happy Easter

Greetings all,

Happy Easter from the Posie family, puppy, bunnies & chickens!!

Instead of chocolate & rubbish, i bought my children new jammies from Peter Alexander . . .

 gave friends & my favourite local businesses, the gift of freshly laid 'Easter eggs' from our mixed breeds of hens, including the Araucana 'Easter' chicken who lays blue eggs.  We're on the look out for more Araucanas, as i desire a range of colours, like green, khaki & lavender, it's the dream!!

 My favourite local florist knew eggs were heading her way & presented me with this message & sweetest yellow chickedy chick ever . . .

 Remember to have fun & include your pets!!

Wishing you all a wonderful Easter, religious (we're not), loving family (we are), with time, appreciation & gratitude just being together, love Posie
PS don't forget to enter this fun LEGO Hero Factory giveaway here!!

celebrating our first month with bunnies

Greetings all,

Well, on Valentine's Day we went to pick up some chicks from a farmer who was selling up & moving to the city.  On the way to collect them, i received an SMS saying "we have Flemish Giant bunnies if you'd like some??"  My eldest daughter was with me (fresh from Xrays confirming her wrist had healed completely & she could resume sports) & i'll just refer to her as an 'accomplice.'  Once we were handed that first bunny, we weren't leaving without one.

 After babysitting a Miniature Rex bunny in the school holidays, i had completely fallen in love with them, their sweet Beatrix Potter nature (unless they are trying to escape) & sheer cuteness.  Flemish Giants are my favourite breed too.  I was the perfect sucker . . . 

 . . . to say "sure, we'll take four!!"  Meet Pollen (Pollie), Tabitha, mama Josephine & Cecily - flashing her cotton tail below. 

 We took mama (18 months old) & the 3 daughters from her second litter.  Mama is a little cranky since this litter (8 weeks prior), so we're giving her space & time to learn to love us.  Her girls, well, they are oozing love, snuggles & hopping gorgeousness.  I can't help but gently stroke mama's belly, with all that beautiful mottled colour on her paws & belly.

 I spent $35 on bird wire & garden stakes, made them a 7m long bunny run (inside the 40m long chicken run) & they sleep in a large (Great Dane size) travel cage at night.  Chickens hop in & out, they play games & get along famously.  I've even added some palm trees for shade & nibbles.

 We've of course invested in harness leads & shampoo & other bunny accoutrements . . . so they can experience fresh grass daily (we also give them chopped grass, lucern, hay, carrots & rabbit food mix) as this breed (mama is a Lop, the babies are cross Flemish Giants) will need a lot of exercise.  We staked them to the ground while we washed the car the other day, they created a May Pole with their leads!!

 Bunnies are a great investment, the love & cute factor are a bonus, however, they are easy pets (so long as they are very secure in their run/ hutch/ cage) toilet trained & oozing love.  Not to mention . . . way better than chocolate for Easter.  Love Posie

PS did you hear bunnies are no longer used in cosmetic testing??

our creative space . . . 'preparation'

Greetings all,
After the bureau success, i'm ready to take on the buffet & hutch i picked up at a recycle centre.  Preparation is always the most boring part of a repurposing/ refurbishing project, however, it also creates questions/ options/ ideas you may not have considered.  Warning, this is a pretty bland Creative Space this week, but effective. 
First up i removed the glass doors & poo brown knobs (they were hand painted, someone actually took the time to paint them that horrid colour!!)

Then i thought how lovely it looked as an open cabinet.  No, the doors will go back on!! 

After sanding, i knocked the back of the hutch out, it was so noisey, banging away, + the wood was tongue & groove so fell loudly, piece by piece.  No one blinked an eye or came out to look, no wonder we got burgled (baddies smashed through our front window) in the middle of the day & no one noticed!!  I'll replace this wood backing with a flat panel, wall papered first, THEN reinstalled. 

I really like the plate ditch along the shelves too, but this is for craft!!  Now i'm thinking i should leave the internal shelves & sides white, i love sharp white against a colour, if done well, i'm using a very strong pink with Dulux Gala Day. 

You don't need many tools to destroy furniture!! 

So this was the bureau . . . gives you a reference of the colour & beautiful Laura Ashley wall paper i'm using - i think this pink, with the celadon paper + white insides will work well. 

Every hammer swinger needs a puppy companion. 

He's not much help, especially off lead when he greets every pram & puppy passing by, i'm sure he terrifies people as he's so enormous, heart of gold & from this - preferring to sit on the carpeted tailgate of the car - he's built for comfort!! 

Poof, i want to finish this project over the Easter long weekend, with my 4 helpers & have it in my studio by Monday.  My post-surgery hands are a bit tender after sanding vvvvvvvvvv & i know the children love getting on the tools.  So many chores before painting glory, like taping the glass edges, they love doing that & they're very neat too.  Some say child labour, i say free Easter activities!! 
Enjoy more creative spaces here, happy Easter, love Posie

social commentary Sunday 'do you lie to your children??'

