Happy 2014

Ok so I've been a bit quiet since my last post. 
Wasn't sure how to follow that one up and to be honest I wasn't ready to deal with it all after I released it into the world.
Life has continued on as normal.

Christmas was interesting. Since we now are split 4 ways with our parents it was a interesting exercise on juggling. My Father in law was in Australia so we factored him in before Christmas before he left. My Father is in Auckland now and we managed to catch up with him a week or so before Christmas also.
Christmas day was split between my Mum and her side of the family and Mr E's Mum and partner.
Miss Midget was spoilt absolutely rotten as were we all.

Over the holidays Miss went to her Nanny J's house which left Mr E and I with a bit of time on our hands. We managed to clean out our house which was a amazing feat all it's own. We have now found the Wardrobe in the spare room that has been missing for 2 years lol.

Once 2014 kicked in we were semi back to normal. A highlight of summer was spending a weekend camping up in Hihi. Was lots of fun and great company. Can't wait to do it again next year.

Now we're at the end of January and the year has started off with a bang.
I've been having fun over at my other blog - Lost in a Book NZ with books I have been reading. I have met so many awesome Authors and Book Bloggers. It's been very cool getting to know them as well as all their books. My book blog facebook page even had some love from one of my favourite authors because of one of my reviews I did just before Christmas which was definitely a highlight for me. Feel free to go and check it out. If I read the sort of thing you're interested in feel free to like the page. Don't worry I won't force you to love it as I know what I read isn't everyone's cup of tea lol.

Right so now I need to get off here and start being productive for the day. Don't quite know what that entails but I'm sure I'll find out. First step - getting out of my pj's and getting Missy dressed to :).

It's coming I promise.

Just a quick update to tell you where I'm at. So holiday adventure stories are coming. I have been snowed under with work and one sick Miss Midget (It seems the moment we hit the county her immune system protested).

We also have had birthdays to celebrate with My 30th happening while we were away and Miss Midget's 4th Birthday happening the week we were back.

For the Birthdays we had an afternoon tea for Miss and drinks for me (Very poor effort on my part, I was in bed by 12am, thanks to Mr E deciding it was a good idea to feed me shots - Shots are never a good idea!!!! When will I learn?).

Anyway to tide you over for a little while heres a couple that I haven't posted on Facebook - This should keep the masses happy until I can sort the rest out (Monday hopefully).

I think we got a tad wet on this ride at Sea World

Miss Midget making friends at Noosa National Park

Mr E having a turn on the didgeridoo in Cairns - He's pretty good

"King Kong & Pippi Longstockings"
Mr E and myself Jungle Surfing (Flying fox kinda thing or Zip Lining) at Cape Tribulation in Cairns

Woohoo Holiday

Woohoo we're going on Holiday.
The final countdown has began (All I have running through my head is "It's the final countdown") as we're off on Friday down to the M.I.L's house and then leaving on a jet plane to jump the ditch on Saturday to have a Austrailia Adventure (Cliche much? haha).

I'm so looking forward to it. I'm praying that it's a hell of a lot warmer there than it is here (looking at the temps it's a given yay).

I've made it to almost 30yrs old without leaving the country I can't wait to see what Australia has in store for me.

So heads up for everyone this is your official warning that I won't be on the net much come Saturday next week unless I find internet access somewhere (Not really planning on looking too hard) so both this blog and Lost in a Book will be a little quiet for at least a couple of weeks as we're gone till 25th/26th of August.

Right now to get off the computer and go continue figuring what on earth I'm packing.
According to Miss Midget she is only taking toys and her bag's all packed. When asked about her clothes she informed me that she was gonna rock around Australia in her pj's. Hmmmm something tells me this one takes after her Mummy in the fact that pj's are the most comfy thing owned :)

Take care and will talk when I get back (I'll have lots of photos to show you hehe)

C is for COOKIES

C is for Cookie and I made enough for me :).

Well I have found I have had a bit of time on my hands due to one thing and another lately and I've had a craving for chocolate chip cookies for a long time now. Before you ask no I'm not pregnant I just don't get cookies very often :).

So I had a look at my limited supplies in my pantry and then had a look at my cookbook which didn't have the answers. Good old Google though helped me find a cookie recipe that fitted in with what i had available and I came up with 2 recipes that I have tried. One is for normal Sugar Cookies which I just added chocolate chips to and the other is for Brown Sugar Cookies, this was good as we had lots of brown sugar in the cupboard.

