Bleary Eyed World

Omg I am soo tired, too many really late nights and not enough sleep make for lathargic, drowsy, moody and bad allergies me. My eyes look like I've gone 10 rounds with a boxer, wouldnt mind if they were just puffy but my exzema makes them mega itchy and hot. I could sleep for a week right now they hurt that much.

My kids are on school holidays and its the 2nd week now. School goes back Monday YAY!! I really like having them home but just walking out the door costs lots of money. Especially now two of them are teens and eat anything that aint nailed down.

We've been to the movies and saw UP (soo funny definately a must see movie), we also saw G-Force... kids liked it but my friend and I were kinda bored. We've had 2 or 3 days at home, we've been shopping, today we went bowling, we've visited friends in Sydney, sent one kid to Cadet camp in Nowra, been on day trip to Kiama (it had to pour down rain that day but oh well), had lunch out most days and watched several dvd's.

Not much knitting has been done as I would have liked but I did manage to make this little Amigurumi crochet Penguin, the pattern can be found on the Lion Brand website.

He was easy to make and I plan on making a bigger one for mr9.

Here is a photo of the Steps my husband and I made for the show Beauty and the Geek which is on Thursday nights at 8.30 I think. We made all the timber products shown in this pic. Ps. not minchinbury spas. Gazebos Galore!!! www.gazebosgalore.com.au

Mr 8 Turns 9!!!

This is my tiny kitchen on Friday night after 2 straight days of baking, I made 3 batches of chocolate brownies, 2 batches of chocolate crackles, 1 batch of coconut slice, 2 batches of mini-cupcakes, 2 batches of Mars Bar slice and 1 MEGA Pirate Treasure Chest Cake. Yes I did manage to clean it up about midnight Friday.

After an extremely long stressfull and tiring week, Saturday mr8 turned 9yrs old. We started our day opening presents and getting teens to cadets.

I dropped bday boy at his grandfathers for a shopping trip to buy his present. I rushed back to help with the Scouts Garage Sale which would have been more profitable had it not been for extreme winds. I then rushed to the mall to pick up fresh breads and salads, rushed home to meet my mum and stash food. We then rushed to pick up bday boy who'd been dropped off at our factory.

Mr 9 had been gifted the biggest box of Star Wars Lego I've ever seen. We then went to Red Rooster for lunch before rushing off to Wollongong Novotel for SnB. It was nice being able to relax and be away from my shocking teens for a while. Mum and I then got home in time to put their dinner into the oven and so DH and I could go to Murphys for dinner. It was awesome food but we did disagree over the teens behaviour of the previous week. Oh well...

Then on Sunday the day of the party, my mum sneaks off home to care for my sick nanna, dh goes out the back to clean up yard, hide dogs and ready the bbq area while the kids and I get food ready and decorate the lounge room with balloons.

We played Chinese Whispers, Wrap the mummy, 3 legged race, donut eating game, ha ha ha game, intro game, a game of football and then they jumped on the trampoline.

Mr 9 had soo much fun, he got some great gifts and the other kids were all soo polite and well behaved. The party went for 3 hours so after a quick tidy up dh and I had an afternoon nanna nap (mine went for 3hrs). Man I'm still tired.

Time to get organised

Okay soon my youngest is turning 9yrs old. My house is in such chaos that I've devised a plan to minimise somethings that are not getting used and cluttering up my place.

I've listed all my Avon from when I was selling it on Ebay. I dont care about making a profit (though it would be lovely) I just want the stuff gone. If I remember I'll bring all my Avon samples and just give them away at SnB this month.

I have a rather large box of photos waiting to be put into albums sitting in my dinning room so I've made a start on that.

I went out yesterday with my gift voucher that my dh gave me for my bday and brought a lovely shelf unit for my craft corner. I am now putting my patterns and magazines into folders which I will cover with contact and put into the shelves. I also have my knitted toys and current projects organised and didnt have many ufo's as I thought.

This Sunday as you all know was a stinking hot day so in the arvo dh and I took our 3 boys to the beach. They didnt stay in the water for long as it was freezing but atleast it took some of their energy away. Mr13 is far right with surfboard, mr14 is with the white boogie board and mr9 is that little black dot near the back wave. Looks far but is only to his waist.

I was gifted some lace weight yarn a while back and dont have a use for it. So I am making a competition and the winner will recieve the yarn. So eveyone who leaves a comment I'll put your name into a hat and draw the winner. I'll get one of my kids to pick the name out so that its fair.

The colour is actually Lilac (didnt photograph well)

Lots going on

Ok recently my 14yr old joined his brother and is now a Naval Cadet. Here is a photo of the two of them in their W1's just before leaving to go to do a Naval Ceremony up at Cronulla. I think they look awesome.

