Classic cars in the Whitsundays

Today was a truly glorious day in the Whitsundays.  The weather was perfect and we could not wait to get out amongst it.

We took our young 'brmm brmm' enthusiast to the Airlie Beach foreshore where the local Lions Club had so kindly organised a Classic Car Show.  Entry was completely free and was to encourage more tourists to Airlie.  It's so great to see a group such as the Lions Club doing such wonderful work for local tourism and small business, whom have all taken a battering over recent years.

We went down, like many and 'ooohed' at the cars.  Master 19 months cried out 'car, car, car' time and time again and the Mister drooled.  I'm not a car 'nut' but I loved having a look at the gorgeous collection too.  We then trotted off to have a coffee and cake :)  Yum!

Airlie was abuzz and I absolutely loved watching everyone appreciate the paradise that is on our doorstep.

I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I loved taking them!

The Mister informs me his father had one of these.  What an era! 

The Mister may one day trade me for one of these...

This interior is a dream come true!
I've dreamt of being a Pink Lady from 'Grease' for EVER!  This fits the bill perfectly!

I took this pic just to make you all jealous!!

Hope your weekend was equally gorgeous :)

Photo of the Day (POTD) in the fabulous Whitsundays

We were lucky enough to pop over to Whitehaven Beach recently.  It has to be one of the most glorious places on earth!

It's winter here and yet warm enough in the Whitsundays to swim in the clear ocean.  Our little one loved it!

Been to the Whitsundays lately?  Some awesome accommodation bargains at the moment, the sun is shining and the wonderful people of the Whitsundays will make you feel so welcome.

Jealous much??

Yummies in hanging baskets!

I've been trying to grow some fruit and vegetables in our garden without having to ugly up the yard with lots of wire and mesh.  We have a very high bush turkey population and they are hell on the garden.  They are a protected animal in the area, but geez sometimes I think they deserve a bath in a great big saucepan on my stove!  Clearly, it's only a fantasy of mine whenever I have a damaged garden...

So, recently I have been growing the odd veg and fruit out of hanging baskets and they are growing great guns!  I haven't had any problems so far and will keep you posted.  I found some fantastic tomatoes at Bunnings (yellow!) specifically designed for hanging baskets, I also have strawberries, herbs and lettuce.

The lettuce is lovely now and you can see from my pic that it's been raided recently for our lunch.

I grow these just outside Master One's door and he is helping me water them and watches them growing.

Can't wait to munch!!!!

Strawberries

Hanging Tomatoes

Itsy bitsy tomatoes (they'll be yellow!). Also oregano, basil and thyme.

Lettuce & Parsley

Colour Palette electronic genius!!

What a FAB tool this is for planning a colour palette!  If you find a gorgeous picture online you love, you can simply paste the URL into the program and it will generate the colour palette.  Sheer brilliance!!!  I see so many gorgeous pics and wonder how to colour match them.

I have been having fun with this all morning :)

Here's the site!

Colour Palette Program

Then I found this great link on Creature Comforts Blog with some sensational examples.  What a beautiful blog.

Love, love!  Will be busy exploring gorgeous indoor ideas all day I fear :o/

Have a great day!

Buying Local

Recently in the Whitsundays (Airlie Beach/Proserpine & Bowen) area, we have been asked to reply to a survey on having a local farmers market.  This is something that interests me enormously!  I love the idea of buying locally grown and produced products.

There are a couple of awesome markets around, but they focus primarily on craft, clothes and gifts.  There's a smattering of local producers and food, but not a specific food market.  Understandably, the local markets focus a lot on the tourism market.

Here is the link to our Famers Market Survey.  If you are local I encourage you to take the time to answer it.  Anything that brings great, local produce to our region is a good thing right?

Whitsunday Farmers Market Survey

The Whitsunday Market runs every Saturday morning and also gets up and running when one of the big Cruise ships moors up nearby.  There is also the Bowen Market and the Proserpine Market as well.

I find one of the most difficult things to do product wise in our house is to stick to buying local.  I can buy so much online, cheaper than in our local stores.  I am very aware though that times in the region are tough and try my very best to resist the online bargains.

Why not shop at the market here?  Check it out, it's glorious!!!

Whitsunday Market

Everything in the mouth!

Master 16 months puts EVERYTHING in his mouth.  I seem to have my fingers in his mouth 100 times a day.  Does anyone else have this problem?

We have chewed books, toys, clothes, crayons and chalk.  When we paint I have to hover as he will pop the entire paint brush in his mouth.  He even pops rocks and sticks in his mouth.  Also I hate to think how many moths have been ingested.  Ugh!

