cheep cheep

is what we will hopefully be hearing in a few weeks, boots (on the right) has started sitting on the eggs so our neighbour gave us 8 fertile eggs for the kids to see hatch into chicks.and im just as excited as the kids, if not more. its going to be like a lucky dip, were not sure what the chicks will be as the eggs are from a yard with different verieties of chickens. ill be happy with them because its not like they could be any less cute than penny (poor penny is always the butt of our ugly jokes but i promise she is very loved)

here are the eggs which i have marked so that we can tell the difference between them and the new eggs (which arent fertile so will be collected like usual.)

a quilt thats slowly coming along

i found these fabrics the other week in a big pac. there were some that i love love loved but some that i wasnt to sure about. and then the lady offerd to split the pac.... sold! i got to choose the best ones, feel sorry for whoever gets to it next. its spread over the loungeroom floor and every time i walk in the room i marvel at its beauty and put down a few more squares

and just because there both so cute 1 more pic

a beautiful weekend

i had such an great weekend. me and ben spent most of it outside enjoying the beautiful warm weather, walking around my 'almost my' town. Its exciting to drive into pt wakefield now, feeling like I'm driving home. not long now! id have to say the thing im most excited about is the fruit and veg shop in pt wakefield, its such a warm shop (as in it has a good feel) and it has really great fresh fruit n veg (taste nicer than woolies and is often cheaper!) me and kylie (who used to live in pt. wakefield) are always talking about how great it is and soon it will be my 'local' so until i have a garden filled to the brim with home grown fruit and veggies(which i cant see happening while were renting) this will do the trick nicely, yay!

speaking of yay, kylie is going to be working in wakie over the summer holidays!!! it will be so nice to have her about the place while I'm still new to it, with kylie about it will instantly feel like home. Today we went to the beach together and had a sunny morning of fun and she introduced me to ice cream sandwiches. don't know what their really called but they're ice cream sandwiched between biscuit/cakey stuff that doesn't freeze(stays soft) they are REALLY REALLY GOOD!!!

and here's my funny man, each time i would take a pic of him he would try to blink as i pressed the button. it took me a while to notice as my camera is so quick it mostly caught a pic before his eyes closed! (i certainly didn't have that with the old point n shoot!) (pics taken manual, totally starting to understand what settings are about, so lovin the creative control that manual offers. ((well more so will offer once i know what I'm doing lol:))

also took some pics of his beautiful niece on the weekend. she is soo cute, almost a year old(she'll feel utterly spoiled on her birthday by her uncle benny and i, we went a bit crazy choosing clothes and toys last target toy sale) its so cute now that shes crawling around the place. she loves tapping on the glass door to get bens parent's dog Jasper's attention

and heres my fav pic a bit bigger so i can show off how sharp i got her eyes and eye lashes, im pretty proud of that effort. (especialy with a quick moving bubba!) pictures were taken auto with manual focus (because by the time i got camera sorted for manual she woulda been glued to to the window chatting to Jasper)

me and mum both had the day off today. we checked out opp shops and our favourite fabric shop country chix. ive seen posts here and here about making binding and thought it looked great so i bought a tool and had a go. it was lots of fun! i love how such a small amount of funky fabric can transform plain material, the little bit of colour makes all the difference. i made some tea towels for when i move into my new house (i wanted towel ones like mum has but it seems that australians only like cheap crappy toweling ones. now i have true dutch fluffy absorbant tea towels!)

(photo taken manually, yay me!!)

only 7 and a half weeks until i finish work here and will be ready to move. we have some house posibilities but nothings happening quite yet. fingers crossed that well find something soon! im realy excited about moving, cant wait until im in my new home and able to spend lots of time with benny.

new camera

heres my new camera. after much internet research i decided to get a canon eos 450d. i already had my heart set on this camera but was advised to hold some different cameras to see what felt comfortable in my hands before making up my mind. once i had this one in my hands i knew this was the one for me! i absolutely love it. i coverd the strap in some of the green paisley fabric i have for my car picnic quilt.
here are some photos i have taken so far. ive been playing with different settings but so far im most comfortable concentrating on focus and letting the camera do the rest. heres my little man model mishka
benny having fun climbing the orange tree. and he picked some oranges too
dad telling me hes had enough photos taken for one day. not while im around!! ha ha ha
mum at the playground the other day.
Im having so much fun whipping my camera out every chance i get

help! please!

hi, im looking to get a digital SLR camera and realy have no idea where to start. I honestly dont realy know what to look for, what things are important. some help with choosing lenses would be much appreciated also. i am willing to spend roughly $1500 and need something beginer friendly that will grow with me. any ideas? even what brands do you prefer

this is the start to my car picnic blanket.

if your amazed by the tricky intricate pattern i chose you should be. Im amazed that it has come this far! the only other things i have ever cross stitched were small (under 5cm) pictures mum helped me do when i was sick from school at about age 10.

but i saw the pattern of this ocean godess and fell in love!

