Easy peasy home grown guide!

Been extremely busy... not just with the new baby (sophia who is now 8weeks old) but out in the spring sun (or outside when it isn't raining) weeding, pruning, sowing etc.
So to get to the point. i thought i'd quickly share some things weve discovered and done!

Seeds & seedlings

While its great fun to watch seeds grow into seedlings, we see no harm in getting the crop/garden going sooner and doing both! Buy seedlings (from nurseries or bunnings) and seeds (any will do but if you're in it for a tasteful experience & abundance of crops go with diggers.com.au or any other heirloom or organic veggie suppliers) I go with diggers from my experience with them, they also supply seedlings to bunnings, you can buy from them online and they are in my state.. so anything that grows with/for them will grow for me! To cut costs ive gone to the mark down section (usually right up the back) and bought many seedlings for 50c-$1. I still don't know if i have 6 chilli plants or if they are 6 capscium plants. (not that it matters) but its a downside of buying mark down stuff missing their labels! Other than that we have at least 3 different tomato seedlings growing well from the markdown and some digger seedlings (a $6 splash) of another 4 varieities including the tommy toe we had last year/early this year that made more than we could eat and made awesome tomato puree. Anyways my point is seedlings give you a crop at least 6weeks before your seeds will. (depending on type and how well you look after them from snails & toddlers!)

Easy raised beds/planter boxes.

We used some old fence/wood scraps laying around the backyard and more recently bought some pre-cut pine. The bought option came to about $52 in materials (the wood, screws & brackets) Hubby says he has done them the easy way which is using small metal brackets to hold them altogether instead of dove tail etc.

Our soil is bit to much on the sandy side... the top soil gets washed away and drains much to fast (not to mention sandy soil usually lacks minerals etc needed for good plants) so we have used composted cow manure & coir peat. Weve found the best source for coir peat is at K-mart (k-mart gardners choice brand) for $5 gets you a 5kg block which makes some 20litres???? i think. Not to mention its from New zealand and not Sri Lanka... so its a bit more local. coir peat is basically adding more organic material into the soil and also holds moisture!

ABC Gardening Australia Expo

All 5 of us rugged up nice and warm and went on Day 1.(with the last expo/con we went to, we went on the last day. While we enjoyed the bargains to be had in the final hours from stallholders, we really did wish we didn't just have the choice of "leftovers". Which is what it felt like)

The crowd was small! Which was awesome. It had been forecasted to rain that day, it was really windy and freezing! (looked miserable too) But lucky for us it didn't rain!

Picked up a cute pansy ($2), sugarsnap peas seeds ($4.50), venus fly trap plant ($3), thornless blackberry ($6), raspberry ($6), 4 flowering tulips (for Tia) ($4), 6 cacti/succulent cuttings ($10) not sure if i missed something there.... next time i will have to put more money away to spend! I could have bought something from almost every stallholder.. lol! There were seeds, bulbs, flowers, fruit trees, trees, shrubs, cacti, grasses... inside there were products from lavender farms, demonstrations and samples on how to cook asparagus & mushrooms, bee farms... i could go on and on! ^^ (photos soon?)

I almost got a beautiful little japanese red maple tree and there was a cute pink chinese maple tree to (that Tia loved!) but the stall holders were to busy and taking forever... *sigh*

Trip home was rather bad... It was a friday afternoon 4-5pm... peak hour trains! For some reason during peak hour the disabled section fills up with bikes and alot of other un-disabled (or un-pram) people. So i figured it equalled up.. those who were lucky in 10 seconds to scramble into the disabled section made me cranky and us with the twin pram in the doorway (who couldn't make it further down the station in 10 seconds to the disabled section) now standing up made other people cranky!

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im awful at coming up with titles...

While i could write non-stop bout things happening in australia today.. i thought.. maybe.. perhaps.. then i thought maybe i should write about what i've been up too... so i'll give it a shot ;)

Weve all had at least 2 rounds of the cold virus...

Hubby has been loosing weight, cutting back too much smaller portioned meals. I never knew a mans belt (as they gain weight) could hold such a time-line "i was here when we moved to melbourne, here when Alyssa was born" etc. Im happy for him, makes cuddling easier when its just 1 big belly in the way!

