... something for kate

life moves way too fast, if you don't stop once in a while you could miss it...

random pic... miss Mimi Mason 'reading' peppa pig - twins love peppa!

i've been a terribly slack blogger at recording life things recently but hopefully i'm catching up a bit now.  apart from sickness & commitments, there's been a fair bit of work pumped out of here lately for commissions and other things for shop in time for Christmas.

meanwhile life is whizzing by, the twins conversation is exploding all the time and georgia and charlotte are into everything around here. always needing an activity - playdoh, drawing, dress ups, felt boards, drawing, cutting up with scissors, drawing, using way too much sticky tape, drawing, barbies, painting.... quite the little misses [and messes]. 
and amelia & chelsea just follow them around like little puppy dogs hoping and desperately wanting to join in with everything their big sisters do... we are having to coordinate activities for morning [twins play time] usually dress ups, reading, watching abc kids, duplo, free play [this means make mess], trying on and wearing 15 pairs of shoes each, not necessarily matching AND then afternoon activities [twins sleep time] messy art things, playdoh etc.

managing all these activities in our house can sometimes be a challenge. i have invested lots of time sorting toys to zones - up or downstairs, bedrooms/ playroom, art room or kitchen - depending on when they are likely to play with them, which ones are suitable for when we have friends over, which ones can be freely accessible for the 2 shortest people in my house etc...

but even with all these sytems, improvements can be made. some things could work even better.  i want to move things around a little as the big girls are not getting enough unlimited art time as their art desk upstairs is situated right outside the twins bedroom. so i've been bringing things downstairs which is a pain and not a particularly good system as i'm then having to cart upstairs again which by itself is no huge deal but when the schedule runs pretty tight and i am moving 4 kids upstairs whilst carrying bottles/washed clothes/other things belonging upstairs, well its just another thing you know? or another trip leaving twins unsupervised at some point,... the joys of terrible two's twins and a 2 storey house!
so anyway, i like to have the house set up with the 'everything has a place' type method and this kinda rubs me up the wrong way. its not efficient. also, the afternoons would be a perfect time for the girls to get onto the computer and play reading eggs quietly when twins aren't climbing all over them trying to play with the mouse, but again the main mac with internet is upstairs, next to twins room and the big girls can't do their art or their reading eggs quietly enough so the twins can sleep peacefully. 

on top of this, it would be totally amazing to think that if i worked out a solution to this, that i may also even get one-two hours during daylight while twins were sleeping, to do some art too with my big girls.  they are at the stage where i can put paints in front of them, pencils, crayons, sticky tape, glue, a busy box [full of boxes, packaging, toilet rolls etc], scissors etc and they would merrily play for hours without getting bored. so i have some reconfiguring to do.  doing anything for myself that didn't take longer than 10mins, during daylight has just been put on the backburner for the last few years and thats absolutely ok. i never expected to get any me time during daylight, but it would be a lovely reward and a nice thing at this particular age & stage of my girls. 2 big girls would love to create alongside me, twins still nap in the afternoon...  and even if i just did some prep work for the evening, well i would be miles in front of where i am now.

an art studio upstairs AND downstairs, both complete with mac - is that too much? too greedy? anyway, the way I am going, i think in future years i am going to have to take over the double garage as i can hardly move in MY art space [which i share with the girls]. i have so many projects on the go, paint & mediums everywhere, paper, well too much paper really, napkin packets like you would not believe, packaging materials for despatch, piles and piles of canvases.... 

but you know what? these are nice middle class australian mummy problems - in other words, they are petty, pedantic and not really problems at all. and i am grateful for that, and obviously don't get too stressed about them. nevertheless this blog is recording our lives and these are some of things that occupy my mind while i am changing nappies, preparing meals, trying to create at night, moving my little girlies like cattle from one pasture [up] to another pasture [down] several times daily.....

i guess i am a systems and logistics kinda girl. i wish my brain would switch off sometimes but it never does. at least it works well for the moment and for that i grateful too.
off to bed, to try slow the brain down.
kate
xo

 

perspective & attitude for 2010...

its always this time of year where i get very excited about my new diary for the new year. i want to abandon my current year diary altogether and get cracking on filling in all the personal info in my new diary. well during this year ['09], for the first time in many many many years, i abandoned my diary and went all electronic! my iPhone is an extension of me and completely synced with my Mac so i have my complete diary & appointment system with me 24/7. SO fabulous darling!

