The Dog Knows...

Cooper is on the couch in the front living room, waiting for visitors to turn up. Want to know why?

Because I'm cleaning the house...

Cheeky puppy has realised that these days I only clean up when we have visitors coming.

Hmm looks like I should probably make an effort to tidy up a bit more often.

Lately though every spare moment I have I want to spend with Max, not vacuuming the floors. Do most working Mums have this problem?

Messy Weekend

This weekend had been a wash out.

It's Sunday night and my house is still crazy messy. Dishes in the sink, the floors haven't been vacummed, the laundry is in piles on the couch, there are rubbish bags in the laundry and no groceries in the fridge or cupboard.

My excuse? I've been sick. First with a cold and then with a stomach bug for the last couple of days.

The Big Man has been great. He let me sleep for four hours yesterday in the middle of the day and whilst I was sleeping in this morning he loaded up the dishwasher and did some laundry.

Worst part? One of my neighbours showing up with a box of nappies for me. So nice of her, it would have been really rude of me to not invite her in for a coffee. I sat her down in the front room {which was the only clean room in the house}, but whilst I was making coffee she came into the kitchen to see if she could help me... The shame. She has four kids of her own though so I hope that she at least understands.

Luckily I have tomorrow off, hopefully I can get the house cleaned up then.

I'm off to bed.

Dining Room Makeover

About five years ago my Dad gave us his old dining room table and chairs, he'd only had the set for a couple of years and it's still in great condition.

It's really nice, but isn't really the right style for our new house. However replacing it is not a priority right now {it's pretty much at the bottom of the list}, so I decided to have a go at recovering the cushions.

I had another reason for doing so as well... a couple of years ago I was resting the iron on one of the chairs and it tipped over and burnt a whole right through one of the covers. I've used chair covers on the chairs for a few years to hide it, but I'm tired of how they look.

I bought the fabric from spotlight along with a cheap staple gun and set about recovering them.

It was really simple. I just unscrewed the cushions from the base.


Measured out how much fabric I would need.


and folded and stapled.


Once the covering was done I just screwed the cushions back on and sprayed them with a waterproofing spray to try and give them some protection from dirt, food and cat fur.

I'm reasonably happy with how the turned out. They're not perfect, but they'll do for now. I'm kind of thinking that I might like to paint the chairs white and then recover them {again} with a fabric that has some colour in it. {Like this, from here}


But I want to wait until we have tiles down first so that I have a better idea of what the dining room is going to look like.

Ta-da, my first major DIY!

Good Bye 2009

This year has been a great one for the Big Man and I. I think it is one of those years that I will look back on and smile about in the years and decades to come.

Of course it hasn't been all smooth sailing, but the good this year has by far out weighed the bad.

2009 Highlights (in chronological order):

• Adopting Ollie, our laid back, cruisey Cat
• Finding a great job that I really enjoy and having the added bonus of working with a fantastic group of people
• Finding out that I was pregnant
• Telling the Big Man that were going to have a baby
• Telling our families and friends about the baby
• Seeing Max for the first time at our 10 week scan
• All of the pregnancy milestones, first kick, first kick that the Big Man felt, seeing Max move inside my belly, first hiccups, etc
• Not getting fired from that job when I needed a lot of time off through out my pregnancy
• Celebrating my first wedding anniversary
• Seeing Beyonce in concert
• Cooper turning two and finally turning into a sane dog rather than a uber-excited puppy
• My Baby Shower
• Giving birth
• Sharing Max with all of our Families
• Having my Family visit for Christmas
• Celebrating the New Year with thew Big Man's Family

It was such a good year that I have probably missed a million things!

I hope you all have a wonderful 2010!

T xx

Getting Ready for 2010

Next year I think I am going to need to step up my level of organisation if I am going to manage my schedule as well as the Big Man's and Max's. So the other day when I saw this really cute yearly planner at Miriam Bereson I knew it was exactly what I needed.



Now I just need to find the perfect diary (or convince the Big Man to buy me an iphone) and I will be all set.

