and makes me happy.

Lastly I have decided that I really need to do something about my weight. Hmmm I know you all have heard this before and this time I am determined to put the effort needed in. I have joined Michelle Bridges 12week body challenge. 12 weeks of intensive diet and exercise. I am looking forward to the mindset lessons so that I can learn to think about food correctly. After all I choose what to put in my mouth. If anyone is interested in finding out more about the program you can read about it at www.12wbt.com I will most probably start a separate blog so that I can record my journey and not bore you all the process but I will post the link here just in case you want to come cheer me on.

Anyway... That's for reading thus far and I hope that you all have a safe start to 2012 and that in 2012 your dreams come true.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Merry Christmas Everyone

2011-12-22T14:16:00.000+10:00

Just thought I would pop in and say *Merry Christmas* to all of my friends in blog-land. As I am unsure if I will get a chance to come say it again before the *big* day as I am working every day between now and then and even on the big day! Certainly has been a busy time of year!

I am all finished with my present shopping and am going food shopping later tonight. I won't be going overboard as its just us.

How are you all? Organised or still rushing around madly?

Andre just popped home at lunch time today and presented me with the above flowers (complete with a bottle of my favourite alcohol - Tia Maria) - I am a lucky lady.

long lost hello?

2011-11-13T10:35:00.000+10:00

Hello dear readers.

Firstly, I want to say *hello* to everyone that popped in and left me a comment over the last few months or whom sent me an email - even if I didn't respond to all of them - I did read them and I did appreciate them. Its a wonderful feeling to know that when you are feeling really down that somewhere, some place, someone is thinking of you.

I know that I could have came and spoken to you, told you how I was feeling but I needed to battle through my thoughts and emotions myself... and in no way, shape or form am I over how I was feeling... its time to come say *hello* and move forward.?

I am really struggling to find the words to express to you what's running through my head... This tremendous overwhelming struggle of mixed emotions...but I am going to try - even if it makes little to no sense?

If you have been my friend or been reading my blog for a long time you will already know that over the past few years we have moved several times. Sometimes across the country to follow work for my husband, or this year because the house we were living in sold and we needed to find another rental. In all of the towns that we have lived in, I have only ever felt settled in a couple of the communities.

Ironically Biloela is one of the communities that I have started to feel settled in. I am enjoying life here but we are living on borrowed time... My husband's work contract ends in May 2012 and the time for his employer to indicate if they wish to renew this contract or not is fast approaching. He has a *gut* feeling that his contract will not be renewed and they have indicated as much to him without actually saying it.

He has been applying for jobs elsewhere for the past month or 2, and in that time has had a few interviews, without any success as yet. He has backed himself into a corner career wise - having specialised in one particular area and jobs to apply for are few and far between. We are just hoping that something will come up and he will be successful - but that will also mean another relocation for us.

We know that if he can't find another job that we can't say in this town after his contract expires as I do not earn enough to support us. :(

We have been trying to save for a removal to?? Quite simply I am not sure that I could go through the emotional baggage associated with selling everything and starting over again. (if you are unsure what I am talking about read my posts from around OCT 2009 - where we made the big decision when we left Western Australia to sell all of our possessions and start over) as I feel that I am still to this day over 2 years later recovering from this trauma emotionally.

So we are both on an emotional roller coaster of sorts - Meantime life goes on at an amazingly fast rate.

I have been doing a little bit of crafting and I will try to take some photos and upload soon. I think I need to make a promise to both of us to chat to you more often. Thanks for reading / listening :)

Some Crafting...

2011-09-04T18:17:00.001+10:00

I'm feeling poorly today.. Our youngest daughter Xanthe had a gastro bug on Thursday... Eamonn and I came down with it on Friday night. I've literally been asleep ever since... I slept approximately 36 hours straight, only making it out of bed today for a few hours as I knew I needed to rehydrate and start to try to get on with it.

Whilst I was looking after Xanthe on Thursday I was sitting next to her on the couch, crochet hook in hand very very busy. I left my scissors in my jeans pocket and this is the end result after they had been through the washing machine :( Ooops.

I found the group *one a day* on Ravelry - search for it - its easy to find. The ideal behind it is that you create one motif or do a set number of rows every day to put towards a bigger project... Do you remember this motif that I shared with you earlier in the year?

Well this is going to be my one a day project... as I had only ever completed 5.5 squares....

I decided to join the 4 squares and edge them in blue....

and then join the bigger squares together..

I'm loving the way that this is looking...

I am pleased that I achieved more than my "one a day" on Thursday as I could never have predicted that I would get ill and not be able to summon the energy to raise a hook.

Stay tuned for progress reports.

Home Made Pizza Pockets

2011-08-06T20:14:00.000+10:00

I received an email from PRAIRIE ROSE whom sent me some links to some yummy recipes :) One of which was the recipe for Homemade Hot Pockets.

As they looked like something that we would LOVE I decided to make them with pizza sauce and meat/cheese and mushrooms. So they in fact turned into Pizza Pockets.

Here are some of the finished products - not as brown as I would have liked but my oven burns the bottoms of everything so I rescued them.

Kids didn't mind and they were all gone in a flash :) Very yummy.

Recipe anyone?

2011-08-02T21:05:00.000+10:00

HI Everyone..

I am sick and tired of all the processed *expensive* junk food that the supermarket sells that ends up in my children's lunchboxes...

So... I need your help?

I'm looking for any recipes for treats that can be included in lunchboxes and for after school snacks etc.

Cupcakes, biscuits, cookies?

I promise to post lots of photos of my attempts :) and let you know if your recipe is a winner with my family.

Please email me (aussiefriend4life@gmail.com) all of your favourites or leave me comment with a link to a blogpost or recipe online.

THANKS :)

Hello

2011-07-17T14:36:00.000+10:00

Hello Everyone..

Sorry its been quite a few weeks between blog posts - Thank you to every one of you that cared enough to drop me an email or Ravelry message and say hi - all of your thoughts and well wishes have meant the world to me.

The "doldrums" have lasted longer than they should but we are hopefully moving in a more positive direction... We are certainly at a cross roads and have about 4 weeks until we will know which road is the correct path to take - sorry to be so cryptic but I guess I have no real answers until the time comes.

I got a good mark for my last Uni assignment which dragged my overall grade up so that made me happy.

I am struggling with my current Uni subjects - but who said that study was supposed to be easy?

The new job is working out well - I was told last night by the boss that I have proved to be a "godsend"and the money is certainly coming in handy. I am probably working more than I would want as it is eating valuable family and study and crafting time.

On a Craft note - not much to report other than a quick scarf I made Andre before he left to visit his mum in Victoria.

Anyway = best run - have to start work in 10 mins... talk to you sooooooon xxxxxxxxx

Bored...tired..lonely..lost?

2011-05-27T20:02:00.001+10:00

Hi-ya everyone... This post is going to be a bit of a whinge :( So I really understand if you choose not to read this. :)

I wonder if blogger will let me post tonight? It *ate* the post that I have been trying to upload for the past few days... sigh.

Anyway - a new post and I will redo the other post sooner or later - just hoping it will magically reappear?

At the moment the above 4 words describe how I am feeling.

BORED

TIRED

LONELY

LOST

Its been a very busy week - I have had training for my new work position and so far I am LOVING IT. Today was my first full shift and I guess thats where the tired comes into it.. though it is not physically hard or challenging work like my other job was. I used to come home from my night job physically exhausted - covered in bruises and aching from head to toe for days after a shift - am I missing it - NO - am I missing my work mates - YES. Guess I will have to see if I can meet up with them sometime socially.

Normally on a Friday night - I would be at the above mentioned job... so I am not used to being here on Friday nights.

Tonight Andre has a work function in Rockhampton - a 180km drive away. I'm worried about him driving home :( Lots ot roos on the roads so I hope they do not leave it too late.

I just can't seem to be able to find something to take my mind off the fact that I am here alone with the kids. I'm not scared as the town in which we live is a *safe* town... one of those rare towns where people do not lock the doors or cars... (but we still do out of force of habit)... I guess the correct word to describe how I am feeling would be restless? Unable to concentrate or find something to occupy myself ...

Its not like I don't have a thousand things I could be doing... my crochet projects... my cross stitch... a letter to a friend perhaps? I still need to delete 50 odd words out of my assignment before I can lodge it... and the list goes on and on...

I might go flick through the tv options again in case something captures my interest.... ?

GOOD NEWS!!

2011-05-17T10:58:00.000+10:00

Just a VERY quick message :) The job I applied for yesterday is MINE all MINE :) I applied in person yesterday and had an informal interview there and then which I was not mentally ready for - nor dressed for ( I was wearing Jeans, Ugg Boots and a skivvy) but this morning I missed a phone call and when I returned the call I got the good news - the job is MINE :)

It is at the Service Station next door...(so I have an extremely LONG commute to work - LOL) its 3 days one week - Friday, Saturday, Sunday and 2 days the Next week Sunday, Monday. 5.75hour shifts and shifts are 5am till 10am.... 10am till 3pm and 3pm till 8 pm. Its not physical work - SO I will not be tired, sore and cranky and although I will be away from the kids and Andre on weekends... its not a LONG shift. And the hours are permanent but pay rate is casual!!

week 3

2011-05-16T19:21:00.000+10:00

Jumped on the scales this morning to discover I had lost - left me feeling totally surprised? As I had a pretty bad week food wise and blew the diet on at least 3 occassions. Am wondering if the scales were mucking up last week? Who knows! I will accept the loss... :) and my clothes are still fitting better :) Sitting here wearing jeans I could not get done up a week or so ago :) YAY

Current weight is 109.4kg - total loss 3kg.

Sorry not much updating on the craft side - I have the last assignment for my current University subject due soon and I am literally pulling my hair out!

Have also applied for another job - it will be a guaranteed 25hour fortnight - no nights. So I am hopeful I get that :) ? Working nights has really been affecting my family time and my studying... leaving me tired and cranky and I am left wondering if it is worth it!! ??

Disappointed

2011-05-09T08:30:00.000+10:00

Weigh in morning - I expected to have lost heaps this week as I have been working hard - but alas I have gained? Back to being 111.4kg so a gain of 1.7kg

I will be extra careful with portion sizings and tracking this week and take fruit as a snack at work. One night I bought a chocolate (but I counted it so?)

Lets see what this week brings - My clothes are fitting better so who knows?

Happy Mothers Day - 2011

2011-05-08T14:46:00.000+10:00

Its Mothers Day in Australia so I would like to take this opportunity to wish all of the wonderful mums in the world - Happy Mothers Day.

So far I have had a wonderful mothers day :)

My children let me sleep in until 11ish - then they brought me in 4 lovely cards that they made me at school, and an assortment of presents:

A charm type bracelet
A box of stationery
A napkin holder with a cute cow on it (that I am going to use as a letter holder)
A Robbie Williams CD
A Voucher for the hairdressers for a pamper treatment, massage and blow dry

So I am feeling spoilt :)

Andre then cooked me a lovely brunch of bacon and eggs on the BBQ and we sat outside as a family and ate. Andre and Micayla have roast beef in the slowcooker for our dinner tonight (with my instruction as to how to cook it and what to add) and we will also have mashed potatoes, carrots and beans (that one of them will cook with my instruction no doubt).

My eldest son (whom is almost 21) phoned me...which was a lovely surprise as this is the first year that he has bothered since he has been not living with us...(left our care in 2001) - this year it also meant so much more to me for reasons best left unsaid, but I am so proud of him that he is finally attempting to get his life on track.

Apparently I also have a Mothers Day card enroute too - He said it will be a nice surprise even though he just spoilt the surprise :)

I have 7 children that I have given birth to and 2 step children. I don't expect to hear from my step children as they are only small (age 10 and 8) and I am not their REAL mum...

So at this stage I am left wondering if my other 2 children will contact me?

I doubt that my 2nd eldest son will - he is 19 and I have not spoken to him for years... :( He will always be my son and I will be here waiting for him when he decides he needs his mum. Although we do move heaps he has no excuse as he can get my phone number or address from my parents, his older brother or he could message me on facebook.

So that leaves my 17year old daughter... ???? Guess she has until midnight until I am once again hurt and disappointed in her. (I will edit this if she does contact me by some miracle)

Oh well I know that 5 of my 7 children love and appreciate me so I guess thats not a bad average :) Off to cuddle up to my husband on the couch , watch football and crochet a bit.

weigh in - week one

2011-05-02T09:25:00.000+10:00

As someone that has previously followed the weight watchers plan - I know that if you follow the plan and stay within the points they allocate you then you will lose weight.

I have found the new propoints plan to be confusing - thank goodness for the computer and the online tools that enable you to calculate points value at a glance - sometimes before eating - sometimes after.

Propoints gives you a daily allowance - a weekly allowance - and an exercise bonus.

To be honest I didn't really change my eating habits much - Due to special occasions we ate out twice and had pizza one night for dinner. I guess the difference is that I was aware of potion sizings, and making better choices from the menu.

I also started walking the kids to and from school which works out to be 20 - 30 mins of exercise per day. At the old house we lived directly across the road from the school so the kids walked out the front door and across the highway with the help of the lollipop ladies. Now we live 3 blocks away with some busy streets to cross.

Andre and I also went for a walk one night - 30 mins just around the neighbourhood which was great and I would like to do every night but I understand it may not get the opportunity to happen so I guess I should regard this as a bonus.

I need to get my wii fit plus disc polished so that I can use it daily to exercise and I am thinking I might have to walk lengths of our yard or something to get the heart rate up? The littlest princess is too big for a pram or stroller so I can't just pop her in and go for a walk.

