Yesterday i had a great day. In the morning i went to Mums and we went opp shopping, and i got some great finds! We had snitzels at the pub for lunch and went for a little wonder on a nearby beach.

In the afternoon i went to see my good friend Krystel who i hadnt seen in a long time.

It was so much fun to catch up after so long and see how much our lives have changed (houses, partners, kids etc)

Yet how much we're still exactly the same people, and still get along and laugh just like we used to all those years ago!

I loved remembering old times we had together, and telling each other 'that is just so you' when we said something that sounded just like our younger selves from back in the day:)

Yes we definately need to get together again soon. I didnt take a single photo so here are some old photos of us instead...

this sais* Me and Krystel on our favourite swings at the park.

The swings are one of my favourite places in the world because you get closer to the clouds, your hair goes everywhere and its a place that all of my friends love so it reminds me of them, even miff when she hasnt been their in years!

This is the two of us at a pond around the corner from Krystels aunties old house. We had so much fun at this place, finding tadpoles and getting nice and muddy and wet regularly with all our friends.

 Krystel has two gorgeous sons, these are photos i took of her oldest when he was little, i cant believe hes 6 now! Her other son is a cute curly haired 4 year old. Theyve grown so much since i saw them last

Oh and i mentioned to Krystel the other day that Benny and I are getting photos done at the end of the year by an amazing photographer in who is in Bute. (she does on location shoots, were getting ours done at port hughes beach, yippe!!:)
Her name is Valeska Wehr and here are links to her website and blog, check her out!

yesterday sarah and kylie came to visit me. we spent lots of time hanging outside. one thing great about smokers, they like being outside as much as i do! (ok so im not sure they necissary like being outside, perhaps the word is tollerate it, but thats good enough for me!)
sarah made herself comfortable in the baby swing. i absolutely cracked up that her bum fits in it (the age range is 0-4yrs)
all afternoon wed be chatting away, some times having a deep and meaningful conversation, and it would occur to me that she was ever so seriously sitting in a baby swing, and i would have a laugh again!

we got the greatest pies in the world for lunch (yes realy they are that good) and then took kylies dog cooper for a walk down to the footy oval to run off some energy. while cooper happily ran all over the place we layed on the grass and lazed in the sun, it was oh so wonderful, i need to do that more often.

straight after lunch we all had a go at chin-ups on the swing bar. sarah won by technicality because at least she was able to bend her arms at least. the morral to that story is that we are all ridiculously weak!

heres cooper wearing a hair net thingy that we strangely found in my back yard

a weekend of remeniscing

Ive had so much fun this weekend, my friends Sarah and Kylie have both recently moved back nearby and miff, our friend that moved away around 9 years ago came to visit.

it was so great to get together, all three of these girls are like sisters to me. we had lots of giggly conversations of all the fun and funny times we have had over the years back when our home was a second home to them all.

reminiscing of mud sliding at a bike track down the road from mum and dads, movies that we used to watch together over and over, miffs various injuries, sneaky things that we thought our parents never knew about. we had a sleep over at mum and dads like old times and mum made everyones favourite spaghetti.
it was so much fun looking back on all the fun of our childhoods, reminding each other of little things that some of us had forgotten. we were so so sad that anneke (aka all of our big sister!!) couldn't make it but hope to do it again soon when she can!

we went for a walk around pt. Wakefield to show miff around


Kylie and Sarah relaxing on my couch



the wonderful miff, my walking to school buddy, eating way-too-much milo after school buddy.

i just remember school being all about 'fitting in' and being 'cool' but wed get together and do our own thing. none of that pretending to be a grown up junk, just getting outdoors, going on day long bike ride adventures to the beach, building cubby houses, climbing trees. I'm so glad that together we grew up slowly, made the most of everything, joked around plenty.

she always made me feel good about being myself, shes such a genuine honest person. we were both nervous to catch up after so many years (we've only recently started chatting on face book) but honestly, as soon as she got here we just all reconnected as though she had never left, she is still part of the family like back in the day.

we are now planing to organise a gathering of Joneses, miff, lindsay, kaia, callum (we met Lindsay years ago through miff) and i am ecstatic and hope it happens relay soon, these people lift me so high of the ground, all so soulful and real


Kylie laughing at Sarah.

ah my Kylie, we met in year 9 and had lots of school classes together. and we sure did make those classes fun. the classes we didn't have together were all about writing notes to swap and i always drew and painted her pictures. she was a big appreciator of my artwork (i loved art and was quite good at it) and I'm proud to say that even now, years after she moved out of her parents house my pictures are still proudly displayed all over her wardrobe.

most weekends we spent having sleepovers, getting together with friends, conning unsuspecting boys into letting us give them makeovers (which I'm pretty sure they secretly loved) and getting chips n gravy and orange and mango juice to share

we regularly snuck me onto her school bus (she lived the next town over) and hung out listening to music, bein silly, making goo messes.


bub/bubbles (sarah), mine and annekes little sister who's actually older than me but a little shorty (her and anneke look so alike that i think often people thought they were sisters)

id completely forgotten about the times when her mum would go away for the week and she would be adopted as one of us, it was so fun getting ready and going to school together, shed always get me to braid her hair.

we'd drag a mattress outside and do home work together (ok so gossip, giggle, make up code words to talk about our crushes so no one would know what we were on about, draw pretty pictures in each others page margins ((yes the teachers loved that)) and then wed fall asleep under the stars


adventuring

brekkie this morning, pancakes with berry apple and syrup.

