Simplicity Update

IF this is the only 'simplifying' I achieve this year - it was worth it :)

Did you realise a quarter of the year is gone already! Yikes.

This spells trouble for my new year's resolution.

For some reason I'm still thinking it's like the begining of the year.

Plenty of time, the year's only just begun, except it's heading towards half over!!


So how am I doing with my simplicity resolution?

At first I felt like I've done nothing. NOTHING! Nothing feels simple to me!

But when I thought about it I have:

cleaned and organised my own wardrobe and the linen cupboard
trying to cook simpler meals
reasearching how to make my own bread by hand
decluttered a few things around the house
focused on simple yet fun tuesday afternoon outings with the girls
going to bed earlier

So I thought it might be a good idea for me to post on the last day of each month, what it is that I have done/attempted to do that month in my quest for simplicity.

I think it will be a good way to get myself moving and check my progress.

Follow along it you want and feel free to suggest some simplifications!

Height

Can you read this?

I've just realised we have a tradition that I didn't realise was a tradition.

Each month on the same day The Mr calls the girls together and measures their height and weight.

He's a big nerd and collects it all in exel which gives you graphs and spread sheets.

The girls love it.

This week we had an extra special celebration when it was announced that Miss G had reached 100!!

100cm. 1 metre. FINALLY!!


I wish I had known of this idea before my 3rd child. I think it is an excellent way to celebrate turning 100cm. One  metre of cupcakes and crown. So special!! I feel bad if I start traditions late and the older two have missed out. I might still do it though, great idea for celebrating a special milestone.

We try to make a positive statements about growing strong and healthy. It was hilarious when she ran around the room shouting FIFTEEN! FIFTEEN! I"M FIFTEEN!! (she'd reached 15 kg too)

Now we're not obsessive about weight here (I don't weigh myself) and we never talk of it, apart from reminding them what foods give you good energy, so hopefully this won't have a negative impact as they grow older. At the moment they love it and it was born out of necessity. Possibly we'll just go with height and not weight as it becomes a more sensitive issue as the girls grow.

We don't have anywhere we can leave pencil markings of height that will come with us when we move. For a few years we made markings on the side of a filing cabinet, but worried if and when its retired, we would lose our precious memories.

When my two older girls were born I went to a fijian indian doctor. She would just squeeze their chubby cheeks (they had huge ones) and bounce them in her arms and deem them healthy. No weighing, no measuring. While this suits my ideals and she gave me the courage to know that I was doing well as their mother and didn't need any nitpicking, I missed out on something. I have no details of their heights and weights or how they grew or what percentile they were in etc. This was one of the reasons by our 3rd child The Mr wanted to start recording his own numbers.

It's fun to see how many centimetres they grow each month (not much in this short family) and how they often won't grow, but will put a kg on, then the next month they will grow but not put any weight on.

Numbers can be fun.

Weekending

A few minutes peace on the swings

A School Disco and friends baptism friday night, A cousins 30th, family movie night, Earth Hour and friends over on Saturday. A talk to give in church (me, on integrity; a baby dragged out of church by my visiting teacher with her arms outstretched screaming for me during it, the baby not the visiting teacher ;) Our sunday afternoon tradition of a cake baked by Miss K and a trip to the park to fly our kite on such a windy day. A sick baby with a slight temp to top it all off.

having fun on Grandad's baby :)

I swear I need a daily calendar. Not days before Earth Hour , I decided on a candlelight dinner, some nice conversation, perhaps a game of charades or so and maybe even do our 'first fireplace of the season' We were going to start early as 8:30 is a bit late for little ones.

Umm then I forgot. 

 After watching The last Airbender and 20 mins before Earth hour while on facebook several friends mentioned it. Dang!. Lucky a couple of my kids were still awake so we were still able to do it. We've done it every year and the kids always love it. I allow candles (safely) in their room and they drift off to sleep in the soft twinkling glow.

We also had friends who rang and invited themselves over. They bought cake! Don't you just love friends like that? I love being spontainous so I eeeked with joy that someone rang and said they'd be over in half an hour.  We sat for hours in the dim light of our lounge room lit by candles and talked. There you go earth hour. We lasted more like 5 hours! Hopefully it makes a difference and if it doesn't persay impact the environment hopefully the awareness it creates will.

