Day 9

Just before bed on January 8th I heard an exclamation of sh*&t from the hallway and was surprised to see dh standing under a dripping ceiling in the hallway. After some examination in the ceiling we discovered where the water was coming from and agreed we needed to call the aircon man in the morning. And that sometimes we actually need to spend money on handymen instead of trying to always fix stuff ourselves...
Mid morning on Friday I left work to meet up with our technician at home. He took a quick look around, on the roof and in the roof space and determined that we just needed a service. This photo shows our aircon after all the pads etc. were removed for cleaning. By the time I got home from work it was all back together and we haven't had any issues with water since then...touch wood..

Day 7 and 8

I'm still on track with the photo taking, just behind on uploading to the blog. When I did my layout last week I found it was very easy to journal my page by copying and pasting from here, into a work doc editing and printing. Voila..done.
DAY 8
This is my work coffee cup. It's the subject of today's photo purely and simply because I actually managed to finish a cup of tea before it went cold! And thinking of Cups...I'm not sure my Australian Open Cup (gift from M) is still on my desk...I sure hope it is, because if it isn't it means someone light-fingered it :*(

This morning's photo could just have easily have been the rabbit, Sam. He was hiding behind the dog's lounge instead of in his cage. The dog ITurner) knew he was there and was acting very strangely until we figured out what was making him crazy! M was able to pick Sam up
and he was returned to the safety of his shredded paper filled cage!

It could just have easily have been a photo of Turner who managed to escape...again!!! Thankfully our new neighbours like Turner and they rescued him, watered him and kept him company until they dropped him home! We took some Chocolate chip cookies over to say "THANKS" and I think B has a new friend in their daughter who must be about the same age...time will tell.

DAY 7

Kirsten aka Kirsti and Smurf is our life saver!
She minds the kids for us when we have to work during the school holidays.
She babysits for no other reason than she believes A and I should have a night out together.
She runs my kids to sport at the end of a working day so that I can have an hour to myself.
On Day 7 she even cleaned my floors!!

We've known Kirsten for a long time, I can't remember living here and not knowing her - that's around 14 years! We've had our ups and downs but they are in the past. Last year K asked me to be in her wedding, which I readily accepted - my first Bridesmaid job ever! We had some dress dramas - the zip broke before we left for the church but it was lots of fun. It was a very relaxed wedding day with a bbq reception at the local club, which suits K and P to a "T". A spent the night cooking the bbq so I'm not sure how relaxed he'd say it was LOL, but it was a great night :)

Thanks Smurf - we love you!!!

DAY 6

This is what my Scrapbooking Area looked like when I got up this morning! Legs out from under the "cubby" house belong to T's friend. And that's T on the bed. LUCKILY they didn't knock my cricut off!!
I had planned on working on my albums last night but I didn't get there - I was distracted by the computer and the TV. Looking at the room, it's just as well I didn't lol
It was all cleaned up when I came home from work, and T is now sleeping over at R's :) B still hasn't organised a sleepover IN ADVANCE for her friend E.....
Edited to add... When it came time to do some actual scrapbooking at my desk tonight I hit a brickwall. First I couldn't find my album (you can probably see it on the floor near the drawers if you look closely...) and then when Bonnie finally gave me my album we couldn't find the photo. After lots of searching we came up with the PMP and journalling but had no luck with my photo..so back to the printer we went for my third and final attempt at Scrapbooking a page about "Spike" the Japanese fighting fish.
In the end I had a very productive evening, finishing two pet pages, a 7x7 dps for Julie's Christmas album and my first layout for my 365 layout album...almost a record for me!!

One Year On...

