pregnancy and newborn :: interview

You can find me over here......

I did an interview for Pregnancy and Newborn with the lovely Kera, and thought you might like to have a look. Things you may already know about me, but I loved how she asked me the questions. I felt like I was sitting right there in front of her when I answered them. I like her style!

my shop :: pulp life

You all know I am in love with Pulp Creative Paper and it is my special shop. The shop that I love to go to even when I don't need anything. It has one of those atmospheres that just draws you in. I love browsing and getting lost amongst all their wonderful stationery and things. My shop, as I like to call it, has just exploded into another Pulp shop.

And then there were two! This is not just any two, there is now a lifestyle Pulp shop, Pulp Life. My obsession got a whole lot bigger! I was lucky enough to get my hands on these images that Simon took for the lovely ladies that own Pulp. Once I saw these images I knew I had found my new shop.

I went for a visit this week, with no intention to buy anything. I was thinking of browsing and getting lost amongst all the wonderful things. I found myself loving everything that was in there and I kept finding items I did not see after the first lap around Pulp Life.

This is what came home.....

I also bought a cute pencil case to use as my purse for down the beach, which is very cute! I bought some beautiful cranes for Keely and Taj's room. I have not photographed them as I want them to be a surprise when I have completed their space. I know they will finish the room of nicely. The cranes are made from vintage fabric.

There is one thing I did not come home with, but I have promised myself I have to go back and get them. I fell in love with the vintage specs they have for sale. Seriously there are a few grannies missing their specs. I really do not think I will suit them and it is more a fun purchase. We all need a laugh and I think these are going to create some laughter. I promise to share with you once I have brought them home!

If you are ever in Manly both these shops are worth a visit. Trust me, they will be come your shop.

a beautiful day

I wanted to say I have had the best day! There are those days where everything seems to run so smoothly. I am not sure what we do as parents that is so different on these days, but whatever it is it makes you feel like you have done a great job. Could it just be luck? Are we all feeling good on the same day?

It started off like a normal day, but the simple joy of walking Keely to school with the pram seems to make the day a good start for all of us. I get my exercise, they get to have a good look around and then mummy gets her coffee down the beach on the way home. It couldn't get much easier. Although I did have food bribes for Taj. He is in love with watermelon right now and he ate a lot this morning!

I have almost booked a holiday to Fiji with the little ones in September..... oh very excited! I am not one for resorts, but I am doing it for this holiday. Plus you never know I may just change my mind. How could one go wrong, with kids club starting from one year olds? I know I am not one to leave my children there all day, but an hour here and there will be fabulous. I am looking forward to having a holiday every year and making this something we can all look forward to.

I also did a bit of paperwork today, finished off the BAS and played shop, (oh how I love to play shop with Little Pinwheel; this has been one of my best decisions in my life, I love it)! I have not done that many house jobs, but I am sure they will happen in the next day or so.

I hope tomorrow runs as smoothly as today. It is our fresh flower day tomorrow. The ones we have in our home are about to see better days. This week Keely chose some tulips. They are beautiful. They remind me of my days living in Canberra and visiting Floriade every year. I must take the little ones to see the flowers; worth the trip and a great excuse to visit my sister and all of my mum's lovely friends.

If tomorrow is a little chaotic, then I will be ready for that too. I thrive on a bit of chaos. I like to be kept on my toes. I know with the bedtime routine approaching there is still time for the day to turn a little chaotic! Right now they are in the lounge room playing tea parties! (It has to be my lucky day)! I hope you have all had a beautiful day too, and one that was smooth!

our busy weekend

Last weekend was a busy one for us, with the surfing contest on down our local beach, the food and wine festival and a surprise market on the saturday. I thought I would share the weekend with you as it was one of my favourites that I have had this year.

Keely was very sick on the Friday and the Saturday, but it did not stop us from having a nice time. We went out Saturday morning to have a coffee with my sister in law, only to find that there was a market on down the beach. I knew there was other things happening over the long weekend, but this was a surprise. A nice surprise! We managed to get a little shopping in, more browsing as we walked home with a little girl that went down hill very fast. I had to push her in Taj's pram to get home. Poor poppy.

