Happy Birthday to Me!

These presents are from my boys.
I feel very spoiled.

I bought this notebook for myself ♥

The flowers are from Jillian. A friend from Church. 

We travel to the Temple together & work in the office. 

Gifts From My Boys

Angus cooked the most amazing roast pork dinner for us last night. It was absolutely delicious. He also made the most scrumptious ice cream made from frozen banana, peanut butter, cocoa powder and milk.
I was also fortunate enough to receive season seven of Call the Midwife. 

Brodie bought me some watercolour paints & paper. These paints are much nicer than the palette paint that I already had. In fact I must give the palette ones away.

I played around with the paints on Sunday afternoon.

I was practising my galaxy painting. I love how these turned out.

TARDIS Condiment Set

Mark bought me some TARDIS salt and pepper shakers for my birthday. He ordered them online, on eBay, and they arrived yesterday (not bad considering my birthday was almost two weeks ago! My guess is they never had them in stock and had to wait for them to come from overseas) Better late than never & at least they arrived safely.

Of course I had to get my miniature Doctor Who figures out and take photos of them with my new TARDIS shakers. I think they look pretty good (~_o) 

Crochet Bookmarks

When Brodie and I were at the Austin Hospital last week for his tests and specialist appointments I knew I had to take some crocheting with me. I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted to make initially but then I thought about how nice it would be to try and make bookmarks for all of the sisters in our ward at Church. I had made some previously and handed them out to some of the sisters but I thought it would be nice for those I hadn't had the chance to give them to.

I didn't have a lot of cotton but I began working with what I had.

Thankfully there was a 25% off yarn sale at Spotlight this week. I bought some more blue, two different greens and a purple ball of cotton.

I made 23 bookmarks during the time I was there. Mostly in the evenings when we weren't at the hospital itself. We stayed at the Lions House in Heidelberg. It's a lovely place. Definitely a home away from home.

Angus asked me how long it took to make one bookmark. Funnily enough I had timed myself. It took 18 minutes but I have gotten the time down to 15 minutes per bookmark. Not bad if I say so myself.

I have added to this collection of bookmarks since I got home. I have around 30 now. I'm not sure I have enough for everyone though. But since they don't take too long to make I will whip up some more before tomorrow morning.

The pattern is called Easy Shell Bookmark, It's the same pattern I used before but sadly it isn't available online anymore and I didn't have it printed *sigh* so I went from the picture.

Gifts From Lakes

Mark's sister-in-law posted some gifts for us yesterday afternoon and they arrived this morning.
Granted that they live just three or so hours drive away but Australia Post you surprised us! we didn't expect them until tomorrow.

Have a look at that AWESOME candle! It looks just like a ball of yarn! I LOVE it.

I shall never, ever burn it though. It looks too good to do that.
There's also a Doctor Who scarf under that. How amazing will I look when I wear that!
Thank you so much S&S! I LOVE them!

The boys received some Star Wars items. Of course they love them.
Mark received some salty plums. I tried them they weren't as salty as I thought they would be. They are popular in the Northern Territory and Papua New Guinea.

My Christmas Gifts

I know I am a few days late posting this but I've been busy doing other things.

Death in Paradise is from Brodie. Call the Midwife Season 3 is from Angus.
I love those shows

The dremel is from Mark and Brodie.
I know you may be thinking it's an odd gift but it's not really. I'm using it for my feet.

A dremel looks very much like the tool that my podiatrist uses on my feet. I can look after my feet on my own between visits.

It's My Day

Happy Birthday to ME! 

Angus and I even made my "cake" for tonight. We made a lemon cheesecake. It looks SO good. I haven't made this particular recipe for years. It's one I got from my Auntie Jean, the one who passed away last month. Anyway it's going to be delicious! 

Even Google knows it is my birthday

My gift from Brodie

My gift from Angus

Anyway, time to go watch Call the midwife and do some crocheting.
               

I Am One Spoiled Hooker

Look at all the wonderful Christmas presents I received from Mark and the boys. I am a very happy hooker ☺☺ 

My new tote bag from Everything Mary. It's such a pretty colour!

It has plenty of room for hooks, needles, yarn and patterns.

