MissyMuh

G is for...

Goodies! ok so it doesn't really fall into the whole "Encyclopedia of me" thing, but i went op shopping today and had to show off what i got LOL.. It's been a while since i have managed to get a good haul of stuff, lately i haven't had much luck finding things. I think there must be some other sneaky people about that keep pinching the good things before i get there tee hee... anyway here's what i picked up today...

Some lovely vintage sheets. One with bright flowers and the other a patchwork design. Both will be made into summery skirts and dresses for Charlee, and if i am motivated enough other summery things to re-stock the Charlee's Closet store.
A crochet pattern book, with step by step photos on how to make a granny square and also a cool crocheted hat. Another old book to be pulled apart for scrapping purposes, and some sweet buttons and trims.

A couple of old table cloths that i am actually planning on using as table cloths for a change PMSL (who would have thought?!?), a very sweet hand knitted cardigan for Missy, it's a really nice soft wool too not the scratchy acrylic you sometimes find. And some other random fabric scraps, the brown one is actually ribbing, which you can never have enough of. All that came to a grand total of $11.20.

I also came home to a lovely pizza box full of goodies i picked up at Blue Bazaar. So overall a pretty good morning.
I had Charlee with me today for a change. She hasn't been well this past week so i decided to not send her to Playgroup. I took her to the doctor this morning because besides coughing, a snotty nose and puffy gooey eyes she had also started complaining of sore ears.
I am not one to rush my kids to the doctor at the slightest cough, i usually let them suffer through it for a while to see if it will clear up on it's own (mean mummy). But once they start complaining of sore ears i know well enough to get them checked out. But thankfully she doesn't have an ear infection and apparently she is now on the back end of whatever she had. So she should be back to her noisy joyful self in the next day or two.
We have quite a few play dates organized for this week, so i'm glad she is getting better.

You may or may not remember a few months back, my grandmother fell and broke her hip...well she was doing very well. She was walking about again with the aid of a walking stick, she was driving and pottering along with her merry little life until last week when she fell over again and broke her pelivis. Would you believe it!! She was walking along with some friends not paying attention and tripped up on a bit of carpet. Because the hip that was shattered is now all titanium, instead of breaking again her pelvis copped all the force. So she is back in hospital again. I spoke to her on the phone the other day and the first thing she said to me was
"I am a stupid, stupid woman Clair, i've gone and done it again. But all is not lost because my St Kilder footy team won over the weekend!"
  PMSL...she is quite the avid footy supporter.... so all is well as long as the Saints keep on playin....

Mummy Daughter Monday

Well as of today Mummy Daughter Mondays will officially be daughter-less. Now that Koby is at Kinder all morning, MIL has started taking Charlee to playgroup on her own Monday mornings too. Then after playgroup she is taken back to their house, and i pick up Koby and take him to their house too. So besides a bit of pick up/drop off time i am childless on Mondays.

But i will probably still do a mummy daughter day on Tuesdays now instead. Koby is at Kinder in the morning tomorrow too, so me and my girl might go out for a few hours and do girly stuff then.

Anyway, since this is my "me" day i guess I'd better talk about some me stuff. After i dropped Charlee off with MIL i called in to the local Salvo's, i only managed to find two bits of fabric that were worth me bringing home. There were quite a few sheets and stuff, but there is a fine line between vintage chic and vintage tacky, and most of them were just tacky. But i did get these.
A funky single bed sheet that will be made into a dress for charlee and maybe even a skirt for me. And a cute yellow fabric with little girls on it. Not sure what I'll do with this yet, but it was in good condition and there is at least 1.5 meters of it.

I also made these yesterday for Missy. A pair of pj's that were originally some pillowcases. They are SO soft, and deliciously comfy. She wore them last night so they are already a bit grubby. They are actually a really pale blue with a wispy floral pattern, but it doesn't pick up well in the photo.

I thought I'd also show off a bit of a sneak peak of the collage stuff i am doing for and exhibition later in the year. I did this a while ago, but it's been sitting there waiting for me to decided if it's finished or not. I really need to get my act together and do a tonne more of these so i have enough to choose from when it gets time to organize everything. At the moment i only have about 12-15 smallish pieces to fill a bloody large space.

