A - Z. A bit about Me......

Following along with Lemon Rhodes and Honey and Fizz, thought I'd do this little quiz!

A.  Age
34
B.  Bed Size
With 3 kids to cuddle it had to be a king!
C. Chore that you hate
Poop patrol (big dog = big poos!)
D. Dogs
Duke...big lab x retriever
E. Essential start to your day
Kisses from everyone then coffee and toast
F. Favourite Colour
Rainbow of course
G. Gold or silver
Rose gold is my favourite (wedding ring) but I generally wear silver
H. Height
175 cm or 5'9
I. Instruments you play
Hopefully African drums well by the end of this year
J. Job Title
domestic goddess!
K. Kids
3, girl, boy, girl
L. Live
Sydney
M. Mothers name
Louisa (also my daughters middle name)
N. Nicknames
Buxy (one of those stupid things your siblings make up and then sticks!)
O. Overnight stays in hospital
Too many to mention....courtesy of ovarian cysts!
P. Pet peeves
arrogance and food wastage
Q. Quote from a movie
"this is my dance space.......I don't go into yours and you don't go into mine" - Patrick Swayze in Dirty Dancing xx
R. Right hand or Left hand
Right
S. Siblings
I'm the second of 5 (boy, girl, boy, boy, girl)
T. Time you wake up
When I hear "muuuuuummmmmmmm' coming from the cot!
U. Underwear
Fresh daily of course
V. Vegie you hate
um..... can't think of one?
W. What makes you run late?
Too organised to be late (some would say anal!)
X. Xrays you've had
Best one is where you see the wing nut I swallowed off my cot aged 15months!
Y. Yummy food that you make
Just asked the kids.....they said "everything".....aawwww!
Z. Zoo animals
Hippos hands down.

Care to join in the fun? Tell us about you :)

Humbled and Grateful

I'm so grateful for my wonderful friends and family this week.

I've spent the week flat on my back unable to move for a lower back injury......

And with barely a word, my family is surrounded by love, help and suppport.

I'm so humbled by the great friends and family I have around me who so willingly drop everything just to help me out.

Feeding, bathing and caring for 3 kids that aren't your own is the true meaning of friendship I think!

Thank you to you all

Do you have a wonderful network of support around you too?

Simple pleasures!

A family favourite in this house are these little muffins.

It's a recipe that we alter weekly, depending on what's in the house.

This week it was raspberries (frozen variety sadly!) But we have made pear/cinnamon, carob buds, carrot, blueberry, mixed spice, apple, etc etc.........options are endless

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/3 cup caster sugar

1 egg

1/2 cup plain flour (I use wholemeal)

1/2 cup s/r flour (again I use wholemeal)

Whisk oil, sugar and egg together in medium bowl.

Add flours (and all other ingredients at this time, eg fruit, spice etc)

Stir until just combined. Place spoon fulls into muffin tin and sprinkle with a little extra sugar (optional) and bake for 15 min.

So easy, so yummy and perfect next to a cup of tea or in the lunchbox!

Enjoy x

Savour Sundays.........

Bongani xx

Colour me pretty ......

I've always been a lover of bright, bold colours.
It can be in the environment, on my plate, in clothing or around my house, but I LOVE colour!
I am always amazed too at just how colourful our world is. The great outdoors provides us with an awsome colour palet, and you don't even have to go far!

I think in a way, my love for colour could be why I'm so drawn to textiles. Their range of colours and patterns plus their textures just lure me in! (could be why I have suitcases full of fabric bought over the years)

So when I say I'm thrilled my kids love colour and creativity and all things crafty would be an understatement! Together we do lots of little crafts, ranging from wood, wool, fabric, beads, food ....... anything really. They love being involved and then displaying their creations around the house or in the garden for all to admire.

As a result our house, I think, has a little hippy feel to it. Random colourful, arty things hanging at the front door, in door ways, in trees and any spot we think needs a little colour.
And although I know we need to do more around the house, I love what we've created so far, and I love seeing all our colourful crafts/arts brightening up our lil old home.

Do you like colour? How do you brighten up your home?? Have you got some special crafts your kids love displaying?

The BIG 2!

Wow!
My little Rouge has just turned 2.
Were did that time go??

Only feels like yesterday we were welcoming the little red haired wonder into our clan, and now we are wrapping pressies, making cakes and celebrating TWO years!! (kinda makes me feel a little clucky I think!)

We celebrated with an afternoon tea for the most special people in her life thus far. It was small and special, just like her.

Cake, fairy bread, fruit and fun.......thats all they needed! (and a few too many pressies of course!)

                                                                      
Happy Birthday beautiful girl, can't wait for another fun year ahead xx

The dreaded Itch!

                              (image from weheartit)
                                                               
Been a little busy this week.....................
Currently our house is plagued by the dreaded head lice........I loath these buggers. (I ask you what their purpose on the planet is, cause as far as I can tell it's only to anoy every parent of a school aged child!)

