Love, bubs and life on our little farm

As you would know from my blog, I love living on a property. And yes I can even say that after a long tiring week of expensive horse specialists, 4WD breakdowns and my husband being stranded in Sydney by the dust storm!

And why I love it - because its dirty, hard work and rewarding. It keeps you fit, busy and obsessed with rain ;)

And our life is always a little different to most other peoples we know - today we cleaned paddocks and worked outside all morning, then "spoiled" ourselves by spending nearly $800 on a new dam pump for our irrigation. Oh yes nothing is cheap when it comes to farm equipment... but we are so excited - our gardens are going to love being watered by a reliable pump that doesn't need to be rebuilt after every use (and so will Hubby!).

But in the wonderful contrast that is our life - we are heading off this afternoon to go shopping, most importantly to head to Oroton to search for a new handbag for me.

Funnily enough - I need to change clothes before we go - pump buying clothes at our local industrial state don't stretch to handbag shopping... but I love how many different things I can end up doing in a day :)

So every year we head to the Swell Sculpture Festival at Currumbin. Its just gorgeous wandering along the sculptures scattered along, through and in the beach and the dunes.

This was my favourite sculpture this year.



There were some excellent social commentary designs too but they don't tend to photograph as well!

Special shout out must go to my cute new kaftan dress - so comfy and very pretty and floaty



And finally you can't go to the beach without letting the little one do what toddlers do best :)

I have made a record I think - I have had my most recent handbag for 10 months. Its a lovely mix of pretty and useful - an Oroton deep chocolate hobo bag with lovely metal ends (I am a sucker for metal details!)

In fact it just tried to die on me by half the strap falling off (totally my fault for stuffing it full of way too much stuff always). However, I superglued it back together (yep too lazy to get the leather restitched) and was very smug about my repair job. Until the next morning where in the light of day, I discovered I had dropped a huge smear of super glue on the beautiful soft leather. So yeah - ruined now!

So.. its time for a new bag. I fret when shopping for a bag - I am fussy. I like brands - I see my handbag as a splurge. i don't like brands that are too popular (For example Guess! I was using Guess bags long before the bogans discovered them but rapidly dropped the brand once everyone and their dog started hoiking them around). But I don't like spending an absolute fortune as my bag carries half wrapped Butter Menthols, half eaten cheese sticks from Elka, a camera, a diary (my external brain and memory) and 15 lip glosses, so it can't be too precious....

urrgh so I have wandered through many a Myer and David Jones selection already and seen nothing even worthy of trying on my shoulder. Witchery had a slouchy bag that made me pause but seriously their prices are really inflated for what you get as far as workmanship... Oroton has a gorgeous studded black bag in magazines at the moment but I am seriously contemplating whether the studs would be too sharp for having around Elka (!)

So the search continues...

If you have a fave bag or designer, please feel free to leave a comment and inspire me!

Elka is really into crawling through and under things at the moment.

She crawls through the dining table and chairs chasing the cats. But she only just realised that the coffee table has a magazine shelf underneath it, that she can use as a tunnel. I managed to capture her first attempt - it makes a cute photo sequence!

This weeks Blog This Challenge is Can you do without...? What is something that you have had to give up that was difficult?



My answer is coffee. I grew up in a family of coffee lovers. My mum brewed real coffee long before Australia had anything but Nescafe as a mainstream drink. In my parents house, the kettle is always warm, we have instant coffee, plunger coffee, perculator coffee, turkish coffee on the cooktop and a cappuccino machine. I cared for my horses before school, trained for athletics, went to school 40 mins away, exercised my horse after school, did my home work and fell asleep exhausted and then repeated except for weekends when I got up at 4am and camped at showgrounds all weekend competing my horse. Exhausted doesn't even cover it. Coffee was my life blood. Of course coffee is also a uni student staple and I was wedded to it as much as the next student as an undergrad. However when I became a postgrad, in particular an uber stressed over worked PhD microbiology research student, coffee was the biggest crutch, reward and consolation ever. So what happened?