On Saturday we went to a going away party for my best friend Catherine and her partner Scott. I have known and been friends with Catherine since year 8 at high school. Scott and her are moving to Townsville in a week... townsville! Could she have possibly found somewhere further away to move LOL. We already don't get to see each other anywhere near enough as i would like, and now it's going to be virtually impossible.

Here are Chloe (Dannii's daughter, the party was at her house) Charlee and Koby.

Gonna miss her a tonne, but hopefully we will catch up again before she leaves for good.
Only five more sleeps till i head out for Sydney. Getting VERY nervous. I don't know why, i guess because I'll be out of my comfort zone, and I'm worried I'll get there and have no idea what i am doing LOL...

That's about all i have to say right now, There is an exiting announcement that i have to make, but can't do it yet. No I'm not pregnant LOL...It's Scrapbooking related. But right now i need to get ready to pick up Koby and take him to PIL's.

Part two

Ok well apparently i still have more to say LOL. I just got back from getting Koby from Kinder, and after i dropped him off at PIL's i decided to pop into a little Thrift shop that i always forget about. And i walked out with all of these goodies for the grand total of $3. I actually felt bad walking out with such a big arm full and only spending three measly dollars, so i insisted they take $5. And even that still seemed a little cheap.

First i picked up two cute knitted cardigans for Missy.

Then i got some more fabric. The darker one is a thin fleece fabric with a bit of stretch to it, and the lighter one is a thin cotton fabric. And also some zips.

The fabric will probably be made into more PJ's (i have a thing for them at the moment LOL) and a dressing gown for Charlee using these cute patterns. I love the winter jacket with the hood too, definitely gonna make one of those as well.

And finally i picked up a couple of old Golden books, the illustrations are very sweet and will probably be cut up for more of the collages i was talking about earlier.

Mummy Daughter Day

Oh my goodness, we haven't been able to do this in so long. But Koby spent the night at Luke's parents house last night, and Luke was off at cricket today, so i was able to take my girl out and spend some time with her doing girly stuff. We just went down to Croydon (suburb about 5 min from us with shops and cafe's and such) and did some window shopping. They have a few op shops in the main street, but i didn't manage to find much that took my fancy. Dropped into a small haberdashery shop up the end and encountered a really sleazy shop keeper. He was just bazaar. He was an old Italian man and when i walked in said hello then started walking to the other end of the shop. Then he stopped and turned around and said something along the lines of getting forgetful in his old age (he was in his 60's). I commented that i am already forgetful, so I'd hate to think how bad I'll be when i am older. Then completely out of the blue he started talking about how at least i am still attractive to the opposite sex, and how if i wanted to i could still make love, and that he was too old for all that fun stuff now. I'm standing there listening to this thinking WTF???
Anyway, i picked up some cheap trims and ribbons, and went to pay. While i was paying he asked if Charlee was my only child, i said no i have a 4 year old son. To which he proceeded to ask "oh is that all?" and remark that i should go an do some more practicing with my husband, because that's the "fun" stuff in life!!.... so i promptly nodded and smiled, and hot-footed it outta there as fast as i could.. Man that was weired..

Anyway, we then stopped for a cuppa, and miss Charlee had her fist baby chino. She loved it. Lots of stirring and spoon licking LOL. Here's some pics (yes i took my camera with me LOL.. I've gotten into the habit of taking it everywhere while doing the 30 day thing, and i am yet to break it.. you never know when you might have a photo opp.)

We then popped into the newsagents to see if they had the new Scrapbooking Creations mag in (I'm in this one :) ) but they didn't so i walked out with For Keeps instead, which I'm happy with because i always seem to miss it. I think it's last months copy though. Speaking of SC mag, i got another two layouts accepted yesterday for Issue 43, so that's cool. Gonna box them up next week and post them off.

Anyway, we came home after that, had some lunch and now Missy is watching Toy Story (her new favorite DVD, it changes every week). Off to a friends house for a BBQ tonight, then a tupperware party tomorrow. So i'll probably post again early next week.

xx

Mummy Daughter Monday

Well this Monday has turned out pretty shitty. It started like most Mondays, me getting the kids ready to go to playgroup with grandma. Then Koby, (who in his defense hasn't been too well the past few days), decided to crack it, and didn't want to go. I finally convinced him to get in the car, if i followed and stayed at playgroup for a few min. Anyway off i go, i hung around for five min, then i had to go do the grocery shopping. I wanted to get it out of the way before Charlee came home again.

