
Oh, that teddy card is a Happy Pregnancy card from my mum!
Poor Steven has done a lot of the installing and updating for me on this new machine, and since its the first time he's ever used a mac it was a frustrating process! Ugh, rather him than me, I prefer the fun part of playing with software once it's all set up for me.
In the meantime I've been trying to insert (very expensive) eye-cream into Nails the dog's eyes (he has conjunctivitis). I have never come across a dog more determined to avoid this fate... two grown people, four hands between us and still the eye-cream is mostly on the carpet.

Meanwhile, inside the barn, we are all ready for the arrival of baby Jenkins. There's not much space upstairs but just enough for his baby bed and his tiny little clothes...

And since its now officially spring here in Dunedin, a between-the-showers rainbow, ahhhh:

Hey Sinead, it's great to see you guys have finally made a start, so exciting. Look forward to seeing the progress.
(09.17.09 @ 11:23 AM)I know, so exciting! You'll be able to come and see the house and know that it was brought to life with your help - how cool!
(09.17.09 @ 12:02 PM)Did you notice that you captured a faint secondary rainbow too? Did you know that the colours of a secondary rainbow are inverted compared the primary rainbow, blue will be on the outside and red will be on the inside. You can just about make this out in the photo.
(09.22.09 @ 05:42 AM)Trust Aidan to make a weather comment. I was more smitten by the cute baby clothes and the tiny little bed!
(09.24.09 @ 09:14 AM)I know Katie! Some baby clothes are so tiny - little socks and gloves! Mind you, I never knew that about the secondary rainbow... quite interesting actually...
(09.26.09 @ 02:04 AM)Congratulations Sinead!!! such a beautiful baby!!!
(10.28.09 @ 06:35 PM)
Yes, our house plans have been approved and we can start building! Honestly, its taken so long to get to this stage, we haven't always been confident our quirky little straw-bale house would make it past the council censors. Thank you Council! My faith in government departments is restored! Well, for a while anyway. Steven was so happy to see this approval today he danced a little jig, and he's not really the dancing type.
Here is the downstairs, its small(ish) and open plan:

And the upstairs (the red dot marks my walk-in wardrobe!):

We've just been out on the land marking the dimensions of the house out with pegs and string. At this stage it looks quite small(!) but I know from experience (watching lots of builds on TV that is) that this is a common reaction to seeing your house drawn out on the ground. Then when the walls go up people generally think "its massive!"
Hooray! That's great news. Now hurry up and have the baby so you can start building!
(09.15.09 @ 11:52 PM)I almost wasn't going to post this blog entry, simply because part of the reason I have a blog is for clients to get to know me.. and I know at least 3 or 4 people who won't like the image below because they are vegetarians. I didn't want a potential client to come on here, think "she's a callous murderer!" and then not book me. But that's silly. There's no point not being honest about our lifestyle here. We are meat eaters, and intend to have free range animals on our land that we will eventually eat. And as a meat eater, I want to know that whatever I'm eating had a happy, humane and stress-free life.
Chicken brothers Reggie and Ronnie (Hussein's sons) were named after the Kray twins since their main hobby in the chicken lair was to peck and bully everyone else. This weekend we killed Reggie and ate him for Sunday lunch. I say "we" but actually Steven did the former and I took care of the latter cooking part. Just before I put the chicken in the oven I remembered that we ought to get a photograph of Steven with his first home-butchered chicken!

I collected all the fluffy down feathers so I could make a pillow out of them at some point.. but whilst we were busy preparing the chicken.. the dogs got hold of the bag of feathers and tore it apart, spreading chicken feathers EVERYWHERE. There is one in my car, even though I don't remember opening my car door yesterday. Considering the luxurious lifestyle I treat the dogs too I wasn't impressed with their behaviour. Here they are relaxing on the front step in a pile of their duvets after a stroll on the beach:

Anyway, Reggie was very tasty and provided enough for a roast dinner for 4. Plus if I'm extra housewife-keen I might make a chicken stock out of him too. For those who've been reading my blog awhile, I just want you to rest assured that Hussein is pretty safe for the meantime since he's such a gent.
Wow Sinead, I'm impressed! Go Steven! And I like the juxtaposition of the dead chicken vs. the flourishing pot plants hehehe
(09.03.09 @ 02:33 PM)Yes - good point!!!
Hopefully Reggie is in chicken heaven, surrounded by pot plants and, well... uncomplaining lady chickens.
(09.04.09 @ 01:36 PM)These are some shots I did for Joseph Jones Designer Florist in Dunedin. They saw the photographs I did for Rebecca and Sam's wedding in April (Rebecca's bouquet below) and got me in to do some modern shots for their website.

Joseph Jones are the people you go to if you want a really classy, cutting edge bouquet. I love all the cute, trendy papers and ribbons they work with, and the fact that they get their flowers fresh, everyday (which means when you buy a bouquet it lasts for ages). I don't have any arrangement to plug them at all, I was just really impressed with the work they do... Since this is a wedding/portrait based blog I will post up some of the arrangements geared towards weddings:





And a standard bouquet that I really like..


These are yet to be uploaded to the website (incase you visit for a look). Actually, what I must do is some organising of my own website. That definitely takes precedence over the tax spreadsheet. And then I'm sure the dogs need to be brushed too.......
Love the flowers and the wonderful photography. I'm sure Katie will be getting ideas!
M x





What's this? Product placement on your blog? Are you being paid by Apple for this endorsement? I suggest you email Apple at once and insist they replenish Baby Bruce's college fund. It's the least they can do. Given your prominence in the Blogisphere, your recommendation of this pc will result in increased sales from Dublin to Bangkok. You must demand your commission.
(09.29.09 @ 12:31 AM)Thanks Dad, good idea! I should set up some kind of pay-per-click system with apple, and all 6 of my blog readers can help me earn some money. Or rather than go to all that hassle, you could all just... send me some money in the post...?
(09.29.09 @ 07:49 PM)