A new addition to our family

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

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

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

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

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

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,