Well in my second year of my PhD, stressed and sick and at the doctors trying to figure out my pain and issues, the doctor decides it was IBS and that the first thing that had to go was caffeine. I laughed. Then realised she was serious. Then with tears in my eyes I explained that I had been in the lab since 4am trying to fit a 20 hour straight experiment into the day. She was unrelenting. And so no more coffee it was - cold turkey from that minute. If I am one thing, it is determined - coffee has never passed my lips since.

I still love the smell. I miss the creamy froth of a flat white. I miss the warm welcoming buzz. But hey life goes on - I adore milo and herbal tea now. And for what its worth, I don't have problems with IBS anymore ;)

Its a late post but I still wanted to record it :)

We had a lovely time. Elka painted a gorgeous canvas for Jase's office.



Although it seems the paints were more fun to eat


We then spent a lovely day at Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary with my family. It was relaxed and lots of fun. Elka loved the crocodiles. She cracked everyone up by pointing at the emu and saying "ooh chicken!" She eventually warmed up to the kangaroos and gave them pats. They thought she was edible due to the high percentage of food smeared and dropped on her clothes lol.



We finished the weekend with lunch and shopping on the Sunday. Life can be so sweet.
xoxo

I haven't done an update on Miss Elka for a long time. She is almost 15 months now and well and truly a toddler!

She amazes me every day now - so much talking and learning. She chatters in her own language but has picked up a lot of words now - dog, woof, miaow, duck, quack, ta, more, me, bubble, bath, bye, hello daddy, shoe, sock, swing, Nana, cheese, toast, ball, gone, there, this, where.... to name a few. We can really communicate now and she loves to mimic sentences such as "press the button" and "where's the ball?" She can point out her nose, tummy, feet and eye when asked.

She is very helpful around the house. She gets out the broom and sweeps. She likes to wipe down her high chair after meals and today when i gave her the cloth to wipe, she went to the cupboard and got out the cleaning spray to use! When I say its time to feed the cats, Elka climbs into the low cupboard to fetch a can of cat food - very handy! She can also pull out their cat biscuits and pour them roughly into (and around!) their bowls, much to the cats delight! She loves to hand feed the chickens and the magpies and helps make up the horses hard feed scooping up the different feeds and "helping" to carry the bucket.

We are still waiting patiently for some more teeth! She has thankfully not been as sick in the last month or so. She is on a long term low dose of antibiotic to prevent any more burst eardrums. She still sleeps wonderfully - still 7pm-7am every single night. She has dropped down to one day sleep - generally at about 11am for 2 hours.

Her hair has grown very long but she has developed a great interest in pulling out any hair ties or clips so she is currently getting around with wild curls at the back and a messy full fringe.

Daycare has started sending her to the 2 year old room for a few hours to get used to it. She seems to love it - much more stimulation and interesting activities then the nursery. She has even slept in the little portable camp beds that they use in that room - her first non-cot sleep!

She is a good eater - loves to snack all day. Current favorites are bananas, sultanas and Tiny Teddy's. She had her first ice cream cone the other day (see pic) - wasn't too fussed but ate some before the chickens scored the rest.

She adores music - loves to bop and dance. She loves pop music and will clap away to JT or Madonna (hmmm terrible music taste of mother coming out I think!). She sings Row Row Row Your Boat and loves to be rocked back and forth.

She has shot up in height and is wearing size 2 in some clothes - mainly for her round little tummy! She is just moving out of size 5 shoes and into size 6.

She has started to be very independent and I struggle to keep her out of the gardens unsupervised - I am concerned about snakes as the weather warms up. If she doesn't get her way, then she will precede to do a bit of a cry/scream and throws her arms around. If you are in range she might try a bit of a swinging hit at your legs etc. We tend to ignore her when she is doing these tantrums - that is punishment enough as she hates being ignored.

She is great company, very tiring and a lot of fun. I am as always excited about what will come next - every stage has been so wonderful and I always think it can't get better!

So as I have blogged here - we had a weekend away for a friends wedding. By away, I mean to Brisbane city - so all of a 35 minute drive but regardless it was still a hotel, a getaway without Elka and a chance to dress up and have a few drinks. It was not my first night away from Elka - despite just about everybody asking me if it was! I have been quite happily leaving Elka with family since she was three months old.

