Back again, I think...

Sorry about the sudden disappearance.. My wisdom teeth weren't playing nice. But I'm on fun antibiotics now and have a referral to some sort of dental surgeon to remove the lot. Exciting stuff!
They've calmed down now and I'm feeling much better, but I still haven't had any time to post. James moved to Bendigo last week and it's been even more hectic than usual around here. I'm hoping with Elli back at Daycare this week I might have a hope of (starting)finishing her birthday presents... I'll keep you posted.

I finished half of Courtney's birthday present in time for her actual birthday and she was mucho impressed. Now I just need a quiet hour and a car during shopping hours to finish off the last part of the second half. I know it sounds cryptic, but I'll post pictures and descriptions once it's all finished.

I have to wrap up, this post was just a quick one to prove I'm not dead... I'll be back with more soon.

Here's to hoping it all calms down soon.
xo.

excuse my disappearence

I'm currently out of action, wrestling with the wisdom teeth from hell. I'll be back soon I promise!
xo.

A Few Firsts

This week has been a week of firsts for Miss Elliotte; we went on a train for the first time (since she was a newborn), James and I took her to the cinemas for the first time... She's growing up ridiculously quickly and I'm trying my damnedest to keep on top of it! She's a little girl now, not a baby and it's remarkable how quickly this happened. If you weren't watching you wouldn't have noticed!




(Elli showing Snow White the view from the train)

UP Poster 2, originally uploaded by Keen Esquivias - Turumba Sa Birhen Dolorosa.

Up was an adorable, well executed story that we all thoroughly enjoyed. It had a few things for everyone, Pixar are still the leaders of making family movies fun for the WHOLE family.

Folded Paper Fun

(note: this was written on Thursday, but I've postponed the post until Sunday so I don't ruin the surprise for James)

I've been fiddling with origami lately, never something I've been particularly good at previously and so hadn't given it a second thought in an age. My passion, however, was reinvigorated while trawling the internet for some crafty ideas for 'manly' flowers as a gift for James.

I could find nothing that wasn't either fluffy or feminine until I found this website, it's got video tutorials and all sorts of awesome patterns. I settled on a mix of the lotus and lucky stars wired together to look like a bunch of flowers with buds. The only problem is I haven't stopped... I've been showing off my 'mad lotus skillz' all day and I'm fast filling a bowl with lucky stars!



At least my whole day wasn't spent folding paper... I also went op shopping and got a bunch of cute stuff for Elli and myself. I haven't got photos of my clothes yet, but I'll give you a run down of my score:

Spent - $43

Got -
For Elliotte: A Fairy dress (birthday present), a pink and red pinstripe skirt (also a present), an adorable denim dress (again, present) and a green formal dress that she's using to play princesses right now.

For Me: Three spring dresses; one black and white polka dots, one floral wrap around and one a 'trendy' minimalist t-shirt style and some cute fabric for making monsters with. I'll post photos once I get around to taking them.

I'm off to fill another jar with lucky stars!
xo.

Badge-y Mc Badge Badge

I purchased a badge maker a long time ago, possibly around the same time I had my daughter. Over the past three years I've used it in fits and spurts and never actually put as much time into it as the purchase price (and cost of shipping) would justify.

I pulled it out of storage a few weeks ago to make a batch of 70 badges for a friend's 21st birthday party. We had a badge making session... It was actually fun! My passion was reinvigorated and I was keen to churn out millions of my own designs!! Now, here is where I must explain a character trait of mine...

I have short lived, very passionate love affairs with hobbies. One week I'm going to become an installation artist, the next I plan to move to the mountains so that I can press flowers in solitude for the rest of my days. I'll rush out, purchase all the required equipment (see: badge maker, above) and then become deeply depressed if I'm not fantastic at it within 5 minutes. Or refuse to even attempt the craft until I have the same tools as the professionals (see: badge maker, above). Badge making was about to be shot in the foot again because I didn't have a fancy high end printer to make my designs look fabulous. Hell, I didn't even have a printer that worked reliably! (...or computer for that matter).

Then I had an epiphany! I didn't have to design and print pictures to make badges. We didn't for Ailsa's birthday, why did I have to use it for mine? I've been collecting vintage books for longer than I care to count and I've never really had a plan for the ones with the pretty pictures...

So I set myself a challenge. I had to fill a tub with badges within the week. I couldn't procrastinate and let my perfectionism get in the way... I had a deadline! And these are the results:

What do you think?
xo.

Letter Love

I love my Sandwiches! I Really, really do!, originally uploaded by paper kites.

My darling boy and I regularly send each other letters and other random postal goodies - While I am the queen of the epic length letter, he's much (much!) better at the random goodies than I. One day soon I shall recap some of the fabulous things I have received from him via mail.

Recently we stopped actually sending the packages and started hand delivering them. A step down on the fun factor, but a highly practical move considering the cost of postage. Every now and again I'm sure things will arrive in the post to keep in the spirit of things, but for now I'm happy with our new method.

For his birthday I found a collapsible box and an art journal, we now write our letters in the journal and include the goodies in the box. It's incredibly handy and it's great to be able to look back at our correspondence to-and-fro!

