Friends with Benefits

Morgan is quite happy to watch over Johan. As long as he gets a little bit of whatever Johan is eating. He sits very patiently next to him all through meals. Only leaving to visit Ruby and receive her offerings to 'My Puppy'.

Nothing quite as cute as a boy and his puppy. Even if they can only hang out for a week.

Felties

Just thought I'd share these 3 felt characters I made to go with this board book.

They took a bit longer to make than I had imagined but I'm very happy with the result. Something fun for quiet times in church.

Incoherent thoughts about stockings and chicken legs.

Church shoes, awesome stockings from my dear sister and... the most ridiculous pair of chicken legs. Really. Could they look any sillier being that skinny? Probably not. And I've even cropped them considerably to stop them from looking so darn stick like. Oh well. At least the rest of my body is now following suit - down 14.4kg's!

Anyway - the stockings are fabulous. I actually dreamt about wearing them with these shoes last night so figured I should wear them to church this morning. Nothing magic happened. Except that it I thought it was a very cute combo. And considering I'm currently wearing black tights, red explorer socks and a pink and blue floral shirt,wearing a cute outfit this morning is pretty magic!

Anyone else get excited about good tight/stocking and shoe combo's? Yes? This is deep stuff people. I am really taking this space to new levels today.

Thanks for the stockings Jes! I love them! More than cheese. xx

{P.S. Hello shiny new floors! More pictures of that soon. Note: I did NOT wear these shoes on the new floor. Shoes are a definite no-no these days. (We might have to discuss that too...) I placed them there carefully and then stepped into them before the timer went off. Or half stepped onto the right one. Which may account for the weirdness of the ankle? Or not? I never really see my feet from this angle so I don't know. Anyway... back on my feet/legs again.. Sorry. I'm just a bit shocked by how they look from down this low!! Right. New floors = Awesome. The end.}

Dearest Husband,

{Art work by the talented Avid}

It seems you were right. Again. We really can learn everything we need to know from the Transformers.

Love you today for working hard at being an Optimist Prime in this crazy week.

Love you for always, because.

xxx

Moving Day

{Image credit}

Today we're moving BACK into our house! Very exciting. For the last 3 weeks we have been living across the road from our house in the church sunday school room. It's been quite the adventure and I think I'm a little sad to leave our cosy room. But I will leave. And I will do like these guys are doing and haul all the stuff we have here in the church across the road to our house. Hopefully without putting a single scratch in our gorgeous newly polished floors.

Thankfully Joel will be around at lunch time to help with the big things and I wont actually have to strap furniture to my back. But the rest will be me - a thousand trips backwards and forwards. I had better get cracking! I promise you photos of the house & floors when we're back in and set up again. In the meantime, think of me as I enter a few days of manual labour!

Waiting for Delphine

I ordered this quilt cover on Tuesday from CottonBox and now am patiently waiting for it to arrive before our Easter guests do.

Her name is Delphine and she comes from the family of Sheridan. You can see her in the latest House & Garden magazine in their bed special.

I loved her before I saw her there though.

And she is joining our home for $60 less (shipping included) than what she is marked for in the magazine. Hop over to CottonBox and check out their sale section for more fabulous deals.

Baby Sisters Kitchen Tea

3 months ago today my youngest sister tied the knot. A few days before that our middle sister, our mum and I threw her a Kitchen Tea party. Finally, I have organised myself to share some pictures with you. I didn't take as many as I wanted to but when you are catering, hosting and photographing you can only do some much of each thing. So here's a little taste of our fabulous party:

Mum & I bought 30+ 2nd hand teacups and saucers, glass platters, teapots, sugar bowls & milk jugs for $28. Really! I was quite sad that I couldn't bring more of it home on the plane with me.

One of the gorgeous spools my father in law made me for Christmas.

The sister loves birds. Even before they were trendy. I am wondering what critter will be trendy next...

Over Christmas my mother in law made all these cute flags for me in preparation. I stuck them in heaps of food but was too distracted to get photos of anything other than my delicious and pretty cup cakes.

My two lovely sisters. Jes is presenting Han with the tools of her new housewife trade: apron, feather duster and tiara. We even gave her a pink bird for her shoulder since her actual bird is far too antisocial to join the party and she wanted him there. Mum made the apron and had every sign it with a message. She then took it home and stitched over everyone's messages so they wont fade with washing.

Jes made this lovely book for all of us to write recipes, advice and love notes to the Bride.

What is a Kitchen Tea without dressing up people in toilet paper wedding gowns?!! The girl on the far left is one of Han's new sisters. We love our new family!

