messyart

the little things...

Don't you love those days when you have nothing special planned for your day, but if ends up being filled with lots of little things that end up making it a very lovely day? Well that was today for me. An unplanned coffee catch up with my sis, and a cute little purchase from Small Stall.

Going to Brunswick for the first time ( we were dropping of a cake pop order for RubyJu) and finding lots of little shops to wander through.And some unplanned op-shopping which lead to some cute little finds.

All before heading off to set up for tomorrows Harvest Wedding Event (this was planned).

And now im off to finish writing my signs for tomorrw and finish watching my movie.

If youre in the area come and say Hi! It's going to be an absolutely gorgeous event!

Did you know...

... i have my very own slave?

 The Mr. is not so great at gifts. Birthday gifts, Xmas gifts....any gifts really. I think he gets all flustered at the idea of having to buy a gift and over thinks it and often just cant do it at all. (sorry if your reading this A, but you know it’s true ;). This year, however, he got it so so right! After years of hearing me constantly complain “you know what i REALLY want? I want help! Help catching up on my ridiculous, never -ending to do list! Thats what i want for my birthday!” So on Wednesday ( the day before my birthday) he rang me from work to ‘give’ me my gift early. It was him. He was volunteering himself to me as my slave for 4 days, to help me do, make, clean whatever i wanted! He was telling me a day early so that i had time to get whatever i needed together ,write my lists and plan what we would do.

Best. Birthday. Gift. Ever.

So the first day (my bday) we met friends for coffee and breakfast and spent most of the day at Bunnings. I had thought long and hard about what i wanted to achieve in these four days. In the end, i didn’t choose what needed to be done most, instead i chose to complete all the projects that bugged me not having them done the most. I figured the important projects will get done anyways, because they’re important. But the projects i chose to tackle are the ones that aren’t a necessity and would probably otherwise keep getting pushed to the back burner. So we bought wood, and plants and soil and paint. We didn’t get much done the first day, but that was ok. We enjoyed hanging out together.

Day 2 we acheived alot though.The Mr. worked tirelessly. It was awesome.

Day 3 not so much as we were tired and hungover from my Bday dinner the night before. But we did have a glorious day of lounging about and swimming and eating. And although we didn’t get much done, I didn’t do a thing on Saturday. The Mr. made me and my sista a beautiful breakfast, did all the dishes and daily cleaning up that day. I literally didn’t lift a finger. We ordered takeaway for dinner and watched videos until we fell asleep. Gloriously relaxing.

Sunday after Nippers, we got back to work and finished most of the projects we started. We finally finished my pallet herb garden.

(from this)

(to this)

And we potted and hung vines that we hope will eventually grow to cover our old ricketty fences.

We hung up some wall planters with more wall cover that we also hope will grow to eventually cover our awnings. And he started painting our outdoor areas (we are painting over all the maroon YUK! and painting it white...of course ;)

We finished my birthday weekend with a family dinner at Bennihanna’s, one of my favourite restraunts. Mmmmmm.....sooooo good!

Let me just say it again. Best. Birthday . Ever.

Hope your weekend was as awesome as mine!

A confession....

OK, so i have a little confession to make.

 I hate breakfast in bed.

 Not fond of the idea at all (much to the horror of most people i know). Yet every year my sweet sweet children ever so thoughtfully put together a beautiful little breakfast treat to wake me with. This happens maybe two or three times a year. You know, for birthdays, mothers day and as a random treat. And every time i force myself to eat, swallowing the pieces of toast and egg down with my tea and a great big smile on my face. Every year i tell my partner “pleeeease dont do breakfast for me in bed this year...please!” But i dont think he really believed i didnt love it ( im pretty sure its his idea of bliss). But it’s true...i don’t love it.  I cant stand the idea of eating in bed. Hate it! Or the idea of eating as soon as i wake up. Cant do it. I usually eat breakfast at least an hour after ive been up and gone for a walk.   Tea first thing in the morning i DO love though. And this year, thats just what i got! (Guess the Mr. finally believed me when i said i really dont like breakfast in bed!) So he convinced the kids to make me a cup of tea instead. It came with so many sweet kisses and cuddles, and little gifts that my littlest man couldnt wait to open for me “pwesents mummy, pwesents!!!!!!”

