The Waddling Dog

Harper is pregnant - YAY!!

After all that went on the last few months when she came back on heat I decided I had enough to worry about than trying to send Spencer away for a week and then all the organising for the reintroducing so we went to the vet and had AI.  It still seems wrong though but Brittany is calling it a virgin birth and gets great pleasure out of telling everyone!

Now the countdown is on.  Brittany has a calender on her wall and ticks off the days - only approx 17 to go.  I do feel sorry for her, she's fat as so hopefully that doesn't mean there's a lot of puppies - not that I mind a lot, but it would be hard on her if there were - and instead means that because she's so little she's showing more.  I'm looking forward to having puppies to play with for a couple of months, I mean what's cuter than a Cavalier puppy??  Nothing in my book!!

Things and how sucky they can get .....

As the small number of you who read may have noticed, I haven't been round much these last couple of months.

Things have been a bit sucky actually and the energy to update and try to keep upbeat hasn't been there. 

Mainly a lot of this is because we lost a very much loved Uncle to cancer.  Talk about really sucky.  Man, just writing that made me cry again.  I still can't quite believe he's gone and I still can't believe how fast it took him.  He is missed by us all very much :-(

I have so much more empathy and sympathy for those dealing with this disease now than I ever had.  I've always known that it's horrible and evil and well, sucky, but I've never lived it or been up close to it.  I wish I still had that naivety.

This means that although I've kept knitting (gotta have one staple!) not a lot else has gone on and now it's almost April.   That means winter and busy times ahead, G is about to turn 15 (arghhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!) and sport season is about to begin.  It also means Easter is coming which I'm most excited about as I've taken 3 days leave to have a whole 10 days at home with the kids, I can't wait.  Some time to relax, blob and chill out.  Catch up on sleep and generally refresh and recover from the last few months and prepare for the next few ahead.  Hopefully they won't be as tragic as the ones just been.

10 in 2010

Is is Twenty- ten or is it two thousand and ten?  However you say it, this year is going to be a big one for me - not just another year that goes by but one where I get things done.  They may be boring things but at least they'll be something done!

First up are my 3 major goals:

1        Weight Loss

Honestly I debated about putting this up - I was going to leave it as a blank - for two reasons.  First and probably most obvious is that doesn't everyone have this as a NYR???  It's one of those classics that we say and then it goes out the door two minutes later.  Secondly, because I do find this quite an embarassing subject.  The reality is that I should be ultra proud of myself for what I have achieved, and the logical part of me knows this, but the emotional part of me is really sad that I had/have to lose weight and that in essence I didn't care about myself enough to look after me which resulted in the gain.  Though there are also reasons to argue that at the time I did care about myself to not care that I was gaining weight (However those reasons and that argument is definately not going up here sorry!)  This subject therefore is quite emotional for me. 

So reasons to be proud of me:  In total I have lost 42kgs from my heaviest and I have kept it off for over a year now- yay me!!

However why I want to lose more: I have 10kgs to go, 10kgs people, that's nothing yet it's sat there for a year - UGH - and I really, really want it gone!!

I do question whether 10kgs will make much of a difference to me?  I mean really compared to what I was, I'm over the moon, hopping happy so what will it do to lose that last bit?  Hmmmm, don't know, but I'm sure I'll find out along the way.

So .... while I've kept up with the weights over Christmas this week (yeah, the hottest in Wgtn for months!) I have started cardio gym work again.  Hopefully I'll see some results soon :-)

2        Organisation

Another big one for me.  I am terribly disorganised at home.  At work I'm fine but why can't I bring it home??  Things like getting to places on time, making sure the kids notices, books, sports stuff is organised, knowing where things are so I can get to them when needed, keeping track of appointments.  I used to be quite good at it all but as the kids got older and life got busier it went out the door so now it's time to bring it back in.

I've started this already with the simple tool of a diary, making sure I write in it everyday, put everything in it, including a 'to do' list for the really important things and that's just the first step.

Now Organisation also ties in with:

3        Declutter

On the surface our house doesn't look too full - but don't open a cupboard, something may fall out!  We have so much stuff it's just not funny.  It doesn't help that I'm married to the Hoarder from Hell (though maybe he thinks he is too LOL!) but really, we need to get rid of some of it!

Getting rid of it means I'm more likely to be able to find the things we really need, help the kids find their things, know where things are and have space for items that are just plonked where they fit, which then it turn helps us be more organised.

