keeping happy & zoo pass giveaway winner

Greetings all,

The more i try to relax & take charge of day time at home, the busier i am with events at school.  I am sticking to my eating plan & exercise nonetheless, while thinking of all the calm things in my world.  I keep a magazine or two in the car for when i'm 'between' errands or school runs & look for the beauty in mundane chores . . . glorious blue skies over Canberra while i hang out washing & noticing a love heart in the washing up sink.  It was perfectly formed, i had the camera ready, then my teenager poked her finger into the bubbles, i just smiled, the heart fought back for a blogging opportunity.  It's not time wasting, day dreaming is healthy, relaxing, calm.

Today we start rehoming some of our Hamburg hens.  Our darling first chick, Viola, started to crow on the weekend & confirm his rooster status, he's off to a farm (instead of roast chicken - it was close!!)  So i will load up my car with some hens & rooster Violo, for a school car park delivery.  From the 10 beautiful hens we 'inherited' from a mum at school, we have been able to spread 5 around 4 other families.  Of course we'll have a dip in egg production here, but we're sharing the love & genetic diversity.  It feels really great, everyone is happy, they are all free, laying & lovely non-fussy happy hens, i know they'll all settle in well.  It will be sad to farewell our first ever new born baby chick, now a magnificent rooster - just not fit for suburbia.  

Very happy to announce random pick # 20 Tahnee from Food Loopy (she doesn't have a blog yet) as the winner of the Taronga Western Plains Zoo family pass, congratulations!!  Your family will have an absolute ball there in Dubbo.  Thank you everyone for entering & do consider visiting this amazing zoo one day. 

How do you keep happy??  Eating right, exercising, noticing all the happy circumstances around your world??  Love Posie

perfecting bad blogging . . . 'giveaway winners, finally' & a new giveaway!!

Greetings all,

How often do you enter a giveaway on a blog & it takes forever for them draw & announce the winners??  I'm pretty good at making you wait, not for the sponsored giveaways, but my own handmade ones!!  So in my week of imperfections, i'm announcing the winners of giveaways from the weekend, last month & um, August, perfecting bad blogging!!  If you hang in there, there is also a new giveaway too, surprise.
The 3 lucky randomly selected winners of the Wii Ready Set Grover game & furry control cover are . . .

 Sarah from Fig Nut Mum blog, Tas from Little Boozle blog, & Kylie from Mealy & i blog.  Congratulations ladies, please email me your full details for courier delivery!!  Thanks Sesame Street, Wii & One Green Bean for sponsoring.

 Competition was fierce for this handmade prize of craft books, Babushka fabric pencil roll, gift tags & Mollie Makes magazine . . . randomly selected was . . . Claire from ClaireyHewitt blog.  Lock your doors Claire, there are threats of magazine robbers!!  

 I'm also lucky enough to win the odd blog giveaway too, like this feast of crafty goodies from Tania of Imagine Lovely blog (she's a sweetheart!!) 

 I thanked Tania personally but don't you think it's nice to share a pretty handmade win with such fine goodies, in blogland too??

 Then the long-time-ago-giveaway where i promised a prize to the most horrible school sewing teacher experience.  It was hard to beat Pamela with this cracker of an entry . . .

"My home economics teacher hated me. Seriously. But with good reason. I was a total nightmare but not in a naughty way, just totally skill-less... I got all the fabric tangled up and caught in the machine, Mrs S to the rescue!! However, while she was patiently unclogging the machine I inadvertantly stepped on the peddle and sewed her finger. Needless to say from then on whenever I needed to help, she would say "step back away from the machine and put your hands in the air". Oh and a few weeks later I cut a small sliver of skin off my finger with an overlocker and bled all over the table causing a classmate to thow up. Mrs S had lots of vomit and blood to clean up. I was banned from the sewing room.  I got an "A" for theory and a "E" for application.
But it doesn't end there... Cooking class with Mrs S... I set fire to a tea towel, causing a whole school evacuation. Then we had our test, mine looked good, smelled awesome. She took a nice big taste and gave me a mark. However the next day she wasn't at school. A week later she was back and I was INDEFINITELY banned from all forms of practicals, as she had been hospitalised with severe food poisioning.  I became a bit of a legend in my own lunch box for all the wrong reasons and the most likely to "starve to death" in the school year book."
Pamela you been judged the winner of a copy of the Handmade Living book which has sewing & cooking projects, good luck - i'm a bit scared, you only live 50km away from me!!

