FACEBOOK AND A BLOG!!!!!

Well, I did it!!! I have put my Flutterby Doll Creations and Bargains onto Facebook. AND I HAVE A LOGO!!!!!!!!! You can find me on facebook under my business name. We have loads of dolls clothes, shoes, bedding and accessories. We also have some new HANDMADE ITEMS FOR BABIES AND CHILDREN including BOO BOO bags, Water bottle covers, library/swimming bags, FELT FOODS for imaginary play, Wet bags, baby slings and more. Come check us out and I will update my blog really soon with a post about Nate's 1st Birthday and Baptism, while Uncle Ben and Aunty Jess were here from London. Post soon xxx Ps I have also started a business blog more info to come soon. Here are some pics of our products in our business page xxx

comments greatly appreciated.

Long awaited update...........and my idea!!!!!!!!!!

Well firstly I can't believe we are in the third month of the year already, so much has happened since my last post. Our baby girl had her long awaited HI 5 preschool party for her 5th Birthday with all her preschool friends. It went really well and we had friends from swimming come join us after the party for a swim and lunch. She was VERY spoilt!!! We gave Kade her first bike............she loves it and is getting really good on it too. Then a month later, we celebrated Christmas starting Christmas Eve at Mum's place followed by Christmas lights at Kath's, then home to bed for Santa to come. Daddy was eagerly waiting to poke the kids and wake them up when they were still asleep at 6am LOL...............See pics...........Kids were very spoilt. It is lucky I start shopping boxing day for the following Christmas or else we would have been very short on the present front this year. My tip for having a spoilt Christmas............always check the clearance racks and tables at Target, Myer, Big W, K-mart etc and pick up CHEAP toys, clothes at end of season clearance or ebay or markets, presents for others in the fam..........Then keep a book with a list of everyone you buy for and write in it when you get home from shopping every week. This way by Christmas you have probably bought better presents for the price you would have spent, and you don't double up on presents either. We do this for kids birthday parties too. So when the kids come home from school/kindy with an invitation they go shopping in the "present box". I also get a lot of things at the toy sale at K-mart (much cheaper), and I buy things in this sale for birthdays and Christmas for the next 12 months. We don't buy anything for the kids during the year when we go shopping each week, so they get super spoilt at Christmas (and why not!!???). The money issue I overcome by selling off my kids old toys and clothes (still in good condition - which is a benefit of having too many clothes or toys - they stay in good condititon to resell), then I resell them and reuse the money for the following season or year of toys that I buy brand new :)) We had a quiet New Years at home. The end of January marked my baby girls first day of school - Prep at Narangba Valley State School. She is loving it and enjoying it very much. It also was my Mum's 60th party which was a country hoedown. It was sooo much fun!! and wonderful to catch up with some old friends. February was rather busy but uneventful really.

Financial situation - hasn't changed much at all, Col's job is still there but the hours are getting shorter especially with the rain lately which is very untimely with my wage finishing at Easter holidays. He is being paid but not earning enough. The work is there, just the company isn't working in the rain!!! I have been volunteering at Cafe (tuckshop) at school every fortnight and its really fun, but this will stop next Term as I will need to return to work :(( I'm also about to start my studies for ABA breastfeeding counsellor course. I'm looking forward to this. My CBS group (Community Breastfeeding Support group) I'm apart of is still active, and we are meeting at the Caboolture EYC every fortnight on a Wednesday in line with Community Cuppa (12:30 - 2:30pm). I am getting use to the school drop off/pick up routine, and am very lucky that Col is home for both so most days I go to do this without the boys. Kade is at a new ballet school and it is much better, much more challenging and she is really enjoying it! Dominic is enjoying Happy Coconuts sports program (8 sports 4 weeks of each throughout the year) and swimming. Nate is loving swimming!! I will be doing supply teaching on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays next Term and see how this goes, also may be working with a good friend of mine around Validation time. Col and I will have to play it by ear with the boys and Col being able to look after them, to avoid day care fees!!

Col's Dad is doing ok! He is very exhausted, is resting and keeping strong. We keep him in our prayers constantly :)) Praying for a full recovery.

Well, that was my update........my blog will be updated once a month now. I'll start at the end of this month as my little baby boy will be turning one and has his party at the end of this month. We are having a car/truck party for him.

My idea.................I have been trying to get my website up and running but don't have 1. money to get help, 2. knowledge or know how, 3. the time it takes..............so I'm thinking I might do a BLOG???????? OR FACEBOOK PAGE?????? for my Flutterby Doll Creations business??? what do you think?????

