Many Things To Do

Enough is enough

2011-02-02T12:13:00.006+10:00

I know that I said in my last post that I will soon post about my renovations and what has been happening around here over the last 16 months. At the moment I have put all that on hold. I don't know how much has been televised in other states of Australia or overseas but our beautiful normally sunny state of Queensland is in a crises at the moment, not only has 80% of our state been flooded we now have category 5 cyclone Yasi heading towards our shores due to hit tonight.

Lucky for me I am nowhere near where the cyclone is to hit but my heart is heavy with concern for the people further north of me. I am so proud of my state and the people who live here after seeing the Queensland spirit for myself the other week when cleaning up Paul's Grandfathers house after the floods in Brisbane a couple of weeks ago. Even though we were covered in mud horrified by the huge piles of peoples belongings placed out on the footpath to be thrown away, you could feel the determination of everyone to work together and to get the place cleaned up and life back to normal again.

After having a horrible 2010 myself I was looking forward to starting new in 2011 now I don't know what to think life is pretty crazy here at the moment.
I didn't mean for this to be a long post so I will leave it there, but before I do I found this picture on the internet that sums up the Aussie spirit.

Please stay safe everyone who has chosen to stay in FNQ my prayers and thoughts are with you all, and as our Premier Anna Bligh said about the recent floods they may break our hearts but they will not break our spirit.

QUEENSLANDER!!!!!!!

Well hello all yes I know it has been a long while.

2011-01-26T18:44:00.002+10:00

Yes well 16 months to be exact and no I have not forgotten about the blogging world in fact I have missed it a lot but I have had a couple of life changing experiences in the last 16 months that have needed my full attention. I am not one who likes to publicly talk about ones personal life and that is not the reason why I set up this blog in the first place but lets just say that my life is now back on track and things are looking very rosey indeed.

This year I turn 40 which is pretty scary but I plan to make the most of this year I even have a 40 things to do list that I want to finish before the end of the year. This year will be MY year and I plan to enjoy it to the max.

Last post I mentioned a bit of renovating that I had planned well most of it is now complete although it never all went to plan but I will show you the finished results soon.

Lastly I have a lot of catching up to do with everyone and I plan to give this blog a bit of a makeover too so hopefully you will hear from me again very soon.

Cheers,

Linda

I know that it's Springtime when .........................

2009-09-12T12:05:00.004+10:00

I see these trees of mine out in full bloom.

Don't they look beautiful against the blue sky, although the photos don't do them justice and as the flowers die they fall off and cover the ground in a wonderful bright yellow carpet, I have about 7 of them all around the yard, if someone is looking for our house this time of year we just say it's the one with the yellow trees and they soon find it. LOL

Now I know that I have been missing for a while, I have been busy painting and redecorating also getting lots of quotes for some work that we are having done around here. Now that some of it has been finalised I am able to tell you all of the plans that we have.

First on the list is my Kitchen, I have probably mentioned it before but I have not had a working oven in about 7 years, my stove top smashed to pieces Christmas Eve 5 years ago and bench space well I just don't have much, so the kitchen is getting a major redo all new cupboards and appliances yeah I can't wait.

Next on the list is the BBQ area, we love cooking out here, well we have to since my kitchen doesn't work, out here we are put a roof over the top and hopefully there will be enough money left over to tile the floor and build a serving bench.

Right next to the BBQ area is where the pool will be going, can't wait for this one (yeah no more Kmart blowup pools for summer).

And then there is the ensuite this is getting a total redo too, although it doesn't look too bad the shower is leaking and the toilet well lets just not go there. I am hoping that there might be a little money saved over to do the main bathroom too, since we are doing the bathrooms ourselves (Paul's brother is a tiler and one of his best mates is a plumber) I'm looking forward to doing it ourselves (famous last words).

So that is our plans for the next couple of months, we are hoping to get it all finished before Christmas, I won't be too stressed if it is not but it would be nice. I will be showing you all lots of photos as we go.

I'm sorry for the long post but I have been so excited to tell you all about my plans but didn't want to jinx it. Next post I will show you all some of the other projects I have finished around the house, now I had better pop in and visit you all if you all still remember me. LOL

Cheers and Best Wishes,

Where Bloggers Create

2009-07-24T10:51:00.001+10:00

Karen from My Desert Cottage is having a where bloggers create party today, I thought that I would join in on the fun.

My Craft room is what use to be our formal dinning room, we found that when we put on a large rumpus room out the back of the house a couple of years ago that we didn't use the formal lounge room anymore. So a couple of months ago I decided to convert the room into an area where I could do all my crafting. I built (yes I did) a L shaped wall (with the help of cheap labour ie my 14 year old son). The purpose of the wall is so that I could have all my bone china displayed in it's own little area. Now building the wall is the easy bit the hard bit is the plastering, not one of my favourite things to do, anyway here is some photos of the new craft room, although it is not quite finished yet, still a bit more painting and plastering yet to go but you get the idea.

Lots of glitter and bling in this craft room.

I like to have lots of pretty girly things around me when I am creating.

Jars of bits and pieces, I must get around to taking all of the labels off one day, but with all the jars that I have it is a big job.

Paints and ribbon storage

The spot above my desk, I am forever changing what I have on display.

Thank you for stopping by and having a look around my craft room I hope that you enjoyed it.

Cheers,

No I haven't fallen off the face of the earth -

2009-07-20T10:39:00.002+10:00

I've just had a busy couple of months, I have been popping in every now and again to see what everyone has been up to, but it will be a couple more weeks before I have time to get fully back into blogging, then I should have some photos of what I have been up to around the house, I have been in a bit of a renovating mood and have given a couple of rooms around the house a bit of a freshen up. Between that and the boys touch football (they had a three day comp recently) and of course the end of financial year stuff, I have been keeping myself busy.

I am joining in on this party next week -

So until then, I hope that you all have a great week.

Cheers,

Sweet Tweet Swap

2009-06-06T09:47:00.001+10:00

Just a quick post today. I was involved in this fun swap put together by the lovely Ele of A bit of Pink Heaven. You had to send something hamdmade and something sweet, with a bird/nest/spring theme. A had Rachel from the USA as my swap partner, and here are the lovely goodies that she sent to me.

A lovely bag with a knitted nest inside, with three knitted blue eggs which represent my three boys.

And here is what I sent to Rachel.

Thank you to Rachel for being my partner for this swap. If you would like to see more of Rachel's knitting creations go here.

If you would like to see what everyone else received there is a list of participants on Ele's blog, thank you Ele for hosting this great swap.

Cheers,

Did you know that I lived in a castle!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-05-20T09:03:00.010+10:00

Well I do when it rains a lot, and that it certainly has 147.6mm in the last 24 hours. I knew that it had been raining pretty heavily last night, we have a colourbond roof so it gets a bit noisy when it rains heavily, but not in my wildest dreams did I imagine how much rain we have had.

Do you like my moat around the front and side of the house?

I went to take the boys to school, got a little way up the road and had to turn around, the roads were all flooded, one house that we passed had a ragging river in their back yard, I got the boys to try and take some photos while I was driving, but even those don't show how bad it is.

Those grey areas are normally front lawns now turned into rivers!!!

The boys think that it is great though, yesterday they had off because of the teacher strike and then today because of flooding, makes me wonder what is in store for us tomorrow.

On to my decorating everything is moving along slowly, still waiting on things to arrive in the post, I have some grouting to do today, I will show you some photos as soon as it is all finished.

UPDATE - Since writting this post Wednesday morning the rain did not stop all morning, don't know how much rain we ended up with but I was starting to get a bit worried, it was 5cm off of flooding our house, you stepped out our front door into a river. Thankfully the rain did stop and the waterlevel has dropped, I just hope there is no more rain. The following photos are taken of the side of the house.

Cheers,

Laundry update and Mothers Day Pressie.

2009-05-11T12:44:00.003+10:00

Well the laundry is taking a little longer then expected, I have finished all the painting but I am having trouble finding the accessories that I want and I am waiting on a couple of things to arrive in the post. so I thought that I will show you all a couple of photos of the progress so far.

The room is so much lighter now for some reason and I actually enjoy going in there now.

Also I hope that everyone had a wonderful Mothers Day on Sunday, my boys made me scrambled eggs with English muffins and a cup of tea, then we all went to football to watch the youngest two play. This year for Mothers Day I wanted something different to the usual jewelry, not that I don't like what the boys pick out for me, they have the best taste! But I have a blank wall in my house that needed a little TLC it is not quite finished yet as once again I am having trouble finding exactly what I want, but this is this weeks project and also my Mothers Day pressie.

I hope that you all have a wonderful week,

Cheers,

Confessions of a listaholic

2009-05-03T12:28:00.000+10:00

As a have mentioned before a couple of times I love to write lists, the only problem is that I don't always finish them, I always seem to get a bit sidetracked along the way. Now do you see this folder -

I know it is not too pretty at the moment, I have to spend some time on prettying it up like Rachael did with her journals. This book is the ultimate list, my renovating projects folder, the folder is divided up into rooms and in each section I have a list of jobs to either finish or start, as well as some pretty pictures that I have found while looking on the Internet for inspiration.

I made this folder a couple of months ago and although I have finished and crossed out a couple of projects there is still so much to do. I have decided that I will tackle the list by doing one project or room a week, so each Sunday night I will decide what project I am going to do for the next week and I will do a short post about it including a before photo, then when the project is finished I will post again and show you all the finished product, that way if I don't get the project finished in a week the whole of blogland will know about it. Nothing like a bit of shame to get one motivated.

So here is this weeks project - The Laundry

Man I can't believe that I am showing you all this mess.

