Our Last Week of Summer Holidays Part 2

Even though we stayed at Milang, we seemed to spend most of our time in and around Goolwa. We didn't have any plans (thats how hubby likes it). We just mooched around and did what happened - it is summer holidays after all. Darling hubby thought he would try his hand at 4WDing and go down towards the Murray Mouth. We had a few little exciting mounds before he lost his nerve as we were travelling alone.

This is hubby letting the air out his tyres before he decided to turn back -chicken but at least we didn't have to pay to be towed out. To calm our nerves we all stopped for an ice cream (well except me because I am being good sigh :( .

Then we thought we would check out the beach. There were lots of people looking for cockles or pipis which was something I had never done. After a couple of tries we found heaps of them it really is not hard. The children thought this was heaps fun and we lined them all up and had races to see whose cockle would dig away from us the fastest. Miss B wouldnt let them get away she kept a firm hold and was quite strict with her cockles. We decided we would come back better equipped the next day and catch some to eat and have a try as none of us had ever eaten cocklesThe wonders of our modern world meant I could google how to prepare and cook cockles so we trekked back to Goolwa beach the next day and this time we swam and collected cockles and dug holes and made castles. We boogie board with some half decent waves (unlike the other week) until mummy got a little nervous and Sir TP got a little confident. Little Miss B worked on her handstands and cartwheels and here are our two buckets of cockles for our teaUnfortunately by the time I cooked them the children wouldnt try more than one as they were too fond of them and their little sneaky digging tongues oh well Hubby and I had a nice appetiser/entree.

Cheers

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

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

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

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

A Wasted Day

Today has been a recovery day or wasted one I have been in my lounge room gazing at the sunshine and looking inward. I am trying to be open to new possibilities. I have also had the electrician here and no power which has meant no ironing , cooking or computing for a while. So taday has been contemplative, reflective and has gone faster then you could imagine. Time to pick up children coming up fast sigh let the games begin

Cheers Nicole

Happy Ninth Birthday and Happy Father's Day

Continuing on my things to be grateful today is Sir TP's 9th birthday .Ican hardly believe we have come this far and made it. Digital cameras werent so common nine years ago -I think we borrowed one from work for this photo - this is what an 11 pound baby looks like all head and chubby as can be. Tp always loved babies and was fascinated by them - early maternal extincts here at kindergym aged 4.

And today well - ready to take on the world (this was our come as your favourite biblical character dress up day for school a few weeks back). Have a happy day little man and keep enjoying life - from mum

PS happy fathers day too darling (I still don't think you've recovered from the shock)

Gratitude

There are so many things to be grateful about and as Spring has arrived it is easy to remember them so today I post what I am grateful for so that when I look back I can remember them

Today I am grateful that my whole family is coming over for a lunch celebration (hopefully after they have eaten it they will feel grateful too)

The sun is shining and bringing hope into my heart.

The boys eczema is getting some relief - we have had some interesting days and nights trying to get this in control again.

My wonderful husband for whom nothing I ask is a problem - and my brain sometimes has some very big ideas.

That my little family is as excited as me about the greater family coming to visit.

Hope you feel grateful today
Cheers

First Costume Mum - Part 2

This costume is my favourite. This is for our ballet class. For the 2nd year in a row the teacher has veered away from her standard story ballet and she is doing a neo-classical Australia themed modern thing (don't ask me what that means). So each group has a theme the older girls are being the school girls from Picnic at Hanging Rock we have the hot australian sun the desert the sky and the younger girls are bush butterflies and dragonflies. Started off not knowing how to do this again on my $30 budget etc but also working with my very great dislike of putting little girls in black (They have the next 80 years to wear black). I also couldnt work out how to make the wings look as good from the front as the back and didnt want to tax my mostly non-sewing other mums. Anyway - 40 % off at Spotlight was my catalyst and this metamorphed out of my brain and with the help of darling hubby who suggested cutting out from behind the applique on the butterfly wings - brilliant and I call myself a sewer. B still needs some additional elastic in the centre of her wings and as first costume mum - she will probably get that done the night before the concert in December. Ths photo doesnt do justice to how sparkly the wings are but the best bit is this costume will cost about $12-15 Yay.