A day after watching the Last Airbender the girls madly wanted a staff/stick like Ang's with kite/wings. They spent an hour or so working on their design and cutting kite shapes out from the middle of pieces of material :S Sadly they deemed it a 'waste of an afternoon' and much frustration ensued when they could not get their polar fleece material to stay on the slippery broom handle in the manner they would like.

However as it was a windy afternoon they realised they could just get out their real kite. So with much screaming at eachother and bossing around we had a wonderful afternoon at the park flying their kite. I swear we are lucky we don't get kicked out of the park. I told them several times to 'can it' as people come to the park for quiet relaxation, not to hear the way they scream at eachother for communication. Once the pecking order is in place and they have worked out their issues though it can be blissful .... for a little while at least.

If I ever run into someone who hasnt seen me in a few years they always ask if Miss N is Miss G. Everyone thinks they are twins born 3 years apart ;) I think they look different, but I can see the similarities.

And they are both cheeky

As much noise as they make and as much fights they have (oh boy do they love to lose their patience with each other) there is love, as I like to remind them, I have this many kids so you can love eachother and never be alone.


And the weekends remind me how much I love Mondays....

Take a picture... It'll last longer

Sometimes I think not being able to keep a spic and span (read perfect) house is genetic.

OH YES I BLAME MY MOTHER/ANCESTORS

I really do think some people just have the knack for squeaky cleanliness and others don't.

I'm in the don't pile.

Even though I wash clothes everyday, sweep everyday, bake food everyday, bathe my kids everyday (2 of them several times a day),wash dishes everyday, wipe the kitchen benches 10 times a day - My house is never clean! Other people seem to have a home you could drop by anytime and it will be clean. If you drop by here (you'll be welcome, but you won't catch it clean!)


I feel sad sometimes seeing pictures online of perfect, clean, white, glowing, huge, gorgeously decorated houses with clean kids and pale carpets.

How does one accomplish that?

I've yet to learn the trick obviously.

(bigger house? smaller house? Remove clutter? Hire a cleaner? Get a job so I/we aren't here to mess it up? After school activities to keep the kids out? Take out, so I don't mess the kitchen numerous times a day? PLEASE SOMEONE TELL ME!)

Though I'm happy to go with the : you've either got it, or you don't, gene theory.

I had super stress this week over a house inspection (apologies to my facebook friends. There was an unusual amount of facebook venting (known as FBV) this week) as the debarcle ended up going on for four days! I like to use inspections as an excuse to really deep clean atleast every 6 months, They take photos of every room and I would die for the owner to see dirty dishes/clutter/clothes on the floor in the bedroom/kids craft projects/ toothpaste splatter on the mirror/soap scum/dust/kids toys littering the deck,yard,floor/basically for them to see how we live ;)

Lucky for me we must be fairly clean as it only took one whole entire day (excluding mowing, pruning, hedges that was another day) for me to accomplish this. But alas I don't have an entire spare day EVERY DAY.

It's amazing what one can do if I don't go out, allow my child to watch  TV ALL day, use the dryer and DO NOT hang out all our clothes, follow the children around so closely and pick everything up behind them, not invite ANYONE over, not cook anything, ban on all games, crafts etc, stay up late mopping, folding and putting everything perfect before I retire to bed.

This equals a clean house! A house devoid of all signs that someone lives in it!


I do belive the funniest line out of my mouth these last few days was to the MR:

While in the shower I said to him 'DO NOT stand on that bathmat when you get out. Shake and dry yourself IN the SHOWER. If you do dare,  put it in the dryer to fluff it up again.'

whhhaattt?

Yes I had washed and fluffed them and if he stood on it, it wouldn't stay that way would it? I just needed everything in place for ONE DAY! (which turned into four days)

Impossible


Now asthetically speaking, I loved this week. What a joy to look around at a clutter free, everything in place, perfectly clean home. Oh it made me HAPPY!

