Why oh why........

Why oh why is it when you have the best intentions to finish projects that have been hanging around far too long and start new ones that have been lurking around in your brain for ages, the kids have to stay home from school because they are sick. I feel sorry for them for being sick. Juliette has a nasty cough and blocked up ears so I have to yell at her constantly and she isn't even in trouble. Django is only a little bit sick but didn't want to go without his sister. So I let them have a rest day and there goes flying out the window any spare time I thought I could have today to be creative. It seems the only thing I will be doing today is fetching food,drinks etc and separating bickering twins. Juilette did this.....Django has got my favourite thingy.....! Whinge,whinge,moan,moan. Is that them or me doing that!!!

To make up for my grumpy mother status I baked some flat bread for lunch. It comes from the new Donna Hay magazine. I have made it once before and I put too much milk but it still tasted good. This time I put to much salt. Hopefully it will still be good. It is meant to be a savoury bread and anyway I love warm bread however it comes. A good point about living in a french country. The breads they bake are to die for as is the chocolate, the cheeses, the champagne, the jams, the pastries, the duck,the......................I could gone on here all day but I won't.
Happy weekending to all.



p.s We all ate warm bread at lunch and it was scrumptious!

My dear friends.......

This is the gaggle of women that I spent last weekend wondering around Brisbane with. We had a great time together laughing, eating and reminiscing. These ladies have all entered my life at different stages but have become very much a big part of the life I lead now. If they read this I would just like to thank them all for leaving their loved ones at home and spending the weekend with me. I will remember it for years to come and for the two who couldn't make it. There was already talk of the next one. So girls get your 2008 calenders out!!

P.S. Sharon make any corrections on the grammar you think necessary!

Finally my prize.........

A few weeks back I won a prize over at Meet me at Mikes and I finally got it. It was a long time coming as 1) I don't live in Melbourne anymore so I couldn't just go and collect it and 2) I had to wait for a girls weekend that was happening back in Australia so I could meet up with a friend who could go and collect it for me. Thanks Lucy. In the parcel I received some vintage fabrics, some little golden books and a couple of embroidery things to do. I was so excited when I won the prize and I was so excited to have in my hot little hands. Now it's time to sit down and make something from my new fabrics to show you all rather than me just staring at it everytime i walk past.
Happy sewing to all who has time to do it!!!

Homemade gifts.......

'pretty little peg doll aprons'

'close up of the people who live in the aprons'

'A special girly pirate bag for a not so girly girl'

Homemade gifts.....I'll admit I am one to make presents for kids and mums if I know they are going to like/appreciate them. I have been reading about homemade/handcrafted gifts or alternatives for the normal gifts on other blogs lately. Some ideas put forward is to suggest asking people to make things for your children (if they are that way inclined)or if they aren't giving money towards a greater gift as I read about here. What a fab idea. Another post I read was here. Long but well worth the time it takes to read it. It talks about big company/little people not earning much/mass produced toys. Also over here at posies she talks about making presents and the kids who are giving the gift having some input. I try to get my kids to do that too. It may only be choosing the colour of a dolls hair but they love to feel involved.

Don't get me wrong I still do buy toys from the big companies and my kids love to receive them. It's easy when I don't always have the time to create stuff. I usually have to do some forward planning to get these presents done because these projects have to fit in around all the everyday stuff that goes on in a family house. But I must admit I love the feeling of satisfaction at the end when you see what you have finished. As time passes those toys or gifts you have made for someone special usually sit far longer on shelves or beds or wherever they are meant to sit.

The few things above are going home to some special kids and I am hand delivering them to their mum. I am going on a girls weekend to Brisbane tomorrow. So exciting!!! Seven of my good buddies are coming up to meet me and we are going to chat, drink wine/champagne/gin and talk to our hearts content without being interrupted by babies or big kids. There will be some shopping done,maybe even fit in a movie. No point going to the movies here. The french dub everything. The only movie I have seen advertised in it's original version was a recently released aboriginal movie. 10 Canoes. I just don't think dubbing would have worked on that one. Do you?

I am going off now to pack my case. What to take? I have been doing this stuff long enough to know what not to take but it still always takes me so long to decide on what to take. Will hopefully have some good stories to tell next week.

