Tree Change?

 I have just spent the weekend in a beautiful part of our country - Myrtleford.  Ok, I had to spend eight hours in the car to get there and back, but gees - it was worth it.  Just as we were heading in to this lovely little town, I decided I should get out my iPhone and start snapping some pictures.  The Autumn leaves reminded me of the trip I made as a teenager from the Gold Coast to Melbourne, and how stunned I was to see REAL LIFE Autumn leaves for the first time!  Queenslander's may have beautiful weather, but they miss out on one of nature's glorious shows.

Please don't judge me on the squashed bugs, as these were obviously taken through the car windscreen!

Whoops....these are my travelling jeans getting in the picture!

Why did we spend four hours in the car on this beautiful day I hear you ask?  Well, it was one of my dearest friend's 40th birthday party - so it was a Road Trip!  Danni had spoken of the beauty of her new little town, and how much she loved it.  To be perfectly honest, I think we were all astonished that our uber-fashionable friend, who was most at home in her Sass & Bide, would be content with her "Tree Change", but after seeing her gorgeous new home and the amazing surrounds, I can sort of understand.

Driving in to her street....

The little piggy pen

So freakin cute!

Amazing backyard view!

The Little House on the Prairie

You can sort of understand too now?

When the invitation came through for the big bash, I looked at the list of accommodation in town, and got straight on to Stayz.com.au and booked this darling pad - The Old Dairy.

Located on the main street, this converted dairy building is now a beautifully decorated three bedroom abode.  Perfect for the five of us who had shacked up together.

Divine little courtyard that caught the sunshine perfectly at dusk.

Stunning

And just for laughs....the ceiling fan that does not require blades.....interesting.

Conveniently positioned bakery across the road - great coffee I've been told!  Another random fact about me - I don't drink coffee!

Me & My Gal Pals!

So - that is Myrtleford!  We will definitely be back - but next time it will be with the tribe, and we'll go exploring in them there hills!  We won't be making a tree change anytime soon......but in exciting news - we had our home loan approved last week!  And we have a house lined up!  And now the hard work begins - renovations!

Would you, could you make a Tree Change?  Or are you more of a Sea Changer??

Another Nanna Post

You may have read this is some form, somewhere, somehow on some sort of technological gadget, but I only received this via email today.  So, sticking to my seemingly Nanna-like behaviour of late, I am going to share it with you.  It literally made me laugh out loud.  I am also going to copy and paste it on to the 13 year old's Facebook and may even "tag" all of his friends in it?  Or would that make me REALLY look like a Nanna?  Enjoy....

  

   
   "If you are 36, or older, you might think this is hilarious!

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were. When they were growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning.... Uphill... Barefoot... BOTH ways...yadda, yadda, yadda 

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way in hell I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on my kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!

But now that I'm over the ripe old age of forty (PLEASE NOTE - THIS IS THE ORIGINAL AUTHOR OF THIS - NOT MEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!), I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today.  You've got it so easy!  I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a damn Utopia!  And I hate to say it, but you kids today, you don't know how good you've got it! 

1) I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have the Internet.  If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the damn library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalogue!! (how many of you know the Dewey Decimal System???

2) There was no email!!  We had to actually write somebody a letter - with a pen!  Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox, and it would take like a week to get there!  Stamps were 10 cents!

3) Child Protective Services didn't care if our parents beat us.  As a matter of fact, the parents of all my friends also had permission to kick our ass! Nowhere was safe!

4) There were no MP3's or Napsters or iTunes!  If you wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself!

5) Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio, and the DJ would usually talk over the beginning and @#*% it all up!  There were no CD players!  We had tape decks in our car.  We'd play our favourite tape and "eject" it when finished, and then the tape would come undone rendering it useless.  Cause, hey, that's how we rolled, Baby!  Dig?

6) We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting!  If you were on the phone and somebody else called, they got a busy signal, that's it!

7) There weren't any freakin' cell phones either. If you left the house, you just didn't make a damn call or receive one. You actually had to be out of touch with your "friends". OH MY GOSH !!!  Think of the horror... not being in touch with someone 24/7!!!  And then there's TEXTING.  Yeah, right.  Please!  You kids have no idea how annoying you are.

8) And we didn't have fancy Caller ID either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was!  It could be your school, your parents, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, the collection agent... you just didn't know!!!  You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!

9) We didn't have any fancy PlayStation or Xbox video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics!  We had the Atari 2600!  With games like 'Space Invaders' and 'Asteroids'.  Your screen guy was a little square!  You actually had to use your imagination!!!  And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen.. Forever!  And you could never win.  The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died!  Just like LIFE!

10) You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing!  You had to get off your ass and walk over to the TV to change the channel!!!  NO REMOTES!!!  Oh, no, what's the world coming to?!?!

11) There was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning.  Do you hear what I'm saying? We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little rat-bastards!

12) And we didn't have microwaves.  If we wanted to heat something up, we had to use the stove!  Imagine that!

