The Blues Train

Did I forget to mention...

On Friday 25th of May

We braved the cold wintery night air

We ate some (not great) food [ am I just too picky to expect more than plain meat & veg? ] then boarded the train 

& boogied it up on the Queenscliff to Drysdale Blues Train..

We saw Wayne Jury

The Mojo corner

And the Chris Wilson Duo-

Our favourite of the night was Brian Fraser - this guy is a one man band wonder and plays his instruments with all feet and hands going at different times.

There was of course a dance off..

Hunna did get involved at one point as everyone was taking turns dancing off with the other side of the train.. unfortunately blogger wouldn't let me upload that video obviously because it was FAR too hilarious for your eyes..

But you can imagine he pulled out the sprinkler and a couple of other fantastical moves he has been keeping in storage for a while!

(The Dance off line with Hunna at the front..)

Just the two of us.

Thanks Gran and Auldyin for looking after Boy while we boogied and laughed the night away.

Ginger Bread Bikits

What to do on a cold blustery Thursday afternoon?

Make 'bikits' of course!!

Boy & I decided to grab out the cookie cutters and the rolling pin and make ourselves some yummy gingerbread men.

I'm not sure where I got this recipe from - its just written down on a piece of paper. However, knowing me .. I probably stole it from a Donna Hay magazine while flipping through the pages at the supermarket.. or the docs surgery.

(Don't tell me you've never done it!..)

Gingerbread Mix

1/4 cup (90g) brown sugar

2 & 1/2 cups plain flour, sifted

2 teaspoons ground ginger, sifted

1 teaspoon bi-carb, sifted.

Place all the dry ingredients in a bowl and combine.

Gingerbread dough

1 quantity of Gingerbread Mix

125g butter, diced

2/3 cup (230g) golden syrup

Before combining ingredients, remove approx a cup of gingerbread mix and set aside.

Now combine your remaining gingerbread mix, butter and golden syrup. 

You want it to form a smooth dough that is still quite wet. So add your left over cup of gingerbread mix slowly-- you may need all or none depending on the consistency of the dough.

Basically your dough should come together easily when pressed between two fingers but if its rolling around in a ball at the end of the beater its too wet.

Separate the mixture in half and wrap each half in glad wrap before refrigerating for 30 mins.

(If you have any gingerbread mix left over keep it and use it to flour the bench and rolling pin for later, otherwise for a less messy option you can put the Gingerbread dough between two sheets of baking paper)

Pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees.

After it has been in the fridge for the required amount of time roll it out to be approx 5mm thick.

Cut away!

Then bake it for approx 8 minutes. Depending on how thick your 'bikits' are & if your oven runs hot you may need less time. Ours only took about 6 mins (otherwise they end up breaking your teeth)

When you get them out you want them to be soft in the middle still. Let them sit and as they cool they will harden up enough for you to pick them up comfortably without them crumbling.

Yum!!

Delicious gingerbread 'bikits' made by Boy.

An Ode to Hair

Remember that time I had really long hair..

You know, right before I had Boy.

And then I had Boy..

And I cut it..

short.

Then later (much later) I was planning a wedding and a holiday and cut it...

shorter...

Should I just shave it now?

booqi wanglings

A sneak peak at what I am making for the store(s) at the moment..

Woolie Ford

Recently: 

We dressed up as lumberjacks & headed to the museum(s)

Ok, Boy & Hunna dressed up as lumberjacks & I am just jealous I don't have a flannie.

(packing the nappy bag with tree lopping things, ya know)

Then we tested out our mad skills at The Wool Museum.

Weighed ourselves (Gee Dadda you've put on weight!)

We looked at some rugs being made with a REALLY old machine.

And modelled our outfits on the way to the Ford Museum.

When we got there we had a contest..

Who do you think made the best car of the future?

Also, when you arrive there is a cool certificate which you need to stamp at different activities and at the end you get a special prize for learning so much about Ford.

