Kippy Boy

Just found this photo of Kipper (snuggling up to my little girl) on the old camera and couldn't resist sharing it. Scott put him up on an old chair in the study. Kipper's not normally allowed on chairs so he thought he was in seventh heaven. I have just taken the covers off the chair and washed them as they were covered in white cavalier hair. I'm hoping the covers don't fall apart in the machine as they are pretty old. I knew there was a reason Kipper is an outside dog.

trying out the new camera

One of the reasons I haven't blogged much lately is that my trusty old camera was tending towards the blurry side and I couldn't get nice clear photos. Then it came good and I took it out with me for a lunch with my old nursing buddies (not that we are THAT old). Then a few days later, I couldn't find it and starting ringing the restaurant and hunting around but it didn't turn up.I thought I had lost it for good so Scott and I decided to buy a new camera that would also take decent videos. Then the old one turned up but we bought a new one anyway as we were going for a weekend in the country as part of the Farm Day scheme that runs once a year across the nation. Then my big girl came down with vomiting and a fever so we had to cancel our exciting weekend plans amidst quite a few tears from the sick girl. So ANYWAY.....last night, we tried out the new camera at home. No photos of the big girl though as she was too sick to face a camera.


I'm quite happy with the new camera. It has a touch screen which has assuaged my desire for an ipad. The photos are nice and clear but the colours are quite intense. Makes things look a bit surreal.

I like this photo of my little girl as it captures the little details of her lovely face - the lone freckle on her nose, the last vestiges of her chubby baby cheeks and the dimple in her chin that she inherited from her Dad.

PS Em is now on the mend and playing the Wii.

An award to pass on to CT and the joy of new snockings

Finally.....I have got myself organised enough to acknowledge this happy sunshiney award kindly given to me by Miss Prudence. Thanks for thinking of me! I have a very small band of bloggy friends, however, and cannot think of 12 people to bestow it upon so I am simply awarding it to CT at wee hour stitches who is worth her weight in blog awards. It sounds corny but a hello from CT on my blog really does feel like a little burst of sunlight in my day.

I have managed to coax a few more photos out of our temperamental camera. My little Curly Whirl Girl has a thing for stockings, or "snockings" as we prefer to call them. She is well and truly in the developmental stage of assserting her independance and will ONLY wear clothes that she chooses to wear. She doesn't care much for wearing her big sister's hand-me-downs (except for some reason for the really really shabby ones!) so I decided to let her choose a couple of new long sleeved shirts at Target. It's getting quite chilly here now that it is almost winter and she usually refuses point blank to wear a long sleeved shirt because she "doesn't like any of them". So...she chose a shirt and then wanted to go to Pumpkin Patch to look at "snockings". After much deliberation she chose these two pairs. I wish I could get them in my size. "The snowflake ones will be really really good for Christmas" she told me earnestly. I didn't like to point out that it will be warmish here in December. Funny how Australian kids grow up expecting things to be like they are in fairy tales and kids cartoons from the BBC in England.

My little girl is quite challenging at the moment. Adorable and loving, yes, but SO SO stubborn and mischievous. She is literally at times completely out of my control and I find myself either giving up trying to get her to stop doing something she shouldn't be doing or do something she should be doing, losing my temper and yelling and stomping about , or this week, just sitting and crying tears of frustration and tiredness. This at first made her laugh, but then she realised that I actually was sad and gently stroked my arm and said "It's ok, Mummy". I don't believe in smacking (although I have done it several times in the midst of losing my temper) and my back is a bit dodgy which prevents me picking her up or dragging her to her room or a "thinking chair". I've tried getting down on my knees and trying to get her to look at me while I explain in a firm voice what she needs to do (eg stop hitting her sister) but nothing seems to work. I've tried counting to three and then threatening to remove privileges eg TV but she couldn't care less about such things. Occasionally, I can bribe her with a Yakult or something but that doesn't seem like the right thing to do. Is there something I am forgetting? Any suggestions are very very welcome. I love her so much but she is truly driving me to distraction at the moment.

PS I have tried reward charts before but right now, she seems to be having too much fun misbehaving in the moment to think about future rewards.

