Severe Mondayitis

My Monday morning looked like this:

 I tripped over the dog bed, fell onto the child safety gate that we have in the laundry to keep the dog contained which then came out of the door frame with the elephantine force of my weight on it, landed on my knees on top of the gate, skidded my elbows on the carpet getting carpet burn and hit my head on the wall!  On the way down I did some kind of twisty action as well, so my back is feeling quite ouchy as well.  I lay there moaning and in tears wondering whether to get Oscar to call an ambulance!  Fearing that would freak the kids out and since I was still in my pjs, no bra, bed hair and all (which would clearly freak any ambo's out) I lay there and swore instead.  I have been limping all day and have terribly bruised knees, a ripped toenail, carpet burnt elbows and an achey back to show for it.

Moral of the story - the bloody dog can sleep outside from now on!

Things that cheered my limpy Mondayitis up a smidgen:

My sister found this somewhere on facebook -

Sooo true!  Especially if you add in Pinterest and Blogging!

Source: asos.com via Sonia on Pinterest

Cute crochet runners from ASOS!  Going straight onto my birthday wishlist!

 

Watching Isaac be a flag bearer for his 'country'!  The closest he will ever get to the Olympics I think.  He is not renowned for his athletic ability!

Having this Rainbow of Yarny Goodness watch me from the corner of my craft room.  I feel a rainbow rug in my waters!  Maybe something like this or this.

Hope your Monday started off better than mine!

My creative space...

A week between drinks?!

Pretty embarrassing really considering how many blogs I read everyday that I am unable to keep mine relevant and up to date!

I have good intentions and then I sit down and think, hmm, well.  Do you really want to hear my sweary rant about how my car wouldn't start on Sunday morning, my husband had already gone to work and I had to drive the Manual Transit Van with three kids squeezed illegally across the front seat so my son could play his last game of U8 footy for the season.  I have not driven a manual vehicle in 15 years.  And I hate weekend kiddie sport.

Do you really want to hear how much money I have spent this week on school and kinder photos - only to receive individual shots of the boys that when shown to a friend gasped in fright!  Or how you get duped at kinder into buying the special frame with the special poster type montage of kinder photos cause you know they produce it in such an obscure shape you are not going to find that frame size anywhere.  Then they charge you $50 for said frame that you remember only cost $30 last year.

Lucky this one was pretty cute.  The dimples just about kill me!

I have been slowly plugging away at Isaac's Mario blanket but need to order more wool before I can really go much further.  Until I find some money for that (the small amount that might be left over after the exhorbitant photo expenditure!) I have been trying to teach myself some other crafty endeavours.

I picked up the cutest little cross stitch sets from Big W the other day and have been teaching myself/remembering how to do it.

I have strong memories of sitting at my aunts house one summer when I was only young while she showed me what to do.  It has all come flooding back and it's pretty straight forward.  I do find I must pop on my glasses and sit in a well lit spot or those teeny holes might send me a bit bonkers!

Creative Spaces lives over at Kidspot's Village Voices.

My creative space...

I have been pattern testing this week!

My super lovely friend Penni who owns and runs ...

 

... has written a very lovely crochet scarf pattern she is calling 'Crumbed'.

The end product is a very fancy, scallopy, long scarf.  It easily loops around my neck twice with plenty left over for some draping in front. 

I must confess to being a little overwhelmed by the starting chain of 298, but it is because of this that scarf ends up being so beautiful and gives you the length to really wrap it around yourself.

Don't mind my wrinkly bed in which the scarf is being draped on.

See! How pretty and fancy is that!?

The pattern is easy to read and requires nothing fancy in terms of stitches - chain, dc, half trebles and double trebles.  Penni supplied me with the lovely navy wool, Cascade 220 I believe it was.

Would you like to make one?

Contact Penni at The Stash Cupboard and she will help you out with the pattern and some lovely wool.

Other creative spaces are right this way....

Hysteria

I have my mum staying with us this week.  Since all my family lives in Tasmania we frequently have family houseguests - (they used to have their own room in our house but then I decided my demand for a sewing/craft/junk room far outweighed their need for hotel-like amentities).

Mum and I had a little movie date last night and watched this...

It is Hilarious!  It is a love story with a tongue firmly planted in one's cheek since it centre's around the invention of vibrators in the late 1800's.  Mum and I were snorting with laughter through most of it.  And I am now pining for some more of the very luscious Hugh Dancy.

Of course, at the end of the movie as the credits were rolling, they were showing various vibrators through the ages and The Rabbit (don't click on that link unless you really want a visual!!!) pops up on screen. My Mother lets out a cheer and at the top of her very loud voice proclaims, "Oh, that's the one I have!"

Cue my very fast exit with a scarf over my head.

Sweet Potato and Lentil Curry

This was our delicious dinner last night!

• 2 tablespoons  Sharwood's Rogan Josh Curry Paste
• 3/4 cup red lentils
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 480 g sweet potatoes, cut into 2cm cubes
• 1 tablespoon fresh ginger, grated
• 2 1/2 cups chicken stock (made with stock cubes) (I just used whatever stock I had in the cupboard!)