Thrifted Tuesday.....

Thrifted tuesday has come around again and i even missed last weeks. Time is going too,too fast next thing we know it will be christmas! Today I have shown a very small part of a very large collection of coloured glass. It was lucky I chose to bring red and orange glass as our kitchen is an orangy colour. They kinda blend in ok and one of the bigger jars has come in very handy as the utensil holder. Also in the picture is some new tins I have been collecting here. French chocolates, kitsch chinese green tea and candied ginger tins and the most delicious cocoa you have ever tasted. It gives your chocolate cakes the biggest boost ever. Maybe one day in the future these tins will be on somebody else's blog as a thrifted tuesday find.

Hopefully tomorrow I will have some crafty items I have been working on to show you all. Finally!! I see everybodies creativity shining everywhere on all the blogs I read and I keep thinking I must get my butt into gear. Till then happy tuesday.

Exploring.......

I love exploring when I arrive in new places and I have found myself a fantastic Japanese shop that imports lots of interesting food and nik-nak stuff. I don't frequent it that often but when I do go I come home with so many packets of things that I don't have any idea about. A lucky dip of sorts. Most of the time they are delicious and I can't even give you any idea of what anything is called( except the wasabi peas)as it is solely in Japanese.

She also stocks a little bit of Hello Kitty stuff which my kids adore. I even asked if she could get the fabulous craft books that I see on everyone elses blogs but alas no.


Today I did splurge and bye myself a new teapot and matching cups. Like I haven't had enough presents in the past two weeks! But this is for health purposes. It's to have my healthy green tea in. I did already have one but the spout leaked everywhere when you poured the tea and when I looked at this one it reminded me of a little elephant. Look at that spout! I did also like it's decoration and how the cups did blend in with it. Anyway enough of my yabbering. I am going off to christen it.

And won't that make everybody very HAPPY!!!!

Winter swimming........

It's August. It's wintertime in the southern hemisphere. It's 10 in the morning and we are at the beach.
I still have trouble getting my head around this but I really do love it. This weather is not to difficult to get used to!
It is a public holiday here in Noumea, not sure what for, so we organised a play date with some friends at our local beach. There were lots of sailing boats out in the distance on the shimmering blue water which made the scene truly lovely.
What are you doing next winter?????

Fairy find.......

Last Friday I found a fairy sitting on our terrace admiring our view. I thought she can't live here( as much as I would like her to)there is already too many fairy folk and the like in this household. So....


I sent her off to live in a new house with a little girl who has just turned one. I think Luca and Fairymops will have a wonderful life together. They can explore and hunt for other kindly fairy folk out there in the world. I even sent her off with some afternoon tea. It just so happened I had just baked some fairy cakes( of all things) for the kids when they come home from maternelle.

Happy adventuring Luca and Fairymops

Saturday nite soiree........

Last night I had a soiree with all of my new friends to celebrate moving from one decade to another. It was a lovely evening, well I know I had a lovely evening eating, drinking french champagne and talking,talking,talking. My daughter and her friends put on a lovely Tahitian dance show for me as a birthday surprise. It was special to see Juliette up there flinging her hips around in front of everybody as she tends to be a bit shy at times.
My friend Donna made my birthday cake. Coconut and passionfruit. It was delicious. It was made with fruit from the vine in the backyard and it came complete with marshmallow flowers.
The gang of girls all chipped in and bought me some lovely birthday gifts. Theirs is the fab bracelet full of jingles. It even has a touch of france with a little eiffel tower. A pair of Franck Herval earrings. They are from Paris. Oh La La! Also in the bag of goodies was also a very groovy Lalo Orna candleabra.
The very artistic tea cup is from another new friend. She is local girl(very handy for finding out what is happenin' in this town). The cup is a piece of Ritzenhoff china, which I had never heard of until I met her. It hails from Germany. I might have to make a point of looking the rest of the collection. I see a set of tea cups like this sitting on my shelf making themselves right at home.
My lucky last presents from the family was a fantastic bag. I was going to put up a picture but I am sick of trying to figure out how to put pictures where I want them to be. All the above ones have been put in at random and they have turned out ok but I want to be able to move them where I want them.
Any tips anybody!!!!

