inspiration.

Have you heard about pintrest?

It's such an awesome site.  I have recently signed up and started my own inspirational pin boards http://pinterest.com/tmont/ for a few different things, but I have found it to be a godsend for things like new up-do's for Layla and Evie for school, art and craft projects, fashion and just for decor and house inspiration.  You can literally find anything you could need to satisfy your visual aesthetic appetite... have a look @ http://pinterest.com/about/

Sunday.

Hey there... I hope you had a lovely weekend.  Ours started off with an amazing 40th birthday party for a friend on Saturday and finished with a beautifully relaxing Sunday - here's what it looked like. x

Evie tai chi

Roses from Rosemary Meadows' garden (our babysitter)

omelet

berry and banana power smoothie

peeling broad beans from the garden

Papa preparing dinner - rabbit casserole

mending bits and bobs

family movies in the big bed

Darwin baby - yeah!

So my little family decided to treat me to some Mummy time with my beautiful sister Steph and her family in Darwin last week. Gosh I miss that place, Mark and I have discussed retiring there one day.

 I had a whole 4 days of just me time... no responsibilities no pressure, just pure bliss!  I had shopping time, Mindil market awesomeness, a trip to the day spa, wave pool, and dinner and a night out with my sis and her gorgeous friend, not to mention an overnight stay at some lovely accommodation.  It really was lovely - I even had a business class trip home booked, but due to the Qantas quandary, it will have to wait until next time :( I thought I'd share some little photos with you of my NT stay ( loving iPhone photos).  So many memories made and some really funny stories... ahhhhhhh!

Strapped in and ready for adventures

Dan and Olivia

Awwww pretty mumma and bubby

Aunty Tam Tam and the baby bird

mmmmmm Mindil market food

And were all like peas and carrots again

MELT = Mark+Evie+Layla+Tam

Whoa Mumma, what a crazy last few months!  It's been a long time between posts you guyses, and we have so much to catch up on so I'll add things bit by bit, and whenever i can over the next month to catch you up with our little family.  We have all missed each other recently, not to mention normalcy in our lives. heaps to tell stay tuned!

xo

Exactly 4 months of Craziness

Hi everyone. I've just worked out that it has been almost exactly 4 months since I last had a blog post - how sad!! So much has happened and we have had such an enormous and productive last 4 months, but without going to far into the obvious, I'll start where we are now and fill you in with the stuff I've missed as I go along... Here's what we got up to on the weekend!

Too much fairy floss can send you loco

Daddy's girl



I have finally figured out the new blogger system, so I should be back into blogging hopefully most days now... just sorting out the things I have been putting in the too hard basket during the uni semester, and I'll be set x

messages for Poppy...

"Poppy I wonder what you are doing"

Awwww little Layla is such a treasure - she decided to send a little message to her Poppy the other  day - up to heaven - via helium balloon!  I love that she still has so many memories and talkes about him to us often.  Evie never met her Poppy, but Layla has been educating her on all the fun stuff she  used to do with him.  The girls have decided that they would like to send more messages up to poppy-what a wonderful Poppy he was!

When Papas away... the girls will play!

Ingredients for a "Gals night":

3x Home-made pumpkin, leek and bacon soup
3x home-grown, freshly squeezed Orange juice
1x bubble-bath (supervised by Wilfred)
3x chuppa chups
1x Toy story 2, movie
3x new glitter, nail polish.  (chosen by the cherry blossoms)
2x kids magazines, (with stickers galore)!
1x hair crimper
1x hot rollers
1x curling iron
1x bottle of hair treatment
2x brand new winter pj's
1x pot of tea
1x beautiful warm fire
1x pretty bedtime book

Walah!   Mark has been working away a LOT lately - poor Mr.  He's really busy at the moment!  So us gals decided that we would go to Spotlight and buy some fabric for Mummy to make some buntings and hot water bottle covers (Layla and Evie have GIANT hot-water bottles to take to bed and cuddle over winter), and have a good ol' fashioned Girls night!  We scrubbed our house from tip to toe, ironed, organised and dusted, then bought ourselves a couple of little treats for our hard work!   Gosh I love my little family!  These little girls of mine are going to be heart-breakers and Mark is already drafting a "rules for dating my daughter" document... Ohhhhhhh my! xx

when a little birdy comes to visit...

...we ALL go, Ga-goo-ga-ga! We had our delightful little niece/cousin, Olivia come to visit with her beautiful Mumma and my BEAUTIFUL sister, Steph last month!

We had so many fun times and made some beautiful memories... French Earl Grey tea is my "Steph n Tam tea" from now on! We had extended breakfasts, went shopping and lunching and chatted the whole day through!

