Love, bubs and life on our little farm

So I confess I hit the Boxing Day sales. As if we hadn't consumed enough throughout the year... oh and I was dreadfully spoilt at Christmas. But my Mum offered to babysit the girls so how could I refuse the chance to wander the shops unhindered. Sure I had to park two blocks from the shopping centre and walk in torrential rain and mud to get there. Sure there crowds like I have never seen, one shop had a red velvet rope line outside it for people to queue to enter. But I had a great time, even when it took me 30 mins to line for a change room in Cue, 15 mins to pay and the dress I bought wasn't even on sale! Jase just shook his head in disbelief at this point.

My review of the sales; I was sadly disappointed in most of my regular clothes shops - Witchery, Forever New, Bardot, Sportsgirl etc hadn't improved on the discounts I was browsing pre-Christmas. I had already seen most of their sale items at those prices and felt no interest in buying them. Cue had some great bargains... but of course as I previously mentioned the dress I fell in love with was firmly full price, typical. But I bought it still.

The best bargains were for Jase with mens suits etc and the ever reliable Myer. They had some great sales and extra discounts for Boxing day only - which made me feel justified in venturing out in the rain rather than staying home and eating turkey sandwiches. We got some lovely Sheridan towel sets at good discounts and 50% off some lovely cotten sheet sets.

But overall the sales were pretty blah and I am taking some time off from shopping in the hope that some new stock in the clothes shops will perk me up in 2011.

Did you get some bargains?

I am really feeling the march of time at the moment. Could be because I am only 1.5 months off the big three-oh, could be because my first baby reminds me nearly everyday with her antics that she is a little girl not an infant or toddler anymore or could possibly be because my last little bub has at almost 7 months old decided to wean herself and embrace drinking from a bottle so that she can watch the world go by rather than stare at a boob.

Fortunately, as old as all this makes me feel, it is a nice sort of old feeling. I feel contented and ready to move into our next stage. I am ready to be a mum of kids rather than babies and pregnant bellies. I miss my crazy fun uni days but I love that my husband and I are more senior at work and are past the stage of scrimping and saving for things. And I am excited for what the next decade will bring us as far as travel, experiences and lovely things.

And I am proud of my wonderful breastfeending relationship with both my girls but now that it has passed, I am so damn excited to get to wear nice lingerie again and to dress in clothes where I don't have to consider access to my chest! Definitely the silver lining.

And just look at my big girl - who at 2.5 has graduated to a big girl bike courtesy of Santa and has blown me away by mastering it in an hour.

When I see her ride past the window, pedalling away and singing to herself, my heart swells with love and pride but also pangs a little with the realisation that she is never going to be my tiny helpless bub again.

Parenting and life in general can be such an oxymoron!

A big Merry Christmas to everyone! I hope you felt loved and had people to love. I felt very blissful celebrating with my dear family and soaking up the joy of my beautiful girls.

We managed to get Elka to finally sit with Santa to have a photo on the day before Christmas Eve, talk about cutting it fine!

We had lots of visitors and spent relaxed time out on our new entertainment deck. We ate and drank lots of lovely things, I indulged in some cherry cocktails and we had a delicious bottle of French champagne to savor on Christmas Eve.

We fed the horses the reindeer carrots so there were bite marks in the stubs and I had so many presents for the girls Santa sacks that I managed to forget to out some in and didn't notice for two days!

I was terribly spoiled, so much so that I felt bad! I got spa vouchers, beautiful Clarins and Clinique skincare and make-up, sheets and towels, digital photo frame, morocan oil for my hair, Peter Alexander PJ's, a huge gift voucher and the list goes on..
But after opening all that stash, Jase had made me keep o e of his gifts for last and it was an.... iPad!! A big surprise and it is such fun toy!

So that was a pretty memorable gift, only beaten by the gift that Elka picked out and wrapped for us with Nanny, AND kept a secret! She was so proud when we unwrapped our box of tissues :)

I can only hope you were just as spoilt ;)

Image credit

So it seems we have upset the Christmas gods. When Elka was 6 months old in December 2008,I had my heart set on a lovely Baby's First Christmas Ornament to hang on our tree. Off we trotted bright eyed, proudly touting our bub to buy a gorgeous keepsake. It hung on the tree for hmm less than 12 hours before one of our two indoor cats merrily hung from the Christmas tree and toppled it over, smashing the ornament to smitherens. Not put off, I popped back to the shop and bought the same one again, sure that it was just a freak accident. Well it was not to be - within a few days, another cat versus tree incident resulted in the second ornament meeting the same fate as the first. SO a little wiser, I trawled the shops for most of December until I lucked upon a non breakable fabric Christmas ball with the appropriate words written on it. Success and I still proudly hang the ball each year.

