I won a Kreativ Blogger Award!

Wow! Yesterday I won a Kreativ Blogger Award, nominated by a dear friend of mine, Stephanie. You simply must have a look at her lovely blog There She Goes where she shares her thoughts on life, love, children, work & all things. You will enjoy yourself, her words are lovely.

So, in line with the Kreativ Blogger award rules, here are 7 things about me that you may or may not know:

1. Last year I completed a course which I have been wanting to do for such a long time. I am not going to say what it is (in such a public forum) as I do not want to jinx myself. My results & application have been submitted to where they need to go & now I am just waiting to hear the outcome. All bits crossed for my dream being achieved!
2.  I love sewing but have not done so creatively in a very long time. I had the sewing machine serviced this week so I have no excuses to make something fabulous now & have various projects swirling in my head.
3. I love tapestry & cross stitch, & have made quite a few which I am so proud of. I must post up some photos of them actually.
4. I absolutely loathe other people's feet & am not too dramatically fond of my own. I will never suck your toes.
5. Both of my parents arrived in Australia post WW2 from Holland. I cannot believe how brave their parents were in bringing the family to a totally new country to give their children ( & subsequently me) a chance at a better life.
6. I love living in Ballarat. I love the weather, the peacefulness of where we live & the chances that we have with truly great schools, the University, the food & the friends that we have here.
7. I am very intolerant of whingers & whiners, the people who always feel hard done by when in fact, life is a tad difficult at that particular time. The genuine ones: I am with you all the way & will fight for you, but to those with the victim mentality: suck it up, get on with it & remember there are always others far worse off than us.

And so, to my Kreativ Blogger Award winners: thank you to each & every one of you as you bring joy & interest to my life xx

1. A Bex & a Good Lie Down: I love Hazel & her world view. She makes me laugh & have a good think about things in general. 
2. A Goddess in the Kitchen: Ella is a fabulous cook who recently moved to PNG with her husband. This blog is about cooking & life in PNG.
3. Art Deco Buildings: my friend David has taught me so much about the beauty that is an art deco building. I had no idea that they were so lovely.
4. Flower Garden: Annie is a lovely lady in Ballarat, with gorgeous photography skills. This blog is peaceful & pretty.
5. Kabri's Blog: this is my friend Karo who lives in Finland. She also has briard dogs & she is a fab photographer.
6. Missy Mao Mao: Marilyn is a very talented & creative sewer. I do feel envy when I look at all her stuff & have one of her beautiful handbags.
7. Gleeful: Jayne's blog is inspiring in just appreciating something each day & feeling thankful for what we have & do. Simple concept, but very awesome.

A new start.

I can feel spring tip toeing nearer, the days seem brighter & a bit more cheery. The grass is green, the bulbs are coming out. It all gives me hope of a brillaint new future, all sparkly & bright. So, to celebrate, I started a little herb garden yesterday, borrowed heavily from my gorgeous and inspirational friend Libby. She is always upbeat, funny, quirky and she lives her life to the full. I've learned a lot from her.

So to plagiarise her life a bit, I have replicated her herb pot. In the middle is a bay leaf tree, and surrounding that is coriander, parsley, mint & basil. It all looks so pretty and fresh, and I'm not sure that I won't kill it all off, but at this point I feel almost positive that I won't

Beautiful Camellias.

We have beautiful camellias don't we? These babies are enormous bushes (or trees), technically about 2 storeys tall, and they are part of a large planting of 8 camellia trees, all different colours, from deep red to really bright pink. They surround a small bit of decking, which I want to expand to go all around the house. However, if I do actually do that I will have to rip out the camellia trees, which totally sucks. What to do? I want both the decking and the camellias. How do I get to have it all?

Changing blog email addresses - what a palaver.

Who knew the rules - had to create a new email account to post as me and not as "Jeremy Bannister Photography". Probably not necessary, but I did want my own ID here.

Taken me hours but worth it, now I exist as me as not as an extension of our other blog.

It gets like that doesn't it, with bank accounts and stuff? When we married he was automatically joined to my car insurance (he didn't have any), got my rating without a prob and then all the mail was delivered in his name (grr). He managed to get a loan in our names, without me signing anything, but in reverse that would have been impossible.

Anyway, let's see if this post is signed off as me.

The first post........

Well, finally, it's all about me!

This life I have is pretty fantastic, I have so much to be very grateful for. My husband is a good guy & I adore him big time. He is a terrific Dad who loves us all to pieces. The boys are funny, nice people who will be funny, nice adults. I am indeed blessed & have nothing to complain about.

I do however like to complain, so this will be the spot to do so. I'm looking forward to it.