Computer love...

Our computer crashed a few days ago...I turned it on in the morning and was greeted with a blue screen with lots of computer jargon that I didn't understand!!!!!!! I've now found out that if ever you see a blue screen, it's known as "The Blue Screen of Death" in the computer world!!! Luckily we have a very good and clever friend who was able to save all of our photos, documents, favourites etc. and put them onto our new hard-drive. So now we have a lovely new, clean, and non-corrupt hard-drive and I'm hoping to keep it that way for some time!!! And Todd, I promise I will ALWAYS regularly back-up my computer onto disk!!!

On a happier note, it's the middle of winter here and our gooseberry bush is loaded with fruit. It was a cutting from my mum's bush and we only planted it about six months ago. They grow very quickly and the fruit is small, juicy and delicious. I'm really looking forward to re-planting our vegie garden soon. We've already got baby cos lettuce popping up (some of it went to seed last season) and we're going to grow continental cucumbers again (they were brilliant last season), tomatoes, capsicum and whatever else takes our fancy at the nursery.

I know we all make Banana Muffins but the recipe below that I found in our kid's school recipe book is my favourite so I thought I'd share it with you. The pic below is Banana & Choc Chip Muffins.

Banana Muffins

1/2 cup soft butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs (lightly beaten)

3-4 ripe bananas (mashed)

2 1/2 cups self raising flour (sifted)

milk (just a little so the mixture is wet but not too gooey)

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius. Mix all ingredients together with a wooden spoon. Spoon batter into muffin cases. Bake in a moderate oven for approx. 30-40 minutes.

School Holiday Fun...

On Monday we met up with some friends at our local park for a catch up. We ended up bringing my girlfriends two kids home with us for a play (not sure if your kids are the same, but whenever we get together with friends, they never want the play date to come to an end). I was more than happy to have my friends two over as they kept mine amused. The boys spent most of their time either playing Lego or kicking the footy across the road at the park. While they were all amused, I quickly made another table mat for our coffee table in the living room. I used some Amy Butler fabric together with a really heavy linen look fabric that I picked up at the op shop a little while ago. I found a huge piece of this linen that is an ugly darkish brown on the right side, but on the back is this perfect linen colour...so I use the back of it.

I set the girls up out the front with some embroidery. They look so sweet out there stitching away. (Mental note...must make some more cushion covers for the faded cushions out the front)!!!

Look at their sweet designs and very neat stitching.

Playroom...

Recently, we re-decorated the kids playroom. We sold all of the old playroom furniture on ebay and replaced it with some new bits and pieces from Ikea. I wanted to create a workstation for each of the kids as you can see below. The set of drawers in between the desks holds all their paper, colouring books and stationary (sticky tape, glue, scissors etc.). And above each of their desks you can see three green tubs that are hanging from a rail on the wall. These hold their textas, crayons and pencils. And they each have a shelf above their desks for displaying art work etc.

We now have a couch in the playroom which I love. Our playroom is such a sunny room for most of the day so it's the best place to curl up and read a book or watch a dvd. You can see some art work that the kids have done, hanging on the wall. Chloe did an aboriginal style dot drawing of a platypus and Will's is of a snake!!! The frames are from Ikea and their perfect for changing the art work around ever few months.

This little unit is from Ikea also and it has finally solved all of our Lego dramas!!! It's worth it's weight in gold!!! Every piece of lego has it's place and the kids keep it pretty tidy because they know where everything goes. When we are at home, Will spends most of his time playing with Lego so to have it so easily accessible for him is great.

And finally, this is the storage unit that holds our games, books, dvd's and other craft bits and pieces.

Not sure about you, but I love seeing other peoples playrooms, studios, lounge rooms etc (think that's the sticky beak coming out in me) so I thought I'd post some pics of ours.

Enjoy your weekend!!!

Our New Toy...

This boat is officially know as "Glenn's Dream Come True"!!! We bought it about six weeks ago. Glenn has been wanting one for as long as I've known him (sixteen years) and finally, the time was right and the perfect boat was available for purchase, so that's what we did. And already, we've had some fantastic times on it. In fact, the weather in winter is so much better for boating than it is in summer (providing it's not raining). Last weekend we had a beautiful (but very chilly!!!) day on Sunday, so we took my mum and dad and my brother and his wife out for a cruise. We headed up the river into East Perth. We tied the boat up (I'm sure that's not the correct 'boating' terminology...I must brush up on that!!!) and jumped off the boat for a wander. There's some gorgeous cafes and restaurants around here so we stopped for a coffee before heading back. That's my dad there tieing the boat up.

Doesn't this look gorgeous...it was such a beautiful spot.

And the kids had a ball playing in the autumn leaves. They gathered them from all around, into a giant pile and then jumped all over it. Hey, if it means we can have a coffee in peace, they can do what they like!!!

Breaking the Blogging Drought...

I'm back!!! Not sure for how long, but we'll see how things go. This is the first bit of sewing I've done in what feels like such a long time. Life has been really hectic, but I'm thoroughly enjoying working part-time. The kids have adjusted beautifully (we had a few tears from Will for a couple of days when I dropped him at school, but all is good now!!!). And of course we're on school holidays at the moment, so I found some time to make these sock monkeys for the kids.

This one is Chloe's and it turned out really cute. BUT I definitely need to brush up on my handsewing since these have quite a bit of it!!!

And as per Will's usual style, we had to break the 'Sock Monkey Mould' and make one with extra long limbs and tail!!! How hilarious does it look. Seriously, it has the most ridiculously long legs ever!!! And they were an absolute bugger to stuff!!! But as far as Will was concerned, the longer the better. We used a pair of mens knee high socks to make him (not sure what man would want a pair of yellow and black striped knee highs???) We had a bad start to this monkey because I forgot to turn the first sock inside out before I sewed up his legs and body, so he has a few raw edges showing...just adds to his charm I think (that's what I told Will anyway!!!).

I'm hoping to find the time, enthusiasm and energy to get back into blogging again. Wish me luck!!!