Tuesday, November 30, 2010

around here....

We've been crazy busy this week trying to get ready for our second Olive Tree Markets in Newcastle. So excited to be going back, just hoping this rain holds off for a day or two at least.  

She never fails to fall asleep on the morning school run.
 This girl could eat her weight in plain pasta if we let her....

...but her first chocolate biscuit (snuck off her big brother while he wasn't watching) didn't live up to the excitement "no, no, I no like it!" seriously thinking she may have been swapped at birth :)
Trying to get an early start on the Christmas decorations.
It hasn't stopped raining for days.
Sweetness.
Pretty dresses for the market.
Little treasure holder.
:)









Wednesday, November 24, 2010

an ode to chocolate (16 days and counting.....)

Oh how I love thee........I could eat you everyday and never bore of you (in fact I do).
I love you in all of your delicious forms,
crisp and cold straight from the fridge
as a topping poured over..... well, pretty much anything really
inside a crisp candy shell
with a myriad of fillings, soft, hard, goey, crunchy
as a hot drink with 3 white fluffy marshmallows floating on top
even as a chocolate spread
though you never normally make it to the bread....
And then there's Cadbury cream egg, oh cream egg, oh cream egg, you are the most perfect, most sweetest confection ever invented. Made all the more seductive by the fact that your only available three months of the year.
Oh chocolate how I love thee.






















Ok so I couldn't write a poem to save myself but I seriously do LOVE chocolate and I do eat it everyday, lots of it!! Which is exactly why I must (aaargh I almost can't type the words) but I MUST give it up.
Some very good reasons why I must give up chocolate include, but are not limited to......

  • I eat it everyday and that just can't be good for you.
  • I have eaten all the chocolate in the house and then in an attempt to hide this fact raced to the shops to replace the eaten chocolate, and then eaten all the replacement bars as well. 
  • I have often been so desperate for chocolate that I have eaten cooking chocolate.
  • The words Family block have never stopped me from consuming an entire one to myself....in less than a 24 hour period. I know, that's really bad isn't it. 
  • I once watched a show about people with OCD and who are addicted to things, there was a girl who was so addicted to chocolate that she sought medical help to break the habit. When they revealed how much chocolate she ate I realised I ate more than her. 

So you can see this is truly a huge undertaking and one I don't think should be entered into alone or lightly, so I have enlisted my sister into the challenge........
30 days Chocolate and Coffee free (I have heart palpitations every time I think of it).
Starting tomorrow.................


Well we're 16 days into the 30 day challenge and there's been some surprising results.......

Firstly and most shockingly giving up chocolate has been an absolute breeze, I've barely thought about it and that's even though there has been a fairly constant supply passing through the fridge (I'm not the only one around here with a sweet tooth).
I am totally amazed by this revelation and the only thing I can put it down to is that show that I watched on the chocolate addicted girl. As part of the solution for her the Dr hypnotised her and made her imagine she  had melted down a big pot of chocolate and then she had to add all these really disgusting things into it like dirt, dog hair, maybe a little snot, toenail clippings (eeewww this gets me every time) cockroaches, worms etc. Then he asked her to eat it, in her hypnotised mind of course, just the thought of it made her heave, me too.
I don't know how it worked out for her but I do know I didn't eat chocolate for about a week after just watching it. So although I haven't gone to the extreme of being hypnotised I have been imagining a grubby disgruntled worker clipping the toenails from their fungal covered feet into the chocolate vat (which I'm sure noone would ever do :)) its working a treat so far.

Secondly the ONLY thing that will ease a caffeine withdrawal headache is a perfectly brewed, hot, steaming cup of coffee. we both lasted about 4 days with the coffee. It disturbs me a little that I couldn't give it up so I am planning on tackling it again, soon.........

Thrift bonanza

We just seemed to stumble across exactly what we needed this weekend.

The perfect chair for Bella's room.
I was a little disturbed though by the face that appeared as we painted.
A new stand for our market stall at the bargain price of $8.00. Can't beat that!

 And then Molly found this cute cupboard, perfect for all her kitchenware. A work in progress.

Monday, November 15, 2010

Sewing again

I can't remember the last time I was at the sewing machine. Well that's not exactly true, I have sat at it many times, even turned it on occasionally but I don't think I've sewn anything. It may actually not have been that long ago, I just can't remember it. Maybe it was a bad sewing experience and I have blocked it out. Either way I have finally, finally! finished something. YAY!! 
Ok so I haven't exactly gone in to mass production mode but around here this is a HUGE achievement and hopefully one that will get the ball rolling. 
We had a pretty productive weekend all round. It was warm and sunny for the most part so we were able to tackle some of the garden and even start work on a Christmas project. Aargh I think thats the second time in as many posts that I've mentioned Christmas, see that's how it sneaks up on you and before you know it I'll be talking about Easter and Autumn weather...........

Hope your weekend was filled with beauty and joy :) 







Saturday, November 13, 2010

six months

I can't believe it's been six months already, I know it's such a cliche but time really does fly. It's almost Christmas again, can you believe it. Sometimes I wish it would all slow down so that I could catch my breath and let it all soak in but at the same time I'm so excited about the future and what it holds and am looking forward to tomorrow.

















There are so many things we love about this sweet, sweet girl but one of my favourites is the way her face lights up when she lays eyes on her brother or sister. And then theres that dimple, I mean really could it be any cuter!

Thursday, November 4, 2010

sunshine on a rainy day

It's been pretty grey and wet around here for the last week or so.
 
The weather outlook for this week is rain, rain, and more rain.
That's why I'm so glad we abandoned the many chores on our list yesterday 


and raced outside to soak up the warmth of a few hours of sunshine.




Wednesday, November 3, 2010

ten little happy toes.......

This morning Charlotte dropped a toy on her toe. She really doesn't deal with pain, illness or injury all that well and unlike her brother, who is a real trooper, Charlotte can be a little umm...sensitive. No amount of kissing it better, singing or bandaid application (note: she only hurt one toe but insisted I apply a bandaid to the same toe on her other foot) would soothe her pain. 
As a last desperate act and mostly for my own amusement I drew a happy face on the injured toe
"ooh look, your toe is happy now"
To my amazement the tears instantly dried up and were replaced with squeals of "other one, other one peeeease" 
and so of course I obliged because the only thing better than one happy toe is ten little happy toes.........
and ten little happy fingers which are way too quick to get decent photos of.....