Thought I would share these with you :).

Sugar Cookies (This is the one I added Chocolate Chips to).
1 1/2 cups of butter softened.
2 cups white sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
5 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt.

• Put into a large bowl sugar and butter and cream them together until smooth. Beat in Eggs and Vanilla. Stir in the Flour, baking powder and salt. Cover and chill dough for at least 1 hour (or overnight).
  
• Preheat oven to 200 and put cookie dough in lots on baking paper.
  
• Cook for 6 - 8 minutes and then leave to cool. Depending on how you like your cookies. I like mine on the soft side in the middle so mine were in there towards the 6 min mark :).
  
• This recipe makes lots (Didn't count them sorry)

Brown Sugar Cookies
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 cup brown sugar (packed)
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
If you want spice cookies add in 2x teaspoons cinnamon, 1 teaspoon nutmeg and 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves (I did not add spices when I made them)

Preheat oven at 200
Mix butter, brown sugar and egg till smooth.
Add vanilla, baking powder and salt and mix.
Mix in flour in slowly so mixture doesn't go lumpy.
Add spices now if required.

Bake till light brown (10 - 12 mins)

I managed to get 14 cookies out of this recipe but this does depend on how big you like your cookies

Have made this recipe 2x this week and this is a photo of last cookie standing lol

Just checking in

Hi All.
Sorry I've been a bit quiet lately.
Have a lot on my plate at present which is making my life awfully interesting.

I haven't done any sewing lately. I have had my head stuck in books recently and I haven't done much else but read :).

I've decided my Kindle was one of the best purchases ever.
The books available for ebook readers are with in my price range which is awesome and there are some awesome books I've discovered.

Beautiful Creatures Series - This series I couldn't put down. I read all the books in what I thought was record time for me. Was a bit sad that ended but definitely a good read.

"Ethan Wate is haunted by dreams of a girl he’s never met. When Lena Duchannes moves into his small southern town of Gatlin County, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her. And he is determined to uncover the strange connection between them, even if it means uncovering the one secret that could change everything"

I should of listened though and steered clear of the movie but I wasn't quite ready to let go of the series and wanted to see how the movie compared. Yeah they stuffed it up royally, the main character was miss cast and they rushed the story which was highly frustrating. It's was worse than when I watched The Help after read the book (That was a mistake to).

From there Amazon recommended a few books and for some reason I went with The Infernal Devices series. The series kicks off with "Clockwork Angel"

"Magic is dangerous—but love is more dangerous still.
When sixteen-year-old Tessa Gray crosses the ocean to find her brother, her destination is England, the time is the reign of Queen Victoria, and something terrifying is waiting for her in London's Downworld, where vampires, warlocks and other supernatural folk stalk the gaslit streets. Only the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the world of demons, keep order amidst the chaos."

Loved it and quickly went through "Clockwork Prince" and "Clockwork Princess" (Was very lucky as the last book came out about 2 or 3 days before so was able to read them all straight away.

To my delight I found this series was actually a prequel to "The Mortal Instruments" series so I quickly jumped on that bandwagon to and read all 5 books straight as fast as I could get them. My only problem now is the 6th book doesn't come out until next year. 
The first book is City of Bones, story goes like this -

When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder — much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Clary knows she should call the police, but it's hard to explain a murder when the body disappears into thin air and the murderers are invisible to everyone but Clary.

Going back to books being turned into movies.
This one has a movie coming out in August in USA which looks good. Hopefully I won't come away disappointed in that one.

So now that I have finished all that I went back to Amazon and am now reading a book called "Divergent"

In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself. 

Not quite sure what I think of it just yet, I finished it this afternoon and I think I want to read the next one in the series but I can't say that I have been as taken with this book as what I was with the others. It was sort of like Hunger Games, there were similar themes etc.

So now on to find the next good read if I can find one :)

Another surprising use for Hand Sanitizer

So yesterday as I was home alone I found I had lots of time to rattle round the internet just filling in time.
I came across a friend's status - Renette from South African Kiwi.
She had found something which to me would never of been obvious.

"Hand sanitiser removes permanent marker from carpets. Just so you know."

Well that got my little brain ticking fast and I knew I had a small bottle of the stuff that I'd never used so this lead on to me trying to clean the arms of my lazy boy chair.

