Turkish Delights

Launching Roma Baked Relief

2012-02-04T16:12:00.002+10:00

Roma has is currently experiencing it's worst flood on record. This is the third major flood to hit the town in 3 years and the devastation is heart wrenching. Following the lead of this inspirational woman Digella, I am mobilising a group of kind hearted, kitchen savy locals to bake, make and deliver food to people while they clean the flood waters out of their homes.

Through all the communications I've read on Facebook, one of the things many locals are struggling with is knowing what to do to help. So here are my recommendations!!

1. Sort through your clothes and make a pile to donate. Do the same for your linen.

2. Buy a loaf of bread and make a huge batch of sandwiches to be handed out tomorrow and in coming days. I suggest simple sandwiches of vegimite, jam etc that do not need to be refridgerated.

3. Package sandwiches individually and write what is in it on the label.

4. Bake Bake Bake!!! Scones, pikelets, muffins, sausage rolls, mini quiches, brownies, biscuits - simple recipes that can be eaten by hand. Check out these recipes for ideas.

5. Package your baking into individual serves in cling wrap or zip lock bags and label with ingredients and what it is.

6. Contact me about getting the food you have made or the donations you have to give and where to take it. You can contact me via Facebook or on the Roma Flood 2012 page.

7. Ring the volunteer line and offer to help someone in need clean up their home on 1300 007 662.

I'll be back with more news tomorrow!

Keep baking!!!

Emily xoxo

Returning to school and other things...

2012-01-29T17:34:00.000+10:00

Summer school has been and gone, my darling friend has left town so the frenzied cleaning stopped and the first week of school has been and gone. The thought of going back to school this term has filled me with dread all holidays. I know I should be grateful for the wonderful holidays a teacher gets, but to be honest last year took more out of me than any teaching year before it. I guess DH having hurt his arm (tore his bicep tendon off the bone) in the middle of report writing didn't help. I guess my point is that I was starting to think I wouldn't cope with going back. And here I am, a week in, coping very well. My workload is halved from last year (we have two full time teachers working the case load) and although I have a mentoring role this year I can feel my concern and stress easing. I know though that it won't be long before I'm looking for a change/break short or long term I don't know. I know exactly what sort of break I want - the maternity type break.

On that front, I got DH to the dr to check up on how things were going. He had a vesectomy reversal 12 mths ago and I wanted to make sure that it had worked. So the dr said if you don't hear from me everything is good, but if you do hear from me don't panick. Well we heard from him and have another appointment tomorrow...am I panicked...yes YES I AM! I know I just need to believe - the catch cry of my darling friend at the moment and I am trying but I'm worried. I want babies SO MUCH!

So school, yes it is going well. Would I rather be a SAHM? Hell yeah, but I guess I need to keep waiting and believing my turn will come. In the meantime the pain of others falling pregnant easily and being around little babies comes and goes. Believe me I'm happy for the lovely people I know who totally deserve to be happy and have their babies...but there are times where that green monster overwhelms me and I find it a tad difficult. At the moment I'm in a good patch where I am enjoying the babies in my life and we'll see what the dr says tomorrow.

Back to Work

2012-01-08T08:33:00.000+10:00

While most teachers still have another week or so (depending on how organised their classroom is) I start back tomorrow. That's right I said tomorrow. Why? Well I'm teaching Summer School again. Am I just a sucker for punishment? Perhaps, particularly when my lovely friend and her family only have 2 weeks left in town and I'm trying very hard not to get sad about it all... but that's another story...

So, Summer School. Originally I signed up just to do the June Summer School as a favour to the teacher who has been running it for years, as she was due to go on holidays, but right before SS started her husband was diagnosed with lymphoma and they left Roma in a whirlwind rush as they moved closer to doctors and treatments. I only had 5 kids at the last SS and I should have that many again. Plus the extra money was great!!

This time the unit is one I have read through many times before, and I helped my first year co-teacher teach this unit in our SEP last semester, so I'm reasonably happy that I don't have to spend hours and hours at school during the week. But I will be there a lot today. I have to go in and arrange all my furniture and make the place look nice again!!

So with great sadness, I say "Goodbye Summer holidays - it's been great" and "Hello School - I'm just about ready for your challenges" for another year!

Emily xoxo

Looking forward and being more positive!

2012-01-06T15:36:00.001+10:00

A lovely scrapbooking friend of mine shared this blog post today on facebook and I wanted to share it with you, my tiny but lovely group of followers. The blog is called Positively Positive and this post is about 12 tips for Happiness. I think that they are just wonderful and exactly what I needed to read today. Check it out! Seriously.

I'm so impressed that I may have to change my goals this year or just say I'm going to try and follow these 12 tips.

I'm so serious about it that I'm making myself a card to keep in my purse with the 12 tips on it, to remind myself. It is so easy to fall back into old habits of thinking, and my thoughts aren't always productive or positive, particularly about myself.

So here goes. In 2012 I am going to try really really hard to:

1. Let go of my 2011 baggage.

2. Change the conversation (for me this is my internal conversation) - focus on the positives and what I love about my life.

3. Give.

4. Take a ME break.

5. Get naked (hehehehe) with my truth and be authentic - I already try pretty hard to do this. I hate fake. I don't 'do' fake. Fake people, fake friendships annoy me.

6. Get Creative - I bought Project Life and have already started!!! Sewing, Scrapbooking and Smocking - the 3S's relax me and help me to keep life in perspective. When I felt close to burning out during 2011, what was I neglecting? My creative side. Not in 2012!!!

7. Do innovative exercise.

8. Practice the F-word (as in Forgiveness).

9. Eat mindfully - trying to lose weight!!

10. Be Authentic.

11. Sit back and receive (yes please, I'll take a baby or two please!)

12. Expect miracles (yes please, definately a baby or two!)

Anyone else think they might give this a try?

Emily xoxo

Another new year!

2012-01-03T23:02:00.001+10:00

With a crazy allergy attack that saw me rise with what appeared to be a bruiseless black eye, 2011 passed and 2012 arrived. We spent the evening exhaustedly playing ten pin bowling at the Nelson's on their Wii and had to leave before 12 due to my allergy attack. We did have heaps of fun earlier in the evening with the four boys playing with sparklers and glow sticks!!

So what do I see in store for me in 2012??

1 - My main goal is to not burn out this year at school - I know that sounds a bit drastic but I barely survived 2011 intact.

2 - I want to get fit and trim down - I know that has been my goal before, but I have already started this journey last year so all I have to do is keep the ball rolling!

3 - I bought Project Life for the first time and I intent to keep a record of this year and whatever it brings.

4 - Declutter and simplify

5 - Laugh more!

Emily xoxo

Scrapping the journey

2011-11-05T21:18:00.001+10:00

In 2005 I joined weight watchers and lost 32kgs. I've now joined again and am hoping for the same success and to go even further. I'm trying to recreate that motivation I had by looking back at what I did. One of the things I really enjoyed doing was scrapbooking the journey and although the original album remains unfinished I am starting a new one for the new journey!! (I know that technically it's all one journey but I want a shiny new album!!)

Now as you have probably realised from my lack of posting, I haven't scrapbooked in a rediculously long time. So last night I sat down and created my cover page (below)!!

And this is the first page of my new album!!! Thanks Moira for your advice over the phone!!! You totally rock!

The plan is to take photos every 5 kg and at other special milestones. I already have two photos from the Community Garden, one before I started WW and the other was taken just after I cleared 5kg mark. At the moment I have only printed them on ordinary paper, but I will get proper prints so I can scrapbook them.

I'm really pleased with how it is all going. Although I've been home all week with a chest infection and laryngitis I've stuck to my points and on Monday we'll see how I went considering I did no exercise at all!! Let the shrinking commence!!

Emily xoxo

Progress on 'The Master Plan'

2011-10-30T08:18:00.001+10:00

We are now nearly at the end of October and looking at what I wanted to achieve in the garden I'm not sure how I feel. My tomatoes that I started early using softdrink bottles to cover them from the frost, are looking amazing. I think they grow about 10cm a day, I feel like I have to tie them up every day. The potatoes have all reached the tops of their bags and so I'm ready to start planting the next lot of potatoes. Marko thinks I'm slightly insane with the potting mix bags lying around everywhere with potatoes growing out of them, but I'm sure he'll be supremely impressed when he eats my delicious crop. The snow peas yielded an incredibly bountiful crop and are now composting in my new composting bin. They have made way for 3 little cucumber vines.

After a big chat with Becc about the virtues of my shade house through summer, I've decided to focus on growing a ton of lettuce. I have the space and lettuce will grow better without being in the rediculous heat. They will go to seed quickly so the plan is to succession plant and not let them get too big before starting to harvest. Becc has a better bed for Carrots and has had amazing success so she'll keep growing carrots for us. My carrots haven't been so successful. Mine are in polystyrene boxes and they are also a different variety.

The beans I put in are starting to produce but I planted them too close to the beetroot so they may take a while to grow...but its all good!! I'm learning as I go.

Progress with the front garden has been dismal. I wanted railway sleepers and I didn't want to pay the earth for them. New sleepers are nearly $20 each and I needed so many. About 2 weeks ago Becc noticed the lady over the street and down a few houses had a pile of about 11 railway sleepers sitting on the footpath. Now Becc is a lot braver than me. I would have just sat and looked at them trying to wish them to my house. Becc on the other hand, went over and asked what she was planning on doing with them. She said a friend was supposed to have come and got them out of her backyard but she was sick of waiting for him and that if he didn't pick them up by last weekend we could have them...FOR FREE!!

Lucky for me the friend never collected them, so last Sunday morning Marko, Becc and I loaded all the sleepers into the back of Becc and Luke's ute and brought them over. I'm very excited but also know that there aren't nearly enough of them. I'm thinking I'll do the two gardens on either side of the path with them and then if I have to use the old timber or new sleepers for along the front of the house I will. I've been out there since about 6:30 pottering around the garden and decided to prepare one side for the sleepers. I finished at 8 and came inside hoping Marko would be awake (I can't lift the damn things on my own) but he is still asleep. So I have to be patient.

I will add photos soon!!

Happy Gardening!!

Emily xoxo

Waistline Wars

2011-10-25T22:40:00.001+10:00

Over the past few years I have made several attempts to lose weight. Last year I was horrified to step on the scales and discover that I had reached an all time high of 139.9kgs. I was totally determined not to step over the 140 mark and was able to lose some weight on my own having read Women, Food & God. Although I would love to be able to say that reading that wonderful book changed me enough that I dropped it all, the problem was that if I wasn't reading it regularly I wasn't getting anywhere. I successfully lost 7 kgs but that wasn't enough.

Back in 2005/06 I lost 32kgs while attending weight watchers. There is something about paying to go each week and having to get on the scales each week that makes me more accountable. So 5 weeks ago, I rejoined weight watchers. So far I have lost 5.8kgs. Yay me! I'm more motivated than I have been since 05 and I'm enjoying my success. Marko wants me to figure out what I'm going to get for myself as my reward for each 5kg. I'm not sure yet but I'll figure something out. I'm thinking a pandora style bracelet and I can add a bead/charm for every 5kgs would work quite nicely.

So let the kgs melt away as I put less energy in than I expend in an effort to trim down!

Before:

After losing 5kgs!!

Pretty cool isn't it!!

Emily xoxo

DAW 2011

2011-10-08T21:13:00.000+10:00

Last year a group of people concerned about people in our community with disabilities met and decided to form a branch of the Australian Association of Special Education out here in Roma. We formed because we felt that there was no effective way for all of the different services offered to people with disabilities and their families to communicate and share knowledge. After forming our South West Branch of AASE we decided we wanted to do something BIG for Disability Action Week and put a plan in place. We ran a week full of workshops and activities which led up to a wine and cheese evening where all of the artwork and photographs of activities were displayed.

It was so successful that we decided to run it again this year and last night was our Wine and Cheese Exhibition Evening. Let me just say that although I am incredibly exhausted from the week, it has been an amazingly rewarding week. I ran two workshops - scrapbooking and create a patchwork bag. Other workshops included bush photography, ceramics, totem pole grafitti, jewellery making, tapas cooking, woodwork, pottery, gardening, soccer for beginners, sports ability, lawn bowls, t-shirt painting, canvas art, hands on craft and creative photography. All week we were driving students to and from workshops and helping where needed. All of our students did us proud and were amazing in their attitudes and behaviour. I'm just so proud!

The exhibition was a real hit. Everyone is always so amazed at what our students and adults with disabilities are able to create and I just smile and say this is why we do this, to help people to see their ability not their disability.

I'm already starting to jot down ideas for workshops and who we can approach to run them for next year!!

Here are some pics of what we did. I don't have the rest, but I'll upload more soon.

Emily xoxo

'The master plan' so far....

2011-08-29T07:22:00.000+10:00

For those who don't remember or didn't read about the 'Master Plan' it is all about my garden and how it is going to provide my husband and I with an abundance of fresh healthy produce throughout spring, summer and into autumn.

The plan went something a little like this!

August:

Plant green manure crops into empty garden beds.NO SPACE FOR THIS...
Plant out raspberries and new plants from garden show into large pots. CHECK
Purchase small greenhouse. NOT YET - NOW A SEPTEMBER JOB
Finish harvesting winter vegetables.ONGOING
Plant out beetroot and lettuce seedlings.CHECK
Plant another polystyrene box with carrot seeds. CHECK
Plant the following seeds in seed raising mix in the greenhouse and keep protected until after the last frost: amaranth, artichoke, basil, ~~beans~~ , beetroot, burdock, ~~capsicum~~ , ~~carrots~~, celeriac, ~~celery~~ , chilli, chives, coriander, ~~cucumber~~, eggplant, fennel, kohlrabi, kale, ~~lettuce~~, yam, ~~potatoes~~, ~~pumpkin~~, radish, rocket, ~~rockmelon~~, rosella, shallots, silverbeet, spring onion, squash, ~~sunflower~~, ~~corn~~, ~~tomato~~, ~~watermelon~~ (always wanted to try growing these babies) and ~~zucchini~~. (According to the Gardening Australia vege guide, some of these can be planted out during August...so I'll see how I go). Planted tomato seeds and used half softdrink bottles as mini green houses...
Deepen the front gardens gradually and add Magic Mix to plant vegetables in amoungst the flowers. Leave the gardens with the sweet peas as they are for the time being. STILL DECIDING HOW TO ACHIEVE THIS..

September:

Dig green manure crop into garden beds
Purchase small green house
Buy seeds for all of the plants not underlined from August...didn't have seeds so couldn't plant them.
After last frost, transfer seedlings to home garden beds or to gardens at the community garden.
Set up compost bin.
Organise a storage area for preserves and jams.
Replant seeds a month after the ones planted in August to ensure continued produce.

Other jobs:

Take regular photos
blog about the progress and process
keep track of produce and make sure to find recipes to use all fresh produce.
take surplus which can't be preserved or dried to the Roma Farmer's and Artisans Market to swap at the Community Garden Stall.
Summer: purchase stone fruits from Farmer's market and Sam the vegie man to preserve for throughout the year.

I'm very pleased with my progress so far!! It's all very exciting really!

Emily xoxo

Child of Nature - In progress

2011-08-26T22:12:00.000+10:00

So I have made a decent start on my plan to finish all the half made smocking projects in my sewing room. I got the lovely Charlie to model for me!!!

All I have to do is put the buttons on and button holes in the straps, put the binding around the legs of the knickers, and elastic in the waistband and they will be finished!! Not bad for a days work!!

Unfinished smocking projects!

2011-08-18T11:45:00.001+10:00

I'm following the lead of my friend Debra who has posted all of her UFO (un-fininished objects) onto her blog and is ticking them off as she goes, until I figure out how to do that I figured a post would probably do it just fine. I have divided the unfinished projects into 3 groups according to who owns the book it is out of...Serena, Lisa or me. Items from Serena and Lisa's books will have priority!