So come 2010 and its Brontes turn to be celebrating her first Christmas. I now know to steer clear of delicate glass ornaments, however this year it has proven to be an impossible task to find am unbreakable Baby's First Christmas decoration. I have searched endlessly and fruitlessly. The other day, in David Jones in desperation I decided against Jase's advice that a lovely frosted pink ball was not glass but in fact tin.

I bought said ball and much to my amusement was flirtatiously asked by the sales guy if this was for a baby niece or nephew. However, my little moment of feeling like I posibly didn;t look as worn and mumsy I thought did was rapidly ruined by Jase parking the double decker pram full of sleeping baby and toddler loudly singing "ABC" right next to the sales guy. So I set him straight that it was in fact for my second child lol.

I packed the wrapped Baby ornament into the bottom of the pram and we headed off for a walk. I even congratulated us on being so organised and getting everything done on my list. Feeling very smug, until "CRUNCH" and I see Jase jump over a David Jones bag that has fallen out of the pram basket onto the path. Well that sound definitely convinced me that the ball had indeed been glass! It was smashed to pieces and now takes pride of place of being the shortest we have owned one of our ill fated baby Christmas ornaments.

Not to be detered though. I visited a Christmas shop yesterday and explained my predicamant. They have very kindly made me a new "Baby's First Christmas 2010" ornament and it is plastic! I pick it up tomorrow and I have high hopes that this will conclude my saga!

It is also storm season. And don't I know it!

Where we live, the title of the area is Aboriginal for "much thunder, little rain" and we certainly cop the Summer storms pretty strongly. However, thankfully the little rain part of the title hasn't been true for the last few years since we rely on rain for our water.

But the last few days we have slipped into our fairly typical Summer storm cycle, where we have hot mornings with terrible heavy humidity that brews into beautiful big thunderhead clouds on the horizon and then rumbles into existence as a heavy drenching storm. It briefly cools things down before the wet ground steams and adds to the humidity again, leading to a new day of heat and mugginess that creates the next storm. And repeat.

However, some days you get those "perfect storms" - a storm cell that is violent and terribly damaging and so much worse than our typical summer drenchings. We got one yesterday. I knew as soon as I saw it forming that it wasn;t going to be good. And it wasn't - Our area copped the worst of it. Deafening hail, torndado like winds that tore down countless tall gum trees around our properties and severe flash flooding that resulted in our laundry filling with water. All the paddocks were under water, we lost trees and I had to keep moving the girls to opposite ends of the house to the wind as it was so terrible I was convinced the house would be crushed at any time.

Our area lost the power almost immediately and we lost it for 8 hours as they desperately pieced the lines back together. Of course when you lose the power out here, you also lose running water as we need our pump to move water from the tanks into the house. Not a fun situation to be in with two kids. Although Elka thought cooking toast on the BBQ was pretty funny.

I am counting my blessings though - our property is quite sheltered being on the side of hill. The more exposed properties around copped a beating and their paddocks are blanketed in fallen giant gums and fences are smashed to smitherens. To add insult to injury we copped another decent storm today and are told to expect another one tomorrow.

aahh Summer in Australia!

I have been quite shocked at how rapidly Christmas is approaching and feeling a little sad I am not getting time to revel in it and feel more festive.

So Elka and I spent a lovely half an hour cooking these Christmas Chocolate Balls. They are super easy, really yummy and make you feel Christmassy when you put them out in a pretty red bowl for visitors to eat. They are also great for a toddler to roll in coconut and have fun making.

Hope you are finding the time to soak up a little Christmas joy! xo




Christmas Balls
250g pack of biscuits (I used Choc Ripple)
180g chocolate pieces
395g can of sweetened condensed milk
1.5 cups desiccated coconut
100g red glace cherries chopped

Food process biscuits to fine crumbs
Melt chocolate in microwave on Med-High for 2 mins, stirring every 30 secs
Add chocolate, condensed milk, half cup of coconut and cherries to biscuit crumbs and food process
Place remaining coconut in a bowl.
Roll teaspoons of mix into the coconut and place on tray with baking paper on it.
Refrigerate.

