donna in our kitchen-sesame rice with salmon & miso

This weekend I decided it was time to mix it up a little with our usual weekly food menu. We had just received our subscription for Donna Hay's Dec/Jan issue and it is full of seasonal delights for Christmas and great food for the summer heat. We are like most couples and families and we have our usual food we cook every week. It does not take much for me to get a bit bored with our menu and out comes one of our cookbooks or one of our Donna Hay magazines.

Here is our version of Donna's "sesame rice with salmon and miso dressing"....(it was very yummy and fresh)!

silent saturday

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.

sick little taj & the dress up paper doll

I am sure I am not the only mum who does not enjoy seeing their children sick, well I am pretty sure that all mothers do not like it. Yes, we get no sleep and we have the horrible feeling of heartache, but our poor little ones feel so much more. My son, Taj, has been sick for a few days and last night his temp hit over 39 and I struggled to control it for over 2 hours. I booked in an emergency doctors appointment today and my lovely doctor fitted us in at a time that suited Taj with his sleep. She is an amazing person, who is qualified in many areas, she is a modern medicine doctor mixed with a wholistic doctor...so we get the best of both treatment options.

Taj screamed the whole way in the car to see her; it is a 40 minute drive. Once we got there she took one look in both ears and she told me that he has two very red raw ears. The poor poppet has an ear infection in both ears! So we have taken the homeopathic approach with his treatment and we have a script for antibiotics just in case as it is almost the weekend.... He screamed the whole way home and I held his little hand. I drove home pretty much the whole way in 3rd gear so I could give him this small amount of comfort, slow trip home, but so nice to hold that little hand.

He went to sleep straight after a feed and Keely told me she wanted to draw a picture of Taj being sad with his sore ears. This is the cute painting of Taj with his sore ears.....

I know I blog about my life, but did not want to take a photo of my boy in pain, not a nice thing to show off, I wouldn't want anyone to see me looking bad, so the painting is as far as I will go!

While Taj has been sleeping Keely got some of her tops and skirts out of her cupboard, laid them all out on the carpet and created little outfits. I think she did very well with her matching!

I took one look and thought, we could make a Keely paper doll to dress up, so I did!

I love doing fun and creative things with my children, nice to have them lead you into doing something different and very creative!

online christmas shopping

I have been inspired by a fellow blogger, Virginia from mum/toddler/babe to shop only online this year for Christmas. As she had said it is nice to support other stay at home mums that have businesses online. So this year I am hitting the net! (I actually do a lot of online shopping anyway, but this will be "everything" bought online).

It does not take me long to start and my first purchase was from someone that I think is extremely talented and creative and that is Jacqui from Meeabee. I have spoken about her before as she found the best fabric to use for my son, Taj's first man bag for his birthday. I thought it would be nice to see what other things she has on offer and I purchased a toy bag for Keely and one for Taj. These are fantastic and could be used for anything, but I will use them to keep the same set of toys together for them.

I also purchased Keely her very own Meeabee design, which is a very cute ring handle bag... or as I am sure she will call it her princess bag! The print is different on both sides, one is a morning stroll and the other side features the afternoon stroll.

Jacqui always packages everything so nicely and she always adds something cute and lovely from Japan, if it be a nice note on divine paper or to be lucky like me and to receive these cute animal stickers.

I have just made my second purchase with a very talented lady, who makes fabric necklaces. I found her site through Sarah Thompson from Style Me Gorgeous, who designed my website and who also designed Piper + Lily's lovely new logo. I bought Keely and her cousin Dakota one of her gorgeous necklaces for christmas.

I am also going to support myself... sounds strange I am sure and not sure if it qualifies, but I have some great things for the little ones for their christmas sacks. For Taj I am going to get him the Cocoon Couture bean bag as he loves Keely's one and is forever grabbing it, holding it in the air and then throwing it on the ground with himself in it! I will also get him the great Sevi percussion set, just so we can create more noise in the house....well at least it will sound good; I hope anyway! I will be putting in the Craft Schmaft G-Raf for him to play with, it will be made up before christmas and put in his sack as he is too little to do that kind of craft yet, but I love it so much I really would like him to have one. Also great excuse to have Keely and I to do more craft together!

The Awesome book and The Magical Milky Way's Super Galactic Zoo books will be making it into Keely's christmas sack along with the Craft Schmaft G-Raf in pink. I also decided to give her the Sevi Toothbrush Timer as she is miss independent and this will show her the required time she needs to make her teeth clean.

With all of these wonderful things, they really do not need much more, although Keely has done her first letter to Santa and there are a few things on there that I have not got on my list as yet.

We did her first Santa letter over the weekend and it was a great activity. As Keely cannot write that well yet, I thought she could write her letter with pictures and then I could write the words for her. I was quite amazed and proud when she wrote "Santa" from the Santa I wrote on a separate piece of paper for her to copy. My favourite thing she would like for christmas is her very own plant to have in her bedroom!

I know there will be a few more gifts I will need for people close to me and I will source them all online. There will be a couple more things I will get for the little ones, nothing huge, just a few stocking fillers. To put all their gifts in I will be purchasing the Cocoon Couture Santa sacks for them... super cool and a good size to put it all in!

So why not support online stores, there are so many creative and wonderful people and businesses to support. Why give the money to the big department stores when you receive so much more attention to detail online!

lightning storm

I was going to blog about something else tonight, but I had to do this post due to the fabulous lightning show over our local beach. My husband went out with his camera and captured some shots that are spooky and quite surreal. I love a good storm, especially when you are inside safe from all its fury!