13) And our parents told us to stay outside and play... all day long.  Oh, no, no electronics to soothe and comfort.  And if you came back inside... you were doing chores!

14) And car seats - oh, please!  Mom threw you in the back seat and you hung on.  If you were lucky, you got the "safety arm" across the chest at the last moment if she had to stop suddenly, and if your head hit the dashboard, well that was your fault for calling "shot gun" in the first place!

See!  That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled rotten!  You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in the 1970's   or any time before!

Regards,
The Over 40 Crowd"

Relate much?  Or are you a young whipper-snapper whom this makes absolutely no sense to?

Random Rambling...

Today, I was going to come and write a post about others cynicism towards all things good.  Then I changed my mind and thought I would write about something else.  Then I started writing.....

 My annoyance rose from a very innocent flippant comment, I'm sure, the other day regarding the Kony 2012 campaign.  Said person questioned its success, and pretty much judged it a flop.  I was a little disappointed.  Sometimes I think people question the validity of social consciousness basically because their conscience is failing them?  Perhaps they would like to see things fail because it would make them feel better about not being supportive?  I was more than happy to let them know that on my way to work that day I saw this:

Just a random traffic light post, in a random suburb far far away from Africa....

I also know for certain that quite a number of regular Aussie kids sent away for their Kony 2012 packs and have been educated by this campaign.  So I guess in my eyes, this was far from a fail....

Let it be known these little men are very proud of their involvement!

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A lady I like to call a friend, even though I have never met her, nor had a conversation with her  - Eden Riley - wrote a post this week that broke my heart.  I blogged about the profound effect Eden's trip to Niger, on behalf of World Vision Australia, had on myself and my family.  It was a week in Eden's life that I cannot even imagine.  Well, it seems a whole bunch of naysayers decided they would target Eden and question the way she wrote about her trip as well as the way she is living her life since said trip.  This infuriated me to say the least.  How dare someone else, who has NO idea of what someone has been through, question them?  I just DON'T GET IT?  Another case of people feeling guilty about their lack of involvement, their lack of social awareness and their lack of tact and manners.  Shame.

I see this sort of crap daily.  Over a wide variety of subjects.  People dragging people down, to make themselves feel better.  And it makes me proud that I am no longer the cynical teenager I was once judged to be.  

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So that's what I was GOING to write about.  I did a good job not writing that didn't I?

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I'm also linking up with The Studious Stitch today!  So feel free to hop along to the other blogs linked up - you may just find something you like!

Tell me - what would you write about today?

WOODLAND COLLECTION - Market Night!

Yep - I decided I would cause myself some much needed hard work on the sewing front and hold my second Market Night over at Ms Midge!  I thought I would be very smart and give myself four weeks to get my act together and put enough time in to have a whole collection - but as always my timing is impeccable!  Those four fantastic long weeks just happened to coincide with two weeks of school holidays - fab.  Needless to say, I have been working against the calendar to get it all together!  

Anyway.....here are some of the gorgeous outfits available on THURSDAY night - the 26th of April.  8.30pm Melbourne time - be there or be square!

You can find the whole Woodland Collection HERE.

In other sewing news, I have made items for a couple of other events happening this week....

Little Pink Tea Party's 1st Birthday Showcase

Handmade Love Showcase - This is only ONE of the entries there!

And I still have to work on some goodies for The Sewing Library's 1st Birthday celebrations!!!  Man - a hell of a lot of celebrating going on this week!  Phew!

So - what do you think?  You like??

I have a BUTTON!

Now for anyone reading this who does not have a Blog - you are probably wondering WTF is a Button?  Have no fear, I shall educate you!  A Blog Button is a generic term for an almighty technological nightmare for me!!  But for others, who can actually manage to not go cross-eyed when trying to BE technological - it is a whole lot of funny codes added to a pretty picture which then can be added to a Blog so that other Blogs can GRAB A BUTTON.  Like this...

<center><a href=" http://www.msmidge.blogspot.com.au/" target="_blank"><img border="0" alt="Ms Midge" src="http://i825.photobucket.com/albums/zz171/OzGirls/buttonmsmidge.jpg " /></a></center>

My lovely friend Gemma, over at Pretty Bobbins, sent me the links for the tutorials today, on how to make your own Button.  But try as I might, I could not get past designing the actual photo!  Me + codes = FAIL.

In stepped another lovely friend Louise, from The Oz Material Girls!  She is now, to me, the smartest human being on earth!  Not only was she able to put a code together for a Button for me ONCE - but she did it THREE times!  Because once I figured out how to put the pretty picture for the button together, I then decided to muck around with it until I got the above result.  So thank You Louise!

What I did learn today (apart from the fact I am code challenged) is that I have a wonderful group of on-line friends.  Yep, people I have NEVER met in real life, only chatted and socialised via Facebook and Email.  Isn't that fab?!?!?

Another one of my on-line friends is going through a really rough time at the moment, so I just want you to all throw your prayers, wishes and positive vibes my way - so I can forward them to her.

To end, I ask you - Are you technologically challenged?  Or am I on my lonesome?

