10 Minute Coffee Break....

Knitting update...

2008-08-27T00:00:00.000-07:00

Wednesday August 27th, 2008

Why have I posted a photograph of some ball's of wool. Well its a sad story really, I started working on a lovely jumper (aka sweater, pullover) for my yet to be born niece about two weeks ago. The pattern was great very simple, no complicated design just one colour. I've been knitting it over the last couple of w/ends when I have a spare moment, knit, purling away. I had 90% done - was so close to being finished - had the back, front and 1 sleeve done.

When...last night I thought I would measure it all just to make sure it was the correct dimensions. After double checking it and getting J to check my measurements just incase I was wrong, it became apparent that I it was out by 1 inch under the arms and the sleeve was out, the front was out and the back was out. The more I measured the more pain I felt, realizing that the only way to fix it would be to undo it all. (The pattern is knitted sideways not across!)

Late last night I worked on another gauge swatch and this morning decided I'll have to go up again in my needle size from 5 to 7, but guess what I don't have the circular needle I need or the double pointed needles in the correct size. So this project is going to be put away till the w/end when I'll pop out and purchase some more needles. It's very annoying to have sooo many needles by none in the size I need!

So my plan was to post a great pic showing a nearly completed jumper, oh well. I'll have to go back to finishing Miss S cardi - alot of sewing in threads on that project. I think that will take a couple more nights, then I will need to block it, sew it together, sew on buttons then - yeah finished. Well one step at a time.

Nature at it's best

2008-08-23T00:00:00.000-07:00

Saturday August 23rd, 2008

J took some lovely pics the other day of a butterfly in our garden. Thought it would be nice to share them. Enjoy the w/end and go outside and enjoy mothernature, yes even if it's the middle of winter for some of you!

Butterfly enjoying the sunshine.

Friday Photo

2008-08-22T00:00:00.000-07:00

Friday August 22nd, 2008

Sydney showing her excitement that it's Friday - Happy Friday everyone.

Pavlova for a Queen

2008-08-21T00:00:00.000-07:00

Thursday August 21st, 2008

For my belated birthday BBQ I decided to cook a Pavlova - Australian/New Zealand desert. So I had a test run the week prior to iron out any kinks. A Pavlova is a mergine filled with cream, then smoothered in seasonal summer fruits.

For those who do not know the Pavlova was named after the late Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova. The inside of the mergine is like a ballerina's tutu being light, fluffy and airy when the dancer is moving. The actual material of the tutu is crunchy to feel like the outside of the mergine. If you over cook it the mergine will dry up and not provide enough fluff - which is what you want alot of fluff! So to create the perfect Pavlova is indeed ethereal, delicate and slightly controversial like the dancer!

Glad I did a test run, since the first one became slightly overcooked with hardly any fluff inside, infact it was more sticky then fluffy. So back to drawing board after turning down our oven from 300 to 275 and then letting it cool down in the oven after its cooked it was a beautie!

First attempt at Pav - ok - but cooked too high so turned down oven from 300 to 275 (still ate it!!)

Top of the Pav - a tad over cooked not enough fluff inside

BBQ Pav - all dressed up with seasonal fruit including hard to find Kiwi fruit.
Just missing the passionfruit, maybe next time. J did the decorating.

J made me a carmel cake with carmel icing - yummo!

Pavlova's are enjoyed all year round in Australia - but my fondest memories of home are eating a Pavlova on 1988 (Australia's Bicentenial Year) on "Australia Day" - yes Australian's have a day off to celebrate the discovery of Australia - its in the mid Summer,no excuse needed to heat up the BBQ and drink a coldie!

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Pav Recipe:

4 egg whites (at room temperature)

200 g white sugar

Pinch of salt

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1st make sure your mixer and attachment are completely clean, free of grease otherwise the egg white will not become fluffy.

Separate the yolks from the white's making sure no egg shells are present. Turn on the mixer to medium until firm peaks form.

Next gradually add the sugar and salt

Once all the sugar is combined turn onto high for 7-8 minutes and mix until the egg whites become white glossy peaks. The egg whites are done, once you can take some the mixture and rub it between your fingers without feeling any grains of sugar, if you can still feel the sugar give it more time.

This process is critical.

After you have stiff white peaks place it on a tray of any size - smooth it out then get a fork and fluff the top - don't make it too thin otherwise you will not have any fluff inside.

Place in 275-300 degree oven for 1 hour (or more if needed) - it's done when the top is crispy. Leave it in the oven to cool down with the oven turned off once its cooked.

Once completely cool - add cream and top with seasonal fruit.

Eat and enjoy!

Strawberry jam anyone!

2008-08-13T03:57:00.000-07:00

Photograph courtesy of Adam Cooper

Sunday August 17, 2008

The other day I decided to tackle our strawberry jam disaster see previous post. After S was down for her morning nap it was time to sort out the jam! We decided to just recook the lot and then add some lemon juice for pectin. The process was very slow and have to admit at one point we both looked at the strawberry syrup with doubt about it thickening up - Well it did, after 1 hour and 1/2 of cooking once the syrup came to a boil and then slowly simmering it started to become thicker, slowly we added another jar of syrup - eventually all were added into the pot.

After the jam had cooked down we let it sit in the pot for a while so we could eat our lunch before S woke up then poured the jam into the sterilized jars for processing in the water bath. S woke up towards the end so we played while J worked on the rest of the jam.

The results are below:

Yummy homemade jam on homemade bread.

18 jars of strawberry jam

July a month of birthdays.....

2008-07-28T00:00:00.000-07:00

Monday July 28th, 2008

The last couple of weeks have been very hectic for me with J away on business for 10 days, J's birthday celebrations, playdates and summer. I've had to take a break from blogging sorry. But I'm now back again with lots of news....

Today is my 37th Birthday - yeah!! - Happy Birthday to me!!
Well for something different I'm going to celebrate it 2 times! (believe me my friends are surprised, its very unlike me to celebrate my birthday, I think this is from 1. living away from family and 2. After many, many yrs of planning exciting events for various global companies I felt burnt out!)

First event was on Sunday 27th, lovely dinner made by J for me. After Miss S went to bed we relaxed and enjoyed a lovely dinner of chicken stuffed with basil (growing almost wild on our deck!) with bacon wrapped around it, served on a bed of white truffle fettuccine with a side of asparagus! - Yummo. Dessert was chocolate molten cake served with a scoop of Ben and Jerry's latest flavor icecream. Plus I was able to enjoy a glass or two of wine, since I've finally now weaned Miss S - yes sad but true, after the last month of constant biting it was time to stop.

The next celebration will be held in mid August a BBQ for about 8 people. So should be busy couple of days. I figure I haven't properly celebrated by birthday in 10 years so time to dust of the party shoes! I'll post pics later.

J turned the big 40 early this month so finally downloaded some pics to share of his big day.

