Cranes

My family came for a fly by visit yesterday... fell into bed and didnt resurface until morning...

Today was another awesome family morning spent leaping off sand dunes and having the first swim of the spring season. Cold much?? Heck yes. My my little icebergs werent worried :) I took loads of gorgeous snaps so stay tuned, just need to fine tune them :)

Yesterday, in a lull in madness, Jared came and asked me to build him something. Something quite specific actually. " A crane, please", and so we had a quick google search and came up with nothing and so we created our own.

Using a few cardboard rolls, a heap of sticky tape, the end of a coat hanger, some wool, and a chunk of imagination, my little guy and I created this fully working ( sort of) masterpiece.

It helped that he is the best motivator and encourager BAR NONE. Truly, you want to achieve something?? I'll send him to you :) He spent the whole time saying " Mum, thats perfect!" "Mum you are AWESOME!" " Oh Mum, keep going! I love it, love it!"

So for the afternoon, before the troops arrived again, he had a blast moving animals to a safer spot.

And I basked in the glory of his love :)

story rocks

Its short and sweet tonight.. I have my family here for a fly by visit, plus an anniversary tomorrow so today has been a bit mad with tidying and running around like a headless chook....

I did get time, though, to put out these amazing rocks I made over the weekend. Quite some time ago, I made story blocks which were a huge hit. Looking through a whole of blogs last week I found a similar idea with stones. Seeing as I spend quite a fair bit of time of the beach which is covered in gorgeous, smooth rocks, I collected some and made some story stones.

Amahli thought they were brilliant, lining them all up first, then making some stories, having the rocks then interact with each other. Such a multi use thing that was so easy to make!

I cut up an old sticker book mostly and used mod podge to seal them in. These will come with us on trips to the drs, church, or nannas Im sure!

pay it forward

Miss Mother Nature found a rather large, rather unwell cicada at our back door this afternoon. I told her to leave it alone but she insisted in moving out of the dogs way and to make it " more comfortable.
This guy died in peace and comfort :) Complete with a pillow for his head. ( Actually he was dead before she rescued him.)

Yesterday, I got a well timed surprise in my letterbox. A package from a friend which totally made my day. Not just because it was a package addressed to me ( Although that does rather float my boat) but what it contained actually made me gasp with the surprise that someone had gone out of their way to think of me.

Inside was some stickers for the kids, a mag she knew Id like, a disc to create all sorts of cool things, but the thing that got me most was this blank diary-like book. A week or so ago I posted something on facebook. It was mini rant and not something I normally do because, well, its Facebook! But it was a particularly shocking day and I didnt think anyone would read it.

I wrote: "I would love to have a rant and rave without the fear of repercussion". Nothing overlly incriminating. Just a bit of a blah.

When I opened the diary from my surprise package this is what it said inside:





I was quite gobsmacked at the thoughtfuless of this lovely friend, who I dont see much at all, and we dont speak much either.
So it got me thinking, I need to find a way to pay it forward too.
So tomorrow, Im going to find a way to do something for two people to make their day, without the need or want for them to pay it back, only foward.

Want to join me??

friday foto: on wednesday

Ive grown something... from a tiny bulb, to a magnificent REAL tulip. Admittedly, out of 12 bulbs this is the only one that is doing what its supposed to do and look like its supposed to... but! At least its one :) Jumeirah came tearing around the side of the house to come and see it and I raced back with her, not realising that this gorgeous flower must have sprung up over night.

I sat for ages and stared at it. The tiny fine detail of pink along the tips, the cream that blends to green.

Its truly an amazing piece of work :)

sticky paintings

Wanted to shout out to those new people ( and old people!) who have been showing me comment love :) THANKYOU it totally makes my day :)

This last weekend I hit Sydney for a photography course with my dad. Id bought him a voucher to go do it seeing as he has just recently bought a new camera, I thought that would be a great way to learn the basics with a heap of practical on the side.Then I decided I would go too ;)

It great course and over the next few weeks or whatever Id love to share a few thinsg I learnt. Is anyone ( aside from Kim ;) ) keen to know how to take better photos??

Todays art was a cool one that I had planned for last week and it never happened. Last week I made lemon meringue pies to take to a meeting and had some sweetened condensed milk left over ( yes I did try very hard NOT to eat it, that stuff is GOOD!) And so today we did sweetened condensed milk painting :)

I added a little bit of food colouring to this stuff and it makes the most beautiful,glidy, shiny paint ever. It looks so pretty and is really fun to paint with. But WARNING, IT WILL NOT DRY. It will always be a bit tacky so its one we chuck out once we've finished. But both babes were keen on doing it ( which is nice for a change!). Amahli only used pink and Jared only used blue.







Jared used his to paint the Sea. Amahli just loved the sensation of this cool paint. Its one of those mixtures that is more about the process and the feel rather than the final result.

Go try it!

My new friend

I have a new friend.. and I mean REALLY new. Like a week old :)

His gorgeous mum and I have been friends for awhile, we were pregnant with our thirds at the same time and her little blessing was born two days before Amahli.

But this little person, who wasnt entirely planned ( by mum that is) was thought to be following the trail of THREE girls... and turned out to be a boy :)

I tried to stay away, give mum space, really I did. But she was keen and happy for visitors so I raced over to take my first "real" baby shoot.

The thing with hospitals is the lighting is really bad. But some gentle editing, this little guy turned out just perfect :)

things are growing!!

Things Ive planted ( and promptly forgot about) are GROWING :)
Im no gardener. Id love to be, but I lack interest and patience mostly. But things are growing....

Strawberries actually look like real strawberries ( these ones arent rip yet. They need to turn dark red. But we have had some that look great. Jared eats them before I get the camera...)

Carrot seeds ( ok can someone explain to me how a carrot grows from a seed? Wheres the seed in a carrot?!)

I walked up the back a few weeks ago and saw this great pile of "weeds". I then remembered we had put the seeds of carrots in here cos I had no where else to put them! I was so excited, we thought we should pull one up...

Not ready yet I dont think.

This is what it looks like this morning :)

Jared was shocked at the size of this carrot " its so big I can eat it!"

Amahlis comment was " I want to eat the shop ones."

And my beautiful tulips I bought for myself for Mothers day :)

They were bulbs, then shoots...
And now COLOUR!!



I need a natural spray to protect my strawberries though.. anyone got any ideas??