Wow! I've had my Blog for a year! I just re read it to make sure it was all ok to share with A's family (that's why I set it up initially anyway!) and read my Anniversary entry from last year...
Well, it seems Last year I gave him his wedding ring all spruced up...(top)
Guess what I gave him this year? A new one.
His old one got stuck in a lock at work and broke. I had it repaired but the filigree pattern was cracked and would most likely break again soon. We picked out a new ring and put it on lay-by. I paid it off early and gave it to him for our anniversary...(bottom)

DAY 5

There was no doubt about what today's photo would be. It was my first day back to work after a lovely (almost) two weeks off. It was a nice day, albeit a little long.. I spent the day doing some Statement work that I just don't get time to do on a regular basis...It felt comfortable. Like I was in my own little corner of the world.
The kids were home with their dad. B went to play with her friend E and spent no small amount of time trying to convince us E should sleep over!! Unfortunately she hasn't learned to preorganise these things and as T already had a friend sleeping over and A wasn't feeling well, the sleep over didn't happen. Oh well, I'm MuD instead of MuM for a while as far as B is concerned!!!

DAY 4

Tyson took this picture of M and Me in the pool. I had to record the moment because it is so typical. Probably typical for anyone who has ever had kids around them. I went up to the pool and discovered I was alone. I was quickly joined by two very excited children... The kids convinced me to pump up my previously unused blow up chair. I jumped into it and made a big splash (which was obviously very funny to little people..) LOL - of course as soon as they were able they were on my lap, sharing my chair.
This picture shows Mel's fascination with her feet! One of her Singstar profile pics is of her feet with her toes splayed just like they are here:)

DAY 3

Still on track! Today's photo was another toss up..
I was working on my "dead pet" album and was rudely (cutely) interrupted by my cat Ice who decided I was working on HER table and it wasn't going to happen LOL. She kept crawling all over my desk, sitting on my lap etc. all the while leaving her hair behind her as she went :)

This is probably the best photo I've ever taken of Ice, but it's not the one I'll use in my layout.

I'm going to use this picture of the girls instead. It's not often they "play" nice. I love moments like these so I had to photograph this one. B and M decided to make chocolate chip cookies. They took turns mixing and adding ingredients and shared the job of making the balls of mixture into cookies on the tray. If I was in a more artsy mood I might have just included a pic of a cookie. But I wanted to get the girls, both smiling, into one picture!
I'm hoping one day we could do a layout using:
Sisters by blood - Friends by choice

DAY 2

Day two was tough! I spent a lot of time planning for our NZ holiday and so took two photos of things relating to that. I posted a poll on SS coz I couldn't decide which to use...
The poll decided that I should use the first one, and I've included here as it's the one I will use..... I have also printed the other to use (maybe) as background for my journaling, it's the title page to the journal book pictured here.
Planning for the holiday has been a lot of work, and apart from a couple of "brochure sessions" I've done most of the work. I've typed up the itinerary, deciding what we can/can't fit in as well as working out costs and making bookings. But it's all good. I'd prefer it this way, to not knowing what's going on and when! The lonely planet guide was a Christmas gift from my mum. The note book is what I've written a lot of my planning into, and has been altered to include pages for each day of our trip. Each day has three pages, including separator, envelope, date tab and 2 double sided pages for journaling.

365 Project.

I've signed up for the 365 Project on SS. I'm really looking forward to it. By all accounts I should have an album completed by the end of 2009, with one photo/item from each day in the year. I'm really excited about it. It will go hand in hand with my new goal to do at least one page per week.

DAY 1
Here's my first photo for 2009....
Breakfast at Macca's to celebrate my nephew's (red) 5th Birthday. He spent the night at our house so his mum could go out and celebrate New Years Eve with her friends :)
After breakfast we did some shopping and my DN chose his own present - Australian Towel, Hat and Tattoos. Interesting choices as he would have got a DS Lite game had it been our choice!

My DS7 has just begun to see my DN as a friend as well as a cousin. It's really nice to see as I was great friends with my cousins growing up.

Using my new stamps from SU!