Ok so this chair has had a hard life. Originally my Popa's chairs, we inherited them and they have been sitting in the lounge for the better part of 7yrs (not counting 6mths but thats a whole another story). Anyway this particular chair used to be Mr E's got to chair. So of course the arms looked horrible with all sorts of muck on them and years worth of it. You know the kind of muck that comes from a boys hands after they have been in the garage tinkering, or the kind that comes from being on their hands at work, that sort of stuff.

So last night I thought "What the hell, lets give this a go".

Well I was quite surprised with the results.

Take a look for yourself below.

Arm before (It's pretty gross huh)

Arm after

The state of the chux cloth after.

So there you go. Not sure how cost effective this would be if you decided to do this on a regular basis and I'm sure they have proper cleaning products that possibly would of done the same job. I just wanted to test it on something that I knew was stuck and wouldn't be that easy to clean (The other arm of the chair did actually have permanent marker on it. Not any more though).

So if the apocalypse ever comes and you find yourself without cleaning products but you have a stock of hand sanitizer you'll be fine :).

Have a good day :)

Secret Squirrel Business

Well by the time I actually post this onto the blog the cat should be out of the bag.
Thought I would use this page to document whats happening before the cat gets out though.

Today is 26/10/12.
I am currently 2 weeks away from getting a new last name and a new husband.
For those of you who don't now. We have been together for 8yrs now. Engaged for around 4ish (it's been that long with a couple of hiccups in between that I can't give exact times lol).

First of all I want to say I was overwhelmed when we got engaged (again) by all the congratulations we received. To be honest as it was really a re-engagement we didn't see it as a big deal so it was lovely that all of you thought it was :).
Thank you.

Well it's been 24hrs since the plan was proposed and nobody has changed their mind yet which is brilliant lol. I've been and got the papers so we'll see how we go from there :).

27/10/12
We had a bit of a giggle with the papers last night. In my best most serious voice I had to check with Mr E to make sure our marriage wasn't in the forbidden category.
Did you know you a woman may not marry her —

• (1) grandfather:
• (2) grandmother's husband:
• (3) husband's grandfather:
• 4) father's brother:
• (5) mother's brother:
• (6) father:
• (7) stepfather
• (8) husband's father:
• (9) son:
• (10) husband's son:
• (11) daughter's husband:
• (12) brother:
• (13) son's son:
• (14) daughter's son:
• (15) son's daughter's husband:
• (16) daughter's daughter's husband:
• (17) husband's son's son:
• (18) husband's daughter's son:
• (19) brother's son:
• (20) sister's son.

This also counts Civil Union partners :).

Pretty sure Mr E is not any of the above so I think we're safe :).

So the fun part so far has been inviting people. Trying to come up with a random reason as to why we're having a party is a bit hard. Just as well our friends have come to expect the random drink or 2 at our house where it isn't drawing to much attention :).

03/11/12
Well it's 6 days until the big event. I quite like the fact we are doing it this way as I'm not a very patient person and it's nice not having to worry about the bigger stuff that comes with a wedding. We have the rings already sussed as we sorted them out a few years ago so we're not having to run round and sort those out. We have a couple of witnesses sorted and I have my wonderful childcare lady in the know so she can help sort Miss Midget out before the event :).

Yesterday I went to the court house and paid for it.
It's quite funny seeing it on a printed receipt :).

05/11/12
So I get married this week. That is a rather funny thought. I want it to hurry up and be Friday already and be a happy memory. I know that sounds funny but I'm really not a center of attention kind of person. So the sooner it's all over we can get on with the celebrating I'll be happier. The questions are coming through thick and fast since we've been asking people for Saturday. Have dodged a few of them. Not sure how successful but oh well. I'm not to worried about people thinking that they are in the know. I just don't want hordes of people turning up at the court house expecting to watch.
So I guess we're on the countdown. 5 days.

Tonight and tomorrow night are going to be relatively quiet which will be nice. Mr E is at work today and tomorrow night  and night after so the plan is quiet night for us both tonight. Tomorrow is a chill out night for Me, Wednesday I have a girly night with a good friend of ours. Do our nails and that sort of stuff lol. Thursday Mr E is off with a mate doing boy stuff for his last day of freedom and well Friday is the day so I'm finishing at 1pm on Friday to go get ready and make sure Miss Midget is good to go. Exciting times.