During the Easter school holidays my boys helped me to paint 5 rooms, they wanted guitar hero for their wii and I wanted some painting done so a deal was made, they did all the roller work while I did all the cutting in. The laundry was one of those rooms, but we were not able to completely finish it as there was a very large fridge in here and I needed Paul to remove it so that I could finish the painting. So now with the fridge gone I have no excuse. I will show you a photo of the finished laundry as soon as I have finished. Until then...........

Cheers and Best Wishes,

Has Easter gone already..............

2009-04-29T12:25:00.008+10:00

l have not put away my Easter decorations yet, the reason being that I had a bit of a shopping spree through ETSY, we don't get much in the way 0f Easter Decorations in shops around here only really cheep and corny things so when I saw some of the lovelies on ETSY I couldn't help myself. So here is some of what has arrived this week.

From Celestina Marie Designs, how cute are these, they are even better in person -

From Nancys Heart

I also had my Easter Egg Eggstravaganza Swap off swapbot arrive from The Netherlands

Till next time

Cheers and best wishes,

Lest we forget

2009-04-25T09:49:00.001+10:00

Today is one of the most important days of the year to me, my father was in the Army for 25 years and so Anzac Day has always ment a lot to my family, I have wonderful memories of dawn services and the city march watching for my Dad in the parade. Dad will be 80 this year and is still going strong. To all the service men and women both now and in the past, in Australia and our mates in New Zealand my family thanks you from the bottom of our hearts.

Best wishes,

Happy Easter

2009-04-09T15:58:00.004+10:00

I hope that everyone has a wonderful relaxing Easter, we're off to Golden Beach on the Sunshine Coast for a couple days.

Cheers and best wishes,

Easter Egg Hunt

2009-04-05T09:53:00.001+10:00

Just a Quick post, today is the day for the Hunt part of the Easter Egg swap that I was involved in, these are the eggs that I made for this swap.

They were so much fun to make, now I am off to find the Eggs that were sent to me, I will show them to you when I know who made them.

UPDATE : Yeah that was so much fun hunting for the maker of the eggs that I received. So here are the beautiful eggs that arrived in the post for me.

This beauty was made by Elizabeth -

And this cutie was made by Kathy -

A big thank you to both ladies for such beautiful Eggs, this is where I have them displayed at my front door, they are the first thing that you see as you enter my home.

Thank you so much to Viv for organising this wonderful fun swap, if you would like to see more of the Easter Eggs that were created pop on over to Viv's blog for a list of participants.

Till next Friday,

Cheers,

Paper Work and Some Easter Decorating too.

2009-04-03T19:33:00.007+10:00

Hi All,

I had a very exciting week this week I spent three days filing and sorting out paper work as well as completing our BAS and clearing out the computer desk, exciting hey, I do feel great now that it is all done though, it puts a smile on my face each time that I look over at how clean our office corner is at the moment. At least that is now one job of my list completed.

I did get up to some other more exciting things though too, I finished two of these for my nieces for Easter I have another two to finish, and I did have time to do a little Easter decorating too.

I had a couple of parcels arrive this week too, one from the lovely Gail.

And the other I can't show you yet I have to wait till 5th April, but my eggs arrived for the Easter Egg Hunt Swap, and they are just so cute, I can't wait to find out who made them (that is the hunt part of the swap).

Until next time.

Cheers,

Some more swaps to show and oh no not again

2009-03-27T09:00:00.005+10:00

I have been so busy, sorry (addicted) to swapbot lately that I have not had much time for anything else.

Spring Theme Whimsy Jar

Easter Eggstravaganza Swap, the eggs are filled with little surprises.

But I have decided to cut back on swaps so that I have time for other projects around here, my list of projects to finish is getting nowhere at the moment. I hope to try and finish one project a week and then I will post about it every Friday, I feel as though I have been neglecting my blogging lately too, I know that there are quite a few bloggs that I have to catch up with so I will be popping in again soon.

And now onto the oh no not again, (although that is not what I said at the time) for those of you lovely ladies who might not know about 8 months ago we were involved in a car accident, no one was hurt except whiplash, at the time my husband Paul was driving my car and a P plater failed to give way to us and did $10,500 damage to my car (that was with second hand parts!) now 8 months on would you believe it happened again, different intersection with Paul driving my car again, except this time a guy went through a red light another $10,000 worth of damage to basically the same parts of the car that was damaged and fixed last time. (He could of a least hit the back so that was all new too!) As I am writing this I do have a smile on my face because I just can't believe our luck at the moment, but we all did walk away from the accident again with only whiplash, oh and Paul is no longer allowed to drive my car, which I should get back today or tomorrow Yeah!

I hope you all have a wonderful and safe week, until next Friday.

Cheers,

Busy, Busy, Busy.

2009-03-06T10:45:00.002+10:00

Wow it has been a while since I last posted, here are some of things that I have been up to lately.

I have been working on some decorated eggs for this swap, I can't show you the finished result yet as the participants have to have a hunt for their eggs on April 5th.

I made my first ever button fairy -

An ATC scavenger hunt, can you find - Thongs, a pet, flowers, food, sunglasses, stamp, feet, hat, lips and a quote.

One swap that I received the other day was just beautiful I had to show you all, this was for the craft scavenger hunt, it came from Angela in the USA

The parcel also included a romantic country magazine and a romantic living magazine. Thank you Angela.

I was also lucky enough to win this beauiful ATC from Nancy in the USA

Rugby League and Touch Football seasons have now started so I have been busy running my boys to training and games, other then that I don't know where all my time has gone. Hope to catch up with you all soon.

Cheers,

My OWOH Winner Announced

2009-02-13T11:51:00.002+10:00

I decided to choose my winner the old fashioned way, I cut up all the comments and placed them in a hat and got my son to choose, so the winner is -

Rachael from The Rose Room

I would have taken a photo of the whole process but it is so dark and rainy here at the moment that I couldn't get a clear photo.

Congratulations to Rachael, I have had so much fun with this event there were 911 blogs participating in the giveaway, I have found so many more wonderful crafty people all over the world that this event has been such a wonderful experience for me.

Thank you all to for all the prayers for the victims of the bush fires and floods, although I personally am a long way away from these tragedies I am sure that the victims all know that both Australia and the rest of the world has been praying for them.

Cheers,

Words can not discribe

2009-02-10T10:16:00.007+10:00

I have been watching the news in horror for the last few days, our wonderful lucky country is in pain. Between the flooding in North Queensland, the town of Ingham has 3000 homes underwater, then to the other extreme the tragic fires in Victoria and New South Wales.

Victoria has been so badly hit to date 173 people have lost their lives and it is believed there is 5000 people homeless, but these numbers are believed to rise.

I have been in tears hearing the stories of loss and tragedy, but then in tears of happiness when they show a family that has finally been reunited. Words cannot describe what the survivers are going through so here are some pictures.

My prayers and thoughts go out to all that have been affected by both tragedies, and to the volunteers out there giving everyone a hand my greatest admiration.

Best Wishes,

One World One Heart Giveaway

2009-01-19T07:10:00.001+10:00

Comments have now been closed - winner will be annouced in next post.

A big welcome to everyone new or old to my blog. Today I am so excited to be participating in the One World One Heart Giveaway, the giveaway also co-insides with my 50th post and I have now been blogging for a year (wow where did that time go?). I have met many talented and lovely people in blog land and this event is such a great way to meet even more. Ok so here is what I am giving away -

A handmade welcome sign made by me, some lovely velvet roses, wonderful pink old lace, some bling rhinestones and pearls, chipboard alphabets and some lovely scrapbooking papers.

To enter the draw for this prize all you have to do is to leave a comment on this post with either a link back to you or an email address so that I can get in contact with you, the draw is until the 12th February, so if you get a chance pop in and say hi to all the other lovely participants just click the OWOH icon above.

Cheers and good luck,

Day Trip

2009-01-13T20:39:00.009+10:00

Monday morning Paul rang to say that he had a load to go to Hervey Bay, so we all piled in the truck for the three hour drive north to the coastal town.

The drive up and back was very scenic, and the best bit is that in the truck you get to see so much more because you are much higher then everyone else.

Everything is so green at the moment, we have had a lot of rain the past couple of months.

The boys thought that this tree was really unusual, it really stood out.

We had to go through the town of Maryborough on the way. There are so many really cute Queenslander homes I managed to get some photos of a couple.

And a cute little farm house.

On the way we also go past Aussie World, the pub is based on the pub in the Dad and Dave cartoons.

It was a lovely day out and the best part of all was the fact that we got paid for it, cool hey. Now the next photo I had to put in because I had to keep on asking the boys for my camera back so that I could take some photos, they were busy taking photos of trucks as they went by. This one turn out pretty good.

Now I have been tagged by Deb @ Posted from Home to do a meme. The directions are - Open a photo folder or document, choose the 5th folder and then the 5th photo in that folder. Do a post with a description of the photo. Tag 5 friends to do the Meme.

The 5th folder that I opened was from our most recent trip to Australia Zoo. This is a must see for anyone the zoo is so beautiful, I have seen the zoo grow over the past 25 years and the changes are amazing. We are lucky that we only live 45 minutes away and we try to get there at least once every two years. Steve's spirit is truly alive and well there. So anyway this was the 5th photo from that folder.

Cute hey. For this meme I tag - Kris @ Tag along Teddies

Bek @ Beks Shabby Dreams

Mel @ Mel's Rose Place

Ele @ A bit of Pink Heaven

and Amy @ Bunny Rose Cottage

My next post will be my 50th and also the OWWH giveaway not to mention that the 9th January was my 1 year blog anniversary. So until then I hope that everyone has a lovely week.

Cheers,

Busy but Relaxing

2009-01-06T10:07:00.007+10:00

Does that title make sense to anyone else but me? That is the way the last few weeks have been, Paul was on holidays for two weeks over the Christmas, New Year Holidays it is the only time during the year that he gets time off so we normally try to make the most of it.

