Beautiful, inside and out.

I love Sundays, I love picking the kids clothes out for church the night before, actually taking time to choose what would look best on them. I love taking time to do the girls hair in bows and headbands and watching their Daddy do little mr's hair with hair wax. I love choosing what plastic bracelet or ring would look best with her outfit with little Diva and laughing at Missy Tomboy trying to choose which shoe she likes best. And on the drive to church I love looking back and seeing lovely clean faces and sparkling smiles.....


But for some reason as soon as my little munchkins meet up with their friends in church, the headbands come off, the shoes get kicked off next to a wall and hair comes loose, little Mr is even been known to take off his shirt, while they run around having fun, and although they are always beautiful to me even looking like little scragamuffins it would be nice if they kept their outfits nice or at least on, for at least a little longer..


 So this week as we were walking into church, I looked at my beautifully clean and dressed kids and I grabbed my camera and took a photo of them all outside church before they had a chance to run around with their friends so i could rememeber that at least at one short time my beautiful munchkins were dressed as beautifully on the outside as I know they are, to me, on the inside.

Travel girl

Playing along with Danimezza 

I thought I'd go on a trip to Europe, you know like the ones you see on a world less travelled? So for my big adventure a girl needs to look nice right? So here is my little european touristy outfit. I love it!! :)

My Mission Complete!!!

So yesterday I got the cleaning bug and went nuts on the kids room and playroom. It was great, I felt in domestic mum heaven, I was on cloud nine and I got a little cocky. I decided it wouldn't be that hard to tackle my Mount Everest, my office /craft / library / junk room the one room in my house that I usuallly avoid!!   - the mission was to clean and organise it. It will always be a storage room, its in the middle of the house and has no windows except one that opens to the lounge but I thought I could at least make it so it isn,t so embarrasing. 

So it took me all day but my junk room is finally finished!! Ok its not as classy as the other rooms and it will never make it into Better Homes and Gardens, but its clean and organised and at least now I can close the door on it contented : D





My Mt Everest before.







Finished!!



My Autumn Spring Clean.

I finally cracked today, I woke up, looked at my house and decided it needed to change - now. I've had enough of life getting so complicated and hectic so today was my day. So I spent the day sorting chucking organising and cleaning. It took me the whole day but I managed to finish the three kids bedrooms, family room and bathroom.

I've gotta say I'm a little proud. I didnt take before pictures, I really didnt want photographic evidence that my house could have gotten to that place :) But I did take a photo of my next big mission - to conquer the office/library/craft/laundry/junk room. You know that place where things go to die??? Well its next!!! I hope : P

So here's my after pics just so I can prove that there are times my place does look nice. :)





Playroom



Lil Diva's Room



Lil Misters Room





   

Lil Miss' Room



Linen Cupboard



Bathroom Cupboard





Can you tell I'm a little proud yet : P

But wait for it.....



My New Mission!!



One Day...

I love new, and different craft ideas, things that break the mould of the mainstream crafts, things that people exclaim on how unusual and clever they are and how unbelievably talented you must be to create such things...

 And one day I'm sure I will create one of those things :), but untill then here is the book I put my big idea inspirations of the things I dream I will make one day...




From Better Homes and Gardens

 


From Better Homes and Gardens

 






Cool Space For Kids by Sam Scarborough

 



The Unexpected Joys

We have a dear old car it puts up with the the rough way we treat it. But its one problem is it has a dodgy fuel gage it’s not usually a problem whenever the light comes on you get petrol as soon as you can. But silly me parked on a slope so of course all the petrol was sitting away from the intake. So sitting outside my hubby’s work with a car full of kids we did what any crazy family would do..

 We decided to go for a walk all together to go get more petrol. It was really nice being able to talk about each other’s day without fighting the TV or full mouths. On the way the kids found some wild flowers growing in the side of the road and made me a bouquet. I love moments like this, where we can find the joy in these unexpected setbacks…

A little bit of order

So I've really gotten stuck into getting this crazy little family of mine into order and instead of buying another routine chart I thought I would try to change the chore chart we have into a routine chart. I really love trying to find ways of adapting old things into new ones. So I ruled up the new chart on some scrap booking paper and cut down some of the chore magnets and relabelled them. so here's my before and after.



The original Chore Chart



My attempt of new routine chart.

The bottom section is the kids morning routine, once they've done something on the list they move the picture to the bottom row (everything is magnetic) The top section is the kids week so they know what happening each day and little Miss can pack her school bag etc (well I can hope). And on the right is the reward chart. I still  have to finish little Mr chart but hopefully this will stop us looking like we just walked out of  a tornado in the mornings :)

My big routine plans

I love the idea of routine charts, I love the idea of being organised and the feeling that I’m somehow managing to cover all my bases with the kids. The library book on Wednesday, the multitude of permission and notice letters that have to go back to school, the show and tell Mondays, The Playgroup days, Bible study days, Sunday school roster, park play days, washing, craft for the younger ones, zumba, … well you get the picture. 

