Breakfast in bed

Today my lovely children made me breakfast in bed. It was toast with vegemite and a cup of coffee. They served it on a tray with a vase of roses from my garden. Nice.  It was the first time they have done this, and it was really sweet, then they lounged on the bed and chatted while I ate it. It was really a great way to start the day. It probably wont happen again for a long time, but the memories will last long enough to keep me going until then.

Pink Pixie

18/10/2011, a photo by jocfly on Flickr.

We were heading out for a walk when Brett sees Kelly standing next to an Azalea bush that is the exact same colour as her tshirt and her phone. How could I not snap a photo of that, too bad its on my phone so not the best quality photo, but she looked so cute sitting there amongst the flowers :)

Baking bread

16/10/2011, a photo by jocfly on Flickr.

I bake bread. Everyday. Everyday I bake one loaf of bread, During the weekdays its a German Grain bread completely done in the breadmaker. On the weekend I experiment.

A few months back we went by the Old Bus Depot Markets in Kingston and picked up a delicious smelling loaf of bread complete with olives, sun dried tomatoes and basil. Since then I have been working on perfecting my own version because, quite frankly it was like a little slice of heaven. On Saturday I got the closest I ever have to replicating it. This is not a picture of said loaf because it got eaten before I had the chance to capture it. So this is a picture of Sunday's sourdough, which incidentally was probably my best ever sourdough loaf, and all but one slice was gobbled up quick as a flash. This morning I had the last slice for my breakfast :) mmm

5 Questions

OK I totally stole this from PhotographingMom's blog, she was kind enough to leave me a comment yesterday after my long absence, and she had these questions on her blog so I thought I'd put them up here.

1. Do you prefer your ice cream in a bowl or in a cone?

Always in a bowl! a big bowl... and I like to eat it with a teaspoon to make it last even longer :)

2. What three things do you love the smell of?

Vanilla
Coffee
Newborn babies

3. Giftcards or no? (In regards to gift giving...)
I used to always say I would never give gift cards, I wanted my gifts to be well thought out and personalised, then I acquired 11 nephews and nieces who have everything they could ever want, now I love to give gift cards ;)

4. What sports did you play in high school if any and do you still play them?

Netball is my game. I started playing in Under 12's and continued playing until I was 27 when I fell pregnant with my first child. I also coached and umpired for most of that time too. When the winter day competition was over I played night comp, and indoor netball too. I think I was a little obsessed :D  I have played a couple of times since having kids, but the old body is just not up to it anymore. I am now coaching my daughters team.

5. Were you in band in high school? What instrument did you play?
No band, I played piano for a few years and hated every second of it, and now I wish I could still play?

 

So a few little things about me you probably never cared to know, but now you do :p

Coming out of hibernation

I nearly fell off my chair when I looked at the date of my last post, July... no surely that's not possible! I know I tend to get a bit off track in the winter time, but seriously, July...!

I think I have been hibernating. It seems I do this every winter, I am not a winter person, the cold makes me want to curl up in a ball, to read books, and to eat chocolate. None of which is conducive to keeping fit or keeping up with the things I have to do. I need to catch up with lots of photo editing, scrapping, cleaning and studying :(

The only light at the end of the tunnel is that as the weather warms up I always start to feel more energized, so hopefully I can catch up quickly.

A timely reminder

I am finally getting around to working with the photos I took on our holiday last year. Yes I know it was a year ago next month that we left and I still don't have the photos edited and uploaded, let alone scrapped or in an album, bad, bad bad...

The reason... well one of them. Just too many darn photos. I have about 70 photos of Uluru at sunset alone. Seriously after scrolling past two or three I am over it, my photos are not bad, but they are not spectacular either, I certainly wouldn't get paid for them, so I just need to get busy with the delete key.

Here is a post from the Digital Photography School website talking about just that - deleting ruthlessly. I think its time I searched out the delete key on my keyboard too and did something useful with my photos ;)

Smells like Jamie Oliver

I am quite the Jamie Oliver fan, I am the proud owner of a number of his cookbooks, and can also claim to have watched quite a bit of Jamie TV.

My latest thing is Jamies 30 Minute Meals, the idea being that you can get a great meal on the table in 30 minutes, and forgo the takeaway or frozen pizza.

So when my husband walks in the door and says "hmmm smells like Jamie Oliver in here" I guess now you understand what he means.