Serena's books:

Australian Smocking and embroidery issue

#56 - Morgan p. 44 - 3 pairs of frilly pants to finish, buttons and lace on dresses.

#54 - Bella p. 4 - pale green fabric

#59 - Beach Baby - only picture smocking done

#58 - Miss Daisy p. 18 - 2 one green gingham one blue gingham.

#53 - Child of Nature p. 20

#53 - Sunday Best p. 6

#59 - Coquette p. 36 - can't find the original pattern so will use this one to try and finish this dress.

Photocopy -

#59 - Sherbet Fizz

Lisa's Books:

Australian Smocking and embroidery issue:

My books:

#40 - The Birthday Girl p. 17
#70 - Birdsong - smocking and embroidery finished - needs to be sewn up

Can't find:
Cassie's dress or Angel...will have to keep looking!

So that is LOTS to finish in a short time!! Not any from Lisa's books like I thought though. So, now to prioritise and I have NO idea where to start...I may need some time to sort this out...

Ok update:

How stupid am I??? Well it took the gloriously intelligent Becc to point out that while I may not have enough ink in my printer/scanner to copy all the patterns, I could (AND WILL) scan them all to my computer so I can give all the books back!

Now this doesn't mean I don't want to finish some of these off, because now that I'm into it, I'm a bit excited to get them done. So today, still going to do some sewing, tomorrow I'll scan!!

Emily xoxo

The dreaded GASTRO

2011-08-18T09:58:00.000+10:00

Yes, the dreaded Gastro struck my home, and more importantly me, on Sunday night. I have not been so sick in quite a long time and it has really knocked me about. Today is Thursday and I actually ate some breakfast this morning. I have been vomit free for over 36 hours and have not been living on the toilet for over 20 hours...progress. Thankfully the kind doctor took pity on me and gave me the whole week off in a doctor's certificate. Phew.. so today...well in the mail I received a note to inform me that the water would be off at my house from 9 - 3 for mains repairs (all I could think was thank goodness this didn't happen monday when I could have lived in the toilet instead of bed). So instead of another quiet recovery I got up ran a bathtub of water (for toilet flushing and the like), did two loads of washing, washed up from last night (too tired last night), made breakfast, hung out two loads of washing and am now exhausted....perhaps tomorrow I won't be up to working.

So today I am going to put on a movie and pull out some unfinished smocking projects. My two friends who lent me their pattern books want them all back, and while that is slightly tragic for me, it is a great reason to hurry up and finish some dresses!!

I will certainly be posting pics!

Emily xoxo

Planting Raspberry Canes

2011-08-14T10:24:00.000+10:00

When I was at the Garden Expo in Nambour over the school holidays, Becc and I went halves in a pack of 4 Raspberry Canes. Becc (being mad keen as she is and also living in a house they own) has already planted hers weeks ago, however I have been weighing up the pros and cons of planting them in pots or in the ground at our rental property.

This morning I found this information from a quick google search. Basically it says that growing Raspberries in pots is possible, so I'm going to give it a whirl. I need a container that is 15cm in diametre and has a 5 gallon (18.95 Litre) capacity. I recently bought some of those colourful flexible containers to use as pots (here) but I don't think their capacity will be close enough to 18.95L AND I only have 1 left. I was in Crazy's the other day and they had the same flexible tubs in 24L - perhaps too big. But I am going outside shortly to investigate.

Once I have them planted I will need to create some kind of trellis that can support the canes as they grow. I don't want them going crazy and spilling all over the place so that we get our clothes caught on them. I am thinking about placing the tubs along one of our fences so I can simply tie them to the fence.... will update with photos and decisions!!

Emily xoxo

Progress on 'The Master Plan'

2011-08-13T15:53:00.002+10:00

In my last post I discussed my "Plan" for my garden and desire to produce heaps of home grown goodness for my hubbie and I. And here is how far I have progressed:

August:

•Plant green manure crops into empty garden beds.

•Plant out raspberries and new plants from garden show into large pots. Can't decide where to put them!!

•Purchase small greenhouse.

•Finish harvesting winter vegetables.ONGOING

•Plant out beetroot and lettuce seedlings.

•Plant another polystyrene box with carrot seeds. CHECK

•Plant the following seeds in seed raising mix in the greenhouse and keep protected until after the last frost: amaranth, artichoke, basil, beans, beetroot, burdock, capsicum, carrots, celeriac, celery, chilli, chives, coriander, cucumber, eggplant, fennel, kohlrabi, kale, lettuce, yam, potatoes, pumpkin, radish, rocket, rockmelon, rosella, shallots, silverbeet, spring onion, squash, sunflower, corn, tomato, watermelon (always wanted to try growing these babies) and zucchini. (According to the Gardening Australia vege guide, some of these can be planted out during August...so I'll see how I go). Planted tomato seeds and used half softdrink bottles as mini green houses...

•Deepen the front gardens gradually and add Magic Mix to plant vegetables in amoungst the flowers. Leave the gardens with the sweet peas as they are for the time being.

Hmmm....so I've started...not a great deal accomplished, but I'm on my way. This morning I got outside and planted up a polystyrene box with carrot seeds and planted six little asparagus seeds. This is a major long term project as it will be about 3 years before I can harvest asparagus spears, but I figure you have to start somewhere.

Becc and I have planted 1 year old crowns at the community garden and they are developing well. The thing is that you can't harvest spears for a couple of years, so my little seeds that I planted today should start producing a year after ours at the community garden. I'm planning ahead!!

I have also decided where I'm going to plant out my little beetroot seedlings and lettuce seedlings and have planted bean, sunflower, pea (I think - didn't label them) and some other surprises that I can't quite remember. I was also at the nursery through the week and they had some very sad looking seed potatoes which I got very cheaply, chopped them up and dried them so that I could plant them out and I planted them yesterday. I really hope they survive. The last batch of potatoes were going very well and I was extremely excited about the prospect of home grown potatoes..but then the frost hit...a heavy killing frost...and my potatoes were no more... I finally gave up on them reshooting this week and emptied out the bag they were growing in and found about 20 baby potatoes no bigger than a bantam egg. As disappointed as I am that the frost killed the plants, I'm thrilled that we will get to eat some lovely little potatoes tonight for dinner. I just hope this next lot of seed potatoes yeilds a bigger crop.

I am still planning on purchasing a small greenhouse from the local cheap shop, but will have to wait a pay or two. Once I have it I'll transfer newly germinated seeds into the greenhouse from the plastic boxes I have to use to keep the seeds safe from the mice until they have germinated.

So, let the master plan continue!!!

Emily xoxo

One month and counting........

2011-07-31T22:54:00.000+10:00

............until SPRING! I'm so excited because.....this year I have a plan. A master plan. A plan to provide my husband and I with fresh healthy produce throughout spring and summer and also preserve enough so that we do not need to purchase as much tinned foods throughout winter next year. I have been mulling over my plan for some time and have a few steps already in place..

I have my garden beds in place. I am planting green manure crops into two of my garden beds in order to boost the organic content of the soil. I also have my eye on a compact small greenhouse to get a head start with my spring vegetables.

The Plan

To grow as much of my own produce as possible and preserve or dry it for the coming year. This has a dual purpose - firstly to save money and secondly to reduce the chemicals we are eating.

August:

Plant green manure crops into empty garden beds.
Plant out raspberries and new plants from garden show into large pots.
Purchase small greenhouse.
Finish harvesting winter vegetables.
Plant out beetroot and lettuce seedlings.
Plant another polystyrene box with carrot seeds.
Plant the following seeds in seed raising mix in the greenhouse and keep protected until after the last frost: amaranth, artichoke, basil, beans, beetroot, burdock, capsicum, carrots, celeriac, celery, chilli, chives, coriander, cucumber, eggplant, fennel, kohlrabi, kale, lettuce, yam, potatoes, pumpkin, radish, rocket, rockmelon, rosella, shallots, silverbeet, spring onion, squash, sunflower, corn, tomato, watermelon (always wanted to try growing these babies) and zucchini. (According to the Gardening Australia vege guide, some of these can be planted out during August...so I'll see how I go).
Deepen the front gardens gradually and add Magic Mix to plant vegetables in amoungst the flowers. Leave the gardens with the sweet peas as they are for the time being.

September:

Dig green manure crop into garden beds
After last frost, transfer seedlings to home garden beds or to gardens at the community garden.
Set up compost bin.
Organise a storage area for preserves and jams.
Replant seeds a month after the ones planted in August to ensure continued produce.

Other jobs:

Take regular photos
blog about the progress and process
keep track of produce and make sure to find recipes to use all fresh produce.
take surplus which can't be preserved or dried to the Roma Farmer's and Artisans Market to swap at the Community Garden Stall.
Summer: purchase stone fruits from Farmer's market and Sam the vegie man to preserve for throughout the year.

To be continued.....

Preserving - Valarie's Yummy Pasta Sauce

2011-07-23T12:46:00.001+10:00

ing Australia Website (here). This website is well worth the look if you are at all in to growing your own food and storing it. Valarie provides a great wealth of information including books and kits for purchase. I recently purchased a preserving starter kit from her which included a jar lifter, magnetic lid lifter, preserving book and an assortment of new lids for jars I have collected. Green Living Australia also sells kits to make your own cheese (not brave enough for that one yet).

I bought a box of tomatoes from the vege man yesterday and am about to use this recipe a second time. I particularly like this recipe because it produces a rich red sauce. The recipe I used back in February from my Thrifty Cook Book is lovely but has a lot of butter in it and it is more of an orangey colour. This sauce is my favourite so far, however when unable to get capsicums I would use the previous recipe.

Valarie's Pasta Sauce

5kg tomatoes
5 medium onions
4 medium capsicums
1 tbs Basil
1 tbs salt
1 tbs oregano
4 tbs sugar

1. Chop tomatoes, onions, capsicums and place in a large pot.

2. Bring to the boil.

3. Reduce heat and simmer.

4. Add salt, basil and oregano.

5. Add sugar 1 tablespoon at a time, stir and wait 15 minutes.

6. Cook 2 - 3 hours.

When cooked pour into hot sterilised jars, put lids on and preserve in a boiling water bath (in boiling water in a vacola unit) for 20 minutes. Allow jars to cool in the water, a vacuum will be created as the water and contents of the jars cool.

I will take some pics as I make it and load them later!!

Emily xoxo

News..

2011-07-01T08:32:00.000+10:00

I have been on school holidays for nearly a week now and am enjoying the simple pleasures of being at home to get the normal jobs done. Jobs that often go un-done during term time. Yesterday I cleaned out the chicken coop and put down fresh straw and lifted the nesting box up off the ground so I don't need to kneel in chicken poop to collect the eggs.

Amidst my enjoyment of the simple things I received some very sad news, an 8 year old darling that I taught 18 months ago and who I was looking forward to teaching again when she reached year 4, passed away. For those of you who don't know, I teach children with disabilities. This particular child was devine, there are no other words. She was deprived of oxygen at birth due to the umbilical cord being wrapped around her neck and was diagnosed with cerabal palsy. Her gorgeous family always ensured that she was included, loved and cherished by all those around her. In the last week of term she was rushed to hospital with a serious chest infection, but she fought hard and it seemed she was recovering well and we assumed she would be back at school next term. On Wednesday she took a turn for the worst and early yesterday this beautiful child lost her fight for survival. A thing such as this, a child passing away so young, rocked me to my core. My heart goes out to her family and friends and I feel spoilt by all the blessings in my life.

Yesterday the news of her passing marred the beauty of the day, the precious hours I spent with my dear friend and I lost the pleasure I'd found during the morning. Today it occurs to me that the celebration should be that she lived, that I had the opportunity to teach and learn from her and that I should be living each day to its fullest, not hiding away. Yes I can be sad for her family, sad that we won't see that lovely face at school, but I know that she is at peace and I can celebrate the impact she has had on me as a person and as a teacher.

Emily xoxo

My new cute ruffled apron!!

2011-06-12T20:23:00.001+10:00

I'm so in love with my new ruffled apron! It was so worth the craziness of trying to make sure each strip was the right length and width. I almost don't want to get it dirty now!

Emily xoxo

A girl + inspiration + fabric = a cute ruffled apron!!

2011-06-10T22:51:00.001+10:00

I bought this really cute material from a market stall run by my teacher aide and good friend, Colleen, with the idea of making an apron. Now I have never patchworked before in my life, but Colleen made it sound so simple.

A few months later, I found a cute pattern and was devastated to realise that I didn't have enough fabric to make it. So I started a long and harrowing search for an apron pattern that might work. Eventually I found this one and I decided with a little creativity it would work out.

Isn't it cute!! This great blog had a tutorial for how to make it, I just had to figure out how to piece together my material to make it work!

My Fabric!!

In order to create this gorgeous little apron out of my fabric I had to get creative. I cut up the smaller pictures and added patterned fabrics to create the right length strips.

Planning out what would go where...

All cut up and pinned up!

Then using my trusty Janome, I firstly zig zagged the edges, then stitched each piece into place.

Zig zagging....

Straight stiching the pieces together....

A finished strip...then iron each seam open.

Next step:

Cut strips to correct length and add some extra fabric to the width of a couple of the strips so that all strips are an equal width and length.

Roll seams on all sides of the base piece of fabric and stitch down.

Roll seams on two short sides and one long side and stitch.

Gather the top of each strip and pull threads to gather to the length of the base fabric.

Start at the bottom, pin the top edge of the ruffle to the wrong side of the fabric about an inch from the bottom. Stitch gathers in place.

Sew the next ruffle to the base about 4 1/2 inches above the top of the first ruffle, making sure the top ruffle overlaps the bottom ruffle by about an inch. Repeat with remaining ruffles.

Ace Drapers revisited!

2011-06-09T22:19:00.000+10:00

Remember this post? I promised a photo of this amazing establishment and here is the only one I could manage...this is one of the inaccessable isles....

Incredible isn't it....

Emily xoxo

My new best friend!!

2011-06-09T08:05:00.001+10:00

The last time we went to Charleville, we went shopping with Mum and Dad at the local Mitre 10 and I purchased a "Grandpa's Weeder" (pictured below).

It works like this! (Apologies for the blurry photo) You choose the plant you wish to remove from your lawn or garden. Carefully place the prongs around the base of the plant...

Use your foot to push the weeder down into the ground,

until your foot is on the ground and the weeder is as deep into the soil as you can get it.

Use the piece of metal that is at a right angle to the handle, which you used to push it into the ground as a lever, this will cause the prongs at the end to close around the stem and roots of the plant and as you lean it back further on the lever the weed will be pulled out of the ground. All without bending over!

See my new best friend!!!

Emily xoxo

Catching up....

2011-06-08T19:54:00.000+10:00

Wow what a crazy few weeks....has it been weeks or only a week since my last post...I don't know. Anyway it is that crazy time of year when I am struggling to get my reports done so that I can enjoy the last few weeks of term.

So lots has happened around home since I last blogged. The chooks have settled in well and I have started collecting eggs!!!

First egg!!!

Becc and I had a sewing night and made kick ass gardening aprons with lots of useful pockets!! And we started a couple of other aprons at craft.

My new arpon!! So funky!!

First egg collected and put in the 'egg' pocket!

I found some wire to make a temporary run for the chooks for late in the arvo on the weekends. This way they can get into the dirt and scratch around - their normal cage has a cement floor but it is covered in a nice thick layer of hay. When they can find their way back to the roost, I will let them wander freely in our yard, but I'll lock Nugget (our staffy) in one of the other sheds. One step at a time... making sure they won't roost in a tree!

Former cat carrier, now nesting box! The preferred choice - over the mower catcher.

Having a dust bath!

Becc and I have also joined the Roma Community Garden and have already weeded our plot, helped weed three large raised garden beds, fixed leaking sprinkler system and harvested a bumper crop of cherry tomatoes!!!

Newly cleared raised garden beds! See all the weeds in the wheel barrow!!

Mmmm cherry tomatoes!