J enjoying his new birthday present with Miss S

Miss S doing her safety test for Dadda

Miss S playing with the box the hammock came in, entertainment for at least half an hour.

J blowing out his birthday cake

Miss S wondering what is going to happen next

Birthday Cake - coconut with key lime lemon filling!

The birthday boy - infront of his rosemary bush from my family

What do we do in the hot weather

2008-07-17T00:00:00.000-07:00

Thursday July 17th, 2008

Well it's Summer in Michigan and it's hot - thank goodness we decided to get the air conditioning in the Spring! - yeah. It's not on all day, just afternoons and in the mornings I have the kitchen door open to let in the morning breeze.

Miss S is enjoying her first summer and loves to splash around on her splash mat. Well this is what S does to keep cool. I sit next to her and we have a canopy tent which we sit under after her splashy, splashy time where we eat snacks and have drinks. It's a lovely way to spend the avo together.

J resting on the job!!

Jam Diaster

2008-07-16T00:00:00.000-07:00

Wednesday July 16th, 2008

It's jam season, with strawberries on sale 5 lbs for $5.00 I thought what a bargain let's make some strawberry jam. I spent a good part of one Saturday morning preparing the fruit by washing, coring and cutting them up - into chunks since I like good eating pieces in my jam.

J helped when S went to bed for her morning nap - we decided this year to follow the Ball blue book where you add sachet of pectin, in the past we made jam the ol' fashioned way where you cook the fruit for nearly an hour so that it forms a thick, squashy jam and if necessary add some lemon juice; this method has always worked for us.

I guess we wanted to do the quick method and have the jam form by cooking for only 1 minute after it boils then adding it into the jars. Unfortunately it didn't work at all and yes we did follow the recipe exactly and weighed out all ingredients. The jam is not setting instead we have strawberries floating in syrup.

After reading the how to fix it section - it mentioned to leave it for up to 2 weeks and it may form. I'm going to leave it but I doubt it forms. Looks like we will have to recook it till it sets in a weeks time. So lesson learned if it ain't broke don't fix it, the original recipe worked we should of followed that recipe instead of trying to take short cuts by following a new recipe. Oh well.

We now have 18 jars of strawberry syrup!

My moan...

2008-07-15T00:00:00.000-07:00

Tuesday July 15th, 2008

I hate rudeness, the other day when I was out shopping with Miss S who was in her stroller not 1or 2 but 3 people refused to open the door for me - grrr. Makes me annoyed that people can be ignorant and refuse to hold open the door. Hay I'm all for women's rights but would it hurt people to hold the door open for a second.

Really I don't understand why people are so rude, when I was growing up I was taught to hold the door open, and say Thank-you and please, Lately I'm encountering alot of young 20 somethings who don't have any manners and understand politeness. Obviously it's not cool to be polite it's a real shame that their parents can't spend some quality time teaching them basic manners.

So next time you are out shopping don't forget to hold open the door for the lady with the stroller. This kind act will bring back it's own rewards to you later.

Monday - cute pic time

2008-07-14T00:00:00.000-07:00

Monday July 14th, 2008

This is what happens when Miss S wakes up way to early on the w/end!!

Sunday last day of the week or beginning!

2008-07-13T00:00:00.000-07:00

Sunday, July 13th 2008

It's a funny day Sunday - is it your last day of the week or beginning of a new week? I wonder for me it's the last day of the week. When I was a child we would visit God on a weekly basis this was the beginning of the week, now it's the end. Funny how your feelings and thoughts change. Sunday's have always been the day before back to school or work, now it's just another day for me. Anyway before I bore everyone with my ramble I found this fun word site and decided to make a word cloud describing summer 2008 with S.

Happy Sunday

Party's and Gifts

2008-07-12T00:00:00.000-07:00

Saturday July 12th, 2008

The other w/end S attended her first birthday party for a playdate friend who was celebrating his first birthday. I was surprised S was such a trouper lasted 3 hours and seemed to really enjoy herself. S was the only girl - yet again! - looks like she won't be short of dates when she is older, like 21!! - lol

I made the gift for the b'day boy - a "no sew blanket" in Disney "Cars" theme and placed the blanket in a drawstring bag made of tonka car/truck material. The blanket was completed by 90% help from my Mum and rest help from my little bro - Thanks for the help, otherwise I wouldn't have had it completed in time. Instructions for how to make the no-sew blankie

Opening of presents - oh look it's our pressie!!

Mum and Dad with B'day boy

Let him eat cake!

S inspecting the balloons - hmm - yes they are ok!

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Today is another important person's birthday - my dear hubbie - Jameson, who is turning the big 40. We are going out for a posh lunch at a nearby restaurant and will have his cake at home. I'll post pics of his cake later.

Happy Birthday J - May you have many, many more - Lots of Love from C & S xxx

Friday Photo

2008-07-11T00:00:00.001-07:00

I think I'll have a little rest!

Prizes and Surprises...

2008-07-10T00:00:00.000-07:00

Thursday, July 10th 2008

I received my prize tote bag the other day from Lisa at http://thetinhouse.blogspot.com/ for contest info - see previous post re contest. What a lovely surprise, since I had forgotten about receiving the tote bag, and Lisa's handwriting on the envelope looks like another Aussie gf's writing. Well I'm extremely happy with the bag - Thanks a million Lisa, very impressed with it! - tempted me to use an ol' pair of J's jeans to make a tote.

I'm now using it to hold my knitting - my latest knitting project.The jean pockets are great to store my tools - tape measure, crochet hooks (to fix dropped stitches - still trying to master that technique sometimes I just undo rows instead!), pieces of wool, labels from the wool, stitch holders etc.

Thanks again Lisa for the lovely tote, I'm enjoying using it and the bonus extras are gone!!

Pics of bag below:

Front of tote

Back of Tote
With lovely lining
& added bonus some Aussie chocs!
Perfect storage

Finished Projects

2008-07-09T00:00:00.000-07:00

Wednesday July 9th, 2008

Finally finished a couple of projects that I was working on for S - yeah! Love it when projects are finished - see previous post re beginning of project - http://10minutecoffeebreak.blogspot.com/search/label/Knitting

Blocks

Making S's blocks became a family affair - Thanks to Mum for sewing the blocks together, straighting my very tight knitting (well it's a learning curve) Dad who cut the foam for the blocks, my little bro who sorted out the patterns and color scheme for each block. J supervised the whole process! Picture of finished blocks below

S playing with her blocks

Booties
I also knitted a pair of baby booties for my gf who baby is due within the next couple of weeks. Big thanks again to Mum for sewing them together for me. They turned out a tad big - for 3 inch foot, so he (they know it's a boy) can wear them in the winter. Actually they look like footie boots lol! Pictures below

Now I'm knitting a striped cardigan for Miss S - I'll post later about that.

Oh boy it's Monday.....

2008-07-07T00:00:00.000-07:00

Monday, July 7th 2008

Oh how the w/end just flew by for me. Actually the last couple of weeks have been a total blur for me. So much has happened... Let's see.