We had a huge clean out of the back shed, six trailer loads to the dump (it's a big shed 9x6 meters) there were draws, a fridge, washing machine, dryer other odds and ends all things that we hadn't had time to take to the dump during the year. It is still a mess down there but that is a project I will be working on during the year to turn it into a teenagers retreat. There is lots of work to be done the car needs to be moved as well as the billiard table, the walls need to be lined and electricity needs to go in, but hopefully it will be done by next Christmas. I have planned to do a sporting theme for the room with red and blue as the main colours.

Another project that we worked on during Paul's break was our BBQ area, although it still needs to be tiled and a privacy screen put in we did manage to get the BBQ and Pergola put together. I love this BBQ normally it is the husband trying to talk the wife into buying a new BBQ, but not in this house I had to talk Paul into buying it, I figure that since I can't have my new kitchen for a few more years yet that at least I could have a great outdoor kitchen. It is so much easier cooking on the BBQ then trying to cook in the kitchen with a plug in oven and stove top, not that I have had a chance to cook yet, my boys love cooking on it and I think that it is good for them to learn.

One project I have planned later for out here is an outdoor fireplace the hard part is going to be finding someone to build it, they are not a common occurrence here in Queensland. Below is what I would love, but I think that we will have to go for a simpler version.

I have also managed to get all the Christmas decorations packed away something that normally takes weeks to do.

So that was the busy bits but we have also had plenty of time to relax up at the Sunshine Coast at Paul's' parents place at Golden Beach.

I hope you all have a great week.

Cheers,

Happy New Year to all!

2009-01-01T10:56:00.004+10:00

I hope that everyone had a wonderful New Years, mine was very quiet didn't even make it till 12 but did spend it with family up at the beautiful sunshine coast.

Although I am happy for the New Year which I view as a clean slate, I am a little worried about what the New Year may hold. Although Australia is doing well compared to a lot of countries in the current economic crisis we don't know what the future holds. Normally I wouldn't be so worried about this sort of thing, but now being a business owner of a very quickly expending business you tend to listen a little more closely to these things. So I am hoping that the doom and gloom and hard times that they tend to dwell upon on the TV is all greatly exaggerated and that it will work out in the end.

Anyway enough doom and gloom, 2008 for my family was one of many highlights and not too many downs (thankfully). Paul and I had always said that we will never own a truck too much money and worry involved and it so much easier to work for someone else. But when a business opportunity can up November 2007 it was too good to knock back and we are glad that we did. It has been a step learning curve but one worth doing.

We have now expanded from owing an old 1996 model Kenworth truck and trailer to now owning two brand new Kenworth 's and having an employee. It all has happened so quickly it was mainly over Christmas time when both trucks were at home did it really sink in that they were ours, we know that the first years are always the hardest but we are looking to the future and hopefully growing the business for our sons future.

Sorry for waffling on so much but this being New Years Day I am thinking about what my priorities are for the next year. Of cause my family is number 1, but number 2 is defiantly the business and trying to learn as much as possible. How different my priorities are compared to last years resolutions which of cause never got done, the story of my life.

So I hope that everyone has a wonderful and exciting year this year with not too many down times. Till next time.

Cheers,

P.S I have decided to join in on the One World one Heart Giveaway this year 19th January. I entered many draws last year, didn't win any :( but that really isn't the point because I found so many wonderful creative blogs from all over the world, my 50th post is coming up and my blog 1st Anniversary so I thought I would combine the lot and have a giveaway. Now I just have to work out what to make. If you want more info on this event there is a link on my sidebar.

It's begining to look a lot like Christmas..........finally

2008-12-17T15:26:00.011+10:00

Hi all, again thank you all so much for all of your lovely messages, I am well and truly well again now, just feel like I'm running around like a chook with my head cut off madly trying to get ready for Christmas.

The Christmas decorating around here is a bit sad this year I have nowhere near as much done as past years but it will have to do. As you will see I like to decorate in a different colour in every room and normally every room including the toilet and laundry are decorated. Here are a few photos to show you. Here are the lounge room photos black, gold and cream/white.

Just before I got sick I repainted the family room this is what it looked like before.

and now I have repainted the green walls in grey and the kitchen in white -

I loved the bright green, but with the rest of the house now slowly becoming more pastel colours it was a bit of a shock to the system walking into the room the grey seems to make the transition smoother (I hope that all makes sense).

Here is the front enterance way. (cream and gold)

Hopefully I might get a bit more decorating done before Christmas, so until then.

Cheers,

On the road to recovery

2008-11-26T11:42:00.002+10:00

Hi everyone thank you for all of your kind words lately I have still been fighting with this bug for the last two weeks now and for someone who never ever gets sick it is a big challenge. Each time I think I'm better I get a chill and high temperature again the doctors are baffled. Anyway enough of that stuff I am starting to at least feel normal in between bouts of fever. LOL

I have had to cancel our annual Christmas party this year as there is just no way that everything will be done in time, I haven't even gotten into the Christmas mood yet which is very unusual for me I think I might go with tradition this year and wait till 1st December before decorating I think once I start I won't be able to stop.

I hope everyone has a wonderful week, and I will catch up with you all soon.

Cheers,

Wow what a week

2008-11-19T12:03:00.008+10:00

Where to start? Wednesday the 12th November is properly the best place, It started with me getting a temperature on Wednesday that turned into viral gastro so bad that I ended up in at the doctors Sunday who sent me straight to the hospital for re-hydration and numerous tests. But the worrying part of all this is if you read my blog regularly you would know that I had my Mother in Laws 60th birthday party here at home on Sunday. Well all I can say is that I have the best and I mean the best boys, my 10, 11 and 13 year old sons cleared out the back shed on Friday so that they could remove all the furniture out of the rumpus room to set up the "Diner" and then the set it all up by themselves. Here are the photos.

All I Had to do was sit there and tell them where to put it all, I'm so proud of them if they hadn't of done that for me the party would of had to of been cancelled. My Mum came up on Saturday that's her in the background of the above photo and she was such a big help too, I am so luckily to have such a wonderful family.

Anyway as I was saying about an hour into the party I told Paul that I had better go to the Doctor and when ended up at the hospital while we were there there was a large storm although we couldn't see it we left at about 5:30 pm after the storm had passed and OH MY GOODNESS!!!! This was not just some storm but a major one. We had to dodge flood water, fallen trees and power lines it was scary.

When we got home there were a couple of hanger ons left from the party have a party in the candle light, to cut a long post short we were lucky a broken glass table and 6 trees down but no damage to the house.

This is the yard before the storm.

And this is the mess after.

It can all be cleaned up, one of the trees that we lost was planted for my youngests 1st birthday, but we can replant. My prayers go out to the residents of "The Gap" who were hardest hit and many are now homeless.

Cheers,

November Already

2008-11-04T09:03:00.005+10:00

Ok now that is getting scary, I don't know if I have mentioned this before but I am a bit of a Christmas lover I would go so far as to say I'm a Christmas aholic. LOL So it already being November and I haven't even started decorating for the season is very scary, you see I start my inside decorating for Christmas on the 1st of October except for the 6 Christmas trees (this year there will be 7) which are done on the 1st December. Our outside light display is always started on the 1st November (my youngest sons birthday, I can't believe he is 10). Now here we are the 4th November and I haven't even pulled out the boxes of decorations.

Now some of you might think that I am a bit mad starting so early with my decorating but you see we have a little bit of an annual Christmas party at our place (last year there were 86 people) so in order to have everything ready and organized I have to start early. This year the party is on the 20th December and as I am not working at my second job this year I am hoping to get the decorating started on the 17th November, I can't start before hand because my Mother in law is having her 60th birthday party here on the 16th so I am still trying to finish painting and plastering before the party.

We are having a rock n roll diner theme for her party, the menu will consist of mini hotdogs, hamburgers, onion rings, hot chips, milkshakes, ice cream sundays and of cause banana splits. Can't wait no one is allowed to be on a diet that day. LOL

Wow I just realised how much I have written, now I'm going to add some photos of last years Christmas decorations, them I'm off to visit all of you to catch up with every ones news.

Bye for now

Cheers,

Just a quick note

2008-10-30T12:51:00.011+10:00

Well so much for getting back to you all last week, wow where has the time gone. I'm still busy finishing off my renovating hope to have it mostly all finished this weekend, then I can show you all the finished product.

Paul and I celebrated our wedding anniversary last week on 23rd October 15 years married, wow I don't know where all those years went either.

The last two Wednesday nights have been spent up at our oldest sons high school one night for academic awards night and the other for sports awards. The academic awards night he had to wear the formal school uniform with tucked in shirt and tie, Paul and I couldn't help but laugh along with him he looked so strange dressed like that since he is such a jock.

We are all proud of his achievements he received the Year 8 Rugby League award as well as a merit award for his B grade average (not bad for a jock).

Here are a couple of photos from my craft room which I promised (it's still not finished yet).

Cheers,

Under Construction

2008-10-10T10:12:00.003+10:00

I thought that I would just quickly let you all know what I have been up to, I'm trying to finish off my youngest sons bedroom but it is a very slow and tedious job, I hope to finally show you the results next week. Also the old formal dinning room is under some pretty major construction at the moment, with new dividing walls being built so that now the room is divided into a display area for my bone china, my craft table in another and a large storage area for all of my craft items.

We had a large rumpus room built onto the back of our house three years ago and we use the table in that room all the time so the formal dinning room was just not getting used anymore, so instead of it just being wasted I thought that I might put it to good use, If we ever do sell the house (I would have to be in a pine box for that) the room can be used as a prep room since it is just off the kitchen and it will be set up just like one.

I had planned to tease you all with some photos but for some reason I can't get them to download today, so I will have to show you all later.

Also I have a tag from Kris @ tagalongteddies that I have to complete.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and I will catch up with you all next week.

