Welcome back old blog...

In the process of starting Patrick his very own blog this week, I have rediscovered this wonderful old friend :)

I still have some of the projects in progress embarrassingly enough, but I have done a couple of other small things lately which I will endeavour to share :)

Hopefully this will give me a little inspiration to feed my soul by crafting, it really does bring relief to my waaaaaaay too stressed head :)

And please do check out Patrick's blog - it is patricksrecipebox.blogspot.com :)

Sue xx

Some more ballet pics

Well it is less than two weeks til Christmas!!! Completely unorganised here, I have not even bought a single present yet! Might have to up the game a bit next week I think - but that means braving the shops and I HATE shopping! Might have to do what I can online ASAP. Plans of making some stuff for Christmas are fast flying out the window as well, because time is running short, but at the very least I would like to make Patrick and Maia a Christmas outfit, so I need to get cracking with that.

Today though we are going to make some Christmas cards, I got some cute pics of the kids last weekend all Christmassy after we put up the lights. I was pretty happy with my job of doing the lights too, all things considered. I must admit though, I did prefer Christmas lights when I could be the one who 'helps' then watches, rather than doing it all lol - especially when it is 34 degress on putting up day, but that is part of the single mama gig, so it's all good.

And cos I am just such a proud mama of my ballet stars, some more ballet pics to share :)

xx

my dodgy blogginess

Well once again I have let this lovely little blog down and my busy life has overtaken it. I can't believe I started this a year ago now! I could spend the next hour updating it, but I really should do that later and do some work now, but I will add some pics just so it is not total blog ignorance happening :)

These are from Patrick and Maia's first ballet concert. Maia was the teeniest one in the whole show and loved the stage so much, one twirl was not enough, she wanted to do lots of twirls and stay in the centre of the stage lol. Patrick is the only boy in the entire dance company, he was one of the little piggies and was very very cute!

This one below is from the kindy spring fair, so beautiful :)

I will try and post again before the end of the week (I really will Ness I promise :p)

xx

My poor neglected blog...

Well I knew it has been a while since I last posted, but I was horrified today to work out that it has been two months!!

I guess that is what happens when work absolutely, completely takes over your life so you barely feel like you can even breathe and since this blog is pretty much a work free zone and there has been nothing but work - not much to report haha.

My no stress motto for 2008 has been well and truely out the window for the last few months and there have been many days with the sense of an impending heart attack, so a few days at Fingal is on the cards when I get back home.

I've left my beautiful kiddies three times in the last two months, which is no fun. Luckily they have been much better on this trip, Maia was not happy with me being away for almost three weeks, but I just found out that Patrick has bitten another child at school twice in the last week, so they are concerned about him. I will be majorly working on getting some stability into their lives when I get back (plus some for my own life would be nice lol) and hopefully things can settle down a bit. They have been through a bit in the last six months and I am feeling a huge amount of mummy guilt from being away so much :(

Anyway, no real purpose for this post other than to not neglect the blog for any longer and I have another hour to kill at Heathrow before I get on my plane to come home. I have lots of pics to catch up on, my awesome birthday cake creation for Patrick's birthday, some very very very beautiful nappies to show off and maybe a couple of other bits and pieces - I will do it soon, this blog is a lovely escape from work and an escape is desperately needed!

Sue xx

This is one for her 21st!

Yep that is Maia, asleep on the toilet floor!!!! Poor thing I just had to get these pics in before she was moved.

Apparantly what happened was that she was going to do a poo and got a bit tired, so thought she would lie down and she must have fallen asleep ROFL!

I almost feel a bit mean sharing this, but it's just so damn funny I couldn't help myself hehe. At least she was on the mat so a tiny bit comfy.

xx

Life lesson for today...

I learnt a very valuable lesson today..... if you are getting a passport photo done, make sure you blow your nose before you get it done! Yep that's right, I have a passport photo with a booger showing clearly at the bottom of my nose!!!! I was in such a rush I didn't really look that closely until after I had sent the application off, but surely the chick at the photo shop would have noticed?? Or perhaps it was her way of making the day more exciting or something?!?!?!

Thank god it was just a photo just for a visa application and not for an actual passport so I don't have the horror of seeing it for the next 10 years! I am sure the staff at the chinese embassy will have a good laugh today...

Sue x

The joys of parenting...

Yesterday was one of those days. You know the type you nearly wish you could rewind and start over.

