Rainy day thoughts on ballet.

I'm sitting in my car alternating between flicking through a magazine and browsing on my phone. The rain is lashing down on the roof. Before the windows steamed up I noticed that I was surrounded by other cars with mothers doing just the same.

I'm a dance mum today. My girl is on her third and last day of ballet school. She is loving it, truly enjoying every minute.
Me?
I'm not quite so sure...

I'm not a 'real' dance mum you see. I don't fit that mould. I'm extremely proud of my little dancing Sibs, but I don't live and breath ballet.

It's raining today - absolutely pouring. We came to ballet school in our rain coats and wellies. We were met by other ladies in heels and dresses - I kid you not! There is glamour and glitz in abundance. I wish I could have sneaked some photos!

The lacquer and shiny clips securing the pristine hairbuns is breathtaking - literally!

So I'm surrounded by these other mums. Some are just like me, wondering what this is all about. Others are....well, let's just say, different.

I have to get out of my car shortly. Walk through the mud and wait outside the door to pick up my smiley girl.

I'll be dressed for the walk!

Beth
x
(blogging from my car on a rainy day so when I press publish I have no idea what this post will look like!)

On my doorstep

Do you know your neighbourhood and your suburb really well?
Do you know the houses and the streets around your home?

I thought I did until a few days ago...

...until I took a right turn instead of a left turn and ended up changing our usual Sunday walking route.

 All of this was literally on my doorstep - and I had no idea.

So for the benefit of all my non Australian friends, come and have a look at my little corner of the world.

This is a shot of some Golden Wattle that was flowering in abundance in the front gardens of many of the homes that we passed.. It's the floral emblem of Australia and is pretty striking.

Our walk took us through some woodland and bushland up a mountain and down the other side.
There were Kookaburras in the trees and lizards in the bushes!

It seems that every corner you turn here there's a play park, and they are all beautifully maintained.

Where there's a park there is usually some shelter and the good old Aussie BBQ. These are communal gas BBQ and you just bring your food, cook away, give it a wipe clean and you're done.

During the warmer months you'll often see families and groups of people around these BBQ enjoying breakfasts through to dinner. The shelters are decorated for birthday parties and celebrations and the best spots get snapped up at dawn! It was all quiet on Sunday - I must remember that it's Winter.

So after a couple of hours it was time to wander home. There were a few blisters so off came the shoes for the last stretch. The promise of a cup of tea and freshly baked chocolate and macadamia brownies on the front deck was just enough the keep the troops going.

We are enjoying a couple of weeks of Winter school holidays here.

Maybe we should explore what's on our doorstep a bit more?

Arrivals

The really exciting news that I mentioned on Monday happened on Wednesday night....

Sibs and her cousin 

There was quite a bit of waiting around...

Some false sightings....

Until eventually Nana and Papa walked through the arrivals gate!

blurry, but wonderful

There were hugs and showing off of new boots and grown feet!

Chatting and catching up...

 Except this time it's different...

This time Nana and Papa travelled on a one way ticket!

Welcome to your new home.

xxx

Linking up with Jane for Post of the Month

A present from me to me!

I've had a crazy busy day today and have just sat down to watch the result show of The Voice. It's being recorded so I've pressed pause to write this post.

We have some very exciting news happening this week....I'll definitely write about it at the end of the week, but in the meantime...I want to share a parcel that arrived for me a few days ago.

A few months ago I came across a blog written by the lovely Nellie McCarthy - HERE.  She was talking about going self employed after some years as a banker and I was curious to see what she would do next. So the other day I decided to have a bit more of a browse through her online store and came across so many things that seemed to have my name written all over them!
I restrained myself and only ordered a couple of things and they arrived beautifully wrapped a few days later.

The canvas is a Jane Austen quote from 'Emma'. I'm a massive Jane Austen geek  fan and it's just perfect!
I thought that the spoons were just so pretty and have been looking for some that I could use for those special occasions - and there they were. They have little glass decorations on the ends - just lovely.

I've now got my eye on some cute little milk bottles that she has just added to her collection....

McCarthy Designs and Styling can be found here - http://www.mccarthydesigns.com.au/

Have to go now - I want to know who won on The Voice!

Action playroom.

I mentioned the other day that this week's public holiday Monday was a rainy one and so we stayed indoors and moved furniture around.... 

For a couple of years now Sibs and I have been having conversations about her playroom. It's become a bit of a storage area and is constantly a mess. I know a playroom is a playroom, but she hasn't been using it as it's "too messy". So Monday was action playroom time!

 I managed to persuade Neil that the black sofa from the guest room would be better in the playroom (upstairs!) and then that the piano would also be better placed up there! 

Miraculously he agreed to the moving, and even more miraculously we managed to get both up and around the stairway, along the corridor upstairs and down the few steps into the playroom. My arms were a bit sore afterwards - but I won't admit to that.!

