Blogging from the garden

Sitting out in the garden to catch a breeze - summer is definitely still on... 

And it hasn't rained for nearly 100 days. 

Imagine!

Noughts and crosses on the watertank...

Pecan Pie - I can't eat a Pecan Pie without thinking of Billy Crystal in When Harry Met Sally!

A sketch for a project I'm working on for Crab Fest ( yes, the festival of the crab) this weekend coming...

Last day of summer

Today is the last day of summer, so obviously it will now be too cold and wet to go to the beach...

I think we might brave it for a few more weeks (months..) but anyway, here is a little ode to our favourite beach, in photo form.

The curve of the bay

Snorkels!

The pontoon

Umm, more snorkels...

Floating 

My favourite fellow swimmers

Around here..

I feel like I've been really busy... but in reality I've been doing a lot of this...

My mother-in-law came to stay and taught me how to make a dress. 

Ok, she made me a dress...

The boys have been doing a bit of this...

And a bit of that...

And I did manage to make myself a new website - here if you fancy a look :)

The Beach Plan

We unanimously decided to spend the last two weeks of the school holidays lounging around in our pjs until lunchtime and then hitting the beach for the afternoon.

So far this is a flawless plan!

Snorkelling with seagulls - and a big cloud of smoke from a bushfire in Kwinana on the horizon...

Australian Advent Calendar Days 15 and 16

There are three things you shouldn't do on the hottest weekend of the year so far-

1. Lay new lawn in the front and back gardens

2. Select, chop down, cart home and decorate a Christmas Tree

3. Offer to go and help on your six year old's class trip to the park...

But of course we did all these things.

I'm just back from the park- watching seventy-five six and seven year olds running around in 35 degree heat is not fun...

                     

                     

Dogs of Bali

We're just back from two weeks in Bali - I have a lot of photos to show you.... but I thought I'd start with a collection of Bali's stray dogs. They're everywhere and trot around very confidently!

Balconies and Boats

It suddenly feels like summer here - I'm sat in my favourite spot - on my balcony. 

Cane chairs - secondhand shop $50 for three.

Table - op-shop $30 for the table and two chairs.

Kicking back with a glass of wine and a breeze in the trees - priceless.

We picked up our big impulse purchase at the weekend....

Yep - we bought a boat.
It started with that fatal phrase, 'Let's just go and have a look at it...'
I should know better - last time I fell for that one we came home with a puppy... (I got suspicious after we drove for three hours to look at said puppy...)

This time however, I quite fancied looking at the boat as the sun was shining and the seller said he'd take us out for a sail.

Yep, it's a sailing boat.

And no, we can't sail.

But we've got a book so we should be OK...

Today we will be mostly...

...planting seeds at the library (part of our spend-no-money summer holiday plan!)

....watching a Tintin DVD in French (appears to make no difference to my non-French speaking children!)

...adding to my long Ikea wishlist (new house needs presents..)

... buying lovely postcards from The Calm Gallery (cheap international postage!)

(Title inspired by The Fast Show...)

Jump!

The mission: find a jetty and jump off it.

Mission accomplished.

SUPs, good books and massive ants

So far this weekend has been all about our new stand up paddleboard - it is GINORMOUS and we all love it.

I'm reading The Paperbark Shoe by Goldie Goldbloom (great name), although shortly after taking the below photo I was bitten on the bottom by a fearsome looking ant and quickly jumped back in the water...

Australia and the Eiffel Tower

We had a painting day today - a trip to Spotlight to buy supplies, lots of newspaper, old clothes on and we were ready.

Bill decided to go for an Australian theme with cave paintings and native wildlife, while Tom went for a more abstract 'Eiffel Tower with Red Bird'...

I love Bill's line drawings - especially the platypus in the top left!

 Finished!

Staying calm...

Stressful times in the Moody house... our house sale isn't quite going to plan - I won't bore you with the details but it involves a dishonest buyer and a complacent estate agent - we are trying not to PANIC!!!
We'd hoped to be out before the boys started back at school, which obviously isn't going to happen now.. 
Oh - and did I mention the fact that our estate agent has gone on holiday today??!


Thinking calm thoughts....

August Break 12 - Making Day

We had a creative day today - the boys made some lovely mosaic coasters (and I only interfered a little bit...) and I sewed a bag out of some fabric I block-printed a couple of weeks ago.

I feel a lot better now - it's been a while since I made anything for fun!