"On the Loose" Lego Exhibition and Sydney Aquarium

As I am currently CEO (Chief Entertainment Officer) of the School Holidays, I have been busy trying to keep the Pirates occupied and out of mischief.  Lots of excursions have taken place and one of the best was a trip into the city to see On the Loose, a Lego exhibition at Sydney Aquarium and Wildlife World.

The pirates (and friends) examining one of the lego murals up close.  These were absolutely spectacular, even for a non-lego person.  Created from one dot lego pieces, up close they resembled a pixelated image on a screen:

But with some perspective became a remarkable mural:

The lego murals and figures, life size models of sharks, mermaids, scuba divers and so on were dotted amongst the exhibits in both the Aquarium and Wildlife World, making the experience of attending the exhibition twice as exciting. 

I adored these dainty little glow-in-the-dark Jelly Fish:

The boys favourite?

Yes, the sharks were a highlight (especially the feeding of them) but it must be said that they spent most of their time in here:

The lego play room at Wildlife World.  Luckily, there were chairs and a Cafe in this room!

Danks Street, Waterloo

On the weekend I had a brief break from the massive de-cluttering that is taking place Chez Pirate to head East as Ross was craving Wagyu Burgers from Cafe Wah Wah.  I love Dank St as many of my favourite shops are located in the area but I had never been to the Bromley Arcade, clearly an oversight as he is one of my most loved artists.  I have one of his paintings, which I treasure and I am also obsessed with Mark Tuckey.  Tuckey and Bromley established the Bromley Arcade as a joint venture and for me it was a heavenly combination....

The boys recognised Pirate Boy immediately!

This would be divine in the little one's room!

Love!

My pond yacht obsessed pirates adored this little boy as well.

After exploring the wonders of the Arcade (if in Sydney you must visit!) we popped into Eco Outdoor.  The shop where we sourced the stone for our retaining walls around the pool and I noticed that they had the same vintage wine baskets as I do.  Only I had never had the brilliant idea of using them as hanging baskets for plants.  They literally had them hanging en masse at the entrance of the shop and they looked stunning. 

Watch this space to see my interpretation of this brilliant idea!

They also had very interesting lighting, I guess for any room but especially fantastic for outdoor rooms.  These ones reminded me of Mark Tuckeys work and also conjured up images in my head of paddocks and barbed wire fences (I went to boarding school in the country!).

These lights are made from Tumbleweeds and were very impressive in real life, unfortunately the photo does not do them justice. A visit to the shop is well worth it!

Project Organise is in full swing!

This is what I have been up to for the past 24 hours.  Organising.  De-cluttering... (is that actually a word?) and Donating (8 garbage bags so far! )

As much as I loathe plastic, today I have admitted to myself that it has it's good points and just quietly it is fantastic for storing things in the garage and the laundry.  Never in my life would I have thought that I would say that aloud, let alone write it down, but it actually suits my slightly OCD personality.  I am loving that the plastic boxes are clear and I can see what is in them, although I have been wielding the label maker as you can all see (more OCD issues), and that the boxes are watertight and stackable.  Genius really! 

Am currently cullling items according to the if I don't absolutely love it, need it or use it rule.  Anyone have any further suggestions?

A salty, sandy Christmas in Sydney

I hope everyone had a magical Christmas!  I will be along to visit you all soon.  In the meantime,  here are some photos of our Christmas in Sydney:

Decorations hanging from my beloved rusty lobster pot.

The Captain King and his favourite gift from Santa!

A Snow Sandman

Wishing you all health and happiness for the New Year!

Christmas Lolly jars

This post originally appeared on an old blog called The Brothers Trimm - I just wanted to add them to my personal blog in order to store the memory!

Christmas Lolly Jars

Materials:

old jars

buttons

glue gun

poms poms in white and red

glasses

eyes

pipe cleaners

(all of these items can be found at Spotlight or similar craft shops)

Making the lolly jars:

Get the glue gun out and start glueing!  Make sure you supervise closely as the glue gun gets super hot.

Lastly fill with lollies or shortbread, ours are to decorate the kids Christmas table with, but they would also make great home made Christmas gifts!

It's been 6 years... and best wishes to the lovely Jane.

Recently I celebrated my sixth wedding annniversary.    In this relatively short time, together we have experienced the truly magnificent and also the one rather random and unexpected shock, it has almost all been magnificent though and I am truly grateful to my wonderful husband for the last six years.

It hardly seems possible that it was six years ago that we gathered all our friends and family together to celebrate our marriage:

and drank copious amounts of champagne and watched fireworks and celebrated till early the next morning:

at my favourite place in the world:

A special day, but it all seems rather insignificant though in the scheme of things when I think that today the lovely, dignified and courageous Jane undergoes surgery.   Best wishes for a speedy recovery Jane.

Christmas button ornaments

This post originally appeared on an old blog called The Brother's Trimm - I just wanted to add it to my personal blog in order to preserve the memory!

Christmas Button Ornaments

Button Christmas ornaments are a fabulous Make and Do Project as almost all the necessary supplies are readily available and very cheap.  I had a big jar of buttons that didn't seem to belong to anything and combined with a pack of pipe cleaners we were all ready to go with a great Christmas craft activity.  This is an activity that can be done by children as young as two, Baby Pirate is two and a half and with a little help every now and again he loved it.  Threading the pipe cleaners through the button holes was great for improving his eye hand coordination and the organising of the buttons was great for sorting skill development.  All in all, a great Make and Do project!

Materials:

Buttons
Pipe Cleaners
Scissors
Ribbon

Making "wreath" button ornaments:

Select a pipe cleaner and start threading!
When they have decided that there are enough buttons on their wreath, loop the pipe cleaner ends together and wind closed.  Trim off any excess and then tie a ribbon on to the bare spot of the wreath  making a loop.  The loop can now be used to hang the ornament.

Making a "tree" button ornament:

Select a pipe cleaner and make a little dent in one end to stop the buttons sliding off the end of the pipe cleaner.  Then sort out the buttons into large to small size order and thread onto the pipe cleaner starting with the largest on the bottom.  We topped ours off with a little red star found at Spotlight.  Then wind a little loop into the excess pipe cleaner and thread some ribbon through!