Do you remember.....

...me writing about my camera dilemna?

Well it would seem I have an update on the missing camera charger.

I finally got up the courage to admit to my husband that I'd lost the plot and had somehow misplaced ANOTHER charger.

The conversation went something like this:

Me:  Uh, honey.  You know how we used to have two chargers for the small camera's and I lost one about a year ago?  Well I've sort of lost the other one as well.  I'm thinking of looking through the toy boxes though, just in case Master M has decided to play with it.

Lovely hubby:  (after looking at me with 'THAT LOOK' that men get)

I told you I put it in my wardrobe.

Me:  OH!  I....um.....don't remember you telling me.

Lovely hubby:  (still giving me 'THAT LOOK')

.....obviously.....

So I now have a camera charger which is back in it's home in the drawer with all the other chargers.  It's happy, I'm happy and Little Miss R is currently burning up the battery by taking a million photos on my little camera.

That's ok though because now I can charge it!

xx Susan

Helping Daddy

Master M decided that he wanted to help Daddy mow the lawn.

He has his own little mower but he doesn't like the noise of Daddy's big mower.

The problem was rectified and he was very happy....

xx Susan

Having a cleanout

My spare room has been driving me NUTS lately.  It's so messy and cluttered and basically a dumping ground for everything.  Not exactly a healthy environment especially when we've put a desk in there for Little Miss R to do her schoolwork.

The below photo was taken when  I was about halfway through cleaning so it was a lot worse before this.

I cleared out the wardrobe and rearranged things.  I even went around the house to find all my stashes of crafty stuff which included material, yarn, habberdashery stuff and lots of things I didn't even know I had!

Having it all in one place made me realise just how many goodies I do have and now my mind is full of a thousand things I can make.

Now the easiest place to put things when I want to sort through them is my bed.  I can spread everything out on it and there's less chance little fingers will find their way into it to make a mess.  I do say LESS chance rather than NO chance as I do have a curious couple of kidlettes.

The other reason I like to sort things from my bed is because I know I'll finish the job as I need to sleep somewhere at night!

Since I decided I was going to be in my room awhile, I thought it best to listen to some tunes.  My bedroom stereo is pretty old so I can't use my ipod with it so I resorted to the good old cd.  I have eclectic taste and chose from the 3 cd's that were in my room at the time.

Evanescence, Adele and Mumford and Sons.  (Waaaay different from each other I know).

Mumford and Sons won out as I was in a bluegrass mood.

The spare room is now much cleaner and tidier.  Unfortunately some of the larger items do need to stay in the room because we really have no where else to put them in the house.

Little Miss R's desk is there to the right where the red chair is.

You can see one cupboard door only but there are 3 doors altogether and inside them is now relatively clean and tidy.  Maybe I should really say that it's slighty more organised.

There's also a bookshelf on the wall to the left which is now much tidier and full of books as well as crafty stuff.

During my tidy up I found heaps of safety pins.  I used an empty powdered stock container to hold them in and it's worked out perfectly.

 

I also sorted through my sewing basket.  I've got fishing tackle boxes and tupperware holding plenty of sewing things in but I always use this basket because it was my Grandma's.  When she passed away I was given her sewing machine, sewing table and of course her sewing basket.  Even though it's now 20 years since she passed away which I can't quite believe, I always think of her when I see this basket or use my sewing machine.

Inside the basket were these interesting tidbits too.  I'm not sure exactly what they are but I have a vague recollection that my Mum once told me that one of them is a lace maker.  If anyone out there knows what they are then please let me know.  Thanks!

Once I'd finished tidying everything, resorting and putting it all back in happier places, I ended up with a bag full of fabric and yarn to send to school with Little Miss R for their craft.  I've just got to remember to take it with me!

So everything's much tidier, neater and I'm much happier for now. 

xxx Susan

My camera dilemna

I'm lucky that I have a pretty good choice of camera's in which to take photos.  I have my Canon Digital SLR which I absolutely love, especially as I have another 300ml lense that I can attach if needed.  This is definately the camera of choice when we go away camping so I can snap away at any scenery to my hearts content.

Then I have my everyday Canon IXUS which is great to grab at whim and take shots about the house or when I'm out and about and don't want to take my big camera as this slips in a handbag nicely.

I haven't been able to use this for awhile though because I seem to have lost the chargers.  I say chargers because hubby has a similar camera so he's got a charger for his as well.  I lost one charger about a year ago and recently the other one has gone missing.

