Long Days at Home

Miss Rhianna is at this moment well and truly sick as a dog. She had her cousin over for a sleepover on Saturday night and when I had to take the cousin home in the middle of the night with a sky high temperature, I was sure Rhianna would be following suit soon after.

Unfortunately I was right.

This is now our second day lying on the lounge eating ice blocks, chugging panadol and watching the Disney channel.

Luckily, I've had plenty of time to organise a trip away.

After much internet research I've decided to combine two things that Bill and I have been busting to do since we met but have never got around to.

Bill really wants to do a long haul train trip. So I booked us into a Sydney to Adelaide sleeper on the Indian Pacific. It's only a 24 hour trip, because I'm sure that's about all I can handle on a train lying horizontal or in any other position.


From Adelaide we'll hire a car and do the adventure I've always wanted to do - driving the Great Ocean Road. Apparently the 12 apostles are crumbling at quite a rapid rate so I know I need to get down there soon before I miss my chance.

The best part of the whole deal ? - I've managed to book everything in the school holidays.


On the home front I've spent many hours on the lounge soothing hot foreheads, supplying icy poles and finding remotes under all the pillows and blankets. I've also managed to knit a few squares.

Out on the patio the craft cupboard was doing my head in. It looked so messy and all higgilty- piggilty :: so I whipped up a little curtain to hide everything. Dead easy and I am in love with the Amy Butler fabric.


Also did a spot of sewing. I've had this project to do all Winter and have finally gotten around to it in Spring.

I bought the hot water bottles at Big W but wanted to jazz them up a bit.

And no, I haven't learn to crochet. I just found an old granny square blanket at the markets and have cut it up to use the squares.



Little Miss R needs some more lemonade so must take off now. Hope you are all having more fun than me.

A Tale of Two Afghans

Hooray I have finally finished my first knitting project. For those who did not know, I was knitting a little lap rug (or afghan) for my daughter Rhianna. And here it is, in all its very homemade glory.

There are so many hours of my time lying there on that floor. Luckily Rhianna said that she loved in when she got in from school (lucky for her).

I backed the afghan with some multi -coloured polka dot flannelette. It gives it a bit more weight and hides all the errors on the other side.


And I was in sheer ecstasy today when my afghan from Marsha in the US of A turned up. The guy delivering the package thought I was delusional as I started screaming when I saw the US postage marks on the box. And here she is.....


Now that I have Marsha's wonderful work lying next to mine, I think I'll leave the yarn and wool projects to those who obviously know what they're doing. I have a lot of talents but knitting and crochet are not amongst them. And honestly, with wool being so expensive I can save the money and put it towards somebody else's creative genius.

My next project, which I am starting next week is a kaiserkraft recipe box. I have to say I do enjoy creative projects that can be knocked over in a day. Patience has never been my strong point. And to spend so much time on a blanket that looks pretty average has depressed me a little.

I know many of you are thinking that I just need to practice, practice, practice but quite honestly I'd rather do other things with my limited time. We have such a finite amount of time on this earth that I'm happy to let others be the yarn queens and move onto other things - like double chocolate mousse which I'm about to attempt now.

Have a good weekend everybody.

Hooray for Autumn

Well autumn is well and truly here judging by the temperature this morning around 7am. But I am not complaining. I am loving it. How can I not be happy with the cooler weather, the start of Term 2 at school and this beautiful view out my dining room window.

However life is pretty ordinary around here lately. Much of the sameness day in and day out.

Not a lot new and exciting to blog about I am afraid. The weather has had my thoughts turning to more and more craft projects. If only I could stay awake longer at night time to start any of them.

I find the cooler weather sees me climbing into bed around 8pm with Miss Rhianna to knit and read books. We cuddle up together and most of the time my lovely hubby will bring us down some hot chocolates to lush around in bed with. Who wants to sit hunched over a sewing machine when you can be doing that instead?

But I did manage to drag old Bertha (the sewing machine) out for a little sew up of the knitting squares yesterday.

Does anybody but me (and my friend Julie) remember a magazine out a few years ago called Family Circle? Well it went out of circulation because only tragics like me were buying it. It was a very family oriented magazine with lots of parenting articles, craft and cooking. Since all that home stuff is currently back in vogue, I should not have been surprised to see its reappearance at the newsagents yesterday. Oh Joy......

And inside a very tempting new knitting project for me to get started on.

And finally I get started on some cooler weather cooking. I wonder if you can guess what is on the menu for tonight? One of my favourites with some crusty bread rolls from the bakery.

Keep your beanies and scarves handy today.

Aren't Mums Handy?