Then the kids did extra morning chores before heading off to school, so i wouldn’t have to clean.

While i do hate breakfast in bed, i do love going out for breakfast! So the day before my birthday i had breakkie with my siser.

And the day of my birthday i have breakfast with these to gals.

I got totally spoilt! A sweet friend dropped round a gorgeous street find for me , followed by a beautiful bunch of flowers from my step-mum (she knows me so well....oh how i love my flowers). I of course re-arranged the flowers into several little jars so i could spread them around the house.

My bff is taking me away for a girls weekend to Sydney and my sister bought me an outdoor rug that i had been wanting FOREVER!

This year we celebrated my birthday with a gorgeous dinner at a new little spanish place in Palmy. I was so thankful to have all my closest friends with me. It’s not often we can all get together with our crazy lives! 

And of course, we had photo props ;)

So yes, it was a pretty awesome Birthday! Probably my best one yet :) So heres to hoping this year will also be my best one yet!

 

A storm's a coming!

Or so it came.

Wow....what a weekend. We had some crazy storms here. So much damage! The wind was crazy and the rain was so heavy! Our house was leaking in 5 places. We had water coming in through sealed windows and through the tops of doorways. Our electricity went out, and we'd used all our towels on our leaks and couldn't do any laundry, so by the end of the weekend i was drying myself off from the shower with a face washer! haha.

They had asked everyone to stay off the streets as they’re were so many reports of falling trees. In fact  just as we were considering walking down to the beach to check out the ocean we got word of a mother and son doing the same thing when a tree fell on them, critacally injuring both. We decided to stay in. So we filled our weekend with craft, and game playing and more craft. When we realised the electricity wasn’t coming back on any time soon, we took out all the ice cream and let the kids eat it straight out of the tub. “This is the BEST DAY EVER!!!!” they kept shouting with mouthfulls of ice cream :). We moved all our meat to familys freezers, put the necesities in an esky and lost the rest.

I did venture out for a quick trip to the shops to get a radio ( so we could hear the news ) and some candles and matches. The shops must have been preparing for more power outages as they had moved all thier fridge/freezer products out of the store. I never thought i'd see this.

But the kids had fun. We got some fabric markers and decorated shoes. I loved what they came up with! 

And when the light faded, We lit candles and made animal shadows on the walls. Then the kids built a big cubby house, and thats where they all slept.

The next day when the storms died down a bit, big sister and I ventured out to see the damage.

This was a tree that feel right across the a playground in Burliegh! You can see the roots on the very right of the photo (after the bench) and the top i couldn't even fit in the photo! So many fallen trees, fences, debris. So much damage. 

But the ocean was amazing! The ferocirty of the waves had created massive amounts of sea foam! It was crazy...words cant describe it well enough and the pictures do it no justice.

Eventually, we got our power back and everything went back to normal. The plus side was i got to give my fridge and freezer an excellent clean! (since it was empty and defrosted anyways ;)

My heart goes out to all those who endured so much worse than we did. We were so lucky compared to alot.

 

Want to hear a funny story?

My sister, my daughter and i were out in Burliegh assesing the damage. Earlier i had stuffed $50 into my pocket ( my bag was in the car) and as i headed back to the car, i pulled my keys out of my pocket. The keys caught on the $50 and it went flying out of my pocket ( the winds were still pretty strong). My daughter chased after it, but everytime she had it within reach another gust of wind would send it flying again! As it headed to a main road, i called for my daughter to leave it. We walked back to the car where my sister was waiting, and we told her what happened. She was like “Are you crazy? Lets go find it!”. I went back and we looked again, but i didnt really think we would find it. The winds were crazy strong and it had flown across a busy road into a park. Plus , there were 3 boys who had seen the whole thing also searching for it! We looked for about 10 minutes and then gave up. As we were walking back i looked down for a second, and there right in front of me stuck in a puddle was my $50!!!