The Bride herself. Enjoying her new snuggy! We asked people to bring practical gifts to help set up their new home. (which reminds me that I don't have a picture of the invitations...) Everyone was so incredibly generous. I doubt Han & Adam to much at all in the way of storage, cleaning products, kitchen utensils & crockery. They were even given a bucket and an ironing board! thank you to everyone who came to make this a special day for my baby sister. Special thanks to mum, Jes, Rosemary, Maria, the dad's & Adam. You all played a part and we couldn't' have done it without you.

Congratulations to Han & Adam on 3 months of marriage already!! Love you both. xx

It seems the world knows I favour blue.

Big metal letters for under $40?

A 4 Year Old, The Cosmetic Section & Me

Nope, the title pretty much sums it up!

We tried some nail polish out but that wasn't anything new so I let her pick whatever colours she wanted while her mum shopped for foundation. I definitely told her this is how you wear makeup when you're four - as war paint!

The black eyeshadow stained her cheek for a day and the lip stain (yep, it looked like lipgloss and I only read it after!) was there for a day too. Her mummy laughed nervously as I promised it would wash off and her daddy rolled his eyes. It did all come off faster than the time I panted all her finger nails and toe nails different colours. Then succumbed to her wish to paint mine the same.

Oh Kiddo, you make me do some crazy stuff but boy are you good fun to hang out with. Miss you and your family. xx

Mara, I'm sorry for teaching her about makeup! Hopefully she still things it's just for play!! When she's ready (like 20??!!) I'll teach her how to wear it properly. No emo eyes or indian stripes. Promise! xx

All Signed Up

A little while ago I mentioned that I'd got my groove on in front of a bunch of people I barely knew and danced like Mr Bean. As life would have it I have left you all hanging on the edges of your seat as to why I would do that. The short answer is: Auslan. Au(stralian) S(ign) Lan(guage).

For quite a few years we have both been in love with this beautiful language and the amazing subculture of the deaf community. Back in Adelaide we had discussed a number of times the thought of studying Auslan to enrich our own lives, communicate with the deaf people we come across and to eventually provide a service to the deaf church that exists in Adelaide. But the timing was never quite right.

Then our godson came into the world with about 10% hearing. He has a Cochlear Implant now and as he develops he will hear more and comprehend better but in teaching him his family and carers are using sign language as well as sounds and pictures. We will be ready to talk with him and sign with him - whatever he needs. When he's ready, we'll be ready too.

We have so many reasons to learn this language and we know that time is not found it is made so this year we signed ourselves up for the first module at Tafe. We have spent the last 8 Thursdays nights making fools of ourselves acting and miming the craziest things, learning so many new words/signs I can't sleep after class for the whirlwind my brain is in, laughing like mad people at learning 'the naughty signs', learning to freely express emotion with face and body, being moved by stories of what is like to be deaf in a hearing world, having 'no spoken english' classes and

loving, loving, loving it so much!

Yes, it's hard. And going to the Deaf Dinners with actual deaf people is completely nerve wracking but our teacher (who is deaf, with hearing aids so she can hear a tiny bit, and speaks because she spent years in speech therapy) is amazing. She is so patient, encouraging and good at teaching us. She has a wicked sense of humour too which helps keep class fun! And our classmates are fabulously entertaining

and great to learn with.

Even aside from learning the actual language the whole thing is a blast and I feel so privileged to be able to do this. The challenge and the push it is giving me is so rewarding. The skill I am learning far exceed the language and the language is so much more than I imagined it would be.

I love it!

And it's also pretty cool that Joel and I have an almost secret language to communicate with!

The very gorgeous Johan, our Godson, at a cafe in Adelaide in January 2011.

A Work in Progress

Some of you have been wondering what I look like these days sans 13kilograms (that's just over 2 stone for the rest of you). Well, I'm still a little camera shy but the other day I was in one of my favourite stores (Provincial Home) wearing my skinny jeans that are getting baggy and having a nice hair day. I spotted a gorgeous floor length mirror and was a little chuffed to see the girl looking back at me wasn't even sucking in her belly. I snapped a few shots and felt I could share at least one with you all.

Below you can see a comparison between the July 2010 Rachel and the March 2011 Rachel. I realise you can't see my face in the first photo (aiming, focusing and then looking into the lens was hard!) so I asked Joel to take a picture of me just now so you can see where at least a bit of the weight disappeared from.

P.S. My sisters are as cute today as they were in July!

P.P.S. Wearing my necklace in the last photo!