happy birthday to me
happy birthday to me
happy birthday to me.e.e.eeee
happy birthday to me


oh no - no longer 40year old mother of two
now i'm a 40something mother of two!


lovely evening - had butter chicken, rice and naan from our favourite indian scherezade in kenmore. birthday cake was carrot (packet mix by greg, icing by alex). then presents by the celebration tree. pj's from theo, a fantastic work lamp from alex - eco friendly, great light source and PURPLE! and from greg a resin bracelet making kit from Barnes' at woolloongabba and on sunday i'm going to have my photo taken with iluka on the glove at the lone pine koala sanctuary - iluka is a sea eagle and one the of the most beautiful birds you would ever see!

mum is coming to stay tomorrow night as i'm helping at ally's new school with the mcgrath foundation fundraiser. above are some of the prizes for best pink outfit for each class. we're doing a jellybean jar count, pink facepaint, pancakes, balloons and a silent auction of the cricket equipment i was sent by the foundation - we had a fundraiser last year at her old school - we raised $200 in a school with 55 kids. this year we have over 500 kids so i'm hoping for over $500. 

here's my stall from the mt crosby state school twilight market - went very well - my daughter helped by making balloon dogs and handing them out to the kids. i met a lovely group of stall holders around me and even met up with Jean again at the next one.

this was my stall at the IMBA baby bazaar - more lovely folk around me, but some unpleasant folk wandering around. can't win them all - don't think i'll have another stall in ipswich in a hurry.

and finally that's me and jackie french - the author - i'm looking a bit stressed as my son is trying to climb up my dress and jackie has another lecture to attend over in petrie. she gave a wonderful talk to the year 4-7s. highly recommend her at any school. she spins a good yarn, inspires one to write and talks of her struggle with writing, spelling and dyslexia and how she still became a writer despite teachers telling her she couldn't live off it - over 130 books later....

good night

two days running!!!

who'd have thought it hey?

i'm back again - it's such an unusual occurrence to have the big computer on without one of the kids pinching it from me or hanging off me until i go bonkers!

so why so long - i was working for "the man" - lol. i had a boss, she was an nice lady, but i now know i really don't like working for someone else in retail!!!

i worked there way too long - didn't want to let her down - silly silly karen. i was working every thursday evening, every saturday and every second sunday in the end - really never saw my hubby and my kids didn't get to see us much together at all. 

anyhow life is MUCH better now i'm home again. although today's sinusitis isn't feeling like much fun. sneezing, mucous and vice-like headache.

so onto today's three pics...

hubby and i on our deck on christmas day - taken by our brother in law russell neuendorf. 

my mum and my son - this was at bribie island for mum's 66th birthday. i made the necklace she is wearing and the cake - it's a gluten free, dairy free, nut free, low fat chocolate cake - with all natural colours etc - it's basically a cake free cake - probably should have just taken chocolate - lol. it was lovely 'though. we took up a free-range bbq chicken from our favourite butcher - boutique meats at kenmore woolworths shopping centre. they have lots of lovely free-range meat and some of the friendliest staff around!!! that and some salad, rolls, cake and happy children. was a lovely day - the kids played in the playground and also did some hand-sewing with nana.

i reconnected with my mum this past year thanks to my gorgeous therapist - jane mcdowall - who got me to realise my mum is who she is and not who i think she should be. and i'm me and we can love and respect each other without being what the other wants - pretty obvious hey?

the currently available pads at www.girlybits.com.au - although the store is switched off at the moment as i've got another market this saturday, some stuff has gone into handmade highstreet in annerley, and i've sold a few of the meltys at friday night's market.

so that's another three for you to enjoy.

if you are out ipswich way i'm at the ipswich multiple birth associations baby bazaar from 7am (omg how will i cope getting up that early???)

xox

karen

it's been a while.....

hello all,

it's been a while yes?

i have some pictures to share with you

first is my new business card - i love it thanks to my beloved greg for working with what we had as i had (unfortunately) deleted all the links the creator had sent me of our logo and all we had was that on the website.

i had a photo shoot done at sublime photography for turning 40 last year - here is one of my favourite images - my absolute favourite will not go here as it's mostly naked - lol.

the biscuits i made for the grade 7 fundraiser at ally's new school - how inviting do these spice cookies look to you?

ok so that's 3 photos for you to enjoy.

i will be back again this week to share more

xox

watch this space

karen

Argh...