(Boy waiting for his certificate to be certified and for the prize to be given)

I just realised I hadn't told you about Hunna's new job yet! (Well ...hopefully new job) He has a three month probation period and then we are hoping it will be permanent.

He has officially found new employment with a company in Melbourne and he is really happy with how it is going. SO, when the three months is up we hope they will have liked him just as much as he likes them and then we will be signing contracts and then we will officially be able to celebrate post-redundancy.

Hopefully never to return...

I shall keep you posted! yeee x

How Now Brown Cow

The other day there was a walk in the park..

I am just about ready to move to Queensland because its not even half way through winter and I am all ready refusing to go outside. Since, in this case, I couldn't refuse... I refused to take the flannie shirt off instead. ( I stole it from Hunna ) and decided to dag it up like a hipster.

I call this look 'taking back control' one flannie at a time.

Of course Boy was rugged up to the nines and didn't feel a thing.

Then later in the week:

We had the family come to visit and we all made pizzas together.

There is nothing I like more than the smell of rising pizza dough & pizza in the oven.. yummo!

Boy and Cuz made their very own pizza with every type of cheese, every type of sauce and every type of meat available.

I will call it the little people meat lovers pizza with the lot. It was delicious!

Oh... and couldn't finish without showing you this sweet pic of the Cousins all together.

J x

Slowly Does it..

The other night I woke up from my snuggly dreams to find that my leg/knee was in complete agony.

I couldn't move it or weight bear and worst of all was that I couldn't bend it. I had woken to a little 'pop' and my leg had instantly recoiled.

I really am getting an old woman.

I was lying there, in the dark trying to figure out what to do and finally decided to wake Hunna. Who switched on the light and touched my leg lightly (the sore one!) to which I instantly cried out and told him that was the worst thing he could do..

I have never been in so much pain that I have felt physically ill before, but this was bad. I knew I needed to roll my aching leg over to try and stretch it out but every time I attempted to roll a wave of nausea hit me like a tonne of bricks.

I was grapling for something to vomit in when Hunna handed me of all things an empty Cadbury box, the kind that holds a family sized block of chocolate. The kind that had been ripped in half when hours earlier we had been impatient to snaffle the sweet prize within.

I couldn't help myself, I had to laugh - which hurt my leg but it reminded me of the Green towel incident.

Here's how it goes:

One day after we were newly married we took a trip to visit my sister Collette. She made us promise that we wouldn't do anything intimate in her bed (which she kindly gave up for us to sleep in while we stayed) we promised we wouldn't.. because I honestly couldn't think of anything worse than having your own sister sleeping down the hall. 


Anyway, the next morning Collette got two towels out for us to use and placed them on the kitchen table. One was pink and one was green. I grabbed my towel from the table and headed to the shower.


When I was finished Hunna was ready to go in and Collette reminded him that the green towel was for him.


After he was sufficiently clean and out of the bathroom I noticed that the green towel was still perfectly folded on the kitchen table.


I enquired and he said " I did use the green towel"


To which I replied " Your green towel is still on the table?"


Then he explained that after he got out of the shower there was a green hand towel in the bathroom and he thought that Collette was playing a joke on him.  He didn't want her to get the better of him and decided instead of calling for help he would just use the hand towel and come out triumphant.


Collette and I literally rolled around laughing for hours afterwards.


So here I was, in the throes of pain,  and I couldn't help but laugh my way into an army roll so that I could stretch out my leg.

The last week has been slow moving but I am constantly entertained by Hunna who makes me laugh even when he is absolutely not trying to be funny.

And sometimes when he is..

Sorry for the lack of bloggety blogging over the last week.
Our internet is running excruciatingly slow and I do not have the patience to deal with it.

J x

the story of MR. Boy (The BEST three years)

I wanted to specifically dedicate another post to the man of my life. MR. Boy or Hunna or the Candy Man or just plain Kyley Kyles.

