Kim Archer | Mindful Living

And hello. I'm back. Again.

So, well, yes it's been a while. Not quite a year, but certainly a very long time between posts.

I'm not going to waffle on about why theres been such a long time between posts, life gets busy blah blah.. I'm just going to dive right back in.

J's 21st

We had another kid turn 21 in our family the other week. The middle one. And in true J fashion, his party was left until the last minute to organise. In fact, it was the most thrown together party you could imagine - but somehow everything came together and turned out, well, turned out great!

He was adamant that he wanted it at Soho on Darby St (where Brandt had his 21st).. Brandt's friend has since bought Soho and they no longer have functions past 8pm as it turns into a nightclub after that time! Which meant a 4pm-8pm party which was a bit weird but turned out great as it meant the family could all be there and then J and his friends could then head off for a night in town..

He's a bit of a no fuss kinda boy old Jammo and hates the limelight HOWEVER he asked for a photo board and a photo book that everyone could sign AND could I please take lots of photos on the day and make sure I go around and film everyone saying happy birthday messages to him. Oh-kay then.

This was also last minute.

I had a few days up my sleeve and the great PHOTO BOARD project was set in motion.

I used an existing canvas I have here and blue tac to add a ton of photos and it was time consuming but came out so well! AND didn't we find some photo gems!

Saturday was a crazy day -- well not for the birthday boy -- but for me and Capri! We raced around picking up the cake, ordering and picking up balloons and racing to Charlestown to pick up cupcakes from Fifi LeFemme and then to Typo to grab a last minute blank notebook to turn into a birthday book for the guests to sign.

Meanwhile our Canberra guests -- Ken's mum and our lovely friend Lyn and one of her kids Steve -- arrived and we had lunch while I quickly printed out photos and whacked together a VERY basic guest book!

And then it was on with the show!

Capri and Tegan (Brandt's girlfriend) happily posed for photos - in fact big claps to all the Archers who were very (unusually) obliging for my camera!

And now, heres the photo overload..

And the family -- yes J is the tallest in the family -- by a mile!

The cousins -- all grown up these days!

Lifelong childhood friends Natasha and Sam with Capri.

Despite the big age gap, these two get on exceptionally well!

The birthday boy with me and Ken and also with his Aunty Debbie and his nan!

And yeah, this is typical of our family when the camera comes out (photo to the left).. it takes a while to get everyone to cooperate.. although, as I said, well done to the Archers for being so obliging at the party!

On the right is cousin Jake with Brandt and Steve -- life long friend from Canberra. For long time readers of my blog, Steven is the son of Rob who was Ken's best friend since they were 5 years old and who tragically passed away in 2008. I know lots of readers followed along with Rob's story on my blog..

On a side note, Steven has grown into a beautiful young man who is so kind and lovely and supportive of Lyn as well as such a great mate to both my boys and always, always has looked out for Capri!

In fact, after the party, Capri was off to an 18th for a few hours and Steven decided to go with her.. they have a great rapport and friendship those two!

And our long time friends Rob and Karen (yes another Rob..) We have known these guys for so so long!

And these kids really did grow up together.. as kids, they spent a LOT of time together...

Time for speeches!

And cousin Jake is in BIG trouble for forcing this tradition!

and cake cutting time.. we ordered this from Euro Patisserie which is also where we bought Brandt's 21st cake from -- their cakes and pastries are delicious!

and thank you to all our party guests!! Marg and Tracey came along.. sisters I have l known since I was ten! And a nice pic of Brandt and Tegan although that mo needs to GO!

and of course all of his friends..from all areas of his life! I won't overload all of the friends photos here as I don't have their permission to post them.. but it was great to see some of J's friends from primary school come along.. all grown up!

Was a great party! Although there were a few sore heads the next day!

 

 

 

Road Trip to South Australia Part 1

This is a long overdue post because we have been back from our road trip for a couple of weeks but work stuff and family stuff and my 5.5year old iMac packing it in has meant I am a bit behind with lots of things!

Annnyway, we had a fabulous time road tripping across three States to Port Lincoln in South Australia for a 9 day holiday and for me to teach at Escape2Create!