Here she is again - my cheeky pixie!!!

Passing on bloggy award

Oh I'm such a slack blogger sometimes! I have not yet passed on the blog award from CT or started doing the other one she gave me or the one from Miss Prudence.

So.....here goes.....I'm passing this one, the Circle of Friends award to the following:

Le at Third on the Right who is a true pal - stalwart in times of trouble, has a sensible head on her shoulders, can tackle any job or situation unfazed, and loving mother and spouse to boot, not to forget fellow chocolate addict and always up for a giggle about the funny side of marriage.

Miss Prudence....my newest bloggy mate who brightened my day by answering my emails and having a good chat about life. NEW PARAGRAPH HERE - WHAT IS WRONG WITH BLOGGER TODAY? IT WON'T LET ME LEAVE SPACES!

Feel free not to join in if it's not your thing! I totally understand.

If you don't want to play - say five things you love to do and pass it along. My five favourite things were a couple of posts back if you want to see them. Mostly to do with chocolate and sleep from memory.

CT - you lovely girl - thank you for the "Over The Top" award. Is it ok if I skive off answering the questions and passing this one on? I can't find the energy for such intensive blogging homework today.....

Miss Prudence - I'm still working on the award you gave me. Thanks for your patience!

My beloved digital camera has obviously been played with and dropped once too many times by my girls and no longer wants to focus. So....my posts will be bereft of illustrations (new ones that is - I may have to trawl through my archives and bore you all with old ones) until I get organised and buy a new camera.

"Our " creative space

Oops! I just popped over to Beck's Dandelion blog and realised I missed "My Creative Space" yesterday after only joining in for the first time last week.

Usually, my girls love being involved when I sew something and particularly like playing with the fabric and pushing the sewing machine pedal thingy. But I thought my big girl was big enough now to actually try and sew something herself. One morning when she woke up early (as usual!) I suggested sewing instead of computer/tv and she was very keen. So she chose some strips of fabric and sewed some straight seams and made her first patchwork square (well...it will be square when I trim it). It was a beautiful sight seeing her concentrating at my machine in the morning sunlight. She wants to make some more squares and then sew them together to make a pillow case (not that I know how to make a pillow case but I'm sure I'll find a tutorial).
Here she is with her first sewing and her beautiful gappy smile.

Love you, Poss Poss xxxxxxx

Circle of Friends thingy

Thanks to my lovely friend and "psychic twin" CT for this little award and her thoughtful words. She was the first person I didn't know that found my newly born blog (apart from a sleazy Portugese guy who I think was attracted to a sole reference to breastfeeding) and became a friend. CT's warmth and love of life truly leap off her blogs and her comments.

So.....all I need to do now is say five things I love to do and then award this to five other friends, which I may leave until the next post. (I'm having a trying day and it ain't over yet!). A note to Miss Prudence, if you are watching - I tried right clicking on this blog award thingy and saving it as a picture and then I cut and pasted it into my post. I'll try that with your award and see if it works).

5 Things I love

1. Eating chocolate - Lindt if possible but usually Cadbury would do - especially their nice fat eggs full of caramel. (This particular joy was dimmed briefly by a disastrous year of seeing my dentist much more than I would have liked to - a year which culminated in a root canal procedure which saw a tiny piece of instrument break off and lodge in my root canal where it still resides despite a traumatic session with a dental specialist. However, I am now back to my usual chocolate scoffing habit especially when feeling PTSDish over the continuing root canal saga).

2. Looking at my children, especially when they are asleep and not expecting me to be their slave.

3. Seeing the thinnest of thin crescent moons shining in the night sky - always give me a surge of witchy magic and makes everything seem ok.

4. A good chat (and some chocolate) with my female friends and a good belly laugh over men, sex and other funny things.

5. Sleeping - alone in a very big bed with lots of room, and lots of peace and quiet. It could be a whole 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep at night or a blissful afternoon nap with the afternoon sun shining in the window - I'm not choosy.

(PS I love my tall handome boy, too)

When I have another spare 5 minutes, I'll pass this on to some worthy blogging girls (although I am partial to Quilt Dad - I doubt he knows who I am.)