Now I would never say that I love sewing

But I do admit that lately I have been enjoying it. A lot. I am starting to drool over fabric sites - www.funkyfabrix.com.au and www.ijustlovethatfabric.com.au are my favourites - and buy fabric on spec, even if I'm not quite sure what I am going to make. I brought some oilcloth fat quarters to make the kids some insulated drink bottle covers and it was challenging - I was up till 2am this morning getting them done because I made them entirely from scratch and wasn't really sure how I would approach it. I originally wanted them to have bottoms, but after making Mate's I realised that they would be easier to get on and off if they were just a tube with elastic at both ends to keep them on. So the covers for the girls were made that way and I am really impressed with how they turned out.

The smell of freshly polished leather shoes

Can only mean one thing (OK so it can mean several things but at this time of year it means only one thing alright!) and that is that it is Back To School time.

Mate and Happy started on Thursday - Mate is in year 4 and Happy is in year 2 this year. Both have been placed with awesome teachers (all the teachers at that school are awesome so it wouldn't have mattered who they got I would have been happy) and Mate is stoked because he is Upstairs this year. Being assigned to a class Upstairs is the holy grail of middle primary school. Apparently all the kids want to be up there - I have no idea why because he came home from school that first day and complained that his legs felt sore to which I replied was from going up and down the stairs LOL. But he's happy so I'm happy. His teacher is a first year out newbie and I used to work with her mother way back before I had kids and she wasn't even halfway through high school, so it's kinda weird when they have a teacher that much younger than you but anyway she is a lovely girl and I think he will have a great year with her.


Happy's teacher has been at the school for a while and she is one of those gentle and kind teachers who really engages the kids, kinda like Miss Honey from Roald Dahl's Matilda. So she is in year 2 and that means that they are the Top Dogs of the Infants section at the school. This year she will do intensive swimming lessons at the end of the year and generally seem all grown up.


Doodlebug will start on Monday and we go from wanting to go to school now to not wanting to go at all - usually when she realises that she wont be able to sleep in or watch ABC Kids. But she's fine, she's ready and most importantly I'm ready. Those with older kids will agree that when you have a child who is going to school for the first time, that when they do their orientation that they just don't seem big enough yet to go to school. They can still have some traits from their toddler years that make you want to keep them home with you forever, but when you are literally only days away from their first day, they all of a sudden grow up and out of any last reminder that not so long ago you were still wiping their bum for them. This has happened with Doodlebug the past two weeks or so. She still sees a speech therapist but the way she has progressed these past few weeks makes me think that our next appointment will be our last. So come Monday I will take the obligatory First Day Photo (which I will duly post here), take her to the IL's for MIL's obligatory First Day Photo and then it is off to school to settle her in and then take off again before I want to take her straight back home with me.....

I'm in the mood for sewing

Well what else can you do in this heat? So I decided that now would be as good as any time to make Doodlebug's library bag for school.

Turned out pretty good, even if I do say so myself LOL.

Then I decided to make one for Happy, even though she already has a library bag.

And then because it is my niece's 3rd birthday next week I made her an apron to go with some wooden vegetables I already had gotten for her.

OK, so this was supposed to be turned around the other way, but you will just have to turn your head to the side LOL.

And no, I dont'take orders ;)

I love you Mr & Mr White

So today was Back to school shoe shopping today and surprisingly it was easy. Well perhaps not all that surprising because I went to my 'never fail to get the kids shoes from here' shoeshop - Whites Shoex. They are awesome blokes. They even know me by name now - I have nearly always gotten the kids shoes from there and they have never let me down. Many other shops I have walked out of empty handed, but never at their shop. So in we go, all 4 Winkles and me and I start picking out shoes for Mate and Doodlebug to try on. As always Mr White and Mr White were helpful and we soon got Mate kitted out in boots and joggers and Doodlebug got her first ever pair of school shoes *sniff*. They even put them on the stretching machine if they are that fraction too snug too. Oh and Monkey Nuts got a new pair of sandals and I got myself a gorgeous pair of DF Supersoft ballet flats - which Mr White reduced from $119 to $89 for me, and then when I went to pay he knocked off another $20 from the total price!!! Which is great customer service I reckon. Mind you I did buy 5 pairs of shoes...

