... In with the new.

Hubby is a long time interstate truck driver. All the trucks he has steered have been late model, neat and tidy, old faithfuls. Until last week that is. He's now driving a brand new extra shiny truck! And has taken on all the worries that go with it lol.

The older trucks had wear and tear. No shiny bits as those parts had either been scratched, dented or buffed within an inch of their life to try to get their shine back lol Any rattles were taken in the drivers stride. Road dirt wasn't worried about until the end of the working week when the truck got a proper bath.
Now, if there's a small bug smeared across the duco it's out with the shammy to clear it off asap! All problems are instantly reported to the boss and documented so the blame doesn't fall back on hubby. It's total paranoia on hubby's behalf lol

I told him to ask for an old truck again otherwise he's going to go grey before his time! ;)

Here's the 2 trucks. Old and New.



Only a slight difference on the outside. A little wider and higher. More lights (i don't know what the obsession with lights is!), fancier smoke stacks, and shiny, shiny, shiny. The inside (no pics) is huge! You can walk around in the bunk, there's overhead cupboards, there's a lot of distance in between the drivers seat and passenger seat. Carpet on the floor. Very nice. Whereas the old truck you had to clamber over the fridge to get to the bed and there were no storage areas.

As far as trucks go, it's alright ;) I'm a MACK truck girl myself so not jumping with joy over this one!

Until next time
~x~

B2 recieved a gardening book for her birthday a few months ago titled How Does My Garden Grow. It's a basic childs gardening book with bright photos and simple instructions with the odd bit of educational information that came in handy for a school project she did.

B2 has decided to work her way through the book to try and grow everything pictured. Right now she has corn and potatoes planted (at the end of August she did her planting). The soil is pretty poor here. We do give a liquid fertilizer each fortnight but the soil really needs to have loads of compost and manure dug through it. So, the corn is suffering but the spuds are blooming.

I'll let the photos tell the story :)

Until next time
Happy Gardening
~x~

I've not really introduced you to my darling munchkins. I've blogged about them but no formal intros. So here they are. Known simply as B1, B2 and B3. No, they don't wear blue stripped pyjama's ;) And no, they're names aren't original but it works for me on my blog.

B1 is my gorgeous 1st born 11 year old daughter who is a girly girl and wise beyond her young years.


B2 is my adorable 10 year old daughter who has a love for animals. Her bedroom looks like a zoo sometimes!


B3 is my much awaited handsome 6 year old little man. Obsessed with anything that has wheels and makes nosie.


There ya have it. My litle family :)

Until next time
~x~

I've been an AWOL Blogger again lol It’s pure slackness, no other excuse. I admire those who blog daily and I’m sure they are busier than me!

So, what’s been happening in my quiet life the past month?

Let’s start with the Church renovations.
My dad visited for a few days to help with some work around the place. He’s a builder by trade so he knows what he’s doing, well he should hehe.
DH and dad started replacing the roofing iron. We’ve gone for white as it compliments the blue rather well. Half of the front side is done and half of the backside. The next time dad has work holidays he will hopefully come back and finish it off.

The shell of a dormer window was also built. One will be going on the back side of the roof where Miss Mogs room is too, will give more light and a bit of extra head space. The window on the front side will be at the top of the staircase inside.

Miss 11’s room was fixed properly. Skirting boards, timber down the corners of the room and around the ceiling were done. I’m yet to paint, she can’t decide on a colour for the feature wall.
Miss 11 helped her Poppy build a bookcase for her room which she has filled completely, there is no room for any more books! I'm a firm believer that a child can never have too many books :)
Now Miss 11 just needs a door to keep her little brother out! lol

Until next time
~x~

We’ve been busy the past few weeks around the home.
We scored ourselves a shed that we are converting into a rumpus room. Our neighbour across the road had the shed on her property and was going to demolish it. Hubby took one look at it and said it would be easy to jack up onto a trailer and bring it across to our place so that’s what we did.
It will be connected to the house by a deck that happens to be the future deck that my vegie garden borders. Hopefully by the end of this year it will be a fully functional room.
I’ll let the photo’s tell the storyso far :)

Until next time
~x~

Finally I have a vegie garden :D Made from recycled materials of course, garage door panels. Eventually we are going to build a timber deck in the middle between the house and garden boxes. Hoping by summer but if not we can still use the area for entertaining :)

I’ve planted lettuces, capsicums, red onions, garlic (i know i'm late) and marigolds for decoration. There’s a little more room for a bunch of beetroot. I also have a couple of other beds along the front fence made from the old weather boards that came off the front wall of the church which have lettuces, tomatoes and peas.

