Jane Austen Curls

Laura requested "curls at the front" the other night, and so headed off to school the next day with quite the Regency look. So cute, but not quite right with her sports shirt ... I still couldn't take my eyes off her!

Summer's End

Summer has come to an official end, here, today. The last weeks have been full - starting school, adjusting to new routines, planning and organising for my teaching year (piano, recorder and bible study).

Emily has settled right in to high school life, and at her camp tried all sorts of exciting new things including sailing and giant rope swings, which she never would have attempted in the past. She was glad to come home, though, and we were glad to have her home with us again!

Laura surprised us all by announcing that she was going to enter the 50m backstroke race at the school swimming carnival, she's not a great swimmer so she's never swum 50m before, but after a practice at the pool with Daddy she was ready, and I watched proudly as she swam steadily to the finish line, knowing that it was a harder race for her than for many of the other swimmers that day.

In February we've had ...
... hot days and cold days; humid days and stormy days ... tomatoes growing and piled up on the kitchen bench and zucchinis shriveled outside in the heat ... days of rinsing out swimming costumes and days of relaxing in the airconditioning ... days with delicious dinners and days where we were glad to have something easy out of the freezer ... days when the house was almost completely tidy and days when it looked like a bomb had hit... days when I sat quiet and tired and days when I was filled with energy and decluttered for hours at a time.

Laura has a new Irish Dancing teacher and a new flute teacher and a new school teacher, and Emily has the same saxophone teacher but of course all new teachers to get to know at high school. Steve has been in his new job now for almost 2 months, and has gotten used to the train/bus combination each morning and evening. I've almost gotten used to our early starts with Steve leaving at 7.20 and some days we girls beat him out the door to rush to band or choir.

And so tomorrow is a cooler day for the start of autumn, we've just had a thunderstorm here. I don't expect life to change dramatically in March, but I do hope to cope with it all a bit better now that I've got things running with my students.

And also ... tomorrow I will be working on a big project, which I'll post about soon!

Happy Camper ... hopefully

Emily is at a Year 7 camp. Just two nights, but I'll be happy when she's home tomorrow afternoon.

Then before I know it, it will be Laura's turn to start going on camps.

I hate it when one of my girls is not home!

Cute Cards

The last few days I've been playing with some new stamps, and today I finished assembling the cards. I'm loving colouring these cute images from Hero Arts! (And what's not to love about a cupcake?)

I love the colours of this one below (cardstock and papers on all cards by Stampin' Up!). They compliment the oh-so-cute little girl so well!

So nice to get some craft finished for once! Now I have to run and pop one of them in the mail for a birthday!

Fimo Pendants

I've been looking into making Silver Clay Jewellery (such as this) lately, and that inspired me to first try some pendants with some Fimo (a Christmas present to Laura). Emily made one, Laura made two, and I made one. If you can't tell which one is mine, I will give up craft now.

The hardest part of this craft was getting the jump rings on after the baking. I had to buy some larger-than-usual rings and even then it was tricky getting them through the layers.

As for the actual making of the pendants - they were easy-peasy. Roll some fimo into a ball and then flatten it with a roller. Cut with a miniature cutter if desired. Stamp with a rubber stamp or other textured object and bake in 120degC oven for 30mins.

Baker Girl

Now that Emily's in high school, she has a uniform for everything! She thought she'd give her cooking apron and cap a try while baking butterfly cakes at home last Saturday.

She left one fetching curl hanging out of her cap.

I love that she can bake by herself now.

She was given a cupcake baking kit for Christmas, and since then has been baking delicious big cupcakes for us to enjoy. A cute cook and yummy cakes, who could ask for anything more?

(Well ... she could improve on the cleaning up afterwards ....)

I'm still here!

Hi, still here, just very, very busy with start-of-the-school year stuff.

Getting used to the new high school routine.
Getting clothes dry in time in the rain.
Getting ready for piano and recorder students.
Getting the house sorted and clean.
Trying to balance "free" time and work.

Looking forward to blogging soon!