Colour swatches....

Well today we went out and spent some of our savings to replace our very sad looking couch (which we've had since 2002) and to buy a dining room table & chairs (or benches in our case).

So, our couch is a latte colour, whilst the dining table & benches are a medium brown wood (with red highlights). What I need help with, is what colours to work the accessories around. My idea is to blend it across both rooms - colours that work with both.

Right now I'm leaning towards either a maroon or light green with white gold. On the way home we dropped into Bunnings and grabbed a few paint swatches to decide on colours so here's where I need your help.

With browns in mind, what main contrast colour would you pick. Green or maroon?


Keep in mind that the green I'm thinking of is really more of a mint green, ,this is much darker



I have to say, I'm leaning more towards the mint green idea, but perhaps because it's different to what I've seen in most people's houses. :)

Oxymoron much?

Something only the Aussies will likely get, but via email from a head honcho today...

{said party will be held at the} 'classy Kings Cross' {insert establishment name} venue.

Perhaps it was the kind of day that I was having (which increasingly descended into futher chaos later in the afternoon), but this email had me laughing.

What country was Daddy from again?

Yesterday whilst I went and participated in a 'working bee' at my place of employemnt, Daddy took Miss M 2.5 to Taronga Zoo. Miss M LOVES animals and would happily spend hours squeezing the stuffing out of all of the puppies in our local pet store if we let her.

So in amongst all of the fabulous options of animals to tell Mummy about after she returned home (pygmy hippos, snow leopards...you get the idea!), Miss M regaled me with stories of the kangaroos, giraffes and her favourites...the sheep.

Must be all her Daddy's fault...he is a Kiwi-Aussie transplant after all. :)


A Daddy's girl after-all


Miss M makes friends with her giraffes


Petting the goat


I had fun Daddy!

Fun at the park :)

More of a photo blog today. Here are some shots of Maddy enjoying the Sydney sunshine at a Normanhurst park....


Practising for my fun run at daycare next month


Living the slide


What do you mean I can't just hang here?


A little girl in the wind


Trying out her new trike...


Uh Mum? My bottom is wet!

A clean house....

Nothing really to write home about today (I've been getting the 'hint hint' to update my blog from a certain family member! *L*) but am feeling very relaxed this evening looking around our unit and seeing it all clean and tidy. The husband is off visiting my friends from work, Miss M 2.5 is in bed. I COULD have just slipped on a girlie DVD (the 2 TV channels we have available to us are pretty pathetic options tonight) and sat back inhaling a packet of Oreo cookies, but instead I went all cyclonic on the unit. :)

I know I won't be smiling tomorrow morning when it looks like a tornado has hit (and Miss M can manage that in about 5 minutes)but for now I'm just going to sit back and enjoy.

Isn't it amazing how you can change? A nice movie or a nice dinner out used to be how we felt relaxed and happy. Now all it takes is a good cleaning frenzy and a sparkling clean house afterwards at the end of a long week of work and being a Mummy!

What floats your boat? :)

Little girls and dresses....

Any of you that have a toddler daughter could be next... *L* Beware, it's the case of the DRESS ADDICTION!

I swear, being a complete tomboy as a child, I never expected I was going to have a total princess as a daughter. Yes, I danced later in life and as a result wore wigs, dresses and make-up, but I honestly never thought Miss M 2.5 would suffer from the 'want my pwetty dancing dwess'. *L*

BTW - Thanks alot Tiff, Maddy saw the beautiful Ivy in her sunflower yellow Pumpkin Patch dress and HAD to have it. No other dress was going to do and thankfully they had ONE left and it was in her size.

Before, she didn't care what she wore, but now it HAS to be a dress she can dance in, preferably to Dora's dancing adventure or Dorothy the Dinosaur's DVD. I have to admit it though, watching her attempt to Irish dance like the two girls on the Dorothy DVD is one of the cutest things ever! :)

So here she is in all of her princessey glory...

And while I'm at it...

I HATE the NSW road rules. First, I who got my license in August 2006 was on my open license in Qld. If you're over 25, you only hold your P plate for a year before you go onto your opens.

So imagine my frustration when in July 2008, I walk into the RTA down here in Sydney to be a good girl and change over my license, only to find myself being handed a P1 license! No, not even a P2 license, a friggin' P1!