I finally bit the bullet and ordered two stamp sets I'd been looking at for a long time...Lovely as a Tree and Happy Christmas Mate. My order arrived, along with my new Bone Scorer and Happiness Stamp set, just in time to make cards for our Serbian Tennis coach who was leaving for NZ before relocating to Kabulcha, QLD. I made two cards the same - imagine my delight when I discovered, belatedly, that I save HEAPS of time by doing two identical cards at the same time!! LOL, not to mention that if I hadn't I might have only done one... Something to remember for the future. The trouble with home made cards is - you are never really sure the people at the other end appreciate the effort! I know it's fun, but it would be nice to hear - wow, did you make that!? I love it!! Aaaah, yes I know - it's meant to be in the giving - and it is really - but I wonder - do people appreciate hand made cards? Or would they prefer a bought one? It would be interesting to do some sort of poll on a non craft forum :)
This card was CASED from one I saw on Splitcoaststampers. Thanks!!

Girl Dog has a new home...

We couldn't keep her. She was in the cage a lot of the time and was playing with Turner or running amok down the street the rest of the time. Almost impossible to train her under those conditions and almost as impossible to convince Turner that it was a good thing to be stuck in the yard when Girl Dog was out front....
I posted a message on my work Email Chat and found her a new owner. Well two actually. Apparently they have "come to some arrangement" LOL, whatever, I'm sure she's being loved to bits as she should be.
After a whole heap of name changes she was affectionately known as "Girl Dog" and I told her new owners this..
These photos were taken whilst I was waiting for the (very grumpy) Council Ranger to say I could keep her. Thanks to the lovely Lady at the RSPCA who told him I wasn't breaking any rules and was welcome to keep her! This actually meant I am allowed to give her to Maria and Phil!! After a whole heap of name changes she was affectionately known as "Girl Dog" and I told her new owners this...I must find out if they have named her something else...watch this space :)

Uh oh, I'm in trouble - for neglecting - again :)

Well, I've got an excuse or two.
First- I am DESperately trying to plan our New Zealand itinerary. We've jotted down lots of things we'd like to do - but now we have to try to fit them all in - and start booking some stuff!!
We are planning on going to Bonz n Stonz to make our own "treasure"

This is a photo of me from our work Christmas party on Friday night. I must thank my friend Smurf for babysitting, doing my hair AND lending me her top!!


Can't imagine how many photos we'll take on our trip! Mountains, valleys, old buildings, weird buildings, guysers, hostels, hire cars, trains, planes, boats, buses, helicopter rides, glaciers...wow. I finally got my "prison issue" passport photos taken yesterday - I'll be lucky if they let me into the country - or as the photographer said - even luckier if they let me come back into Australia!

Speaking of photos - I just took this photo of my Advent Calendar.
I made it based on an idea in CM's Scraps magazine and I really like how it turned out.



I just want to say "THANKS" to Mel for keeping me honest :)

Guess what I'm getting for Christmas????

A bug.
A Cricket.
A Cricut Create!!


Yay!! It comes with the Design Studio and Don Juan cartridge. I'm sooooo excited. Great price too - $495! Cheaper than buying the old model locally!
Paperbark Creations

Movember

I forgot to mention - if you'd like to support MOVEMBER go to https://www.movember.com/au/donate and search for registration number 402821 (our mate Nathan) and donate to the cause! He's promised to shave his head too if he makes enough :) And I'm sure we all know someone affected by mental illness and/or depression....

Quick update :)

Just popping in whilst the mince is browning - so can't stay long!! Puppy is still with us, and still as yet, mostly unnamed!! She's getting on really well with Turner for the most part, although he tends to squash her in play :/ Still not sure she's staying - hubby is convinced shes not! lol

Til next time - keep smiling!

Kicked into action...

Well, apparently SOMEbody reads my blog (((((((Melita)))))) and noticed I haven't been posting regularly! So, I've officially added this page as my homepage, right along with my current favourite websites, SS and Facebook.

Wednesday night coming home from work/tennis we rescued a puppy. A very cute puppy, who was very lucky not to have been run over by a black car... We visited a couple of houses and posted some lost puppy notices with no luck. The puppy is still at our house.