T xx

Hopefully the next one is a girl

This weekend I am up in Hervey Bay picking up some baby furniture from my sister. I love coming up to Hervey Bay, we always get to catch up with my sister and her family and the Big Man's family. Normally we make an effort to catch up with our friends, but we are on a tight schedule this weekend, so it is family time only.

One of my favourite things to do when I come up here is to do my nieces hair. She's not a huge fan of having her hairbrushed, but she is generally really good about it. She has beautiful blond hair that goes all the way down her back. Perfect for a clucky Mum-to-be to braid! Yesterday I did her hair in heidi platts and she looked so, so cute :)

It was a bit messy at the back, but only if you looked closely ;)

The furniture that we are taking back with us is a baby cot, a bassinet, a baby bath and change table and we're also picking up a whole lot of plants from the Big Man's parents, Christmas decorations from my sister and a few bits and pieces that I am borrowing for my baby shower.

I am so excited to get home and start piecing together the baby's room. I also ordered a few bits and pieces on etsy the other day so that I can start decorating the room....

Owl Decal from SurfaceFlik's Etsy Store

Small Owl Picture from LeeArthaus - Etsy

More pictures as it all comes together!

T xx

A Crafty Weekend

At the moment I am going through a bit of a phase where I hate being away from the Big Man. It is probably just anxiety rearing it's ugly head, but seeing as medication is out of the question I am embracing it rather than fighting it. This weekend it meant that whenever the Big Man was in the home office playing/working on his computer, I was in there too and I decided to use the time to get stuck into some of the craft projects I have been putting off.

The first item on my agenda was some decor items and art for the guest bedroom. The room had previously been set up as my bff's room, as I was storing all of her stuff at my house whilst she was overseas. Last week I packed up all of her things and sent them down to Adelaide for her, which left the room looking sad and bare. I didn't want to (ahem, couldn't afford to) buy anything to decorate the room with so I set my crafty mind to work. I haven't done anything major yet, but did cover a couple of cute little boxes to stack on one of the shelves and also made a piece of art to hang on the wall. I just need to paint a frame that I had lying around and it will be ready to go up on the wall. I need to make or find a few more pictures to go on the wall and the room will be perfect (for now!). I will post photos of the room as soon as it is finished.

The next thing I got started on was some owl's for the nursery. I am not sure if I am going to make an owl mobile or if I will just make some stuffies to sit on a shelf.... I picked up some fabric yesterday and am going to give this pattern that was posted on Craft Blog a go. I started out by hand sewing the owls, but realised that was kind of dumb now that I have a sewing machine. So I got out my instruction manual, worked out how to wind and thread the bobbin, how to thread the needle and to put the foot down (which took the longest!). Eventually I got the sewing machine working and it turns out machine sewing is a lot quicker and easier than hand sewing.... who knew! Anyway, no finished products yet, but I will post pictures when they are done.

The last thing I started yesterday were my baby shower invitations. Although my sister is hosting the baby shower, I really wanted to make the invitations myself. I planned them out and decided what I needed, but when I went to go to the scrapbooking store I had a flat battery in my car :( The Big Man got it fixed for me, but by then the shop was closed. Still at least I have an idea about what I want to make, I just need to find time to and pick up my supplies.

All in all a very crafty weekend. Next thing you know I will be making Christmas Cards and decorations!

T xx

The Start of the Nursery

A couple of weekends ago the Big Man and I got started on the baby's nursery. We've decided to try and paint an alphabet mural (like this one) using three different shades of blue. We're still not sure how we are going to go painting the letters and numbers, but we are going to give it our best shot.

On the Saturday morning we went to Bunnings and picked out our colours and that afternoon the Big Man started painting with our base colour.


By Sunday afternoon the Big Man had finished the first coat and I love it! The colour is exactly what I had hoped for. Blue, but not wishy-washy. I can't wait until the next coat has gone down and we can start working on the mural!



More photos in the next couple of weeks :)

T xx

A Pair of Love Birds

The other day when I was drooling over all of the gorgeous home wares on Etsy I came across these two little love birds.

I've waited and waited and they finally arrived today....... and they are even cuter than in the photo.

