One for The Crone

Here are some pictures of my 'pretty garden' taken on Thursday last week. Fuzzy Wuzzy and I were just mucking around on a glorious, soon to be Spring day (well it felt like it, even though it isn't quite September.)

Brads and Butterflies Class

I decided I needed a treat, so booked myself in for a class at Scrap Junkie. The teacher, Tracey, was fantastic. Beautiful layout using gorgeous new product from the SEI Chocolat range.

I picked myself up a new Heidi Swapp craft knife, so much better than my cheap Kmart one. Excellent ideas on how to incorporate brads into my doodling and how to avoid flat LO's.


LO completed in a class by Tracey Cavanagh.
Thanks Tracey!

My Eyebrows...sob

Well I had no time, so I went to the cheap nail place at the mall. What a disaster.

• She made them super thin...so not my usual look
  
• She waxed the top! (Who does this? Isn't that some old fashioned thing our mothers used to do in the 1960's?)
  
• Then if that wasn't bad enough she used small scissors to trim what little hair I had left.
• Followed by the application of something that smelt vaguely like strawberries.

I reacted to the smelly stuff so within 15minutes I was all red and itchy where she had wiped my eyes. I washed it off with cold water in the toilets but the next morning I woke up with (sorry TMI) little pimples where the smelly stuff had been. See I'm not making it up. It truly was hideous.

I swear, regardless of how busy & time poor I may become, I will never stray from Quintessence again.

Indoor Rock Climbing

String Bean and I were in the lucky position of experiencing our first Indoor Rock Climbing session. We went with the rest of her Girl Guides unit. She was quite adept at the climbs, especially once her confidence in the rope kicked in. She made it right to the top of the gray wall! She was so fast that my arm ended sore just trying to keep up with belaying.



There was also lots of rolling around on the mats with the other girls, while waiting for a wall to become available. She also found the boxing bag and gloves. She loved that!

Thanks G!!!

As you can see the hammock frame has been set up and is a huge success with Fuzzy Wuzzy. Many thanks for thinking of us in your latest clean up.

The funny thing is (which I'd forgotten, as you do) is that we've actually had this hammock for longer than we've been married. Andrew bought it for us when he was overseas, around 10 years ago!

New Photos

Our lovely friend Tasha has taken another set of photos of our family. She does this for us regularly....and we just love the results.

We are so grateful of the time Tasha spent getting just the right shot. This is no easy task given that Fuzzy Wuzzy can be difficult, Squealy kept nicking off and String Bean was too busy climbing up high in the trees. .



The photos were taken out the back of the Yarralumla nursery on a sunny winters morning. The kids loved exploring all the paths through the gardens, throwing leaves at each other and climbing everything in sight.






Loving this photo. It really captures the kids personality perfectly:

• Little Miss Goody Two Shoes,

• Mr What Can I Get Up To Next &

• Mr Jim Carrey Wannabe.

A Challenge

A challenge from my friend Brazen. She always comes up with good ideas. Remember when you challenged us to clean our fridges? I haven't redone mine since *blush*. So here it is:

1. please post a photo of your book collection on your blog, in your flickr, wherever you can and share the link in a comment here. (you can still play without a photo :))
2. how many do you have? (rough is fine!)
3. do you use them much? and if so how?
   
4. share your favourites
5. and if you have a favourite online site that isn't a blog please share that too!!!

1:

Stored above my oven with stuff I don't want my kids to get into.

2: I have around 30 cookbooks. I also have a small collection of magazines going as well (mostly Super Food Ideas).

3: Not as much as I use online places. But I do certainly access them for my favourite recipes. Or if I'm totally bored with my usual repertoire. I have started (two times mind you) a hand written recipe book of all my absolute favourite recipes and magazine cutouts. I'd really like to do this for real sometime, but on the computer so I can give a copy to my kids.

4: My favourite book would have to be: Indian Cooking by Mridula Baljekar. Fantastic authentic Indian cuisine. I love toasting, roasting & grinding the seeds and spices! Much nicer than the commercial pastes and spice blends you get in the supermarkets.