Anyway - I am pleased with my week and also with the results - as it is heading in the right direction - down.

So to share with you all.... this week I weigh in at 109.7kg which is a loss of 2.7kg :)

weight loss - gulp

2011-04-25T13:41:00.000+10:00

Over the past few months I have noticed that my clothes are snugger than normal and I really should go up a size or 2 :( I have weighed myself on the Nintendo Wii (using the wii balance board and wii fit program) a few times and thought to myself - hmmm I really should do somthing about that? Join weight watchers again?? but did nothing and continued to eat my way fatter...

I weighed myself on the wii this morning - GULP my BMI was 37.56 and my weight was 112.4kg!!!

My ideal weight for height is somewhere in the range between 65kg and 75kg. As I am tall - 5ft 8"or 1.73M

So I thought about it for about an hour and took the plunge and signed up for Weight Watchers Online. The reason I chose to do the Weight Watchers Online is that it works out to be cheaper per month than attending meetings (by $30 a month) and also if I get called into work I can't attend the meetings on the Monday nights anyway.

I have decided to use my blog to keep myself accountable so to speak.

Now just to figure out where I can squeeze exercise into my already jam packed life?

New digs - New crochet project

2011-04-24T22:03:00.001+10:00

Hi everyone...

Here I am (well this was taken yesterday afternoon) - I would consider us 75% unpacked ? We just need to come up with some storage solutions for things like my craft stash (as this house doesn't have built in wardrobes to hide things in)

Andre bought me this wicker basket to put some of my stash in next to the couch...

Peek a boo - what do I spy? The beginnings of the Under the Sea rug for us with the stash I bought the other day...

Without further adou this is the pattern that I decided to use. It is called Thoroughly modern Granny and was published by Annies Attic many years ago... (too lazy to get up and check) but it was a part of the pattern quilt club collection. Years ago I was sent a photocopied version (naughty) and when we left Exmouth it went to the tip with lots of other papers... but thanks to ebay I finally tracked it down again and purchased it in March... it took 2 weeks to arrive from the US but it was worth the wait as I finally have the pattern again (and before you ask I could not remember for the life of me how to do the loops on the corners without the pattern- LOL ) - it is simple but effective and I just love the way it works out.

Please excuse the ends as I just wanted to take some photos and share with you :)

I am especially loving the way that these 2 colours are working together and am debating whether to go back to BIG W and purchase more of these colours? and just make the whole rug in these colours ... or if I should do blocks of 4 with 2 colour combinations and then put them together. So many ideas running through my head - decisions decisions :)

What do you think ??

Positive things...

2011-04-04T16:27:00.000+10:00

Firstly today I would like to wish my twin sons Liam and Eamonn a very happy 5th Birthday :) Its hard to believe that we have reached this milestone! They started *big school* in January and are no longer babies.

We have found a new home and will be moving on April 15th - its virtually down 2 blocks and round the corner from where we are living now - so still an easy walk to the children's school and also to the shops - cheaper rent by $100 a week which should enable us to save some $$ for future more positive plans.

I started packing - oh how I hate packing - but one of the first things I decided to pack was my beloved stash :) I decided to look on it as a postive and rediscover what I had :) I feel blessed that I now have a stash as when we left Exmouth in October 2009 I sold my stash in a garage sale so I have rebuilt in the last year and a bit... I should have taken photos to share...but forgot (forgive me) perhaps when I am unpacking it I will remember?

Andre is always a good stash enabler... often purchasing stash for me or encouraging me to purchase when we are in a shop that sells yarn. I received several balls of yarn as part of my birthday gift.. and today when we went into Gladstone shopping to purchase the boys a Birthday gift. Andre and I ended up in the yarn section. On discovering that the 100G acrylic was on sale for $2.57 ( I also receive a 5% staff discount on all purchases in BIG W) so we ended up buying 14 balls of yarn so I can make us a cover for our bed. I have a pattern in mind and I will share it once I unpack and get started :) One good thing about purchasing yarn at BIG W - if I need more they always have the same colours in stock.

We decided on the colours of the sea... which will match our existing Linen...

Here is a photo of the blanket that I have started for Miss Micayla's bed... I found this yarn when I was packng my stash. When I saw it I remembered I purchased it at the end of last winter on clearance for $1 (plus a percent off due to some sale that was on at the time - but I remember it scanned as less than a $1 a ball - total bargain)

This is more the true colours of the varigated yarn...

It is working up reasonally fast and this is still the 2nd ball so the pattern is not a yarn hungry one :) Hopefully a happy dance will follow soon as I really want to play with my new stash :)

Reality that bites....(having a bit of a whinge)

2011-03-24T09:42:00.001+10:00

Its really hard to believe that we have been home for four weeks! Four WHOLE weeks... filled with reality!!

Reality is a place that I really don't want to be right now... I would much rather be sitting at the Lagoon in Airlie Beach, or anywhere but here really...

We always knew that we would have to return home with a bit of a bump but the reality of it??

The property that we are currently living in (renting) sold at the end of January and the change-over of owners happened relatively smoothly without us really even knowing much about it (always a good thing) one day the for sale sign had SOLD on it then it magically disappeared... and for that I am grateful as it has been nice to have quiet enjoyment of the property and not have to have the constant worry for prospective buyers traipsing through. I am guessing we have had approximately 50 people view the property whilst we lived here before it eventually sold! We were told when the property went under contract that the owners would want to take possession at the end of our lease... (which ends May 29) so we were not worried as this meant we had a few months to think about moving and gradually ease our minds into it and find somewhere new.

WRONG - the new owners would like to break our lease and we are being pressured to find a new property and move. As there are only 2 real estates in town it is certainly in our best interests to comply - but it has left me resentful? Not sure if thats the right word...?

Rather than wallow anymore we have decided to be pro-active about it... life moves on at an alarming rate. So today we are viewing 2 of the rental properties that are currently available in our town and hopefully we will find our new home.

Anyone want to volunteer to come over and help me with the packing and cleaning?

I am anticipating we will be in our new house within 2 weeks....

Next on the agenda is the health of loved ones. My mother in law is battling breast cancer and received the results from her operation to state that she has a grade 3 aggressive form of cancer and will have to undergo Chemo and Radio therapy. She is in a state of shock and so is my husband. She has already started her treatments and is in good spirits ( or is pretending to be to us) and is determined to fight! This lady has already battled so much in her life.... she was not expected to live past age 8 due to a very rare heart condition.

My dad recently had another operation to strip cancerous tumours from his bowel... the specialist has once again said its an ongoing thing and he will be ok again until the next time... he has a few secondary health issues at the moment which are giving him more grief than the cancer!

On a more positive note...

I started my University Studies on March 3rd... and have dropped one subject already as I figured it was a subject that I have previously studied something similar so am attempting to get a credit recognition for prior learning. If they won't do RPL then I will pick it up next year... So I am just studying one subject this semester - Introduction to Environmental Health - its fascinating but extremely full on :) I am getting alot from this subject and am currently working on air quality and pollution levels.

I started back at work last week... and so far my ankle is behaving itself.

I have started on a crochet blanket for Micayla... but I will save sharing that till tomorrow. This has been a text orintated heavy post and I need to go hang the washing on the line and then get stuck into my readings :)

Hopefully tomorrow I can share news about our new home too.

hugs to all that need them :)

Holiday Mode

2011-02-24T10:27:00.003+10:00

Wooo Hoo... we have finally made it for our long awaited holidays. We are staying in Airlie Beach in North Queensland Australia. We are spending a week here (children free) to celebrate my 40th Birthday which is Friday 25th :)

I will just share the view from where I am sitting on the balcony of our holiday accomadation - I think it is simply stunning.

Airlie Beach itself is simply stunning... (full stop) and I think I have added another destination to the we could retire easily here list.

You can not swim at the beaches here due to the stingers in the water - but they have created a man made lagoon.

Our plans for today are to go for a swim here.

So with that thought in mind I am heading to go get ready - wish you were here :)

BIRTHDAY GIFT CRAFTING

2011-02-15T12:53:00.000+10:00

What do you do when you look at the calender and realise that 3 important birthdays are on the immediate horizion? You get yourself motivated despite the humidity and hot weather and concentrate on getting some gifts done :) I think I have been successful :) These will be divided between 2 of the birthdays. I will be getting it all in the mail tomorrow even though the birthdays have passed - they understand that I am a tad late. That gives me 24 hours to complete the next gift so I mail 3 presents tomorrow :)

A scarf for my best friend Brooke....using this pattern

I love the way this pattern worked out and how the colours blended.

A "sunflower"cloth for my best friend Brooke.

A "rose"cloth for my mother in law

A dishcloth for my mother in law

Some coasters for my mother in law

Another dishcloth for my mother in law

I love the way this pattern works up :)

These coasters are for the gift box - they won't be used as a part of the next gift as I have already gifted my mum a set of coasters.

Now I really have to get back to work on my mums gift :)

TUSAL

2011-02-09T12:51:00.000+10:00

Just realised that the new moon has been and gone and I didn't update - so here is a very late photo of my TUSAL

Where to start?

2011-02-04T16:23:00.000+10:00

Hi everyone...

Thankyou to everyone that has sent me an email to ask if I am ok re: floods and cyclones that have been devastating the state of Queensland Australia where I live.

The events that have surrounded these last few weeks have been mind-numbingly devastating, and the emotions that surround how I feel about the whole thing are hard to come to terms with. I have cried many tears for the residents of Toowoomba and the Locker Valley – as you know we moved here from Laidley and if we had of still lived there we would have been evacuated. As it is, Biloela had no more than some flash flooding that went through our yard, but we have been surrounded by floodwaters and cut off from everything twice now.

Our supermarket shelves are only just starting to recover...It has taught us a valuable lesson about consumerism and waste. The people of this town are selfish and greedy. I still can’t believe that they were fighting over things like bread and milk and over-purchasing because they thought that they would miss out.

Before all of this happened I had already started researching how to live more frugally especially in regards to our food consumption as we want to start saving money.

Anyway – when I look at it, it is kinda ironic that I had already started researching this and putting methods and things into place. We purchased an upright freezer and we now freeze all leftover food, bread into portions to eliminate waste, I chop up the vegetables when they are purchased and freeze them into meal sized portions so all I have to do is pop them into the boiling water. This not only saves me time in the evenings but it is saving us money on waste too. The leftovers go into 2 types – meat from BBQ’s get reused into slow-cooker meals… and things like pasta or spag bol go into containers so Andre can just zap them in the microwave if I get called into work early and don’t get the chance to cook – thus eliminating costly take-aways.

All of these practices have meant that when everyone else was at the supermarket panic-purchasing… we had enough food in the house to last us AT LEAST 7 days…

It’s so hot and humid here tonight, Part and parcel of living in Queensland I guess…The air conditioning in our house is not working at the moment – hasn’t done since before Christmas and the real estate finally sent someone out to look at it last week but it’s still not fixed… sigh... they have to order parts and ?? Whom knows when it will be fixed.

Having no working air con has meant that it has been almost impossible to work on any type of craft :( So nothing much to report from there...

Last week at work I re-injured an *old* injury and it has left me on crutches... I have 2 tears in my peroneal tendon in my ankle - they have been there since May 2008 - so I am used to dealing with the associated pain and swelling... probably a little too much. Last week at work we were virtually running for the whole 6.5 hours and at some stage I must have injured it – not that I noticed as it wasn’t overly sore (if that makes sense?) I only know that I re-hurt it because when I took my boot off it went *puff*

I went to the doctors and he told me he could do nothing so he referred me to the hospital in Rockhampton which is 180km North of here… Andre pulled the kids out of school and off we went – they took a look at it – did an xray and send me home with crutches and a bandage ( It is supposed to be in plaster but I can’t have plaster as I have a past history of DVT (blood clots) ) – I have to go back over to Rockhampton on Monday to have an ultra sound and from there I will have to go see an orthopaedic sports medicine doctor and eventually I will have to have an operation to sew the tears together. The health system here is pretty appalling so I do not hold my breath that this will be fixed any time soon.

Meantime being on crutches is driving me NUTS and I am impatient for the swelling to go down – as once it does I know that I will return to work – why? We need the money, as it is without me working we are now going to really struggle... and it also goes back to the original reason why we were trying to save in the first place but I think that is another tale for another day...

Back to Aurora Cabin

2011-01-06T22:48:00.001+10:00

Hi everyone...

In 2011 I will once again be participating in the 2011 SAL BLOG which you can find by clicking on the link in my sidebar or HERE.... go take a look and apply to join in the fun - you won't regret it as there are a bunch of lovely ladies waiting to cheer you to the finish line.

At the end of last year I changed my SAL piece from the Aurora Cabin for which you will find updates on this blog from Jan 1st 2010 to the Geisha piece as I wished to get it finished to gift to my best friend for Christmas.... well life happened so I decided to keep the Geisha piece as my SAL this year until it was finished hopefully for her Birthday in February... BUT whilst I was working on the Geisha on the weekend I discovered GASP that I was a few stitches out and for the life of me I can't figure out where the mistake is. I unpulled where I thought it was but its still out...

SO... I have packed it away for a bit (destined to become an unfinished UFO?)

So for the people that read my blog and don't have time to track back and find my updates here - I will be working on this piece - Aurora Cabin

This photo shows a picture of where I was up to and what it looked like before I started stitching on it again.

Please forgive the creases... I was in such a hurry to snap the photo and start stitching that I didn't think about ironing it :)

TUSAL

2011-01-05T14:33:00.000+10:00

Its the first NEW MOON of the NEW YEAR so without further ado here is my TUSAL jar for 2011

I decided to use the same jar as last year and emptied last years efforts :)

If anyone is interested in joining the TUSAL - feel free to go HERE and join in the fun or you can click on the link in my sidebar.

