Well it's been a long time between posts...

I've really had nothing to blog about and still don't really I guess. Owen is on holidays for a couple of weeks so we've just been sort of hanging around the house and stuff. Owen has been doing some handyman stuff around the house. Before Christmas last year we converted our garage into a theatre room and so while Owen's on holiday he's been finishing the plastering on the reverse of the wall. I had joked when the job originally started that I'd expect to see the laundry finished in about five years so we're not doing too badly. Jack of course is being a big help to Daddy. Owen's also built himself a new desk from scraps and it looks great. I think he even suprised himself. Here are a couple of photos of the boys at work. I'll be glad when it's finished.

I can't beleive how well our garden is growing at the moment. Years and years ago Owen bought a irrigation system and he just put it in a few months ago and now that the weather is warming up the gardens are going great. I really need to get some colour in though but still it's looking lush. And check this out...my beautiful gardenia flowered. It's first flower. I was really excited because I normally have bad luck with gardenias.You can tell who my boy takes after can't you. Here they both are doing their cheesy smiles. And check out Jack's cute necklace they made at daycare for pink ribbon day. And check out my new blackboard in my kitchen. In that Brothers and Sisters show in the mistress's house at the back of the kitchen they have a full wall that's all blackboard and I do have a wall that would have been great for just that but we decided that it probably wasn't a good idea to teach Jack that it's okay to write on walls so I just painted up a big piece of mdf and stuck it up above the bench. It looks cute.And look...I scrapbooked...well digi scrapped at least. It's for EB's Friday challenge.

credits. ksharonkdesigns-notepaper, tracey collins-recoloured cherries jubilee paper, retrodiva-no room for romance paper intensified, sumnmer driggs-lace, rhonna farrer-free pea kit paper, christina renee-stand up kit frames and ribbon,espresso doodle chippie.

Righteo, I'm off to bed.

Night.

I LOVE the Martha Stewart website

If you've never seen the Marta Stewart website you really should check it out. There are some fabulous idea for everything in your home. There's recipes, kids craft ideas, some scrapbooking, decorating ideas, table decorations, wedding stuff...everything. It is one of my favourite ever websites. I was checking out all the halloween ideas and they are soooo cute. Halloween seems like it would be heaps of fun but it's a bit of a wierd celebration, trying to scare little children and stuff. Here's some cool pictures from the MS website...

I think I may even have to celebrate Halloween this year just so we can have those potatoes and pumpkin, they are just hilarious.

Okay, now nobody is allowed to laugh but look at my artwork!! I've been wanting something for the wall in my dining room and I had bought these canvas's before Jack was born and started a painting but hated it so I painted this over the top. I know it's simple but I'm pretty pleased with myself. It won't win the Archibald prize but it fills in the space. I even used some kindy glitz. LOL. Unfortunately the one on the right slopes upwards which will probably drive me insane but we'll see how I go. Now I just need a new dining suite. :P

Here are a couple of photos I took this morning. This dandelion looked so magical with the water droplets on it. And how cool is this spider. It looks like something out of Super Mario Bros. It's soooo cute...for a spider that is.

And lastly a LO for EB's Challenge 9. The challenge was to use one photo and one colour only. I love this photo of Sofie. Her lips look sooooo sweet.

Well, I have done nothing this morning so I'd better stop hanging around this computer and do some washing or something.

Guess what I did...

Owen and a couple of his mates were going jetskiing today so he dropped Jack & I off at Sizzler for my Aunt Jenny's birthday breakfast which was delicious and great value too. After a very long relaxed breaky with my Grandparents, my Mum and my Aunt, Jack & I headed off for home, me on foot and he in pram (we only live a couple of blocks from Sizzler). So I was just coming up on our house when suddenly it dawned on me that I didn't take any keys with me!! So I had to break in to our house which was very very easy.
Once we actually got inside the house Jack was running around wearing the new reindeer antlers I bought so I thought I may as well see if I can get a Christmasy shot to get this years Christmas card underway so I asked him if I could take some photos of him and he said yes. I had a dig around and found his Santa hat and then grabbed his plastic angel wings just in case he was going to be super co-operative but then he decided that he didn't want the antlers anymore and wanted the wings instead. I got a couple of pretty good shots. I'll wait and see what else we can get as well but I'm pretty happy with one that I got.(not this one btw, this one's okay too but I'm not showing the money shot in case it's the winner) Of course my Mum came over this afternoon for our regular Sunday afternoon walk date. We saw some pretty cool things today. Check out all these tadpoles!! I have never seen so many and they just all swarmed together.
We went through the forest walk again especially to try and spot some more of the eastern water dragons(thanks for the name Paul) we saw the other week. We saw some, a Mum and baby in fact and we also saw this other big lizard.