 

I have looked everywhere and am completely stumped as to where they could be.  (I also haven't admitted to hubby that I've lost them yet.  He probably won't be surprised though!)

It's lucky I have a new phone so I'm taking most of my photos on that lately but it's not the same as my little camera.

I may have to go search ebay for another charger and then I'll probably find one or both of the other ones.  A spare one would be good though....or just one at the moment.

xx  Susan

P.S  I've had a thought.  Recently I lost about $450 in cash from my bedside table for about two weeks.  I thought I was going insane and couldn't find it anywhere.  I felt sick, scared (because I'd finally lost the plot) and just plain worried.  Then hubby found the money in the bottom of one of the toyboxes.  Master M had got hold of it and hidden it.  Maybe losing the camera chargers is NOT my fault and a search through toy boxes might be in order!

The barbeque:: Take 2....

WE HAVE GAS!!!!

For the BBQ that is....

Thank goodness because even though it still wasn't quite the same perfect kind of evening it was the night before, it was still a lovely time to be outdoors.

There were some clouds, and a bit more of a breeze....but it was still wonderful.

The kidlettes spent the late afternoon on the water hopscotch or 'opquotch' as Master M calls it.  They got extremely wet and had a fantastic time running around doing it in the process.

It gave me the chance to work on a new project while they were getting as wet as possible but I'll tell you a bit more about that soon (if I remember to that is..you may have to remind me).

Then it was time to try the barbeque.  My gorgeous dad came over today to help me swap the gas bottles over.  It was a very easy and completely painless process which I had pretty well worked out for myself but I decided that I'd better get an 'expert' to help me the first time in case there was one small step that I missed.

Nope.  All was well and fired up just like it should.

This time it's marinated honey soy chicken kebabs so first I put down the baking paper.  I personally believe baking paper is a MUST when cooking anything marinated on the barbeque because it's so less messy.

As you can see by the photo below, this is what the baking paper looked like when I finished cooking. 

 (A note to people about ALDI baking paper.  Lots of things stick to it and it's pretty well crap.  I have similar results with other things cooked in the oven too so I'm putting this lot in the camping gear and getting the better quality stuff for home).

....and the results after the baking paper (even bad quality) has been taken off....

...so nice and clean.  That's something to really love.

I will end by sharing a quote from Little Miss R (age 6 remember) on her dinner...

"...that was BLOODY great!..."

(Oh dear...I really hope she takes after her father and not me with those comments....I really can't be sure though.   On second thoughts, if it was her father maybe it could have been a lot worse....)

The end of a LONG week

This week has seemed to go for a very long time.  It may have something to do with the fact that I haven't been well since about Tuesday afternoon so have spent a few days in bed.

I'm lucky Little Miss R has been at school and family members have done the school run for me or looked after Master M for awhile to help me recover better.

I'm feeling MUCH better now though, in fact I really perked up Friday afternoon and because it was such a lovely day, we spent as much time outside as possible.

I decided to crank up the barbeque to cook some snags for dinner.  We do use the bbq a lot over summer when lovely hubby's home but I haven't used it myself in about 6 years! 

Time to start using it again as I love being outside with the kids and not inside slaving over the stove..it's much more fun.

So dinner's cooking away, the kids are having fun on their scooters.....

...and kickboards on the slippery slide....

...when I realise that the gas has run out with the snags only about a quarter cooked!

I have no idea how to change over the gas bottles so I took dinner inside to finish cooking then brought it back out so we could still enjoy the gorgeous evening.

 

Lovely hubby's not home for a couple more days yet so my gorgeous dad's coming over today to show me how to swap the gas bottles over.  Yay for Dad's!

It's going to be another nice day I think so I'm hoping to be able to crank the barbeque up again tonight and for that we need gas...

Hope you all have a fantastic weekend.

xxx Susan

A gorgeous evening

Yesterday we had to head up the coast for a late appointment with Little Miss R.  It was at Point Cartwright and by the time we had finished it was  after 6pm and almost dark.

Almost is the word.  I took these photos of the Mooloolaba River from La Balsa park before we left.

It was just so beautiful and I was wishing Master M was with us so we could've had a picnic dinner in the park.

Such a lovely evening to help lift my spirits.

xxx Susan

Slow moments

I have had two sick cherubs home the past few days.

They are both having quite a bit of rest....

...on the mattress and lounge in the living room.

Dry toast and chicken soup has pretty well been the menu for the past few days.

Rest time with the air conditioner on because it's well into the mid 30's celcius which means it's hot and really steamy and sticky.

