Welcome Saskia Karri - Our Little Sassy Girl

On the 11th of October 2010, we welcomed our daughter Saskia Karri Newton into the world. Our own little sweet and savvy, Sassy! She is now 2 months of age and starting to give us the most beautiful smiles.. we are enamoured. Here is the new family of four.

Postcrossing Postcards Pleasure

My friend Candice from Mothers' Group and also Blogger actually, recommended I take a look at the Postcrossing website when I mentioned I was going to send random postcards around for fun. I did exactly this and have since sent 5 postcards around the world and received 3.. with 2 more to come. Am loving this site as I'm meeting interesting people from around the world and getting to send them postcards from Perth ,Western Australia - the place I call home and love so much.

Visit http://www.postcrossing.com/ if you are interested in giving this a go. You will recieve the same number of postcards that you have sent out.. excellent!

Here is the first type of card I sent to a person in China, USA, Finland, Netherlands and Germany.



I have recently received postcards from Switzerland, Finland and the UK.

Thanks Candice for recommending this site to me! :)

Spontaneous Sowing

As a Mum, I need to keep my brain stimulated somehow. This week's attempt at stimulating it came from the spontaneous decision to plant a vege patch and other plants in my empty garden bed. I still can't believe that within 3 or 4 hours, I had bought the plants and planted them all! Woohoo! Thank goodness my Mum could babysit that afternoon!

I am very excited to be growing an array of fruit / vegetables: dwarf lemon tree, orange tree, asparagus, carrots, snowpeas, flat-leaf parsley, curly parsely, chives, cherry tomatoes, butternut and japanese pumpkin, sweetcorn, capsicum and beetroot.

And some other plants too: Jasminium, Scented Boronia, Green Kangaroo Paw, Blue Salvia, Red Cordylines and two different purple flowering plants whose names I have forgotten.

Can't wait to see which plants survive and what they produce.. very exciting!! :)

Kitesurfing Kylie

Ever since I first saw the kitesurfing sport whilst driving past the beach, I have wanted to try it. Finally about 10 years later, I am giving it a crack! I am so excited by this as it looks like you can have a lot of fun once you are out on the water.

My Dad has a trainer kite (smaller version of the real thing) and I have been heading to the local park to learn some manouvres before hitting the beach. Though the wind is inconsistent at the park, I have attained a bit of a feel for it.

Initially I tried to keep the kite up in the sky at 12 o'clock. Next I have been attempting figure 8 shapes with which you gain momentum on the water and getting out into the water. I have also tried to gently ease the kite down to the ground just as you would when coming into land.

This sport involves quite a lot of technique and I have gained respect for the safety factors involved so far. Can't wait for the fun bit!

High Tea at Home

This week I held a High Tea at home for my husband's Mum as it was her birthday. I really enjoyed putting it all together! We had the following courses:
1) Champagne and strawberries with a selection of finger sandwiches:
- Egg, whole-egg mayo and cucumber
- Smoked salmon, cream cheese and chives
- Ham
- Ham and two mustards (Dijon + Honey Wholegrain)
- Chicken, whole-egg mayo and avocado
- Chicken and Rosella Fruit Chutney
2) Range of teas (English Breakfast, Earl Grey, Russian Caravan, Ceylon Orange Pekoe, Traditional Afternoon) with warm pastries:
- Plain sausage rolls
- Ham and cheese sausage rolls
- Spinach & Ricotta
3) Coffees (French Liaison, Moccona Mild & Decaf) and sparkling water with sweets:
- Scones with Forest Fruit Jam and Whipped Cream
- Plain, berry, mango cheesecake
- Apple slice
- Chocolate caramel slice
- Fruit and custard tarts
It was DELICIOUS and we were all stuffed afterwards! Here are some pics!

Personality Profiles

I just love psychology and reading all non-fiction self-development books. Quite a fun little exercise to do, is to discover your Myers-Briggs Personality Type. A good place to find the questionnaire is at: http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp. You can make some interesting intra- and inter- personal discoveries when reading about your type and other types. The basic premise is that there are four areas in which people can differ:
1) Extraversion(E) - Intraversion(I)
2) Intuition(N) - Sensing(S)
3) Thinking(T) - Feeling(F)
4) Judging(J) - Perceiving(P)
You can read about these in more detail here: http://www.personalitypathways.com/type_inventory.html#Inventory.
I have taken many of these tests and seem to come up as INFP most commonly, though I'm near the middle on many of the scales meaning I'm not clearly one particular type. INFP is described here: http://www.personalitypage.com/INFP.html. Here is where you can read about the 16 personality profiles: http://www.personalitypage.com/high-level.html.

Natural Selection at Perth Upmarket

I am a big fan of jewellery that simply shows the beauty of nature. Much of my collection is accordingly made of natural stones, shells, wood, gems and so forth. Recently I picked up a beautiful necklace from a lady designer at Perth Upmarket www.perthupmarket.com.au. If you haven't been yet, they have about four markets a year and sell some really unique, handmade jewellery, clothes, accessories and other craft work. I also really enjoyed the cake stall.. was just so feminine. Perth Upmarket is held in Perth Town Hall, usually on a Sunday from 10-4.