She's leavin' on a jet plane....

My baby sister's plane just landed safely in Georgia. Now the real adventure starts for her, so much is opening up for her - it will be all sorts of exciting.

The airport was hard, with 4 full carloads of people to see her off... The departures lounge was awash with tears. That kid is not short of love, that's for sure. I was so proud of her, all her years of hard work on the soccer pitch and in the class room has paid off in spades. She's now got the chance to immerse herself in a whole new world for 4 years, not something a lot of people have the chance to do. But she wouldn't be there without all that effort, sacrifice and determination.

She's wise beyond her years, and was so very brave. I'm not worried for her at all - she makes friends easily and embraces new experiences with vigor. I sure am going to miss her though.

I've actually got a surprise for her in one of my next few posts, which I'll upload when she's settled in what will be her home for the next 4 years.

Stef, sweetness, I'm so proud I could burst. Be safe, have fun and talk often.

SO much love,
your Big big sister
xo.

not even going to try appologies...

So, I'm slack, slack, slack. This we all know is a fact, fact, fact. (yay for semi-rhymes!)

I'm renewing my dedication to the blogging world. My baby sister is heading to the other side of the world for a college scholarship. This means the next FOUR years are going to be Stef free! And this is a very stream-of-consciousness way for her to keep up to date with the goings on in our world. Especially the antics of her number 1 niece miss elliotte.

She leaves in 2 and a bit weeks and I'm miserable just thinking about it. But I won't restart my writings on a depressed note. So let's all be excited for her adventures to come and my (hopefully) more regular blog posts!

xo.

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.

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.