the creek

ive been looking through old photo disks, here are some pictures of me and lil in nairne a few years ago
i enjoyed seing the old creek, a favourite play place when were younger
we used to wear uncle marty and aunty helenas gumboots which i could have sworn were humongous and covered my entire legs, but it turned out they were just regular sized gumboots. everything seems so huge when your little
we often walked over the top of this drop as part of our game. i found it so scary but looking back now it doesnt look so bad!
its so beautiful and so full of memories. i remember the time we decided to make a slide down the side of the creek into the water, about this thime of the year (brrr cold!) seemed like a good idea at the time, thank god for a hot bath afterwards

random happiness

i had a realy fantastic weekend, benny came over on friday and being that i had thought his birthday was saturday we had birthday brownies, gave him his presents and went out for tea (its actually tomorrow so i wasnt too far off right? in my defence he thought it was monday. can you teel were big on remembering dates?) on sunday we went bowling (so much fun, i want to go bowling every day!) and shopping and benny bought the most awesome t-shirt ever! i will definately take a photo of it wednesday nite and share the awesomeness here
heres some photos that make me happy

my new and improved craft table. i feel so happy looking at my swirly picture i had so much fun creating. love the size of the table because its not big enough to acumliate much mess before i NEED to clean it. at which time its not such a huge job. so perfect for me!
these are realy great books that are inspiring me to be healthy, soulful, mindful. because of these books ive been doing regular yoga, going for bike rides, thinking more about what im eating, meditating, spending my time better. im feeling realy great, much thanks to dan millman

i had a realy great day today, had two lovlies that i have done occasional care for have their first day of permanent 3 days a week as their previous carer has got a different job. im very lucky, they are fantastic to have, i look forward to having them again.

our visit from the renners

some of my favourite parts of the visit was relaxing by the fire, having meals together with all 8 of us fitting around our kitchen table for meals full of conversations and laughter (and yummy spagetti, minestroni soup, salad(with red capsicum which i had no idea i liked raw and is now my ultimate favourite!) pies, mmm good food shared, talking crafts (i realy liked levins idea af having a working bee for us before we sell our house at the end of the year with the whole family coming from adelaide, people painting, gardening, fixing... and us girls in the loungeroom by the heater making quilts! hmm not sure we could get away with that! also hanging out together outside, davids gardening tips for me (much needed) and better still david weeding some neglected parts of the front garden(thankyou!) we went together to wallaroo and moonta and while the renners went on the tourist train we spent our money at the quilting shop and checked out over priced but interesting things at antique stores




we also took levin and emily for an opp shop tour (almost getting caught out by the rain, but it was wort it for all our finds of course) the boys helleped me mulch the veggie patch, always nice to have keen helpers and entertainment:)


the men skipped out on tea dishes to build us this nice warm fire
we were warm and comfy thanks to the old futon weve been meaning to get rid of
id forgotten just how good toasted marshmallow are!


the belloved mazda that someone spotted from a mile away (and knew exactly what model it was too, i was impressed!) he tugged on my hand trying to get my attention to show me and he was sooo excited it took three goes for me to slow him down so i could understand what he was saying. this kids in love!

yummy all natural lip balm

heres a post i started ages back and forgot about its now officially finished and posted! still using those lip balms, there realy good

bees wax honey and lavendar lip balm



*2 tablespoons olive oil

*1 tablespoon grated bees wax

*1/2 teaspoon honey

*few drops of lavendar oil

-half fill a sucepan with water, heat on medium heat

-put oil in a metal bowl and place bowl in hot water (double boiler style)

-add bees wax and stir regularly as it melts (will take a few minutes)

-once beeswax is no longer visable add honey and melt in

-take off heat and add a few drops of lavender

-pour into jars and leave to set

here is picture of honey and beeswax made localy that i got at markets and my lip balms before they set.

*2 names you go by: bob, cupcake(or am i poptart lil?)

*2 things that scare you: needles, the thought of kids i care for getting badly sick/having a bad accident while in my care

*2 of your everyday essentials: ipod, comfy warm clothes

*2 things you are wearing right now: dressing gown, new 'favourite ' jeans (their not quite my favourites yet but i bought them to replace my faves as the pin that keeps fly up digs into me and they have a hole in the but. their still super cool tho)

*2 of your favorite bands or musical artists (at the moment): john butler trio, jack johnson

*2 favorite songs (at the moment): peaches and cream (jbt) daniella(jbt)

*2 things you want in a relationship (other than real love): benny. more benny!