Being a lazy arse and because it was freezing I snuggling in bed with Maia til 8am, which wasn't a good start, because by the time we dragged ourselves out of bed Patrick was bored, as he had been up for an hour and a half watching telly (the no tv challenge is out the window).

I had to go to Newy to do a few things, but all my morning jobs get ready to take stuff to newy jobs were a total mission and some didn't end up getting done, I was running too late to drop into see the girls at the cloth swap which was a bit of a bummer and forgot to take stuff with me arrgghh. Plus because we were late we had to drop and run at Leah's instead of having a play, so the kiddy boredom increased.

A nice surprise was bumping into Vanessa, Logan, Fletcher and Elliana at Kotara, so we had a quick lunch with them (was very impressed at Patrick's insistence to have healthy food instead of 'skanky M' - my subliminal messages must be having an affect :p) and the boys had a 5 second play - it is soooo cute watching Patrick and Logan play - they lurve each other. Not so much fun was Maia's first poo accident of the day, as I didn't have spare clothes, wipes etc with me, but I got it cleaned up OK.

After driving around for an hour doing various work drop off's/pick ups, next stop was spotlight, I should have know that was a disaster waiting to happen - two bored kids, placated with bribery choccy, which started sending them crazy the second we walked through the doors.

I managed to get what I needed and was just about to walk up to the counter when I smelt more suspicous loggy smell. Maia had done her second poo accident for the day, so I took her off to the feral spotlight toilets for a clean up urrggg. I shouldn't be cranky, she has been getting so much better with the toilet learning, she never wears nappies in the day before (although I might go back to training pants after yesterday).

OK, so clean up sorted and I was heading downstairs and remembered that they had a sale on plain duvet covers and I need one for Patrick's bed to save me taking his back and forth to Brad's, so against my better judgement decided to take the time to get one. Only prob was that while Patrick and I were choosing, Maia disappeared. It only took a milisecond, and she was gone! I was completely panicing - couldn't find her anywhere and was starting to get that OMG someone has taken her, sick to the stomach feeling. Just when I was about to completely freak out, I heard her squeal, one of the spotlight chicks had found her hiding in a rack of clothing. Phew crisis averted, back to buying the duvet cover.

As I was standing at the counter, I got a whiff of that loggy smell again and would you believe it, she had done another nugget, which is why she had been hiding in the clothing rack - she wanted a bit of privacy rofl. The chick at the counter and I were laughing about it when we made a horrifying discovery, some of the nugget had fallen on the floor cos Maia's pants were falling down as she didn't have undies on, and Maia had squished in into the floor with her shoes and there was a 10m trail of poo footprints down one of the aisles!

About then I wanted the floor to open up, I was SOOOO embarassed, plus I realised that Maia had poo squished all down her legs, all over her pants and shoes/socks and I had no clean clothes with me, no wipes etc, so it was back to the skanky spotlight toilet to attempt to clean it all up with soggy toilet paper, whilst the poor cleaner was called to clean up the poo mess all over the floor. As you can imagine I made a hasty exit and enjoyed a lovely smelling 45 minute trip back home. Blah!

Oh what fun, it is to play, poo cleaning up games today ;)

xx

PS this post is dedicated to Vanessa who has been checking my blog daily for updates - I didn't realise it had been nearly two weeks! I'll try and be more regular ;)

Yep that's Dave Grohl - really, it is!

While I was in fingal I made this amazing discovery that through the magic of bluetooth I could get pictures from my phone to my laptop, so I thought I would share these rather dodgy pics of Dave that I took on my mobile at the foo fighters show in May.

We were a bit late getting to the show, so by the time we got our beers it was just starting, so we decided to hang up the back and finish our beers before trying to get a bit closer. Unbeknownst to us, there was actually a whole second stage up the back and just as we were finishing the beers, the stage came down from the roof and Dave and all the band were right in front of us. It was sooooo cool, I think Brad got a bit sick of me raving like a starstruck teenager "f**k, OMG, wooooo that is Dave Grohl, like RIGHT there" etc etc hey I was excited, it's been a while since I got out ;)

Jen from Nappycino got way better pics than I did when she went the night before, but I am still happy to have these memories of a great night, was a brilliant show, love, love, loved it.