I have also listed my Apple iPhone on Ebay. It is in excellent condition as I've only had it for 3wks since Apple replaced my old iPhone which broke. Take a look if you like.

Umm what else....

Oh I am back on the health kick. Its been 2.5wks and I've lost about 6kgs, I am doing the meal replacement shakes twice a day and have on propper healthy meal. I am also doing a minimum of 1hr exercise a day. Since Monday I've done about 5hrs of exercise at the gym. I really enjoy doing the boxing circuit, its amazing that your working your arms heaps but the next day your thighs are bloody killing you.
My biggest hurdle is the weekends where we either eat at nice restaurants or have take-away.

Our business Gazebos Galore is going slow but steady. One of our employees has broken his toe and is off for a week or so and the other casual employee decided he had a better offer mining in WA. So we've got a new guy on trial now who seems to be very good with his hands and needed a new start.

We've introduced 2 new gazebos to our range and I've finally had time to get brouchers typed up for our sales outlets and private customers.

On the craft front I am planning on making a quilt for my friends little girl who recently turned one, it is going to be pinks and purples with a print on the reverse side. I really need to get moving, planning it and completing it before xmas comes around.

Knitting-wise I'm kinda in no-mans-land I have things that need finnishing but cant be bothered, I have things that can be done but just havent started and I'd like to knit something really pretty but have no incentive to even attempt something that takes more than a few days to knit.
Really I just want to use up all the crap yarn I've got sitting next to my armchair so I can buy more prettier yarn.

Going to Ravelry now just to have a snoop at patterns. A girl can always dream....

Angels, Witches, Wizards and Vampires.

Ok, I am not a "Goth", I am not an "Emo" or a member of any other strange group. I simply like magical things.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Twilight and thanks to a very kind lady now own a copy of the dvd.

I am currently reading a series of books in the House of Night series. These books are written by a mother/daughter team and are aimed at the teenage readers demographic. I honestly enjoy reading them. Angus & Robinson sell them for around $18.99 but I buy mine from Big W for around $11.88 each and I read about one book every 5 to 6 days.

I have my books sitting on my "Special Shelf" in my room. This is my shelf and no one is allowed near it. It is also where I keep my Angels.

I also have a Wizard he hangs in the dinning room and cackles when you clap your hands.

He is teamed with my Witch who hangs opposite him, rides her broomstick, also cackles when you clap your hands and is suppose to give you good Karma in the kitchen.

Busy Busy

Okay lately I've been working in our factory, its all hands on deck at the moment. So after I drop mr8 at school, its off to gym for an hour and then either home to do housework and business work or off to the factory to saw, route and sand timber into steps for spas. It feels good to be able to contribute and get my hands dirty (also thoroughly cover in sawdust).

My mr14 who is 5cm from being 6ft tall is current down at the snow, it is his first time even seeing snow so I really hope he has an awesome time. He is such a good kid, he even borrowed a friends mobile just to sms me that he got there safely. It was really nice to know.

I sold about $70 worth of pies for the Scouts fundraising so hopefully with everyone else's efforts we might have made a few hundred towards the AJ2010 Jamboree.

I've started back on the 10inch charity squares made from odd yarns, so that is always an on going thing.

Yesterday was such a lovely hot sunny winter day, that I felt like pulling out the ironing board, fabric and sewing machine and made 10 shoulder bags for Dapto Cub Scouts. They turned out really well, I'll put a pic up soon of them.

Anyone who has dark navy blue cotton fabric who doesnt have a use for it I'll gladly take off your hands. So I can made more bags, we've about 30 kids and so far only about 13 bags made.

Anyways gotta go do the mum thing and then shower before I can think of getting dinner started. Choa for now!!1

Long time no post

This is a quick post but a post non-the-less.

As everyone knows I've been busy with Gazebos Galore but I've had sick kids, school holidays and just the normal mum stuff to deal with too.

So here is the Charity Blanket that I've been busy working on. Finally its finnished but I still have enough Crap yarn to make another... Its made from 10inch squares, 5 rows wide and 7 rows down. Its amazingly warm.

I also casted on this little Aeroplane, I made him from a Paton Pattern, changed it slightly to be less boring and it will go to Declan who will be 1.5yrs at xmas.

I am thinking on making babys in my life toys to add to their xmas presents. Toys are fun and fast to make.

This is my little brother Ben, my dad and myself 2 weeks ago at the outback steak house in Campbelltown. Its soo yumm there and it was great catching up with my baby bro.

Okay gotta go pick up my new replacement Iphone from the Post Office as my one crapped itself.