The things I should be doing......

Ahhhh.... the things I should be doing as opposed to the things I am doing.

I need to get my butt into gear to finish some bags that I have been asked to make so they can be sent off to Canada as gifts but instead we went off for another visit this weekend to the architecturally incredible Tjiboau Cultural Centre here in Noumea. As you can see from these couple of shots it has the most amazing exterior. It is incredible to look at from all angles when you walk around the gardens that surround it. The gardens are lush and green and kind of envelope the building which is reaching up to the sky. Inside is equally as interesting. It has alot about the Kanak culture and Jean-Marie Tjiboau who the centre is named after. I am not going to go into any of that history as I am likely to get it all wrong or mixed up as I am prone to doing sometimes. I am sure there is a website that would have all info if anybody is interested.

Back to the things I should be doing. I have just started to do a few crafty things. What I have been doing revolves around finding fabric and creating something as opposed to getting an idea and running to your stash of fabric and making it. As was the procedure at home. It has taken me a while to find basic materials and bits that you need for such hobbies. I just didn't pack up enough stuff from home to bring over. I was being optimistic about finding interesting things here and there is if you like pacific island prints which I do. But I like florals and stripes and cute japanese prints. Thank god for the internet where you can buy it and they can send it and the visitors who can be the material mules!!

The above works in progress are some boy skull bags(for canada) and a bag for a grown up pirate girl. I am doing an arts swap with the grown up pirate girl. A painting for two bags. Not bad, not bad indeed. I will show the given and the received when they are swapped.

Hope everybody has a good week.

Inner beauty......

I love flowers! There are many flowers out there that I love but these are my most favourite. The great array of shape and colours that orchids come in astounds me. Here in Noumea I have found they grow without much love and attention, I think that is due to the fab weather conditions not my green thumb. I water and talk and admire most days though just to make sure they are ok. I have purchased 3 here so far. The first being earlier on in the year just to see if I could manage not to kill it as I sometimes did back in Melbourne but it survived it's flowering season and it's decided to sprout two more spikes that I hope are just about to produce some more lovely flowers. The above plants are ones that I purchased just recently so I have many happy weeks ahead of looking and admiring the flowers as they slowly open for all of us to see their inner beauty.

Party antics.....

Party fun........
What a great day was had by the birthday kids and hopefully their guests. The weather turned out to be good, everybody ate all the food, kids went home with lolly bags. What more could you ask for. The pictures above are of some of the activities on the day. The pinata was completed and got plenty of bashing about. Pin the tale on the mermaid, she was eventually given one in the right place, and our friend Brett bought his sea canoe along and gave the kids rides out into the deep sea(so Juliette told me it was anyway) and when all organised games were finished there was just good old playing in the sand to be done.

Thanks to everybody for the lovely gifts and for coming to enjoy the festivities.

It's my birthday today........and mine too.....

Look at our booty of birthday gifts.....these are all things that everybody has sent us over from Melbourne. We would like to thank you all very much for making us so happy on our 6th birthday. We just don't know what to play with first or next or even after that! This is going to keep us entertained all next week for we have a week of holidays. Maybe mum will be able to get those 2 books read that she has been hanging out to do.

Must go now have got to go and play with something we haven't played with yet!!!

Once again thank you
Love Django and Juliette
XXXXXXXX

Passionfruit and unfinished pinatas.......

What to do....What to do.....Well I know what to do with the pinata, that's a work in progress for the upcoming party, but all those passionfruit and that is only a small amount of them that I collected from under the vine yesterday afternoon. We have the most fantastic passionfruit vine on our back wall and it is the most prolific fruit bearer. I really do love passionfruit but all year round! I'm used to having them only in the summertime in Melbourne. I am slowly working through my tried and true desserts that incorporate this fruit but I must say you never get sick of a good pavlova with lashings of whipped cream and passionfruit. Even the new french friends we have made agree that pavlovas done this way are pretty damn good.