My family arrived from OZ - first time for them to meet Miss S. A lovely time was had with S meeting Grandpa, Grandma and her Uncle. It's a shame they don't live closer the 20+ hour flight is abit far to just visit for an evening! Let's hope we win lotto!

Sitting with Grandma

S giving Grandpa an Eskimo kiss - a lucky few get this treatment!

After my family left we drove to Traverse City (4 hr drive w/out S) - our first break away with Miss S. Our mini break ended up being only 2 nights (we had originally planned 3 nights, 4 days) after Miss S decided to scream bloody murder each night when going to bed. In order to solve this problem we drove around the town for 1hr - 2 hrs until S finally feel asleep. On the 2nd night we decided it was too much for her and us and packed our stuff so we could leave the next morning. Sorry my holiday pics are not very exciting - our plans of visiting the beach and vineyards went amiss when we decided to leave early.

Leaving home

Driving to "Up North"

My new project - helped make the hours fly by during the drive.

S enjoying her first bath away from home

Separation anxiety

S is going through separation anxiety at the moment, unfortunately we have now resorted to letting S CIO (Cry it out) - I know alot of people are against this but after J and me cuddling her till she fell asleep (40 mins each) and having her wake up the moment you lie her down into her crib, the decision was made lets try CIO. Tonight will be our 3rd night.

S needs to relearn how to fall asleep for all her naps and night sleep, time and patience are now needed and the later is again being tested. I thought we had just gotten over this hurdle of sleeping - we had this problem at 2 months which lasted till 4 months of age at that time it took up to 2 hours of walking and rocking for S to fall asleep. I'm hoping this week will help with everyone gone and her routine going to back to normal, here's hoping that S can get back into her old habits of sleeping - like a baby!

Friday Photo...

2008-06-20T00:00:00.000-07:00

Friday June 19th, 2008

Notice that S is wearing the same colours as my gf!! - it's like they planned it.

Strange thing.... when my gf and I worked together yrs ago we often came into work wearing the same colour outfits, so S is just carrying on the tradition - good girl!

Happy Friday everyone.

Learning History...

2008-06-18T00:00:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, June 18th 2008

Today I learnt some Australian history. I often use a quote from a former Australian PM - Malcolm Fraser (Prime Minister from 1975-1983) was famous for:

"Life wasn't meant to be easy."

Unfortunately his political opponents seized on the sentence, arguing it revealed the attitude of the privileged and wealthy towards less-fortunate Australians. The words have been fixed to Fraser like a badge of dishonour, but they weren't original.

George Bernard Shaw used them in Back to Methuselah: "Life is not meant to be easy, my child ..." Fraser, however, overlooked the second half of the playwright's sentence: "... but take courage: it can be delightful." It transforms the message.

I'm going to keep on using the original quote with pride, I often repeat it to myself like a mantra when I'm feeling annoyed, overwhelmed or tired. By repeating this to myself I seem to get over my hump and just get on with it.

So that is my Australian history lesson for today... find your own mantra it may help to keep you motivated and focused when you are faced with difficult journey's ahead.

Friday Photo

2008-06-13T00:00:00.000-07:00

Friday, June 13th 2008

Well it's black Friday everyone so stay away from black cats, walking under ladders and don't step on a crack!! - lol that is if you believe in superstition's (which I do.)

Some pics from this week with S to make everyone smile.

Have a great w/end.

Friday on my mind - when it's Thursday

2008-06-12T00:00:00.000-07:00

Thursday, June 12th 2008

Sorry I've been MIA this week, busy with 4 play dates for S, catching up on my household chores and just generally being Supermum!

Thought everyone might want to see what S does on hot days...

Our Daily Bread...

2008-06-10T00:00:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, June 10th 2008

The other day I purchased a bread maker, yeap I've decided to go modern. I was making our bread, but now that it's summer (not officially but close enough) I didn't fancy having the oven on since it only warms up the house and inturn our a/c will need to be turned up higher to cope. So I gave in and purchased it as a "Mother's Day" late present to me... (well that was my excuse).

The bread maker looks like this and makes cute little 1lb loafs, enough for 1 person to eat toast all week or sarnies for 2-3 days for 2 people.

I've used it about 6 times now and its very consistent with the end result. This is my second bread maker - a couple weeks earlier I purchased a "Big Daddy" bread maker but I found the bread to be a little undercooked in the middle and the crust just wasn't brown no matter how high you selected the crust to be, so back it went.

Below are some photos of the end result. - The 2 smaller loaves in the front are from the "Big Daddy" machine which decided not to knead the dough that day, so I had to hand knead the bread and cook it in the oven. The larger loaf in the background was made with my new machine - it's white bread, I've made whole wheat and white whole wheat, all very yummy!

Within the next couple weeks I'm going to make fruit bread and chocolate bread, I'll update everyone on the outcome. Plus the bread freezes very well and is delicious toasted with jam (homemade strawberry of course!).

Nothing is better then the smell of homemade bread, I love the smell of bread cooking. By making my own bread I know what is in it and so I'm not eating nasty preservatives and it does not cost an arm and a leg to make. I worked it out to be about $0.75 cents - $1.25 per loaf depending what you add into the bread. Now I just need to find a recipe book with good bread machine recipes. So that's my new kitchen gadget everyone.

Happy Tuesday!

Friday Photo...

2008-06-06T00:00:00.000-07:00

Friday, June 6th

We visited a petting farm the other day & this is what S thought of it all. - yeap not very impressed.

All she could say was "hmmm." - Not sure if it was the smell, or the animals that she was not pleased with. & after her Daddy mentioned it was smelly, S then wrinkled up her nose while we walked around the barn.

Next we ventured outside to see the other farm animals. S decided to let us know she had enough by loudly saying "Aboo" followed by raspberry blowing. Oh dear, looks like my little girl is a City girl, sorry J no camping trips for us!!

K 4, P4, rep till end then P4, K4 rep till end.....

2008-06-04T00:00:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, June 4

This is a busy bee week for me with J away this week, no extra help with S. J will be back home late evening on Thursday & is taking Fri off so we can have a fun day as a family, so far I don't have any plans for Fri, I should start putting together some ideas so we can do some fun activities with S. Sometime during the day we need to do our grocery shopping, which S loves - gives her a great opportunity to check everything out and tell me about it, this makes the shopping trip very exciting and entertaining.

Well I've decided that I wasn't doing enough projects! - what with my scrap booking, needlepoint, recipe book (a huge work in progress), being super mum to S and general household chores etc. I've decided to take up knitting.The other day I was inspired by this book, that I found on Amazon and fell in love with the jumpers (aka sweaters). BTW if you knit you will know the title is the secret knitting language. So I decided to give it a go, ordered the book, purchased wool, needles and re-taught myself. A couple winters ago, I knitted a very chunky scarf with my MIL helping me - it turned out surprisingly well.