A month of events (the good, the bad and the ugly!!)

Well we started August off with Dominic's 3rd Birthday. We took the family to Alma Park zoo with my Mum, Col and Sean, Donna, Bethany and Joshua. We had a great day!!! The birthday boy enjoyed the baby crocodile the best. The day after this trip we took the kids to the Brisbane Ekka for our annual trip. The kids had an absolute ball, and wanted to get there specific showbag at the beginning of the day so we told them, they had to carry it all day and they did. Kade got the Barbie Diamond Castle bag, Dominic got the Transformers bag and we got Nate Elmo. They scored more bags later in the day. We saw everything there was to see, Kade and I did the girly thing and went to the fashion parade which i had booked tickets on line so we got front row. We finished the day in the arena watching night events and the fireworks. We figured out a way to get Nic to watch them and took earmuffs for him. I'll post some pics................ We also went for a trip to the Gold Coast and stayed at the Paradise Resort. Great place to stay with kids, very child friendly....Kids went to Kids zone for their free session at dinner till bedtime, so we got dinner without them LOL We had buffet breakfast the next day too.......... I have continued to do more markets.. The headbands and clips have proven popular. My november market will be for dolls clothes only as they are proving popular getting closer to Christmas..............I also HAVE A WEBSITE....... I'm very excited to actually be doing this myself (thanks to my brother-in-laws help, thanks Ant)... my website address is www.flutterbydollcreations.com it is a work in progress but by next year I should have it up and running to start taking orders between markets........................Nate has been growing in length rapidly but not putting on much weight, so we have started him on solids. He is LOVING his vegies for lunch and rice cereal with fruit for dinner. He put on 200gms in one week and can already swallow without problems!!!! Kadence is super keen with learning about calendars, dates etc at the moment and we have a magnet calendar on the fridge we do every morning. She is also learning to write her name..... I have printed out her name to practice in dot and outline font....Thanks for the idea Suzanne!! She is loving it.....We also picked up her school uniforms and had orientation this month too. She will be going to Narangba Valley next year, and looks super cute in her uniform.....especially the formal dress (navy blue with royal blue check (similar to tartan - not small check)..... so cute!!!!! We have added 3 chickens to the Tunney household and they don't mind the kids picking them up, they are from Henny Penny at preschool (we are worried now that one may be a rooster), and Colin has scored a new job YEAH YEAH YEAH!!! he started a fortnight ago, deisel mechanicing for business that has up to 150 trucks in the fleet. It is the same pay as truck driving at this stage but will increase after his probation period.......so in two months time we should be back on track FINALLY!! with my word for 2009 being FAMILY it has been proven to me so much already this year, the importance of good family and friends around you and the importance of my family pulling closer together in times of crisis and getting through it!
Now for the bad,,,,, we have spent the last 7 weeks with illness one after the other. Dominic had ear infections, Kade had a 24 hr bug that returned, then had a diarrheoa bug last week. Nate had a cough for weeks and the doc suspected whooping cough but luckily it wasn't. I have suffered from sinus headaches for 5 weeks and after a fortnight of anti-biotics my headache is finally subsiding. My k9 baby Skye Blue got a paralysis tick when we went camping and almost died, luckily they found it in time and we have now had to change her meds for Addisons disease due to lose of weight, and she has stomach ulcers (so more tablets) from the meds for her AD so now has more tabs to take and they made her throw up for 24 hrs..................Please a month with no illness in the house would be great!!! How can one family all go down in a heap all at once!!!

Now the ugly,,,,, We had our washing machine break last week and the water was flowing for a while and went down the hallway and all through the kids rooms. This ended in 3 children sleeping in our room, the older two on camping mattresses on the floor and the baby in the portacot. The carpets were ripped up and industrial blowers under the carpets for 4 days.........Thank goodness for house insurance........positive thing is I now have a new fisher and paykel 7kg top loader washing machine that works like a front loader and is super cool!!! and the kids carpets are super clean LOL.... The other ugly for the month is Colin's dad has been diagnosed with Bone Cancer. So as he starts the chemo and mountains of meds road, we are helping him and Col's Mum out around the house so he can do the one thing he is allowed to do REST, REST, REST...........If his body responds well to treatment, he will go into remission and be ok........any prayers for him would be appreciated........We pray every night that he will respond well to treatment and be well again.
Well it has been a full on month and I'm hoping that the coming months bring more of the happiness, healthiness and money (rather than the opposite of last month) for my family, immediate and extended.......
I still need to nut out that sling too.........just need the time to get it done HA, HA....3 kids and a hubby on night shift doesn't allow for much Mummy time xxx

To Market, To Market!!!! and water safety week.