Hard to believe but my littlest one is now 6 months old. She is still a trickier bub than Elka - she is my "Princess and the Pea" baby - little things tend to annoy her and induce screaming pretty quickly!

But that said, she has become very smiley and giggly and loves to play and be tickled or twirled around. She still adores Elka and beams adoringly at her - if Elka comes close or talks to her, she squeals in excitement and giggles away.

She is still absolutely amazing in her enthusiasm for food. That is my nice way of saying she behaves like a rabid beast if there is food around! She ripped through cling wrap and got a cupcake to her mouth the other day when I was juggling her, a plate of cupcakes and some bags inside. She screams and tantrums if we don't feed her fast enough (and I mean fast!) and heaven help you if you run out of food! She now eats a finger food course, a savoury course and then a sweet course (ie fruit with rice cereal to help fill her up!) at each meal as well as snacks throughout the day and breastfeeds. She currently loves sucking on watermelon, adores milk arrowroots and steamed brocolli and has started eating meat and yoghurt.

She sleeps 12 hours a night from 6.30pm-6.30am and I no longer dreamfeed her during the night. I love getting my nights back to me for sleep :) She has a couple of decent sleeps a day and a nap or two in there as well. The current hot weather is making her extra sleepy. She has just cut her two bottom teeth so we have had a few restless niights but overall besides endless chewing and drooling she has done really well.

She sits up alone and has very good balance now - she can lean far out to reach toys. She doesn't love tummy time now that she can sit but she is good at pushing her body off the the mat now and occasionaly tries to wiggle to reach toys. She is quite vocal, a lot of yelling, squealing and giggling but no "mum-mum" etc yet.

She has slowed down in weight gain but the paeds today said that that was normal. She is 7.3kgs but he commented that she is quite long. He also commented on her pigmentation - she has a delightful orange hue from all the pumpkin and sweet potato she eats. Elka had the same thing at this age I remember!

She loves to dance and "sing" with her sister to music and she loved going to the Wiggles concert the other day. She yelled and clapped her little arms on her legs and just beamed. Very cute! Her favorite toys are balls and plastic keys. She is also quite taken with dolls at the moment - mainly to gouge their eyes and suck their faces which she then tries to do on real babies when she meets them.

She is no longer completely attached to me - she will happily go to Jase and even lets my Mum hold her now. We have had success with her being babysat and she is taking some formula from a bottle. This is all very promising as I awnt to go back to work in Feb and she needs to start daycare familarisation in January. She is smiling a little at strangers now (still cries at some) and even has started the coy burying her head in my shoulder thing.

She is a very cuddly bub (to me) and I do love our cuddles and giggly play times. I am soaking it up - she is my last bub and I know how fast they grow up!

I have never had a sister and I am so pleased that my two girls have each other. They are 2 years apart almost to the day.

Which means that I can do photos like this - here they both are at 6 months old in the same outfit in photos taken exactly 2 years apart to the day.

I love that they are both so unique - Bronte was born blond and Elka was born with dark brown hair and looked nothing alike. But increasingly they are looking similar and they share their stunning blue eyes (which thanks to the different lighting in these photos don't look it but are identical).

OK so most days I don't burden anyone else with my little internal annoyances. Although it is all the trend to twitter or facebook it for everyone to know, I haven't quite got to that consistant level of sharing.

But today I was at a big shopping centre. I avoided the crowded stressy looking groups of cars circling the close parks and instead gave thanks to my healthy body and parked on the outer edge of the carpark and loaded the kids into the stroller and headed in (sidenote- I so much prefer parking further out as then no one wants your park when you are leaving so you don't have an audience waiting impatiently for you to load two kids and umpteen things into the car making you feel rushed). But anyway, as I got to the shop entrance, I noticed that the disabled car spaces were across the busy lane from the shops and that there were heaps and heaps of pram parks provided instead directly around the shop entrance and not a single disabled space on the convient side.

This theme continued at every shop entrance I saw as I passed by them shopping. In one spot, the pram parks and disabled parks were in a line near the entrance but it was the pram parks that were given the closer location again. What the?

Does anyone else think this is a little wrong?

Sure kids are a handful and I don't want to see a little toddler hit by a car or anything. But far out, kids are not a disability. Far from it.

I was disappointed and a little ashamed to be a user of pram parks. I will NOT be using any pram park that is given accessibility priority over the disabled spaces, I can say that much.