 But somehow it never seems to work in practice. We have a sleep chart and a chore chart but to be honest I really don’t keep them up, the sleep chart was a dismal failure and only managed to show me how much I just give in and let them into my bed. So I am determined to get my butt back into gear and really get this family back into routine. I love my chore chart, it has magnetic pictures for what jobs they need to do and themed ones to tick off what they’ve done each day. So I really want something similar as a routine chart. I found this at www.thetoybug.com.au and I’m so inspired to give it a go, Although convincing my husband that I really will actually do this one might be a challenge, but I’m determined to be one of those mum’s who actually have time to do more than brush their hair, before I fly out the door.

So wish me luck next time you see me I’ll be calm, collected, manicured and organised. J

Two Peas in a Pod

My two littlest children are two peas in a pod, they are cast from the same mould and inevitably keep me on my toes. They are both active and adventurous little souls and whatever one does the other immediately tries to copy.
Just lately though it seems their antics are getting more and more extreme. The other day I was at my sisters house, Little Mr and littlest Miss wanted to go outside to play (despite my sisters young german shepherd being out there) so I did the the diligent parental checklist, Gates closed? Check. Laundry and shed doors closed? check. Grass short enough, any snakes? check.  So off they went to play, after a bit though something in their little voices changed and an alarm started blinking in my head. So I went to investigate - sure enough they were into trouble, both of them were up the ladder leaning against the house, with my little mr wanting to come down off the roof and littlest miss wanting to go onto it!!!!
 Oh my Gosh my heart nearly went on stress leave!! I had forgotten to check the little alcove of their building and my brother-in-law had been fixing his arial and left the ladder up. So i got my two proud little monkeys down, and suggested they really didn't need to mention it to their father

Photo-shoot mum.



My little man, from the last time I gave
into a 'free photo-shoot'



Is there anything more amusing than a mum trying to get her kids to smile for the camera?
Yesterday we were cornered by one of those photographers than park in the middle of the walkway and pounce on unsuspecting mothers and their children. Even though i kindly informed them that my littlest was quite sick (the only reason we were in the shops was to buy antibiotics) they convinced me to give it a go as today was their 'free sitting day'.
I couldn't refuse the looks my older two looked up at me as they spied the costumes, hats and toys the girls used to get the perfect picture.  So I agreed and the older two quite happily got changed and their hair fixed up for their photo shoot.
 My littlest was not going to let them win her over though. She let me change her into a matching dress to her big sister, but that was it!
 Bubbles, peek-a-boo, feather dusters or stickers was not going to get anywhere with her. So here I am holding my little girl in her matching outfit talking up the photos, over reacting everytime bubbles were blown, "Oh wow look at that bubble, her it comes, ah pop" "Oh what a silly feather duster does it tickle" and acting like a complete crazy person, trying to get her interested enough to give it a try.
But no luck so we got our photos done and our appointment to get the free one and look over the others if we want to buy any (I doubt it the whole pack would cost over $700)
Got changed back into our old clothes and turned to trundle off, to find we apparantly made such a show that we had a little audience, filled with other mum's talking in the same high pitched voice I was, encouraging their little ones to give it a go,
 "Come on sweet, they looked like they had so much fun, what a funny little toy"

Well at least I'm not alone.

Wall Stickers

I absolutely love wall stickers, they can be a really cheap way of decorating a room they can hide holes and marks in a wall or turn an awkward coloured room (like blue walls and brown skirting) into something that actually looks nice. Because of my slight addiction to wall stickers we have heaps of them so I've been finding new ways to use them. The toilet was briefly decorated with purple butterflys, the mirror in my daughters room had a frog in a carriage, I have even used them on a blank canvas and glued seed beeds and other scrapbooking decorations to highlight them. But my new victim to the wall sticker plague is my laptop. My last computer was used to death, and my new one really didn't seem to have any personality at all so out came the stickers and my new laptop got its makeover, I've gotta say it has personality now. I would love to get some more stickers and decorate Rob's too. I did say I had a slight addiction didn't I? Now if only I can stop the little ones from pulling them off...

Amber

I'm sorry to say I'm one of those mothers with "that" child, my littlest girl has a serious temper and has often just turned and pinched whoever or whatever was near (the dog and cat have learned to avoid her at all costs). I've been trying to find an answer to why, there really doesn't seem to be a root cause but the other day I noticed that she's also chewing the living daylights out of all our sippy cups!! (I've got to say those nuby bottles are not that cheap) So I thought she might be teething, maybe her 2year old molars are giving her grief? But I really didn't want to give her panadol until they cut so I have been trying all sorts of odd remedies to help. Nothing really worked until a friend suggested I try an amber necklace. I figured I'd give it a try and I can't believe the difference, my little anger monster now shares, smiles, and wants to play with others. I'm amazed!! I love it so much I'm thinking about getting one for my boy too, who knows maybe I'll have little angels by the end of the week, well a gal can hope.

My 3 Little Prayers

My mum always used to warn me, be careful what you pray for you might just get it. Silly me of course thought she was just talking "mum talk", you know the stuff your mum says that your pretty sure she doesn't actually know, but heard it somewhere and feels she has to pass it on? So I prayed for patience, and God gave me my three little angels. They're passionate little souls each with a strong will and a determination a bulldog would be proud of, and while some days I feel like that old chux on the kitchen sink that is tattered and a little smelly, I love them to bits and am soo proud of their strong little minds. So I have succumbed to the pull of blogging to keep my sanity and hopefully learn the patience my three little prayers demand.