Is it just me or are plastic bags getting flimsier by the day? I do own about 6 of those green canvas enviro bags, but it is never enough, so i always end up with four or five of the plastic ones. And i can guarantee that at least four out of those five will break somewhere between the car and the front door.

Anyway, when Charlee was brought home, i shoved some lunch in her then went down to our local shopping mall to get a birthday present for a friend of the kids (party on Wednesday) and pick up some photos i was having printed. As i turned off the car, i heard an ominous clunking sound, and sure enough when i went to turn it back on again, the ignition has seized up. I thought "stuff it" and i got out and did all i needed to do then called the RACV (mechanic) to come have a look when i was done shopping.

Thankfully charlee fell asleep within 10 min of me putting her back in the car, and the mechanic only took about 20 min to get there. He couldn't fix it, so he called a locksmith ("Call a locksmith"! Any Robin Hood:Men in Tights fans out there? lol). One hour later the locksmith finally came, he had to replace the whole ignition turning thingy and cut a new key because mine was worn down to the size of a toothpick apparently. $155 later he packed up his truck and went on his merry little way. (Can someone please go and buy something from the store? pmsl)

My MIL came and picked up charlee about 10 min before the locksmith arrived, and took her back to her house with Koby. By the time it was all fixed, i called up MIL and she said to let the kids stay for the rest of the afternoon. So here i am at home with no kids for the first time in ages, and what do you think i am doing with my new found spare time? Yep, working on the computer.

I'm proofing the shots from the shoot on Sunday. Which went really well.
Two beautiful families, with three kids each. One of the families owned a huge property with lots of paddocks and cows, and even a little dam. It was a really nice place to take photo. They have come out pretty good so far, but i am having a bit of trouble with the color. I had the white balance set to bright sun (because it was a bright sunny day and all the shots were to be taken outside) But i ended up directing the kids to sit in the shade quite a bit to take a lot of the close up shots. And as a result they have all come out with a color cast. So i am having to adjust the color levels on every photo before i can enhance them. And with nearly 400 photos to go through, it's gonna take me a while.

But on a brighter note, i did get some scrapping supplies in the mail today that i had ordered off ebay, so I'll be able to do some scrapping tonight :)

Mummy Daughter Monday

I went to playgroup with the kids this morning, then after me and Miss Charlee hit the shops. We actually checked out Target because they are having a sale (when aren't they having a sale? lol) but didn't end up buying anything. I am starting to panic over the fact that i haven't put anything on lay by for the kids for Christmas yet. I just have no idea what to get them. Usually by now I'd have almost everything organized and on lay by somewhere, so that buy Christmas all we have to do is pick it up. But i have been really slow with it this year.
Anyway, we had some lunch then came home and hung around in the garden for a while. Making the most of this beautiful spring day. I pulled out a few weeds, and Miss Charlee managed to remove 50% of the camellias off the tree, but she looked cute while she was doing it. So of course, out came the camera :)

Mummy Daughter Monday

We haven't done one of these in a while actually. Now that MIL takes Charlee with her to playgroup with Koby on a Monday, i kinda have the morning to myself. So i tend to head out and do all that i can on my own. Today wasn't much different. But we did spend some time doing girly things when Miss C got home from Playgroup.

We baked muffins. Ok so they were out of a box, but we put in the eggs and mixed it all together. They have soft white chocolate centers..... mmmmmmm yummy.

Then we did a bit of a photo shoot outside to show off her new dress.

Yes she is wearing mummy's new shoes. I asked her to go get her shoes and they are the ones she came walking out with. I can see this causing issues in her teen years.

Speaking of new dresses, i kinda broke the wardrobe refashinoista pledge today (shhhhh). I picked up a super cute long jacket(teal color)for Charlee at pumpkin patch for only $19.00. I don't usually buy from PP but this was just too cute, and she doesn't have a jacket that fits her anymore. I got it in a size 2, so hopefully it will fit next winter too.

I also took some shots of my lovely little potted spring garden. I love bulbs. Daffodils, Tulips, Poppy's the whole lot. And i am so pleased that my little bunch is starting to flower already. Still a couple of weeks before spring officially starts, but it's nice to see some color.