Tia has lost 1 front tooth and now the 2nd front middle tooth is loose.. so in 3-4 days she will be lookin' a bit weird with no front top middle teeth! She bought home a bean plant from school, its now in the garden! Wonder what kind of bean plant it is exactly...

Alyssa is up and walking (or "toddling" as we call it) She figured out how to open cupboard doors today! (argh!) She loves cups and tries to drink from them (doesn't matter if they are empty) She chases the cats (at baby speed) and squeals! (meanwhile the cats look scared) She finds them when the curl up in the sun on the floor and mwhahhaha goes in for the attack! She has waved once and is learning & saying "ta" (baby for "please can i have it?" and "thank you!")

My pregnancy is going well. The baby is still pretty active. almost 8 weeks to go. Have my 1st hospital/midwife appointment this month. LOL! Yes i finally rang them up.. TMI- i have 'roids from hell (should be a title of a horror movie!!)
My feet get fat and puffy quickly. My right foot I've hurt, so when i step a certain way or something i get instant pain and then hobble for a hour or two... but usually its fine. My feet will love the relief when this bub gets out! I seem to wake in the middle of the night, needing liquid to drink & needing to pee.

Ive been having alot of Branxton Hicks. I find it hard to believe that some study could come out and say that Sex does not trigger labor... As i get fake labor pains (branxton Hicks) after being intimate... not to mention it triggered off the other 2 births! (i have a laugh when i remember scenes from movies where they with the BH/fake labour pains. think its the real thing, pack up and go to the hospital to end up coming home!) I like how the baby is where it is, i dont need extra effort to feed it, no dirty nappies and it doesnt cry.. it just disturbs my sleep! :) But i am looking forward 2 getting my body and bladder back to myself, the 'roids to go, my feet to not get so puffy, fit into normal clothes, not waddle and loose the reflux & heartburn bleh!! :)

so thats bout it from me... i havent done anything interesting! Not even reading (listening to the kids read their books) at tia's class, as Alyssa has the cold.. and a 11month old can't cover her mouth when she coughs. (not to mention alot of the girls can't keep their hands off her, not kiss her cheeks etc..)

Alyssa will be 1 soon!!! (still blue eyes!)and um we still plan on having Tia's birthday party... even tho that was back in may??!! :)

Stay Swine flu safe ;)

oh and thank you 2 maria for the award!! I w

Indians Vs Australia racism & not cricket... :(

So, from news reports there have been 2 separate attacks on Indian students. Apparently 2 separate attacks can be called "a spate", "a rising number of attacks" and enough to brand aussies as racists.

While i dont condone or agree with violence, beating people up, putting one badly on life support.. and i also dont think we as aussies are all rascist. And i certainly dont think aussies are the only racists on the planet either...

I think its interesting that indians are pointing the finger at us "shame shame australia". When there was a time where indians discriminated against their own kind with the caste system. Altho i have heard that it is still practiced in some regional areas.. (im not saying that other countries didn't have the same kind of thing e.g japan) (weak point i know.... but when it comes down to population in the world, Aussies (as in citizens! Not just the born n bred here peeps) are a minority! (22 million)

I also think its interesting that street voilence isn't getting any better, or is it still the same? I do agree with the police when they say it was a attack of oppurtunity. Not racially motivated. If you look passive, skinny and like you might have some good shoes on, a nice wallet then youre a target whether your a caucasion, european, asian or indian.... My understanding is that a racially motivated attack doesn't mean you have your wallets stolen and that they don't just stop.

I think the whole shame us as a nation, as a whole... does make a few people mad. I can understand that. Im not quite happy with it either. But who else can we get to try to talk to these people?! I mean the police have, the PM has the latest i believe is shane warne?! ( famous for cricket, his hair, his luv life/marriage)

It doesn't help that a political party has gotten into this... fuelled it. So then the government on india has to be seen as doing something bigger than a rival political party! Otherwise they risk the scorn and backlash.