Does anybody in this country actually fall for the whole disposable liner will make you feel fresher? And now there's a double layered one.
Add to that your toddler needs formula...
The daycare in our suburb asks doesn't your child deserve the best - that would be me
Me with my washable pads (and yes their nappies when in use), breast feeding until 3 and caring for/pre-educating my own kids

What's so wrong with the simple life

a little bit of this and a little bit of that....

(forgive the font change and size mixup - i really thought i had it this time)

oh life can be so hectic with 2 kids, one in school one at home, working thurs evening and all day saturday, plus every 3rd sunday. whilst living in an unfinished house 45min from greg's work and 30 mins for ally's school.

sometimes i feel like a taxi driver, who makes meals, does housework and semi-regularly gets to zumba (which is oh so addictive i wish i could do more)

last year alex and i signed up for a christmas card swap on http://kidscraftweekly.com/ - these are the gorgeous cards we received from around the world - we really enjoyed being involved thanks amber - the big snowman at the bottom is the stunning card alex made at school for greg and i - she's such a talented chicken

the cards we received =>

we've done a few cool little jobs around the house the most fun

(and successful) is our first paver/stepping stone up to the car - it took 2 bags of cement, some mosaic mirror tiles and some cut up glass tiles to make my snail paver - we are so pleased with how it turned out - the pic is taken whilst the cement is still wet - it looks better since it's dried and greg has scraped the tiles clean - i'll get another pic (yeah sometime karen sometime)

the snail paver in question =>

i've managed to do some sewing too - very enjoyable toothe first was a custom set of pads for a gorgeous lady who lives locally and found me via nurture nappies - ooh i can't wait to show you how beautiful they all turned out - was so exciting to create beautiful pads again

16 pads in a bag =>

and these gorgeous little aprons - i made this one for miss annette

one of the teacher aides at alex's school - i really wanted her to some colour so chose 2 eric carle prints - one from hungry caterpillar and one from brown bear

i made myself one for work too - it's very cool and i will have to get pics of it on

miss annette in her apron =>

some house pics

a bit late coming i know

you can see the colours, the size of the deck is 8 x 12m; it's 4 m off the ground at the highest point and the block is getting a bit overgrown with the recent rain. you can also see the see saw we built for theo's 3rd birthday.

enjoy.

our first night away from the kids

greg and i had our first night last week

we dropped the kids at my folks where they had a super time decorating biscuits and cupcakes; playing with playdoh; eating icecream; reading etc and sleeping really well with no tears at all!

we headed up to eumundi for lunch (to scope it for the following day's markets) and most of the town was shut due to a little horse race we forgot all about - sigh. we got lunch at a local bakery - very yummy thanks. we drove over to noosa and walked along the foreshore stopping at some of the shops to giggle at the high heeled crocs!!! then we finally found hastings street and went for a wander - yes the drunken, loud, hat wearing patrons rubbed in the whole horse race thing. i did get my new hat - it's a lovely grown up one - i should get some pictures before one of the kids destroys it

we stayed at a gorgeous http://www.cudgerie-noosa.com/index.shtml we had the whole place to ourselves - so we watched scrapheap challenge whilst henna-ing each other and then a game of scrabble whilst eating yummy pizza (mine was satay chicken) before some not for blogging us time. wednesday we got up and had a gorgeous breakfast of fresh fruit salad, bircher muesli and fresh baked banana muffins made by veronica (thanks so much). then we headed off to the eumundi markets where we bought a few things - it was most enjoyable - lots of lovely things to look at and the kids scored honeycomb, strawberries (theo) and a fairy dress (alex) and we each got a top. i bought a couple of bars of soap to tide me over until i hear back from my regular supplier. some avocado oil for my mum and some magic cards to put in alex's santa sack.

after the markets we drove to yandina to the http://www.buderimginger.com/gingerfactory/ where we got to be a pair of big kids and rode the train and more importantly the boat ride through the hundreds of puppets - oh my the fun we had!!!

when we got back to the kids at my folks place they were having so much fun with nana in the bus they barely said hello - my parents were fabulous but i think rather worn out by our kids - thanks nana and pa - for our break, for keeping the kids safe and happy and for agreeing to do it again "sometime" xox