I am wading through a day of childhood memories touched with sadness today as I found out that my brothers best mate from primary school has died in tragic circumstances. My brother and I are only 11 months apart and living in the country meant that we shared our friends and all played together. So I was good friends with him too and we all grew up together.

A free spirit who epitomised our little mountain village's friendly feel, he stayed on there and who my Mum was still picking up to give trips home three weeks ago. In fact he sat next to Elka in the car and when I asked her today, she remembered him and his name.

My Mum is so griefstricken she has barely been able to speak and my Brother had to take the day off work. I have spent the day with pain in my heart and fighting back tears when I indulge in memories of his lovely personality and quirkiness.

Clearly it is not just my family that mourns. This article shows how close our village is and what a loss we all know we have experienced.

A life cut short and a true reminder that we are not guaranteed tomorrow on any day.

Extending is an eventful process and truly is as emotionally and physically draining as people say it is. However, the best way to survive is to keep your sense of humour. Here is a list of things that taught me to laugh, roll my eyes, shake it off and carry on. I also tried to remind myself, they are the funny stories we will tell for years to come!


Things I learnt:

• That the building supplies/Tiles/Bathroom stores that provide a kids play area or toys are more likely to get us to stay longer and spend more money. And that taking a toddler tile tile shopping in a swanky shop can end in Jase frantically shoving samples of lino that she has ripped from the display into his pocket and us beating a rapid exit.

• That inevitably Bronte would wake for an early night feed when I was up a ladder covered in paint. Likewise the morning that the kids are both sleeping in will be the morning that the tradies will arrive early and make the most noise.

• That Murphys Law will ensure that your blind pet duck will manage to fall down the 2.5 metre deep foundation holes not once but twice.

• That our handfed Butcher Bird will decide to land in the full paint roller tray and then despite our frantic efforts will fly up onto the brand new green gutters and leave lovely cream footprints all along them.

• That the one time I didn't put the lid on the 15 litre paint tin securely would occur just before Jase decides to pick it up and shake it back and forth to mix it.

• That gap filler is useful absolutely everywhere. Best to buy bucketloads of it.

Our family tradition is to have a real Christmas tree. Yesterday my parents delivered ours and we had a gorgeous afternoon decorating the tree with the two littlies. Our decorations are an ecletic mix collected from our time living in Canberra as a childless couple, Canadian decorations from my family over there, gifts from my Christmas obsessed Mum and lots of Baby themed baubles from the last three years. It doesn't all match but it's all our special memories hanging there.



The pine smell makes the house smell cosy and Christmassy to me. They are hard work to cut down, trim to the correct ceiling height and get sitting just right in the pot of soil and stones (and secure enough to withstand puss cat attacks!). But despite the work, I just love our little tradition and I can't imagine having a fake plastic tree, despite the fact that they do look more "perfect" and quite beautiful in their own right.

I love Christmas and all the love and good cheer (I am choosing to ignore the agro and stress people have at the shops!). I hope your Christmas preparations are making you feel contended and excited. xox

I have been asked to write a blog post on a particular theme, in aid of promoting Vodafone Infinite Plans. You can find information on the Infinite deals here and I want you to know - I am not being paid to say this, when my husband and I checked this page out, we started seriously discussing getting rid of our home phone as we would save so much on this plan.





So on to the topic of this post.


Well as many people could probably relate to, having two kids often makes me wish for infinite patience and sometimes having a property and a career makes me wish I had infinite time and energy.

But what I really wish I had is an infinite amount of trees and safe habitat for Koalas.


Yes really. I actually feel shame and sadness about the threatened state of our Koalas nearly every day. My mother is a Koala rehabilitator and the desperate little Koalas that she nurses, which have been attacked by dogs or hit by cars are heartbreaking.

People don't realise that Koalas are very fragile little creatures. They can just up and die from stress - the stress of being bailed up by a dog or not being able to find a safe tree. Koalas also can't eat all gum leaves, so if they lose their food trees they can literally starve amongst a sea of trees. They are also battling a losing fight against a retrovirus, like a version of Koala AIDS, that is sweeping through the population and are also being rendered infertile from endemic Chlamydia infections. These diseases are taking hold because the Koala population is so weak and stressed. Not a pretty picture is it.


What is even worse is that some horrible individuals who are evil and cruel take pleasure in torturing and killing these gentle little creatures, whether by gunshots or inciting dogs to attack. This excerpt from Blinky Bill never fails to make me cry when I read it.