However threatening a 2 billion "industry" of overseas Indian students bring into (victoria or australia?) isn't cool... i mean hey New zealand have said they'd happily have the students.. but if new zealand was a better option for study, wouldn't they have the "2 billion dollar industry" already?! (just a thought)

Not to mention pulling out, cancelling, banning etc of bollywood movies in australia over this?! Sure, hey! Give the racists what they want! Don't come, Don't film, Don't study here.... that's what they'd(rasicsts) want isn't it??!!...

after all not forgiving us for those attacks and keeping it going on... doesn't help or solve the problem...

wishing the guy a God speed recovery!!!

pig flu

I do wonder why it is mainly mexicans who make up most of the 100+ deaths. I can only guess that they had very poor health to begin with (as in low immunity, existing health problems. At least one was a pregnant woman (tamiflu isn't really recommended for pregnant women from what ive read) I think USA has had 3-6 and canada 1-3? Anyways whatever the numbers its not cool.

Theyve been saying we have a "mild" cold variation of Swine flu. But how can they say that, when with the mortality rate worldwide being 0.05% or something like that(maths never my strongest)... surely Swine flu is a mild flu. However fatal for pregnant & low immunity people e.g elderly, chemo patients, leukemia, HIV+ & 3rd world countries.

At least 6-7 people have been hospitalised... but doing ok.

There are now 2 confirmed cases in my suburb!

Our state has moved from contain to sustain... which means they only give out needed tamiflu, don't close schools, don't close events, concerts, football etc.. Its to "sheild" those most at risk.. e.g elderly... yet the advice given to pregnant women is "consult your GP or obestrician" Why? because pregnant women can take tamiflu apparently... its classed "c" by the USA drug people for its safe level.. (not good enough in my opinon) Tamiflu is to be taken if it can benefit the unborn child! Their is no known issues as Nobody wants to be tested on.... they overdosed mice on it and the results were far less than perfect....
"Sustain" phase is basically saying.. its out of control... life goes on... go get sick?

The other states are saying, if you visit Melbourne and come back. Then quarantine the kids for 7 days. Our state is saying thats crazy. Frankly i dont see how!!! Nationally there is a quarantine for people & kids to be quarantined if they come back from overseas! The difference with melbourne is???? nothing.. we have swine flu.

Cadbury whinge & berry panacotta review

So Cadbury has decided to lower their standard of chocolate & the weights. (but charge us the same) Its that not-so-new thing that companies do to get a bit more profit in their pockets.

I did some investigating on the old cadbury and new the cadbury.

I can tell you that the new cadbury family blocks of chocolate with more added vegetable fat come in harder card boxes. Instead of the old paper wrapping. (which i still think is better.. made of less tree, takes less space in the recycling bin)

I can tell you that old cadbury did have vegetable fat in the ingrediants but it was listed as 5th ingrediant after milk solids, sugar, cocoa butter, cocoa -something, *vegetable fat

the new family blocks of chocolate it is listed as the 3rd ingrediant milk solids, sugar, *vegetable fat.

However the amount of milk chocolate solids is both the same 70%?. i think i was looking at Cadbury almonds & cadbury desserts creme brulee..

I can tell you that coles has cadbury on special this week (2 for $6), as does woolworths ($3.49?) and k-mart has only the old family blocks for $3.20. (whatever the instore stock is) K-mart the new and less chocolate family blocks you will pay up $4.00.

The desserts old range was 235g and is now 200g. The Norm family blocks was 250g and now 220-210 depending on plain vs almond etc? (i think)

I can tell you that its not just the purple wrapping/now boxed family blocks that are suffering the downsizing-yet-price-the-same. Cadbury's range of Old Gold chocolate is also affected.

I can also tell you that Lindt chocolate has no vegetable fat whatsoever that i could see!!!! :)

Cadbury argue that the tasters said the fat improved the flavour and made it easier to bite (i didnt think we were a nation of denture wearers) It does make it easier to snap off a piece from the block. However when i did so to the berry panacotta from their deserts range i ended up with 2 pieces.. i had the bottom layer square of choc with the filling and the top shell.. something that hasn't happened before.. might just be me but it screams "CHEAP!!!!" to me!

