Acorn Collective

Holiday fun

Mike and I were lucky enough to spend three days in Sydney at the end of November.

Without the kids.

Seriously.

Without the kids!

Our first holiday alone in six years.

That's pretty sad I know, but let's just say it was worth the wait.

Bronte beach pool was amazing.

More amazing, actually shocking and worrying, was that young men were throwing themselves off the white picketed fence into the pool below which was only about three foot deep. They were doing belly flops, but my heart was in my mouth thinking that I was going to witness a horrible spinal injury at any moment.

My handsome hubby.

Shoes?

Did someone say shoes?

Nope.

I didn't see any shoes.

None at all.

Move along people, no shoes to be seen here...

We arrived home mid morning on Tuesday and at that point we realised that there was something seriously wrong with Mike's elbow.

It had been getting sorer and sorer throughout the holiday but when it started swelling up on the plane we knew trouble was a brewin'.

A night in hospital, IV antibiotics and a prescription for hardcore antibiotic to take at home, was what ensued. A staph infection. His arm was the size of a football, in fact it looked just like Popeye's. I really wish I had taken a picture of it.

Anyhoo, that was the price we paid for our little trip.

Ha.

The kids had a ball with my mum. And Ma was pleasantly surprised at how much fun she had and offered to do it all again.

Yippee.

I am already putting together an itinerary.

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I am full steam ahead with Christmas pressies, although I keep having this recurring nightmare about somehow pushing my finger under the needle of my sewing machine and sewing through my fingernail.

What is that about?

I am going bunting crazy again.

I can't stop making it.

Here is some I made for one of Matilda's little friends.

And some for my friend's little girl.

And everyone needs some festive bunting for the house.

This isn't bunting, it's the quilt I am making for Ma for Xmas.

Oh, and the one I am doing for Mike's scary scary Nonna.

And here's a bit of the Advent calender I still haven't finished.

And that's about it for now.

No pressure or anything to get it all finished by next week......what the?

How are all your Christmas preparations coming along?

I am having some friends over on the weekend and I thought I would cook a whole turkey, cos I have never done that before, and seriously, how hard could it be?

Well, duh, have you seen HOW BIG TURKEYS ARE??

They are HUGE!

Seriously, if I were to cook one of those suckers we would be eating it for the rest of the year.

I've only got 6 adults and 6 kids coming over - we would really really be eating it forever.

So that begs the question, how many people would it take to eat a Turducken?

(you know, a turkey stuffed with a duck stuffed with a chicken)

And what kind of sick puppy thought of that in the first place?

Psycho.

A party...anyone for a party?

Super exciting news.......my sister is engaged!

Whoohoo!

She is coming out here for her honeymoon in May next year with her hubby and my gorgeous niece Daisy.

Oh my gosh, I am getting my fantasy wedding gear groove on in my head. I am going to chuck a huge party for them in celebration.

Well not literally huge- but huge in preparation and decoration, the most important parts of a wedding don't you think? Forget about all that namby pamby I love you more, no I love you more, you give meaning to my life romantical carry on.

Barry White?

Calling on Barry White...are you free?

Josh Pyke, you rock!

So it was my birthday a little bit ago and for said occasion my hubby procured for us tickets to go see Mr. Josh Pyke.

This may not mean very much to you - you may very well be saying to yourself, 'who is Josh Pyke?', well I can help you there. He is an Australian singer/ songwriter responsible for three fab albums that are currently the soundtrack to my life. I just can't stop playing them over and over and over. Even Matilda knows the words to some of his songs.

Anyway, let's just say that my cup runneth over on Friday night when I was right up the front of the crowd, hanging on to my hubby as tightly as I could in absolute aural rapture.

Not the best photo I know, but who cares, I was there! 

He played at the Fremantle Arts Centre, which is a great venue and one I had not been to before. We started the night sitting on a quilt drinking Little Creatures Pale Ale out of pint bottles, taking a moment every here and there to look up into the night sky full of stars. It was magical.

(thanks Mike, thanks thanks thanks)

Last weekend we were invited to a Halloween party - our very first. Actually I remember celebrating when I was a child in the UK, but Aussies tend not to go too crazy over it (there was that one time when I was about 19 and I went trick or treating with a mate, all dressed up as murdered 'gangster's molls' - we didn't get any lollies but instead all the dad's kept giving us alcohol; we were smashed by the time we got home.) Anyway, I thought I would go ahead and make snot green cupcakes, cos, well, that's what ghouls and boils eat, dontcha know.

I was kinda hoping that the kids would poo green poo - which would have really extended the celebrations....but no. All normal in that regard. Ho hum.

I did a blue poo once (is that too much information?) I drank about 7 Malibu Slings which were bright blue, and before I knew it, blue poo. I wish the kids had been around to see that. Ha! I can just Imagine the look that would be on the teacher's face when Matilda brought that up in 'news' at school, they'd have family services around in no time.

I digress.

The kids had loads of fun at the party, hyped up on food colouring and sweeties and were asleep about two minutes after they fell into bed. Ah, sweet joy.

Then on Wednesday I hosted an impromptu party for my friend's little girl - I was free, the house was relatively clean, I felt like cooking.

I made something I have never made before - behold: the Towering Alaska from Annie Bell's Gorgeous Cakes

An almond cake topped with whipped cream, jam and mini meringues.