Mad about Harry

I know everyone in the known universe is probably talking about Harry right now, but I had to chime in. Saw the final Harry Potter movie today. It felt like the end of an era for me. I was feeling almost deflated by the end of the movie.

I loved it.

I have loved every minute of Harry and his friends over the past decade, and am so grateful that JK Rowling had the inspiration to tell his story.

Give me a month or two and I think I will pick the books up and read from the start again.

sweet drama queen

Years ago I took a series of photos of Hayley sitting at the table while she was supposed to be eating her dinner. It was peas actually, the rest of the dinner was gone, and there were just a mouthful of peas to eat. She was so funny, she really didn't want to eat those peas, and she tried all manner of facial expressions to convince me. This LO shows just a couple of them.

Supplies:
Studio DD Layerworks No. 3, Katie Pertiet
Young Love Kit Cilenia Curtis
Vintage Love Kit Cilenia Curtis
AbsolutelyAcrylicAlpha1 Pattie Knox

A quick LO

Amy from Over at our Place posted a LO, and challenged everyone to capture something from their everyday lives. So I decided to just do it. So here is my LO showing my pistacio tree in all its autumn colour as it looks from my family room couch :)

Supplies: Template, Amazing - Cathy Zielske. Papers Acrylic arrow and circle element- Focused on You Cilenia Curtis. Scruffy Overlay - Honey Scraps. Stitching - Anna Aspnes Stitching - Katie Pertiet. Worn paper edges - Katie Pertiet. Staples and clips - Cilenia Curtis. Fonts VT Portable Remington, CK Alis Hand.

My New Car

09/05/2011, a photo by jocfly on Flickr.

For mothers day I got a new car! I am a very lucky individual ;) She's a lovely red colour, and we are calling her Rosie. So fun to drive and I couldn't be happier :)

Now if you want to see a really good LO

Go and check out my friend Michelle's page at 2 Peas. I am totally scraplifting this page, I heart it!

She used a new kit that will be available at Digital Designer Shop next week for (i)NSD. For a chance to win the kit and to get some nice freebies and have some fun come and check out Digital Designer Blog for details.

Feast or a famine round here

OK so I go for weeks without posting and then, here I am with a third post in one day. I had to put this up here though because its been so long since I scrapped I had to record the event for posterity.

Template Double D from Designer Digitals, all other elements and papers by Cilenia Curtis at Digital Designer Shop.

How can you not smile?

Its kind of hard not to crack a smile when you walk out to get in the car in the morning to find that someone has left you a message for the day :)

Last day of the holidays

Just hanging out today with the kids, our last day of school holidays before the new term starts. Its been a funny type of holidays this time, I worked the first week, while dh stayed home with the kids then he went to work while I stayed home. Then my parents came for a visit, which was great. Then it was Easter, and we had heaps of jobs around the house to sort out. And now, we are here at the last day.

I wish we had another week... its all been over far too quickly.

The grunt years

Many years ago I gave birth to a gorgeous baby boy. He was the light of my life, he always had something interesting (well he thought it interesting) to share with me, he laughed a lot, he even thought I was funny. He loved hanging out with me, he like to bring his friends home to meet me.

Recently that boy went missing. In his room there is another boy who lives there, he answers almost all enquiries with a grunt or meh or whatev', and heaven forbid his friends coming to our house, or even meeting us. All the experts say that I can expect this boy to live in my boy's room for about two or three years, then my old boy will in all likelihood come back.

Universe, if you are listening, I am praying for patience. Really. Praying. Hard !! I long for the day when I ask "how was your day Mate?" and get more than a grunt in reply ;)

Nobody warns you about teenagers when you decide to have a baby, I guess if they did people might be less interested in the whole affair :)

Netball

For most of my life I played netball, I also coached and umpired. Most winters my entire Saturday was spent running up and down a netball court, and when I was old enough to drive myself I started playing mid week in night competitions, then also indoor netball. It was a HUGE part of my life.

Sadly my poor body is not up for playing anymore :( but both of my girl are playing Saturday competition now, and this year I took the plunge and put my hand up to coach again. Tonight was our first training session, and I felt almost exhilirated when we got home. I have missed being involved so much. I had some misgivings when I volunteered, but they have all faded for now. I had fun. I can only hope the girls did too.