It was a sweet relaxed wedding and we let our hair down.. and paid for it the next morning lol. I definitely made the most of the cooked breakfast buffet the next morning - I am a eating machine when hungover. I would be a much larger size if I drank regularly from all the bad eating! As fun as it was, I honestly felt that I hadn't been missing much by being out at the farm and not partying it up in the city on weekends. I can't decide if that is nice or sad to say at 28? I do know that I did more than my fair share of drinking and dancing and shenanigans when I was at uni (for 7 years so there was plenty of partying!) so maybe I am just ready to be old before my time...

Here we are all dressed up. Don't scrub up to bad considering only a few hours before I was showjumping and Jase was covered in grease repairing our dam irrigation pump! and yes I know I look pregnant in that photo but trust me I am not (or it would be a pickled bub by now!). That will teach me for slouching.

I adore this dress - it was just so lovely to wear.
Ironically I was worried about Elka staining it before I left home as she was keen for lots of hugs once I was dressed (I swear they have a sixth sense!). But I TRASHED it at the reception - starting with dropping a knife of butter on to it and ending with about seven champagne drip stains. It is still at the dry cleaners as their first attempt didn't remove all the stains... I am hopeful that it can be rescued as I am planning an encore wearing at an engagement party in Sydney in a few weeks!

So confession time, I have been slopping along wearing old sad bra's from pre-pregnancy circa 2006 and even my maternity bra's still. Nothing fits because after breastfeeding and my random weight loss, the girls are a shadow of their former selves (and there wasn't much to begin with LOL).

So today I headed off to grab a nice crisp white T-shirt bra to improve matters :)

I however got distracted by pretty shiny things as I tend to. So I found myself picking up a lovely Pleasure State Couture set to try on. And I had to have it - the soft latte colour (creme brulee if you please according to the label), the stripy metallic satin, ribbon straps and the delicate inset crystals were just too nice to say no to. So splurge I did :)

Oh in case you were wondering the sensible part of me also required me to buy the white T-shirt bra. ;)

It's been a busy week as usual around here with visitors, crazy work and errands to run etc but I am counting down now until this weekend - its my friends wedding and as I have posted previously Jase and I have a lovely hotel room in the city sans toddler and I have a pretty cocktail dress to wear. Can't wait! I am all tidied up - have had my hair done, eyebrows shaped and have even bought some of the individual fake eyelashes that I used for my wedding and loved. Looking forward to getting dressed up and not having to worry about ending up wearing streaks of mushed banana or tomato sauce from the little monster :)

In the meanwhile I am enjoying my non-work days, meeting up with a friend, some shopping for summer clothes for Elka tomorrow and my parents are arriving to be the live-in babysitters :)

SE QLD has forgotten that its winter here and has bypassed Spring and jumped into Summer it seems - we have had a couple of above 33 degree days already and more to come. So its Summer fashion all the way. To think I desperately shopped for the perfect stockings, cardigan and pashmina for my cocktail dress as I thought I would get cold! Now all I need is some sunblock for my bare shoulders!

In the meanwhile, I am in love with the new bandage skirt styles that are cropping up in the magazines. Thank you As Seen In as usual for providing me with pics to drool over :)


Funky yet elegant at the same time - love it!

Yep the high temperatures have had me sweating in my jeans and vowing to bare my legs again. So we headed to DFO for some spending :)

Cue many frustrating trips to my favourite shops - even Forever New failed me!! I couldn't find anything that appealed or much new season (OK OK I know I am shopping at outlets and shouldn't expect new season). Also EVERYTHING was size 14 - whats with that? I thought people were getting fatter? Shouldn't size 14 be more sold out than size 8 therefore? (again I know I am outlet shopping and shouldnt expect my size to necessarily be there!)

Until... the last half an hour, where I hit paydirt including some new season tops that had just been marked down and I snapped up the only smalls :). Even the shop assistant was impressed at the cuteness and the price (the two for $15). Sorry too lazy to take pics - but one is a mushroom coloured sequined long singlet and the other is a summery loose white top with ribbon detailing on the bottom to cinch it in.