Greetings all,
As a parent, i found the exciting anticipation of sharing my childhood memories - the Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny, Santa Claus - as seen through my own children's eyes, as much fun as it was when i was the one checking for a coin in place of my tooth, an Easter Egg hunt & checking my Santa Stocking.
My mother still believes in all of the above, yes in her 70s & put up a good front to my father who loathed any praise going towards fairies, bunnies or Father Christmas in a passive aggressive fashion.  We ignored him, we kept up believing in the stories for our mother more than anything, it brought her such joy.  I get where Dad was coming from, once you've been up past midnight blowing up inflatable pool toys, construcing a trampoline & putting training wheels on new bikes with a torch in the dark of your garden, you kind of think, why should Santa get the credit??  My husband agrees & let's just say . . . Santa gives a token offering to our children . . . so like my father - my husband relishes in the glory of being an awesome gift giver.

So what's this 'lying' all about??  Sure my children have asked "is the Easter Bunny real??"  I say "i think it's a lovely story" & they're still happy with that.  To all of you with really little ones, beware, there is always some awful child at school with older siblings who'll take sheer delight in ruining your child's dreams.

I think it's a good lesson in children learning the subtle art of happy-white-lies & sweet-harmless-stories, they make you feel good. 
I never put too much thought into carrying on the tradition of the 'big three' until a mother at my eldest daughter's preschool (looong time ago) answered for her daughter - when i asked if she was excited about Santa coming (harmless small talk to 3 year olds in December) with "i don't lie to my children".  Oh wow, that was strong, harsh & blunt.  Fair enough, it's your child, but it did trigger my child to ask what a lie was & ask why Santa wasn't going to their house.  So in a way it opened up that "this is how we do things in our family" versus the differences in other families traditions, beliefs, religions & so on.
Anyway, food for thought, a conversation starter.  I promised myself to answer my children's questions as clearly & honestly as possible but still love these 'stories' even if the Tooth Fairy is sending us broke. 
Enjoy your chocolates, we went high quality/ low quantity this year as the children did request the Easter Bunny to stick to Lindt chocolate.  Sure, you get one egg each then + the mandatory Lindt bunny with a tiny egg hunt of those mini eggs.  Love Posie
EDIT: Thanks to Vanessa from NessaKnits for correcting my title where i had written 'like' instead of 'lie', which is a nice typo but wrong with a capital R.  Blame the chocolate & a speedy post effort in order to catch a gorgeous store across town before it closed this afternoon.  Shopping on Easter Sunday, i know, a gorgeous homewares store as religious as me, but i needed more oilcloth, it was an emergency.

things i'm loving & i'm grateful for 'our cute & fluffy family Easter'

Greetings all,
Combining this week's 'Things I'm Loving' with Paisley Jade & 'I'm Grateful For' with Maxabella Loves this week to bring you a long week double post of Australian family Easter cuteness.  I love it when my husband is around, we do so many fun family things. 

 Full marks for cuteness with this family.

 Ok so they sleep like 22/24 hours . . .

 but this koala was super active, climbing, jumping & stretching.

 Oh who doesn't love a great petting zoo??  Don't be fooled by the high schooler's facial expression, she is not loving her smile or photo being taken at the moment.  It's a faze.

 I really like goats, not sure why, everyone complains about them but surely if they are in proper fencing & entertained, they'll be great on the farm.

 This animal lover of course wanted to take them all home with us.

 Animals bring out the best in children, don't you think??

 Wallabies . . .

 a huge reason why i want a farm, space, animals & a simple family life in the country . . . it's based around the fact we'll have 4 teenagers very soon.  They can go & complain, cry & let out all their tension in their own space with the animals at the end of each day.

 These were very chilled wallabies & kangaroos.

 Best of all, we have handsome soldier with us.

 So wishing you all a great slide into Easter from my family to yours.

Relax & enjoy your long weekend!!  Love Posie

My Creative Space 'handmade jumble'

Greetings all,

Welcome to this week's Creative Space as hosted every Thursday by Kirsty at Kootoyoo.  Mine is a big busy jumble & mish mash of things on the go this week, with children doing silly things!!  So bare with me . . . i've been flat out sewing for Shop Handmade which is opening next week, planning a school P&C Cross Country BBQ & Mother's Day Stall, plus the trip to Sydney for Easter!!

My big boy needed a new laundry bag for 'camp'.  Funnily enough, he was the only soldier who turned up to war with a pink & yellow striped laundry bag & it 'broke'.  Hmmmm . . . maybe this is more his butch style, but doubt it will be as easy to find after laundry day!!

The Easter Bunny really did come on Sunday.  My 4 children were so excited & couldn't wait to tell their grandparents.  My father, who is not a fan of the Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy or Santa Claus for that matter, was thrilled to tell them Sydney's North Shore was over run with rabbits & they all need shooting.  Um, nice one Dad!!

Take a look at my middle daughter, she looks innocent enough, doesn't she??  Can you imagine she started a stone & seed throwing contest (aimed towards our car!!) with siblings & cousins in Bowral??!!

Now this, her twin sister, innocent??  Never!!  Just as my eldest brother (host of Easter Sunday in Sydney) asked if my children were safe playing by the pool . . . in one went.  Clearly we were busy eating this amazing platter of delights instead!!  No, we were watching, we watched her go right in!! 

So after a week like that . . . i'm exhausted, emotional, missing my husband & desperate for the school holidays to start on Friday afternoon.  I drove home today with every intention of cooking a lovely quiche with salad, which soon downgraded to Spanish omlettes, but ended up as scrambled eggs with smoked ham & spinach, grainy bread & me being terribly distracted by the latest Country Road catalogue which came in today's mail.  Maybe i should have read Donna Hay's latest magazine with 50 Fast Dinners instead??  Love Posie