Did anyone eles get stuck in this storm? I hope no one got any serious damage!

lazy days

The last few days have been pretty easy going. Relaxing around the pool, lazing about in the house , seeing friends. Little man is back to Kindy which gives me a little time to do stuff with the big kids. So today we went to see the movies. We saw Wreck it Ralf, which was cute, but.....

Ok, i know i'm probably going to sound like an old fuddy duddy, but i was just a tiny bit uncomfortable with all the shooting, guns, and occasional innapropriate word (like shut-up, or idiot) Now i know these words aren't crazy bud, but it IS a kids movies. And my kids think those are bad words! Is it all so neseccary? I mean really, i think they could have toned that 'Heros Duty' video game down a bit. It's seems to be a take on 'Call of duty' which isn't a kids game anyway! Why the need to increase the violence in cartoons now adays? Maybe i'm just getting old but it just doesn't sit well with me.

Anyways, heres a pic of the kids standing in front of the movie we didn't see...

They made a Build-A-Bear each for only $5 (at Showcase in Cooly) which was awesome, and so cheap!

Then we checked out a new Deli a friend had told me about, which had some yummy treats. We all had coffee (kids had Baby Coffees of course) and Little Man was sooooo excited because right now Baby Coffee's are his favourite thing! He stands at the counter sqealing "baby coffee! Baby Coffee!" It makes everybody laugh how excited he gets about it!

Trying to get a cute shot of them all....this was the best i could do ;)

Yesterday we spent most of our evening playing at the beach . It was a bit rough, so we couldn't really go to far in. I've been having my walks in the evening over the holidays which is lovely because it so much cooler than it is in the morning, even when up up crazy early.

 They're being airplanes ( see the airplane in the corner right)

I tried to get a pic of them all together ....again.

Then they got hit by a surprise wave! haha. (Don't worry, Big Brother was ok! They all thought it was pretty funny!)

holidays means beach days

And beach days mean fun! I love the holidays! I look forward all year to having the 8 weeks off with my kids so we can hang out together with out all the pressure of homework and crazy routines. I love spending all that time with my family, waking up everyday wondering what adventures we'll go on today. I love lazy days spent in the pool or at the beach. Bliss.

You have to be up really early in the morning to see an empty beach.

 Today was spent at Burliegh Beach, which is always a fave of ours. I didnt get any good pics at the beach as it was just to bright. But i did get this cute one of the kiddies.

This is how busy the beach was by 10am!

Hello my gorgeous girl!

Typical of this guy...always playing with bugs. Mind you, these are only some bug skins he found, but they still managed to keep him entertained.

And just as a treat today, i let them have chips and ice-cream for lunch! Cause thats what you do on the holidays, right?     (ps. i love that little man actually looks like my child in this pic with that crazy dark hair and dark eyes)

Afterwards we went home and spent the day 'racing' in the backyard. Little man sets up the 'cars' for the race, then drags his brothers over and shouts "Rea-deee, set, GOOOO!" in his cute baby voice. He makes them do this over and over again, and they so sweetly ablige. He is so lucky to have such wonderful and loving big brothers.

Afterwards it was naptime for everybody. I make everyone have one hour of "Read or sleep" everyday over the holidays. It's my saving grace. They are all made to either read quietly in thier beds or sleep for one hour, and i usually try and time it with Little mans nap. They are pretty good now, but in the beginning they would be up every ten minutes. So i made the rule that if you got up once before the hour was up, they're time would start again, even if they'd just gottne up to ask, "Has it been an hour yet?". So now they eat, pee, and get water BEFORE they're hour starts, and NO ONE is up until i come tell them when the hours over. Most days they actually look forward to that relax and quiet time.

AS for me, well, i'd love to say i do something creative with that time, but mostly i spend it cleaning. Four kids on holidays = one crazy mess! Sometimes i'll force myself to sit and relax with a coffee and a mag. Those hours are the best, but far and few between. 

Whats the holidays like for you? What kind of thigs do you do over the holidays?