Note - This means I am limited to 0.00 blood alcohol level (not that I'm bothered because I hesitate driving the next day after having ONE drink traditionally anyway), limited to one passenger after 11pm or something equally ridiculous (no DOCS, I'm not neglecting my 2 year old daughter by leaving her at home for 15 minutes whilst I pick up my husband from the train station after he worked late - you see I have a P1 license and can't carry my 2 year old in the car in ADDITION to my husband!), and worse yet, limited to 90kms/hr. Yes, REALLY safe when the speed limit is 110km/hr on the freeway and you're being tail gated by a truck going down a hill!

There is no 'oh you're on an open in Qld so that makes you an open down here'. Because I was 6 FRICKIN weeks short of holding my license for 2 years, the cow behind the RTA counter very smugly laughed at me and told me I had to take a P1 and then sit some computer exam to get my P2 which I'm then stuck on for ANOTHER 2 years? WTF!?!?!

Even better, my license expires in February so I'm going to have to pay AGAIN to renew it even though I got no refund for my Qld OPEN license that was valid until August 2010!

So, my mood over the state of licenses in NSW was not sweetened when I opened the mail on Thursday to discover a 'reminder to pay notice' for supposedly driving in a T-way in June when we hired a car in June to look for rental properties. It got sent to Hertz first who kindly passed on my name and then I got the lovely 'reminder' notice and demand to pay in 2 weeks. It's $250++ bucks AND 3 points!!!!

May I point out that there is no real excuse for breaking road rules, but honestly, we got so lost at times when looking for rental properties (the Hertz we hired from had no TomToms/Navmans available) so it's entirely possible we accidently drove in a T-way. Yes, ACCIDENTLY. In the area it supposedly happened in, it's marked by a simple rectangular sign and we got nailed by the fixed camera. I love that you can make an honest mistake whilst being lost and there is no policeman to explain it to, whom might show a little leniency to the out-of-stater. Nup, just a stupid camera.

Another note - I honestly thought a t-way was a TRANSIT lane. If you have 2 or more people in the car in Qld, you can drive in the transit lane. It actually took a half-an-hour scouring of the RTA website to even realise what a T-way was!

Oh and thanks to my P1 license (even though I was driving on a full Qld license at the time of the offence - thus 12 points), I now have ONE point to last me. There is no way in heck I'm driving in the near future. I'd rather walk.

I'm so glad the revenue raisers managed to catch and penalise the big bad lost tourists. Why on earth would they want to catch the scores of people I see near my house EVERY day, ignoring stop signs, doing 70 in a 40km/hr zone and ignoring red lights.

Vent over!

When you're gone

If anyone is reading this blog you'll have noticed I haven't posted much lately. To be honest, I'm in a completely unsocial mood and not really enjoying the Sydney experience all that much.

It's been a pretty tough month with illness and the death of my 95 years young Nanna. It wasn't a great surprise to lose her, and she was ready to go. The chapel service was lovely and I was feeling very sombre & reflective about the whole thing. I figured I'd manage to get through the day without crying...that was until I went looking for my Pop and found him sitting alone in the chapel before the service. I touched him gently on the shoulder, to let him know we were there for him, to pay our condolences. His back stooped over, his shoulders hunched, he looked up at me with tears running down his face.
'Oh Becky...I was just lost in my thoughts'
My battle against tears was in vain at this point.

How could you be anything but lost? Pop and Nanna were both 95 and they'd been together since they were teenagers. 76 years. It would have been their 70th wedding anniversary this coming December.

I can't imagine it. Being with someone for that long and then losing them. We all know that one day we're going to be gone; but how do you go on when you're the one left on your own? I hope I never need to answer this question.

RIP Annie...I hope you're dancing with the angels. Or, as your three children suggested at the funeral, you're likely looking down and wishing you could boss them around! :)

Edited to add: Crazy Sister's sweet reply reminded me of the fresh air and delight that Miss M was at Nanna's funeral. In all of their innocence, sometimes it's the children that act in a way you never expected. She's 2.5. I haven't broached the subject of Nanna being in heaven with her, but somehow in the sombre atmosphere she understood the gravity of the moment.

As we all filed past to leave, we all placed a flower or two on her coffin. Dressed in her little white dress, Miss M gently placed the flower at the head of the casket and after I had done the same; she gave a little smile and waved at the coffin with a 'bye Nanna'. Somehow, she just knew.

Outside, she was full of smiles and giggles, the silence and reverence of the ceremony forgotten. She played, danced around and in all of the tears of the family & friends, she was a bright little spark of joy. I lost track of the wavering smiles and laughs she enticed out of people on Thursday. :)