Christmas wrap-up…….

Posted on December 27, 2006

Righto – so it’s the Day After Boxing Day.  Unfortunately Santa has lost his extra special use.  you all know what I mean……”santa only comes to nice children”,  “Santa will be watching to make sure you go to sleep”… you get the picture!  It’s probably a little too early to start utilising Santa for next year at this stage!

We had a lovely Christmas (as good as it can get when my soul-mate husband  was still away working!).  We drove up to Mum’s house in the afternoon on Christmas Eve – it was a bit of a last minute thing – we had lovely plans to go to a very good friend’s house for Christmas Eve – but that fell apart when the girls were feeling crook and cranky.

Mum had cooked us a yummy roast – gotta love the smell of cooked lamb!  Mackenzie enjoyed it too!

Then it was time for bathing etc, and the piece de resistance – the setting up of the tree!

Here’s before and after!!!!

 

How cute are they!!!!

We left some goodies out for Snata and his ever faithful reindeer…

Mum and I settled in to watch carols by Candlelight.  I fell asleep!  bugger.  Oh well – it was the only bit of sleep i got – M2 decided that she wasn’t overly happy not being in her own bed – so she came in with me, then M1 also didn’t want to be in her bed – so she jumped in the other side.  Needless to say – I didn’t get much sleep at all.  At least I didn’t hear santa come in!

The girls had a great time unwrapping their gifts – madison was very happy – Santa had come to the party with every item on her list….

1. ‘new wings’ (later translated to mean ‘rings’
2. ‘new bwacewets” (she got a little set that had a ring, bracelet and necklace!)
3. ‘new toothbrush’
4. ‘new sippies’ (slippers).

So easy for Santa!

I did my shopping online at the Toy-Box.  Fantastic quality wooden toys – and the prices are excellent.

We then killed a few hours playing with various stuff- the highlights of the morning being…

Kept M1 entertained for ages.

Ok – so the graphic is a little small – but you get the picture!  these can be used indoors and out – we had them down the hallway (coz it was like a winters day in Melbourne), and had a blast!  What fun.

The bestest part of the day was a surprise phone call from Wilbur. A few too many tears though to talk properly!

For lunch we went to my Aunt and Uncle’s house.  loved it.  got to see my cousins – a great bunch that I don’t see nearly often enough. How gorgeous are these sunglasses….

..and the girls too!!!!!!

By the time yesterday rolled around (boxing Day)- we were quite happy to have a quiet day at home – hide and seek, blowing bubbles and generally having fun! I love playing hide and seek with the girls.  M1 counts to 5 as quickly as she can, which doesn’t leave me very long to hide, and being such a small house – there are limited hiding spots!  the best one is behind the toilet door!  When M1 hides – she generally goes underneath my doona, and wriggles and giggles.  It’s so cute.  M2 runs around after the seeker, counting – ‘two…four’ – that’s the extent of her numeracy at present!

Both just LOVE to blow bubbles….

have a look at that happy face…..

And – when did my baby girl grow up……

Plenty of photos to scrap – when I get the chance!

I have big plans for 2007.  The Spotted Cow, and The Creating Garden will really take off, as well as my own photography – but that will be later in the year – when I get more experience under my belt! Make sure you sign up for the newsletter at The creating Garden – coz there is one on the way – full of tips and tricks to make your creativity blossom!

Righto – that’s it for now – it’s 8:30am, I am still in my Pj’s (as are the girls), and we have plenty to do today!

Christmas wrap-up…….

Posted on December 27, 2006

Righto – so it’s the Day After Boxing Day.  Unfortunately Santa has lost his extra special use.  you all know what I mean……”santa only comes to nice children”,  “Santa will be watching to make sure you go to sleep”… you get the picture!  It’s probably a little too early to start utilising Santa for next year at this stage!

We had a lovely Christmas (as good as it can get when my soul-mate husband  was still away working!).  We drove up to Mum’s house in the afternoon on Christmas Eve – it was a bit of a last minute thing – we had lovely plans to go to a very good friend’s house for Christmas Eve – but that fell apart when the girls were feeling crook and cranky.

Mum had cooked us a yummy roast – gotta love the smell of cooked lamb!  Mackenzie enjoyed it too!

Then it was time for bathing etc, and the piece de resistance – the setting up of the tree!

Here’s before and after!!!!

 

How cute are they!!!!

We left some goodies out for Snata and his ever faithful reindeer…

Mum and I settled in to watch carols by Candlelight.  I fell asleep!  bugger.  Oh well – it was the only bit of sleep i got – M2 decided that she wasn’t overly happy not being in her own bed – so she came in with me, then M1 also didn’t want to be in her bed – so she jumped in the other side.  Needless to say – I didn’t get much sleep at all.  At least I didn’t hear santa come in!