It was realy hard to begin with but now that ive got the hang of it its not so bad. i seriously couldnt believe how many colour variations it expected me to use. tricky tricky!

heres some fabrics that i have to go with it (except the tea pots, i just bought that coz i love tea pots) im soooo in love with the green paisley, isnt it awesome?

gratitude day 9

i am grateful for my wonderful car and all the places its going to take me

The first page in my astra travel journal

North beach, Wallaroo 8.10.08

Well what more can i say than i love my astra! The car that i have loved since i was 16, i saved since the end of last year and hoped i could own one but wasnt holding my breath...

At the moment i am trying to stock it up to have everything i will want when i get to wherever it takes me. I want it to be an awesome bohemian roadtrip beach car.

I have stowed away so far-

*a good book (to be replaced when read) and travel journal because i always forget my journal and then think of stuff i want to write in it. these two are in my 'book shelf '(glove box)

*lip balm, crystels, sunnies (in the coolest little compartment next to the steering wheel, one of my fav little things about this car!)

*spot for shells and cool found stuff (otherwise known as an ash tray lol)

*phone/wallet/camera spot

*pic of ben (i have the sun visor down even when i dont have sun in my face just because hes nice to look at. its true i am the lamest person in the world, i wont deny it)

*and sunscreen. no explination needed, i am big on sunscreen. some would go so far as to say i am a sunscreen freak

i also want to add to it a small pencil case (i plan to make a funky one out of quilting fabric tomorrow) , a small sewing kit, scissors, sticky tape, glue, perhaps a small craft project that can be picked when bored and a picnic quilt (more about that soon, i have an idea im very excited about for it)

any ideas of other things that mite come in handy?

so far this has dramaticly reduced my 'stuff to drag to the car' on its first trip to the beach, and heres a pic of me relaxing happily because of that!

the green machines maiden voyage

well... friday morning i woke early, drove to adelaide (1.5hours) to pick up my (then immaculate and shiny) beautiful car, rushed back to kadina(1.5hours), picked up kylie in wallaroo(15min) and headed to roxby downs (6hours) and then went to our friend becs in andamooka(30mins) Do you think by this time my car had been worn in?

here is my car in its filthy state by the time we got there
friday night we hung out at becs funky caravan house. i so love it, its small and everthing is little and has its own little spot. we had a good old gossip catch up session and caught up on whats been happening in the last 4 months since we saw eachother last (way too long if you ask me!) then we went down to the local pub (called the opal as andamooka is a mining town where they mine opals) and laughed at drunk people trying to sing karayoke ha ha
sat morning bagon and eggs cooked on the barbie (yum!)
heres the little kitchen, c, isnt it cute! (cuter still when it isnt clutterd up with my n kylies stuff)

their rock garden and cool old rusty stuff that i loved

sat nite we went to a dress up party, bec as a 'knocked up prom queen' ky as little red riding hood and me as a pirate

us as three amigos at oct'opal'fest. we missed lotsa the avents coz we over slept but there was keg throwing, tug of war (so so funny, the rope snapped, big men went flying all over the place and everyone was crying with laughter!) mud fights, andamooka idol and fireworks

heres some of the kids having a mud fight, they so luved it!

bec accidently stepped into the mud. i was so buisy laughing at her an trying to take a photo that i stepped in it too (wasnt laughing quite so hard then! ha ha)
and bec with all her octopalfest drinks (ok so some of them were ours lol)

we had soo much fun, good work ky for suggesting the road trip. sadly kylie is movin up to work with bec at the beginning of next year. i think another andamooka road trip will be in store (and then another one next octopal fest!!)

gratitude day 8

Ive almost bought a car! its exactly what i wanted except its sedan instead of hatch, its the coolest green machine!! cant wait to pick it up on friday!!!

speaking of green i currently have spinich practicly coming out of my ears, its growing like crazy and the freezer is fast filling up. luckily we are eating all the peas before they make it inside (i had no idea peas straight from the vine could be eaten like snow peas, they are so sweet and juicy!) also after buying a dozen eggs our neighbour gave us one and a half dozen from her chooks, so egg and spinich pie is a happening thing around here at the moment! and on the same day i wonderd how on earth we would get through all these eggs boots finaly started laying!!!

we also have cauliflowers almost ready to pick, strawberrys that im checking daily and cant wait to eat and chamomile plants that are getting bigger, im realy looking forward to my very own chamomile tea.

today i am grateful for edible plants. they are no harder to grow than regular plants but they have a purpose greater than just looking pretty. seriously, what is better then walking out to your garden on a warm morning and finding something great to eat right in front of you, no preperation , just pick it and eat it? that i am truly grateful for

i have been having a go at making waldorf dolls, something ive been wanting to do for a while. the little blue one i made first as practice and the faceless one i am working on now. i was working on it today and the girls thought it was great that i was making them a new 'baby'. it is already been well loved, cuddled and smeared with vegemite from sweet little kisses, i cant imagine how much they will love him when he actually has a face and hair