Settled

(some very cheap artwork... thanks Bunnings)

Time really does just keep a tickin, doesn't it? We have moved interstate since my last post. Back to the homeland of Bris vegas, which I could not be more thrilled about. The kids have settled nicely into a lovely school, I am slowly acclimatising to this thick Queensland heat and getting myself and my days organised. I have just joined a gym, and did my first class today which felt really good. I also gave Bikram a go a couple of weeks ago, and after hating it the first 2 times, by the third time it was feeling much better and I think I will definitely go again, on a semi-regular basis. The 12wbt started up again last week, and I am really looking forward to reaching a few of my fitness goals this round and also getting to my ultimate weight which is about 7kg away. I have also signed up for a few events, including the Brisbane City Raid that Paul and I are doing this friday night, and then in early March I have a 5km run that I have signed up for, so I am looking forward to that too.

On the home-front the house is starting to pass as liveable, even though it is tiny and is really not made for a family of 6 and all the possessions that come with those 6 people. All four kids are sharing a room which is actually working well so far, and I am quite happy with how their room is looking, we got some new bunk beds and spent a small fortune at Ikea, so we have managed to actually keep all of their clothes in their room also which is awesome.

I have also set up my sewing room / office which was totally overdue as I have orders that I need to get moving on, and I just couldn't do it with it being such a mess. So starting to get on top of things and now I just need to become an expert planner and then I think things will run very smoothly. Paul starts his new job next week, so it will be weird not having him around so much, but I am looking forward to getting into my own routine as well. He has secured a management position with a particular fruit that grows on trees, and I couldn't be happier, surely this could only mean my future is filled with shiny new technology, pity about the bad timing purchasing an ipad and a new iphone 3 weeks ago! Oh well...

I am off to the sewing table again now to finish up a beautiful quilt going out to a pregnant mummy, what is your afternoon looking like? 

The Big Road Trip Of 2011 – Part Two

     

 Week 2 of the trip was spent in and around Brisbane and the greater South East Queensland area. PK had the bucks party on the Saturday night and then on the Sunday we caught up with friends and family and generally enjoyed the lovely weather. Monday saw us visiting more friends and the kids got to have lots of interactions with all their old Brisbane friends, we did a lot of driving around but got to catch up with some great old friends that was nice to know that we can just slot back into our old lives whenever we are back. 

On Tuesday we headed up to My Mum and Dad’s place which I was really looking forward to as it meant that we could just chill out and laze around and not have to fit in anything  that we couldn’t be bothered doing, it also meant that Mum and Dad would take a bit of the responsibility for the kids and Paul and I could take a breather – got to love Grandparents! We were able to exercise everyday and I managed to knock 1 min 34 sec of my time of running around the 2.5km hilly circuit that is my parent’s street over the time that we were there. The kids loved being on the land too, they got to do loads of things that they haven’t done before, like feeding the chooks and collecting the eggs, going out on the tractor with Grandad and watering the gardens, it was a really fun time. 

While we were there we took a drive up to Hervey Bay and visited the most awesome FREE educational water park called Wet Side. If ever you are in Hervey Bay I highly recommend it and while you are there you should say hello to my cousin Elliot who works there.I will do another post just about this place so you can see how much fun it is! On Friday morning we headed back to Brisbane and I got to go out to the movies with a couple of my girlfriends while the boys looked after the kids. We saw “What’s your Number?” which was really funny, and Anna Faris who is the lead is my new “I want a body like hers” inspiration!  (Still a way off, but nice to have an aim, and dreams are free!) So that ended week two of the big adventure, lots of catch ups with old friends and family, re-kindling old friendships and our kids creating new ones, and really just made us realise how much we want to be home. 

The Party, The Parents & The Planning

The last few weeks have flown by and I am sure that will be the case for the next few months as well, doesn't time just seem to disappear when you are not looking!

So we had Stella's 6th birthday party and she really enjoyed herself so I would say that is a success. I made everything I had intended to make and had the house looking the cleanest it has looked in a long while. Of course the rain came about an hour before the party was due to start so a few last minute changes where made to the layout of the backyard which resulted in throwing the decorations up at the very last minute, not exactly as I wanted them, but daddy did a pretty good job considering there was minimal direction while I was dressing the last of the children etc.

Stella got lots of lovely crafty gifts from her friends which naturally all needed to be tried within the first hour of the guests going home, and I am so pleased to say that there was not one Barbie, Brat or Dora in sight. - I have a bit of a thing about those sort of toys, the top shelf of my wardrobe is the perhaps final resting place for a number of barbies that have been gifted over the years - maybe one day they will be offered as play things, but I am undecided on that one at this stage.

