Ready to Par-taay!

If I had to choose another job, it would be an event planner for those posh and rich people that pay for things like event planners.

I love anything that coordinates - colours, themes, you name it. When Cassidy asked if she could have a party with some of her friends, although I know it's the expected thing to groan and try to get out of it, secretly I was thrilled. "Oh honey, really? You want a party? But that means I need to make invitations! And decide on a colour scheme! However will I cope!" :)

One trip to Spotlight with my trusty party assistant Sheye and $45 later we had a themed afternoon tea. We set it up the night before so Cassidy hadn't seen it till right before people started arriving. We opened the door and she literally galloped laps around the table doing little high pitched giggles and shrieks. Most of my photos were blurry due to the high speed galloping.

I've always wanted to make bunting for a party and finally got to this time. It worked great, we just folded wrapping paper repeatedly and cut out triangles which gave us diamond shapes in a paper doll fashion. Separate the diamonds at the point and put the centre fold over your string and staple. Voila. I'm guessing the posh people would use fabric but this was cheap, and I'm all for easy.

Table cloth and runner was a couple of bits of fabric I cut with pinking shears (the scraps made matching serviettes), noodles boxes for their party bags (which they got into straight way so they were more like entree boxes :) and a packet of felt stick on hearts which I stuck on everything.

My friend Heidi said, "Where did those roses come from? From your garden?" (It's hard to pick up on the dripping sarcasm with which this statement was made).

Unfortunately, I have been known to kill plastic plants so the beautiful roses were pinched from my Nonna's garden that morning.

Maybe there's something in there after all...

Em has a belly! She's twenty weeks and came over yesterday cause I had nagged her to mark the occaision with a photo (doesn't sound like me, does it?!)

Funny though, I had trouble trying to find an angle that would make it show up in a photo. When you're actually standing in front of her you can easily tell she's up the duff. But the little podge dissapears if you catch it at the wrong angle and just makes it look like she's been a bit heavy on the cheeseburgers.

She kept saying to me, "I bet you don't talk to your 'normal' clients this way".

I don't. Sisters are there to boss, use and abuse and I like it that way.

Isn't she cute? :)

She is four.

She appeared by our bed with bed hair and those overly wide eyes that make you want to kiss her cheeks and just generally smoosh her. We did the present thing.

That done, she then expectantly asked what we were doing for her "speshal birfthday bwekfast".

Special birthday breakfast. Must have missed the good mummy memo on that one.

Luckily, after daddy went to work we discovered that McDonald's puts on an awesome special birthday breakfast at short notice.

Later we came home and put her new bed linen on her bed and changed her room around, which she loved. You want to give the kid a present, let her re-organise something (a teeny bit like her mother in that regard :)

Then I took a couple of photos of her in the ghastly birthday hat I found for her. Her kindy had one and she was teary before the holidays because she couldn't come to kindy on her birthday and wear the hat. It's a right of passage apparently. She looked like the mad hatter on day release from the assylum.

Then we decided to take a couple of photos for Aunty Jen who sent her a beautiful handmade apron which matched the new dress mummy had got her for her birthday (Aunty Jen knows mummy well!)

We had a beautiful day. Happy birthday our beautiful, clever, sweet and amazing girl xxoo

Phase two still to come tomorrow with a small party I got conned into having with her kindy friends....I'll be on the bottle tomorrow night for sure.

Last moments of three.

She is four today.

Photo taken in her last moments of three.

Surely she can't get any more beautiful.

Happy birthday to our most precious girl. Mummy and daddy love you so very very much xxoo

Some children I prepared earlier.

School holidays: Day 2, Part 2.

1.53pm and the crazy people are watching Toy Story.

I have taken phone calls with one on each leg, cleaned up a carpet of playdough from the playroom and returned the neighbourhood cats to their owners :)

Oh and we also did some painting...you know, as you do when you have two bored children and you're losing touch with reality.

I have had these canvases in the cupboard for months. I had the idea ages ago to get them to paint a canvas each for a blank wall in the playroom. I was waiting for a day at home, which of course never came until now. One of those things you put off and put off but then you do it and it made them happy which makes me happy :)

Scary beyond all reason.

School holidays: Day Two.

I am rather foolishly trying to grab a couple of minutes to read my emails.

The kids follow me into the office and commence some raucous game in the corner of the room. I thought all was loud but fairly harmless until I heard,

"Okay, now lets go get the cats".

I said, "What? What cats??" (we only have one last time I checked).

(Isaac) "We're going to cook the cats in the oven" (gesturing to one of my filing cabinet drawers).

I said, "You are not going to round up the neighbourhood cats to cook in my filing cabinet".

(Cassidy) "Yes we are, cause we're CRAZY!!!"

Do you think? And they haven't even had any cordial or lollies this morning. This is just good, plain, old fashioned school holiday psycho-ness.