Oh. My. God.

YUM.

It lasted about two minutes before it was devoured by us all. The little meringues were all soft and marshmallowy inside. Did I say OMG? OMG!

I will make this again. Lots. Although I will probably have to run for about five hours straight to work off the calories. It would be worth it.

I kept Matilda home from school to share in the fun (and have some cakey goodness) and we spent the time when the other two kids were asleep playing our new favourite game Silly Sentences.

The only problem was that there were not enough adjectives to make really silly sentences, which was what I was hoping for; you know, like, 'the horrid hairy horse jumped over a spotty spikey boy'.

Moan moan moan.

Maybe I should create my own stinking game and not play other people's crummy ones. Maybe I should. I could call it "Beth's Best Game in the World' with a byline, 'It's the best game in the world'. But I'd only let two people play it, and then they'd be like 'wow! That's the best game in the world' and everyone else on the planet would want to play it but they couldn't cos there was only two sets and then there'd be a huge bidding war and someone would end up paying fifty seven billion dollars just to play the best game in the world and I would be super super rich.

Wow.

Maybe I should lay off the coffee.

Dirty bloggy stop out

Sometimes life just gets in the way of stuff I want to do.

I mean 'life' in a nice way. Hanging with the kids, reading awesome books (the Time traveller's Wife, Amsterdam, Persuasion) going out dancing with my friends, watching crappy tv shows, eating icecream, buying stuff I don't need on etsy, cuddling with the hubby.....all that sort of thing.

It can really stuff up a girls' plans.

Plans for.......finishing up Nonna's Christmas quilt, hand quilting the advent calender before December begins, starting work on the quilt I accidentally suggest I make for a friends' daughter's 18th, doing any exercise of any sort.....and composing a post.

I know, I know, poor poor me. How terrible it is to have to suffer through all those stressful things and not get anything done.

I know that the only pressure to get anything done at all other than drag myself out of the bed and provide three meals and two snacks per day is pressure I put on myself. (Oh, and the washing. I had better include that cos I don't want you to get the impression that I would ever leave that to pile up and fester)

I do work best to a deadline. I got all the way through my degree writing my assignments the night before they were due. So, dammit, I will get my list of 'to make' projects finished and I will fit in the required three runs, two swims and two bike sessions a week to get me back up and ready for tri season.

Maybe.

What I would really love to add here is a selection of gorgeous photos of the kids, a few of my recent projects and a tarty one of me and my friends out to celebrate my birthday.

(I may or may not have spewed my guts up in the carpark of the pub......depending on public opinion. i.e. If you think that's klinda cool, then heck yeah, I lost everything right in front of the bouncers - Mike's co-workers, and if you think that kind of behaviour is inexcusable then, no way was that drunken bogan me.)

But of course I cannot show you any of that. cos. our. stupid. stupid. camera. still. isn't. fixed.

Aaaaarrrgh!

You suck Mr CompactFlash.

I may have mentioned before that my stupid stupid camera was playing up a bit.
Well I was wrong in that it was not the camera that was stupid but the stupid stupid compactflash card.

Arrgh!
Some of you may have noticed that I had not yet uploaded the spoils of the August swap (oh, really? hadn't noticed, don't pay all that much attention to stuff like that........) well that's because the photos have disappeared. Yep, just straight out disappeared. The camera says that I have taken 123 pics but the bloody compactflash reads only 5.
5!!!!
Gosh darn it, gosh knit it and flipping well gosh fudge it.
Stupid stupid stupid.
Do you get the feeling that I am annoyed?
I am flipping annoyed.

Breathe... breathe... breathe... - out with anger, in... in... in... with Johnny Depp.

That's better.
Johnny makes everything better, don't you think.

As I am typing Henry is in his room for rest time and I can hear him reciting Where is Green Sheep....oh, and now he is chucking stuff at the door. Hmmmmm. He may well be rearranging the bedroom, but you know what? He can knock himself out, cos he is not coming out until I have finished my cup of tea. Or my post. Whichever occurs first.

My daughter's little friend turned six this week so I decided to make her a pillow for her bed. I started with a precious piece of Aunty Cookie fabric and worked my way out.

I love that Aunty Cookie; her blog cracks me up.

I have also been busy sewing a little something for a new arrival - I don't want to spoil any surprises, so here is just a hint.....

Pink is certainly the colour around here at the moment.
My mum dropped off a paint by numbers canvas for Matilda to do this weekend. The pack included six very suspect acrylic paints. Suspect in that they didn't smell like any kind of acrylic paint I have come across before. The aroma kinda brought tears to my eyes as it was so chemically.
That can't be right can it?
Probably given my kid lead poisoning or something cos I was too lazy to chuck it away and get the non-toxic stuff we normally use.
Sometimes I like to live on the edge.
Anyhoot, in the pack was this - perfect candidate for Fail Blog.

Um hello! Not 'red'. PINK. Sheesh.

Mike showed me this awesome video last week and so I thought I'd share.
Makes me wanna dance.
And I am gonna be getting my groove on this Thursday when I will be right up the front of the crowd watching the gorgeous Beyonce strut her stuff right here in Perth.
Yep.
I love her and am not too proud to admit it.
I am gonna stick some sparkles on, fluff up my hair and pray my pelvic floor is up to the challenge.