I think the food table looked delicious and the cake was a success even if I did make the night before at about 2:30am.

  

 

Once the excitement of the party died down, Mum and Dad came to stay so that Paul and I could fly to Brisbane for a school friends wedding. We were making a flying visit and were only actually in Brisvegas for all of 33 hours,  so we didn't bother trying to visit anyone and we stayed in the city the whole time with my best friend who was also going to the wedding. It was so nice to spend some time with her because we never get to see each other (she lives in Cairns). And it was so strange to not have to think about getting kids ready and the like. A couple of times Paul said to me wow we are actually on time, I was like yeah well that is because we don't have 4 children to get organised!! We got up earlyish (7:30am) on saturday morning and went for a run along the river and then across to Southbank and then back over the river and a bit further along that side of the river and then back to the hotel. It was so nice in the sunshine but quite surreal to think that in January where we were running was completely under water due to the floods. So good to see Brissy thriving again though, love my hometown and can't wait to get back there for good :) Felt good that I had burnt 800 odd calories seen as though I knew there would be a few indulgences on saturday night!  The wedding was so lovely and had some beautiful touches in the ceremony and the reception venue was magical especially because I didn't know how it would accommodate a wedding, but for anyone in Brisbane looking for a venue - definitely look into Melange at Roma Street Parklands,  if you have been there in the day, it is just like a bit of a roof and a cafe down one end, but at night they close up all the walls with glass bi-folds and it is totally enclosed and that gorgeous high roof with amazing chandeliers it was just divine and the food was really good too! As we didn't know a lot of the other guests we got to really hang out with the friends we did know and we had a blast. They had a photo booth set up too with props - moustaches, hats, wigs, masks, speech bubble blackboards and the like and it was heaps of fun. The 5 of us may have hogged the booth just a little! So it was a great night. And the 4:45am wake up for our early morning flight was not too bad either - ha!

Now this week I am all about planning The Big Road Trip Of 2011, we head off next friday afternoon and I have a lot of things I need to get organised before then! And tips or suggestions of places to stay, parks to visit, games for the kids, car survival items???? I am open to all suggestions, that is for sure!

Queensland Flood Relief

Toni from Make it Perfect has organised a whole bunch of bloggers and crafters to run auctions and sales to raise money for the Premier's Disaster Relief Appeal. You can go and check out her blog for the list of everyone who is being involved. Most sales will start on Monday but some are underway now. So get involved and give generously to a really worthwhile cause.

Brisbane is my hometown and I am just at an absolute loss watching all the images on the tv of places that I have been a million times and suburbs I have lived in, restaurants that I have eaten at, roads I have driving on, car-parks I have parked in and bridges I have walked over, venues where I have some of the happiest memories of my life - like our wedding and friend's weddings, riverfront parks where we have had the kids birthdays are in a state of absolute devastation and I just don't know how they can ever recover. I feel so helpless being here and not knowing how our friends and family are coping, and our little house that is fortunately not in an affected area, but it is in such a low area and I just have my fingers crossed that it is not going to end up suffering in some way.

Anyway, I will put my auction post up over the weekend and please come back and give generously, the people of Queensland really need our help.

A catch up

So I feel like it has been a while since I have had a good catch up on here so I thought now was as good a time as any. A while ago I blogged about the DQS7 that I was involved in, well I sent off my little quilt to Rachel in Ohio, and then I waited and waited and nothing came back to me :( so the lovely organisers got a lovely local lady - Amanda to send me an angel quilt, and then about a month or so after that I received my original quilt from Stephanie, so really I was twice as lucky because I got 2 beautiful quilts to admire. Both ladies also sent me so lovely goodies so I was right royally spoilt.

Around the same time I also started on a quilt top, using the yellowy, pinky tones from Anna Maria Horner's Good Folks range. I also have another to make using her other colour palette - more blues and greens, I have gotten a bit side tracked on this project though so I will have to get back to that again soon.

The kids experienced a babysitter for the very first time, and they were fine with the whole experience, so I think we will be doing it more regularly - except for the fact that it costs and arm and a leg for a babysitter these days - whatever happened to the days of the $7/hour babysitter? Anyway, we went to the Pearl jam concert and it was well the worth the $120 for the babysitting. Paul and I were transported back to our youth and it was a fabulous concert as usual and just incase you were wondering Eddie has still got it!

India and I headed back to Brisbane for a quick visit last week, just 3 nights as my Grandma who hasn't been particularly well was over here on a visit with my Aunt and Uncle on the Sunshine Coast, so I really wanted to get back and spend a bit of time with her and introduce India to them. It was lovely to be back around family - it was also the first time in a while that both my sisters and I and Mum and Dad have been together, so it was good to all see each other at the same time.