*sigh*

So i was all pumped up and getting back into my blogging when disaster struck. I was sent an email from Apple telling me i had a faulty hard drive and needed to bring my computer in and get it replaced. Annoying, yes....but needs to be done, right? So i back up everything, check and double check it's all backed up and take it in. 

Fixed. Awesome. I take it back home.

Then the Mr. accidently erases me external Hard Drive, just as were about  to put everything back on. Dont ask me how, long story ending in me almost wanting to kill him ;)

I've taken it back into the apple store and they retrieved the  files, but it'll just be one big dump of stuff and there may be some stuff missing. But upon bringing it back home , i've tried again, but still no luck. From where i sit, there are no files. Nothing.

So here i am, staring at a blank computer, no links, no photos, no files. Just as if weve just taken it straight out of the box. It's completely empty. Everything i own is gone. Every photo of the kids since birth, every memory, every important document....my whole life, gone. All my assignments, projects, tafe info, gone. Important documents, gone. So i'm booking it back into the apple store hoping that they can somehow find some of my info and bring it back (oh god pleeeeeeaaaaaasssssseeeeeeee!)

So this is why i've been MIA again. My advice to you would be to BACK UP YOUR BACK UP!!!!! Find an external storage utility and back up again. You can bet your bottom dollar i will be from now on. You can also bet that the Mr. is forever banned from touching my external hard drive ever again ;P

ETA: We found a technical *i want to say Genius, but really she was an Angel!* who came and after many hours finally fixed and recovered EVERYTHING!!!!!! Phew! I am one happy happy mumma right now :)

Have a lovely weekend ya'll !

 

mornings lately....

Mornings lately have been good. The Mr. works nights now instead of mornings which means i can get up early and go for a walk most mornings. So at least 4 mornings a week i'm up at 4.45am so i can be out the door at 5 and back by 6, allowing the Mr. to go for a surf from 6-7. With the weather getting warmer, sometimes he takes all the kids down and meets me at the end of my walk so we can all have a quick play in the ocean before work/school.

Except for little man, he's not quite as fond of the water as the others. See how he eyes off the water with much uncertainty (and a certain amount of disdain) {see pic below}.

Wednesdays are kinda crazy as we need to be up by 4.30-4.45 to be at board training by 5:15. Which finishes at 6.30, back home by 6.45 and out the door again at 7.30 for music! But the kids are awesome about it! I really expected alot more complaining, but they seem to love it, which meakes things so much easier :)

Weekends Mr. is either sleeping in (sometimes he works crazy hours), or he has another early shift so i'm not often able to walk. But hey, i'll take 4 out of 7 days...it's better than nothing! :)

Sometimes i find interesting things on my walk.

Sometimes i like to leave little messages.

I walk 4 and 1/2 - just over 5k's a day. I love it. It's the only quiet time i get to myself a day. Those 4 hours a week is my only 'me' time, so i am precious about it. I dont even put music on. I just walk and think. Or daydream. Or just let my mind wander....

I do take a pic most mornings i walk... if you follow me on Instagram (user name is zzkat or messyart) , i'm sure you must be sick of all my beach pics by now!

After my walk, it's back to crazy mornings, kids, breakfast and school runs. Little mans favourite thing to eat right now is porriage. He'll eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner if you let him!

Then sometimes, after i've dropped off the bigger kiddies to school, little man and i will have a little coffee date at my favourite coffee place, Barefoot Barista in Palm Beach. I'll get to plan my day while he plays with his toy car, or we'll sit and chat. Occasionally theres another little boy for him to play with, while me and his mum laugh over thier shy attempts to play together. We are never there for very long, but it's nice just to have that 20 minutes of relax with a good coffee time before we run our errands and tackle the days chores.

I'm trying hard to appreciate the little things more often, and my mornings right now are one of the things i really appreciate.  What are some little things you've been appreciating lately?

