RamsdenDesigns

Why Break and Enter When You Can Go Through The Front Door

We go walking quite often, there is always plenty to see and it stops the flies from being lonely. There are always birds and kangaroos and wildflowers to look at and one of our neighbours has a peacock. He is simply divine and if someone were to buy me one as a present I wouldn’t be upset in the slightest.

Yesterday we went out and low and behold the peacock as out in his back yard. Little J noticed he’d dropped a feather and was desperate for it. But, being hideously proper and well mannered I wouldn’t let her climb the fence to get it. Instead I told her to go knock on the front door and ask nicely for it. You must understand dear reader I was absolutely certain she’d chicken out but her desperation for a multicoloured feather drove her to the front door.

Amazingly they didn’t set the dogs on her but rather sent her out the back to retrieve a feather where she promptly stood on a thorn that went through her thong and into her foot.

This is where my little girl gets brave. She pulled it out and while gushing enough blood to make Quentin Tarantino wince proceeded to collect her feather before hobbling back to me to be pushed home in Little C’s stroller. She told me later there was no way she wasn’t getting her prize.

There he is. Catch of the day.

He looks like he’s moving at a masterful pace but really was just dawdling along and casually showing up my photography skills.

What’s Hot + What’s Not

Business wise things are ramping up. The launch date of the product line has been decided and it will be 7th December 2009. Freaking me right out!

As things are made and ready I’ll be adding them to the web shop and I have a feeling it’ll all be happening the week before launch.

Hot

The woman above – is my style icon. She’s so amazingly chic and fresh. I have no idea how old she is but her daughter is about 18 yrs old which makes me like her even more.

Christmas shopping – is there anything better? Spending money on stuff I HAVE to have makes me so happy.

This picture – it makes me want to get married right now.

People art – this art installation has apparently been annoying people. But I can’t see what they wouldn’t like about it.

Soap making – making soap makes me happy. And that makes me happy!

Bella Sara – is back on the what’s hot list for Little J.

Not

Shoe shopping – which sounds like I’m betraying all women but you’d hate it too if you had feet like mine. What I need to do is pretend I’m a drag queen and go shop there because I’m sure a shop like that will have my size.

Children making a mess – it’s been pretty rampant this week but really I should just put this on the list for every week.

The heat – is blah! No other descriptive words needed.

Deck The Halls With Baldy Positioned Ornaments

Doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.

But it certainly suits our house at the moment. Our tree is up (and I’m sure Big B is relieved to have not been part of that circus) and the above pic is Little J’s attempt at hanging decorations. Proportion and a sense of space are not her strong points I’ve discovered. While the picture looks nice…and whoa our carpet looks like it’s never seen a 2 year old, the surrounding branches had nary a bauble on them.

And so it went. Bunches of ornaments and then giant spaces of undecorated tree.

Mummy will fix that later.

The best bit about our tree is the two presents already underneath it. Both of which are mine. One from Little J and one from Big B…which I picked out, purchased and wrapped but as we’re both happy about the situation it’s all good. I did balk a bit at the price but justified it by saying it was also a graduation present and an investment piece. And who knows, perhaps Big B will feel it’s worth it as it saved him the torture of shopping for my present and spending time in a place he compares to the depths of hell…a shopping centre.

And he’s totally going to win brownie points with his family for such a thoughtful gift.

While taking pictures of just mentioned gifts Little C saw an opportunity to be a star. I feel compelled to mention she isn’t participating in Movember but rather just indulged in a Tim Tam.

Does she look like my kid or not? She definitely gets her eyebrows from daddy. Poor thing, but not to worry, I’ve started up a ‘eyebrow wax’ trust fund for when she notices and demands they be gone.

Some other rooms in the house got the Xmas treatment as well. Big B wasn’t too impressed however when I told him the master bedroom is now decorated in pink fluffy Christmas lights.

Dearest Reader

I’ve had a hard day today. The children were possessed by the devil and proceeded to whine, complain and mess their way through the day, guaranteeing my tittering close to insanity tonight.

To cheer myself up and keep hold of my sanity for one more night I bought myself a bunch of flowers.

Because even us mad mothers need flowers.

Day at the races

 

"The baby will talk when he talks, relax. It ain't like he knows the cure for cancer and he just ain't spitting it out." Justin’s dad

 

Don’t know why I didn’t blog yesterday, or the day before because I have loads to write about. I do know I’ve been going to bed early because I’ve been wacked out at night and in bed at ridiculous times like 9.30pm.

So I’m writing a blog post early, just to make sure I get it in.

Today we went to Pinjarra and spent the day at the races. Not a horse in sight! It was a family/animal day and there were donkeys, ferrets and kangaroos galore and more alpacas than you could poke a stick at. Although I wouldn’t do that, they may be skittish creatures but are apparently little terrors when it comes to dogs and foxes and quite possibly small children.

This picture makes my skin crawl, and while Little J was thrilled to be holding a snake I’d rather stick my head in the toilet.

The donkeys were so tame it was amazing.

Blogtoberfest Day 28 – The Day I Began Ticking Off My To-Do List

The fact that I made a to-do list and am making it the highlight of this post shows how thrilling my life is.