Got to catch up with a few Brissy friends as well, and then got to fly home on the friday night in time for my Workshop with Kellie from Don't Look Now on the weekend. Also picked up my sewing machine on the way home from the airport at about 10:30pm, I had put it in to be serviced about 10 days prior and it was meant to be ready well before then, but nothing like leaving things to the last minute. The Course was FABULOUS, but I will post about that separately.

Now the count down is on till Christmas - my god only 3 weeks to go! (Still need to lose another 4 kgs to reach my first weight loss goal of 10kg by Christmas, fingers crossed.) I am very unprepared, but considering that Christmas will be just us this year, I don't really feel like I need to be too organised. I have started to make some presents for Stella's Kindy teachers and I am trying to go Handmade with most of my other gifts this year too. I may have even found a few things that I might start adding to my EdanRose range, so I will be sure to let you know when that happens. I am dreading next week when Kindy finishes and I have all 3 of them all day every day, I will have to have the Rescue Remedy close on hand!

Ok, will be back soon with the Workshop Post.

The last few weeks

My blogging has been dismal! I must make a big effort to actually post something more regularly. So what have we been up to? hmm well, it is hard to remember what I did yesterday let alone over the last few weeks but I will give it a go.

We went to Brisbane the weekend after my birthday and it was so great to catch up with everyone. Stella and Oscar both had terrible coughs and I fear we may have left some of our germs with the Brisbane crew (sorry everyone). Spent the first night with Stu and Lav in their great big new house which is big enough for about 10 people I think - luckily they are adding to their brood to keep filling up all those rooms - congrats guys. The kids loved playing with their 2 in the morning and there was a bit of dress ups happening - so cute!

Went and checked out the Boutique Markets at Portside, mainly to say hello to Christine from Little Diva and Jo from Lovestamp. Was lovely to meet Jo after all our bloggy conversations.

Caught up with all the school friends and threw around the footy and ate some beautiful food and had a couple of vinos, which was so relaxing.

Saw all my Girlfriends and their families and the kids got to have lots of play time which was great. They really miss their little Brissy friends and I am glad that they just fall back into place after not seeing for months.

Drove out to Scarborough and meet up with Mum and Dad for a play in the sunshine and some fish and chips (was an ekka holiday, out there so needless to say Morgans was packed!), Stella told Mum that she was her best friend which Mum loved. looking forward to her coming to stay in September.

Stayed the night at Fee and Todd's and she is due tomorrow, so I am so excited to hear the news. Can't wait to see Fee as a Mummy, I know she will be great.

The next day we headed down the coast, via the Dr for the kids - cough wasn't getting any better, and checked in to our lovely super modern apartment, prompted Paul to say that when we are older he wants to live in a similar apartment in the city - I think maybe somewhere more like Noosa might be our final resting place hehehe.

Was great to just relax on our own for a few days - obviously we were too relaxed as we missed our flight home! Bloody Tiger - I was hesitant booking them in the first place and I will certainly never be booking them in the future - won't go into it, because I really can't be bothered, but $500 later and 6 hours at boring Coolangatta Airport and we were winging our way home. We flew Jetstar and when we got off the plane, I said to Paul, in future if we can't afford to fly Qantas then we aren't flying at all. I know that is a bit airline-snobby but there really is a difference in the classes especially when you are flying with kids.

So got home and had lost a whole day. But some nice things in the mail when we got home. Love opening parcels!!!

Ok, got to go make lunches so I will write a bit more later...

New fabric for the stash

Well I had lots of yumminess arrive in the letterbox this week! And the best thing is that there is still more to come. Etsy is my new Ebay and the credit card is getting a real workout. Luckily it is my birthday on wednesday so alot of these purchases are actually birthday presents. I am going to start making some quilts which I am itching to get a start on. I need an area though that I can spread out in and then just leave everything exactly where it is and not worry about little people coming and "helping". I am participating in DQS7 (Doll Quilt Swap 7) and some of these fabrics will play a part in the construction of my swap. I will put some photos up once I get going.

Not much else has been going on since my last post - India has started to put on some good weight so that is a relief, the other 2 terrors are the same - Stella is loving Kindy and I have put Oscar on a waitlist for Day care for one day a week. They are both starting an Art Class next wednesday so hopefully they will enjoy that. We are heading up to Brisbane next Saturday - somewhat spur of the moment as Paul has to go up for work, but it will be good to catch up with friends and family. Must start doing some organising of where we are staying and the like before it is time to leave. Two of the days is down the gold coast for Pauls work part so it will be nice to be stuck there in 5 star comfort and hopefully some sun!