And that's about it. It's Luke's birthday tomorrow. He is hitting the big 2 5. Not sure what we are gonna do yet, but we might go out later in the week.

Mummy Daughter Monday

The day that started out great, but got progressively worse from then on.

I had to go to the post office this morning, so I decided to pop into my local thrift store to see if they had any bargains. I'm glad i did because they were having a 50% off everything sale. I managed to pick up heaps of beautiful bits and pieces. Clockwise from top. Three lovely old sheets. A collection of vintage pillowcases. About a meter of brown chord. Beautiful vintage lemon colored apron.

I also scored these five vintage dress patterns for just $1.

Total of everything was just under $12. Ca-ching! I was on such a high from all my delicious goodies, that when I saw that the police had set up a random breath test up ahead of me, I had no problems driving on in. After-all I am an honest upstanding citizen, who had nothing to hide. I had not been drinking (it was approximately 11am, so I shudder to think who would have been drinking at that hour).  And I was buzzing with a car full of goodies. I passed the breath test with flying colours. It was only then that things took a turn for the worst.

The officer said that the breath test was a pass “however there was just one other small thing that we have a problem with”. Huh? I was totally confused. “It appears as though your car registration has expired, which means you are driving an unregistered vehicle, which is an offence and unfortunately I will have to fine you”.  It was at this moment that I got that horrible sinking feeling you get when you realize that you have made a terrible mistake, and are going to suffer for it. I knew that the rego was due, but I didn’t know that it had expired (a whole 10 days ago).  I just sat there gobsmacked trying so hard not to burst into tears. I am a very emotional person, so normally my first reaction to any extreme emotion like fear, anger, embarrassment, happiness or in this case utter devastation, is to cry. But I managed to hold it together long enough for the nice officer to hand me a $530 fine and wish me a nice day.

Then I cried the whole way home.

I am so annoyed at myself. Because we get paid monthly, I have been putting a little away each month so I could pay it. After the next payday (which is this Friday) I would have had enough to pay it. And on top of that I decided to go a different way to the post office to the way I normally go. If I had stuck to my normal rout I would have missed the police entirely. So now instead of just paying the $400 for the rego (which is bad enough), i now have to find another $530 on top of that.

Spewin. :(

Mummy Daughter Monday

Well for today’s MDM we went to Fitzroy to visit daddy at work. Mainly to try on and buy my mummy’s day prezzie, these Keds shoes. One of the many advantages of having a hubby who manages a Converse outlet store, cheap shoes *wink wink*.

I’ve had my eyes on these babies for quite a while. I had to settle on the pink ones though because the aqua ones I originally wanted were all too big (damn my un-naturally small feet)

I also managed to increase my fabric stash by quite a sizeable amount, all for less than $25. Gottta be happy with that. Some of it is destined to become a dress for my sister (at her recent request), some will be made into kimonos, and jingle pants, and some into birdies and little swing tops/dresses like this little bundle of stitched cuteness.

Which was meant for miss C but unfortunately I once again made it too small. (I really should start following the measure twice cut once rule) So this one is headed into the pile of gifts I’m compiling for a friend who is having twin girls in a few months (Dannii if you are reading this ignore the last statement and remove all memory of it from your mind lol). They are all to become stock for when I open up my store.

I have said it before and I shall say it again. I LOVE Cotton On Kids. I popped into my local store on the way home and i was delighted to find that they were having 50% off most of their stock. Picked up these two  cute tops for Miss C for just $15..for both! (their combined original prices were well over the $50 mark). I could have brought so much more, but I had the nagging voice of Luke in the back of my head telling me he would shoot me if I spent any more money today. *Sigh* They are both a size too big, but i always do that. For some reason, when it comes to buying clothes for the kids, my strange money-saving brain thinks that if i get them a size too big, then they can wear them for longer therefore getting more value for money. *lol*

The rest of my scrapping supplies also arrived today, and I got some digital photos printed so I’m gonna squat myself down in front of the telly tonight and do some more scrappin.

Mummy daughter monday

Why is it just as you get into a routine and start to think to yourself that this parenting gig isn't too bad after all, something changes and it all goes to hell again? Charlee has decided that she isn't going to wait until she is two to start with the "terrible twos". She has decided to start six months early.