" The Koala family lived so happily; never thinking of harm, or that anything could happen to disturb their little home, as all they asked for were plenty of fresh gum-leaves and the warm sun. They had no idea such things as guns were in the world or that a human being had a heart so cruel that he would take a pleasure in seeing a poor little body riddled with bullets hanging helplessly from the tree-top. And they had no idea this same being would walk away, after shooting a bear, content to see him dead, no matter if he fell to the ground or not. That same being might just as well take his gun and shoot baby kookaburras, so helpless were they all and so trusting.

Poor Mr Koala one day was curled up asleep in his favourite corner, when the terrible thing happened. Bang! He opened his eyes in wonder. What was that? Did the limb of the tree snap where that young cub of his was skylarking? He moved very slowly to take a look and, bang! again. This time he felt a stinging pain in his leg. What could it be? And peering over the bough of the tree he saw a man on the ground with something long and black in his arms. He gazed down in wonderment. Whatever was that, and how his little leg hurt. Another bang and his ear began to hurt. Suddenly a great fear seized him, he slowly turned and tried to hide round the tree, peering at the ground as he did so. Bang! again, and now his poor little body was stinging all over. He grunted loudly and slowly climbed up the tree, calling Mrs Koala and Blinky as he went. He managed to reach the topmost branch and now turned to see where his family were. Tears were pouring down his poor little face. He brushed them away with his front paws and cried just like a baby. Fortunately Mrs Koala and Blinky Bill were hiding in the leaves, quite motionless, and the shadows of the tree made them appear as part of it. The man with the gun stood and waited a long time, then walked away, whistling as he went—the only sound to be heard in the bush except the cries of a little bear far up in the tree."

Blinky Bill - Dorothy Wall.

What amazes (and enrages) me is that Blinky Bill was published in 1939 and yet this is still happening today.

We have a beautiful Koala that lives in the gum trees above our house, he calls for a mate every night. Sadly in the four years we have been here, we are seeing less and less Koalas and this mating season he seems to be very much alone.

So yeah, I wish I could do something incredibly useful like providing infinite safe habitat for these beautiful threatened creatures. Wishes don't do alot but there is some little things we can all do - this document covers how you can help Koalas exist in the encroaching suburbs, and most importantly of all, be very aware of your dog at all times.

Sorry terrible pun for the title! But now that I have finished my house renovation posts, I can get back to what I love talking about - shopping ;) oh and my kids of course..

So today I felt like sharing with you my new absolute favorite mascara. I have been a little ho-hum about mascara's lately but I got a free full sized mascara in a Napoleon Perdis gift I recently picked up with some great new foundation. It is called Mesmer-Eyes Mascara and it is bloody amazing - it gives you long thick eyelashes that seriously look like falseys. I feel so feminine and glam when I use it as particularly the edge lashes get all long and gorgeous. It took me a few goes to master using the teeth on the comb (rather than a brush) but I have it down now.

If you are feeling a bit drab, I would definitely recommend it as an instant glam pick me up :)

This will mostly likely be the last house extension post for a long time - we only have small touches to go really, although I might do some before and afters on the staining of the wooden verandahs etc.

Its been a long journey and I am so very glad to be on this side of it!

So for my last big post I thought it only fitting to do some before and afters on the exterior of the house.

After some long nights of moving furniture, cleaning and sorting cupboards we are now all settled in our new extension. I am in love - the space, the light, the devine deck is just how we dreamed it would be for the last four years. There is something very rewarding about drawing the plans with your husband, labouring over the little details to make your home just how you want it to be. Then scouring the shops for tiles, carpet, paint colours and furniture together. It, like everything Jase and I do is a true collaboration and we are both so happy with the result.

I also love the flow of the house now - our old master bedroom is a good size and it is now an extremely roomy guest room that I have kept in the dark plum colours we had it in. Very cosy. It has a built in cupboard and a good sized walk in robe so that is oodles of storage for us - best.thing.ever!

Elka is quite stoked to now have a bathroom all to herself (well to share wiht Bronte) and I am a happy nesting mummy with Bronte now having her own completed room with all her built in cupboard space now restored to storing her copious amounts of clothes and lots of space in her room as it no longer contains a double bed for guests!

We are hosting our first party on the deck this weekend and I have already threaded LED christmas lights through the deck wire rails as I always dreamed I would for enjoying on balmy Christmasy December evenings.