The last post about Hunna was a little lacking in content although a great shortened version of life events over the last few years..The Unavoidable decline of Mr K's Hair.. but I want to start at the start again (when there was a little more hair on his head) and continue to now.

It was December 2008 when I first laid eyes on him. He was 23 and I was a young sprout of 20.

We met at convention. For all non-'lds'ers that means we met at the meat market. Convention is held most years for all lds young singles (that was us) after Christmas and over New Year. Basically everyone gets together to meet, mingle and strengthen our testimonies of the gospel.

It is the perfect opportunity (especially for Tasmanians who have dated everyone they know (- maybe even some cousins)) to seek ..shall we say? opportunities outside of the state.

I had been to convention two years previous to the 2008 - 2009 Convenny.

That year it was held in Adelaide and I happened to come home after New Years with a new accessory.

Kyle (no middle name) Andrews. At the time I was working 3 jobs and doing summer school so fitting in a part-time boyfriend just added to the hectic fun I was all ready enjoying.

By March all I could think about was THIS and soon my Part-Time boyfriend became a full-time man obsession when he moved down to lil ole Tassie to be nearer his dearest.

By the end of March there was  a little time to blog about our Engagement.

Yes, we met -we wooed, we were in love and all in 3 months. When you know, ya just know..

By May I had purchased my dress. And by June 6th we were Wed.  We don't muck about. We never have. In December of 2009 almost 12 months since we first met we moved to Geelong.

The next two years are a blur of a new baby and life at the Shire but here are a few favourite posts (which may or may not include whinging about being forcibly moved from Tasmania - gah! I love that place)

Dearest Taswegians (the move over)

Hello world. (Boy is born)

Bastians Great Nan (Our first visit, this is so special to me now as she has passed away.)


As I look back over all the things we have done, started & completed in the last 3 years I can't believe we have had any time to sit down at all!

Our life together so far can probably be compared to the names that I have used to refer to Kyle.

When we first met he was Kyle (no middle name ) Andrews. He was, it seemed, the real deal.

Soon after we had been dating a little while he became the Candy Man, because of course, when the ice-cream truck comes to visit life is sweet.

When he moved down I would call him Kyley Kyles to tease him because after one of our first marriage councils with our then Bishop (whose wife is named Kylie) he said shaking his hand "thanks Kyles" and we all cracked up.

When we were married I called him "Honey" but that seemed to looong winded when we moved to Geelong to be calling out over the grassy plains of the Shire. So I started to call him Hunna. I never asked him if he minded, but is suited me - so it stayed.

Now, after having Boy, I sometimes refer to him to others as MR. Boy. So people know we are a family of three now and I suppose that makes me MRS. Boy.

(chelsea parsons photography)

Whatever I call you Hunna, wherever we are. I am so thankful to know you & to have you as mine.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY

You are my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest.

(pop photography)

Jess
ex Oh ex

.....whoosh

Cape Making

with boy

Boy has been running his little legs off lately. He is an especially good runner..

We decided to make a super cape to encourage some gallantry from our friendly neighbourhood superhero. (aka boy)

We measured his back from neck to toe (just to be sure it was the right size) and made a triangle pattern out of brown paper.

I added shouldery bits to help it sit better on his shoulders and then some special golden cord just right for a little superheroes outfit.

Then overlocked right around the edge so that it would be sturdy and made a little hem all the way around (because I couldn't be bothered lining it) and top stitched.

We appliqued on some awesome superhero felt shapes.

And the man of the house burnt the end of the cord so it wouldn't fray later.

 After the first cape was such a success I thought I would make capes for Nursery (since I am the Primary music leader) now when we go to nursery we are " SUPER " singers and put our capes on to help us sing really loudly. During Primary singing time I also have a "SUPER" helper who wears the cape and helps me as my assistant.

 Then I thought Boy needed some help because he couldn't possibly look after the WHOLE world and sent some capes to America so we could have some American Superhero friends too.

 

GO FLASHboy

p.s: 

Today we are having a giveaway on our booqi facebook page yeeee x