Master M turns 6 with some cousin fun time

My brother turned up just after lunch on Monday with his two boys.  That meant we were in for an afternoon of noisy fun.

Nephew J decided he wanted to be locked up in the dog cage and began barking like a puppy.

Little Miss R was more than happy to keep him locked up!

Of course the real puppy just had to get some cuddles.

The two younger boys were happy with indoor activities.

No matter how old you are, the trampoline is always a winner.  

After a little pleading and batting eyelashes, both Nephews J and R asked if they could have a sleepover.  As hubby was home we were happy to oblige.  

Master M was pretty excited when he realised that his cousins were going to be here for breakfast on his birthday!

After an uneventful night with all 4 kids sleeping well, it was up early to open some presents.

Spiderman made an appearance.

Other presents were opened amid great excitement from the onlookers.

Captain Jack Sparrow put in an appearance!

LOTS of eggs were cracked making a triple batch of pancakes for breakfast...

..not to mention the birthday cake.  Chocolate of course.

As Little Miss R detests chocolate, a batch of vanilla cupcakes were made as well.

A special candle was added to a cupcake too so it wouldn't look so lonely sitting next to the birthday cake.

It was a  lovely day.

xx Susan

Seven days of circles

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

7 circles.  One circle made on each day of the year so far.

I'm loving making them and am looking forward to many more colourful little circles flying off my hook each day. 

xx Susan

A week to myself

Back in October I got the rare chance of a week to myself.  Hubby still had another week off work and basically told me to 'bugger off' and have some time to myself.

I wanted to go on a driving holiday but I didn't want to spend my whole time on the road so I decided to explore the Scenic Rim in southern Queensland.

The first day I headed towards Mt Tamborine which is not quite 2 hours from home.

I checked out Cedar Falls on the way then spent a lovely afternoon driving around the area and browsing the main touristy Gallery Walk area.

For some reason I hadn't expected to be spending the night at Mt Tamborine.  It took me until about 2pm to realise that I was enjoying myself, I wanted to explore the area more and  to do that I would need to find accommodation.  

I did and it was so lovely.  I stayed at the Bungunyah Manor Resort which had an old world charm.  Lacking a few modern conveniences like wi-fi etc (I think anyway), it was the perfect place for me to spend my first night.

The next day I passed through Beaudesert and headed towards Rathdowney to check out a couple of camp grounds.  I then explored the area towards Boonah and somehow kept driving and ended up in Warwick for the night.

The next morning I topped up some supplies in Warwick before heading toward Killarney and the Falls Scenic drive.

There's a lovely drive near Killarney which takes you past many waterfalls.  Some you can walk up to like Browns Falls.  That was my favourite but there's plenty of scrambling over rocks and trees to get there.  It was certainly worth the effort.

Other falls you could view from a lookout beside the road.

At Queen Mary's Falls I couldn't help but get excited about this piece of yarn bombing outside the cafe.  It was fabulous!

I'd love to bring the kids back here to explore the area and we could walk to the bottom of the falls.  I wasn't comfortable with heading down there on my own so just walked to the first lookout instead.

From there I headed further east and ended up having to take a detour because part of the road was damaged in the floods of a year or so ago.

It was a great adventure as the detour took me on a dirt road through national park, farms, creek and more farms.  I had no idea where I was and after about an hour I was wondering if I'd ever see a town again let along bitumen.  (I was also wishing I'd brought the 4x4 instead of the XR6 Falcon).

It was really pretty though so I thoroughly enjoyed being lost.

Every now and then another dirt road would join up to the one I was on and there'd be a small incongruous looking road sign in the middle of nowhere saying Boonah so I knew I was on the right track.  I realised afterwards that I'd been driving in NSW for most of the detour as well.  I hadn't expected to be so close to the border!

Once back on a main road I headed towards Rathdowney and one of the camp grounds I had checked out the day before.  I set up camp and spent 2 nights really relaxing at Bigriggen Campground which is 100 acres of family friendly camping.  I read a book, did some crochet, got the campfire cranked up...

...and explored the camp ground and the nearby swimming hole at the creek.  The water was way too cold for me to go for a dip but that didn't deter many of the other campers later in the day.

It was a really lovely spot to camp for a couple of days and I was glad I took the plunge and decided to go camping by myself.

My last few days I headed from Rathdowney, over the border and through Woodenbong and made my way  back into Queensland to the town of  Stanthorpe. For those that don't know, Stanthorpe is well known for it's wineries and also for being one of the coldest towns in Queensland.  I LOVED IT, especially as there was a frost one morning.  FROST IN OCTOBER!!!

 I checked into a nice little motel for a couple of nights and explored the area.  Fantastic wineries, wonderful cafes and lots of little boutique shops were visited and it topped off my week away nicely.

I came home feeling so relaxed and recharged which is what I had hoped for.

I'll also add that hubby did a fantastic job with the kids considering he'd never had even one of them for a 24 hour period on his own.  He handled dinner, school lunches and everything else easily.  (Or so he told me!)

xx Susan

Keeping cool

Queensland summers are usually really hot and humid. (Well they're humid if you live in the coastal areas like we do)

It's what we're used to but this last few days has been pretty ridiculous, especially when it's still 43 celcius and really humid at 6pm.  