Originally brough home from school and thoughtfully shared amoungst siblings, and kindly onto me too......
We have been donning the green cap, washing and rewashing EVERYTHING, and tenderly combing our hair everynight to ensure there are no more!

Problem is, once you start talking about them or thinking about them, you just start to feel itchy (like now!!)
Taking comfort from the knowledge that they like clean hair!

How has your week been?? Any hints on keeping nits at bay??

Savour Sundays.........

                                                     
                                                                 Bongani xx

Man down .....

Poor Stooge has the worst case of croup he's ever had, and I tell you at aged 4 it's a shocker!

Last night was a VERY long night for all. He had a temp for the entire night with it reaching a top of 42 degrees (and according to the emergency department of our local hospital, this doesn't warrant a trip to emergency provided he has panadol and nurofen on board!) so between sweating it out, shivering it up or coughing it up ALL night.......we are now feeling wrecked!

His throat is sooo sore and dry from all the coughing, so I get out the humidifier to add some relief, only it appears to make it worse.......
I just hate when we have 'one man down', because most of the time you can't make them any better any quicker, and they simply don't understand why they feel so crap.

So as you may have guessed, I have a wonderful day planned of sitting on the couch and catching up on cuddles, books, a movie or two and hopefully some well earned rest!!

Our beautiful neighbour heard of our  'man down' and brought over some lovely dominoes she thought we might like to borrow . He has  really enjoyed playing with these (while the medicine appears to have 'kicked in')  and it has added a nice relief to what could feel like a day of cabin fever for the little Rouge.

Hang in there Stooge, the house is just not the same when you aren't firing with all cannons x

Cushions of love!

I have a somewhat growing pile of clothes that no longer work as the were intended, but are too precious to place in the rag bag.
You know the ones that the kids have outgrown but you love, or the shirt bought whilst honeymooning in Tahiti!! Well I've found a use for them and wanted to share!

I've been turning them into cushions!
It's so so easy, you don't even need zips!

Here's how I did ours:
1. Do up all the buttons in the front of the shirt and turn your desired shirt inside out and lay flat. Place your pillow on top with the buttons in the center, to create the right size cushion and cut to size.

2. Pin the two pieces together and sew up all four sides of the shirt (it will look like below)

3. Simply undo the buttons and turn in the right way and place your cushion inside. Once in, you can the do up the buttons again and woohoo.....your done!

I like the buttons to be at the front because you get the shirt pocket detail too, plus it adds to the story I think! This was actually a shirt of Pips that he no longer wears but we both love and are reminded of younger days!!

If you have something you want to turn into a cushion that isn't a shirt you can still use the no zip idea, but use instead the envelope method of closing (where the two layer overlap each other). Like the picture below.....it's an old sarong of my aunts that I've always loved and she was about to turf!

                                        (back view, inside out to show you envelope method)

                                                   (front of cushion showing pattern)

The idea is that I'll create a usable picture if you like, of our years through life. Each cushion will tell its own story and mean something to us as a family. Currently I'm sewing up Bibs first school uniform (that she managed to rip whilst scaling the school fence!)  to add to the pillow pile (I know I could have patched it, but i wanted one to keep anyway!)

Perhaps you have a few garments worth conversion?? Or have you got a way of keeping special pieces you can't manage to depart with you could share??

Peace maker???

Question.........
Why do we always put such unnecessary pressure on ourselves?

Constantly we're thinking and quietly beating ourselves up over silly things like, what we are eating, how much exercise we're getting, are we being eco enough, have we made the right choice for our kids etc etc.

I popped over to my mums this morning for a quick cuppa and to let Rouge have a cuddle and a general 'say hi' without the older two getting all the attention, when I get hit with all these questions that are on her mind/conscience.

If I am bad at putting pressure on myself, I got it from her I think.....she is the worst. Poor mum is constantly trying to make sure the waters are kept calm, make sure every ones noses are 'siting right' and unfortunately this is her down fall.

It's my sisters 21st coming up and a big party is being planned, so of course the worry right now is who to invite. You know how it goes......'if we invite him but not her will that be a problem, or if we invite 'them', then shouldn't we invite 'them' cause we've known them longer......blah blah blah.
{She is the 'peace maker' in our house, but unfortunately she also internalises a lot of this 'pressure' to which her body then throws back her in the form of fatigue or illness.}

I say who cares! If you don't want someone at your party for whatever reason then surely you have the right to make that decision without having to give it too much more thought, let alone loose night sleep over it?

If someone is going to get hurt by a decision you make then that's different, but if we are making our decisions based on keeping someone else 'happy' then surely you've lost the point??
I truly believe we have enough issues within ourselves to be worrying about without the need to add the extra pressure about someones else??

Perhaps, I'm being selfish?? What are your thoughts? Are you a 'peace maker'?

Savour Sundays.........

                                                            Bongani x