I was amazed when I started how I remembered so much, it was like getting back on a bike. You soon remember once you start. My first project for S will be a knitted block. It's a nice project each side is a different knit and measures three and bit inches square, so it's fairly quick to knit. Some pics are below.

My new project!

Green - Seed Stitch

Pale Blue - Single Rib

Pink - Stocking Stitch with Ribbing

Pale Blue - Basket weave Stitch (my favourite)

Pink - Double Rib (actually is a tad small so may need to redo this square.)

Green - Garter Stitch
(ignore my fingers, the knitting curls onto the purl side at the moment, once sewn together the curling will stop!)
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My paternal nanny (aka Grandmother) was fantastic at Knitting - she passed down the secrets to my Aunt, who has 4 girls but unfortunately none are interested in learning to knit. If I can become half the knitter that Nanny was, then I will be getting somewhere. Nanny was known for her cables & Fair Isle sweaters they became true works of art - sorry I don't have a pic to show, wish I did.

I find knitting so relaxing, the feel of the texture as the project grows, knowing it's something that you made & hopefully will be passed down. I'm slowly getting a rhythm together though it's not fast enough to hear the click, click of the needles. I know in time that will happen. So at the moment I'm taking baby steps & plan to make 3-4 blocks for S then will progress onto a hat then jumper. Well better get back to my P4, K4 - it won't knit itself you know! I'll post pics of the finished block within the next week.

It's Monday start of a new week.

2008-06-02T00:00:00.000-07:00

Monday, June 2nd

Wow half way through the year already, one day closer to the beginning of Summer. MI summers are hot and humid but it's a nice break from the winter which is very long (Nov - May). On the w/end I finally washed the winter woolies, hat, scarfs, gloves and put them away, since they won't be needed till later this year.

I heard this interesting comment on the w/end. Thought I would share it -

"I'm allergic to fat - once I eat it I break out in fat."

-I laughed after I heard this, cos it's true. After hearing this I felt motivated to do something extra this week to improve my fitness and well being. I've decided to get up half an hour earlier in the mornings - 5am to get a mini workout. I'll see how that goes and update everyone.

edited - June 3rd - yeap it's been 2 days and am getting up early to fit in the workout.

Growing leaps and bounds....

2008-06-01T00:00:00.000-07:00

Saturday, May 31st

Last day of May & June is just around the corner - yeah! along with summer. Earlier in the week we had some early morning frosts so J had to wrap up his tomato plants in a blankie. Poor J the tom plants have not survived twice now - lucky he has some more still in the seed trays in the basement. So more re-planting both on the deck and in the veggie beds later today.

Thought I would give everyone an update on S - I'm totally amazed at how fast S is progressing and growing - real leaps and bounds. In the last couple of weeks the following changes have happened with S:

Crawling like a mad woman from Borneo. Watch out world here I come, real stomping around the house, when your in the basement you can hear the thump, thump, thump, thump of her crawling along the kitchen floor, this stops for a second or two for S to catch her breath then it starts again. (& for the grandparents I'll send CD's with video clips within the next week.)

Starting to eat by herself - some small finger food items that contain banana and sweet potato.

Her first bottom tooth is starting to poke it's way through the gum, I only know it's happening since the other day she grabbed my finger and put it straight into her mouth and ouch I felt a little sharp thing. Won't be long till I can clearly see it in her mouth.

Sitting in her new big girl buggy (aka stroller) - thanks to S's economic stimulus payment!

Nearly growing out of her 1 year old clothing
Sitting upright in the bath tub so longer using her baby bath

The crib is now lowered to almost lowest point, S has started to pull her self up, only for second or two.

I can already hear the world of Toddlerhood knocking on my door!

The last couple of weeks have been a total whirlwind to me, our house is 95% S proof - just have to finish the other 5% ; I ran out of safety items and had to purchase more in the week. I'm hoping she doesn't start walking before the end of this w/end!

Happy Saturday

TGIF..

2008-05-30T00:00:00.000-07:00

Friday, May 30th

Today is the last day of Colour My World, it's a shame I've really have enjoyed this little project. I hope other people will do the same and notice all the colours of the rainbow around them.

Electric Blue Friday
Blue is another one of my favourite colours, but I was surprised at how little I own that is blue! - maybe it's not a fav after all and I should take it of my list. Interesting that 4/7 photos are associated with water which is a calming and peaceful element.

I find blue to be peaceful, calming and restful. Some things that seem blue to me are a baby sleeping, taking a snooze on the sofa when you get a spare 10 mins, sitting outside enjoying the weather - even if it's winter.

What ever you do this w/end make sure you take 10 minutes just for yourself. Have a great w/end everyone. Oh and below are my photos.

My blue-eyed girl

Cone flowers in the back garden

Glass bowl

Just the right size for a cuppa

Make sure to drink my 8 litres a day.

Ready for next round

Retro drying up cloth

Thursday is dragging.....

2008-05-29T00:00:00.000-07:00

Thursday, May 29th

Ma vie en rose et rouge

Today are a couple of my favourite colours - rose et rouge and it comes in so many shades; it did help having a little baby girl.

Kettle

Monkey's chair

Stop sign at the end of my street

Well worn birkies

S cossies/swimmers (aka bathing suit)

Berries on my oatmeal

A stack of t-shirts and jumpers (aka sweaters) that need to be put away!

Mid Week

2008-05-28T00:00:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, May 28th

Jazzy Orange
I don't have alot of orange things in my house or garden so this colour was a difficult one for me, after hunting around my house I finally have some pics.

Only 2 seasons in MI - snow and road work!!

Look what I found in our fridge - a bowl of orange jelly (aka jello) with peaches - thanks J

Yummy orange soda drink

Vitamin C - I take it everyday

The laundry wall

I won....

2008-05-27T00:00:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, May 27th

I'm so excited, I haven't won anything for years and just found out on the w/end that I had won a prize from a fellow blogger - yeah! - Its a handmade tote, made by a fellow aussie from her jeans. Lisa's blog can be found at Tin house check out the tote bag, so cute. - Thanks Lisa, I can't wait to receive it and use it. Nice to know other people on the other side of the pond are thinking of the environment as well.

Well today is...

Mellow Yellow Tuesday

Yellow to me is a happy colour, makes me smile when ever I see sunflowers, daffodils and homemade lemonade.

Kitchen Blind

You can never have too many coasters, even tacky ones!

Loved by aussies and S

Candles in the dinning room

S Bear toy - it's a cat, that pretends to be walrus!

Colour my World...

2008-05-26T00:00:00.000-07:00

Monday, May 26th

Is it really Monday already? - the w/end just flew by for me. I hope everyone had a great w/end. In US today is a public holiday - Memorial Day, time to reflect on the fallen who have brought freedom to our countries - Thank you to all the men and women.