Finally, i did it again, forgot to cancel my standing order with the newsagent who was able to acquire issues of Mollie Makes magazine just for me.  My my husband bought me a subscription so i have ended up with 2 copies of the latest issue.  For your chance to win a copy, just follow this blog & leave a comment here.  Winner drawn Monday 13th November (i promise).  Good luck!!

 Thanks for being such good sports everyone, love Posie

our creative space 'the new generation' & paper packaging giveaway winners

Greetings all,

So many of we crafty types learned from our mummies, such is the age old way of passing on skills to the next generation.  My grandmothers Edna & Alice were amazing seamstresses making ball gowns for the rich & famous, ditto for my mummy Barbie (only with an awkward Von Trapp family twist).  We'd have matchy matchy ensembles . . . end-of-bolt-sale-fabric for a family of 6 or my brothers in cloned knitted jumpers with Dad, my sister & i in matching dresses with Mum . . . classic 60s & 70s handmade horror, technically carried through into the 80s too, i was 5 ok??!!.   

My children have been surrounded by craft, stood on pins & slept to the hum of the sewing machine since i got into nesting while pregnant with my first baby in 1998.

 Now my eldest is in high school, she has proper sewing teachers who studied textiles & design (not pharmacology) & she gets graded on her work!!

 So excited, she chose all the fabrics, applique ideas, ribbon & did all the sewing at school (no professional mummy sewing allowed) & da dah, only two As were awarded . . . 

 proud mumma moment . . . she got an A!!  Her beautiful pillow slip now sits on her bed & as she finished so quickly, she's making boxer shorts. 

 This week is Creative Clubs at primary school.  My son chose drama, age 7 he's "directing plays".  I think he picked drama as the teacher is one of those gorgeous first-year-out-of-uni enthusiastic types who can sing, dance, act & teach.  I know, taking a class because of a pretty girl out of his reach is in it, he's such a boy!!   
Anyway, daughter 3 is learning French Knitting with the professional ice hockey teacher & loving it, it's clearly addictive.  Last night she called from her room to say "can you tell me when it's 10 so i can change wool colours??"  Um no, GO TO SLEEP!!  No idea where she'd get that bad habit of crafting into the wee hours from??

 She's French knitting a rastafarian wig - only way to describe the awful dreadies coming out of her handmade toilet roll/ paddle pop stick device!!

 I showed the middle girl how to crochet chain stitch (limit to my skills so far) in the car park at school, by bed time she'd crocheted like 3m of the stuff!! 

Totally loving passing on the skills & learning new ones with them!!  Have i mentioned that Kylie from Mealy&i blog is patiently teaching me how to crochet in the holidays??
NOW for the paper packaging, twine & stickers giveaway WINNERS . . . who knew over 100 individual bloggers would enter so enthusiastically to win paper bags??  Yay, thanks so much!!  Bugger - two of the winning numbers weren't followers??  DQ to you.  Come on guys, not such a hard thing to ask is it - follow for your chance to win, my blog's nice right??  So sucks to them & yay to these faithful followers & WINNERS!! 
Randomly selected number (big time winner) . . .
69 Thea from Thea & Sami blog, congratulations!!
Randomly selected supplementary numbers, as witnessed by the official Posie Lotto panel (itty bitty winners) . . .
2 Bron from Taylor Made blog,
23 KerryAnne from Shabby Art Boutique blog,
86 Rhi from Flour Child,

79 Trish from My Little Drummer Boys blog &

24 Felicity from Gifts Of Serendipity blog!! 
Congratulations everyone, please email me your postal addresses for your parcel of fun.  For more creativity, check out Thursday's Our Creative Spaces.  Love Posie

Lego G I V E A W A Y winners & new Lego releases

Greetings all,
I couldn't get a connection last night so, without further delay . . . the mega Lego City Space collection giveaway winners are . . .

my personal pick: Rachel from Little Angel Little Devil blog who wrote this beautiful entry "My son builds the most amazing lego, he spends hours planning and building his creations either from the instructions but mostley straight out of his brain. His Lego creations have wowed the year 6 kids at school..but most importantly his teachers! My son is not doing so well in school, he is way behind in his reading, writing and has the concentration of a gold fish. His teachers have held very real concerns. Over the period they have come to know my son's lego (I'm going to say it.. talent) and have actually re evaluated how they think he learns. They now say he clearly has the ability to focus, the maths he uses to build some of the things he builds is brilliant and the fact that everything down to the colours used are perfect in balance and proportion indicate that he is actually very bright. I can not tell you what a relief this is to me!! Lego has helped his confidence to soar which was so very low for so long. I am very proud of my son and proud of the amazing creations that he builds from his beloved Lego. Thank you Posie for running a great comp! xx"

& Random Number Generator pick #1: Mimi from At Home with Sam & i blog.  Thrilled for both ladies as i know their children will deeply appreciate this huge haul of Lego coming their way.  I love the idea of Mimi's little girl playing Lego with her big brothers - that is how i remember much of my childhood!!  Mimi has a lovely decor loving blog & excellent interior designer taste, great tips for those of us with teenagers in the midst.

