three little trees

CHAPTER 2: Getting Sorted!

2011-04-30T21:05:00.000-07:00

So the first couple of days were not anything like we had expected, it definitely was not a holiday! We had to sort our villas out and get the kids settled.

Kate and her family were staying with us, as their villa was not finished yet and to be honest looked like being a good month away! Every time we went over to ask the builders how long? They would say, "4 days" then laugh, so we really had no idea?

The first thing we had to sort out was getting our air conditioners installed and fridge for our food and drinks, because I can tell you its pretty bloody hard to live in a tropical climate without those two things! ha ha (i know i am being a princess!)

So two days later, which is straight away in Bali time we had some men rock up with their hand chisels to install our air conditioners and they also bought our fridges and stoves which were just dumped in my lounge room for us to install.

Next thing on our "To Do List" was defeating the bats! Everyone we spoke to about our problem laughed and said "ya ya one or two bats, no problem!" BUT there was not just one or two bats, it was awful! So our landlord sent a Balinese man around to hang about 30 CD'S from my ceiling, he climbed a long skinny bamboo pole and tied them to the rafters with fishing line. This is supposed to deter the bats, they hate their reflection.... Bouboummmmmm!!! No, the bats loved them, they now thought it was a bat play ground! Next I googled and apparently they hate "napthilene" which is found in moth balls, so i went out and bought 15 packets of moth balls and guess what...that did not work either! It just made my house smell like St Vinnies! Then I went out and bout some fluro lights..because they HATE fluro lights too! But guess what? Yep they loved the light as well! So the last resort was, not to get the pest controllers, but to go straight to the top and get the local "Holy Man". This had to work for sure! He came at midnight with a following of about 10 other people, bringing with them a midnight feast of chicken and rice. He did some awesome speed reading of his holy book for an hour, Kate stayed and watches and said it was amazing. Then after the feast, they collected all of the chicken bones and buried them in my garden! We waited in desperate hope for the next sunset to fall to see whether this holy ritual had worked. To our huge frustration and disappointment the ritual had failed and the bats were angry; they returned the following night, faster, louder and even more of them!

The only thing left to do was to buy some tulle netting to have like a curtain around or lounge room, we effectively turned our villas into wedding marques! ha ha...We had one of our local builders tack about 15 sheets of the tulle around the edge of the roof, it is certainly not attractive, BUT It worked! We could now sit in the lounge room in peace, no bats!

Our week settled down a little, every day Kate and I would go out in the car looking for furniture, bedding and house hold nick nacs. Its funny because I have always loved shopping, but this was hot and exhausting! We had to get EVERYTHING! Towels, sheets, knives, forks...EVERYTHING!

There were fun parts to this week though! Like the first time Kate and I drove the car to get groceries! It was so nerve racking and funny! We had no idea where we were going! We ended up getting to the shopping centre ok, but by the time we came out it was dark and I got sooooo dis orientated! We ended up pulling over and paying a taxi to drive home so that we could follow. The funniest part was, about half way home he pulled over and got out, walked over to our window and said "ok, so now you get in my taxi and show me how to get to your house." We just cracked up laughing and said "NO NO, NO, We are following you because we are lost! We dont know where to go!"...so he hopped back in his taxi, did a u turn and started driving the other way where we eventually got home!

There were also days where we bought so many things that we totally forgot we also had to fit in the car, so we had things hanging out of the window and could barely see! ha ha

The trips on the motor bike were also so much fun! You just feel so free when riding through the rice fields! The kids think its pretty special too! They sit and sing as we are cruising along. It also makes for a great family outing to the beach! And best of all to fill up our tanks it costs about $2.50! yey!

So this first week panned out ok in the end....... Stay tuned for week 2, starting school!

Where do I start? Bali chapter one...

2011-04-25T03:51:00.000-07:00

CHAPTER ONE: THE MOVE: Bali; Paradise?

Bye Bye Currumbin House!

Ok so we havent been the greatest bloggers this year and I have so much to catch up on! Three Little Trees has given us so many opportunities, but i can safely say that moving to Bali has been the most life changing eye opening experience that we could possibly give our young family. Please keep in mind while reading each chapter, that we are totally happy now and Bali is a wonderful place

I am going to back track a few months until we can catch up.

Ok so the long 7 weeks of the Christmas school holidays was spent packing, cleaning, beach, renovating, more packing and then finally we moved! This felt very strange as we had lived in our house for the past 7 and a half years and it was the only house my 2 children knew! I think Lily realised what was going on but I think Kai felt that it was going to be one BIG holiday and I was getting worried about when reality was going to set in! We left our house and spent the next few weeks like modern day gypsys! We had sold our family car and were now driving around in what was actually my first car that turned into my husbands surfing run about! It had no air conditioning, rust and only 3 doors...which isnt very practical with 2 kids! ha ha

We went from one friends place to another trying to slip into their households without causing too much disturbance. We then met my best friend at a holiday resort for 5 nights to try and break up the visiting. I remember one day stopping at the traffic lights and looking out of the window of our rusty mobil the few days before we left thinking, "omg this is so embarrassing!" I had a washing basket with clothes and towels on the front seat, a few pillows and a doona and an esky in between the kids in the back. The windows were all down because we were so stinkin hot and we had no air, so we were all red faced and dripping of sweat! On top of that school had gone back the day before so it also looked like we were homeless and my kids werent even going to school! ha ha..... maybe i was getting just a bit paranoid!

We woke up very early the morning of The 1st February 2011...this was it..this was the day we were leaving Australia indefinitely and moving into the unknown of Bali!! The kids were so excited! Our airport transfer was picking Kate up at 4.30am and then us at 4.45am! The trip started very smoothly.. laughter, smiles and beaming faces.....

The flight 5 hours later wasn't quite as enjoyable! We had 4 kids that had been up since 4 am on a 6 hour flight smack bang in the middle of the day, the week that school went back so there were absolutely no other kids on the flight! I can tell you now that over excited kids in a 2 m squared space does not work!!!! OMG by the time we got to Bali Kate and I were ready to kill them! BUT all i kept thinking about was seeing our gorgeous new home and sitting down and having an ice cold drink by the pool! aaah breathe we were now in Bali all will be ok in an hour!

So after a 50 minute taxi ride we were here! I opened the front door and looked up...there was a pile of furniture in the middle of the lounge room, unmade beds with plastic and dust still over them...and worst of all there was no fridge and no air conditioners installed as per the lease agreement! It was 5pm and the kids were hungry thirsty and tired! Thank God for a very generous American friend, Nikky from down the road who welcomed us shortly after arriving with a hamper of fresh fruit, muffins and nibbles. It thankfully bought us enough time to unpack a little before thinking about going to dinner.

With no car, we walked to the cafe dragging our feet ate quickly so it wasnt too dark for the walk home; the kids were now wasted...we just wanted to go home and put them to bed and chill out with a Bintang. Bali however had different ideas....we got home to a lounge room full of darting, flying, squawking, rabies infested bats! ha ha...we thought the day could not get any worse! We tried clapping, screaming and swinging the pool scoop around but there was nothing we could do, it was like they had inhabited our home for the past 6

months and there was no way they were going anywhere. So the end of our first day in Bali was spent ducking through the hallway, being head butted by the fury little vermont creatures into our bedroom, where we tried to sleep in the sweltering un air conditioned stuffy heat.

Stay tuned for the Chapter Two...getting sorted!

The freaking bats flying around our ceiling! look closely.

2011-01-20T02:46:00.000-08:00

I know that we are the shittest bloggers that ever did live but just a quick update - we are moving to Bali in 11 days!

Once there we will be living a calm cruisy life so I promise to "try" to become a better and more regular blogger!!

Catch you all soon!..xxxx

It's been a while!

2010-09-13T16:07:00.001-07:00

Woooow I didn't realise how long it has been since we wrote on our blog - so much for the every day post that we talked about a while ago..

Life is crazy at the moment, so much going on. My husband is working in Karratha for 4 - 6 weeks at a time and comes home for 6 days in between stints. Our summer stock gets here any day now so we have been busy preparing for that. We are moving both of our families to Bali soon so Jac has been over there looking for houses etc.

On that topic - we move on the 1st of Feb so we didn't know what to do about Christmas this year. It can't be a big one because we can't take much with us so last night we sat down and emailed Santa to tell him our situation....here's what happened:

From: Kate Samson [mailto:kate@threelittletrees.com.au]

Sent: Monday, 13 September 2010 4:44 PM

To: Caroline hamilton (AKA kate's mum, AKA Santa)

Subject: santa cheque

Dear Santa,

I hope your getting excited for christmas time. We were just thinking, and because we are moving to Bali and cant take much stuff on the plane, we were wondering if it would be ok if we got a santa cheque instead of some toys? Because then we can buy some toys in bali.

I promise ill be a good boy and good girl..well maybe she wont be good but i will be.....by the way do you still go to bali? I hope you do. How are the elves?

See ya, bye

can you please email me back if you have time

xaviah

From: Caroline Hamilton (AKA kate's mum, AKA Santa)

Subject: RE: santa cheque

Date: 13 September 2010 8:58:06 PM

To: kate@threelittletrees.com.au

Dear Xaviah,

Thank you for your email, Mrs Claus told me it had arrived, I am still not very good with computers so she is helping me and the elves are trying to teach me as well!

Yes, I am very excited that Christmas is getting closer and soon we will be very busy checking all our lists and getting everything ready. The elves are working hard but they seem very happy, they love making the toys for all the children. The reindeers have had a lovely rest since last Christmas.

Wow, are you moving to Bali? I love Bali, yes I still go to there, it is very hot so Mrs Claus made me a nice summer suit to wear. I will write on my list that you will be there not this Christmas but the next. You are so lucky to be going to live in Bali, wait till I tell the elves and Mrs Claus they will be so excited for you.

I think a Santa cheque is a really good idea, yes a very good idea, then you can get your toys in Bali and won’t have to leave them behind in Australia when you leave. You will have to tell Mummy and Daddy what you want with the Santa cheque when you get to Bali. I have just a couple of small things here for you already, so I will still bring them on Christmas day just so you know I haven’t forgotten you!

Xaviah I know you will be a very good boy, you have been such a good boy for Mummy since Daddy had to go away to work, I am very proud of you…..now as for that sister of yours…..sometimes I can hear her get a bit cranky…she is loud isn’t she? Could you tell her about the Santa cheque and that I have a couple of small things for her as well that I will bring on Christmas day because I know she is going to be a good girl.

Well my dear Xaviah I had better go and tell the elves all the news about you and Maya, have fun living in Bali, I have heard there is a really fun school there called “the Green School” maybe you can get Mummy and daddy to have a look at it if you haven’t already chosen a school to go to, it looks really cool.

Hope you and Maya get something you love with the Santa cheque.

Lots of love

from

SANTA

Xaviah has a nasty virus at the moment and didnt want to get out of bed this morning but after I read him this email he was ecstatic. He has since then made me count his pocket money in his money box because he wants to "be a saving boy" and save his money to put with his santa cheque. He said "ooooo mum do you reckon Santa might even give me "a 50 buck"?"