A midday storm has gone through which is not surprising considering the weather.

There was lots of lightning and thunder booming right over head which was pretty exciting.

Now it looks like Little Miss R will be missing her third day of school.  Master M is fine now and Little Miss R is nearly there but I think one more day should get her back on track.

That means it's another day of toast, soup, movies and I think I'll just have to have some hooky time as I haven't picked up my crochet hook in well over a week now!  Terrible I know.

xx Susan

Where's Rapunzel when you need her?

If you haven't seen the Disney movie Tangled then you will have no idea what I'm talking about.

Those that have..you know the scene where Rapunzel heals Eugene's cut hand with her hair?

That's what I need now....

It's not a huge or deep cut but it is sore.

I was chopping up pumpkin to put in the slow cooker with the lamb shanks and the knife got stuck.  I pushed down on it but everything sort of slipped and my hand got sliced.

This is why my darling hubby gets a little scared every time I pick up a knife.  Lucky he's only home half the time hey!

Hope you all have a great day!

xx Susie

It's hot!

It's sticky, humid and the sun burns your skin if you're out in it for a few minutes.  Not my favourite kind of weather at all!!

At least we have air conditioning and it's certainly going on early today.

The grass is growing so unbelievably fast that we virtually need to mow twice a week.  Once a week is all it's getting though and it's nearly a jungle by that time!

Aaaah, much better..



My parsley has gone beserk after all the rain we've had and the heat.  Little Miss R's happy about that as she loves chomping on parsley.  In fact, she broke off a piece to eat in the car on the way to school this morning.

My garlic which I planted months ago and thought had died has miraculously sprung back to life.  I was pretty excited about that!

 

Now I just have to keep Master M out of the sun during the hottest part of the day so it's indoor activities in the cool air conditioning for us.

 

It looks like we'll be doing puzzles, colouring in and watching the current favourite movie Peter Pan.

 

I'll hopefully get some crochet done and look through some northern hemisphere blogs where the snow is falling and just looking at the pictures cools me down.

 

Have a great week everyone.

 

xx Susan

Karate

Little Miss R has started Karate.

It's something she's wanted to do for quite awhile and we thought that the discipline etc would be good for her.

She's had 2 lessons so far and has enjoyed it.

The only complaint I have is that the lesson goes for well over an hour and you can see all the 5 to 7 year old kids really struggling by the end.

Lets hope she continues to enjoy it and stops trying to chop and kick her brother soon!

xx Susan

Why I love these blogs....

I've decided to do a post today on some of the blogs I've been following over the last few years.  The one thing I love about blogging is that you can peek into other people's lives.  People from all over the world who either have similar interests to you, live in an amazing place, or are just a joy to get to know through cyberspace.

Below are some of my favourites and why.

Attic24.

  Honestly, how can you not love Lucy.  She certainly brightens up your day and thousands around the world obviously agree.  She's also talented and has some fantastic, easy to follow crochet tutorials.

The sight of morning. 

I'm in awe of how many pictures Mrs M can invoke with only a few words.  Witty, fun, thoughtful and a comment section full of people that have fantastic sense of humours.  In fact, you can't read any of her posts without reading the comment section.  I really think that this may be my favourite blog to read.

Slow living in the pyrenees. 

I have only been reading this one recently and still haven't fully made my way back through the archive of posts yet.  An English couple (without the English expat attitude), living in one of the areas in France I desperately want to visit.  They have been renovating a farmhouse over the last few years in the Pyrenees and this is a snippet into their everyday life in this gorgeous part of the world.  Oh and when I get to France I REALLY want to stay with them when their B&B and cottage is up and running.


Hearts Landscapes and Belladonna's Garden

My Sister's blogs.  How could I not love these as they're written by one of my most favourite, loved and cherished people in the whole world.  Unfortunately I haven't been able to comment on it for the last year, under my blog name or as anonomys as it just won't publish my comments.  I'll keep trying though and maybe the glitch will right itself.

Little Tin Bird

I love Heather.  She's funny, loves to crochet and just loves her family.  I do love how she waffles!

Curlew Country

Family life in England written by Steph.  I just love the images this blog invokes.  She writes about normal things happening around the place but this blog sings to my heart. 

Our Wee Farm

Laura is a Scottish expat living in the North Island of New Zealand.  I so love their house and especially all the little sheds around the property.  Love it!

The Handmade Dress

A wonderful blog about an American family.  I just love reading about the everyday things they get up to although I certainly couldn't handle homeschooling my two kids let alone their 4!