With cadbury now being easier to snap off, bite or what have you... i am wondering of the party game used at parties, classrooms, youth etc. The game where you roll a die and then you can chop using a knife and fork only those pieces off one at a time. For older teens a 30sec time limit is given or so and no matter what you roll you will always get one piece!

Also i have to think... you add more fat to a block of chocolate.. surely that ups the fat content and people would less likely buy it? hmmm

and the fact that we have long hot insufferable summers!! Climate change people would argue, that with the increase of temperatures. Not to mention the on-going above average heat waves during summer etc. That Australia would have one of the hardest chocolate family blocks to combat the heat!

The berry panacotta Cadbury dessert family block was uber sweet. More sugar than berry... but was expected after trying what they considered "tiramisu" & "creme brulee". Both girls loved it. Was addictive... not sure i'd buy it again honestly.. so full of sugar, melted quickly when held (at norm body temp. its pretty cold at the moment)

Susan Boyle again

Took a screenie of a youtube vid of Susan Boyle on Britain's Got Talent. Semi finales? Her 2nd performance.. not as good i dont think compared to the "ive got a dream" les miserables song. But that was, what before all this attention, all the hype, before speaking to oprah, before being a youtube star, before fans wrote letters to her cat. The pressure was on, we were all expecting another great performance... and i think you could see with her mistakes that she was feeling it!

Im just glad that she still seems to be her. She was gracious with the judges on-air apology of them judging her before she sang. That was a really nice touch! :)

Tia's 6th birthday

Tia and her present. "Bratz the Movie" on the wii.
Tia's birthday cupcakes/cake
Tia and Anna the cat

Tia had her 6th birthday this month. This birthday was alot different that her previous birthdays..

• First off it was a school day. (monday)
• Her birthday falls on or just off mothers day. (she was born on a mothers day)
• I usually do some sort of character cake.
• Tia hasn't eaten or finished a piece of birthday cake since her 1st birthday. (too much party food? or does slicing up hello kitty give a child nightmares?)
• Im not sure but i think she may have gone to bed without eating any cake (i typed cat then lol!)
• Her dad came home and went out, doctors maybe? can't remember
• We had macdonalds at home. She also had a sundae (maybe why i didnt give her cake)
• Her present was not wrapped (that's daddy style for you)

Progressing along...

Im now 28weeks pregnant. I need to get a wriggle-on with some things that NEED doing.
They are:
1) book in with the hospital midwives. Answers questions when i feel like they are just thinking "ok why did she leave it this late? whats wrong with her?" When in simple truth.. i feel fine re pregnancy! Everything is progressing well, im getting a big belly.. lots of kicks.. reflux, veins... and stuff thats TMI ;)

2) Looking at a double pram. Alyssa will be 13months old. She will be walking by then.. but have u ever walked at baby speed for anything longer than a few minutes? lol..

3) Figuring out Alyssa & Baby sleeping arrangements. Will Alyssa still be in our room + the newborn? How will Tia's room be changed to possibly even fit Alyssa's cot in there?!

4) Move or not to move... gah x.x i think this is up in the air, much like the sleeping and living of all the girls. If we find a place big enough & still be a fair price then i guess we would move. It would have to be somewhere between the shops and Tia's school. (not that i'd feel particularly safe living in those streets. I know alot of people in government housing or 1-2bd flats are NOT crims but our first place down here REALLY has me scarred!)

5)catch up with all the mail & stuff.. ive got prez, bills and cards that i need to send off. The post office moved & I'm silently protesting! x.x

Alyssa is slowly undoing the filing.. and eating it apparently. Better sign off here then! Hope everyone is having a great week and getting stuff done!

feelin' sleepy...

first off the picture sorta explains itself.. lol. However alot more went into than just going "oh darn spanish subs" first there was the searching, i looked at a few options, decided on this one... waited for it to download, went to play it using quicktime and got a "error 2002" some movie atom error x.x searching that error only gave me the ways to fix it if u had vista, ipods etc (not helpful in my case at all) considering we run XP and its just a MP4 file. Tried using microsoft media player and no it didnt have the codec for it to run, therefore it would not work thru the 360. Anyways (hope im not boring u with all this..if so go to next paragraph) decided on converting the file from MP4 to avi.. seeing that it would take 90mins on this slow pc i decided i'd use a feature in the converting software that plays the file.. hmm yes it did work. Ok now then.. lets check the subs takes screenshot (the preview window is so small i couldn't work out the words). Finds screenshot and oh darn?! spanish?! gah x.x looks up file again reads "spanish subs" ROFL!!!!!!!!!

