Nippy mornings

This morning our car thermometer read -0.05°C at 7.30am.  Needless to say it was chilly and frosty.....especially in the house as our wall heater stopped working.  It has decided to work again tonight...thank goodness.  Our house is an ice box, but if the heater is on, the lounge and dining area gets toasty warm.

Even though it is cold, I do love frost.  It's the closest thing we're going to get to snow here in Sydney, so no matter how cold it is I will be out there snapping photo's.

Every little blade of grass is magical with it's little icicle crystals.

The weeds are looking pretty good in the garden at the moment too :+)

Things that make me happy this morning

My altar to the flower fairies

Rain, rain and more rain

I have so loved the rain this past week, in fact I have always loved it.  I think I've been the only one with a smile on my face as I walk down to school in the pouring rain.  Toby and I finally purchased a new umbrella each, the others were falling apart and we are the one's that use them the most.  So now in the pouring rain Toby and I are feeling happy and dry, splashing in our boots and covered by umbrella's.  It's quite an exhilarating feeling enjoying the elements that nature has to offer.

The Crossover

There is a fine line between Autumn and Spring.  That line is Winter.  Where the leaves may have fallen off some trees, there is still a greenness that surrounds us.  The air may be cold and damp, but there is a warmth growing from within.  Where some Autumn leaves may still be hanging, new Spring growth is budding and appearing.  The Crossover.  There is never a dull moment in nature and I love the surprises she brings forth.

Under Attack

Whilst on our family walk around the neighbourhood the other day we came across many things, mostly of the nature kind, beautiful flowers, 

seed pods for floating down the creek and a few Autumn leaves still clinging on for dear life.

Little did we know that just around the corner......

......around the very corner from where we live was something rather unexpected.

It just popped out at us and tried to do it's thing, you know.......Exterminate us!!

But we ran....

and ran.....some didn't make it.....

...and others were just unlucky to have their faces sucked off...

...or brains sucked out!!  Those Daleks are a menace!!

We tried running for the tardis.....but it was too small!! 

Letter box sized in fact!!

And the Doctor was nowhere to be seen!!

We are just loving the latest Dr Who series, it still manages to freak me out after all these years.

Kids Day

Well it has come around again, for those of you not in the know about Kids Day go here to see what it's all about.  We had a few plans and idea's that the boys wanted to do or things I wanted to do for the boys.  It just was a really lovely family day that doesn't happen that often, the weather was great and gave us a chance to get outdoors.

Sam and Ethan were woken up extra early Monday morning by Donald to watch the Socceroo's verse Germany at 4.30am.  I could hear their disappointed groans from my warm, snugly bed...I could tell the game didn't go well.  Then they sadly all went back to bed.   I don't think Sam and Ethan slept though, but read in bed for a while.  A little later I was up preparing a breakfast of fruit crepes with syrup and melted butter and little gifts of lollies and magazines laid out on the table for the boys. 

Some wrestling in the lounge room for an after breakfast activity was also participated in.

We went for a lovely family walk around our neighbourhood streets and bushland area.

Saw lots of amazing flowers springing up... 

....and the last of the Autumn leaves. 

We found these seed pods on a tree which I haven't seen since my childhood.  They brought back many memories, we used to float them in Moggil Creek down the road from where we lived in Kenmore.

So we collected as many seed pods as we could carry and went boating at the creek.

We did a few more fun things for Kids Day but we ended it with some Nintendo (always a compulsory activity on Kids Day) and their choice for dinner was to go to an unnamed fast food restaurant with a play area.

Sunny Saturday

I spy my gum boots....

....and a new hat!!

Four games of soccer...

but I only made three!!

I am the Lorax I speak for the trees

".....I saw something pop out of the stump

of the tree I'd chopped down. It was sort of a man.

Describe him?...That's hard. I don't know if I can.

He was shortish. And oldish.

And brownish. And mossy.

And he spoke with a voice

that was sharpish and bossy.

"Mister!" he said with a sawdusty sneeze,

"I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees.

I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues.

And I'm asking you, sir, at the top of my lungs"--

he was very upset as he shouted and puffed--

"What's that THING you've made out of my Truffula tuft?...."

Excerpt from "The Lorax" by Dr Seuss

Sam's class were in charge of conducting the school assembly last Friday, their class also performed a play based on "The Lorax" by Dr Seuss.  It was clever and funny and the whole class got to participate, they were fantastic.  They had painted backdrops and props and had some great costumes.  Guess who Sam played?

PS.  Don't you love his hat, I whipped that up in two days, we didn't have any orange material but I did have lots of orange yarn.  We went for the orange look as that is what the Lorax looks like in the books and we borrowed the moustache from Asterix.

And now a word from Ranger Ethan...

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Progress

Here are some of the squares I have been crocheting for my Babette blanket.  My aim is to fill it with my Autumn colours so I'm making large, medium and small squares with some of the same colours repeated and lots of little squares to fill in the spaces.  I'm not one for sticking to patterns...more 'go with the flow'...if it doesn't work then I change it or re-do it.

The pattern is based on the Interweave Babette blanket pattern.  I've also mixed it up and borrowed ideas from the June 2010 issue of Better Homes and Gardens magazine.  They have a pattern for a "Vivid dreams" blanket which is very similar to the Babette.

As I am a sensitive type of person, in mind and in body, I need soft on my skin and not scratchy.  So I have chosen Panda's Magnum Soft range of 8ply acrylic, it's very soft.  They don't have a yellow yarn in their soft range so I've also used Moda Vera Marvel 8ply, it's a little finer than the Panda, but it matches for softness.