Little Liv is so loved - Layla wanted to take her to school for her "news day", and Evie just couldn't stop loving her! My favourite moment was when little Liv fell asleep whilst I was cuddling her, when Steph was packing her things to go home :( I think her Uncle Monty was a little clucky too - he kept saying..." Oh this little girl is so beautiful"! He would grab her as soon as he got home from work after saying, Hi to everyone - Ohhhhhh she's our perfect neice! We can't wait for the next visit!

How does your garden grow...

Here's what's happening in our garden this week. I would love to ramble about what's happening, but it's so much easier today to just be a shutter-bug and post photos instead.

I'm so behind with my home duties at the moment with the girls being unwell and the rain, and we have Steph and baby bird Liv, coming to stay next week so I have some serious cleaning and organising to do. We have a full house for the majority of this month, and I'm a little anxious, as we have a number of social events including our wedding anniversary as well... and with uni pending... ahhhhhh! I'm really going to have to be organised. So - apologies in advance if this blog is a little bit quiet for the next few weeks. xx

Tired.

Poor little Layla-hunny-bear, has had the worst tummy ache ever, over the last 24 hrs! We didn't realise it was so bad until I was awoken at 1.30am this morning to an ALMIGHTY burp - and the foulest smelling stench you could ever imagine!

There was Layla in the bath panicking because she LOATHES vomiting! She had broken out into a little rash and was so upset and tired, she just didn't know what to do. We decided a nice warm shower and panadol; along with an ice-block and Mr Bean should be our first "medicine" to try and remedy her discomfort. Unfortunately when that failed, and little Layla missed the bucket and started shaking after another power-puke, we decided that we needed another shower with some pretty-smelling soap and a new pair of pajamas, a huge hug, a drink of water, and Where the wild things are.

That fixed her...finally at 3.30am this morning after SCRUBBING every inch of the bathrooms with Bleach and disinfectant, Layla had fallen asleep on the lounge with her favourite fury mate Wilfred. I tucked her into bed and jumped in myself... anticipating more vomiting from Layla and considering what my options for the gym would be today if I had TWO little girls at home sick. As it turns out, Layla is still feeling delicate, but has made a speedy recovery, and Evie seems to have managed a get out of jail free card with this one. PHEEEEW!

Layla was still keen to do her school banking this morning though, so after we dropped little Evie off at "Lynda's" she dressed up in her finery and put her brave face on to take her hard-earned pennies to school for the dolarmites lady - such determination and ethics! I'm proud of her, she's still not well, but she has told me that she thinks she will be ok to go to school tomorrow, because she really wants to help her table win some more team points tomorrow - if they win, they get a treat on Friday's... who wouldn't want to go to school!

ps. I didn't make it to the gym, nor did i use my tredmill :( meetings and paperwork tomorrow are probably going to hinder my fitness plight for yet another day.

it was all yellow. Our day in pictures

Did a spot of cleaning this morning after Evie and I hit the gym



I sat down to watch the first episode of Tim Winton's Cloud Street, with a cuppa



Organising our next couple of months - Eeek, six weeks 'till Uni starts!



Evie and I went to the library today for National simultaneous storytime



A pretty bunch of dasies layla picked for me to put on the window sill


Now to start dinner! Pumpkin soup with crusty bread and apple crumble with custard x

How does your garden grow...

A decorative, edible garden - via "The daily waffle" blog

... a bloody lot better now that we have had some rain, not to mention the chicken poo(and who knows what else I spread through the gardens after our eventful Wednesday morning)! The Vegie garden is looking lush, the citrus trees have given us our first few lemons and delicious oranges, and the natives are certainly looking more awake.
I hope this rain keeps up now though. We're off to the nursery this week for some climbing beans and some other root vegies... I've made the decision to take full advantage of the gardens this year and plant a decorative patch with purple cabbages and other colourful vegies in the front gardens as well. We just need a load of manure and soil and I'm ready to go - I'm going to make the most of the rain this winter and plant vegies EVERYWHERE! I'm hoping it will add a little ompf to the soil when I dig in the left-overs over spring before we plant up our spring garden. I'm starting to think I should order my bulbs too... maybe next weeks job x


A friend was telling me that she can see a lot of the saplings on the ridge opposite her house dying due to lack of water over the summer - :( I hope they make a quick recovery with the rain we have had today x


Back next week to bitch about The Budget and Julia Gillard... Oh yes - how is this gardening related? She's a "prickle" in my arse at the moment! (that's providing we are all still here next week after The Rapture/ Judgement day).

Thank you - thank you, you've been great! I'm here till Monday, Ha hahahaha!

Mwwwwwahhh, Mwwwwwahhhh, Mwwwwahhhh

Little Beauties

Patricia Piccinini
This lady has captured my imagination with her lovely sculptures




I love the smell of this SANDALWOOD soap in winter - get from Woolworths





http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_Bj8wrXslk
The Pretenders - Don't get me wrong





Yummo



Turquoise Jewelery




http://longestacres.blogspot.com/
and this BEAUTIFUL blog - kept me day dreaming all week