My lack of good sleep... thankful that i can sleep.. i am just now entering the phase of where i have to wake up to roll over, and no i cant sleep on my back (bad for circulation) *sigh*

a bill for health...

There's this story of a 20yr old aussie male who lost 80kg+ (half his body weight) over a year and how its going to cost $40k for a tummy tuck? and breast etc reconstruction all to remove the excess skin. Not being too happy about the bill and not getting anything? back on medicare...

If excess skin reductions were covered by medicare... do you think it would spur on weight loss of obese/overweight people? I think i'd be encouraged.... (however it doesn't encourage the thought of operation/stitches/weeping/infections... ive got enough stretch marks from weight and 3 pregnancies to disguise myself as a tiger if i painted them black after using too much fake tan LOL! would i even care if i had another that went 360 around me?)

I mean before we think of slimming down, cutting it off and now looking like a new person... its 7hours+ of surgery.... i remember watching one of those extreme makeovers and this huge woman had so much excess skin cut off everywhere it was a marathon surgery and yet this was round one for her. Each hour of surgery increases risk of infection (hence pass the bucket of iodine)

If it were open for medicare rebates.. would it not create a influx those who are just with a wee bit of excess skin that more weight loss would benefit more than just a nip & tuck? and make a waiting line huge that the people who do indeed "need it" (e.g half their body size) would have to wait longer?

I watched the biggest looser finale... up till 10.20pm so i didn't see the finalists weigh up, im not sure i even saw them come out? It was just crazy as usual the wait.. pointless... The eliminated people did really well all but the first couple voted off (my only criticism) Alot of them looked amazing.. one of the brother couple looked a bit like david hasselhoff i think the one who won the 30k? The most outstanding couple had to be the winning one, Tiffany and Bob? the father/daughter in law? couple. Well done and congrats to them!

Talent should have no face...

and what i mean is that talent as we see it... shouldn't be limited to people we judge to beautiful. Even with those annoying episodes of tv shows where they have beautiful girls whose character is that of a no-brainer.. all looks and no brains.. is the other kind... she looks quite normal in a way.. so why should she be able to sing?

I'm talking about Susan Boyle... and unless youve been under a rock for the last 2 weeks? you'd know who i was talking about.
Just go type "susan boyle" on youtube and you'l see just how massive she is... all those results and then all those views! 15million.. 2million.. crazy!!! (no one wants anyone to embed the vid it seems... what youtube trying to save bandwidth? or users trying to be the #1 susan boyle hit video? pfft!!!)

shes been called the next paul potts?!! even "paula potts" But I'm sorry, i think he is the next step up, perhaps it was just song choice..

I usually rush out when ET is on, the other day as i did i heard one of their stories coming up "Susan boyle and her new makeover". Something inside me groaned... something inside me thought "so shes pretty now? plastic surgery perhaps? already?!"

But when i saw pictures later online... of this "makeover" the eyebrows were tamed, a bit of lippy and maybe a hair colour? (can't remember exactly) You can still see that it is her, same unruly curly hair, flat face etc...

How does one handle "overnight stardom" Must be a thrill to ride and yet the crash? (i guess while youre having fun you wouldn't think about the end of it..)
So while im glad she didn't get a full makeover, botox, hair straightening, wardrobe etc.. i think if i was in the spotlight so much as she is... then wouldn't i be wanting it?! lol...