Miss H has the most fantastic coach so I didn't want to intefere with a good thing, but Miss K's team was coachless, so I am looking after her team this year. I have nine girls all around 13-14 years old, some familiar faces, but a few I don't know. I only hope I can help them all to enjoy a great season of netball.

spare a thought

just a quick post today to ask anyone who reads this to spare a thought for my two year old nephew, he is in hospital with pneumonia and asthma. He is responding well to medications but still needs some more healing before he can go home.

The Lost Weeks

Hmm something weird seems to have happened. I looked at the calendar this morning and its the 30th March! wth? Surely not, there must have been some mistake, it must be closer to maybe March 21st?

I hate how that happens, I think I am on top of things, and wake up to find out that somehow I have misplaced two weeks (sometimes more). I am trying really hard to remember what happened in those lost weeks, but cant come up with much. The only occassion of note was our 16th wedding anniversary. Luckily for me it was the most important occasion in said lost weeks, so its good that I can at least rememer that ;)

This year we stayed in and ate at home. My Delicious magazine featured an article on Rachel Allen, and Irish woman, who cooks. I think I may well become addicted to her because I used some of her recipes for our meal, and it was the best. Ever.

We started with little bruschetta style things, thinly sliced, toasted baguette pieces, topped with an olive and caper tapenade, then slices of tomato and bocconcini with a little basil. To. Die.For. alongside a G&T, so so good.

Next up was a baked salmon with tomato and avocado salsa and aspargus spears. Wish I'd eaten it slower just to make it last for longer. I ate slowly as it was, but I could have had that experience for many more hours without tiring of it.

Then we finished with Chocolate Creme Brulee. Only I don't own a kitchen blowtorch thingy to cook the top with, so we had to place the brulees under a hot grill till the sugar melted.. and well lets just say that now I am getting a kitchen blow torch thingy because they would have been heaps better if I had one, and the brulees were good enough to justify having a blow torch to use even if it were only once a year ;)

We had a lovely New Zealand Sav Blanc with our meal, and I had a lovely Peter Lehman Botrytis to go for after but I was so full I didn't even open it! So that is there for another day anyway. So like I said, I may have lost a few weeks, but the day I remember was pretty good. Brett and I both felt it was as good or better a meal as we would have had in a restaurant, and the kids joined us for desert after making themselves scarce for the main meal.

Week4

Week4 a photo by jocfly on Flickr.

Last one for the day, I now have the first four weeks of the year recorded - yay!

Week3

Week3 a photo by jocfly on Flickr.

And another one, I am on a roll today ;) Its so much easier to churn these out when I use the same basic template and kit for everything.

Week2

Week2 a photo by jocfly on Flickr.

Second week of P365 for 2011

week1

week1 a photo by jocfly on Flickr.

I finally got my act together and started my P365 layouts last night. I have finished this one, and have four more that are almost finished. Its such a relief to finally make some progress on this, I was starting to think I would have to forget about it this year :(

So here is Week 1. I have used a template from the Project 365 2011 Kit by Joey Lynn Designs and Wild Blueberry Ink purchased from Owl Tree Studios, and papers and elements from the Joyce Paul Awakenings Kit.

Fairy cupcake

Fairy cupcake
Originally uploaded by jocfly

Hayley received a few Master Chef junior cooking sets for Christmas and has been in cooking mode ever since. That doesn't mean she has done a lot of cooking, just that she has badgered me constantly to do some cooking.

Finally on the weekend I agreed it was time to cook, and these fairy cupcakes were the result. They have tiny M&Ms spread through them and when they came out of the oven they looked like a little rainbow explosions - she was so proud!

So now they are iced, sprinkled and packed in lunchboxes ready for school.

When I asked Tyler if he was "man enough" to take a pink fairy cupcake to school he gave me "the look" and snorted, "just hand over the cupcake Mum", so I guess he is tough enough for it lol.

Valentines Day

14/02/2011
Originally uploaded by jocfly

Tonight was Kelly's turn to cook tea, she had already decided what she would cook, then I noticed her busily scribbling away at her desk. I didn't pay much attention at the time, so I was sweetly surprised when this turned up on the table when we sat down to eat :)

Ages ago we got a free chinese dinner set from Bing Lee which has been sitting in the cupboard unopened. This year they were giving them away again, and the ads were constanly on the television which reminded Kelly about it. She really wanted to cook something that we could use this dinner set with.