But on the other hand, it was a stressful, boring, lonely, week. One that led to several disagreements with my children. (they could feel the stress I tell ya)

Why oh why can't we have both ?!?!

Why?

Why?



* I promise this will be my last housecleaning post. I promise never to talk of it again. You all know it. I'm a mess. See above. I blame genetics. You'll just have to love me. Mess and All.

and I just had another thought about maybe we should be taught cleaning at school. WE all might end up in different professions, but we ALL - male and female end up living in a house.

Today's cuteness bought to you by...

It's no secret that I don't really like animals. I've blogged it before.

It's not the animals fault - most animals are cute, we scout out plenty of animals on our walks, leave treats for possums, have love for all of God's creatures, etc

It's the looking after them and feeding them and touching them aspect. No thanks.

I already have four five animals thankyouverymuch.


But there is a plus side in having a vet for a neighbour.

We can get our animal fill and NOT have to look after them.

She has two cats, a dog, a bird plus she is always babysitting strays, neglected or sick animals.

There is always a furry/feathery friend to be found over there.

This morning at 7am our 8 year old neighbour bought over a special treat for us.

A stray/lost 2 week old kitten.

We all gooed and gahed this morning when a little fella the size of our hands came to visit.

Everyone had to have multiple turns of holding him.


Adorable. But I know what they grow into.

However my nawwwww quotient was filled for today.

In my lap

Table Tent

As soon as I saw this playhouse over at The Artful Parent I wanted one. Hers is so cute.

Then I read an old better homes and gardens and there was another one!


Last week I cleaned out my linen cupboard. You've never seen it so straight!

And I decided to part with several old sheets, doona covers and towels.

Then I thought, I wonder if the doona cover is the size of my table. And lookie there - it was.

I had the base of my kitchen table cubby/tent. YAY!

Once again a preface about crap I make. I didn't measure anything, I used like 4 pins (why it isn't straight) I didn't hem it (so I'm sure it will fray) it was all guess work (and you can tell compared to the linked one up the top there) BUT... it worked, is functional and the kids love it, and it COST ME NOTHING! Always a prerequisite for things I do!

I laid out the cover and sliced it through  the middle (only through one layer! you need the other layer to be the roof/top). The sliced top layer then became the 'front and back' of the tent.

 

 Then I cut up the sides to make the 'corners' that I could sew together.

I cut out a 'window' shape and zig zagged it onto the sides. When secure I then cut the holes out for the window.

For the front door I sewed on a door shape then cut up both sides of the door leaving the top still attached. We can flick the door up on the table or roll it up and close with ribbon.

And there you have an awesome under the table cubby house.

They have already slept the night in it.

Wet

Between family functions, church functions, friend functions and our children's social life (one child seems to have a birthday party to attend every second week) we rarely have a saturday to ourselves. When we do, we check and recheck our calendar to make sure we haven't forgotten something (which we have on occasion)

We had nothing on on Saturday but it was grey and rainy all day. The MR wouldn't let that stop us from making plans.

So what to do in the wet?

Visit the Wetlands of course.

The kids kept saying that 'wetlands in the wet is much better'

We play in the rain often, and my children love to run around the backyard during a pour but are usually back inside within a few minutes. I think this was one of the rare times that we 'expected' them to be out in the rain for a couple of hours. They loved it.

Hoods, Raincoats, Gumboots were dragged out. My baby made me tear up because she did not want to be carried in the sling. After 5 mins she was out and running the 1.5km track. She was wearing her sisters clothes. She was no longer a baby. That child is one going on five I always say.

Then lunch, a play in the park and walk along the beach = Dirty, muddy, wet children.

A change of clothes, a warm car ride home wrapped in towels and blankets and a bath awaiting at the end.

Bliss.

A friend at church said 'from reading your facebook status's over the weekend our family has deemed you the funnest mum ever' To which I replied 'only sometimes'

I'd go with I'm cool 20-30% of the time. The other 70% I'm just a mean, old, regular, neglectful mum.

Hopefully the kids remember the 30%.

Green

Hands and Hair

I wore green to identify with Elphaba and attempted a fancy do???

