Punch and Judy

It is cold here today, but Ulverstone is in for some hot (for Tassie) weather over the next few days, so I think I am going to be broken into the heat again gently!

We had a great day yesterday for Australia Day. We took Caitlin and Callum to the park for a Punch and Judy show. Caitlin was getting really involved and just loved it! Callum was unsure, I think because it was really bright and loud, but I gave him a cuddle and he put up with it alright.

Caitlin has been making mud cakes in the dirt and Callum somehow got into it - this is the result of his playing in the mud (no, it isn't chocolate)! I think it is the end of that gorgeous t-shirt!

Caitlin had a great time making lamingtons with her Nanny. She always says "let me, I can do it!" I suppose it can only be a good thing in the long term to let her have a go.

Look what I have been living on since I have been here... fresh raspberries out of the garden. They are absolutely deluxe! I love them so much and I miss them when I am in Kal and miss out for a season.

This is the view from Mum and Dad's new house. It is very serene and relaxing. It doesn't feel like living in town because you can't see any neighbours across the road, only this great view.

The Rest of My Week

Well, I seem to have posted in bits and pieces today! What else have I been doing this week? I will go through methodically to get it all down!

Tuesday:
I got my article and layout/card finalised for Scrapbooking Memories and posted them off. It was a real relief because in the end, I had lost the 800 word article that I had written for them 3 times! While in the post office I saw my cousin Hilda and had a little catch-up with her.

Wednesday:
Callum and I headed off to Smithton in the morning because I had two scrapbooking classes scheduled there in the afternoon. We got 10 people to participate and it was heaps of fun. I always love teaching a page and then seeing the end results, which are always so different to my own example. We stayed in Smithton with my sister Janice for the night and had a great time.

Caitlin had a mini-holiday with Nan and Pop while Cal and I went away. She had a special day at Wing's Farm Park in Guns Plains with Nan, Lynette and her grandson Kalan. Caitlin didn't really talk that much about her day out, but I gather from Mum that she had a good time!

Thursday:
Had a relaxing morning at Janice's house. We went to Montague to pick blueberries (Janice, Justice, Lauren and I) which was such a lovely thing to do. The owners are an older eccentric Canadian couple, but they grow the yummiest organic blueberries I have tasted. And they were so cheap at $7 per kilo!

We went scrapbook shopping, clothes looking and then out for lunch after our blueberry picking trip. I spent some time at Janice's packing up, helping Justice with some cards for the "animals" challenge for the card swap, and then headed back up the coast.

When Callum and I got back, I realised that he had cut two teeth over night (his bottom eye teeth R then L). No wonder he had been grumpy for a few weeks!

Friday:
We haded to Devonport to do some jobs - we called in to Pots and Pans and I saw a great stove top coffee pot that I think I will go back and get. It is an Avanti one and was $43 off. A friend at home makes this type of coffee and I just love it, so I would like to get rid of my coffee machine that I am not at all happy with and make it on the stove instead. We went to Mason and Mason for a yummy lunch and look around, then headed to Burnie to Jenerick and then Spotlight for decorator items for Mum and Dad's new home.

Saturday:
Went out for Chinese for tea - very interesting night - they had no high chair, so Cal had to be held, or watched like a hawk, Caitlin couldn't find much on the menu to eat (and they had no kids menu!), we asked for a bowl of ice cream for Caitlin and they came back to me to ask if I realised that a bowl of ice cream was $15!!!, so I politely said that we would give it a miss, then they came back and said they could do a kids serve for $5 and again I said no thanks ($5 for a kids ice cream???). They told us at the end that they were aiming to make it a high class establishment... don't rich people have kids? I wonder how long they will last...

Sunday:
Went up to the farm so the kids could have a ride on the motor bike. Then the kids and I went for a visit with Neil and Louise which was great. They are so relaxed and I enjoy their company. We are going there for tea on Tuesday night as a farewell.

Here are some pics of our blueberry picking expedition. It was such great therapy!

Janice and Justice:

Janice and I:

Lauren:

Look at the luscious little things! The plants were loaded.

Haylee and Justice move to Geelong this week - I think all of our family are really sad to see them move, but realise there are bigger things out there for those two! Justice has been accepted to a great all girls public school there and Haylee will have a new home and job in no time! Good luck. I now have a great reason to stop over in Melbourne for a holiday.

Farm Girl

Today Dad was carting in the last of the hay he had cut and baled. I love this photo of the huge round straw coloured bales of hay and the bluest of blue skies.





