The day I found myself in the bottle shop

I am as far away from a connoisseur of fine wines as you can get.....

I was the child in my family that screwed their nose up at even the smell of a glass of wine

The few sips I have ever had.....all taste the same...I have no palette for alcohol of any sort.....

Bottle shops leave me totally confused 

So when Meg came home and said she needed a bottle of wine for ballet....what the??

" Don't worry mum I have a picture of the bottle I need"

So in we went...we must have totally looked like we didn't know what we were doing because the girl in the shop spotted us and asked if we were after the "dancing bottle"

She pointed it out and we purchased the cheap bottle of wine and headed home giggling....

She is rehearsing a Hungarian style dance where she will dance with a bottle on her head!!!!

Apparently the contents were less than ordinary and ended up down the sink......now hopefully she manages to perfect the art of dancing with a glass bottle on her head and we  won't have to head back to the bottle shop....

I'll keep you posted.

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Him: Found a fellow in need at Madame Tussauds

Her: Tapping into her inner rock star at Madame Tussauds

My 52 weeks project

Joining in with Jodi's project 

Thank you..you are very kind

It is always an emotional week in our lives

Thank you for the sweet messages, cards, emails , texts and thoughts sent our way.

Your love means a lot.

XXXXX

Thankful for....holidays

Do you know sometimes the best holidays are those that are under-planned and under-scheduled....

We did that ...in desperate need of a getaway ...we took the kids across to the  other side of this great big country of ours......

We didn't have too many plans.....and not too many days....

What we did know was we were going to...

Hang out with some dear friends we haven't seen for over five years

We drank lots of tea and chatted till late in the night.....

we loved re-introducing the kids and letting them here the stories of when we first met....

We spent time hanging out together as a family......revisited the beach that gave us the inspiration for our boy's name....

Each of us had a means of recording the trip....a gadget that captured what each of us saw...

We saw the major icons too....they never fail to have the wow factor....

It was the break we all needed...life can get busy...full of routines....leaving little time just to be.....having no real schedule helped us to just..... be........

 

We were nurtured by friends......given the space to breath and relax just a little more than usual....

 

 There were some funny moments......

 ...and some cheeky ones....

 ( I just couldn't walk any more)

Your eyes are always open to the new and interesting when you are exploring a new place...

 And you would never believe the people we bumped into on our travels......

 Loved our trip to  Madame Tussauds

 

Hey who am I kidding...we loved our whole time there......just wasn't long enough

The Biggest Number Yet

Ten.........

 

I read this just last week.....

"Time has done that strange thing it does, where the wound closes just enough to allow you to live, but never enough not to leave a scar"  ***
 
We have lived ten years without our beautiful girl.....it is a really huge number.......

it is a decade
nearly the lifetime of our boy
it has taken us from our late thirties to our late forties......

I am sure that she has seen us living

Seen our hearts breaking

Seen us miss her every day

Heard us talk about her and tell her siblings the stories we never want them to forget.

Yes.... Ten is huge........ 

*** source

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Him: We took him back to the place that was the inspiration for his naming.

Her: Could this be the place where she will one day make her fame ?

My 52 weeks project

Joining in with Jodi's project

 

41/52

Him: An invitation to go on an outing for the day with his cousins....they swam in the Lake for hours...it was freezing

Her: Indulging her younger cousins with a little pretty makeup.

My 52 weeks project

Joining in with Jodi's project

Ten on Ten - October

Ten photos over Ten hours on the Tenth of the month....

This was our day... 

 

* Collecting stickers

* New suitcases purchased

* Jump rope with the little girls

* Fresh beetroot from the garden

* Making little girls even prettier

* Much more kit than her mamma

* Trying to reorganize the teen's bedroom

* Always good to win something on the scratchie

* Onions sliced ready for dinner

* Great excitement over seeing the first pay hit the bank account

Joining in with Rebekah

Thursday Thankful List

* Day outings with cousins

* Brave little guys who take on freezing temps at the lake

* My huge to do list seems to have been done

* The going away on a holiday to do list that's not too long

* Splashing out on some new suitcases

* The excitement of a first pay day

* Watching the teen make her first financial decisions

* A newly painted and nearly organised bedroom for the teen

* Friends in the street to hang out with

* School holiday timing

* The ironing pile that is no more

* Almost empty fridge...now to clean it.

* The anticipation of spending time with friends

* Swapping and sharing furniture

#816 Sleepovers that wern't held here.

My other thankfuls are here


 

Hanging with crafty friends

These school holidays have been different.....usually I set out to conquer a huge list of things to do......you know...

the de cluttering, cleaning, sorting ,working part time, keeping kids entertained, reading a few good books , sleep ins......

Well this time I didn't have a list......

partly because there were quite a few things already in the diary......dance competitions, sleep overs, work days, husband home days, new part time job shifts and repainting bedrooms.

Without me having my own agenda other nice things happened

One of the highlights was Meg having a couple of friends over to sleep and craft...

 

Despite our small house being in disarray due to the painting of the a bedroom....it all worked fine..

 

The weather was perfect for heading outside and making a mess.....the dye kind of mess...

 

Socks, t-shirts, pillowcases...nothing was safe from the colour being splashed around....

 

and when the dye needed time to be doing it's thing, there was some more stencils to be made....

 

I ducked out at one stage to have my haircut and on returning an hour later...a newly gifted pair of jeans had been turned into shorts!!! Lucky her aunt understands her creative niece (they were op shopped jeans)

In true style my girl always has dance on her brain.

It was lovely to see her helping her friends in their crafty endevours.....and apparently her friends didn't mind in the slightest that our home was less than ready for guests....

Ahhh school holidays ...you never really do know what they might throw up ...and sometimes getting rid of to do lists is a good thing.

It also helps that we have a trip planned for next week to look forward to .

I think I will be able to link to Leonie this week.....

A long overdue redo...

It was decided that it was time to repaint Meg's room.....we first painted it when she was three......

 

The pink has suited her all these years.....but once we came through the  " masses of posters covering the wall" phase...we knew the walls needed redoing.....

 

Surely a couple of coats of paint and a couple of nights on the couch will be all it will take.......

Everyone pitched in.....but lots of undercoat and sealer were needed to make our dodgy walls workable for a finish that was going to be pleasing....

The picture rail went... leaving lots of filling to be done.....

It was decided.....well heavily suggested.....and very well received ...that a neutral colour would serve her well for the next stage of life......

So Antique White it was........

A whole week later she was very pleased to be back in her tiny room that now feels a little bigger and certainly more grown up....

 

Now just to add a little colour back with some accessories...although she is adamant that she likes it a little on the bare side.......but what am I going to do with the boxes of barbies and other relics that she had stashed and wants me to save for the next generation??

40/52

Him: Helping sand the walls of his sister's room

Her: A room makeover , all hands on deck.

My 52 weeks project

Joining in with Jodi's project