The many blessings I have

Yesterday was a horrid day. It was also an awesome day.

Marriages are hard work, fraught with their many ups and downs. Fortunately we have a complete devotion to one another and it's fraught with many more highs than lows. Yesterday however, was an extreme low. We, or rather initiated by me, addressed an issue that has been an issue for all the years we've been together - which is 19. The issue has been like a thorn in my side, and, had I not been married twice before, I wouldn't have stuck around long into our relationship. But, my previous relationships have taught me that nothing is perfect. No-one is perfect and if you believe in something you have to fight for it.

I think with me being rather stressed of late, and the onset of Christmas and all it entails, just brought things to a head. And I needed to address it as I couldn't go into next week with this hanging over me. I won't go into details here, as it's private but the horrid day became an awesome day, when we were able to sit down openly and discuss the issue. No denial. No argument. No accusations. Just honest feelings. And a knowing resignation that things do indeed need to change. Yesterday was a turning point for us, and the outcome of our talk, headed our relationship into a stronger and an even more devoted path. I love my husband dearly and he idolizes, me which is a pretty amazing thing to be the recipient of. My respect for my husband, which had hit rock bottom - went up many many notches yesterday.

A day of emotional crisis turned into a wonderful day filled with love. The love of my husband, my brother and my dearest girlfriends. It's amazing how things can turn out sometimes. God's timing - Barbi always says. I love that woman and her wisdom. Yesterday we exchanged gifts. Barbi listened to me and didn't give me one. After her letting me go to Heidi Swapp in her stead, I certainly needed nothing for Chrismas or my birthday coming up. Karen gave me another gorgeous Willow Tree figurine. It's the Angel of Prayer, which after the day I had yesterday made her gift even more poignant. I don't do ornaments. I find dust collectors. Don't get me wrong, I have them, but when you have a small house, I don't go out of my way to collect them, or buy them. These, however, are different. They are beautiful in their simplicity and made special because they are given to me by one of my closest friends. The fact that she loves them and thinks I'm special enough to be given one makes it an amazing gift. I now have three - The Angel of Friendship, which was a Christmas gift, The Angel of the Kitchen which she gave to me when our kitchen was finished, and now my new one. I wonder if three Willow Tree figurines constitutes a collection? I now have them all together and they are just beautiful. They remind me of her, and our friendship. She is one of those girls that you just love being with, and, last time I figured out exactly what it is. She is peaceful! It's weird, because she always talks about how stressed she is, and how busy she is, which she is with four young children, but to me, she's just peaceful. So, last night I was surrounded by wisdom and peace, I was in a pretty amazing place.

Yesterday when I needed someone to talk to, because I didn't know what to do, or whether the problem was all mine. I rang my Mum, first port of call -but she wasn't home. Then I rang my dear brother. We've always been there for each other, and I sent him a sms saying I needed to talk, and he rang me immediately. I just poured my heart out to him. He made me address the situation head on, and for that I am eternally grateful. I am blessed, great friends, great family - it doesn't get any better does it.

Last night, we had a great time. I made my gift tags for Christmas and had a ball stamping and using the new Fiskars Threading Water punch. They aren't elaborate, but they are pretty. I'd made a digital one, which took me five minutes, and then I changed my mind, and decided that I had all this wonderful scrapbooking stuff, which I really need to use. It's funny how I just find it easier making things on the computer, than IRL. We watched music DVDs. The Eagles Farewell Concert, which was great, the Concert for George, which I didn't listen to as closely, but was good also, then we watched the MIKA concert which I would have loved to seen all of. That guy has an amazing voice, with a huge range. We ate Thai from the local restaurant, which was nice but not as good as usual. The rice was quite bland I felt. Karen brought in these delightful mini cheesecakes, and I brought in some mince tarts, which weren't homemade, but still yummy. I came home at around 1.15am. Funnily enough with the day I'd had and my late night, I didn't hurry into bed. One of my close girlfriends is away, and I wanted to email her, plus I sat to see who'd updated their blogs while I was out. I had a great night's sleep - and woke up refreshed. Thankfully it cooled down in the night, so today is a pleasant 26 degrees (celcius) where as it was ten degrees more yesterday - not pleasant at all. The a/c was working overtime.

Today, I've just pottered around. I hung up some tinsel on our beam which retains the new part of our kitchen. The kids have been pestering me, and it does look nice. I have taken photos of all the walls as tomorow we are painting the living/dining room to make it all nice for Wednesday.

Tonight we are having visitors and I'm cooking a yummy but simple dinner. The menu is,
Tomato and olive tart with basil oil
Eye Fillet steak with anchovy butter
Greek Salad
Garlic Bread
Karen's left over mini cheesecakes for dessert.

I was going to post a link to the book, but I think it must be an older issue, mine was published in 2008. It's called 'Easy Summer Food: simple recipes for sunny days.' by Ryland, Peters and Small

It's getting closer

It's nearly 4.30pm, and apart from lunch and breakfast, it's the first time I've sat down. I can also see a light at the end of the tunnel. Remind me, next year, not to leave everything until the week before Christmas won't you? Please??