I haven't decided what to do with them yet. I originally planned on using them to keep rings and earings, but now I'm not sure. In the meantime I have them on display in my living room.

I am one hundred percent competely obsessed with Etsy at the moment and I go on there at least 3 times a day to see what has been recently listed. Let me know if you have any favourite sellers for me to check out!

xx Tamsyn

I Miss My Internet

Since the Big Man and I have moved into our new home we have been semi-internetless. We still have full access at work, but nothing at home. It's killing me. When I finish up at work for the day all I want to do is go home to our new house and once I get there all I want to do is go back to work so that I can read blogs, and do other random internet things.

We had planned on getting iinet's naked dsl so that we could have a permanent voip line as well as decent priced internet, but thanks to Telstra we aren't able to get broadband at all. I don't completely understand why, The Big Man says that is something to do with the fact that we are in a pair-gained area. He explained it to me in detail, but I think that I zoned out about 20 minutes into his Telstra rant....

We have been told that there is about a 2 year wait and the best thing to do is just keep on applying for broadband every six weeks and hope we get lucky. I had to double check that we were still in Australia and hadn't accidentally moved to Namibia.

Obviously the whole two year wait thing is not going to work for us, so we are looking into wireless broadband. In the latest issue of APC they road tested all of the wireless internet options and recommended either Telstra Wireless or Three Wireless. Seeing as this whole thing stems from a Telstra problem The Big Man is dead-set against going with Telstra, so it looks like we are going to give the Three Network ago.

My question is, do any of you use wireless internet (ie using a mobile phone network rather than regular broadband) and do you have any recommendations, feedback or warnings before we go ahead and sign a contract? Thanks!

xxoo Tamsyn

Hail to the Truck Driver

That's me by the way. Yep, I drove my first truck today! Not something I had ever really planned on doing, but at least I can check it off the list of things to do before I die.....

We hired the truck today to move BFF's furniture from her storage shed to our new place (she's letting us use all of her things whilst she goes overseas to live out her dreams xx). I put my name down on the contract, but I didn't actually intend to do any driving. And I wouldn't have except I wanted to come to work to check my emails (no internet at home, story for another time) and realised that the I had left my car keys and mobile phone in the Big Man's car and he was already at work. So BFF and I hoped into the truck and drove to work. Slowly. Driving a truck for the first time is not something that you can rush :)

All went well with the driving and we made it to work in one piece. But once we were here we also remembered that we hadn't bought my work keys with me...... After five minutes of throwing things at the first floor window and laughing so hard that we almost peed ourselves The Big Man finally came to the window and then let us in. He was pretty impressed when he found out that I drove the truck!

Anyhow I better get back downstairs.I'm parked over two car spaces to make sure that no-one dents my rig!

T xx


Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/emdot/34129050/

We Have the Keys!!

Yep, the day has finally come! At 11 o'clock this morning we handed over our final check and accepted the keys to our new home. Soooo excited. It doesn't matter to me that the house is barely even finished and we don't have a driveway, or any turf (or tiles, a fence or back deck for that matter), we have somewhere to live and that's all that counts :)

I wanted to stay there all day and unpack all of our boxes, especially all of the ones that have been in storage for the last year, but the Big Man sent me straight back to work. Something about having a mortgage to pay..... he's mean like that. As soon as I finish up this afternoon I am heading back to our other shop to get as many more boxes as I can fit into the car and then I am going straight home. I can't stop giggling when I say that..... I'm going home! To my real home! The one that doesn't have four lanes of traffic and trucks going past 24/7! Did I mention that I am excited!

The Big Man (right) getting the keys from our builder. Their faces are a bit pink because my camera took a little while to get going and I made them keep holding hands. I think they were a little embarrassed!

T xx

7 Days to Bliss

If all goes to plan for the next 7 days, this time next week the Big Man and I will be handed the keys to our new home.... About time :) I am pinching myself even as I type!