Plus it's the official beginning of the summer BBQ season, and time to plant our veggies into the garden, since the frost and cold mornings are on the way out!

On Friday & Sat our sub had a massive garage sale - that I only found out about the day before - grrr, since we have alot of clutter that we need to get rid off! Anyway Friday morning J was home to look after Missy S so I quickly went out around the sub checking out the garage sale. I found some great bargains, mostly for Miss S so I'll will post about that later.

& the rest of the w/end was busy with jobs, getting my "To Do" list finally tackled - J painted the basement bathroom, same color just a tad brighter shade. I started work on cleaning the basement. Believe me this is a massive job and will take more then one w/end to complete. The local scouts collected our ol' sofa and chair. This sofa was from UK, handed down from J's mum, when they collected it they mentioned it was in great condition - not bad for a 20+ year old sofa, hopefully it will find another family that can use it.

Today is the first day of "Colour My World" and its......

Green Monday

Christmas Cactus - flowers like made at Xmas, nearly died in the winter from the cold sitting in the family room, moved it to the kitchen table and it's thriving again.

Various champagne and sparkling white wine bottles that live on the top of our kitchen cabinet

Funny story behind these bottles, no we didn't have a party and forgot to tell anyone! This strange assortment of bottles live on the top of our kitchen cabinet and will never be thrown out. The packing company in UK were very enthusiastic about packing and packed these empty bottles away; they received VIP treatment triple wrapped in bubble wrap and placed in a separate box away from the common beer and wine glasses. After this I don't have the heart to toss them out.

Broccoli ready for freezing

Lizard from New Mexico - clinging to our kitchen wall

Grapevine growing again

Hosta's growing in the backyard

Christmas in May

2008-05-25T00:00:00.000-07:00

Sunday, May 25th

The other day it was like Christmas at our house, no we didn't experience a snowstorm, though it is not unheard of having a snow storm in late May. The Postman Pat truck delivered numerous box's for us. - yeah!!

J rushed into the foyer to inspect the boxes then quickly pounced on a couple and ran upstairs with them, I have since learnt that they where my Mother's Day presents. A midsized box arrived for J, which contained an adapter cable so I can now download photos from my camera phone to the computer - so more S pics!

Plus a huge parcel arrived for Miss S - I picked up the parcel and placed it on the kitchen table, wondering how long it would take for her to notice it. Once she was placed into her chair she immediately noticed the parcel and smiled at me, thinking "its for me...." I told her we would open up the parcel once she had finished her supper.

Who sent S a parcel? (Granny and Grand Dad had sent it from UK). I explained to S that the parcel had traveled on the plane just for her - no excitement at that comment. After opening the package I took out the contents, assorted clothing items and a book. I showed her the dresses and sweater, but they produced no excitement - just a mmmm, nod of the head, and a cute smile.

The big winner was this book , since she already owns a couple of these Touchy, Feely Usborne Books within her library. Well I only had to show her the book, not even open it up and she started to kicking her legs in excitement, moving her hands and arms around in the air, and almost hyperventilating.

Once I gave S the book their was no way she would part with it, so for the next half an hour before bath time I read the book a couple times and let her play with it. Then S read the book and told me, in her language what to touch on each page. S's reaction was adorable, utter amazement and excitement for her new book.

On that day for S Christmas had come early, it's nice to see S starting to recognize and realize that certain things are only for her.

Favourite Toy

2008-05-23T00:00:00.000-07:00

Friday, May 23rd

Miss S's new favourite toy is her exersaucer. My gf lent me her daughter's a couple weeks ago, since her little one is 2, and a tad too big for it. Well S loves it, and when she is not in it playing she will crawl to where it is in the room and try to get into it.

I now have to move it out of the room before her sleep time, otherwise she will crawl over to it and won't leave it alone. I worked out how to solve this dilemma, I produce another toy for her to play with, this distracts her enough so I can move it completely out of the room.
Kinda like when you give a dog a bone!

For me it gives me some freedom so I can get some cleaning done around the house, I just take S into the room I'm cleaning, place her in the exersaucer and she plays happily for 20-30 minutes. Just enough time to get some jobs done quickly.

After researching the cost $100 - I thought maybe I might be able to find a second hand one at a local thrift store. Well I ended up finding one for $25 - barely used - yeah! So I grabbed it.

Well this is the best $25 I've spent, a toy that amuses her for more then 5 minutes is really priceless. It's great when you can find a bargain, that you want or need. The purchase then becomes more worthwhile.

___________________________________________________________________________

Next Week:
I saw this in blogland and thought it would be fun. Every day of the week is dedicated to a color (see below) and participation only involves taking and posting photos that include the color of the day.

The colors for each day are:
Monday - green
Tuesday - yellow
Wednesday - Orange
Thursday Pink and Red
Friday - Blue

If you want to join in, post a comment including your blog link and I'll add it into my blog. I'm looking forward to this project, should be fun.

Making it from a box...

2008-05-21T00:00:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, May 21st

OK so the other day I realized that time was against me and decided to give in and purchase a box of instant brownie mix for a BBQ last weekend. This is unknown territory for me, since J and I make all our meals from scratch!

I must admit thank goodness S was with me, since it forced me to make a quick decision on what box to buy, with her limited patience you have to be quick otherwise she will have a meltdown. So with much hesitation I finally selected the one box I thought would make a nice batch of brownies.

That day after her supper, I took take advantage of her being full, happy and still in the high chair, and quickly grabbed the ingredients needed - 1 egg, water, oil, bowl and wooden spoon. Turned oven on, lined the brownie pan then mixed all the ingredients in a bowl with the box mix. After stirring the mixture 40 times - (that was what it said on the box) I put the mixture in the pan and hoped for the best. Thinking if its crappy I'll quickly pop out the next morning and grab something already made at the store.

Well after it had cooled down, for what seemed like forever, I took a little sample - some broken edge bits - Wow it actually tasted pretty good. Light and flaky on the top and moist and chewy inside. They may not be fantastic like my "to die for brownies" - my neighbors love, but good enough to take along with my tossed salad to the BBQ.

I'm not going to stop baking from scratch but it's good to know that you can fall back on the "box" products when your running out of time.

- Oh and I noticed while at the BBQ that J did manage to consume a couple of my brownies - so I'll give them a 7/10.

Happiness is....

2008-05-19T07:51:00.001-07:00

Monday, May 19th

Wikipedia states the definition of Happiness (also called felicity) is an emotion in which one experiences feelings ranging from contentment and satisfaction to bliss and intense joy.

Happiness for S is being pushed in the shopping cart, this produces shrieks of joy and lots of giggles. & When you go outside with the shopping cart the shrieks and giggles become louder once the wind starts blowing through her hair.

Last Friday we visited the local park where S meet up with some of her friends from my exercise class. I placed S in the infant swing, at first she was very unsure about it, but after pushing her a couple of times she understood what was happening and held onto the swing. Next the bout of giggles started producing a huge smile. For S this is pure happiness and joy infact utter contentment.

