Ollie Rose Life
April 8, 2012
I don’t normally decorate for Easter. In my house the only time I worry about decorating is at Christmas, however I made an exception yesterday. We were having friends over for a BBQ get together, and I decided I may as well do something with the table, as I had pretty much everything hiding in the shed or house.
The fake grass I use for my market table cloth, and the twigs we went for a walk and got down the river. Earlier during the day I had been at the shops and our local party shop had decorations for 50% off so I managed to pick up a bunch for the grand total of $14.00. And the added bonus is I will use them tomorrow at an Easter Craft Market.
It was a lovely evening, the weather was beautiful and no wind (something that is rare here) and the kids had a great time with glow sticks hiding them and finding them in the garden.
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January 25, 2012
Playdough, the great invention of……….. well I don’t know when, but it is great isn’t it?
Something that keeps the kids entertained for hours, is quick and easy to make, and you usually have the ingredients for it in your pantry. During weather like we are currently experience ( a week of 40 degree days), it means everyone gets a bit of cabin fever, so we need to make sure we are doing some activities. Given I am not a Mum who has a large craft box to rely on, I need to find things we can do with stuff we have.
Over the years I have tried and tested many recipes, but thought I would share my favourite one we use the all time (and seeing how I just made it for the kids to play with). This recipe is a no cook one which is awesome in my books (been there and ruined a saucepan before).
Uncooked Play Dough
2 cups of plain flour
4 tablespoons of ‘cream of tartar’
2 tablespoons of cooking oil
1 cup of salt
2 cups of boiling water
food colouring
*Just pop it all in a mixing bowl and mix!
*It looks as though it is not going to mix well at first but hang in there and throw it onto the bench to knead, and it will come together really nicely. Just be warned it is quite hot at first, but as you knead and it cools down it starts to smooth.
*Add peppermint oil for a great smell and even longer lasting playdough…
Mr Crabby creation being made by the boys
January 23, 2012
This week we are supposed to have high temps in the 40′s so for us that means staying home and enjoying the aircon. With this in mind I need to have some some activities planned otherwise it is going to be a LOOOOOONG week. Aside from some morning and afternoon beach/pool trips, the kids need to be kept busy, it needs to be cheap and preferably using items I already have, and this is how we can across homemade finger paints (thanks Pinterest)
Painting is a favourite of the youngest one, so today I tried this recipe, I have had bookmarked from Easie Peasie. I think I may have cooked ours a tiny bit long as it has quite a glue consistency, but it still works fine and the kids are loving it.
Add a box from the shed, strip the kids off to their underwear for easy clean up, pop them all outside and let them go for it = super quick, fun activity using things you can find around the house.
Here is a copy of the recipe from Easie Peasie for those who wish to try it out themselves:
September 12, 2011
Today I have started fiddling around and transferring some old blog posts over to our new domain – a long and tedious process that I tend to only do a tiny bit at a time. It is one of those jobs that you have in a long list of things that need to be done, but the importance is always lower than the other billion things.
This little job means I get to have a trip down memory lane which is always nice, I love looking back to see just how far we have come over the past 4+ years, not only in our look and products, but also in Kobie’s style as it has evolved.
This is a look at our very first ever giraffe rattle made about 6 years ago – my how he has changed over the years.
And then I get to see pictures of the kids I haven’t looked at for years and love seeing how little they once were.
And some of the early designs we did way back then.
Other things that have seen major changes is our logo, this was our very first logo we did .
Well I guess that is enough memory lane trips and I should really stop procrastinating and actually transfer those files.
September 5, 2011
On the weekend we expanded our family to include 4 very gorgeous chicks (Dad got some hot chicks for his Fathers Day we like to say).
They are 6 days old and currently residing in our bathroom until they are big enough to head out into the big wide world of the chook yard down the back. This also means Ari is currently residing in the bathroom as well as he just loves his baby chickens and he spends quite a bit of time in there chatting to them.
They are most definately very cute, so I have all my fingers and toes crossed none are roosters as we are unable to keep roosters in our area.
July 10, 2011
We have had a run on of sickness on over the past week or so and so it resulted that I needed to clean out the medicine storage box as it was a bit of a disaster zone when we needed to find anything. Needing to give Ari some antihistemene after he broke out in some type of allergic rash I also discovered most things were out of date by several years (this one was approximately 8 years – eeek).
So a quick clean later I thought I would do a bit of googling and look for great medicine organising ideas. It is cold and wet outside and I am procrastinating about cooking today.
I love this idea if you don’t have somewhere high you can put your medicines, or if you have Spiderman as part of your family.
Photo Credit: Super Organiser Mum
Jade from Super Organiser Mum also had a fabulous post on First Aid Kits and how she organises all her medical supplies. Hopefully I can take some inspiration one day and fix ours up a little better, I am afraid you would struggle for a bandaid in ours.
July 5, 2011
I have a love hate relationship with laundry. I hate doing it, but I love it once it is all done and no longer taking up all the space in my room.