Most importantly I found the summery pretty kaftan style dress that I had been coveting AND it was in my size and hidden at that back of a sale rack. And it looks great with my brown belt and my new shoes (see below)


Witchery came through for me too with some great (80% discounted!) summer sandals that are just perfect for all the tie-dye and floral dresses and tops I am planing :)


So still on my wish list: (which got dramatically shortened half an hour ago when I dug out my summer clothes and realised how many items on it I already owned - whoops!)
- denim shorts that don't make me look hoochy
- a tye-died singlet top that isn't too hippy throwback
- a pretty floaty blouse
- a summery floral maxi-dress

What else do I need? I would love some suggestions! Or tell me what you are coveting!
xox

I blogged recently here, about the work I have been putting into Spech and his showjumping. Well... we went to an open EFA Showjumping Comp on the weekend and I was so proud of him - him jumped really well and jumped all the things he is afraid off including walls.

I was happy with that - but even better he came fourth out of a big field! So we won a lovely rosette which he is sporting in the pic (I didn't take the camera hence why he is wearing it at home in his paddock rug hehe). Unfortunately only first to third won money prizes so we just missed out, not that I mind but its always nice to win some money back for all the money you spend on the ponies!

I have had a bit of a rotten week - its been a tough one at work and I have been moody and short tempered. If anything, I have been sulking and reveling in that sulking.

Today I got a reminder that its not all about me. I met up with my mother who was driving an older friend 3 hours each way to some medical appointments in Brisbane. Now, that is the sort of lovely thing my mum does for her friends - gives up a whole day and sits in waiting rooms kindly having inane small talk with people she doesn't know.

That was already making me feel a little selfish for being a grump this week. Then I spent some time with the lady Mum was taking to appointments - she is being diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). A hideous horrible degenerative disease with no cure. Not only that but she cares full time for her brother who has had stroke and lost movement down one side of his body. And she never once looked sulky, upset or even wanted to talk about herself - instead she cheerily shopped trying to find a toy to buy Elka!! Well... I know I would not have been acting with so much grace and dignity, being so selfless.

So today I take my hat off to her and her grace under fire. Its nice to realise sometimes that life doesn't always need to be about yourself.... and that it should be lived with a beautiful spirit.

I love the term mini-break, it reminds me of Bridget Jones. But more to the point, we have been in desperate need of one.

So thanks to the Brisbane show holiday, Jase took a few more days off and we headed to my families beach house on the Tweed Coast, which is just a short drive away. Its a gorgeous area - quieter than the Gold Coast and with one of the best beaches on the whole coast. There is also some lovely tidal rivers perfect for bubbies to play in.

Our house is modest - its barely had any work done on it in 20 or so years but it's on a huge block, two storey with lovely bright bedrooms and a deck overlooking the lush overgrown rainforest gardens which are home to a family of bush turkeys. It is two blocks from the village centre and the beach. The village is filling up with trendy cafes and bars now, the creep of the Gold Coast is encroaching. We have decided to embrace the change rather than whinge about what it was 20 years ago when we bought.

So we swum, played with Elka, walked for miles, soaked up the crazy hot weather, ate a lovely breakfast at a beachside cafe, drank wine on a resort terrace watching the sunset colours paint the sky over the waves and lazed around reading magazines. Bliss and the recharge that we needed.

I am back from a lovely beach holiday (all of an hour from our farm hehe) and the weather is just devine here in SE QLD at the moment. The sun is hot and even I was in a bikini in the water in winter :) (it normally has to be over 30 degrees for my cold bod to think swimming is a good idea)and of course I had to dust off my shorts... (and my legs!)

So now I am all inspired by skirts and shorts again. I tried on some cute cropped denim shorts today but the colour did nothing for my light skin. I have my eye on some cute shorts at Witchery instead..

But I am loving the soft skirts that are coming in - all in pretty batik, dye dipped and tye died colours. Very casual and summery. A lot of the shop girls had them dressed up with tucked in tank tops and heavy belts and necklaces to give it an edgy look. I liked.



Forever New is in love with colour at the moment - it was so pretty just walking through the store admiring the dresses. If only I needed one! I can't justify it with the amount of baby food, vegemite and snot I currently get to wear lol. However, I think I will cave and buy a pretty floaty kaftan soon ;)

So I need to start working on my Spring fashion wish list I think :) Feel free to inspire me with what it catching your eye!