Cheers,

My Favourite Tree

2008-09-24T10:47:00.007+10:00

This would have to be my favourite tree in our garden, (the photo doesn't really do it justice) most of the year you don't even notice it but come Spring time WOW you can see these trees when you turn into our street they are just stunning. At the moment we have about 6 of these trees (if someone knows what they are called please tell me, we call them yellow trumpet trees, my Dad brought the seeds down from north Queensland.) they propagate really easily and I just keep putting more through the gardens.

I have been working on the "M" of my home but it is taking longer then expected here is a sneak peak.

My youngest son is 9 and just completed his first swapbot swap "kids ATC's" I let him loose in my craft room and this is what he came up with. I was so proud I think that he did a wonderful job and he did it all by himself.

Hope that you all have a great week and those of you that have the children home for the school holidays aren't going to crazy.

Cheers,

Gardening, Gardening and some more Gardening

2008-09-15T10:41:00.006+10:00

Have a guess what we did on the weekend. When the boys were younger Paul and I use to work on the yard every weekend, landscaping, building, concreting we are no professionals but we are proud of what we have been able to accomplish on our own. But the last 3 or 4 years the boys have been doing a lot of weekend sport and the yard and gardens are starting to show the lack of attention.

I love the lichen on this small tree.

We decided that this Summer the boys were not going to do any weekend sport so that we can spend more time at home on the yard, and that is what we did on Saturday 4 huge loads of green waste to the dump later we managed to clear out down one side of the backyard. I love living on an acre but every job always seems to be on a grand scale. Now we have only the front yard to do, which will take 2 - 3 weekends approx.

I did manage to find while cleaning up 6 tennis balls, 3 footballs, 1 baseball, 1 cricket ball, numerous golf balls, a ping pong ball and numerous other small toys that the boys grew out of a long time ago, thankfully we didn't find any snakes although we had a scare but it was only a lizard.

The only problem is with all this clearing out is that we discovered that one neighbours yard is even messier than what ours was. I hope to get up to the local markets maybe next weekend and get some native tube stock to fill in the holes left in between the shrubs to block some of their yard. I have found that due to the drought the only thing worth putting in the garden now are natives otherwise you spend too much time watering and pulling out dead plants.

Oh it wasn't all gardening on Sunday we did get to go to a football breakup, yeah. LOL more sport. I hope you like the photos in between of what is left of our garden.

Cheers,

Yeah It's Finally Spring

2008-09-02T12:54:00.009+10:00

If you have been reading my blog for a little while you might of noticed by now that I'm not to fond of Winter, in fact I hate the cold. It wouldn't be so bad if it was cold enough that we got snow here then it would be worth it, but I'm afraid that would never happen here, and yes compaired to the extreme cold that some of you girls put up with I know that I'm just a sook.

It is now finally starting to warm up here, last night at touch football I only had one jumper on, and my nose wasn't cold. Now if only we could get some rain to green up the grass I would be a very happy girl. So enough about the weather, I have been busy with a few more swaps here are some of the things that I have been making.

Black and White ATC's

Zoo Animals ATC's

and some more inchies
Now on a sader note a couple of weeks ago we lost two members of our budgie family, Snowy and Sunny were a lovely couple, and I have know idea what happened Sunny was fine one minute then just died, Snowy went the next day, I'm only new to budgie keeping and I have know idea what happened the others all seem to be fine, the boys were a pretty upset and we have left their cage empty still. At least now they are still together in Budgie Heaven.

Beautiful Snowy
Handsome Sunny

Now I know that it has been a while since I last did any of the ABC of my home, but at the moment I am stuck on M which is my youngest sons bedroom and it is not yet ready to be photographed as soon as it is I will continue on with the rest of the alphabet.

I hope that everyone has a wonderful week and I hope to pop in to you all soon.

Cheers,

I have to confess

2008-08-20T21:41:00.000+10:00

I have become addicted, to swapbot. I first heard about swapbot on Suze's blog, and decided to check it out since I had so much fun with the parasols and paper swap. I have now discovered a world of ATC's, whimsy jars and inchies and my sons postcard, stamp and coin collections are growing very quickly. I have meet and swapped parcels with some lovely ladies all over the world. So again I apologise if I haven't caught up with you all much lately, but since I have now finished all the business paperwork (yeah) I can put more time into blogging and swapping.

Here's a couple of the ATC's that I have made ( sorry some of the photos are a bit blurry, my camera is acting up a bit lately) -

and my first inchies -

Cheers,

Hi All

2008-07-21T10:14:00.001+10:00

Yes I'm still here, wow can't believe how long it has been since my last post, but between the two weeks school holidays and I'm trying to get the business BAS and end of year tax done not to mention our contract with Boral is in the works at the moment that I haven't had much time for much else. The school holidays went way too fast, the boys had fun ice skating, the movies, friends over and to top it all off a three day touch football carnival, who said holidays were relaxing. I still have a bit more paperwork to finish up then I can get back into catching up with everyone, so until then I thought that I will just show you my front entrance way which I did up a couple of months ago.

The teddy family.

Paul's and the boys christening gown, they cringe when I tell them that they wore a dress. LOL

So until I catch up with you all, I hope everyone has a great week.

Cheers,

Not much to tell

2008-06-26T18:04:00.004+10:00

Hi all, I don't have much to show you at the moment, many projects on the go but nothing finished yet. This week was a bit of a wipe out too with the boys sports days at school, and in between that I have been busy cleaning out and sorting through my craft room or as Paul's Grandfather nicely calls it my studio (I though you have to be a professional artist for one of those so I felt quite honoured that that is how he saw it.) It's the school holidays next week yeah can't wait, I can sleep in a bit and get stuck into some painting around the house, Oh and there is that wall to build too. I though that I would leave you all with a photo of our lovely new arrivals who are now all out of the nest, they are getting more active everyday playing chasey around the cage and driving their Mother and Auntie nuts, just like human children.

Thunder (boy), Sky (boy) and Tweet (girl) 6 weeks old

Hopefuly I will have more to post about next week, so I hope that everyone has a great week and I will catch up with you all then.

Cheers,

Hello Big Wide World

2008-06-14T11:26:00.002+10:00

It's amazing the difference a few weeks can make our once cute but ugly baby budgies are all cute now, it's getting harder to get a decent photo of them now because they are smart enough to know to hide when the camera comes. The oldest which my boys have named Thunder came out of the nesting box yesterday, I think he is a boy still a bit too hard to till yet. I got this photo of him.

He's a lovely white and grey colour, not quite as blue as it looks in this photo, the second oldest is a lovely shade of bright blue and the youngest is a yellow and green colour, it's great that we ended up with three different colours.

Last week I finished off and sent my Parasol and paper swap to Suze in the US, I must thank Natasha for the inspiration on this, after seeing what herself, Heather, Holly and Ginny had made for their Marie Antoinette round robin, although mine is nowhere near as elaborate.

Here is what I sent.

Lots of lovely ribbons and lace.

It's hard to get a decent photo of the clock, I actually used the arms off a doll that I bought so she could hold her parasol, I really hope Suze likes this as it took quite a while to get it to work just right. I hope that it all arrives there safely.

Yesterday my parcel arrived from Suze, I was so excited I had to stop myself and make sure that I took photos of everything. Suze was more then generous I love everything she sent.

How cute is this handmade tag, it is just beautiful.

The most yummiest caramels ever, love the flower and lace

A glittered L vintage doilie and some of the most beautiful papers ever!

Glittered parasols and even some confetti ones too.

How about this beautiful mosaic box it is just so beautiful I love it!

Lovely bling, and have a look at what Suze used for the feet, gorgeous vintage spools with lovely thread still attached.

The inside of the box is just as beautiful.

and look even more beautiful goodies inside the box!

A beautiful vintage parasol broach love it, there was even a beautiful vintage hankie with a lovely girl holding a parasol.

Thank you again Suze I really enjoyed this swap thanks to such a generous partner I hope that your parcel arrives very soon.

I'm trying to stall on the A to Z of my home, as I'm up to M and that is my youngest sons room which I'm still in the process of painting at the moment, sorry I'm not going to give you any clues about what the M stands for you will just have to wait and see hopefully soon।

I hope that everyone is having a wonderful week.

Cheers,

I'm Seeing Red

2008-06-02T21:57:00.011+10:00

No i'm not angry just participating in Sara's I saw red challenge. I didn't have to go far to find something red around here. Sorry if you have already seen these photos from around my kitchen and family room.

Of cause Betty had to join in again too, that girl loves a party.

Red geraniums

This red truck is actually a small fish tank it does have a Siamese fighting fish in it but he didn't like the flash on my camera.

I hope everyone enjoyed all the red photos, I have even changed the colours of my blog to match, now I'm off to check out some of the other blogs participating.

Cheers,

It's raining it's pouring (drizzling), the old man is snoring.

2008-05-29T14:06:00.013+10:00

That is what I have been singing in my head all day, I'm just so happy that it is finally raining again even if it is only a drizzle. It has been so dry here as of late, one of our water tanks were empty and even the weeds looked like they were dying from lack of water.

We are well and truly into Autumn/Winter weather now not my favourite time of year I'm a bit of a sook when it comes to the cold I wouldn't mind so much if it snowed, then we would at least have something to show for it. These are some of the plants in flower in my garden this time of year.

Snowflake, I love these so easy to look after and when you plant many together it looks like snow.

Camellias, one of my favourites, I actually have 15 of these in a variety of colours not all are in flower yet.

Cactus Flower, (I think that's what it i called) love this colour.

The baby budgies are still going strong keeping both Mum and Dad busy.

Now I have been tag by Marja to answer the following 5 questions about myself, never one to disappoint I thought that I would get onto it straight away.

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?