My TUSAL jar this year contains bits of my Geisha piece where I was frogging the other afternoon... and some blue from Aurora Cabin that I have picked back up - more on that in a minute.

Have fun xxx

Last post of 2010

2010-12-31T22:20:00.000+10:00

As I sit here on the final countdown to 2011 I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very safe start to the New Year... May 2011 be a year of good health, happiness, love and good fortune for you and may you achieve your dreams come true.

Who knows what the New Year truly has in store... but at this stage we know that :

2011 is a year in which our twin sons will start BIG SCHOOL. I have mixed feelings about January 24 as it is the day when my lil men will take that further step towards independence. Twin 1 is happy and excited about his new journey but Twin 2 is rather anxious about this new adventure. We live directly across the road from the school and I can see the "prep" playground and I am worried that they may just decide to climb the fence and come home... ? The littlest princess will be devastated that her big brothers will be at school and she has to stay home even if this means she will get 3 days of one on one with me. We have secured her a childcare place for Thursdays and Fridays.

In February I will celebrate my 40th birthday. We are heading to the Whitsundays for a whole week... child free to celebrate and selfishly I look forward to this *us* time :) My father in law and his girlfriend kindly volunteered to come visit, live in our house and look after our children for the week.

Lets hope that the weather co-operates?

Upon my return from the Whitsundays... I will be starting my new University degree... Environmental Health at Central Queensland University. Mostly its done externally but I will have to attend the odd residential school in Rockhampton for some subjects.

Who knows what the rest of the year has in store for us... ???

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE :)

How did I go with my 2010 resolutions?

2010-12-28T19:21:00.000+10:00

January 1st I made the following resolutions - I am about to go through one by one and address how I went :)

Get my physical health under control. Inclusive to lose weight to take some of the pressure off my body...which at this stage is protesting loudly!!!

Weight-wise I have probably lost 5-10kg. I have fittened up a lot which is great :)

Be a better home-maker. Inclusive of housework, home decorating, mother etc

I think I am achieving this.... :)

Do crafts everyday and not feel guilty about it.

Not achieving this but I am doing more than I was so its a step in the right direction?

Focus on the important things in my life and not dwell on the past, or what could have been?

This year has been a hard one for this... especially when some important anniversaries passed.

Do some form of "mental stimulation" each day to keep my brain active. Even if this is something as simple as doing the puzzles in the weekly magazines THAT'S LIFE and TAKE 5 which have puzzles for prizes....

not every week but I do do them occassionally

Do some soul searching and find the true person within? Look at my faults and weakness's and accept them.

I'm achieving this :) and proud of it...

On a Craft level

Start the "Aurora Cabin" cross-stitch kit that I received as a present from my family for mothers day 2009. I know that I will achieve this first goal as I have joined a weekly SAL here and Aurora Cabin is my nominated piece to stitch on each week. I hope to do at least 100 stitches on this each week... Last night after gridding I roughly calculated that there is over 46800 stitches in this piece. (this was calculated on the whole 10x10 squares in the piece but not counting the squares that had only a few stitches - does that make sense?)

Well - its started and I have quite a few stitches in ... but I have *misplaced it * oops

Work on my other UFO's or WIP's not sure what to call them... Started I have "Friendship" , "Seaside Treasures", "Teddy Bear House Rules" and "House Mouse Sew busy"

nope, nope, nope and nope :(

I did have a new start of Geisha Promise

Crochet some things for the house. Many years ago I was in conversation with a penpal whom I had never met and she made this comment " I can't wait to come visit you and see all the wonderful things that you have made" Sadly when I look around my house I see little evidence of my crochet. I have either always sold it or given it away. Right this second I can see a coaster... NO not a set - just one lonely coaster!! Sad :(

I have crocheted a few more coasters and some dishcloths....

I guess I didn't do too badly?

missing in action?

2010-12-26T20:34:00.000+10:00

Alot of you have emailed me as you have been concerned due to the fact that I have not posted on my blog in between my button post and my quick Christmas message last night. Purely and simply life here has been BUSY with a CAPITAL B*U*S*Y!

About 4-5 weeks ago I started working nights doing nightfill at our local supermarket Woolworths. At first it was just a couple of shifts a week but in this last week in the lead up to Christmas I worked 28hours. Most nights I finish at 12am... but one night I worked until 1am. Its not overly hard work brain strain wise but it is physically hard and repetitive when you are stacking some things and sometimes you need to lift 10-16kg boxes repetitively for hours on end. So I have been coming home physically exhausted!

Add to this the fact that our daughter caught hand, foot and mouth disease... then whilst she was still sick our other little girl got admitted to hospital with cellulitus and a uti... they both recovered nicely only for Andre to catch the h,f and m disease. The cycle of illness in our house has been going on for 2-3 weeks now.

Little to no crafting has been happening :( I didn't manage to get my best friends Christmas present completed so I will now aim to get it done for her Birthday in February.

I've had a couple of new starts on the knitting front - I needed something that I could take to the hospital with me. I will share pictures with you and enlighten you on my new projects when I get half a chance to take photos and write a blog post.

Sometime between now and the end of the year I would like to look at my 2010 resolutions that I blogged about at the beginning of this year and see how I went with them? Thinking back I can not really remember what they are so it will be an interesting excercise?

Merry Christmas

2010-12-25T22:22:00.000+10:00

It's Christmas night here in Australia (10:20pm) and I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a very safe, happy and healthy 2011!

love and hugs from my family to yours

Char xxx

Buttons anyone?

2010-11-20T21:25:00.000+10:00

Andre had an RDO on Friday so we went and explored the little op shop (Charity shop) that we discovered just the other day... its the only one in our little town...but it is not walking distance from our house, so I really have to rely on a time when Andre can take me.

I spied the jars of buttons on the shelf and ask how much they were... 20 cents was the reply... I then ask if she meant per jar or per button... per jar was the answer... and the little bags were 10c each.

So for a whole $2 - I greedily bought the lot.....

Then we went and bought a container to tip them into ...

So we took photos as the layers of buttons were poured in...

Now I have buttons for every forseeable project for a LONG LONG time. This makes me so happy and restores one tiny little thing that I sacrificed last October when we left Exmouth Western Australia.

Thankyou to my wonderful husband for enabling me to visit the op shop and for encouraging me to buy the lot!

Who knows what I will find the next time we explore?

Sharing a cute moment

2010-11-17T20:55:00.000+10:00

Here is a video of my 3 lovely preschoolers happily entertaining themselves this afternoon - its too cute not to share :)

Scarf from Miss Santa - WIP

2010-11-16T11:38:00.000+10:00

Well I joined the Miss Santa swap on the yahoogroup crochet in common... if you look in the blogs I read you will find the link to the yahoogroups blog page... from there I am almost? positive there will be a link to join the group?

Anyway :) Here is a scarf that I have started knitting for my Miss Santa recipient... I am using the one row pattern by Stephanie (yarn harlot) - you can find the pattern here.

Christmas Craft Projects

2010-11-15T10:43:00.000+10:00

Hi everyone...

Sorry I have not posted in over 2 weeks - wow I honestly don't know where that time has gone... in that time though I have done lots of crafting... most of it is Christmas orinintated - either for my gift box or just for us :) I also knitted a birthday cloth for a very dear friend of mine whom I can't name because its still in the mail. I never managed to get a photo of the completed cloth but I do have a snap of it at 80% complete so I will share that with you...

So without further ado - in the last 2 weeks I have created the following....

A birthday "rose" for my friend for her birthday :)

A "Christmas Tree" cloth for my gift box

A set of 4 coasters for my gift box.....

A set of 9 coasters for us for Christmas Dinner...

This year we will have 8 here on Christmas day and I done an extra just in case one of my older children or an orphan from Andre's work join us for dinner...

Don't they look pretty and festive :) We will probably start using them from December 1st - when the Christmas tree and decorations go up.

This is a shot of the pattern of a dishcloth I made for us to use Christmas day...

I will put this on display for all of December...

Another cloth in a different pattern that I made for us on Christmas Day...

It too will be placed on display and kept pretty until Christmas day.

I made this dishcloth for my giftbox and will probably be gifted with the first set of coasters....

Don't you just love the way the varigation of the cotton made diamond decorations?

Last night I cast on a gift for my secret Miss Santa recipient via the crochet in common yahoo group... I will share some pics of that tomorrow...

Stay safe - Hugs xxxx

Craft Fair

2010-10-27T10:52:00.000+10:00

On Saturday afternoon Andre and I went for a BIMBLE (this is a word my father in law uses for window-shop/look through the shops) through a Craft Fair that was being held in the civic centre.

It was never my intention to purchase anything - rather my plan was that I wanted to see what types of things that people were making and what was selling with the view to perhaps making some of this to sell on etsy or to give as gifts for Christmas.

But then I spotted this....

And much to the littlest princess'es disgust - No it was not a bed for baby...

Even though baby fitted really really nicely...

It was just what mummy had been looking for to hold her current craft project ... something that was easily transportable...inside to out... and that looked neat whilst containing the necessary clutter that craft creates.

Squares - Squares and more Squares

2010-10-25T10:22:00.000+10:00

I belong to a yahoogroup called color me square and you can find it by clicking here

Each month we swap 6" (15cm) Granny Squares...and send 2 squares to everyone that signs up. Each month we have a colour that we have to use, but the pattern can be any pattern of your choice - fancy or plain.

October's colour is YOUR CHOICE....So I made the following squares. Using up some bits and pieces of yarn that I had laying around :)

Other than myself all of the other participants are in the USA. So if you are reading this and think that you would like to play with squares and make yourself an afghan from all over the world - click through the link and join :)

Unfortunately the postal service is not the best and it appears that they have lost all of my September squares. I am hopeful that they will still show up but since I had my crochet hook out and I was in the "zone" I thought I would make the most of the postage on my October swap and resend squares for September. September colours were "Fall" colours....

Originally I had made squares with red, yellow and orange... but as I had none of that yarn left I came up with the following combinations... Hopefully these will be still considered "fall" type colours ? The centre in this one is actually a warm beige-ish colour...

When I was making this particular square.... the pattern for which I made up as I went along I was thinking to myself hmmm this is really pretty and would make a lovely blanket for us...So as I have LOADS of this colour yarn (about 20 balls from memory) I have decided this will be one of my next projects...

This picture gives a quick indication of what it will look like - of course this is not my blanket - just quickly placed together squares for the photo. I love it :) love love love it :)

Unfortunately I am yet to start on our blankie - As all of these lovely squares will be heading out in the mail on Thursday to the USA :)

Geisha Update No.5

2010-10-24T21:48:00.000+10:00

I have been really busy this past week with sick kids and other bits and pieces... so I have not had much of a chance to stitch on my Geisha piece - BUT I did manage to sit still for 3-4hours this afternoon and I am pleased with my progress.

LATE TUSAL UPDATE

2010-10-24T21:43:00.000+10:00

I have not posted my TUSAL jar for what seems like forever - so as I realised I have once again missed the new moon this month I would post a rather late update.

As you can see my jar is starting to get rather full....

and here is a view from the top....

Knitted Star Cloth

2010-10-18T15:09:00.001+10:00

Last night I finished off this star cloth that I started a few nights beforehand - I am practising my knitting and love the way these cloths look with all the pretty patterns.

This cloth is a part of a set of Christmas cloths that you can find for purchase on this BLOG

Expect to see some more of these cloths appear soon.

I was hoping to knit some as Christmas gifts but feel that my knitting is not up to a standard where I could give it to anyone as a gift - so meantime we will get lots of usage out of my practice cloths which will keep DH happy as he wants to keep everything that I make for us... Funnily enough I rarely if ever make anything for us?

Crochet Cloths for Donna

2010-10-17T20:10:00.000+10:00

My friend Donna ask me if I could crochet some dishcloths for her ... She picked the colours and I crocheted them mostly whilst I was blogsurfing :) I have found that I can crochet at night-time easily enough and I don't actually have to see it :) So the lighting issues I have with cross stitching are not really an issue.

We have a pretty purple varigated cloth...

A funky orange cloth...

A Fun colours of summer cloth...

A lovely white with green flec cloth...

All made using the Bark Sedge Stitch cloth that you can find on the Lion brand webpage HERE - I have to say that this pattern is fast becoming my favourite dishcloth pattern. The cloths work out to be thick and spongy and apart from colour fading have withstood lots of ~~abuse~~ hardwork in my busy kitchen :) I have even started using the older cloths for cleaning tasks like bathroom duty.

Last night I decided that I would also make Donna a set of coasters.

I love crochet coasters - so handy - spill your drink - no problem just mop up the mess with the coaster and throw it in the wash :)

Geisha Update No.4

2010-10-17T19:31:00.000+10:00

Saturday afternoon was a beautiful "crisp" afternoon and as DH and I wanted to spend it outside in our BBQ area, we pulled the table into the sunshine. It was glorious to be sitting outside, enjoying the garden and each others company. I was cross stitching on my Geisha piece.... and you will notice some progress from my last update picture...

Today we had another afternoon of lazing around out under our undercover BBQ area. It was not as cold today so we enjoyed the shade. Once again I pulled out my cross stitch and have made lots of progress from the above photo.

Geisha progress pic 3

2010-10-11T11:07:00.000+10:00

I am really enjoying stitching this project - maybe its because it is for my friend and I have set myself a bit of a challenge to get it stitched in time to be mailed for Christmas??

I am in SHOCK!!!

