December...what a joy

what a huge month December is...my camera is full of wonderful celebratory photos still to be downloaded,....SO. MUCH. BAKING. has been done and enjoyed; kids prizegvings and shows, Sunday schools concert, Christmas presents made, brought wrapped and awaiting tomorrow...a momentous sweet neice entered our world and lives - welcome my dove, you will bring us all so much joy.... a wee nephew celebrated another year of life - much love to you also....my special brother, his wife and babies have come home for the holidays...December is just SO BIG.

Christmas for us will be the smallest it has ever been...with just the 6 of us....I'm still trying to get me head around that, and determined it will be a fun-filled feasting special day....remembering Christ's birth and the reasons for it.

I confess to being rather sentimental today, a tad weepy and lots to do....

we are in the process of moving house (like on the 27th!), and I am still trying to do all the pickling and jaming that this time of year brings....my sewing machine has a small coat of dust on it and calls forlornly, but we will hang together next week....

I will be visiting all your lovely blogs, but taking a wee break from this one for a couple weeks.

May Christ's love wash over you, bring you joy, peace and happiness as we celebrate His birth.
much love
B

christmas creating...

for the last 3 years I have made something 'new' for our Christmas decorations and pretties...in an effort to get away from plastic baubles etc (nothing wrong with em! just wanting someting a bit more handcrafted)...so the year before last, I made sweet little bird ornaments out of re-purposed fabrics and wool batting, last year I made new table runners and clothes, felt hearts.

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this year I have made this wee angel garland out of a re-purposed woolen blanket, old crochet doilie and ribbon...and then as I had lots of pretty ribbon left I thought I would up-date the inside wreath....so would love to have finished all the other things I had planned, but are also in the middle of packing to move so, yeah, not gonna happen this year!

crafting with my buddy

tis always nice to hang out, cut,paste, sip wine, eat brownie, chat a while, be inspired to make some more.....a card crafting night with the lovely Frithy the other night. Yay.

bonfire...

from this to ...

...this, to this...

a belated guy fawkes at our lovely friends farm, was so much fun, and as it was on the big side (ahem!), we gave up on the idea of roasting marshmallows and sat and ate them instead....poor Mr Man (on crutches) had to be transported to the bonfire in the bucket of the tractor - a noble stead indeed!

ps promise we all stayed far away from the flames!

lions and tigers and bears - oh my!

tis not very often you get to hang out with just one of the sproglets, so when then opportunity came up to go on the kindy trip to the zoo, both Jose and I were very excited, a bus ride and a zoo trip, with my mum joining us is pretty special round these parts!.....usually Mr Man and I, have a minor sqabble over who gets to go and be then cool guy on the trip - but poor him, has ruptured his achellies tendon, so hes' outta action for the summer - boohoo!...its really dumb for us all, him mostly! We had a wee icecream for him though!...

homemade ravioli

1st go at homemade pasta- a bit thick as rolled by hand and not enough rolling at that! but not bad for a first attempt....stuffed with feta, bacon and spinach from the garden - you can't go too wrong...YUM!

HAppy birthday sweet Josaye! 13...

13 years have passed - what on earth! it has flown, and been a miraculous and amazing journey...one my sweet girl, that I am proud to hold your hand for...you amaze us with your insight and compassion, your helpfulness and intuition, your inner strength and beauty....I love that you are so different from me in some ways and so the same in others....I love that I can rely on your care of your siblings, and that you try to put them first - I love that your plans for life include shooting for the stars....know this baby girl, we will protect as much as we can, delight with you in your achievements, cry with you in your sorrows (may they be few and far between); support and love you always. Happy birthday sweet lady-child.

She chose to take her friends camping for the night out in our local bush/streams...we had a blast! I learn't a few things to about 13 year old girls!! 5 in a tent!...they are all lovely girls and it was a treat to hang out together....our wee lads thoroughly enjoyed the attention! and also learnt about peeing - ie not into the wind, not on mum's foot, not near the BBQ etc...good times hehe!!

The the rest of the family joined us the next day, for a lovely BBQ that was a teeny bit posh...and a swim down at the bay.... I so hope she will remember this time.

ps, I know the above photo of her cracking up isn't the best posed photo...but to me its gorgeous - her sister is pinching her butt and she's just lost it, and is laughing crazy.... it makes me smile everytime I see it.

happy birthday catch up!

well its been crazy birthday month in our family - with about a million of our family celebrating another number...heres just a few pics from the Man's birthday and mine - and check out who we got to play with - yay Ms Dee from dee-construction ...love my friends from a million years ago!

....and then as if I wasn't spoilt enough....these two lovely ladies threw me a gorgeous birthday luncheon....how cool are they!! LOVe em! Thanks so much Frith and Sarah....can't wait to do the same for you xx

Have to also say HAPPY late BIRTHDAY sweet neice and other sweet neice, lovely sister in law, lovely brother in law, lovely friends...all October babies. xxx

I'm back!