Had a interesting chat before with Mr E's friends wife. The one he is running away with on Thursday to do boy stuff with. Apparently I'm not to expect him home on Thursday night. This scares me a little. The warning has been put in place that everything Mr E should be returned to me on Friday in the same condition I left in. This means all eye brows are where I left them in the same condition I left them in. There is to be no visible bruises or added extras like a ball and chain and or graffiti drawn on Mr E's face with marker of any description (Permanent or other wise). I have informed him (via his wife lol) that he will be a dead man walking if these conditions are not adhered to. So effectly he is going to be Mr E's body guard lol.

Have also been doing a bit of thinking with regards to last names. I'm quite excited. I'm going to have the same last name as my little family. No more will I have to explain that I am Donna ........ , Miss Midgets Mother. This is a wonderful thought after all the times I have had to explain to doctors and such.

The fun part will be coming up with a new signature :S

06/11/12
So at this point I'm praying Miss Midget isn't sick on Friday or the weekend. Had to come home early from work due to Missy having a temperature. It's been lots of fun this afternoon.

Oh I'd also like to apologise for all the fibs I've told lately about what Saturday is for.
You know I love you and well I hope it was a happy surprise or a happy confirmation that it is/was what you thought it was.

Right time to see if I can get some sleep. Don't want to be a Zombie tomorrow if Missy is well enough for me to work.

07/11/12
Right a bit of quiet time before my friend comes over for my "hens" night. It's a raging party here tonight I tell ya. It consists of Me, 1 Sleeping Miss Midget and my good friend lol.
We're going to have a few drinks, watch some of our favourite TV Programs and chill out which will be nice.

So this afternoon was a bit interesting. I tried on a wedding dress to see if the style suited me and there was all sorts of talk about how I'm going to have my hair done etc.
I've also been informed that I am going shopping tomorrow afternoon to get a dress. so watch this space. Apparently while trying the dress on I was shaking and looked like I was about to cry. I just got a bit over whelmed i think. I sort of almost feel guilty doing it this way as neither Mr E or I have told our parents whats going on. We were planning on doing that Friday night after the event. I am wondering if I'm robbing my mum of something though.

The 2 wonderful ladies helping sort me out this afternoon have become fairy godmothers intent on getting this Cinderella to the ball in a pretty frock thats not already in her wardrobe lol. I thank you both sincerely for thinking enough of me to help me with all of this.

I had a coversation with Miss Midget about how Mummy's going to match her and Daddy and have the same last name. She thought that was ok (after me explaining it a bit further). She now seems to think we're going to a Ball on Friday now. I guess the pretty dress I was wearing this afternoon didn't help with convincing her other wise but thats ok :).

Have decided any photos relating to today I'll post on my tumblr account as Tumblr tends to display photos nicer :)

08/11/12
Wow this post is turning into a novel. Sorry. Thanks for sticking with me if you made it this far down.
It's currently 11pm the night before the big day. Mr E has gone off with friends for his version of the stag do. I'm currently semi prepared for tomorrow. Stuff is in a bag to take to one of my lovely Fairy Godmother house. I am 99% certain I have everything. Dunno how I'll feel in the morning but right now I have everything I can remember :).
Miss Midget is currently tucked up in bed.

Speaking of Miss Midget, She had a wee accident at childcare today. Poor Poppet slipped, know her she was going way to fast and well yeah. As you can see from the photo below we have a wee mark on her nose.

That is ok though. I am not worried about it. My poor childcare lady thought I was going to murder her. Oh well it's not the end of the world and nothing is broken that can not be fixed.

Last night with my friend was rather amusing. We had fun. Had my one of my favourite meals for dinner, drank 3 bourbon and cola's and watched my favourite TV shows while Miss Midget slept. We also managed to talk a whole lot hence the reason it was after 1am by the time I went to bed. Was rather funny at one point though at about 10 we're both sitting there with tears streaming down our face and tissues in hand - Good old hay fever struck and we both ended up resorting to meds. As you can tell we know how to party lol.
Seriously though it was a lot of fun and I think I'll be convincing the husbands that it should be a regular thing :).

We found my dress today (I can hear the gasps from here - only just finding my wedding dress the day before the wedding). It's beautiful. So thank you to my fairy godmother's whom I will find someway of paying back. It's awesome.
I have my shoes all sorted. I guarantee I'll be a barefoot bride not long after the wedding but I'm happy with that to.

Well I should go get some sleep so I don't have huge bags under my eyes.
 

11/12/12Right so the last few days have been brilliant. Exactly what we wanted which has been awesome.