Ahhhh and so the Back To School rush begins

Three Winkles will be at school this year, so that could have meant 3 of everything for back to school purchases, but after combing over Mate and Happy's schoolbags I decided that only Doodlebug needed a school bag, but they all need shoes. Crud. I hate having to buy my kids shoes as they have the crappiest feet you have ever seen. I mean that in a good way but OMG poking hot sticks in my eye would be preferable than the onerous task of taking these kids shoe shopping. But I got them some kick-ass drink bottles from www.onyabags.com.au they are those new fangled stainless steel jobs and they look sooooo nice. Expensive as all buggery but it will be worth it if I neve have to buy a plastic drink bottle again. I brought one for all the kids, plus one for me and one for MIL because she uses this plastic soft drink bottle that will end up giving her cancer or something LOL. So tomorrow I start the Back to School shopping madness and hopefully I can get their shoes.

Well Hello 2010!

So here we are at the start of a brand new decade. They seem to come round so much quicker now than they did when we were kids.

Anyhoo, we had a lovely start to the new year and spent the day with close friends of ours and their two children, just kicking back, eating good food, drinking good wine (well not me because I am a nerd and don't drink anymore) and having good conversation. I was a bit duped on NYE though because The Farmer comes home from work and announces he is going on the tractor for a few hours and off he trots with a six pack of beer. So I entertained myself and ate my Double cream brie and spiced pear paste (mmmm thanks Maggie Beer!) and chatted away online for a while. Not exactly a raving party, but it was still good for the soul.

Farewell 2009...

So here we are, the last day of the year for 2009.

Boy have I been a bad Blogger! How I have negelected thee. But you know, life takes over and all that stuff and we did have the silly season in between my last post and now.

But here I am to wrap up the year.

Much has happened for us, both good and bad but mostly good. So I really don't have much to complain about. It would be quicker and easier not to rehash the entire year to now, so I will just fill in the blanks of December.

We went away for a short family holiday at the start of the month to Merry Beach, halfway between Batemans Baby and Ulladulla and I highly recommend it to anyone. We are planning to go back at Easter next year. 4 days of sun, surf and swimming and it was great, the kids had a ball, The Farmer got much needed R&R and I got to do some shopping.

I am no longer the keeper of secrets - The Madwoman finally got the balls up to tell the IL's about the baby just before she went to her parents for Christmas. But I think she left her run a bit too late because the bulging belly gave it away a few weeks ago and MIL wanted to avoid that whole ugly "gee you're getting fat" senario so she stayed schtum and just waited for the inevitable announcement. It did cushion the blow though so it all worked out OK in the end.

So now we are in the lead up to Christmas and everyone just starts going crazy, panicing about getting all the shopping done in time and finalising all their plans. We decided to "UN" Christmas this year and just take it easy. The Farmer hates Christmas with a passion so he was keen for it. The tree didn't get put up till the 23rd, and no decorations around the rest of the house. Everything was very un-christmassy. The only presents the kids got under the tree were from Nan Kush (my Nan) and one for Monkey Nuts from us because they were getting just two big presents this year to share - a Motorbike and a cubby house and poor little Monkey Nuts is too little to ride the bike yet and the girls shaft him out of the cubby house pretty quick. Lunch was a laid back affair with my Mum and youngest brother coming over for a cold lunch of ham and salad. We did head over to the IL's for the whole she-bang of a dinner as usual, but it was still quite laid back because SIL and G came down and they are very casual people too so it was great. Admittedly it did feel a bit anti-climatic coming home from their place Christmas night, but in the same way that it feels every year when it's all over.

But the best news of all was that we got RAIN!!!!!! Nearly 3 inches of it (or 75mm for you city folk) we got the first fall of 92pts (23mm) and then we got a second fall on Sunday of a whopping 180 pts!! (45mm) the house dam is chocka-block full and the grass is all green and lush and gorgeous. A perfect way to cap off the year.