My Valentine

No Valentine's around here friends, but I was smothered in kisses by a very handsome little man this morning. My ever thoughtful mother sent Dominic this Valentine's Day card in the mail.

On the inside it read: 'Dom, we love you every day, not just on Valentine's Day!'

I could have cried :)

Happy Valentine's Day lovely friends. Make sure you have an extra fun weekend.

x

I promised a certain someone that I would update this post. I did receive a beautiful card from my Valentine on Valentine's Day evening :)...It was in fact me who was disorganised without a card to give!

Foot photos

I will let you in on a secret.

I am pretty easily amused in fact, very easily amused. Particularly after a night shift. For some reason lots of random things are really funny after a night shift. Obviously this may not always be the case, one can also be quite fragile after a night shift but today, everything is very amusing.

Dominic I am ashamed to say, remains very iPhone savvy. Do you remember my 'Techno Turkey' post?
He can have your phone speaking Japanese, can lock you out of your phone indefinitely and even hang up on your boss (repeatedly) when she calls you to do an extra shift (that was an awkward moment)!

Nothing however, has been so bizarre as Dom's random 'foot shots' that keep appearing on my phone. Every couple of days these delicious little feet keep popping up in unexpected photos.

Needless to say, these photos have given us a good laugh. I found a few more random shots this morning and felt that I had to share... :)

Exhibit (a) - Little trotters casually kicking back on toddler day bed. Is that Chris' foot in the background?
I do believe it is ..... delightful.

Exhibit (b) - Yes, on the toilet. Don't judge me for giving him the iPhone to get him to sit still on the loo! 

Of course, this will be a problem when he drops the iPhone in the toilet, which will undoubtedly happen. Maybe I will stop doing that....  

Exhibit (c) - Little feet casually resting on the back of the passenger seat in the car.

Have you ever had funny photos taken by children pop up on your phone, or is this strictly a Dominic phenomena? He is pretty out there....
Where would I be without my funny little boy :)

x

January .... where did you go?

We have been busy. We have started childcare again. It is a Montessori childcare, it is beyond beautiful and the girls who work there, I could bottle up and bring home with me. My little mate, although dreadfully enthusiastic about attending and seeing 'the kids', is struggling a little with adjusting. The girls say that he has been sad and that he misses me dreadfully. Needless to say that has been met with tears (from us both). Loving the childcare centre as much as I do, has made me feel a lot stronger through this process, but my goodness motherhood is hard sometimes isn't it? 

So, true to my New Years resolution of paying particular attention to my 'self care' in 2014, I have been eating really well, treating myself to daily juices, practicing gratitude (yes, I proudly still maintain my journal) and enjoying the great outdoors with our daily walk and even just hanging out together in our backyard. Chris and I kicked a ball around the backyard the other day. Those who know me would be having a bit of a chuckle at this, I am not known for my co-ordination, but it was such a good laugh!

I have otherwise been sorting through my magazines ( I desperately need to throw out my magazines from last year!) and cutting out pictures for inspiration and making an effort where possible to be creative. 

This is a process I truly love - imagining the little things I want to do with our home and recording it in my decorating journal.  

Seeing Stephanie Alexander's house feature on her blog today and on realestate.com.au (have you got a spare million?) also got my imagination going crazy. Imagine having a garden like this! 

Stephanie has created the most wonderful home for her family. It pretty much sums up exactly everything we want for our little house - homeliness and warmth surrounded by books, photos and sentimental belongings. 

Stephanie if I had the cash, I would buy your house in a heart beat. I would love so much to navigate my way through this garden and tend daily to the veggie patch. Of course this would be a full-time job, so I wouldn't be able to work. What a shame that would be ;) 

What creative projects have you been embarking on recently?

Hope you are all well.

x

The common crow ...

I will let you in on a secret friends. You may not agree, but I really don't like birds. Especially crows. 