There's also a patch in the back yard where i've got 3 butternut pumpkin seedlings. It's fair in the middle of the yard where it gets the water run off from the washing machine.

I've still got plenty more vegies seeds and seedlings i want to plant. They'll be randomly planted anywhere i can find a spot this year :)

Until next time
Happy gardening
~x~

I think i spoke too soon when i said in my last blog post i hadn't had the normal winter chills. It caught me good :( aswell as the rest of the family. That'll teach me to brag hey lol

Cold and flu tablets and loads of panadol, vicks and mountains of tissues, hot water bottles and favourite blankets have been our best friends over the past few days. I had to stock up on tissues today as we're using a box a day each!


This time next week we should all be back to our normal healthy selves and can start to enjoy the spring weather.

Until next time
~x~

Winter is nearly over for another year. I say nearly as although Spring will have sprung when the sun rises it will be a frosty start to the new and most welcomed season and i'm expecting a few more days of icy mornings and grey days before spring well and truely sets in.

I have a gorgeous friend who has handcrafted some perfect winter warmers for me last year and this year. I haven't had the normal winter chills this winter like i usually have and i am sure it's because of these 4 warming items :) I'm one trendy snow bunny when wearing these :D I'll be sad to pack them away but look forward to being toasty warm next winter :)



Until next time
~x~

11 days ago i bought 5 banana's. They were of decent size and cost $11. They were from Aldi and they were the cheapest in town.

Master 6 asked and asked if he could eat one, i repeatedly said no, not until Miss Mogs birthday which was 4 days later.

For her birthday i made 5 banana sundaes with 3 of the banana's. They went down a treat and all kiddies were delightfuly satisfied.
3 days later after school the 3 kiddies had a huge plate of cut up fresh fruit for their snack. I used one banana divided into 3 along with other delicious fruits.
The last banana has been sitting here looking lonesome, and i've been debating what to do with it. It's not ripe enough for a banana cake or muffins. I don't think a smoothie would do it justice. I could just eat it while the kids are at school but then i'd have to face an inquisition lol Maybe i'll just pop it in the freezer for later use.

I've got the skins from the other 4 banana's in the freezer. The kids are keeping them for the pet deer Rosebud at their grandparents place lol It's the deers treat, she loves them more than anything and i think it's cute that the kids adore her so much that they keep the good foodscraps for her. We're 3 hours drive from the grandparents lol so who knows when Rosebud will get to munch them all up. Miss Mogs has written in big bold letters a reminder note on the freezer door so there's no chance we'll forget to take them with us when we visit.

Until next time
~x~

Yay me :D

Yesterday's blog entry was my 100th post. It's taken awhile to get there.

Here's to the next 100!



Until next time
Happy Blogging
~x~

Miss Mogs received a book of paper dolls for her birthday. This reminded me of the paper dolls i had when i was younger so i went in search of them and found them still in good condition :)

Barbie and Ken paper dolls with beautiful party dresses and handsome suits.



Big sister and little sister with an assortment of clothes.



My favourite paper doll to play with was Punky Brewster with Brandon the dog. I loved the television series and would act out little scenes. The little critter Gomer was from the Punky cartoon. Punky came with loads of clothes and they fit little sister so there was enough to go around when playing with friends :)



This gorgeous paper doll is made from cardboard. I'm pretty certain she was part of a birthday card. Her clothes are just gorgeous and the little kitty with the basket completes it. I never played with this set like i did with the others. I dressed her in the morning and at night i put her nightgown on and she either sat on my bedside table or desk looking pretty :)



Until next time
What childhood toy was your favourite?
~x~

The past week i've had hubby home :) We had huge plans of working around the home and garden but every day it poured with rain and was wildly windy. The garden didn't get a look in :( but the house was lucky to have another room built on :)

Our 11 year old daughter who is hormonal lol and needs her own space finally got her own room. So now we can say the house is a 2 bedroom house lol.

We built under the back verandah where we kind of had a shed and an outside laundry, now the laundry is just wide enough for the washing machine. Entry to the bedroom is through the pantry which is directly under Miss Mogs upstairs room and it steps down into the room.
It's a small square box but it's her box. You can see how small it is by looking at the photo with the bed in it. The bed is against a wall and you can see the window on the other wall. I haven't had a chance to paint or do finishing touches, she wanted to move in asap lol. I can work around her things though.

Until next time
~x~

Gumball machines to be exact.

It's only a small collection of 4. I'm not really interested in collecting more unless there is a purple or orange one out there waiting to be snapped up ;) I do have a red one on a stand but it's gone awol for the moment.