2010-10-06T19:32:00.000+10:00

In the 7 October offer round you have been offered:

858605 Bachelor of Environmental Health - external - CQUniversity, Rockhampton Campus Start Month: March 2011
You have firmly accepted this offer and you will not be considered in any further offer rounds.

Lazy Sunday Afternoon

2010-10-04T21:51:00.000+10:00

Sunday is always a lazy day in our house and we have started to get a bit of a routine happening which I have to say I am in love with...

DH loves to BBQ so on the weekends we let him do his thing... Sausages, onions and sweet potato chips.. and veal steaks which are not on the grill yet....

It gets me out of cooking though I did make this yummy salald. Low fat cheese, tomato, baby spinach leaves, snow pea sprouts, avocado, celery, mushrooms and onions... with balsamic vinegar drizzled over it.

This is a picture of my plate just prior to eating...

Anyone want to join us for lunch???

After lunch the dishes get cleared inside and we like to hang out as a family - enjoy the afternoon, the garden, each others company and do our own thing. I decided to take my cross stitch outside and was quickly absorbed as this sneaky photo proves..

*SPRUNG* I realised what DH was doing with the camera...

Lastly a progress shot... a great afternoon's stitching and I was amazed at how much I achieved...

I certainly didn't want to pack up and go inside when the light started to fade and the Mosquitos decided to attack.

You can see the sparkles in the material in this photo :)

Tomorrow I will share some photos of the garden with you all....

A New Start

2010-10-03T09:58:00.000+10:00

Hi everyone...

Once again is seems like forever since I have updated my blog - those 6 or so weeks have sped past in a big blur of everyday activity accompanied by illness...

So moving on as I am sure that you do not want me to report to you every illness etc that we have had to endure...

Ever since I first saw this issue of Cross stitcher I have been tossing with the idea of stitching the Geisha on the cover as a gift for my best friend... whether it be for Christmas, her Birthday or just because...

My best friend is a wonderful lady whom I love with all my heart - she is throughtful and always puts others needs before her own...and she is ALWAYS there for me 24/7 despite anything that is going on in her personal life... so it would be wonderful if I could stitch her something special. I know that she sometimes reads my blog - so Bwookie if you are reading this you know that I have started this for you... when I finish it will be the surprise :) Knowing me as you do I am sure that you know not to hold your breath waiting :)

Isn't she just so pretty? I have made a start... this is my first real attempt at stitching on evenweave and am finding it easier than I thought I would... I am now wondering why on earth I have been so scared to try before now?

Not entirely sure if you can see it or not but the material I have chosen is a cream with a sparkle through it - VERY PRETTY :)

I am hoping to get back to blogging again on a regular basis, sharing some snippets of daily life etc. I now have access to a working camera (yay) the kids and I made sure we bought DH a good one for Fathers Day :) So on that note I hope to chat to you again soon :)

a solution and some crafting in progress

2010-08-14T20:05:00.000+10:00

Approximately a month ago Andre and I went furniture shopping. We originally went shopping for a coffee table but somehow ended up purchasing a home office :) We turned the back corner of our lounge area into a corner office. We also purchased 2 lamps to solve our lighting issue... mine is sexy pink :)

I love my new desk. In this photo you can see my laptop... and some crochet squares that I am working on...A basket that is filled with odds and sodds - a few balls of yarn, scissors, tape measure and some letters I need to answer. Next to that is my TUSAL which will have to photograph, a puzzle book, my diary and mobile.

I love the way the dappled sunlight comes through these windows all day long. It is very hard to drag myself away from this area to do other things!!

In 2011 I am hoping to be studying. I have applied via QTAC (Queensland Tertiary Admissions Centre) for some degrees via Central Queensland University. I am hoping to get into one of them to start studying in March 2011. No more excuses!!!

Anyway - onto a stitchy update.... Here is a photo of the Aurora Cabin Piece before I started stitching on it again... I am not sure if I had stitched on it since my last update photo or not...? So figured I would take a new one to show progress.

Here is the next update photo but I have stitched on it more since this photo was taken... I will have to take one tomorrow in the natural light as the flash on the camera doesn't work.

Aurora ask me to test some squares for her... they worked up beautiful.. both of these patterns are available free on her blog

Anyway - sorry to cut this blogpost short but as per usual something here is demanding my attention.... hopefully be back tomorrow with that update photo...?

Happy Birthday Little princess

2010-08-14T19:19:00.000+10:00

August 9th marked the 3rd birthday of our littlest princess... here she is being cheeky because she was busted drawing on daddy's desk...

Update on us...

2010-07-12T11:31:00.000+10:00

Hello everyone...So sorry it has been such a long time since I said *HI* to you all... but alas the above picture kinda reflects what has taken up such alot of my time in recent months...relocating and exploring our new surrounds.

In May Andre managed to secure work in Biloela Queensland. Biloela is located approximately 6.5hours by car from where we were living in Laidley.

We stayed in Laidley for a couple of weeks after Andre started working so that he could find us a house and I could pack up etc. The kids did not take kindly to daddy being away and one of the twins literally howled the whole time... tough but necessary times.

At the end of May the kids and I made the drive up... the littlest decided that she needed to get carsick for the first time ever so we had a very long trip :(

Our furniture arrived approximately a week after we did so we spent the first week camping out in the house. Not fun esp when we had arranged with the removal company to deliver the day after we arrived. I was so not impressed and I will never ever use that company again.

I guess you could say that we are finally unpacked and settling into our new home, town and lifestyle.

I have not been doing alot of crafts but hope to change that soon - just need to work out how to change the lighting issue of the lounge area?? My lamp that I bought ages ago is not stable thanks to the removal :( I guess I will figure it out with time... I am missing my crafting!!

Stitchy update - Aurora Cabin...

2010-04-18T20:52:00.001+10:00

Not alot of progress since I last updated here - please ignore the date stamp - one of the kids has been mucking around with the camera.

Photo taken 18th April 2010

I have not been in a *craft* mood of late... spending far too much time procrastinating about *stuff* and wasting time on facebook.

I need to get a wiggle on and finish knitting the cardigan for Xanthe since its starting to get cold here.....but I am *stuck* with the directions. I am thinking I may try to fudge it and if my interpretation doesn't work then I might ask you guys??

HAPPY 4TH BIRTHDAY TWINNIES

2010-04-04T16:05:00.000+10:00

My twin sons Liam and Eamonn were born on April 4th 2006 - So today Easter Sunday we celebrate their 4th birthday.

You have grown to be such handsome little men.

Eamonn is in White and Liam in Blue.

Happy Birthday my sons - I love you xxxx

Quick Thanks

2010-03-25T20:10:00.001+10:00

Hello everyone...

A very QUICK thankyou to everyone for the comments, support and advice from my last post.

After listening to you all I decided to tackle that back and not let it get me down... so I cut straight across the ruined bit - unravelled a few rows - picked all of the stitches back up and onto the needles.... and have since knitted the entire ruined piece again and have cast off...

I am now working on the front again - about to insert the pocket...

I figured that if I get to the sleeves and it doesn't look like I will have enough yarn I will just use a different colour and no one will be none the wiser that it wasn't meant to be like that? Other than blogland of course :)

Today I did try to source a ball of the pink elsewhere but it is all gone. Unfortunately I don't have a label so I can't share what I am looking for :(

Anyway - thanks again for the advice and motivation to save my daughters cardigan.

Hugs xxxx

Trials and tribulations....

2010-03-23T12:02:00.000+10:00

Hi everyone...

I've been feeling a bit BLAH of late - so figured that I wouldn't inflict my bad mood onto you all.

Lots of things have been happening..and I won't go into it all.... My dad is once again sick and went under the knife again yesterday - I don't know what happened yet as mum had to wait till today to talk to the doctor..

I celebrated my 39th birthday on Feb 25th... I received lots of nice cross stitch stash, a $25 voucher to spend at colours down under and my family took me on a shopping spree to spotlight where I was told to buy whatever I wanted. I purchased this pattern booklet... (sorry you are going to have to turn your head to view as I just realised I forgot to fix the photos before I uploaded them....)

A couple of other pattern leaflets that I have not taken photos of... a circular knitting needle, a stitch holder and couldn't find any suitable yarn so ended up buying some elsewhere...

I started to knit this cardigan....

For my 2.5 year old daughter Xanthe..

It was really going well - Knitting was really helping with my mood and stress levels and for the first time ever I was enjoying myself - I guess with knitting its practice and confidence that improves speed and neatness of stitching?

I completed the back after having to pull it back to the armhole (miss read the pattern) and I laid it all out on the table Saturday night so that I could take photos to share with you...

I went to bed around 2am leaving everything all laid out on the table where I was photographing it...

Needless to say I woke up Sunday morning to disaster :( I'm heartbroken. (One of the toddlers and I suspect miss 2.5 as she is the one that gets all coy and guilty looking when its mentioned.)

Anyway...someone with little fingers cut the finished back into a thousand pieces with scissors. I should just be grateful I guess that they didn't hurt themselves or someone else with my scissors??

I suspect that it can rescued to by attempting to unravel it to the armhole and once again knitting that bit - 3rd time lucky? But I am unsure if I will have enough yarn... the pattern states you need 300g for sizes 4-10 I was knitting size 4 so I am presuming I would have yarn left over but would I have enough to redo this piece of the back?? What do you guys think?? Opinions needed please!!!?

I went to the little shop where I purchased the pink and couldn't get another ball - so will see if I can source it from the other shops in the area of the same chain... if not what should I do? Take a risk on it? Unravel it and use the yarn for something else? At the moment it is in the too hard basket!!!

Lightning

2010-03-05T17:37:00.000+10:00

Hubby created this painting the other day - we have just listed it in my etsy shop for sale. If you are interested HERE is the LINK to the shop.

I think its awesome and its a reflection of hubbys love of severe weather, thunderstorms and his fascination to capture lightning in photos. What do you think? Comments welcome.

I designed a crochet pattern!!!

2010-02-23T22:43:00.000+10:00

Hi all...

I designed a crochet pattern and I have listed it for sale at ETSY.... Click the LINK to go check it out :)

Its for an 8 pointed coaster... Please let me know what you think???

what I have been up to last week....

2010-02-21T14:54:00.000+10:00

Firstly I will start off with this weeks update on my Aurora Cabin Piece. I managed to stitch on this piece most of Monday afternoon. I have started filling in the section at the base of the tree. All Navy of course :) But I didn't mind it so much as it was easier to just keep stitching with the one colour.

Here are 3 dishcloths that I made for a gift.... not mentioning who for....

Here is a better picture of the multi-coloured dishcloth... lighting today leaves alot to be desired!!

Here is another one I am making for a gift - I crocheted most of this whilst we had the toddlers at the park yesterday afternoon. I just need to finish off and sew in the ends.

Here is some new stash. I purchased 6 balls.... 2 x baby pastel multicolour..... 2x white and 2x baby green.

The intention for this new stash is to make some baby clothes and list them on etsy.

So I started this pattern....

Here is my progress so far - its working up very nicely and is a relatively easy pattern.

I share photos when its finished and also share the link to my etsy shop when I actually open it :)

Other things I am working on - I have an order to complete for a crochet daschund.... the lady in question wants to sew him up so I just have to create the pieces with pattern and yarn that she supplied. I have been waiting patiently for our weather to cool down a bit so I can complete him. She needs him by March - guess I need to get a wiggle on :)

This week brings my 39th birthday. I will post later in the week and show you my new birthday stash that I have been recieving in the mail via the Xsers yahoogroup birthday club.

I hope you are all safe, happy and well. If you stop by please leave a comment and say *HI* as I would love to hear from you.

hugs Chars x

Birthday gift reveal...

2010-02-17T11:02:00.000+10:00

Here is the photo of the gift I mailed to my best friend Brooke for her birthday.... I was running late with them and posted them express post - whew they arrived on the day but she didn't find the parcel till the day after but thats cool - she found them last Saturday.

Thankyou Brooke for taking a photo for me to share with my blogging friends....

TUSAL

2010-02-14T10:36:00.000+10:00

Its that time of the month again when we get to share our TUSAL jars... My jar is looking good.... it contains LOTS of blue (in various shades) from my Aurora Cabin piece... and bits and pieces from where I have been making presents and discloths....

Here's another look from the top of the jar....

Whilst stitching I tend to shove any rubbish I may have in here... so normally it has chocolate wrappers and yarn wrappers etc... but I fish them out when I get up so that its just my orts... as I only really want to collect orts this year :)

Stitchy update

2010-02-14T10:28:00.001+10:00

I have been stitching on my Aurora Cabin piece over the last few days. I am really loving it at the moment and I think my progress picture says it all.

On a couple of nights hubby has had to literally prise it out of my hands as its been 1am and I have been on a roll and not wanting to stop... oops. Here is a sneaky shot of me that hubby snapped that shows how engrossed I was in what I was doing....

I always sit at the dining room table when I am stitching... Where do you sit??

Hubby's painting...

2010-02-14T10:10:00.000+10:00

I bought Andre some art supplies for Christmas.... and last night he presented me with his first completed work of art...

Its 90cm by 90cm and he has been working on this off and on for around a month.

What do you think?

Please leave a comment as he would love to hear your thoughts and opinions.

The colours are a bit off due to lighting issues but this was the best I could get.

I like it :) So its hanging proudly on our wall.

AWO*L

2010-02-12T11:27:00.000+10:00

Hi everyone...

Sorry I have been absent for a bit... life has a habit of getting in the way of what we really want to do and to be totally honest I have not been in a chatty mood - matter of fact I have been feeling quite down :(

My dad has to undergo some more tests as they think that the cancer is back... Finances for us are not in the best shape and its my birthday soon - this time of year always depresses me as I tend to contemplate what I have achieved or havn't achieved in my life :( this year marks the year before a major milestone too so I guess thats daunting in itself!!

