so proud!

I love to brag about my husband, I think he is incredibly talented. Simon has always been into photography, and he has turned what was once a hobby into a full time job. He is getting his work published in well known magazines, Habitus, Home Beautiful and Houses. He is also being commissioned by a lot of well known architects too to shoot their work. I think Simon has a very good eye for architecture, interiors and design and it really shows with his photography.

I love sharing lovely homes too as it just makes me dream even more about what one day we will have ourselves and I am sure I am not the only one that dreams this! Although I love our little 2 bedroom home, it is us and we are so close to the beach... but I could have this home; it is near the beach, overlooking Mona Vale beach on Sydney's Northern Beaches.

how do you get through your day?

I was inspired to write a post about how I get through my day with Little Pinwheel and two little ones in tow. The inspiration comes from one of my daily reads... the sesame ellis photoblog.

I still often ask myself at the end of the day how I got through it all and how I now sit here on the computer writing another blog post for the day. I do however look around and realise the dishes have not been done, (well stacked in the dishwasher), there are still a few items randomly placed around the house from the little ones and my "dumper" husband, the clean washing has not been put away, (but at least I got to doing the washing; got to give myself some credit), and the main one would have to be the housework has not been done again!

Being a stay at home mum with two little ones is a challenge without having an online store too. But we do get through it; 'we' being myself and my little people. They still manage to have a lot of mummy love and they are fed, wear clean clothes and have lots of fun activities to see them through their days. So how does the Little Pinwheel mum do it???

coffee, coffee, coffee (well I am breastfeeding, so decaf...just sounds good to chant coffee)!

a walk down the beach/park is always an adventure, love our nature!

park play... love to make a trip to any of the parks around our home

the beach, even if they only want to play on the stairs!

the new version of playing under the sprinkler and mum not caring how wet he gets...got to go with the flow!

We are really lucky to have a fairy live in our unit block, her name is Fairy Skye and she owns all these fun fairies that she has lovingly placed in the garden for Keely to play with. This is our new thing to play with while we organise Little Pinwheel deliveries for the day, and before that it was the bike and drawing with the chalk.

For me to get through the day it is all about going with the flow; you cannot have too much hope for a smooth day, chaos is always part of our day. We don't watch that much TV.... although it does help sometimes, we are into craft and having the concrete floor in the kitchen helps. Keely can draw on it with chalk, she can do her paintings in the kitchen while I do some Little Pinwheel work. When Taj is up we are never in the house, we are out and about enjoying the sunshine or playing in the puddles if it is raining.

Now off to clean the kitchen and have some sleep!

my christmas shopping update

I have been a busy little elf collecting some great presents for my little people. I am loving everything I have bought, especially Taj's new silver shoes! Yes, I am sure some of you are going to be thinking what am I thinking putting silver shoes on a boy, but trust me they are cool and he has a lot of spunk to pull them off. Plus you don't have to be a girl to wear silver, you just need to know how to wear it!

I bought his tip toey joeys from Paperartzi Boutique along with a bugaboo breezy canopy that I need for our pram for summer, which of course is not part of his presents for Christmas. The service I received from them was so lovely... I had to ring the store to check with them that they had the shoes in stock and the customer service I received was exceptional.

I am in to wooden toys and loved this set from Mudd Kids that I saw today and had to snap it up straight away. Mudd Kids is all about 'organic fair trade that does not cost the earth." I also fell in love with the fair trade knitters and I ordered Taj the lion. I know little people get a lot of teddy bears in their time, but these are different, it will be a friend he will have for life and the story behind the lion is worth buying it for.... and seriously isn't he cute!

My shopping did not stop there! I have a bit of a thing with hair accessories for Keely and I am in love with what creative people can come up with when it comes to the basic hair clip. Tutti Fruiti hair clips are all made by Belinda and you can tell a lot of love goes into them. They were made with teenage girls in mind, but I am loving them for every age....even for me! She also makes rings and earrings....loving the earrings! I think I will be keeping a set for Keely and the other will be for one of her girlfriends for their birthdays. How super cute is Belinda's wrapping too...love it!

Yesterday when I went to my favourite shop, Pulp Creative Paper, I bought Keely this divine magnetic retro dress up dolls. I am loving these and I know as a child I played with the paper versions, so it is nice to still see them around, even if they are now magnetic. I bought this for the ease of taking it everywhere, in the car for holiday trips and to the cafe so mum can finish a coffee in the cafe instead of always getting take away!

I am now at the stage where I need to pull out all the pressies and make sure I have all I need and have another think of what they may need to fill their santa sacks. I have Keely's birthday 2 weeks after Christmas, so I need to think of that too... but thinking she will be getting her first surfboard and wetsuit!

I hope you are all getting your shopping done.... don't forget I have 25% off storewide until the 29th November. Use coupon code: prexmas25

I found them!