Mum and I sat the kids up on the bales because it is a great kid thing to do - playing in the hay. It really isn't the same as when I was a kid though because the bales used to be small and rectangular, which we could shift around to make cubby houses. And the chooks loved them too, often making a nest in amongst the bales. When you realised that the egg supply was getting low, they were already well ensconsed in their new nest!





Cal had his first ride on the motor bike yesterday, but of course I forgot to take the camera, so today I made sure I got it all on film! He is s o easy going that he just took it all in his stride.





Caitlin absolutely loves the bike and is on it as often as she can convince us to take her up to the farm. I think if she were here more often she would become a real farm girl. She isn't frightened, she wants to have a go and will be in anything. I love that!





She also had a couple of rides in the tractor with Pop, sitting up on his knee and taking it all in. I think with very little encouragement, she would be in there and driving the tractor for Pop!

Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!

Happy Australia Day! We are having a barbie for tea, cooking lamingtons and being very good little Aussie citizens by watching the obligatory sport on our national day!

Since I have been updating the blog more often, I feel as though a week without blogging is almost an eon.

Callum loves getting around after his bath in the nudie rude. He also has a fascination with Mum and Dad's ensuite. He crawls so fast that it is hard to get a photo of him! Here is a shot of Cal crawling as fast as he possibly could (because he knew I was after him) into the ensuite to get into mischief. Very cute I think.




This week he has started to pull himself up to standing and the bath is just a good height for him to get leaverage to stand. Caitlin was in the bath when I took this shot and she had been feeding Cal bubbles to eat!




Since we have been here we have been talking to Craig on the phone every day. Caitlin (aka little miss chatterbox) spends as much time on the phone to her Daddy as I do I think! She has a routine on the phone and every time Mum and I hear her we just crack up because we know exactly how the conversation is going to go! I think she is looking out for her Daddy's welfare.

Here is how it goes:
1. "hello"
2. "what have you been doing?"
3. "what did you have for breakfast?"
4. "what did you have for lunch?"
5. "what did you have for tea?"
6. "oh, you haven't had tea? Well what did you have for morning tea?"

And so on it goes! Just hilarious.



We have been wearing her out too. She has been for long walks, trips to the park and the beach, running around, digging in the garden, meeting new people and generally staying out of bed heaps later than she should. Some days she goes suspiciously quiet and when I look at her she is sound asleep. Earlier in the week, she was trying on her new school uniform to see how much I need to alter the skort I got for her (size 4 and far too big) and she sat down for not even for a minute and this is how I found her!

I will post again to put up some more photos - I have been so busy this week!

First time at the Beach

We had a trip to the beach today. It was the first time that Cal had been to the beach. He had a great time, but got cold fairly quickly. He was loving the water and splashed heaps, played with the sand and of course tried to eat some too!

Caitlin was so excited too. She had only had a splash at the edge of the water and a dig in the sand since being here and today actually got her bathers on. She loves the rock pools, but we have to be so careful of blue ringed octopus here. She was fascinated with the sea snails we found in a pool.

I will post photos of our trip to the beach in my next post.

A quick update of Callum's progress: he is trying hard to pull himself up to standing at the moment, and actually succeded last night in the bath! It is really hard to sit him down on his bottom at all because he wants to stand and walk with you. I have been trying to give him as much practice as possible so that he gets stronger every day and improves his ballance.

Great tutorial

I was blog hopping last night and found this great you tube video tutorial on making those great Prima lollipop flowers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqV6ebNzpe8&feature=related

I can't wait to have a go. I would love to start using my scraps of paper to make flowers and buttons, etc to sell on ebay or etsy to move the scraps on and stop them cluttering up my cupboards.

I am trying so hard to keep my new year's resolution to be more organised! I want to be more organised to get into bed at a reasonable hour, to get more scrapping done and submitted for publication, organised to do more fun things with the kids and to see more of my friends. So, in keeping, I am scrapping up a storm while I am in Tasmania on holidays! I like to have all of the term's scrap pages done and ready for the first class. I like to show students what they are "in for". This afternoon I have been working on the Christmas layout for our first class of term and was really inspired but I had forgotten that I had no photos and that Mum had no photo paper, so I have stalled! I will head to HN to get photo paper and will be scrapping up a storm again.

Every time I am home my sister, step-niece and myself try to get a photo of us together. We try to compose it the same every time we have one taken. On sunday we had Mum take one for us and we were all happy with the pic (me, Haylee, Janice).