Salad made with cherry tomatoes from the Community Garden, lettuce from my garden...feels sooo good to be growing some of our own food!!!

I think one of the great things about my friendship with Becc is that we have a similar dream/plan for our families. We are both keen to grow as much of our own food as possible to lessen our food miles. We want to try to find organic foods, buy wholesale to save money and buy organic fed beef, lamb and chicken where possible. We have started gardens at home and joined the community garden to meet like minded people in our town. We love cooking for our family and providing them with healthy wholesome meals. How cool is that!! To find such a beautiful friend that I can share the excitement and disappointments that experimenting with gardening can bring! I consider myself extremely lucky to have such a friend in my life and in the same town!!! You can read about Becc's adventures in her garden here. She is a real inspiration!!

I have a few other cool things to blog about, but I will save them for another day!!

Emily xoxo

3 new additions to our family!

2011-05-26T21:39:00.000+10:00

I'm so excited!!!

We have chooks! 3 of them. And they are just lovely. The very lovely Colleen and Grant gave us these chooks. They are 18mths old and are currently off the lay (or so Colleen and Grant thought). We decided to give them a go - if they don't lay, we've lost nothing. But after 2 days we got an egg!!! Very exciting!!

Weekend wrap up

2011-05-22T23:15:00.000+10:00

I love the third weekend of the month, the weekend when the Roma Farmers & Artisans Market is on. Sometimes Marko and I go together, sometimes I go with Becc. This weekend I went with Becc and I left poor sick Marko on the couch at home. Before hitting the markets we went to Mitre 10 and ordered the sleepers for Becc's new garden, then we headed on down to the Big Rig where the markets take place.

This was the fourth market (I think), and this time there were heaps more stalls. The last couple of times it has been raining and so many stalls haven't bothered to set up. I think also they are gradually building the variety and number of stalls.

So this week there were two nursery stalls, Snake gully bananas (with a wide range of fruit and vege), the local Lavander farm, Desert Limes, Colleen's patchwork fabric, the community garden stall, a coffee stall, a couple selling garden mulch, and I'm sure there were a couple of others.

I bought a heap of fresh fruit and vege (below), some material for an apron (watch this space for the post on making the apron), some of Cecily's honey, a bag of mulch, a lemon grass plant and a punnet of leek seedlings.

After we had finished at the markets, we picked up my new chooks then Becc and Charlie came to my place and we set up my new chooks in their new home and also put together my new corrogated raised garden beds.

My ladies!

I also repotted my weeping mulberry,

and my native violet.

This morning (Sunday) I put all my fruit and vege into my trusty Tupperware Fridge Mates and re-organised the fridge. The chooks happily received the rotten zucchini's I'd forgotten were in the bottom draw and the rockmelon that had gone off on the bench....what a waste..but at least they didn't go in the bin, instead I'll get them back in eggs....I hope.

Also on my To Do list today was mounding up the soil around my potatoes (more info to follow), planting out the remaining sweet pea seedlings, splitting and repotting the lemon grass, repotting the rosemary and checking out what garden maintenance needed to be done. I got all of these jobs done, plus I made a big batch of curried pumpkin and lentil soup, made mini quiches with Becc and tonight baked banana and raspberry bread.

Phew what a crazy weekend!! But oh how satisfied I am with all that I accomplished.

Full time work vs. a well kept home

2011-05-18T22:56:00.000+10:00

I have always yearned to be a stay at home mum. To look after my children and husband. To keep a tidy welcoming home that smells of home cooked meals and snacks. It's something that I always thought I wouldn't be able do while also working full time. I mean so far we don't have children and I put so much of my life into my job as a teacher. My heart, soul and a lot time, almost all of my time, go into being the best teacher I can be. In the past when I have felt like I wasn't keeping up at home, I just thought oh well, I'll do it better when I'm not working...but I'm beginning to think it is all in the planning.

My inspiration has come in a few forms, slowly over time and culminating this week. During our garage sale on the weekend, Lisa, Becc and I were discussing the virtues of a pot luck type food swap between a small group of us to help ease the pressure of working and running a household. We decided that it would be great to each cook up a big batch of something, divide it up to freeze and swap with each other. I think also the process of clearing out ready for the garage sale has given me a bit of motivation to gradually spruce up the house and find ways of keeping it clean, tidy and us well fed with minimal fuss.

Looking back it probably all really started with my Great Garden Makeover, and I'm now getting started one small project at a time, inside the house. This week I tackled the kitchen benches. I brought out a small shelf and re-organised everything on the kitchen bench. Since doing that on Monday night, I have not let it stay dirty or untidy for long because I'm just so pleased with how it is looking. I also packaged up and froze the spaghetti rather than relying on it for the rest of the week and lunches. I now have all those containers in the freezer ready for days when I don't feel like cooking.

Yesterday and today after school I got straight into the kitchen and cooked up lovely meals. I think really that all that's changed is my mindset. Yes, I have so much to catch up on to get the house in order, and a lot of thinking to do around planning ahead with food and shopping so that I am less wasteful, however I really feel like I'm making a good start. I am excited to harvest and preserve my own produce, small as the harvest may be, and I was thinking only today that I need to be setting more seeds to plant in a few weeks so that I have a continuous supply of lettuce and beets.

My cucumbers and zucchini are still alive despite our frosts this week. Being in the green house is really giving them a fighting chance. I'll be super excited if I can actually harvest anything from them.

The Great Garden Makeover - Part 4!

2011-05-16T07:11:00.001+10:00

Q. What does a girl do with her hard earned cash after a very successful Garage Sale?

A. This girl spends her hard earned cash at the local nursery!!!

After a late afternoon sale Saturday and an early morning sale Sunday morning, we found ourselves packing up what remained...mostly tupperware...so sad. We loaded all the 'I'm-not-taking-that-home-again' stuff into the boot of my car and Becc and I trooped off to Vinnies. After unloading at the donation bins, we headed for Plantaroma, our local nursery. There we drooled over many plants and couldn't decide on what we wanted.

Becc has been spending tons of her free time transforming her backyard from a bare piece of land, into a productive garden which in time will provide her family with delicious fresh produce. She has chooks and two garden beds already. You can read about Becc's exploits here.She is also pretty amazing in the kitchen and is inspiring me to live a greaner healthier life.

We spent over an hour at the nursery, having coffee and discussing the merits of different varieties of fruit trees - traditional vs dwarf. In the end I purchased a dwarf Lots O' Lemons, a weeping mulberry, a very healthy looking passionfruit and a large bag of premium potting mix. Becc purchased a Plum tree. Really, we could have gone crazy, but Becc has plans for most of the cash she made - new garden beds I think - and I have a car rego due...not exciting but necessary.

We then stopped by Crazies (Crazy Clarks) and I bought 4 plastic tubs (pictured below), two hanging pots and a photo frame.

I was only going to get pink, but decided I needed yellow for the lemon tree, and then also decided to get a purple one ( I know it looks blue in this photo - but it seriously IS purple). I would have rathered lime green but they didn't have any.

I found Marko's drill and drilled some drainage holes!!!

See!!! Purple!!!

I was originally going to put all the trees into the new pots, but decided that my new strawberries (from my trip to Charleville last weekend) desperately needed repotting, so they went into the two pink tubs.

Traditional strawberries

'Pinkie' strawberries

See, the pinkies have hot pink flowers rather than white!!! Eventually I'll mix them up for contrast, but for now they are in separate tubs.

My new gorgeous Lots O' Lemons!!! Doesn't it look healthy!!

And there are the new additions in their new home on the edge of the pavers!

The passionfruit in it's new pot/tub - the purple one that is pretending to be blue. I'm going to put up a wire trellis over that shocking plastic sheeting on the left of the picture and grow it up that rather than on the lattice. That corner gets scorched in summer and the pots can't be in the corner behind the plastic sheeting because it gets too hot. I'm hoping the passionfruit will keep it a little cooler once it covers that wall.

And here's some exciting discoveries!!! My potatoes have started to poke their heads through the layer of mulch!!! Once they are all up, I'll stack dirt around them and mulch again! So excited about the fresh produce I'm growing.

I also decided to put this old old kitchen table that I don't use, out on the cement slab to use as a gardening table. I know it will get hammered out in the weather, but I'd rather repurpose this table than buy something new to go out there. Very exciting indeed!! All inspired by the lovely Becc!!!

And to cap of a glorious day and fabulous weekend, look at the sunset I got to enjoy! Several minutes later it was incredibly cold out, but I'm glad I got the photo!!!

3 friends + all their unwanted items + a cold Saturday morning = 1 Massive Garage Sale

2011-05-15T09:30:00.002+10:00

With our icey hands wrapped around burning hot cups of coffee, Becc and I sat in my driveway awaiting our first customers. Our hands were so cold that it hurt to hold the hot coffee cups for too long and we had to keep putting them down while we waited. It was 5am and 7.5 degrees outside and still we waited. When 6am hit, the temperature dropped to 5.8 degrees and stayed around 6 degrees until 7am, when our first customers arrived.

Why, I hear you ask, were we out at 5 am?? Well you can thank my helpful teacher aide for that. We advertised a 7am start and amazingly all our customers respected our starting time, but my teacher aide warned me that regardless of what time we advertised, people would turn up at 5am. So we sat there in the freezing cold and ended up getting a blanket for our knees.

Here are the pictures we took at about 6am.

I was trying to sell all my tupperware from my days as a demonstrator and we also had appliances, dinner sets,

Thank goodness for my hot pink uggies!!

Glassware and my Yum Yum words from my kitchen in Warwick (sick of hanging on to them and I can't stick them up here).

Becc dancing with one of her mops, which sold out!!

Lisa's amazing range of photo frames!

In this very blurry photo you can see all the linen on the pink sheet, books on the tables at the back, Lisa's amazing doll's house from her classroom, big photos, small tv, dvd player, video and dvd player, other electronics, box of craft supplies.....the list goes on...

Clothes and shoes,

Old lounge chairs, plus there was a dog house, fish tank light, big fish tank ships, air compressor, and much, much more.

Once people started arriving, we had a steady flow of customers. One lady spent a massive $200!! We were seriously shocked. Anyway, Becc and I sat there chatting, working out change and laughing all day. Lisa joined us for two blocks of time when it fitted into her new incredibly strict routine with bubba and supplied our morning tea / lunch. Lisa's bub and Becc's bub had a lovely time playing with a box of tupperware games gifts and were just soo cute (The kids were cute, not the games gifts). Thank goodness Becc is so super organised and totally got how I wanted to keep track of the money. We tallied the purchases according to who was selling it as we went. I sorted the items and told Becc how much money was for each person, she then tallied the total and gave them their change while I put their purchase in a bag.

This morning I added up all the money and divided up our profit - we each made more money than we thought we would. I was a little disappointed that I didn't sell more Tupperware, but people wanted me to negotiate on price and I'm not willing to. I have to get back the money I put into it. So I sold a little, but not as much as I hoped.

And here is what is left over!

My glassware,

my tupperware,

Becc's mugs, glasses and my kitchenware still new in their boxes,

linen, puppets, pillows,

frames, flowers, hot curlers,

shoes, clothes, magazines and

books!

Pretty awesome isn't it. We are really pleased!

An early rise....

2011-05-01T08:05:00.000+10:00

This morning I woke, needing to visit the house department as my DH would say, at 4am and then could not get back to sleep. So feeling inspired (and knowing we had no bread in the house) I set about making some. I got this recipe from the wonderful Becc, who found it in a book or on a website, I don't know which.

Anyway...

Wholemeal & Seed Bread (Annabel Longein)

Ingredients:
4 teaspoons of honey
7 teaspoons of yeast
2 3/4 cups of wholemeal flour
2 3/4 cups of plain flour
2 teaspoons salt
2 cups of seeds + extra to sprinkle

Method:
Mix 4 teaspoons of honey into 2 cups of very hot (not boiling) water and stir in 2 cups of cold water. Make sure the temperature is just warm. Add 7 teaspoons of yeast and allow to stand for 5 mins. It's ready when foam starts to form. Add all the flour, salt and seeds. Mix until combined. Put into 2 loaf tins and slash the top. Sprinkle with extra seeds. Bake at 80 C for 20 mins then 210 C for 30 mins. Cool on a wire rack.

Mmmm smells great!!

They were a little difficult to get out, as they had spilled out over the edges...next time I'll use 3 tins I think!!

Cooling...

Scraping the spilled bits out of the oven...didn't think to put a tray underneath in case...oh well.

Now for the Banana and Raspberry bread...I'll post it tomorrow!

Progress on goals - part 2

2011-04-26T16:49:00.001+10:00

Remember my holiday goals??

~~1. Spend some quality time with my neglected friends - Becc, Lisa and Kylie.~~ Check!
~~2. Improve one thing in the garden each day.~~ Check!!
~~3. Spring Autumn clean the house (particularly the study also known as 'the bomb site').~~ Check!
~~4. Price all my left over tupperware from my demonstrator days for our combined Garage Sale...~~ Check!
5. Move all things to be sold at the garage sale into the shed to free up space inside - links to goal 3
6. Plan for next term - start timetable
~~7. Do the photo challenges Moira has been sending me to get me back into taking photos...~~ Check! (Am posting slowly about each of these challenges....she hasn't sent me one in a while, I'm thinking I might start using the POTD {photo of the day} ideas that Becky Higgins posts on Facebook.)

So I'm doing pretty well. It has been far to wet after the 4 1/2 inches of rain to work in the garden...soggy is the word, but I'm pleased with what I have accomplished so far.

I have also started to make some serious moves to construct some dresses for which the smocking has been completed (long long ago). I have the manual for my new overlocker out and ready to read, the dresses pinned and I plan on stitching them up tonight. Watch this space for photos after I convince Becc's darling girl to model for me!!

I can't cross out number 5, because there are garage sale bags and boxes stacked in various parts of the house - I'm worried about the mice in the shed and I can't afford to buy plastic boxes for it all. I also haven't started my timetable for next term...but that's ok...I'll get to it!!

Happy Easter everyone!

Emily xoxo

Photo challenge #4

2011-04-26T16:47:00.000+10:00

#4 - Take a close up of some smocking, stitches, embroidery, fabric, etc.

I started this little dress called Morgan ages and ages ago. When I originally blocked the top of it, the threads were too tight, so to block it properly I had to cut them all out, I accidently also cut out the very top guide thread, which meant it had nothing to hold it in place when I stitch the neck binding on. I was frustrated, so I put it away. I got it out this week, finished the embroidery (above) and hand stitched a guide thread back through so that I could get the neck to the right size. It is now all pinned up and ready to go. I also finished the embroidery on a green gingham Morgan and a blue gingham Morgan! Planning on sewing them together tonight at craft!! Yay!!

Emily xoxo

The Great Garden Makeover - Part 3

2011-04-24T07:53:00.000+10:00

Update:

In the past week we have had over 4 1/2 inches of rain. All my seedlings have been singing in happiness ever since! I can almost see them growing right before my eyes!! I can't wait to start eating my own produce!

Lettuce and Cherry Tomatoes!

Blurry looking Cabbages and Beetroots!

The vege garden! All mulched up and planted.

Zucchini!!

Becc and I have even discussed the possibility of me getting some chooks. I'm worried that Nugget (our dog) would eat them. Worth discussing with my darling hubbie...Becc also offered to 'board' a couple of chooks for me. I'll have to think about it, work out if it's worth trying to have them here first.... hmmmm.... not sure..

Emily xoxo

Photo challenge #3

2011-04-23T11:34:00.001+10:00

Photo challenge #3
Daylight! Take a close up/s and wider shot of one interesting leaf or cluster of leaves. Maybe find an interesting colour?

Some palm growing in our yard...

The rising moon..

A Roma sunset... glorious!!

Emily xoxo

Photo challenge #2

2011-04-22T10:29:00.000+10:00

Photo challenge #2
Take a photo of what you're drinking - water, pepsi, tea, whatever. I decided to photograph my gorgeous new coffee cup - with dandelion tea in it....trying to give up the coffee....