Life is good. I am of course ignoring all of the outdoor painting and staining still to go and I just came inside from an hour of gardening to start restoring our gardens to their previous tidy state - there is a lot of landscaping to go. So we are most definitely not relaxing and sunning ourselves just yet! Weekends are pretty nuts but last Sunday as we ate a fruit platter and crossiants on the deck as Elka ran around playing, it was all most worth it!

So without further ado - the current interior photos (sorry it will be photo overload!), still alot to purchase including lounge room rug, square coffee table, new desk for the stufy and large flat screen tv, but its looking pretty respectable considering we have only been moved in 5 days!

With the gorgeous summer weather comes the wonderful news that our builder has completed our house extension! Today is the first day that I can relax and not share my front and back yard with tradies and noise in 5 months.

We have a bit of work to do ourselves but we move in tonight - exciting!

My heart is light, I hadn't realised how much the mess and stress had been wearing on me. Now I can enjoy our beautiful property and its peace and quiet with my beautiful girls whilst planning our family Christmas on our new gorgeous deck.

Of course photos to come!

Not of me, not of the house but of the rescue chickens :)

Here is my original post on the two chickens we rescued from being culled after 2 years of being battery hens.


And here are the reminder pics of how the two chickens turned up. You know ironically, one of the chickens layed an egg in the travel box on the day we got them, and I went to throw it away because I didn't want my family to eat an egg that came out of chicken that looked so unhealthy. Then I realised that millions of people everyday pay money to eat those eggs! Maybe they wouldn't want to if they saw the state of the chicken?

I am so over painting, paint tins, drop sheets, ladders and washing out brushes it is not even funny. I have never done such a big painting job in my entire life - starting from bare gyprock and timber is hard work. And the paler colours we are using have required extra coats - add to that the fact that we have little kids so we can mostly only paint at night when we are already tired... means its taking a long painful time.

But we have almost completed the interior painting - all but two doors really. And it looks amazing - this helps soothe the soul a little when I drag my tired butt out in the evening after getting the kids to bed to work on the exterior painting.

And really it is all quite exciting - we are putting up window dressings, the carpets go in on Thursday (providing I remember to go the shop to pay, it keeps slipping my mind that it needs to be done) and the deck handrails are about to be finished off.

So anyway, here it is - the completed interior paint colours... The main colour - Crewelwork from Dulux is an interesting colour. It can look very yellow and then other times quite creamy and beige. I love it - it is warm and delicate.

I am partial to getting little blue Tiffany boxes for Christmas and Birthday I must confess. The majority of my jewelery comes from another jewellery chain who always seems to design diamond styles that I love. But for plain gold and silver jewellery I do love Tiffany's. I am such a consumer and I do buy into the whole brand and presentation, I admit it!

I am in love with this bow necklace. I wear both gold and silver but at the moment I am leaning towards gold, it adds a little extra luxe feel.

But with the year we have had, I am honestly just content to share a glass of sparkling on our new deck and watch my kids play and my family share a laugh. Its been a big year and big Christmas presents are probably pushing the friendship. BUt hey a girl can still shop and put things on her wishlist ;)

The ensuite is completely finished and ready to go. My fingers are itching to fill the lovely white cabinets with my make-up and GHD etc and Jase is eyeing off the lovely big shower head.

First of all, this was my bathroom inspiration.



And here is my similar shot from our ensuite. That window has a white shutter to go up, we are just waiting for the window edging to dry hard first.. I am very pleased with what we have produced! The tiles are somewhat lighter in colour than they are photographing too and they have a white fleck through them that looks great with the white vanity etc..


Looking towards the shower. I love the matching tall boy that we have bought, I can't wait to fill that up!


Looking back towards the toilet and the sliding door that comes from the walk in robe area on right. Shows the more accurate colour of the tiles also.

I have been quite lax on blogging on my shopping recently (because I know everyone is hanging out to hear what I spent my $30 Diva voucher on hehe). But I do enjoy discussing my humble old purchases and wish lists..

We have been invited to a Black Tie wedding - not sure if we will be able to escape the shackles of the kids and get there since it is over 1000kms away.. but of course I am already dreaming about my dress :) (and a night away in a 5 star hotel with my hubby without a toddler weeing on the floor and a bub vomiting everywhere).

So I have been browsing a few sites for inspiration and fun...


I love this Lisa Ho gown


So pretty and lace is in this season... Oscar de la Renta



And this is not for a wedding - I just love this Ginger and Smart outfit!