So Friday 9th of November at 3pm we got married at the Whangarei Court House with a couple of good friends as witnesses and my darling Little Miss Midget as our Fairy Dust Sprinkler.

Last night we had our surprise reception. Thank you to those who came. Those who were invited and didn't come. Sorry you couldn't make it and surprise :).

It's taken a good couple of weeks to get here but I'm glad we have done it. Thank you for all your kind words and we are so very happy.
I'm sure I'll think of more to write about in another blog post but I feel this one is long enough lol.

Link to the more photos will be posted later on after I wake properly :)

What happens if you know them?

Pinterest has been a interesting topic in my household as of late.
I had thought about not posting about this but thought about what if I'm offending other people and thought I'd open the floor for discussion and get how everyone feels about it as I don't want to step on toes

Basically a week or so ago it was pointed out to me in a rather not nice email that I'd stolen Miss Midgets birthday cake idea off someone who I had considered a friend. They had obviously taken offence to it and told me so.

Now it wasn't as if I'd gone out of my to deliberately upset this person. I had thought everyone is sharing ideas on Pinterest then the ideas were for lack of better terminology fair game for anyone to try in the DIY section. Had I realised it was going to cause this much drama I probably would of thought twice about using it. To me it was a cool cake I'd found on Pinterest via a friends board and since I'm not a expert baker or anything and it looked simple enough I thought "well even I could do something like that".

So all this drama has got me thinking, how does everyone else feel about ideas and how they are shared and when is it good form to ask if it's ok to use the idea and when is it fair game?

To me and I've said this before Pinterest is a place for all your virtual cork boards where you can find these awesome ideas and share them with your friends and also with strangers.
How do you guys feel about someone you know using ideas that you found first?

For me if your following me on Pinterest and you like one of my ideas sweet then go for it. Use it and tell me how it turned out so when I eventually give it a go then I can either follow your example or learn from your mistakes.

To me if the ideas means a lot to me, I won't post it until after I have made it whether it be here, Facebook or on Pinterest.

On Pinterest's Etiquette page - http://pinterest.com/about/etiquette/

It mentions nothing about maybe asking people before using their ideas and at this stage you can't make boards for your use only and or block people from seeing your ideas. It's public or nothing at all. To me though why bother with a social networking site that is all about sharing ideas with people (hence the reason you can follow people and people can follow you) if your going to get upset if someone uses a idea? I don't understand but I have a feeling Social Network and Privacy are for another post.

Basically with this post I just want to gage everyones feelings on the subject to avoid making the same mistake twice.

I value my friendships and want to make sure I'm on the same page as the rest of my friends.

Miss Midgets Birthday Cake

This week has just gone

Well this week certainly has flown by.
Monday = Starship and being stuck there from 11am till 3pm for Doc Appointment and Ultrasound).

Tuesday = Work and Tayla had a well earned day with her Daddy chilling at home.
Wednesday = More work.

Thursday = Work and some dealings with drama . did learn a few things though. Mainly life is not worth spending worrying about someone who doesn't give a rats about you. Surrounding yourself with people who actually think your worth something is the way to go :). So just so they don't get a big head and think I'm gonna start having a "tantrum" about them I'll leave it at that :).
Friend cull on facebook to. Took me a awhile but I'm happy with the results :).

Friday = Work (I was pretty busy all things considered this last week, Pretty sure I managed to accomplish a fair bit though)  and then running round with Miss Midget ( I run around with Miss Midget quite regularly but yesterday she was knackered when she went to bed. She'd had lots of fun at Nanny Pam's and then some more with me)
Today = Having Miss Abi to come play was very cool. Tayla really enjoyed having Abi here and they played so well. I now see why Pam always considered herself lucky to look after these 2 during the week. They were having pure fun :).

So as a reward to myself and considering Miss Midgets Dad is on night shift I'm going to eat pasta for dinner and chill out in front of my favourite programs, Might even consider having a bourbon for all my hard work this week :).

Have a good one everyone :)

Consider the rent raised :)

Have had ideas in my head and issues getting them out.

So as you can see it's been awhile again between posts.
Between Work, Miss Midget and doing stuff around the house plus now finding this creative outlet it's not left me a lot of time to sort this out.
Have a few ideas with regards to this blog so bare with me. Unfortunately it appears to one of many ideas thats sort of in limbo at the moment.