In fact, I can't stand them. That horrible 'aaaaarrrrkkkk' sound they make irritates me more than words can say, and the fact we seem to have a community of them living in our Jacaranda tree, is not impressing me. Not. At. All. The fact that one shat on me the other day as I pushed Dominic on his swing for the twenty billionth time, also did not please me. It did however, seem to amuse my little friend as I swore loudly :)

Maybe it goes back to my childhood. Crows would attempt to steal our tuckshop lunches at school and would always be hovering around the bins. I remember laughing hysterically (my laugh has been described by some as raucous), when my bestie was commenting on how loud and distracting the crows were, while we were trying to concentrate during our exams. She joked that maybe the crows outside were calling out 'faaaarrrkkkk', cause let's face it as we sat that English exam, that was exactly what we were thinking - 'faaaarrrrrrkkkk' :)

By coincidence (or was it?) in that same year, the bestie fell victim to what she described as a vicious and intentional attack by pigeons in the Queen Street Mall. This event left her falling to her knees during lunchtime rush hour, commando rolling past Hungry Jacks! She hasn't been the same since. 

Even as adults, I have been in situations with the bestie where we have been walking, talking animatedly about what is undoubtedly a very important social issue, when suddenly she will drop to her knees, hands over her head screaming 'Birds..... I hate freaking birds'. Without a joke, she has even accused a butcher bird of swooping her! Ok that may be a lie but my point is, I have a history with birds - especially the common crow.

Anyway, over the last couple of weeks at home we have noticed this...

Excuse the photo quality, it is hard to make a water feature look pretty.

Yes beloved readers, that is bread floating in our water feature. This happens daily. I know. Completely random. At first I thought it might be kids(?), although I appreciate there is little logic in this theory. I then came across the offending crow. I have tried to get a photo of him, but he is smarter and a lot quicker than me. This morning I watched him drop, yes drop, one single piece of bread into our water feature. He then yelled 'faarrrkkkk' and flew away. He returned an hour or so later and collected the now soggy bread, which he gobbled up in a few quick bites. How bazaar is that? Can you believe it? Crows have been intentionally dropping bread into our water feature to soften it to eat! 

Maybe after all this time, I have underestimated the common crow. I still hate them, but one has to admire such multi-tasking :)

Do you have any strange bird stories? You don't do you. I didn't think so. 

These strange things after all, could only happen to me :)

FYI ..I did not consult the bestie in the publication of this post. Being the clever lass that she is, she gave birth to her second baby a gorgeous little boy, this week. We are so proud of them both and I thought that this post might give her a bit of a laugh. x

A new year....Tintin.

I promised a post about my New Years resolutions didn't I?

I wrote a very long-winded post (unlike me I know), on all the things I would like to achieve this year.
It was boring. In short, my 2014 is about self care and continuing to eat well. I am feeling so good for eating more wholefoods and now I have a juicer! Crazy times ahead ;) Juicing is deliciously addictive. Who would have thought that carrot and beetroot could taste so damn good!

I have also started keeping a gratitude journal. Given the amount of time I devote to my iPhone and iPad, it seemed appropriate that I download an app for such a thing. Gratitude 365 people. It is fabulously easy and you can attach photos from your day too. Love it.

In the meantime, I have been daydreaming about the many things I want to do with Dom's room. I have long been a fan of vintage posters but alas, my budget does not allow for the purchase of the same.
One day I will have the perfect Baly poster.
In the meantime, I have been eyeing off Tintin posters for Dominic's room.
Surely if I can't have a vintage poster he can? ;)
I have been searching high and low for inspiration and found the perfect Tintin poster at the Wooloongabba Antique Centre. It is the same as the picture below.

What do you think?
Are these posters not gorgeous?
Tintin, I am thinking you may just find yourself on my little boys bedroom wall.

x

A Christmas Day Story (to remember)....

