Cladding

Yes this is the same house, all we have to do naw to finish the outside off is paint the trims and put some new guttering on.

Meanwhile......every afternoon has been an excercize in hazzard prevention......

Putting ladders down.....

and putting beams on the ground......

and putting more ladders down......

Then going around and picking up or turning over every piece of wood he tore off the house, as it was full of nails.

So nice to have the house back to normal again and a yard that is safer and tidyer than it has been for the last 3 months!

So now we start comparing our power usage and how much is saved by the insulation, reporst back in 12 months on that one X:oD

MMOSSSOMETHING

Ok here is a big hello to my online gameing friends......yup the Hippy plays. Sometimes I go for weeks maybe months without playing, but, I go back. There is a community that everyone thrives for.......it is referred to as an Alliance, and in that community there are things that only can be expressed in this medium. Also, there are many SAHP, that thrive off this medium for adult conversation. Before you knock your mate for playing an online game....think....what human interaction am I really missing out on?ENTER WITH SEVERE CONSEQUENSES only go to this link if you think you have copious amounts of time on your hands.......or you will find there is not much time left in the day. Oh wait is that the sun setting....best go and enjoy before a night of ......muah....war........elol

Quick note!

Remeber to love the simple things......a good long walk........a nice fire...........a good feed.........happy kiddies.......sunny days. ....and....a good life!

AND take time to enjoy the flowers...........

Camping

We took the boys camping for the first time on the weekend. We had a 2 man tent 1 king single swag and 52 blankets, it felt like that putting them in the car.
We went down to a good clear spot on the Darling River, the boys climbed trees and bush walked and did sand drawings on the bank. We took a ball, and I really must say....WHY!!!!! Next time I will put my foot down there. The same way kids chase them out onto the road, they will also chase them into a river. So no more balls at the river!
When the sun got low we made a fire and boiled the kettle, we had coffee and sausage sanga's. With the warm kettle we heated up the sleep time bottles and the boys pretty fast went to bed.
So this is when I was freed up to fish, I HATE FISHING, so tedious and dull, (I am sure I have been described as such before). All this said I got a bell and put it on a rod and went through the motions for social reasons. Within 5 minutes I had a bite, so in it came, and I really showed my ignorance "whoot, it's a yellow belly" was my cry, to be met with "it's a carp lol" . I toughened up and removed the offending fish and threw it high up the bank! Shortly after my fishing mate got one and I (over keen) yelled the same thing!! To my credit it was dark and they were young carp.
For a non-fisherman, I rid the Darling of 2 carp on the weekend, and THAT makes me happy.
The boys woke as soon as the sparrow fluffed, and we were out and at it again for the day. Breakfast was weetbix, then sausage sanga's and chops with onion and potato. All that protein and carbs will take some moving this week. Good thing I have some work to do.
I hope our simple trip will inspire you all to get out and sleep rough, burn some snags and catch some pestilent fish!
Well hippies I will try and be a bit more consistent with posts so I keep you engaged and I promise not to lose my mojo in the garden under the crepe mertyl again X;oD

Just a little update, the garden is going great and there have been zero, yes zero fatalities. *so proud*

The cladding and insulation go on the house soon, just in time for the end of winter. We chose this over doing it ourselves, because every figure I worked out was still way high and we really have no idea about putting it on the house. This should save us heating and cooling dollars, and ultimately a little carbon too.

Whilst we have left the outside to the professionals, we are getting our hands dirty with the inside. The icky red floor is now gone from our bathroom, and so is the flaky ceiling and the water stained walls. The insurance covered the ceiling and some of the walls, we used laminex sheeting to line the bath area and got a great deal on our tap ware from AngelTouchBathrooms All the taps for the bathroom, kitchen and laundry for under $300. The tiles were laid by hubby, his first ever solo tiling effort *kudos* Good job dear! Oh and the tiles were leftovers and freebies from the folks home. The munchkins in the bath are showing off their Sailor Mouth Soaps a nice set of denture shaped soaps lol.

And so as the year flies by and the seasons move on, we find it comes to our Archie's 2nd birthday on Tuesday, so these are the experimental cakes we made. Henry has requested that he have a bug cake and Archie wants a dinosaur, yes he can say DINOSAUR. Some contemplation and a lot of googling for ideas later and this is the result.

So we rolled out the white icing(available from the supermarket) then stuck the dino shape on with water. then he was dried overnight and we painted him with food colouring just like water paints. TIP. do not over work the paint it breaks down the icing.

We are all pretty impressed by our handy work here!

So the same sort of thing here and painted with food colouring. I am going to put some egg white on the plates and  put some sprinkles around.

I have just had a wonderful week with 2 of my most favourite ladies, thanks girls. And on a little mushy note, Hubby and I have been together for 6 years, soon we will have been married for 3 of those, I love you Hubby XXXOOO

Due to his intense blue eyes his face can not be shown X;oP

My Town

About 4 weeks ago, I wondered why the tennis court was overgrown and unusable, and now I know, they have resurfaced the court and are starting reno's on the clubhouse.