The taxi arrived to wisk me away before I got to say my, goodbyes, be good for grandma, do this do that, before I had everyone happy and settled.  I was caught unawares but it was fun to dash right out and slide across the seat from the door The Mr held open for me.

You can tell I don't get out much. I think this is like the 4th taxi I've ever taken in my life :)
(There's  never been a need when you don't drink I suppose)

Dinner out may have been a fail...(I'm a connoisour of Pad Thai Noodles and these were the worst I've ever had) lets be glad there is always more opportunities for other dates to rectify that.I seriously can't wax lyrical enough about how much I love to hold the Mr hands. It's ALWAYS when on a date that I realise I don't do it often enough. I said to him, I love when his hands are free of his phone, toddler, whatever, that leaves his hands free to rest on my knee, the crook of my back, to entwine pinky fingers together. Oh be still my beating heart!

"I love Pina Colada's" (non alcoholic of course) I may have given the Mr a few renditions.....

Then onto Wicked. Almost four months in the making. Floods and birthdays and anniversaries all past. WE were finally catching up! G was very sick this week, I almost thought that if I or anyone else gets it I will once again MISS OUT! Arrrgggggg!!


I will be honest and say I did no research into Wicked.

I was going by the hundreds of friends and facebook comments I read about 'how amazing' it was.

So sitting in the theatre for the first half hour or more I was depressed. The show was terrible.

I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't that. I was expecting something more deep and meaningful. Something more longing and exploratory into the Wicked Witch's fall from grace. Or something with a old vintage feel such as the movie Wizard of Oz. Something sweet and coming of age, songs that would move me to my core?

Wicked was cheesy, teenagerish, camp, and the singing was very screechy  and nearly did my head in.

I felt terrible inside because I started to think
"I must be the only person in the world that thinks this isn't THAT good'

I know people that have been to see this 6 times or more.


Then I heard a voice, accent and all of Mr Potato Head from Toy Story  saying

YOU UNCULTURED SWINE!

seriously over and over again. I couldn't stop saying it :)

I lament to The Mr about wanting to be more cultural and understand ballet and opera and theatre. Then when I get there I think it's crap?

BUT....

By the end of the first half I started to enjoy and I did enjoy the second half. At the conclusion I felt it was a alright production. I was happy that I got to see it. I was happy with was that it was fairly sex free, swearing free, all characters were modestly dressed and that the message it presented was ok (well the jury is still out on that - you know the whole 'wickedness is good, and good is wickedness thing)

Now I'm sitting here typing I'm thinking of some of the funny things that were in it. And the fact that I had no idea Burt Newton was the wizard. I think The Mr and I both gasped/laughed when he came out.  The cheap jokes did appeal to me. I laughed at them all. I just wasn't expecting it 'to be like that I suppose'

Would I see it again? Probably once more. But I just don't think I could handle Galinda's voice more than that. YIKES.


As I lay in bed that night I turned to the Mr to thank him for such a thoughtful Christmas/Birthday gift. I thanked him for coming along to something that was so 'definatively girly' that he is a great guy to put up with that and to buy me gifts that are helping in my efforts to become 'more cultured'

He turned to me and said 'It's fine. I love Musicals. I've been in several.'

And then he rolled over and went to sleep while I  lay there awake musing on the mystery that is my husband.



Today I decided to google negative wicked reviews (don't know why I don't do this more often before I go places (maybe I dont want a downer BEFORE THE FACT?) Here's a few notable places that agree with me :)
The New York Times: Wicked review
"The current cast is a patchwork of wildly uneven talents; Elphaba isn't the only one who looks green."
The New Yorker: Wicked Review
"The show’s twenty-two songs were written by Stephen Schwartz, and not one of them is memorable."
The Village Voice: Wicked Review
"Hence Wicked, a hideous mess of a musical that wants to be many different things, and rarely succeeds in being any of them."
Talkin' Broadway: Wicked Review
"Though the basic story of Elphaba and her crusade against the increasingly totalitarian rule of the Wizard has been retained for the musical, the lack of a singular vision or firm artistic hand makes the show, unlike the book, a muddled, unfocused enterprise."

