My 30 before 30 list

I have been inspired by this wonderful lady to create my own 30 before 30 list and here it is:

1. Finish my uni degree

2. Do a cake decorating class

3. Raise $1000 for the The National Breast Cancer Foundation doing the Mothers Day Classic

4. Start a blog DONE!!!

5. Go on a girls only weekend

6. Run the City to Surf

7. Do 1 term of Ballet lessons

8. Take a dressmaking course

9. Join a book club

10. Do 1 term of Pilates

11. Take a gourmet cooking class

12. Make a patchwork quilt

13. Plant and maintain a veggie garden

14. Ride the Bibbulmun Track

15. Renew our wedding vows

16. Go camping regularly

17. Sing in a band

18. Do a photography course and learn how to use my camera – Booked

19. Take a photo a day for 30 days

20. Go white-water rafting

21. Attempt surfing

22. Create at least 1 thing a week for a year

23. Visit or at least start planning our trip to Mach Picchu

24. Go on a spontaneous driving holiday (no plans, no destination)

25. Create a home with an inviting, joyous, comfortable loving atmosphere

26. Scrapbook all of our photos

27. Try Dim Sum

28. Donate Blood

30. Be happy (one to keep working on)

Thats my list, I have just over 3 years to complete it, some may need a bit of time and some I might get done soon but I am looking forward to all of them.

A site I am loving!

So having boy has proved a little sad for me when looking for patterns and tutorials on the WWW until today. I haven’t been into blogging or blogs for very long but it seems to have become very addictive for me, to the point that every time I sit in front of my computer I somehow find myself looking at blog

Today I found this blog here and just love that they are taking the time to ‘Celebrate The Boy’. If you have boy, girls or just love creating this blog is one you cannot miss.

I made a dress!!!

Today I was very productive and made myself a dress .

using an old t-shirt

and some lovely light fabric

I measured from the neckline to under the bust where I wanted the material to sit

measured across and used some chalk to make the cutting line

Cut off the excess

Then, right sides together sewed together the raw edges for the material

Sewed together the top and the material

And there you have it a lovely floaty dress perfect the very hot weather we are experiencing in Perth at the moment

On a Christmas note I have also managed to finish my first Christmas present for this year

Flowers = Love

Michael - "Mummy I have to go outside"

Mum - "why?"

Michael - "I have to get you flowers so you can love me"

Mum trying not to cry "Michael I love you no matter what you don’t need to get me flowers for me to love you"

(Mummy is currently a sobbing mess as she watches her eldest child go out the front to collect some flowers)

My afternoon/evening in pictures

This has been my Sunday afternoon.

Prince Michael picked me some flower from our garden to go on my desk

I went to the gym

Couldn’t be bothered making dinner so I stopped for some Chicken and chips on the way home

Getting home just in time to enjoy this amazing view from my backyard (there is nothing between us and the ocean but some bush!!!)

Followed by showers and bed for our little princes

Making dessert for Louis

and organising my new stationery

watching the latest episode of Greys Anatomy ruining all the work I did at the gym with these

I still have to organise Michael’s school uniform, make lunches and iron a shirt for Louis but for now I am going to just chill for a little while

Can’t believe its Friday already!

I can’t believe how fast this week has gone its been so jam packed I haven’t even managed to blog yet

This week we have had school, I stepped in for my Mum while she was away and cleaned some of her houses (she owns a cleaning business check out her facebook page here) been to IKEA and got lots of goodies including these shelves for our office

and our littlest prince (Zachary) has come down with tonsillitis again,

which throws everything out.

But I have managed to make a tiny dent in my Christmas shopping for this year

I have a couple of projects on the go at the moment

but none of them complete which makes me a little sad but then I remember that its Friday and Friday means GIRLS NIGHT!!! when my best friends come over and we spend time encouraging, laughing and commiserating with each other, the week that has been and of course doing girly things. This is the absolute highlight of my week and when we don’t do it I miss it so much. So here is me hoping you have had a more creatively productive week than me and saying TGIGN!!! (Thanks God It’s Girls Night)

Play dough

Michael was at school this morning and in an attempt to get out of the classroom with as little fuss as possible I promised Zachary we could make some new play dough when we got home. So as soon as we walked in the door Zac rushed over to the table, pulled a chair up to the bench and waited for me to catch up.