I can't wait to have a game, I haven't played in quite a while X:oD

This lovely mans name is Philip Knight, he has been painting for weeks on a spectacular mural/freeze.

My pictures do it no justice!

It is on the old Carriers Arms Hotel, this, as you can see is an old coach stop!

Philip laughed when I asked about taking his picture, but he soon got into the spirit, we had a good giggle together. He drinks black tea if anyone is passing by X:oD

This is as old as it gets in Bourke, this a lovely motel on the site of the old markets, just behind here, on the river bank, was the most inland port in Australia

and this is what used to be a store, now the other half of the Riverside Motel.

I love my town and the folks who live here. Community is not lost out here as it is in other parts. Next week I will put some more people and locations around town up.

Ok well I am off to chase my kids around and around and around X8o'

SANTA SACKS

Well, these Santa Sacks, I have been working on for 12 months now!! Sorry but I never use a pattern (never been one for instruction)

All the sewing is done! They are made out of a jelly roll, from Moda and the range is "12 days of Christmas"

And from here in, it is embelishments that will highlight the whole thing, bells, beads and soforth!

Glad to have some free time to sew with the girls!!! I am learning a lot, and not just sewing skills!

I really think all us girls should hang out with the older crew, they are just like us, and have some great pearls of wisdim to share......plus a few choice words that may be left unsaid. It is amazing what gets said, but find you own girls, because these are MY GIRLS!!!! oh and mums!!

Note to self!

A 3 year old may be able to point and press.....

but they don't wait for it to focus......

you can fluke it and get a beautiful blue sky.....

or a noggin in the way....

there are always going to be distractions.......

like a bucket.....

of water for the dog Choco.....

eventually it will get the better of them......

and they throw the camera in "for a wash".........this is the last picture my camera will probably take.

The lesson is, keep an eye on your camera!!!!

Last weekand a half!!

So this week I have enlisted some help. Yup he is a good helper and willing.

You can't see it, but he holds his tounge just right also.

I am a big clumsy oaf, kicked my toe on a pending project (trambampoline)

My outdoor sink, to be used for gardening and cleaning fish caught out of the glorious Darling River. May also be used for washing children down.

These are some freebees from a friends garden, everything has taken so quick.

The day after these were put in they bloomed.

And a big TA-DAH the glass is on and frilly trim is all thats left to do, no man will ever invade this space voluntarily.

New glass in my cupboard makes it "mouse proof"

Dad has a new toy, a motion sensing camera, he is using it on the farm to see where and what drinks eg. goats cattle sheep and pigs, we see lots of birds too.

And the odd chick on the back of a 4 wheeler lol

And my cute little 21mo is the wrecking ball of the house.

 So things have been moving along slowly, though time is passing at light speed. It is halfway through April and it seems as though I am running on the spot a bit. The inside of the house is comming together a bit neater now and things can be put in the right place. This is what keeps me calm, if the house is hectic I get hectic, so I kind of enjoy cleaning. I know I am not alone in this, so don't poke fun.
There is no more rubbish in the yard for the tip and the boys can now play outside without too much worry (from me). It is unbelievable the amount of steel and wire our tennants have brought in over the last 4 years. Please if you are a tennant, take your shit with you and don't put nails and things in the walls unless your prepared to remove them and fix the wall, oh and finally, it takes 4 screws to hang a curtain, not 57 nails.
Well off to rearrange the sewing/play room and make it work X:oD
PS Chickens due early May

Yes I can sew!

I went off with my Mum today to the Bourke Tafe. We had all our sewing gear and sewed all day, it is every week and Mum has been going for a few years now, so well now we have moved back I can go too!!

This is the end result of a fun day spent with the Ladies of the Bourke Sewing Group. The chair, a $2 Tip Shop purchase, had a yucky vinyl covered cushion, sooo I got a heap of the scrap fabrics left over from the desk project and layed them out in a sort of 4 block square. I then iron them all and kept them it their block arrangement, trimed the edges up so the pieces are squared off, then sew them together.

Once I had all the pieces together in a sort of square I used the cushion as a template and drew around it about an inch out from the edge. I used some iron on pellon and calico on the top, sandwiching them together and machine quilting to hold it in place. For the bottom I used 2 pieces of calico and sewed them together flat, the bottom needed 2 button holes in it, quickly fixed on Mums machine, these are for the holding straps on the original cushion. I then placed rickrack around the upside of the top and sewed it into place, then on went the outside of the bottom, and they were both sewn together leaving enough room to squeeze the old cushion in to the new cover and to turn it in the right way. Ok gloat time, when I turned it in the right way I was CHUFFED! So I stuffed the old yucky cushion into its new home and sewed it up, very pleased with the result, sooo the scraps of the scraps of the scraps from the desk are going to be in the next blogg as a pin cushion and that just about finished the "scraps" off!

Well tomorrow I am off to raid one of the Ladies from today's, garden for cuttings and bulbs X:oD

PS If anyone need some tips I am happy to help.......I will ask Sash, my big Sis or Mum they are really good at this stuff and I love that they have given me this hobbie as a gift XXOO girls I love you both heaps X:'oD