Patrick and Maia the little funksters also shared our enthusiasm for the fooeys, the whole way home from Sydney (and ever since actually), ABC kids CD's have got the arse and they have fought over the CD player and which foo fighters song should be on, Maia quite likes the pretender and generator, Patrick's current favourites are stacked actors (he calles it stacked in a tractor rofl) and long road to run. Patrick's next money saving mission is for an electric guitar and one of their favourite games to play at the moment is 'bands' where they get out the drums, ukelele, tamborine and shakers, plus the microphone that comes with the karoke cd player they got for Christmas.

xx

My Nephew Jack awwww

At long last, my little sis has sent me lots of photos of my nephew Jack who is growing up sooooo fast! I can't wait until I meet him in September, I get to go on a giant trip and on of the stops is to his naming ceremony, yay!!!! There are lots of pics (sorry if you're on dial up), including some of him in his fluffy stash and some of his very proud and beautiful big sister too. He looks so much like Patrick did when he was a baby, I can't wait for cuddles :D

Small snap in ib

medium sewn in ib

More of Patrick the entrepreneur

I found these pics on the memory card when looking for something else and I realised that I hadn't put them up, silly me! After seeing the stand at the expo in sydney, Patrick was desperate to have his own stand doing something and he decided that he wanted to sell lemonade. Not sure if that is because of too much curious george, or whether he had seen it somewhere else, but we were more than happy to help with his endeavours - it was a perfect way to use up a bumper crop of lemons too :)

We live on a main'ish road (well as main as you can get in the country), opposite a petrol station, so had lots of passer's by to flag down with the 'waving broom', Patrick was quite the salesman too, calling out to nearly every car that pulled into the servo LOL! He did really well out of it, making about $25 in the end, the perfect amount of $$ to get his precious orange bike off layby, which he was very stoked about!! I'll have to get a pic of him riding, he got the hang of it without training wheels almost straight away and LOVES riding.

xx

This is why I will leave softie making to the experts ;)

Maia's only request for her birthday was that she wanted a cat, not any old cat, it had to be a black one. Since we are renting, a cat was not an option, so I decided to make her a softie cat, thinking it would be a piece of cake, but I was just a little wrong.

First I thought I could draw my own pattern and just make up a cat, but my few dodgy attempts had me searching out a pattern online instead - I did want it to actually end up looking somewhat cat-like afterall. I didn't really find anything I liked, so ended up using a pattern for a door-stop that is supposed to be filled with beans/rice etc.

The face was supposed to be painted on, but in true Sue style, I didn't actually start the cat making until 10pm the night before Maia's birthday and I didn't have any fabric paints, so improvised with sewing the face on.

I managed to get it done and wrapped up, but my sewing on of the head led a little to be desired and we had a headless cat within half an hour of the present being opened, so the cat had to go back into surgery.

I finally managed to give 'black cat' it's head back on operation while I was at fingal, Maia was delighted to have her cat back and it is now competing with fairy maia for top spot on the bed. She has named her new precious 'frenny' and she loves it very much, so will probably forgive her mama for being a dodgy softie maker ;)

How lucky am I???

Not just one holiday, but two!! I was supposed to stay up at fingal for a week, but I had to cut it short due to work commitments so only stayed for 5 days. The beautiful Vanessa came up with a great plan, that I should go back home, do what needed to be done for work, then bring the kids back up for the weekend - who am I to argue with such a brilliant idea? I'm so glad I did, the kids had a brilliant time on Saturday, it was so great to watch them all playing so happily!

Patrick, Maia, Logan and Fletcher had a ball at the beach, digging a huge hole big enough for them all to play in, then we all went on an adventure walk through the 'jungle' then went to the rockpools for more fun and play. It's so beautiful watching kids have such a great time :) Fingal is definately one of my most favourite places to go - I love it there so much :D

Earlier in the week, I actually had my camera handy to catch some of the frivolity, all the kids were playing with their mop horses, seeing who's horse could reach the highest and eat the most leaves. Poor Toby though, it's all fun and games until a horse mop tries to eat you ;)

Of course I am feeling even more relaxed now if that is possible, thank you so much Vanessa and Stu!! xx

Relaxed and Refreshed :)

Well our little break at fingal did me the world of good, I am feeling sooooo relaxed, even though I know there is a mountain of stress ahead of me, I feel like I will be able to handle it without the 'omg I am going to have a heart attack at 34' sensation that came over me before Brisbane.


The kids had a brilliant time too, they LOVED playing with Logan, Toby and Fletcher and I loved all the lovely cuddles with princess Elliana :) Patrick was gutted that we didn't climb to the top of Mt Tomaree though, we got half way up and Maia wanted to be carried and I didn't have the ERGO, plus it was raining, so I abandoned the idea. I did go by myself the next day though and how pretty is the view from the top! No wonder I feel so relaxed there, it really is like you are away from the world, even though it's only an hour away.

