Putting My Big Girl Panties On!!!

Yesterday we found out we need to replace the radiator in our car, something we only just did almost 14 months ago not to mention an expense we do not need right now. We have Lil Guy's 1st birthday party in a week plus registration for the car is due at the same time. Not to mention the heartache recently of loved ones leaving us far too soon and unexpectingly.

Of course the first thing I did was sit on the lounge and get lost in my own little online world. All the while pigging out on salty, fatty, sugary foods. I had my little outbursts, the way of Facebook status updates, for all my friends and family too see of course.

By late afternoon, after looking around the house and seeing the chaos as well as looking down to see Lil Guy tugging on my leg for attention, I realised I had to snap out of it and fast. It really scared me how one minor set back in the big scheme of things saw me nose dive into a depressive state.

So this morning I woke up with a clear mind and got back on the horse with my Big Girl Panties on, ready to tackle life head on. I think the universe sensed this and rewarded us with a much cheaper option on getting our car on the road again this weekend.

Now I have spent far too much time online already today so I am off to get a real start on The Organised Housewife's 20 Days to Organise and Clean Your Home Challenge.

My Week On Instagram!

For the past couple of weeks I have been linking up with Kimberly from A Night Owl for her Instagram Blog Hop. She runs weekly Instagram Blog Hops with the help of several co-hosts and is joined by many bloggers.

As I am a bit of (ok, ok a lot of) an Instagram junkie I jumped at joining in, because really I do need more excuses to be on Instagram hahaha NOT.

I thought from now on I will do a weekly roundup of my favourite Instagram pics I have taken throughout the past week to share with those who might not be on Instagram or just not following me (come on follow me PLEASSSSE @sewingmywebb).

The one above, I took while trying to organise our walkin robe/computer room. After pulling down a few nappies boxes, that were full of CRAP, I came across Tigger and Elmo in a very compromising position. So of course I had to instagram it for the world to see what these devious little fellas get up to when they think no one is watching.

Lil Guy is such the typical little boy and every chance he gets he tries to escape from inside. Seriously he will dart out the garage if he realises the roller door is up.  I am thinking of letting him go free range with the chickens when we get them.

At the end of last week a couple of my good friends, who live in the same street, weren't coping so well. As you do when you have two young children to look after by yourself for a week at a time while hubby is off working (been there, done that and still doing that much to my dislike). So when I saw one of these friends post that she had been up all night with her daughter who had caught a stomach bug I immediately thought "what can I do to brighten her day just a little?" Of course the answer had to be COFFEE and BAKED GOODS!!!! So I threw the kidlets in the car, raced into town and picked up these bad boys and, ever so sneakily, left their Survival Packs where they would find them.

These pretties were me getting setup to take part in The Organised Housewife's 20 Days To Organise & Clean Challenge. What won't shock you is that that is as far as I have gotten. Now 5 days later and I have managed to sort my binder but neither write down routines or start on the daily challenges. So yeah you could say I am doing real well at this one. I do promise though to do a post, or two, about my accomplishments in this challenge. I am evening planning on designing my first printables for my readers YAY!!

Have I told you how much I love my Lil Fam!!! On Saturday hubby and the kidlets took me to Harvey Norman (large furniture and appliance chain here in Australia). Where I was allowed to buy a coffee machine as a my birthday present (shhh it's on the 17th, how lucky am I to get it so early). I have been wanting a Nespresso machine for ages. Hubby was a bit dubious about getting me one though. Several years ago he bought me a different type of machine which I hardly used. Come on though, it required far too much cleaning for my liking and well I just wasn't that great at heating or frothing the milk. The Nespresso, you see, requires a good water descale once every 6 - 8 months and no coffee grinds to clean out. No milk frother spout to wipe clean, no 10,000 pieces to pull apart and wash after each use. Anyway I LOVE MY LIL FAM AND MY NEW NESPRESSO U!!!!!! I highly recommend getting one if you love your coffee!

"Look my mum has new pretty shoes" This is Miss Hara's favourite thing right now, SHOES!!! Of course I am not helping her shoe fetish by loving all the bright flats available right now.

On Sunday it was Father's Day here in Australia. For my wonderful hubby the kidlets and I bought him a hand stamped leather braid wrist band from Love n Cherish (no idea if that is actually what is called but calling it a bracelet doesn't seem right), Miss Hara made a lovely necktie necklace at daycare which hubby proudly wore all day, even to the supermarket and I put together our own little version of Cold Rock (an ice cream shop that squishes lollies/candy into the ice cream). We miss Cold Rock so much. In the kit was a marble board with two paddle for preparing the delicious combos and I filled spice bottles with M&Ms, Skittles, Caramel Popcorn, Choc Coated Peanuts, Maltesers and Gummi Bears. We had a great day, just the four of us. I cooked up a storm in the kitchen, literally all day.

Yesterday my new very Shabby Chic iPad case arrived. Gosh I love it to bits! I am becoming addicted to cases though, I now have three.

Strawberries must be growing crazy like here right now as our supermarkets are selling them at $1.25 per punnet. We stocked up as our kidlets can't eat enough of them and I also wanted to puree some for those months when they are $7 per punnet and I say a big "Hell No" to pay that much. We plan on planting our own before next harvest season. I plan on making yummy daiquiris at my belated 30th party in a couple of weeks.I am actually turning 31 but seeing I was in early labour on my real 30th I think I deserve a do over.

Just Cause

Lately, all round me, I seem to come across e-posters on the web (no not my Webb but the "web", you know the Interweb) and so thought I would share some with you on this lovely Spring day.