I have all these ideas which at the moment seem like brilliant ones. My issues appear to be finding a away to get them out of my head and make them reality and also finding the time to do so.

So not a lot has been happening lately. I've been playing with my sewing machine. I'd like to think I'm getting better at sewing in a straight line with the amount of practice I have been doing lol.

Miss Midget has a appointment at Starship for her Lump on Monday. This will be interesting. We pointed out to the doctor that She's starting to complain when it's up that it's hurting so we'll see what comes of the ultra sound. They are in no hurry to operate which is good and bad. They are taking there time at finding the right approach. Because of where the lump is they have to becareful due to there being a nerve close by that if they accidently damage it then the side of her face could drop. The doctor did assure us he'd done the op many times before and has never had it happened but still needed to point out the risks to us. Made me a bit nervous. I know if she did need the op she would be in good hands. I just don't want missy to be the first it happen to if you know what I mean.
If they can't see anything with the ultra sound she'll need to be knocked out again for another MRI which will be another all day event.
Poor Kids been poked and prodded by doctors so many times in her short little life. I do feel sorry for her. She does us proud though and is always super good for the doctor and super brave.
I can't remember if I ever posted what the lump officially is so just incase I didn't it's called a Vascular Malformation (Link takes you to the Wiki Page if you wanna know more about it)

Well I'll leave ya with a few photos from the past month :)



Missy's 3rd Birthday Cake
Click here to see where I pinched it from :)

Tinker Bell accumulated a few friends

Missy's Mail Bag
Click here to see where I pinched it from

Lets see why................

So lets see why I have been to busy to blog?
Well I don't actually know why. Time seems to of run away from me.
We have been sick with nasty sinus infections and all those things. Poor Miss Midget has had a bad run with it all. Thank goodness the drugs that we have for her at the moment have kicked in and are working.

Mr D and I have also been busy preparing for Miss Midgets birthday which is next month on the 28th.
Yes I know we're running early with prep but we're making a couple of her presents and are trying to give ourselves a bit of time so we're not rushing through it.

So instead of just rambling on with what we've been doing, here are some photos.
First set is Mr D's project (It will have some paintwork done by me once it's completed.

You may remember a while ago I was going on about a toy wooden kitchen for Miss Midget. Yeah that idea evolved into what you see below :)

Miss Midgets Mushroom House (in the making)

Frame's up

Frame dry now and painted

Lining is attached now.

Walls and roof are currently being painted in the garage. Will post more photos as we make progress :). Currently Miss Midget thinks Daddy is building a "trailer shed" in the back yard. Wonder how long she's going to buy that one? lol


Ok so then comes my project.

Felt Dollys and eventually a Dolly House/Bag

Didn't do to badly with my score from spotlight. This is what $17 looks like :)

So didn't really have a pattern to go by so did a bit of drawing. Started off with the one down the bottom of the picture

All cut out and half sewn up

Love the wool I choose for the hair. It's come out great

And this is how she's sitting at the moment. All I have to do is the rest of the face and sew up the back of her dress.

So all up I plan to have 2 dollys and maybe a pet (haven't decided yet). They are going to have a felt bag in the shape of a house that will have some beds in it for them (I figure this make keeping them together easier and also will be good on car trips). I have thought maybe to make the beds detachable so she doesn't have to have them in the house if she's playing with her big wooden house at home.

Anyway thats the plan. It's subject to change at the moment as all of this is being hand stitched.

Also while I'm showing photos of my creations. Heres one I made yesterday.

Meet Pandy

Ok so will try and give you updates on all these projects to let you know how we're going.

Where has the year gone?

Well I just realized we're almost half way through this year.
If anyone knows where the first part of the year has gone please let me know as I'm sure it was only January a blink ago.

Man guess everyone is going to start with their mid year reflections and hopes for the rest of the year.
Not sure I have a lot to reflect on. Well I'm sure I do but not sure I want to do it in a public forum :).

I'm happy and thankful that my little family appear to be on track and that we are all happy and to a degree healthy (Apart of early winter sniffles and coughs - they don't count though).

I'm also thankful I have a pretty cool job that is understanding of my need to spend time with Miss Midget. As well as the fact that I can help out where I can :).

I'm super stoked that my daughter has turned back into her sweet loveable happy self instead of the poor wee poppet we had. It's good to see she's happy and she's enjoying everything again :).
I'm also super stoked she's eating her dinner to a degree again (I really hated her dinner time for a while there, still do but while we're going good I'm thankful :)).