She has been invited on oprah... simon cowell has talked alot about her saying she should focus on winning, on doing better... i think after weve all ooo-ed and ahh-ed over her song we should be giving her space to breathe, to get on with it, to focus... 4 weeks till the semi final. Time will tell!!! :)

housing thoughts

I've been thinking about housing stuff recently. Hubby has been working on the plans for the "dream house" or "project house".. the dimensions have alot to do with phi. Its absolutely massive, lots of big rooms, entertaining, kitchen, kids bedrooms, indoor courtyard, our own private retreat (spa, kitchen, bathroom, wardrobe, lounge area, sleeping area) with an upstairs library.. on the block of land theres a office building, carpark, huge garage, gardens, indoor pool area. With alot of japanese stuff e.g decking around most of the house that can be shielded with moveable walls in case of rain etc) but enough about that (pending on project being finished & sold)

Shortly the lease on this house will be finished. And so weve been thinking do we need more room? Is there somewhere nicer and better that we could get and be happy with? or do we stay here and wait it out? or do we sign up and have the security of a lease again? (remember pending baby #3 in august)

If we move, i'd love to have great central heating! and even better a central heating that actually had the air conditioning side of it?!! *rolls eyes* I can remember looking at the central heating control panel and seeing "cooling" only for me much later to think.. now air conditioning they usually have a box on the roof or outside that does that... and we dont have one?! argh!!! No cooling!!!!

I'd rather be closer to the school than the shops now. Altho most of the houses (well flats) between here and the school are amongst public housing... Which means i'd have to be west of the school just not the beach zone area (like right on the water)

But then theres thoughts on buying a house... no longer having to worry bout being kicked out (e.g the landlord sells the house) no longer dealing with agents, no longer waiting on someone else to organize fixes etc (who then end up doing a cheap job anyways) I do think buying a house is waay out of reach still. Yes at the moment our government give $26k grant when buying your first home that you must live in for a year (so not for investments)But i have to wonder exactly, if the grant was gone would the house prices drop? Because lets face it, some houses are insanely inflated... theres million dollar houses in A.C.T, and they just look like a house!

Some say the grant inflated costs. Some say that it should be scrapped and those getting the grant could end up unemployed. Some say that the grant covers state taxes that should have been scrapped when the GST came into effect. The oldies say that they got no grants so why should anyone else (but then pfft to them... buying back when a house/land was actually affordable and those who bought for so little can now cash up and sell for tons more.) Some say its not creating more new houses, that land release is slow (usually in the middle of nowhere). Some say its a waste of money that it doesn't stimulate the economy, create jobs etc. Some say its a waste and should be spent in hospitals or roads etc..

but hey if i knew i was buying a house, i'd love every cent of that grant ;) and i guess that's what it comes down to! I mean people can go on about the baby bonus ($5k over fortnightly installments thanks to all the teen mums) mostly coz they aren't getting/going to get it.... and they'd be alot of people who missed out on it (late 1990's?) and there's people who recently reckon that australia should have a 1 baby policy to stop "environmental suicide" to cut Australia's population of 22million back down to a more environmentally friendly 7million... but that opens a big can of worms of "who should have children", "Who can come here as a immigrant" etc.. its nuts! (and when aren't the out-there greenies who believe a animal has more rights to live than a human?)

Bumper crop of tomatoes

(tia with the crop, just before easter)

So i bought a burke's backyard magazine awhile back last year? and it came with some digger club tomatoe seeds. And it was some big hearty variety which i can't remember! (Not at all a miniature or cherry type) I was excited with my first lot of digger club seeds. Bought some potting mix on cheap and some seedling trays from the reject shop (mistakes 1 & 2)

I made the mistake of thinking potting mix after its useby date is still alright... i mean it is just dirt in a bag isn't it?!!! But no... apparently after this useby date the potting mix its very water resistant and down right crappy!

