Lazy Days at Home

Time here has slowed almost to a stand still.

This week has been pretty much a week spent at home. There has been the occasional local outing and play date for Rhianna but otherwise it's just been doing stuff around the house.

Today Rhianna had a friend over to play and I realised I had almost nothing in the house for morning or afternoon tea.

I quickly whipped up this chocolate brownie from a recipe I found on Melissa Godsells Day to Day blog.

So easy and most of all yummy.

Yesterday we got stuck into some store bought craft projects. What I love about these projects is that I can leave Rhianna to complete them on her own while I get on with other things - mostly housework.

Rhianna has been begging me for pocket money this week so I have assigned her a list of jobs to do around the house.

Yesterday she cleaned the bath and vanity and swept the front drive of leaves.

As it was such lovely cool weather we also took Finn out for a walk.

Rhianna loves to hold him on his lead especially as we pass the house of her latest love interest.

This week Rhianna tells me she is going to marry Jedd.

Boy, I hope not. I can't imagine having a son in law called Jedd.

We learnt the fine art of tea making later in the afternoon.

Followed by a DVD before dinner.

Wasn't this on at the movies in the last school holidays? I can't believe how quickly movies come out on DVD now. Why would you bother blowing all that money to see these movies on the big screen when you only have to wait a few months and they are $5 at the local DVD store?

Of course, there has been a bit of op shopping now and again. But it seems there are no bargains to be had at the moment.

On the down side, we went to the local pool the other day to swim some laps and when Rhianna got out her chest, arms and back were covered in spots.

We had a trip to the doctors to rule out measles and chicken pox but the Dr said she just had a reaction to something in the pool.

I think we'll just swim in our own pool from now on.

And that's it. Just plain, boring old Christmas school holidays.

We Love the Eastern Suburbs.

Probably because my husband Bill grew up in Paddington and I lived at Randwick for many years, our family loves the eastern suburbs of Sydney. And there is no better time to run amok out there than in Summer when the vibe is great and the scenery to die for.

We headed out there last weekend for no particular purpose - just to take things as they come.

We had an extra passenger this time - my niece, Hayley who is the same age as my daughter Rhianna - very handy.

We headed first to Paddington where we trawled through the Matt Blatt furniture store.

Very retro pieces as you can see and as you can imagine, I was in heaven.

Rhianna and I loved this this egg chair. It was only $1000!!!

We had a quick walk through Paddington markets but have been here plenty of times before so really only stopped for coffee and handmade chocolates.

Then it was across the street to the pub for a toilet break and a drink.

Most pubs look pretty much the same so I didn't take a photo but I thought this was an interesting idea in the the girls loo.

For $2 you can straighten your hair.

Now, I may not get around very much but I have never seen this before and think it's a brilliant idea.

It would also save you $300 on a GHD.

Bill then took us to Redleaf pool at Double Bay. He spent many boyhood days here and was thrilled to be able to bring Rhianna here.

Isn't it picture postcard perfection?

The girls couldn't wait to get in for a swim.

The best bits of this pool are the large platform that surrounds the pool which is great for jumping off and the 2 pontoons in the middle of the pool which are fun to swim out to and pose on.

That's Bill in the middle and the 2 girls off to the left sitting down.

Love, love, love doing this kind of stuff in Summer.

Happy 2012

Boy, are we ever in holiday mode around here.

We usually get up around 9am or sometimes closer to 10. We muck around doing not a lot of anything before eating around 11am. We spend some days kicking around the house and then we go out for an adventure the next day. Today we stayed at home, lazing around.

Rhianna got caught up on some of her favourite blogs and games.

She has a mini "study" set up for the holidays in front of the telly.

Much creative work goes on while Hannah Montana blares out across the room.

God help me....

There has been much discussion about whether we should drink or save these bottles of marketing genius.

We've had a few very heated rounds of this new board game that we got as a family for Christmas. So much fun. I can highly recommend this game.

Rhianna has found some unusual ways to entertain herself including a bucket bath.

No idea why she would do this when she has a perfectly good pool right next to her.

We've spent a lot of time opening new Christmas presents such as this pottery wheel Rhianna received from her brother Broc.

Thanks Broc!!!!!

It was lots of fun to try and produce a pot from the damn thing though.

It wasn't long before we realised we needed to have our hair tied back and some sort of apron on.

Silly Mummy!

Rhianna and I tidied her room, put the new toys away and did a huge declutter. Looks bare now ready for the new year and all the junk that will bring with it.

And lastly a quick trip home to check on my parents, who along with myself, had a horrendous 2011. It was quite an emotional time (for reasons I won't go into here) so I spent a bit of time walking up and down this old childhood beach.

Looking forward to a wonderful 2012. Hope you are too.

Merry Bloggy Christmas

Finally we have adapted to school holiday time.

Rhianna has stopped asking me to amuse her every second minute, we are sleeping in till 9am every morning and then doing much pottering around the house and local area to keep us busy.

It's the lovely time of year when there seems to be time to do almost everything. No routine, no have to be places, nothing essential that really needs doing. We just lumber from one random activity to the next.