Thrifted Tuesday.....

I thought I would join in this little Tuesday thing. I have many a thrifted treasure to show. Today I start with this lovely tray ( cross quilted under glass) that my friend Lucy bought for me many years ago. It was one of the bits that got packed up to bring over, alot had to stay at our other home.
When I find a thrifted treasure at the one and only second hand store here in Noumea I will let you all know about it. I don't think the french are into moving things on. They just literally throw them out!

Reading......

" What is life without one of us?"

Very pleasant for some I expect!
As I was reading today I came across this. Is there anybody else out there and I am sure there are some that ponders this question not only me and is that only the females or do men also ponder.
Don't get me wrong I do also love having a husband. I'm not the 'bees knees' for everybody round here. So the other question is "What is life without a husband?" Can I answer that one in about two and a half weeks when he gets back and has been home for a few days.

Photo taken from a page in 'The Blind Assassin' by Margaret Atwood.

Oh the lovely gifts........

The other day I was reading on another blog about birthdays. Pip from here
suggested that celebrations should last for a week and I totally agree with her. I have a birthday coming up in the next week and I have already received some lovely gifts. I think I got a couple in advance because my husband felt a wee bit guilty that he was going to be away for what I call a monumental birthday(40) or he didn't trust the kids to keep their mouths closed leading up till the big day.

Gift number 1 I opened was a fabulous painting by a local artist by the name of 'Fouoche Sandrina'. I can't tell you much about him as we don't know anything. The lady in the shop that we bought it from spoke no english. All we know is that we like his style. There are others in there that might be coming to live with us in the near future.

Gift number 2 was a beautiful pendant of an amber looking stone which has had a little floral spray engraved out of it. This makes it look all ye olde worlde. Also a silver heart bracelet that I have been spying for a long time. It is from a french jeweller named 'Yuna'. I do love them very much.

And look I still have a third one left to open an the special day(we just recently purchased the old chinese bureau that it is sitting on and I am claiming that as a birthday gift as well).

the horses are on the track......

Today it was raceday Sunday. We are lucky to have one of the best spots for watching the gee-gees go round. Our terrace faces the racetrack. There is nothing like listening to the thundering of hooves as they run up the back straight then run right past you. I invited a few friends around for champagne and nibbles. As you can see the kids are eagerly waiting on the fence to cheer the horses on.
You all know about murphys law and how always something happens when it shouldn't. Well my husband had to go away for work and he left us this morning. Then about an hour and a half later the toilet decided it didn't want to flush. Just about the same time we were expecting people to turn up. I won't go into the details of it all but I am just going to say ' i fixed it' and I don't have to call a french plumber. Phew! And I am rather pleased that I did! I think having a mind that lends itself to sewing and figuring out what bit goes in where when you are creating a pattern or reading a pattern that isn't in the language you know but you still figure it out all helps. I fiddled and poked until I found out what had to be the solution( it wasn't that difficult in the end). All the guests were pleased I must say as how were they going to drink champagne and not be able to toddle of to the toilet after a glass or two.

P.S Does anybody else have problems with time taken to upload pictures with blogger or is it we are just not peddling fast enough here!!

Looky here part duex.........

Take a look over here.
I entered a competition over at 'meet me at mikes' the other week and I won. Can you believe it. The girl who wins hardly anything has finally done it. Anyway Pip has done a all about me blurb. Sorry to be a bit boastful but I am just soooo excited about it all. I need to tell other people because S and the kids are darn near sick of it. When I get my prizes in a couple of weeks I will show you all.

Looky here part un........

Looky here. I have got my first link from another crafters blog site.
Thank you so much Jennie. I am so very very excited and pleased that somebody else is reading about my everyday stuff and leaving comments other than my husband or my kids(that I know can't write) or people that I have actually told about it.
I will reciprocate the link when I work out how to do it. I do believe my computer skills are getting better everytime I enter a post though. Yesterday I didn't know how to do that highlighted word that links to another blogsite thingy. I do now. I think it means I am spending to much time sitting at the computer and not enough time at my wifely duties!