Laundry is just one job I loathe. We have a small laundry as well which always annoys me greatly and rather than be organised and do a load each day and put it away, I am from the school of do it all at once. Then put it on the chair, let it breed and multiply for a week or so before it drives you crazy, then do something about it.
The place where washing goes to breed!
After a conversation with a playgroup mum this morning about our hate of laundry (I know so many things to talk about and we talk about washing), I headed off to Bunnings for some cheap containers to help hopefully make the whole thing a little less traumatic for me.
We all now have our own invidual coloured container that when the washing is folded it is put straight into. Everyone is responsible for taking their container and putting their washing away. I don’t really care if the kids leave their container in the room for a week as long as that washing stays in there and not on the floor. I am hoping however they are little darlings and put it away (Ari not so much given he is 3 1/2 and will just fling it in his cupboard). Tthen use said container can be used for the dirty washing.
Lets hope it works!
Jemma
July 2, 2011
It is very rare that I ever reach the levels of frustration that I am at, at the moment. I am a doer, if I see something I don’t like or think needs fixing or changing I do it, I have to do it. It drives me completely batty not being able to do it and I examine and think and try to work out ways to make it work.
Unfortunately I have hit a situation that I cannot fix on my own, nor with my 4 fabulous friends who are also at this point. We are all strong, independant women who feel utterly helpless and frustrated and lost.
Sandy and her adored Grandson earlier this year in healthier times
Our treasured friend Sandy is currently awaiting a lung transplant. She is in her early 40′s is a grandmother, a mother and a friend everyone should have one like. Her sense of humour, life outlook, spirit, compassion and more make her the exact type of friend you never want to loose or have far away from you. She is always there to support all of us girls in no matter what we do, the spirit in any event/drinks/get together we have.
Every month we watch her deteriorate more and more and every month our hearts break more and our frustration grows. The amount of emails and phone calls we have all had over the months trying to come up with ways we can help are endless but the one way she needs help the most is the one way we cannot help at this point in time.
There is one tiny thing we can do at the moment and that is to spread the word and urge all our friends and families to have a hugely important conversation in their life and with their loved ones, the conversation about donation of organs.
And hence why I am writing this blog post, I need to express my frustration, but also someone reading this may just stop and think, or someone else may just also post on their facebook wall, or blog page about organ donation and someone somewhere may just have that conversation and become an organ donor.
There are many people all over Australia who are just like Sandy. They have friends and family watching them, praying and hoping that someone is generous enough to have made the decision for organ donation.
Research commissioned by the Organ and Tissue Authority indicates that 1 in 3 Australians do not know how to start a conversation about organ and tissue donation with their family.
It is a concern that 40% of Australians don’t know the donation wishes of their loved ones. Family knowledge of each other’s organ and tissue donation wishes is essential if we are to increase Australia’s family consent rate, which is currently less than 60%. Many Australians are unaware of the fact that even if you registered to be an organ and tissue donor, it is your next of kin that will be asked to confirm your donation wishes and give the OK for donation to proceed.
In 2010, 309 organ donors saved or improved the lives of 931 Australians, which is the highest donation and transplantation rate since national records began, and there were 958 eye donors and 1,510 corneal grafts. Tissue donors significantly improved the lives of many more Australians.
Please visit the Donate for Life website and facebook pages, here you will find information and fact sheets on organ donation that will answer all your questions, as well as resources to help start that conversation with your family.
July 1, 2011
I have been eyeing off these sweet etched jars from Emerald + Ella for a little while now. If only my Jacaranda tree would grow that bit bigger and we could pop a lovely seat underneath and then fill the tree in summer with gorgeous jars and candles.
It is a lovely dream, however I do live in Geraldton, and well the wind would blow them all out of the tree and probably smash those gorgeous glasses.
One can dream however.
June 7, 2011
It looks like the snow fields but in fact it is the sand dunes just behind Kobie’s house. It felt like we were in the snow, it was bitterly cold and all you could see was white pristine sand.
I believe every motorbike/4wd/4 wheeler enthusiast in Western Australia was there on the weekend. I was quite amazed at how many people head there for the weekend, sometimes it was quite scary watching them fly over sand dunes in every direction higgeldy piggedly (or maybe that was the Nana voice in me coming out saying someone is going to get hurt. The kids loved it – excitement plus for them.
Ari wearing his sand eye protection wear (patent pending)
Was a lovely weekend away albeit the bitter cold, Ari getting tonisilitis and the eventful trip home. Eventful as every caravan and boat in the world was on the road doing 80kms an hour and we were stuck behind one for over an hour, the car that forgot to tie its surfboards down that flew across the road, and that my car remote battery decided to die after I had put purse, phone and icecreams in the car before taking the kids to the toilet.
It took some burly knights in shiny armour to rescue me and get me in my car again. Took quite a while of discussions of whether we smash the window, car battery, remote or ring RAC. Thanks to the guys at Leeman Fuel Station.