oh and i brought home more apples. because theres nothing like apple crumble to end the great weekend well

if i could choose any neighbours it would be these guys!

finally me and dad went to see lynsay and kaia and met there little man callum for the first time. we had such a nice day there. it was of those times that you dont get around to going somewhere for a long time and then as soon as you get there you wonder how you could have stayed away so long. too long.
we had a barbeque together and shared stories of our lives since we were last together

sadly i was having a bit of a fuzzy camera focus day:( but i am learning to accept that in my beginner slr camera days this is a fact of life. sigh
i still love this picture of kaia and callum, afterall pictures are about capturing moments and memories and this picture will remind me of their beautiful bond they share, watching them play together and have fun. and that i need way more practice using my camera...:)
i realy enjoyed getting to know kaia better, we have a lot in common, our enviro friendliness, we both love making and just seemed to agree on pretty much everything. weve definately got to have a making day together one day


isnt he just a cutie!

and then we went outside, sat around callums sandpit and soaked up the native bush beauty that surrounds their home and ate yummy salad rolls. i just cant get enough of being outdoors in good company

love the expression and joy in this photo

the other day we went on a family road trip, and stopped and had lunch while soaking up all these crazy fun colours

some of them came with us to hide some special gifts for a special new person

meet charlie, son of our good friend cathy (who has been a regular at our place since her and aj met in year 2 at school)

hes so beautiful, we love him

settling in nicely

ive had lots of great visitors and lots of great fun. my favourite part of having my own home is having friends and family gathered around our little kitchen table (if there's enough of us, some one will be sitting on an esky topped with cushions, another on a lounge chair) for a meal, a chat, some making or baking.

my visit with lil didn't go quite as planned, i was sick, but we still made ourselves lots of fun. mostly lazing on a mattress in front of the tv, catching up on what each other had been up to. and we made the greatest crumbed chicken together!

these pictures are from a while back, opp shopping and garage saling in kadina together, oh the good times we have together:)

by the time aj came over i was thankfully feeling much better. we invited mum over for the day and made the yummiest cadbury chocolate rocky road ready for christmas. we also went wondering in my new town and found a beautiful little stream and waterfall, perfect for dipping our toes in. later we went looking at christmas lights

trust me, it tastes just as good as it looks!

me and benny are loving the extra time together, adjusting and figuring out who does what and most importantly making sure we have fun together. we've been to a beach close by (which made me breath a sigh of relief as its much nicer than 'our' beach!) gone for night walks and have been generally goofing around, singing and dancing in our kitchen together.

ive been living spending lots of time with kylie, its so fun that she lives across the road! pancakes is a way happening thing

the hardest part for me was my first day at home by myself, after everyone had gone home and benny had left for work. i was struggling a bit, plenty of things to do, even all the craft materials i could want but no motivation to do it all. luckily dad popped in unexpectedly on his way to adelaide and we had a good chat about fear, insecurities and other lovelies and it helped me get back on track. i am now happily lazing my days away with daytime tv and gardening. the garden is looking better every day especially with chooks now pecking about the place. the house is slowly becoming more and more our home. infact, im at kadina right now and i miss the place. deffinately a good sign!

this chooky pic was taken last week but i swear the chicks are twice that size now, they grow so quick!

good times with good friends

well, friday we start moving into our new house! all week ive been excitedly tucking bits and pieces into boxes and planning what will go where. i am seriously jumping out of my pants in excitment, yippe!! last weekend we checked out my new local opp shop. it is the little building next to the church. you go through the white picket fence and down a winding pathway through a mini garden to get to it, so cute.


sat nite we got together with friends for a barbeque at sams, lots of fun was had by all! (me benny and kara cooked, you can see in the middle pic how yummy it looked:) the first two pics from the left are bare feet and hand massages that took place at the pub, the rest are pics of us all being our dorky wonderful selves:)

ive been spending lots of quality time enjoying the wonderful little beings i have the pleasure of looking after for the next week and a half. there has been extra baking, playing, singing and making together while we still can. i am happy to say i am out of my little sadness funk and am now enjoying and living in the moment with them.
our favourite activity at the moment is finding catterpillars. a few of the plants are quite damaged by them so we look underneath each and every leaf, pick off fat green catapillars, have a lovely little play with them and then feed them to the chickens as a tasty treat. the chickens love this game!
i hope your having a happy week too:)

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

i found a blog that is posting '30 days of gratitude' (one thing each day) i wont kid myself, im 99% sure i wouldnt remember to post each day but im going to try hard and see what i come up with. im pretty sure it will go something like me getting excited at the start and posting all i can think of and then forgetting the whole thing but who knows. Each day i try to think of lots of things im grateful for anyway.

Today i am so grateful for:

My tuesdays off and warm spring weather

i had the greatest day on tuesday, it was warm and wonderful so me and kylie went to the beach with a blanket and pillows, a snacky picnic lunch of jatz, cheese, fruit salad (my favourite kind of lunch!)

the sky and water were so blue and perfect and it was a wonderful day of relaxation, great conversations, walking up and down the beach, and skipping barefoot in the cool salty water. my heart and soul are so happy at the beachand at the end we just rested and chatted, bathing in the warmth af the beautiful spring sun. I feel so calm and at peace just thinking of it. i am so happy and thankful to experience a day so perfect

my quilt

this is my quilt i started ages ago. its now pretty much finished, but still a work in progress
its good for tea parties and lazing about in the warm sun! kylie loves my quilt, i have an order in to make her one for christmas. i look forward to going shopping, being able to chose fabrics but not having to pay the bill