So cute!

HONG KONG

2010-07-23T03:53:00.000-07:00

More from our China Trip..... We started and ended our trip in Hong Kong. Its funny when we first arrived, I really thought "Wow, this is what China is like!" but after going to China then coming back to Hong Kong, I realised what a huge difference there is in their culture, language and even appearance! Hong Kong was a fantastic, fun experience.

We arrived early on the Thursday morning after flying all night and caught the train from The Airport to Mongkok station. My first thought was that "everything is so clean! and not what I had expected at all" we then caught a little red taxi to our hotel "Langham Place" which we would highly recommend! The taxi driver couldnt fit our 3 HUGE suitcases in the boot, so they were hanging out the back of the boot with straps holding them in! The taxi drivers have a very strange way of driving over there! The 3 of us were cracking up laughing because the drivers kept putting their foot down on the accelerator heavily then lifting it off...putting it right down and then lifting it off! So we all kept flying forward, then back, forward then back!.

The hotel had amazing views out over the city, even the bathroom had views. Kate and I were laughing, because we shared a room and the wall of the bathroom was glass with a thin white blind! It made going to the toilet and showering a little bit awkward until we made sure that you couldn't see through the blind. he he.

We ventured out to have a look at the shops and walked down to the food markets. Kate is just about vegetarian, so it wasn't a very pleasant experience for her! It was very interesting though to say the least. The shops dont open until 11am in Hong Kong and stay open until late at night, so we had to wait a while to start spending our Hong Kong dollars. Kate had downloaded the "LUXE" Guide onto her iphone, which is a great little tool for any city guide so that you enjoy the experience and go to quality restaurants and sight seeing venues. It recommended that we catch a cab to "Stanley".... so we hopped in a taxi and drove 40 mins to Stanley. I honestly felt like I was in The South of France, it had beautiful promenades, old heritage buildings, cute little pubs and tea houses and boutique style markets. We LOVED it!

Time kept getting away from us while we were there, we even forgot about dinner most nights, because we were shopping until 8 or 9pm! On the trip home, Kate and I took a walk up to The Bird Markets, which Kate's mum had recommended seeing. Mum was a bit tired after a busy week in China, so she stayed in her room and had a nap. On the way to the bird markets we came across a really cool clothing and accessories market!! We were so excited...because just about every stall we looked at, had really great stuff! we had to control ourselves though, so that we could go back and get Mum. We passed through the flower market on the way to the bird market which was gorgeous, I love the smell of fresh flowers! They also had some stunning bonsai plants too. Its just so interesting though, each street and area are for different products... there is a gold fish street, a "bunnings" street (well thats what we called it), a food street etc. The bird market was beautiful, Kate bought a wooden bird cage, which she really wanted to get for decoration and for our up coming photo shoot (it was such a mission to get home though!!! well worth it!) and some cute little hand painted bird feeding dishes. We dashed back and got mum and then headed back to the clothes market to do some serious Hong kong shopping! ha ha. We have NEVER shopped so much in our lives! It was overwhelming! SO MUCH FUN...WE CANNOT WAIT TO GO BACK!

Hong Kong was nothing like I imagined and I could easily spend 2 weeks there sight seeing and of course SHOPPING!

In Sydney before getting on our flight

Kate at Stanley

Stanley

Me on the fairy

mmmmm! fresh meat!

Kate on the train from the airport

The beautiful fresh fruit at the markets

The amazing view from our room

The Glass wall looking into the bathroom

Bali street dogs

2010-07-20T15:57:00.001-07:00

I think it is really important for children to grow up with animals in their lives. I teaches them so many things...

We don't currently have a dog here in Australia because we have a cat "Smokey" that is too much of a prince to handle having a dog around and we also have 2 little finches "Stormy and Rosie" that are out of their cage more than they are in it and I don't think they would appreciate having a dog either. As it is they have to take turns with Smokey for indoor rights, day on day off! So I have promised Xaviah and Maya that we can get a dog when we get to Bali, they are very excited. It's sort of like a little bribe in our household to make pulling them out of school and taking them away from friends and family a little bit easier.

I have been looking around and found B.A.R.C. (Bali Adoption Rehabilitation Centre). Their aim is to help the street dogs of Bali and relieve suffering, starvation, abuse and neglect of the many street dogs that are there. Anyone that has been to Bali would have seen at least one street dog I'm sure. My heart sank when I had my first encounter - so skinny and starving, looking through piles of rubbish for any type of food they can find.

This is the quote from the B.A.R.C. website that really got me:

"There are no words to describe the suffering of these dogs, they cringe at the sight of a human, we are, the enemy, the abuser.

They hide, from detection, they live in fear, they have never known love or affection, or food given freely. When we get them, usually their spirits have been broken, we hope the love and meds, warm blankets and a pause from the rigors of a very hostile world will mend each one.

Slowly they do trust and respond lovingly to humans."

I have already fallen in love with the beautiful girl below "SUZIE".

Above is Suzie waking up from her coma

Suzie was found in a rice field with no food or water, just left there. To survive she ate rocks, grass, insects and her own faeces. When she was rescued she was in a coma for a week. No body thought she would survive. But she did and she is happy and healing.

Suzie now

I hope that Suzie find a loving home really soon but the selfish side of me hopes that she can stay at the shelter for just a couple more months so that the loving home that she finds is our home!

Winter days

2010-07-18T22:43:00.000-07:00

When Summer is here my family and I are at the beach or outdoors everyday.....

When Winter comes around we neglect the outdoors way to much.

Winter days on the Gold Coast are so beautiful and I've decided to make the most of the wintery feelings and get out there before we move to Bali! I know, I know - it's not as cold as some places....but I am not a Winter person AT ALL. I do still think it will be hard for me to be in Bali heat all year round...I know that maya will have sweaty wet hair all day long and X will smell like a smelly little school boy......

......but I say bring it on!!

more of china

2010-07-18T04:06:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone,

I hope you have all had a lovely weekend! We have had a super busy week or two that has just passed....Kates little girl "Maya" turned 3 on the 8th, her little boy "Xaviah" turned 6 on the 13th and my little girl Lily turned "6" on the 15th....HECTIC!!! Its really funny, because we both have to schedule in our parties each year...Mayas was last sunday, Lilys was Friday night and Xaviahs was Saturday!! ha ha. They have all had a ball.....way too much sugar though! As we speak its 9pm and my little boy Kai is still wide awake! For the past 4 mornings he has woke up asking for lemonade and a lollie bag. Lily had a Disco party on friday night that was so much fun; we hired a DJ and decked out our double garage with helium balloons and streamers.... it was fantastic. We used "Cliffhanger DJ's" from the gold Coast, he played plenty of games which kept the kids entertained and had all the special effects, like the bubble and smoke machines and strobe lights. I was totally exhausted on Saturday morning, I am so glad that July is just about over.

I thought I would pop some more pictures up tonight of our trip to China last month..... We visited this amazing island, which was just off the coast of "Xiamen"..... it was like no where else that I had ever seen! The buildings were over 400 years old, there was a quaint little seaside village with little boutiques and restaurants, it was not at all what I expected to see in China! It was like a little holiday getaway hot spot. Kate and I kept saying "Imagine being able to have one of our photo shoots here!!!" Anyway, take a look at the pictures:

The fairy ride over, looking back at Xiamen

A lovely lady guiding her blind son through the town beggng for money :(

Inside one of the village boutiques, an old wooden bike that had a pet bird on it.

One of the gorgeous villagers with my Mum

A chinese fortune teller!!

A laborer on the island

A local lady waving to me out her window

One of the little lanes

a busker

The beach on the island

Kate in front of one of the cool old doors

Some more old buildings with so much character!

A beautiful old door

Bubble London

2010-07-15T03:36:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, while we were in China actually, our wonderful agents Domino Baby who look after UK and Europe for us took part in Bubble London.

Below are some pics of our stall...

I wish we could have been there to help them on the day! Maybe we will be able to get over there for the Jan 11 show! We will be Indonesianites by then so a trip to a cooler climate might be in order!

All of the clothes you see in these pics will be available on our shores in September - the other side of the world has to wait a bit longer!

2010-07-10T02:49:00.000-07:00

June update for our gorgeous little china doll Hannah

Name: Hannah Gender: F

Birthday: January, 2010

Special Need: Heart Defect, Pierre Robin Syndrome, Malnutrition

Admission Date: 5/14/2010

Admission Weight: 4.3 kg Current Weight: 5.4 kg

Report: At her mid-month visit in June, Heartbridge Manager Cindy found that

Hannah had gained weight since her last visit. “I can see her cheeks are more filled up

now.” I am really anxious to get our month-end update from Mona so I can see just how

much weight Hannah has gained…I am amazed by how much better she looks!

(At the end of the month I found out that she had gained a pound and three-quarters!)

After a bath and some formula, Hannah could barely stay awake to finish her bottle.

Cindy says that Hannah has to suck so hard, her lower lip almost completely disappears

when she takes a bottle.

Backing up just a tiny bit, there is a small “bonus” to our June updates:

Executive Director Amy Eldridge, Director of Operations Paige Mills-Haag, and

Administration Director Sheri Russon all visited Heartbridge on June 8th. Amy noted that

Hannah is “SOOOOO tiny” and also how her eyes followed them all around the room. It

was wonderful to hear once again how well all the children are doing!

At the end of the month, nurse Mona reported that Hannah had a great month. She gets

an adequate amount of sleep, and everyone was happy to see she gained nearly a full

kilo. It is quite a job, but Hannah’s nanny manages to get it about 200 ml (or 6-3/4

ounces) of formula at each feeding. Mona also tells us that Hannah had her Hepatitis B

vaccination this month.

From Mona: “At five months, Hannah smiles, grabs objects and plays with her hands. She

can roll over and creep but cannot return to the supine position. She doesn’t like to lie on

the mat, but she does enjoy lying on the rocker as shown on the photo. She rocks herself by raising her right leg up and down. Hannah is lovely and she’s very easy to care for.”

We would still like to see Hannah become a little stronger before having her heart

surgery, but she has truly made amazing progress since her arrival on May 14th. It

shouldn’t be too much longer, and then after she has healed from surgery, we can

have her lip repaired as well.

Thank you so much to everyone that donated, for giving Hannah this chance for health and happiness. We can’t wait to see what the future holds for this precious little girl!

I hope it is not too long into the future that we get an update that says Hannah has found a loving home!

A view of where Three little Trees are made

2010-07-07T04:36:00.001-07:00

Myself, Our manufacturer Herbert and Kate

Kate and I had a fantastic time in China and Hong Kong, it really opened our eyes to a very different but very polite and friendly culture! We could not get over how welcoming EVERYONE was over there; everywhere we walked people were calling out "hello...welcome to China!". We were like celebrities, I guess because we were in a very business orientated district, it was quite rare for them to see 3 Aussie females in sun dresses! he he. Even walking down the street in front of our hotel, we would see people walking out of their shop to see us!