but i did also buy a nice diary for 2010 anyway. i think i will use it partly for visual diary scribbles and partly for daily to do lists/goals. all appointments etc will be stored in iCAL on Mac & iPhone.

so anyway as i was saying, its this time of year i get all excited about what i want to achieve in the new year. fresh new perspective and attitude, brand new goals...

if you think you might be looking to adjust your perspective & attitude for 2010 and maybe don't know how to pull yourself out of the doldrums, i recommend reading this.

click here.

i think if she can get herself up every morning with all she has to deal with, and achieve amazing things, then most of us could do it too. i know its hard. i know its really hard to get motivated but once you get going with something new, its infectious!

anyway, i have found this amazing woman to be such an inspiration. - to keep going, to keep living life to the full. to use my alone time while kids are sleeping to do things that recharge my batteries, which in turn make me feel good about myself and gives me the energy to be a good mum during the kids waking hours.

i'm trying to be kind to myself [because i am so imperfect in so many ways] about all the stuff that i do achieve.  i know i am good at organising this home and we have set up pretty good systems so most things just run like clockwork because we have trained ourselves [and are now sharing those skills with the kids] so our house runs a particular way. maybe its all the years of business experience i had actually being useful in our domestic world. best practice, continuous improvement, economies of scale....  buzz buzz. but really in many ways, the systems we have here really have helped us to all know what page we are on and how things work.  

there's also the improvements i work on personally that make a difference in some way, to how much i get done:

i am proud that I don't say, "i'm too busy" when in the evenings one sits on the couch watching tv - i very rarely do this, such a time waster! if i do take time out on a saturday night to watch a movie with my husband, i am always doing something - cutting up paper, sticking, gluing, sketching ideas....

i am proud that this year I have been going to gym regularly even though i have 4 kids and a household to run + my part-time evening job + my little art business. for so many years with renal failure i just couldn't bring myself to do anything but hold down my job. i'm better, i owe to myself to get this body moving! and its addictive!!

i am proud that i am trying to get to bed even just a tiny bit earlier to keep up reading, its important. might only be 2 pages, but i do finish books. want to keep learning, keep dreaming, keep my brain alive.

now i really could mop my floors more often, i know that. but at the end of my life i'd rather have painted one more painting per week than mop my floors. i don't want to be remembered for exceptionally clean floors. nor do i want to be known for amazingly organised linen cupboards or ironed sheets. nup, not for me.

next year i want to add some kind of formal study to my schedule. it'll only be small, whether its photography or graphics subjects. i can't return to uni just yet, kids are the priority right now. but i do want to fit in some kind of short term evening thing. in the interests of lifelong learning....

time is always an issue for everyone but i know from personal experience that i fit in SO much more to my life now that i have 4 kids than before i had any. it's possible to waste many many minutes away procrastinating [and i sure do fit in alot of that STILL] but i also get started, get cracking & do stuff too. i also have slow days and sick kid weeks and nights where i just can't be bothered.  i am far from perfect and i do not have all the answers - of course i don't!

but little improvements to ones life? - it absolutely can be done, adding one interest/hobby at a time, one small life improvement each month.... and that's not to say sometimes you can't throw the whole schedule out and have a complete day off, of course, that kind of spontaneity is good for the soul too!  but so is starting something new & exciting and/or responsible. will definitely make you feel better about yourself!  

since my transplant, adding [on average] one baby each year for the last 4 years, we've had no choice but to improve our house, our lives, our health.  we work hard at it and while we don't do many things perfectly, we always have the best intentions and know we are trying the best we can for our kids whilst trying to get the best out of life for ourselves too. all of that brings about some inner peace i guess. but every year there's some improvement that can be made and in addition to some study i just thought of something else....  

next year i want to spend a little more time in our garden.  i used to have a great herb/veggie patch and i want this again. the girls are showing great interest in the outdoors now and always love picking me daisies.  i want to extend this further and get some edible things growing again.  

wow - so this turned out to be a larger reflection on the past year and the plans for the future than i had intended, but thats ok. good to document.  lets see how i do this time next year!

so what changes are you gonna make next year, or are you living one of those completely 100% mature & responsible + blissful lives? 

tell me, i can keep secrets xo

kate
xo

a new kinda life...

well it seems like lots has changed around here lately.  

the ol' world financial crisis has taken its toll on our little family with my husband now working one week on, one week off.  that of course means we have to live with substantially less money. which is ok, we budget well.  well actually, my husband budgets well.  i just have to try to stick to my little pocket money allowance and not overspend!  we have everything we need here in the way of comforts and we are home bodies anyway, so we are just fine.  zoo membership is already paid for so we can visit the zoo for zero cost as often as we wish too.