It all started with an email from Amanda and Meredith - the sensational duo who pull together THE best retreat ever who asked if I would like to teach at their 2014 Escape2Create retreat. I jumped at the chance as I had heard nothing but great things about their retreat AND I do love teaching - although it's been ages since I have taught face to face.

However, there was one little thing (well, a big thing) holding me back.

It was going to take three flights to get me there. While I have flown interstate many times and we did our big US trip 18 months ago, I really hate to fly and while I know I will eventually fly again (as I want us to go to NY sometime soon) I didn't feel ready to get on a little plane from Adealide to Port Lincoln and after much deliberation and discussion Ken suggested a road trip.

Ken, Capri and I packed up the car and headed to Canberra first thing after school on Monday 3 March which was also J's 19th birthday. We did the family celebrating thing the night before with my mum and dad and he went out with friends on his birthday night.

We stayed with Ken's mum overnight in Canberra before heading off on the first leg of what became several thousand of kilometres travelled.

We saw PLENTY of scenery!

And what I thought would be a long, boring trip turned out to be a really lovely holiday for the three of us. Yeah, it was a long drive but each little place we travelled through was lovely and it really didn't feel that long!

And I caught up on the Real Housewives of Melbourne on my ipad via Fox. Haha.

First noteable town of interest was Wagga which is where my grandad was born as was Ken's mum and also Ken! I really loved Wagga. It was a beautiful country town and on the way home we got to explore a bit more than on the way there! More on our Wagga visit in another post.

Here's the hospital Ken was born in..

Ken's mum grew up outside Wagga in a teeny tiny place called Collingullie on a property called Balmoral. We managed to find the property and I took a few pics! You can see the old homestead in the distance which was pretty cool!

We stopped along the way to changeover drivers and took a quick selfie!

and then stopped at Hay for lunch.

..in a little cafe called Havachat cafe which sounds cuter than it was!

and then we were off again. The Hay Plains stretched on for what felt like hours..

Lots of this:

and this..

 oh and this..

Riveting hey! 

But before long we had crossed into Victoria and we had arrived in Mildura.

and Ken found a great 2 bedroom apartment to stay in opposite a shopping centre for a bargain price, complete with a kitchen and plenty of space..

We headed across to buy a few supplies and Capri posed with some local Mildura orange juice!

.. we bought homemade style pizza which was great from Rococos and then we all fell into bed. Tomorrow is a HUGE day of driving!

Part two of our road trip..coming soon.

KIM

hello thursday

hello school january.

What's been going on around here//

• Ken and I visited Bar Beach on New Year's Day - Kens tradition but this year I decided to go with him. Beach was packed!
• Capri surprised me with beautiful flowers she bought in her dinner break on one of her night shifts at McDonalds. She's been working a LOT of shifts!
• I've discovered Annie Sloan Chalk Paint and have been making over a few pieces of furniture. It deserves it's own post as I am in love with the stuff.
• Cousin Chelsea has been staying at mum and dads for a holiday and the girls have been very busy with lots of activities including the movies, shopping, swimming annnnd mum and I took the girls to Flip Out - a trampolining heaven on the central coast. They were exhausted after 45minutes of jumping, flipping, bouncing and springing around!
• We scored a few cucumbers from dad's thriving vege garden
• I have FINALLY chosen a wall colour after deliberating for far too long. I have gone with Dulux White Duck. It's nice and neutral. The dining area is about to get a much needed makeover. I have plans for the dresser and some more Annie Sloan Chalk Paint!
• We've been eating outside of a night. A lot. But need the citronella candle to keep the mozzies at bay.
• Brandt's chilli plants have been taking over the backyard!
• I have dived back into Project life for 2014.

I am loving blogging again.

While my readers have plummeted - and who can blame you all - it's been a looooong time between drinks - it's nice to record our lives again here.. I missed not having my own little corner to document the every day and jot down things..

Plus the family and a few friends still pop in to see what we are up to.

 

Christmas 2013 Wrap Up

Well another Christmas has been and gone in a wink of an eye.

