Closer to Christmas

Here's a couple more cards I've made this Christmas, using up some of the hunter green card I seem to have a lot of. Although it's a classic for Christmas, and I used to use it all the time, I tend to go reach more for olive card with red these days. The Merry Christmas stamp on the first card is a cheap one, from a polymer pack from Riot Art & Craft, and the Lovely as a Tree stamp is a classic, and so beautiful.

The weeks are rushing by, just 16 days till Christmas now. I've written most of my cards but might need to make a few more, my card list has increased significantly with new families at church on top of adding my 40 or so colleagues at work last year and this.

Tonight I was at my staff Christmas party, which was lots of fun. I'm grateful to have been working two years with these lovely people. There are five more school days this year, plus another function and two long staff meetings, it will be strange to be with my work friends so much this week and then it will suddenly stop, I won't see them for six weeks. But ... we teachers all need a holiday!

Creating for Christmas

Since my uni semester finished in October, I've been busy making Christmas cards. This has been quite therapeutic in the midst of some difficult things going on in the family (and cheaper than therapy?)

I've made 100 cards so far, here's a sampling of some of them.

And now the fun part's over, I need to get writing!

Puppy Days

I thought I might have blogged more these last four months, with a cute puppy in the house. But no, it turns out that puppies are hard to photograph and take up lots of time. And for about 3 months there we were just dodging puppy teeth. At times I wondered what on earth we had done. But thankfully Cooper has stopped biting, on the whole, and we can now walk through our living room unmolested. Ah, the relief.

On top of all that, I've been studying and working and other stuff has been going on. There's never a dull moment, is there? Even when you expect one at long last.

So, here's a few photos from Cooper's 3rd-6th months, he's actually 6 months old today. He's grown from 8 kilos to 24 kilos in that time, and has plenty more growing to do. He can do lots of clever tricks - when he feels like it. He's a handsome boy, lots of work, but much loved, a lot of the time ...

Happy 18th, Laura

On Wednesday we celebrated Laura's 18th Birthday.

We found a beautiful spot by the water for a late afternoon present-opening picnic. (We gave Laura a golden retriever necklace, some pens for drawing, and will buy her some new bedroom furniture). Laura met a swan. Then we went to a Thai restaurant for a delicious dinner, and Emily made us each a personal dessert in a mason jar, trifle for the birthday girl and Steve, and vegan/paleo chocolate coconut creations for her and me, yum.

It's hard to believe that this girl of ours has been alive for 18 years. And what a character she is:

We love you, so much, Laura!