Hooray! My hardrive is fixed, dustfree (ahem!), up and running like a smooth running machine...to be honest, after heavy, serious withdrawals, we all go used to it not being here, and although I missed reading all your lovely blogs so much; I was amazed how much time I had to use differently...for shame on me!....anyho, since last here, so very much has happened....I turned another number, and was so spoled by my beautiful family, and sweet friends threw a birthday lunch for me...my sweet baby girl turned 13!!! (EEK!)...we took her and 4 girlfriends camping in the bush, was involved in helping a criminal investigation, followed by a birthday bonanza with my sweet sisters and their families and parents, have driven endlessly to see Miss Daisy Brown, cleaned her, brushed her, poked her when shes stubborn for my girl, been to 2 calf club days, planted masses of potatoes and corn, have suported my family through Mr Man rupturing his achellis tendon YOUCH! bigtime! - and its ingoing as you can imagine), sewn 4 peg aprons, 3 pairs of shorts, 2 summer pjs for my girls, one crazy patchwork bathmat, 3 christmas type projects, a skirt, 2 pillowslip dresses, altered clothes, mended, crotcheted, knitted with jersey yarn that has to be made as a go, started sorting the house for a moving in 6 weeks, worked a wee bit, and very sadly and with a heavy heart buried Mr Man's lovely Nana....its been a bumpy ride my friends, a bumpy ride....so a few pictures to catch up with .... its good to be back....

technical issues

well, its been a while - and its super frustrating! but my hard drive has crashed and is away in harddrive hospital...so will be a while longer - amazing how you come to rely on instant information, ideas and resources - ARGH! thanks to the local library I can check out everyone once in a while ....sigh - until hardrive is fixed I will be stranded on my informationaless island wondering what the hang everyone is up to...ciao til then x

makin' stuff....

been doing a spot of sewing, the last of my craft-it-round (pics coming) projects, birthday pressies coming up, and altering existing stuff to make it new and interesting - yay! These little numbers are one of the pair of pants for my littlest guy....hes just so darn cute at the mo- we all agree he's fab!...pattern inspired by Dana at MADE....loving her easy to follow tutorials...check her out sometime....these are actually made out of the bottoms of an old pair of jeans of mine....so seriously didn't cost a cent ..... um YAY!

ah the joy of seeing yourself in film as it were....one of these days I might even have legs in it!

this was one day at the weekend....going to church? I think....

black leggings = farmers

cute ballet flats = warehouse

cardi = glassons

tunic thingy whatsit = House of W (er thats warhouse for those who are wondering - hehe, sounds classier!)...not that impressed with the 'foofiness' of it and lack of shaping ..but do like the pattern

check out our lovely other wednesday wardrobe ladies....and have yourself a great day xx

miss daisy brown

we are loving having the opportunity to rear this sweet girl...and to be able to take her to calf day is supercool....I grew up on various types of farms - and we would all love to be living on one now for the kids (and me!!)...but that isn't gonna happen anytime soon - so this is the perfect compromise....all the kids love going down the road to this wonderful spot....where in a few weeks we'll been 'raisin our corn and planting our taters' too ....part-time faux farming is fun!

jungle fever

Schools out and we sent off the term in style!

I love family nights...which come in all shapes and styles round these parts...and to be honest, sometimes don't happen for a week or 2- but I'm super glad when I do make the effort - doesn't cost anything/much and memories are made - WHOOP!!

Jungle fever hit our place...and hey presto before you know it, we have the menu, the decor and the costumes .... jungle music and BAD jungle jokes....a bit off face paint and everyone gets a bit silly - tis fun eh?!....introducing....

the asian rastafarian bongo playing elephant, the girl kitty black panther, the terrifying t-rex, the wild 'pippy' dog, the waterfall man and the butterfly.... waterfall man took out the prize at the end of the night - I suspect bribery and self promotion had ALOT to do with that!....

...a movie with intermission (little boys put to bed), and a wee relax - ahhhh; totally LOVE school holidays!

kiwana

stunning....

wardrobe wednesday

eek! here we are again...well, today we are off to the minature trains for playcentre, so am anticipating mud, duckpoop, wiped snot and food on me - nice!

anyho....

cardi- Max, and a sister's castoffs xx

top - about 4 years old, but still like the colour and the fantail print

black 3/4 pants - farmers - wildchild strikes again!

casual shoes - the warehouse and I love 'em!

hoop earrings - seriously $1 on sale - yay me!

Happy wednesday dolls....and don't forget to check out the others - heres a good place to start x

happy weekend

Lemon Honey drop cookies - mmmmmmmm...

hope y`all get to do some of this over the weekend....we had a lovely picnic in Rotorus planned, with fly fishing for the kids and a visit with my Nana....but given the sky has opened up....I think I'll do this, and perhaps try an convince Rhyley the cat the blanket I'm working on isn't for him - silly kitty.

FATHER's DAY-late eek!

i am week late posting these pics - for shame!...needless to say we had a wonderful Father's Day celebrating the Dad at our place, and all that he is and does!

Church, followed by a picnic morning tea (with blueberry apple muffin cake - yum!)...running races, swing challenges (I won the wheeeeeeeeee side of things, the Man won the make- the- swing- double- back- on- itself- scare -your -wife thing). Handstand competitions, and piggy back rides ....then home for a steak sandwich lunch, with all the trimmings....grunt grunt....a rugby game was viewed and the BBQ fired up for the first time of the season to come .... a good day in a man's book - no?

We love you - man of ours - you rock as a bloke, a hubby and a Dad.