I bought this gorgeous mug at Teacup Designs and it is a Maxwell Williams design in partnerships with the Breast Cancer Foundation. Love it! It is just delicious to drink out of!! They come in blue, pink, mint and purple!

What an enjoyable way to contribute to finding a cure for Breast Cancer.

Emily xoxo

Photo challenge #1

2011-04-20T11:29:00.000+10:00

In June I'm due to go on a scrapbooking weekend with my scrapping girls from Warwick and Brisbane. While organising such an event, we banter about all manner of things via facebook, and amidst the frivolity I made the comment that I have not taken a photo since Christmas and that I had no idea what I would be scrapping this time around. Moira was shocked and horrified that I have so neglected my camera and as a result she decided to send me a text containing a phot challenge each day. Now given that she started last week - and I was in my crazy last week of school mode - I have only just started.

Photo challenge #1: Take a photograph or a series of photographs of object/s in your home that you love, that tell a story or have history.

The story of our table is one of chance meetings. In 2007 we bought a house in Warwick, a high set house, and the previous owners left a lot of stuff behind - the old kitchen benches, timber, bricks and an old paint covered table. We decided to keep it all and put it to good use as storage up off the ground. A year later I was offered a job in Roma and we moved. The removalist arrived to look at our things so that they came with a truck big enough for our stuff and I hadn't put any of the gear from downstairs on the list. He came up to me and said, "are you taking that silky oak table with you?" I replied with "What silky oak table?" He took me downstairs and showed me the table the previous owners had left there. So we decided to take it with us. Only a few weeks after arriving in Roma, we met a man who restores furniture and asked him to restore our table. He pulled it appart, put new dowling in it and polished it for us. You would never know it was the same, dry, paint covered table. It is one of the joys of our house. It is where we sit to eat together. It is where I have tea / coffee with my friends when they visit. It is where I blog. It is where sew. It is a wonderful table.

Progress on holiday goals

2011-04-18T22:23:00.000+10:00

It would be great to have check boxes on my blog so that I can tick off each goal as I reach it over the holidays!!

Today I have made a good start on my goals. I spent two hours with my lovely friend Miss Lisa and we chatted like crazy!! We are catching up again tomorrow, then Becc and I are going to garden on Wednesday (providing this rain goes away).

I also blew goal 4 out of the water!!! I have been putting off this job (pricing my left over tupperware in preparation for our joint garage sale) so today I went to the reject shop and bought some nice big plastic containers and as I priced, I packed into the boxes - so now it can all live in the shed rather than in the spare room, AND it will all stay mouse free!!!!

Yes, there are two large plastic boxes, 5 medium plastic boxes, 2 small plastic boxes and two zip up bags full of tupperware ready to be sold!!!! Bring on the garage sale I say!!

Now goal 2 (improving something in the garden each day) has not been one I could work on today as it has poured all day, however I feel that the glorious rain will be doing my job for me. It is, after all, giving my little planties vital nutrients and a soaking. I can hear them singing and growing as I peer at them through my window.

Just look at these little darlings....just poking their little heads out of the soil. Welcome to the world little ones!!!!

I also made a start on the ~~spring~~ autumn clean of the study!! I'm going to power through these goals so I can have a few days to vege out on the couch I think!!!

Emily xoxo

School holidays at last!

2011-04-16T15:34:00.000+10:00

It has been a long, long, long term. 12 weeks is an insane amount of time, however I did make it mainly one piece.

I now have 12 days holiday...but this is the list of jobs I have to get done:

1. Spend some quality time with my neglected friends - Becc, Lisa and Kylie.

2. Improve one thing in the garden each day.

3. ~~Spring~~ Autumn clean the house (particularly the study also known as 'the bomb site'.

4. Price all my left over tupperware from my demonstrator days for our combined Garage Sale...

5. Move all things to be sold at the garage sale into the shed to free up space inside - links to goal 3

6. Plan for next term - start timetable

7. Do the photo challenges Moira has been sending me to get me back into taking photos...

Hmmm...I think that is plenty...it may not be much of a holiday, but at least I won't be at school - then its a very short term with lots of public holidays!

Enjoy the school holidays!!!

Emily xoxo

Another sleepless night....

2011-04-15T01:35:00.000+10:00

12:50am

Yes...I'm awake. Tonight has been my second sleepless night this week. I'm getting worried that something may be wrong with me...other than that I'm a chronic worrier... I am one of those people who lie in bed and can't stop my brain, my thoughts snowball and before I know it I'm lying there stressed out of my brain.

So tonight I lay there, tossed and turned for 2 whole hours, then decided to get up and use the time for something constructive....like blogging and reading other blogs.

My favourite blogs at the moment are:

Sew Many Ways, Make it and love it, Frugal and Thriving and Smiley Mum, Crafty Mum, Busy Mum (my buddy Becc). Seriously, if you are interested in living well and spending less, while being addicted to craft (sewing or whatever) then you will enjoy these blogs. I just spent an hour reading the latest blog on Sew Many Ways - clicking on each link and reading the tutorials. Just love it!!! I have heaps more blogs that I regularly read, and honestly my favourites do change a lot.

So here I am, relaxing in one of our glorious new recliners, reading back through posts getting ideas about how to recycle, re-organise and provide home grown produce for hubbie and I to eat, therefore saving at the supermarket. When I started this post, I did actually have something interesting in mind, but got side tracked with telling you about the blogs I like....oh well it may or may not come back to me, until then stay safe!

Emily xoxo

Alan Jackson

2011-04-14T07:52:00.002+10:00

For Christmas last year I squirrelled money aside so that I could buy Marko and myself each a ticket to Alan Jackson's first ever Australian tour! I gave him the tickets for Christmas and in March we went to the concert! Aside from the weirdos sitting behind us constantly bashing my chair or bitching about how bad the support acts were, we had a great time!!

Unfortunately my phone doesn't have a flash so the picture is quite dark. We'd definately go again if we had the chance and we've been listening to all his albums ever since!

Emily xoxo

Preserving - the verdict on the peaches

2011-04-13T08:12:00.001+10:00

If you read my post some weeks ago about my new preserving hobby (here) you will know that I spent a weekend in a preserving frenzy after Sam the vege man was in town. I preserved Peaches in diet lemonade (just to see how it would go and to reduce the sugar content) and tomato sauce for pasta!

I decided that we should probably use up the tinned peaches from the cupboard before cracking open the first of my home preserves. So with those cans all used up, we hooked into the peaches. Now when I originally learned to preserve, Ruth showed me how to use diet softdrink in place of the high-in-sugar syrup and at that time we used an orange-mango diet softdrink. This variety was unavailable on the weekend that I was ready to preserve, so I thought, why not...I'll try diet lemonade. Now if you are a lemonade fan, then I'm sure that you would quite enjoy the unique flavour sensation I created...but I'm not so much a fan. I am persisting (as they aren't completely disgusting), but I won't be using lemonade again.

I'm looking forward to trying another flavour, and will see if Sam the man has any peaches next time he is in town...unlikely though as the season is just about over, but I'll keep my fingers crossed...you never know.

Emily xoxo

The wait is on....

2011-04-12T09:00:00.002+10:00

So it has been nearly 3 months since my darling hubbie had the operation that will hopefully see me barefoot and pregnant, and it is another month before his follow-up appointment, where I'm assuming they can tell us if it has been successful. I didn't know how long it would be before he was ready to start trying for a baby, but it seems not a lot stops my man!!! (sorry too much information for some!!)

So, now I wait.

Wait to find out if the operation was a success......

Wait to see if I fall pregnant.....

It feels like I've been waiting forever for a baby of my own, with all those around me falling pregnant, and now the weeks seem so slow.

I can't wait to hold our beautiful baby in my arms. One day soon I hope!!!

Emily xoxo

The Great Garden Makeover - Part 2

2011-04-11T08:19:00.000+10:00

Yesterday I decided that the garden had been given as much resting time as I could afford to give. I wasn't planning on watching my beautiful home grown seedlings die while I waited the full 2 weeks. So I mulched the vege garden and deepened a section of the front garden in readiness for planting. The seeds I planted a few weeks ago were in desperate need of planting, so I got in and planted out all the corn into the front garden. I also went to the nursery and bought lettuce, onion and snow pea seedlings (didn't have seeds for last two and lettuce seeds taking a while to grow).

Then I punched holes in the bottom of a couple of polystyrene boxes and filled them with potting mix. Into them I've planted two cherry tomato seedlings each and am planning on tying them to the wire mesh to keep them from spilling all over the place. I saw on an episode of Gardening Australia where this Italian bloke kept all his tomato plants tied up and stopped them from branching too much, which meant they grew really tall and fruited a lot. So that is what I'll try to do. They are under shade cloth too, so they shouldn't get too affected by frosts when they hit.

Next I planted out my very late zucchini and cucumbers...I figure it is still warm enough and maybe I'll get a few off each one and if not - it's only cost me a couple of seeds. I also planted out the cabbage seedlings and beetroot seedlings.

In the blurry photo below the cucumbers are along the back near the shade cloth, with cabbages and beetroots in the front.

Snow pea and lettuce seedlings which will need planting tomorrow, but need to decide where to put them. I'm thinking I'll put the snow peas out the front and the lettuces in the back vege garden.

This the next batch of seedlings - silverbeet, cauliflower and tomatoes. I also planted sweet pea seeds and peas.

Well getting my hands in the dirt has made me very happy! I can't wait to start harvesting. I am hoping I get lots of small cucumbers before it gets too cold. My hubbie is a big gerkin fan and I'm planning to preserve a batch for him. I also have a great recipe for preserving beetroot which mum and I used last year. Oh so yummy!!!

Emily xoxo
PS. I've worked so hard over the last few days that my poor back muscles spent the night screaming at me and I had a full 1 hour of sleep. Needless to say I am not at school today, I am instead going to try and catch up on some sleep and enjoy the overcast and drizzly day that it is.

PPS. I'm terribly excited that I planted out all my seedlings at the perfect time - a day before some lovely gentle rain. Oh I can hear them singing out in thanks from inside...yep I'm just a little bit insane....

The great garden make over

2011-04-10T07:51:00.000+10:00

For a while now, I have been planning a make over of epic proportions for my gardens. I live in a rental property so I don't want to put an extreme amount of money into it, however I am determined to deepen all the existing garden beds in our yard and fill them with some yummy soil. I plan to mix vegetables in amongst my flowers. Unfortunately my neglect over the last few ~~weeks~~ months has caused most of my flowers to die, so it is the perfect time to start this make over.

I have been umming and ahhing over how to attempt this project for some months. In fact this post has sat here as a draft for ages...I know shocking!! But I have finally made some decisions...

I have one vege patch out the back that is approx. 3m long and 1 m wide but only about 20cm deep. Out the front I have two garden beds that run along side the path, one forms a reverse L shape with the bottom of the L running along under our bedroom window. These beds have some native bushes growing in them but they are tall and scrawny rather than short and bushy.

In February we recieved a flyer in the mail about council collections for Greening the Maranoa. Basically we could dump our green waste and other crap we wanted to get rid of on the footpath and the counicl would collect it. Well my very eager husband got out the chainsaw and was a little over enthusiastic. As I said earlier we are in a rental, but we thought we could tidy up some of the smaller bushes. I asked him to trim down the natives at the front, hoping it would force them to bush out... well my darling husband cut those natives off at ground level. And yes, that is our pile of green waste out the front of our gate. It was the largest pile in our street!

I was quite shocked and worried about what our landlord would say, but then my neighbour informed me that our dear landlord has no idea what is growing on his property - that he rang him to ask if he did indeed have any big gum trees growing near our other neighbours fence (a point of contention about getting them lopped - and yes there are two VERY big gum trees there). Surprisingly the hardy little natives are coming back and have lots of fresh new shoots on them. Yay!!

At this stage I still had no idea how to deepen the beds so they sat dormant for another month. Then a few weeks ago Becc and I were in Home hardware and I found a garden border on special - 3m long and bought 3. I had no idea which garden to use them on, but I was keen. I dug out the round logs at the side of one of the beds at the front, but soon realised that I'd need another 10 or so rolls to do the whole garden - a little too expensive at 30 odd dollars a roll (not on special). So yesterday inspiration struck. I went back to the hardware and bought the pegs needed to hold the border in place, and headed to the nursery. I decided that I would use the border for my very shallow and sad vege garden out the back, but I also needed to double the soil volume and in doing so I wanted to improve it. My dear mother had told me that in the most recent Gardening Australia episode they had given the following recipe for improving a vege patch:

Mix chicken manure (in pellet form from nursery!), mushroom compost, compost and cow manure.
Dig a trench, put a layer of the mixture then put the soil back.
Dig another trench beside the first trench, then put the soil back and repeat.

I had to buy all the parts for the improver from the nursery and limited myself to one bag of each. First I dug away the soil from the small sleeper border and removed them, then placed down the new border only to discover that the bed is closer to 6m long than 3....oh well. I hammered the pegs in and was very pleased with the result.

In the wheel barrow, I mixed half a bag of all the above mentioned ingredients. I then dug like crazy and lifted half of the soil out of my garden onto the other side, spread out the mixture of improver then shovelled all that soil back. By this time I was very hot and sweaty but I persisted and did the other half as well. I will probably have to buy a load of soil from Daisy's because the added improver plus the soil hasn't filled the garden and I know the soil will settle. However for the time being I'm very very happy with the result!

According to Gardening Australia, the bed should be left to mature for 2 -14 days. Well my seedlings aren't going to be able to wait too long, so I'll plant them as soon as I can.

Happy gardening everyone!!

Emily xoxo

Home made Italian tomato sauce (Salsa di pomodoro)

2011-03-05T09:21:00.000+10:00

In my exciting preserving frenzy that was last weekend, I made (as previously stated) tomato sauce and I used this recipe!!

Salsa di pomodoro with herbs and garlic

I got this recipe out of my much loved copy of 'The Thrifty Kitchen' by Suzanne Gibbs & Kate Gibbs - the daughter and granddaughter of the great Margaret Fulton. I totally love this book and cook from it all the time.

This recipe makes 1 Litre.

To make it you will need:

2 large cloves of garlic
1/3 cup olive oil
1kg ripe tomatoes, chopped or 2 x 400g cans of chopped tomatoes
2 sprigs of garlic
2 sprigs of flat-leaf parsley
sea salt and freshly ground pepper
1/2 tablespoon of chopped oregano

The steps:
1. Press down on the garlic with the flat side of the knife to bruise, then slip of the skins. Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium heat and fry the garlic until it starts to turn golden. Remove the garlic cloves and discard, retaining the oil.

2. Add the tomato, basil and parsley to the oil with some salt and pepper to taste. Reduce the heat to low and cook, partially covered, for 30-40 minutes, until the sauce is thick and pulpy.

3. Remove the pan from the heat and push the sauce through a coarse sieve, discarding any solids. Reheat sauce gently or preserve in hot jars sterilised jars.

I used vacola preserving jars, washed and rinsed then sterilised in the oven. I poured the hot tomato sauce into the jars, put seals, lids and clips on and left them to cool. By allowing the tomato sauce and glass jars to cool, a vacuum is created and the sauce can be stored in the cupboard. My $12 box of tomatoes made 8 bottles of tomato sauce that I will use instead of buying pasta sauce!

Emily xoxo

Preserving....a new exciting adventure

2011-02-27T15:23:00.000+10:00

Years ago when I lived at Stanthorpe, my lovely friend and mentor Ruth and her lovely husband Peter, organised a preserving night with my family. I have waited a long time since then to begin my own preserving. A while ago, I can't remember exactly when, Becc and I went to several garage sales and to the second hand shop here in town, and I found a stove top vacola for only $50. I really wanted to buy an electric one but they are around the $200 mark, more if they include jars. But I also needed jars, so I borrowed a boxful of vacola jars, lids and clips from my mum. Now I admit they have sat around doing not much other than collect dust and dirt for a while, but yesterday Sam the vege man from Stanthorpe was in Roma so I went down and bought a box of peaches and a box of tomatoes with the plan to spend my weekend preserving. Now Becc, I know you'll be disappointed that I didn't wait for you to preserve together, but I wanted to make sure I knew what I was doing before we got together and spent ages preparing stuff to preserve, seeing as we don't have a book about it!