I didn't have any problems being bored for the two days on my own, plenty of trashy mags, wine, long leisurely walks, chats with ness and yummy food kept me quite contented. I didn't end up having internet access, which was probably a good thing, as it meant I couldn't do work even if I wanted to, so it was a truely relaxing work free break, yay!

I didn't end up taking my sewing machine in the end, so didn't get too many things finished, I did get started on a scarf for Patrick, hopefully I can finish that before the end of winter ;) and I finally finished up maia's black cat softie, which I'll put a pic up of later. Don't think I will be getting into the softie game any time soon haha

I am still waiting for the situation with Brad to hit me, at first I thought it would be after he moved out, then I thought it would be when I got to fingal, then perhaps it would hit me when I was on my own, but I am still feeling rather numb about it all. Not sure whether I am just a cold hearted biatch, or whether it's been over for such a long time already without us realising that I've been sub-conciously processing the feelings of us splitting for months now, or what is going on. Brad thinks it is because we have never really deeply connected, and whether I ever was truly in love with him, which is a bit sad considering we have spent the last 11 years together. Maybe it will hit me later when I least expect it, but I managed to drink a whole bottle of wine to myself one night while I was away, and I although I felt very reflective and managed to write 7 pages of thoughts and feelings about the situation in my journal, I wasn't crying myself to sleep or anything like that. Who knows what is going on.....

anyway hi ho hi ho, it's off to work I go xx

Basketweave Headbands

I saw on Eilleen's blog yesterday about doing national blog posting month - doing a post every day for July and since I have been a blogging slacker these last few months, I thought I would kind of play along too even thoough I missed the first couple of days, it's something to keep me distracted from all the crazy goings on around me and motivate me to put some pics of my creations up :) The theme this month is food, so I will try to focus a little on that, but I will be doing well to do a post a day about anything - my life just ain't that exciting, so the food posts may be a little lean ;)

I've been meaning to put pics of this up for a while. A basketweave headband is the perfect way to tame a wild boy's hair ROFL. Patrick's teacher was concerned about his long hair getting in his eyes, but there was NO WAY Patrick was going to have a hair cut and I didn't want to force him, so suggested if he didn't want it cut, then he would have to wear a hairband instead. He thought that was a brilliant idea and chose hot pink wool from my wooly stash LOL. I was going to say no, cos a bright pink hairband on a boy with long hair is just a little too girly - even for me, but hey, who am I to tell him that he can't wear a pink hairband just because he's a boy! Lucky his friends at school think it is pretty cool too, so he hasn't copped any flack or anything, plus his teacher reckons she noticed a BIG difference in his behaviour and attention with his hair out of his eyes, so I'm happy with that :) Today he was a bit hairband obsessed and had two in - me thinks his hair is getting a bit tooooo long, but Patrick disagrees ;)


This pattern is sooo easy, I found it on ravelry, somewhere else I have been MIA from for a little while :( http://carissaknits.blogspot.com/2007/06/basketweave-headband.html is the link. It is the perfect way to finish up little odds and ends of wool left over from other projects. I must admit, when I was making one of these, I felt like the biggest nana in the whole world, I was knitting on the way to the foo fighters ROFL. I never thought I would have considered Dave Grohl knitting music, but hey, this is funky knitting! I'm embracing my inner nana and proud of it :D

my procrastinating sunday afternoon

I have a massive pile of emails to get through for work, but I have been working on it since 9.30am and slowly loosing motivation, so thought I would take a break to refresh and share a funny moment of kiddie toilet humour.

Maia was sitting on the toilet the other day (yes it finally looks like the toilet training is a go-er yee bloody ha!) She did her thing, then jumped off, looking in the toilet and with utter delight turned to me and went "look mummy!!!!! it's a swimming nugget!" maybe it's one of those had to be there things, but it is still making me chuckle now - my immature side coming out rofl

The other funny moment was Patrick telling me that honey is actually the logs from bees but we are really lucky that their logs taste so sweet and yummy. He then proceeded to tell me how wonderful the world would be if we could scoop our logs out of the toilet and eat them if they tasted like honey - eeeeewwwwww! His mind cracks me up sometimes.