Now this first one is me all over. All but one of these tendencies is oh so true about the kind of person I am. Of course as you probably no from my previous rants the one thing on the list I can say is most definitely not me, in any way, shape or form, is 10) Motivate themsevles. Umm yeah no, self motivation would actually have to be on of the biggest thing I lack and that I dislike (note: I try not to hate rather dislike when possible) about myself. On this rediscovery I hope to change this about myself.

Found on Pinterest, source unknown but list, not image, came from 12most.com

Ok so this one I found almost immediately after my "Flight of Fancy" post last week when Iwas really thinking hard about who I am and who I want to be. One major thing I want to change about myself is my insecurities when it comes to friendships. Now I am not going to go into it too much in this post as this issues alone is worthy of its' own post. 

Found on Pinterest, uploaded by user. Original image source unknown.

Now I am a very creative person however I can not say I have a special talent but I am most definitely passionately curious about a lot of things in this world.

Found on Pinterest from Tumblr. Original image source unknown.

Alright last one and this one really does not require much of an explanation but really just sums up where I am right now; looking forwards not backwards!

Found on Pinterest, uploaded by user. Original image source unknown.

x Renee

Thursday Gardening Journal - Magic In Our Garden

So a lovely little blog I read in my down time, haha jokes I do not get down time and if I do my eyes are shut tight. Any who as I was saying I really do enjoying following Rach over at Squiggly Rainbow. Her terrariums are AWESOME!!! I can not wait to buy one of her kits and set up for the kids, maybe Santa could bring one.

On her blog, Rach has started Thursday Gardening Journal.

I love this idea for a couple of reasons; 1. I need to post more often but do not often have the time nor energy to think of witty (I think I'm witty even if others don't) content in the hopes of amusing anyone who might happen to read my blog and 2. I have fallen in love with the idea of starting our own sustainable urban/micro farm so linking up to TGJ will give me the motivation to see this latest fad of mine become more than a "Flight of Fancy". Wow that was a long sentence, oh how my English teacher must be cringing at the thought of me lose behind a keyboard. My Secretrial Studies teacher, on the other hand, would be totally stoked with my mad type skills.

About two weeks I had the sudden urge to pull out the adorable Tinkerbell Fairy Garden set I had bought from Little Green Fairies a while ago for Lil Miss.

Image from Green Little Fairies

Instead of just give Lil Miss the lovely little package I decided it would be fun and exciting if I gradually added parts of the kit every few days, of course missing those days she was a complete Diva and didn't deserve to have fairies living in her garden.

Off we went to our local nursery and selected half a dozen pretty coloured flower plants. After I eventually remembered to buy potting mix, oops my bad again, we got our hands dirty and arranged the plants in a large pink (of course) tub.

Over the next week and a half the fairies started to make themselves right at home and Lil Miss was thrilled to check out the latest construction efforts each morning.

I even had a little fun using my new iPhone macro len too;

This past Tuesday, after cleaning and sorting her room while she was at daycare, I left her a little surprise for her to find on her return home. On the off chance you do not speak Fairy, the little note reads "Sprinkle some fairy dust, chime the bell and soon we will have all moved in, Love The Fairies".

So not wanting to offend the fairy gods we set about sprinkle dust and ring chiming bells all over the backyard.

Boy, oh boy did the fairies move in, there are a heap of the little creatures hanging out in there now.

I am not sure who is more exciting about play fairies in Lil Miss's Fairy Garden, her or me.

If you have made a fairy garden for anyone special and have blogged about it I would love for you to post a link in the comments.

x Renee

Flight of Fancy

We recently watched a movie called, Wanderlust , now I wouldn't say it is a brilliant, could watch it over and over again, movie but it does have its funny moments. One in particular is;

Wayne: "My name's Wayne by the way, I'm a nudist"

George; "Oh yes we noticed your penis earlier"

Wayne: "Touché". 

That a side though, a scene from this movie really hit home with me and has stuck with me every since.  It was a scene between the two main characters played by Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston. Here is the scene; 

 

No word of a lie when I saw this on our television I was imagining them with hubby and my heads on their bodies (oh how I would love to have Jen’s body). My hubby is supportive though and so is George. What I am realising or have really know all along, but found too hard to admit to myself, is that it is I am the unsupportive one. I am unsupportive of myself. I have become so accustomed at just letting things slip away when I grow bored or come against a stumbling block.

For example, my passion for sewing. Just over two years ago I found the joy of sewing and loved it so much that it did go from just a hobby to a passion. That passion had me create a community of like minded people from all over Australia and the world too. I threw all of myself into this group and ate up the energy I felt. This time though I gave too much of myself and burnt out. Then after one small, trivial run in with a member I opted out, leaving a few lovely people in the lurch. This community had the potential, online, to become more than a hobby or passion. It could have helped bring in a few extra dollars to the household had I played my cards right. I didn’t though and now after throwing money into that we did not really have I have a blog sitting gathering virtual dust and someone, somewhere is probably jumping at the opportunity that I let slip away.

Another example is before I had children, around the time hubby and I we’re married I had a grand plan to start a screen printing business. I did a little research and conned my mum into bank rolling my start up costs. Well guess where all the tools of that little venture is now, sitting in my mum’s garage gathering dust and my mum’s money is still to be made in order to pay her back.

I could list several more pathetic attempts at starting my own hobby businesses but I won’t bore you, I am sure you get the picture. I am passionate, I do throw myself into my latest craze with both feet first, never testing the waters before jumping in. This is one of my top three things I want to change about myself.

My Top Three Grow Up and Own It List

1.       EAT RIGHT –teach my family a better way of eating.

2.       PLANT MY FEET – find real that I want to do and can realistically do to help support out family

3.       LOSE THE LONER – this one calls for a post all of it’s own and will be published next week but for now so that my friends don't think I am calling one of them a loser just be clear - I am the loser.

Until next time xxxx