On a different front - I have re-enrolled in part time university studies and that starts on March 2... aim is to make myself more employable... at this point in time although I have skills - I don't have pieces of paper to prove it and without those pieces of paper - no employer will even look at you.

I am going to be studying a Bachelor of Education - PRIMARY - which should enable me to gain employment in the future regardless of my age when I finish it...

I am only going to be studying part-time to start with and then if I cope with it ok I will trial full time study or even fast track it by doing an extra subject... not getting ahead of myself there though as I am already feeling overwhelmed at squeezing 1 subject and study into my already crowded busy days....

Andre has also chosen to return to studying... he will be doing full time study. So its a new chapter to our lives I guess?

On a craft note - I have added a few threads to my Aurora Cabin piece... I will post an update photo on Sunday when I do the update for my SAL blog... and I have made a present for my best friend's birthday which is today (Happy Birthday Brooke) I forgot to take a photo so if I remember I will ask her to take a photo and send me so I can share... Nothing exciting as I left it to the last minute but I think she will like? Geez I hope so - LOL!

Anyway - I guess I have bored you long enough - hope you are all safe and well.

hugs xx

Giveaway

2010-02-12T11:12:00.002+10:00

There is a great giveaway at http://stitchinchicken.blogspot.com/2010/02/giveaway.html please pop over and take a look.

hugs Chars x

Aussies - guess what??

2010-01-29T21:28:00.000+10:00

Today I had to take my car back to the car yard we bought it from due to the ignition not working correctly - it was a case of hit or miss to get the car to start - not good. So we set out for Brisbane at 10 this morning. The car yard told us it would take AT LEAST 4 hours - so I said I was going to go find the real American yarns store. For you Aussies that want to purchase the American Yarn here in Australia - This is the place for you. You can find a link to the online store HERE!!!! So Brisbanites - you can go visit the store in GROVELY - its easy to find just near the station.

Anyway - Here I am outside of the shop - looking like a drowned rat as we had just walked through the deluge of a thunderstorm from the station :)

Here I am with the lovely proprietor... Gabrielle :)

I walked away with some large skeins of Bernat cotton - which is actually sugar and cream cotton in a larger skein. I'm so pleased now that I made the effort as Gabrielle is lovely and so is the shop - I could have spent LOTS of money there and will do in the future (as I have already done in the past via mail order!!)

A special thankyou to my wonderful husband whom tagged along for the ride and whom played photographer... and didn't blink an eyelid at how much I spent :)

If you have always longed to be able to purchase the correct yarn for your projects - be sure to check out the shop either in the flesh or online!!

Disclaimer : I am not responsible for any stash enhancing or credit card debts this post may incur! haha :)

Another Aurora Cabin update

2010-01-24T08:49:00.001+10:00

I achieved lots on this piece last week thanks to stitching on it solidly uninterupted on Thursday afternoon. I am really loving having the toddlers in childcare :) Thursday I actually felt as if I unwound which is something that I have not done for a LONG time.... The toddlers are loving "SCHOOL" too so thats the important thing.

As I am stitching this piece the song "BLUE DAY" keeps running through my head - esp the line - "and I tell myself its just a blue day...." I wonder why? There is no escaping blue either as if you look at the picture as a whole - its at least 75% shades of blue???

You can see from the photo of the original kit EXACTLY what I am talking about :) You can also see where I am at in the grand scheme of things.... one thing I notice by looking at their pic to mine is that their Aurora is a lot paler than mine is working out... guess thats floss variation at its best?

His and hers wash-cloths

2010-01-23T22:37:00.000+10:00

This morning I woke up with the urge to knit - but it was rather hot today in Laidley so I decided to crochet a couple of dishcloths...so I done what all fellow crcoheters do when at a loss as to what to create - and found this pattern on the Lion Brand webpage.

I used sugar and cream and was about half way through and Andre commented that it was way too pretty to use as a dishcloth... so I said OK I will make it for use in our bathroom...

So I finished mine and pulled out the skein of blue and made hubby one too...

So now our bathroom contains matching his and hers wash-cloths :)

I'm now making a bright one for Missy 10 :) I'm having fun and its rekindling my love for crochet :)

Now I have a question for you all....

Would you purchase a set like this?? I am considering selling them on etsy. What do you think? and more importantly how much would you pay for a set?

Leave me a comment :) Please???

New Stash - Pretty Teacup - Another afternoon of stitching...

2010-01-18T22:23:00.000+10:00

Today the toddlers went off to child-care :) (YAY) and here are my 3 lil excited monsters all ready to head off to school... Note we colour coded the twins to make life easier for their teacher today :)

After dropping them all off we headed to the bus stop and caught the Translink connecting bus from Laidley to Rosewood - and then the train to Ipswich. Purpose of the day - Just to explore what shops and facilities were in our transport reach....

We discovered quite quickly that there are no shops in Ipswich central where the transit hub is but after a quick explore we discovered a pathway that led us across the river to a shopping centre called RiverLink.

The Brener river is a bit polluted and disgusting to look at... but the council and the shopping centre have tried to glam it up a bit....

Anyway - once inside the shopping centre we set about the lovely task of shopping :)

In KMART this yarn just jumped off the shelf and into my basket....

Its called Zoomy by Panda... and is a nylon and wool mix. Its very soft and comes in 100g balls. Best bit was the price tag - $1.50 a skein. This is all that was left on the shelf... not sure what I am going to make with it (suggestions welcome) But hey at that price I could not leave it there. The bottom 5 skeins are more a blue than the grey the picture is making them appear.

All in all we had a wonderful day and I can't wait to go have another look in a couple of weeks time :)

As promised here is a shot of the very pretty tea cup that I purchased at the charity shop last week.

I paid a whole 50 cents for it :) What a bargain!!!

It was made in Romania and has a mark on the bottom - Anyone know if this is something special?? (yes I have been watching antiques roadshow way too much!!!) here I am in the charity store turning every teacup upside down to see if it has any marks :)

Lastly - Yesterday afternoon I just had one of those afternoons when I had the opportunity to sit and stitch. The kids were all busy playing happily amoungst themselves so I figured why shouldn't I stitch!! So without further ado here is the progress I made on Aurora Cabin.

Notice I just had to find another colour - LOL :)

Aurora Cabin update and bits...

2010-01-17T08:51:00.000+10:00

I've had so much going on in my personal life that I have not really had a chance to make much progress on my Aurora cabin piece. Last week I was sitting under the naughty chair in my 2010 SAL group because I had not stitched a single stitch in the week that had passed.

Last night I managed to sit for around 2 hours and added some more visible progress :) Thanks once again to half stitches and large areas of colour. I was sick of stitching with just the Navy so started with a few threads of the deep dark purple...

My goal for next week - at least 1 strand stitched each night - I need to learn to unwind each night as I have been getting lots of migraines and I suspect lack of relaxation to be the key reason why...?

I'm finally living in a town that has second hand and charity stores :) So I have been popping in there to see what treasures I can find. I purchased a lovely teacup and saucer - I will have to remember to take a photo and share.

I had to take miss 10 to the dentist in Rosewood on Friday - a 30 min bus ride (both ways) to be told that the crack that we thought was in her tooth was actually the baby tooth sitting on top of the adult tooth... and needs some help to get it loose and out of her mouth. So she now has permission to sit and wiggle her teeth - gross :(

Whilst in Rosewood I purchased a couple of balls of crochet cotton - I have great plans to turn them into a centrepiece for our new dining room table - which is round and wooden. I can't seem to find any suitable patterns that is to my taste or skill level so if anyone has any suggestions - feel free to leave me a message.

Otherwise I think I could have just the pattern but it is still in the stuff I mailed to myself when I was leaving Exmouth which means its in Ballarat Victoria at my best friends house. I am slowly going to have to get her to mail it to me :) The problem with that is that I am unsure if I saved the book that had the pattern I had in mind?

Anyway - Last week I managed to secure childcare places for the 3 toddlers for Mondays and Thursdays. I am looking forward to having some ME time... catching up on sleep is high on my list of priorities as is craft and the housework can wait :)

TUSAL UPDATE - JANUARY

2010-01-17T08:13:00.000+10:00

Here is the inside of my jar - you can see a strand of pink wool that came with the Aurora cabin cross stitch kit to help sort the bundles of floss...

Lots of blue orts from Aurora Cabin.

Some black from where I was gridding Aurora Cabin.

Some white from a dishcloth that I started knitting but then pulled it apart as I dropped a stitch!!

Here is a photo of my new 2010 jar... lets see how much I can fill it in a month :)

If you are interested in joining the TUSAL endevour - please click the button in my sidebar!

Aurora Cabin - after 4 hours

2010-01-04T07:46:00.002+10:00

Just a quick update with the progress I managed yesterday afternoon... It was raining thanks to a thunderstorm and the kids were engrossed in cartoons (thankyou ABC2).... I am almost finished with the navy in this section... woooo hooo :) Yes I am ready to change colours - LOL - Downfall of stitching large areas of colour I guess.

Aurora Cabin - after 2 hours

2010-01-02T16:29:00.003+10:00

Last night I was able to sit and stitch solidly for 2 hours... and this is the results. I am quite pleased with my start... admittedly I think I only achieved this much in such a small time frame since it was a large block of colour and half stitches with 6 strands....

I'm impatient for the toddlers to go to bed so that I can once again pick this up and stitch :)

Wooooo Hooooooo my MOJO appears to be back :)

Goodbye 2009 and 2010 Goals

2010-01-01T09:26:00.002+10:00

Wishing you all a safe new year 2010.

Goodbye 2009 - The year that was 2009 has to go down in history as the worst year of my life!!! I have shared with you snippets of that year but in reality its been a whole lot worse - I guess I have glammed it up a tad so that my blog wasn't all doom, gloom and misery!

BUT

I am not going to dwell on 2009 - I am going to take the positive step and move forward...embrace 2010 and do something that I normally don't do - Set myself some goals...

Firstly on a personal level...

Get my physical health under control. Inclusive to lose weight to take some of the pressure off my body...which at this stage is protesting loudly!!!
Be a better home-maker. Inclusive of housework, home decorating, mother etc
Do crafts everyday and not feel guilty about it.
Focus on the important things in my life and not dwell on the past, or what could have been?
Do some form of "mental stimulation" each day to keep my brain active. Even if this is something as simple as doing the puzzles in the weekly magazines THAT'S LIFE and TAKE 5 which have puzzles for prizes....
Do some soul searching and find the true person within? Look at my faults and weakness's and accept them.

On a Craft level

Start the "Aurora Cabin" cross-stitch kit that I received as a present from my family for mothers day 2009. I know that I will achieve this first goal as I have joined a weekly SAL here and Aurora Cabin is my nominated piece to stitch on each week. I hope to do at least 100 stitches on this each week... Last night after gridding I roughly calculated that there is over 46800 stitches in this piece. (this was calculated on the whole 10x10 squares in the piece but not counting the squares that had only a few stitches - does that make sense?)
Work on my other UFO's or WIP's not sure what to call them... Started I have "Friendship" , "Seaside Treasures", "Teddy Bear House Rules" and "House Mouse Sew busy"
Crochet some things for the house. Many years ago I was in conversation with a penpal whom I had never met and she made this comment " I can't wait to come visit you and see all the wonderful things that you have made" Sadly when I look around my house I see little evidence of my crochet. I have either always sold it or given it away. Right this second I can see a coaster... NO not a set - just one lonely coaster!! Sad :(

MERRY CHRISTMAS

2009-12-24T15:20:00.002+10:00

Its Christmas Eve in Australia... its a lovely 31C day... not too humid and cooler than we have experienced over the past few days. I have a part of our Christmas lunch in the oven (roast Chicken) as we will be having cold Chicken, Ham and salads tomorrow. Much too hot in Australia for a hot lunch :) Tomorrow morning I will make potato and pasta salads... YUMMY :)

Our day will no doubt start early... with 3 toddlers in the house I am sure they will be up at dawn to see what Santa has brought... followed by the traditional opening of the wrapped gifts.

This year with everything we have been through and our relocation from Exmouth, Western Australia to Beaumaris (Melbourne) Victoria and finally here to Laidley, Queensland... I am surprised that we have managed to pull it all together! Amazingly we have.

This time last year we were under cyclone watch... and if we knew what we knew now was in store for us we probably would have been more grateful and appreciative of what we had...2009 will be forever etched as the year from hell... consistant health issues, the trauma of losing everything during our relocation to Beaumaris, the slow rebuilding that we are now experiencing... its going to take a LONG time to recover.

The toddlers never settled into Beaumaris for some reason? But thankfully they seem to be accepting of their new home here in Laidley... maybe the fact that Laidley is warm - could have helped with that transition?

Its time for us to settle and rebuild - so lets hope that 2010 is a year for healing and rebuilding?

To all of my wonderful friends in blogland - thankyou for your friendship, for your emails and comments. I wish you all a wonderful festive season... may you enjoy a special Christmas with all of your loved ones... and please have a safe and wonderful start to 2010.

Love and Hugs Chars x

ANOTHER RELOCATION

2009-12-18T23:44:00.004+10:00

Hello dear readers - sorry I have been AWOL for so long but I have just relocated once more... I've just had good news that I have a house so am happy that we will finally be able to settle once more. I am currently in Laidley in SE QLD.

Will talk to you more soon

love and hugs Chars x

Joys of children?

2009-11-29T20:30:00.003+10:00

Well my friends - there will be no more progress photos on "friendship" by the sweetheart tree... well at least until I buy another kit...

