Super Saturday!

We were very lucky this weekend, Mr P made it home!

So off to the beach we go for some fishing & swimming.

Now, believe me when I say that no day is ever normal in my family.

Within 5 minutes of getting to the perfect fishing spot, Kiara went to cast out her rod.

Yep, hooked a big one………herself!

Oh the poor thing was in a world of pain. I will not share too much of the gory details but lets just say that there was definitely a hook in her arm.

The poor thing nearly feinted. I mean, seriously nearly feinted! She went as white as a ghost, started swaying & her body was icy cold.

Mr P to the rescue! Luckily she had only had a tetanus shot last year {yep, another accident} so back to fishing.

I caught a fish!!!

Yes, it was small & yes we threw it back in but it was definitely a fish!!

I have fished many times over the years & today was the first time that I caught a fish!

Mr P did catch one to but mine was bigger!

Miss Georgia was her normal diva self & refused to fish after 10 minutes because there was no way she was going to put a worm on her hook. So she spent the morning like a diva does…

walking around in her fabulous blue jumpsuit with a picnic wine glass in hand. It was vanilla coke in it, no alcohol allowed for kids.

{just wanted to clear that up}

This is what the view looked like from where I was standing, perfect.

I loved the fact that the girls got to spend time with their Daddy.

Then we dragged Mr P to the surf beach & he & Miss Georgia went for a swim.

We also did our usual walk along the beach to collect shells.

To finish the day, it was fish & chips at the park.

I love it when the girls get to spend time with Mr P. They love it to.

I find that when we all get out of the house & pack the car for a day at the beach, we all seem more calm.

It is something about the sea breeze, the salt water & the sand beneath my toes, it is where I feel most at home.

Some families like to spend money on family days out but we like to do things that are free & in Australia we are so lucky to have the beaches, countryside & mountains.

We are also very lucky where we are because we have all 3 of these things within 45 minutes drive from where we live.

Tomorrow we are off to the local markets for some plants for the vegie patch then Miss Georgia wants to go to the park to play soccer as she just made it into her schools interschool soccer team.

Whatever you are up to this weekend {or next} find some time to just relax.

Camera batteries flat? I think we all need a recharge, not just the batteries!

I have a great tutorial to share with you all!

A no pattern required top!

BUT….

Thanks to Kiara, all the camera batteries in this house are now flat!

Why, do you ask?

Because someone thought it would be a great idea to take 50+ photo’s of herself curling her hair!

I am serious, she thought the world needed photo’s of her curling her hair!!

Now don’t stress, I got permission from her agent to use this photo.

{to find out more about Kiara's agent, read more in a post titled No more photo's, you must pay me first}

I asked the girls to take a photo of me with my phone camera wearing the top that I want to share with you all.

Now, aside from the usual boob shots,

{yes, the girls seem to think my boobs are the most funniest things ever & always zoom in on them}

the no head shots, no feet shots, lets photograph everything else but Mum shots…

this was the best one that was taken.

completely out of focus!

{sigh}

Mr P will be home this weekend so I will convince him that he wants to take photo’s of my new top so I can share the tutorial next week!

I actually made 3 new tops & Kiara has put in orders for 2 of her own.

Yes, this top will suit women, teenagers & girls of all ages!!

I know I am not alone, neither are you

I have to say a big

Thank you

I really feel like I am so lucky to have “met” such wonderful women through my blog.

I am still getting emails & messages in response to the blog post

It's my life, it's my blog

I have tried to respond to you all, even replied to every comment left on the blog (I think I did them all).

It seems that I am not alone.

You are not alone.

Many of the messages have been about how that particular post struck a chord with a lot of you.

I received one particular email today, {she will remain nameless but she knows who she is}, that made me smile.

I have to tell you that I have not smiled since Georgia’s birthday on Sunday. Yep, that is a long time.

Thank you for my “fan mail”.

Sometimes I think that bloggers wonder if people are reading their blog. I know that the numbers of page views are there but you still wonder if what you are typing, means something to someone.

I now know that there is people reading my blog.

I also know that there is a lot of you who are struggling with being the best Mum you can be.

Thank you for letting me know that I am not alone & now I am telling you,

YOU ARE NOT ALONE.

I really do believe that the hardest job is to be a Mum.

There is no harder job.

I admire those of you who work outside the home. You are real superheroes!

I think that I am going to have to change from being a stay at home Mum & join the army of working Mothers out there. I need to help Mr P get out of interstate truck driving which will mean a massive pay cut. I need to do this for my family, I need to do this for my kids.

Right now, I would do just about anything {there is certain things that I would just never do} but it is my hearing loss that will be the big issue.

I have not worked outside of the home for nearly 14 years. It really is a big & scary step but I know I can do it because there are so many fabulous Mothers who do it.

And hey, I am a Mum & we all know that Mum’s can do anything!

Right???

I feel as though my life is about to change in a very big way but I really hope it for for the better.

I know that I have to think “real” & I know that none of this is going to happen over night but I know it needs to happen.