When you hear S giggle and laugh it only makes you laugh, its very contagious. On Sat she had another play on a swing at a BBQ, J pushed her faster and higher - like only a Daddy can!

On Sun she went in the swing within our subdivision park - though this one was not an infant one and had no support in the front other then a chain! - so I wasn't able to swing her so high and therefore didn't produce has much excitement.

It's lovely that such a simple activity can keep S amused, content and happy. Happiness for me is hearing her giggle, laugh and finding delight in what is new.

I believe that some people are naturally more happy then others, I hope S is happy, content and fulfilled with her life when she is older and still able to find joy from the simple things in life.

When you are content, fulfilled and overall satisfied with your lifestyle/life you are happy. Maybe more people need to find their own "swing set" that will provide them with bouts of giggles, laughter and happiness.

1 step forward, 2 steps back...

2008-05-17T00:00:00.000-07:00

Saturday, May 17th

That is what happened this week, S decided very firmly that NO lumpy solid food is not for her. So I had to put her supper back into the blender and re blend - grrr. At least this solved the problem of me wearing her supper - yeah!

I know some people think I'm crazy making her food from scratch, but at least I know what she is eating without all the added preservatives and additives that her body does not need.

My production line to make baby food for S happens once or twice a week, by hand - using our hand blender, just boil or steam the veggies or meat. Once its cooked and cooled place it in the blender for a couple whirls, checking the consistency - (now that Missy Moo refuses lumps). Then scoop it into ice cube trays, freeze overnight and voila - instant baby food. Then a couple times a week I take out some cubes of various sorts, fruit, veg, meat and thaw this out and place in plastic containers in the fridge and serve for her meals.

If you opened my freezer you would be surprised by the variety of multi-coloured baby food cubes - applesauce, pears, carrots, broccoli, chicken, turkey, potato, sweet potato and couple others that I can't remember what they are!

Some foods are not worth me making - such as peas, I found this out the hard way after cooking 1 pound of peas and being left with lots of pea skin and only 2 tablespoons of pea mush. The quantity produced wasn't even worth freezing so S ate it that afternoon.

Fruits are a favourite - of course something sweet, applesauce, pears, bananas, peaches and banana yogurt. I'm yet to introduce tropical fruits since they are not in season. I have to admit that sometimes I do fall back on store brought only if it's not worth me making and if the fruit or vegetables are not in season.

The other day I gave S some of my homemade treacle steamed pudding - which J had made. Well you should of seen her face, you would of thought I was trying to poison her. So no not progressing on that front either learning to feed herself.

So far I've learnt you have to be patient, what I would like is not what S would like. Once she is ready I'm sure she will eat lumps and eat finger food. I guess you can't rush these things.

Well like the title says - 1 step forward, 2 steps back, I'm learning to take baby steps along the way - it saves me having to change my clothes several times during the day.

Today is washing day.....

2008-05-15T00:00:00.000-07:00

Thursday, May 15th

I know this is strange but I enjoy washing, no really I do! - When I was a teenager my family called me the "Washing Machine Queen." - Not sure what brought this on, but I think it's getting all my clothes
clean that makes me happy. The end result of clean smelling clothes is so comforting to me. I don't like the folding, ironing or the putting away part, just the washing and hanging out the washing.

It truly is amazing how much washing I have to do now with S around, some days I still have to change her outfits 2-3 times, especially after she decides to not eat all her meals just to wear it instead. Plus I have the on-going washing of her nappies aka diapers. I normally wash the latest pile every 3-4 days. While the washing is on, I normally get into "busy bee" mode and want to clean something else in the house. Most of the time this doesn't happen since S decides to chase me around and wants to play.

Having a routine helps alot, I divide the clothing into dark, light, whites, towels and or sheets. Then when the pile is big enough to do a large load (I hate wasting water by doing tiny loads) I put them in the machine and let it do the job. All my hand washing, items I wash in cold and place my bra's, S socks, tights in a mesh bag so we don't have only 1 sock at the end - since socks do have a natural habit of disappearing. My theory is that they like to separate from their partner for a while & have a break! I do miss not being able to put clothes out on a line to dry from the sun, our subdivision won't allow clothes lines, so I hang my clothes to dry in the basement on clothes drying racks so sometimes our basement does look like a laundromat.

Cloth diapering/nappies are fantastic, I recommend them to anyone. OK it probably is easy for me being a SAHM to maintain the current nappy supply, but still more people should give it go. I've noticed S only gets bottom rash when in disposables. I use a disposable at night, since no matter how many liners I use in her nappy she still ends up wet in the morning. Now days it is so easy with cloth nappies - you just press a couple of snaps, buttons, velcro or poppers shut and its on, no more painful nappy pins. I use Fuzzi Bunz which consists of a fleece/plastic cover which you place an insert into. After they are dirty I just throw them into a rubbish bin with a plastic liner and when wash day rolls around take the liner bag downstairs and do a cold rinse followed by a hot/ cold wash. Any solid waste is thrown into the garbage bin.

Some extra work is needed with cloth diapers, you may have to change your baby more often. Generally they can't hold as much liquid has disposables but they don't stay in the land fill for 50 years. Each to their own, but even if one person buys a couple of cloth nappies to start with that would be less disposables for them to buy and less landfill for the environment.

Well time for me to tackle my ironing monster, which is closely related to my other monster - the washing monster!

Water, water everywhere....

2008-05-13T00:00:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, May 13th

While enjoying my morning herbal tea I heard the strangest noise - shh,shh getting louder and louder, after figuring out what it was I decided to take a pic -

The noise was my

neighbors sprinkler system watering the garden - I was so surprised because -

1 - I haven't heard this noise since last summer.

2 - Did someone forget to tell them it's Spring the wettest time of the year.

3 - It's 6:30am - What are you doing!!

Don't get me wrong I love green grass, fresh flowers and seeing a beautiful lush garden but when will people realise that it's not necessary to start watering in the beginning of Spring just so you can have the greenest grass in the street for the Summer. Well our grass is not bright green, currently covered in a blanket of thatch which needs to be removed, though our flower beds are looking very healthy.

I remember last summer, when I would go for my morning walks while heavily pregnant with S, all you could hear was sprinklers coming on one after another and then see the water running down the street into the drains from over watering.

It really is a shame to see the water waste here, coming from OZ and living in UK both countries have hose water bans and a garden sprinkler system is out the question. You would get fined for being so wasteful. I wish they would do that here, it would stop the waste.

Last summer our county water department asked for people to water every other day, so if your house number was even you watered every even day and if an odd number then every other day.This bizarre system didn't really didn't work since people decided to water the lawn twice a day on the day's they could water.

Why are people so obsessed with green lawns?

I came across some interesting articles on water usage - domestic usage in 2000 and another article with some great ideas on how to reduce your water usage.

I'm going to review the articles again in order to practice what I preach!

