Thank you Daycare...

I am just going to come out and say it... I am thankful for daycare! I know some people will not be happy with this statement but for me and my sanity, it is what is needed for me today!

Don't get me wrong, I love my eldest son to bits but sometimes I need that break to rest and recuperate. 

Yesterday we had a speech appointment for my eldest son and the assessment showed that he not only has a speech delay but a language delay too. So this means that now when we are doing pretend play, i need to be verbalizing all the action words that we are doing and giving him choices between two toys so that he understands the concept behind the word. An example of this is to have a fire truck, a teddy and a block in front of him and ask him to 'put the block on the fire truck'. It is probably not a good idea to ask him to 'push the fire truck over the teddy before falling off the end of the earth!'. That might be a bit much. 

Again I came away from that Speech appointment thinking I am not doing enough for my son. To try and improve my mood, we went out for lunch with a friend and her two little men. The lunch lasted about 45 minutes. Both our eldest boys spent the entire time running around the cafe and yelling at the top of their lungs and both the two younger boys spent their time crying and wanting their Mum's attention. My friend and I looked at each other and laughed at the situation that was unfolding - probably because if we didn't laugh we would cry! My friend looked as exhausted as I felt and between the two of us I could tell that being a work/farm widow was taking its toll!

Source: Uploaded by user via Miami on Pinterest

So today is daycare day...Thank goodness! It is so nice to sit down with a cup of coffee without having to have a constant running description of what I'm doing - 'Mum is picking up her cup. Mum is taking a mouthful. Mum is swallowing. Mum is putting her cup down. Mum is DESPERATELY curbing her need to go to the freezer and eat that ENTIRE tub of special ice cream! Anyway, I think you get the idea!

x

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Scrap Fabric Christmas Wreath

I am back from a lovely little break away with my two boys while Hubby was slaving away on the farm. One thing I did miss though, was my craft - I think I was having withdrawals! So when I got back I had to get into a new project straight away...

Now, I found this great idea from somewhere but now that I have gone back through my emails and Pinterest boards, do you think I can find where I found it from?! So, I am very sorry to the person who I pinched the idea from that I can't link back to you because my baby brain can't remember :(

(I do get emails sent to me from Meet Me at Mikes, Craftaholics Anonymous and Eighteen25 so more than likely I got the idea from one of these inspiring ladies!)

Anyway, back to the topic... A quick and easy Christmas Wreath....

Basically all you need is a wire coat hanger that you bend to make round, and a whole heap of different fabric scraps cut about 20cm long by about 5cm wide (you can be as rough as you like with your measurements and cutting too! Awesome, I know!). Then you just tie each of the pieces of scraps around the coat hanger, nice and close to each other so that you get a great looking wreath -like the one above - if do say so myself ;)

Note to self though: my sewing scissors are really sharp, so don't let my son grab them and then try and grab them back from him because he may just shut the scissors on my hand - and bloody nora it hurts!

x

P.S No whole pieces of fabric were hurt in the making of this item ;) Pin It

Gorgeous treasures...

Today I embarked on the epic journey back to my parents home (and also where I grew up). It was just me and the two boys (my husband had to work.)
After a four hour car ride, an hour boat trip and another hour car ride, we all arrived relatively unscathed.

So today I thought I'd show you my creative pefforts at snapping some of my Mums' gorgeous treasures.

Linking up with Twinkle in the Eye for wordless Wednesday.

X

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Crafting up a Christmas Angel...

SHhhhh... but it is a rare moment whereby both my boys are asleep at the same time!!! So, I thought I would do a quick post, showing my latest creation, while they are still in the land of nod!

In my last post, I was looking for ideas for Christmas tree toppers, and seeing as you all were either too shy, too slack or just didn't have any ideas yourselves, I had to do a little research of my own. So I started at the only place there is to start in this technological world and that is of course Pinterest. It did take me a little while but I did find a gorgeous little angel to have a go at and I found her here.

So this pretty little angel is now sitting on the top of our Christmas tree and I am so happy with how she turned out..

(I did change the design of the wings from the original Angel I found on Pinterest. I just cut out one piece of paper in the shape of a big love heart and stuck that on to the back of the base cone, which I think looks pretty good if i do say so myself!)

It wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be so why not give it a go yourself.

Now I have to go because I just heard my littlest munchkin stirring for a feed - dang - no cup of tea in peace!

x


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DIY CD Christmas Banner

Following on from yesterdays Christmas kick-off, I thought I'd show you my DIY CD Christmas Banner and I how I went about it. Unfortunately for me I am not the clever one who thought of this cool idea - I found this idea here.
But I thought I'd show you how I went about it and any extra thoughts I had about the project.

What you will need:
- Old CD's
- Christmas scrap paper
- pencil
- scissors
- mod podge
- hole puncher
- ribbon
- Scrapbooking letters and embellishments.

Instructions:

1. Trace around the CD's with pencil and cut out with scissors. You will need enough pieces of paper to cover both sides of the CD's. Depending on what word you want on your banner will depend on how many CD's you will need and how many pieces of paper you will need. Eg I used the word WISH, so I needed four CD's and eight circles of scrap paper.

2. Glue the circles of paper to the CD's with Mod Podge. 

3. Put a whole in each of the CD's. I used a whole punch but the CD got stuck in the punch each time so I had to get my hubby to lever each one out with a screw driver. I have since found out that you can get special and cheap hole punching tools for such a purpose. So maybe try that instead!