It's not so much the gross factor, but more that I'd hate for him to choke on something one day.

Any remedies for this?

Rainbow Cupcakes

I do try most of the time to ensure Master One eats super healthily, however, occasionally we like to break out and have  bit of junk fun!  This weekend I tried Rainbow Cupcakes.  They were delightful, messy fun! We had a ball making them, although Master One did need a bath when they were baking.  What's fun without some mess....right?

I basically made a Basic Vanilla Cupcake Recipe from Taste (my 'go to' website for quick, yummy recipes).

Then I separated the batter into 4 containers and coloured them using the instructions on the side of the food colouring bottles.  I was missing one crucial colour so my colours could have been better..  I then popped some cupcake casings into the muffin trays and carefully layered the colours, smoothing each layer out to the edge with the spatula.

Then a quick spurt of simple icing and a sprinkle of hundreds and thousands.

So gorgeous, a bit messy to make but well worth it once you see the looks on the kiddies faces when they bite into them :)

Vanilla Batter, ready for colour!

Coloured batter.

Voila!

Inside our Cupcakes...yummo!

Ideas and Sources of fun for the family.

I am always looking for fab ideas to play and do with the family.  I want to keep my little mans brain alive with adventure and fun.  I want to make sure that his Daddy and I are both 'invested' parents and not miss a thing.

Every day I try and think of a fun activity for us to do.  He loves drawing with crayons, playing on his pirate ship, licking the bowl when I cook and reading books (his favourite and mine as I get to snuggle up nice and tight).  But what about some more adventurous play?

I have recently become a huge fan of Pinterest, it's a website that allows you to find and 'pin' all your favourite ideas and categorise them anyway you like.  I spend most of the night after Master is in bed dreaming soundly on Pinterest ooohing and aaahing at the wonderful ideas some very imaginative parents have come up with.  I need other peoples ideas as I am not a very imaginative parent myself I fear...

I have included some of my favourites and am busting to try them out over the following weeks.

What are your best ideas?  What are the best home-based fun play ideas you have with your kids?

Bubble Bath Paint & Recipe to make it!  The joy, the joy of making a MESS!  Awesome blog too!

Gorgeous backyard bowling, so easy!

Home made Xylophone.  Master One loves to make noise, I'd love it to be more tuneful ;s

I think we have to add a 'Car Wall' to Master One's bedroom!!

Now to convince that incredibly handy hubby of mine to help me.  I have the ideas, he has the ability!!

If anyone would like an invite to Pinterest please leave a comment below.  Be warned though, once you get started you are HOOKED!

Have a great day everyone!

Aye aye me hearties!

My dearest Mister spent two weekends making our Master One the most gorgeous Pirate Ship outdoor play area.  This all started with a conversation surrounding making a play area, near the house with a floor  and a sandpit.  Mister can't do anything by halves however and got a little bit carried away....I do love him for it though as the ship is awesome!!

A ships steering wheel is on it's way and I am making an activity board (I'll pop a photo of the one I want to make at the bottom).  The big question now is do we paint it or leave it as is?

Master One has headed straight out the door at every opportunity to climb aboard!

What are the small projects at your house that  wound up bigger than Ben Hur?

Gorgeous 'anchor' Mister made

Nearly finished!

Master One approves.

What a FAB set of steps!

This is the activity board I want to make!  How gorgeous is it?

Chicken & Vegetable Soup Recipe is up!

Links to the recipe can be found here!

Warming the cockles of my heart

It's starting to get colder of an evening, even here in the glorious Whitsundays.  Although our friends and family have no sympathy when I complain about 14 degree celsius overnight and 22 degree days, hardly REALLY cold but cold for us tropical folk.

One of my favourite winter warmers is chicken and vegetable soup!  Yummm!  We usually keep some to eat immediately and freeze the rest.  I've also taken to freezing small portions for Master Jack as he loves it!

Chicken and Vegetable Soup ready to serve.  The house smells soooo good!  Delish!

Master Jack's portions for freezing.  I picked these really cute, colourful, CHEAP containers from Woolworths for freezing.

There's nothing naughty in it, and if you make your own stock I think it's even yummier.  This is the best Chicken and Vegetable soup I have ever eaten.  If you've had a better one let me know, I'm always up for trying a new recipe!  The gauntlet has been thrown ;)

It's one of those great meals that tastes as good when you re-heat it as it did the day you made it.  For Master Jack I just throw in a few noodles to keep his little fingers occupied (what's toddler meal-time if not messy right?).