having the man about the house more often means my routine is out of whack though.  i was used to being with the girls by myself for much of the time and now i have a helper!  because i am not busy as usual, i find myself getting idle some times and don't like to just sit and do nothing.  i do not do my artwork during the day so am finding that i need to work out some new strategies for the weeks jeff is home. the big girls and i used to either watch a movie, play dress ups, do puzzles or their artwork while the twins would be sleeping.  but now it seems we have larger blocks of time available to us as jeff can either put the twins to bed or get them up etc...  i don't just have to structure short activities between twins down to bed and twins awake!

so we did some baking this last week with the big girls while the twins were sleeping which was fun.  i think we will build in at least one session of cooking with them per week.  that is cooking other than them helping to prepare lunches and dinners [which they always like to be involved with at some level, even if it is just eating raw carrot while i am chopping veggies...!]

we might even start doing some more complex artworks.  finger painting, acrylic/ water painting, gluing & sticking, punching and drawing have been the extent of our art projects as inevitably we have to stop & quickly clean away mess once the twins wake up.  now with the buffer zone, otherwise known as jeff, we can get into some more serious artmaking!  hmmm, i'll have to plan some things.

and the other major change is that georgia now does 4 sessions at pre-school each week.  on the weeks jeff is home, one of us can pop out with either one or no other children to drop off or pick up georgia.  the weeks he is working however, i have to load up the 4 of them in the car, get them into the pram, walk in to school, drop george off, walk back to the car and load the other 3 in again.  before i know it, its pickup time!  some days, jeff can do the pickup, others not.  so there is a fair bit of new scheduling going on here and we are all still finding our feet.  in the weeks jeff works days, i now have to do my graphic work work at night too rather than getting the occasional block of time during the day to get my work done.  so that means i need to procrastinate less over the smaller time slots i get to do my personal artwork.  but that's ok, we are working it all out.

so with georgia at pre-school along comes new responsibility too.  we have to empty the school bag every day or risk finding brown half eaten apples...  we need to check through the weekly school newsletter.  there's pictures and paintings and project work that needs to be displayed and rotated through.  there are lunches to pack.  we need to remember which day is library day.  its all a bit new to us.  exciting, a little scary, a tiny glimpse into what it'll be like when we have 4 at school and all the things we will need to coordinate.  but of course i love a challenge and am already fantasising about all the books i get to cover for them with the start of each new year.  all the book & stationery purchases that will need to be made.  the reading time i can offer in the classroom, the days i work at the tuck shop.  the parents & friends committee meetings.  the arty gifts and nicely covered journals i can make for the mothers day stalls.  the many lists and schedules that i can make to ensure we are all organised perfectly.  the sitting down altogether at the 'homework' table and working harmoniously through every subject for each child [should be harmonious and efficient right?]  ok ok so i may be a complete dork and delusional about most of this, but i'm not there yet so i'll just fantasise a bit longer thanks.

the other thing that is taking some getting used to is having jeff in 'my' kitchen during dinner preparation. he always finds some reason to pop into my space now that he's home during every dinner time, and get under my feet while i am chopping vegetables, tossing pans, plating up [all in full masterchef style of course].  

here's a pic of my girlies first thing in the morning, looking out our bedroom window.  all wearing their snuggly winter warm home clothes.  i now 'throw' all 4 of them in the shower in the morning and they love it!!  i do appreciate the weeks that jeff is at home, particularly for mornings.  when i am on my own, 4 little people to undress, shower, scrub, dry and dress takes a bit of efficiency and coordination early early in the morning.  and i'm not so good in the morning!  

 

so all in all, just a change in routine.  we'll be used to it all soon and be in the pattern of knowing when our big and little time slots are to program in jobs and activities.  we'll work out each others space in the kitchen during dinner service and we'll or at least i'll start trying to get to bed a little before midnight so the mornings aren't quite so tiresome.

lastly, here's my twinnies in their beloved dorothy pyjamas just about to have their bedtime wiggle stories.  they are completely OBSESSED!!!!!!!  you should hear chelsea singing and dancing to 'dorothy, dorothy, dorothy the dinosaur...'  she is so cute.

amelia [L] and chelsea [R].

kate

xo

amelia & chelsea turn one...