4. Stick your letters on and add any embellishments you want to each CD.

5. Cut some ribbon long enough so that you can tie a knot at each CD, so they stay in place when they are hung up. 

And HEY PRESTO, you have a Christmas Banner. 

I loved making this as well as my CD Christmas decorations, which you can see here. Now don't forget, I am on the lookout for any DIY stars or angels for the top of my tree so feel free to hit me with your suggestions!

x

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Christmas is coming...

I can't believe it is halfway through November already!! This year I am really excited for the Christmas season, mainly because my eldest son is starting to get to the age where he will start 'getting' the whole festive time!

We have put the Christmas tree up already...

... I had this big plan that we would put it up while watching the Pageant on television. Unfortunately my son lasted 10 minutes watching the pageant and wanted to go outside! So we put it up the next day and my son helped a little with handing me the ornaments while I placed them so lovingly and perfectly on the tree to make it look like the trees you see in the magazines ;)

I do love going through the decorations and getting out all those special ones that you get each year - handmade ones from friends, special baby's first christmas trinkets and beautiful bought ornaments from my mum that she gives us kids every year.

This year I have two more gorgeous ornaments to add to the collection.

The first one is this cute little pewter Christmas Keepsake sleigh from Mister Minit.

 All of their ornaments come with FREE name engraving and gift pouch, so I will be getting my second sons name engraved on it to symbolize his first Christmas. Check out their website here to see their range of ornaments plus a whole lot of other great gift ideas especially for those a little difficult to buy for!

The second new ornament going on my tree this year is one that I made myself after looking on Pinterest for some christmas decorating ideas.

It's amazing what you can do with an old CD...

I got the idea for this DIY here. Stay tuned in the next couple of days to see how I did this cool decoration, as well as my own CD christmas banner.

So Christmas is definitely on it's way and I am planning to do a bit more DIY christmas fun. I could however, do with your help -we don't have a Christmas star/angel for the top of our tree yet, so if you have any DIY suggestions I would love to hear from you.

x

Linking in with Twinkle in the Eye for Flash Blog Friday...


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Cheesecake in a Jar

I have been looking at all the things you can do with Mason Jars on Pinterest for ages now and especially have liked all the gorgeous cakes that you can do in them! So finally I had a reason to make some and decided to have a go at a No-Bake Oreo Cheesecake and it was super easy....

Ingredients:

- 15 Oreo Cookies chopped in to bits
- 250 grams light cream cheese
- 250 grams light whipped cream
- 1/3 cup of sugar

Place room temperature cream cheese, sugar and 3/4 of the Oreo Cookies in to a bowl and mix with beaters.
Stir in whipped cream until well mixed in.
Pour ingredients into 4 - 8 mason jars (depending on how gluttoness you want to be!)
Put the remaining chopped Oreo's on top of each mixture.
Screw the lids on the jars and place in the fridge for about 4 hours to make sure the the mixture is set and cooled.

Open and devour!!!

It was soooo yum! Although my husband took about two mouthfuls and said it was a little sweet for him but for those of sweet tooths out there, this is a winner!

I am looking forward to trying some more handmade goodies in a jar and might even try one of those one that are all layered and look extra specky.

But I had better wait until the next hypoglycaemic event calls me to it ;)

x Pin It

Back from a beautiful holiday!

I have finally decided to get back on the blog bandwagon after a bit of a holiday break with my little family and to get back into the swing of things, I thought I would show you some of the fun we had while we were away!

The main reason we were going to Melbourne was for a friends wedding, which took place on a Friday, so we left home on Thursday and we all survived the plane flight with hardly any tears (from any of us!!). 

We stayed in a little apartment about an hour out of the city and it was an awesome location. We had some gorgeous shops and some delicious restaurants right at our doorstep.

I was so excited to see my friend on her big day and she didn't disappoint - she looked absolutely stunning. I was also excited to spend a night out with my husband and without the kids and catching up with some wonderful old friends. It was a really great day and night!

While we were in Melbourne we hired a car, which was the best thing we ever did, (seeing as how we were so far out of the city) and were able to go on some great 'day trips'. It's amazing how much holidays are so much more about fun for the kids now!

We went to the Melbourne museum, where my husband enjoyed the rock exhibition and my son loved the dinosaurs and childrens' part of the museum. I didn't really get to see too much of anything because I was too busy making sure our eldest son didn't try and climb T-Rex!

We went to the Botanic Gardens which were soooo gorgeous. It was so calming and peaceful and I was in awe of some of the beautiful big old trees! I find trees so interesting with their branches reaching out as if they are protecting their territory. 

We took a trip to the Dandenongs and had a ride on Puffing Billy, an old steam train with open air carriages. This one was mainly done for our son but I am going to admit it - it was really, really good! My son also loved it which is always a bonus!!!

 

And of course their was good food while we were away and plenty of 'coffee and cake' stops. Here is just of a snapshot of the heaven we were in...

After literally having our cake and eating it too, it was time to come home. Although we had a the best time away, we were definitely ready to come back to our own creature comforts. We were starting to get cabin fever in both the apartment and the car and as my husband says 'I am looking forward to seeing some long views again'! 

So now we are home again, and it's a nice to place to be, even if we have to do our own cooking and cleaning again....

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