I baked my 'Linzer Augen' on Monday and today I baked my 'Vannilin Kipferln'. The latter were actually quite easy to do, I think I've mastered them well and truly, and having the mixture in the freezer definitely helps. I made the mixture in Oscar, who struggled a bit I think. One of those big mixers would come in handy for stuff like this. I did have one once, and I have no idea what happened to it. My hands with the arthritis in my fingers, just find mixing and kneading quite difficult, so a mix master would make light work of things. I wrote the inserts for my cards. I didn't want to do the newsletter thingie, but I didn't want to handwrite as I can type much faster than I can write. Some I added an extra message, and some I left fairly generic. Now I have to do the envelopes and they are done. I must say they were much more fun to make than actually write lol...... I can post them away tomorrow, and hopefully they'll actually arrive before the fact.

I rang and ordered the wine this morning from our wine club. That should arrive in time too. We ordered a box of bubbles and a box of mixed whites and reds. With mine and Sammy's birthday, and New Year's there's lots of celebrate, and it does work out cheaper for us than a trip to the bottle shop every time we want a tipple. We like this wine club, because unlike the ones we've looked at before, you choose what wines you want. I don't want a box of what they want to get rid of, from obscure wineries. Even their labelled stuff, (which I call home brand) is very very good. We use the Wine Society in case you're interested in looking them up.

I stayed in my jammies, until after lunch. I'd cleaned up from my biscuits, made lunches and then had a shower. Mickey and I went to Daisy's where I gave Suzy her birthday and Christmas presents. She was pretty excited, which is lovely to see when you give someone a gift, that you know they will love. Then Mickey and I went to the paint store, and bought the cream paint for our dining and living room. This way my walls will be painted BEFORE Christmas, because my photoshopping isn't good enough to fix the bits of the walls that aren't painted properly from our kitchen reno, which was only completed 18 months ago!!!!! The red feature wall will remain but will be re done to freshen it up.

I have cooked my dinner, the pasta bake is ready to be put into the oven, so I am officially finished now for the day, except for the post dinner cleanup, but all the washing up is done except for our dinner dishes of course.

I am going to finalize my grocery list for tomorrow, and work out what I will go and buy on Monday - all the last minute fresh things I need for Wednesday....

Tomorrow I'm getting my hair done. Cut and Coloured. I have pictures of different hairstyles, but am unsure how I will go. My current hairdo is easy to look after an always looks neat, so part of my doens't want to change, because I might end up with something that's harder to look after. I blow wave my hair everyday, but it's done quickly and always looks sleek and shiny.

It's nearly wine o'clock. Off to write my shopping list.

A Day with Heidi

I thought that once I was on holidays, I could blog daily - but I've still got lots to do, so it will be spasmodic at best. It's not that there's nothing to write about, just sometimes the writing mo jo escape me and at other times, I just don't feel like writing heaps.

I was incredibly lucky last week.

Nearly twelve months ago, an announcement was made that Heidi Swapp was coming to Australia, to Brisbane and Melbourne and that she would hold an all day workshop. Create08 sounded like it was going to be awesome, but with a $240 price tag, was a little too hefty for me to contemplate in any level of seriousness.

Last Tuesday, during the second part of Suzy's album class, Suzy approached me and asked if I would go with her to the workshop in Barbi's stead, as it looked like Barbi wouldn't be able to get away from the shop. I was stunned!! My initial reaction was total surprise, and then with a jolt of reality I realized that Peter would probably be working and that I wouldn't be able to go. So you can imagine my delight when he said, he was really glad I'd given him an excuse not to work!! So on Saturday, Suzy, myself and about 145 other lucky ladies, spent the day with Heidi Swapp.

It was an exciting day. I woke up very excited and not only about the prospect of spending it learning new stuff, but because it was a day that Suzy and I could spend together. We had a ball. We worked out butts off too, the pace was very very fast, and the space we worked in was rather small. Barbi would have been proud of us lol......

We made a calendar, or rather we did two pages, with all the stuff to make the other ten. We also made a mirror album. I'll post some pics when I get my small camera back - probably when I've done something worthy of posting. We got loads of freebies, stamps, papers, the calendar, masks, rub ons, ink, a smudging tool. I still haven't gone through the bag properly. We were challenged, Suzy and I both, as we were doing a style which was unlike both of our styles. It was very grungy and lots of stamping and inking, but definitely something I will play with some more. Heidi Swapp is a gorgeous girl, inside and out and I feel really lucky that I got to meet her. She is a real sweetheart, and I take my hat off to her. She is a mum with five kids and I think she's amazing. She was sick on the day, apparently better than she had been, but she often had to stop to cough, and she kept her high level of professionalism throughout the entire day.

It's late, I need to head off to bed. I promise I'll update some more tomorrow or the next day.

I still have some baking to do. I still need to send my cards (plus write them lol)......

I went to the beach today which was just awesome. I actually got up early to go and it was just beautiful down there. Much nicer than when it's stinking hot.

Okay, now I'm really going to bed.

Here's some photos, they're straight out of the camera and unedited - so at least I had something to post.

Suzy and I

Me, Heidi and Suzy