wow, even though its been a long year with excitement, hard times, huge gifts and challenges, its really been an amazing year. its been like a whirlwind, a blur and almost surreal.  and here we are, a whole year has passed since my beautiful babies came into the world.

after some pressies in the morning, we all dressed up and went to a dear friend of the family's 100th birthday party.  yes 100!  amazing.  she was 100 the day the twins turned one, so it was lovely to be able to photograph them together.

here's my girls in some of their new outfts from Christmas.

the next day we had a little party for the twins.  here's my birthday girls in their new outfits from uncle gerry [my brother] including a patch of cake on said new skirt!

and their cake i whipped up the night before...

and another of all the party girls after their long big day...

the twins got some beautiful presents, lots of fab books, some gorgeous clothes, babushka dolls and a few toys.  we got them a play gym with swing and little slippery dip for outside, some blocks, one of those tupperware shape toys, a book and an outfit.  very lucky girls indeed.

ok thats all for today,

kate

xo

tuna salsa & chilli chips...

another one of my fave zesty creations and pretty low in calories too.  every time i make this for myself for lunch, my 2 & 3 yo's want a piece of the action too - they love it!  although i don't let them have the chilli chips - I like them way too hot. they just have salsa on crackers, ha!

chilli chips:

1-2 slices of mountain bread [i prefer rye], cut into corn chip size

spray olive oil spray over the mountain bread 'chips' then sprinkle a little cajun and/or cayenne pepper [if you like hot hot hot] then toast in the oven until they are ever so slightly brown

tuna salsa:

a can of tuna in spring water, drained

one large or two small  tomatoes, diced

one lebanese cucumber, diced

optional but good for you:

1 tbsp pepitas

1 tspn lsa mixture

1 tspn linseeds

1 small Spanish onion, diced or chopped spring onion

mix together in a bowl 

serve & enjoy!

kate

xo

hot potato hot potato... poetry for chels... & organising albums...

one of my signature dishes... cajun potatoes.  if i don't say so myself.... they are good, really good, really hot & spicy!  my own made up recipe because i'm a hot & spicy junkie!

i was just involved in a recipe exchange so thought i'd make a batch and photograph for my recipe book and why not post here too!

how to make:

preheat oven,  220 degrees 

wash baby potatoes, dry them & cut yucky bits off

spread olive oil onto the base of a baking dish

throw potatoes in whole

sprinkle sea salt or regular iodized salt, cracked pepper and a generous amount of cajan spice

shake baking dish back & forth until the oil covers all the potatoes

one more little sprinkling of salt, pepper & cajan spice then pop into the oven

bake for 2 hours, shaking the potatoes regularly  to ensure they cook nicely all round

depending on your oven, gradually turn temp down so potatoes don't burn & dry out

serve hot, should be spicy & crispy on the outside and like mashed potato that melts in your mouth on the inside!

bon appetit!

poetry for chelsea

by a dear friend of mine.  thankyou YOU xo

i cannot tell you how much it means to have you thinking of my little precious so much that a poem just spilled out this morning.  hope you don't mind me sharing it here.  its beautiful.

the emotional outpourings from all over lately has been overwhelming.  this little girl has so many people on her side and cheering her on.  i feel just so lucky, thank you everyone.  oxoxxooxxoxo

GODSPEED CHELSEA! 

Godspeed little Chelsea

Stay strong little girl

Grow up to be a beautiful woman

And make your mark upon this world

 

Smile your cheeky smile Chels

And fling your arms around

Kick those little legs of yours

And come home safe and sound

 

Feel your sisters’ energies

Feel their love inside your heart

Know you belong to all of them

You’re not meant to be apart

 

You have strength in your little body

You have wisdom in your soul

You have parents who adore you

You – who make them feel whole

 

Your life is precious Chelsea

Your essence cannot be undone

Have strength in your journey Chels

Godspeed little one

organising albums...

a project i have been wanting to do forever...  when you have scrapped a whole whopping bunch of layouts like i have over the years, and not necessarily chronologically, it becomes a mammoth task to try and work out which photos you have scrapped and which ones you haven't!  maybe that's not the case for everyone, but my memory of my layouts is definitely starting to get blurry.  this afternoon while the twins were sleeping and the big girls were busy playing, i decided to sit down and sort them into piles.