Most of all though, It was great being able to meet all of the wonderful people behind our Three Little Trees Production! Our factory was full of happy, smiling faces and it was so interesting seeing how our designs evolve into garments! Take a look!

Our Manufacturer Herbert and My Mum. He showed us such great hospitality and all the sights of "Real China"
Happy faces in our factory
Another happy face sewing another label
One of the pattern makers
Head of Production

We are back!!

2010-06-28T19:56:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!!

Well its taken a few days to get back into reality! We had a fantastic experience in Hong Kong and china and got to see things that you could not imagine still exist! The orphanage of course was the high light of our trip, so I thought today I would blog about that...

We were both feeling a lot of emotions leading up to the day... excitement, joy, sadness, anxiousness and nervousness all at the same time! Approaching the orphanage, I was really surprised how pleasant it looked. We were met at the gates by the manager of the orphanage. It was great that we had our friend and manufacturer, Herbert there with us, as no body spoke a word of english! We had two HUGE bags full of toys, clothes and blankets thanks to you all!

unfortunately we were not able to personally give the gifts to the children, which we thought was understandable, as they would most likely have to go through them all first to check that they were clean and no hazards.

We could tell however that they were EXTREMELY GRATEFUL! We walked through the corridors and viewed each room. There was a physio room, which we thought was a wonderful resource given that the majority of the children have some sort of disability.

We then walked past the little pre-school room where they were all eating their lunch and looked really happy!

It was very nice to see. The tears had already started welling in my eyes.

We turned the corner and were greeted at the end of the corridor by a very special little man that had a very old soul. His eyes looked straight into mine; I knelt down and opened my arms and he walked in for a cuddle!

The next room, was just so heart breaking and heart warming at the same time! These babies were just beautiful!

Most of them were born with some sort of problem. We were talking to our chinese manufacturer and he said that in the city they can only have one baby each and in the country they are allowed 2 as long as the first baby is a girl, then they are allowed to try for a boy. So pretty much, when a baby is born that is not quite perfect they are very unwanted by most chinese parents. Most could not afford the medical needs of these children and others would much rather try again for perfection. These babies are left on the side of the road to be picked up by the police and taken to the orphanage.

Its horrible, but it is the reality that these poor babies face. this orphanage has around 130 orphans from all over Quanzhou and the money that all of you helped us raise will go towards sponsoring a beautiful little girl "Hannah" that was born with heart problems, cleft pallet and a few other health issues. We have also asked to provide the babies with some soft mattresses. This was a bit distressing to us, they used towels that were tied around their waist with rope as some padding on the hard wooden base of the cots.

We should not have favorites, but we each fell in love with a baby and cannot get them out of our head! I have even looked into adopting a Chinese baby, because I was so touched by my experience. Unfortunately, it looks like the Australian government just makes it extremely hard and costly to adopt an international baby. There is no way around it except living in another country for more than one year, then adopting through their countries government only, then applying for a visa once you are ready to return to Australia! I can't believe that Australia has so many resources and so many parents that need a baby and these babies are sitting waiting in orphanages for a home and our government cannot simplify the process. I was shocked to hear that Parents usually wait around five years before successfully adopting an international baby. Kate's little guy that really touched her heart was 4 months old and was in desperate need for surgery on his cleft pallet. He was beautiful and so alert for his age!

The little girl I cannot stop thinking about was on her way to the USA the next day to join a family. She had so much personality and was my snuggley Koala bear!

There was a gorgeous little boy there too, that was so positive and happy but will and has come up against so many challenges in his short little life that it deeply saddened all of us. He was born albino, blind, cleft pallet and a heart condition........WHY?

Lets hope someone can find it in their heart to choose him!

"Love without boundaries" is doing a fabulous job supporting the orphanages in China. They help provide bedding, clothes, toys and much needed medical assistance. It has really inspired Kate and I to go further with this and assist in Balinese orphanages next year. These children will never be forgotten by Three Little Trees! xx

OFF TO CHINA!!!

2010-06-15T17:35:00.000-07:00

Well the day has finally come and Kate and I are all packed up and off to China! Its been a hectic week again getting ready! I always get nervous going overseas, because I am so scared that I have forgotten something! he he.

My ride is just about here to go the airport, so have a great day and we will blog about our adventure when we return next week!

Jac and Kate xxxxxx

Home alone!

2010-06-12T01:03:00.001-07:00

Hi guys!

Sorry there hasnt been much blogging this week, it has been hectic! Poor little Xaviah, Kates son has been in hospital sick and we have both been very busy getting ready to go to China on Wednesday! Xaviah is out of hospital now and all better thank goodness!

I am sitting at home alone tonight....my 2 beautiful kids and husband have flown down south of Sydney to stay with Nanny and Poppy while I go overseas. Its funny because I should be loving it tonight, no kids, no washing and sleep ins? BUT I really miss them already! I really dont know what to do with myself! I am always so busy running around after them, that you forget what to do when you take them out of the picture?

I did go for a nice walk this morning, It was so fresh and gorgeous! I love people watching and just thinking... my thoughts just roll when I am walking. I always think about funny little things the kids do and say, I also kept thinking about meeting the little orphans in China and hoping that my heart will be strong enough to get through it. I am so grateful to all our Three Little Trees fans out there that have been so generous, we have got teddy bears, blankets, plenty of clothes and over $1300! Its just fantastic!

There is so much to organise before going overseas, I get nervous that I am goingto forget something! At least with the kids gone over the next few days, I can start laying things out and packing without getting peanut butter fingers over everything.

Ooooh I almost forgot to Congratulate our last month blog follower winner who won a $50 gift voucher "Ms B Andrews". Yey, the next winner will be announced on the 30th June!

Have a great weekend. xx

Brisbane & Birds...

2010-06-05T17:19:00.000-07:00

On friday I went up to Semi Permenant Conference in Brisbane with our Graphic artist Krystal which was so great! Its so cool to hear other designers stories and where they get their inspirations from. After SP we went to the Banksy movie - Exit through the gift shop. At the Tribal Theatre. It is the coolest theatre that still has heaps of it's old character! As for the banksy movie - FUNNY, it was a crack up!

Anyway, on the way home we went past the Nerang Pet Barn....if I get something in my head I generally don't rest until I get it or do it. So off we went back to the pet barn first thing in the morning to get some hermit crabs (I didn't want anything too full on as we are moving to Bali soon).....It's a great pet store. I don't usually like going to them because of the fact that animals are kept behind glass etc but I dont "really" get that feeling at this one. They seem really well cared for and clean.

We had a cool time looking at all of the different pets. We quickly decided against Hermit Crabs and started looking for something more exciting. Kittens and puppies - no, too hard to re home when we leave. Xaviah had his heart set on a scorpion but I wasn't too keen on that idea. Then he wanted a snake, but we had an 8 ft python when he was a baby so I didn't want to go there again, I wanted something we hadn't had before.

My sisters boyfriend is finch obsessed and is the most lovely father to his finches so we decided on finches so that we can easily re-home them when we leave. I usually wouldn't ever get a pet that has to be caged, I cant even keep fish because I feel bad for them in their tank - we often buy fish but always end up giving them to my dad who has a big outdoor pond when my guilt kicks in. So what i'm thinking is that these birds are bred in cages, if they were let out in the wild they would die and i figure they are better off in our home rather than a cramped pet store cage, so i'm ok with it........for now.

We are letting them out of their cage (with mirrors covered, doors closed and our kitty outside) for daily excersice so I think they will be happy little critters.

So now we have 2 little finches....."Lightening Bolt" (above) and "Rosie".

Kate..xx

UFO Sighting!!

2010-06-05T12:23:00.000-07:00

Most of you probably saw on the news yesterday that there were several sightings of a bright spiraling light early yesterday morning around 6am that could be seen all the way from Canberra up to the Sunshine Coast? Unexpectedly, I got to see it too while boarding a flight to Sydney at Coolangatta Airport! It was amazing, like nothing I have ever seen before..... I could see the light trailing around it like a little galaxy. It was not going fast enough to be a shooting star and not at all like a plane or helicopter? It looked like it was floating across the sky as it was spinning. I quickly got my phone out so I could take pictures to show you all!

There was an article written with the ABC yesterday that said it was most likely some space junk or a part of an asteroid or a rocket? I think it was still pretty amazing though!

A NICE DAY FOR A WALK

2010-06-03T13:54:00.000-07:00

It was a beautiful day yesterday, which was just strange, as we only live about 5o minutes from the devastated "Lennox Head" area... I still cant believe that the tornado hit! After hours of entering orders into MYOB yesterday morning, Kai and I decided to go for a nice walk with our dog Boston. It was so peaceful and quiet! I haven't been for a walk in a long time and forgot how nice it is to collect your thoughts and just refresh. Kai and Boston really enjoyed it to, I think its really important to get your kids out of the house and keep them active!

Grandparents Day

2010-05-31T23:25:00.000-07:00

Today was grandparents day at Kai and Xaviahs school and their kindergarten class put on an afternoon tea for all the grandparents. The aim of today was to teach the young children how to serve! As harsh as this sounds, I thought the idea behind it was great. Kids are so spoilt these days and often lose a lot of respect for their elders. The children had to ensure all of their guests were comfortable and were enjoying themselves and were offering plates of food. My poor little boy Kai didnt quite get the concept and the temptation of chocolate muffins and chips really got to him! The children were not allowed to eat any of the treats them selves, they were only for the guests. Every time the teacher turned her back Kai was at the food table eying of the goodies.

They sung a beautiful song, "Never smile at a crocodile" and showed us all what they have been doing in class.

We took Nanna Lillie from across the road, because Kai's true grandparents live a long way away, Lillie loved it and was very touched by the invite. I think its great to involve family and friends in their school activities.

Xaviah had his Nanny and Papa there and really enjoyed showing off his great work and did a fantastic job of being a host.

Cameras!

2010-05-31T17:52:00.000-07:00

Jacqui's last blog post got me thinking! We are so lucky that John Strognofe, who was born in Iraq many many years ago, invented the first camera in 1685.

Imagine the world with no cameras. That would suck for people that have a memory like mine!

So THANK YOU Jon Strognofe for inventing the first camera and planting the seeds into other peoples brains that snow balled into the technologically advanced cameras we have now!!!

Kate..xx

My Dad and I

Meeee

My beautiful Mama back in the day

My Dad and I - nice shorts Dad!

Sometimes the camera captures some images that you may rather forget ey dad!

My daughter Maya and I

This wasnt really taken in May 80. It was taken this week, but for some reason, even though we have all of this new technology available to us, we still want our photos to look old!

Precious Families

2010-05-30T03:04:00.001-07:00

Our precious Family
Our beautiful children!

My husband Justin

Myself with my Dad.

