Sara and Josh's wedding and holiday in South Australia

We had a wonderful family holiday in South Australia when my cousin Sara got married recently at Horseshoe Bay in Port Elliot, about an hour south of Adelaide.

First, we got the plane from Sydney with my sister Kat and her partner Andrew:


We stayed in a great holiday house that Mum and Dad arranged for us in Port Elliot. It was lots of fun staying with Mum and Dad and my sisters again. Unfortunately my youngest sister was unable to get time of work, so she didn't make it for the fun. South Australia was SO hot - going through the longest number of days over 35deg temperatures ever recorded.
relaxing with Honey at the house

Sara and Josh had a gorgeous wedding in the gardens overlooking the beach at Horseshoe Bay. What a stunning bride! It was SO wonderful to see a couple so in love and so full of happiness. The reception was fabulous with lots of great food, great music and great people. It was so great to catch up with family that I hadn't seen for ages.

me and Dad Monique, Katrina and me

with Oma

We spent some time at the beach and did some mooching around, and also visted some great wineries in the Maclaren Vale.
kat and Andrew at a winerymum and dad wine tasting

with cousin Nicole

The only downside of the trip was that I had a shocking hair experience. I went to a hairdresser asking for my foils to be touched up, and I came out totally blonde. Yikes - not my style, but I just go with the flow. It is actually amazing how much like my Mum I look with blonde hair.

Big Girl Now

My beautiful girl is now three. She was born on 2nd January 2005 after a LONG labour. I was in love and totally besotted by her from the moment I saw her. She has brought my life so much joy, I just want to cover her in kisses. I love you so much precious girl. Happy 3rd Birthday.

scrap swap

I have recently been involved in a scrap fabric swap through EB quilters and received this fantastic haul from Xena, who doesn't have a blog. Lots to work with in this lot!!

crazy times at work

Work has been crazy and hectic lately. My promotion finally came through, so I am now titled "Issues Manager", my responsibilities change only slightly though.

The industry has been going through an incredible tough time of late and many farmers are suffering incredibly. Imported pork products (ham from USA and Canada, and bacon from Denmark) flood our processed meat market and consumers are largely unaware that meat in actually imported into Australia, endangering the Australian pig industry. The previous federal government directed the Productivity Commission to undertake a safeguards inquiry into the impact of imports of pigmeat on the Australian pork industry. Our aim was to get provisional safeguards, but this is unlikely. Lots of work!

Our holiday with friends

After Christmas we scooted up to the Hunter Valley for a couple of days to stay with my wonderful friend from uni Skue and her hubby Dallas at their new house. It was a great catch up as our other best uni buds Shel and Patrick and their gorgeous kids were there at the same time. Dallas is a FABULOUS cook so we were truly well fed. Lots of time spent relaxing, chatting and eating - who could ask for more? One thing - I forgot to get a photo of us. :(

It was so great that the kids all got on really well too. I think that Sally dog loved having some extra company too (my girls think that Sally is cool!)

Kya and Mali feeding the chooks with Sally.

Celebrating with Daddy

As Tangis has other commitments, and then we were away, we didn't get to celebrate Christmas with Daddy until New Year. Santa left some presents at Daddy's place and then Daddy brought them over. The presents were very exciting, including a Barbie each which was a major highlight.

Christmas In Sydney

We had a fabulous Christmas in Sydney full of family and love. And we got TOTALLY spoilt with lots of pressies.

The Wiggles concert

In early December we were very lucky to see The Wiggles in concert. What fantastic entertainers! We were in the second row of the AIS arena so had an absolute ball. Kya went down into the mosh pit area with her friends (hopefully the video of her dancing will work), but Mali stayed pretty wide-eyed on my lap most of the time. It was just magic for the girls.

long time!

I think a few catch up posts are in order seeing as I haven't blogged since November. Woops. Bear with me - this may take a while!

A Gorgeous Dolly Quilt

I received a fabulous parcel this week from Ingrid for the EB Quilters Doll swap. As well as a gorgeous quilt made from the most adorable fabrics with sweet hand quilted hearts, it was filled with lovely goodies for me and the girls, including some of her fabulous lottielulu hair clips (on Hollie Hobby cards, which made me smile - Ingrid, how did you know that I had a yellow Hollie Hobby bedspread when I was growing up!), some grogeous fabric, some yummy chocolate, all wrapped in an adorable piece of yellow vintage cotton which will soon be a little dress. How incredibly generous, thank you so much Ingrid - it's just wonderful and I feel very lucky and spoilt! We had all agreed to wait once our parcels arrived to open on the same days (the 6th). I swear it almost killed me having a surprise that I couldn't open in the house!

My doll quilt from the EB quilter’s swap arrived at it’s new home too! I am so glad that Corrie likes it. I was quite nervous in sending it off, so I am so thrilled that Corrie (and Keira)likes it.

The favourite game in this house at the moment is ‘patting babies’, so the quilt is just perfect! We have two cardboard box lids that act as baby's beds. Mali has fun last night playing with the new quilt, which she has claimed. Check out the smile – she scrunches up her eyes and says “cheese”!

Mali is speaking in little sentences now – it is just too cute - “me read books” “mali do it” and my favourite - “my turn now please mummy”. She is convinced that she is toilet trained, being the copy cat that she is. She gets up in the morning and says ‘toilet now’, sits there for about 2 seconds, says ‘paper’, then ‘finished now’. She has done a wee on the toilet twice – pure fluke, and I don’t think the connection was made! She insists on undies when she is getting dressed. The day care centre also indulges her fantasies and lets her sit on the toilet whenever she insists during the day. Gosh she makes me laugh my small one.