My darling little children gave into temptation this morning and cut my pattern graph into a thousand teeny tiny pieces... sigh! I am just truely thankful that they did not cut either themselves or the fabric...

I had always planned to stitch this piece twice... but I wasn't planning on buying another kit... oh well - Liam, Eamonn and Xanthe had other plans...

So sometime down the track - When we are financially secure again I will be able to stich this again...

Kids eh?

Random photos - craft - flowers - life

2009-11-28T09:11:00.005+10:00

Hello everyone - I hope you are having a good start to the weekend?? We've decided to give it a week of intensive job hunting before we start panicking.... If Andre (or I) don't have a job by next Saturday.... we will have to consider our options as we can't live without money!

In the meantime I would like to share some photos with you...

This is a photo of a dishcloth that I made the pattern for - just made each row up as it came using some scraps of cotton. I'm thinking I should write the pattern down and maybe sell it on etsy? What do you think?? This is not the first pattern I have designed so maybe this is my Niche?

Here is a coaster that I made "just for us" from my favourite coaster pattern.

A simple dishcloth in a kiddie size (forgive the ends - just realise that I have not woven them in yet) that I will be using as a gift this Christmas with some small toiletries...

Another in an adult size for the same reasons....

Here is my finished baby gift .... I will be mailing this off to baby Amelia this week... Before Andre misplaced his job we were planning to visit today.... oh well... I hope that she gets lots of use out of it...

The kids are enjoying having daddy home to play with :) Daddy has also been enjoying spending some quality time with them. In this photo Eamonn and Xanthe are playing tickles on the trampoline with daddy... They had such fun and couldn't stop giggling!!

Here is a photo of the bunch of roses that Andre picked me for our wedding aniversary from our garden. They were just buds but are now starting to open and smell DIVINE!!!

Not sure what this flower is but the tree is located near the garage - very pretty...

This is a bottlebrush thats located along the fenceline....

I'm also not sure of what this one is called... but its in amoungst the JUNGLE near the fence and the compost heap...

Our 4th Wedding Anniversary

2009-11-27T09:05:00.003+10:00

This is my favourite photo of us from our wedding November 26th 2005.

This year we celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary... it's amazing what lengths my husband will go to to get to spend the day with me! I really shouldn't joke but am trying to stay light hearted and positive even though the situation sux big time...

On November 25th Andre was called into the CEO's office 10mins before knock off time and told that his contract was being terminated with no real reasons and to not bother to come in the next day? To say that we are in a state of shock is an understatement...its left us with a whole lot of uncertainty. After all we just moved here to Melbourne for this job...

We have made a few minor plans... none of which are set in concrete.

1) Andre contacts the consultant that got him the job in the first place - tick! She has a job local to us that she is putting his name forward for. If he gets that GREAT - we are secure for the next 6months.

2) We move closer to my parents or SE QLD which is where my parents are planning on moving to in 6months time and we both attend University. Andre has been dissattisfied with his career for a long time now... so this might be the perfect opportunity to jump ship??

With Christmas so close and mouths to feed - we need to work this out asap...Please pray that something works out for us?

Some crafty photos :)

2009-11-19T09:04:00.002+10:00

Firstly thankyou to everyone that took the time to send me an email or leave a comment on my last post.

I've decided for now I must be meant to stay at home with the toddlers - so will enjoy the luxury whilst it lasts and continue to pursue employment outside of the home for the hours that I can work... the toddlers will be off to school soon enough and I will be able to seek work during normal hours. I doubt that babysitting would be an option for me as my 3 toddlers wear me out and wear me down - ya know??

We need to $$ that my income would generate but at the moment we have a roof over our heads and food on the table and thats the most important thing!

I've decided to dedicate a part of my day (EVERYDAY) to entering competitions and treat it like a job. Competitions have always been a hobby of mine. In the past I have won lots of little things over the years, cash, cds, dvd's, game consoles, store vouchers, dvd players, hampers etc. Entering takes time and effort and its a game of chance... but if you enter enough you will win :) The old saying that you have to be in it to win it certainly applies... and for those people that whinge about never winning anything - realistically how often do you enter?

In the past month I've won $2520 in cash and store cards, a movie ticket and a box of huggies nappy pants... so realistically probably earnt more than a part-time job anyway?

Craft-wise I will continue to work on whatever takes my fancy and if I make something that has no real purpose or no-one to gift it to then I will place it into an online shop for sale... I decided after listening to your thoughts on the subject that I agreed - my craft should never be considered work as thats when the enjoyment disappears. (which is what happened years ago with my crochet)

Anyway enough of my ramblings for today and on to the promised photos....

We know SEVERAL people that are either pregnant or have just had their babies so I decided that I would make some baby cloths as gifts. I bought the pattern from here. Since the exchange rate is so good at the moment I also bought both sets of Christmas cloths and the wedding set. I just LOVE the ideal behind these cloths!!! Hoping to make some as gifts for Christmas and my brother is getting married in January - need to get those needles clacking??

Here is my first cloth - I'm on row 34 of the baby footprints :) Working out very cute :) and the pattern is written extremely well and is so easy to follow. Hopefully a finish off photo to follow really soon....

I have not done any cross stitch since living in Melbourne - but here is where I am at with "friendship" by the sweetheart tree. Sorry for the poor quality photo - the light just would not co-operate this morning.

It reads

Is th...
binds two hearts
together

I'm still loving stitching on the evenweave - but the over 1 nature of this stitching is killing my eyes!!!

And lastly - here is seaside treasures... sadly another I have not placed a stitch into in forever.... but I do think this photo has progressed since the last one I posted?

Anyway - my happy lil washing machine has sung to me that the load has finished so I had best go hang it out - have a great day wherever you are in this world.

IDEAS NEEDED?

2009-11-14T10:00:00.002+10:00

Hi Everyone...

I've been looking around for a part time job since we arrived in Victoria and as yet have not been able to find anything that suits the hours that I am available to work...

As some of you know we have 3 toddlers (aged 3 and 2) so I can't work normal hours... ie between 7am and 7pm... as those are the hours that Andre is out of the house at work. Daycare for the toddlers is not an option simply due to the high costs involved... paying approximately $90 per day per toddler would really defeat the whole purpose of working to earn extra cash?

So I need a job that I can either a) do with the children or b) that is between the hours of 7pm and 7am... and don't forget I have to sleep sometime as everyone knows you can't sleep when toddlers are around...

I've got no formal qualifications... but have experience working in kitchens, supermarkets and can type at over 65wpm. So I have applied at all the usual places that you would expect to find work at night - Macdonalds and other fast food outlets, the supermarkets etc. NOTHING! There seems to be a distinct lack of available work at the moment for those hours and I suspect its because there are lots of families that are in similar situations to ours... and of course its always cheaper to employ the teenagers for these hours...

So - I am thinking maybe I could sell my craft work... ??? I'm thinking ETSY and MADEIT ?

I set up a MADEIT store about 6 months ago - listed some dishcloths and have had no interest? If you would like to have a look you can click here.

Now my question to you dear readers...

What types of things do you feel would sell well? what craft? What site is best... etc etc etc. ?

The thing that worries me most about selling my craft work is that I am unsure how much time I can commit to making things... and many years ago I used to sell my crochet at a local market and in a small craft shop. After awhile I got so bored with making the same thing over and over that I had to take a break from crocheting as I simply wasn't enjoying it anymore and I have only this past year been able to sit and crochet again... though when crocheting I still get alot of those feelings...

Although its fast and it looks great it just doesn't make my heart sing?

Please comment/email and give me your honest thoughts and opinions - thanks :)

Finally some photos :)

2009-11-10T19:14:00.003+10:00

Hi everyone... sorry that I have taken forever to get back to you with some photos. Its hard to believe that we have been living in Victoria a whole month!! During that time we have had our ups and downs. We are still settling into our new environment on so many levels and we have still to replace 90% of our possessions and rebuild our lives. I also admit there is still one set of RTA (ready to assemble) drawers to assemble.... after doing one set of these I just can't face them!! LOL Maybe they will still be sitting there when my dad visits in December (grin - love you daddy if you are reading this!) We also have some stuff on order that he will probably get the job of assembling too...?

BUT we are functioning on a day to day level and I guess thats what is most important. Although I am not promising - I am going to try to post a bit more often... dare I even say daily? We'll see how things pan out - like I said I am not promising :)

Anyway - here are some random photos of our house/yard/street and our time in Victoria so far... (I had to download them from my husbands facebook page so the quality is not that great sorry)

Here is a photo of us enroute to see my best friend Brooke in Ballarat. Some kind passerby offered to take the photo for us :) Left to right is Eamonn holding my hand and Andre.... Liam and Xanthe are in the pram. Photo is taken between Etihad Stadium and Southern Cross Station...

We caught the V-line train up... which travels at 160km per hour - not that you notice as its VERY smooth.

It was great to see Brooke and her family again... I have missed her so much and it was like we never left :) We had a brilliant time - rather too much to drink but hey :)

Here is a photo of me at Southern Cross Railway Station!

Here is a photo of our house :) We are living in a LEAFY suburb in Melbourne called Beaumaris. We are across the road from an oval that has cricket and footy played on it (we can sit on the porch and watch) and there is a playground over there that the kids have really been enjoying :) We are also 500M from the beach, 500m from 2 sets of shops and a bus route to Southland (shopping center previously mentioned!)

This is our street... well our house faces this street but our address is that of the side street that you can vaguely see (behind the tree)

This one is of the backyard standing at the garage looking towards the house. You can see some of our gardens... lots of plants, trees and flowers :)

This photo is taken from the back porch walking towards the shed and clothesline. I look out the kitchen and dining room windows on all this greenery! Andre took this photo one day it was raining - after living in Western Australia for so long seeing rain was a novelty - for the first day at least - haha! Then we started to remember how damp and cold it can be... esp when we were having overnight temperatures of 6c!

This week the weather is lovely... Topping 36 today :) Much more what we are used to!!

We've had a bit of a lighting issue in the house... all of the fixed lights in the living area are USELESS... BUT I think I have it sorted now so I hope to be back to doing crafts asap... I feel like I am going CRAZY!

Anyway - take care - I'm off to catch up on some blog reading and I will chat again soon! Hugs to all!! xx

A new project

2009-10-17T09:45:00.002+10:00

Yesterday whilst we were out and about I spotted LINCRAFT inside the shopping centre :)

For those of you that don't reside in Australia LINCRAFT is a SUPERMARKET devoted to Craft · Stationery · Fabrics & Quilting · Haberdashery · Home Furnishing · Knitting & Crochet · Needlecraft · Patterns.

As Andre had ask me the night before to knit him a scarf in his favourite football colours... I had a great excuse to go have a sticky beak!! It was just as I remembered it :) I had a VERY quick browse and obtained the yarn and needles to make said scarf and also picked up some nice big fluffy bath towels that were on special.

LINCRAFT has always been one of my favourite shops and its the type of place that if I want to go window shopping well - I head in there!! They always have lots of free project sheets and eye candy for the crafter!

I will post some photos when I find my camera - Its somewhere in the stuff that is yet to be unpacked... I could use Andre's camera but his flash decided to die somewhere between Exmouth and here... so the photo quality would sux...

New House :)

2009-10-16T21:31:00.002+10:00

Hi all...

Long time no chat :) But as you may have figured out I have been busy relocating :) Yes I am typing to you from my new house in Beaumaris Melbourne Victoria :)

Its been a long few weeks... and I won't go into it too much but let me tell you a few of the events.

We left Exmouth on Saturday the 10th of October after selling all of our worldly possessions and leaving with just a few suitcases containing our clothes and a few precious memories.

We met our new landlords on Monday and obtained the keys to the house then went furniture shopping. We picked out our house load of furniture and the neccessary electricals (fridge/washing machine) and then had to camp out in the house and wait for the deliveries...

We got the fridge and washing machine delivered on Wednesday and the furniture arrived yesterday... in flat pack boxes. Everything is in a box! I could not believe that they delivered to us flat packed things like chests of drawers and breakfast bar stools!!! Everything is put together with allen keys - and nightmarish instructions that are in every language BUT English... and you need to have an engineering degree to be able to figure the jigsaw puzzle out! We tackled the kids beds first, then ours ... and then the dining setting and still have 1 dining room chair to go... 2 bar stools... and 4 sets of drawers! We had the best nights sleep last night in a long time ... could have just been that we were exhausted! We will see tonight?

Today we looked at each other and decided that we couldn't face another allen key... so we went shopping instead :) My new favourite passtime!! The shopping centre is HUGE :) 750M long and 4 stories high.

After living in an area with no shops for so long - I am in HEAVEN!!!

Anyway - just wanted to touch base with you all - say HI and that I will be getting back into the habit of posting on a regular basis once my home internet connection is up and running next week sometime.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Hugs xxxxx

PAY IT FORWARD!!!

2009-10-07T13:16:00.002+10:00

I won a PIF from CJ of Tea and Stitches It sounded like fun, so I signed up. So now it's my turn to Pay It Foward!

This is so easy. No sewing involved, and you get 365 days to send out your PIF's :) The "rules" are as follows:

1. I'll send no less than 5 stitching related items per person within the next 365 days.
2. Items can be DMC, other threads, stitching needles, straight pins, buttons, scissors, ribbons, etc. - a combination of items such as 3 threads, 1 pack of straight pins and 1 pack of stitching needles or just 5 threads.
3. The items must be new and not used. (Send things you'd be happy to receive.)
4. If you win, you must be willing to post this PIF on your blog and do the same for at least 2 people.