 These lucky families will have $280 worth of Lego EACH coming their way this week, please email me your courier delivery addresses, thanks to the 100+ entries & One Green Bean + Lego for sponsoring!!

 Cool new Lego releases include this Jet Spy Plane from the Cars 2 movie . . .

 & the Flo's V8 Cafe at Radiator Springs USA, available May 2011.

 I loved Duplo for my children when they were younger, i wish this Duplo Hospital was around then.  I was always the patient when playing doctors & nurses with my siblings, you never know, my bossy brother doctor did grow up to be a surgeon!!  The other one turned out to be a rocket scientist, he was a bit more into pretending i was a robot.  My sister wasn't interested at all, she's a ballerina but my path was pharmacology!!  We had the Fisher Price hospital, our mum has kept it too.

 Did you know there is a Lego Duplo Facebook you can join??

Also freshly launched . . . Lego iTunes (if you're like me you'll get your children to down load these).  Now for the official word:

"LEGO DUPLO Jams - a free music experience that can be downloaded through the official DULPO Jams iTunes channel.  Designed with the whole family in mind, DUPLO Jams will inspire and facilitate new ways to play, through upbeat and inspirational tunes for toddlers and preschoolers. Find LEGO DUPLO Jams HERE" 
Exciting times for Lego lovers, have a creative Lego building week everyone, love Posie

school holiday antics & the latest giveaway winner

Greetings all,
Ok, so it's been raining non stop for days, actually since the school holidays started (typical) & things have taken a turn for the worse . . . kidnapping.  Only not in the low tech fashion of my childhood, where i'd find my favourite toys missing & a hand written ransom note under my bedroom door or maybe an EtchASketch mystery message from my siblings . . . today's children photograph & SMS their siblings instructions on what to do if they want their toy's safe return, or email each other vital clues on where they might find their favourite giraffe, monster or rabbit.   

Upon downloading the latest images on my camera (always cause for concern with my cheeky children) i found some rather confusing images of Raffy Giraffe in all sorts of life threatening scenarios (no 'proof of life' though).  The images were to be emailed to Raffy's owner, our middle daughter, for her to find when she next logged on to her email.  Now just for reference & dramatic effect, this is the child voted by her siblings "Most Likely To Over React About Absolutely Every Single Thing" (especially anyone touching her beloved giraffes) i was thrilled i was able to intercept this evil plot, give stern warnings to the kidnappers to put Raffy exactly back where they found him & she'll never know/ implode/ explode/ over react.  I try to get through large family life by avoiding drama - seeing the train wreck coming & putting on the brakes, stop, deep breath & avert the crisis. 
So why upload this image to the internet??  The damage had already been done, the boy, the youngest, the child voted "Most Likely To Crack Under Pressure/ Dibber Dob" (especially if it involves anything untoward happening to his beloved middle sister) had already run off & told her all about the kidnapping. 

 How did i take my eye off the ball & let this kidnapping plot happen on my watch??

 Oh i don't know, maybe all the gorgeous sewing projects in my new Cath Kidston craft book??

 Reading the background story to the recipes in my new Collected cookbook??

 Wondering/ wishing/ dreaming why my vegetables never look as lush as Jamie's??

Do people really like doughnuts so much, that they'd bother to make them at home??  We're not a doughnut loving family but after seeing the Italian ones those fabulous cooking twins made in Junior MasterChef & now in this month's Donna Hay magazine, maybe they are a homemade taste sensation worth the messy, sticky effort??

So sorry, forgot to publicly announce the 300th Post Hot Pink Giveaway winner - it was lucky comment number 89 who is . . . Rebecca from Sewing Belle blog, a super sweet mummy of 3 all the way at the bottom of Western Australia.  Congratulations Bec & happy travels with your family for your big holiday.
Thanks everyone for entering, i have a couple of new giveaways coming up, from IKEA & Lego - you won't want to miss them, follow & stay tuned, love Posie