Where we are currently living is on a 4 lane road and we run a business from the house. When we moved in we thought it would just be for 4-6 months, but we have just passed the year mark. So for the last year, the only relaxing we have done is on holidays (which have been few and far between). During the day we are always aware that a customer may drop in without a booking and at night we sleep with the constant noise of trucks and their exhaust brakes. We also use the lounge room as the office, so we really only have a kitchen, bedroom and another little bedroom that we have the tv, and wii in (not that they ever get used). We eat our meals at our desks in the office or sitting on the couch in the tiny tv room and the Pooper has a a gravel backyard instead of grass. The poor puppy used to get confused when we started taking him on walks and to the park, he didn't realise that it was normal to pee on grass and would go for the concrete because it looked the most like his gravelly backyard!

Suffice to say I am looking forward to moving into our new home for so many reasons. Having real neighbours next door instead of businesses, sitting down at a table for dinner, feeling like I can relax and de-stress whilst I am at home, having an outdoor area with a bbq again, having a bath tub, not having groceries fall on my head everytime I open the tiny (and too full) cupboard and so much more.

Building a house has been a real eye opener for us. We have never owned a home before and didn't really look at many existing homes before we decided to build. We really went into it without completely understanding the process, if we ever get the chance to build again we will at least be prepared for how long it takes from start to finish.

This weekend I am only going to think positively and am going to spend the weekend packing up everything that we don't need on a day to day basis.

Please cross your fingers for me that I won't have to spend another weekend living at work after this one!

T xx

Super Busy - Quick Update!

Wow - August is turning into a crazy month for me! I have barely had time to think so far this month let alone blog regularly...

Here is what's on the menu this month:

1. Thirty Day Challenge - This is a internet marketing program that I am doing with my sister and tens of thousands of other people around the world. I am loving it and getting so much out if it already, I just wish I had a few spare hours each day to sit down and focus on it.

2. Moving House!!! - We have our walk through tomorrow and from then our builders have two weeks in which to finalise everything and give us the keys :0) Every time I remember that I will be living in my new home before the end of the month I get giddy with excitement!

3. Planning our wedding... yep still working on this. The wedding is less than 7 weeks away now and I still have so much to do. Luckily I have the two best bridesmaids in the entire world (I love you J and Ez).

4. All the usuals as well... working full time, trying to keep my house clean, spending us much time with my family as possible and making time to catch up with my friends.

5. Cooper (The Pooper) - as I type he is head-butting my arm in the hope that I will notice him and throw the ball for him. (Does anyone else have a dog that head-butts them?)

From what I hear I am not alone though.... it seems like August is a busy month for a lot of people this year. At least it won't be a boring month!

T xx

I have an oven!!

Quick house update - my oven is in!

I can't wait to move in and start using it.... I have been dreaming about an oven that actually cooks things for the past year.

I'm heading off to my Mum's for a weekend of invitation making...

I hope you all have a good one!

T xx

Goal - Total Organisation

3 weeks and counting until we move into our new house! That is, if you believe the builders, and I don't....... Don't get me wrong, I want to believe in them, but their past promises are working against them. None the less I have decided that it is high time to get organised.

Between The Big man, The Pooper and myself, we have managed to accumulate an awful lot of stuff. Stuff that we really don't need. So my goal this weekend is to start sorting out our stuff into three categories.

Category 1 - Things that we need, use and love (and the things that have true sentimental value).
Self explanatory really....

Category 2 - Items that can be sold on e-bay or at a garage sale.
I am going to start listing anything that is suitable (eg. spare dvd player, old tv) on to e-bay as soon as I can so that we don't have to lug too much to the new house. Everything else will hopefully sell at the garage sale we are having in two weekends time.

Category 3 - Items that can be donated to charity or thrown out.
Everything that doesn't sell on ebay or at the garage sale is going to be donated to charity and everything else (the rather large stash of broken things that we have hung on to) will be recycled or thrown away.

Now, because I am a class A hoarder and am quite new to this I have a fourth category as well.....

Category 4 - Things that I never use, but can't bring myself to throw out....
I am going to give myself one year to start using these items before I must give them away. That way I will have a bit of time to decide if I need them as much as I think I do (ie. spare set of hair straighteners, bread maker, old laptop that takes 5minutes to load a page).

I'm feeling more organised already!!

Please let me know if you have any great organising tips that I can put to good use :)

T xx