The last two weekends have been spent doing my usual market stalls. I have been a stall holder at the Good Buy Baby market at Morayfield and The Baby and Kids Market today, at Nudgee. I am very pleased with the result of selling $150 worth last weekend and $240 at todays market. I am just selling off the kids clothes they have grown out of, unwanted toys, shoes grown out of and dolls clothes. I price everything fairly cheap $5 an outfit or $1 to $3 a piece. The better quality stuff I sell for $10 an outfit or cheaper. I enjoy meeting new people, new babies and chatting with other stallholders. Today I had two lovely ladies next to me that helped hold Nate while I set up and while the market was on. My good friend Jodie booked the stall for me and she did well today too, and her friend Bec was a lifesaver getting me a drink and something to eat halfway through. Thanks Jodie and Bec :)) I managed to score some clothes at the end for Nate from the lovely lady behind me that didn't want to take all her leftovers home LOL;)) I'll upload a photo of my stall. Today I added some girls headbands and hairclips. Inspired by my friend Suzanne, I purchased a yo-yo maker for $9.95 and a six pack of headbands that came with 4 pairs of clips aswell for $2.00. I played last night and used the buttons, material and flowers from Mum for scrapbooking that I got for christmas and this was the result. I was very pleased with how they turned out and might purchase the bigger yo-yo maker as well. The little one is perfect for the clips. I'm not sure what price to put on them????? what do you guys think?? price for headband?? price for pair of clips?? comments appreciated.


My imported dolls clothes from America continue to be very popular and i sold two outfits and 4 pairs of shoes today (and only had a handful of things on display). My next market is in September at Eatons hill (half stall for preloved clothes, half stall of doll clothes). My next challenge is to make a sling like mine before this market.........................I've had quite a few requests for one and I'm hoping to figure it out this week. I'll let u know how I go. Today was also Nate's first time in the walker. He loves sitting up and playing so LOVES the walker and the kids love pushing him around, and he loves watching them play. He still has tummy time and playtime in the jungle tent everyday but cooking dinner is a little easier with him happy in the walker. He's still not keen on the jolly jumper. Nate started the all important swimming lessons last week too. He is the first of my 3 kids not to scream all lesson. He enjoyed it actually :)) Kade and Nic had water safety week last week, so had to do their swimming lesson in their pyjamas. Their teacher suggested getting them to swim at the beginning of each summer with some clothes on. Great idea because the kids realised on Tuesday how much harder it is to swim fully clothed. Enjoy the pics!!!! and comments on prices for headbands and clips appreciated!! Thanks;)

TOY SALE and MOVIES!!!!

Well, we braved the toy sale again for another year and it was all done within an hour. My great friend Katie was my partner in crime again. (Thankyou xxx) While I also had two other wonderful friends Leeann (with Wade (my Godson) and Parker) and Lesley (and her daughter Sally) come to stay at my house for the week from Nanango. to do their toy shopping too. (Thankyou xxx) Lesley was kind enough to offer to look after Nate for me while we shopped. We have secrets to our madness which I'm not sharing (Sorry;(( but our military mission toy sale begins on Wednesday and finishes an hour after the shops open on Thursday. I dropped the kids off super early (6:30am) at kindy and preschool with their breakfast in hand, and proceeded to the shops by 7am to be lined up first at the door at 7:15am. We knew what we wanted and grabbed everything by 8:15am (thanks to Sally who was our bodyguard for the toys), after the shop opened at 8am. Luckily, Katie my speedy gonzales grabbed the only two plug and play cars games in the shop or we would have missed out as all K-marts didn't get many. After K-mart we proceeded to Big W for the rest of the list then we enjoyed a well earned cooked breakfast and large coffee!!!! All birthdays and Christmas pressies done for another 12 months. It sounds like a military mission to do every year but secretly we all enjoy the thrill of it:)) and the bargains are way TOO GOOD to pass up - only way we afford all the pressies;-)
I have also been shopping the Winter clearance sales and have picked up some bargains for neices- Jayda and Ruby aswell as Nate. Myer were having 25% off the marked down price and Target have some great bargains at the moment too.
Our other big event this month was taking the kids on a Surprise!!!! We took them to the shopping centre telling them we were going to a surprise. We got about 5 metres from the cinema entrance before Kadence clicked and said "Are we going to the movies????" when we said yes and we thought you'd like to see Ice Age 3 we had 2 verrrry excited children jumping up and down in the trolley. They were awesome in the movie and enjoyed the whole thing. We shared a large popcorn together and had water bottles. It was cheap Tuesday so cost $30 all up with popcorn. We usually have "movie" night together on Saturday night with the family movie on TV, we dim the lights and have popcorn after dinner, the kids will understand our family movie experience at home a lot more now. Nate continues to grow and has grown out of the 000 sleep suits I have borrowed for him. My good friend, Suzanne, has suggested a heater in his room instead of laying out more money for sleep suits or sleeping bags, so I will try that tonight. Nate has started waking up every night around 2am only once a night and feeds then goes back to sleep. But I'm thinking he is getting cold!!!! Our beautiful daughter Kadence also competed in her first Eisteddford. She got wonderful comments, danced a solo by herself on stage, some girls in her competition were 6years old (Kade is 4years old), she got 67 points and 1st place got 82 so she did really well. Some updated pics of the kids................and our movie adventure. Mummy is hoping Nate will LOVE the jolly jumper because preparing dinner will be so much easier then ;) The one of Nate falling is a classic shot of his fear face LOL