She's had a heap of name changes, some of which included: Rat, Slipper, Sliver (as in just a piece of a dog!!), Cocoa, The Dog, Girl Dog and Cat Dog. We haven't named her officially, because officially "we aren't keeping her!" DH isn't an inside dog lover at all, so we've come to a compromise and if she does ok outside with Turner, and no one claims her, we can keep her.

Oh my ...

It has been SOOOO cold! Everybody I know is sick (and I think I'm getting it now too...)
I'm off on a plane to my friend's wedding and I really DON'T need this illness to overtake me now. I ache all over.
..Is it the Flu? or is it that I'm 37 years old and still playing B-grade netball???? I collapsed on court yesterday when both my calves cramped up and I couldn't stand! I managed to get up and get going (after convincing my team mate that I could not reach my toes and she really needed to help me stretch!!)
The upside of the game is that I scored more goals than I have in my Adult life and some of them were just AWESOME!!!
I'm going to sign off now, and get some rest for my eyes.
Keep your fingers crossed I don't get TOO much worse before the weekend...

One word...

I got this idea from somebody else's blog..looks fun.
Not as easy as you might think... answer each question with only one word!

1. Where is your cell phone? bedroom
2. Significant other? husband
3. Your hair? long
4. Your mother? sporty
5. Your father? dead
6. Your favorite thing? peace
7. Your dream last night? none
8. Your favorite drink? tea
9. Your dream/goal? unity
10. The room you're in? lounge
11. Your hobby? photos
12. Your fear? divorce
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? married!
14. Where were you last night? home
15. What you're not? patient
16. Muffins? fruit
17. One of your wish list items? CR
18. Where you grew up? Goolwa
19. The last thing you did? typed
20. What are you wearing? gown
21. Your TV? on
22. Your pets? 5
23. Your computer? compaq
24. Your life? buys
25. Your mood? relaxed
26. Missing someone? yes
27. Your car? great!
28. Something you're not wearing? pants
29. Favorite store? BigW (is that one word?)
30. Your summer? hot
31. Like someone? lots
32. Your favorite color? green
33. When is the last time you laughed? yesterday
34. Last time you cried? recently

The year is flying by!

I can not believe it is already the end of term and half way through the next lot of school holidays!!
The first week was busy, but really nice, with lots of tennis. I went to Darwin with the tennis exchange and then stayed on to watch/supervise kids for two more tournaments. Mel went to another couple in Katherine, but I flew home to the family.
It's been a very hectic upanddown term. Not much fun, one I'd like to forget really.
Here's looking for a wonderful two weeks off and a better term 3 :)

School Holidays

We are nearing the end of one week of school holidays. It's been a busy week of Tennis and In-Laws, but it's been nice. Nice not to rush off to work - although I've still spent quite a lot of time working from home...
We saw the Spiderwick Chronicles at the cinema and we all thought it was good fun. The green slime and tomato sauce was certainly colourful!
Also full of colour was my popcorn. Mel decided I needed to try something new...M&Ms in my popcorn! It was actually a very nice combination. I usually dip my ice cream into my popcorn, so the sweet and savoury thing is actually something I quite like!
Bowling was in the pipeline, but didn't happen as Nanna had sore fingers and Grandpa had a sore back.
Instead, I took the kids to out to a BBQ breakfast with friends. Breakfast lasted until about 1.30pm - it was lovely to catch up with friends and the kids had a good dose of fresh air. The play station, DVD player and computer have had a good workout this holidays. Before dinner we spent an hour or so out the back shooting goals and kicking the soccer ball - mixed in with chasing Turner the dog to get our balls back! I think he'd make a good Aussie Rules player, he tackles and holds the ball really well with his paws!
The in-laws left early this morning to drive home over the next two days. It's back to normal today with us spending all day Saturday at netball; coaching, playing and umpiring. Tomorrow we'll finish the holidays with a Netball Barbecue courtesy of our Sponsors. The kids are hoping and praying it will still be warm enough to swim.

