First Day Of School 2012

The first day back to school is always bittersweet. Sure it is great to get routine and normality happening but those sweet little hands have been held over summer and are getting let go of once more and as the years go by you wonder how much longer you will be allowed to hold on. So once again Sir TP and Little Miss B have trekked off to School -one into Grade 4 how grown up and one to Grade 2 way to grown up. They each have good friends in their classes, lovely teachers (new shoes!) new stationary and dreams to fulfill - good luck little ones - Ireally must go clean the house

Oh I can hear you wondering about that bandage - it is kind of another story from our adventure last week and they will be coming I promise

Cheers

Back to School preparations

The last few days have been busy busy getting ready for that big first day back at school. It has been a bit quiet on here as a result of this and a little camping trip which I will share with you this week. The weekend just gone has seen baking some yummy pink slice to share with family to celebrate a birthday

Covering a mountain of books in Ben 10 contact and Hello Kitty contact and labelling pencils rulers and so on. #4 books covered in total I reckon I had that many books for my whole high school education and I'd place bets on how much comes back only partly used sigh But it is an achievement and great to tick off.And even more baking done today yummy scrummy Anzac biscuits -very hard to resist and I must because I have my eye on getting an iphone but I have to be my goal weight which is still a little weigh away (tee hee my little joke). Now I am blogging to avoid vacuuming cleaning and tidying which I promised I would spend today doing sigh I wish I could wiggle my nose and it was done I have a big list of more fun things to do but feel stuck by the chores. Time is ticking and school will be done so must dash

Cheers

Bupa Challenge

Yesterday morning I kissed my darling husband goodbye on his own little adventure. He has been training for 5 weeks to do the Bupa challenge as part of the tour down under. So I dropped him off at 6 in the morning in Norwood to ride 130km to the town of Tanunda. He did it arriving there at 1:30 and he says he didnt have to walk up any of the hills. We are all so proud of him and think he looks pretty good in lycra even though he swears he will never wear it again
Now I feel I owe him something should I run or cycle for him mmmm. Perhaps a sewing marathon would be more my style

Cheers

ProJect Life Week 2 In Progress

Again I still have a little tweaking and some smaller strip journals i want to print onto photos but I need a little time and I really need to find somewhere I can print small 1/2 sized photos nearby. I think Big W or Kmart does them I will need to investigate. Page Left again I stamped the date onto the title card but i dont think I will always do this. I added the yellow week 2 stickers on and coloured one of the words on the title card yellow to match. I journalled typed font on computer about our exciting trip to the movies and I have the movie ticket stub there I will also put a little picture of the movie above it and zig zag it all together on my machine.

Page right I still have to do the top Journalling card and I would definitly like to be able to put a collage of animal photos instead of just the stick insect. The glare is hiding ourr Chorus Line Ticket. I used a bi fold journalling card to frame a cropped self portrait Sir TP took of him and BP. Week 3 is underway and is looking like being my fav week so far - I need to get a little more adventurous i think but I dont want to make it too hard. I am hoping that we will have enough things to take photos of in say week5 of term hmm we will have to find adventures - not just school dance gymnastics bed , school dance work bed etc

Cheers

Project Life week1 -In Progress

Heaps excited about this so I wanted to share -excuse dodge photos and lack of finishing. So I decided to do Project Life - looked into the product and thought it was uchy pricey to get in Australia then realised when converting from NZ dollar to here it was really heaps good including shipping. So I bought a mixed packet of page prtectors and a core kit - I want to keep it easy as. They came in three days tracked all the way. So I have had them for about a week. I have done a title page but it hasn't got its photos yet so I wont share. The Core kit comes with suggested bits for the front and back page just slide them in done. Then there is a title card for each week and assorted journalling cards and filler cards. So my challenge especially being a little challenged in this aspect is to put my own twist on things. That is why I am calling it A WIP I am still fiddling and printing out photos. As yet I havent been able to print any small photos none of my local machines do this cheaply and I am contemplating needing my own camera printer for ease. So Week 1 left I have stamped the dates on the title page and used some stickers and transfers to tissy up the heading. I have printed out some goals for the family a story about January 1 and the week. I am printing on the cards using my printer which is easy.

Page rt I have put in the score card from our mini golf game, I also want to add some additional journalling words onto some photos as so much happened I ran out of room I am thinking this will settle down when school goes back even though we are having a very quiet and lazy holiday.

Cheers

Miss B goes to Art class

Little Miss B trekked off today to a School Holiday Art class. We would dearly love to do this for a term but it is ouchy pricey and hard to fit in around stuff. This time I thought we would steer away from another gorgeous canvas and try for something different. So Miss B tried her hand at sculpture and made a wire and clay ballerina. I think she is happy with the end product (I got back to class near the end to help out with tutu design (I think the teacher felt a little under the pump to get the last one finished on time). It was possibly a little ambitious for B's age group but her and the other younger girls all ended up with something a little respectable if lacking the willowyness of most dancers. I think doing classes like this would be my idea of a dream job which is funny as I never did art at school after year nine (I apparently did the Suicide 5 for year 12 -noone told me that was what it was called!!)