I started with the peaches because they were starting to go off. When preserving peaches all instructions I could find indicated that the peaches should be covered in a syrup made from sugar and water. When we preserved with Ruth and Peter, we used diet softdrink that we had 'flattened' because Peter is diabetic. I decided to try diet lemonade, mainly because the lemonade was on special. I opened th bottles one at a time and poured the lemonade into a jug and stirred it vigorously to release all the bubbles. Then I peeled and cut up the peaches and put them into clean jars. I then covered the peaches with the flat diet lemonade, ran a spatula around the inside of the jar to release any bubbles caught in the jars, the put the seals, lids and clips and placed them in the vacola. I then filled the vacola with cold water and turned the element on and brought it to the boil. I let the water boil for 20 minutes - I couldn't remember how long we let them boil for when we did it with Ruth, but hers were electric. When I searched preserving peaches, the recipe I found said to let them boild for the 20 mins, then allow the jars to cool in the water.

While I waited for those jars to cool, I filled more jars, then cooked up some yummy tomato sauce, strained it and put it into hot sterilised jars, put seals, lids and clips on and left them to cool. Unfortunately the first lot of peaches still aren't cool, but when they are I'll put the second lot in to preserve. I also still have another half a box of tomatoes to turn into tomato sauce!

I'm very excited about the prospect that this new hobby will save us money in the long term. I'm hoping that I can set up better garden beds over winter so that I can grow my own tomatoes next summer. I also want to grow cucumbers to pickle for my darling hubbie, beetroot and anything else I can think of!! Becc and I are planning to grow separate crops so that we can share our produce! Can't wait to have a preserving day with you Becc!!!

Emily xoxo

Hanging garden of strawberries

2011-02-26T19:56:00.001+10:00

I know, it sounds crazy, but I have a hanging strawberry garden. Well, almost. We went to Charleville for New Years Eve to be with my parents and while we were there I saw that mum had planted up her hanging 'pot' with strawberry plants. I liked the idea so much that when I got home I went and bought myself some strawberries to do the same thing here at home.

The bags we are using are Yates Vertical Garden Bags, and I think mum got them from Bunnings. Each packet contains three bags. I think mum expected me to plant mine with flowers, but given the food crisis we are sure to have after all the flooding here in Queensland, I've decided to use all three of mine to grow food. Bag #1 - Strawberries, #2 - tomatoes, #3 - lettuces (I think - may change my mind on that one).

You will find info on the garden bags at http://www.yates.com.au/products/pots-and-potting-mix/hanging-pots-bags/yates-vertical-garden-bag/ .

How to plant the vertical garden bag:

1. Begin to fill the bag with potting mix.

2. Plant seedlings starting at the bottom of the bag.

3. Add more potting mix as you go.

4. Continue to plant seedlings and add potting mix until the bag is filled to the top.

5. Water generously, making sure the water reaches the bottom. Leave the finished bag lying down or slightly propped up in a sunny or lightly shadded, sheltered spot for a week to ten days. Water as required.

6. When ready, hang bag from a hook, nail or railing.

My mum's strawberries died inside of a week and we think it was because she bought fairly established plants. Because the root mass was too large to squeeze through the small holes, she put the whole plant down into the planter and pushed the leaves out through the hole. When I went to buy my plants, I explained my dilemma to the lady at the nursery, telling her I wanted smaller plants and would wait for her to get some in. She suggested soaking the established plants (which had 3 and 4 plants per pot) in a fish emulsion fertiliser to help reduce tranplantation shock. She also said I should wash all the dirt off the roots (going against everything I know about planting) in the fish emulsion mixture then divide up the plants and plant by pushing the roots through the holes. So far my plants are recovered nicely from the shock of transplant and I think the rain duirng the week when I planted them helped, along with the milder temperatures.

So now, 2 months on, my strawberries are still alive and I hope to soon take a picture worthy of putting here on my blog. At the moment the plants look a little scrawny, but I'm confident that they will bush out and give me an excellent crop of strawberries sometime in the future.

Watch this space!!!

Emily xoxo

Back to the gym....

2011-02-21T08:20:00.006+10:00

Due to the craziness that is the first few weeks back at school + my serious slackness (yes slackness) I ~~have~~ had not been to the gym since before we went away at Christmas time. Yes that wet and eventful Christmas at the beach. So last week we finally did it! We went back to the gym on Wednesday and did our weights work out. Then we went to boxercise on Thursday night (which honestly nearly killed me there and then) and then Friday we went to Zumba. We don't do things by halves in my house!!

This week we have done it again. Tuesday night Zumba, Wednesday night weights, Thursday night Boxercise and Friday Zumba!

What a week! The exercise is certainly helping me cope with the stress of school and I'm keen to get my weight heading down again! I'm so incredibly sore, but excited to be back at it again. I'm starting to re-read 'the book' for my fourth time - really it is amazing, I get something different out of it each time.

Looking forward to getting back on track!!

Worst housewife in the world award!

2011-02-20T22:05:00.000+10:00

I'm totally convinced that if such an award existed, I would win it hands down! Well perhaps that's an exaggeration, but that is how I feel. I spend long long hours at school and try hard to keep it in order, which unfortunately means that things slide at home. I'm a 'I-do-my-housework-on-the-weekend' girl, but if we go away for several weekends in a row, or hubbie doesn't work and we spend quality time together nothing gets done. Yesterday (Saturday) I spent the day playing catch up. I vacuumed, mopped, cleaned the toilet, bathtub, shower and bathroom sink. I also caught up on a few weeks ironing and folding (four baskets full - shocking I know) and attempted to sort out some of the mess lying around. Don't get me wrong, my house isn't grotty, it's untidy. The study door remains permenently closed due to the disaster zone that is that room (no idea what to do about THAT!!) and let's not even talk about the spare room or the shed or even our bbq area...but at least the lounge room, kitchen and bathroom look presentable.

I dream of one day being a SAHM and being able to stay on top of these things, but I don't think we'll ever be in the position financially for that to work. But I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Just wanted to moan about the fact that I can't seem to be organised at both work and school....totally sucks!!!

Emily xoxo

Finding some much needed balance....

2011-02-19T06:52:00.001+10:00

So obviously things still haven't really fallen into a rhythm at school or you'd have heard from me before now. I am really struggling to get some balance back. I've always been a super committed teacher but these first 4 weeks have been a little rediculous, I have been at school by 7 every morning and not home before 5. On a positive note, I did go back to my weekly craft group (UFO's - Un-Finished Objects) and we also started back at the gym on Wednesday. Despite this the balance I had last year isn't back yet. I'm not seeing my friends (unless they are at school, go to craft or are gym members) and I miss them.

My dad was in town earlier in the week and he is a school guidance officer - so he guided me. We had a big chat about what is going on. Basically the biggest issue I'm dealing with is that this year I am dividing my support and teaching time between 16 students, where last year I had between 7 and 9 at varying times of the year. As mentioned in my previous post about the timetable, it has been a nightmare trying to get them all accessing my programs and then offer in class support. I'm starting to realise that I can only do what I can do and that my student's teachers are going to have to start taking a little more responsibility. I have been feeling like Bilbo Baggins (lord of the rings) - like I am spread too thin, like too little butter across too much bread ( or something like that). Part of the answer (dad's suggestion) is going to be showing class teachers how I arrived at my timetable and how complex it is. They only see the one or two students they have, not the big picture, so I need to explain it to them.

Realistically, things are actually running very well. My students are generally coping. We have only had a couple of worrying incidents, but these would have happened whether or not there were more teachers assigned to the SEU. We are really motoring along well, it's just that damn list of things I need to finalise that I never get to - like finishing alignment planners to hand in (units are planned and going very well though), duty roster for the SEU, our stationary order (which I should have had done in week 1 and off to SDS so we'd have had it back by now), and the list goes on and on and on.

I just need some balance...and to see my friends. So to my lovely friends who aren't seeing me...I do still love you all and I desperately need to see you but I just don't know when I can fit it in!!!! Hopefully I'll see you all soon!!

Emily xoxo

Welcome home my darling!

2011-01-29T21:51:00.000+10:00

What a blessing! My darling man was supposed to be working in Sydney for two whole weeks, but the parts didn't arrive to fix the pumps they were working on, so he is back. Yay! I missed him so much - didn't sleep well and heard every noise each night. Thursday was the worst..the power went out at about 8pm and didn't come back on till after 1 am. It had been 37 degrees and so the house was like a hot box and the only way to get cool was to wet a towel and lay it over me. I certainly didn't sleep well at all!

But he is home!! I'll sleep like a log tonight! Yay!!

Week 1, Term 1, 2011

2011-01-29T09:06:00.001+10:00

I have:

1 Special Education Unit

16 Students with Disabilities

1.5 Special Education Teachers

2.5 Special Education Teacher Aides

11 Form class teachers

2 PE classes / week per form class

1 Music class / week per form class

3 Students with Physiotherapy programs

9 Students with Speech Therapy programs

My task:
To create a timetable in which all 16 students do not miss PE or Music, but recieve focused teaching in numeracy and literacy in the SEU, Social skilling, Life skills, Art, and Community Access as well as in class support from my 2.5 teacher aides.

The result:
An incredible headache.

3 days later, I have a timetable that I think is workable, now I'm trying to figure out the teacher aide timetables - figuring out when each student receives their speech, physio and in class support. I always figured that those who were responsible for timetables for whole schools must be insane, now I know they are. What I have come to realise is that you need a system otherwise it is sooo hard. So please take my advice and don't take those wonderful individuals who agonise over school timetables for granted. It is a seriously hard job!

Today's the day!!!

2011-01-20T06:23:00.001+10:00

So the day we have been planning for, for over 3 years has finally arrived. Today is the day that my gorgeous husband will finally have the long anticipated vesectomy reversal that we have been saving for. He is so nervous! I was amazed at how nervous he is and mentioned it to my dad, who frowned at me and said "Of course he's nervous, it's his goodies". I've been so thoughtless - carried away with my excitement at the prospect of us having a baby sometime soon. We have, of course, been told that it isn't a sure thing, that it may not be successful, but we HAVE to try. We can't afford IVF, so this is the path for us. I believe in the power of positive thought and have no doubt in my mind that it will be a success and that sometime in the next year we will get the good news that we're expecting.

I'll keep you posted!!

Emily xoxo

A new year

2011-01-19T07:54:00.000+10:00

Yes, I do realise that I'm a little behind here, but humour me! I'm not normally one for making new year's resolutions, and I guess this year is no different. I'm more of a goals orientated person. So these are my goals for 2011:

1. To find ways to show my darling husband how much I love him, without using the words - inspired by the song More than words...remember that song. Oh it's an old favourite of mine. But yes, I think the old 'actions speak louder than words' is an important way to live - obviously I have no problem telling him I love him, but sometimes it's nice to be shown.

2. To find some sneaky ways of showing my family and friends how much I love them - maybe one Random Act of Kindness per month....hmmm perhaps even annonomously.... will think more on that one.

3. To stay focused about becoming healthier, listening to my body and taking care of my mental health too.

4. To get pregnant (I wanted this to be number 1..but re-thought that!)

5. To find time for my hobbies (smocking and scrapbooking) and actually get Cassie's dress finished.

6. To be a better housekeeper.

7. To establish better garden beds and soil to grow as much of my own food as possible.

8. To have a garage sale to get rid of all the demonstrator tupperware I have sitting in my lounge room.

9. To try to find ways of living a thriftier life....recycling and not spending so much money - particularly finding ways of using all the food we buy and not letting it spoil before it is eaten.

10. Sort through the boxes in the shed (after all we did move here 12 months ago).

I think that is plenty for now.....I'll keep you posted on how I'm going.

Emily xoxo

Yummy Knot Rolls

2011-01-18T06:46:00.004+10:00

I went searching for a recipe for bread rolls to make at home for my pal Becc, and found this one at http://www.taste.com.au/ and it is a real winner!!

Knot Rolls

Makes 8

Ingredients:
7g sachet yeast
2 teaspoons caster sugar
1 cup warm water
3 cups bread flour
1 tsp sea salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 egg

Method:

1. Place yeast, sugar and warm water in a jug. Whisk with a fork until yeast has dissolved. Stand in a warm place for 10mins or until frothy.

2. Sift flour into a large bowl. Stir in salt, yeast mixture and olive oil. Mix to form a soft dough. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead dough for 10 -15 minutes until smooth and elastic.

Place in a large lightly greased bowl. Cover and set aside in a warm place or until doubled in size.

3. Using your fist, punch dough down. Knead until small.

4. Grease tray and preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius. Divide dough into 8 portions. Roll each portion into a 25cm long. Tie each log into a loose knot. Place, 5cm appart, on a prepared tray.

5. Cover with lightly greased plastic wrap. Set aside in a warm place for 30 to 40 minutes or until dough has almost doubled in size. Brush top with egg.

6. Dust with extra flour. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes. Turn bread, top side up, onto a wire rack to cool.

These rolls are just wonderful. They are nice and crusty on the outside with a yummy soft centre! I'm sure you won't be disappointed if you try them! I forgot to do the egg and flour on top but mine were still lovely.

Emily xoxo

Book vs Movie

2011-01-17T09:36:00.000+10:00

I have always been an avid reader. As a teenager I read and read and read. These days I try to kill two birds with one stone, as they say, and listen to audio books while doing household chores and cooking. Whenever a movie is based on a book I have read, I always enjoy watching them and trying to pick out the differences to the book (there are always differences - how can you fit a book into a 2hr movie.

Obviously some movie studios do a better job of converting a book into a movie, than others. Some books to movie combos I have both read and watched include:

Black Beauty
Tomorrow when the war began
Looking for Alibrandi
Harry Potter (all 7)
Pride and Prejudice
Lord of the Rings
Eragon

My very favourite audio books (ones that I listen to regularly) include: The Guernsey and Potato Peel Pie Society, Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn, Rousabout and Jillaroo.

So today, I decided I needed a new audio book to listen to while cooking. I went down to Chapters (our local bookstore) to look at the audio books and was devastated that none caught my eye. So then I decided to do something I should have done ages ago - get a membership with the local library. There I found two audio books - Summer at the Villa Rosa by Nicky Pellegrino and PS I Love you by Cecelia Ahern. Now you, as I have, may have seen the movie. I cried through most parts of the movie and didn't realise that it had been a book first. So in the great tradition of reading books that are movies, I borrowed it.

As expected it is very different but I'm loving it.

So try something new - listen to an audio book!!!

Playing in the Mud

2011-01-15T10:28:00.000+10:00

One of the payoffs of a wet holiday, was seeing these pictures of my niece and nephew enjoying the chance to play in the mud and dirty water. Mum took them on the day that they arrived at the camping ground. They picked the kids up and took them to Caloundra (their parents arrived a few days later),it rained as they arrived, then on and off as they set up. Eleanor and Jonah had a ball playing in the dirt and mud while Mum and Dad set up the campsite.

Eleanor and Jonah playing in the muddy water.

Walking back to the campsite, oh so muddy but happy!!

Showing off their dirty butts while Mormie (their g'mother) took pictures!

There is nothing better than seeing kids being kids!! Too many kids spend hours playing video games rather than getting outside and interacting with others. I love that about camping, I guess we are camping purists, we don't take tv's, dvd's or computers. Mum and Dad are the same, but my siblings bring computers and dvd's with them to entertain themselves and the kids. I love the fact that when camping your life falls into a more natural rhythm - getting up early, eating when hungry rather than at set times, going to bed when it's dark. It is a simpler life and although it isn't one I choose for my life, I do enjoy that simpler life for a few weeks. I just hope that camping grounds do not become a thing of the past as councils sell up their beachside land for big bucks.

