I Blame My Mother…

For that rising dread and adrenalin rush that overtakes as I open the letter from the real estate and see the words “Routine Inspection”.

It conjures up mental images of me running about like a headless chook, ensuring the house is adequately scrubbed, polished, vacuumed, tidied and washed so that when the mean old property manager comes along with her white glove and clipboard folder so she can come up with reasons that I shouldn’t rent my home anymore.

Of course, our property manager isn’t actually mean, and she doesn’t wear a white glove. And as far as I know she doesn’t want me to move.

It’s just that when my mum got one of those letters when we were kids, we knew that’s what was coming. We knew mum held her breath until after the property manager walked back out the door. And everything had to be S.P.O.T.L.E.S.S. Including the insides of our cupboard. I now know that they’re aren’t actually allowed to look inside your cupboards, but I’m sure that little tidbit was handy for mum to keep from us at the time.

Yes. Today was our house inspection. And we did the scrubbing and cleaning. I can’t help it. The property manager turned up while Pete was trying to vacuum under our bed (hehe). And it was a he this time. A new guy. He didn’t even know about the front-door entrance of our house (it’s on another street from our roller door and the entries of the other units). So he knocked on our bedroom window. I like to think he giggled when he saw Pete’s legs sticking out from under the bed.

Anyway, he came through, and left within about 2 minutes. Possibly less. He didn’t look at anything apart from the major leak in our bathroom ceiling, and to tick off that we had a smoke alarm.

*sigh* all that scrubbing!

I’m consoling myself with the thought of how nice it will be to come home to a spic and span and shiny house next week!

Thanks mum, hehe.

New Mayana You Tube Video

My mum and I went halves in buying Mayana this cute walker. She LOVES it. It’s taken her a week or so to get the hang of it, but now that she has, she can’t get enough of it! She has a little dolly that she takes for rides, and if it’s not in the pram when she goes for a walk she goes to find it and put it in. She’s growing up so much, it’s so cute! I’m loving this stage, she’s really starting to play with us, and understand what we are saying to her.

I could go on forever… I’ll do another post later with all the cutesie things she’s been doing lately, but for now, check out this gorgeous video I put together…

Mayana Walking

Enjoy!

to tree or not to tree

Today I had an overwhelming urge to put up our Christmas tree. Probably because I was looking at Christmas decorations in a catalogue.

I love Christmas. I love celebrating my Saviour’s birth. I love the time with family. I love giving people gifts that I have put a lot of thought into. I love decorating my house.

Last year, I didn’t get to. Because we went to the coast at the end of October so Pete could work, and he wouldn’t let me put the tree up before then. I helped put up my mum and dad’s tree and deck their house out instead.

On Christmas day, this is what my family always does: We wake up and have a scrummy big Dutch-inspired breakfast. We get one little present from ‘Sinterklaas’ on our plates. When we were little it was usually some kind of pretty hair thing to wear to church. After breakfast, we’d go off to church. Which is, afterall, the most important part of the day.

Then home. Mum piles the coffee table with loads of beautiful food that we’ve all spent the last week getting ready. Chocolate balls, apricot balls, lollies, chips, pretzels, chocolate spiders, cheeses, crackers, nuts… the table is laden. Papa makes everyone a cappuccino and we all settle in for present time. This takes up the next few hours or so. There are six of us, plus Pete, and in the last few years also my sister’s boyfriend. We do a secret santa, and we each draw two people. Apparently we’re supposed to keep it a secret, but my dad’s the only one who thinks it’s necessary. We’re not ‘supposed’ to, but everyone always buys everyone else a ‘love present’ as well. There’s always myriads of presents under the tree. We open one present at a time, and everyone watches as each present is open. I love this, as for me half the fun of it all is buying gifts for people – as I said before I put a lot of thought into it, and I get a lot of joy from watching people open what I chose. It takes forever. And I love it.

After all that, we have some incredible lunch. Mum always comes up with a theme of sorts. We have delicious salads with prawns and mangos and avocados. One year we had a beautiful five-course Thai extravaganza. I love Christmas food.

Then we hibernate. It’s kind of necessary. Because by then we’re kind of full.

Later in the afternoon, Pete and I skip over to the in-laws and do the Christmas thing all over again!

So anyway, that’s the long version of saying, I LOVE Christmas.