Sorry if you're eating, I'm in a weird mood today ;)

xx

Some softies for Jack

My little nephew Jack was born 8 weeks ago now - wow that has flown, I'm sure for Vicky more than me! Sadly he is in the UK so I haven't met him yet - hopefully my little sis will stop being so slack and send me some more pics - especially some in his pretty nappies pleeeeease bro ;)


Of course I sent over lots of presents and he has an enviable stash of fluffy nappies, one of the presents was extra special, some softies made with help from Patrick (and a teeny bit of Maia help too).



It was my first go at making softies which is why they look a little bit dodgy lol. They are from a pattern in the Ottobre magazine - winter 08 I think, and I used some of my plentiful pile of minkee scraps to make them.


Hopefully Jack loves them :)

Megsie Rocks!!!!

I am very embarrassed how long it has taken me to post pictures of this AMAZING creation from the superbly talented megsie, have been just a little pre-occupied over the last six weeks or so :( but finally here are the pics!

I am so incredibly blessed to have people that want to trade stuff with me, especially when it is something as wonderful as this!

Megsie made a super special Maia pint AND a pint softie!! It came just in time for Maia's 3rd birthday and as you can imagine she is in LOVE with it. 'Fairy Maia' goes everywhere with Maia, and for the first few days she did not want to take her fairy maia dress off, and even went back to wearing bibs so she didn't spill anything on her precious dress, awwwww. Megsie has managed to get a perfect Maia likeness don't you think? Maia always asks for 'fairy maia' hair now instead of pigtails, it is her current favourite hairstyle, she even lets me brush it to get it up!

Thank you so so much Megsie, you are amazing and I am in total awe of your talent and sooooooooo lucky you wanted to trade with me, I'm not much of a hyena, so don't think I would ever have much chance of getting one of these most popular softies in the whole world.

Weeeeeeeeee

I have stacks to catch up on blog wise, lots of pics and bits to show off, but another frantic week means it will have to wait - hopefully tomorrow. Can't do it today because..... we are going down to Sydney to go to the Foo Fighters tonight!!!! OMG I am SO excited, I nearly feel a bit sad how excited I am. It has been a loooooooong time since we saw any live music, probably since before Patrick was born, so what a brilliant way to break the drought! We've been listened to Dave all morning getting geared up.

It's not only wow at seeing the fooeys, but wow for us - a child free night! With no family close by, it's something that just never happens, so I hope I don't spend the whole night wondering if Patrick and Maia are OK, did they go to sleep or are they still up causing Brad's dad to tear his hair out etc etc. I'm sure they will be fine, but it will feel really weird cos we just haven't been out together for such a long time. Patrick has stayed on his own at poppy's before, but not Maia, so fingers crossed she will go straight to sleep and let her worrying mum have a brill night out.

What cracked me up last night, was that we were discussing how to get there and home and we decided we should probably drive, cos we don't want to be catching a train home and hanging around central with all the eediots after midnight (haha those eediots would have been us 10 years ago). Yes how lovely, Nana Sue and Pop Brad go to see a little concert.

My Super Fabric Haul

I went to spotlight this morning to get 1/2m of drill to turn some shorts I was making for Patrick into pants and was delighted and amazed to discover some mega mega bargains. All of their clearance fabric was $2 a metre, regardless of the price tag. Of course I went a little crazy, even though I SO don't need anymore fabric, but how could I go past it!!!

My bargain of the day was embroidered taffeta was $25 now $2. I have no idea what I am going to do with the 8 metres I got yet, but mega bargain and in my fav colours of hot pink and turquoise, wooooo :D I'll be a busy busy gal!

Yay the Sun is Back

Yesterday, for the first time in two weeks, the sun decided to shine, yippppeeeee!!!!! I don't think I have ever been so happy to see the sun, I nearly didn't know what was going on when it was so bright outside. Perfect timing for a wet spell, there was two weeks of constant wet weather from the start of the school holidays to the end and lovely weather for our camping weekend too, blah. Never mind, at least the sun is back now :)

Patrick and Maia had blast camping though, rain was no deterrent to kiddie fun. Rain just meant lots of puddles which meant mud pies galore! Not quite so much fun when we ran out of dry/clean clothes though, so we only stayed two days instead of three.

I was very impressed with myself though, I took the kids early on Friday cos Brad was working and I managed to get the whole campsite, inc tent set up by myself, yeah girl power lol. The pirate campground was a cheesy as to be expected, but the kids had fun and that's the main thing.