Thinking about visiting JinJiang Orphanage makes me really think how lucky we are and how nice it is to have a wonderful healthy family! I showed the photos of the children in the orphanage to my kids and the first thing Kai said is "Why dont they have a Mummy and Daddy? We can just be their Mummy and Daddy and give them cuddles." He actually had tears in his eyes when he was telling my husband! And I thought, wow! I must be doing something right if my 4 year old son can be so humane and passionate about others in this world. I was remembering back to my child hood too and remembered fishing and camping with my sister and parents and I know Justin too had a very happy family orientated up bringing that he loved. I was sorting through old photos and found a funny little story that I actually wrote in 1987 about families! I cant believe I still have it! I really think it is so important that we start by looking at the treasures that we have in front of us and teach them about other children in this world that perhaps don't have a family. I cannot wait to give to the children of Jinjiang Orphanage and see the smles on their face when they receive the generous donations that many of you have been so generous to give! If you are still thinking about donating, you can now do it through Crowdrise or send any small gifts to: 11 Wheeler Crescent, Currumbin Waters QLD 4223.

My story from year 2 that I wrote in 1987 about families!

Happy Weekend!

2010-05-30T03:04:00.000-07:00

Little Sunflowers

2010-05-28T23:04:00.000-07:00

Today I would like to introduce a wonderful store that stocks our clothes in the UK called "Little Sunflowers". Little Sunflowers is a family business run by husband and wife team Bev and Andy Toogood.

They began with a small shop in Wendover, Buckinghamshire in 2004. In October 2007, when the online business got bigger than the shop, they relocated to Horam in East Sussex, where they now have a bricks and mortar store and an online shop. Bev and Andy have two young sons, aged 3 and 6, and the move to Horam meant a better quality of life for the family.

Customer service is at the centre of their business, and they constantly receive great
feedback from their customers. They are also well-known for their use of social media to
promote their business, and have a presence on Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin. In fact,
they were recently featured by Social Small Biz in a case study on the use of social
media in business.
(http://www.socialsmallbiz.com/2010/05/26/social-small-biz-case-study-little-sunflowers/)

They are a great store to deal with - very friendly and helpful and they stock lots of other great brands as well as Three Little Trees.

Three Little Trees is growing all around the world and we love hearing about success stories and the history behind our stores! Well done Bev and Andy! xx

Stealing Hayley's idea!!

2010-05-26T23:29:00.001-07:00

One of our favourite retailers Little Pinwheel has the most awesome blog. If you havent read it you MUST go and become a follower! Hayley writes about deep personal things in her life that a lot of people wouldn't have courage to go near as well as snippets of her cute little families every day life!

When I read one of Hayleys latest blog posts it made me realise that I too am always behind the camera and that I do not have nearly enough photos with my children. I am completely 100% stealing Hayleys idea for this week and taking a photo of myself with my child/children each day of the week.

I will not post them everyday because I DO NOT like being in front of the camera AT ALL but at least Xaviah and Maya will have heaps of photos to look back on when they get older!

Thanks for the kick up the bum Hayley!!

Kate...xx

Coffee with Polka

2010-05-25T02:53:00.000-07:00

Myself, Jo and Kate

Myself, Noon and Kate who loves having her photo taken!

The gorgeous outlook

Winter has certainly set in! I was all rugged up today on the Gold Coast, the wind was very chilly!

It was gorgeous however sitting and watching the choppy surf from the comfort of "The Elephant Rock Cafe" at Currumbin Beach, we all had delicious meals and the coffee was nice too. We met with Jo Morgan from the very cool label "Polka". It was so fun catching up with someone in our industry; she is really lovely! Its amazing because the clothing industry is really secretive and there is no manual to developing your own label! Its funny though because we both seem to be doing very similar things! Cant wait to catch up again for another cuppa with Jo.

A NICE DAY BEING A MUM!

2010-05-24T04:16:00.000-07:00

GOOD MATES!

SOMETHING WAS PRETTY FUNNY!
MASON, LAWSON AND KAI

Today I scheduled in being a mum.... no work (well only a few emails he he) and a bit of house work, I kept my little boy Kai home from pre school and we had a really nice day! I took him to our local play group that he absolutely LOVES and I got to catch up with lots of friends that I don't get to see very often while having a nice cuppa and a scone. I could not believe how excited Kai was to be there! He spent the whole 2 hours racing around madly on a little bike, traipsing through the garden looking for bugs and giggling!

I have been trying to keep him home one or two days a week lately from school; his teacher suggested that it might be a good idea. His quite young for his age and was getting quite tired and distracted at school. Its funny how children can be so different, my daughter is very advanced and independent for her age and always needs to be challenged and certainly never likes to be helped, which I admire, she is amazing. Where as Kai is a real cruiser and is only just becoming interested in drawing and the alphabet over the last month, but he is very sensitive and cuddly and doesn't like doing things for himself. Both of my children are really beautiful in their own ways and I am really enjoying getting to know their unique personalities as they blossom and grow.

Kai is really benefiting from spending some one on one time with me and I think he is learning quite a bit just doing day to day activities at home. His teacher is really happy with his progress as well and says that he is much more attentive when he is in class now and is more interactive in class activities. Being a teacher has to be hard work, but I think she is doing a good job at treating each child individually and working out what is best!

We went from play group and had lunch at "Kirramisu" cafe on Kirra Beach front with one of my lovely friends Steph and her daughter Hazel. Its a beautiful spot and has great food! The staff were really patient with the kids too, which all of you mums know how hard it is to find a child friendly cafe!

By this time our day was just about over, we went home for some quiet time while I checked a few emails (i cant help myself) and went and picked Lily up from the bus to go to swimming lessons.

My little man was sound asleep about 5 minutes after leaving swimming! bless!

All in all it was a lovely simple day, being a mum.... which I really miss sometimes! xx

The Pagoda Tree

2010-05-22T18:34:00.000-07:00

Today I wanted to write about one of our lovely Three Little Trees fans "The Pagoda Tree". For those of you who live in Melbourne the Pagoda Tree is a one of a kind place that provides a one stop shop for women's health care.

The Pagoda Tree is home to a complete service for Natural Ferility and Women's Health. we provide complete and comprehensive reproductive health care for women of all ages, as well as complete general health care for men, women and children. Our centre specialises in fertilty and pregnancy related issues whilst also providing complete preconception care programs.

We are an integrative health care centre, where our practitioners are more than happy to support your journey in whatever way we can. Our practitioners are highly qualified in their field and offer you warmth, compassion and presence. we understand the delicate and sensivite issues that some of our clients face and we are available to be of service and to listen.

Natalie Kringoudis from the Pagoda Tree would love to help you! Come and see her or contact her for further information at:

Contact Address:
Lvl 2/124 Bridport St. Albert Park,
Victoria 3206
154 Thirteenth St. Mildura
Victoria 3500
Victoria Australia
Tel 03 9686 7454
Fax 03 9682 7454
info@thepagodatree.com.au

MOODI

2010-05-21T17:45:00.000-07:00

Last night I went to a great Jewellery and clothing party. I am not really into parties that sell things, i really hate the pressure! I actually only went so that I could catch up with friends that I never see because of my busy schedule! I was however really surprised! The label of clothing was called Moodi and they design all black garments for women that are very slimming! See below:

moodi reflects the fashion needs of today’s modern woman who desires clothing that is not only comfortable but stylish.

moodi designs are created using Modal, a natural fabric renowned for softness, comfort and a silky texture. This unique fabric is produced from beech trees whose strength gives not only a lasting resilience to frequent washing and wear but will also retain its vibrant colour and crease-free lustre.

moodi garments are designed to be as flexible as you are and can be worn as work, leisure or lounge wear. Match them with sandals for casual cafe lunches or add heels to transform your moodi garment into stylish evening wear.

Visit their website at: www.moodi.com.au

sunset at currumbin Beach

2010-05-19T04:22:00.001-07:00

Playing our stone game
Daddy and Lil heading down to the beach
Kai having fun!

Lil after her surf
Surfers Paradise in the distance

Kai
Little Surfer Girl Lily
Lily and Kai
I was impressed with this sunset surf shot!

What a perfect afternoon! Justin finished work earlier than usual so we took the kids down to our local gorgeous beach at Currumbin for a play and surf. Lily is just learning how to surf and loves it, but to be honest I think that my husband loves that his little princess surfs even more! She is amazing though, no fear at all and great balance! The waves were only little today but lots of fun for lil. Kai is not interested in surfing yet, but loves climbing the rocks and running in and out of the water like most 4 year old boys do!

It was really nice to just sit and watch.... especially after what I wrote about yesterday, it was really nice taking a couple of hours to watch my family having fun and just being them!

"The Alley" is such a unique place, the rocks are gorgeous and the back drop of Surfers Paradise seems surreal against the blue tranquil sea!

Justin had made a game up last time he took the kids to the beach that they love and we all had a little play. You draw a circle in the sand then another bigger one around it and dig a small hole right in the center (sort of like a dart board) then about 5 meters away we draw a line and we get 2 stones each and we have to try and get bulls eye. ha ha. Very simple but great family fun!

once the sun hit the mountains the chill in the air was freezing... we all ran for the car with the nice warm heater and headed home for baths and dinner! xx

The lucky country

2010-05-18T03:59:00.000-07:00

OUR BEAUTIFUL CHILDREN!!

You never really realise how truely lucky you are until you see certain things or have certain moments that make you look at your life and see what you have right in front of you and all the precious little moments that we take for granted every single day!

Life runs along so quickly, often too quickly! I know sometimes as much as I love my life, I always feel like I need to slow down and just stop and play with my kids or just to sit in my back yard and watch them run around and giggle is precious.

As some of you might know Kate, myself and my Mum are off to China next month. It began as a business trip but just this week we have found something very special that I think will change my life forever! JinJiang orphanage is in The southern Chinese Province of Fujian. I came across it while trying to locate how far "JinJiang" was from the airport we were flying into in Xiamen. My heart just about broke when I started reading. I know that there are many places like this out there, but if we can all just try and help someone in this world maybe some of these children will suffer a little less and perhaps find some simple happiness in their lives that we take for granted every single day.

I had no idea how common cleft palate was in the orphanages! What would usually be a straight forward procedure to fix in these orphanages could be a death sentence. See the segment below from The Fujian Kids website:

Approximately 27,000 children with cleft lip and/or palate children are born annually to Chinese families. Most of these children will end up in orphanages.

Once in the orphanages, many of the cleft children have a difficult time. Often, these babies have difficulty getting nourishment because their ability to suck is impaired. As a result, they are in a perpetually weakened state and highly susceptible to disease. Some die of starvation. Special feeding equipment can save the lives of these children, but these nursers are not available in China.

Cleft Palate Nursers

FujianKids is helping provide cleft palate nursers to babies in orphanages throughout China. Please consider taking some with you to China when you travel. (Sorry, we can only provide these nursers to families in the U.S.) Nursers come with instructions in Chinese and labels that clearly indicate the nursers are for use by cleft-affected babies..

The nursers weigh almost nothing, but they do take up a little space in your luggage. For example, a box of 6 Enfamil nursers measures 6" x 6" x 6", but the nursers can be taken out of the box and distributed where space is available in your suitcase. If several families traveling together are adopting from the same orphanage, they can bring extras to give to their agency representative. The representative can then give the extra nursers to other orphanages that need them.