Over the last week I have been playing detective, and now I can say that I would make a really good stalker! Once I received my birth certificate I felt so ready to make the next moves, but I had to wait to be assigned a Case Manager. If you knew me you would know I am not very patient, so I decided to see what Google could find for me. My birth mum was no where to be found, and that is when I thought I would try her daughter's name as it is uncommon. I knew she would only be quite young and I figured most people are on Facebook, and there she was....well a picture of a punked up kitten! I used my new found detective skills and put two and two together when I saw a couple of her friends on her friend list, one was her cousin and the other her uncle. I knew then that I had found my sister.

But I could not send an 11 year old a message on facebook, especially not knowing if I was still talked about and really she is a child and that is not right on any grounds. I chose a person from her friend list, one that looked so lovely and a person that was an adult. I wrote her a message that didn't really say who I was, but it was a message that if it was told to my birth mum she would know it was me.

Yesterday at lunch time I was assigned my Case Manager and I didn't tell her that I was playing detective myself, I just told her what I thought she needed to know to get the searches started. (At that stage I didn't know that my stalking would find who I was looking for). I found it quite interesting the way that they do the searching. I was always under the impression I did it all, but I don't do anything really. I must admit I am very happy to know I do not have to drag two little people into the city to search the electoral roll! The only thing I have to do is write a letter to them both that gives an outline of my life and what I am expecting. Knowing I would have to write letters I went out to my favourite paper shop, Pulp Creative Paper today and bought some divine writing paper! I love the whole idea of writing letters and I kind of miss it now technology has taken over.

Late yesterday afternoon my inbox received 3 messages from Facebook, one from the lady I wrote the message to and two from my sister, one that had a little message and the other asking me to be her friend! I was very happy to read that my birth mum knew it was me and that she was so happy to be in contact with me again. I could not believe that my detective work actually did work!

I spoke to my sister on the phone last night and it was so lovely to talk to such a young voice! I cannot believe I have a "little" sister. Nice to have two sisters! I then spoke to my birth mum and it was like we just spoke yesterday. It was a nice feeling to know that she still thought of me and that she had told all of her friends about me and I was always part of their lives, even though I was not there with them.

I have so many emotions going through me at the moment and things that I am sure I will share as time goes on, but I think my post might be long enough! Although the emails and messages I get from so many people shows that you are all interested in where this will take me. Now I wait to see what happens with my birth father, a search that I hope is a lot quicker now they only have to look for him.

Another exciting thing is that it is my little sister's birthday next month so I also bought her a gift from my favourite shop. I am very creative, so thinking she may be the same I bought her this lovely box of beautiful papers, old stamps, envelopes, shells, ribbons and so much more. It is a box for her to create things out of, and to make beautiful letters out of, or anything she can put her mind to. It was hard to buy for someone I don't really know, but it was fun to find something that I hope she will get something out of. I told her tonight that I had bought her a gift and that if she did not like it then she could re-wrap it and send it to me on my next birthday.... polite way of telling me that she did not like it!

This journey is far from over, there is still a lot to work through. I have two letters to write, yes I am still going to write my birth mum a letter; I feel it is something I need to do and really the written word can tell someone so much. I will add photos as soon as they send me some so you can all see how much I look like her! For now my birth mum will be known as Caron and my sister is Octavia.

a gift for you!

Time to fill up those santa sacks as Little Pinwheel is having a sneaky pre-Christmas sale with 25% off storewide! This is only for a sneaky time and once I offer it to everyone then there will be some items not available at this great discount. Jump on over to Little Pinwheel and grab yourself some lovely gifts for your little people this Christmas. Use coupon code prexmas25 to redeem this offer.

something to entertain the little ones

With Christmas only around the corner now some of us are wondering what we can do to entertain the little people over the Christmas break. As everyone already knows I am a huge fan of the creative world and I love to see children using their imagination, no matter what age they are. I have just bought some fabulous gift ideas for Little Pinwheel that will keep them busy on Christmas day and every other day. There are great things not only for the girls, but for the boys too! This is only a few of the new things I have just received.

rosie flo's coloring in books $14.95

johnny joe's colouring in book $14.95

the shapemaker by miller goodman $69.95

the next step, the search begins.....

Yesterday I received my original birth certificate, the piece of paper that tells me the names of my birth parents. I have sweaty palms as I type this post, due to the array of emotions I am feeling. I feel excited, scared, lonely, unsure and sad. This is a HUGE thing to see their names right there in black and white. Whoever thought that a name could mean so much, that it could hold all the answers to so many questions?

I know I have a sister to my birth mum, she was only 2 when I met her and she was so cute! She would be 12 or 13 now. I think about her a lot now I have my daughter and wonder if my birth mum still spoke about me with her growing up; does she know about me still? I wonder if I have anymore brothers or sisters? Did my birth father have a family too? To think I could go from having only a sister and a brother to having a whole family.... that is scary.

So am I ready.... where to now? I have their names now I have to move on to the searching part. This is the part that could take years and with Christmas coming I would like nothing more than the best present I could ever receive; to meet them.