I love camping!!!!

Emily xoxo

A town full of trucks!

2011-01-14T08:28:00.000+10:00

Roma is currently a town full of trucks. Unhitched road trains line several streets of town and there are trucks without trailers parked all over town. I have heard that the show grounds is a sea of trucks, and I plan on walking down to check it out in the morning.

There are two reasons for Roma becoming a sea of trucks. 1 - the highways to the north, south and east are all cut, some at multiple places, so the trucks can't get to their destinations. 2 - The trucks that got as far as Roma have all fuelled up, draining the town of it's supply of diesel fuel. There is now no diesel fuel left for purchase in Roma.

So, there are trucks all over the place, yet not much food left in the shops. Marko said that he spoke to a truckie when he went to get fuel and he was saying that heaps of truckies are going to go broke. He said that big companies like woolies are refusing to pay the full amount due to the delivery being late - like they can help it - blame Mother Nature. This makes me so angry...as if Woolies can't afford to just pay them what they should.... anyway more trucks seem to arrive all the time and apparently Miles has even more! Certainly not a sight we see every day.

Emily xoxo

Baking Day!

2011-01-13T07:59:00.001+10:00

Every now and then, usually on a weekend or during holidays, I get the baking bug. During these obsessive all consuming days, I bake a heap of 'stuff' then freeze it so that we don't eat it all at once. Like any good obsession I have a trigger - usually it is my husband asking me to make smoko for work or as a way of avoiding other things (housework and less fun activities). Today it was a combination of the two. I was so sick to my stomach watching the news about the horrific events in Toowoomba, the Lockyer Valley and the rising water in Brisbane. I decided that for my sanity I would tune out from the TV. I put on an audio book and started a baking frenzy. I baked two cakes and one batch of biscuits.

I made the following simply scrumptious Banana Cake with Lemon Icing. My darling friend Becc (whose blog rocks) gave me the recipe.

Becc's Banana Cake

1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon of orange juice or lemon juice
250g Bananas (approx 2)
1 cup of sugar
2 cups SR Flour
2 eggs
60g butter

Combine milk and juice. Peel and mash bananas. Add sugar, flour, beaten eggs, softened butter and combined milk & lemon juice. Beat on low until combined then on medium for 2 minutes. Turn the mix into a greased 23 x 12cm loaf tin whic has the base lined with baking paper. Bake in a low to moderate oven (180 C) for 45 minutes.

Icing:
1 1/4 cups icing sugar
2 tablespoons of lemon juice

Sift icing sugar and add lemon juice gradually until icing is smooth. When cake is cool, ice.

Doesn't this look scrumptious!!!

I also baked a Cardamom cake and some delicious cookies! I'm planning to do some more baking tomorrow and we'll see what I can create then!!! The cake disappeared within only ten mins in Marko's work tea room. The guys almost inhaled it, so it must have been good.

Emily xoxo

On your marks, get set, go!

2011-01-12T09:33:00.000+10:00

There are times when I find myself watching my darling husband Marko when he is playing with my nephew Jonah, when my heart swells and I fall more in love with him. These times also remind me how much his heart breaks every day at not having his two sons in our life.

The following series of photos were taken by my mum at Dicky Beach on one of the few days it didn't rain.

Marking the starting line

Showing Jonah how to line up for a race

On your marks, get set (Jona starts running on get set), GO!

And they race off down the beach

Until Marko catches Jonah and tickles him. Jonah laughs the whole way.

I love him so much!

A Special Christmas Gift

2011-01-11T15:36:00.000+10:00

The dress below was a work in progress for a little over a year. I'm just glad I thought to make it in a larger size. I made this dress for my gorgeous niece Eleanor and had it finished in time to give to her for Christmas. She loved it, but due to the muddy and wet conditions she didn't get to wear it while we were camping. I'm hoping to get a picture of her wearing it soon.

Like this dress, I have lots of unfinished smocking projects waiting for me to get my act together and sew them up. Mum and Dad bought me an overlocker for Christmas / birthday and once I know how to use it I'll whip through all those dresses!!

Secret Women's Business

2011-01-10T08:54:00.000+10:00

While we were camping all the guys got together - Dad said it was secret men's business. For Christmas all was revealled. They had all conspired to buy us girls 2 hours worth of pampering at a massage palour at sunshine plaza. Each of them had paid for their partner and put money towards Erica's 2hr pampering session. So we had to choose how to use our two hours. I decided to have a one hour full body massage followed by a reflexology foot massage and detox.

Me sitting in the comfy massage chair getting the foot reflexology!

My darling sister, sitting beside me also getting a foot reflexology and foot detox.

On the other side of me, Jess - my brother Matt's girlfriend, having the foot reflexology only.

The foot detox was really interesting. It was a bucket of clear water to start with. There was some sort of electrical thing in the water and I had a wrist band which was also set up to the same controller box. I'm so not sure how it worked - but this is what it said in the brochure:

AOK Ion Clense (Body Detox foot bath) - It is a detox water foot bath which uses brass and stainless steel electrodes. A 30 minute treatment session can rebalance your body by safely mobilising residues and wastes stored within your body. It is a gentle, non-invasive therapy that detoxifies the body through your feet, helping restore your natural equilibrium and wellbeing. The array generates a stream of positive and negative ions. Through the process of osmosis and electrolysis these ions stimulate your body and organs, mobilising waste products. The machine does not cure any disease or condition but assists the body to detoxify different organs and tissues of the body. It may improve: liver and kidney function, general circluation and metabolism, arthritis, headaches and migraines, skin problems, menstrual pain, PMS and general wellbeing and balance of the whole body.

This is what the water looked like after 30 mins!! Gross isn't it!!

Bon Jovi Concert @ Suncorp Stadium

2011-01-09T11:57:00.002+10:00

I have loved Bon Jovi since I was a teenager and I have often dreamed of seeing the band live. So when I heard that Bon Jovi would be coming to Australia, we moved heaven and earth to afford the tickets to be able to go.

We arrived in Caloundra on the Saturday and had 3 days of rain. With a sunny day on Tuesday there was heaps we wanted to do to dry out the site. But it was also the day of the Bon Jovi concert. We met a lovely couple near us who were also going to the concert. Initially we were planning to drive to Caboolture to catch the train in to Suncorp Stadium. The people we met said that they were going to drive as far as Boondall station and catch the train from there and they offered to take us with them. So we had a lift!

I felt like a kid in a lolly shop, so excited I could hardly sit still. We got to Suncorp Stadium and I was disappointed to discover that our seats were second row from the top, but hey, we were there to experience it!

Walking to our seats, I was very worried I'd trip and fall, but I managed to make it safely to my seat.

We thoroughly enjoyed the concert. Going was like a dream come true for me. They played most of my favourite songs.

Oh yeah, and Jon Bon Jovi is still so HOT!!!!

A crazy adventure!!

2011-01-08T20:57:00.002+10:00

This adventure started early in the week when my buddy Becc asked me if I knew when Garage Sales were advertised in the fair city of Roma (where we live). I told her what I knew, that she would have to wait until Friday's paper. She asked me if I was interested in going to any garage sales that might be on and I said yes, little did I know I was in for an interesting day.

I bought the paper on Friday and we were thrilled to see that there were two Garage Sales on, one in Roma and one on a back road near Wallumbilla. Now Wallumbilla is about 15 mins out of Roma along the main highway towards Miles. I tried to convince Becc that my Ford Territory (a fake 4wd) rather than her station wagon, but she insisted that it would be fine. If I had a dollar for each time I said - see I told you we should have brought my car - I'd be rich!!

So Becc picked me up at 6:30 and we headed to Maccas for coffee and my breakfast, then to the first garage sale, which was a HUGE disappointment. We quickly left and thought it would be good to get a head start getting out to the other sale. Little did we know that even with 40 minutes we'd still arrive after 8 am.

Through the week I'd thought about googling the address of the sale, but thought we'd be ok. Becc decided to use her non-NavMan (another brand and I can't remember what it was called.)

When the going was good!!!

All was going well, we were laughing and joking, then suddenly the nav system told Becc she had to go 100m then do a Uturn.... we were a little shocked, however we did as it said. At this point I decided to consult my maps app on my iPhone. It told me to head back the way we'd come then turn up a little side road. We decided to follow my iPhone after I correctly pointed out to Becc that her Nav system had left us in the middle of nowhere.

So we journeyed back the way we'd come - back through the water that had Becc freaking out - and we went to turn up the side road, only it was a bush track. Becc just looked at me and said "this can't be it" I said " Nope it isn't lets keep going." We came to the side road and bravely turned onto it. It was a dirt road.

We inched along the road - No I'm not kidding, it was like being driven BY Miss Daisy - and we came to some water. I told Becc not to freak out and that we could easily go through it. I told her to just go slow and steady (and she did). We kept going until we came to quite a large body of water covering the road and Becc refused to even consider crossing it which was of course very sensible. She freaked out a little (get a load of her face) and I had to calm her down. I told her to back slowly back to a gate I'd seen and use the gateway to turn around.

So we turned around and slowly and steadily we drove back through the numerous large puddles on the dirt road and headed back into the thriving matropolis that is Wallumbilla (populations under 500). We followed my iPhone through town and out passed the hospital - the way the paper said to come *rolls eyes* and onto a very solid dirt road.

Becc was driving like Miss Daisy this whole time - I'm sure she didn't go over 10kms. And then we came to more water....YES MORE WATER!!!

So at this point Becc pulled over (there was a car behind us) and adamently refused to drive through the water. For the millionth time I said, "If we'd brought my car..." Anyway the guy behind us sped up and wizzed around us and through the water which really wasn't very deep. Brave ole Becc said "Well if he can do it in that car I think I can do it"...she wasn't confident though. I egged her on saying of couse you can do it!!! And through we went.

We drove on....slowly....until we came to our destination.

And we couldn't see a single item out for sale. Another car was just leaving and two other cars had arrived at the same time as us. We couldn't believe it. We'd been saying for about a half an hour "this had better be worth it" and it looked like it was going to be a disaster....

TO BE CONTINUED.....

HAHA just joking!!!

It turned out that all the gear was inside. These people had packed up everything they wanted to take to their new house, and everything that was left was for sale. We wandered through and saw a few things we liked. I was busy admiring some beautiful china when Becc pounced on an amazing find. A beautiful rocking chair (I'll put a link to her blog with a pick when she loads one). She raved about how she'd looked everywhere for one when she was pregnant and how excited she was... I of couse was ~~jealous as hell~~ really happy for her!!! I didn't buy anything there, because while I was admiring the rocking chair some bird swooped in and took the pretty china I was going to buy.

Becc and the old dude selling his stuff, found a way to cram the rocking chair into the back of the car beside the pram. And here's the kicker - she only paid $35 for it!!!!

The old bloke told us to go another way back into town and as we drove along we were horrified to find ourselves back on the original road we'd been on, minus the water - except for one small crossing that was barely more than a puddle.

But our grand adventure did not stop there.

As we drove back to town, Becc suggested that we go to the second hand store while we were out but first we had to go back to her house, unload the rocking chair and give Charlie a bottle. At the second hand shop Becc drooled over bookcases and we both drooled over beautiful hutches. As we were wandering around we found some real bargains! Bottles 10c each and even an old vacola $48!!! A stove top one, just what I'd been looking for. It was quite exciting and did redeem my day.

And next time, WE ARE GOING IN MY CAR!!!!

Emily xoxo

A very wet holiday

2011-01-05T11:28:00.001+10:00

When I last posted I was only a week or so away from finishing school and going on a camping trip to Caloundra with my family - yes my WHOLE family (Mum, Dad, James [my bro], his wife Sonia and their 3 kids, Matt [my other bro], his girlfriend Jess, Erica [my sister] and my adorable husband Marko).

The final weeks of school were seriously insane. Over the Christmas holidays the cleaners clean the wet area with a machine that scrubs it within an inch of it's life, and the carpet cleaners come. In the past all the furniture was moved onto the carpet so the wet area floor could be cleaned, but no one moved the furniture back so the carpets could be cleaned. So in amoungst the Christmas parties we were hosting for all the SEU students' teachers and parents I had a brainwave - why couldn't the cleaners do the floor at another time. I went and spoke to the two lovely ladies in question and they agreed to do it in the last week of school. This meant that we spent a day moving furniture off the wet area floors and then after it was scrubbed we spent a day moving it off and then moving all the furniture off the carpetted areas for the carpet cleaning.

So yes school finished on a good but crazy note.

The last two weeks of school also saw a heap of rain. Roads were cut off and we started to get worried that we wouldn't be able to get to Caloundra for our holiday. On the Wednesday before school finished I text messaged Dad (who was already camping with Mum, Jonah and Eleanor - James' two older kids) to find out if our site was available a day early, it was, so we left early on Saturday morning. That decision in itself caused other issues - such as when to pack the trailer, but we managed and got away early!!.

Our trip went very smoothly, but it rained the whole way there. I took lots of pics on my iPhone but haven't downloaded them yet from my phone. We arrived at Dicky Beach Caravan Park at about 11 and quickly got frustrated setting up the camper trailer for the first time. We had borrowed it from my Aunt and due to the rain hadn't had a chance to practice putting it up.

We had the trailer set up and just got the tarp over it and it started to rain. And so began the wettest camping trip I have ever been on. I think we ended up with maybe 4 sunny days in two weeks and maybe 6 days without rain.

Inside our borrowed Camper trailer!!

Our bed

A river runs through it!!! This is Mum and Dad's kitchen, and the water and mud running through are coming from our site and Matt's site which are higher...

Plus water from the tarps was running off on the high side of the kitchen then running straight back down through it. The entire eating/cooking area became a muddy smelly mess. I was chatting to one of the regular campers and she suggested we go to bunnings and purchase some garden edging to create a gutter to divert the water....

And so we did! This is our gutter - it actually worked really well.

Our gutter was just 10 metres of garden edging held down with tent pegs.

It rained and rained and rained...

One plus was the copius amounts of rainwater available for drinking, cups of tea and coffee. Yes, I filled that whole kettle by holding it under the stream of water coming off mum and dad's tarp.

Probably a once in a life time shot - Dad in a santa hat AND a rain coat, handing out Christmas presents. We celebrated Christmas a week early due to the water everywhere and the fact that James' family were going home for actual Christmas day, and Matt and his girlfriend Jess were heading to her family's place for Christmas day too. It was quite an experience, we couldn't put anything on the ground in case it got wet and we couldn't really hear what anyone was saying because the rain was so loud.

Our Christmas tree!!

Our feet were constantly muddy and dirty for the whole two weeks. I told Marko we should all have beautifully soft feet because of all the mud treatments we got!!

And it rained some more!!

The worst part was the smell of the mud...just disgusting!!

We ended up packing up on the 24th and leaving the camping ground on Christmas day. All the flood water was rising and we were worried that we wouldn't be able to get home. But we did....phew!! The roads closed only a day or two later. I've spent the last week cleaning everything we took camping - washing down Matt's tent, the camper trailer and the tarps. Next on my list is the inside of the house. You'd never know to look at it that I did a huge clean up before we left. There are dead bugs everywhere....sigh...I think I'll leave the vacuuming until later this arvo when it is cool.

Emily xoxo

A week of affirmations!!

2010-12-05T23:23:00.002+10:00

While this week has been completely idiotic and insane, I have had three lovely things happen which have re-affirmed me in different ways.

At work I recieved an email which informed me that I had been selected from my region to attend the Positive Partnership Facilitator Training. Positive Partnerships is a government initiative which focuses on working with children with Autism and helping them to achieve. I attended the teacher training late last term and loved it. My Head of Campus and Principal are very pleased that I have been offered this opportunity and have approved my professional development request! Yay!!