Heat a medium saucepan and add the curry paste. Cook, while stirring, for 1 minute or until fragrant. Add the lentils, bay leaves, onion, sweet potato, ginger and chicken stock. Bring to the boil and reduce the heat to low.  Or until the sweet potato is cooked. Season with salt and black pepper.   I served it on sume jasmine rice with some puppodums (spelling!!??).

Very easy and very yummy!  And Darren ate it... no meat and all! 

Are you married to a man that thinks that if there is no meat in the dinner then clearly it's not 'dinner'?

Happy Sunday!

Do you know what today is?

(The things you meet at shopping centres during school holidays!)

Today is the last day of school holidays where mumma's everywhere breathe a sigh of relief... at least in this house!  The smalls are back to school TOMORROW!  Routine is back TOMORROW!  Can I get a WOOT WOOT! 

It's hilarious that a week ago I was posting how grateful I was feeling about the relaxed ho humness that school holidays can produce.  Week 1 always makes me feel this way. 
Week 2 makes me want to stab myself in the eye.

(We go the park to play.  We end up sitting and eating non-stop!)

They have literally been killing me and each other this week with non-stop arguments and incredible fisticuffs... Matilda included.  At the park the other day my friend was asking whether the huge, gouging scratch marks down the back of Oscar's neck were due to a dog attack.  Um, no.  That would be the five year old brother.  Oscar probably looked at him the wrong way.

So busy have I been keeping them in seperate rooms of the house I've had no time for very much else.  When I got into my google reader this morning there were over 400 blog updates to look at!  What's a girl to do?

I was ruthless.  I scrolled through them.  Kept clicking on the next button.  If you didn't grab me with your opening line/picture, I had to keep going.  Ruthless I tell you but a must.  I cannot cope with a full google reader!

Best thing I have come across this morning though is this fantastic new site called

It's like Pinterest for Sewers! 

I came across it through this wonderful blog, Me Sew Crazy.

Jessica describes the site as a forum where users can freely upload and share their patterns and tutorials with the on-line sewing community, search the sewing directory, and save their favorites for future reference.

Go to the blog link above for a better description, but if you are a crafty sewing type, do yourself a favour and have a look at SewSet.

52 weeks of Grateful... Flying free

School holidays always see me torn.

I love routine, the kids love routine.  Matilda's first question to me of a morning is always about what the day is and what's on the calendar. 

We love to wake up in the morning and know our expectations!

School holidays mean there are no expectations.  Two weeks stretches in front of us with vague plans and committments about what we might do (depending on mummies finances!)

Dare I say that I have enjoyed week 1.  We've had pyjama days, we've been bowling, we've been to the upstairs/downstairs Chippie Donalds, birthday parties and the skate park.  More parties and football are on for the weekend.  Maybe a little drive to country next week.  An outdoor playground if this jolly rain stops.

We've been flying free... no routines at all.  Generally waking up and seeing how the land lies before decisions are made about what entertainment we participate in.

I'm feeling grateful about the relaxed atmosphere we have been living in.

(Did your parents ever let you fly on their feet?  I remember doing it with my sister and feeling sad when we got to big to do it anymore!)

My creative space...

Progress with my Mario crochet rug is coming along... slowly! 

I wish, I wish, I wish I had made my grannies smaller! 

But I am not undoing that bastard now. 

Mario will not defeat me!

School holidays have hit us around here so I took the boys to this giant indoor skate shed (Best $12 I ever spent!!!).  They scootered and I crocheted... for 2 hours.  Thankfully they are too young to be embarrassed by their mother's crochet skills at the skate park and, after all, I am crocheting an apparent life size Mario!!!

That's his face starting to develop right there... a beady, brown eye staring at me and urging me to get a move along!

And just look at this fabulous fabric I found at Spotlight the other day!  It also came on a green background too and I may have got some of that as well.  Cute reversible skirts are coming off the sewing machine as we speak!

On that note, does anyone have any good advice on where I can get some clothing labels made up.  They would be very basic, just with LionessLady written on them, that I could attach to things I've made.  Of course I have googled, and Etsyied but you get such a huge amount of options I simply don't know where to start! 

Other creative spaces are over at the Village Voice on Kidspot.

Excuse me while I Blatantly Advertise!

A couple of months ago we experienced the joys of Darren being made redundant.  Our options were to move to Sydney with the job (arrrgggghhhh....I've never even been there for a visit!!!!) or move down a completely different pathway!

Welcome to our new pathway.... 

Darren and his mate Robbie went into business and have bought a bakery....

It's a little bit of travelling for him since it's on the other side of the city but it's better than relocating the family to a whole other state!

I strongly recommend that you pop in for some yummy bakery goodness. 

See that whole top row there filled with jam doughnuts!

I'm sure if you mention my bloggy name, they might just give you a free coffee with your bread, donuts, cake, pies, sausage rolls, lamingtons, muffins, croissants, biscuits......

Lets-a-Loaf

Shop 5, 9-12 Federation Way, Caroline Springs VIC

ph.8361 8413