Goodbye and goodluck...Miss Emma & Matt

You may recall my post from last week about everything going pear shaped at AnK Headquarters - you can read about it here - PEAR SHAPED POST

At the time I warned you of some more pear shaped news.  This is the blog post I have been delaying writing as it makes me very sad.  Remember Miss Emma ?  Her and her husband Matt joined the Malden family at the end of February 2012.  Miss Emma as our governess (aka twin tamer extraordinnaire) to the Year 5 terrors - Mr T and Miss M and Matt as part of our mustering team.  Matt and Emma are on their honeymoon around Australia and we feel privledged that they have stopped and experienced life with us for the last 4 months.  You can read about their travels here - The Happy Campers - An Outback Honeymoon Adventure.

Miss Emma & Matt's wedding.  Image by Sunny + Scout.
You can read about their fabulous wedding
as featured on the Style Me Pretty Blog

Matt and Emma have been an amazing asset to our team.  Miss Emma has delivered a breath of fresh air into our school room and I'm sure the kids are much happier with her presence in there than mine !
I wonder if Matt and Emma realised when they turned down this road,

and crossed this footbridge,

and settled into life in this donga...

of the experiences they would have whilst being part of our life at Malden ?

For Matt it hasn't all been about relaxing in the hammock ;) There's been motorbike mustering, branding, fencing, preg. testing, horse riding, space cowboying, negotiating flooded creeks....

 and a spot of coat hanger stacker building for AnK ;)

 Miss Emma has survived 3 units of Year 5, athletics carnival, recipe book editing, swimming carnival, home tutor workshop, cluster day, on air lessons, netball, mud driving,hat rack upholstering, boating flooded creeks, grocery shopping, dogs in the school room, pony club, tulle explosions, minischool and mini school room meltdowns (plus loads more !).

 She has taught me to instagram, given me some photography tips, taught Miss M to sew and watched her vehicle make a dramatic entrance into Malden whilst continuously tidying the exploding mess in the school room.

Emma and Matt will be sadly missed, they have been more than we could have ever hoped for when employing a young couple.  We wish them well on the rest of their honeymoon adventures and hope they look back fondly on their time spent at Malden with us. Goodbyes are always difficult, so until we meet again.........

keep chasing that perfect sunset.

P.S Thanks to Emma Steendam Photography for the majority of photos in this blog ;)

Madeit Monday - Everything is Pear Shaped

It's all gone a bit pear shaped here at AnK Headquarters.  Firstly Angie and her family have left this:

for this - I call it running away, she calls it - "Good bye over committed, out of control life and hello to 1 month of NO commitments".

Not only has Angie left me in charge of AnK for a month and the school Tourism Committee, which currently has no permanent tour co-ordinator (that's another LONG story), but our good friends and neighbours The Phillips' are moving !!! Suzanne (aka AnK Girl Friday) and her gorgeous family are off to live 3 hours away. Last night was a rather emotional farewell as we got together for a dinner of delicious Lasagna (Donna I think Tom is moving in, he was looking for leftovers in the fridge this morning !!), Chicken & Spinach Risotto & Beef Stroganoff finished with Golden Syrup Dumplings. Very sad household here at AnK this morning.

We will miss the Phillips', the spur of the moment sleepovers, tubing on the dam, them popping over for a swim, playing Little Pet Shops, sharing delicious food and wine, leaving parcels in each other mailboxes, mini fashion parades and understanding each others' children.  Suzanne will still be part of the AnK team, however things will just take a little longer to be custom made.  As I mentioned it's all gone pear shaped !  Here's some pear shaped finds from madeit:

Tiges & Weince Pretty Owl Decorative Pear $45

DeMeDe Kids Apple & Pear Skirt Sz 1$18

Totally Innocent Pears Illustration Print $25

Allana C SLR Camera Strap $24.50

Henrietta and Morty Pears Cushion $29.95

A Bundle Of Fun Three Pears Card $5

Red Stitch Designs Love Pears $39.95

There's some other pear-shaped news from AnK Headquarters but I think I'll leave that for another post !  Please be patient with me as I negotiate the maze of emails and orders.

Donna's High Tea - Bush Style

Last year we held a surprise 40th High Tea for my neighbour and friend Donna.  I have been meaning to blog about it for a while. Donna lives about 20 minutes away ~ just down the road really (well when the creek is not flooded !).  She is a busy Mum to 5 children and wife to a grazier as well as all of the other associated tasks that come with living where we do.

This is no lady who is easy to surprise, believe me when I tell you this took quite a bit of planning. (Including an almost slip up when I ran into Donna at the Supermarket and she was investigating my trolley contents - 'What are you doing with the Smoked Salmon? ', 'That's a lot of different varieties of tea, you must really like Tea" !!).  Firstly we decided that the ONLY way we could ensure Donna actually turned up at her party was to have it at her house. So we set about organising an 'afternoon catch up' with a few other neighbours.  Meanwhile we were busy planning the menu, drinks and how to get Donna out of the house while we set up.  Invitations went out and were hidden from their usual place (the fridge) 'just in case' Donna popped over for a tea. As we rarely have social outings without our children it was decided we would have a ladies afternoon, and the men and children could come over afterwards.  Child care and husbands were also arranged :)

The cat almost came out of the bag when a stock feed agent flew in on the morning of the party, after having been to all of the neighbouring properties he had got wind of a party and proceeded to congratulate Donna on her birthday and 'how many are coming to the party'....arghhhhh, quick cover up needed from Donna's husband and we were still right to go.

Suzanne and Julie enjoy an afternoon out.

As the party loomed closer we still had no plans on how we were actually going to get Donna out of her own house so we could set up.   To the rescue came Donna's son and husband who managed to wrangle her out of the house, I think the words "for once in your life will you listen to your husband" came out as Donna was more concerned about her 'afternoon catch up' than whatever job her husband needed her to do.

We all contributed to a high tea themed basket as a gift for Donna, which was overflowing with goodies that each person had brought along.  It was a great afternoon and Donna was (I think) suitably impressed and surprised at the effort we had gone to. The cocktails were a hit. The men and kids joined us for a BBQ later that night and there were some very sore heads (and eventful trips home) the next morning.

Sharon & Vonda before the cocktail sampling commenced

Hard to grab a photo of the birthday girl, but there she is looking suitably impressed with her sponge birthday cake, made by the talented Elsie.

Thanks Sharon for the photos and apologies for how long it took to get this blog post up.