Pay it Forward RAK

RAK - Random Act of Kindness
I just saw this on Melita's blog, inspired by a post on Veronica's blog.... and think it's a great idea so I'm doing it as well!

”The idea of the exchange is I will send a handmade gift to the first three people who leave a comment on this blog post requesting to join this PIF exchange. I don’t know what that gift will be yet, and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days, that is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog - this means you must have a blog, sorry blogless readers.”

I have no idea what the gift will be at this stage, whether it will be big or small... All I ask is that you pay it forward :)

7 of 2007.

This post has been a while coming. I mentioned it a while ago, but hadn't got around to it, until now...

1. FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL:
This was my youngest's first day of Big School. He was so very excited to be there! I enjoyed the idea of not having to race around for the preschool pick up/drop off... He had the perfect teacher for his personality. One I'd preferred not to have for the girls. Surprisingly - I wasn't sad about my "baby" going to school. We always take a photo on the first day of school. Until 2007 it was always taken out the front. We changed it in 2008.


2. TURNER:
Turner was actually my middle dd's Christmas Present for 2006. It was all she wanted! Ordinarily we wouldn't give a pet as a present, but she really didn't know what else to ask for. We organised him through a friend and arranged to pick him up after we returned from holidays in January 2007. We wrapped a picture of him to give on Christmas Day. This photo is from the day we picked him up. He has made himself a big part of our family. He loves to go out of the yard, especially running around the oval, exploring the drain. He attended "Puppy Pre-school" early in the piece and we plan to take him to dog obedience school in 2008.


3. NEW CAMERA:
I bought my first digital camera in Camberra, a 2MP mini camera just to try out. To see what I liked, didn't like and/or needed in a Digital Camera. After some playing around I bought a real one from Harvey Norman...a 7mp HP camera that I loved. I replaced it a few times, but one day at netball it was dropped by somebody and the screen broke. It was time for a new camera :( I used hubby's Olympus for a while, but really didn't like it. The flash was too bright and the images were very "digital". I bought my new camera at K-mart, on Sale. It's a Fuji, FinePix S5700. I love it. I love that it takes two different types of Memory Cards. The zoom is awesome and so is the shallow depth photography on Auto. The only thing I would say I don't like, is that sometimes inside pics are a bit grainy. I took this pic of our elder dd when I first got the camera. I was just playing around with the settings :) But as I don't have a picture of the camera, I thought I'd post our dd instead!! My camera has inspired my sister and mother to buy new cameras. They both bought different versions of the same camera.

4. TENNIS:
Tennis is another big part of our family life. My dh and I met at a friend's house and began playing tennis together before we became more than just friends! We have played tennis on and off through the years. All three children have had some tennis coaching. Our elder dd is hooked. She has coaching 2-3 times a week as well as playing in a regular competition, School Sport comp and tournaments. She had an awesome year, winning tournaments left, right and centre. She even won her age group in a tournament interstate! She has had a few different coaches, but Craig is her favourite. They've had a few "ups and downs" but she's so much happier about her tennis when he's coaching. Thankfully he has agreed to fit her into his already busy schedule for 2008!


5. CLIMBING MOUNT GILLEN
Mount Gillen is beautiful. We can see it from our front door (see pic at the top of my blog page) and have often climbed it. Hubby more than me! In fact he used it as training for his trip to Kokoda in 2006. On July 10, 2007 we climbed with the kids. It was fun to do it with them and they did it fairly easily - in fact our younger dd ran quite a lot of it!! Coming down was harder than going up - it's very steep and there's a lot of loose rock, but the view makes it all worthwhile :)

6. TENNIS TASMANIA
This was my first year as a Manager for the School Sport NT Tennis Exchange Team. The bonus was going to Tasmania. We flew from here to Melbourne, where we spent the night before our train on the next day. Our train on consisted of taking a train then walking to the Rod Laver Arena at Melbourne park, where the kids trained on the practise courts! It was a great experience for them. After a cold wet day and a couple of tram trips we made our way to the Spirit Of Tasmania for our overnight trip to Tassie. A few of us (including me) didn't cope too well with the sea travel. Thankfully we had beds to sleep in for the night. We spent the week in Burnie, with games being played at Burnie and Devenport courts. Our tennis team had the best Result for an NT Tennis Exchange team to date!