I learnt by buying these special feeding tools we could save many of these children's lives. We have posted on our face book page that we are accepting any help that Three Little Trees fans can afford or give up. I cant believe that spending as little as $20 could save children like these.

Kate and I are going to take over a couple of extra suit cases of clothes and bedding for them as these are basics that are always required and we have already had many generous offers of donations.

Most of all I am just looking forward to giving them some love and cuddles and learning from them, because I know throughout my whole fortunate life I have not seen anything that I know will inspire and open my eyes to the needs of others like this experience will.

xxx

THE ORPHANAGE

CHINA'S FORGOTTEN BEAUTIFUL CHILDREN

BUBBLE LONDON

2010-05-16T03:50:00.000-07:00

Our wonderful European Agent Joanne Bourne from "Domino Baby" has been busily getting ready for "Bubble" trade show in London. She will be exhibiting our summer 2010 range which has already proven very popular with our stores in the southern hemisphere! It will be held on June 20th and 21st and is bound to be a success for Domino Baby!

We are so excited and Know that Joanne's Hard work will all pay off!! YEY!

Show venue:
Business Design Centre
52 Upper Street, Islington
London N1 0QH

Oh to be a child!

2010-05-15T02:16:00.001-07:00

I wish i could remember being 2! So carefree and no bills!! Although I'm sure at the time you think that life isn't fair because your not allowed an ice block or because you want to stay at the park for longer......if only they knew!!

Today started off great, beautiful day, cruisy kids! Ended terribly with a tantrum because i wouldn't let the girl eat an ice block 2 minutes before dinner.....

Silver Sparrow Designs

2010-05-14T17:48:00.000-07:00

Aaaahh saturday morning, its nearly 11am and Kai is in his pajamas still, Lily has dressed herself in a very unique style that certainly won't be walking out our front door! ha ha and Justin has gone for a surf. I am just chilling on the lounge with my second morning cup of coffee browsing the web. mmmm? what can I write about today? kids products..nah..... bedding..nah.....jewelry, yeah!

Etsy is such a great website to find new and original products. There are a lot of talented people out there! Silver sparrow Designs has some great original pieces of silver jewelry that you will never find anywhere else! Take a look! There are lots of great finds on etsy!

Have a GREAT WEEKEND! XX

NEW COMPETITION!!

2010-05-13T02:59:00.000-07:00

Today we bring to you an exciting new competition just because we are feeling super generous! he he

All you have to do to enter is spend either $50, pounds or euros at any of our fabulous stockists around the world on winter 2010 or summer 2010 for our Northern hemisphere friends; email us the receipt and you could win one of every piece of either the girls OR the boys range of our up coming summer 2011 range, valued at over $800! see below for conditions and details.

So go find those receipts or have a look at our stockist page at www.threelittletrees.com.au to see where you can purchase any items!

Yey Three Little Trees LOVE giving clothes away!

Vegetable Iceblocks

2010-05-12T16:20:00.000-07:00

It is almost impossible to get any kind of vegetable in to my children! I have to puree and hide most of the time! But they will drink juice of any kind, even if it has vegetables in it! Soooo we make juice about 3 times a week, it is one of their favorite things to do! Sometimes we have carrot, celery and pineapple or carrot, beetroot and orange, today we just made apple and carrot. You really can put a lot of carrots in without the taste taking over.

Its getting a bit nippy now so this probably should have been a summer blog post.........but Xaviah and Maya would eat ice blocks even if we lived in the snow, so most of the time thats what we do with the left overs!

Kids R Kool, Warners Bay NSW

2010-05-10T18:37:00.000-07:00

We have another wonderful new store to introduce to you today from the NSW central coast in Warners Bay near New Castle. Kids R Kool located at Shop 9 Lake Village Arcade, 449 The Esplanade, Warners Bay, Australia, 2282. Stocking labels such as Rock your Baby, Mossimo Kids, Sudo, Tea princess, princess ratbags, Zaini Bambini, picolina, Bebe baby, fred bare and guess and of course "Three Little Trees".

Some pieces that you can find at this beautiful new store are:

little red chick

2010-05-10T04:50:00.000-07:00

We have a beautiful new store stocking Three Little Trees this week! I would like to introduce you to "Little Red Chick" situated at 94 Cawarra Road, Carringbah NSW.

They are open Tuesday to Friday 9am to 4pm and Saturday 9am to 1pm. Jodie just sent us through some photos of her brand new store that only opened on the 4th may...... She has done such an amazing job, it looks stunning! You can join her mailing list for all of her updates and sales or even school holiday work shops at www.littleredchick.com.au .We are so happy to be a part of such a beautiful creation!

Well done Jodie xx

Mothers Day Success!

2010-05-09T00:45:00.000-07:00

It was FANTASTIC!! I had such a nice weekend!

The Sofitel is a beautiful hotel with the comfiest beds I think I have ever slept in!

It was so nice laying in bed and looking out over the Gold Coast. We took the kids out for lunch in Broadbeach and then came back and hung out in our room on level 20! Once my friend Carly had finished work she came and got them to take them home. The kids were happy, because they were getting Mac Donalds and the next day we were taking them to Sea World. Their night went smoothly as did ours. We watched Avatar in the comfort of our hotel room while sipping Champaign and eating choc covered strawberries that were delivered as a nice surprise from my friend!

We then got dressed and walked down the road to a really nice Tepinyaki restaurant. The food was great and the chef was hilarious, he was throwing food everywhere! Broad beach has such a nice atmosphere at night, I hadnt been there for probably close to seven years!

Today we woke up looking out to the ocean and walked down to the restaurant for our delicious breakfast where the kids joined us. It was lovely the kids were excited and thought it was quite a treat. We packed up and headed up to Sea world for an exhausting but fun day of Dolphin shows and rides.

Home and showered by 4pm aaaahhhh...... PERFECT!

Many thanks to my wonderful family and friends xxx

Mothers Day weekend for me!!

2010-05-07T19:22:00.000-07:00

Today I am off to The Sofitel at broadbeach for Mothers Day! I cant wait! One of my best friends gave us for our 30th birthday a nights accommodation at The Sofitel while they stay at our house and have the kids! what a GREAT pressie!

We are going to take the kids up with us and take them for a swim at the hotel and then Carly will take them home at 3pm when she finishes work and then bring them back in the morning to share Mothers day with me.

Life has been so crazy lately that this is an amazing treat for me!

HAVE A WONDERFUL MOTHERS DAY!!

I will show you photos of our weekend tomorrow

Fun Times....

2010-05-07T16:15:00.000-07:00

All about tickets this week.......which means fun times ahead!! Yipeeee

#. Sydney, Hong Kong & Xiamen, Fujian in June.

#. Angus and Julia Stone Concert.

#. VIP Semi Permanent 2010 Brisbane followed by The Banksy Film "Exit Through The Gift Shop".

Cinnamon Hill

2010-05-06T03:46:00.000-07:00

Today I am introducing you to Cinnamon Hill. My husbands cousin Stephanie creates the cutest little 'Poppy Dollies'! Maya received one for Christmas and she absolutely adores her. Maya named her Penelope (photos below) and she sits up on Maya's dressing table along with Maya's other treasured possessions! They are handmade, hand painted and stained with coffee and vanilla....so special! Best of all Stephanie only charges $50 for them!

You can visit Cinnamon Hill's facebook page HERE or the website HERE.

cooking for kids

2010-05-05T02:05:00.000-07:00

Kate got me thinking about cooking for kids! I always find it so hard to cook something that the whole family will love. And even better its fun to get the kids involved. I went looking for different recipes and found some great ideas!

www.taste.com.au has a special section just for kids!

I found this recipe for "Crunchy Fish Baskets" and made them last night. My kids thoroughly enjoyed them! And there are plenty more on there that I want to try.

Ingredients

8 slices day-old white sandwich bread
olive oil cooking spray
2 teaspoons olive oil
1/2 small red onion, finely chopped
500g boneless white fish fillets (such as perch, ling or blue-eye), cut into 1cm cubes
1/2 small lemon, juiced
1/3 cup light thickened cream
2 tablespoons finely chopped chives

Method

Preheat oven to 180°C. Trim crusts from bread. Using a rolling pin, roll out each slice until 5mm thick. Spray both sides with oil.
Press each slice of bread into a 1/3-cup capacity muffin hole. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until edges are golden and crisp.
Meanwhile, heat oil in a non-stick frying pan over medium heat. Add onion and cook for 3 minutes or until soft. Add fish and cook for 2 minutes. Add lemon juice, cream and salt and pepper. Simmer, uncovered, stirring, for 3 minutes or until sauce thickens slightly and fish is just cooked through. Spoon fish mixture into bread cases. Sprinkle with chives and serve.

enjoy xx

Our style sushi!

2010-05-04T00:46:00.000-07:00

Yum, I LOVE sushi but I don't really love Seaweed - neither do Tane, Xaviah or Maya...so we make our own style of sushi.

You have to make sure to use rice especially for sushi so that it sticks together.

Instead of seaweed we use Mountain Wraps for the base.

This is Xaviahs favourite part! You can put whatever you want in it....we put snow peas, avocado, chicken, carrot and most importantly Kewpie Sushi Mayo! Although it's Xaviahs favourite part to FILL them with vegies he won't EAT any with vegies in them so we make plain as well!

You are left with these long rolls which when cut make the yummiest Sushi ever!

Our dinner!

Things I love to do in my town

2010-05-03T04:43:00.000-07:00

Today I thought that i would write about things that my family and I love to do in my town. We live on The Gold Coast in the beautiful suburb of Currumbin. It was only over the weekend that we took the kids and our dog for a walk that I realised how lucky we are to live here. I thought it might be a good idea to share with you all what we enjoy doing and then you could write in and let us know what you and your family do for entertainment where you live? It is always good as a mum or dad to know what is fun for families! We are beach lovers, which is why i want to hear about what everyone else does!

We love "The Dune" Cafe at Currumbin Estuary, its just off the Gold Coast highway at currumbin and they have built a fabulous new pirate park and cafe on the shores of the gorgeous estuary. The kids love swimming there, its nice and safe which means I can relax and afterwards I can sit and have a nice cup of coffee while they play in the parklands. This place is super kid friendly!! Sometimes we ride our bikes down, which really wears the kids out!

Hastings Point in Northern NSW is another stunning spot that we love to picnic. There is a small park, heaps of shade and the water is beautiful and perfect for young children!

OMG I almost forgot, Tallebudgerra Estuary is the most amazing spot! There is a stunning bush walk that you can easily push a pram along. There are lots of trees and just an amazing outlook!

Who can beat riding along the pathways between Kirra Beach and Point Danger and stopping for ice cream in Coolangatta.

For those Rainy days we love going to Kidz Biz at 14/23 Enterprise ave, South Tweed Heads. The cafe has great food and yummy coffee and is in between the young kids play area and the older kids play area. The slides are really fun and have quite an angle on them!

Lets hear some from you now, we would love to know what you guys do!!