This year has been interesting, starting off at Mum and Dad's and working our way back home. Life is funny what happens. Wouldn't have it any other way though. Learnt far to much to want to change any of it :).

It's also crazy that Miss Midget is going to be turning 3 soon. Lots of plans are going into her birthday present. So the little kitchen area I wanted to make for her has turned into a full on play house out the back. So now to actually start building the thing. This will be the fun part :). Oh and find paint for it :).
Just as we'll we're building it out of pallets so the woods all sorted. Now to see if we can build something like the picture I have stuck in my head (I blame pinterest for all the ideas I have for this thing and also my imagine. In my little picture of it it's got a porch and everything. Poor Mr D, don't think he knows what he's in for yet :)).

Alright guys, well I'm off.

Catch ya later.

D

Busy week

Been a bit quiet on the blogging this week. Mainly because We've been busy at home sorting out the house and trying to find space for everything.

I have some awesome new shelves in Miss Midgets playroom half for her toys and half for a shoe rack. They are doing a great job. A) it makes more room in there for Missy to play and not have a great big toy box in the middle of the floor and B) she can now find 90% of her toys easier. I say 90% because out of the 8 containers we have there are 2 misc ones with stuff in them that doesn't really fit into any of the other categories we have lol. Shes loving the space though.

We have also added some plastic drawers for her to store her puzzles and colouring in books as week which should make the top of her book shelf not so crowded :).
This week we have also been having fun with Miss Midget and her adjusting to the change. After moving back home and then a few other changes the Midget has had to deal with we've had a bit of a battle this week as she hasn't been herself. Slowly getting there though. A lot of TLC from Mummy, Daddy and the extended family and she'll be right in no time (hopefully).

This week my poor little car has gone to the Ding Doctor (Those from Whangarei should get that :)).

It went on Wednesday. It's amazing how one possession can dictate how much independence one has. Yes I know I could walk places and lots of people make do without a car but this is the longest I have been without wheels since I was 19 or 20 and if you've seen the weather in Whangarei lately you'll understand why the Waiwai Express is not a good option especially if Miss Midget is in tow. So looks like it won't be back for the weekend either so it might just be a quiet weekend at home. Not so bad in the scheme of things as I'm sure I have plenty of jobs to do but a pain non the less as there will be no random trips to the super market to get things that are needed etc. So might have to just make a plan and go tomorrow while Elmo is still home.

Mothers Day last Sunday worked out nicely. It was just me and Miss for the day. She was really good for Mummy and we just hung out and did mummy/daughter things and later that day snuggled up on the couch to watch "Dumbo". Later that night so I didn't have to cook we got pizza for dinner. The whole day was lovely. Not so much spoilt (I got spoilt with my present a few days earlier, I get a 1hr long aromatherapy massage at some stage, yay) but we just fun. It was how the day was should be :).

Other than that not a lot is happening. Head down and bum up with work as my training is getting a bit of a overhaul and new schedules are being put in place etc. 

Oh and last blog I promised to tell you about the birthday presents I was making. Well one of them unfortunately hasn't panned out but thats ok as the other one I did went really well. Heres a picture of it :) 

Hope all is well in your world.

xoxox

D 

Don't want to bore you

Ok so I'm not going to bore you with a "I'm a sook and I don't like winter" post. This will be my only whinge about the weather - It's been COLD!. Don't worry I knew winter was coming and it's not as if its a surprise but still don't like it  and yes I'll get over it :).


So things that have been happening? Well we're over our nasty tummy bug - YAY.
Miss Midget is pretty much back to normal with regards to eating and behavior. Still getting tired in the afternoons but thats to be expected I guess.
I haven't had a chance really to do anymore unpacking. There are some things that need to go up in the roof for storage before I can really carry on with it as some of the stuff waiting to be unpacked needs to live in the spare room which is quite full at the moment :).

So I swear there is a single bed in there......somewhere.

Other than that not a lot has been happening.
I did manage to have a nice conversation with one of the team behind Snap Guide the other day which was nice. They sent me a message just thanking me for my guides I'd and asked me if I was enjoying it.
Told them about my blog post I'd done at the start of the month and they were pretty stoked that I'd been with them pretty much since day one and had gone to a bit of effort for them :).

Have been working on a few birthday present ideas for a couple of mates. Hopefully have that sorted this week. Will post something after I've given the presents to them so as not to ruin the surprise :).