Hope you have a fantastic day and enjoy browsing through some of my favourite blogs.

xx Susan

(Normal blogging should return to normal soon.  Lots of rain, the Australian Open tennis finals and the cricket have all made me a bit slack on the blogging front)

The art of intention

Intention:    A course of action that one intends to follow

My life is filled with many intentions. 

Over the Christmas school holidays my intentions were written down in great long lists and included things like:

declutter bedroom cupboards

declutter kitchen cupboards

declutter bathroom cupboards

declutter ALL rooms

declutter garage

....I think you get the idea.

There was so much that I wanted to and really do need to get done but the school holidays just aren't the best time to do it. 

This is mainly because I have two little 'helpers' which means that whatever gets cleaned up soons turns out twice as messy because of all the goodies we find to do something with.

Many fights, wars, karate bouts and other sibling activities also become quite regular and I find myself thinking that it will be much easier to wait until Little Miss R goes back to school and I have just Master M to deal with.

Mmmm...yes...good INTENTIONS.

This is Little Miss R's second day back at school and I have a nice, lovely, pretty list (much nicer to follow when it's pretty), of things that I intend to do around the house.

The reality is that it's:

*  raining

*  perfect snuggling weather (because of the rain)

*  the Australian Open tennis is on which means:

*  I have been up late watching the tennis

*  I am tired because I've been staying up watching tennis and my alarm clock (Master M) wakes me up sometime between 5 and 6am with the constant yelling of 'MUMMY..MUMMY..MUMMY..MUMMY...........'

*  the fourth cricket test between Australia and India starts today

*  I've been spending some lovely moments catching up on my favourite blogs which I haven't had much chance to look at over the last couple of months

*  I have a lovely basket full of yarn which is just waiting for me to crochet it into something wonderful

*  I have therefore lost the inclination to much other than watch sport and do some crochet

On a positive side, I can do some pottering and decluttering in the rooms that have tv so I can watch the tennis and cricket at the same time.  I'm not doing a lot though, just enough to take the edge off the guilt.

...I'm sure I'll be crossing off those jobs on my list with a burst of energy sometime soon...it just won't be until after the cricket, tennis and probably even the rain ends.

xx Susan



The painter

The Art of Painting

by

Jan Vermeer Van Delft

Darling hubby has been painting the bedroom walls and ceiling.

He doesn't believe in drop sheets.

I now have lovely white specks, flecks and blobs on my purple and pink dressing gown as well as my green curtains.

At least the room is looking better

The holidays

I started the school holidays way back in early December with the intention of blogging regularly.

I now know why women with young school children DON'T blog in the holidays. 

It's utter chaos around here most days and some things just have to slide.

Christmas has been and gone.

Master M's 4th Birthday has been and gone too but we can continue to enjoy the pressies.

A first fish has been caught with the birthday fishing rod.

We have managed to spend some time out and about as a family.

On extremely rare occasions I've been able to sneak in a bit of hooky time.

One week left of the holidays then we'll see what changes happen around the house. 

 At least it will be slightly less chaotic.

Saturday

Things are starting to get a little easier but then hubby's been home so that always helps.  He left to go back to work this morning so we'll see how we go for the next 4 or 5 days.

Today we went to Nan and Poppy's for a bit of a play for awhile.  The kidlettes always LOVE going around there and I don't mind having a chat either.

One of their favourite things to play on is the pot plant stand.  It's great to sit on and zoom around the verandah.

Picking carrots from Nana's garden is always a treat too.  My two love carrots so Nana usually has some growing so they can pick them, wash them and chomp on them bugs bunny style while they're playing.

Once we got home then the kidlettes had some play time and I got to do a bit more of the blanket I'm re-doing.  It's been slow progress making this one with everything else that's been going on (mainly Master M and his disasters).

Hope you all had a fantastic weekend.

xx Susan

Life's true delights

My chocoholic son has discovered Tim Tam's.

.....and so the love affair begins.

You know summer is nearly here when....

...you have your first coffee in the morning BEFORE the school run.

Some people start the day with coffee so won't see why this is a problem for me.  I start mine with tea.

However, now it's getting lighter earlier in the morning, my darling son is deciding that 4.30 - 5am is a good time to be awake. 

So my first cup of tea is made very early in the day and by the time about 7.30 am comes around, I'm getting desperate for my mid-morning coffee.

I think that I really need to get much darker curtains for his room.

xx Susan