Aotearoa!!!

2010-04-30T14:25:00.000-07:00

Now for our NZ customers............Where can you buy our clothes??

Online:

Chocolate & Chilli

Peaknuckle

Cherish Child - Also open have a brick and mortar store in Mount Maunganui

Our clothes are also sold in Wellington at the Child Boutique - website coming soon!

Stay tuned for next summer though, we have a heap more NZ shops on board with thanks to our awesome NZ agent!

Tomorrows blog I will cover where to buy in Europe...

Our onliners!

2010-04-29T19:18:00.000-07:00

While we are on the subject of online stores I thought I would let you know about all of the places where you can purchase three little trees online! Not all of them have the same stock so make sure to check them all out if you are looking for something special!

There are soooo many online stores out there or opening and it's really hard because at present we turn down about 3 online enquiries a week that get added to our waiting list! We have to keep them to a minimum to be fair to our current online stockists........and just quietly we think we have the best pick of the bunch ;)

Click on the links below and it will take you straight to our clothes:

Little Pinwheel - which Jac spoke about yesterday.

Shop House - Where you can see pictures of our clothes on their very own models

Mini Style

The Little Kidz Closet

Little Pinwheel

2010-04-29T05:29:00.000-07:00

Hi Guys......

I am in a blogging mood tonight! So here is my second blog for the day!

Little Pinwheel is one of our most favorite online children's stores. They have the most adorable pieces of clothing for boys and girls; including Three Little Trees! he he.

Hayley form "Little Pinwheel" sent us the most beautiful email yesterday that I just had to share with you all! Thanks Hayley, we think you are FANTASTIC too!!

"hello lovely!

I have to say to you and to Jac, your label rocks. Seriously it sells out for me every season and hardly any goes on sale. I can already see it is doing much the same this year. All poppy tights sold, all hazel top sold and the others are not far behind! Thanks lovely ladies for such a great brand that has such a big following.

MWAH!

xx "

Go and check out Little Pinwheel for the best kids fashion around!

Lily lost her first tooth and so did Daddy!

2010-04-29T03:13:00.000-07:00

The potato pretending to be a tooth!!
Lily with her gap

Lily lost her first tooth today at school! She was so proud of herself when she got off the school bus and she had kept it safe all day! She had to go to gymnastics straight after school so we wrapped the tooth up safely in a minty wrapper (the only thing we could find in the car!) and she went off to gymnastics.

We came home and got the tooth out of the wrapper and placed it into a glass of water. I said to my husband in front of lily, "Now Daddy this is where Lilys tooth is ready for the tooth fairy to come and collect". showing him the glass, My husband nodded and continued to sip his beer and stir the dinner.

We had dinner and I was about to take the kids to bed when I went to get the glass with the tooth in it BUT........... much to my horror the glass was empty!!!!!

Lily was in the bathroom brushing her remaining teeth and i grabbed Justin discretely and whispered "Where is the tooth that was in this glass?????" he said "OMG was it in THAT glass?!?!?!" (MEN!!!) he ran straight to the kitchen sink hoping that it would still by chance be sitting there amongst the food scraps he had scraped from the plates..... nope, no tooth!!!

What were we going to do? Quick thinking turned me to a potato while Justin stalled Lily in the bathroom. I grabbed the glass, put a small piece of potato in it and filled it with water.

Lily jumped into bed and wanted to see her tooth one last time; I held the glass up from a distance and said "QUICK! You need to go to sleep so the tooth fairy will come" she replied "Mummy I think my tooth must have been thirsty, it has grown a lot bigger in the water!"

Ha ha...... What a relief!!! It worked.

Very funny though!

Noon Accessories for all hair types

2010-04-27T04:20:00.000-07:00

The designer herself, Janine has thick short hair
These are the pony tail ties made with super strong clear elastics
Hayley has really thick heavy hair
Maya has very fine wispy hair that most hair ties and clips fall out of.
So many variations to choose from!
My daughter Lily with fine long hair
4 month old Matilda who barely has any hair!

One of Three Little Trees Best friend's Janine, is extremely talented and creates beautiful hand made hair accessories called "NOON". Each piece is individual and hand made with passion and love, she even hand crochets the detail! The best thing is that they are great for babies with a hair challenge and adults with a thick head of hair... they dress up any out fit! When ever my little girl Lily wears her clips she gets lots of beautiful compliments.

They are so comfortable to wear as well, the specially designed metal clips are non slip and tiny, I know that Lily forgets she is even wearing them and they are one of the only clips I know that will stay in her hair all day.

Retail prices start from $5.95 and can be found in "Dragon Fly" at Burleigh Heads and "Baby Empire" Bundaberg . To see Noons wonderful range and prices email Janine at bynoon@optusnet.com.au or call her on 0414544060 AND as a special offer to Three Little Trees fans she is offering a fantastic 10% discount, simply mention "Three Little Trees" in your enquiry.

Mayas new toy box...

2010-04-26T20:02:00.000-07:00

My aunty and uncle recently visited from Michigan in the States and mum took them down to Murwillumbah for the day - there they discovered lots of interesting shops that have popped up.....Organic Revolution was one of them and mum bought maya a new "toy box" which i am in love with - so much so that mum gave me the laundry basket that she had bought as well!

They are fair trade and made in Cambodia by landmine victims from recycled fish food bags. Mayas toy box was actually on sale as a waste paper bin or pot plant holder but i think it looks cute in her room!

Thanks Mum, love you..xx

Our new laundry basket at the bottom of my 'laundry shoot'. We play 'hoops' whenever we have dirty laundry....

Kate..xx

my wedding anniversary!

2010-04-25T20:29:00.000-07:00

Justin and I Now after seven years

( a bit older, a few more wrinkles and less hair.. he he)
My Dad and I on our wedding day
Justin and I on signing our marriage papers

Hi everyone,

I hope you are having a lovely ANZAC weekend! LEST WE FORGET! We have been so lucky to have gorgeous weather up here on the Gold Coast!

Today is actually my 7th wedding anniversary.... how time flies when your having fun! We have had a wonderful seven years together and have learnt so much about each other through hard times but mostly good times. I know that we will have many mores decades of a happy life together watching our kids grow.

We are not doing much today, but its nice just spending time together at home with our two gorgeous children. I have been looking through some wedding photos this morning reminiscing about the past. xx

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY JUSTIN!! XXX

Lest we forget...

2010-04-24T20:24:00.000-07:00

matildas room

2010-04-24T19:40:00.000-07:00

Have you ever seen such an elegant baby girls bedroom! This is my best friend Sophie's nursery for her daughter Matilda, she has a very keen eye for design and loved designing this nursery throughout her pregnancy.

The beautiful cot is by Leander Design and retails for around $1700. As stylish as it is, it is very practical; it transforms right through to a full size bed. See the picture below:

Her beautiful chest of drawers and chandelier is by Bella Maison Designs which stocks gorgeous french antique style furniture.

The bedroom is so classic and simple but it just goes to show with the right furniture any room can look amazing!!! Well done Soph, I love it!

How our ideas evolve TAKE 2! And shopping!

2010-04-23T00:52:00.000-07:00

The other day I started to blog about how our ideas get turned into a piece of clothing.

Well......the illustration that I started with hasn't made our final cut so I am going to start the post again but this time the illustration is by our most favourite graphic artist ever Krystal Maree Designs.

So here we go again -

Step 1: Design the garment. This time round we have chosen a babies romper.

Step 2: Sit around a table with our graphic artist (Krystal Maree Designs - another plug!! ) and mesh together our ideas to see what we come up with.....we draw, we play with pantone colours, we look through books for inspiration and we drink a lot of coke.

Step 3: Krystal emails through a final sketch...

Step 4: We either say wooo hooo or yuck! - This time we said wooo hooo!

Step 5: Krystal gets busy and works her magic on the MacBook Pro..............

Step 6: Waaaa Laaaaa - a hooded babies romper is born that you will be seeing in 2011!

Now jacqui and I get the oh so fun task of getting an industrial patterns and size specification sheets made up ready for our manufacturer. I much prefer the design process rather than the pattern making process - but without it there would be no need for the design process!!

Of course there are loads more details that need taking care of like labels, swing tags, getting fabric samples, choosing accessories like buttons press studs etc the list goes on and on and on and on...............................I have never been busier in my whole life than I am now but I love it!!

Yesterday I had to go to Burleigh to visit one of our local stockists Dragonfly, they are in James Street which has all these awesome little boutiques popping up everywhere. My favourite shop is LeDeux. I have bought way to pairs of jeans from there, another pair added to my collection yesterday! I actually got a tad sad today when i thought about all my jeans i will have to leave behind when we move to Bali! So sad!!

After my James Street fix I met Jac and Krystal at the Boat Shed restaurant in Currumbin - "business meeting" wink wink.....anyway I told Krystal about James Street and as she doesn't come to this end of the coast much decided that a shop was in order....so away she went....

Between us I think we did alright!

Cool card handmade by eighty days.

Jeans by Neuw.

Key Chain from Le Deux.

Betsy Blond Camera necklace from Raggedy Anne Boutique.

Yuka the robot from Monsoon.

To name a few.......

Have a lovely weekend.....

Kate....xx

what a beautiful day for soccer!

2010-04-22T17:53:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

Today my little boy Kai is starting "Squirts" soccer! We registered him yesterday and he received a little soccer ball and a shirt. He is so excited, he ran around the lounge room last night kicking the ball yelling with his little lisp "Look at this sick soccer trick mum, its awesome!"ha ha. Its for 3 - 5 year olds and it teaches them all of the skills that are needed to play the game. My husband and I really found it hard to find something that we thought that Kai would get into and enjoy. We tried swimming a few times over the last 3 years and all of these occasions ended in Kai screaming and choking back water! He hates been forced to do anything, he is such a cautious little guy. It has taken him until this summer season just to get into our pool at home and he is 4! His Daddy always played soccer growing up, so when we heard about this program, we thought it might be a winner! I will update you with photos tonight.

If you are interested in soccer for your little one, there are programs throughout Australia especially for these little guys. There is Tiny Soccer or Squirts soccer here on the Gold Coast, but just call up your local soccer club and i am sure they will point you in the right direction!

here is a photo of Kai yesterday with his mini soccer ball he wont let go of!

OK so we are home from soccer now and he absolutely LOVED IT!!! He concentrated on all of the tasks he was given (which his teacher cant even get him to sit and listen for 5 minutes! ha ha) he looked like he was having a ball. We bought him little soccer boots and shin pads which he wore until bath time... very cute! get your toddler active.. its so much fun to watch!

Gymnastics

2010-04-22T04:01:00.000-07:00

Today my little girl Lily started gymnastics. I was so proud of her! She has been asking me all week whether it is the day she starts gymnastics and today I could finally say "yes Lil, its after school today! yey!".