5: www.taste.com.au. I must admit to hitting my local public library weekly with the kids, while there I always get a cookbook to read for inspiration. I was going to blog about my latest *treasure*......so watch this space!

First Aid

Well today I spent my day at the Guide hall doing a first aid course. I had to miss an afternoon tea with the EB girls, which was annoying. It always seems that way. No social engagements for ages then I have two things on at exactly the same time. Fate conspiring against my social life. But it all evened out anyway as the course was a major social outing anyway.

I walked in and there were another two Leaders who I met at the training day. 7 Leaders from our Guiding Hall (Murrungundie) and an old ABA friend who I haven't seen in quite awhile. I didn't know who to talk to first, always a difficult decision for a Gemini ;) The instructor was lovely, the content was interesting and the day flew by really quickly. I passed the course but it was interesting how much things have changed since I have last done my course (8 years ago and when I was in year 6). They have made the CPR component much easier to remember in the hopes that more people will feel confident enough to administer it. 2 rescue breaths to 30 compressions, regardless of whether it is an infant, child or adult.

Photography by Ben Dearnley

I came home to the lovely aroma of Greek Chicken that my wonderful husband cooked for us. He's just returned from 2 1/2 days of training down the coast. We all missed him terribly. Although String Bean and Fuzzy Wuzzy decided that he was on a mini-break, and that therefore it was all good.

Sydney

Well we went up and had a great run. We stayed at the Holiday Inn at Potts Point. Sounds snobby but the hotel was just above Kings Cross Station! We have stayed at the Cross numerous times and have always loved it. Easy to get to and lots of cheap eats in the area. The hotel had 120 car parking spaces and ultimately that was it's biggest draw card. We didn't want to pay for parking in the city all day on the Monday, while at our appointment. The hotel itself was lovely and we were very impressed with it's level of inclusions.

Monday went as well as can be expected. We caught the train into Wynyard Station and the building we were after was directly across the street! The appointment with Dr Rory McCarthy was quite an eye opener. He stated within 5 minutes that String Bean was as sharp as a tack. Testing went well and there were no real surprises there. High IQ, low performance, easily distracted etc.




After the testing we have a clear plan of attack and a good idea of where to go from here. Certain things that we just assumed were the right thing to do, would clearly backfire for her. Given how anxious I was about the testing, the reality was quite different. Rory put me at ease straight away and was able to expand on my limited knowledge of the subject.

We all enjoyed our mini break up to Sydney and it looks like we'll be doing so every 6 months for awhile.

War Memorial Open Day

Today we ventured out to the War Memorial open day held at Mitchell. The kids were enthralled by the huge trucks, tanks, artillery, helicopters, rockets and planes that they saw there. String Bean actually picked the Japanese tank (a mini one!). The only clue was a small Japanese naval flag painted on the side. Amazing the things kids know, with no input from us.



Fuzzy Wuzzy, of course, found the black steam train tucked away between several large items. He made a run for it but luckily he decided to come back when called. He has really changed since he hit 3 and now that his 4th birthday is just around the corner, he just seems more compliant and reasonable. Which is a nice change.








Poor little old Squealy ended up strapped into the pram for the entire visit. There was just too much stuff for him to get into. The only thing between us and the displays was a simple plastic link chain. Not the sort of thing to keep an active toddler contained. He didn't mind. Most things were described as 'cool' which is his latest word.

On the way out the older two discovered a huge submarine propeller. Great for climbing and sliding down.

Testing

We'll be off next weekend just the three of us to get some further testing done on String Bean. She is very excited by the thought of the three of us having a holiday in Sydney. So much so that she just had to draw a picture of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Not sure how much fun we are actually going to have, as the testing takes from 9am-4.30pm, but we are going to try.

I am so proud of how well she is going. Her ability to draw is just amazing. I especially love the little cars going across the bridge. They are all 'Wacky Races' apparently!

Robot Boy

Fuzzy Wuzzy has a thing for robots. His vapouriser is a robot and he loves the fact that it has a light and makes steam!

Last night in his spare time (well he should have been getting dressed) he decided to improvise and turn himself into a robot. Great use of Bob the Builder underpants and one of his socks.

