Life in Terrey Hills is very different to life in Newtown. We've traded planes, trains and automobiles for peace, tranquility and noisy parrots, goths, ferals and punks for tailored jodphurs, knee-length riding boots and very large 4WDs! People ride horses down our street and now we get junk mail for saddleries and stock feed!



Our little house is light and airy - in stark contrast to the Alladin's Cave house we used to live in, we can actually see our stuff now - but a little smaller than we've been used to, which has been a great excuse to cull stuff. Three large tip-truck loads to the tip so far...

And the kids absolutely love it here! They were a bit apprehensive about leaving Newtown at first ("There's not enough concrete, Mummy!"), but can hardly remember it now, let alone pine for it. I asked them last weekend whether they preferred living here or in Newtown. The resounding answer was "here" because, "There's wildlife, trees to climb and space to run around." Who needs concrete, aye?



A few weeks ago, we found that a possum had taken up residence in the garden shed, right next to the chook food bin. Which explained why we were going through so much chook food so fast! Every evening at sunset, an enormous flock of very noisy cockatoos and assorted parrots descend on our street - and the kids go cocky chasing. They're always very disappointed that the birds fly away before they can pat them. And despite my assurances that this is a good thing, given the size of their beaks, they are quite determined.

They also spend a large part of their day hanging in the front yard and pouncing on any hapless dog walkers passing by, to obtain "puppy kisses". We've already had the "Can we have a dog?" question and the larger of the two small people, who has been completely reptile mad for some time now, has just twigged that people keep snakes as pets. So now, he's DETERMINED to have a snake too. Oh joy.

Sir K informed me last weekend that all he needs to live well is:
* A big kitchen
* A playstation
* 2 tellies
* A Wii
* A DS
* And a big backyard with trees to climb that attracts wildlife!

So he's about halfway to his ideal life then...

Miss M loves the chooks. Although perhaps not in the way you may expect. Every day she asks me, "Mummy, can we kill one of our chickens and eat it for dinner? Chickens are YUMMY!"

The other day, I asked her how we should go about this.

"Well, first we'd have to catch one, which could be tricky. And then we'd have to FREEZE it to DEATH so it would be all frozen. And then we put it into the oven to make it nice and warm, 'cause when it's nice and warm we can eat it and it's YUMMY! But first we'd have to very carefully SQUEEZE out all the eggs so we can have them for our breakfast and take off ALL the feathers, 'cause feathers are YUCKY!"

She's got this whole living in the "country" thing well sussed.

There's a place just outside Goulburn where they farm yurts. Yes, that's right. Yurts. Small round huts. They don't move very fast, are easy to grow and cheap to keep. This is where Kinma has it's annual school camp. And what a magical and wonderful place it is!

From the moment we arrived and saw the hand-carved log signs lining the driveway proclaiming messages such as "back to basics" and "culture shock", we knew we were in for something special. No electricity, no mod-cons, no mobile phone reception and no internet for 3 whole days! Bliss!

The yurt farm is such an inspiring and creative place. Everywhere you look there's interesting things; tree stump monsters hiding in the grass, fantastical junk metal sculptures in the grass paddocks, obstacle courses amongst the trees, ghost riddled shacks, tyre swings, flying foxes and of course brightly coloured yurts dotting the landscape.

The kids had a ball and not once did they ask if they could watch TV, play computer or playstation games or whine "I'm bored!". Instead, they paddled a canoe, ground some wheat and collected eggs to make pancakes, learned how to shear a sheep and handle a horse, went fishing for yabbies, made wooden toys, campfires and damper, rode on the back of a tractor and were generally kept so busy, there was no time to think about all the TV they were missing! Can't wait to go again...



Home sweet home!



Inside our yurt



Lady P has a bit of a whoopsy and is extremely unimpressed.



Sir K was very prolific in the workshop, making a plane, a submarine and several weapons, including a fabulous sword and shield.



Miss M does a spot of riding...



Early morning campfire... it was freezing cold!



Fishing for yabbies in the dam



Miss M discovers the joy of the tyre swing!



Hunting sheep



The Adam-powered flying fox!

After 2 long LONG years of trying to sell and looking at houses for sale, we can finally get some new weekend hobbies because we're now the proud owners of a 4 bedroom house in Terrey Hills!

The house is close to the kids' school, has a national park at the end of the street and comes with a huge backyard complete with permaculture veggie garden, fruit trees and 9 chooks. It's more of a tree-change than a sea-change, but boy what a change - from inner-city terrace to a quarter-acre block with chooks!

So we'll be off to shop for some new requirements, such as chook food and a lawn mower... hurrah!

We've had a very eventful introduction to life in the bushy suburbs of Northern Sydney in the last few weeks.

Kai managed to score a head full of nits in his first week at school, then got 'attacked' by hairy caterpillars. And both Kai and Maia have come home from school literally covered in ticks several times. The first time this happened, we panicked! (No ticks in Newtown)

Kai came in one evening after his bath, complaining that he was itchy all over. He was covered in big red welts all over his back, stomach, shoulders and neck, in his hair, behind his ears and on his butt. At first, we couldn't work out what it was. Each welt had a tiny little black spot in the middle and we thought he'd been stung by a wasp or something. It was only after looking at them under a magnifying glass that we realised they were ticks.

They were so tiny, we couldn't get to them with tweezers, so we ended up at the medical centre - which was a disaster! The doctor didn't seem to have much of a clue either and started digging them out with a needle, much to Kai's disgust. After 10 minutes of squealing, she sent us home with a packet of needles and completely unwarranted antiobiotics!!