Update on party business is that it has been on a go slow. Juliette has had a double ear infection and has been home from school this week. It also doesn't help that the french school system seems to have nearly every wednesday off so both children were home plus an extra one. I feel like I am going round in circles on those days but today Juliette and I are on a mission to go and find floral leis for this party. It is either going to be easy or a disaster!!!!


The vine that produces all those lovely passionfruit and look another beautiful winters day......

Another friday.....

Another friday.....seems to me the weeks are flying by and who knows where they are going. Django and Juliette turn 6 next week and it only felt like it was 3 weeks ago that I was telling them it was 6 months till the day of their birthday.

Oh it seems like only yesterday that they were babies......not!!!!

We are in full swing of party plans, or should I say I am, and they just keep throwing in new ideas around the theme which by the way they only told me in the middle of this week. The theme is a "polynesian party" which is not so bad when you live on a pacific Island. A floral lei to everybody as they arrive I think should set the scene and we are having a beach picnic at "Kuendu Beach" which has an abundance of palm trees. No decorations required. Yipee!!!! Any ideas about what you might do at a polynesian party would be greatly appreciated. I still have a full week of planning left.

On a more interesting note when I finish writing this post I am going off to be a mystery shopper. Can't say much( nudge nudge, wink wink) but it should be fun. I get to spent somebody elses money and get paid for the privilege. You get asked to do some very interesting things when you don't have much else on your plate. Must go now and get into my disguise!!!! Not that I need one the shop assistant won't know me from a bar of soap. I hope !!!

A good weekend to all.

P.S this is the kids wearing jug covers on their heads that my mum made and sent over for me. See they can be very useful when not on a jug of water.

Just checking.....

Just checking to see if everything is back to normal........seems as though it is.

Now I just have to work out how to get the font back from my first post(as I like it the best) then all will be cool and I will be happy!!!

Parties and presents..........

Where did you get that apron??? Well.....

We attended a birthday party this weekend where there was a princess jumping castle involved and the kids had a hoot. The little girl whose party it was was the most relaxed 4 year old I have ever seen considering it was all for her. Huge castle, gifts galore and a treasure hunt of lollies that made all the children go weak at the knees.

She scored particularly well in the pressie department but from the family where the mother loves to make things (thats me) she got a peg doll apron which I was most pleased with the end product. I made a standard style apron then stitched little compartments into the pocket for all the individuals to live in. As you can see all the peg dolls are not facing the right way for the photo but they do also sit quite nicely on top of the pocket if they are allowed to come out and play with the little girl who now owns them.

The photos aren't great of the apron as I forgot to take some before we gave the present away but I am going to endeavour to make some more so I will try and get a better photo of the apron and the dolls.

I do love a peg doll!!! P.S See my inability to know what to do with this computer has caused this post to have two different colors and fonts. Now how does that work!!!! I hope I get it right next time because I don't really like it looking like that.

Winter in a new country....

This has been the look of our winter day's here in Noumea over the past few weeks. Absolutely superb!!

There is not much to complain about when I see this most mornings after I drop the kids off at school. Almost makes me want to get out and be sporty. Almost!!!

Sometimes I am happy just to sit in my car and look at it as you can see from my next photo. After taking some great pictures of the blue sky and sea I got back into the car and thought what a nice picture of the beach and palms in front of me. I didn't realise until I looked at the images later that you could see the dashboard of the car.
Now, I have been sitting here for quite sometime trying to figure out how to chop it out but I think that task is for another day or you will never get to see this post.

I must admit even though we have had the most fantastic weather I have missed putting on my most favourite boots and rugging up in a lovely warm coat and scarf. Oh well,maybe next year.

Well, where do you start.......

Exactly! Where do you start on your first post? Sure as hell beats me so I will begin with this one and see how I progress. I'm not sure what this blog will end up telling you all but for one thing it will be about me learning how to use this computer properly before my two young children do and If I succeed at that I'll be a happy woman.
The rest I think we can let slowly unfold before our eyes like an amazingly interesting flower.
Till post no. 2