Despite the kids getting older, theres still that Christmas magic in the air thankfully, including Capri "keeping the dream alive" by leaving Santa a letter, some rum balls, a carrot and a bottle of beer and Brandt declaring the day before Christmas that he just HAD to tell me one of the presents he had bought me because he couldn't wait until Christmas morning!

Highlights from Christmas Eve, morning and lunch:

• a special appearance from four Santas who entertained us to the tunes of Hi 5's Santa Claus is Coming.
• it takes four hours to wrap presents and about 20 minutes to open them!
• our kids still love Christmas, regardless of their age.
• be careful what you mention in the lead up to Christmas Day. I mentioned I needed to get some sanding blocks for a table I was restoring. Lo and behold.. I unwrapped a set of four sanding pads from Ken.
• I loved Capri's special permanent marker messages on her gifts she had wrapped.
• yes, I have a half painted wall in the front loungeroom. I've finally decided on the colour and while the rest of the room is done, one wall still has escaped my attention! It's on my to do list.
• some family members are getting better at being obliging when the camera comes out. Others are still really bad at it!Not mentioning names but it's all the people starting with J.
• I loved how the kids all chose presents for each other this year - with a lot of thought and effort. They did a great job!
• I loved all of my presents. From everyone! Every single one.
• Christmas went by so fast! My head is still spinning. Where did December go.

 Merry Christmas everyone and here's to a great 2014.

 

Merry Little Christmas

Well hello there.

A post from me.

After all this time.

I have streamlined things, made some big changes and here I am back to blogging on my old Typepd blog. And pretty excited about it too, just quietly.

I'll share what's been going on in another post, but for today, I wanted to share a little bit of Christmas.

I've been sewing.

  

I made everyone a fabric stocking this Christmas(and felt very clever doing so!)I have a new sewing machine (yay) - more about that in another post...

I used this pattern from Positively Splendid.

However, I ditched the cuff part and then followed the instructions here on the During Quiet Time blog here. However, I aded in a loop of fabric when I stitched the insides to the outsides..and I quilted (not very well!!) onto the front of the stocking. I used iron on pellon/wading for the fronts to give the stockings some stability..

and tonight...the stockings are lined up and waiting to be filled!

Merry Christmas everyone.

KIM

 

Happy birthday to Brandt

Brandt turned 21.

And we had a mega party at Soho on Darby! Was huge. And fun. Note to self, don't wear new platform ankle boots to an event without wearing them in first. My feet were in total agony by the end of the night!

More photos etc later but for now, here's the DVD I made for Brandt which we played after the speeches and cake cutting! It's a glimpse into the last 21 years in our family and has video footage from over the years and photos etc and I thought I would add it here for some of the family who didn't make it to the party as well as family and friends who want to watch it again...and any other readers who may be interested..

Take particular note:

• it's worth watching the whole thing just to see the "family bloopers" at the end of the video! The two old dudes are my dad and my uncle!
• Jamison did not really have a mullet haircut when he was about 6 - he's wearing one of my mums wigs, although he said he might grow a mullet after watching this DVD *joking*
• thank you to my cousins and their kids, aunties and my mum for their lover-ly rendition of happy birthday at the end of the video. Take special note of my cousin Jodi (on the left) and her very special dance moves!
• warning - really bad early 90's hair styles!
• I left out one of the most important tv shows from Brandt's childhood - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! Cowabunga dude!
• In the blink of an eye, that teeny tiny baby is a grown up. It does my head in!
• I love that I had so much video footage and photos for this little DVD!

 

some family things

Week one of the school holidays is over. It's been filled with lots of social activities - movies, shopping, sleepovers, skate parks, lunches and running around.

Brandt's birthday invites went out. He turns 21 in a few days. Which is ludicrous because it feels like MY 21st was only a few years ago. Wasn't it!?

I put together a little collage of photos over the years of him and created the invite in Photoshop and had the photos processed at Big W. I was so pleased with how they printed and it certainly saved me having the hassle of having to crank them out on our home printer. I printed 80 invites for the grand total of $12. Wonderful!