Cheers

Family Beach Day

I guess probably once a year we do a mandatory trek down to the beach for the children to have a play. So after Church on Sunday and after lunch we headed off on a long drive to go to one of our beaches where you can drive your car down on to the beach- so much easier then trying to find a park and carrying all the gear down. Because of my lack of pigmentation we pooped up the sun tent and then off to play.
Little Miss B loves the Boogie board -she even had a go at standing up on it and was quite successful. Sir Tp tried his hand at snorkelling but still struggles a bit with his rhythm

28 sandcastles were made - and the Police were kind enough to drive around them later on in the day to preserve our efforts

And we had a fine effort at getting the kite up in the air good wind- good kite.

Little Miss B and I both got a little pink in spots (despite me hiding in the tent for periods sigh and being there after three) but all in all a fun sun day

Exciting Packages {Project Life}

During the week I was excited to make a purchase from CraftHouse NZ and with the wonders of DHL tracking I new exactly where my parcel was at all times. This was fabulous as I hate worrying about them being dumped on the door step and stolen while I am out. I watched it sit in Sydney airport all day Tuesday leave at 2am to fly to Adelaide and by 8am it was on the truck coming to my door.When it arrived I couldn't open it even though I was busting to as we were on our way out to see Alvin and the Chipmonks 3 (which we all loved). But here is my big challenge for 2012 -please help me stay on track.

Thats right I am jumping -leaping -falling on board with Project Life like a lot of my fav bloggers(who says marketing/peer pressure is just for kids)I am heaps excited and hope to make something to cherish about our family life for the year.An occasional reminder wouldnt hurt though.

I will try to get started ASAP so I can share alittle more of what is happening.

Cheers

Our New Blythe Arrival

Little Miss B was very fortunate last Christmas that the big red guy from up North bought another Blythe doll to join our family. Her name is Holly and she is an Encore Prima Dolly Ashlette. B loves her long hair and her side part and those boots which are a little tricky to get on.

So this is our Blythe family Angel, Holly and Gwen. What a lovely little family. Now I am under pressure to sew clothes and quilts and so on yeeks best get my fingers moving

Cheers

What I wore Wednesday

Well I am not sure if joining in with this posting will help my self esteem or not but here I go - first photo of me in years I suspect and I apologise no makeup or this wasn't going to happen - we are all moving so slowly these holidays. Today is absolutely freezing in Adelaide where we have had all 4 seasons worth of weather for the first two weeks of the year.

So we have top and tights - Target
black ballet flats - Kmart
skirt - finished sewing from earlier this week pattern is from Made it Perfect.
And you can just see the litle maching Black flower brooch I made from Janelle winds pattern.

Now the making of this skirt is part of a huge journey which I will share with ou over the coming weeks. My girlfriend made this skirt pattern to wear to Inspired Stitches earlier this year. When I looked at the pattern and took my measurements I was mortified so I have only just made it now - 6months later. I probably wont wear it with this top normally but have I mentioned it is freezing here, Well I must go now as we are all dressed up

Cheers

Whirring away the hours

I feel I have got right back into the swing of things this year with no loss of my sewing mojo -hooray. This has partly been because of a huge clean up in the sewing room and partly the crazy mixed up weather we are having. Thought I would show you what I am working on under both my machines

I am looking forward to sharing more later this week it is so exciting for me

Cheers

Whats happening this year.

Last year Father Christmas popped this into Little Miss B's stocking and so I have been helping her to fill it with her secrets (earth shattering stuff like she doesnt like spicy food and her brother is mean to her (that one goes both ways). The main thing I want her to experience out of this is keeping a little journal something all mums try to get their daughters to do and which I failed dismally. Not my gift I'm afraid.So we have started this year trying to write one line a day not too hard of something that has happened or we are doing .Seeing this idea pop up on my favourite blog HERE made me think I should be doing this too

SI thought I would tag along with the girls - trudged down to Officeworks - bought some cards, a stamp and this cute little box which matches my sewing space/office and my family room and set to work. I wonder how I'll go -please everyone ring me in September and ecourage me as that seems to be when the wheels fall off around here

Cheers

Ways to cool down if its hot

We were lucky enough to have a party to go to on Friday night after a warmish day to help us cool down - an ice skating party. This involved skating and some snow play at one end of the rink and later some ice hockey. The rink has a dedicated party time slot for 2 hours and this night there were probably only 5 parties so it was almost like having the place just for us. Obviously Sir TP was the king of the mountain This made up for his lack of prowess on the ice - still. Who knew that physics would be his downfall and that he would fall whilst trying to hita a goal with a puck. Annoyingly for Sir TP LIttle Miss B looks like an Ice Queen. She has good technique although slow and hesitant - but she hust looks naturally graceful. We didnt lose any fingers - we had a great ice cream cake and home to bed.

The weather here has gone extremely cool - we have had hot, cold, humid and stormy and just dont know what to do or wear. So today I am in the sewing room having some fun

Cheers

Oops

Something seems to have happened - and I haven't blogged for months. So the choice needs to be made today to blog or not to blog. But being open to all things being possible I will once again start anew. Let me assure you there has been tons of fun stuff happening, piles of learning and making smiles and a little sadness. There has even been time to blog but it hasnt happened sigh. Oh well today is a new day with no mistakes so lets pick things up from here and over time you might even get an update or so. Just so I could put in a piccy -here is a card Little Miss B has made for her cousins birthday (ice skating party) and a cover I have made her for her christmas ipod in her favourite colours -hope she likes it. She has already had her major present but thought I would give her a little something tonight too. Also keeps with my intentional/relational ideas that i have developed over Christmas (but that is for another day). The case is one of Janelle Winds paterns from her book (i love love it) .
Will blog again shortly

Cheers