The girls had a great time unwrapping their gifts – madison was very happy – Santa had come to the party with every item on her list….

1. ‘new wings’ (later translated to mean ‘rings’
2. ‘new bwacewets” (she got a little set that had a ring, bracelet and necklace!)
3. ‘new toothbrush’
4. ‘new sippies’ (slippers).

So easy for Santa!

I did my shopping online at the Toy-Box.  Fantastic quality wooden toys – and the prices are excellent.

We then killed a few hours playing with various stuff- the highlights of the morning being…

Kept M1 entertained for ages.

Ok – so the graphic is a little small – but you get the picture!  these can be used indoors and out – we had them down the hallway (coz it was like a winters day in Melbourne), and had a blast!  What fun.

The bestest part of the day was a surprise phone call from Wilbur. A few too many tears though to talk properly!

For lunch we went to my Aunt and Uncle’s house.  loved it.  got to see my cousins – a great bunch that I don’t see nearly often enough. How gorgeous are these sunglasses….

..and the girls too!!!!!!

By the time yesterday rolled around (boxing Day)- we were quite happy to have a quiet day at home – hide and seek, blowing bubbles and generally having fun! I love playing hide and seek with the girls.  M1 counts to 5 as quickly as she can, which doesn’t leave me very long to hide, and being such a small house – there are limited hiding spots!  the best one is behind the toilet door!  When M1 hides – she generally goes underneath my doona, and wriggles and giggles.  It’s so cute.  M2 runs around after the seeker, counting – ‘two…four’ – that’s the extent of her numeracy at present!

Both just LOVE to blow bubbles….

have a look at that happy face…..

And – when did my baby girl grow up……

Plenty of photos to scrap – when I get the chance!

I have big plans for 2007.  The Spotted Cow, and The Creating Garden will really take off, as well as my own photography – but that will be later in the year – when I get more experience under my belt! Make sure you sign up for the newsletter at The creating Garden – coz there is one on the way – full of tips and tricks to make your creativity blossom!

Righto – that’s it for now – it’s 8:30am, I am still in my Pj’s (as are the girls), and we have plenty to do today!

ho ho ho….

Posted on December 25, 2006

Well – after a super dooper hot week of weather – we have had a wintry Christmas Day.  We were lucky to hit 15C.  Happy that I packed some warm clothes for my own little Christmas elves, and didn’t they look gorgeous.  Oh – photos to come later!  In fact – a whole post to come later – for now – I need some sleep – unfortunately Santa was very noisy last night, and woke me up!!!!

check out this amazing person….

Posted on December 19, 2006

No – not me – but a photographer that I stumbled upon. Jessica Claire.  Awesome style, flair and generous.  She runs some fantstic workshops – Xtreme. Would be great is  she came out to Australia!  Oh – one can hope!

poop patrol and random stuff…….

Posted on December 18, 2006

Yep- that’s right – poop patrol. M2 is my poop police. Our nearly 4 month old pup MAx isn’t big enough yet to jump the fence like Hervey does and go somewhere else to poo – so he does it in the yard. M2 has therefore taken it upon herself to become the chief poo finder. I hv=ave had to educate her to not actually pick it up, but to show me where it is! Every morning she heads outside, and then come running back in ‘muuuuuuuuuuuuuum, mum’ (as only a barely talking 2 year old can say it!). Then she grabs me by the hand and runs me outside to the million little piles of dog poo. Had I known that MAx was going to be such a poo’er – I would have sent him straight back to where he came from!

OK – so there’s the poo patrol part of this post done. Now for the random stuff.

I finally finished the little crochet toys I made for my new little Cousin…..

Aren’t they cute!

Here’s the other completed crochet project…

We did some cooking last week – I have only sorted out photos of the finished product – but there are heaps of the ‘during creation’ photos as weel that are sitting quietly on the hard drive! Unfortunately they are not web sized as yet!!!! Yes they are – I just did ‘em!

We had a great old time!  I think M2 ate MORE than she made, and then I ate the rest when the girls were in bed!!!!!

Finished product:

YUMMO!  That layout was for the Designer Digitals CT coookie recipe swap and chat that we had today!  DD Rocks – they are one cool bunch of gals:).

We did the obligatory Santa photo the other day.  This was the fourth visit to Santa.  The other three were ‘warm-up’ visits.  Not that they did any good!  Notice how my two girls are as far away from the scary man himself as they possibly can be!!!!

I also took a few photos of M1 and her favourite buddy Mr L, and his little bro Mr T.