The green one is not a true green machine :( I purchased it from ebay and when i received it the paint was a matt finish compared to the gloss finish of the others. After removing the glass to give it a clean i noticed red around the edges where the glass sits, further investigation revealed it had indeed been a red machine! You can see where the gumball slides down the chute it's red, it's where i rubbed the green paint off. I couldn't be bothered raising an issue with the seller to return it and get a refund (i did give him my 2 cents worth though!)

I sometimes fill them with gumballs much to my children's delight. The pink machine has a broken but repaired glass top so the purple tinsel in it hides the defect and looks funky in my opinion :)

I'm not a girly girl. Never have been. I've always had a liking for motor sports and cars in general but when i was a kid i didn't have the oppertunity to go to car events or tinker under the bonnet of my parents cars. My family aren't rev heads lol

2 of my boyfriends from my late teenage years were obsessed with cars and i quite enjoyed listening to them rabbit on about the ins and outs of cars and motor sports and visiting the local hotrod shows. I even went to the V8 supercar race at Calder Park Victoria with one boyfriend :)

My hubby, who is neither if those 2 boyfriends lol is a truckie so i've come to have a slight obsession with trucks, but only Mack trucks and hubby hasn't driven one of them in the 12 years we've been together! I don't know why, maybe it's the cute looking Mack Bulldog mascot that gets me lol (the real life bulldogs don't appeal to me at all though!)

After wandering around the world wide web while having my morning coffee this morning my slight obsession has heightened. I came across a photo of a Mack pickup (am yet to do thorough research to confirm all the photos i've seen are indeed Macks, i know some are homemade built on a different chasis), but oh how i'd love to get up close and personal with one of these baby's. I've read there is one in a museum in QLD, will have to suss that out a bit more :)



This blog post is the beginging of another major project for hubby and myself and the kiddies if they so desire. I can't let on exactly what it is right now (you may have a fair idea though), you'll have to wait a few more weeks. It's not a quick project, we're hoping 4 years is a good timeframe for completion inbetween the home and garden renovations which seem to have come to a standstill.

So until next time
~x~

It's that time of year again where Junior Landcare Australia are having their Watermelon Challenge.

Head over to Junior Landcare and register your child (under 16 years of age) for the challenge, for free. During October you will receive a packet of watermelon seeds in the mail. Plant them, tend to them and record your progress on the Landcare website and if you have grown the heaviest melon you could be in the running to win some great prizes.

You don't have to participate in the challenge once you receive your seeds. The past 3 years my children have done it we've had weird weather conditions and the growing season has been delayed by a couple of months so our melons were nowhere near ready by the time the challenge ended but they were oh so delicious! This year we live in a different part of Victoria so the growing conditions just may be to our advantage for once :)

Let me know if you're participating, it would be great to see progress photos. My children will share theirs too.

Until next time
~x~

My grandmother turned 80 on the weekend. A happy and healthy 80 may i add :) The family decided to treat her to a fine meal and being all together for the occasion, mutual ground was a must lol so we went to a lovely restaurant.

I can't say i was overly impressed with the fine dining. The meals were exxy for what you got even if you ordered an entree as a main meal. Maybe I'm too countrified lol but a pub meal or even better a home cooked meal is a lot cheaper and fills you up so you aren't looking hungrily at the pizza place you pass by on the drive home lol

The food looked great on the plate though. I do wonder if we pay for the way our meal is presented.

One of the main meals was a hanging rack of assorted meat with tortillas, little bowls of guacamole, salsa and sour cream and a small bowl of salad. The idea was to use the ingredients and make your own tortilla wraps. I don't think anyone at our table really took notice of the word hanging on the menu lol What a grand way to present this meal.



Then there were the deserts which i was told tasted as great as they looked.







I can't say we'll be dining out again anytime soon. It put a dent in our budget but atleast the kids got to experience a fancy restaurant lol

Until next time
~x~

To my Blog :)

2 years old today.

We have gone through a lot of ups and a few downs. You have provided my family a record of all sorts of things. I'm a little sad i didn't make it to 100 posts before you grew another year older. I must get blogging more often hey ;)

In celebration i have changed the template. I've used this one before but i like it so much. It's by the same designer as my last template :)

Until next time
Happy blogging everyone
~x~

Yesterday, after a sleepless night of mouth pain that no painkillers in my cupboard was going to ease, i took myself off to the dentist. 20 years after the last time i went!
Hmmm, not good hey, but surprisingly my teeth are in ok condition apart from needing 2 fillings and a proper dental cleaning, oh and the wisdom tooth i had extracted yesterday that was the cause of all the pain :) The anesthetic was good, it took 5 hours to wear off, my face felt really weird lol and no there was no dribbling ;P

My reason for not visiting a dentist for so long wasn't out of fear, it's just nothing felt wrong with my teeth. I brush them twice a day, floss and mouthwash. I've had the occasional mild tooth ache in the past 20 years but it's always eased off with no problems. Why, dare i say it, waste time and money on having something looked at that isn't troubling me? I know I'm going to have my wrist slapped for saying that! I know my health is important, but :P

If it's any consolation, my children have regular dental check ups :)

So this morning i am having porridge for breakfast as my mouth is a little tender and i don't want to upset any healing that is happening at the back of my mouth. I really don't want anymore painful sleepless nights and a pile of antibiotics because i didn't look after the hole properly.