Playground Politics

When I was in PRIMARY SCHOOL, I was blessed to make some wonderful friends.  Some of them I still count as my closest confidantes.  That doesn't mean those seven years went by without little issues.  I don't ever recall being bullied.  I'm pretty sure that if I WAS bullied - I would remember?  There was the odd name calling or similar, but nothing really worth writing home about.  I do remember when I was in grade 3 and I had called another little girl a BITCH.  And I also remember going beetroot red when the teacher made a point, in front of everyone, of informing me what the correct meaning of a bitch was.  I think about this meaning every time I hear that word!  Cudos to the teacher....

I can also remember times when playground politics would arise.  There were a number of "GAMES" in which such politics could come in to play.....Here are but a few of them:

  * The Sacrificial Friend - Where one friend would cover another friend's butt, or their own, at the expense of the third friend, by lying about what had happened in the playground.  I am guilty as charged, and can remember one such incident 30 years later, because I still feel guilty about it.  If you're reading this T and S - sorry!!!

  *  The Merry-Go-Round -  Where one friend tells another who they can and can't play with.  You could be best friends with someone one day - and the next - you had no idea where you stood!  Luckily, we had a pretty awesome year level, so regardless of where you got off on that merry-go-round, you always found a friend, even just for that day.

  *  Friendship Monopoly -  When one friend will tell another that someone isn't worthy of an invitation to a party, a play date and well, just about anything really!  Another one I can remember well!  It all boils down to popularity I'm afraid.  I was the kind of girl who floated between the "popular girls", the "everyday girls" and the "unpopular girls".  This followed me right through until High School.  All the girls I went to Primary School with went their separate ways and made their own little groups.  They found their "place".  I did too, but always managed to mix between them all anyway.  But I ALWAYS had that one friend I could count on.

  *  Chinese Whispers - Self explanatory.  We ALL know how that one works.

You may be curious as to WHY I would be writing about this at age 37?  Well, simply because my daughter is getting through primary school NOW, and it seems the exact same games are still popular now!  And not only amongst the children.  If someone had of told me a few years ago that I would be faced with grown women playing these games, I would have laughed hysterically.  But two years ago, I was confronted with being what is, in this post-facebook era, now commonly known as "de-friended".  And it gutted me.  Threw me for an absolute six.  And devastated me beyond words.  I sorta kinda wrote about it way back THEN.  And I have wanted to write about it many times since.  Because it got to the stage where it CONSUMED me.  I had no idea how to cope with it all.  Being ignored, made to feel invisible and alienated was not something I was familiar with, and I ended up seeking help to deal with it.

I am pleased to say I am "over it".  But it does not mean that I do not notice the ever-changing dynamics of the school yard.  And put two and two together to realise they are not adding up to four!  It saddens me.

So this is my experience.  What I want to know is - Is this common in other school yards?

Menagerie

Three years ago, my darling husband surprised shocked me with an early birthday present!  He came home from work and was all like "Hey honey, I have to give you your present early" and I was all like "No, I don't want it early, I don't like early birthday presents!" and he was like "Tough shit, you have to have it early!"......  So I reluctantly closed my eyes and held out my hands, and nearly fell over when I opened them to find a teeny tiny little puppy dog.  And of course I fell madly in love with him - momentarily.  I was torn.  How can you not fall in love with a puppy dog?  EVERYONE loves puppies yes??  SO I loved this puppy dog (whom I named Hamish), until about 2am when he wouldn't stop frickin howling!!!  And then reality set in.  I had three children who were four years or older.....and an eight month old baby.  And a puppy.  Shit.

It took me a few days, but I had to come clean with the husband.  I was not a happy camper.  Not only was I busily trying to care for four children, I also had to deal with a little puppy.  He said it came with a seven day full money back return policy.  I looked at him strangely and asked how were we going to explain to the kids "Sorry you loved that little dog, but we took him back to the shop"??  Nope, I just made him promise me he would NEVER EVER buy me a pet for my birthday EVER again!

Fast forward to today..................

This is how this evening at our home panned out

Yep - we are now officially classed as a Menagerie!!!

Two weeks ago, Andrew took the kids to a pet shop.  Chelsea begged and pleaded for a kitten.  I said NO F***ING WAY!!!  She has since fed all of our menagerie every single night.  Kind of trying to prove that she could look after another bloody animal.

To say Chelsea was thrilled would be an understatement.  To say she will be getting off easily would also be an understatement.  Within minutes of her exciting surprise, I had read her the "riot act" and told her under no circumstances will I ever be doing anything for this pussy cat's upkeep!  It was all up to her.  She has agreed enthusiastically.  And she was also fine when I joked about how she would be getting no presents on her actual birthday!  

Why oh why?  I'm a bloody pushover!  We I now have a husband, four children, two dogs, a guinea pig, a cat who really isn't a cat and a kitten!  Enough already!!!

Now - if I could only find this little kitten........black kitten + dark spaces under lounges = hard to find.  Glow sticks on the agenda for tomorrow.....

Are you a sucker for punishment?