With Tia being into mud, dirt, making a mess (like she has for the past 5.9years) i thought seedling trays on the deck out of direct sunlight they will grow... and they did. About 3-4cms high and then they stayed that way for 2 months or so.. i weeded out the seedlings. I hadn't expected that each seed would germinate! I thru these seedlings on the ground.... and left them

its now after christmas and ive forgotten about the seedlings in the tray... they are dead anyways..

after christmas we started noticing all these tomatoe plats growing. (the ones i had thrown out!)
and now we have alot of tomatoes!!!! and will have until the frost comes in or if we get alot of rain with snails and it rotts/gets eaten.So i had to do something with them. We would find more in a day then we would eat them! It seems i was just in time as some had over ripened and burst a bit And one had started to get a tiny bit mouldy. yuk! I followed instructions to what i don't remember.

Basically boil tomatoes for a bit. Put the lid on, take off heat. Then take lid off pot. Drain water. Let cool to touch. peel off the skin (which was so unbelieveably easy! and somewhat messy fun!)
Then boil off any excess water and there it is! What i'd usually buy in a tin. Fresh from the garden ready for my meatballs (when i get around to it) Instead of mucking with jars and water baths etc i just froze it! :)

The easter bonnet hat

Noooooooooooooooooo lil birdy don't jump! I found these cute lil chicks at the $2 shop! Painted some dollies(sp?) which was tricky, i'd forgotten how thin they could be. and then glued the edges and dipped it in pink glitter. :)Off to school!
Made the mistake of stapling the cardboard together then to protect her hair getting tangled i put clear packing tape over it and then painted it... so got some pretty tape from Smiggle that i had already.
These are taken after the hat parade. Tia's broke (the ribbon came off) as they were going back to class. Which was great because it meant i got to take it home.. instead of tia having it all day.
Luved the green chicks lol! The creche paper flowers were done at 1-2am easter hat parade morning! eep! Hubby found a website showing how to do it easily. If i started it sooner, perhaps i'd done some Martha stewart pretty flowers..
Tia's class of course was the last one... she also had a fill-in teacher for the week. She got up and said "My hat is pretty pink!". She loved and was so proud of her hat! :)
You could easily tell those whose kids had done their own hats and the ones the parents did... and then there was a few hats from the reject shop! lol... All the kids had a great time, they loved the easter bunny and got a egg and a hug each. Tia even had to tell her neighbour friend that she had in fact hugged the easter bunny!! (Not that we involve the easter bunny or santa here at home)

Zack and Miri make a Porno

* You can't judge a movie by its title *

First up. (keeping this PG as possible) There is as much full frontal nudity and sex scenes as in the Sex in the city movie. (For all the OHMYGAWDSEX people)

Secondly. Its one of those weird chick flicks that they are making more of these days that a MALE can go watch and not complain... (so its not all that chick flick, like kids movies these days they put in a adult joke or two that goes waaaaay over the kids heads yet the adults find it amusing/funny)

Thirdly. Its a weird movie, in that it has comedy, gross moment (poo), sex and a actual love plot line..... weirdly just like the sex in the city movie! (Charlotte poops her pants, not that u see the poo tho)

I did like the movie.. it had ALOT of swearing! But it had a sweet side that you don't see (or i didnt) coming. Zack and miri agree on making a porno (with other people doing the sex bit) after Zack buys ice skates & things instead of paying the rent, water and electricity (his month). Miri becomes a internet celebrity after she changes at Zacks work without her knowledge is filmed by some teens who can see her.. all they film is her topless (but from behind) with her HUGE "Granny panties" (Full control brief undies)

Zacks first idea is a Star wars idea but they get duped by the landlord. So Zack comes up with the idea of filming it at his work (beans n go. A coffee shop) With a coffee/cafe theme. Zack and Miri end up falling in love, the porno is never finished...

New furniture

A painting/collage done by Aunty Kristy for Tia during her last stay. Note in the bottom on the photo (on tia's bed) is a new butterfly shaped cushion, story time grandpa bear and a teddy bear wash station made by Tia at school made out of boxes and things (destined for the recycling bin sometime soon!)
Tia's room all neat and tidy! Horray (and yes day 2 and it still looks like this albeit the desk mind you, its full of papers, drawing and writing) I love the new desk (the mint green might have something to do with that) It was a 56kg box from Officeworks... "Ready to assemble" should have said "Ready to assemble every single piece" true flat pack furniture!!! $169 for the desk and $39 for the bookshelf.