I go back next week for my fillings then that should be i for another 20 years perhaps lol

Until next time
~x~

I read the following on a forum. It's quite interesting so i thought ishould share with you all :)

Interesting History

They used to use urine to tan animal skins, so families used to all pee in a pot & then once a day it was taken & sold to the tannery.......if you had to do this to survive you were "Piss Poor"

But worse than that were the really poor folk who couldn't even afford to buy a pot......they "didn't have a pot to piss in" & were the lowest of the low

The next time you are washing your hands and complain because the water temperature isn't just how you like it, think about how things used to be. Here are some facts about the 1500s:

Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and they still smelled pretty good by June.. However, since they were starting to smell . ..... . Brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor. Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.

Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children. Last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it.. Hence the saying, "Don't throw the baby out with the bath water!"

Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof... Hence the saying "It's raining cats and dogs."

There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess up your nice clean bed. Hence,a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came into existence.

The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt. Hence the saying, "dirt poor." The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until, when you opened the door, it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entrance-way. Hence: a thresh hold.

In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire.. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while. Hence the rhyme: Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old. Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could, "bring home the bacon." They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and chew the fat.

Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.

Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or the upper crust.

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would Sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days.
Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen
table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up. Hence the custom of holding a wake.

England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a bone-house, and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive... So they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the graveyard shift.) to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be saved by the bell or was considered a dead ringer.

And that's the truth....Now, whoever said History was boring!!!

Until next time
~x~

Australian pottery. To be more specific, Diana Ware Pottery, but only the pieces with white spots, the other styles don't appeal to me. I think it's more to do with the bold retro colours that take my fancy, not necessarily the spots, but the spots make it more unique in my eyes. Blue, yellow, green and pink with grey and a rusty/burnt orange thrown in the mix.

This Aussie pottery was created in Marrickville, Sydney during the 1940's - 1970's. Not all pieces are stamped and there are a few different markings but once you've collected a few pieces you soon learn how to identify a piece of Diana Ware.

My love affair with it began 4 years ago when i spied a vibrant blue jug with white spots in a secondhand store. Since then I've gone spotty mad and got myself a nice variety of pieces. There are soooo many more bits I'd love to have but the spotty pieces are hard to come by which in turn makes them expensive.

I had a dream 6 months back about a blue squat cookie jar tucked away in a dark dusty corner of a quaint antique shop, I'm yet to locate the jar or the shop (I'm not sure either one actually exists!) I have several people on the lookout for it though ;)

The photo shows a small part of my collection :) Some of it is still in boxes.

Until next time
~x~

I've written before of Miss9's love of horses. And still we don't have room in our little backyard for a pony but that hasn't dampened Miss9's enthusiasm. Yesterday saw my backyard looking like a horse jumping arena with 3 humans posing as horses prancing around lol.
Tyres, timber, chairs, allsorts of materials were used to make jumps and the kiddies exhausted theirselves jumping and neighing all afternoon :)





Untilnext time
~x~

They say anymore then 3 items of one thing or similar things is the start of a collection. I wonder if 10 pairs of socks count ;P

I have a few collections and have decided as i unpack storage boxes and put things on display i will blog about each collection.

First up is a collection or rather a selection of pretty glassware. It's only a 1/4 of what i have. I have all sorts of depression glass in pinks, blues, purple and amber. Throw in some modern pieces and it looks grand.
This particular kitchen dresser has housed glassware for the last 5 years. Any other cupboard wouldn't highlight the colours. I especially like the pink depression glass fish bowl (bottom shelf in the middle), i have one in blue too that belonged to my hubby's grandmother :)

I'm not normally into pretty things, or shabby chic, or french provincial. I'm more into retro and country with gothic thrown into the mix. An interesting combination lol

Until next time
Happy collecting
~x~

I love when kids use their imagination and get creative outdoors on a sunny day.

They found some scrappy sheets of ply wood, drew a picture, got dad to cut it out with the jigsaw, found some paint in mum's craft box and painted their creations. For a few hours they were happy with being creative :)

Until next time
~x~