raising willow… and dexter!

I thought I’d do a bit of a pictorial diary today – Thursday is my regular day off work and Willow has finished school for the year, so I dragged her around to do some Christmas shopping.

We started the day with a breastfeed for Dexie and some cuddles in bed.

Willow chose her clothes. No idea where she gets her fashion sense from!

Breaking down gender stereotypes by giving my son a Dora cup.

It started pouring with rain – good for the garden, not so good for my plans.

Apparently you are supposed to feed children. Willow wanted a cup of tea too – she had to have it on a tiny macchiato cup saucer.

One of our cats, Harley the fluffy British Blue, watching the rain – or Dexie.

We all have this terrible cough at the moment. I’m taking Olive Leaf Extract as are the children. No discernible effect so far – lucky it tastes nice.

Yay for having the time to do the dishes in the morning!

Dexie is helping.

Double yay for having the time to put the washing on and fold the mountain that I usually ignore.

Have to do the advent tree. It doesn’t take much for Dexie to get filthy.

So into the shower we go. Not much room in there for me!

I’m getting the hang of this braiding job. Not sure why I haven’t done it sooner.

Willow in her car seat with some of my lip gloss on.

Dexie was very unimpressed. His hair doesn’t usually look like that, but if I was brushing and spraying Willow’s, I had to do his!
He thought we were going outside to play, but mean Mummy put him in the car!

From here I dropped him off at FDC and Willow and I went to one group of shops, where I was entirely unsuccessful in finding what I wanted. On the way I went to an op-shop. It is in a higher socio-economic suburb, but I rarely find anything for myself there, but often come away with great children’s clothes. I think I got the aqua Mossimo top Willow had on this morning there. Today I found a Fred Bare shirt for Dexie, a PP poncho for Willow and she wanted a Spot video, so I got that too.

Willow in two of my favourite shops.

I picked up some findings and two Swarovski crystals for a pair of earrings I wanted to make.

It must be a good hot choc-o-lit when you get it on your forehead!

From here we went onto another group of shops for a specific item I wanted to put in some of my Christmas cards.

Best lipgloss ever. Tastes divine and looks amazing.

Willow sitting on the waterfalls, as she calls them, at the second lot of shops we went to. Currently I seem to shop all over the place, from north of where I work to south of where A works. The socio-economic difference is (as I’ve previously alluded to) is vast, so it is interesting to see the price differences. I noticed a chocolate covered marzipan log of the same brand is $4.00 at a shop near work, but $2.70 at the specialty lolly shop near A’s work.

I ducked home and made these simple earrings. AB swarovski crystals and freshwater pearls.

They are a little extra for a secret santa present.

Off to the third group of shops. When I got home we had received a large present for a family friend, so I sent one off in return. Willow is helping me put stamps on Christmas cards here.

After this, A met us at the shops. We had a quick look for a secret santa present but I was then despairing of finding anything suitable. We rushed through the supermarket, picked Dexie up, got some take away and went home for dinner.

One of my work mates is gluten intolerant, so I thought I’d try making some gingerbread with gluten free flour.

I planned to do a Star Tree.

Into the oven they go.

Despite my dad’s numerous food intolerances I’d never used gluten free flour, so I was a bit scared.

I bagged up the leftovers to give to her. They turned out ok. Not chewy at all, but they had a very silky mouthfeel. The dough was very difficult to work with, almost like that experiment where you mix cornflour and water.

The royal icing. 3 egg whites and nearly 500gm of icing sugar.

The construction.

Pretty stars!

The end result.

The top view. I adore cachous, but I hate biting on them.

The rest of the night was spent in the mad rush that usually precedes the cleaners visit. A doesn’t understand this, he has no comprehension of how much more value you get when the cleaners can clean and don’t have to stop to tidy and pick things up.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 11th, 2009 at 1:13 am and is filed under life, jim, but not as we know it. You can follow responses to this entry through the Comments RSS Feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your site.