This has all been an aside to the actual point of my entry.... One of the most recent random bits of goodness the boy gave me was a zine by dawn tan called 'I love my sandwiches! I really, really do!'.

It's an adorable little zine all about sandwich adoration with stunning artworks to accompany nine days worth of sandwiches! I was very impressed and have found another local artist to look out for.

oh dear, how the time flies!

I was shocked into reality today as I wrote Mark a note for missing his first class... If it's the 9th of September today then I have exactly TWO months until my darling cherub Elliotte turns Three! I can't keep up with this year, each time I get on top of it, it manages to fly off on me again.

hard to believe she was this little nearly three years ago!

I'm planning to make her a mini kitchen play area, like this or this or this (and you can even buy the plans for this one!) and furnish it with all the fun mini kitchen goods you can pick up from secondhand stores for a few cents. With only two months to do it and only two days a week that I can work on it without her seeing it, I really should have started a long time ago.

I really must work on my time management skills in general as I have a friend's birthday coming up that I intend to craft for, Elli's birthday in the middle and Christmas not too long after that... Oh dear.

So today's post is all about my attempt to thrash out a timeline on what I must make and the time in which I have to complete it.

This Month:

• Start (and finish) Courtney's birthday present - I'll post pictures and a description after her birthday.
• Start Miss Elliotte's birthday present.
• Start planning the celebrations for Elli's birthday (I'd been pressing for a willy wonka party but we'll be having a Disney theme as she wants to come dressed as Tinkerbell... Which leads to the next task)
• Design the Tinkerbell costume and a Snow White one for myself.
• Have a Soap Felting day and make some Fabric Poppies, they'll make great gifts at Christmas.

I have many more tasks I'd love to get done, but I think this list is probably all I'm likely to manage.

October:

• Finish the toy kitchen for Elliotte.
• Finish planning Elli's birthday.
• Knock up a few quick Halloween costumes.
• Make the Tinkerbell and Snow White costumes (and whatever costumes Mark and Stef decide they want).
• Continue with the Christmas crafting, more indepth posts will come as I progress.

I will have to flesh the time line out more with a pen and paper, I don't want to ruin any present surprises by posting details here!

I have grand plans for Elliotte's Christmas present - I want to make her a collection of puppets and a puppet theatre to use them in. Once I've worked this plan out a little more I'll be sure to let you know how it's progressing!

xo.

things that make me giggle (vol. 1)

***naughty words warning***
(this post contains a few expletives)

this is one hilarious twitter account - shitmydadsays is an account of Justin's 73-year-old dad's amusing comments.

Best. Grumpy. Old. Man. Ever!

Some of my favourites include:

"The dog don't like you planting stuff there. It's his backyard. If you're the only one who shits in something, you own it. Remember that."

"Who is this woman?....Kate Beckinsale? Well, you can tell Kate Beckinsale she sucks."

"Your brother brought his baby over this morning. He told me it could stand. It couldn't stand for shit. Just sat there. Big let down."

great stuff!
xo.

Who's who?

I thought I should probably give a little run down (with visual aids) on the characters most likely to pop up in my posts.

First, and most obviously is Ms. Elliotte (3), my daughter - she's my very own little bundle of beans, person most likely to make me laugh and just generally the most fabulous person on the planet.



I have three siblings, Bing (20) and two which I live-in care for - Stef (18) and Mark(16). Also three of my favourite people in existence... We share a house, a sense of humor and many many good times. (first picture is Bing and Elliotte, second is Stef and myself, third is Mark and myself)

I'll probably also spend a lot of time gushing about my adorable man friend, Future James. He's all kinds of wonderful, seriously.

Oxfam's Exchange for Change

Exchange for Change is a new fundraising event that lets you experience the thrill of shopping for next to no cost. Kicking off on 1 September 2009, Exchange for Change involves women across Australia hosting clothes swap parties - get together with your friends and colleagues, swap clothing items that you no longer love or want, and help support Oxfam Australia's invaluable work around the world.

I'm hosting an exchange party myself on the 23rd, with a donations target of $500, I'll be ebaying any left over clothes and donate the profits to boost the donations, stay tuned for details and photos of the event!

Maybe you should think about inviting a few friends and hosting one too?

xo.

Fresh Start... Again.

Every few months I think about attempting this 'blogging business'. It always seems like the logical step, I love reading other peoples' blogs and I love writing. It just makes sense. But then life gets in the road and I don't update for a week, a few weeks... all of a sudden it's slipped off my to-do list entirely and I can't remember my log in details. I've had all the excuses under the sun for why I stop but never for why I don't just start up again.

So here I am - kicking myself in the butt, again, and re-trying to maintain my own little corner of the interwebs.

My past attempts have generally had a 'theme' - hocking my wares, talking about my current obsession, documenting my life... This time we're going to throw it all in the mix, give it a stir and see what happens.

I'll probably write a lot about the every day trials of being the mother of a wonderful almost 3-year-old (...and carer to two teenagers, a dog, a cat and six goldfish). There'll also be updates on my crafting attempts, possible hocking of said crafting attempts, photography (if I can convince this hunk of electrical bits that calls itself a computer to upload them) and many many posts about the random things I am loving at any given time.

wish me luck and here's to hoping this one sticks.
xo.