Now I can try my hand at making lace. Although I am not entirely sure what to make.

A girl can never have too much yarn or thread (~_o) 

I am so proud of the fact that Brodie, who bought the yarn, remembered to look at the dye lot and colour to make sure they matched! Awesome job Brodz!

New hooks in a lovely purple pouch. The pouch is from yazzii.com 

Here's a close up of the new hooks.

Some tealight candles AND of course I just LOVE my Jimmy Barnes CD.
I always tell the boys that he is my Jimmy.

♥♥ Thank you ♥♥

What A Lovely Gift To Receive

A few weeks ago when Angus and I were in Traralgon organising his Proof of Age card. Angus spotted a gorgeous candle in a glass jar at the chemist we were in. The verse on the glass jar (with a slight change in the wording) is from one of our Church hymns called "I Am A Child Of God".
It just happens to be my favourite hymn too.
Anyway I took a photo of the candle and shared it on Facebook.

Imagine my surprise when I received a gift last Sunday from a sister at Church. I don't know who left the gift for me. I was going to open it on Christmas day but I opened it this morning.

Thank you so much to the anonymous sister who left me my beautiful candle. It was a wonderful surprise and I feel very loved and appreciated.

New Boye Crochet Hooks

I feel loved. Mark surprised me on Wednesday with a present. Some new teeny tiny crochet hooks by Boye. I had never heard of this brand before but after doing some research I found out that they are a pretty popular brand. Just not here I guess.

You know what that means now? I need to go shopping for some fine thread so that I can actually use the hooks. Trouble is I have no idea about what type of thread to use. Time to ask clever crochet people and to do some more googling.

Lucky Me!

Angus has been in the mood to do some cooking and baking for the last couple of week. Silly me kept forgetting to take photos of what he has made. He's baked cakes, brownies and now a Honey Rice Bubble Slice. It's a bit too sweet for my liking. 

I was a very lucky girl too this week. My niece, Kylie, whom I have never met and who lives in England sent me this lovely necklace. It's so pretty. It's a shame that this photo doesn't show the blue of the pendant very well. It's more of a tardis blue (~_o) Just so I don't confuse you I do have two nieces called Kylie. One is my sisters daughter and the other one is my ex-hubby's niece. It does get confusing sometimes when we talk about either one.

I have another reason why I am lucky. Brodie cooked dinner for us last night. He was so proud of himself. The only thing I did was help with the timing of the dishes and placing everything on the plates. The rest he did himself. He cooked Pies and veg & I had two little hamburger patties and veg. Brodz did a great job too. 

I am so happy that the boys are willing to get into the kitchen now and cook things. I've enjoyed the break and we are reaping the benefits too (~_~) YUM~

Out For Dinner & A Limo Ride

My wonderful sister-in-law, Sally, along with my MIL organised and paid for a dinner and limo ride for Mark and I as a wedding gift. Last night we were picked up at 7 pm and taken to a fancy restaurant called In 2 Food. It's not the usual type of restaurant we would go to so that made our night extra special.

  

I had never been in a limo before so I didn't know what to expect. It was exciting not to have to drive ourselves. What was even better was the fact that some of our neighbours were outside having a sticky beak to see what on earth was going on! It was fun seeing their reactions. Especially the kids that were out playing in the street when the limo turned up.

The restaurant was fantastic. I'd never been there before either. The service as well as the food was impeccable. In fact Mark was so impressed that he wanted to book a table for next year on our anniversary. They weren't able to do that as yet. Something to do with the diary and being very busy for the rest of the month but they recommended we phone in January next year.

the upstairs dining area

Mark ordered Spring rolls with chilli sauce and a cucumber salad for his entree. There were three spring rolls and they were massive, as big as chicko rolls, about an inch round and three to four inches long.

I chose calamari which was lightly fried and came with a lovely salad. 

the stairs to go downstairs are through the doors

Mark's main dish was an eye fillet cooked medium rare with a red wine & mushroom sauce on a potato rosti topped with onion rings. It looked amazing and the steak melted in your mouth. YUM!

