New Year = New Me

New Year's Resolutions yes I know it, we all say it every year on the 1st - this year I will......blah blah blah and do we do it? with all the good intention I can muster I do try. So this year I have decided not to make any New Year's Resolutions as such, but too instead change a few ways and do a few new things and after a lot of thought here are my top 10.

1. I'd like to do a Screen printing and embroidery class at Prints Charming
2. Do a quilting course
3. Start selling my homemade goodies
4. Eat less dairy and wheat
5. Drink more water and less alcohol
6. Exercise more - I'd really like to start running
7. Get organised so I can spend more time sewing - that's my me time
8. Spend less, save more
9. Set up a little veggie garden with my girls
10. Stop burning the midnight oil and go to bed earlier

I am really excited about achieving the above and I feel very positive I can do it - 2011 is going to be my year.

Sigining off for now

KC x

A Bit of A Moan

What is it with Telstra these days - for many years now we've been a customer of them for our internet and home phone, but in June this year we decided to change to iinet the only reason being cost - iinet are so much cheaper and so far so good, we've got wifi and the speed is excellent and they are very attentive and if I ring them my call is answered immediately and sorted straightaway, however with Telstra they are the opposite it takes absolutely ages to get through to speak to someone, when you do get through they constantly put you on hold for ages and then transfer you to someone else to deal with your issue and you have to explain all over again what your problem is - it's just not good enough for a telecommunications company to be so bad.

My problem recently with them is I keep receiving bills for our home phone and internet despite being with iinet for the last 3 months, everything I ring them they assure me it is sorted until the next month when I get another bill and so on and so forth, until finally a very nice lady advised me she had it all sorted we were disconnected from Telstra and the bill due had been cancelled - all good until I check my bank account and find out indeed they took the payment they told me they weren't going to check bad bad Telstra so several phone calls later, being passed onto not one, not two but three people I finally get it sorted after 40 mins on the phone at my cost, I get a refund and I am so pleased I am no longer a customer of them.

Telstra you need to get your act together as it would take a miracle for me to become a customer of yours again 

and that folks is my moan over and done with for today and boy do I feel better for that vent

Till next time

Karen x

A Few of My Favourite Things

My all time new favourite item has to be the Keep Cup - I have just recently discovered this genius cup the Keep Cup - it is a fabulous reusable takeaway coffee cup and I love it and I also remember to take it everywhere with me, being a lover of coffee and the environment, I like to think I am doing my bit by not using so many takeaway cups. The reason I love this particular reusable coffee cup is because it is the first barista standard reusable coffee cup, it has a cool tab lid that means you can close the bit you drink out of - very useful near children and when pushing a buggy to the park to enjoy the coffee, now I have both hands free again to push the pram knowing my coffee isn't going to spill, not more one handed attempts to push a buggy whilst carrying my coffee, the other great thing I love about the cup is the info band around it, your barista will instantly know what you want without you even needing to ask cool eh!!!!!! so check out their cool website Keep Cup and buy yours today.

My other favourite new item I have come across and own are some measuring cups, a great friend of our Kate bought them for my husbands birthday (he loves baking)  - nothing really that interesting about measuring cups is there except these are fabulous they are called M-Cups and they are Matryoshkas (Russian Dolls) made to measure - how cool is that. There are 3 whole Matryoshkas and they fit together just like the Russians dolls do inside one another, but each section of each Russian Doll is a cup measure - I just think these are just way to cool check them out at M-Cups

My last two favourite things pictured are a painting & drawing my daughter Ruby has done - the first one I just love it it was done about 9 months ago when she fell in love with Rainbows she actually painted it for her Nanna but I couldn't bear to part with it so framed it instead - what did Nanna get instead well she will get a t-shirt with a transfer of the same painting on it so in effect she will still get this painting. The second one is a drawing Ruby did a couple of months ago in pencil of her and her lovely little sister Tilly,  what I love about this drawing is her attention to detail (she's only 3) that she has done curly hair for herself and short straight hair for Tilly and also if you look very closely you will see she has put lipstick on both of their lips bless her and I also love the fact she herself wrote both their names on the drawing. It's a sad fact that Ruby draws better than me.

And those folks are just a few of my favourite things.......

Karen x  

Hello and Welcome

To my blog..... I'm afraid it's probably not going to be interesting to most people but for me it's just a chance to share a few thoughts, feelings, good times, bad times, things I like, things I don't like, my craft projects, my ideas and other things I can't vent on my kids blog page so this blog instead is "all about me" for a change.

All about me - Well my name is Karen, I am mum to two beautiful girls Ruby & Matilda and wife to Craig, we live in Sydney but Craig & I are both from the UK, York where I grew up (although my parents were 10 pound pommes in the 70's and I was born in Sydney) and Leeds, we met here backpacking in 2001 and married in 2006, which was also the year our 1st daughter Ruby was born and nearly 2 years later Matilda arrived in 2008.  I feel very blessed to have two wonderful daughters who are the absolute delight of my life, I also feel very privileged that I am able to be a stay at home mum and enjoy every day with my delightful girls.

At the moment I have really got into sewing I love it, I love turning a piece of fabric into something beautiful and useful, like a dress for my daughter or a clutch bag for my friends and my current project is something I am making for my mum which I would love to share but won't in case she reads this. I am also in the process of making a range of tablemats I hope to sell and some pillow cases for my daughters.

Because I am loving sewing so much at the moment I have also discovered a love of fabric and it doesn't matter if I have a project in mind or not, if I see that fabric I love I just have to have it and hence I am becoming a fabric hoarder and I just can't help it.

My other interests include TV - I love TV I have to admit it but I really do love TV,  I mean I really really do love TV, my favourite TV shows include, Grey's Anatomy, Lost, 24, Flash Forward, Masterchef Australia, Grand Designs, Modern Family, The Restaurant, Dragon's Den, Damages, Survivor, The Amazing Race, The Apprentice, anything about house building/renovations etc I could go on but I think you've got it I am a TV addict. So does being a TV addict leave room for anything else yes but only just, I love red wine and a good red wine at that, I love reading reading and more reading if I don't have a book on the go at all times, I feel weird like something is missing in fact I hate being without a book to read and if I had to choose to give up TV or books I'd choose TV like a shot I love books as much as I love red wine, cups of tea, a good flat white coffee and cheese. I'm uncomplicated but I do know what I like.

And yes I could go on and on and on but I won't as I am very excited about my next entry into my blog which is going to be about a few of my favourite things which I have discovered in the last month and absolutely love and it's got nothing to do with books or TV for a change

So I hope you will sit back and enjoy reading my non too interesting but hopefully quirky blog

Until next time

KC