a tour around my house

today im showing off my kitchen...clean and tidy...but that didnt last long..u know lunch and dinner to be made..:) this is our art hanging wall. the piece of wood was covered in wadding, and then material. i screwed in 6 or 7 small bulldog clips along the bottom and then daniel put it up for me. we change the things up here each week after lilly has been at preschool usually. atm its a mixture of preschool stuff and home stuff. i love this part of our house. its the newer section, and i especially love the exposed brick walls.

our kitchen. not much to do in here. we would like to change the bench tops eventually to granite. its amazing that my kitchen is clean and tidy in this photo but it still seems to look messy!, we have a very lived in house thats for sure. all the slate is heated for winter...hmmmm nice

and the view from our sink back towards the back of the house. we have a little glassed in sun room off the back which is lovely to sit in, the kids enjoy playing there too. nice place to a wine and a chat with dan when he gets home. the kitchen opens out onto it by bifold doors which is nice.

heres my diary swap. thankyou daisymum7 it is just so pretty i love it. im going to collect information in it this coming year about our garden, rain fall and what grew well where when and how. i also recieved a lovely teapot cosy which will get used come winter as we have taken a liking to drinking green tea (im allergic to black tea, it tastes like tin to me) and a coffee plunger warmer. which will also get wrapped around the plunger during winter. thankyou daisymum7 its all so lovely. daisymum7 and i are also doing a swap. im swapping her a few cards (which i have ready to post to u on monday) and she sent me her lovely and so cute hobby horse heads for my girls for christmas. i will share later when they r all together.

arh our potatos in the bins. they r doing well. actually growing like wild flower. we hope they keep going, there is room for one last hilling up of soil and then we will let them do their potato growing business. we have no idea what we r doing i will point out and r learning as we go. lots of finger crossing going on hehe

last a zucchini flower. woohoo and i see other buds on all the plants. woohoo. success at the moment anyway hehe.

i havent scrapbooked inthe longest time, months, but im itching to get in my room tonight and scrap! i so dont have time to scrap with all the things i have to do for my kids for christmas, but im sure i will get it done in time...:)

so tomorrow i hope to come back with at least a page to share. ooer and some of the things i have made my kids so far to stuff stockings with. with lovely night time flash photography! seeing as i have tokeep it all hidden..:)


lastely im thinking of my dear friend sally right now, going through a bit with her youngest and the hospital. sending cowper all the good get well vibes we can find sal.

guess what i got back today

lets see if u can guess!
hmmm lots of photos on this post!
yes i got my camera back all fixed and good to go...woohoo. cheaper than expected too so another good thing.

we went to melbourne today for emily...more on that later but waiting for me when we got home in the post was my handmade christmas ornament swap. are these not the cutest stockings...a big thanks to em from http://www.embelish.blogspot.com/

thats our handcarved main fireplace in the lou nge area too. its so beautiful. and its nice to have it to playwith over christmas too..:)

a close up of the detail....they r just so cute

would u look at this cheeky monkey!
i dont think its any secret that i so didnt want to do our hospital visit today. i wasnt really ready to do the hospital thing again. but i told myself to tough up yesterday. well we had a great visit. emilys doctors cant believe the range of motion she has gained back and decided that they would wait on surgery to see just how far she can go. they fully expected to be booking us in for surgery and had been discussing all sorts of complicated reconstructions in the background. and while it will still be needed it was all postponed today. thankyou! so her next review is in march and again we will expect surgery to be in april. i walked out today peaceful. happy that i wasnt going to spend the new year juggling all sorts of things and can just focus on a short visit home, and setting lilly up at school before we go off to melbourne. where i will then be able to focus on emily without alot of other worries. so finally good news really. i am so happy that emilys doctors saw the range of motion that jen and i see each week during therapy, her doctors cant believe that she has certain up movements that by a text book she really shouldnt have. her thumb has improved out of sight and they witnessed her use of the left arm, which emily now includes normally. all music to our ears and eyes really. its given them a clearer picture of what reconstruction they will need to do and its all less than expected. i love that she excided their expectations. we were sent home with a large keep doing what your doing chorus.
well done my beautiful girl your amazing!

now i do wish i turned these cards...but im way to lazy right now to go fix the problem and upload again so u will just have to turn your head hehe.....but i made these cards for the december dare. http://www.aussiedares.blogspot.com/ the dare isnt due til tomorrow..:)

ps diary swapers...your swaps should be in the mail or very close to it..:)
i recieved a love box of goodies which i will photograph and share ove rthe next few days..:)

Diary swap 2009

dont forget today is the last day to sign up for the swap
i will get details out to people over the next few days

cooking, growing and cuteness

well i think these r lettuce...coz i think they will be...but still waiting to work it out lol
beans, snowpeas, corns and a few other things today. will have to wait on identification there. the beans and snowpeas and the corns will be on potted tomorrow to get a bit stronger, and may come out of the green house too. and then in the ground in 22 days or something like that
cucumbers here, pumpkin and 2 tomatos r up today too.
also have some lettuce that i know is lettuce, and basil another cucumber and pumpkin in the other reseeded seeds. looks like i will have pumpkin and cucumber coming out of my ears!

how cute r these two, walking hand in hand through the wild flowers in our backyard. would u believe its only been 2 weeks since dan mowed! would of done it the other day but it rained one day and then his next day off we were in ballarat for emily. this week i HOPE
ooer YUM!!! cinnamon scrolls
this was super easy to do
i found the recipe here
http://eatmeblog.blogspot.com/2006/03/day-39-cinnamon-scrolls.html

A SWAP

i would love to organise a swap

this is what i have in mind. a 2008 diary swap.

i was looking at diarys the other day, the cheapy shop ones for just a few dollars and thinking of using my remembered sewing skills to making something nice for 2009. and then thought what a great swap.

so this is what i propose.

if your interested email me djon7593@bigpond.net.au

this is what u have to do:

email and join in before the 15 october. if we have enough people i will send out partner details by the 20th.

swaps will be due in the mail by the 30th november

your swap will need

to have a diary no smaller than 10cm by 5 cm as a guide, be covered in a quilted top, or altered with paper. make sure that its going to last for the year. then add in a few things to spoil your partner with.

thats it

im also thinking of organising a secret santa type swap, email if your interested in something like that too