Friends, I do not know where to start. Christmas Day was perfectly, imperfect. There was lots of fun, tears from overtired toddlers (namely ours), baked goods consumed in excess (by me), Pims at nightfall (with cucumber and mint - sensational!), swims in a beautiful pool with a very cool blow up slide, more slides and swings, presents given and received, ham consumed but not so much so that I found myself wanting to roll in mud 'Peppa Pig' style, and many laughs.

 

I have decided that Christmas is a bit like getting married though, don't you think?

We get so excited. We plan. Spend money, eat, drink and buy presents and then all of the sudden, it is over.

 

Our Christmas Day will however, always be remembered because of a town called Inglewood - 40 km's from Goondiwindi. We had driven through Warwick, knew we needed more petrol prior to getting to Goondiwindi, but decided (stupidly) that we would get petrol in Inglewood.

Inglewood isn't a small country town. There is a main street, Queensland Government Offices, a Post Office etc - you get the picture. With 25km's of petrol on the clock, we pulled into the Shell Service Station at Inglewood, keen to refuel quickly and get to my sisters to see my family and celebrate.

As I went to refuel, I noticed the pumps were locked but there were still customers in the actual petrol station. I approached the attendant and was told abruptly: 'We are now closed. The petrol pumps have been zeroed'.

I explained our predicament, that we hardly had any petrol left in the tank, had a toddler in the car and that it was Christmas Day - surely she could help me out and serve me? I even cried, people who know me won't be surprised by this :) The attendant still refused to sell me petrol, obviously keen to close up and commence her own Christmas Day celebrations.  In fact, the attendant couldn't even tell me where the next petrol station was! Funny, the next petrol station was at our destination - Goondiwindi.

So we set off in the 35 degree heat, somewhat shocked. How could someone be so unkind on Christmas Day? In short, we drove until we ran out of petrol and ended up in a sleepy town called Yelarbon. We parked under a tree opposite this very lonely looking petrol station which was, clearly closed :) - but, of course. 

We then as grown adults had to suffer the humiliation of calling in for back up, which came in the form of my beautiful Brother in law and Father. If you could have only seen my Brother in law hop out of his Ute smirking when they arrived with petrol: 'You lot run into some trouble?', he said in his best Australian accent (his is pretty good). He had a cowboy hat on and black RayBan's. I should have taken a pic for instagram - he is quite the modern day country boy.

Anyway, we made it to Christmas Day lunch. Fun was had and needless to say, will NEVER purchase petrol from Shell again.

 

On a positive note, while we waited for an hour for help, I was able to carefully consider my New Years resolutions. I am sure that you are keen to hear about what I have planned for 2014. All this and more will be provided in a post later in the week :)

 

How was your Christmas Day? Come on, try and out do my family drama... I dare you :)

 

Great to be back friends....

 

x

Crunchy granola sweet

I just can't seem to get my act together lately, despite my best efforts.

I have spent the morning doing usual motherly household duties, chasing my tail. You know how it is. It was all very uninspiring until mid morning, when I finally had time to make my new favourite Banana Granola recipe. See what I mean? I had granola for lunch! I did however have it with a lovely, sweet, ripe Bowen mango. My first mango for the year. This somehow made the chaos of this morning worthwhile.

I found this recipe for Banana Granola on the Green Kitchen Stories website. David and Luise the masterminds behind this website, are so very clever. Their recipes are delicious and their photography well, breathtaking. I also have their cookbook which I adore. It would make a gorgeous Christmas present!

 

As I sat at our table savouring small mouthfuls of this crunchy goodness, I got thinking.

Do you think Neil Diamond also loved granola? Was that why he wrote 'Crunchy Granola Sweet'? Who knows... these are the big questions friends.... :)

 

In an ideal world this serving of granola should have had handfuls of blueberries and strawberries strategically placed on top of the heaped tablespoons of yogurt, but when I went to grab them from the fridge, there was none left. Need I say anymore.

 

I hope your day has been far more organised than mine :) x