String Bean had a dress up day at school today. It was based around the Olympics and the concept of Internationalism. We decided to send her dressed as the Queen of Spain. Complete with gloves, feather boa, tiara, flowers and her flower girl dress. The outfit was given some real regal punch by adding her knitted bolero. A gift from String Bean's Nanny Sue.

Figured it was the logical choice, given that she is of half Spanish descent. Not that you can tell really. She is so similar in looks to her Daddy it isn't funny.

Success

What a buzz. The evening went without out a hitch. All the planning paid off and the girls had a great time. They all produced some lovely layouts. I photographed my favourite to share:


Some of my favourite comments from the evening:
"This paper looks like wallpaper." Ah good old Basic Grey. This range of paper would have to be my favourite and I always seem to come back to it. Even if some of it does look like retro wallpaper.
"Gee you're really good at this. Are you a teacher?"

Teaching

I've been asked by a friend to teach a scrapbooking class to her Girl Guide group: The Monkeez. They are a lovely group of girls aged 14-18 years of age. I am so looking forward to this opportunity. Scrapbooking became my biggest time sink in 2004 and means that I've been doing so for 4 years.... how quickly time passes when you're engaged creatively. But in all that time I've never been asked to teach a class.

What a set of mixed emotions. I'm fairly confident this will be an OK night for the girls. Maybe better than OK. The strict $20 spend for 8 girls was challenging to say the least. The class is part of a 4 activity rotation, so can only last for 1/2 an hour! Ouch.

So I have planned a simple layout using products from my dealer (opps supplier & friend). Together we raided her sale stock and she very kindly let me take a whole heap of stuff to play with and make packs out of. Oooo how exciting.

In my usual anal style, I have already completed a sample layout to show the girls on the night, have made up 8 packs of supplies, packed up the surplus to return and packed all the necessary tools that we'll need.

I just hope that I haven't underestimated how much girls of this age group can do. I'll be back with my report tomorrow night!

I really need...

....a craft room.

I end up having to quilt, scrap and cross stitch in my lounge/dining room. Not much fun with Mr Nearly 2 running around.



I waste a lot of my time pulling things out and them making sure I've packed everything away. I'd love to have the space to leave things set up, so I could just pop in and work on a project for five minutes. All those five minutes are wasted, I can't even set up my machine in that time let alone accomplish anything. I could have a dedicated table for sewing, machine set up, mat and cutter ready to go. I'd set up a scrap space/surface and have all my nice little treasures out where I can see and therefore use them.

A space where I could safely shut the door and ignore the creative mess, knowing it wouldn't be trashed by String Bean, Fuzzy Wuzzy, or especially Squealy.

Well it isn't going to happen anytime soon. Ah I guess a girl can dream can't she?

On Trains and Haircuts.

What a busy but fun filled day we had together today. We started out by meeting up with friends at the Malkara Train Exhibition. The kids all had a wonderful time together and the highlight by far was seeing 'Thomas' on on of the exhibitors tracks.

Squealy was so incredibly excited by the spectacle that he was jumping up and down in excitement. By the end of the visit he was able to add to his already extensive transport vocabulary the following: boat, car, train.








After lunch I headed to the hairdressers as the time has come to take some length off my daughter's beautiful tresses. Her locks have ended up so long that her hair has started to thin on top. Not a good look for a 5 year old. She is now sporting a very cute shoulder length bob and is looking, all of a sudden, much older than she did before. It was actually nice not to have to plat her hair before bed and the length made it a breeze to brush. We'll see how she feels about it over the coming days, but so far so good.

A Mini Project

Just in time for my craft/dessert night with my besties, I've finally gotten around to working on this pillow for my daughter.

I had started by cutting the background fabric and the border. It then sat there for weeks while I worked on other very worthwhile projects, in typical Gemini style. I generally have five or six projects on the go at anyone time!

Last night I traced and cut all the visofix, ironed it all on, trimmed, pressed and ironed it all in place. Looks gorgeous.

This is a Country Collectibles quilt kit I picked up at my local quilting shop: Calico Patch.