I had a 3 year old a 16 month old and I was approx 3 months pregnant with number three, oh and did I mention at the time I also worked two part-time jobs, on the weekend at Telebet and a couple of days a week at the family wholesale floorcoverings business. Don't ask me where I found the energy I'm tired just thinking about it, no wonder those years are a bit of a blur.

2. Five things on my to do list?

1. Finish painting youngest sons room.
2. Finish my parasol and paper swap.
3. Do up my craft room.
4. Clean out my linnen cupboard
5. Finish mulching the gardens

3. Snacks I enjoy?

Depending on my mood, sometimes something sweet like chocolate (I love white chocolate) or sometimes something savoury, really does depend on my mood at the time.

4. Things I would do if I were a millionaire?

Renovate! I don't think that I could ever move from here too many wonderful memories and it is just a wonderful place to live, but I would love to pay someone to finish all of the projects that I have rattling round in my head.

Weekend Retreat! I would love a really really big property with just a log cabin and a large shed to house the boys dirt bikes and etc that they would undoubtedly own if we were millionaires.

Travel the world starting with Graceland of cause.

Charity I would love to help out a charity that doesn't get much publicity something local maybe.

5. Places I have lived?

Brisbane and now just north of Brisbane (don't get around much do I)

Ok so I have to tag 5 people -

Deb @ Posted from Home (I managed to get her first for once LOL)
Kris @ Tag along Teddies (Always makes me laugh every post)
Kirstie @ Adeline Country Cottage (fellow bling bling birdhouse extraordinaire)
Linda @ Lilly Cottage (co-owner of 2 gorgeous shops which I still have to visit, soon I promise)
Bek @ Beks Shabby Chic (maker of beautiful faux cupcakes, cakes, biscuits and sugar cubes)

Now I had better get to bed and catch some beauty sleep since I will wake a whole year older tomorrow.

Hope you all have a wonderful week.

Cheers,

A new addition to our family

2008-05-21T13:00:00.006+10:00

In one of my very first posts I wrote about our bird aviary, well our birds have been very busy making happy families, one of our couples eggs have hatched and we have three new little baby budgies. It is very hard to get a photo of them but I was able to video them on my phone, sorry about the noise but Mum (Jess) is very protective -

Cute but a bit ugly too. It looks like one of the babies is getting a bit more attention then the younger siblings, I'll keep you posted on how they go.

Cheers,

L is for

2008-05-15T12:18:00.000+10:00

Lamps

Cielo from The House in the Roses, had a post last month about romantic windows and how she likes to add lace, lamps and beautiful things to her windows so that they look lovely from the outside. Although most of my windows are to big to adorn so beautifully I do love the glow of a lite lamp in the corner of a room, I seem to have one in each room. Here is just a few of my favourites from around my home.

The lounge room - I'm still in the process of finishing this room, it has a black, white and gold theme. (oh and the boys model cars)

This one is at the moment in my craft room, It is my all time fav, a friend of a friend decorated it, she use to have a small party plan business selling all her craft work but she had to give it up due to the fact she could not find the time to keep up with orders since she has 6 kids. I don't know where she finds the time to do any crafting.

Betty Boop I just had to post her again she is just so cute.

I am a sucker for anything beaded or with flowers.

I hope that everyone is having a lovely week, I'm busy working on my swap project at the moment, lots of ideas but it's not always easy to put them into practise, I'm having lots of fun trying though.

Cheers,

What I love about blogging

2008-05-07T12:48:00.013+10:00

Karen from a Scrapbook of Inspiration tagged me a couple of weeks ago to do a 10 things I love about blogging tag. So here goes -

1. Inspiration - I love looking through the photos on peoples blogs, the craft, home decorating and gardens are all such wonderful inspiration.

2. Friends that get you - The number of times that I have read something on someones blog and I have said to myself oh I do that.

3. Information - I love the way people love to share ideas and techniques that they have learnt along the way.

4. Challenges - Craft challenges, loove these and especially since there is always a finish date that has to be adhered to, so I can't leave anything unfinished.

5. Shopping - I have had so much fun buying bits and pieces off of friends like the ones below, I never use to buy much before on the internet because I didn't like the idea of not knowing who I was dealing with, but I love being able to say to my boys and husband so and so from so and so made this isn't she clever! Below are some of the things I have bought from the very talented girls out there.

This is beautiful Belle she came from Kris at Tag along Teddies

This lovely Spring basket came from Natasha at Artistic Creations by Natasha Burns

These sweet cupcakes came from Shannon at Paint Mine Pink

and the too cute sugared hearts and sugar cubes came from Bek at Beks Shabby Chic.

All these ladies are so sweet and so talented it was such a pleasure dealing with them.

6. Education - I love the way you can learn about the way other people live in different countries, different traditions, housing, climate conditions and even wildlife etc.

7. Feedback - I so loove to get comments, maybe because blogging is still only new to me, but I love the positive comments that I get about my craft and decorating it warms my heart and boosts my confidence.

8. Out of My Comfort Zone - I like the way I am sometimes challenged, there are so many talented artist and crafters out in blogland, I have never sold anything only ever made things for myself or close friends and family but I even signed up for my first swap this week.

9. Diary - I always wanted to keep a diary a couple of years I even started but normally never got any further then March, with my blog though I feel like I have to keep posting so as not to disappoint anyone.

10. Finishing - My projects that I have been putting off around the house so that I can A to Z them.

When I started this blog I was only ever going to put positive and beautiful things on here, but after last weekend I just wanted to vent a little, so if you don't want to hear me whinging and complaining look away right now........... I was looking forwarded to a long weekend but on Sunday on the way to my oldest sons football game a P plate driver decided that the give way rule didn't apply to her and thought that our car would look a lot better without the front end. Luckily everyone is Ok my two oldest boys have whiplash that will require further treatment but we're all ok. Paul and I have never been involved in an accident before luckily and it was not even at high speed or anything we were just driving along minding our own business then all of a sudden there was a black car in front of us it was really scary so please everybody be careful out there on them mean roads. (Oh and she was charged on the spot for failure to give way, a witness said that she didn't even brake or slow down.)

Sorry no more whinging, I hope that everyone has a wonderful week.

Cheers,

What I have been up to and the letter K

2008-04-29T07:12:00.018+10:00

Well I can't believe how long it has been since my last post. I thought that when I gave up my second job I would have more time on my hands, now I am wondering where I ever found the time to go to work. I have been so busy repainting my lounge room, cleaning up the vegie garden, making a scrapbook for my father in laws 60th and making this for a family members daughters christening.

So here is K finally which is for -

Kitchen, well it is really the kitchen and the family room combined. I love the colours in these rooms they are so bright, cheery and fun (Ok so it might be a bit too bright and cheery for some but we love it.) A couple of years ago these two rooms were very traditional country dark green and burgundy, but then I found this in a store I knew it was perfect for us as Paul and the boys like to collect model cars, it sparked a whole new look.

This glass roseball (sorry the photo is fuzzy but since it is made out of glass it is hard to photograph) was Paul's grandmothers it gave me the inspiration to use red roses in here

like this -

I found this print at one of our local discount warehouses, the colours are just perfect for this room and I love the way the down light highlights it at night.

This rack was from the previous traditional country makeover, I just painted it white and found some red pots.

I do love scrapbooking but I also love to hang photos on the walls that way you get to see them every day.

This was one of my latest finds, doesn't Betty Boop just fit in perfectly. My in laws are going to the States in a couple of months and they are going to see if they can find something to go on the opposite side can't wait to see what they find.

Although the kitchen bench, cupboards and appliances all need replacing and there are still some things that are unfinished I can't help but be happy in here.

Cheers,

The A to Z of my home

2008-04-15T12:44:00.000+10:00

For those of you that I have only just recently met, I thought that showing on my blog an A to Z of my favourite things around my home would be a great way of introducing myself since I am only new to blogging. The last few weeks I have gotten a bit side tracked due to some lovely craft challenges and tags. So I thought that today I will continue now I think I was up to J. Here is a quick recap so far (there are more photos on the posting for that item).

A is for Army

B is for Bone China

C is for Chandelier

D is for Dolls house

E is for Elvis

F is for Football

G is for Garden

H is for Hall stand

I is for (well I couldn't find anything so here is a random photo from around my home)

Now today's letter is J (another hard letter to find something of)

Which is for Jewelry Stand this was the only thing that I could find in my home starting with J I'm sure now that I have posted I will find others.

My Mother in law bought this for me a few years ago for Christmas, I just love the colours in it. You now see these stands everywhere but at the time it was purchased they were hard to come by, when my mother in law saw this one she knew straight away I would love it. It holds my wedding jewelry on my duchess.

Cheers,

Show us your favourite dolls

2008-04-08T09:30:00.009+10:00

Lori from Faerie Window is having a show off your favourite dolls day today, unfortunately I don't have too many girly dolls, having a house full of boys it didn't seem right to have a doll collection on display who knows what the boys might get up to with them, so I thought that I might share with you a couple that I do have.

This one I only received this past Christmas it came from my two lovely nieces. I may not have girls but I do have 4 nieces who I love buying very girly things for. My sisters two daughters spotted this lovely doll who's name happens to be Linda and promptly told their Mum that they had to buy it for me. How cute is that! I love it! It is so special to me knowing that it is from my beautiful nieces.

Now this second one is also very special, she needs a lot of TLC at the moment, when I find the right person to do it I will get her fixed. This beautiful doll is my Mums. My Mum was born in the Netherlands at the time of WWII. When Mum was 11 the family decided to leave their homeland and move to New Zealand, Mum and her 2 brothers and sister where told that they had to leave everything behind and only take one toy with them, this is what Mum brought with her. Mum said that she still has the original dress for her in storage. I just love the look on her sweet face and to know that my Mum loved her that much to travel halfway around the world with her is just wonderful.