First Costume Mum - Part 1

Okay I am a glutton for punishment but it is that time of the year when we are designing and making costumes for end of year concert - already. This year I decided to do Miss B's Junior 1 Jazz and Primary Ballet costumes. This is her Jazz costume - music is Walking on Sunshine and I was asked for an A-line dress with a summery feel and a flower. I also put a restriction that I want to keep the costume down to under $30 - as these littlies get all of 2 minutes on stage x2 and some mums have older children dancing or small siblings meaning mum is not working, either way we dont need to go over the top. I love this but the maths for the costing has given me a real headache as patterned lycra is soo sooo expensive and I have been very stingy with my purchase to keep the cost down - I just need to work out if I will just make all of them for the class to save money mmm do I have time (probably not) but I am still considering it. Stay tuned for Part 2

Cheers

Book Week - Dress ups

I am no longer going to apologise for my haphazard blogging it is just a July/August thing each year. Although it feels like the cold should encourage this sort of activity the gloominess of winter seems to always slow down my thought processes to an extent that I cannot do any additional thinking. So now that the sun has started shining in short bursts and just so I can feel like I have achieved something on a day that has been a little on the slovenly side here ar Sir TP and Little Miss B in their Book Week dressups - B is recycling her Alice costume from her birthday and TP is wearing dads vintage magic cape, Grans old glasses, Bethanys witches hat, the gum trees branch for a wand and an old school shirt with a hand drawn Hogwarts emblem - I felt pretty proud of my artistic endeavours which are sadly not visible in any photos. But what matters is Sir TP was pleased with my efforts. I am now going to add some extra posts for this week to show off some of the projects that have been distracting me the last 2 months.

Cheers

Day 5 of School Holidays

We had a hugely busy but satisfying jam packed with fun day today - which is why I am writing about after the fact. The day started at The Planetarium where we learnt all about the stars in the night sky, about space and watched a very funny movie about becoming an astronaut. It was very beautiful and interesting and we all learnt something. The kids had fun weighing themselves on the interplanetary scales and working out that their 12kg on earth was 500g on Pluto and 700kg on the Sun - needless to say I don't think it would be good for my m orale to work out my sun weight tee hee. After a bite at luch at home we then scooted off to meet all our cousins at the Ice Arena for our first attempt at ice skating - Heres's Sir TP with his walking frame - he got proficient using this but didnt like dalling hard. Litle Miss B was very stylish and took to it easily - this is proving to be her talent - locomotion activities she has poise balance and grace (not to mention bendy flexy technology). I still got it after many years off the ice but I was conscious of turning on muscles which had been very dormant for years. But not in too much pain today and proudly didnt fall.

We then went home to the cousins house for Wii, drawing, takeaway noodles and The Block to finish off a really big and busy day. Today will be about rest and recovering and tomorrow we have a big ballet practice for our exams coming up. Hopefully we will also do some cleaning and crafting (probably in that order sigh). The sun is up this morning so we hope to go outside and play and maybe if tonight is clear we can show off our new found knowledge of the stars.

Cheers

Holidays Day 4 - Treats time

Today amongst the mundane we set out to pick up some treats. Sir TP had been working very hard on his handwriting in his homework and had been promised some Lego mini figures -he got some extras for a great report card and for being at the shops when he was feeling sick. Little Miss added to her stuffed toy or Zhu ZHu collection or was it her pink object collection or her squeaky toy collection, animals wearing skirts - hard to say there always seem to be a lot of collections.

It is so nice to get a treat - have you had a treat or started a new collection today ?

Cheers Nicole

Day 3 School Holidays

Day 2 looked alot like day 1 - more sleep, sneezing and pyjamas. But Little Miss B was much brighter by the evening. Day 3 has been cold, dark but lots of good company. Our cousins have been here all day and there has been a lot of painting, drawing, imaginative play and wii /ds games and boisterous boy banter (and they say girls can talk). This has left me with time to make comfort food for a cold night. Stew and dumplings in the slow cooker and cinnamon scrolls. yes there are a few missing from the photo - my sister couldnt resist and ate them at after work pick up. I think that makes me officially the best vacation care in Australia. Well I am off now for a cup of tea and my scroll - lucky for me I have frozeb half the mixture ready to go for a few days time - when no sisters will be dropping by to eat the spoils.

Cheers

Buy Handmade - Get Your Badge

Buy Handmade - Get Your Badge

Welcome to the world little one (the www)

I would like to advise everybody out there that at 5.27pm on Wednesday the 7th of January 2009 my first Blog was welcomed into the world. A little on the light side I am hoping that with regular nurturing it will grow to be a thriving little place to share my dream come true - that I am finally fashionable. That's right after 30 something years on this planet I now fit into the fashionable category of crafty mum and DIY - hooray.

So as I learn to blog as a new sub craft I hope to share with all the other suddenly fashionable ladies out there my experiences as I experiment with as many different craft mediums as I can. Some I am good at some bad but trying is what really counts to me.

So my dreams for this little baby blog - share my triumphs and trials as my New Year resolution unfolds - that is as I finish off my UFO's try something new and lose weight (that one always manages to slip in).

So come back next week and I will have some photos of my first UFO that I will be finishing and my first something new started!! And a progress report visit me often to keep me inspired