A Glimpse of Ellen

I don't know how it happened, but our Melbourne itinerary somehow collided with Ellen DeGeneres when she was in Australia.  The girls and I had a whole day to spare in the city and it just happened to be the day Ellen was making an appearance for her show!  

We had planned a visit to the National Gallery of Victoria but alas, the gallery is closed on a Tuesday (I swear it used to always be closed on a Monday!) so we thought we might head on down to Birrarung Marr, behind Federation Square, to see (if we could) perhaps catch a glimpse, or at least hear the Talk Show Legend.  But when we approached the corner of Federation Square and the Yarra River our hearts slumped.  

The que was unbelievable....  I sent this pic to MrL who was on the other side of Australia, probably with the caption "look at this line!!!"

Thousands of people.

I suggested to the girls we take a seat outside near an outside stage and screen as it was pretty obvious that there was no way we would make it inside the the formal stage where things were going to happen.

The crowd kept building up with a lot of people having the same idea and the formal line being told that the stage area was now closed.

It wasn't too long before the Queen arrived.  There was a big buzz in the air.  And she acknowledged the people who couldn't/didn't get into the main arena.

Can you see her there waving?  And that's her mum across from her and wife Portia climbing the stairs ahead in a pretty red dress.  (She too did turn around and wave - she is a Melbourne girl after all!)

Monet and I were particularly thrilled.  Lily?  Nah.  She had no idea.

After watching a bit of the recording on the big screen ahead of us I was faced with two hungry and restless daughters.

But I soon put a stop to that.

My Ploughman's lunch went down a certain treat and the girls enjoyed their meals too.

A fantastic day.

Melbourne

MrL started a new job, which is interstate.  Since he was going to be absent over the Easter Break, we decided that the girls and I should spend some time in Melbourne City and then go to country Victoria to stay and visit with family.

I pulled Monet out of school for a few days so she began her Easter School Holidays a good four days before the rest of her classmates.  (Lucky her!)  The girls were very excited to be getting back into a plane again and heading to stay in a hotel for a couple of nights, let alone to be seeing their Grandparents and Cousins.  

Melbourne greeted us with beautiful Autumn weather.  

Flinders Street Station

We had a lovely time, strolling around.

And I had two, well, one especially, child/ren get very excited to see outside the art gallery an upcoming exhibition...  But unfortunately for us, the Gallery is closed on a Tuesday.

The girls had great fun touching the huge pane of water glass.  I remember doing this when I was a young girl.

We did a little shopping and I forgot where we were when we hit Myer.  It has changed a lot over the years.

We ate out for the two nights we were there and we all sat and watched the world go by.

The sun setting behind The Rialto

Puppy-arazzi at Federation Square

Tea Rooms in The Block Arcade

We loved our two days, two nights in Melbourne town ; it's been too long since I enjoyed the great city.  And as a bonus we saw Ellen!  But that's another post.

Fabric Labels

I cannot begin to tell you how rapt I was to get these fabric labels in the post.  

I recently discovered that a friend in Brisbane prints out labels for people like myself.  There are so many companies out there that do fabric labels but it is all very confusing when decided on all the elements.  With my friend it was straight down the line and she knew what I was after, including approximate sizing.

Now my lady sized skirts have a little tag on the side...

...and little girl skirts have my mark on the outer back of them.

I seriously could not be more pleased.

Easter Bonnet

At the end of each term at Monet's school, they hold a fundraising event by holding a  Junior School disco.  This past term, the school decided to hold their Easter Bonnet parade at the same side.  

Trying to be prepared, I organised a bagful of goodies for Monet to make a Bonnet a couple of weeks before hand.  One afternoon after school she sat at the table and prepared her Bonnet (under a little guidance.)

As the Disco approached and with the hat at the ready....

Can she look any more worried?

 ... we went.  And as the Grade Threes paraded their hats, Monet was awarded one of the winners.  And she was as pleased as punch.  (I must admit I was a little chuffed too.)

I'm keeping the Bonnet for next year.  It is award winning after all.  

FORTY

March 5th saw me reach a significant number.  And I have to say, it was one of my best birthdays ever.  

Special flowers from my Big Sis & her life partner, in the UK

I'm not into parties.  I'm not into being the 'centre of attention', a party of any kind was never on the cards.  MrL suggested a couple of weeks beforehand that we could all perhaps spend the night at a hotel.  I quite liked that idea.  So he went ahead and booked a room at The Shangri-La on the Marina in Cairns.  

The weather might have taken a bad turn that afternoon....

We had a big storm in the afternoon of my birthday.

...but it didn't worry me.

The view from our room was just beautiful.  I've said it before and I will say it again, I love me a marina.

A nice champagne was the order of the afternoon for me.

MrL and the girls bought me a lovely bangle for my 40th.

The girls had a great time in the pool and convinced MrL to get in there too...

...whilst I sipped a cocktail or two.

We had a sensational dinner eating at The Salt House, which is part of the Yacht Club at the Marina.

The next day it was great to get up early, enjoy the view and have a family swim in the massive rooftop pool at the Hotel.  We walked along the Esplanade to a popular Cairns restaurant for breakfast before biding MrL on his way off to work.

Monet still had school to attend so after packing up our room (who knew that four bodies could make so much mess over the course of one night) Lily and I went home via school.

The Marina view at 6am

Breakfast view

A fantastic birthday.  Definitely what I wanted and definitely one to remember.  Awesome.

It's been a while...

Sorry about that.

My blogging mojo comes and goes and over the course of the past couple of months it has seriously gone out the window.  I have promised myself that I must update more often.

So, a few things have happened in my blogging absence ::

I turned 40.
MrL gained a new job which means he isn't here a lot of the time.
The girls and I went to Melbourne for a couple of nights and then spent 10 nights in country Victoria with my parents and MrL's.
I had my first Australian Market Stall.

Life hasn't been boring at all.  I guess that's why blogging has taken a backseat as I haven't got around to writing.

Life, 'tis good.

Freebie!

We've found some interesting hard rubbish over the years, but yesterday's freebie was what I considered the best. Two matching poster frames. They were exactly what I had been searching for.

Now my two posters made of my Instagram photos, printed via Printstagram are framed and ready to hang.

Now, she really is a big girl.

So, at age three years and a fortnight short of six months, Miss Lily gave up the dummy.  It was quite unexpected, truth be told.  We've been mocking her since she turned three about how she still had a dummy and she took it all in her stride.  

People had suggested that we should leave her dummies out for Santa to take.  Umm, no.  I don't want Santa getting a bad rap taking away something she 'loves'.  

I hadn't purchased any dummies in like a year but we had sooo many which were lost and found, lost and found.  Every time a dummy got a hole Lily would pop it in the bin.

We were down to our last two last week.  Saturday we had two floating around and by bed time only one remained, as one was misplaced.  But Lily pointed out at bed time that the one she had, had a big torn hole.  Uh oh.  Bed time, no dummy.  

As per night time routine, I read her a book, turned out the light and lay next to her until she fell asleep.  Usually this might take a good ten minutes but on Saturday night it took over an hour.  With tears.  

No mention of a dummy at all on Sunday.  Bed time, took about twenty minutes to fall asleep.

Monday, Lily announced she found the one lonely lost, final dummy.  

"What are you going to do with that?" I asked her.  

"Put it in the bin!" she announced.

And so she did...  

We're all so proud of her and she's going to sleep very quickly.  She's only mentioned once or twice this week how she misses her dummy but now that is a chapter on her life that has closed.  I never thought I would see the day.