And today I wanted to put up the Christmas tree. And Pete nearly said yes. But then we remembered we have our house inspection tomorrow, and we don’t want to look too weird. So we’re going to wait until we get back from Nana and Pops, and put it up then. Before December. Hehe. I’ve never done that before. We always had to wait until after Mum’s birthday (3rd of December). We aren’t even going to be in the state for Christmas, but I don’t want to miss out on having the house all done up for Mayana’s first Christmas!

I’m also going to buy some new decorations after Christmas, at the big sales. For Christmas next year. Who knows where we’ll be then…. uni will be over, and the new phase of our life will have begun.

But I’m getting too far ahead of myself.

The point of this post, afterall, is just to let you all know that we’re going to put up our Christmas tree next week when we get back from Mundubbera town.

Woohoo!!

my crazy week

didn’t end up being quite so crazy after all.

My Thursday date was cancelled, because one of the girls got put on strict bed-rest because of high blood pressure.

My Friday Brisbane trip was cancelled because my friend got sick. Pete and I could have gone on our own, but decided that we might as well save our pennies for our Perth trip and make a date for it next year.

I hope your weekend was beautiful. I had a lazy-dazy one with my husband and daughter. We milled about the shops on Saturday… didn’t buy much except for my new handbag!! Today we had church, and then birthday lunch for our friend. It was great. One of those country pubs with incredibly massive meals for incredibly low prices. We are totally going back there.

We just figured out that our house inspection is on Tuesday not Monday. All that frantic cleaning for nothing. Ha. I’ve still got an assignment to finish off to submit tomorrow.

On Wednesday we’re leaving to visit my grandparents.. probably till Monday or Tuesday. See how we go. Then on Sunday week we’re off to the coast for two weeks, Pete’s doing prac. Then back home for three weeks… then PERTH!!!!! I’m so dang excited!

The rest of this year is going to fly by. It’s insane! My little Mayana Berry will be one before we know it!

She’s sick at the moment. It’s very sad. She has a terrible cough, I think caused by a runny nose that’s dripping down her throat. It’s the cold that doesn’t end! It’s just flared up badly again. Poor munchkin. She does cope with it well though, she’s been really happy today. It’s just at night. You know, when you’re lying down you always seem to cough worse. She keeps waking herself up… and us. *yawn*. And that darn sixth tooth is taking its sweet time in making an arrival! Definitely not helping matters. I’ve got her cot elevated, she’s got eukky-bear rub on her chest and back and feet… what else can I do? Poor chook. It hurts my heart-meat.

Zoey x

oh how i missed thee

I love handbags. I have a LOT of handbags. And I always want more. Even if my husband doesn’t understand it.

And aside from real bras, the one thing I have really missed since having Mayana is having a normal bag. I mean, I like my nappy bag, but it’s a nappy bag, and it looks like a nappy bag. It’s practical and it’s functional—but it’s not a handbag.

Except now… it is! Introducing my new handbag. A real bona fide handbag. It’s pretty. And it fits all my Mayana things in it, and all my things in it, and I LOVE it. It has made me very happy.

Thanks gorgeous husby. Love you trillions!

technology is being mean to me

On Tuesday, my beloved phone went stupid, and it wasn’t making any noise – so I couldn’t hear it ring etc. And the microphone wasn’t working either. So if I tried to ring someone, they couldn’t hear me and I couldn’t hear them. Luckily, I just turned it off and back on and it came back to life.

Yesterday, my computer went stupid. It totally froze while I was checking my emails, and wouldn’t come back to life. So I turned it off, and when I tried to turn it back on, it informed me that it couldn’t launch Windows. I went into a panic. My photos! All my photos and videos of Mayana that I haven’t backed up on the external hard-drive for at least two months! I can’t have my computer die just before my final year of uni. I can’t afford a new computer- I’m not even sure if I can afford to pay someone to fix this computer! You know, the whirl of panic when your head thinks up every worse case scenario all at once and your heart starts to race and your legs feel a little shaky.

It came up with an option to have it search for fixes for the problem. Um. Yes please! I decided to go have a shower while it did its thing. Better for the nerves than watching the little worm slowly progress across the screen.

It was still going after my shower. Then it asked me if I’d like to make it revert back to a time when my computer was working properly. Yes please. About half an hour later, it finally turned on. It’s been working fine since. Thank the Lord!

Today, I was deleting old photos of my camera. It has an option where you can select the photos you want to delete and then press a button and it deletes them all. So I’m trying to do this, and the stupid thing deletes all the things I DIDN’T select. Including some new videos of the Mayana Berry that I hadn’t put onto my computer yet. Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh.