Speaking of cookig (not that I was – but I am now, and it’s my blog so I can speak of whatever I like!) – I have just discovered creamy pasta!  I had never cooked it before, but it is soooo easy!  great for the tastebuds – not so great for the waistline! Here’s one I whipped up the other night – chook, avocado and mushroom – with a bit of bacon thrown in for good measure!  Scrumptious!

The weather has been beautiful, and we have been spending lots of time outside doing ’stuff’!

All that action is enough to make a girl tired!

We went to a family Christmas thing on the weekend. So tiring – lots of driving – but chaotic fun never the less!  Madison had a great time playing with her other cousins, and M2- well she was just being herself!

Gee- you’ve done well if you got this far!  I have so much more to add – but less photos.  Will save the rest of the epistle for another day.

aaarrgghhh…..

Posted on December 5, 2006

I am having an awful time with a domain registrar right now.  It seems that my webhosting domain www.thespottedcow.com has gone into ‘redemption’ – meaning it wasn’t renewed in time, and is now locked away.  It wasn’t renewed because I didn’t receive a renewal notice.  Apparently – I am meant to check this.  i didn’t realise that – simply because the other domains that I have registered through my account are automatically renewed – so i figured that was the same for all domains.  it appears I was WRONG.  So – now I have to pay $150USD to get me domain back.  But whilst I wait for this – I cannot access my domain at all, and am having troubles accessing another domain on my account.   AAARRGGHHH.  Oh well- not worth losing sleep over.

hey – check this out…

How fantastic is that rolled paper tear.  Anna Aspens is a champion! Credits for this piece of art can be found here!

Today was a super hot 33C.  Gotta love the hot weather – especailly when you have a gorgeous beach not 5 minutes down the road from where you live! Soo – we spent the morning in the sun sand and sea.  Of course there was alot of slipping, slopping and slapping going on too!

Had the ‘handover’ Committee meeting last night for M1’s kindergarden.  Shall I reiterate again – what am I thinking!  Surely it will be fun!

tooty toot toot and some snaps….

Posted on December 2, 2006

How excited was I this morning to read this thread! All because of this gorgeous layout (if I do say so myself!!!). Credits can be found here. (thanks to Katie Pertiet for everything!!!)

I did my first sort of ’shoot’ today. As usual – my girls were the guinea pigs! (although – I am not sure why I don’t just use the guinea pig we have out in the backyard – surely he would be more co-operative!). Anyhow – I wanted to get a few Christmassy type shots to slip into our Christmas cards this year. I went out and bought a heavy black piece of ‘drill’ type material, and hung it over some rope near a big window. It was big enough to drape onto the floor. Then I stuck the girls in some ‘angelic’ white dresses (something has to be angelic about them!!), popped a Santa hat on their heads, and started snapping! I am really happy with the way they turned out – here’s a few…..

There are a few more right here – check them out – feel free to comment! It has made me want more and more to photograph everything I see – at any given moment. I just can’t take enough photos at present – I just don’t have time.

AND – in the little spare time that I do have- I am partaking in a spot of Christmas journalling.  Check out Shimelle’s Christmas journal online class, and then have a look at the journals of the other participants!

This little bit of writing is here to remind me what and why I am doing………

Manifesto: Noun. A declaration of one's intentions.

Starting December first, I will keep a Christmas journal. In it, I will write something every
day to reflect on the holidays of my past, enjoy the holidays of the present and dream
about the holidays of my future. To some, this will be a stack of papers and trivial
scribbles, but not to me. I am taking back my Christmas, I am letting it be something I
relish and, most importantly, I am giving at least fifteen minutes every day to myself no
matter how crazy this season becomes. I hope you will share, encourage and understand
as I make something with my own hands, my own words and my own memories.

I may post some or all of my entries here. Other artists are doing this with me, and you
can see their work here. Or you may join
us.

Above all: enjoy the season. I will.

his little bit of writing is here to remind me what and why I am doing………NOW – I know that some people make a huge artwork out of their journals, you know – paper scrap, digi-scrap, etc etc.  I just don’t have the time – nor thye inclination.  In fact – I want to do my journal AWAY from the computer – since that is where I tend to spen most of my time.  Soo – my journal will be in an art diary, in black and white with a bit of colour thrown in.  AND – not only will it include journalling about Shimelles prompts, but also I will journal the days leading up to and during Christmas. I am doing this not just for me, but for my hard-working soul-mate husband, father of my children.  This will be my way of sharing Christmas with him.  yes – it will be a challenge – I don’t consider myself that good with a pen and paper, (unlike the pen tool in Illustrator), and it will make me commit to something every day.  heaven forbid – I might have to have a small routine!!!  Anyway – when I get a chance, I will try and scan or photograph my pages to share! (coz you can’t keep me away from the camera!!!)