one crazy weekend

It has been one very crazy weekend that I think will take me all this week to recover from.  What a shame I won't get any sleep-ins as uni starts tomorrow *sigh*. this weekend has seen me travel over 450 kms and although it was a lot of fun I am so very glad to be at home and in my bed.

Friday was my papi's birthday. it was amazing seeing his face when we went to visit him with a tres leches cake knowing it was made especially for him, he looked like a 4 year old grinning from ear to ear. I am quite bored with this cake but everyone just loves it so. I was however able to indulge in my love of baking and made some lenguas de gato they were absolutely yumm-o! I let my kids have a taste test and they nearly gobbled them all up. I also made a potato and rosemary focaccia for our dinner and it was also eaten up quicker than I could cut it up into slices.

Saturday we went to Little Bay and today to The Entrance and took what feels like hundreds & hundreds of photos that will unfortunately have to wait, I am thoroughly exhausted from today's trip plus those who follow me on instagram know I finally have my hands on the Anne of Green Gables book that I want to hopefully get through without falling asleep. (I did include a little preview of Little Bay though...a truly gorgeous place).













I hope you were out in the sun enjoying this truly splendid weather...it was gorgeous wasn't it?

to market, to market

my last week at home...how sad, it just went so quickly and there were so many things I wanted to do and had planned, but plans always change as I am sure everyone knows.
the above pictures are from a little trip to the flea market held at the drive-in & these were my finds. the most expensive item was the little house at $3, the plate was 50c and the dictionary $1...pretty awesome finds :)











later in the week I went out to take photos at my favourite location. I love going there as there are some amazing old houses. I could walk around for hours just looking at them all.



and I had mail arrive from Portugal from Ana...she actually sent me three nougat but I ate one and Andres the other, everything was so pretty :)





I have also been in the garden getting rid of the weeds between the pavers (which I cannot stand), it grew so quickly from the week of rain and I was almost done before being rained away.  It has been a pretty quiet week really :)

finally...baking

I wish I could bake more cakes around here but I always manage to get into trouble when I do, so when my kids cousins came over for a movie night I seized the opportunity to bake one that I have been dying to try for a while. Brown butter cake :)

Movies with completos? (Chilean hot dogs) they were happy....oh, and so was I!

the weekend is here!

Finally Friday, YES! although that does also mean only next week left before going back to uni :(



This week has been so wet in Sydney and I haven't been able to plant my little tomatoes but I do have my hyacinth, avocado & rosemary on the kitchen window sill. Sorry about the dust on the flyscreen, I definitely have to clean that soon :/





My week via my moleskine



Daughter's toy, they are cute



I was hoping to take the photos for Rhianne's photoswap but it will be too wet :(



A bunch of avantcards I have, one reason I am looking forward to going back to uni, my stock is running short ;)

- - -

A special thank you to all of you who messaged me before my interview yesterday. I never truly know how I go at these things so I am sorry I cannot say anything just yet. I will mention though that I did feel awful during the interview, they always ask you what you have done, where you have worked previously, what you know how to do and there was the briefest moment I felt like I was being a bit braggy. I don't know, I am not good at giving my good points or qualities, so while I was it felt to me that I was being boastful and I truly hope that I didn't appear to be that way :(

I also wanted to explain my previous post, the reason behind it and why it was so long. I often feel like I am hiding my true self on this blog...my blog, maybe out of fear or because I would shock a few readers...I don't know. But I do want to be a little more of myself and if it isn't pleasing to some readers I apologise, I can't be anyone else but me (unfortunately).

Some shocking things you should know about me:

[+] i am not the perfect mother, wife or daughter. There are times I get angry & raise my voice, don't do my bed for a couple of days, get lazy & can't for the life of me rack up the energy to cook a proper meal and spend way too much time on my computer or watching movies than doing homework

[+] i can be quite a perfectionist and get on people's nerves and in fact in my old work I would get in earlier just to clean my desk and my superior would say "ocd Katyha?" I just like things done properly, my fridge has to be arranged and so do my cupboards. I need to see what I have otherwise I would be buying and buying the same things, if this is too perfectionist or ocd then I guess I am

[+] i cannot for the life of me write in my diary with a pen, I prefer pencil (I don't want to wreck it). When I was in high school if I thought my pages looked too messy I would rip the page out and start all over again