If you are interested in Paying It Forward, please comment on this post with your email address so that I can contact you. I will PIF three readers. If there are more than three comments, the names will go into a drawing to determine the lucky ones :)

As you all know I am in the process of moving... so I will announce the PIF winner when my internet connection is re-established - probably around the end of October - or beginning of November (gasp if its that long)

So what you waiting for? Leave a comment and get in the draw :)

Dad's progress..

2009-09-29T15:36:00.002+10:00

Dad had his cancer removal operation last Monday - Things didn't go to plan and he ended up in Critical care for a bit... but I am pleased to report that hes pregressed so much that they have released him from hospital today :) YAY! The surgeon is confident that they removed all of the cancer and it had not spread to the lympth nodes or any other organs. Not entirely sure what the next step is but I just wanted to say thankyou to everyone whom has been praying and thinking of us! I appreciate it - as does my dad.

Hugs xxx

2009-09-20T13:22:00.005+10:00

With everything thats been happening in my personal life I have not been doing much stitching (or crochet)... stress certainly is a mojo killer :( I also admit that I have *SOMEHOW* became totally addicted to facebook and the silly mindless games there. I think its became addiction solely because of those games - you can sit and procrastinate, time waste and don't really have to put much brainpower into it?

Anyway - here is an update on Seaside Treasures. I have not stitched on this since August sometime but it still looks to have progress from the last picture I posted on here...

Whilst on holidays I also had a new start. This is the sweetheart tree's friendship :) This is my first ever attempt at stitching on evenweave and trust me to pick something that has a lot of over one stitching and yup you guessed it - I started in the middle with the over one stitches. So far I am liking stitching on the evenweave even if my eyes are not appreciating the over one nature of the stitching....

Where do I start??? part 2

2009-09-11T22:16:00.005+10:00

In Perth we stayed in a lovely holiday house in the Northern Beaches called Carramar.... The property was called "THE LITCHFIELD" and if you are after a lovely place to stay look them up here

Our 8 days in Perth was overshadowed by reality.... The afternoon that we arrived we got the confirmation that my dad definately had bowel cancer. He is booked to have it surgically removed on September 21st...

Andre flew to Melbourne on the Wednesday night to attend job interviews in Melbourne... He only managed to attend 1 interview out of the 4 that he was booked for as he was involved in a car accident in Melbourne on the Friday and ended up spending most of the day in hospital having CT Scans... He still has some tingly sensations in his arm and is sore... he flew back to Perth on that Friday night...

On the Saturday morning (after getting 2 hours sleep from picking Andre up) I drove my 2 eldest daughters Jacinda (15) and Micayla (9) to the airport and put them on a plane to Sydney. They have moved to live with my parents for a few months until we relocate...

We left Perth on Tuesday morning and had a lovely drive back to Geraldton.... We had booked the same accomadation for the return trip... but decided to ask if an upgrade was available... so for an extra $70 we upgraded to a lovely brick cabin :)

On Wednesday we received the phone call that we had been waiting for.... Andre was offered the position in Melbourne with the company he managed to have the job interview with. YAY! We are extremely happy about this as it means he managed to secure a permanent position!

In this photo you see a VERY happy me texting friends/family the good news :)

On the Thursday morning we headed back home.... We had already decided that we didn't want to travel the whole trip and would stay overnight in Carnarvon if we could get accomadation... Needless to say we were maybe 100km into the drive when I hit a large metalic object that was sitting in the middle of the road at approx 111kmph. I had no chance to miss it... as there was a ditch on 1 side...or an oncoming car... I lined it up as best I could so as to not hit it with a tyre and it went *BANG* We stopped the car when it was safe to do so.... and as it was leaking fluid of some description I grabbed the toddlers and headed to a safe distance.... Luckily for us a roadtrain stopped and offered assistance...

In this photo - the roadtrain and my husband checking under the car...

In this photo... my 3 darling toddlers whom remained calm and sat and played in the wildflowers on the side of the road with mummy at a safe distance to the car....

Here we all are in front of the Big road train after it was declared that the fluid was water!

We then drove the car to the next roadhouse - which was the billabong... see previous post for a photo!! We had to arrange for a tow truck to come for us with a hire car from Carnarvon... what a nightmare... and expense!! We decided the best option was to spend the night at the roadhouse... haha what an adventure that was... As the rooms were in a donga and only contained a bunk with a single bed on top and king single on the bottom... for 5 of us??

Luckily for us - the BILLABONG also has a pub... which done a really nice feed :)

Here I am sitting outside the room - all snuggled up in the doona as it was damn cold. Don't ya think the room key is cute?

The next day heading back towards home.... here is a pic of Andre at the edge of the North West... the 26th parallel....

Driving into Carnarvon..... We were so close to home :) ( a whole 370km away!!!)

Now we are very busy with the removal. We have made the heart-breaking decision to sell all of our belongings and start over... so most of what we are doing is sorting stuff to either a) sell at a garage (yard) sale or tossing stuff to the dump.

I have mailed most of the yarn/cross stitch stash to myself... :) A friend of mine has offered to receive any parcels I want to send to myself... since at this stage we are having massive problems finding a house to rent in Melbourne.... Seems the real estate agents over there will not let you place applications on properties without viewing them first... makes it really difficult for out of staters!! Worst case scenario... I live with his dad for a bit with the kids and Andre stays with a friend of his dad's gf close to his new place of employment.... not a scenario I am going to enjoy....and to be honest I am freaking out big-time in advance about the whole situtation!!

To be continued.....

Where do I start??? part 1

2009-09-11T21:51:00.002+10:00

Sorry that I have been missing in action for the last month or so.... BUT alot has happened in real life...

I forgot to tell you all that we were heading on holdays on August 22nd... We left at 6am and headed from Exmouth Western Australia via car to Geraldton Western Australia. (a distance of approximately 800km) It takes approx 3-3.5hrs of driving to hit our nearest town Carnarvon... and from there was unchartered territory as we had previously flown between Perth and Exmouth. (on that note after driving it - I am ALWAYS FLYING!)

This is the road in between Carnarvon and Geraldton.... Long straights of desert sands....

More straights....

First sign of civilisation - wooo hooo a roadhouse :) This is Wooramel Roadhouse. We bought much needed coffee here and stretched legs.

Some pretty wildflowers on the side of the highway......

We drove past the next roadhouse (as no one needed to empty their bladders) which was the overlander... and stopped at the billabong.... here we had lunch and coffee.

We arrived in Geraldton around 3pm... We were very glad to get out of the car and into our accomadation. I was VERY disappointed in our accomadation... we thought that we had purchased 2 nights in a chalet.... it ended up being 2 nights in a beach shack :( Very rustic!! On the Monday morning Andre had a phone job interview so the kids and I hung out at the shopping centre till he was done :)

We started the drive to Perth.... Lets continue this in Part 2 as the photos are not behaving themselves tonight :)

relaxing afternoon of stitching....

2009-08-10T13:34:00.003+10:00

Yesterday afternoon whilst the kids were playing quietly I had a relaxing afternoon stitching...

I managed to finally finish off the section I was working on and move to the next section - decided to move across to the water - it seemed like a natural progression....

Here is a close up of the detail of the houses / Lighthouse

The Cross stitch as a whole so far....

And some more progress inclusive of the water / sand.

I need another update :) As after taking this photo I have almost filled in all of the water... Guess I will have to snaffle hubbies camera again soon and share... or I will wait till I have this section is complete. Whatever happens first I guess?

I have really found my MOJO again for this piece... I admit it got lost for a few nights where I was really forcing myself to add a few stitches to that cliff-face...

This is the first time I have ever added the back-stitching as I progress and am liking the effort/effect - as it means when I finish stitching on a section - it is REALLY finished if you know what I mean??

Happy 2nd Birthday Xanthe - August 9th

2009-08-10T13:08:00.005+10:00

Sadly my little princess is no longer a baby! She turned 2 yesterday August 9th. We are often amazed at how grown up she is.... Her speech is very clear and that of a 3-4 year old and she is definately on par with her twin brothers. I often get asked if I have triplets!!

Cuddles with her new baby :)

Discovering that baby cries, laughs and talks - precious giggles.

Look mummy - princess shoes :) Amazingly she can walk around the house in her high heels (I would have killed myself or broken my ankle by now!)

We love you little princess - please take your sweet time growing up? please?

Shameless plug - ebay!

2009-08-06T10:49:00.002+10:00

At the moment I am selling alot of my crochet and craft magazines on ebay...

If anyone is interested in having a look you can find the stuff I have listed here!

I will post worldwide and do postage discounts for more than one item.

Thanks for looking

Hugs xx

Beginnings of my LUCY@Attic24 inspired bag

2009-07-28T12:50:00.003+10:00

I was tidying some stuff back into my craft cupboard the other night - the one where all of my stash is stashed... I noticed that I had a few postbag packages full of items I had purchased off ebay and from other sources and I figured that since I was tidying up I may as well unpack these and put them away properly. I discovered this cotton that I had purchased a few months back with the intention of making myself a LUCY inspired bag...and if you would like to make your very own Lucy inspired bag you can find her pattern here. I love the colours of this cotton - its worsted weight (sugar n cream) called Summer Splash. Here is a picture of my progress after a couple of hours crocheting whilst watching a movie with Hubby...

Finished picture coming soon - as this project is making my heart flutter with happiness and excitement... strange but true - something I really have not felt for a long time!!

Give away :)

2009-07-25T13:46:00.001+10:00

Jan is celebrating the birth of her grand-daughter with a great giveaway - you can find it here. Go take a look and join the fun :)

TUSAL PIC * STITCHY UPDATE 6 * KNITTING PROGRESS

2009-07-25T12:46:00.003+10:00

Firstly I want to say a huge thankyou for all of the comments/emails that I have received in regards to my dad... I am trying to stay strong and positive that everything is going to be OK... and I will talk to you about whats going on if and when I know myself! Hopefully it will be good news of sorts!

Anyway onto some fun stuff and progress pictures :)

Here is my TUSAL pictures :) Sorry I have not updated for a few months - I either forget or am sans camera at the right time of month. This month I am a few days late but hey better late than never - right??

This photo is peeking into the top of the jar - you can see some wrappers from the yarn I have been using on various projects, Hubbies Blanket, Dishcloths etc.. and some threads from seaside treasures....

here is a side view
and another side view :) Certainly looks interesting ???
Here is my stitching update 6 on seaside treasures - its certainly coming along nicely and I can see some real progress in this photo. I will be happy to have this little section complete so I can move to a different section... Which I think will be the water and the boats or the shell below - not sure yet :)

Remember I mentioned that I had started a new knitting project? This is a jumper for the littlest princess :) These photos are my progress on the back.. the first 2 photos were from the night I started it and the last photo is my night 2 progress... its growing really quickly as the red yarn you can see is the armhole markers. The secret to it growing so quickly is that its knitted on big needles and uses 12ply doubled :) The pattern is from QUICK KNITS FOR KIDS - its a patons publication that I purchased ? Approximately year 2000? As I knitted this very jumper for Miss 9 when she was a toddler!

Here I am hiding behind my knitting :) Very proud of the progress of night one's efforts :)

Here is where it stands after 2 nights of knitting ....
Hmmm - I am so torn - I want to knit - I want to stitch... So each night I flip a coin to see what I will be doing :) Do you have this dilemma? or do you only work on one project at a time?

Good News / Bad News

2009-07-24T12:57:00.002+10:00

Firstly - thankyou to everyone that sent me emails of support or left comments. I appreciate your friendship so much :)

Monday we had some good news in that my hubbies job is secure for at least the next 6 months... Part of the bad news is that we will be faced with the same types of decisions in 6 months time ??? So there is still uncertainty looming.

We are also going to have to be making some rather HUGE decisions about Miss 15's schooling - As next year she will be entering into Year 11 and will need some stability... and changing schools will not be an option ??

Sorry for the delay in letting you all know...but our internet has been mucking up for the last week. Its been very hit and miss as to whether the adsl connects. Bigpond (our server) is supposedly sending us a new modem as ours was still under warrenty (phew) but it will take at least 10 business days for it to arrive. COUNT THEM 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 Business days... hmm!

We bought a pre-paid modem to use whilst hubby was in hospital and for holidays etc but have found it to be FRUSTRATING to say the least. It takes ages to connect - then says there is no signal and when it does work it CHEWS through the credit... Totally useless!

Me being me - I decided I had enough and decided I would pull the modem to pieces to see if I could get it inwork - by this stage I was getting particularly desperate.... we all know we are addicted and you start having withdrawels after a bit. I was sooo totally LOST!

BINGO - its working - Maybe I missed my calling - Maybe I should go and get an IT degree? But I think they might frown at my method (I admit to throwing it at the fence out of pure frustration then picking it up plugging it in and going oh my goodness its connecting!!)

I won't hold my breath that the connection will hold - but for now - yay - I am online!!

Now comes the bad news - You all thought that you had read the bad news - unfortunately not :(

I received a phone call from my mum on Wednesday afternoon... the second *MUM* flashed onto the caller ID I had this feeling of dread and I wanted to run screaming and not answer the phone... as I knew that my dad had a doctors appointment Wednesday with a specialist.

Anyway - I answered the phone and mum said the words I did not want to hear - The specialist said that your dad has tested positive for bowel cancer :(

He is now on a priority one waiting list to find out the extent of the disease... to find out if its curable or not...

DAMN I HATE UNCERTAINTY :(

Back to feeling blue....

2009-07-18T13:03:00.002+10:00

This time round I have a valid reason for feeling so down... sigh!

Life has has a habit of biting us in the butt :(

Every time we feel like we are getting ahead or that life will return to normal - something else happens and after a while its really hard to stay positive.