I have a few flora photos today since it's been awhile since I've had any. Don't ask me what the plants are called though.



And lastly a photo of Jack, just cause he's so damm cute.Thanks for the condolences about Ophelia, I really appreciate it.

Rest In Peace Miss Ophelia

Well the day came today when we had to put our lovely cat, Miss Ophelia, to sleep. She had feline intestinal peritonitis and has been sick for quite a few weeks now but up until today she had been doing okay. This morning though things went downhill very fast and we made the very sad decision to have her euthanased.
She came to live with us eleven years ago after someone that Owen worked with found her in the underground carpark of the centre where he was working at the time. We assume she had been hit by a car because she had some trauma and had to have an absess drained but other than that she was in a pretty good condition. The girl that found her couldn't keep her so we adopted her and she came to live with us and our dog Bella and our cat Fredricko Alexander Rachmananoff (aka Rachi). She was a very shy kitten at first and very affectionate. She loved just lying up next to Owen on the lounge and at night we used to sleep with Rachi between us and Ophelia would sleep right up near our heads. She and Rachi got along well and Ophelia was soon pregnant!! Unfortunately Rachi got bitten by a snake and never got to see his beautiful little kittens. I was sitting watching TV one night and Ophelia came and let me know that she was ready to give birth to her kittens so I went and got a basket and some towels and was with her when she gave birth to her four precious babies, Benny, Tiger, Oprah and Samuel. She was a fantastic mother. Tiger, Oprah and Samuel were adopted out and Benny stayed with us but unfortunately he was hit by a car a couple of years later. Ophelia has always had a regal look to her and almost always carried herself with great dignity and poise. I say almost because every now and then she would just have a little wild spell where she would sprint across and scale the neighbours tree or the curtains in the lounge room or the Christmas tree. Many nights I had to get Owen to climb up onto the neigbours brick letterbox to pluck Ophelia down of the trellis. She was a very precious loving cat who will be greatly missed by us all.
My Mum also had her elderly cat, Mrs Avery, put to sleep too this week as she's hasn't been well either. Jack and I went to visit Mum on Thursday and give her a little gift to let her know we were thinking of her. We were out the back under her verandah and the back screen door banged and Jack said, "That's Mrs Avery, she's having her dinner" which of course was a bit upsetting. I'm sure we'll have some explaining to do in the next couple of days when Jack realises that Ophelia's not around.
We had promised Jack a trip to the beach today and after the sad morning we had it was good therapy for Owen and I to get out of the house and into the fresh air. The ocean is always good therapy for me but especially Cooee Bay. I have so so many great memories of this place. My Grandparents own a beach house and every school holiday was spent there. I know that I used to complain to my Mum that it was boring but now in adulthood I can close my eyes and put myself back there. Lazing in the sun chatting about boys and things with my cousin Julie, fishing with my brother Kevin, shell collecting with my Mum, Grandma and Aunt's and listening to the adult conversations, the whole family traipsing down for our morning swim and even Grandad used to occasionally take of his wooden leg and come down on crutches for a swim. It always used to uplift me seeing Grandad drop his crutches at the bottom of the track and hop down to the water and come for a swim with us and Grandma. It made me feel as though no matter what happens to you in life there will always be good times and that age and a disability like an amputated leg won't stop you from being able to just jump in the ocean and wash away your worries. The beach has always felt like therapy to me. I can remember just lying in bed at night after everyone was asleep, hanging my feet out the window to feel the cool breeze, listening to the waves rolling in. So that's how we spent our afternoon. Looking for shells, digging in the sand, sitting at the waters edge letting the waves wash over me and of course taking photos of Jack.

Masters rejects...

There was a thread at EB today about mini canvas albums and it reminded me that I hadn't posted my Master's rejects on here because at the time I was still all hopeful that maybe Krys had just forgotten to call me (inset crying smiley here, man I wish I could get smiley central to work). So anyhoo, here they are...

Single LO...Double LO...Mini album...My Off the Page...We went to the park with our playgroup friends today. It was a great day, a tad hot though. Michelle, Greg & Nicola were in town too and it was great to see them. Nicola is such a cutie. She wanted Jack to stand at the bottom of the slide to catch her when she came down, which he did. It was very sweet. All the kids played so well today, it was great.
How much fun does Lauren look like she's having?

K, cheers