7. CHRISTMAS
Christmas day was rushed, as usual, but very enjoyable. We visited my mum and sd before breakfast then had breakfast with my sister and her family at our house. I was able to use the self timer on my camera to take this photo, meaning I could be in it too! We rushed around to book into our cabin at the McDonnell Range caravan park, before heading out to lunch at the Barra on Todd restaurant. We wanted to stay at the restaurant but would have had too book two rooms, so we took the cabin at the caravan park instead. After a large lunch and a few drinks we headed back to our room for the night. The kids did some exploring and found a big air pillow for us all to play on. After a VERY cold swim we played on the pillow until it got dark. After spending some time in the games room we returned to the cabin for a dinner of cheeses and dips and biscuits. This year I think we'll do dinner at the restaurant, instead of lunch, so that it's not such a rush. PlayStation 2 and Mel's DS Lite were the presents of the year!

Easter Was Awesome!!!

It was FANtastic to see my brother and all his family (bar one daughter) over the Easter Week.
The kids loved meeting their cousins and they all played really well together. The eldest is turning 20 this year and the youngest is 1. We played cards (MAY I?), did SingStar, went to the Desert Park, had meals together...it was fun. My darling brother even cooked lunch for me!! Warm lamb salad. . . it was delicious!!



It was also interesting to see how the nature/nurture thing works. My nephew has grown up on the other side of the country to his dad. They see each other about once a year. They look alike. They sound alike. It's amazing.
The family genes must be very strong. My niece and my middle dd are very similar in appearance (with about 8 years in between).

The Wedding Anniversary party went well, with the three kids (my sister,brother and me) and our families giving Mum and SD a digital photo frame with photos already on it. It has quite a big internal storage capacity, plus you can add photos by card or USB...





Can't wait to see them all again!

March so far..

March has been HUGE! Dh has been working days, and I'm still getting used to working full time (over two jobs). I seem to be waking at ridiculous hours of the morning and feeling exhausted each evening.
Netball is starting soon. I've taken on a 13/U netball team, that has somehow become 2.
Thankfully I've found a lady to take one on each Saturday.
I'm also in the midst of planning a Tennis event and organising to take some kids to another one next term.
DH is slowly getting used to being the one that's home to do tea etc, although it did take some convincing. I guess it is hard when he's so used to finishing at bed time, to be home and able to cook dinner..?
I have two name tags to wear for work. My morning job says "tutor" which really confuses the kids who are just learning to read!! The second one actually has my name on it - I like it. It makes me feel a part of the school :)
It's almost Easter. With that comes family. It's my sister's birthday on Tuesday, then my brother and families come to celebrate mum's wedding anniversary on Thursday. This just reminds me - I forgot to say happy Anniversary! 30 years!! I think it was on the 11th... Oh well, I'll have to do something nice for her party...really should get together with the siblings and organise something...
It will be nice to see them all, though at this point I'm not even sure when my brother is coming. His girlfriend, 3 of his kids and two of hers will be here on Thursday. I hope he can come!!
I caught up with him in Melbourne last year for an hour or so, but it would be nice to see more of him :)
...Now, I need to remember to go chase up the Easter Bunny!

...truly a blessing..truly a blessing... :X

Wow. I hadn't even collected my baggage and the elder dd and her dad were fighting about dinner!
I think this may be inspiration to do the seven best things of 2007...

Work can be a blessing!