If you would like to see more wonderful favourite dolls just visit Lori for the list of blogs participating.

Ok now for those of you that read my previous post and were wondering which random and weird fact was not true it is no 5. Although my son, my younger sister and brother all do have this problem I am glad to say that I don't, actually I have never passed out or fainted before in my life.

Oh and if you have been reading the A to Z of my home I know that I have gotten a little side tracked the last few posts but I will continue next post, so until then .............

Cheers,

7 weird facts and some words of wisdom

2008-04-03T10:48:00.000+10:00

I apologise now for the long post with lots of reading.

I have been tagged twice once by Deb @ Posted from Home to do a six word meme and also by Kris @ Tag along Teddies to do a 7 weird and random facts about myself. I enjoy reading these when other people have been tagged as you can learn so much about a person from them and sometimes they will surprise you.

First my six word meme. These are the rules -

1. Write your own six (6) word memoir.
2. Post it on your blog with a visual illustration, if you like.
3. Link to the person who tagged you in your post and to the original post if possible, so we can track it as it travels through the blogosphere.
4. Tag 5 more blogs with links.
5. Remember to leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play.

My meme is something that I try to teach my boys.

Respect everyone, respect nature, respect yourself

I figure if my boys follow these simple rules they will hopefully lead a rewarding and fruitful life.

Now for this I hate only having to pick only 5 so I tag Kris ha I got you back, Jessica, Gail, Mandii and Katrina

Now to my 7 weird and random facts about myself, I had a hard time trying to come up with some that were not too scary. This is what I came up with -

I can't do more then one thing at a time, I know that this is something that women are suppose to be able to do, but I'm afraid sometimes if I even try, I could do myself or someone else some serious damage, and the thing that is even weirder about this is that my husband Paul can do more then one thing at a time and doesn't he let me know about it LOL.

If your into star signs here's one for you, I'm about as Gemini as they come, true split personality straight down the middle, depending on what mood I am in in the morning as to which Linda appears that day good Linda or bad bad Linda. I'm also a bit of a gypsy, if it wasn't for Paul and the boys I'm sure I would of lived in 50 different countries by now always on the move, love change.

Ears - did you know that there are two different types of ears, attached lobes and unattached lobes normally people only have one or the other, but no not me, I have one of each, I had my science teacher in high school stumped by this one, we were suppose to put classmates in groups according to eye colour, hair colour, ears etc, well I was just in a group of my own wasn't I. You are all going to be checking out every ones earlobes now to see what I'm talking about aren't you?

Coffee - I hate it can't even stand the smell of it, I might have a hot chocolate but even then the weather has to be cold, I don't get the whole hot drinks in hot weather thing. When people come over they normally have to make their own coffee or Paul will make it for them.

Speaking of hot drinks I also can't drink anything too cold or else I will blackout, it is a trait that runs in my family I discovered my eldest son has it too a couple of years ago when he had a cold drink of milk had a fit and passed out, the problem was he was on the tiled floor at the time. I won't gross you out too much about the details but there was lots of blood, an ambulance, stitches and observation in hospital involved.

I hate getting dressed and no I'm not a nudest I do actually like wearing clothes I just hate the act of getting dressed and undressed then dressed again, I always have even when I was younger just ask my Mum, that's why when I shop for clothes most of the time I won't try things on just buy them off the rack and if they don't fit I just take them back.

Growing up I was the eldest child in a family of five I have a younger sister and brother, but over the cause of the past ten years I have been downgraded, OK so I knew about Dads previous family of four kids but I didn't know about the other son on my Dads side which is fine but a bit of a shock so I made a point of asking Dad is there any more, to which he replied no, but I never even thought to ask my Mum, so two years ago I found out I had another brother shock shock, I'm fine with it all I have discovered two more awesome brothers but now instead of being the eldest I'm 7th!

Ok that is my 7 weird and random facts the thing is there is a catch only 6 of these are true can you guess which one is not!

Now I'm suppose to tag 7 people, most people I know have already been tagged with this one so if you haven't and would like to play along consider yourself tagged.

Cheers,

Craft Challenge 3

2008-03-31T16:56:00.010+10:00

Louise from Beachys Cape Cod Cupboard is hosting her 3rd craft challenge today. The rules are simple. Create ANYTHING you want, using ANY MEDIUM, with the above photo simply titled "Whitby 1935". Take pictures of your finished artwork and post it on your blog on Monday, March 31st, for all of Blogland to see! Of cause don't forget to leave a message with Louise so that she knows that you are joining in.

I did a little bit of research before I started this project. This is what I managed to find out about "Whitby".

Whitby is a historic town in North Yorkshire on the north-east coast of England. Nowadays it is a fishing port and tourist destination. It is situated 47 miles from York, at the mouth of the River Esk and spreads up the steep sides of the narrow valley carved out by the river's course. At this point the coast curves round, so the town faces more north than east.
Many interesting fossils have been found in the Whitby area including entire skeletons of pterodactyls. Whitby is known for its well preserved ammonite fossils, which can sometimes be found on the seashore, or purchased from any number of stalls or shops in town.

www.viewimages.com

So now the time has come to reveal what I have made for this challenge, Ta Dah

Now this was not an easy one, I know roughly what I wanted to make, but the creative juices were just not flowing. I finally managed to get the look just right yesterday.

When I looked at the picture I saw beach, friendship, family and happy times. I found this poem on the Internet that seemed to say it all.

Time is But a
Grain of Sand

Time is but a grain of sand
Falling from a beach's ledge
But with each tiny grain
Our lives are slipping away
Slowly but surely we're all
Going to lose things and people
Feelings and dreams will fade
Memories will grow and relationships
Will build, ruin or fade away
Time will weather our bodies
But we have a choice to let it weather
Our minds and hearts.
In the end you get what you give
So give with all your heart
Live laugh and love
Dance what you feel and
Sing for the same
Cause in the end all that matters
Is what you believe in
So stand tall and reach out
Stand firm and even if you're alone
Stay with what you believe.
No body's created equal
Everyone wishes they could change
But very few people do.
Friendships are there for a reason
And so is the love of another
Use these to keep yourself together
And when you feel like breaking down
Remember of the people that are there
The people you love and who love you in return
Because these are the people who are true
And the only ones who truly matter.

Kirstyxo

Thanks Kirsty for the wonderful poem.

I hope you like what I have created, now I'm off to see what everyone else has come up with.

Cheers,

The Neverending Bling your Birdhouse Party

2008-03-27T12:10:00.017+10:00

Yeah it has finally arrived the right date for the party. Since some of you are probably sick of looking at the pictures of my birdhouses this past month I had a creative urge yesterday to make another one. Luckily I had most of the items already at home. So here it is -

The stand I picked up at the dump recycle shop for $5 and the cage came from one of those $2 shops I have had them sitting here for a while but didn't quite know what to do with them.

It looks much nicer in person then in the photos, why is it that every time I want to take a photo inside it is a dull and overcast day the light is a little better outside.

I had trouble finding a nest to fit inside since the doorway is so narrow. I love the glittery eggs inside I wonder what type of bird must of laid them?

Now if you would like to see the birdhouse that I made almost from scratch and posted last month because I got my months mixed up just scroll down a couple of posts.

I still have my Beachy's craft challenge to finish, I just can't seem to get the creative juices flowing on that one yet but it will happen I hope. Can't wait to see all of the lovely Blingy Birdhouses! Now if you would like to see more birdhouses other girls have made go to Beth or Karla's blogs.

Oh and by the way you are suppose to mention if you want to swap, or sell your birdhouse, sorry to say but I am going to be very selfish here and keep all of mine LOL, I'm just not good at letting go.

Cheers,

UPDATE Since posting my birdhouse I have discovered who laid those beautiful glitter eggs here she is but be very quiet as she is quite shy.

Who else but a glittery bird would lay glitter eggs.

Don't forget to check out my other houses if you have not already seen them at the bottom of this page.

Missing in Action

2008-03-25T12:14:00.005+10:00

Sorry I have been missing in action a bit lately, I hope that everyone had a wonderful Easter. We don't normally decorate for Easter here we are normally still recovering from our Christmas decorating (major event here), but this year I was so inspired by everyone in blogland that I though I might give it a go. Below is our Easter tree that I whipped up in a couple of hours.
I made the cards from images I found on the Internet,

the eggs I bought on E-Bay.

I also made some Easter baskets full of all things girly for my four nieces didn't even have time to take any photos before we left for the Sunshine Coast for a couple of days holidays. I'm still working on my craft challenge for Beachy's Cape Cod Cupboard and I have a meme from Deb at Posted from Home to do also, so I will be back again soon, now I had better go and finish the washing (the only downside of going away for holidays.)

Cheers,

It's a Spring Blessings Party

2008-03-11T09:46:00.009+10:00

Ok I know what you fellow Aussie girls are thinking, no I haven't lost a few screws and forgotten what time of year it is over here, I know that it is Autumn, but with all the Easter decorations around at the moment it is easy to get confused. Kari & Kijsa are having a Spring Blessings Party, I think everyone over the other side of the world are all getting a bit sick of all the snow and cold outside so they have been busy bringing Spring inside. Go have a look at their Spring Blessings post and check out some of the blogs involved they are just delightful.

If you are visiting me from Kari & Kijsa's blog just scroll down to see my Spring looking birdhouses that I made. Now I am going outside to do some much needed weeding in my vegie garden and to enjoy the sunshine (sorry I didn't mean to rub it in, really) I hope that everyone who is wishing for Spring at the moment gets their wish granted soon.