Just now, I was doing some stuff on my puter while watching TV, and everything turns off. Except the lights. Something was flicking the safety switch. Peter runs around unplugging things and trying it again… and eventually works out that it’s the extension lead that the phone is plugged into. Why? Because water has dripped on it from our dish-rack and it is pretty much full of water. Hooley Dooley. Hands up those who are grateful for inventions like safety switches right now!?!?!? *ME!!!!*.

They say these things run in threes. Well I’ve had four, and I’m over it.

Puh-lease technology, let’s be friends again!?!?

New items at my made-it store… baby headbands!

Why not pop over and have a look!

I just finished reading…

I love Fannie Flagg. I am yet to read a book of hers that I don’t thoroughly enjoy.

‘Welcome to the World, Baby Girl’ revisits some old friends, in the town of Elmwood Springs. Friends from previous books, “Standing in the Rainbow”, and “Can’t Wait to Get to Heaven”. Both fantastic books by the way.

This book revolves mainly around “Baby Girl”, otherwise known as Dena Nordstrom, talented TV anchorwoman. It is mainly set in the 1970’s, but flicks back to the past every now and again to fill in the gaps in the story. I love how Fannie Flagg does that.

Dena is a success-driven career woman, who is out to prove that she doesn’t need anyone. But her ever-faithful relatives in Elmwood Springs are going to be there for her whether she likes it or not.

There is a lot of mystery surrounding Dena’s mother and her past, and throughout the book it all comes back to haunt her.

It’s really hard to review this book without giving away too much of the ending. It hums along at a gentle pace with a few very surprising twists and turns. I loved it.

I always love Flagg’s characters, and I love her giving me the chance to go back and visit old friends. It makes me wish Elmwood Springs was a real place so I could pop by and say, “hi” to everyone!

I would recommend this book, especially if you have read the other two – through it is not necessary for you to read them to have this one make sense!

Speaking of visiting old friends, at the moment I’ve visiting one of my best, Anne Shirley. I’m reading “Anne of the Island”, which is one my favourites of the Anne of Green Gables series. Actually, my favourites change as I grow older and start to go through the things she does in each book. But I do particularly love this one. So stay tuned… :0)

Zoey x

It's Tuesday and I can't wait...

to see how this crazy week pans out!

Tonight: Sleeping in my own bed again. Bliss.

Tomorrow: Our weekly playdate!

Thursday: Catching up with some girlfriends who are both pregnant and haven't met the Mayana-Berry yet. Can you hear the clucking from there?

Friday: Heading down to Brisvegas with hubby and another girlfriend to hit the big craft show at the convention centre.

Saturday: A day at home with my gorgeous husband and daughter. Probably getting read for our house inspection next week.

Sunday: Church, followed by a friend's 30th birthday party!

Monday: House inspection, plus last uni assignment for the year due.

Tuesday: Heading to Mundubbera for the rest of the week to spend some time with my grandparents!

And in between all this, I've got jewellery orders to make, made-it sales to send, a uni assignment to do, and lots of housework.

Wish me luck!!

What are you waiting for this week??

nine months ago today…

I bought my precious itty-bitty wrinkly bundle home from hospital. She was so tiny I hardly knew how to hold her. Her newborn nappies came up to her armpits. She was beautiful, wondrous, precious.. she was ours.

So much has changed in nine months. Mayana has changed for starters. She has grown… (slowly)… developed, she has learned so much, taught me so much.

She makes me smile every day.

Being a mum is a new adventure every day. It’s hard work, it’s fun, it’s rewarding, it’s scary, overwhelming… it’s the BEST thing I have ever done. The best thing I will ever do.

In the past nine months I have learned many, many things. Here are some of them:

• Nine months of pregnancy takes twice as long as the first nine months of your baby’s life.
• It is amazing how quickly your body adapts to being awake numerous times through the night.
• It is amazing how quickly your body gets used to sleeping through again, and how rudely it is shocked when baby starts teething and waking up through the night again.
• Breastfeeding can be really painful, and really hard work. But it’s so worth it.
• It’s okay if you can’t stick with breastfeeding 100% of the time. Giving Mayana some formula feeds was one of the hardest decisions I’ve made for her, but definitely was one of the best.
• My baby needs a routine. Even though she’s capable of sleeping in till 9am, it’s better for everyone if I get her up at 7am, because then she’ll actually have some day sleeps and I can actually get stuff done.
• A lot of the things you worry about before your baby arrives become incredibly insignificant when she is actually born.
• The reason mums always talk about their children is because their children are their whole world, and some days they don’t actually have much else to talk about.
• Spending time with other mummies is one of the best things you can do for your own sanity.
• It can be really hard to have a newborn and live far away from your own mummy.
• Babies pick up bad habits really quickly. But take ages to break them.
• Watching your husband care for your child makes you fall in love with him all over again.
• It’s sometimes really hard not to giggle when you reprimand your child. Especially when she turns around and points her finger at you and copies your, “uh-uh-uh”.
• Teething sucks. And I don’t care what some of those baby books say. Teething symptoms are NOT a myth.
• When you have a baby, any sick, sad, or dying child you see in the media has their eyes, and it tears your heart out.
• Even when you’ve had a REALLY bad day with your baby, she is always gorgeous and beautiful and loveable when she is (finally) sound asleep in her bed at night.
• Life is a lot easier when you can put your baby down on the floor and know that she’ll still be there in the same spot when you come back.
• Nothing, and I mean nothing, beats the feeling of your baby looking at you with eyes that say, “You’re my whole world”, snuggling into your chest and holding onto you.

Now won’t you indulge me on a trip down memory lane…?

  First family photo   |   First moments at home

my teeny-tiny precious girl

 

One month    |     Two months

Three months    |    Four months

Five months   |   Six months

Seven months   |   Eight months

Nine months!!!

Death by Chocolaty Goodness

Okay, maybe not death. But definitely a severe sugar-induced hangover. Post-chocolate slump. Slightly over indulged tummy. And maybe a massive headache. But it was so. totally. worth. it.

Yesterday my mum and sisters and I went to check out Noosa’s newest cafe, Chocolat. For our debut of the place, we went gung-ho, and ordered the fabulous Chocolate High Tea. I have never eaten or seen anything like it. Ever.

First of all, we were each presented with these cute silver platters, containing about six or seven little chocolately delights. Truffles, french pastries, divine chocolate mousse, the richest, most intense chocolate mudcake I’ve ever eaten. We looked at each other with childish giggles. Oh. My. Goodness. Our eyes were saucers, our mouths were watering. But there was more.

Another waitress presented us with these delectable inventions. Chocolate crème brulee (oh seriously, my mouth is watering now just writing about it), and white chocolate panacotta with strawberry compote. Delicious. We couldn’t even believe the amount of chocolaty cholateness in front of us. Had we ever indulged ourselves quite to this extent? No. Never.

Then…

Hot Chocolate Shot. And yes, it deserves capital letters. Molten chocolate. So thick you could nearly stand a spoon up in it. I can’t even begin to describe the way it just filled your mouth and charmed every single tastebud. Velvety deliciousness. You have no idea. 

Mum was so disappointed her tongue wouldn’t fit in the cute little shot glass. There is a possibility we may have gotten just a tad silly from the Hot-Chocolate-Shot-induced-sugar-rush. We may or may not have giggled uncontrollably like little school girls. The chef may or may not have been overheard telling the waitress that he thought he’d given us too much sugar. I guess you’ll never know for sure.

I think Mayana felt a little ripped off that she was only offered a plain arrowroot biscuit. But all things considered she was SUCH a good girl. Quite content to sit and watch her Mama, Kami & two aunties make chocolately messes of themselves.

Seriously, does this not make you drool???

That mudcake was so dang rich. I really had to put an effort in to swallowing my last mouthful. So did Alexie:

Nearly two hours later:
We felt a little piggy, because everyone else’s tables only had a coffee cup and saucer left behind, whiles ours had, well, this. The chef offered to open the double doors for us, so we could fit through the doorway. I *think* he was only joking.

Now children, this most definitely falls under the “Sometimes Food” category. Besides, I don’t think my tastebuds will be ready again for a couple of months yet.

If you’re ever in Noosa, you seriously need to do this.

Promise me you will!

Particularly Zoey

For those of you who are interested, I have listed some of my dresses, bibs and cross-stitches on my brand new Made-It store!!!

Please pop over to www.madeit.com.au/particularlyzoey and have a look around. Any feedback would be much appreciated!

Thanks a million..

Zoey x

take two

And it worked out more like my original idea this time. I just need to try it on the Mayana Berry to make sure it sits right.