[+] andres & I really have not much in common except for our beliefs...religious, cultural & how to raise our children. I love being in the garden and to have a little farm with chooks & a vegetable garden would be the ultimate for me, he hates anything to do with farms & gardens, he hates computers and I love them, after he punishes the kids he will sit and talk to them for what seems hours, I am quite the opposite, he is extremely messy & unorganised and I am like I have mentioned before very organised

[+] i like to answer every comment I receive personally via email, I feel awfully rude if I don't. My emails are often quite long and chatty too

[+] i am very much like Anne (Anne of Green Gables) searching for a kindred spirit. I do like to keep in touch & get a little more personal

life

I got up extremely late today, I think it has been my only real sleep-in for my holiday break so far, although I do have the most perfect excuse, if that is even at all necessary for sleeping-in. Our neighbours recently sold their house and the new owners decided to move in at 5:30am! although they weren't overly noisy they did wake me up and I couldn't go back to sleep.  When I started feeling sleepy again the kids were getting up to get ready for school.  I was exhausted all day yesterday and couldn't get into doing anything around the house.  But today I am full of energy and feel very talkative too and even though I have loads to do (4 kids remember and oh did I mention a very messy husband too? I love them all dearly but boy are they messy) I had to write a few things down.



I have so much to say but I am having a hard time remembering it all. Just like when I go to the shops to buy something specific and end up coming back with things that were needed but not exactly what I was looking for at the time.  Like today for instance I went to the shops specifically to buy BAM foam to clean the shower and I came home with pyjamas for first son and second son.  They had sold out of the BAM :(

But I digress...I applied for a job Monday morning very close to home and today while still in bed (and finishing watching a movie too) I get a call for an interview. I am usually quite nervous but somehow feel very relaxed with this one. It will only be part-time work but it is in graphic design.  It would be lovely to work in something that is related to what I am actually studying. It would be lovely, amazing actually but whatever happens, happens.

Life certainly has been tough this year. I don't think I have mentioned this here before but while I was working full-time at Big W in a helpdesk we were renting out my parents old home and they purchased a new one. Well, things got tight with only dad working so he sold this one to us.  I then left that job because of the stress I felt - I was the only one working hard there everyone else was so young and although I don't want to sound rude or disrespectful they really didn't care much and why should they, they didn't have a new home they had just purchased, they didn't have responsibilities of taking care and feeding children so most days I felt like I was doing most of the work while they were slacking off. I did speak to my boss about it (who also happened to be younger than me) but she told me there was nothing she could do.  She really needed me there answering the phones and dealing with clients efficiently as it raised her SLA's. I talked to her several times but nothing improved so I quit and went to work at a meat packing place, a big mistake but I needed to get out before I went crazy.  They ended up firing me after three months and I was relieved as that job was heading nowhere but it also gave me a chance to think about my future. My background was in IT, I studied Network engineering and was the only female to do so and with distinctions (and 4 kids too! I had a teacher who felt it wasn't a 'woman' role, a story for another time perhaps) and although I loved it and still do, it was not in my future, not if I wanted to be a part of my children's lives and have weekends free.  That is when I decided to go back to uni.  I am loving it although I do feel very much alone in it all, I haven't got any friends there (I think I am the oldest one there :/ ) and sometimes I just need to bounce ideas off people but most of the time it is just me bouncing ideas off ME.  I would really love to have a friend to chat to but I am not too sure I believe too much in friendship anymore.  Most people are fairly young and I don't know if it is this generation x and y thing but we have different values and I find it hard to form solid friendships with anyone now.  Digressing again.  So it has been Andres working on his own supporting me and the four children and things have been tight.  We find we are paying the same amount in our mortgage being on a flexible rate now (it was fixed but after three years it changed). My dad who purchased a house for $450k is paying less than what we are (we bought this for $300k).  We have no equity but he does and we are not at all happy with the NAB (do not get a loan with them). So it would be nice to get a full-time job to be able to change banks but until I have a job we can't.  We are paying $1,469 a fortnight while my dad pays about $1,200.  Over a month this is a big difference.  I started making plans I soon as I heard I had an interview (my brain is always two steps ahead) but Andres said we couldn't change banks if I was only working part-time.  Boo! hiss, all my plans went out the window.  He is now doing a job in the city for my uncle and leaves here at 5am and is back at around 6pm or later because of traffic and still hasn't been paid.  It has been four weeks this Monday and although they have talked about money I told him not to hold his breath...family working together or in business is never good.