I did manage to buy her a beautiful bracelet and also a dress for myself, which I must say I am loving. I am not one to buy clothes at markets as I have found in the past I just don't wear them after I do purchase them. However I did the old throw the dress over the clothes trick at the stall and instantly bought it. I could not see how I could go wrong with a long tee shirt style dress.

Keely had the biggest sleep on the Saturday when I put Taj to sleep. Ironically she told me she did not want to have a rest and wanted to play with her Barbies. But when I came out of Taj's room she was on the couch, with one barbie in her hand, sleeping and completely upright. The poor poppet had fallen asleep while walking the barbies. She slept for 4 hours straight, and then all night in my bed.

The surfing contest was not on Saturday, due to the beach looking like a lake! The swell was due to pick up on the holiday Monday, in which case they would have to fit 2 days of competing into one day.

On the Sunday I went back down the beach with the little ones to have a look around the food and wine fair. We just did our usual beach play and enjoyed a lovely day in the sun. The Monday for me was all about going to the food and wine fair to enjoy a glass of wine and some yummy food. I was going to be child free for a few hours, but Keely still wanted her mum. So off the girls went for some lunch with a group of friends.

The surfing was on and our beach was transformed into a huge tourist attraction. Seriously it was the busiest I have ever seen it in the 9 years I have lived here. I was loving the atmosphere and enjoying watching the surfing and eating great food with my beautiful girl and my friends.

I hope you all enjoyed your last weekend, as we are just approaching our next weekend! I am sure it will still be lovely for us. There is nothing like going for walks down the beach, no matter if there are a hundred people compared to twenty thousand. It is still our home, our backyard and I wouldn't live anywhere else. The weekends will begin to be a little different with the seasons now changing on us. The beaches are now not patrolled, the last patrol day was on the holiday Monday. It is time to pull out the gumboots and have some new weekend experiences!

For the record , the surfing was an all Aussie final and Stephanie Gilmore won.

sleep deprivation:: would you trust this face

I thought I would write an extra post today. I have been extremely tired all day and I have been thinking a lot about the sleep deprivation that comes with being a parent. I honestly thought in the four years I have been a mother that I had my "worst" night. That it really could not get any worse. Really what could be worse then some torture from little people that interrupt our sleep cycles?

Last night I had a sick Keely that was curled up in my bed fast asleep as I had a teething 18 month old screaming his head off at 10:30. I thought, it would be easy. Some pain relief and he would be back asleep within 20 minutes and 30 minutes at the most. Before I knew it, the clock said after midnight. This mumma was worn out already and very tired. I could not figure out why he would not sleep. The cheeky Taj thought it was funny to say to me,"no, no," as I pointed to his room and told him it was time for nigh nights.

I can giggle now, but trust me once 2am came around, by which time I had Keely back in her bed and Taj in mine, I was very much over it. I also had to move my new bed against the wall as I had just put it together yesterday with Keely. We have not finished it yet, so all the pieces to the drawers were sitting on the ground. The interesting thing was that once Taj was in my bed he still did not sleep. He managed to poke me and poke me, over and over again! I seriously thought he was tormenting me! Keely tapped on my shoulder at 6am in the morning. I am not sure what time Taj fell asleep as I ended up falling asleep.

I am sure there are some of you that have had worse nights then what I have had. I know tonight after a day of sooking I will be giving him pain relief before he goes to sleep. I can only hope that we have a better night tonight. I have no idea what was wrong. I can only assume it is his second incisor tooth up the top coming through. No tooth today.

I am ready tonight! As ready as I like to think I can be. I don't have any chocolate in the house though, so maybe not so ready after all.

Oh and for the record, he has been extremely cute to everyone today, including me. If only they knew what I knew!