Sometimes work gets on top of me. Especially now that I'm working full time (plus) for the first time since the kids were born.
BUT sometimes it's nice to go to work. To get away from the bickering. The mess. The stress of trying to fit everything in.
TODAY is a different type of blessing - one of the reasons I love my job. I get to go away. 1500kms away in fact - and I get to do it several times a year.
And it's these times that you realise how much you will actually miss the chaos. You can't have it both ways...but provided I get there and back safely - I'll take the opportunity to appreciate my family for who they are, whenever I can and if this means getting away for work..I'll take it :)

SS Blog Challenge #1

My new year's resolution was to take part in the SS Blog Challenges. Well it's February and I'm just beginning...better lat than never!

This week's blog challenge: RECIPE! We all dig out special recipes during the holidays - some that we ONLY use at holiday time. Why do we make those dishes every year? Where did the recipe originate? Does someone request it? Would it just NOT be the holidays without it? What memories of this recipe do you have from your childhood?

Christmas every year as a child we had White Christmas and Rum Balls.

White Christmas from Australia

3 cups rice bubbles
1 cup mixed fruit
1 cup dessicated coconut
1 cup dry powdered milk
3/4 cup of sifted icing
sugar
225 grams colpha
vanilla essence

1. Put 3 cups of rice bubbles, 1 cup of mixed fruit, dessicated coconut, dry powdered milk and 3/4 sifted icing sugar in a bowl.

2. Melt 225 grams copha in saucepan. Add copha to dry ingredients in bowl - mix well.

3. Press mixture firmly into a biscuit tray. Set in a refrigerator. Cut into squares.

I make neither for my family, although I do love to eat the Rum Balls that my mum still makes!
We have our own tradition of Ginger Bread houses. We began the tradition in 2004 after tasting our Canberra neighbours, Malcom, Rodney, Bonny and Alison's gingerbread house. We thought it was a fantastic idea - but being our first time, we cheated and looked around until we found a house to buy, rather than making one...but all we could find was this litte tree. None the less - a new tradition began. Christmas 2004...
We usually make our own Gingerbread House or houses - depending on how many we need. They were a hit at the class parties in 2005 and we made our first one for my CM Xmas in July workshop. In 2006, when we were in Adelaide in a tent we bought another tree as it was a bit hard to bake in the caravan park!! Below are some of the houses we made in 2005. We also made some mini houses as Christmas Gifts, with pink and green icing. They were hard to make so we are sticking to white!

Then there are the stock recipes that we ALWAYS keep ingredients on hand for. What's one of yours? What's your family's favorite dish? What do you ALWAYS make when you have company for dinner? Are you known for a certain recipe that people always request? This week, tell us about the recipe(s) that invoke special memories for you.

My favourite biscuits are "Lady Alice Biscuits" they are custard based and melt in your mouth. These were an old recipe of my mum's.
Andrew's favourite dessert, "Alice's Apple Squares" is from his mum's recipe book, my favourite version is apple and rhubarb.
We don't have people over for dinner often, but when we do it's usually a barbecue. My favourite salad is the Crunchy Noodle Asian Salad.
When I was growing up we didn't have lots of money and "KiSiMin" was often on the menu. It was always a two night dish and it was always MUCH tastier the second time around.

Ki Si Min

Ki si Min (fast and yummy)

mince meat

cabbage

onion

curry powder

mixed frozen vegetables

chicken soup in a can

You use as much as you want but for say 7 people l use:

600 grams of mince

1/4 cabbage

1 onion

curry powder to taste

saucepan lot of frozen vegies (l use lots cause love me vegies)

2 tins of soup (you can use one but l like mine creamy)

Chop onion and saute in pan with some butter till translucent, add curry powder to cover. Add mince and stir till browned. Slice cabbage thinly and add to mixture, cook vegies and add to mixture also. When all mixed together and cabbage has softened add the tins of soup and mix well and heat through. YUMMMMMY and l might add l add extra curry powder to taste when thats done.

