Pixie.

Late yesterday afternoon our beautiful Pixie dog died.

Pixie who was going to turn 12 next month died at the vet's in Bren's arms of unexplained causes.

Pixie who we found in a cardboard box at a market in Stanthorpe in Queensland. The box said free and that any puppies left at the end of the day would be put down the following day. Once we found out that she and I shared the same birthday, it was a done deal.

Pixie was mine and Bren's baby before we had babies.

Pixie who travelled up and down the East coast with us in our combi, often falling asleep under the clutch pedal stopping us from changing gears.

Pixie who has been the best guard dog we could have ever hoped for.

Pixie who was so loyal to us except when it came to Bren's parents. She loved nothing more than a sleep over at their place and a meal of stinky canned food.

Pixie who preferred to sleep in front of her kennel rather than inside.

Pixie who loved chasing and running and driving around in the front seat of Bren's ute and getting a good scratch behind the ear.

Pixie whose name will forever be used and laughed at when the girl's work out their porn names; Pixie Fox.

Pixie who will now sleep forever in her grave under the oldest apple tree on top of our hill.

It is such a sad day in our house today. We will miss you so much Pix! XX

Unplugged.

I've had no internet all day today. I just woke up and it was gone. No where to be seen.

I must admit I panicked a bit at first. What if someone sent me an important email? How could I check the weather radar to see how far away the impending storm was? How could I bake banana bread if I couldn't load Kirsty's site? How would I find Indi's singing teacher's phone number? How would I post my day six blog of Blogtoberfest? What if...

I tried to fix it but had no idea what I was doing and then I made a decision to turn it off and be without it for the whole day.

In the end I had to bake something from a recipe book instead, the rain still came, I texted someone for the phone number and I had SO MUCH MORE TIME!! I played and read books and baked with the girls, I cut out and sewed two and a bit dresses, I knitted a few rows of my cardi and I was really present.

I didn't jump up to answer the email ping, I didn't get distracted by blog land or lost in ravelry land and all those emails will just have to wait until tomorrow.

Bren walked into the office at 8.30pm and switched the router off and on again and wouldn't you know it, it all worked perfectly. Yay!

Farmer Bren brought 300 of these chickies home today too. They are one day old and super cute. Some of them haven't even opened their eyes yet.

Most of them are out in the brooder but six have stayed inside to ride in tractors and pose in shoes. Its 9pm now and they are still cheeping in their box. Hmmm if they don't go to sleep soon I think they might need to go and join the others.

So my friends I hope you've all had a fun and productive day and I'll see you tomorrow. That is unless my farm boy does what he's threatening to do and turns the internet off again in the morning.

Saltanas & nuts.

Yesterday Miss Jazzy fell off the monkey bars at school and fractured a bone in her elbow. We spent the whole afternoon and night in Ballarat emergency waiting to hear if she'd need surgery. She wasn't allowed to eat or drink just in case. It was awful, awful, awful. She was sore and anxious and hungry and begging for sultanas and nuts. Just a few. Please. How will they know? Just a couple and I promise I wont ask for any more.

We drove home at midnight without surgery, with a back slab cast, exhausted and emotional.

Today we are taking it easy. She is watching a movie and eating a bowl full of sultanas and nuts and I am slowly working out how to load items into my new online shop. Slowly.

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeekkkkkkkkkk!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have my very own online shop.

The wonderful and talented and clever Cath set it up.

Thanks Cath!!

You can visit it if you like, its http://everythingbutthethread.bigcartel.com/.

Let me know what you think.

I am so new to this and ANY suggestions/feedback will be most welcome.

And finally, a huge thanks for all the gorgeous comments and emails you guys have been leaving. I read many of them on my phone at the hospital last night and they really lightened my mood and made me smile. I promise to get my blogtober bum into gear and come and visit you really soon.

I hope your Tuesday is a happy and drama free one.

XX

The next adventure.

A funny thing happened to us on the way to Bendigo the other day...we came across this fella taking himself for a walk down the highway.