I've made a good start on this.  All my yarn is now out of the lounge, packed away properly, labelled and easy to get at in the roof space.  Made worthwhile by the fact that twice in the last week when I've been asked to do custom-made hats I could find the yarn I wanted immediately and neatly.  On top of that I've taken 5 bags of my 'fat' clothes to the sallies so they're gone (and with it the emotional baggage I had hanging on to them!) and have given some of the kids away to friends.   With a long weekend this weekend I am next going to work on Brittany's wardrobe properly.  Will let you know if I manage it next week.

Slowly but consistantly, if I work on it a little at a time, it will get done!

Oh - the HFH also made a start last week and it was a good one so I'm pretty impressed with him too!!

So Funny.....

This weekend for some reason G and B have done not much else but be pains in the proverbial!!  'He said xyz,' 'no, she's lying, she said xyz,' 'he is annoying me and I need you to get him to stop', 'actually it's her that's annoying me and you need to get her to stop', 'he won't give me that DVD that is ours, he says it's his' ..... and so on and so on and so on.  Of course it doesn't help that both our kids are vocal, articulate and argumentative so it's only going to get worse. 

When the arguing and fighting start to get too much I think back to what my parents would have done and then daydream about banging heads together, washing mouths out with soap and smacking backsides!!

Of course, as I'm not actually going to do that, I try to remember this senario:

Away for a weekend with friends, G and B going hammer and tong and their girl Milly (2.5yrs) intently watching them - head swiveling to one side as G says something, swiveling back to see what B has to respond, then back again until she turns to me and says 'so funny, SO FUNNY!'

Yep the two and a half year old summed it up quite well really I think :-)

For added inspiration I also think of what Nigel Latta has to say on the situation 'Mad Uncle Jessie has just moved in for the next few years'

Though if it carries on for the next few years I think I just might leave and come back when it's all over!!

I'm back ......

A bit later into 2010 than I meant to be but better late than never I say!!

When I look back over the last 6-7 weeks I still find it hard to comprehend just how busy I have been.  Two years ago, one week before Christmas my Dad had a heartattack.  Being the procrastinator that I am I was still quite disorganised leading up to the big day and it threw things into chaos.  I then swore that I was never going to be in that situation again - well this December I have had to eat those words.

It started with my 'other' job (the one that actually brings in the money so I can supply my yarn addiction haha!) and a decision that we were going to try and get some extraordinary results for December.  Now I don't tend to talk about that job on here - mainly because if I did then I would be very easily recognisable and since my job is what it is, I don't actually want to be that recognisable, but it is in the Legal field and I mostly enjoy it a lot.  In fact at times I wish I didn't enjoy it so much as I do get torn between where I want to go - I really want to expand Supurlative but I also want to keep working in my field and there is just not enough time to do both - but that's a whole other post :-).  Anyway, wanting extraordinarly results meant that December was going to be VERY busy just on that front for a start.

All was well and ticking along but then Christmas started creeping in, custom orders arrived and the end of school thing started - shared lunches, prizegivings, assemblies, half days etc for which this year we had two of everything (primary school is a lot crusier than integrated secondary schools!)  A couple of weeks out from Christmas I had to even stop listing and renewing things for Supurlative because I was basically out of stock (thank you so much all you wonderful buyers) and I just knew I didn't have the time to make more.

Then Brittany got sick and spent a day in hospital (I was so grateful Mark had the week before Christmas off so he dealt with that mainly) and more of my plans went out the window.  For the first year EVER, Mark and I spent Christmas Eve buying presents - arghhhhh.  Though I have to say some of that was because our darling daughter decided a few days earlier that she really wanted a guitar and lessons so her Christmas pressies that we had have been put away for her birthday and we went guitar hunting. 

On top of all that I'm still not sleeping properly so as you can imagine by the time Christmas day rocked up I was actually pretty much all over it before it started.  This year we had bought crackers for Mark's family and pudding (there goes my superwoman badge) and in fact, I even forgot the crackers for my families lunch  - luckily the ham and alcohol were well stocked LOL.

Then on Christmas Day itself disaster struck - really it had to didn't it, what could top all that but something big - I bit down on a MARSHMELLOW!!!!! and out came my tooth - one I'd previously had a root canel in so the whole filling (which was pretty much the whole tooth) came out.  One emergency dentist trip and huge amounts of $$ later - well lets just say that it was just as well that the alcohol was well stocked!!

So all in all I just look back and figure that going into 2010 I have two options -either just try and block it all out LOL or decide that I really need to get my organisation under control.  I've opted for the latter so for me 2010 is going to be all about ORGANISATION.  Phew, big task!!