 

 

 

Paint spills and circus people

It's a long weekend this weekend. I love long weekends because i feel like i have more time to enjoy my kids. This morning the bigger kids and Adam all went for a surf. Kody wore his new wet suit, a gift from a friend, today. But he didn't end up going in the water...he just watched. Apperently it was too cold for him. I think i'd agree with him ;)

But he sure did look cute in it anyways! TJ also looked damn cute saying "bye!" to them as they left...

I had these wonderful plans for the first half of the day. Part of those plans included me actually reading the book i borrowed from the library with a nice cup of tea (if you follow me on Instagram, you would have seen me post it with ice-cream. That dream lasted as long as it took to post ;). The other part included me getting heaps of housework done, and we also had plans to meet friends at the park for a couple of hours. Instead, we had a bit of an accident with some paint. The Mr. was painting the outside of  TJ's windows, when he accidently tipped the paint all down the roof and all through the gutters (it was a BIG tin of paint). He started to hose it and it proceeded to spread all down the house and onto the backyard pavers.....such a MESS! That lost us alot of time and by this stage i hadn't done anything i'd planned and was already late to go to the park. So i got all the kids in the car and was just about to leave when i noticed white paint flooding the front of our neighbors driveway!!!! It had gone down through the drainpipes out into the gutters! Kids still in the car, the Mr. and i spent the next half hour sweeping and hosing while the kids spent it screaming "when are we GOOOOIIIINNNNNGGGGG!?!?" 

NOT the morning i had planned at all. But thank-god for good coffee at the park cafe!

Anyways....i had a big surprise planned for the kids for the rest of the day. We were driving to Brissie to watch Cirque Du Soleil in their show...OVO. But they didn't know that. When we got home from the park i told them to get cleaned up and dressed up and ready for a long car trip. They spent the first half of they car ride begging for hints as to what thier surprise was and the second half sleeping.

We woke them just as we were driving up and you could see the tops of the tents. We got out of the car and they each got an envelope with thier tickets in it as well as a small gift from me to them. I love how excited they got when they realised where we were.

The show was AMAZING! TJ was a bit afraid at first, it was just so loud! But then one of the attendants there gave us some ear plugs for him, and he was much better after that.

They each brought some of their allowence to buy a treat with. The boys fell in love with these little frog puppets. Tati bought the soundtrack from the show (which i'm listening to now), and a program.

I think i enjoyed watching my kids watch the show morw than i enjoyed the show itself! They loved every minute of it. It was so nice to see them all so happy and excited! Makes every penny spent worth while :)

Hope you have a loely long weekend!

Friends and a super-easy tute!

Today i got to catch up with a friend i haven't seen in YEARS! We met at my place. I let my kids have the day off school so they could hang out too. All together we had 9 kids running around, but they were all so good, you really wouldn't have known it!

It was such a lovely day spent catching up with friends. I wish it could happen more often.

Sadly, they all left and i'm afraid it will probably be awhile before i get to see Nic and her gorgeous family again :(

So to cheer me up here a quick and easy project i did. 

What you need: 

a cute tea-towel

a canvas about the same size as the print of your towel

a staple gun

My step-mother hjad bought me this sweet tea towel awhile ago, and i knew i liked it enough that i didn't want to actually use it as a tea towel. So for months and moths it sat in a cupboard going to waste. then one day i decided to do something with it. This project cost me .......

$0.00!

I used stuff i already had ;)

So start by ironing you tea towel so it has no creases. The get your towl and lay it on a flat surface face down. On my towel i could see the print through the back, so i just placed the canvas down where i wanted it, so the print was centred.

(this is what it looks like flipped over)

{ If yours is thicker and you cant see the print, try taping it to a sunny window so you can see through it. Then mark the back where your canvas will be placed. Once this is done you can take it down and lay it on a flat surface. Place your canvas on your marks. }

Then grab one side of the tea towel and (holding the canvas in place) pull tight  and 'wrap' your teatowel around the canvas, just as you would wrap a gift. Except as you do each side, staple gun it to the back of the canvas so it sits quite firmly against it. Take any excess and stuff it in the back of the canvas.

And there you have it, my friends! Cheap and easy kitchen decor....hoorah!