For those that are interested the Play dough recipe I use is below

Ingredients

2 cups of plain flour

1 cup of salt

1 Tablespoon of cooking oil

2 drops of food colouring

1/2 – 1 cup of water

Method

1. Combine flour and salt

2. Add food colouring to water. Add coloured water and oil to flour. Mix until well combined

3. Knead well

Space!!!

I can’t believe I haven’t posted anything since Wednesday. Anyway we have a had a bit of a busy week. I worked for my Mum who has her own cleaning business while she attends an Army reunion, we are getting into the swing of school and about a billion other things have been done (at least that’s how it feels) but my wonderful husband has managed to finish the desk for our office.

His space (we still need to put all the computers in)

My space. Now its just a case of personalising  and moving everything in

I am looking forward to a couple of projects I am about to start and will post them as they are started and have had a couple of requests for Naughty Mat which I looking forward to whipping up this week (hopefully)

FLYing

A few years ago this very adventurous lady (Sarah) introduced me to the FLYLady. The FLYLady is a website aimed at helping everyone get their house and life in order using routines, baby steps and zones. I have found myself in struggletown a lot lately and today remembered the website and how it had helped me before. So I googled the website and have started my “Control Journal”

I moved through a couple of things very quickly to do each member of our family a weekly planner (these will go up on our kitchen wall one next to the other so we can all see what’s happening that week)

but most importantly (and those that check out the website will understand this) tonight I am going to go to bed with a shiny sink and hope to hit the ground FLYing tomorrow morning

I really encourage everyone to visit this website and check it out especially if you are feeling a little chaotic at the moment

The most important job

Today the house is a mess, the dishes are still there and there is still a pile of washing. I didn’t make anything or go to a job and earn any money. Today I spent time on and with my children. Today we went to playgroup and then I decided I would ignore all the things that “needed” to be done and focus on the two little people who are growing up so fast I feel like even though I am with them I still miss so much because I am so busy cleaning the house, studying or any number of things that have to be done.

So when asked what I did today my answer will be: today I did the most important job of all… I spent the day creating precious memories, reinforcing bonds, raising and loving the two most special little princes in the world.

Goals update–Mothers Day Classic

I thought I might share with you an update on my goals 

I have managed to make at least 1 thing per week but more excitingly for me I have lost 4kgs and only have 5kg to go to my ideal weight.

I have also signed up again for the Mothers Day Classic doing the 4km run.

If you would like to sponsor me you can go here and help raise much needed funds for breast cancer research. This is the first year that I will be seriously doing the run, in the past I have done the walk and I kind of jogged it last year so I am looking forward to pushing myself. I am not sure how this is being kind to myself it feels more like torture but I am determined to do it.

Hmmmm?

I have these 2 pieces of beautiful material but I don’t know what I should do with them. If you had them what would you make?

Time to get organised

Today I packed up my little man Michael,
Got some cuddles

and took him to his first day at Kindy

After he waved us off I went and met up with 2 of my sisters. for San Churros (I should classify this statement, I have 3 brothers who are related to me by blood and no sisters but I am a very firm believer that family is what you make it and you don’t need to be related to someone by blood for them to be your family. So there are 3 very very special women in my life who I believe to be my family.)

After getting home I looking around at where I have been creating…the living room coffee table! and as much as I love my couch it’s killing my back and with Uni starting up again next week I thought I had better get my butt into gear if I wanted to be organised for study. My biggest problem is that although we moved into a much, much, much bigger house over 6 months ago I have yet to get a space of my own. The boys have their toy room and Louis has his office but me, no where… yet. I haven’t yet worked out where my little creative/study space will be I did recycle some IKEA material shelves we used when we first moved in and had been sitting around collecting dust to organise my sewing material, equipment and patters

It’s not perfect but it’s a starting point

School Bag Tag

Michael starts school tomorrow and with that comes the brand new school bag. We got him a Toy Story 3 bag from Kmart and since I thought that there maybe a number of them when we go tomorrow I whipped up a bag tag for him.

I printed out a photo of him and a Toy Story picture with his name underneath

Laminated them together

Punched a hole in the corner

And cable-tied it to the zip

There you go…. Michaels School Bag Tag

(sorry about the photo alignment, Live Writer has an issue with me today and wont centre the photos )