I am so happy to report that as of this afternoon, the builder is completely finished inside the extension! We are waiting on the carpet to be installed next Thursday and we have two doors left to work on and then it is doneza! Hopefuly we can get it all wrapped so that we can move in sooner rather than later.

Outside is also going well - the handrailings are going in next Monday and the crimsafe screens in on Tues or Wed. Then there is only the tidying up to be done by the builder.

We have completed the interior painting and although we have a fair bit of exterior painting to do, we have done some of the hardest parts of it (the peaked roof of the deck etc). We have to knock some of it over on the weekend before the handrail cables go in the verandah poles so that will help motivate us. The interior painting was hell - it has taken so long and due to the large number of windows and doors we put in, we had a lot of architraves that were painstaking to do. Putting the kids to bed by 8pm and then paiting each night until 11pm and then feeding Bronte was making me pretty tired! So relieved to have it done and even more relieved that I LOVE the colours.

The bathroom was completed today - the shower screen and custom mirror were installed and I helped the builder position the towel racks and shower shelf etc. It looks amazing! Photos to come.

The plumber is still completing the down pipes and underground network of pipes feeding into the water tanks, it has been quite a messy job involving ripping up just about every bit of lovely green grass I had in the front courtyard. This is what it looked like this morning - ouch!


But it looked remarkably better when I got home this afternoon and the bob cat had even moved the fill up into the new carport driveway area. It needs more work but at least you can see that cars can now enter and exit the area!

Unfortunately I am now just seeing all the work that is left for us - staining deck timber, building gardens, buying topsoil, moving furniture etc But hey its all part of the fun!

Wow finding it a little hard to believe that I now have a 5 month old! But she is!

Bronte has had a big few weeks - she is eating solids and ADORES food. She screams and grunts and grabs if you don't feed her fast enough and heaven help you if you run out of food before she is satisfied! She is eating rice cereal, pumpkin, sweet potato, potato, zucchini, peas, apples, pears, bananas, prunes and rusks so far. She has 3 meals a day and they are huge meals.

She is very content and has started sleeping through the night again - hurrah! In fact she is sleeping from 7pm until 6-6.30am - brilliant! She also does lovely big 2 hour day sleeps, typically two. She doesn't cry at all about going to bed - she smiles when she gets put in the cot, grabs her bunny comforter and rolls to her side and drops off silently to sleep. Bliss. When she wakes she turns a 90 degree turn so that she can put her feet up on the side of the cot and kicks away squealing and chatting to herself until someone gets up her up. Very cute.

She is starting to try to sit up alone but is pretty wobbly and has a way to go yet. She is a big giggler and loves being gently thrown up and down. She cracks huge endless open mouthed grins at the sight of her Dad or Elka. She still loves her bath and starts wiggling excitedly when she hears the water get turned on.

She loves her activity centre and will sit in it for ages banging her toys and playing the little piano and shrieking with excitement. She loves her soft red ball and also prefers eating the books I read to her rather than listening.

Her two lower front teeth are sitting up as prominant ridges under the gum and are driving her mad.. She chews frantically on anything and we have had a few episodes of pain and screaming that some Bonjella and panadol have sorted out. Seems she might be like her sister and cut her two lower teeth at the same time at around 6 months old.

She has also been fitted with her hearing aids. She has been a trooper with them and seems to quite like getting them on and hearing me ask if she can hear me better - she cracks up. She seems a little more responsive with them in but its still early days to be able to tell much.
They are quite unobtrusive but she does cop a lot of stares and sympathetic glances out at the shops with them in. I understand as it does look a little strange on such a young baby. I thought I would hate the look of them but I don't mind because I love that she smiles when they are put on. SHe is seeing a speech therapist next week and will continue to be monitored. We have discussed genetic testing and I was pleased to see that the geneticist agreed with my stance that there is no need for testing at this stage (we are not planning more children).

And finally - my update. 5 months post bub and I am increasingly getting my body back. I still have a tendency to bloat and get a pot belly by the end of the day as my stomach muscles are not as strong and tight as they used to be - but I am working on them! Other than that I am 2kgs off my lightest ever weight (which was my pre-Bronte pregnancy weight), so in other words I am more than happy with my body's recovery and not fussed about loosing any more weight - more just continueing with the toning thanks to pilates and horseriding (and the non stop physical work on our house extension and gardens!)