I was glad I actually had the camera on my desk in front of me. I turned it on and snapped as they came towards me as ummmm....killer cats. It resulted in a very dodgy underexposed photo, but worthy of a couple of twenty first parties I think.

Eye-bee.

Or Ivy to most people. Just not Cassidy.

A little while ago, when I first mentioned planning her birthday, Cassidy started listing off her friends that she wanted to invite.

"Ummm....Zoe and Isabella and Alice and Brianna and Ivy (briefly pausing to consider)... you'll have to talk to Ivy's mum though because Ivy can't drive".

As opposed to the other three year olds on her list who could borrow their parent's cars and go for a burn on over to our place.

I can just see it now. Three year olds climbing on a stool to reach their parents' keys and saying "see ya mum, I'm off to Cassidy's for a shirley temple and a rave to the Wiggles. Don't wait up".

Procrastination.

It's a beautiful thing. And it's easy to do when you've got a beautiful thing to procrastinate with.

This is my beyond gorgeous cousin Mia. We had an awesome day recently messing around in the studio, and image overload doesn't even describe it. I took hundreds of pics of her simply because it was so easy to do. I have sooo much proofing to do at the moment, but how could I resist a quick play with some of these.

I've decided it's simply a catch twenty two. I am torn between drooling over how stunning she is and wanting to hang myself from our stair well for my own short comings. We used a lot of my clothes which I now can't decide between burning on a ceremonious bonfire (as I can never picture myself in them again), or do the nice cousin thing and just box them up to give to her.

Seriously though. What.a.babe.

Proud to be a blog stalker.

So I've noticed blogger has this element you can add in that lets you become a "blog follower". From my not-very-techo brain I think this means it will let you know when your Blogger friends have updated their blogs and puts a little picture of all my blog readers on the side of my blog.

You have all the usual options such as to make yourself private etc etc and to block out the real live stalkers. As in of the Stephen King variety. Luckily I don't seem to have any of those (just your garden variety stalkers around here).

As a self confessed blog stalker, I will now add all my Blogger friends so I can bring my stalking out into the open.

Please feel free to add me by clicking the link as at the moment I've got two (thanks girls!). Two is lovely, but some more people to put on my stalk-role would be groovy and help extend my morning procrastination of blog reading.

On the other hand, if no-one does it I may be liable to throw a hissy and remove it altogether :) :)

Find a happy place.

It's not often I get the time (or make the time) to do creative bits anymore. I used to be one of those scrapbooking obsessed people that imagined page layouts as I took the photos. I'd rush to the nearest scrapbooking shop to pick out matching paper and accents with reckless abandon. Sometimes I look back through my scrapbooking albums with little shudders of horror....like on the page where I thought baby Isaac looked cute cut out as a frog on a lily pond. Noice. Some of my albums are so thick with 3D accessories they need a brick on top to hold them closed.

Busy lives meant my scrapbooking faded to some hastily done digital layouts then to nothing when I started my blog. At first I missed my scrapping but it faded as the advantages of blogging became more apparent. I blog way more than I scrapped and more of our daily lives get recorded (at least that's what I tell myself to help me sleep at night. Really, I'm just lazy and blogging is the ultimate lazy scrapper's tool :)

At times though I still miss the glue and bits and colour matching and stuff that goes along with real.life.craft. This week I had been feeling a bit overwhelmed and generally yuck but a trip to Spotlight soon helped that.

I came home armed with bits and pieces of creative spasms I had whilst walking around Spotlight and was determined to bring them to fruition.

I started with my front entry - a sad and naked little area since my reception moved into the new studio. Some people collect stamps. My dear friend Jen collects pretty bottles. I collect picture frames. I have them stashed everywhere; in places I hope Steve won't look because he always makes fun of my obsession. I love them, I love having one at hand to give as a gift and I love anything a bit different.

Behold, my little happy place (sorry about dodgy photos taken at night)

For some inane reason we never got any enlargements from our wedding. I do have a box of little square proof prints which I have been wanting to use in little collections all over the house. This area is my first little collection. Very Better Homes and Gardens, don't you think dahhrrling? All that's missing is a casually yet artfully tossed throw rug over a slightly ajar drawer. Only thing not so Better Homes and Gardens is a little girl that keeps rearranging my 'family' letters into random placements. This morning it was 'milayf'.

One of my little Spotlight spasms. They had bags of mixed buttons on special and I'd had an idea filed away for a while to make little flowers out of buttons (I remember seeing them on the net somewhere). Cassidy and I sat down this morning and she put the buttons together into colours and designed the flowers; I wired them together and added some ribbon. As someone who isn't into fake plants and kills real ones, I think they're sweet.

I also bought some fabric to make Cassidy a vintagey frock I've been wanting to do for a while. I haven't sewed in ages so if you don't see photos of it on here in a week or so - you'll know why.

I've chucked a tanty, refused to unpick seams I've done wrong and buried it in my "failed projects" box, probably never to see the light of day again.