The pic below I made at uni for an assignment and printed out an extra copy for myself. Today I hung it up in Little J’s bedroom and for fun took a photo of it.

It’s a movie poster for a made up movie staring of course Little J and introducing, in his very first major motion picture, the talented Tiger as himself. I’m quite become with the poster myself. It’s all sweetness and goodness, just the way kids movies should be. There are no aliens or wise cracking rude little buggers, and definitely no tiny little outfits a la Bratz. Of course the movie is going to be a block buster, after all Colin Firth (that casting was just for me) and Emma Thompson are in it. So there’s bound to be a little Jane Austen influence. Or if you’re a bit younger, say aged around eight, perhaps the duo represent a more Nanny McPhee style.

One for Little C is in the works and is quietly being thought about. If she could just sit still for more than a second I might be able to get a semi decent photo of her.

Dora the Explorer has taken center stage in our house lately. Little C has a new persona and goes by the name Dora and has managed to kidnap Diago’s pet Baby Jaguar and transform it into a stuffed toy kitten. Little J and I have been regulated to the roles of Swiper, Boots and Map…depending on the whims of Dora.

Now my head is clear of all things university related I’ve realised just how many hours there are in the day. Filling them isn’t a problem however. It’s amazing how much time one can spend sweeping floors, wiping bench tops and singing nursery rhymes so two year olds have something to dance to. So before I completely lose myself to running the house and start subscribing to Martha Stewart magazines I’ve written out a substantial to-do list for the business and have been working to tick each task off.

When something interesting is ticked off you can be sure I’ll post about it right here.

Blogtoberfest Day 18 - The Day At The Races

See! Missed a few days of blogging and now I look delinquent in my Blogtoberfest duties.

Despite my very dull life I've been very busy. Yesterday was spend at uni doing an animation for a group project. I despise group projects, there is always one person who doesn't pull their weight and this time it looks like it's me. Except I finally put the hard yards in on Saturday and made significant contributions, therefore redeeming myself in the eyes of my teams mate who I'm sure were thinking I was a bit useless.

Big B took us to the races (except Little J who is sleeping over at her cousins place). and it thankfully wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

Except the sun gave me a headache (and this is why I stay in doors).

The next week is going to be really busy. I've got assignments due and markets to get ready for.

Blogtoberfest Day 15 - The Day That Was Hot And Cold

It's getting a bit hard to come up with something captivating to write about. Honestly my life is not that interesting and I'm beginning to feel the pressure.

That's so not hot!

So I'm stealing an idea from Loobylu and doing a what's hot + what's not post.

HOT

• The weather. It's sunny and warm and glorious. I'm enjoying it before it gets too hot and finds itself in the NOT HOT section.
• The tepee above. I actually think my life would be complete if I owned a couple (must be more than one or the girls will fight over it).
• Credit cards. Used up all your allowance for the week? Not a problem, just pull out one of these little beauties and the bank will give you some more spending money. Genius.

NOT HOT

• Broken vacuum cleaners. I was wondering for a while why my vacuum cleaner wasn't doing a great job. Turns out mine has holes in the rubber tube thingy.
• Sick kids. I'm beginning to think Little J has Swine flu or something. It's been a week and she's still knocked out. Back to the doctors tomorrow.
• Mess. Yeah I know, there's two kids in the house I just need to deal but it's like the opposite of a black hole. Mess just seems to spill out from nowhere onto my floors.

Blogtoberfest Day 13 - The Day I Made A Catalogue

Little J is still sick. Poor thing, this flu has really knocked her around. She's spending the night at her grandparents house due to the fact they have Foxtel, ice-cream and are more likely to wait on her hand and foot.

The subject of wholesale catalogues has consumed me today. I'm compiling my own and today finished the cover page:

Bright, colourful and clean. Just how I like it. It takes the colours and geometric lines from my banner and turns them fluid and organic. I'd been toying around with the idea of pushing the brand to include dots and swirls and this image does the trick. It's brilliant isn't it! I wish I could claim ownership of the swirls and circles but it was done by someone else far more talented than me. I just came up with the colours and text.

What I love about the cosmetic and body products industry is the ability to be flexible and experiment. If I so desire I can do a whole collection of black and white ornate packaging, or a simple pastel themed collection, or something cute, quirky or funny. The only limit is my imagination and I love that I don't have to find just one style and image and stick to it.

I'm looking at doing some markets down south over the Christmas period. I like the idea of getting out of the city, there are so many markets here it'll be nice to go to towns where they are a novelty.

It's also a great excuse to visit the in-laws. They'd love to see more of the girls...not me or Big B, we're just the custodians.

Blogtoberfest Day 12 - The Day With A Sick Child and M&Ms

Poor Little J is still sick. So she was shuffled off to the doctor who informed us she has...a cold. Ok, thanks for that, I figured that myself but I guess the conformation is nice.

We got a prescription for antibiotics if she doesn't improve over the next day or two. Lets hope she does because she absolutely refuses to take any medication which led to the doctor informing her that orally is not the only way a tablet can be taken.

Poor thing, the look on her face when she realised what he meant was priceless.

In other news I've discovered that my kids think they like M&Ms but don't really. They're seen as a snack but mostly are seen as objects to throw around the room.

Lesson learnt.