Biggest morning tea and Photos!!!

On Wednesday I went to the Biggest morning tea with Suzanne and her sister Nicole and met their Mum there (and Nate of course, who follows his milkbar LOL). It cost $5 to get in and was a great morning of coffee, treats and a huge auction. There was also a raffle which we all won a prize or two (Lucky Suzanne and me!!). I won a $40 meat voucher which was such a blessing. I got a whole frozen chicken, steak/cheese wraps, marinated lamb chops, mince, chuck meat for casseroles and gourmet rissoles for my vouchers. This will save us money in the groceries this week. Thanks for a wonderful morning Nola and girls:))
I spent yesterday with my great friend, Suzanne, who took some wonderful photos of me 38 weeks pregnant with Nate. She then followed up by taking some photos of Nate at 4 weeks. I went to her house yesterday morning to edit some to send to a newsletter for publishing, and to finally get Nate's birth announcement underway. Well, her sister Nicole was really sick (hope u feel better soon Nic!!!). So Suzanne had her son Carter and neice Lucy, then I had Nate and Dominic joined us after doing gymnastics with Daddy in the morning. So by lunchtime we had 4 kids under roof and still nothing done LOL We do chat way too much when we are together though!!! Not a good productive combination but I loved catching up. So after lunch they all went down for a sleep and we had Nate's birth announcement almost complete, then Suzanne went to pick Mackenna up from school. I rang my Mum and she picked up Kadence for me on her way home from work and dropped her off to Suzanne's house so I could keep working on the photos. (Thanks Mum:)) So now we have 6 children in the house and not being very productive still around food, toilet trips and nappy changes. We took the kids to Maccas for dinner and they were playing in the playground (getting rid of some energy;) when it started pouring rain! so after they got a little stir crazy in the restaurant we took them home and 40 minutes later, my two were picked up by Colin, cause work was cancelled for him when it started raining, and Suzanne's neices and son went to bed. Child free finally!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! After we got rid of all the children it only took 3 hours to complete what we had tried to accomplish in 8 hours LOL. Here is some of our all day work yesterday! I can take NO CREDIT for these shots or editing, it is all the wonderful work of Suzanne. (I hope u don't mind me sharing some Suz!)

****The *MAGIC* six week mark****

We have made that *magic* six week mark third time (and last time) around with a newborn in the house. I'm feeling great. Had my six week check up today and my tummy muscles have almost completely meshed together which means NO OPERATION!!!! yeah!! I have to wear my belly band thing for another 4 weeks and get my muscles checked in 3 months. Nate had his 6 week pead check up and he is all good too!! He marked his 6 weeks with a gift for us all.
He started smiling at 4 weeks but now we see it almost daily. He cracks the kids up with his cheeky smiles. It was kinda sad to say goodbye to Dr Vilaseri Tuicolo today, after he has looked after me through 3 pregnancies. I got photos of him with the kids for Nate's journal which one day I will get time to do. Dominic has started to toilet train and is already trained for nights but not for days. He tells me as its running down his legs at the moment but we are getting there. He sleeps all night without an accident and goes to the toilet first thing in the morning. Dominic has also blessed me with his first "boy bug" moment. I came home last night to a gecko in an insect catcher and he was very excited to show me, before we let his little friend go again outside. LOL. All these moments I have to look forward to with two boys in the house!!!!