Note: This year our sprinklers will run only once a day, every other day for a short amount of time and not during the peak heat of the day. Hopefully this will help to provide us with a smaller water bill each month, so far I'm planning for my sprinklers to start working late May/ early June - maybe even mid June.

So many jobs, so little time.....

2008-05-12T17:35:00.000-07:00

Monday, May 12th

J away this week in Phoenix for work, so it's time for me to get into action and tackle some of my "To Do List" - a list that never seems to get smaller or disappear.

Top on the list is cleaning of the house.
This a regular item on my list since the house gets cleaned and a couple days later is dirty again.

Tidy Living room - alot of books for S are currently sitting on our ottoman along with my Mother's Day chocolates. I'm sure I'll find a happy home for the chocolates!

Empty the shoe rack in the laundry which contains our winter shoes, and empty the shoe box in the entrance. Change shoes to summer shoes.

Clean and tidy laundry room.

Put away my winter sweaters.

Bake brownies for w/end BBQ.

Finish installing baby proofing gadgets for drawers, toilets and cupboards.

Start to make plans for our Summer holiday.

In-between take S to playdates, do grocery shopping, attend exercise class and visit library.

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After this is done I need to tackle our basement and clean that out, since my family will be visiting in June and my brother will be sleeping on the fold-out sofa. So need to find the sofa again which is currently covered in bags, books, boxes and other junk - yes our sofa became our junk room!
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Well after writing this list I'm exhausted, think I'll have a cuppa first before I tackle the list.

Happy Mother's Day

2008-05-11T07:12:00.000-07:00

Sunday, May 11

Happy Mother's Day - to all my Mother friends, My Mother, Mother-in-Law, Sister-in-law and anyone else who is a Mum or waiting to be a mum.

Today is my 1st Mother's Day very exciting, J got S up, changed and dressed and feed S all before I woke up - yeah!! -so I was able to have a sleep in, first time in 8 months.

I came down stairs to a happy little girl and her Dad playing in the family room. J made me breakie of poached eggs and bacon on a english muffin.

Unwrapped my numerous presents - thanks S - How did you know I needed some PJ's for summer, face srub and my fav chocolates.

S decided to help me write my blog this morning.

Now I can experience the joy's of Motherhood.....

I love hearing S laugh, chuckle, and say Mummum - she may not know I'm her Mum yet but knows I'm very important to her, where ever I go S will try to find me in the room. It's lovely to have someone to care for who inturn loves me unconditionally - warts and all!

I hope everyone enjoys today with family and or friends, and you are treated like a Queen for the day.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY xxxxx

Diamond in the rough...

2008-05-11T00:00:00.002-07:00

Sunday, May 11

The other day I went to a garage sale, actually it was an at home child center - closing down sale, I thought it would be great opportunity to get some toys for S. I ended up spending $48.75 and found some fantastic finds.

I purchased many books both new and used, (in my opinion you can never have to many books), play mats including rubber connector mats - these will be great for S to play on in our basement, blanket, posters, alphabet magnets, plastic bowls and two big ticket items:

Workshop - OK she is way to young for this but this time next year, I probably won't be able to keep her away from it. I was lucky to grab it for $15.00 it looks kinda like this but with a sink, mobile phone and message board and all the workbench tools one little girl will need! I thought will be great to teach her how to make things with tools.

My little pony castle - This toy will have to wait till she is older then 2. The castle looked like a nice girly toy for her to play with, and included all pony accessories needed for a pony land castle. The cost was $7.00. The castle
looks like this .

They are currently sitting on our garage - they need some elbow grease, so poor J has been parking his car on the driveway. Looks like another job that will need to be done this weekend.
I'll post photos of them once they are cleaned and placed in the basement.

At the moment her favourite toy's are wooden blocks - she loves to be a human bulldozer and knock them down when you make a tower.

Controling our household monster!

2008-05-09T00:00:00.000-07:00

Friday, May 9th

No my house was not invaded by a scary creature, just S terrorizing our house. S moves around by using a combination of going forward a couple steps then stopping, army style crawl and bunny hop. When I want her to move quickly I'll just show her my red leather coach handbag, she loves it, infact she even decided to eat the shoulder strap the other day. I wonder if coach have handbags for 7 month olds!

Anyway, started on the childproofing of the house the other day. Boy is this a huge, no a massive task. I stupidly didn't realize how big this task was until my friend came over for a playdate the other day, well everywhere the little one crawled he pulled, tugged and tried to put everything into his mouth. It was a great way to realize what needs to go and what needs to be childproofed. After analysing what we should do in each room I started to write up a list - yes one of my famous lists. This is what we needed to buy:

Toilet seat locks
Cupboard locks
Drawer locks
Door locks
Power outlet covers
Power outlet covers to hide cables
Gate for top of stairs
Gates to stop S crawling out of family room, this involves blocking 3 passageways
Couple shelf's to move our Knick knacks from the side table's
Door wedge's to stop fingers sticking into side of door
Covers for our blind cord's
Move bakers pantry from kitchen to lounge/dinning room
Swap coffee table for ottoman

This is the beginning, I have a whole bunch of more stuff due to arrive from our local baby store any day. One nice thing I was able to pay for this with my ebay money that I made last summer by selling our unwanted stuff - yeah!

Looks like another weekend will be spent installing more gates and other childproofing gadgets.

Gate at top of stairs

One of the gates in the family room

Meme me

2008-05-08T18:16:00.000-07:00

Friday, May 9th

My gf - VE tagged me to do this, I thought this would be a fun way to fill in my 10 min coffee break.

What were you doing 10 years ago?
Living in UK with J, working for a medical marketing company organizing Int. conferences and traveling way too much around Europe to attend my events.

Name 5 things on your to-do list today:
Attend stroller striders class
Go and get some food for our house, we have nothing - our pantry and fridge are bare!!
Do a couple loads of washing
Wash hair
Read S a couple stories

What things would you do if you were a billionaire?
Pay off our mortgage
Buy large farm estate with farm animals and large gardens for J
Fly 1st class to visit family and friends in OZ
Fly 1st class to visit family and friends in UK
Pay for Mum and Dad to fly 1st class anywhere around the world
Buy coastal property in UK and Sydney
(Ditto VE )- Take a really, really, really long vacation.

Name 3 bad habits or qualities:
Don't share food
(Ditto VE) I steal the covers
I never relax according to J

Name 5 places you've lived:
Canberra, ACT, Australia
Penrith, NSW, Australia
Shoreham-By-Sea, Sussex, UK
Durrington, Sussex, UK
Saline, MI, USA

Name 5 jobs you've had:
Worked in Bakery - teenager job
Check-out chick at supermarket - teenager job
Sales Manager
Receptionist
Executive Assistant to 2 HR Directors within Body Shop Int.