The best way to keep cool has been in Aunty Sandy's pool of course.

The air conditioners have also been working overtime and even then we've still been hot and sweaty inside the house.  The easiest way to cool down is to go outside for 5 minutes then when you walk back indoors you realise that the air conditioners are indeed working!

The poor dogs are not enjoying it but we are lucky in that our house is on stumps.  This means that the puppies get to lay in the shade in the 'relative' cool all day.  May even had a bath to cool her down but I don't think she enjoyed it that much!

Little Miss R and I headed to the shops one morning for a couple of hours.  With 4 relatives (including Master M) having birthdays in the first 9 days of January we needed to purchase a few gifts.

To prolong the moment we had to head back out into the heat we stopped for a coffee, milkshake and of course a piece of carrot cake to share.

I hope you are all finding nice ways to endure the heat.  I'm dreaming of living in Tasmania myself but hubby's not interested in that at all as he's preferring Darwin!

Looks like we'll be here for a lot longer yet until a compromise is made!

xx Susan

Sleepovers

One thing that the kids usually do during school holidays is have sleepovers at different family members houses.

This holiday period has been no exception.

Both kidlettes have had sleepovers at Aunty Sandy's and if you want to see just how amazing glow sticks look in a pool at night then click here....

I wish I had an Aunty Sandy when I was growing up!

xx Susan

Making soup in summer

When you are a soup lover and can eat it all year round there's a few basic things to remember:

If you live in a tropical or sub-tropical climate (that means HUMIDITY on top of the heat), make sure your soups are vegetable based and if you want to add legumes, make sure they're red lentils that don't need soaking.

If you have some sort of brain fart and aren't thinking properly then be prepared for the beans you decide to soak overnight to ferment.  The nights have been warm  here (around 24-25 degrees celcius - 75.2 to 77   farenheight) and I think putting the soup mix in the fridge would have been a better idea.

Fermented legumes and beans do not smell very nice.  Master M is not letting me forget that the smell was DISGUSTING!

Luckily I have a few frozen containers of homemade soup to keep me going for a bit.  I just won't be soaking any beans for about 4 or 5 months until the weather cools down a bit and there's no chance of them fermenting.

Considering the days at the moment are around 40 celcius and BLOODY HUMID (45 in the shade on my sister's verandah today - 113F)  I'm thinking that sounds like the best plan.

I'm also very envious and enjoying the pictures of snowy Christmases out there in blogland.  A snowy Christmas is something I've only ever dreamed of and I've been dreaming of them A LOT over this last week!

Oh and the good old BOM site is showing storms coming this way right now.  Considering it's 8pm at night and still over 30 celsius (86F), a storm would be welcome but it looks like they'll be heading a little north of us and we'll be lucky if we get the bottom end of them.  Bugger!

xx Susan

My crafty world...

...has been pootling along VERY slowly.

In fact for a few months, crafting time for me has been non-existant.  I have also come to realise that I have  missed this crafty time more than I could ever have imagined and how much a part of my life it has now become.

There has been one huge outside influence to curb my crafty time but I'm very happy to admit that I'm beginning to steal small moments of time in my day to be able to indulge myself.

My alpaca shawl which is over halfway complete is now getting more rows added to it and I'm loving the feel of the wool and the pattern that I'm creating.

I also began another baby blanket with a really basic shell stitch while I was camping on my very special week away.

It's such an easy pattern which you don't have to think about really.  It's one of the reasons why I love making this particular blanket as it can fly off my needle.  The end result is also beautiful.

I also have many projects zooming around my brain right now but whether time, stress levels and my shocking memory allow me to complete even half of them will remain to be seen.

As the second half of 2013 meant only small projects could be completed, I've started 2014 with only small projects in mind and leaving the larger ones until I can handle them.

One project that I've decided on is to make a blanket.  Not normally a small project but if you do one tiny bit each day then it will grow fairly quickly.  Instead of a granny square a day, I've decided I want to do a circle in square blanket.  

Each day I will do one circle of 3 rounds then in December I'll lay them all out, work out which colour will bring them together best and turn the last round into a square and join them together.  That's the plan anyway.

My first circle is the one above.  A random choice of colours and some happy time taken out from my day to do something I love.

I'm starting off this project using scraps from other projects and will make these last as long as possible.  The scraps will also determine the final look of the blanket because I have only tiny amounts left of some colours and lots left of others.  It's going to be interesting to see the final result.

I also started a jigsaw puzzle a couple of months ago.  I haven't done one in years, mainly because I don't have the room to keep one out on a table anywhere.  Thank goodness for felt and being able to roll them up for storage as it means I can bring it out every now and then to try and put a few more pieces in.

The kidlettes gave me a couple of jigsaw puzzles for Christmas too so I'd like to get the one below finished soon so I can begin on them.  As soon as possible may mean Easter at this stage!

So crafty stuff is beginning to creep its way back into my life.  Oh how I've missed it!  

I hope you all had a safe New Years and that 2014 is good to everyone.

xx Susan