Cheers,

Another Craft Challenge

2008-03-05T11:40:00.007+10:00

Louise from Beachys Cape Cod Cupboard is having a craft challenge. I just loved the photo so I decided to join in all the fun. The rules are simple. Create ANYTHING you want, using ANY MEDIUM, with the above photo. Take pictures of your finished artwork and post it on your blog on Monday, March 31st, for all of Blogland to see! Of cause don't forget to leave a message with Louise so that she knows that you are joining in.

Hopefully I might just get the finish date right. I can't wait to get started I have so many ideas running around in my head.

Oh and thank you for all of your lovely comments about my birdhouses. I was really nervous about posting them as it was the first challenge I have been a part of and there are so many super talented crafty ladies out there in blogland I am in awe of all of you. I will have to repost my birdhouses on the 27th March so that I can join in the party with all the other lovely ladies.

Speaking of lovely ladies, I wasn't the only person to get the dates mixed up on the challenge, Kirstie over at Adeline Country Cottage was early too, so if you want you can go over and check out her lovely bling, bling birdhouse.

Cheers,

My Bling, Bling Birdhouses

2008-02-27T14:12:00.013+10:00

Hooray time to show you all what I have been working on the last week and a half. I started off by putting these two together (hammer, hammer, drill, saw and lots of glue)

to make this -

and I added this one -

Now this is what it looks like all together
I added a few butterflys and dragonflys, I wasn't able to find any birds though. The stand I already had but it needed adjusting (saw, saw, hammer, hammer) and some holes for the flowers (drill, drill, drill).

I even added window boxes with flowers, sorry the photos aren't clearer but the light wasn't to good to take photos today.

I can't wait to see what everyone else has come up with, this one has a lovely home just inside my front door. Thank you to Karla and Beth for hosting I had so much fun.

Cheers,

Oops! silly me only just realised that the "bling your Birdhouse" party was not till the 27th March so I am a little early, like a month, oh well I hate being late anyway.

What is your favourite childhood toy?

2008-02-25T09:53:00.006+10:00

Jayne from http://countrycottagechic.blogspot.com/ has invited us all to do a post about our favourite childhood teddy or doll etc with a photo either a "then " or "now" if you still have the teddy or doll. I thought that this was such a wonderful idea and decided to join in. Hope you all will too. Just leave a message on her blog so that everyone can find you.

I would like to introduce you all to "Golden Teddy" I have had him for as long as I can remember, can't even remember where he came from he has just always been there for me. We have been all over the countryside together, even quite a few trips over to New Zealand, now he prefers to stay at home with his mates.

These are his mates, couldn't tell you what their names are don't even know which one is my husbands and which is his brothers (I don't know if Paul really can't remember or if he just doesn't want to admit to it).

I hope you will all join in, it has been fun reminiscing.

Cheers,

I did, I did see a Snowman!

2008-02-22T12:06:00.011+10:00

As you might see be my last post I was having trouble finding things starting with the letter "I" for my A to Z of my home. Well the thoughts of ice, freezer, igloo and seeing everyone else in other countries playing in the snow are playing in my head, so while my oldest son was defrosting the freezer for me, we came up with this -

We had a hard time keeping the buttons on because he was melting faster then we could make him, (it is 30 degrees Celsius and very humid .) I think that will be the only snowman we will ever see around these parts.

Cheers,

Yeah I see they have fixed the problem at blogger with the spellcheck.

More A to Z of my Home

2008-02-21T11:17:00.008+10:00

I spy with my little eye,
nothing begining with "I"

I have looked and looked but all I came up with was -

ice (only have it in the freezer),

idea (have lots of them but they are a bit hard to photograph),

infant (my boys are getting to big to pass that one off),

insane (yep thats me sometimes), oh i've got it, what about

igloo (no don't see to many of them around during an Australian summer)

Oh I give up!

Here are just some random photos from around the house I thought that you might like.

"Love is a celestial harmony of likely hearts." - Spenser

Isn't this sign sweet, it is hanging in our hallway.

This poster was given to me as a gift from a friend at my 21st Birthday it is titled "the railway children", it hangs in my bedroom.

These gorgeous cups where given to me by my wonderful mother-in-law when they downsized from their house to their unit on the beach.
And lastly this little guy sits at my front door, doesn't he look like he is smiling just at you, I hope he has put a smile on your face like he does mine. (If you look closely enough he might even give you a cheeky wink.) Hope you have a wonderful day.
Cheers,

Bling your birdhouse (the challenge continues)

2008-02-19T10:10:00.008+10:00

Wow who would of thought it would be such a challenge to just find a birdhouse to use for this challenge let alone decorate it, actually I wanted two for what I had planned. Well after looking at Spotlight, Overflow, and 2 Bunnings stores I have so far come up with these -The large one is a tissue box and the small one is a money box, I have a couple of ideas in mind so hopefully it will all come together, luckly I know my way around Pauls power tools (I have actually used Pauls dropsaw more often than he has!), because I will have to use them.

Thanks to Natasha for your helpful comments on where to get some houses.

Cheers,

Bling your birdhouse

2008-02-18T11:12:00.009+10:00

The following is an excerpt from Karla's blog about the Bling your birdhouse challenge.

Celebrate Spring with Beth and Karla for their
“Bling your Birdhouse” Challenge!
(Other wise known as “What do you LOVE about your birdie’s home?”)
This is a SELF-linking and SELF-swapping challenge.
Show photos on your blog of a birdhouse you have embellished, in any way your artistic heart desires. If you aren’t an artist, you can share pictures of your favorite bird’s happy home.
Leave a comment with Beth or Karla (or both) on THURSDAY MARCH 27TH. Both artists will be showing their own blingy birdhouses that day. This is where the “self linking” comes in. Make sure that your URL is in the comment so everyone can come to visit and admire your birdie’s home after reading your comment.
If you want to buy/sell/or trade your creation with another artist, make sure you include that info in your post. This is where the “self swapping” comes in. If you are up for a swap, want to sell the house, or simply want to keep and enjoy it yourself, let everyone know.
Want some help with ideas for birdhouse décor? Bling kits will be for sale at Karla’s Etsy Shop and at Beth’s too. They will be filled with fun vintage touches to make your bird’s abode something really special.
And for a tutorial before the big day, join Karla on her blog Monday February 25TH. She’ll take you through the steps on a couple of different birdhouse styles. Also check out Beth’s blog posting HERE for photos of a Shabby Chic neighborhood she has designed for her feathered friends.

I was hoping to join in on this challenge as I have many ideas about what I was going to do but so far I have been unable to track down any wooden or even paper mache birdhouses in my area, they just don't seem to be the in thing at the moment. I will however keep on trying.

Thank you to Karla for your help with adding the button, although a blogger account must be slightly different to a typepad account, or I am just reading all the instructions wrong.

Cheers,

H is for

2008-02-13T21:54:00.001+10:00

Hallstand, well I call it a hallstand but it is not actually in my hall but in the front enterance way. This stand was origanally timber stained until I changed my decorating style to a more french country / shabby chic look, it was then one of the first pieces of furniture to be painted. I love it in white it makes the chrystal look so much better.

I also love the little rocking chair to the left of the photo it belonged to my mother-in-law when she was a little girl.

This cute little tea cup and saucer is one my Mum bought for me when I was born it is very special to me.

Aren't these little spring girls cute? I can't remember where I got them from I have had them for as long as I can remember.

This pretty plate I picked up in a thrift store in Woodford, a quaint little country town.

Cheers,

G is for Garden

2008-02-05T18:41:00.001+10:00

I use to spend a lot of time on my gardens when the kids were younger, but unfortunately as they have gotten older I seem to spend more of my time running them to their various sports that I don't get to spend as much time in the garden anymore. Hopefully now that can change since I have just quit my secound job last Monday (working for an internet vet supplies company). Now I will have more time to spend on the house and gardens while the kids are at school.

The drought has also taken a toll on our gardens. I always favoured snapdragons, pansies and various other annual flowers. Now I have found that with having to hand water with a watering can and only on certain days that it has become way to much work. So gone are all the pretty annual plants in favour of more hardy drought tolerient plants. Here are some photos of some of the flowers that have managed to do well in our gardens despite the drought and lack of TLC.

Cheers,

(P.S. In the top photo there are a pair of Pauls old work boots. My friends and family have learnt over the years never to leave anything lying around the gardens for too long because Linda might put plants in it. I will have to show you in another post what other stange things I have put plants in.)

F is for

2008-01-29T17:31:00.003+10:00

Football, and not just any football but Rugby League Football.

My oldest son has just started highschool this year and will be 13 in April. He is a sports nut, he will even watch lawn bowls on tv if there is no other sport on. My boys are very active and play a variety of sports including - Rugby League, Touch Football, Taekwondo, Nippers (surf lifesaving) and little athletics it keeps me very busy.

My oldest son is very talented (as you may be able to see by all of his trophies), his favorite sport though is his Rugby League and he has always had the dream of one day playing for the Brisbane Broncos. Hopefully this dream will come true for him, he certainly has the talent and the heart for it, and this year he has been selected in the Rugby League Excellence program at school. Anyway so when it came time to decorate his bedroom there was only one subject "Brisbane Broncos".

Cheers,

Mackie has been tagged

2008-01-27T17:17:00.000+10:00

Deb and beautiful Ben @ http://posted-from-home.blogspot.com/ has tagged Mackie with a 5 meme.

Mackie although very much part of our family is an outside only dog, he is a border collie x sheppard, he is 10years old but still acts like a puppy. He always surprises the vet with how fit he is for his age and we don't even have to walk him (we live on an acre which he is always running around.) Unfortunately he can only see out of one eye, he lost the other in a fight with a ride on mower, (another bad habit). So here are his answers -

5 Favourite Songs

Food glorious food - "Oliver"

Animal Crackers - Shirley Temple

Eat It - Weird Al Yankovic

Hot Potato, Hot Potato - The Wiggles

Scenes from an Italian restaurant - Billy Joel

5 Favourite Toys

Any old plastic pots or soft drink bottles.
Treat ball, a round ball with holes that he pushes around the yard and food falls out.