I have been trying to resist enrolling her, simply because our lives are just so crazily busy at the moment! She kept teaching herself how to do cart wheels, round offs and the splits and every one that saw her said "Oh you have to put her into Gymnastics!" Nippers has just finished for this year, so I figured I should let her give it a go. Sports is really important to Justin and I, we were always involved in a variety of sports and i think it can teach children a lot and not to mention keep them happy and healthy.

she started today in level 1, which goes for 2 whole hours! It looked exhausting but fun. they did push ups, stretches, summersaults, climbing, twisting... you name it!

The most important thing though is that she had lots of fun and wants to go back again next week.

these arent great photos...sorry xx

The Baby Bumbo Sitter

2010-04-21T05:34:00.000-07:00

Has anyone tried the Baby BUMBO sitter? I didnt get to use one when my kids were babies, but I know that Kate had one and loved it!! She was given it by one of our close friends that highly recommended it and had Maya in it all the time as her high chair, she placed it on the coffee table to feed her or just to support her and keep her occupied so that Kate could do a bit of house work. There was so many times that I really needed to put Kai or Lily down and didnt want to place them on the floor...this little chair would have been perfect! Even taking the Bumbo to a restaurant would save the hassle of finding a high chair. They are such a simple idea but so effective and really support the baby well. You can purchase these from "Toys R us" and any major baby stores for around $100.

Most babies begin to show signsthat they are ready to sit upindependently around five toseven months of age. Beforethis time their core muscles arenot developed to be strongenough to support the body.Until recently, typical baby"sitter' products that parentscould use included jumpers,exersaucers, bouncy seats, andswings – and, of course, astroller or sling!With the creation of the Bumbobaby seat parents have onemore choice for placing theirbabies while taking a shower,doing household chores,working at a computer, orwhatever parents need to dowith two hands.

Bumbo Baby Seat

The Bumbo baby seat is so simple that it's startling that no one invented one sooner. Shaped to conform to a baby's pelvis, the Bumbo holds the infant in an upright position with a smooth, thick foam that envelops the pelvis and bottom area, keeping the baby upright and stable. Infants must have complete head control before being strong enough for a Bumbo sitter chair, so the norm is around three to four months of age for starting to use the item.

As with any baby product that parents use as a substitute for a human holding the child, the Bumbo seat should never be used without adult supervision. The device is extremely portable, though, and can be moved from room to room or taken on road trips to be used while the parent is doing an activity that requires two hands or if the parent needs a break from holding baby.

Some Cautions to Consider when using The Baby Bumbo Sitter

Because the baby Bumbo sitter envelops the child so well, and gives the child a clear, upright position from which to sit, the device can be a bit deceptive in giving the impression of more stability than is really present. Bumbo chairs have higher-than-average product reports of injury resulting from falls – some parents will place the child in the Bumbo baby seat on a countertop, or on a kitchen or dining table.Injuries generally result from two situations: the baby is too close to the edge or the baby has more core muscle strength than the parent realises, and while stretching or shifting weight the child can tip the chair over

Features

Designed for infants from three months to one year, the Bumbo seat is uniquely designed according to the baby's posture. It can be used on any flat surface and promotes new opportunities for interaction between you and your child such as eye level feeding.
Manufactured to the highest safety standards from low-density foam material, the Bumbo seat is lightweight and portable, whilst also soft and comfortable for your baby. The outer cover of the sitter is durable and easy to clean, making it safe and hygienic for your child.
Bambo Play Tray fits securely to the front of the Bumbo, is made of wipe clean plastic, and Allows Bumbo to be transformed for play and feeding.
The Bumbo enables babies to sit upright all by themselves! Bumbo Baby Seats are suitable for babies from as soon as they can support their own heads unaided until they can get out of the seat on their own.

our story!

2010-04-20T05:00:00.000-07:00

Today I was looking through old files on my mac and found the story we wrote that was inspired by Three Little Trees. I thought that I would pull it out for you all to read it, i forgot how cute it was. For those of you have have bought Three Little Trees garments you will know that you receive native seeds in the little pouches attached to the swing tags. This is so that all the little boys and girls around the world can plant the seeds to help regenerate our world:

Once upon a time in a far away land called Kaixaviah,

there lived a beautiful blue bird called Olive.

One sunny morning Olive awoke to thundering vibrations,

that nearly knocked her off her perch.

She looked up over the hill and saw a sea of angry red

bulldozers. They were chopping down all the trees!

If there were no trees left the land would die. The animals

would have nowhere to live, the children no place to play

and the wild berries no where to grow...

Much to Olive's delight two girls called Maya and Lily

heard her cries for help. Maya had a thought to save the land.

They would hide seeds in all the children’s clothing, so that

the children could plant the seeds to help re-grow the forest

and save Kaixaviah.

The children began to plant the seeds. Olive and the other animals came to
help.

The forest slowlys tarted to grow and soon blossomed.

The land of Kaixaviah was saved!

How our ideas evolve!

2010-04-20T01:35:00.001-07:00

As well as Jac's 'everyday life of three little trees' blog posts i thought i would show you how our ideas evolve into a piece of clothing!

Step 1.

a) Design the garment. For this we have chosen a hoodie.

b) Get an industrial pattern and spec sheets ready for our manufacturer to make samples.

Step 2.

Plant a little seed in one of our awesome graphic artists heads, i.e. GEEK. They then draw a sketch and send it through to us for a yay or nay.

Stay tuned...............................

Kate...x

camping at yamba

2010-04-19T03:09:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

Sorry I didnt get to blog yesterday... i think i am getting a winter bug! Yuk! I hope everyone had a great weekend. We spent the weekend tidying up the house and yard. I dont know about you, but it seems the moment autumn and winter approaches our yard and garage turns upside down! We went camping over the easter weekend, which was fantastic....... but the unpacking part is not fun at all! I havent been camping in years and you forget how much you have to pack just to go for a few nights!

Has anyone been camping in Yamba? We went camping at The Blue Dolphin Resort on The Clarence river ( www.bluedolphin.com.au) and if you have kids it is a wonderful playground! They have an inside soft play center, a games room, two pools, one with water slides, 3 playgrounds, go kart hire, tennis courts and boat hire not to mention kids club on weekends and school holidays! The kids had a ball and because they were happy, we were happy. While we were there the kids had sac races, egg and spoon races, went to a junior disco, fished, went on the paddle boats and jumped on the jumping castle. If we had of booked a bit earlier we could have even got a camp site with an en suite, which is more my cup of tea! ha ha. It drove me crazy waking up through the night and putting my thongs on and traipsing to the public toilets!

I have attached some photos for you of our little camping adventure. If you are ever up this way you should definitely give it a try!

Ice skating!

2010-04-16T23:16:00.000-07:00

Last week X's report card came in the mail - highest mark for every single thing! So he got to choose something fun to do - he picked ice skating! He's never been before so i was a little worried that his little bubble would burst as soon as he found out he couldn't stand up - but he proved me wrong. I am so proud of him, not because he could do it by the end but because he didn't give up. I couldn't even count how many times he fell over but he just kept on getting up and trying again. At one stage Tane and I were sitting down on the side lines having a drink when we noticed him missing - he was already half way around the rink by himself!

Ice skating must be like riding a bike because i haven't done it for so many years but it didn't take long to get back into the swing of it. Tane used to play ice hockey at school in NZ so he was showing off and X thought his daddy was very cool!

So much fun!! Sorry about the blurry photos, RIP my very missed camera, iphone pics for now.

Respecting your elders

2010-04-16T23:06:00.000-07:00

Respecting your elders

Today, I wanted to write about how much I respect old people. I have a dear friend that lives across the road from me, her name is Lillie Anne Gibbons. She is the most beautiful person that I know. We named our 5 year old daughter Lily after her and both of my children call her "Nanna Lil". Its fantastic for my kids to have a grandparent figure living so close to us, as their own grandparents all live 12 to 13 hours drive away. Its something that I am sure a lot of people take for granted; She spoils them rotten every time we visit, she helps discipline them and corrects their grammar; but most importantly she is a tower of wisdom and can teach my children things that my husband and I never could.

Lillie came out on a ship from England when she was only 18, with the love of her life "Keith". Sadly I did not get to meet Keith before he past away many years ago, although I feel like I know him from all of the fond memories she often tells us about.

They spent their early married life in Melbourne; Keith was a handsome bank manager and Lillie worked in fashion part time and was a mother to two beautiful boys Paul and David. Keith never wanted Lillie to work, as he did not want Lillie's Mother to think that he could not provide for her. Lillie was bored though, so one day she took herself into one of the up market ladies fashion stores in the city and requested a job. Clearly taken by her beauty, the owner of the store jumped at the chance and said "when can you start?" Well, Lillie was taken back and said "I will have to check with my husband, but I am sure that I can start on Monday". "great!" the store owner replied "you can work 9am until 5pm Monday to Friday." "Oh no!!!" Lillie replied with a horrified look on her face "I will work 10am to 2pm, so I can drop my boys off and collect them from school." She always laughs when she tells me this story because she knows how lucky she was to get such a wonderful job and yet there she was with so much confidence telling the owner of the store when and when not she would work!

Lillie is so inspiring to me, she reminds me of Elizabeth Taylor, she is always so glamorous and makes an effort every day to look her best. Not many people, including myself even know how old Lillie is. She says "My dear Mother always told me, If someone is rude enough to ask a lady her age, they deserve to be told a lie."

Another story that is close to Lillie's heart and I really enjoy hearing, is when Keith retired and surprised her one day with a trip around the world. He took her on a first class holiday, with no expenses spared for about 6 months! He had organised to meet their children and grandchildren in Rome, where they spent a few weeks in a beautiful guest house, enjoying the sights. Still to this day, Lillie always insists on living life to the fullest and goes on a cruise every year to many overseas destinations.

Up until about 3 months ago lillie was very independent, she went out to dinner as many as 3 times a week with her friend Rob, She volunteered at John Flyn Hospital and sung in the choir every week. Sadly she had a couple of bad falls and has not quite recovered, they have really knocked her around. After a month in hospital, she returned home a few weeks ago and is still trying to be independent. She is such a proud lady and I know it is hard for her to accept help. I call or pop in every day to see how she is going and I know she always puts on a brave, happy face, even when she is not feeling so well... she is such a positive person.

Yesterday I popped over with dinner, as I have most nights this week, because I know that she hasn't been eating properly. I walked into her bedroom and said "Hi Lillie, its Jacqui, I have just brought you over some dinner." She looked up with a great big smile and then burst into tears. "Lillie what is wrong?" I said. She sobbed "How did you know that I didnt have any food? I was going to have a poached egg for egg for dinner, but I have run out of eggs." It brought tears to my eyes, because part of me felt very guilty that I had not checked what she had left in her fridge and cupboard earlier! It made me realise how important she was to me and how easily the elderly can fade away into the forgotten world amongst our often busy lives. I believe that Lillie will get better; but at the moment its time that my family slows down and pays back much of the love and attention she has always shown us to get her on the road to recovery and independence.

So please if you have someone elderly that lives close to you, ask them how they are doing, invite them into your life and try to be part of theirs, because as much as they might need your friendship and care, I believe that the younger generations need them!