Rhianna and I have just come back from a few days with my Mum and Dad. My Mum is very crafty too, so as you can imagine the house turned into craft central pretty much as soon as we got there. Dad left the house 10 minutes after that. Haha.

Here's Rhianna hard at work making some cards.

We found some child sized knitting needles in an antique shop at Lawson and the holidays seemed like the perfect time to learn to knit. Rhianna that is, not me. Much patience was required on my part not to take over and to avoid commenting on the many holes that kept appearing.

Mum showed me how to "sew" my knitted squares together to start forming my blanket. As this is my first knitting project I am quite pleased with how it is turning out.

And while at Mum's, I spotted this in the local Coles supermarket. It's an organic conditioning body wash and shampoo for kids. If you're interested it's in the body wash/ soap section of Coles and it was $3.99 which is pretty good as the container is a decent size.


Have a good week everybody.

Waiting for the Easter Bunny

Such a beautiful day and a shame not to get out and about. Took my knitting in the car as I had no idea how long we would be out - Bill was in charge.

Here I am looking like a granny

Miss R smiles for the camera

Lunch at one of our favourite restaurants - Trellinis.

Still waiting for that waitress to come back


After all that yummy food - off to the local bike and walking track.


Such a great day to bike ride through the trees.

And a new park has been built since the last time we were here. Woohoo!!!!!

Rhianna gets a ride back to the car.


Hope the Easter Bunny visits tonight.

Happenings at our House

We are all loving this rainy weather. Although its not cold at night time the three of us (Bill, Rhianna and I ) are climbing into bed to watch Season 2 of Little House on the Prairie.

I love this series for a lot of reasons. Firstly it takes me back to my own childhood. You never have to worry about inappropriate content and of course Michael Landon (aka Charles Ingalls) was the moral compass of the 1970's. So, a good wholesome lesson for the youngsters in every episode.

Last night was an episode about Mary getting glasses and being called four eyes at school - so its a great avenue to talk about things like name calling and kids being different. I highly recommend it if you have kids around 6-12 years of age.

Rhianna and I picked up a copy of Pippi Longstocking at the Op shop yesterday for 20 cents. It's a chapter book that's appropriate for her age and we read a chapter last night after LHOTP and before sleep. This also brings back fond childhood memories as I read this same book when I was about 7.
Here's an update on the knitting. The squares are building up and I am still enjoying it.

Miss Rhianna lost 2 teeth last week - the tooth fairy was very busy at our house. And we enjoyed our last afternoon by the pool on Sunday before the rain started. This little girl adores her daddy - can you tell??

Hope you all are having a lovely week.

Gettin' Crafty

You can tell it's Autumn when I start crafting continually all weekend. Somehow over Summer with the heat and the entertaining and the holidays I usually don't do much but as soon as that temperature starts to drop - I'm in up to my belly button in craft materials - and loving it.

On the weekend I made a prototype of another fete stall product. I got the idea out of this months' Get Creative Magazine. It's a cute little clip board. I haven't put a notepad on it yet.

This is the front

And this is the back.

I just have to jazz up the bulldog clip a bit. And its all done.

Below is what I now call knitting central. It's the chair in my bedroom and I just love the look of all the wool everywhere and the fact that the wool is turning into something. (Look at those squares)

There are so many craft materials out at the moment I had to put up the ironing board for extra work space.

"Westfield" also got finished on Sunday. Now where to put it........

At the end of the day - even Finn had had enough crafting fun.

Tuesday Happenings

The knitting is coming along nicely. I have decided to make Rhianna a full sized single bed blanket. I guesstimate that it's going to take about 64 squares and so far I have done 3. But I am really enjoying it and an added bonus is that it stops me picking at food late at night. If I'm lucky enough to still be awake after everybody else then I just pick up my knitting while I watch T.V. And you can't knit and nibble - it's just not possible.

The squares start to pile up

Well, I have finally accepted it. I am not a camper. I have tried to camp - many times. I have been in tents and caravans and then we bought this camper. I have hated camping, I have endured camping and sometimes I even tolerated camping but I never came close to liking it.

So, in a massive declutter we are selling our camper. Hopefully we'll make enough to enjoy some 5 star hotels sometime soon. Now, that's what I call a holiday.

And this is my Op shop find of the year so far. I found it at an op shop up at Mum's on the Central Coast (Toukley, if you know the area). Being a teacher and having had to buy these for various pre-schools I have worked at, I know they cost about $40-$50. I got this in mint condition for $2. Rhianna is using it in her room for motivation. As you can see motivation is low when you have a slave, I mean, mother like me.

Have a great day everybody.