Any birds in the garden.
Any grasshoppers.
Anything left around the yard by mistake.

5 Things you love to eat

1. Meat
2. Bread
3. Fruit - anything Phil from next door throws over the fence for him.
4. Vegies
5. Dairy and anything else not included in the above.

5 Favourite Activities

Sun baking, even on the hottest days.
Umpiring cricket.

Chasing birds, it's his yard not theirs.

Hanging out with the family.

Rounding up anyone or anything, especially first thing in the morning.

5 Bad Habits

Drooling while waiting for food.

Hidding from loud noises, the only time he is allowed inside, he hides in the bottom of the pantry.

Wanting to sit on everyones lap, he can't sit next to you has to sit on top of you!

Looking sadly at everyone through the screen door while they are eating.
Forgetting that when people hand you food there is a hand attached.

Thanks Deb that was fun, now for the hard part. I have only been blogging for a little while and have still yet to get to know people better, the only people that I know of that have pets are

Deb @ http://chantillycottage.blogspot.com/ with handsome Harry

Jessica @ http://davidjessicamccash.blogspot.com/ and her little cutie Bichon.

Gail @ http://gailmccormack.blogspot.com/ and her helper Guss.

Cheers Linda

Even more A to Z

2008-01-26T08:10:00.001+10:00

E is for Elvis Presley. My husband has aways been a really big Elvis fan, so when we got together the fascination spread to me. Not only did I like the music but do you know how much Elvis memorabilia there is! Luckily when the kids and the house came along I no longer had the time or money to spend on the memorabilia so there is only one cupboard full and a couple of pieces here and there. When the kids were little we had lots of Elvis prints on the walls ( they have now slowly been replaced by photos of the kids), the boys use to point at them and say "Daddy!" and I use to say "I wish" (well Paul did have Elvis sideburns and his hair is the same colour). The picture above is of our front entrance way this is the first thing you see when you walk into our house, is it any wonder people call it the Elvis house?

In this cupboard there are plates, coins, stamps, a beerstyne that we picked up on our honeymoon, a watch, numberplate, belt buckles etc, I think you get the idea.

The above is the gold record that I bought for Paul for his 21st birthday, he was so surprised he had no idea what it was.

Next I would like to thank all the lovely ladies who have been leaving lovely comments on my blog. I still get really excited everytime I see a new one (I know I'm sad and need to get a life, but I am having soo much fun).

Thank you also to Deb http://chantillycottage.blogspot.com/ for the help with the link to the signature although I got a bit lost at step 3 copy the code so I'm not to sure if it will work, and hopefully the above link works too, something else I have just learnt.

Also thank you to Gail http://gailmccormack.blogspot.com/ for all of your kind words.

Oh and Happy Australia Day, Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, oi, oi, oi.

Cheers

Linda

Bummer it didn't work I will have to keep trying, at least I got the links right!

D is for -

2008-01-25T13:43:00.000+10:00

Dolls house. One of the things I am trying so hard to change about myself is trying to finish what I have started. I'm sure that many of you can relate from what I have been reading about everyone in blogland. I have a really bad habit of never finishing a project when it gets to hard or too boring (a wall that I built 4 years ago is still not properly finished, more on this later).

The dolls house is a project I had started before Christmas but it got a bit hectic around here on the lead up to Christmas, so once the boys go back to school I can finish it yeah. It probably would of been a lot easier to paint the pieces before a put the house together, but being as impatient as I am I now have to paint in all the tiny hard to reach areas, great! When it is finished I will have to post another photo.

My middle son had a friend stay over the other night and when we went and did some shopping the boys bought me two bunches of roses the friend bought the orange and my son bought me this pink bunch, how lucky am I.

Cheers Linda

(p.s. can anyone tell me how to do a signature at the bottom of the post, I have seen it on some posts and it looks great).

More A to Z

2008-01-24T15:10:00.000+10:00

C is for chandeliers. I love glitter, beads, flowers, anything shiny and all things girly. A couple of years ago I decided to change the style of our home from traditional country (burgundy and dark green) to more a french country/shabby chic. So the second thing I had to change (first was a lot of paint) were the light fittings, the problem was trying to find what I wanted in the stores, (we sometimes seem to be a couple of years behind all the new trends up here). There were lovely adverts for shops down in Sydney and Melbourne that had exactly what I wanted but not to many places up in our neck of the woods. So when I happened to finally find what I was looking for in Beacon Lighting I nearly jumped for joy. I know that they are not vintage and there are probably millions of the same lights throughout the country but I love them and the price was great too.
The above light was originally for the kitchen but after the electrician installed it I realized that I had a problem. My husband is 6ft tall and I have only standard height ceilings, see my problem. So I had three chooses -

To find a chandelier that didn't hang down so far (I had a hard enough time finding them in the first place).
To have the roof of the house lifted, but that would of been way to expensive.
To find a shorter husband (hey well it wasn't a problem for me or the kids even the electrician could fit under the light)

So after much debate I decided to find a shorter husband (only joking they are too hard to train) I managed to find the below light which doesn't hang down as far. Although my husband is forever hitting the chandeliers whenever he takes his shirt off, I don't know why he is forever taking his shirt off under them.

Matching family room light below.

The light in the formal lounge room.

My personal favourite chandelier is not up at the moment, it was in the formal dinning room which we are currently renovating.

Enjoy

Cheers Linda

The A to Z of my home

2008-01-22T08:06:00.001+10:00

B is for Bone China. I have a house full of boys even the dog is a male. I would love to decorate the whole house in shabby chic style but it would not reflect the family who lives here. So I have had to incorporate a few different styles together to make it work. That is fine though because I can't make up my mind which I really like the best Shabby chic, Vintage, French Country or Cottage. My china cabinet though is definately shabby chic.

I put these flower lights that I bought off EBay up for christmas but I couldn't bare to take them down they are so pretty I think I will keep them up all year round.
A lot of the pieces that I have were given to me by my mother in law when she moved out of her house and into a unit. The above set was my husbands grandmothers I love the colour.

I found these plates in a secound hand store in Woodford, a quaint little country town not too far from here. The boys and I like to go out there and have devenshire tea and visit Elvis Parsley.

The photos didn't come out as good as what I was hoping for the lighting in the old dinning room is not the best at the moment for we are sometime this year going to renovate the room. We no longer need the formal dinning room it was never used because we always eat out in our more casual eating area, we weren't to sure thought what to do with this room. We have now made up our minds to convert it into a craft area and prep room for the kitchen. Hopefuly we will get around to building that later this year.
Cheers,
LInda

The A to Z of my home

2008-01-21T14:14:00.000+10:00

I was wondering what was the best way to show you all my home without showing you everything at once so I came up with this idea the other day. I will show you a bit at a time starting with the letter A.

A is for Army. My three sons' bedrooms all have a different theme, I won't tell you what the other two are yet you will have to wait and see. My middle son has just turned 11 last week and has always been very drawn to all things military (he also looks good in a slouch hat). We had to hand paint all the army fatigue on the walls so it took a bit of time to do but we love the final result. My boys never used the hanging space in their built in cupboards so we took the doors off and put in some down lights, in this room we have put the bed in there.

He has lots of models and memorabilia to much to show it all. Even the fish tank has had the army treatment. The poster we found in a second hand shop he was so excited when we found it.

Cheers Linda

The land of extremes

2008-01-15T10:40:00.000+10:00

They often call Australia the land of extremes and lately we have definitely been living up to that name. On Sunday the boys had nippers (surf lifesaving) at Caloundra and it was hot, we all got sunburnt even after applying our 30+ sunscreen twice.

Today it is raining and miserable again yet apparently we are still in a drought and still have our water restrictions in place. Only 4 minutes in the shower per person per day, no hose watering on the garden buckets only and only at certain times on certain days etc etc.Well I thought I might brave the rain and slosh in the garden and get some photos for you all to enjoy.
Hope you like them

Cheers
Linda

Woken to the sound of birds

2008-01-11T11:19:00.001+10:00

I think that there is nothing better in the morning then to be woken to the sound of birds.

However in our house the sound of birds doesn't just come from the garden but also from the sunny rumpus room.

The boys and I bought this large aviary a few months ago and we have enjoyed it every moment since. The birds all seem to have their own personality and it is interesting to watch the interaction between them all.

So the boys wanted to take some photos of the birds to share (I now know what they mean about never work with children and animals) so here they are.......................................

Chip and Dale Quail

Jess and Snowy (girls)

Sunny and Romeo (the boys)

I hope that you like the photos

Cheers

Linda and feathered friends

Caution Learner Driver

2008-01-09T23:23:00.000+10:00

I have been fiddling a bit with this blog I am only new to this and learning things as I go along.

I am happy with some of the layout (need to start taking more photos) I love the photo in the title it was taken at Australia Zoo when we were there in November. If you have not been to Australia Zoo you must go and see the Elephant and Tiger displays they are incredible.

That's all for now

Linda

New Years Resolutions

2008-01-09T21:14:00.000+10:00

I though that maybe if I shout my resolution list out loud (to everyone in blog land) I might actually attempt to start and finish my list. So here it is -

1. To declutter my house. I try to keep it reasonably clear on the outside but its in the draws and cupboards where the mess is hidden. (please tell me that I am not the only one who throws the mess into a cupboard when friends are coming over)

2. To be more organized. I am a list person I write a list for everything as if by writing it down on paper will magically get it done. The problem is the lists are normally never done.

3. To lose weight. I think that this is one that most people put on their list isn't it? The problem is the weight situation is starting to get out of control and since my husband has just lost 20kg and is looking good maybe I had better do something about my weight.

That's the list lets hope that I actually get this one done.

Wish me luck

Linda