She ended up cooking Thai chicken and noodle soup, so it wasn't exactly Chinese, but, we did need to use the chopsticks for it, so she was happy with that :) and the soup was very tasty. I love that she is interested in cooking, and wanting to try out some different things.

Sunday, and the cooking is easy ;)

13/02/2011
Originally uploaded by jocfly

Turkey burgers for tea tonight. After another busy day in the garden we needed something quick and tasty tonight, and burgers hit the spot, and of course a glass of Margaret River Cab Merlot helps it all go down that much more smoothly ;)

As much as I enjoyed our holiday, and would do it again in a heatbeat, taking two months away from the garden at the beginning of Spring leaves a tonne of work to be done later on! Its been a really hard slog but finally things are nearly back under control whew.

Another first day

HayYr310111_web
Originally uploaded by jocfly

Last week all the excitement was around Kelly starting high school, but the same day you started a new year of school too.

You were aprehensive, as is your way with anything new, on one hand you were looking forward to seeing all of your friends again, but on the other hand you didn't know who your teacher would be or which friends you would have in your class. We thought for sure your group would be split this year, but we were wrong. All four of you are together again this year, and, you have Mrs Walls as your teacher. If I could have hand picked your teacher for Year 4 it would have been her, so we feel pretty lucky about this :)

Have a great year Blossom xx

Hot and tired

03/02/2011
Originally uploaded by jocfly

Its the end of a long hot day, we are all struggling to keep to cool (literally and figuratively) and right now I am just over it...

I just wrote some more words, but, I decided to delete them because nobody wants to listen to a long whinge. So I leave you today with a last minute POTD, Hayley and I taken with my phone just before she went off to bed.

xx

High School

KelYr7310111_web
Originally uploaded by jocfly

Its amazing to me that it is time for you to start high school already, surely you are only in Year 1 or Year 2? High School, wow, what blows me away is that I remember so clearly my own first day of high school. I remember the aprehension, and the excitment. I remember meeting new friends, and getting lost trying to find the right classroom. I remember catching the bus and the train for the first time.

But most of all I remember saying goodbye to my mum in the morning and seeing the look on her face as I stepped on to the train. I can only imagine the same look was on my face as you left the driveway this morning. And, I imagine the same look will be on your face the day you watch your beloved child take the next big step in their lives independent from you. You will look proud, but, you'll also have that tiny sense of sadness about you when you realise that your baby is growing up so fast.

xx

Camping

25/01/2011
Originally uploaded by jocfly

Our first camping trip since the big trip last Spring, oh I had almost forgotten for a minute how to put up the camper ;) It didn't take long to get back into the swing of things though, and once we were all set up and settled into our chairs, we started talking about doing it all again.

Its funny how you think that seven weeks holidays is a long time while you are dreaming about it and planning it, but, then when it happens it flies past so quickly, and then after its all done and packed away it seems like it happened in the dim dark past, not just over three months ago.

This trip was a two nighter at the coast with my BIL and his family. The kids all had a great time running wild, boogie boarding, playing beach volleyball, and running around with flashlights in the dark. They were so well entertrained it left Brett and I with time to just relax and chat. Lovely weekend.

Here's Kel, getting ready to hit the beach and brush up on her boogie board skills.

Genuis at Work

25/01/2011
Originally uploaded by jocfly

Its so hard to get a photo of this kid lately. He scowls at the camera, or shifts suddenly out of the way, so even though this is blurry and dark it takes pride of place as the photo of the day for today.

Most of my POTD's this year are coming from my camera phone, and I am finding it much easier to post them to the internet and blog them doing it this way. I tend to leave photos on my camera for too long before downloading to the computer then ending up with a huge job of organising, tagging and uploading, which made P365 last year quite a chore. This year I decided the most important thing was to capture the moments, not necessarily have the "best" photos, and it has really made my P365 process simpler.

I am still taking some photos with the DSLR which will be included, but the camera phone is making life easier for the majority of the everyday shots.

You might have noticed there is also more blogging going on too, again the phone camera is helping here, because I take the shot, send it to Flickr from the phone, then when I hop into Flickr, I can blog the photo directly from there. Many of my non blogging resulted from the hassle of opening blogger and waiting for it to decide it was ready to allow me to post etc. The Flickr interaction has made it all so much quicker. 2010 was a slow blogging year for me, but already 2011 is looking up :)

Summertime fruits

23/01/2011
Originally uploaded by jocfly

One of the things I love most about summer is the escape from the ordinary apple and orange routine for fruit. Don't get me wrong, I love apples and oranges, but, I love the variety of melons and stone fruits, and berries so much more.