Holding my daughter at one day old; she brought me in

a gorgeous bunch of flowers.

My two beautiful Lillie's with my wonderful mum Denise.

Lillie holding Lily on her 1st birthday

Lily and Lillie when she came over for dinner

Lillie sharing in My Lily's first day of school

"Your Love is a Rare and Beautiful gift"

"Grandmothers can turn simple moments
into gifts of love
Your love is a rare and beautiful gift
and you show it in so many ways ~
In the pride that you take in your family,
in your words of affection and priase,
In your laughter and warm sense of humor,
in the generous things that you do ~
Your love is a rare and beautiful gift
and there’s no one who shares it
like you."

Source: www.nanascorner.com 17th april 2010

The kombi that i can't drive

2010-04-15T19:51:00.001-07:00

I LOVE kombi's - always have and always will. I have wanted one since i was a teenager. I own the kombi of my dreams and the most frustrating thing about it is that i have never learnt to drive a manual! The kombi is manual so i just can't drive it.....whenever i do i get sweaty palms, bunny hop for km's, get lots of frustrated drivers beeping at me from behind and then i give up.....most importantly though my husband,children and I get hours of laughs throughout my "lesson".

So here is a photo of my husband driving it back from the kombi doctors...taken by me sulking in our 'normal' car behind...

sulk (slk)

intr.v. sulked, sulk·ing, sulks

To be sullenly aloof or withdrawn, as in silent resentment or protest.

Have a good weekend!...Kate...xx

MOVIE WORLD WITH 3 KIDS UNDER 6!

2010-04-15T01:31:00.000-07:00

MOVIE WORLD WITH 3 KIDS UNDER 6!!

OMG I am tired!! Today I had a HUGE day at movie world with 3 very excited kids! We got there at about 10.30am, lined up for about 40 minutes just to get in! We headed straight to the kids world, which I must say was great for the my kids who are 4 and 5, they could go on just about every ride.

They even have a roller coaster for the little ones, which i think i would still get scared on!!!!! Lily and xaviah lined up while I stayed with Kai; they got to the front of the line and poor Xaviah was about half a cm to short to go on by himself! Luckily the nice lady behind offered to go on with him, but then that left Lily by herself. The ride took off and all I could hear was Lily screaming at the top of her lungs the whole way around. Xaviahs face was pale white at the end of the ride and lil looked in shock!.

before..... A LITTLE NERVOUS!

after!!

We went on quite a few rides and the kids got to see all of their favorite characters, I have attached some photos for you below we had a great day:

La Toriana blog

2010-04-13T21:58:00.000-07:00

This morning Elizabeth from La Toriana sent us an email to say that she had just blogged about our winter range. I must say it looks fabulous.... you should all take a look, she has a wonderful variety of clothes on her site and has had a lot of interest in our girls dresses!

OK now to the "everyday life of three little trees" blogging that we have promised:

(above )My daughter Lily and Kates son Xaviah in Bali, they just love each other!! Its very cute!

Kate and I with some very yummy cocktails.. I cant quite remember what they were though?? he he and some random shots from our holiday - we love bali, love the culture, love the architecture, love the oga ogas and Nyepi day!!

Hi guys,

Well another day has just about gone and we have been busy packing more winter orders! It seems that our winter stock is just flying off the racks and we are already sending re-orders out!

The last few weeks have been exhausting for Kate and I. You have all seen that recently we went to Bali on a family holiday together, which was wonderful..... but right now it seems like that was years ago!! ha ha

We flew in to The Gold Coast airport at about 10:30 am after flying all night from Bali. Poor Justin had to actually go straight to work that morning because he thought we were getting back the day before... he doesn't listen very well, probably like a lot of husbands out there! So we raced home and he had a quick shower and he drove to work. I was left with 4 large suitcases full of dirty washing, a green dirty pool and an over grown lawn and 2 very tired and grumpy children... lucky me! So this day was spent washing, yelling, unpacking, yelling, mowing and cleaning!! aaarrrgggh

while we were away our winter stock was delivered to our warehouse, so I set my alarm the next morning for 7am and I sent my poor kids to school with Jet lag so I could get down and start the huge job of sorting through our range! I felt like the worst mum in the world, but there were so many stores waiting patiently for our clothes, I had to start! I dressed Kai in his uniform while he was still asleep and they ate a muesli bar in the car for breakfast.

I got to the warehouse at about 9am to see a huge sea of boxes!! OMG this was going to take me forever and so I started putting them in some sort of order to start packing our 70 orders the next day!! This was just the start of it in the photo below!

We got all of our main orders out over the weekend with many thanks to some good help from family and friends. I even had poor Justin on the forklift, lifting boxes at 11.30 pm on a Sunday night!!

We have continued packing many new orders over the last couple of weeks and now we are even getting re-orders!!! It is all worth while when you hear that parents and kids love our designs and stores cannot get it up quick enough!! I love my job! To see where you can buy our very cool winter collection please see our stockist page at www.threelittle trees.com.au

moving to Bali

2010-04-12T17:19:00.001-07:00

Well after a wonderful 2 week holiday we have made the decision to move our two families over to beautiful Bali.

Kate had her mind set on moving before we went and was trying her best to persuade the rest of us while we were there. She organised a trip to the "Green School" up past Ubud. I can tell you now that my husband Justin would have much rather of picked his surf board up and gone surfing when we first suggested the day trip, but the moment we got there his mouth was left wide open in amazement!

We entered through the back of the school across a huge bamboo architectural looking bridge that has actually won a few design awards. From there we trekked up a man made stone path past the bamboo principles office to the main area of the school. I could not believe what I was seeing, the classrooms and students looked so peaceful, there were no walls just a mud based slab and thatched roofing. Surrounding the classrooms was veggie and herb gardens that the school uses for their canteen and lunches. The children learn off the cambridge teaching as well as mixing some steiner teaching methods and most importantly the children are taught how to look after their world so that it is still around for their grandchildren. The computer lab and arts and drama room were in the main building that reminded all of us of being on the movie set of "Avatar".
Justin kept saying that he would go back to school just to go to the Green school!

So all in all we left the school on a very positive note and were edging much closer to the decision to move there. However the boys would not admit to this, because they knew, as soon as they said "yes" to Kate and I we would be like a bull at a gate organising the big move! ha ha

We went from the Green School to The monkey Forrest in Ubud, which the kids were so excited about. We paid our entry fee and started walking down the path. The kids were a little bit scared so Justin decided to sit on the concrete wall and get a monkey to come and sit next to him. He patted the wall gently with his hand and up jumped a big monkey... within a second it had latched onto his arm, making an awful hissing noise sound. blood was trickling down his arm and the kids were beside themselves! 5 rabies vaccinations later and Justin is ok, still quite resentful at the monkey that bit him though. I didnt realise how vicious monkeys could be!

So once again Kate was back to square one trying to convince us all to move! It was quite funny really.

The rest of the holiday however was magical. The relaxed lifestyle of Bali was enviable. Both Tane (Kate's husband) and Justin hired motor bikes for the holiday and they took all of the kids every day for a ride to the beach or around town. We went to a beautiful place called "Dreamland Beach" where the water was as clear as anything and the sand was glowing white. We sat by the pool every night and drank Bintangs, we had local baby sitters at the drop of a hat and the kids even seemed much more relaxed!

We returned to Australia and really missed Bali, it only took Justin 2 days back at work to realise that a move to Bali would be good for all of us.

Our kids would have such a great cultural awareness and grounding. So we are now going through the process of applying for visas and looking at what needs to be done before we go.

We will start manufacturing our own clothes out of Bali so that Kate and I will have much more input through out the production process, which i think will benefit everyone.

Our winners!

2010-03-03T21:13:00.000-08:00

Just a quick one before we jet off for Bali....

We had so many gorgeous print ideas sent in for our competition

The winner is.......

Krystal Maree Gough:

Thanks so much, we cannot wait to get this print on some threads!!

xxx

COMPETITION! Yep another one!

2010-02-22T16:07:00.000-08:00

For this comp we have teamed up with our photographer Caroline from Mihaja Photography. You all know how much of a great photographer she is so this is a prize not to be missed. The total of the prize package is worth $905!! WoW!

Click HERE to see the full size flyer with details of how to enter!! Good luck!!

Competitions!!

2010-02-21T01:33:00.000-08:00

We have 2 competitions running at the moment!

Go to our website, down the bottom click on "follow us on facebook" become a fan and check them out!! Great prizes!!!

I will post about them on here tomorrow but this blog is playing up at the moment!!

xxx

Mathildas Markets

2010-02-12T21:41:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone!

On Saturday 20 February we will be showcasing our wares at Mathilda's Market. This is a fabulous niche market that offers unique, stylish and affordable baby & kids goods that are lovingly handmade or of limited production. The retailers are hand pick to ensure an exciting product range. It's a kid's shopping heaven. Better yet, most of the retailers do not have a shop front, so you know you'll find something special, not available anywhere else.

Please come and see our stand at Mathilda’s Market from 9am to 4pm at the Brisbane Racecourse at Eagle Farm, Ascot. Entry and parking is free.

With almost 80 retailers, gourmet food, plenty of kids entertainment Mathilda’s Market is becoming one of Brisbane’s best shopping destinations for the little ones.

For a sneak preview, have a look at the website (www.mathildasmarket.com.au) and enjoy a browse through the photos of all participants.

We look forward to seeing you there!

p.s. The markets are on indoor so rain, hail or shine, it will be on!!

starting school!!

2010-01-31T01:36:00.000-08:00

I am sure there are plenty of Mums and Dads out there that waived their beautiful children goodbye last week to go back to school, some i am sure were relieved after the big school holiday break, but for some it was the start of a new stage in their life and i certainly had a little moment where I thought my baby was suddenly a big boy now, which was very strange.

My children Lily and Kai were so excited they couldn't wait! Kai tried on his new school uniform every day last week and even wanted to wear it to swimming lessons!! He was starting in the ELC program which is composite pre school and kindergarten. Its a great idea and he loves being at school already with his big sister Lil!! This pictures were when I picked them up after his first day. One sock up, one sock down, colar up and shirt out.. ha ha.... a true little boy. He was lucky enough to be starting with his best mate Seamus and they stick together like glue!!!

Lily has been great also, she sat and ate her lunch with
the boys and said she kept checking on Kai in his classroom, and reported back to me each afternoon, she is very sweet.
Second day of school they were both begging me to catch the school bus, so we put them on the private school bus (this only goes to their school) and they both had a HUGE grin on their face, plonked themselves behind Mr Brown their wonderful bus driver and off they went. I called the school twice during the day to make certain they would get on the bus in the afternoon and much to my relief at 3.45pm I could see their little faces in the front seat of the bus waving madly at me from 100m down the road. Kai said "It was great Mummy, very bumpy though!"
Its now Sunday night and Lily is sound asleep, but Kai keeps walking out to me asking "Is it time for school yet Mummy?"
So to all those kindergarten and prep kids out there, "well done guys, its a huge exciting step you have all made last week and there are many great times ahead for you all".
xx