What are your favourite winter warmers?

Enjoy!

Photo of the Day (POTD)

I'm a bit obsessed reading other bloggers at the moment, usually late at night when the Master and the Mister are drifting off into dreamland.  I am, and have always been a night-owl, and soooo not a morning person!

A couple of lovely Mummy bloggers are blogging about POTD (some call is 365).  Taking a photo every day.  Its a good idea too if you are taking part in Project Life too I guess.  I simply love taking photos of our little boy, my stepsons, our home and the area where we live so it's a breeze, right?  Well not exactly, I mean your don't want to take a repeat shot every day...

So I found this really cool list of suggestions to assist with your POTD.  I love having guidelines!  I think I've mentioned before that I am not a very creative person and need direction.  The list can be found here thanks to Rebecca Cooper.

I haven't picked one from the list as I managed to take a pic yesterday that I just LOVE!  It's another of Master Jack (surprise, surprise!).  Today I might start taking pictures of other things, the Whitsunday Air Show is on today so fingers crossed for great photo opportunities (The Mister will be shocked!).

So todays PODT....drum roll please...

My baby, looking far too grown up.

What's yours?  Can you think of any other great POTD ideas to add to the list?

Project Life!

In my blogging travels I have discovered Project Life.

I'm not really into scrapbooking (to be honest I've never given it a go) but I do love the idea of documenting the important milestones in all our lives.

Looking at Becky Higgins Project life site I found that I DON'T NEED TO SCRAPBOOK!  I can do it all online and I love that!  For someone without the creative 'eye' this is music to my ears.  For all those super-crafty buggers out there though, she also has her handmade option.

So, my project this weekend is to sort and order the 10,000 digital photographs I have on the computer and get started!

Have a look at the site, it's really inspirational and I'm guessing, a bit addictive!!

One of the actual scrapbooking kits Becky Higgins can send you.  There are two designs available.

Or the electronic (cheaters!) version.  Love it!  You then have it printed, very professional.

Better get cracking!

Family Snaps

Trying to pose a 14 month old child for a photo is virtually impossible!  I must take thousands of photos and hope to catch that perfect shot...every now and again I get it right.

Easter Sunday The Mr, Master Jack, my Mum, my Sister and I headed out for a picnic to a the Peter Faust Dam in Proserpine.

There's plenty of picnic tables and BBQ's, great open spaces for the kids to run (although it is by the water so you need to keep an eye on them) and areas to pop in your boat or jet ski.  We have none of those water toys so we had to make fun with our picnic and bubble blowing.  I take bubbles everywhere because they are always engaging to kidlets.

Below you will see pictures of the beauty of the location, and it is breathtaking and well worth a look if visiting the Whitsundays or Proserpine area.

However, it's the photo I snapped of Master Jack and his Nana (my Mum) that is my dearest.  Two of my favourite people in the world.

My sweeties - Master Jack and his Nana

Jack and his Auntie taking a stroll after lunch

The beautiful Peter Faust Dam

Do you have a favourite family happy snap that makes your heart sing?

Naming our home

For some time, since buying this house in the tree-tops we have wanted to 'name' it.  It's not something I've ever thought of doing before, but I feel the house needs it.

We've tried variations of words in different languages, google translate is a gem!

Here are some of our ideas thus far -

Tropical Tree House
Spanish - casa del árbol tropical
French - maison dans les arbres tropicaux
Irish - teach crann trópaiceach


Too long I am thinking, so another variation had to be found.


Tropical Cottage
French - chalet tropicales
Spanish - casa tropicales


I think it's hard to keep it simple without being overly generic and boring.  If this part is hard I hate to think of designing the sign!!  Wow!


I found this fabbo site with "how to name your house" information.  Some great ideas! 


Then I found a site in the UK that makes the most GORGEOUS signs (for all uses!).  Now I have to find someone local to match!


Check out No on the high street it's drool worthy!  Some examples below..

Too many choices!  All so beautiful.  If anyone knows anyone in North QLD with the talent, I'd love to give them my business!!


Decisions, decisions.


Happy Easter everyone!

Easter treats!

Master Jack and I made some delicious, simple muffins for our Easter Hunt today!  I'll pop the recipe a the bottom...yummo!

We popped some Spring toppers on them from Rebecca Cooper downloadable from here.  All you need is spot of craft glue and toothpicks.  Cute!

Here's my recipe for simple, yummy Vanilla Cupcakes!  Yum!

This is the first time I've uploaded a PDF file so please tell me if it doesn't work :)