Winter Holiday : Clunes, Goldfields Area, Victoria

Clunes is a gorgeous little Goldfields town / Ballarat / Daylesford Area.

I couldn't believe my luck when we drove into Clunes, HARD RUBBISH / Junk Everywhere with a few hours of daylight left.  We found our accommodation, I dropped our bags in the front door and read the note on the kitchen table `Elizabeth, please, please, please excuse the unsightly mess in town :

I was bursting with excitement.

My first hard rubbish experience ever, and all around hilly, beautiful Clunes.  I was actually hoping that I wouldn't find anything adorably antique that would have to be freighted back to Geelong, and after a few blocks of hill climbs, I decided that the exhausted looking couple carrying a gorgeous dresser down the main street had been carrying goodies home all day. I was looking at the leftovers.  Lots of grotty microwave's, mattresses, building material yard junk, but the walk through this quaint little hamlet, past the old butter factory, the majestic old public library, the old school of mining was amazing.

I love this preserved old town, the dusty shopfront windows under charming old awnings: no franchise stores, no discount $2 shops: a great butcher, a green grocer with the crunchiest royal gala apples ever and a gorgeous old fashioned lolly shop.

Our girls love a holiday, a `holiday house', bunk beds, anything different to the day-to-day.

Lucille and Arabella loved the games cupboard: Connect Four, a Madagascar Movie Marathon and `marshmellows on a stick' / also a treat at the lolly shop.

Audrey loved moving the gnome around, exploring the farm grounds and calling the emu.

Shane loved playing with his new camera and cooking yummy roast dinner's & the lolly shop.

I loved the latest Frankie, Dumbo Feather, Interior Design Magazines, and the most comfortable bed I have ever slept in: goose feather pillows / doona, organic cotton bedlinen.

Although to be honest I actually didn't sleep a wink at all in five nights.  I was on Night Watch.  A bout of holiday house night terrors, waiting for someone to burst through the back door in the middle of the night : my overtired active mind drives me CrAZy!

Can anyone relate to this feeling?  The farmhouse was off a gravel road, so with every gravelly / car engine sound: I was a nervous wreck.  The house wasn't far from the railway lines.  I was awake all night, for every passing train, midnight, 3 am, 6 am.  By the end of the week, I couldn't function.

The farmhouse ? the outdoor toilet ? my over-active imagination ? : a , b or c

I love having holiday dates booked and I love getting away, but I also love, love, love coming home.

Oh ( the last photo looks like I am in terrified mode ) We are playing Hide and Seek.

Audrey's 2nd Birthday

To Audrey Little,

or not so little anymore!

A big 2

Please stop growing so fast.

Your perfect just the way you are...

We love you lots and lots...

Happy Birthday Audrey.

From Aunt Sally xx

Sal, Thank you for the sweetest words in Audrey's birthday card.

We all had the most blissful day. A cake with cousins at our local park, free range strawberry picking at the Wallington Strawberry Farm ( her fave fruit ), ate a bucketful on the day. Then fish & chips at the Barwon Heads Festival.

If only, every other day ( in our real world ) could be so blissful & strawberry field-like.

The last 2 years have been an incredible juggle, actually a bit of a joke at times (and not a ha ha laughing joke). Meeting the many, many needs of little ones in an urgent manner, lots & lots of mess & chaos.

To all the stay-at-home mums out there : in the midst of all the chaos & meltdowns: we are amazing.

Fairy Bread Friday

I am a proud stay-at-home mum to a 4 yr old, a 3 yr old & a 2 yr old.

This fairy bread lunch ( for a 3 & 4 yr old ) isn't one of my proudest moments.

I can be a bit lax on Fridays. Although my girls are good ( in a rascally way ) I find Friday's especially exhausting. I lose all consistency & firmness - yes to fairy bread / on rye bread.

Looking forward to my mr.helper on the weekend.

Caravan Fun

Photo from A Beachy Life Made in Hossegor

Our friends, Murray & Marita found these two 1960's caravans in a farm paddock. M & M bought the cute bondwood Westcoast van (green stripe) for $300, we bought the aluminium Viscount van for $200 (both great bargains). The clean-up began over the weekend.

Thank you Ella & Leila, our girls had a lovely time holding your guinea pigs & playing tea parties.

Birthday Celebrations

Life is a constant tea party for my girls, with lots of birthday parties in between.

We were especially grateful for this birthday party - my mum's 60th.

After a terrible fright last year, we feel very blessed mum is here blowing her candles out. Good work mum, you blew them out like the big, bad wolf.

Budget Bathroom Haircut

Haven't we all cut our sister's hair when we were young. I gave my sister `a bowl cut' when I was Lucille's age. She had a broken arm at the time & must have been getting far too much attention.

I cut Kate's hair in the corner of our lounge room, behind a sofa. Lucille was far more professional. A chair, a towel laid out on the bathroom floor, lights on. I was having a lazy moment when I overheard` would you like to have a look in the mirror ', followed by Arabella's cry & Lucille's laugh.

Arabella is under her blanket in bed, sobbing `I look like a boy', and as she is sobbing away there is no curl to twirl. She has always had a comfort curl that she twirls when she is tired, and we have to leave it out of her plaits or pig tails.

This sounds terrible, but I couldn't get very angry with Lucille. It is a great cut, it looks adorable & A (the new kinder girl in our family ) has been getting a lot of extra attention lately, probably too much for Lucille's liking. Besides, don't we all wish our sister was uglier or less cute. Haven't we all chopped off our Barbie dolls hair to make her look like a tom boy.

Here is a before & after photo. Arabella on her first day of kinder - last month. Followed by her new look - showing how much hair she actually asked Lucille to cut off.

Op Shop Goodies, Freebies & a Finished Backyard Project

Iron Garden Gates - Free. Great for climbing fragrant roses - bolted to an arbour / fence or resting decoratively at the bottom of the garden. I sound like a freeloader, but two of these matching gates with flaky green paint were waiting for me to cart away: thank you to the friendly renovator in Brown Str.

Yaay, finally a finished project. My lawn bowls bench seat: painted apple green, cream & red: an ongoing project that began in Feb last year. I rarely finish a coffee these days, so finishing this bench is miraculous. Thank goodness for hubby's holidays - the only reason my bench seat made it to the finish line.

A doona cover of bright, cheerful blooms & an orange enamel reading light from local op shop. A long photo of the bed won't upload - disappointing - I made a big effort to make the bed beautifully.

If only the child who sleeps in this bed would wake up bright & cheery.