Alrighty. Will try and put The Weeklies out a little later tonight to :).


Have a good one :).

My Petrol Head Weekend

Well my weekend just been was awesome.
Some of you may of seen my posts and others may of wondered where I was as I'd gone quiet again.
For those of you that don't know I went down to the Hamilton ITM 400 - V8's Supercar racing.

We couldn't of wished for better weather. Both days were goregous.

The V8's as always were highly entertaining as well as the other races (NZ V8's, Touring cars etc).

Saturday night as we'd brought tickets to the V8's this entitled us to go along to INXS for free. The concert was brilliant. They did a awesome job and by the end of the night I had sore feet from bopping around dancing, haven't done that in ages.

So heres a few photos from the weekends events :)

Me with Russell Ingall

The view from my seat of the 3rd corner

One of the cars (Touring Car I think) ended up in a wall after the corner threw him out. He had to get towed away

My view of the stage for the INXS concert

My view of the stage - I stayed where I was after the concert to wait for everyone to leave. Didn't realise how close I'd gotten to the stage till I took this photo :)

So now I wait till Bathurst in October - I normally only do the V8 Petrol head thing 2x a year, Hamilton and Bathurst.
This years Hamilton street race was the last though. Be interesting to see where they take it next. Fingers crossed they sort it out soon so they can get ready for next year. Would hate think they're going to miss us out next year.

Miss Midget also had a brilliant weekend being spoilt rotten by her Nanny J. She's still recovering having put herself to bed last night and tonight at 5:30pm.

Well thats it from me, I have boxes that won't pack themselves (I should know, I've waited long enough them to start but it appears they are not co-operating tonight).
Big day tomorrow - Moving Day.

Wish me luck and good weather

D

The Gnome Experiment

So read this article in Stuff.co.nz today.
Thought it was a good educational twist on the Roaming Gnome and a very clever marketing ploy by the people who have made the scales.


Basically it boils down to the company are wanting to prove the gravity is not the same in different place in the world so they got the gnome and a set of their scales and they are sending them around the world to have him weighed. Same scales showing different weights all over the world. 


So me being me (and probably thousands of other Kiwi's who have read the article and seen the website) have signed up to have the Gnome sent here to New Zealand.)


Will keep you posted if I hear anything back. I doubt I will but you never know. He could come here and do a little tiki tour roadshow around lol.
Haha yes I'm admitting to doing this freely. Thought it would be cool if it came to me to sort out something with one of the schools and get them to help me with it. Be cool for the kids I think :)

Easter, chocolate, birthdays and snapguide

Well this long weekend has been awesome. It's a shame it isn't longer.

Friday was just a day to chill out and relax. We didn't do a lot. Just hung out which was nice :).

Saturday - the morning was spent playing with Miss Midget and her little friend while their daddy's lined our garage. In the afternoon we went to the park and met up with Miss Midget's extra set of grandparents as it was Popa's Birthday. Miss and Popa fed the ducks. We stayed at the park till the rain came. Then back to Nanny's for more fun and toys. We had a great night and enjoyed all the fun that was had.

Sunday - the morning was spent paying for some of the fun from the night before lol then it was chocolate time. Miss got more chocolate than she knew what to do with. She spent majority of the day on a chocolate high :). We went visiting nanny and Popa again and then went to grandma and granddads so they could do their thing to. Sunday night was a early to bed for everyone night :).

Today we have been drawing with chalk on the footpath, well actually it was just me as I made Tayla a "carpark" for her bike.

Then we had a go at making a bubble snake maker. I thought this would be a good opportunity for me to test out how easy it is to make a guide on snapguide to so took photos as I went. Miss midget loved the bubbles which was good. She had more fun jumping on them though as she'd accidentally took a breath in and got some bubble for her trouble.

We've been for a walk to the dairy, was pleased Miss didn't want carrying all the way and was good when we were in the shop :).

So while Missy was playing I started on my first guide for Snap Guide. Was a simple process and I'm glad I took all the pictures I did. To see the finished product click here.

The guide has been up for a few hours now and it's been looked at 160 times so I'm pretty stoked. I definitely don't claim to have invented this idea (I got it off a good friend who found it on pinterest) but 

 figured I'd be able to put it on snapguide first lol.

Anyway while Miss Midget is sleeping I'm going to have a chill out.

I hope your Easter has been as awesome as mine.

Till next time :)

D