Embellished Hoodie, Riley Blake Blog tutorial

I think I may have died & gone Hoodie Heaven!!

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I found this fantastic Embellished Hoodie Tutorial over on the Riley Blake Designs Blog.

It is by the very talented Lindsay from The Cottage Mama

I think it is fantastic.

I want to make one fore all of us girls in the family.

This would be fantastic for a boy if you used some boyish fabric.

I love Riley Blake Designs & the blog would have to be one of my fave blogs for inspiration.

Some goodbyes are harder than others

Mr P {the interstate truck driver & my husband} was home for 4 nights. That is amazing! It was fantastic that he got to spend 4 nights at home with the girls. They needed it.

What makes it hard though is that the girls take out their sadness & anger on each other when he leaves. It is not as bad when he is only home for 1 night but when he is home for 4 nights in a row, they get a taste of “normal family life”. I also get a taste of normal life. I know how hard it is for me so I can imagine how hard it is for them.

It really sucks when they get home from school & ask “When will Daddy be home?”

In the trucking industry there is a saying between husbands & wives, “I will see you when I see you.”

That means that we have no idea when we will see each other next.

How can kids understand this…….they don’t.

I cry a lot after he leaves. I am sad that I go back to being alone. I am sad that I go back to being a single parent.

It is so hard. When the girls are so sad & angry, it is hard to be the happy Mum.

I see the pain, I see the hurt.

I feel the pain, I feel the hurt.

It is so hard to be trying to take control of my life when I keep getting put back on the Merry-go-round.

The house is so quiet & lonely without a “happy family”.

The whole mood changes when he leaves.

The girls constantly fight with each other. I feel as though I am fighting a losing battle some days.

I think this departure was even harder because we had Georgia’s birthday on the weekend. She had told Mr P last week that she could not remember the last time that he had been home for her birthday. I think it had been 5 years. She just turned 11 so that is almost half of her life that he was not home for her birthday. I am so glad that he got to spend this one with her. It meant more to her than any present could. Some people say, “Just celebrate her birthday on a day when he is home.”

I personally think that is not an option.

We all celebrate birthdays because it is the anniversary of the day you were born. You can not change your birthday. It is your birthdate. We put so much emphasis on birthdays & I think that it is cruel to tell a child that they can’t celebrate it on the day they are programed to remember since they are little kids.  I always celebrate my kids birthdays on their birthdate, even if Mr P is not home.

Truckies kids miss out on so many things as it is that moving their birthdays is just emphasising how different our family lives are.

Sure, we have a cake or save him a piece for when he gets back but we celebrate on the actual day. The girls know that they will get a special phone call from him in the morning.

These are the photo’s from last year.

I love that they get so excited but it also breaks my heart seeing their faces when they have to hang up the phone.

Mr P has put in for the weekend of Kiara’s birthday off which is the end of this month. I really hope that he will be home because it would just not be fair if he was home for Georgia's & not Kiara’s.

Some goodbyes are harder than others.

Fabric button rings, DIY fashion

I have some new additions to my rather large pile of handmade jewellery.

Some more rings!

I love these rings because you can make them out of all of your scrap pieces of material. You know, all those tiny little pieces that you just can’t bare to throw out.

I made one of these for Georgia to wear to her

Dinner in Paris Birthday party

Here are is a tutorial on how to

Make your own fabric covered buttons

then you just hot glue them onto blank rings.

You can have rings to make all of your outfits!

They also make perfect gifts for the woman who has everything!

here are some more jewellery tutorials that I have done

Flower Power earrings

Make your own fabulous pendants

Memory wire bracelet

Butterfly necklace

Flower rings in seconds

March photo a day, week 1

I have been joining in with the

Fat Mum Slim March photo a day

challenge.

In the past, I have tried to play along but I am really forgetful.

This time, I have been doing really good!

You can follow along at the

Sew, cook, laugh & live Facebook page

Day 1. Up. I love to look up & see a pink sky. It makes me smile & I feel as though mother nature must be happy because pink makes me happy.

March photo a day. Day 2. Fruit. My fave fruit is icy cold watermelon. Perfect for a 33 degree day in QLD!

March photo a day. Day 3 Neighbourhood. This is where we spend most of our free time.

March photo a day. Day 4 Bedside. This is my bedside table. I need to have the alarm set for 6am every morning but 9 times out of ten, I will get up 30 minutes before the alarm goes off. I have a scented candle that smells too beautiful to light that I picked up from a little country gift store when I went to visit my Mum. I have a tea cup & saucer that I put all of my bobby pins, flower hair clips & hairbands into. A have a book that I have been trying to get finished but every time I read a page, I fall asleep

March photo a day. Day 5 smile. This is what makes me smile the most. Being at the beach with my family ♥ Yesterday we collected shells, Georgia rode her new dragster bike & we took Molly dog for a swim.

March photo a day. Day 6. 5pm At 5pm today I was waiting at the high school to pick Kiara up from school musical rehearsals. She was late as usual.