My main was a pan fried salmon on a bed of locally grown asparagus with a butter sauce. Talk about delicious. I think my taste-buds have been spoiled because I don't think I ever want to eat tinned salmon again.

I had a cup of tea at the end of the evening and the milk was brought out in a cow! Too cute!

We didn't have a desert although they did have a Mars Bar chocolate cake that looked amazing. I did the right thing, being the (mostly) well behaved diabetic that I am, and didn't order any sweets. We did however share a cheese and fruit platter. The cheese, which for the life of me I can't remember all of their names, was from local producers. Mark and I were unable to eat the whole platter so they let us take the leftovers home.

Mark & I are definitely going to spoil ourselves more often. Maybe not with a limousine ride but at least with dinner out in a more upmarket restaurant than we usually go to. If last night was anything to go by I can't wait to try this again!

One Month To Go

You may not want the reminder but its one month to go until Christmas.

Are you ready for the big day yet?
I still need to get a present for my Dad and post it. I also need to wrap the presents I already have. I'm getting there though.
At least I have all the food so wont have to put up with the crowds in the supermarkets.

Merry Christmas!

I know I'm a day late in wishing this but hey its better late than never! Merry Christmas!!

We had a wonderfully relaxing day yesterday. I like those kind of days. We had the big Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve with all the yummy trimmings to go with it. That way we can be lazy things on Christmas Day itself. And we were!!

We cut up some ham & fried it up on the BBQ with some eggs in bread and some pumpkin. There is nothing like barbecued ham and pumpkin slices. They were delicious! Mark did a great job cooking it all. We had Mark's brother with us and our neighbour joined is too.

I was totally surprised with the boys. Well not totally but they were amazing. Absolutely no fighting yesterday. It made my day that they were able to get along so well together. I guess it had to do with the presents that they got which kept them busy. They were spoilt as usual. With the money that Dad sent over I went and bought a Play Station 2 for the bedroom & I got them a new LCD HD TV. They weren't expecting a flat screen tv. Mark & I (mostly Mark) were rather devious about the tv. We went to a second hand shop in town and got this really old television that we put under the tree on Christmas Eve. The boys thought that it was the TV we promised them for keeping their room tidy. They didn't realise that it was already in a box under the tree. You should've seen their faces light up when the finally opened the box yesterday morning. It was lovely to see them so happy & surprised!

If Christmas could be this relaxing and peaceful every year it would be wonderful. It makes me look forward to the next one (well maybe).

Last Week

I know I haven't been a regular blogger of late. There's no excuse really other than I just haven't been in the mood to write about the goings on at home. So I'll do a quick summary of this past week.

On Monday Brodie had his first respite session with a carer from our shire (council). He went for a 6km walk on the Two Towns Trail. (Originally it was meant to be called Ethan's Way after a neighbour of ours son who died 3 years ago while walking home from the next town over from us. He was hit by a motorbike). Any way this walk gave Brodie and his "Monday" carer time to get to know one another.

Tuesday, hmm lets see. I took Mark to the radiology department of our local hospital for cortisone injections in his spine. Its certainly different getting them done there rather than travelling all the way into Dandenong. They made Mark stay for about an hour afterwards and even provided him with a snack and a drink before he was allowed to go home.

Wednesday, I can't remember anything for Wednesday so nothing important must have happened.

Thursday, I got a phone call from the shire to say that Brodie's "Thursday" carer wasn't able to come. Not unless I only wanted an hours break. An hour really isn't enough time to do anything decent so I decided that the 90 minute session would be best. It allows for travelling to and from the next town in case Brodie wants to go swimming or bowling or something.

We didn't really do a lot on Friday because it was far too hot. It got to 39C (over 100F) in town so I stayed put in front of the air-con.

Yesterday Angus and I went to the local Farmer's Market. I bought a few things. Mostly the lovely soaps that I have been getting. They're made from vegetable oils rather than animal fats and so far they seem to be less drying than the 'regular' soaps or the shower gels I was using. I also bought Angus a hoodie and told him it was for his birthday. He was rapt! He has been after one of those monkey ones that we found. At least that is one less present I need to find before tomorrow week!

Other than all of that I am still knitting away. At the rate I am going however it might be quite some time before Angus's new jumper is complete. Oh well - at least it will be ready for next winter!

