People, pallets, pinafores and popcorn.

It has been a crazy last three weeks with school holidays and in-laws over for a week. But we are back to school term routine and early mornings again now. Yuk! 

I have sold some items at The Brown Dog and was asked to make something new. I now want to make something for the boys...shorts maybe. What a shame, another trip to Spotlight. Although I felt sick after the last trip's total price. "Got to spend it to make it," my wonderfully supportive husband says.

*Yes, these dresses got an iron before going to the shop*

Aj was able to tidy and stack all the firewood that had arrived as logs a while back. His dad helped him put old pallets between the sections for extra stability. I claimed some for garden edging which were put in place with his mum's help. I would love to get some more thin(ner) ones for more garden edging. It really makes the garden look complete. 

Poor Mama Duck. Our dog ate the eggs she was sitting on :( She is off the nest today and looking better but she has seemed so lost these past few days. The kids were upset as they were looking forward to having ducklings around. So upset with the dog!!!

I tried Not Quite Nigella's gnocchi recipe this week. It was really yummy! Next time though I will make a thick creamy white sauce to go with it like La Porchetta do it. Please note, these are best prepared by hand as they do take some time to make up and quick to cook.

And as I write this blog my normally microwave savvy MrT has just put his popcorn in for 10min30sec instead of 1min30sec. My house now smells of burnt popcorn and I have windows open on this cool afternoon. Mmmm. "I think you better do the next one" he says!

A banicoot

So there I was, going to lock up the chooks for the night. As I walked through the door to check for eggs, a brown shape darted back and forth across the floor. Turns out it was this guy (the small furry one):

I've seen two bandicoots here in the last year, but never been able to get this close. He sat in my arm, without moving, for the ten minutes it took to carry him to the house to show Mel and my parents, then return him to the paddock where he made his way back into the darkness.

Cradle Mountain hike

At the end of June Aj took Mr T up to Cradle Mountain for an over nighter. Here is their story.

Cradle Mountain Father-Son Adventure!

Rocky Cape

This Thursday just gone I left the kids with a friend and joined Aj's year 9 Outdoor Ed class on a walk. The walk covered about 10.5km of the Rocky Cape National Park. It wasn't easy for this very unfit mumma, I found muscles I didn't know were there, well, that I had forgotten about. The day started out over cast and with drizzle but then rained and rained. We all ended up very wet even with our wet weather gear on. I am so very happy to have gone and done the walk though.

Good to be in the gaters again :) 

Silicon like fungi

A very wet me!

New softies

What a week. Busy busy busy and I am looking forward to today being an 'at home day'.

As promised, better late than never, my new seamless shoes with laces.

And the new doll design. These are much funkier in real life and are loving it down at Stanley's          The Brown Dog.

Online and in-store soon

I have been madly sewing these last few days. Dolls, shoes.....more shoes.

I made it onto the MadeIt front page! One cat brooch sold and another two on order.

I am wanting to move over to Etsy where I can list my products in a much clearer way, and I start selling...grr.

This is my Etsy page. Please take a look around. My prices are going to be going up as I have got my work into a shop in the seaside town of Stanley and my prices need to reflect the style and quality that they are. Plus, looking around I think my prices have been too low. SO GET IN NOW AND GRAB A BARGAIN while prices are the way they are.

I have been creating some new Providence Meadows dolls. My own design, funky, retro, one-of-a-kind dolls. They are for The Brown Dog in Stanley. I want my own designs in store so that people will not have seen them before. Picture up for you soon. Oh, and I'm working on some sausage dog softies...they are so cute!

A toxic day, well it was for Aj.

Thursday am

What a weird sort of day, very dark skies but no rain yet. There is a 90% chance of rain today and tomorrow though. (Poor Aj and his class are on an Outdoor Ed camp ;)

Yesterday we said goodbye to a couple who were just strangers last Thursday. We first met Chris & Hosanna on the Spirit of Tassie on our way back from Melbourne after Christmas; a coincidence. They are from Cairns and go to church with another couple who moved from Melbourne a couple of years ago. They were told to drop in on us while in Tassie.

We are so glad they did! Chris & Hosanna have been travelling and working their way around Australia for the last two years and spent their last five nights in Tassie with us. They slotted into our family seamlessly. Never have all four kids taken to people so well, as they did to these two. Hosanna and I talked and talked and talked. The conversations were both deep and light hearted, and we were able to talk about anything and everything. It felt like we had been friends for life. As you know I struggle with friendships especially as those I am closest to have moved away (and/or are interstate). It would have been nice for them to have stayed longer and if the timing was different I'm sure they would have. As Hosanna wrote in the visitors book "...our home is your home. You may want to wait until we move out of the tent though."

Thursday pm

Today I took the trailer to get some gravel to fill in the  pot holes in the driveway and only after it was full (1.25ish ton ) did I see a flat tyre...grrr. I crept up to the house of a friend who lived close by. It was not running on the rim but was very low. Up to the servo we went to pump it up. We got some funny looks - hehe. A cuppa and then home, twins in to bed, and out to spread the load. MissZ came out not long after and sat in the front seat of the car taking pics on my phone. Two funny things she said were,  "Are you having fun mummy?" and when asked if she wanted the radio on, "No, I like peace and quiet". MissZ is generally anything but quiet and peaceful. Cute kid.

The starts of it

Work in progress

What got spread around the turning circle

One of MissZ's many many pics

Oh and while on the subject of kids. I can't recommend more highly 'almost-two-year-old' twins....they are so very very cute together. Today MrW went to help MissO up from the floor by clapping and putting his hands out for her. After helping her to her feet, he made sure she was coming with him. They looked like Tellytubbies though as they helped each other up.

As I finish off this blog, I have received a text from Aj saying his day was toxic and it was lights out at 8. So early, MUST have been a huge day for the students. AND it is now raining heavily here.