Every afternoon I cut up a plate of fruit like this one and put it on the bench, then I call everyone out, and they start nibbling. If they don't finish it all in one sitting it just stays on the bench and they tend to snap some up as they are walking past. Eventually the whole lot goes. Some days I add some cheese, or a small bowl of yogurt which they use as a dip.

This is last nights plate, and it ended up disappearing right before my very eyes, all except the blackberries, which were a little tart, but I dont mind that so much, so it just meant more blackberries for me :)

List Girl

20/01/2011
Originally uploaded by jocfly

All over my house there are lists. I am totally a list girl. If its not on my list it doesn't get done. Well actually sometimes it can be on my list and it still doesn't get done, but that's a different story all together lol.

Lately the rest of the family has been getting in on the act too, and adding things to the list as they use them. I love that they are finally doing this, now when they say Mum did you get muesli bars, I can say, if they were on the list I did. If they weren't on the list - well that's just bad luck ;)

Waiting for the movie to start...

19/01/2011
Originally uploaded by jocfly

3D glasses? Check.
Big smile? Check

Ready to watch the movie. On Wednesday we all went to the movies together to see Tangled. We also invited Gma and Gpa along. I am not really sure what Gpa thought of it all, but Hayley's smile was even bigger when we left the theatre than it was while she was sitting here waiting for the movie to start!

Good Morning

19/01/2011
Originally uploaded by jocfly

Every weekday morning my routine is the same, set up and go for a walk, shower, turn on the coffee pot, pour cereal into my bowl, heat the milk, listen while the cofee perks, pour it into my cup, sit at the table with my bowl and my cup and the pull out sections from the paper and eat my breakfast.

I never read the "official" parts of the paper while I eat, just the general interest section, and the comics. And, on Wednesdays its the Food and Wine guide - I love the Wednesdays papers. Over the holiday break the paper has not had its normal pull out section each morning, but a supplemental section... not good. So glad to have the normal papers back :)

and so glad to have coffee ;)

Movie Night

17/01/2011
Originally uploaded by jocfly

Did you know that movie night is not really movie night unless there is popcorn? This is something I learned from my children. When the popcorn was made and sitting on the table Hayley announces "now it is movie night" up until then it must have been in doubt ;)

We watched the Scorcerer's Apprentice, which was perfectly marketed at Kelly and Hayley, but Tyler thought was a bit lame, especially the kid who played the apprentice.

Still it gave everyone a few laughs, and more importantly gave us time together as a family, so it was lots of fun.

My Niece Emily

Emily_December2010_web
Originally uploaded by jocfly

In December when she was three weeks old I took lots of photos of my new niece, now I have to work out how make them look as good as they can look before I put them in a scrapbook for her mummy.

Rain

11/01/2011
Originally uploaded by jocfly

The rains in northern Australia are causing huge amounts of damage and grief, but the rain here at home are just a different landscape for us than what we have been used to for the last eight years.

Its almost fascinating to me right now to just watch all that water fall from the sky. No doubt after getting my electricity bill at the end of summer I will feel differently because the clothes drier is earning its keep this year.

Jam Time

11/01/2011
Originally uploaded by jocfly

Summer time in our house means its time to start making jam again. On the weekend FIL brought over two large buckets of apricots from his tree in the backyard, and last night I turned one of those buckets into twenty jars of Apricot Jam.

Then I looked up into the top of the pantry and saw at least 15 jars still waiting to be opened from last year! And that doesn't count the plum, strawberry and loquat still waiting up there as well.

I remember DH talking about clearing out his Grandma's house when she moved and finding jars of preserved fruit that were older than him. Its possible that my grandkids will find the same thing in my old house one day in the future too :)

Enthusiasic... not

10/01/2011
Originally uploaded by jocfly

Hmm, Kel would rather take photos with her phone and text people than worry about shoe shopping ;)

New shoes for school

10/01/2011
Originally uploaded by jocfly

Its that time of year again, preparing the kids for a new school year. Today was shoes for the girls. Neither of them were that impressed at the idea of wearing "proper" shoes, they would both prefer to wear running shoes, but at the end of the day they accepted the inevitable ;)