Today after getting home from the shops she threw the biggest tanty i have ever seen. I'm still not sure over what. But she screamed non stop for about 30 min. She was inconsolable, nothing i did comforted her. I tried walking around, distracting, offering her food and drink, her bottle, she wouldn't even take her puppy or dummy.

After 15 min of her thrashing around, trying to hit me and covering me and everything else in snot, i put her in her cot and shut the door. She continued to scream for another 15 min. Eventually she slowed and i got her out and within ten min of that she was right as rain again. She had some lunch and now she is back in her cot happily drinking the same bottle that she threw across the room five times half an hour ago. She did the same thing yesterday at mums. Woke up from a fifteen  minuet sleep and proceeded to scream for the next twenty min, for no apparent reason.

sigh..

Moving on from that incident, we went out this morning to the post office, which also proved to be a prime thrift store browsing opportunity. I picked up a few goodies, but nothing very spectacular. I went out to try and find some new fabric, but everything i saw was either boring, or just plain gross.

Anyway, i did manage to pick up a few cute books for 10 cents each. I love the illustrations in them, I may even use some for collage purposes, but i might let the kids read them a few times first.

I also picked up a pillowcase with a bold retro pattern, still not sure what it will end up as. And a lovely green scarf/hankie thing. I also scored this neat authentic retro Tupperware vegi steamer (At least that's what i think it is) for only four bucks. And the flower wreath was originally going to be pulled apart and used to embellish scrapbooking pages, but Miss C seems to have claimed it for her own. So i will let her use it until i need it.

(Handy tip for scrappy people: you can pick up these flower chain things at most $2 shops, some in just one colour and others with heaps of different colored flowers. Just pull them apart and use the flowers on your layouts instead of buying the packaged ones from scrapping shops. Cheap as chips, and you get so many flowers.)

Other than that i have done way too much cleaning for one day, and now that Miss C seems to be asleep, i feel like sitting down with a cuppa and reading scrapping mags.. so that's what I'll go do.

PS: still no packages... maybe tomorrow.

PPS: another new collage here

Little bird

"There's a little bird somebody sent. Down to the earth to live on the wind. And blowing on the wind. She sleeps on the wind. This little bird, somebody sent" John. D. Loudermilk

Charlee loves birds. She will sit at the window and watch them for hours. She sat on the back step at my mums house the other night in the rain (very light) watching birdies for about half an hour. Her obsession began when we took her to the beach a few months ago. She would sit on the veranda watching the birds flying around for hours on end. She sees them everywhere. If there is a bird around you can guarantee that Charlee will be the first to see it.

So i made her this.  It is a t-shirt with a little birdy made of felt sewn onto it. She loves it and has spent all afternoon "talking" to it and telling anyone who cares to listen that it is her "bee-die".

I think i will have to make her some more, when i tried to take it off to put her pj's on a few moments ago all hell broke loose! *lol* Luckily it is pretty easy to do, so i might stock up on some more t-shirts next week. Maybe she could have a birdy outfit for every day of the week...ok maybe that would be taking it a little too far..

Today was Monday, but it doesn't really count as being a mummy-daughter Monday because Luke was home. (his roster was temporarily changed for the last two weeks). We went down to the shops and ran a few errands, but didn't really have enough money to do anything else, so the rest of the day was spent at home. I did manage to pick up some more wool to attempt another knitting project. Me and Miss C went outside for a little while and had a bit of an explore around the front yard. While there i took some photos of some things i am loving about autumn.

Clockwise from left:

My Magnolia: well i cant actually take any credit for it because it was here when we moved in. But i love it. it is only small, but by the end of winter it will be absolutely full of beautiful magnolia flowers. Divine.

Kobys Tomato: These two cherry tomatoes seem to be taking forever to turn red. So long that a little spider has decided to build a web on them. Hopefully they will decide to go red soon.

Empty trees: This is the last leaf on one of the trees in our front yard. They all seem to be going orange very quickly this year.

Grey Sky's and wind: I love wet weather. Bring on the cold windy Melbourne days. I love nothing better then snuggling up on the couch to read a book with a hot cuppa, and the cold wind outside. Listening to my wind chimes. I would love to have hundreds of them, but Luke has restricted me to just one for know until we retire on a farm somewhere and he doesn't need to explain to the neighbors why there are fifty wind chimes strewn across the front of the house.

That's all i have to say at the moment. You can view more photos of Miss C and her birdy top here.