The steam train!

Img credit: http://www.coffscoastadvocate.com.au/

Last weekend we packed the kids up and took them out to see the steam train while it was in town! It doesn't come often so you can imagine how packed it was, apparently tickets sold out in days (this smart mummy got hers the day they went for sale!). Finding parking was ridiculous even though we got there over half an hour earlier! 

We found our seats (carriage 1) and it was all pretty squishy and packed. 

The train ride went for about an hour and a half and it was just the most perfect day for it too! The sun was out and it was warm which was a nice change since we've been getting nothing but rain for awhile! The kids loved looking out the window and they tooted the whistle heaps which got the kids SO excited. Jayke kept talking about how he was riding "Puffer Pete", a train off chuggington!

Violet pretty much has no fear and hung her head too, only down side to hanging your head out is that you get a face full of soot and the poor kids were rubbing their eyes for hours after the train ride, I bet they thought it was worth it though.

The most exciting bit for the kids though was when the train went through the tunnels and everything went pitch black! At first Jayke looked a bit concerned but then he started getting excited every time he saw a tunnel coming.

It was seriously one of the best experiences! So much fun, the kids loved it, WE loved it. And it made me really realise what a beautiful town we live in and how lucky we are to have these awesome activities right at our doorstep! 

Creating a craft space!

My house is tiny with VERY minimal storage areas so when I got into scrapbooking and sewing (and other crafty things like that) I had no where to do it and ended up just doing whatever on the dining room table. THEN I upgraded and my mother in law gave me a spare table she had laying around and I popped that in the corner of my bedroom (behind the door actually, pretty awkward place for a table...) and since then its been a pretty big mess of craft junk, think lots of 'stuff' and no storage. Yeah, big mess! However, today was the last day I was going to stare at it wishing it would sort its self out.

See, told you. Not pretty!
What I did: I went down to Howards Storage World and picked up an Everloc Bathroom/kitchen shelf ( http://hsw.com.au/index.php?product&id_prod=1289&id_cat=&id_dept= ), I chose a non drill shelf because our walls are plasterboard and its too much hassle to drill in hooks, the Everloc range is AMAZING! Pricey but well worth it for us :)

When I got home we set up our new shelf and then I pulled EVERYTHING out from the drawers and cleared off the top surface. Now because the table isn't actually mine I have to keep it as is, its one of those world map tables, its about 30 years old and covered in kids stickers so the best I could do was chuck an old bed sheet over the top and call it covered. Then I sorted out all of my craft things and started to pack them away into their new homes. I found some old jars laying around and now they're being used as pen and stamp holders! I thought the wall looked a bit blank so I quickly made up a wall hanger from left over fabric (with help from my little prince and princess!) This is how it ended up:

New shelf that holds organised jars and some scrapbooks

jar of textas and pens, bucket of stamps and ink!

top draw with chipboard, labels and embellishments

Scrap paper, boarders and little nicknack's

Better, right? I actually know where everything is and I can easily REACH everything now too! Yay! Now I'll have many hours of crafty goodness and ill NEVER stare at my craft table wishing for it to get organised again :)

Christmas organisation

This week ive been thinking about Christmas! Im so excited! Anyone who knows me KNOWS how much I love Christmas. Im obsessed. Every year I write a list of things to do with the family for each day of December, leading up to Christmas day. This year is going to be the best so far now the kids are a bit older and Jayke 'gets' the whole Santa thing. I actually think IM more excited then him! ha! So for the past few days ive been busy coming up with some activities to do with the kids over the Christmas period. I've left a few days blank to make room for unexpected thing popping up, which always happens :) but so far this is what our Christmas to do list looks like:

Watch this space for more Christmas inspired posts!!

Clothes organisation!

Jaykes cupboard has always been complete chaos! Its always so hard to find anything in there and I always find myself pulling out ALL his shirts just to find a short sleeve one. Well I finally decided to do something about it today and had a perfect little helper too.

First I typed up and printed out some labels, short sleeved shirts, long sleeved shirts, shorts, pants, pj's and undies and added a skull and crossbones to fit his pirate theme bedroom. Then we cut them out and the little artist glued them on some scrapbooking board.

Then he helped me cut out the labels! (this part was his favourite)

When he was all done we were left with these adorable labels!

Then the hard part! Pulling out all his clothes and sorting them, folding and then stacking them nice and neatly!

before

after!

Much nicer! and our little pirate really loves the labels too! Hopefully trying to find a short sleeved shirt now wont be such a hassle ;)

Hello!

Well I should eventually pop my blog cherry and actually post something so here we go, Domestic Dolls first ever post! And its a cute one ;)

Saturday we decided it was time to finally plant some flowers in the two big pots out the front of our house. They've been sitting there completely empty for months now. Neither me or my husband know a thing about flowers or gardening so we walked into bunnings confused and not knowing where to start so after much flower sniffing I decided I should ring my mum (who is a beautiful Gardner and bonsai artist) and asked her where to start. She suggested I get a dwarf gardenia so I found a lovely one with beautiful white flowers and we had that until husband decides the golden gardenia is MUCH prettier. So we picked that one instead (and of course it wasn't until we got home we realised it matures to over a metre tall). While we were there we asked Jayke to pick out some small flowers to put at the base of the pot for him to take care of and water and he found these cute little blue lebilias. And to finish it all off we grabbed some white petunias which were so lovely!

Then came the fun part!

Mr Garden king helping his Grandma plant the petunias.

 

The Garden Queen!

 

The lovely petunias

And the final product!

Now I just have to fix those steps ;)

Lessons learnt from the day? Always check the plant size before you leave the nursery!


-Tilly