i've decided i am going to mix all sizes of layouts into the one 12x12 sized album and will have the following albums:

whelan family & friends

mason family & friends

jeff & kate mason family & friends

J&k mason family travel

jeff 

kate

georgia

charlotte

amelia

chelsea

i think just about everything is covered, well certainly all layouts i've done to date fit into these categories.  so anyway, i sat on the floor and pulled all the layouts out of all my albums and filed them all into their respective piles [future album piles] and also filed them chronologically.  i'll have to check on some of the dates of photos in i-photo as its hard to tell the exact timing of some of georgia's baby photos 3 years ago but i reckon i'm pretty close.  so here they all are, pulled out of albums, waiting to be sorted.... and soonish to be re-filed back into their correct album.

big job but it sure will make scrapping much easier in the future.  i can also go through my photo boxes and decide which photos, i'd like to scrap, make sure i haven't scrapped them before, then put them aside.  all other photos can then be chronologically stored in the new photo albums i bought a while back.  so excited to finally have a system.

up until now, its been hard to find layouts and work out where the gaps are in age & occasion, as i had various sized layouts across several albums.  

was such a great day today.  i don't think we had the tv on at all and i don't think the girls noticed.

they were so busy colouring in while i was posting on the computer, then while i was sorting layouts, they were on the computer doing 'barney stuff' [games & printing off more colouring sheets] and also doing photo booth 'funny photos' which keeps them entertained for ages!  the twins had a huge sleep, together [!!!yay!!!] while all this was going on which always gives me a huge break!

gives me a chance to get a job done like this one and get some blog posting done which usually waits until late late late at night.  huge day for posting!  i seem to have so much energy today, could it be wii fit??? i am posting like a woman possessed! lol

kate

xo

creating space...

my art space [pre-small people] used to be massive.  i was even able to have all my clutter surrounding every inch of the room and have two trestles in the centre to hold classes.  but all that had to go... the kids needed somewhere to play and rightly so.

so we now have my creating space surrounding the walls, a tv/dvd/video setup off to one side, a couple of lounge chairs in the middle of the room and a dress up box off to another side.  we also have the kids ikea round table for activities.

its a happy joint creating & playing space and we all just love being up here.  when i have finished creating at night when they are all asleep, i have to pile up bins & stacked chairs so that my desk is out of reach to small hands and make sure that all the benches are clear of attractive looking things that could be dangerous or would look better in my projects than theirs!  my creating space is not open for business until they are all asleep at night.  but we do have lots & lots of activities and separate craft materials for the kids to use. alot of our stuff [my stuff & activity stuff for the kids] has been organised and sorted into cubes in the ikea expedits.  i still have more sorting to do, more cubes to buy etc but its getting there. 

so here's my ever changing space.  my organised chaos.  all my lovely things which i have hoarded seriously collected since i was about 14 years old. spilling over from shelf to desk to next hodge podge shelving unit, to desk again..... love it!

once i have the big girls to bed and amelia asleep [always the first to conk] i often sit in the middle of the room on comfy lounge chair, tv on, feeding chelsea, glancing around the room.  ideas start to swirl, i get inspired.  once my littlest sweetheart drops off into la la land, i head straight to my desk.  i unravel my stacked chairs and bins like a woman posessed just to get at my things.  what will i work on tonight i wonder? the house is quiet, except for i-tunes or background tv, & there are little pings from the computer as mail comes in. i have everything i need, perhaps even a little can of v and some chocolate, then i'm in MY creative heaven.

no doubt as the kids grow, it'll change with them.  i dream about the day that i will scrapbook here with my 4 daughters and share everything i have with them - well almost everything!

kate

xo

edited: i've been asked how i store my stuff & whether i can actually find anything in this big mess! believe it or not, i know where everything is. i love organising, and re-organising... gets the creative juices flowing every time.  so anyway, every 'thing' has a place.  i've listed a few examples in new pics above.  

one day perhaps all my storage units will be uniform in colour so it looks neater, perhaps not, but for now its a hodge podge of different shaped containers & shelves etc... and that's more than ok with me.

georgias 3rd birthday wrap up...

