Mr Chatterbox

Well Brayden has found his voice and gee is he using it. He's a right little chatterbox now and if he's not repeating everything he hears - from us or a tv show or commercial or a song  - he just babbles about what ever he's thinking. 

The other day he was walking around the house saying "Everybody! Me done big pooooo!" Of course because we laughed he kept on saying it. He loves riding his bikes, running around the house, playing hide and seek and jumping on the trampoline.

Doggies are his favourite, especially Reesey's dog Lola, although he tries to like leopards and whales because he knows his big brother does.

He loves strawberry sticks, sausages, rockmelon, water melon, peanut butter sandwiches (pronounced peta butter), cheese, ice blocks and the usual - chocolate and lollies whenever he can scam one.

One of his favourite things to say is "WATCH ME" then he jumps off, swings from or climbs up something. He's definately a little entertainer and is so much fun to be around.

He also likes to take things he knows Liam likes and says "Liam, me got ...... HA HA".

Liam is 4 and a 1/2 now and it's like I can see him growing in front of me. He's getting so tall and is almost eating us out of house and home. He's the best big brother ever although he does like to tease Brayden occasionally (and increasingly). He lets Brayden fall asleep in his bed with him most nights, as long as Brayden promises not to touch his 'stuff'.

He's absolutely CRAZY about leopards and whales and loves cutting out pictures of them. We went to a Marine research centre at Terrigal last weekend and he painted a plaster model of a whale which just made his day. His room is covered in everything leopard and whale (despite my efforts in giving the room a surfing sort of theme). He's even added small pictures of them to a family tree picture I have so it looks like his great grandfather was a whale and his sister is a leopard.

He loves watching ABC kids and would do so for every waking moment if we'd allow it but he also likes to ride his bikes and run around. He's pretty good at hide and seek and love love loves to do craft. That's my best bribery tool. I usually promise him we'll do some craft when he gets home from pre-school, just to help him get through the day. 

He loves his cousin Reesey to bits and always looks forward to seeing her.

He made my day last week when he ran up and hugged me and said 'you're the best mum'. It was a moment i'll never forget.

They're the best kids in the world.

my kitchen

It's VERY rare that my kitchen looks this clean so I took some pics to capture the moment...

I scored the Ikea Henriksdal bar stools on ebay - $100 for all 4! I bought some brand new covers to keep handy - because I have 2 boys! - but they wash so well it'll be ages before I turf these ones.

I copied this 'EAT' display from my favourite TV house - Cougartown. I watched the show every week but barely even listened to the show, I just drooled over Jules' (Courtney Cox) house.

Got this pineapple cookie jar on our last trip to Hawaii and carried it in my hand luggage on the plane trip home just to make sure it got here in one piece. Even though I don't have cookies in it I love it because it reminds me of the trip and the actual day I bought it.

This lamp is from one of my favourite shops, seaweed and sand. We leave it on most nights until we go to bed as it gives off just the perfect amount of light throughout the whole house.

Love love love this photo frame and photo from our 2010 trip to Hawaii. Trying to work out a way to hang it on the wall as the bracket it came with is far to weak for the weight of the frame. For now I like looking at it while I cook.

I saw this idea on Young House Love - they had posted it from another blog but I can't remember which one. Another pineapple - reminds me of Hawaii.

I love you clean white counters. I hope we meet again soon.

W-O-W did 2010 fly by! We had another great year at our house with a few fantastic holidays, both interstate and overseas, and lots and lots of family time.

I've declared this to be the year-of-the-mortgage-smashing. I'm hoping we can knuckle down and knock off a decent sized chunk of it. That's not to say we wont be enjoying life and doing what we love, it just means no overseas trips (2 trips to Hawaii in the last 2 years is pretty lucky - I acknowledge that) and no silly purchases. My main new years resolution is to stop buying so much crap and i'm doing really well so far. I just have to stay away from Ikea. Not that I buy crap there, I just tend to buy A LOT there.

Anyway, we're planning a yard sale (not a garage sale because Greg doesn't want people coming in to his garage and seeing his tools) in a couple of weeks and i've been sorting through the cupboards, trying to be ruthless about what I should let go. Here's hoping it's a success.

I have a few projects planned for the coming months and look forward to blogging about them. I'm still, ok, more obsessed with design and decorating blogs than ever and thought I'd list my current favourites. All of which I check atleast once a day.


1. http://www.younghouselove.com/
These guys are totally fantastic. I don't know how they managed to let it go, but they've just moved out of their first house in Virginia, USA which took them over four years to renovate and revamp to the PERFECT home. They have such great ideas and the most brilliant taste and share their experiences and tips step by step. They regularly post pics of their gorgeous six month old daughter too, which I love. They've just moved in to a new house and say they'll be sharing each step of the way which I'm so looking forward to. I've copied far too many of John & Sherry's ideas to mention.


2. http://www.centsationalgirl.com/
Kate is from California and I seriously can't get enough of her blog. She has such great taste in decorating and is so clever I constantly find my eyes bugging out at her ideas and unbelievable thrift store finds. I would pay serious bucks to have a tour through her house - the pics just aren't enough. Most of her house is included in my inspiration folder.


3. thehappyhomeblog.com
I recently came to love this one even more than I did after I realised the author, Belinda, lives nearby. I've actually seen her at the local shops a couple of times but couldn't pluck up the courage to approach her. She has some great ideas, quite a few of which I've tried and is always posting child friendly crafts and ideas, which is great because her kids are the same age as Liam and Brayden. She also used to work for one of my favourite magazines - real living.