5 books you've read recently
Spot goes to the beach
Meg and Mog
The other boleyn girl
Kitchen confidential
Vanity Fair magazine

Name 5 people you tag for this meme: - don't know 5 from blogs, since VE tagged 2 of my gf's.
Suzz
Eilleen
Jenn - already tagged
K - already tagged

Crafty Colette...

2008-05-07T00:00:00.000-07:00

Hump Day -Wed, May 7th

I completed some exciting crafting the other day, made a blanket for S - actually I made 2 blankets for S one smaller (pink) for her stroller and one large (yellow) one for her to play on. They are called "No Sew" blankets - yeah!! and can be completed within an hour or two once you get on a roll and are not interrupted by a grumpy 7 month old! In the end I finished both blankets within three w/ends but believe me it is a very simple project and can be complete in couple of hours. My friend (CT - Thank you) - gave me the instructions, so I'll pass them on, so other people can have fun making your own blankies as well.
The blankies are made out of flannel material, which needs to be washed and dried prior to cutting, this will get rid of any extra fluff and shrink the material. Warm wash without any fabric softener and tumble dry low or air dry. The blanket has a front and back so you will need to double the material required. I used a plain color and pattern on the opposite side.

Materials:
Baby blanket - 1 yard or 92 cm of each colour
Child's blanket - 2 yards or 184cm of each colour

Pins

Strong material cutting scissors

Pin the 2 materials together and cut to the size you want remembering it gets smaller when you have cut the 4 inch (10.2cm) tassels on every side!

Cut a 4 inch square out of every corner.

Cut along each side going 4 inches high and 1 inch (2.5cm) apart until you get to the end

Cut and tie everyother tie, once complete on side 1 flip over and tie the remaining ties on side 2.

Tie in double knot and straighten it out as you go along the side.

Check out the link below if you are unsure:
"No Sew Blankie" instructions

S inspecting her blankie.

Baby Lotions and Potions

2008-05-05T05:54:00.000-07:00

Monday, May 5

Poor S - After being born with baby acne from 1 month of age she has had very rough and dry patches of skin on her cheeks - aka baby eczema. After the acne cleared I thought maybe it was the cold winter weather in MI drying out her skin; surprisingly all her skin conditions have never bothered her.

In my attempt to find a solution to this problem, I tried and used numerous lotions, potions and some nasty over the counter hydrocortizone cream. I even changed her diet, eliminated all cereals, veggies, meats for 4 days at a time then reintroduced them again, in the hope that this was indeed the problem. After the elimination period some improvement showed but not enough to make me believe we had found a cure. Well that was until a week or so ago.....

My rosy cheeked S!!

With mummy joy I can now report I think its cured - yeah! I found this cheap and cheerful tube of cream for baby eczema and its healing, no more rough patches of skin - so I call it my "baby miracle cream." I highly recommend it, at only $6 - its a bargain and only a tad is needed not even the size of a pea, half a pea!!

It's Spring in Michigan!

2008-05-04T21:30:00.000-07:00

Sunday, May 4

Spring finally arrived here in Michigan this weekend after our long, cold winter (Oct to Mar), we are finally seeing signs of Spring. All of our bulbs are now out adding lots of splashes of color to our brown flower beds.

It's lovely to go outside and feel the sunshine on your face, even S was enjoying the sun shinning on her face while sitting in the shopping cart after visiting our local garden and home improvement store.

My lavender bushes are growing again - yeah. The daffodils and hyacinths are out showing of their frills and pretty petals.

The biggest surprise this weekend was seeing J again outside in the garden starting to plant some of his veggies for his veggie patch.
J is a bit like a bear and wakes up after his winter hibernation period is over. So I've decided to include some photos below of J potting in his garden today. Plus some photos of our flowers in the front garden for everyone to enjoy.

TGIF - Friday, May 2nd

2008-05-04T21:00:00.000-07:00

All I can say this week is TGIF - I'm so glad that the weekend is finally on its way. This week has been very hard with me recovering from my sinus/cold thingy, J had a stomach bug and poor little S finally recovering from her first cold. I'm hoping that the illness demons plaguing our house are finally packing their bags and leaving us behind.

Since I'm still nursing it was hard to find any medications that would help with my recovery, so decided to go back to using old fashioned remedies and surprisingly they worked for me.

Honey and Lemon Drink - add honey and lemon to boiling water and drink, very yummy and is soothing to the throat.

Inhalation - Add your favourite essential oils to a bowl of hot water, place an old towel over your head and breathe in the vapors. The results are fast but not permanent, the pressure will start to disappear so you can go to sleep without feeling like a 747 is trying to land within your sinus passages.

Why is it when the Mother is sick the whole house falls apart?

My house looks like a tip, needs some TLC to get clean and tidy again. My Hubie told me this morning even though I feel better to take it easy and relax, its kinda hard when washing up is piling up to the ceiling, laundry is escaping out of the hamper, our fridge and pantry are looking bare and the new hair monsters and dust bunnies are wanting to renew their lease on the carpets and kitchen floors - I'm sure I could name them and they would follow me around!!

I guess another day or so want hurt. I'll just have to wait till J is home on the weekend.

So with Mother's Day around the corner I thought it would be appropriate to publish a couple of my favourite poem's to celebrate our special day.

What is a Mother?
A mother can be almost any size or any age, but she won't admit to anything over thirty. A mother has soft hands and smells good. A mother likes new dresses, music, a clean house, her children's kisses, an automatic washer and Daddy.

A mother doesn't like having her children sick, muddy feet, temper tantrums, loud noise or bad report cards. A mother can read a thermometer (much to the amazement of Daddy) and like magic, can kiss a hurt away.

A mother can bake good cakes and pies but likes to see her children eat vegetables. A mother can stuff a fat baby into a snowsuit in seconds and can kiss sad little faces and make them smile.

A mother is underpaid, has long hours and gets very little rest. She worries too much about her children but she says she doesn't mind at all. And no matter how old her children are, she still likes to think of them as her little babies.

She is the guardian angel of the family, the queen, the tender hand of love. A mother is the best friend anyone ever had. A mother is love.
- Author Unknown

You know your a Mother when...........
1.You count the sprinkles on each kid's cupcake to make sure they're equal.
2. You find yourself cutting your husbands' sandwiches into cute shapes.
3. You can't bear to give away baby clothes - it's so final.
4. You hear your mother's voice coming out of your mouth when you say, "NOT in your good clothes!"
5. You stop criticizing the way your mother raised you.
6. You hire a sitter because you haven't been out with your husband in ages, then spend half the night checking on the kids.
7. You say at least once a day, "I'm not cut out for this job", but you know you wouldn't trade it for anything

I now understand why Mother's Day is so important to all Mothers. So don't forget to send some love to your Mother no matter how far she is. Mother's don't really care on what you get them it really is the thought that counts & if you have no ideas at all - offer to clean the house for a month, cook a meal or two, help with the laundry or let your Mother have a rest and do all the jobs that need to be done for her on that day.