Quick easy and tastes better than it sounds very cheap to make too.

Well, not quite weekly!

I said in my last post that I'd try to post weekly. I haven't. In fact the only time I even think about my blog is when someone else's is mentioned on a SS post. Last time I was here I mentioned posting pics of cards and glass charms I made for a swap,I took some pictures but they aren't great as I'd already packaged them up before remembering to take the pic...
The cards are Criss Cross Cards and I think they look really nice :)

I took some pics of my wine glass charms too - but I seem to have deleted that file :(

Life is full on. School is back in. So's work - and now I have a new job that has almost as many hours as my other job does (officially - you know the one's I actually get paid for)
It's nice knowing there will be money for holidays and stuff, but it's VERY busy. Thankfully I've had the hubby home this week helping out - it will be interesting to see how we cope (and what we eat!) when we are back to normal hours...
The kids are also back into their respective sports, which includes a LOT of running around on Saturday mornings. Not sure when I'm supposed to do my Creative Memories classes...and how successful they'd be anyway! I've got one this afternoon on Circle Pages - and I still haven't done one to show!...I did manage to buy some blades for my workshop ladies to use to cut the circles out with. I guess I really shouldn't be on here!
My next post I will address some of the SS Blog Challenges.....watch this space :)

It's about time.....

And not enough of it!! I was recently directed to Sparkpeople and am busily entering my Nutrition and Fitness Goals on their site. I set up a Sparkpeople blog - Lushy in Alice!! Finding the site in January 2008 was great timing, as my sister Kathryn and I have decided to start/return to Weight Watchers in 2008.

BUT, all this means I don't have as much time to browse my two favourite sites!!! Oh well, guess we can't do everything!!

I really do want to keep this Blog moving along though...so I'm going to make an effort to post at least once a week. I think I'll send the link to the In-Laws so that I'll need to keep it up to date for them to know what's going on in the Alice :)

I'm not going to talk about my Fitness/Nutrition on this blog - but I would like to mention that if I didn't get my treadmill for Christmas then my exercise would be non existant. It's been SOOOOOO hot. I've done nearly all of my exercise inside. It's great!!

I have done a few cards - I actually completed 10 Christmas cards for a SCS challenge. Hopefully I'll actually send some Christmas cards OUT in 2008!
This birthday card uses some CM cardstock that I had already cut into card blanks for a Girl Guide meeting and SU! "Let's Party":

Since I took the photo I have added my newly acquired Crystal Effects from Stampin'Up! to a couple of spots on each present.

I've also made some more wine charms for a swap. I'll post my swap charms and swap cards in a later blog post.

Julie my MIL wasn't sure what her butterfly glass charms were!! Luckily her other DIL, Helen, was there to help her understand they were for her wine glass - not her EARS!!

We went shopping!!

It's so exciting! FINALLY we got a new computer :) The one we had was
loaded with Millenium Edition Windows and nobody offered support for
that system any more ... and a lot of products (including my last
printer) weren't compatible with ME.
Now I have a BIG WHOPPING screen, speakers that I don't have to wear on
my head a dvd burner...I'm a happy gal!
I have a little pink dude holding a clock at the top of my desktop -
that incidentallys says it's past my bed time!!
Whilst we were shopping for our new mattress (at the same time as the
computer) we also purchased a new bed for DD#1. It means we need to
move their room around AGAIN! It's got a little cupboard and shelf and a
desk that goes under the bed - it's like a low bunk, or a high bed. She
needed it though - the last one never really went together properly and
it felt like it would break whenever you sat on it. She's really excited!!
Of course the other part of her excitement is that they get to keep the
old computer. I took heaps off it and it's working quite well without
all the extra memory taken up.
T & B spent the afternoon playing games on the old computer and are very
happy with the idea! It's set up in the girl's wardrobe so it isn't
extra visible "clutter".
Now, if I could just work out how to make this monitor not so bright my
eyes would be happy too :)