We pulled over to take some pics (of course), to discuss whether or not he would be friendly and to try and remember any tiny bits of trivia we could about emus.

Emus are the second largest birds in the world but the largest native to Australia, they are flightless and although they can travel at speeds up to 50 km/hour we thought it was best to call the wildlife rescue as he was travelling down a highway where cars were driving at double that speed.

From there it was smooth sailing to Bendigo to pick up our new/old caravan. Yay!

Although it is true that living and working on an organic farm is a dream come true, after almost 10 years the dream is becoming a reality and we have new dreams of spending the off seasons traveling gypsy like around Australia.

The 1982 van does need a lot of love and attention but it is in pretty good condition, it has triple bunk beds and a fold away bed for us, it has no smell and is clean and we are really excited.

After we signed some forms,

we stuck on the sold sticker and off we drove.

Now its sitting up near the shed and we can't stop looking at it and discussing upholstery fabrics, exciting camping gadgets and why we can't just take off now.

Watch this space for many, many caravan centred creative spaces.

See ya. XX

Making Jazzy's invitations.

This morning we've been making the party invitations for Miss Jazzy's Day Spa party.

I still think its a bit funny that Bren and I, organic farmers, have a daughter that is obsessed with all things make-up and girly and fancy.

We started by tracing Jazzy's hand twenty times and then cutting all the hand shapes out.

After that, Indi and Jazzy decorated the hands with fancy nail polish and bangles and tattoos.

We love a good birthday party in this family and I am so excited that birthday season is rolling around again.

It is really important to me that the girls are involved in every part of their parties from deciding on the theme, to making the invitations, planning the menu and the activities.

You can check out the invitations we made for Jazzy's cup cake party last year here. (Gosh I love that I can do that now that my blog is over one year old.)

Now all we need to do is to write all the details on the backs of them and she can hand them out at school tomorrow.

Oh, and just in case you were wondering how we were distracting Miss Pepper from all the delicate preparations...ta da...its fairy farmer Bren to the rescue!

Have a happy Sunday y'all.

Painting wool.

See this gorgeous ball of red wool?

Well not so long ago it was one of two boring, forgotten, natural coloured balls of wool, in a basket in an op shop.

But not for very much longer.

The very same day that those two balls of boring wool came home with us, they went straight into a bath of lukewarm water and vinegar and were prepared to become gorgeous.

The following day we followed Suse's wonderful tutorial and used food colouring to paint and decorate the forgotten wool.

Suse's tutorial is brilliant and fun and easy and so kid friendly and I highly recommend it. My kids loved painting the wool and watching the effects the different colours made. I loved including them in my wool obsession too.

The best part of all was how safe I felt letting them go for it, knowing there were no nasty chemicals involved.

We ended up with two 50 gram balls, the red above, and the seaweed below.

Aren't they gorgeous!

We will definitely be painting more wool very soon, only next time I think we'll paint bigger amounts as I have no idea what to do with these small little balls. Maybe they'll just sit on the windowsill and be admired.

I hope you have a happy Saturday.

We're off to Bendigo to pick up something very exciting for our family.

My big & little.

Late yesterday afternoon, after Pepper's nap but before we picked up Jazzy and played with the puppy, we popped into a cafe to deliver some eggs and veg and for a quick coffee.

Indi asked if they had any chalk and then she and Pepper proceeded to decorate the footpath.

It was fun to watch them draw. It was like the pavement was one great big canvas.

I love the way these two play together, my big and my little. There is never any competition or fighting. Indi is so full of patience and tenderness for her little sister, and Pepper is like her little puppy. Earlier in the week when Pepper was really sick and crying in pain, a few times I looked over to see big fat tears rolling down Indi's cheeks.

Everywhere we went after that, people told us they'd seen the girls' street art ouside the cafe.

Funny how Pepper's outline looks like a character from Where The Wild Things Are.

I hope you are having a happy Friday!