When hubby returned to work after being so sick - his boss took him to one side and told him that his job is under threat and that they would discuss it in depth in 2 weeks time (deadline for this meeting is this coming meeting at 2pm Australian Western Standard time) and the countdown clock in my brain is ticking... tick tock tick tock. Its been endless days of waiting already and Monday is going to be a really hard to deal with.

Hubby and I have gone through every possible outcome for this meeting... and we have our worst case scenarios all figured out inclusive of what we will do. The worst case scenario will be that we sell all of our worldly goods and possessions....and return to Victoria - landing first at his dad's place in Geelong and then starting a new life. Although I can deal with losing our stuff - its just possessions and nothing is irreplacable - and for some of our appliances - they will need to be replaced soon anyway so its no biggie... but its the thought of things like the kids losing all of their favourite toys, losing my *STASH*, losing some of the newer things that we have just bought... thats distressing to say the least.

Under any other circumstance I would have jumped at the chance to get out of this town and back to Victoria... or any of the Eastern States of Australia. To be closer to my friends and family... but not like this. So I just want to say - be careful what you wish for!!

Understandably I have not been able to concentrate on much craft wise... I have started a new knitted jumper for the littlest princess ( the last one I started is in a bag as a UFO as when I finished the back I discovered that my tension must have been off and its 4 sizes too big for her? A finish in the future I guess? or a bin job if worst case scenario happens) and my seaside treasures has had a few stitches added - I promise to update with some photos asap - my camera is still awol and hubbies has flat batteries (just put them on the charger) so on that note - take care and I will chat with you all asap. HUGs cause I need one :)

my little business venture!

2009-07-09T00:46:00.002+10:00

For a while now I have felt a certain dissatisfaction with my life and have wondered what direction my life is taking??

Do I get a job?

Do I finish my University Studies?

Do I just be contented as a stay at home mummy?

No matter how much I tried - I couldn't come up with an answer that didn't stress and depress me.

Today - I decided that I wanted to open an online store to sell my craft work. It will not only make me a little bit of pocket money - but it will give me direction and something to work towards. So without further ado - here is the link to my little store :)

Madeit is a site similar to etsy - but exclusively for Australians to list items. Both international and Aussies can purchase items and all prices are in Australian dollars.

At the moment I just have 2 listings of dishcloths that I made tonight - but I will be listing more things as I get the chance to make them.

Custom orders are always welcome :)

Off to make something else to list - please leave me a comment with what you think?

Stitchy update 5

2009-07-09T00:38:00.002+10:00

I figured whilst I had Andre's camera in my hands tonight I would take another quick photo of last nights stitchy progress... I worked on it for around an hour - maybe? I can still see lots of progress :)

A little stitchy update - Seaside treasures update

2009-07-05T18:07:00.004+10:00

Please forgive me for not ironing this prior to taking the photo but I wanted to grab the opportunity to use Andre's camera whilst I could :) Here is the latest update pic for Seaside Treasures... I can notice the difference between the last update and now and that makes me feel good since I really have not had alot of time to stitch lately.

Andre's blankie - progress pic 1

2009-07-05T14:59:00.003+10:00

For the past year ?? Andre has been nagging me to make him a crochet rug. I started collecting green and blue squares from swaps and wishes.... and about a week before he got sick (when our weather got cooler) I decided I would start to crochet what I had together to see how many squares I still needed...

This picture is of the blankie and my 3 men snuggling under it on the couch watching tele the week before hubby got sick... It still needs squares added to it - but for now its big enough to be a snuggle rug on the couch.

Andre took his blankie with him on his recent trip to hospital - It was a source of comfort for him to remind him of home and how much we love him.

Lots of photos to share... Part 2

2009-07-05T13:45:00.003+10:00

The following photos are from a trip to the park - I think this was the day that I hurt my back!

This is a photo of TWIN 1 - Liam enjoying the slide :)

This is a photo to TWIN 2 - Eamonn enjoying the slide

Here is a photo of a very determined Xanthe climbing the ladder.....

Yay we reached the top....

WEEEEEE!! down the slide we go!

Once she done it once - she was up and down too many times to count. I panic every time she attempts that ladder though as its designed more for older children. There are some days (often lately) that I forget that my little princess is not even 2 yet!!

Lots of photos to share...part 1

2009-07-05T13:09:00.005+10:00

I was looking through some photos that hubby has stored on his laptop and decided that I would share some with you :)

This first picture is of our cat Mischief... I miss him so much - as if I was lonely, sick or feeling low he would come snuggle in bed with me at night. He went missing approximately 3 weeks ago and we suspect that the man that lives over the back fence has kidnapped him and disposed of him - whether he murdered him or dumped him... We have no proof and will never know.

It just seems really funny that Mischief suddenly disappears a few days after the man over the back fence lodged a complaint to the shire ranger about Mischief jumping the back fence and scratching some of his seedlings out. Legally he was supposed to trap the cat and give it to the ranger who would have then issued us a fine and upon payment we would have got our cat back.

We love you mischief and hope that if you were dumped you find your way back home ASAP!

This a photo taken of our backyard during summer 2008-2009 (I can tell by the toys that it was taken after Christmas) It shows our new outdoor setting and the pindan sandpit where the kids play in the red soil!

This is the front of our house taken when we were on BLUE ALERT in preparation for Cyclone DOMINIC in January. Cyclone Dominic crossed the coastline at ONSLOW which is approx 100KM North of here.

This is a photo of one of Exmouth's many Emus. Its not uncommon for them to be strolling down the middle of the road! This one was at our front gate scavenging through our bin - yep lovely! You can see another emu in the background heading our way... and you can also see the lovely view from the front of our house :) of the range!

Here is a photo of Jacinda hand-feeding the same emu some bread. This was a big mistake as after that they kept hanging around... picking stuff out of our bins... making a big mess and generally making a nuisance of themselves. It also makes getting in and out of the cars a bit tricky as they can be quite agressive!

Thankyou!

2009-07-04T23:17:00.004+10:00

Hello everyone...

Thankyou to everyone that sent me a message - whether it be privately or in the comments... I appreciate them so much.

You will all be pleased to read that I am feeling much happier and I think that my self-imposed break away from blogging and some aspects of the net has helped immensely despite whats been happening in my world!... I also made a decision that I was not ready to resume my studies at University. After I made that decision I felt as if a weight had been lifted from my shoulders!!

My back is FINALLY better though every now and then whilst doing some household chores it will start aching but I just stop what I am doing and rest and then continue... I guess I have learnt to live with it.?

I would have been back MUCH sooner... but we have had lots going on here...

The 3 major things are:

My laptop died on me - LIKE EKK!!! Its not even 12 months old (and a replacement on my original purchase) Luckily for me hubby is loaning me his whilst mine is at the shop getting fixed. I am never ever going to buy a dell computer ever again as we have had nothing but trouble with both of our laptops since buying them... I am so grateful that we expended and bought the complete care warranties.

One of these years I am going to start remembering to back up all my files??

I also can't find my camera - this is stressing me immensely as I had a heap of photos on there ready to share with you all when I was ready to return to blogging. I know that one of the 3 toddlers has had it - I suspect Liam as he has a fascination with the cameras - and we have many many LIAM shots to prove it inclusive of self portraits and pictures of his siblings in crime :) Now I just need to find his hidey hole... and of course if I ask him I get this blank look and a wry grin... sigh! I guess it will show up?

The most important reason why I have not been back to talk to you all sooner - or even visit with you and read your blogs is that my husband Andre has been extremely sick...

Last Saturday (June 27th) he was air-lifted to Perth from our little town Exmouth Western Australia. They sent him down to the Sir Charles Gardiner hospital in Perth and I am extremely grateful for the staff that looked after him so well. It was extremely nerve wracking for me to be stuck here in Exmouth and have no knowledge of what was going on... The nurses were lovely, caring and informative when I called and spoke to them but it still wasn't the same as being there to hold his hand!! He returned home on Thursday much to my relief... hes still not 100% - Hes tired, washed out and his colour is still not right - but hes alive and hes home.

We have to follow up the cause of what made him sick and find out test results and future treatments etc when we visit Perth for holidays in August.

Speaking of our holiday in Perth :) We have booked our holiday house and its all systems go :) We will be staying here and I am really looking forward to it. I am not looking forward to the 17 hour drive each way with the kids - but am trying not to think about that :)

Anyway I am off to bed - its only early 9:39pm but all of my sleepless nights last week are catching up with me. Take Care and I promise to talk to you soon... Stay tuned a giveaway will be soon :)

June 7 already?

2009-06-07T14:23:00.002+10:00

HI everyone... Sorry I have been once again missing in action.

I have no idea where time is disappearing too... all I know is that I am feeling rather BLUE at the moment - kinda the same shade as cookie monster or grover! Except I don't have their happy persona's.

Lets see whats been occupying my time...? Illness and pain :(

I have spent the last week flat on my back doing NOTHING much at all... how depressing? Last weekend we took the kidlets to the park and I somehow managed to damage L5S1 of my back... which left me hardly being able to walk....let alone look after my family. Hubby had to take carer's leave to look after us all.

The week before I had a really bad dose of the flu... I was so sick and I spent most of that week sleeping. Everyone kept making *OINK* jokes and asking me if I had came out in any *RASHERS* which although funny - isn't really - Since I couldn't possibly have had swine flu...So I have not been having a good run - no wonder I am feeling BLUE?

My next post will be a more cheerful one - I am planning on hosting a little giveaway since I have hit a magic number of followers - 25. So stay tuned :)

My litte creation :)

2009-05-22T19:54:00.004+10:00

The other day I was reading this blog and I was inspired by her creations... I had been wanting to create a little container to display my pretty home-made dishcloths on the sink so that they are easily accessable and also on display :)

So - I tried my hand at designing my own and I am pretty pleased with what I

came up with... Next I just have to fill it full of pretty new cloths :)

What do you think??

Update on 2 projects and more mail....

2009-05-19T00:20:00.003+10:00

Here is my 3rd progress picture for my current W.I.P Seaside Treasures :) The sky is now completely finished - damn was I glad about that - I was so sick of stitching with 3 shades of blue :) Towards the end - in the last grid I was counting down the squares :) Ha-Ha - Very sad :) I was so excited to thread some red onto my needle and start on the lighthouse :)

I am still loving stitching on this so much - Some days I wish that I didn't have other crafts that also called to me - as I would love to spend more time stitching...especially on this piece :) Sorry about the crinkles - I thought whilst I had the camera out tonight I would take some progress pics for you... and way too lazy to get the iron out at this time of night!!

Next comes the progress on the littlest princess's cardigan. I am roughly 5cm away from having this piece (the back) finished :)

and finally some more mail :) Hubby ordered me the Aurora Cabin cross stitch kit for mothers day... it finally arrived today :) This will be my next cross stitch start :)

It looks like its going to be a BIG project and a bit complicated - this will be my first project that has blending filament... I hope I am up for the challenge?

A freebie from the company - I presume since he spent over a certain $$ amount? A cutting board, cutter and a scrapbook retro tag maker...

You may have gathered that I found the camera?? Yep it was in the bag that we take with us to the beach etc... that holds the endless bottles of water, the sunscreen etc. I don't know why I didn't think to look in there before? DUH! I have lots more things to share with you so stay tuned for more posts to follow... just not tonight - its 10:37pm and past my bedtime - ha- ha!

So on that note - Night night and I will talk to you soon!!!

Char's Crafty Days

Happy New Year

Merry Christmas Everyone

long lost hello?

Some Crafting...

Home Made Pizza Pockets

Recipe anyone?

Hello

Bored...tired..lonely..lost?

GOOD NEWS!!

week 3

Disappointed

Happy Mothers Day - 2011

weigh in - week one

weight loss - gulp

New digs - New crochet project

Positive things...

Reality that bites....(having a bit of a whinge)

Holiday Mode

BIRTHDAY GIFT CRAFTING

TUSAL

Where to start?

Back to Aurora Cabin

TUSAL

Last post of 2010

How did I go with my 2010 resolutions?

missing in action?

Merry Christmas

Buttons anyone?

Sharing a cute moment

Scarf from Miss Santa - WIP

Christmas Craft Projects

Craft Fair

Squares - Squares and more Squares

Geisha Update No.5

LATE TUSAL UPDATE

Knitted Star Cloth

Crochet Cloths for Donna

Geisha Update No.4

Geisha progress pic 3

I am in SHOCK!!!

Lazy Sunday Afternoon

A New Start

a solution and some crafting in progress

Happy Birthday Little princess

Update on us...

Stitchy update - Aurora Cabin...

HAPPY 4TH BIRTHDAY TWINNIES

Quick Thanks

Trials and tribulations....

Lightning

I designed a crochet pattern!!!

what I have been up to last week....

Birthday gift reveal...

TUSAL

Stitchy update

Hubby's painting...

A*W*O*L

Giveaway

Aussies - guess what??

Another Aurora Cabin update

His and hers wash-cloths

New Stash - Pretty Teacup - Another afternoon of stitching...

Aurora Cabin update and bits...

TUSAL UPDATE - JANUARY

Aurora Cabin - after 4 hours

Aurora Cabin - after 2 hours

Goodbye 2009 and 2010 Goals

MERRY CHRISTMAS

ANOTHER RELOCATION

Joys of children?

Random photos - craft - flowers - life

Our 4th Wedding Anniversary

Some crafty photos :)

IDEAS NEEDED?

Finally some photos :)

A new project

New House :)

PAY IT FORWARD!!!

Dad's progress..

AWO*L

Beginnings of my LUCY@Attic24 inspired bag