here's my big girl in one of her many birthday outfits. strangely i am turning into my mother, dressing my kids in vests & skivvys, sensible skirts & tights... oh dear, flashbacks to the 70's! and here's the dorothy cake i made which she has been planning & asking for, for the longest time. and lastly here is my 'soon to be big girl', charlotte. she'll be 2 in less than 2 weeks. cannot believe how tall she is getting. hard to believe & accept that she's not a baby anymore. i have to remind myself that she's a whole year younger than georgia. i expect so much of them and really, for the most part, she keeps up with georgia with everything. she really is so amazing. her conversational skills are incredible. georgia & charlotte both had reasonably big 1st birthday parties but for 2nd & 3rd's we decided to have just low key inexpensive sausage sizzles for immediate family. well.... our little 'inexpensive' sausage sizzle just for immediate family [for georgia's birthday] blew out to be pretty expensive! but of course jeff is one of 10 and between us we have lots of nephews & nieces. the house was full, crazy, chaotic but fun. the girls had a ball playing with their cousins & georgia got totally spoilt with lots of cool presents. kate xo

shopping, library, cooking & aaghhhh....

shopping...

big weekly grocery shop today, all 6 of us. we usually can't go a few metres or so without being stopped, "oh my is that 2 sets of twins you have... double trouble... oh you have your hands full... oh poor dad is outnumbered..." "yes yes thank you", of course we have heard it all & "no not 2 sets of twins", then even though we are very proud of our 4 girls, we quickly move on in the hope that no-one will breathe on our sick baby.

we have to be careful with chelsea that she stays well. so going anywhere in a concentrated environment where she could be touched/cuddled or breathed on for a period of time [by potentially sick people] isn't really suitable. the grocery store is one place we do enjoy as a family, we always have. we have our little routines, we make it fun & educational for the older girls, we enjoy the outing. well now there's 2 extra people coming along with us, so its a bit more full on but we still enjoy or family time out together.

we want to be fiercely independant & do as much ourselves with our kids [without help] as we can & that means either jeff or i do the grocery shop solo & leave the kids at home or we go out as a family. at the moment, we don't really go anywhere. weighing up whether we'll catch a cold at the supermarket vs. keeping all our kids shielded from the outside world completely is always such a terrible dilemna.

maybe in the future when chelsea is more stable the big girls can return to swimming and we can start playgroup or dancing or something. then we'll stop doing this big shop all together but for the moment its all we have so on we go...

library...

every fortnight or so we have been going to the library which is in the same complex as our supermarket. the big girls love it. they push carts around, filling them up with toys, books & dvd's. georgia loves the henry the octopus costume. must get to the ABC shop & get one for her birthday. another dilemna of course... whilst we don't mix with people in the library, we are touching stuff that other people have touched. i tell you i am seriously becoming a germophobe. our every move carries caution & a whole pile of guilt. whilst i love love love my home & we have everything we need for fun filled days, i do look forward to the day we can get out of here with all FOUR littlies and do whatever we please without potentially compromising any of them.

cooking...

this afternoon while the twins slept & the girls were half watching 'finding nemo' and running around playing, i decided to do a speed cooking session before i had to cook & get dinner on the table.

i made these mini quiches with mountain bread, took 5 mins and seriously so easy!!!!! no blind baking & a trillion times healthier than pastry.
* 3 slices of rye mountain bread
* cup low fat tasty cheese
* 200g shredded low fat ham
* 10 truss baby tomatoes cut in all wonky bits with kitchen scissors
* handful of baby spinich leaves
* 3 eggs
* splash of milk

mixed ingredients. cut mountain bread into 4 squares and lay over muffin tray holes. spooned in mixture & chucked in the oven until golden. i had 3 for dinner, naughty me! the rest i have in the freezer.

because the quiches were so quick i decided to make something else. so after 14 years worth of requests from my dear jeff, i finally made some of these....

courtesy: betty crocker or greens or something like that...

just no good at gingerbread men or biscuits or cake. not really a sweet eater so not really interested in cooking them. mind you i love cook books on ANY food so mum if you have a new cookbook on anything 'sweet' for my birthday, its ok, i'll still love it! LOL.

so anyway, jeff will get a nice surprise when he gets home tonight and sees the lunch box full of gingerbread men. a nice midnight snack!

aaaghhhh...

all girls are asleep. the house is quiet except for soft i-Tunes. love that 'sweet about me' by g.cilmi @ the moment. nice.

ok, heading to the art desk!

kate
xo

made a batch of these...

scrumptious. i'm flicking pastry for good & now using mountain bread for all baking. THE best i tell you!
they contain chicken, corn, spring onions, celery, snow peas, broccoli & bean shoots. i guess they are kind of like my vegetarian spring rolls but i added a little light philly & some chilli flakes.

i drizzled olive oil over the top, sprinkled cajan spice, cayenne pepper, sesame seeds and baked them in the oven. fabulous light dinner. have a batch in the deep freeze too. yum!

kate
xo