In the last three weeks, we've gone from "OMG ticks!" to being very blase. I've become quite the expert 'tick picker' and the kids now routinely strip on walking in the door, calmly point out all the tick spots and patiently wait for me to pluck them off.

And the little beggars get EVERYWHERE! Oh the joys.

HE PLAYS CHESS
(Colour expose – yellow, black and white)

Create your own shapes by cutting them out of patterned paper. To create a unique background, try weaving two pieces of patterned paper together. Create your own ‘metal’ accents with metallic paints. Ink a patterned paper to tone it down and make it more subtle.

MATERIALS… PAPER: Basic Grey DIGITAL PAPERS: Shabby Princess - free downloads from the internet ELEMENTS: Shabby Princess INKS: Versa OTHER: Ribbon, slide mount, Jo Sonya metallic paints, rules and chess icons from 'Chess for Beginners: a picture guide' by Al Horowitz, 1959.



9 SILLY FACES (*DIGITAL LAYOUT*)
(Try this – 8 or more images)

Use a large number or letter to add an interesting accent to your page. Arrange multiple images in a grid layout for consistency and visual symmetry.

MATERIALS… SOFTWARE: Photoshop CS2 ELEMENTS: Shabby Princess – free digital kits FONTS: Baskerville Old Face, 28 Days Later (free font)

Both the kids were very excited today as it was the long awaited BIG DAY: Kai started kindy and Maia started preschool at Kinma. They were both up and dressed, with (brand new) school bags packed and waiting by the door at 7:30am!



At first, Kai was a bit shy, but he quickly settled in, made friends - and impressions. He was so boyed up with the idea of school, learning and getting into things, that at recess, he bailed up the school manager. Says Kai, very seriously, "I thought school was all about learning to read and write and do maths." She assured him that he was absolutely right. "So how come I'm not learning any of those things yet then?" demands he.

Maia too was a bit shy at first. But she also soon got into the swing of things, firstly by sorting the boys. She quickly made sure they all knew that only GIRLS were allowed to play with her! And she was chuffed to learn that there was a little girl called Mia at "her preschool", and they quickly buddied up. (We often call Maia "Mia (me-ah) Maya (may-ah) Maia (my-ah)" because no-one can ever remember which she is - she thinks it's a great joke!)

And although it's traditional for Mum's to be a bit misty eyed on the first day, there were no tears from me - I was too excited for them! They're both just so ready for the next step and I'm thrilled they both took to their new roles so well. Hurrah!

Can you believe the size of this wave??



I took the kids down to Curl Curl beach today to see the huge seas pounding the coast - and it didn't disappoint! The sound of the boom alone as each wave hit the rocks was enough to freak the kids out. That followed by the wild eruption of white foam (and getting wet into the bargain) meant we had to endure hours of the kids excitedly chanting "BANG! CRASH! BANG!" to anyone who'd listen.

I've been utterly overwhelmed with the response to the free texture images available on my Flickr site and since, being me (that is somewhat obsessive compulsive), I've created a gazillion of the things, I've decided to put them up for sale on the micro-stock site FeaturePics.

So if you like the freebies and want more, head this way:
http://www.featurepics.com/Authors/Images12379.aspx



All images are US$1 - yep, just $1 per image.

I am sorting them into collections at the moment, and will shortly be offering collections for sale: 50 textures on CD for $25 (plus postage).

And more freebies coming soon, so watch this space!

It's ho ho ho time of year again - my how time flies!

It's been another very busy and stressful year in our house with another 12 months of either open houses, cleaning houses, looking for houses, attending auctions for houses and otherwise being absorbed by this Australian obsession with wanting to have a house to call our own - somewhere near the beach.

After 18 months of trying to sell, it seems that the day we sold, the market suddenly decided to move. Upwards. Especially on the Northern Beaches. In the last three months, we've failed spectacularly in trying to purchase a new house. We've tried unsuccessfully to buy 8 properties now, but unfortunately, there's always someone else with a lot more money than we're willing to part with.

Hopefully the new year period will see all the rich people bugger off on holidays so we can finally buy a new home for us! But at least for now we have a comfortable temporary abode and a healthy bank balance - something that's definitely a first for us.

Sir K and Miss M are thoroughly enjoying living at Gran & Grandad's house. They love the pool, the swing set, the treehouse and having sleepovers with their cousins. Sir K has settled well into his new preschool at Kinma and can't wait to start 'big school' next year. He's very excited about learning to read and write - as are we all! Miss M is also excited about starting preschool. She loves Kinma and never wants to leave when we drop Sir K off. She is insanely jealous that he gets to stay but she doesn't, especially since she's 3 now and a 'big girl'.

Adam and I have also been busy with adult things this year, aside from buying houses! I returned to teaching multimedia design at Raffles (formerly KVB) Institute of Technology. Next year, I'll be teaching 3 days per week. I've just finished a 6-month 'design team' contract with For Keeps scrapbooking magazine, providing 2-3 layouts per month for publication and was very excited at being in three art exhibitions this year. Adam has been busy busy at work, and also has several interesting projects going on the side, which he hopes will at least return some money!

We are all off to Norfolk Island on Sunday for a well-earned 2-week holiday - and once again the kids are beside themselves with excitement! They can't wait to go on a plane ride, swim at the beach, snorkel on the reef and go beach combing for driftwood, which they have grand plans for in terms of 'craft' and Christmas decorations, so they tell me!

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!!