When we were in Perth for Christmas we went on the train into the city to see Santa at Myer. We took our neice with us and I got this great shot of her on the train. I did a little photoshopping and I love the result. I can't wait to scrap this one. She is such a beautiful girl and fun and easy to be around.

I submitted a cute little apple shaped card to Creative Paper magazine and they want to publish it as a series, all using the transparent cut-out technique, so today we went to the scrap shop in Devonport - Bev's Cross Crafts - so that I could get a couple of bits and pieces to make the 2 extra cards and of course I came away with half the shop! I am sure all scrap shops are set upjust to catch me out! It is such a great shop though, if you are ever able to get there.

Then we made our way to Perfecta cherry farm and had lunch at their cafe called Windows. We had cherry pancakes and they were very yummy. I ate the remainder of Callum's cauliflower soup too and it was probably the nicest of its kind I have tried (and he thought it was pretty good too).

Callum is getting so strong. He wants to walk with me all the time, and it takes him less effort to get up onto his feet from sitting now too (with someone giving him a small amount of help). I really don't think it will be many weeks before he can pull himself up all on his own. He is loving getting into all of Nan and Pop's drawers now that he realises they come open and there is often something in them! Cal has also become an insatiable flirt - he has started playing up to the ladies big time! He does his funny face and waves and talks and bats his cute little eyelids - it is just hilarious to watch!

Beach Life

We are having such a great time staying with my parents at the moment. They live across the road from the beach and is such a lovely location. Caitlin and Callum have been having great fun playing in the dirt where Mum and Dad and landscaping. Caitlin has had to have a wash in the laundry tub a few times because she gets covered from head to toe!





Callum has always been a real outdoors boy, but he has finally discovered dirt! He has a little spade and he tries to dig and scoop out the dirt like Caitlin does. A couple of days ago I went to check on him and all up his legs and half of his body was covered with what he had dug out! Looked very precious.

Yesterday was Dad's birthday and most of the family was here for lunch - I think 30 or so. Haylee hired a beach peddle buggy for the kids. Caitlin and Cal were on the front and Justice and Chloe peddled. Cal was just cracking himself up over it. Caitlin, the little dare devil was loving it when they went around corners a little too fast. Will and Zane hired a trailer for it and attached it to the back, so there was a train peddle buggy. OMG it was so funny.

Today we are off to Hobart until Thursday to stay with Steve and Kay and Erin and Riley. Caitlin is really looking forward to having other little kids to play with and I am looking forward to spending some time with great friends that I miss so much while I am away.

Craig has had 2 weekends at home by himself now and I think he is trying to keep himself extra busy because he is missing us heaps. Well, guess what... we all miss him heaps too.

We have had a busy but lovely Christmas and New Year and now the kids and I are on holiday in Tassie.

We went to Perth for Christmas this year to spend time with Craig's family. We had a house full, but the kids all got on so well. I love that they are getting to know each other better, when we all live so far apart.

On the sunday after christmas we spent the day at the zoo with our kids, Steffan and their kids and Brian. Here are a couple of photos of us at the zoo. Callum was absolutely enthralled with the elephants. His little face showed complete shock when he saw one for the first time!

On the 29th of December the kids and I headed off on the plane to Tasmania. We are here for a whole month for a holiday with Mum and Dad. We are thoroughly enjoying it but I don't feel like I have really rested yet. Caitlin was so very sick only a couple of days after we got here. There has been a gastro type virus going around and of course we got it. Callum has managed to escape it, but Caitlin got it in full force. She vomited so hard that she had to lay down to do so. I was up in the middle of the night with a mild dose and had a day on the couch afterwards, but have generally been OK.

Cal is now very unsettled at night. I have no idea why - initially I thought it was teeth, but there have been none poke through, so I am at a loss. He has been up at least 3 times a night, so I am hoping that whatever it is resolves soon, because I am looking forward to a full night's sleep.

I got an email today from Scrapboxx saying that they have an opening once again for a design team member, so once again I am going to apply. They want 3 items of work and will make their decision from there. There are so many tallented scrappers out there that I am sure I will be one of many that apply.

My article that I had written for "For Keeps Creative Paper" magazine is out in the stores. The 2 page spread is on page 118. I had been so disheartened when I last had something published that I was reluctant to submit anything again. Well, this time my expectations have been blown away! The layout has been photographed brilliantly and apart from one typo in the text, it has come up better than I could have hoped! It encourages me t o get scrapping and sub some more!