As Christmas Day is fast approaching with visitors arriving and parties to go to, Rhianna and I got our toes into the Christmas spirit with a bit of Red Red nail polish.

While we waited for the nail polish to dry, it was a good opportunity for a spot of reading .

With all the rain we've been having it's hard to get out and about as you never know when you are going to get caught in a shower. But Rhianna has been busting to get out on her razor scooter so we braved the elements and went for a walk/ride down by the Nepean River.

As you can see the view was pretty ordinary. The weather was overcast, the water a very dull grey and nobody is out and about. Hardly feels like Summer at all.

Nearby to the river walk is a park that we had not visited before. It too was deserted. We had a nice play on the equipment and worked off some energy before heading home again.

On the way home Rhianna asked if we could stop at the library. This is another thing that we rarely get time to do, so I thought "Why not?" We spent ages in there selecting some books, magazines and even a DVD to watch. Such good value at absolutely nothing!!!!!

I'm making some truffles for Christmas Day this year. I found a new recipe called Chocolate Fruity Truffles. We got busy last night after dinner. Such good fun when the recipes are really easy like this and with no cooking involved.

Bill arrived home quite late but it doesn't matter at the moment because there are no bedtimes to adhere to. We can all stay up late chatting and laughing into the night. Here I am getting my Christmas cheer on - with a little bit of help from a glass of red.

Merry Christmas from our little retro house.

Can you tell a book by its cover?

Summer holidays are the best time to get stuck into some reading. I wonder what you can tell about a person from what they read. Let's have a look at what is on my beside table at the moment. I always have a stack of stuff to read. Reading is my favourite thing to do - besides eating chocolate ice cream.

First up is my beloved Frankie magazine.

I love, love, love this mag as it's full of other dags just like myself who are trying to be creative.

Plus the writing is just so, so good. Even Bill loves to have have a flick through this one. It has a little bit of craft, a bit of cooking, stuff to buy, home decorating that is just like mine. It's just fab.

Another mag I love is G magazine. It's all environmental stuff and organic stuff and simple living and frugality and heaps of ideas on how to reduce your carbon footprint. Just stuff that floats my boat really.

I am super excited that Tintin has been made into a movie as it's one of my favourite sets of books from my childhood.

We used to go to The Entrance Library every Friday afternoon and I would always try to borrow Tintin books.

Yesterday in the city we had a stroll around Dymocks and Bill bought me a Tintin book. It is going to be the first one in my new collection. There are 24 in the set. I know it's quite an acquired taste but I do love a bit of nostalgia.

A new book on the bedside table this week. It's got fantastic reviews. It's a bit of a sociology/anthropology book about the lack of interaction between kids and nature these days and the consequences of that lack of interaction. Can't wait to get into this one.

But it's not all heavy going.

Another new book on the bedside table is this bit of chick lit. I can't even remember what it's about but it sounded good in the book shop. I'll take this one away camping with us in January as I suspect it's the kind of book you can read while you cook sausages on a campfire.

What are you reading now?

Any recommendations?

Am I the biggest dag you've ever known?

How can you blog without a camera?

We had a lovely weekend. Unfortunately for various reasons, I didn't take one photo of any of it.

We had my sister-in-law and her hubby and kids over for drinks on Saturday night. But I told my husband Bill it was his turn to host and promptly put my feet up. That of course meant I didn't get around to taking any photos.

On Sunday we travelled into the city to see the David Jones window display, the new kid's park at Darling Harbour and to have lunch with relatives at Cockle Wharf.

This time I actually did take the camera with me. I took it out and got lots of great photos with it. Then when I got home I realised I had left the memory card plugged into the computer. So no photos of yesterday either.

Very sad......


A post is just not a post without the pictures is it?

School Holidays Day 1

We're off to a great start with the school holidays.

Miss R has commenced the festive season by promptly becoming ill. She has some sort of gastro bug along with a delightfully productive cough.

At least I can leave her huddled up on the lounge for the day and not have to worry about missed school and after school sport.

It's also fabulous weather to be sick at the moment. I, myself am sitting here in a jumper as I write this post and I'm loving it. There will certainly be enough long, hot Summer days for me in January and February I'm sure.

When Rhianna does manage to haul herself off the lounge we are going to attend to this little monstrosity.

This is what I call the end of school typhoon. When teachers like to send home 12 months worth of crap, I mean valuable teaching outcomes and leave the mothers to assimilate it into the house.

Or into the garbage - as is the case at our house!

We also need to make some much needed room for the new things Santa may bring.

And as you know, I do like a good clean out.

My quilt is coming along slowly. I have sewed the squares together into strips - 9 in all. The next step is to join the strips to complete the top of the quilt cover.

Yesterday I felt quilty looking at my very expensive organic carrots wilting sadly in the crisper.

So I found a recipe for carrot cake and got to work. The result was this fantastic cake. The icing was a mixture of cream cheese and icing with some orange zest and juice. So yummy. I will never eat a Sara Lee carrot cake again now I know how easy and yummy the real thing is.

My next baking experiment will be a Christmas Cake from a lovely recipe from Busy Mum's blog. Check out her blog - link on the right hand side of my blog for some great tips on making the perfect Xmas Cake.