Sarah Returns: Cassidy Strikes Back

My usual Monday morning with Cassidy started like any other; but didn't take long for me to think something was awry. She was absolute sweetness and light all morning - helping me do the washing, tidying up and getting dressed without an argument. She even came and asked me if she could use the glue instaed of slathering the whole playroom in a layer of Clag like she usually would. I'm telling you, the kid could have given Mother Theresa a run for her money.

I was about to ring Steve to see if he'd slipped something into her weetbix when all became clear.

We were outside cleaning up. She had found the big outdoor broom and had told me she was going to sweep off the deck. She had been going for a while when I walked around the corner and looked at her and said, "You know Cassidy, you are doing a wonderful job. You really are mummy's best helper aren't you".

She looked up at me, batted her eyelashes and said, "Yes I am mummy. We don't need that Sarah, do we".

Tell me why didn't I make up Sarah about two years ago? Obviously I have struck a veritable parenting goldmine that needs to be tapped into. I think it's about time we found more out about Sarah and explored the other benefits an imaginary family down the road has to offer. Like for instance, I'm sure her almost-six year old brother David is excellent at making his bed and taking out the rubbish.....

Colour me happy.

This morning Cassidy pranced out of her room wearing a rainbow coloured summer number. I bought it while I was away and she's been itching to wear it. I said it was raining and freezing and she had to put a cardi on over the top. A sensitive moment, as it covered up some of the rainbow, but she was in a fairly benign mood and gave in fairly quickly.

Sensing the opportunity, I asked could mummy take some photos downstairs. That was met with approval and off we went.

She started making the ridiculous faces that any mum with a camera knows all too well. I said (and I have no idea where this came from), "oh well, I guess I'll have to go down the road and get Sarah".

She stopped dead in her tracks and looked at me. "Who's Sarah?"

"Oh, just a little girl I know down the road who would love to have her photo taken. I've heard she's a really good little girl".

I can't describe the look on her face. A combination of absolute disgust and "bring it on Sarah. I'm cuter than anything you've got to offer".

"Which is Sarah's house?"

"It's down there. You can't see it from here. But I could ring her mummy". (I am totally out of my depth and caught up in my own lie by this point).

"Okay mummy. I'll be a sensible girl now. Don't ring Sarah".

I had taken a couple of shots when she came over and draped her arms around my neck and said, "We're just lovely together, aren't we mummy".

We sure are baby girl. But at least I know I've got Sarah for backup....

When the smoke clears and the mirrors are put away...

I have had so many people say to me "oh, the girls just looked so sweet in those photos".

"Ummm....yeah...they (ahem) did".

Thought I better dispel some myths here for the greater good and to to display what a hefty crop and the healing tool can do to a photograph.

Ivy wasn't feeling 100% and generally not into it (especially since she has now conceded her World is made up of camera wielding women).

Cassidy thinks it's her sole duty and purpose to keep Ivy on the straight and narrow, which usually involves bossing, dragging by the arm and smothering of some kind.

They both ate their own weight in Cool mints from the lolly machine in my reception. Most of the photos either had their mouths wide open chewing in a very un-ladylike way or sticky dribble running down their chins.

Cassidy decided after five minutes my grass was "itchy" and wouldn't sit down on it. I told her it wasn't and that she had no creative vision.

Ivy at one point went and lay down on one of my ottomans in an attempt to put herself to bed. If a two year chooses bed as the better option, you know it ain't good.

Funny how when I look at those photos...I really only see how gorgeous they are, I don't first think about what horrors they were being. Sort of like labour - in the throes of it you think you're starring in your own Alfred Hitchcock mini series but afterwards you only remember holding your baby.

I think when you become a mother they install a filter that refuses to let you see bad in your children. Sure sometimes it slips a little (like at bedtime when you think an enraged hippo would be easier to reason with) but it always pops back into place and only lets the good bits through.

If it weren't for that filter, I guarantee I would have eaten my young by now.

Bring on the Clones.

You know there are times when I really think they had it right in that movie Multiplicity. Michael Keaton is the overworked stressed out dad that decides to clone himself so he can be fully at work and fully at home with his family the whole time. Of course, the inevitable disasters start to take place but I'm sure that was caused only by bad planning.

I reckon two of me could be the answer to everything. For instance the tired me could have stayed in bed last night when Cassidy started to spew at 2am while the clone could have cleaned up two rounds of Cassidy's stomach contents.

This morning, I could have had a shower and got dressed while the other me made lunch for Isaac and got him ready for school.

Seriously, with a little planning and a well trained clone how can this go wrong? I'll just wait a few years to make sure nothing freaky ends up happening to Dolly the sheep (or whatever it's name was) then I'll be all set to sign up.

I'm pretty sure Steve wouldn't complain about two of me for various reasons either.

See - everyone's happy :)

And now for a couple of pics of the usual cute suspects...result of Sheye and my first play in the studio :)