Then I received a phone call from a lovely lady called Robyn from Family Planning Queensland - who I had corresponded with early in the year regarding puberty programs for special education students. She rang to ask me if I would like to be involved in the regional network project she is starting next year. She said that over the course of the year she has visited a lot of SEUs and that my puberty program is the best she has seen and she wants my input (another pat on the back - and no my swollen head did not prevent me from leaving the building at school, we have quite a wide doorway...lol

The third and final exciting thing that happened this week, also happens to be my favourite. I received an award at the gym presentation night! My first award ever!!! So it is no secret that I'm very overweight and have been working hard this year to overcome some of the obstacles which have been stopping me from losing the weight. I have persisted at the gym, although I am not very fit and have felt my fitness levels and strength improve. The break through for me was the book Women Food and God by Geneen Roth, but that isn't the point of this post.

The lovely lady who originally got me going at the gym was Elise Franks. Sadly, Elise passed away 5 months ago and her sister has taken over the running of the gym. When it came time for them to do the awards, her sister decided to name an award after Elise. It is called the 'Elise Franks Inspirational Award' and as she was introducing the award she said that the intention was that the award would go to someone who was not used to going to the gym, was not a gym junkie or fitness fanatic and someone who had persisted and was coming to the gym regularly. Obviously I am very proud to be the first recipient. I was told that all the staff at the gym all nominated me when asked who they thought should get the award, and one of Elise's close friends told me that she was positive Elise herself would have picked me, because she had commented so many times over the year how proud she was of how well I was going.

Well, needless to say half the people there were in tears, and I had tears in my eyes too. I was incredibly touched, excited and just plain awestruck that they would see fit to give an award to me. I am starting to make some ground and I'm really feeling good about going to Zumba rather than doing weights.

My darling hubbie also won an award (a certificate and a voucher for a massage) for consistent cardio workouts. Yay for us!!

If this coming week wasn't the last for the year, it wouldn't have a hope of beating last week. Marko cleared his old cricket trophies off the top of the tv cabinet and put mine there instead. He is so proud of me (and I am too!!)

Emily xoxo

Week 9 - finished

2010-12-04T23:23:00.000+10:00

The school year is coming to a close (just finished week 9) and things just keep getting busier!! You'd think they'd be slowing down, but there is just so much to cram into these last couple of weeks. I'm finished my reports (thank goodness - what a nightmare they were) and so I have been able to focus on the other things we have had planned.

On Tuesday we held a Christmas Party for all the teachers, admin staff, cleaners and grounds staff who work with or do things for those us who work in the SEU. My students wrote and made the invitations and we have been busily baking all term (and filling my deep freezer) in preparation. The kids spent the day before wrapping and putting tags on the individual Christmas cakes they were going to give out as gifts and the two hours before the party cutting up fruit, making dips, heating mini quiches, making sandwiches, heating cheerios and putting sweets onto trays. The party itself was a HUGE success. I have had emails almost every day congratulating us on the party.

Then we did it all over again on Wednesday for the parents of our students. That party was a little more relaxed but just as much food had to be prepared, so Wednesday arvo I was already exhausted. We had a pretty low key days Thursday and Friday trying to recover.

This week coming will be insane too. On Wednesday we have to move all the furniture off the wet area floor so the cleaners can scrub the floor on Thursday - while we are at the Bowls Club for Barefoot Bowls. Then on Friday we move all the furniture and resources from the carpet onto the newly scrubbed wet area floor so that the carpets can be cleaned.

A busy few days still to come..

Emily xoxo

Getting healthier...slowly

2010-12-01T23:03:00.000+10:00

Remember back when I took a photo of myself in my gym gear a few months ago? Well 8 kgs later I decided to take another picture.

Can you spot a difference?

Photo from a few months ago

Today's photo

Honestly, I can't. Maybe the shirt is a little looser areound the abdomenal area, and maybe there isn't as much lumpy padding on my side under my arm now.... not sure. I do know that I have lost 8kgs and I know my clothes fit better. I did measure myself a month or so ago, but my home computer has died and I can't access the file with the details, at this time. Apparently I can try starting up in safe mode to access photos and data. I'll try on the weekend.

I had my third Zumba class this week, and I think I'm starting to get the hang of it. It has certainly proved to me that I'm fitter than I thought and can push myself a little harder when I do my normal workouts.

Today... I JOGGED.

For the first time in years. I jogged 1 minute, walked 1, jogged 1, walked 1 and jogged 1. How great am I!!! So I'm slowly making progress. I keep looking at the gorgeous pants I bought from Entitled online and can't wait to fit into them.

Did I mention I love 'Women Food and God" by Geneen Roth

2010-11-29T21:38:00.001+10:00

As I may or may not have mentioned at an earlier point in time, a lovely friend of mine was watching Oprah earlier this year (so jealous - we don't recieve channel 10 out here) and on the book club they had 'Women Food and God' and Geneen Roth was talking about her book. When she mentioned it to us (2 other friends in a facebook group trying to bust the weight monster), we thought it would be great to do our own little book club on it.

I am so totally in love with this book. Corny I know, and seriously I'm not making money off carrying on about this book. Since I read this book and changed the way I think about eating, I've lost 5.1kgs. Impressive isn't it. Yes I've hit some stumbling blocks, and yes it's taken a while, but what is most important is that I'm getting a handle on monitoring my thoughts and only eating till I'm full.

Like right now, there is a magnum ice cream sitting in my fridge, calling out my name. "Emily.... come and eat me.... you know you want to.... you know it will make you happy....".

But, AM I HUNGRY???

NO.

Do I want to eat it?

My mind says yes but my body says, no thanks I'm quite satisfied from the yummy chicken spag bol you fed me for dinner.

My how I have grown. Maintaining the thought patterns is something I have to be constantly aware of. I often find myself having put food in my mouth and I'm already chewing when I think WTF how did that get into my mouth. I didn't actually decide to eat that..but here I am chewing on it. At that point I have to decide, do I swallow it, or spit it out. 9 times out of 10, lets be realistic, 10 times out of 10 I swallow it. I want to say I spit it out, but I have real issues with wasting food.

I love this book so much, I actually bought another 2 copies!! One is for my darling mum for Christmas and the other is to loan out to my friends because I can't be without my copy. I am about to start reading it again, for the third time!!!

Seriously, at least google the book.

One of my favourite sections of the book Reteaching Loveliness - and here is my favourite quote from that section:

'The shape of your body obeys the shape of your beliefs about love, value and possibility. To change your body, you must first understand that which is shaping it. Not fight it. Not force it. Not deprive it. Not shame it. Not do anything but accept and understand it. Because if you force and deprive and shame yourself into being thin, you end up a deprived, shamed, fearful person who will also be thin for ten minutes'.

Ahhh.. the lightbulb moments in this book are amazing!!!

Emily xoxo

The new love in my life...

2010-11-28T21:59:00.001+10:00

...is my new iphone!

Although I still don't know how to use it properly, and I'm still figuring out the whole downloading aps business...I love love love it.

I love that it keeps track of an sms conversation.

I love that I can sync it to my laptop calender - I should never forget a meeting again as long as I remember to put it in one of the calenders...

I love that it doubles as an ipod, not that I have any music on it yet.

I love that I can facebook from it...not that I have yet.

I love that the case is pink...

I love that when you have to type something in, the keys are in the querty arrangement.

Like I said, I love it!!!

Emily xoxo

Zumba in Roma

2010-11-27T22:12:00.000+10:00

So this week I decided to brave my first class at the gym. I have been going to the gym since March and have been happy to just work at my own program. But this week I talked my new buddy Becc into coming with me.

It was SO much fun. We laughed the whole way through it...while desperately trying to keep up with the Zumba guy. My darling hubbie was up the front, as per the request of the Zumba guy, because he has been a few times. We boogied away, sweated and laughed!

So last night I decided to brave the Friday night class, without Becc. Marko (darling hubbie) was there, but he is so fit and keeps up so well. I just kept thinking of the funny comments Becc had made on Tuesday. Seriously, Zumba is a heap of fun. I find it really hard to keep up with some of the moves - I just can not keep up, but I figure if I keep going I should be right.

I also weighed myself yesterday and was thrilled to discover that I've lost 3kgs this week. Pretty mammoth effort I recon!! Thank goodness for the book that changed my life - Women food and God, but more on that another time.

Emily xoxo

Baby shower invitations

2010-11-26T21:42:00.000+10:00

A lovely friend of mine is due to have her first baby in January and I nominated myself as the organiser of her baby shower. I have to admit that amongst report cards and end of year paperwork, I'm very late in beginning to organise the happy afternoon tea.

I've decided to make magnet invitations, so that all of the guests can put them on their fridge. I'm thinking that they will look something like this!

Cute aren't they! I'm looking for a template to use for the bottle. I'm going to make them in pale yellow and green as the babies gender is to be a surprise.

I'll take photos as I go so that you can see how I make them.

Emily xoxo

That 70c....

2010-11-25T21:53:00.000+10:00

Question:

What happens to coins that have been stuck inside your washing machine drainage system??

Answer:

They kill your washing machine and come out looking like this!!

So the moral of the story is? Make sure you check the pockets of EVERY item you put in your washing machine!!!

Emily xoxo

What can you possibly do with 70c?

2010-11-24T21:37:00.000+10:00

The answer my blogging friends, is screw up your washing machine. Yes you heard correctly....SCREW UP THE WASHING MACHINE.

Several years ago my darling hubbie and I moved into a unit that had a laundry in a cupboard (a novel idea that I just loooove..but more on that another time) and our washing machine wouldn't fit into the small space provided...by like 4mm. So we went to our then local second hand washing machine guy and traded in our old machine for a front loader from a deceased estate. It is a wonderful machine, appart from how long it takes to do a cycle and it keeps our clothes lovely and clean.

Well, on Thursday of last week it decided to die. Well when I say die, it was happily washing away and then wouldn't drain. The clothes were still sitting in water. I did the only thing I could do, gathered up a heap of towels and slowly drained the bitch of a thing. I used vinegar and bicarb to flush out the drain pipe, and again it wouldn't drain. On Friday morning we moved it outside and drained it onto the grass... what a crappy end to a crappy week.

So we have been discussing what to do with it since then. We figure our house insurance should cover it, but it may not cost that much to fix. So this afternoon I took the back off it and had a looky inside...looked ok to me, so I thought I'd wait for the darling man to arrive home. He turned it over on it's side and opened up the pipes attached to the pump....and guess what fell out....

You guessed it!!!

70c

Now I hear you gasp in horror but it gets worse. We laughed about the coins and put it back together (kinda one of those if you didn't laugh you'd cry moments) and I had the bright idea of testing out the machine before we bothered moving it back inside. I got the hose and filled the inside with water and we hooked it up the electricity and what do you know....it worked. It successfully drained itself.

Feeling very chuffed with ourselves we went off to our gym and worked really hard. When we got home we moved the machine back inside and put a load on. Next thing the darling hubbie is yelling from the laundry..... "there is water pouring out the door".... WTF!!!! So evidently while outside something not so great went wrong with the seal, and then the bitch wouldn't drain....again!!!

So plan of attack?

Tomorrow I am going to ~~throw machine down the stairs~~ ring the local machine repairer and get them to pick the damn thing up and give us a quote on how much it will be to fix it. I am also going to ring our insurer and find out what our excess would be on replacing a washing machine....then I'll throw it down the damn stairs.

I do apologise for the angry content of the above post....I am excessively frustrated!!!

Emily xoxo

Hot pink face cloths

2010-11-14T08:15:00.000+10:00

Okay, so I'm hoping the photos will load this time....here goes...

Yay!! So this one I've put a lipstick next to them so you can get an idea of their size.

Aren't they so cute!!!

I figure that if I need 3 per day, I'll need to knit between 10 and 20 of them, depending on how often I was them. The ones I use for toner I can just rinse out and reuse, but the make up ones may need a proper wash. I'll have wait and play around with it to figure out the best way to work it.

Below is the beginning of the first blue one. I was online till 1am this morning looking at patterns and trying to work out the stockinette stitch, which is actually just the stocking stitch, which is the stitch I used in the centre of the yellow and pink cloths, just didn't know that was what it was called. So I'll continue working on it today.

I chose to do a different border on this one as the designer claims that it won't curl like my yellow and pink ones did. This may become my favourite pattern if it doesn't curl. It's looking good so far, but I'll reserve judgment until it is finished.

Emily xoxo

New Projects

2010-11-14T08:03:00.000+10:00

The last couple of weeks have seen me take on some exciting new projects. Well I find them exciting!!
My new friend (who scarily is almost like the twin I never had and was separated at birth from - appart from the fact she is nearly 10yrs younger than me - anyhow I digress) found this amazing blog called Frugal and Thriving and she shared the link with me and we are OBSESSED. So much so that her darling husband is sick of hearing her use the word FRUGAL in his presence.

Firstly we got really excited about the chemical free cleaning ideas. I'm totally not a hippie, but I have always been concerned about the chemicals that are in the products we use each and every single day. So I'm going to start to use these ideas - but I'll use up my old cleaning products first because I really can't afford to just throw out a bunch of stuff and besides it would end up in landfill - not a good plan.

Then, we got even more excited when we learned that the amazing Melissa (creator of Frugal and Thriving) knits her own cleaning cloths. Yes, knits!!! So my lovely friend and I organised to meet at Aces (see previous post) knowing we shouldn't venture in alone (hehehe) and searched for the perfect wool to (yes we are mad) knit our own dish cloths and cleaning cloths. We dug through piles of wool and eventually found two colours we both liked. Oh yeah, we'd decided to colour code our cloths so we didn't forget which cloths were for cleaning the toilet etc and which ones were for the kitchen area. So we got two balls each one blue and one yellow. Yellow for the cleaning and blue for the kitchen. My good friend had never knitted before, and she's a lefty, so I set about trying to teach her to knit....yes I said trying....I hadn't laughed so hard in a long time. I think in the end we both stuffed them up so we started again - not that it would have mattered for cleaning cloths, but we did start again.

And here is the result of my knitting!

Front

Back

I have actually now knitted two of these dish cloths (that's all I could get out of one ball). I'm saving the little scrap of wool that is left over and plan to make a multi-coloured something, sometime.

Then just the other night, I couldn't sleep and I'd started knitting my first blue cloth using a new pattern, and I didn't know how do to the stitch required for the centre (little did I know it was the same as the stitch used in the two yellow cloths) and I was thinking about how far I would go with this frugal living. I thought about all the wasteful practices I have, that I'm willing to change. One that really lept out at me was the disposable cotton pads I used to clean off my make up and tone when I'm doing my usual face routine. I use three of these cotton suckers a day and throw them in the bin. I know they are small but it's the small changes that sometimes make a big difference. So I thought maybe I could knit little cloths to use for removing my make up and toning. The next day I bravely faced Aces alone...yes alone...and made a wonderful discover. In amoungst the overflowing shelves I found some balls of bamboo 'wool' for knitting. Bamboo material is just incredible. It is used in the new modern cloth nappies another friend of my mine is raving about - perhaps another post should be devoted to the cloth nappy. Anyhow, the bamboo is so soft and great for a babies bottom so I thought, maybe it would be a nice soft yarn to use for little face cloths. So I bought two rolls of hot pink bamboo yarn and knitted two lovely soft little cloths.

Grr I'm having trouble loading the photos..... I'll have to post them separately. But I'm really pleased with them. It is so much fun creating stuff. I just love it!!

Emily xoxo

2 weeks later...

2010-11-14T07:23:00.000+10:00

Like with any new lifestyle choice, changing your habititual behaviour is pivital to success. In my first week I was definately running high on motivation and had great results. Week 2 saw me so excited I weighed myself too often and was disappointed when I lost 1kg - as earlier in the week it looked like I'd lose another 2kg.