4. http://www.thriftydecorchick.blogspot.com/
Another one from the states, although I don't actually know where. Sarah writes about anything and everything and I usually laugh whilst reading her posts. She writes just like I can imagine her talking.


5. abeachcottage.com
I love this one because it's written by a British gal who has moved to Australia and sounds to be absolutely loving it. She has great taste and I love looking at the pics of her house and vintage finds. I also love that she sometimes refers to her son as the smelly teenage boy as I imagine myself there with my boys in about 10 years time.


So these are the sites that keep me on the computer til the wee hours most nights - something I tell myself I'm not going to do when I wake up tired most mornings.

a hawaiian-themed chair

I'm back with another sneak peek at my boys' new room. I'd had these timber director's chairs for years and years and they were in a pretty bad way. They were originally a dark timber but I painted this one white (very very bodgy job) about a year ago and then did nothing with it. Until now.

I got this fabric while we were in Hawaii last month. Mum and I walked 45 minutes in the scorching heat to find this place. But gee it was worth the effort.

I used the existing chair and back panels as templates.

And out came my 1930's sewing machine. A hand-me-down from my nan's sister-in-law (!) and it's a little beauty.

Here's the finished product.

Since the fabric I used was quite thin I just placed it over the top of the original seat panel - I don't want anybody falling through it.

Pics of the finished room will be coming soon.

Merry Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

It's christmas eve eve. Such a great time of year.

The kids are so excited about Santa and neither of them has swayed from the presents they asked him to bring them over a month ago.

For Liam it's a rocket, a Honda and a Mack truck. For Brayden, a doggy and a copter (helicopter). I'm pretty sure Santa will have these covered, with a few thousand more surprises thrown in.

They both helped me decorate the christmas tree (which means most of the decorations are on the bottom half of the tree) and we've been making decorations that I plan to keep and add to our box of special ornaments for many years to come. 

Liam is continually singing christmas carols. My favourite is...

Rudolph the red nose reindeer

had a very shiny nose

and if you ever saw it

you would maybe say hello.

The santa questions are coming thick and fast. Where does Santa park his reindeer?

How does he get in to the houses that don't have chimneys? Do all the Santa's know I want a rocket? It's unreal.

The best thing of all!.... that naughty and nice list. It's the best! I've never seen these two behaving so extra well. I love you Santa Claus. Ho Ho Ho.

Cowabunga dude, it's a surfboard shelf

 This is one of two very neglected surfboards I bought on ebay. The two of them only set me back $26 so I knew that if this idea didn't turn out it was only Greg's complaining about cluttering the garage that I would have a hard time dealing with.

I saw the idea on the internet somewhere - I can't for the life of me remember where, I just did a google search - and knew no ordinary shelf would do for my boys' room. 



So, I of course roped Greg in to helping me. He just doesn't have enough to do around the house already!

He hacked in to the best of the two boards with the power saw and did such a fantastically straight cut I was well impressed. I was also very excited because I immediately knew this was going to work. We expected to have to find a way to seal the foam and fibreglass along the cuts, but he sliced it right along the timber in the centre. PERFECT I tell ya!

Then we ripped one of the fins off the end of the second board and filed it down, cleaned it up and spray painted it black before attaching it to the bottom of the newly sliced board.

It's held up with a couple of $1.48 brackets from Big W and looks very

groooooooovy.

I love the way it turned out.

My baby boy is 2!

Today my beautiful Brayden turned 2! I can't tell you how happy I am that he's reached this milestone. I know everybody says it, but I honestly can't believe how fast the past two years have passed. It seems like such a short time ago that I was holding him in the hospital bed, thinking about what a good boy he was because all of the other babies were crying and he was sleeping soundly (that didn't last long, mind you). I have such great memories of those first few months - Greg was on leave and the four of us just hung out at home together. I used to feed him in the front lounge room and we would all sit in there, talking, laughing and eating ridiculous amounts of watermelon. Now all of a sudden we're saying happy 2nd birthday!!!

We had such a great day celebrating the day.

Liam woke him but he refused to get up which drove Liam crazy because HE wanted to see the presents opened. Finally Brayden walked out to the lounge room and when I told him they were for him, he said, "ME?" as though it was just unbelievable. All day I was calling him 'birthday boy' and every time he would say "ME?"

After brekky we headed to the library for story time and crafts. The theme today was dragons which Liam actually guessed before we left home. I couldn't believe it when we arrived and I saw that he was right.

After stocking up on lunch and some birthday treats we headed to one of our favourite spots on the coast - The croc park (Australian Reptile Park).

It was a great time to be there because there was hardly anybody around.

Of course we headed straight to Elvis the crocodile (creepy) and then to the park area.

After seeing the dingoes, koalas, alligators, snakes, lizards and spiders we headed off and Brayden fell asleep in the car. After about an hour he woke up and played with his big brother for a while.

Soon after that Daddy came home and we headed out for dinner (too lazy to cook) and then to the beach for a play. 

Finally it was home to sing HAPPY BIRTHDAY and have some Freddo ice cream cake - a big hit with the boys.

My Brayden, I love you moooore than you can imagine. You're such a joy to be around because you're so loving, caring, daring, clever, wild, funny and entertaining. You just fill our hearts with love and laughter each and every day. The past two years have been fantastically indescribable and fabulously unforgettable, all because of you.

Lots of love always,

Mummy

xox