The RSVPs are already rolling in and there are so many old and new friends coming and family and cousins..it will be great to catch up with them all.

While his birthday is this week, the party isn't for a few weeks yet but there will be plenty of birthday celebrating this week I am sure!

impromptu lunch and afternoon tea

I love spontaneous outings! Where you just make a decision to do something and jump in the car and do it! With little or no notice!!

Sunday we did just that and found ourselves at the yacht club for lunch with mum & dad. The weather was divine and we had a sunny spot where we could enjoy the marina and boats and the lovely view as we ate our lunch. And we were so spontaneous, I left home without my camera and had to make do with my iPhone!

After lunch we walked next door to Rock Salt for coffee and dessert..Here's mum and Jamison walking along - he's grown SO tall and this photo..

reminded me of this photo taken about 4 years ago..

We had a lovely marina view table at Rock Salt..

source. 

and ordered delicious desserts to share. We all marvelled at how the desserts were plated up..and did our best Masterchef impersonation as we tasted each dish!! Capri and I shared a chocolate wedge cake with milk bottle ice-cream (Rock salt's description - was really just vanilla ice-cream..)and teeny raspberry jellies with some weird looking wafer thing balanced precariously on the ice cream!

And mum and Jamison shared a meringue and honeycomb stack with a Bailey's puddle and toffee shards on top..

and Ken and my dad stuck with the coffee although did have a taste of our desserts!

and it was a very pleasant way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

new carpet

Sorry.

I did disappear after the carpet was installed didn't I? I had good intentions of sharing photos but I was also flat chat moving furniture back into place, rearranging rooms and painting furniture! And the days have moved past so quickly it's causing me headspins!

I did however take photos of the carpet in the rooms before all the furniture went back in and I have finally uploaded them to my computer.

I LOVE the carpet - after stressing over the colour, really, I couldn't imagine having any other carpet colour. And I am SO happy I pushed on and got all the bedrooms painted before hand as the colours all came together nicely.

It was a mammoth effort to clear each room totally!! Here's Capri's room before..

and after

and our room before..with our lovely charcoal feature wall all finished..

I was SO pleased to see that cold, hard concrete covered up..with soft, springy, beautiful carpet!!

It was VERY hard to try and photograph the carpet to show a true picture of what it really looks like. The sun was casting light on the floor and it was just hard to try and capture a decent image of the carpet...but you get the idea.

 

No after photos, when our furniture was moved back in - I hate our bedroom suite and it was a shame to have to put the side tables back in there. So I am on the look out for some quirky second hand side tables I can do up! They don't have to even match..something like this would be delightful!

 
Source.

Or this with different handles..

Source

or this

Source

Or even this - painted and distressed in aqua or antique white..

   

I'm on the look out!

mother's day 2011

With all my kids now in high school, this year was the first year in fifteen years where I didn't receive a Mother's Day Stall present :(

Oh how I missed the mug with chocolates all done up in cellophane, the cheap soap wrapped in a hankie and the rose scented candles! Capri reminded me of the time she gave me the vegetable printed tea towel - she was oh so proud and her brothers teased her something shocking for giving me a tea towel!

I miss those little gems! And that vegetable printed teatowel is still in use in the Archer kitchen!

My Mother's Day started the night before when my dad surprised me, my mum and sister with a bunch of flowers each! I don't know that dad has EVER given me flowers! So that was novel.

And my morning started with a cuppa in bed, made by Ken deliberately using a Mothers Day Stall mug from several years ago.

and lots of lovely presents..

Including slippers, Music From the Circle Girls CD, Olivia Newton John's lovely cook book LivWise, Instant Lottery tickets, Daryl Lea licorice and a cute "I love you Mum" heart from Capri who especially chose it so I would feel like I WAS getting something from the Mother's Day Stall!!

And then Brandt presented me some more flowers plus more Instant Lottery Tickets (Scratchies) and I won a combined amount of $27 and a free ticket!

We also went to my parent's place for lunch and I had a very nice Mother's Day indeed! I'll be back with photos of our new carpet (finally!) and some family photos from Mother's Day as well!

Seeya soon.