Pop on over - our house always looks like this!

Please take special note of absence of leaves on lawn

Why must Fisher & Price insist on making toys in every colour of the rainbow!...Can't all toys for little girls be made out of wood and be hand crafted by elves or fairies and painted only pastel pink and green..sigh!

Love this photo - Amelie is reading her book upside down but clearly is just enjoying the process of sharing in a book with her big 'cousin'.

I find it a little disturbing that I think part of the reason I have a little 'spring' in my step at the moment is because of the clean and tidy state of our house. What's worse is, I think its catching and am worried I am setting the wrong example - I've caught Amelie in the laundry a few times stuffing her dolls clothes in the washing machine only to be successfully coaxed out of there if she is allowed to bring a broom or mop with her - she actually loves doing pretend house work - have I taught her nothing!!!


Even Justin is reaping the rewards of an immaculate house. Very last minute, while speaking to a few friends on Saturday morning, we casually offered a BBQ at our place that afternoon. It was unusually easy getting everything ready - knowing just where to find everything and only having to prepare food and not worry about those usual half day clean ups you tend to do when you're expecting visitors.


I couldn't wait for people to offer to help, only so that I could declare "Oh, yes would you mind getting the sauce....I think its in the pantry" (cue evil cackle) only so I could hear the gasp from the kitchen and the declarations of praise "Wow, that is one seriously organised pantry!" etc etc .... Ok, so maybe I am taking things a bit far here, but I am not ashamed to say that I am finding it particularly delightful being the proud owner of a pantry that houses food in clear or labelled containers and arranged accordinng to an order such as height, frequency of use, product type...or dare I say...colour of packaging... or even... alphabetical etc (not quite, I am just happy with neat and tidy, but I'm sure there are women out there that would go to these lengths...and the scarry thing is...I am actually starting to understand why).

Even the backyard looked its absolute best (because I had hand picked every fallen leaf from the lawn moments before our open house/inspection that morning....oh and Justin had worked on it for two days solid, the weekend prior) and was perfect for setting up a few toys and the dress up box for the kids to entertain themeselves while the adults sipped on wine under our now flowering Frangapani Tree and ate our body weight in dip and crackers while we waited for the BBQ to heat up.

In fact, it was so nice to be outside on a perfect Queensland Spring night, I had to keep thinking of excuses to usher people inside....so that they could admire details like my 'hotel standard' towel folding in the bathroom while breathing in the sweet scent of Lavender from my specially purchased and strategically placed L'Occitane Home Perfume Diffuser Set. I stopped short of having the relaxing tunes of Pete Murray playing on repeat in the background...as I had during our open house/inspection that morning.

I'd love to be able to keep this standard up a bit longer (whether we sell the house soon or not) in this house and our new house...but am not sure I am built for it. I think I'm just enjoying it so much because its like being on a holiday from the usual chaos of a toddler run household and is much easier to pretend and keep the illusion running in your head that you are capable of being one of those fabulously organised and completly in control super mums (that we all think actually exisit somewhere)....

For the moment Amelie is happy enough with her new surroundings, at least she seems to like being able to see everything in the pantry now (like her favourite snacks blatently displayed in their very own clear tupperware container...and she can actually find a matching pair of socks in her draw) but I don't think she will be too keen having to keep rescuing her beloved colourful and large toys from Mummy's car boot for too much longer.....and Mum doesn't fancy having an array of musical toys all noisily arguing to ride 'gun shot' with her to work each day either!