Then,

we went away for the weekend. Changed my routine. Not so great! I didn't think much about it before hand, and I tell you the planning is EVERYTHING. So we went to Biloela to visit my Aunt and Uncle. The had offered us their camper trailer to use over the Christmas break, but we had to drive up and collect it. Mum and Dad decided to also drive up and visit the rellies. It was a great trip and I did well with my food and eating only what my body wanted (I swear it did want the two donuts!!!). Then on Saturday night - all the Bilo rellies decended on my Aunt's house for dinner and to see us. Mainly I think it was about the free food...LOL.

Anyway my old habits kicked into action. The footy was on the tv, everyone was talking and there were so many distractions I didn't even check to see if I was hungry. I LOADED my plate with potato bake, lasagne and salad, and after the second bite the warning sign that I was full rang out. Unfortunately I was immediately distracted by my Dad handing me a rum (probably my third and I seriously don't need many). I then polished off the entire plate!! And then I had dessert. I was pretty good, only had the fruit salad and meringues - but by the time I finished I felt so incredibly sick. I thought I might be able to wait it out, but I felt like I needed to vomit it all up - and I wished later that I had. My stomach was so bloated and I was in agony - maybe this is all too much information... but it is what it is.
I went straight to bed and lay there dozing fitfully trying to get comfy. It was so painful that I have now a new resolve to think before I eat. As a result of either my binging weekend or the fact that I gain 2kg during this particular time of the month, my weight was up - I decided not to record it this week and wait for the coming Friday for things to even out. I guess it has made me realise that like changing any habit it is going to take time before I can eat only what I need without focussing completely on it almost every minute of the day to make sure I'm not piling the food into my mouth. I also need to plan ahead. I have two more weekends away coming up, one for my devine niece's Christening and one out to Charleville to visit my parents and test our skills at setting up the camper trailer.....so I'll have to make a plan of action! Sometime before Friday...

Emily xoxo

Results...

2010-10-30T12:35:00.000+10:00

Well my new way of [trying to] thinking about food has paid off. This week I lost a massive 2.2kgs!!! It wasn't an easy week in some ways, yet in others it was a breeze. I didn't feel like I was on a diet, rather I felt like I could eat whatever I wanted - the difference was that I didn't eat just because I could. The hard part was finding food in my mouth or hand on my way to my mouth, without having made the concious choice to eat. I found it very interesting questioning myself when I thought I was hungry only to find I was feeling bored or tired.

I think I probably have cut back the quantity of food I consume buy up to 3/4, and I'm not hungry. I feel satisfied and happy - ewww you all say - yes I was way over eating ALL the time.

This week I'm focusing on expecting a little more from myself at the gym and continuing my good work from last week.

On a very very very exciting note, my tax return will be enough to cover the operation Marko has to have for us to have kids!! He has an appointment in November with the specialist then the op will be in January!!! Yay!!

Emily xoxo

My mission!

2010-10-24T17:33:00.000+10:00

Back in July I posted on my health and fitness - made several goals and stuck to only one of them. I started my discussion group on facebook and have tried to regularly post there with my buds who are also trying to get healthier. A few weeks into our discussion groups existence, Tam heard about a book on Oprah called 'Women, Food and God' by Geneen Roth. We decided that we should do an online book club around the book and all purchased a copy. Initially I got about halfway through and then got distracted by school. So last week after talking at length with my gorgeous cousing Isla, I picked it up again and started reading from the beginning.

This book is going to CHANGE MY LIFE.

I am thinking about food differently, I am thinking about why I want to eat when I reach for food when I'm not hungry, and I'm trying to live in the here and now. Now some of you may think 'So What?' but for me this is a BIG BIG deal. I eat when I am sad, bored, happy, lonely, excited, tired, frustrated, worried - basically anytime I'll eat - but usually I'm really not hungry. I'm what Geneen refers to as a Permitter - I constantly allow myself to just eat what I want when I want with no thought about whether A: I'm hungry or B:if I'm hungry then what food does my body need and want. I just eat whatever I can get my hands on and usually a lot of it.

I think the other part of this book that appeals to me is the fact that she is trying to teach her readers to trust their innate judgement. I have always believed my judgement was flawed. I find it insanely hard to make decisions and often let others decide for me. What I am learning through reading this book and trying to get in touch with my body is that if I listen to what my body wants, not what my mind is telling me I want, I will eat appropriately and eventually I will reach my healthy weight. I know it's kinda radical. Geneen descibes diets as simply a means to punish ourselves for being overweight and that because we aren't really in touch with or listening to our body it can't be sustained. Makes sense to me!

Therefore I have decided to use this book as my guide. I have spent the last two days focussing on my body and what it needs for fuel. I have been suprised by how little I have needed and amazed at the difference between what my body appears to need and the quantity I have been eating. No wonder I'm overweight!

I have also been reading Cathy Zielske's blog (she's lost about 20kg this year) and one of the things I love is that she has been taking photos in her bathroom mirror to document the change in her body. So here's mine for now:

I'm also doing a 12 week challenge with my friend Sonia - my challenge is to go to the gym 3 times per week and to eat only when I'm hungry.... Week one just finished and I lost 200gms...better than nothing I say.

Here's to getting healthy!!

Emily xoxo

Random Notes on a Friendship album - by Moira Coates

2010-10-17T11:51:00.000+10:00

This beautiful album was made specially for me by the very talented and beautiful Moira Coates. She made it as a gift for me when we moved from Warwick to Roma in 2008. I miss this woman so much, her friendship is so important to me.

So enjoy looking at this amazing album which celebrates our years of friendship.

Emily xoxo

Dicky Beach holiday album - in progress

2010-10-17T10:48:00.000+10:00

Here it is so far! I still have quite a few pages to add and some to put on the rear of the patterned pages already created. I am happy with the overall look so far and can't wait to start taking the pictures for it when we go on holidays.

Emily xoxo

Holiday album

2010-10-13T22:24:00.000+10:00

Inspiration struck in a major way over the weekend and I pulled out a Kaiser album that I've had for at least 12 months and I decided to turn it into a holiday mini album. I was inspired by my dear friend Moira who created all the the pages of her road trip album (seen here) prior to going on her holiday. She then took the album and a small stash that all co-ordinated with her papers and she added photos and postit notes of what they did as they travelled. When she got home there wasn't too much more to do with it other than to print out journalling and add titles and extra embellishments. Inspiring isn't she!

So I have set about creating a 'Dicky Beach' mini album. This Christmas will be our third year going to Dicky Beach caravan park camping. My entire family goes, and this year we have tried to book four joining sites (well I still haven't booked so we'll see where we end up). I am planning to have the whole mini album covered and additional pages added before leaving for the holiday. Over the two weeks I will take lots of pics and get them printed down there and add them in while it's all fresh. I haven't photographed what I've done so far, but I'll do that for you all tomorrow. In the meantime, check out Moira's road trip album. I LOVE it and she's had it published in a magazine - I forget which one.

Emily xoxo

A return to the land of Blogging..

2010-10-09T14:19:00.000+10:00

OH how slack I have been!! I can't believe it has been so long since I posted. Just so you are aware - the last few weeks of a school term you are unlikely to hear from me. I also promised my hubbie I would try to keep the computer off during our two weeks holiday - and amazingly I did!

So what have I been up to? Not a lot scrapping or smocking wise. Last night I went to a stitch, scrap and socialise cancer council fundraiser and had a lovely time. I got seriously paid out because I took my whole scrap stash (I hadn't organised what I was going to work on so I just took everything) and met some lovely people. I am planning on going each Tuesday night. It is technically a patchwork night each Tuesday but Becc tells me that she goes and scraps. So perhaps I will start getting a little more accomplished. I got one 30 x 30 layout nearly completed last night - will post a photo when it is finished. I laughed a lot and really enjoyed getting out and scrapping. Yay!!

Emily xoxo

Scrapbooking Weekend

2010-07-10T11:53:00.000+10:00

What a weekend!

6 or 7 friends, 2 motel rooms, 3 days, 2 nights, a conference room, lots of snacks, great food and a room full of scrapbooking supplies.

I loaded up the car (below) and drove to Toowoomba. 4 hours of listening to the audio unabridged reading of Eclipse and I arrived. Moira had booked two rooms at the Grammer View Motel. I was sharing with Moira and Michaela. We started scrapping on the Friday and kept going until Sunday.

Our tables...

Moira had organised a range of challenges for us to complete,

Then because we all finished those challenges, she set us some more!!

It was such a great weekend. The others finished amazing amounts of layouts, however I took the slow and steady approach and am thoroughly delighted with all of my layouts.

This one is not finished yet, I'll post the finished product...needs stitching and flowers!!

I am planning to journal in brown around the very edge of this layout, but won't do so until I'm am happy with what I've written!

Ahhh my other hobby. The art of smocking, this layout shows the process of pleating a full yoke.

My very late creation for one of the circle journals that are well overdue to be finished. Unfortunately some have been lost...not happy about that. I guess if we ever embark upon another of these we will keep it within a smaller group and meet to exchange the journals.

I'm really really pleased with this one. There is a pocket with a journalling tag behind the photo. It reads : "When your birthday party started you were dressed as a beautiful fairy. After three hours of fun with your friends, you had lost your wings, your fairy outfit, your shoes and your hair was no longer perfectly arranged. Sitting on the lounge, singing loudly with your dad, you were a perfectly contented fallen fairy."

I'm not happy with how I did the journalling on this one. I plan on typing it and printing it out and laying it over what I hand wrote. It is the chorus of the Brandan Walmsley song titled "Bottle Tree Lane" - Remember the good things the good Lord has given, Remember that love will remain, Here's to the wonderful life that we're living, We owe it to Bottle Tree Lane, Don't forget Bottle Tree Lane.

This song never fails to bring tears to my eyes, it is just beautiful and was written about Heroes Avenue here in Roma. Each of the bottle trees represents a soldier who died serving in WW1. The Roma district lost 136 sons which was a huge number for such a small community.

My beautiful Mum and her two grandchildren, my niece and nephew, Ele and Jonah. I took this picture on our beach holiday at Caloundra Christmas '09. I actually completed this layout when I got home, while I was still inspired!

Emily xoxo

Goals

2010-07-09T22:28:00.000+10:00

Thank goodness for technology.

Tonight I had an amazing online chat with a friend I had lost touch with years ago. We recently got back in contact but it was more the kind of contact you have with an aquaintance. Then BOOM tonight we had the most real conversation either of us had had in ages, about the topic that dominates our lives, our weight.

Let me give you some background. In 2005 I decided that the time had come for me to do something about my ballooning weight. I started going to Weight Watchers and over the nex 6 months lost 30kgs. I plateaued out, met my husband, dealt with the emotional crisis' which seemed to plague us, got married and lost my focus.

The photo below was me at Easter 2006 with my lovely Uncle Noel.

This is me 4 years later with my gorgeous friend Moira. I have put the weight back on and then some.

Marko and I have been going to the gym between 2 and 4 times a week for 3 or 4 months. I am fitter, but no lighter and certainly no slimmer. I know it is food that is the problem, and until today I was not ready to change my nasty habits.

So my friend Sonia and I have decided to get back on the weight loss merry-go-round. I have come to realise several things:

1. I will struggle with my weight all my life.

2. I need to develop a change in my lifestyle and my thought patterns in order to make this change permanently.

3. I need some extrinsic motivation to get started and to give myself something to work towards.

4. I need to be able to share the journey with someone and have someone who understands what it like to look in the mirror and think 'oh my god, how did it come to this' then head for the fridge or cupboard to eat the feelings away.

5. Not doing something about my weight will make it harder for me to fall pregnant.

6. I want to fall pregnant next year!

I know this is a detour away from my craft and hobbies, but this needed to be written down. I need to keep track of why I'm doing this and keep a record of my progress.

So my goals are:

To lose 15 - 25 kgs (between .5 and 1 kg per week) by Christmas.
To keep going to the gym 4 nights per week.
At each 5 kg mark reward myself - not sure how yet - and take a photo.
To only weigh myself once per week then inform Sonia of my progress.
To think positively about myself and what I can achieve.

Here goes!!

Emily xoxo

Chloe's Dress

2010-07-06T14:48:00.000+10:00

Here are the phots of the smocked dress I made for my darling friend's daughter Chloe. Now I just need to finish the dress I started for her older sister Cassie.

Emily xoxo

update..

2010-07-06T14:00:00.000+10:00

How fast does a month go?

FAST!

I almost don't know where to start in updating my blog.. Initially I was caught up in the usual end of term craziness. I was completely over my students and completely over being at school. I was tired, stressed and cranky - with 3 weeks of term left to go. Each time I felt I should blog I had nothing nice to say. Lovely huh. So I avoided the computer, started testing and writing reports.

Then, unexpectely the floor fell out from underneath us. I received a phone call at school from a hospital in Brisbane. I wrongly assumed it was a call from a paediatritian I had been waiting to hear from about some missing student reports.

It wasn't the paediatrian.

It was a hospital administration staff person, with my brother-in-law Steve on hold for me. It was one of those situations when I knew I had to sit down or I would fall down. I knew it couldn't be something wrong with Marko, my husband, as he was here at work. It left very few alternatives. Marko's mother had fallen down a flight of external stairs of a high set (two story) house. He could barely get the words out, and within minutes I was almost hysterical. I established the facts: she was in a Brisbane hospital, he had not contacted Marko, she was in a coma and she was not going to survive long. I left my students with a teacher aide, unable to stop the tears, and raced to the office in search of someone to notify that I needed to leave the school grounds. My head of campus, a beautiful woman, drove me to Marko's work where I had to tell him what had happened. It was awful.

We left for Brisbane an hour later but only got as far as Toowoomba (4 out of the 5 1/2 hours we had to travel) before we received a phone call telling us Mama had passed. We both sat there stuck in traffic, crying. We finally made it to Brisbane and went to the hospital. There we met up with family and Marko had his chance to say goodbye. I think he thought she would miraculously wake up out of her coma had we made it in time.

For the next week I was here in Roma alone trying to finish my reports, while Marko stayed with his brother Steve making the arrangements, then the next weekend in Toowoomba with the family. When we finally got home we were so exhausted. I had another week of school to try to get through.

My first few days of holidays were spent selfishly. I lost myself in some books I'd saved for the holidays, and spent some time with my friend Lisa and her new baby boy.

This weekend just gone was just the medicine I needed. I spent two nights and three days in Toowoomba scrapbooking with some of my girlfriends. I didn't get anywhere near as many layouts done as they did, but I'm really pleased with each one!

I feel refreshed and almost myself again. Men are strange creatures. Mine doesn't talk much about what is going on in his head and it is a battle to get him to talk to me about how he is feeling. I worry that he is not handling his grief and that he is not sharing it with me. I know everyone deals with these things differently, but I do worry about him. I guess the best I can do is be here and love him.

Emily xoxo

Week in the Life Album - update

2010-05-30T15:27:00.000+10:00

It's been several weeks since Ali Edwards ran her Week in the Life 2010 project. I started a little late (as Ali was finishing) and have been struggling to finish it. The main problem is that I have too many projects on the go at once. I have several smocked dresses half completed, an insert for a romper for Lisa's baby (due in 4 weeks) half finished and several scrapbooking projects on the go as well. This week (on Wednesday) I decided I needed to finish this dress for my darling friend's daughter Chloe. It was her birthday yesterday and I decided I wanted to finish the dress and post it. I seriously should have thought it through a little more.

Chloe trying the dress on (months and months ago).

All it needed was hemming, the tule needed to be stitched to the peticoat and the buttons and button holes needed doing. I got it finished very late Thursday night then put it in the post on Friday. I've primed her mum who is going to photograph her opening the box. I can't wait to see the pictures.

So that is why only yesterday I started cropping and sticking photos into my week in the life paper bag album. One of the down sides of paper bag albums, is that if you need an extra page or if you miscount at the beginning (yep I really did) then you can't add pages. As it turned out it was a blessing in disguise as I had two days late in the week where I had almost no photos. So what you are about to see is the half finished album. There are no opening pages, collages or journalling yet.

Enjoy!

Will make sure I get more pics up as I finish it!!

Emily xoxo