How do you get through your days after sleep deprivation? I personally find there is a back up battery in me that kicks in and I am off and running again. I of course fuel it with some iced coffee during the day and lots of sunshine.

shop talk wednesday: soft jammies

I have no choice this week but to talk about the lovely jammies from Polka. I captured a moment with Taj wearing his Polka jammies in a new way. He decided to play with Keely in my room and a pair of knickers. The giggles that were coming from the room were infectious, you know those real roll on the floor belly laughs? Well that is what they were doing.

I love how a simple game of swapping the knickers for each of them to wear as a hat is good enough to warrant some 'rolling on the floor belly laughing.'

The babies jammies are all in stock and are from size 000 up to size 1. They come in the lovely mauve for the girls and the blue for the boys, or you can swap them over. I personally love boys in purple. Some of you are probably thinking I have no taste, but seriously it can look nice on the right boy.

The kids jammies are not far away, they are available from size 2-7. They are not on the website yet, but you can email me if you would like to pre order a pair. They are super soft and come in the blue and mauve like the babies, with white tops and some special embroidered detail.

balance :: batter up

We all try to find our balance in life. That one thing or moment where we have our feet planted firmly on the ground. Where we still have the everyday chaos that life comes with, along with a few extra curve balls. These curve balls are easily dealt with when you have your balance, you can hit them straight back and at the end of the day you have had your home run.

I am trying to find my balance. That healthy balance as a woman in my 30s, as a mother, as a friend and as a business woman. I have had a few curve balls thrown at me and I am slowly hitting them back. I am working through my fears, my new life as a single mum, the fine line of friendship, (the friendship that is hard to fulfill with being a mother with young children), and being me away from being a mum.

I believe there is a balance for all of us. For me it is working through a few things to find it. I know that I will have my feet planted firmly on the ground again. I also know there will be moments when someone or something will rip them straight off again. This is life, we have our ups and downs. But I find smiling and being positive is what gets me through it. Writing for me is a way of working through things. It opens up a part of you that is real, but not so real that it leaves you feeling naked. Even though I do share a lot, I don't feel like I am leaving myself out in the cold. I know I will loose friends along the way, I already have, but you make new friends too. I also believe that some friends you never loose, they will always be there, no matter if you have a few downs. You just have to hope that once you have worked through your balancing they are there for you when you are standing tall again.

I have personally faced a lot in life over the past few months. There is no doubt I have had some curve balls. If I was playing baseball, I know I would be the batter they could not get out. I have been swinging at these balls a lot and I am not about to give up. My life is so beautiful and there is such a positive future for myself and my two children. I am a fabulous mum, (can I say that), and I am a great friend, (but not to one of my dear friends, but I hope that she is that friend that will be there for me when I am standing again). Oh and I think I am a great business woman! I love all I do for Little Pinwheel, and how my children are involved.

I can feel a home run coming! Batter up!

craft monday :: buggie & jellybean

Hello follower Little Pinwheel FANatics! I am Amy from over at Buggie and Jellybean, just dropping in to share a project that will wow!

I have been making these for some years now. They make the perfect vessel to give gifts in. I have given these as b-day gifts, wedding, engagements, and so on. I love filling them with bags of popcorn, gift cards to movies, DVD's, Best Buy gift cards and so much more. Buggie's school is having a silent auction for Haiti relief and her classrooms theme is entertainment. So I am giving this for their basket along with a gift card.

What you will need:

- A roll of tickets {the diameter of the roll used will determine the size of the bowl}

- A sheet of cork

- Mod Podge {the hard coat works the best}

- Crystal clear acrylic spray

- A sponge brush

- Scissors

First you need to trace the circle from the roll onto the sheet of cork.

Next cut out the circle. It is best to cut a little outside the circle and then trim as needed.

Then pop that little sucker in the center of the roll.

Now you will need to shape your bowl. Make sure as you push from the center and up to create the bowl that the roll of tickets is right side up {you do not want your "admit one" upside down}!

Once you have your bowl shaped up, you can check if it is level at this point. I usually eye ball it.