Meanwhile the playroom got a clearout - a massive clearout. The bins were filled and the giveaway boxes and bags are overflowing. When did Sibs accumulate so much stuff?

We talked about the time when we moved here 'just for a year' with one box of toys and a borrowed box of Lego. We managed just fine. Everything was played with - everything was appreciated. We're going to try and get back to basics. Think about what comes into the house....

I keep telling her how lucky she is to have this space - really lucky.

I love the shape of the room. It's above the garage and has a few steps down as you enter. The ceiling is vaulted - a nightmare to decorate, but lovely to look at! The one window overlooks the back of the house and when we moved in the pink bougainvillea trees outside inspired the fuchsia shade of pink on the walls. It is the only room in the house to have some colour. (It going to be decorated soon - but that's another story).

Now that Sibs is growing up (oh so fast...!) the playroom is changing. The cupboards no longer hold boxes of dolls clothes and toys....The dressing up wardrobe has been cleared out and is empty except for a couple of Halloween accessories....

There's a sofa and a massive mirror and a huge long desk in there with shelves and storage for arts and crafts. My sewing machine will be finding a new home on that desk. My yoga mat is already there and she's planning on me teaching her some yoga during the school holidays.

It's now a music area, a place to practice ballet, to get creative...

We're moving on... my little big girl is growing up.

Quick post about rugby and pasta!

It's the day after a long weekend here.

The clothes line has been full of towels and bed sheets after a full and busy and people filled time.

We went to watch the Wallabies v Wales rugby union on Saturday night and managed to find a few other Welshies to come along! Sibs was a dual supporter and donned her (free) yellow jumpsuit to support the Australians and accessorised with a Welsh hat and flag.....oh, and not forgetting the pink handbag!

She certainly got noticed!

As a Welsh supporter it wasn't a great result, but we enjoyed the night anyway.

I was chatting to a friend this morning about the game and commenting how safe I felt. Even travelling home on (free) public transport at 10pm.  Brisbane is a good city.

So it was a full house at ours and we had a leisurely late bbq breakfast on Sunday.
Then the kids went out to play cricket and I pottered and prepared some pasta ready to be rolled and shaped for tea.

Sibs waiting for the tagliatelle - not realising that
I had to roll it flat a few times first.

Simply and very tasty. I need to remember that it's quite easy to make pasta. I use a Jamie Oliver recipe of 5 fresh free range eggs to 500g plain flour. That's it! Just mix and knead, cover with cling film and leave in the fridge for about an hour and that amount will feed about 6 people. I usually half it for the three of us, and that's more than enough, and then freeze the remaining dough to be rolled another time. It takes a few minutes to cook and tastes so much nicer than packet dried pasta. I've only mastered spaghetti once and I think the trick is to use extra flour quite liberally when rolling to keep the dough pretty dry so that it doesn't stick to the cutters.

Yesterday was a bit of a rainy day so we stayed indoors and moved furniture around....as you do! 

The playroom got a huge clearout which was very satisfying. I'll load the photos and share later this week.

I think I have sorted out my blogger problems. Just in case others are having problems - I uploaded Google Chrome and it seems to be working ok now. 

Have a good one,

Just catching up...

(For the second time in just over 12 hours I've lost a post! Thankfully I had saved this one on a memory stick as my blogger account is doing funny things. I also noticed last night that the commnts that I was leaving on posts don't seem to be there? Time for a bit of an upgrade I think. Anyhow, this is the 2nd (saved) version that I wrote late last night...)

I just lost a whole post!! No idea where it is - tried everything!

So now I'm a bit cranky and tired...

Anyhow, it was mainly about what's been going on here during the last week.

There was some mention of Neil's jet lag...'poor thing' just getting over jet lag after returning from Europe and then flying in the opposite direction to the States. Thankfully no visa or passport dramas this time though!

Then there was a bit of sofa talk...

Mother, these photos are for you.

I recounted the dramatic pause in the conversation when I told my mum during an earlier telephone conversation that the new sofas were white....

"White...? Oh, they'll be quite striking then?"

Then I went on a bit about my gathering of girls that came to the house last Sunday and the sofas survived the coffee, tea, cake and chocolate brownies!

What else...?

Oh yes, I talked about the cold weather, finding my ugg boots, our broken TV, some soups that we've tried - mushroom and sherry, lentil and smoked bacon....Sibs coming second in her 200 m sprint at school sport day....Getting excited about going to see the Wallabies v Wales this Saturday night....

Then I shared my addiction exploration of instagram and the photo a day that I'm doing that's being prompted by another blogger Chantelle from Fatmumslim

I think that was about it...?

Fingers crossed that I can save this version.

Until next time,