And this one, my friends, will be for sale :-)

At it again

I tried something a little bit different this time. It didn’t work out exactly how I pictured it, but I’ve made some minor changes to my pattern and the next one will be perfect. So I think this one will be added to the Mayana-berry’s wardrobe. I’ll give this pattern another go later in the week.

No pics of it on my model, as I didn’t get it finished until after she’d gone to bed. Maybe tomorrow.

The Stig and a Dandelion

Now, what do The Stig and a Dandelion have in common? Not much, other than the fact that I just finished cross-stitching them.

The Stig is a gift for my brother, and I’m not sure what to do with the dandelion yet. I did it in one afternoon, and it’s so cute!

‘The Stig’

‘The Dandelion’

Hello New Week

Who can even believe that it's Monday again already!?

I hope you had a lovely weekend.

We did. On Saturday, after the Mayana-Berry's morning nap, we headed out to Pittsworth, about 20 minutes down the road, where they were having their annual, "Craft and Fine Food Spectacular". Well, I don't know about spectacular, but it was nice. It was all held in the Town Hall, and it was crazily packed in there. The line to the registers snaked around at least two sides of the hall, so you couldn't even get to the exhibits along those walls.

There was yummy food though, and lots of cute crafts for inspiration. Afterwards we took a stroll around the town, but it's one of those towns where everything shuts at midday on weekends, so it was a little unexciting.

We weren't quite ready to go home, so we decided to go out for a late lunch/coffee. We decided on Preston Peaks winery. It's so gorgeous up there, and they do lovely coffee and delicious foods.

While we were up there, I pulled out my dieary to try and figure out our plans for the next few months. And realised that we have things planned for every single week until we head to Perth for our Big Trip. It's crazy! But will make the waiting time go so much more quickly, so that's good.

Sunday was church, and it was a really good service. I even managed to get Mayana to sleep in my wrap sling, and she slept through the whole sermon, meaning I actually got to hear it for a change.

It was a beautiful, cool, rainy, overcast day yesterday. We need rain so bad here. Unfortunately it was short lived, the sunshine is back in abundance today. We made the most of yesterday though. After church we watched DVD's all afternoon in our jammies eating yummy treats. It was lovely. And then my darling made me sushi for dinner.


And now another week is here. A week with not much on, except our weekly Wednesday play-date, and maybe a doctor's appointment for me to get my last gardasil (HPV vaccine) shot. Fun.

On Friday, we're going to back to Noosa. Again. It's the school festival, at the school where my sister and brother go. Where I used to go. My sister is in a band for her CertIII music course, and we're going to watch her perform. Then on Saturday, my mum and sisters and I are going to check out Noosa's newest cafe. It's a Chocolateria. We're going to have a chocolate high tea. And I can't wait!

So, hello new week.

Lovely Blog Award

Thank you to the gorgeous Lucy for this lovely blog award!

The idea of the "One Lovely Blog Award" is: Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link. Pass the award to up to 15 other blogs that you’ve newly discovered. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

Don't feel like you have to do this, but I just wanted to let you know that I enjoy reading your blog!

So I hereby award the 'One Lovely Blog Award" to some of my favourites... the beautiful blogs that I regularly read:

1. Alexie from 'In My Little Alexie World'
2. Jessica from 'Little Miss Rach & Belle'
3. Louise from 'Two Birds'
4. Danielle from 'Danimezza' (I know you've already got a few of these but yours was the first blog that I started reading, so you'll always be one of my faves!)
5. Mummy Long Legs from 'My Kid is Funny'
6. Eliza from 'Chit Chat'
7. Talia from 'Life's Visual Journal'
8. Sarah from 'Maybe Baby'
9. Amy from 'A Little Time For Me'
10. Naomi from 'Sew Me Naomi'
11. Jessica from 'Now With Sprinkles'

So thanks ladies for your lovely words... you always make my day a little brighter!

Zoey x

less thinking more doing

Qld Premier Anna Bligh has asked those in the state whose dams are at levels of 75% or above to "spare a thought" for others in the state who are still in severe drought.

Thanks Ms Bligh, I'm sure that's really going to help dams like ours here in Toowoomba rise above 9%. Now that we've all thought about it, what exactly are you going to do about it?

Maybe first you'll have to remember that you are actually premier of more of Queensland than just the South-East corner.

more sewing

These bits and pieces are what I’m considering putting up on Etsy/MadeIt. I have so many more ideas in my head… what fun!

CHRISTMAS DRESS (0000-000)

SUMMER DRESS

CHRISTMAS BIBS