Burkes Backyard and Me – The Fake Garden Guru

Sponsored by Nuffnang

Spring is in full swing and in true Melbourne style, there will be a few of those LOVELY sunny spring days, and then there will be the too cold and wet to go outside days, which is when I love to catch up on some reads.

ONE in particular I absolutely love is Burke’s Backyard being because it is my to go to read about what I should and shouldn’t be doing in the garden.

The section I thoroughly read is the Hands On section…

…as it is my vegie garden bible, telling me what I should or shouldn’t be the sowing in a chart.

Its like a monthly garden coach telling me what to do because seriously… I still don’t know what I’m doing.

And when I see pictures ofother people’s gardens, and compare it with our own…

I feel like I’m not doing such a bad job.

HAH and every month too, afterreading Burke’s Backyard magazine, I always have something new to share with my dad about what he should be doing in his garden, like why my citrus and stone fruits are dropping after they are formed, or that now is the time to deadhead his roses and lay mulch. I’ve even sounded like such an expert to him about how he could deter the aphids that have killed off his plum tree. You see, as his fruit trees bear abundant fruit, me as his FAVOURITE daughter gets first dibs on the fruit. Anyway, so not only does my dad think I’m the BEST, but I’m actually quite knowledgeable about gardening… but really…. All I am doing is just that I read it all in some gardening magazines.

Speaking of which, with Christmas coming up…

Are you looking for the perfect Christmas present? Give your loved ones a magazine subscription this year and you can win a tropical escape to Hawaii with Magshop’s Christmas competition . (WIN WIN situation here, though I’ll probably get dad the Australian Golf Digest and I can remain the “Garden Guru”)

Treat your family and friends to a magazine subscription today – it’s the gift that keeps on giving all year round!

 

 


 

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Crawl Along Snail Tunnel Ball

 

I’ve just opted to do  Product talk by Nuffnang and I got myself…well, the girls anyway, a Fisher Price 1-2-3 Crawl Along Snail! Christmas is coming up and it is always nice to have a bit of a surprise for the girls.

As we opened the toy I kinda realised the the toy was probably alittle too basic for Charlotte as the Crawl Along Snail Toy offered developmentally appropriate activities for tummy time, sitting and crawling. AND THEN I realised…. D’UH! Its called the Crawl Along Snail! (ooops… didn’t even thing of that….)

 

ANYWAY, the girls still enjoyed playing with it, and really, it made me realise that kids have amazing imaginations and creativity to transform any toy, into a TOY.

The Crawl Along Snail glides across the floor when you gently push it so the girls played tunnel ball with it which was really cute to watch.

Then they sat opposite each other and pushed it to each other which was really good for Charlottes coordination. For it to go straight accurately you had to make sure it was pointing in the right direction and gently urge it forward which Charlotte was initially very rough on, but she understood it in the end.

HAHAHA look how flexible she is!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we opened the toy I kinda realised the the toy was probably alittle too basic for Charlotte as the Crawl Along Snail Toy offered developmentally appropriate activities for tummy time, sitting and crawling. AND THEN I realised…. D’UH! Its called the Crawl Along Snail! (ooops… didn’t even thing of that….)

 

 

 

I’ve just opted to do a Nuffnang Product talk and I got myself…well, the girls anyway, a Fisher Price 1-2-3 Crawl Along Snail! Christmas is coming up and it is always nice to have a bit of a surprise for the girls.

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we opened the toy I kinda realised the the toy was probably alittle too basic for Charlotte as the Crawl Along Snail Toy offered developmentally appropriate activities for tummy time, sitting and crawling. AND THEN I realised…. D’UH! Its called the Crawl Along Snail! (ooops… didn’t even thing of that….)

 

 

 

 

 

ANYWAY, the girls still enjoyed playing with it, and really, it made me realise that kids have amazing imaginations and creativity to transform any toy, into a TOY.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ANYWAY, the girls still enjoyed playing with it, and really, it made me realise that kids have amazing imaginations and creativity to transform any toy, into a TOY.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

?

Posted in Miscellaneous | 1 Comment

Kids Pictionary

We played pictionary the other day and Dave had to draw “Telephone” for Charlotte to guess. It took alittle while for her to guess because she’s never seen a phone that had a cord on it or one that has a ear and mouth piece.

In the end, Dave drew an iPhone and she said…”Phone?”

This makes me wonder then, what other things would be considered obselete in our kids minds because we haven’t made the effort to teach, show and interest them….

Posted in Blogging Footprints, Family Footprints, Reflective Footprints | Leave a comment

Framing a wall

The wonderful  and sometimes annoying thing about having kids it that there is always heaps of art work. There will be the good ones, and then there will be the ones that well… I throw away when they are not looking but no matter what it is, my kids are always so happy and proud to show it off.

I’ve figured out a way to put up their art work without making my house look like a childcare centre. Also, space is an issue at our house. Dave thinks we don’t have enough space… I think we need a new house.

Anyway, I digress…

HERE is our space. It’s a bit of wall space that leads into our laundry. A little narrow hallway so the idea of having frames would just make it smaller… plus I would just be too lazy to frame work up and change it every couple of weeks.

Sorry about the HUGE picture, I’m having troubles with formating the size…. grrrr….

AND here is what we’ve put up. ALL you need is a marker pen, and I would suggest that you do this while the kids are away, and not around to watch your lead on ‘wall drawing’. I noticed that the simple frames worked the best, rather than trying to do the curly stuff. I can’t get the stuff off so I’m kinda stuck with it until we repaint the wall.

Posted in Family Footprints, Homely Footprints | 2 Comments

Sometimes I bake, and other times I fake.

I’ve been baking. Sorry, no recipes as yet because I’m still trying to make a cake that is worth sharing….but I will share one secret…….. Boxed Bakes from Safeway or Coles. on those days when you just can’t be bothered but love your family enough to want them to love you back don’t have time.

So here are the pics of what I have been playing around, and hopefully with more practise, and finding the right recipe… will share it.

Strawberry shortcake

Carrot Cake

Lemon Meringue

Ice Cream Cake

and… I can’t remember… Oh maybe sticky date.

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