Ouch. But I feel vindicated. I'm not alone.



Which is Ok. Because I got this anyway. And that was the point of all this. Time Out. With eachother :)

And Green is The Mr's favourite colour :)

Foody Thursday

I've had pumpkin coming out my ears since we picked them all from our vine. I've made pumpkin soup , pumpkin Scones , Mexican Tortilla Stack , and lots of Pumpkin bread. I'm down to only one pumpkin left!

I have made this recipe several times and a few people have asked for the recipe.

Pumpkin Bread  ~ makes two loaves

3 1/2 cups plain flour
2tsp bicarb soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp nutmeg
3 cups sugar
4 eggs beaten
2 cups fresh cooked pumpkin
water (2/3 cup if using canned pumpkin, 1/2 if using fresh)
1 cup vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius. Combine flour, soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and sugar. Add eggs, water, oil and pumpkin. Stir till blended.

Pour into two loaf tins. Bake for 1 hour. Cool. Tastes best eaten the next day.


The thing I love about this recipe is you pretty much can't get it wrong. I've made it with only 3 eggs, still turned out fine. I've made it with only 2 cups of sugar, turned out fine. I made it without nutmeg, fine. I used more or less pumpkin, still fine. I've used less oil, still fine. I've even forgotten the water and it still turned out fine. I've just poured the ingredients in without measuring, still fine!

Eat it hot, cold, with or without butter. It's good many ways.
Thanks to a friend who prodded me about posting this recipe. She tasted some and wanted the recipe. Her husband outed her to me that whenever his wife is on the computer she's ALWAYS looking at my blog. He says come to bed, what are you looking at? Ha. My blog. Sweetest comment EVER! You know who you are xx


I'm posting today instead of Foody Friday cause tomorrow I hope to have lots to share about my night out to see Wicked!

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

my deck is sadly always covered in laundry.. might as well enjoy it too....

Did I tell you I love this time of year?

There is ACTUALLY a cool breeze around. I love it.

I really do think we have the best weather here in Australia.

Sure its unbareably hot for two months of the year. But the other 10 months are pretty perfect in my opinion. Like right now. There is just this wonderful slight crispness to the morning and afternoon.

I love to sit on my deck and enjoy it.

It also reminds me that Easter is on its way!

I might also be excited because I made some of these today. They're so cute!


Every year (usually after) I vow to celebrate Pancake Tuesday the next year.


I'm gonna do it.

And every year I forget till after the fact or the night of.

Then I lament and The Mr says But we don't celebrate Lent.

Us Mormons deny ourselves plenty all year long.

But who doesn't like pancakes??? Or a day designated to eat them??

It's also a good way to remind yourself that Easter is only 40ish days away.



I'm kinda glad Easter is late this year. I always get caught unawares when its in the beginning of April. I turn the calendar page and arrggggg Easter is only a week away! Last year I decided to try and put as much effort into Easter as I do Christmas. Since we do Christmas stuff the whole of December, I've decided to do Easter things the whole of April.

I thought I would put up a list to remind me, and you if you want to join in.

I've started collecting egg shells for our Carscerones (it seems I never make enough!)

I'm thinking of putting our Easter books out in basket to read. I only have 3 or 4 so I might try to buy some more. We really enjoy our Christmas Book Basket.

I'm looking for a branch to paint white and make a Easter Tree - to hang eggs from and FHE handouts

Thinking about what Pinata we might like this year: not like our chicken one, the stripey egg one was much more Politically Correct

Make  soft pretzels

Make  Palm Crosses

Make Hot Cross Buns

I'll be following this list for religious activities/ideas for each day for the week leading up to Easter.

Do you have any other ideas for me? 

An Easter Countdown Chain might be fun.

Dream Big

A wooden sign I painted, on our mantle to remind me of my parenting mantra

My children always seem to come up with hairbrained ideas at such inconvient times.

Well it seems that way. I don't know why they don't do these grand schemes between the hours of 3 -5pm - the time I've scheduled it for :) Or on lazy saturday mornings.