Lucky Me

This is what the boys bought me when they went for a walk this morning. I feel awfully blessed that they thought of me while out on their walk.

Merry Christmas

Just a tad late with the Christmas wishes but its better late than never!!
~*~ Merry Christmas ~*~

We had a quiet day yesterday because we had a big Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve. It made yesterday a much more relaxing day. We had brunch at around 11:30 am and the kids snacked just about all day.

Brodie watched the complete 4th series of Doctor Who. Which wasn't so bad since we don't mind the show either. He did complain though when I asked him to let someone else have the tv. You'd think he would let them since he basically had control of it ALL day long.

Angus was thrilled with is tool set. He was proud as punch of it really and can't wait to start using the 'real' tools he was given. At least it's something he can use properly and add too since it's not a kids set of tools.

I was hoping that the boys father would phone them up before he got too much drinking him but he never phoned. I don't know why I thought he would. His nephew Chris and I spoke on MSN and he was telling me that Uncle Vic was already well on the way to being drunk if he wasn't already. I swear that man should be drawn and quartered. After we made the effort last year to contact him so that he could get to know his kids better. I don't know why I bother sometimes! Once a drunk always a drunk! He used to hate it when I said that but it is so true.

I know the boys are disapppointed as they had expected him here for Christmas. Especially after he promised them that he would be coming. I even offered to pay for his trip back if he paid his way overe here. He was all for it ... I'll kick myself I should really know better. Anything that stops him from his beer and wine is a bad thing...
Oh enough of him. I remember all too well why I made him move out of our home. I'm glad that I moved on is all I can say.

Before I forget. I got an overlocker for Christmas. It's not exactly what I wanted, Mark has always wanted me to get one, but after watching a dvd on this particular model last week. I was sold on it. There is so much more you can do with it than a regular sewing machine. Well maybe not more but it looked a lot easier anyway. I just had to learn how to use it now. Maybe after Mark learns to use it I can learn from him lol ... or just wait until next year and go to Gippstitch where we bought it from and get some lessons from there. I just hope that I can learn to use it properly and make the best use of it that I can.

Christmas Project

I know I haven't blogged heaps of late but I have been busy with my applique. I've made a few things now which are complete and I have FINALLY gotten the patterns I ordered from Millamac.

Here's a sample of the Christmas presents that I am making for everyone. I'm going to make 5 in total. One each for Kylie, Vicki, Mark's Mum and Paula .. on and the last one is for me.
It's not the clearest of photo's but it shows what they;re like. This is the first one I was making. The second one looks much better than this. I've completed the second one but not this one. I suppose I should finish it off though.

I am way more excited about starting our Diva's project. I need to go and get some more material though as I don't have quite enough. The girls in my Church applique group loved the patterns. And R. helped me organise and work out the colours for each of the animals. As I said I need more colours and patterned fat quarters but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Such heartbreak at having to go shopping again rofl .. I am going to LOVE it!!!

The Other Day

On Tuesday while Brodie and I went in for the appointment Mark went shopping and bought me my present. He got me a pedometer. Which I thought was kind of cool. Especially since I've been taking my walks now, that was Mark's thinking for it also. It's also a great way to see how much walking I do around home too.

That night I put it on before dinner in about 3 and a half hours ago and I had walked 0.689 miles. Who would've thought I would walk so much indoors? That's about the distance to our shops and back when the boys and I go walking after dinner.

Mark also got me some nice purple candles. I love candles! And he said I was to use them one night while soaking in the tub! So I'll do that one night this week.

To my surprise I also got a birthday card from my sister Vicki. It's the first card I have received from her in about 4 years. I was more shocked than surprised I think.

I phoned Dad that night also as his phone isn't working. I wanted to let him know I got his card and the money order he sent. He asked what I had bought with the money but I haven't even cashed it in yet. I told him I was thinking I might get a food processor as I don't have one of them and I thought it would come in handy for soups and stuff. I'm planning on cooking more of them as I believe it might be a healthier alternative for me to eat than sandwiches and stuff as it will fill me up more. Plus I could have them more frequently, well in my thinking lol.