March photo a day. Day 7. Something you wore. Today is a blue jeans kind of day! Even better when you haven't worn the jeans since the end of winter & they are no longer tight around the belly & there is now room to move! Blue jeans baby ♥

Quick and easy faux Easter egg cookies

I love a quick & easy cheats version of anything!

I was mucking around in the kitchen the other day & had left over melted chocolate from a failed recipe,

{yes, I too have complete failures in the kitchen. Just don’t tell my family!}

So what do you do with a bowl full of melted chocolate?

You make faux Easter eggs!!

Just cover the op of some milk arrowroot biscuits with melted chocolate & cover with hundreds & thousands or something similar {I used the cheap version}

So quick & easy!

Milk arrowroot cookies are the exact same shape as an Easter egg!

Perfect!

The kids love them & many times on the weekend, I found Mr P stealing one or 3 from the cookie jar!

We have been having really hot days here lately so I have been keeping these in a sealed container in the fridge. The kids (& Mr P) love them cold.

These are perfect as a morning or afternoon tea treat. If you have an Easter hat parade at school & you have to take a plate of something, take a plate of these!

Make your own tissue paper pom poms! Cheap, easy and they look fantastic!

These tissue paper pom poms were just perfect for Georgia’s

Dinner in Paris party

They receive ooh’s & aah’s from everyone who saw them.

They really are very simple & easy to make.

All you need is a 6 sheets of 50 x 66cm tissue paper for each pom pom & some string to hang it from.

Fold the tissue paper in half & cut along the fold line so that you have 12 long rectangles.

Start from one of the short ends & fold as though you are making a fan (concertina). Make each fold around 1 inch.

Round the ends with scissors.

Tie with enough string to hang from where ever you plan on hanging it from.

Then comes the fun part!

Start fluffing your pom pom!!

Separate each sheet of tissue paper.

Hang your pom pom.

You could make these any colour that you want or even mix colours to make a rainbow.

Here is a few ideas that I found on Pinterest

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A challenge to myself

As you may already know form previous posts, my oven has decided that it does not want to work anymore. It is only 3 months out of warranty

(funny that, ok not so funny)

So, I am setting myself a challenge.

I need to get a few electrical things done around the house. I think it would be a lot cheaper to get them all done at once instead of paying for an individual call out fee for each thing to be done.

It is birthday month, car rego due, electricity due…….you name it…..if there is a bill, it is due this month.

When I look around my kitchen, I see so many appliances that I had to have but never use.

My challenge is 30 days without an oven.

I do have to admit something.

I do have a microwave/convection/grill.

It is only 30L in size so for a microwave, it is a decent size, but for an oven, it is 1/4 of the size.

The thing is that I only ever use the microwave function.

I couldn’t even find the user manual for it! Mr P rang the manufacturer & the emailed him the PDF for the manual & I have printed it out.

At this very moment I have Cola Chicken cooking in the slow cooker & I have self saucing chocolate pudding cooking in my smaller slow cooker.

Yes, I have 2 slow cookers. I couldn’t decide if I wanted/needed a big one or a small one so I brought both.

I also have a pie maker, waffle maker, mini donut maker, sandwich maker, ice cream maker, deep fryer, jaffle maker, food processor, bread maker, electric fry pan……I am sure there is more.

Do you have a kitchen full of appliances?

Do you use them all?

I plan on using them all over the next 30 days.

I will share the new recipes with you.

A dinner in Paris, it was perfect!

The Dinner in Paris party was perfect!

Apart from the fact that my oven broke the day before so there was a change in menu.

We had planned on making high heeled shoe & handbag shaped cookies.

Planned on a pink rainbow cake.

We had planned on making a lot of other yummy food but instead we raided the local supermarket for anything we could find that was either pink or had a French theme.

The smiles show just how much fun these 3 had. Georgia (the birthday girl) is in the middle.

Pink & white mini cupcakes courtesy of Woolworths

Fairy floss courtesy of Woolworths

Pink lemonade

Faux cupcakes, the wrappers were filled with lollies.

The soft serve ice-cream maker that I picked up at Target for 75% off the original price!

Marshmallow cones courtesy of Woolworths

Blue lemonade & creaming soda jelly made by me!

The homemade happy meals

Chicken burgers, French fries & a set of animal erasers for the surprise!

I made the tissue paper pompoms & I will share just how easy they are to make later this week.

Pin the tourist on the Eiffel Tower.

I made this Paris board game & the girls loved it! I will also share how to make your own later this week.

We settled for ice-cream cake! It was a Freddo cake so it was filled with tiny freddo frogs. What is more French than eating frogs??

A massive bucket of popcorn for the girls to eat while watching Zoo Keeper

Breakfast was of course, French toast.

And morning tea was some icy cold watermelon.

Both girls took home one of these Paris themed party bags which were a big hit!

Now we have just 23 days until it is Kiara’s 13th birthday which will be at a local amusement park. I will have to do nothing to prepare & for that I am very grateful!