On Sunday Night they decided they wanted to sleep outside on the deck. Just them and their matresses.

This stressed me out and the comings and goings and planning went on and on on.


I said no because it was a school night, we'll do this type of thing on the holidays, there are mosquitoes, It just didn't feel 'safe' to me to be so exposed without your parents etc etc.


Then Daddy comes home and says yes (and gets evil glare from me)


To which he reminds me of our parenting mantra



You don't have to validate the dream, just the right to dream

plus he knew they probably wouldn't last the night out there and would be tucked in their beds before long. Which happened. He was right dang it.

I have no idea where we got this quote from, but its been our mantra for many a year now. It was either from a parenting book I'd read or Dr Phil I can't quite remember. But we've often stated it to eachother. Even if I don't agree with their ideas/dreams/musings it doesn't mean that I can't support the idea behind it.    


So once again I was reminded of my choices I had made long ago that I sometimes forget.


I thought last night that when it comes to parenting and being spontaineous and creating warm memories of childhood that:


Unless it will harm their physical or spiritual health, it should probably be allowed

So when K cut out a huge dragon tail using streams of paper, tape and elastic just before company arrives. Its ok.

Or this morning when 10 mins before she had to leave for school she started making a homemade ipod. It's ok.

Validate the right to dream

validate the right to dream, validate the right to dream,validate the right to dream.... (repeat after me)

Just so when she is a parent she can say to her kids

"You think you have it tough.. when we were kids we had to MAKE our own ipods.."

From the Archives Friday - Redo and Crazy Hair

It's been about a year since we did this

Last week I saw similar on Color me Katie and remembered when we did the same.

I had bought Miss K some super cute Pikachu post it notes at a local asian cutesy store for her birthday and I knew they would be perfect to leave around the neighbourhood.

Also a fun activity for the girls to do with a friend on a friday afternoon.

I gave them the camera and let them go at it.

I hope they brighten someones day

(And not just destroy the environment - which I worry about :) or teach my kids to be vandals, which I also worry about :)  Hopefully the good feelings from sharing love will prevail.)

You are Loved

On an unrelated sidenote it was crazy hair day at school to raise money for cancer.

They had to pay $1 for each streak of coloured hairspray.

This is how they left for school.

Hopefully not channelling Amy Winehouse. Another thing I worry about :)

Funnily enough these looks were not hard to manage for my girls ;)

Couch Apologies....

A clean couch - I work hard for the money.

The post wherein I apologise to anyone whose ever sat on my couch?


Before Miss N was born I knew my couch was pretty bleck.

The plan was to get it professionally steam cleaned before she came along.

Grandma even offered to pay for it. How kind.

Especially when you know you're pretty much gonna be glued to that couch 24/7 once the baby arrives. Fresh, clean upholstery bliss is needed.

Except I never got it done.

Did I tell you I'm terrible at ringing/making appointments with places?
Ringing places like banks, phone company, electricity company makes me shudder.

Well I've been spying the hire dry cleaner at woolworths lately while grocery shopping and thought that's what we need. Except there is no room in the boot when I do my shopping.  I'm pretty much a fan of - If I can do it, then I shouldn't pay someone else to do it. Which is why I go without so much stuff. I KNOW that I can cut hair, sew, decorate, make my own _____ , cook, etc etc But sometimes I DON'T = Why I go without because I still can't justify paying someone else to do it.

The Mr saved the day and picked up that machine for me.


 Taking a before photo, the flash really showed up the dirt! It looked so bad!

And this is what came out of the couch.

Feel sick?

4+ containers of water this colour came out of our couch and 2 recliners

Note for anyone else who wants to do the same (ie you Katrina :) -We got the three hour hire. I would suggest the 24 hour hire. When the couch was wet it looked very very clean. After it dried however some spots still look dirty. So hire the cleaner for 24 hours so you can have a few goes at the couch and you can see the places that need extra work after it's dried.

After the machine went back I thought, I could have done the girls mattresses etc. Oh the list goes on and on! 24 hour would have been much better. I barely got the couch done in time for the 3 hour hire. It hurts your back and I had to rest a few times and of course the children all HAD to have a go using the noisy fandangled machine.