Then it is on to Mod Podging. I would do two coats, giving at least an hour in between coats for it to dry. Make sure to get into all the cracks and the cork good.

Once dry, take it outside to spray with the acrylic spray {make sure to do this in a WELL ventilated area}. I usually do a good two coatings, this dries fast so there is not a lot of wait time in between coats. I would leave it outside in the garage for over night at least after spraying.

Once done you can fill these little cuties with all kinds of snacks. Just make sure if you are giving as a gift to tell them to clean with a damp cloth.

Another great use for these would be for all those carnival/circus parties out there, hint hint Tiff :-)...

Enjoy!

Thanks Hayley for letting me join in the fun over here at Little Pinwheel! Sending hugs and kisses across the blogging world.

talking saturday

I have made a bit of a decision with my silent saturday posts. I like just sharing an image, but there are times when I would like to say more. I would like to share with you what we are doing for the weekend and find out what fun things you have planned. So from today I am going to include a little more. I am sure that there will be weekends where I will just post the image and go and enjoy my weekend. I guess that depends on how organised I am!

Firstly I have to tell you all that I took the old bed apart yesterday, and last night I camped on the floor on my mattress. It was fun; the camping, not taking the bed apart! I also thoroughly enjoyed jumping on the mattress with the kids all afternoon, with no fear of anyone falling off the bed and hurting themselves. To be honest, I took the bed apart and cleaned up a little for all of you! I felt that after my post about my very messy unfinished room I had to make a start. Plus, I kind of feel you are all watching me now!

After I picked up Keely from pre school yesterday we went to the fruit market and bought our new fresh flowers. Keely chose a very sweet flower and as they were so cheap she was able to pick 3 of her favourite colours. This in itself is a lovely way to start our weekend. A weekend that is going to be very busy!

At our local beach they have the Layne Beachley Classic surf contest on and there is also a Food and Wine festival on the Sunday and the Monday. This weekend is a long weekend in Australia with Anzac Day on Sunday. I am sure like every other day we will spend a lot of time at the beach! The weather is meant to be divine and the water is still 22 degrees! Those gumboots I bought are not coming out for a while!

I will be armed with the camera most of the weekend and I will share with you during the week some of our highlights from our weekend.

Enjoy your weekend! Any fabulous plans?

our fresh flowers

When one makes big decisions and changes in their lives, it is always nice to have some way of starting fresh. One way that I have done this is to buy fresh flowers every week, or earlier if they die before the week is finished! This has become Keely's favourite time as she is the one that chooses which flowers we have for our home.

I find her choices quite interesting as we have had chillies and blue singapore orchids, along with some quite tame choices. I love her bold decisions she makes when it comes to flowers. I wonder if this is what she will be like as a person when it comes to other decisions she will face in her life?

The other change you can make is the full rearrange of your home and that is what I have been working on and still working on. This is a change I do advise not to take lightly as it is a big job. Actually I am finding it to be a huge job. One that I have not completed and may not complete for a while yet! Although now I have done this blog post and I am showing you images of some of my accomplishments I am in a way pushing myself, or you are all pushing me, to continue with these changes.

I was proud last week as I managed to build my new chest of drawers. Not that I ever doubted myself! I do sometimes find that I may not have the strength to tighten bolts to their full tightness, but other then this I can safely say I can build things; with the help of instructions of course!

I had fun putting it together and I did it all while Taj had his daytime sleep. I however still have the new bed to put together, but knowing that is the big job I have been procrastinating on even the thought of starting that one. The only thing that is stopping me from really getting into it is the packing up of the old bed and the moving of it and then putting the new one together. I will admit there are a few things currently under the bed, so this is part of my procrastination. I am a little over sorting through things and either finding new homes to minimise the clutter, or doing the whole throw it away thing. Although I must admit when it is done, and you have de-cluttered parts of your life, it feels really good.

It will be fun over time to show you all what I have done to create a new space for me and to share with you my bold decisions. For now I hope you enjoy our flowers and you will continue to enjoy seeing Keely's choices in floral arrangements!