What else did I have to say? uni starts in two weeks :(

oh and I haven't heard from my oldest sister for more than a month, I can't remember the last time we spoke.  Mum and she had a disagreement although it was all my doing really.  Youngest sister told me she didn't want to talk to her because she is always talking about mum, I told oldest sister and she was upset because according to her it isn't true.  Mum and she spoke and things weren't left on a happy note at all.  Her husband always tries to cause problems between us (mum, dad, younger brother, younger sister and my family) and her. He gets jealous of her spending time with us. I don't like to talk too much about it because after all it is the man she loves but he got his way I guess. It is sad really.

Anyway I have to go clean the shower, my most hated chore ever! bleurgh

I will probably remember the rest of what I had to say later *sigh*

baby elf hat

a little baby elf hat I made today for a friend (as a surprise)...unfortunately I don't know that many people with babies and I dearly love to crochet & knit :(

just wondering...should I add a pom pom?

film corner

My review
Bad Teacher ??
Bridesmaids ????
Daddy long legs ???
Life with father ?
That's what I am ???
X-men: First class ????

if you knew

sorry for my long absence from this blog *sigh* life has certainly kept me quite busy all week and while I am glad it is Friday who knows what life will offer me next week. These are the highlights of my week:

[+] had a free haircut and keratin treatment in my hair. My first treatment wasn't done properly and I emailed the owner and they offered to do it again for me and insisted that the girl that did it was very thorough
[+] finally had my pap smear (after avoiding it as much as I could)...ouch! sorry to any males reading this but the crap we women have to go through isn't fair
[+] Ruby had a reinfestation of nits and I have spent hours trying to get rid of them. I have washed her hair so many times and each and every time I re-checked more would come out. I think she had a family of 100 if not more :/
[+] so much washing to do and changing sheets, towels, clothes due to the nit situation - I finally got it all done only to have a whole heap again today :/ will it ever end? I guess having a family of 4 doesn't help
[+] I've have had the most annoying cough all week and even penicillin has not helped...I can't stop coughing but have not lost my voice. A little explanation: ever since I was little I have wanted to lose my voice (I know...crazy right? my sister and I would scream for what seemed like hours into our pillows or until mum came and told us off to no avail). Still at this age I have never lost my voice :(
[+] I went to the op shop and found these beauties, the books were only 25 cents!
[+] OH and I got my results for my Autumn semester....a credit and two distinctions :D it certainly put a smile on my face





Happy weekend friends :)

titles

a few things that make me happy
my week
10 things that make me happy
a few random things about me
a few things that make me smile
things I saw this week

outside my window: spring has sprung and even the wind feels warm!
i am thinking: about what a joy gardening is for me.
i am thankful: that my daughter feels better, the warm weather and lazy mornings in bed.
i am wearing: sweatpants and a t-shirt
i am creating: a new collar for sadie and a headband for me!
from the kitchen: pancakes
i am going: to make a new to-do list
i am reading: reginald hill + jan guillou
i am hoping: that neither me nor my husband gets the stomach flu!
i am hearing: the birds chirping.
around the house: it´s a bit of  a mess, but only because we have been cleaning out stuff and organizing.
one of my favorite things: snuggles in the morning.

My most favourite movie

Today I got caught up once again watching for perhaps my a millionth time, maybe more Anne of Green Gables and falling in love all over again with Gilbert. I love him! I definitely do not want to start the sequel as I will not get anything done today.

But I love watching this movie and I could never tire of it or the music, although I must say the music does make me feel rather melancholy. One of my biggest dreams is to own the books one day, in fact every time I go the charity shop my eyes are opened extra wide just in case I spot these books, no luck just yet but my eyes will be forever waiting to see these and my fingers will be crossed extra tight. I think I will pass out that day from holding my breath too! I've only ever read one Anne's House of dreams and I know they are available on iBooks but there is something extra special about owning the books. I leave you with a small quote and Anne's theme music, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do :)

I've loved you ever since the day you broke your slate over my head ~ Gilbert Blythe

photos

some of my recent photos:



so sad that this polaroid of my children didn't turn out :(



the making or starting of another crochet blanket



the most gorgeous handmade card...so preciously wrapped from a very dear friend







a visit to the flea market today, it so far from my home but mum chatted and it seemed like we arrived in no time at all, she went to buy her Korean movies and I to browse but came home with these two beauties



and pretty cup from an op shop that will hold one of my (many) favourite flower...a hyacinth.

I hope everyone is ok, it has been awfully quiet in blogworld lately :(

have a heart

Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts - Charles Dickens

Have a lovely weekend...friends :)