To be fair this couch has been very loved, is 6 years old, seen its fair share of spills, baby vomit, played on, jumped on, laid on. Very abused loved.

This post by NieNie yesterday made me smile. I can have a nice couch in a few years time.

For now the couch is A place of play. A place of family life. A place of imagination. A place to rest. A place for comfort. A place we lean on to kneel in prayer. A place to read. A place to watch movies  as a family. A place where we belong together. Even if it seems we are dirty...

And now it's clean! Hallelujah.

Let the games begin again.

Cushion Phobia

So I was passing Target last week and they were selling cushions for $3. What a bargain.


I've been putting off buying a rug and cushions for about a year now. I have commitment issues if you haven't already noticed. Can't quite decide what colour I want. Well I think I want red, but not positively sure.

I mean we've had both cushions and rugs before. They just happened to die a slow death.

The rug was stained/washed till the end of it's life and the corners started turning up.

Then it was bye bye rug.

That was about 4 years ago.


Anyway, back to these mega cheap cushions.
I thought, welllll if I buy some cushions then I can match a rug to it.....
Ha. Buying a cheap thing to then match an expensive thing to it.

I hope I'm not the only one that does this?? Crazy


Well those cushions lasted all of about 10 mins on my couch before I could not stand it anymore.

Panic attack central.

Miss N with yoghurt fingers just had to touch them.  My body recoiled.

Breath, Breathe.. It's ok.

5 mins later Miss N is on the laying on cushions on the floor pushing herself along.

Dragging the cushion through who knows what dust/dirt that seems to be on this floor though I sweep daily and mop 3x week.

Breathe Breathe... Its ok.

Thrown on the ground, used for padding under bottoms, stepped on, touched constantly...


Nope, can't stand it any longer.

So the cushions were put up on top of the bookshelf.


Where they have remained since.



Sigh.



Maybe if you're lucky I'll get them down while your visiting. But for the time being we will have to continue to be cushionless. But the couch looks good doesn't it? I steam cleaned it myself. Just wait for that post - It was disgusting what came out of that couch :)

Cushions adorning the top of bookshelves - its all the rage don't you know?

Parent decorators everywhere will soon be following suit.

I'm just ahead of the game :)

Disco Fever

I feel like I should put a disclaimer on my crafty stuff. It's not pretty. And if it does look good its because its a closeup photo not showing the details :) I don't own scrapbooking supplies - no fancy scissors, double sided tape, paper, punches etc, I don't own a colour printer, I don't own embellishments or anything that will make things attractive. Sometimes I feel I should start a blog about crap I've made using blu tak and print paper. Yet things usually work out ok. phew.

Her presents weren't even wrapped (sans sticky tape) and she was ok with this as it meant she knew what her presents were as soon as she woke up :) What a sweetie! But this also meant I had to fashion a microphone shaped pinata without tape!!! yikes.

This year she opted for a disco/movie night/sleepover with some friends.

I tried to make the disco theme - the theme.

Here are a few (very) simple ideas to have a 10 year old Disco Party.

Disco Ball (cost $25) the  girls were very impressed with this!

Our Disco ball cake (well on the top looking down it did.. kinda...)

Sparklers and glowsticks a must

A microphone pinata (yeah dont laugh.... no tape remember?) I had totally forgot we usually do pinata's till 2 days before the party I'm shopping with Miss G and she's in the lolly isle at the store grabbing bags of lollies saying " We need this. For K. For her yata.." at first I am all like.. 'what is she talking about... put those lollies back!!! Then it dawned on me.. I have two days to make a pinata...

Having a sing...

Busting it open (little sister was the 'servant' for the party - why is is wearing an apron)

This party worked so well, I'm going to go with similar next year. Except I'll make it NOT a sleepover and invite all the girls from the class from 6-9pm. There is one girl in the class whom is very annoying whom my daughter doesn't enjoy her company who cried and cried that she wasn't invited and begged me to let her come. I would like to be able to include everyone next time as it seems if you invite 5 girls they tell the whole class and brag about it and it creates some hurt feelings.