Not only that but I have done a 10 for 2010 list that I plan on sticking to and so this year is going to be a big year for me.  I'm actually quite excited about it.  I have plans and ideas and goals and then rewards also for when these are put in action.  I'm determined that I don't want to be as stressed as I have been.  It's not good for me and it's not good for my family so I need to get it sorted.  So keep watch as a lot of it is going to be documented on here (I need to be accountable to someone!) starting in a couple of days with the list :-)

PS - we did get those results at work so at least something good came from December!!

Nature

I've been very busy these last few weeks with custom orders.  I love custom orders - making that special something for someone and having it come out just as they want.  However, it doesn't leave a lot of time for much else, especially when you work, exercise and have a family as well!

However I took a little time out today to play a little with my camera.  Something I've been wanting to do for a long time - well since we bought it really.  Earlier this year after a pretty frustrating experience trying to take photos of our friends kids with our old camera I pursuaded Mark that what I really needed was a digital SLR.  We spent weeks looking (the one condition of getting it was that I had to throughly research it, not impulse buy as is my usual style - I want it, I must have it NOW) and after much research, reading reviews and trying them out we ended up with an Olympus E520.  All in all I'm pretty rapt with it, the only thing I don't like is that it seems to take dark shots at times - however I'm pretty convinced that's got more to do with the photographer than the camera!!  Next year I am determined to find some time to really read the manual properly, practice more with it and possibly attend a nightclass on photography.

As I sit here and type I can hear the reason why this post is to do with Nature and my Camera.  We have two Tuis that have adopted our neighbourhood.  This is pretty unusual considering we live in the 'burbs, have a cat and the two dogs (and lets not forget the pretty wild kids!!)  Their song is just so beautiful, I could sit in the garden and listen to it all day.  For the last few days we've noticed them feeding from our flax flowers and I've been trying to snap a shot.  This morning after having set my alarm wrong (grrrrr) and being woken at 7am I got up to see one from the window sitting there.  I snuck out and got a couple of shots.  They're not very clear - it was terrible lighting and I didn't want to get too close in case I scared it away - and it does not do their beauty justice at all, their colours are so vibrant and pretty 

Here are some more shots I took while out again this afternoon having seen them fly through our trees.  I didn't manage to get any more shots of the Tui's but this is our backyard:

a Bee in my lavender

Apples on our apple tree (yum!)

 One of the 4 plums we have growing on our new plum tree

   

The brocolli I planted mid winter all has nice sized firm heads on them

               

All the buds on our Manderin tree mean lots of Manderins!!!

    

              

Just a couple of the gorgeous Paua shells I have through the garden

 

Believe it or not Mark only mowed the lawn 5 days ago and look at all the Dasies already!!

I have to apologise for the haphazerd photos - one thing about blogger is that the photos appear normal on my screen as I'm doing the post but when I publish the post so everyone else sees it they change - grrrr, it takes ages to correct and I don't have time currently sorry :-)

Thula Thula

I've been lucky enough, in my ventures into internet selling, to meet some pretty supportive, creative and wonderfully all round lovely people.

Naomi is one of these and I love her stuff so much I must blog about it and share her creations with you all!

It's nice when you meet someone who reminds you of yourself.  I was taught to knit by my Great-Grandmother and sewing was a passion of my Nana and she was taught her skills by her Grandmother's also.  I laughed when she told me she started out with fashions for her Barbies - me too!!  However, what I haven't done, which she has, is trained as a designer, making her own patterns and sewing for herself.  I really admire that she's following her dream and turning her love for her children combined with her love for designing and sewing into a business.

Her brand name is Thula Thula (pro-nounced t'ula).  I asked her where the name came from and she said that it's a Zulu word meaning 'Hush' (she's married to a South African so there's also that connection as well) and to her it  reflects the innocence of children and their adventurous spirit within.  Her clothes are simple classic cuts for girls and boys, using her love of silhouettes from the 30's/40's.  They're also road tested by her own children so you can be assured of practicality and quality.

Worth a special mention is Naomi's new range, just in it's begining stages, of prem clothes.  There's always a gap in the market for these I feel so it's really nice to see someone taking the time to think of the preemies (and that reminds me, I must hurry up with my preemie items I have in mind!)

Well enough of sounding like an info-mercial (and I have to add here - I'm not one of those bloggers who puts things on because I'm paid to do it (no offence intended to those blogs) but if I've written it up here it's truly because I love the product!!)   Go and check her out:

Thula Thula

Thula Thula ETSY