*2 physical things that appeal to you (in the opposite sex): cool tats, nice hands (i kno, that ones a bit strange)

*2 of your favorite hobbies : days hanging out at home, creatiting things, gardening (i couldnt choose!)

*2 things you want really badly: to feel happy every day, to live on the beach

*2 places you want to go on vacation: anywhere where its summer at this point in time, somewhere great to swim

*2 things you want to do before you die: teach lots of people to love and care for the world, have beautiful babies (and of course brainwash them to be earth huggin hippies to ha ha)

*2 ways that you are stereotypically a chick: my craftin, gardenin hobies (ok so that makes me an 80 yr old chick but any ho) and i cant go to the library without reading trashy mags (but im not sad enough to actually buy them...yet)

*2 things you are thinking about right now: my frikkin awesome chickens, what else i can possibly get the kids to make outa toilet rolls for art time

*2 stores you shop at:opp shops, servos (in pt wakefield, land of service stations of course!

camping at pondie (down bottom end of yorke peninsular SA)

this is our first camping spot in minlaton i think. by the time we got this far (less than an hour from home) we were all buggerd so we stopped for a pub meal and had a good nite sleep

this is a spot that i love to always come back to. its a beautiful pathway with trees that meet at the top and make a lovely walkway. during the summer when the weather is hot the trees provide shade and its like a cool oasis. it is another one of my happy places that bring back great memories
me walking ahead ready to check out the beach and see if any surfers are out (they werent it calm and glassy flat)
the board walk. i love the sound it makes as you run over it! the rhythum calms my soul

this beach looked the best that day, we had a great play as we 'frolicked' in the water
me down to the beach wrapped in all my layers

a bigish wave caught mum of guard while posing for a picture.

taking in the beauty. check out that blue sky. not bad considering we found out on the way down that rain was forecasted for the entire weekend
mum helped me make this beanie during the drive back. i cant take much credit at all as lots of what i knitted had to be un pulled! i tryed hard tho. it was so nice to get away for the weekend

happy birthday AJ!!! (bit late but better late than never)

Aj has just been the best sister ever. i dont know what i could have done without her being my best friend throughout life. weve always been so different in many ways (shes always been the neat one, trying to get me to look nice, look after my clothes etc, she loves modern things, i love rustic) but where its important were so alike. we share the same views and morals and care about people. we both went through the same things growing up, learnt the same life lessons. when she went to queensland i saw her grow, change and learn and come away a more grown up confident version of herself (and i had a ball going to visit her and kane!) its been so nice seing her grow into an adult over the past few years, spreading her wings and living away from home (a bit too far away from me mind you!)

AJ, miss u like crazy, Happy Birthday '21st' for the 26th! have fun looking after Mia pup xoxoxoxo

heres a recap of our awesome night out!

having fun on our hotel balcony with aj, lil, sam, sarah

we hired a stretch hummer with tv screens and a mini bar packed full of goodies and drove around the city in ultimate luxuary!

kylie and kara met us at the cassino for a bit of a gamble (no i did not gamble my hard earned dosh, ive told you my thoughts on cassinos already!) kane enjoyed himself,

i love this picture! the camera buggerd up (ok, so perhaps it was the drunk photographers!) so we have many wierd red photos but this one i really like how it turned out. Then we got a little sleep, and went hangovers and all to ajs suprise family party!!!!!heres the birthday girl cutting the cake (with dad tine and sue in the background, we were very happy to have some mountgambians join us!)good ol family snap shot

and it wouldnt be a family party without "grandpa hugs" from sam and ben! i dont know the origin of grandpa hugs but i have learned to love their cripplin goodness! (they are a very tight hug in which the 'hugger' tries their best to squeese the life out of you) heres ben being the giver of one of the offending grandpa hugs, me being the reciever, sam and lil, and in the background, one of the streamers that 'makes' a party at Jo's place. they have been going up for birthdays for as long as i can remember, i love them and the memories they hold

my new favourite quilt (sorry old quilts:)

this is my new favourite quilt almost finished (it has the binding even though i havent finished quilting it, as usual i got impatient wanting to see what it would look like!), made from materials i had been eying off but unsure what to do with for a long while, and finaly bought on my birthday. last night me and mum went to a stippling class at country chix, it was awesome, my new favourite thing ever is my new darning foot, its so much fun! im planning to stitch some mushrooms on it, do some stippling and generaly go crazy!!!

on the weekend me mum, dad and kylie are going camping, yay, cant wait

well my laps getting a little too full and sqirmey to write as i have a little one up from her nap. guess thats my cue to get up and entertain, mite go do some gardening. darn i love working at home