Monday 31 January 2011

Back to school...

Can you believe school goes back this Friday?  So we need to get craft group back up and running again! How about the second week of school - Monday 14th Feb? Or do people have plans for Valentine's day?
I will drop in to the Post Office Hotel and enquire if we are still ok to have craft group there, otherwise I shall have to work on "Plan B"for a new venue - any ideas???

Wednesday 26 January 2011

GJ's fabrics, bunny love and capes!

http://www.gjsdiscountfabrics.com.au/


I have been shopping at GJ's ever since they were out the back of Barkley Square (before they added the food court !).  I don't know how it came up in conversation, but Georgie and I discovered a mutual connection of bunny love (we both had pet rabbits) and would share bunny stories whenever I went to the store. She still has a bunny, I would dearly love another  and have promised the kids one, but with  myxo running rampant it it not worth the risk, so we are contemplating guinea pigs instead. There is a petition to lobby the govt. to allow the myxo vaccine to be used in Australia (it is available in Europe) - please sign it. http://www.gopetition.com/petition/41908.html  There was a big photo and article on the front of the Sunday age about 3 weeks ago, with vets all over Melbourne saying they are having to euthenase pet bunnies all the time at the moment due to myxo

Visited GJ's on Monday - my MIL makes the most amazing quilts, but lives on the other side of town, so she came over for the day  for a visit and we went  to GJ's.  They have a brand new website - link above - check out all those gorgeous colours!

My boys picked out some fabric offcuts for my to make some capes - a dark green rushed velour for a Voldemort cape, and the most amazing black-with-flames satin for a ??? not-sure-who-cape but it should look pretty cool!  That is my task today - sewing capes while listening to the Hottest 100! One of the lovely ladies in GJ's drew me a quick sketch and showed me a quick easy way to make a cape with a hood, so with a quick search of the net yesterday, and a read of an old WW "kids parties and dress ups"book, I think I know what I am doing. I will post some photos if they work out!!!

PS This goes to show how old our old fridge was - - when the bloke arrived with the new fridge last week, he took one look at our old one and said "geez, no wonder you are getting a new fridge!"

Friday 21 January 2011

Cookie cutter Crtitters en masse!


Thought I needed some colour here for a change! Here is a pile of critters made by me and a wonderful team of helpers for the school craft stall last year.  They were a huge hit with the kids - we had nearly 100 and ended up with only about 5 left!
Big excitement in our house today - we got a new fridge! It is HUGE and doesn't drip water everywhere like our old (ancient!) one did.  It is just wonderful! We emptied  all the food from the esky and cooler  bags into it, and there is still HEAPSS of room in it!

Tuesday 18 January 2011

Flood relief - Hope softies

lhttp://monpetitpoppet.blogspot.com/2011/01/hope-softies.html

Here is the link to "Hope Softies" - making simple softies for children whose homes have been flood damaged/destroyed.  The Red Cross also has an appeal for Victorian Flood victims.  My Aunt and Uncle live in Rochester (they sandbagged their house, I think it is ok), and I grew up in Central Victoria going fishing on all of the rivers which have flooded!
I will try and chase up if we can have a softies appeal for Victorian families, perhaps via the Vic CWA.

Still having internet issues, it has taken nearly an hour to get any sort of speed today in order to even open any websites!

Brickvention was amazing but waaaay to crowded. But  I'm not even going to attempt to post photos  today with this slow old speed at the moment.

Thursday 13 January 2011

Brickvention this Sunday!

For those like me, whose households and holidays revolve around Lego -  Brickvention is on this Sunday at the Melbourne Town Hall.  The crowd will be HUGE - there have been at least 3 big write ups in The Age so far over the past few weeks.  When we first went 2 years ago, it was just us and about a dozen other families; last year people were queued up for 2 blocks waiting to get in!  
As you can see in the photo, Harry Potter Lego was the big gift item for the JediKids' birthday and Christmas this year. I have to admit it is very cool, the detail of the Hogwarts School, Hagrid's hut, the Burrow and the Hogwarts Express is all amazing.  All he needs now to complete the set is the Quiddich match. Lucky he still  has some birthday money to spend!

Do you find yourself glued to the tv at the moment?  Thank goodness the ABC is running the floods news all day.  I have been enjoying  the new SBS show "the late session with Waleed Aly " (especially with the wonderful line up of Clare Bowditch, Deb Mailman and Maggie Beer this week!); and his co-presenting of the extended ABC news breakfast program this week has been impressive also.

I've got to say that as a Teacher of the Deaf, I am getting a big buzz out of seeing an Auslan imterpreter  at each of  the news conferences, right there on screen, prime time on national television!  Fantastic that the very strong Qld Deaf Society  basically got up and said 'lots of deaf people live here and can't access the news, we will provide auslan interperters for the main news announcements'.

Wednesday 12 January 2011

Queensland flood relief- a craft help idea

Hi all, some of you may have already seen my email about the rainbow comfort packs. Read up about the Bushfire  rainbow comfort packs here http://beyondpinkandblue.blogspot.com/  - basically, it is a hand made bag, containing a hand made softie, something to do (colouring book and pencils, puzzle book, small game/card game etc., and some socks & undies, packed for a specific age group) - something for kids to have and to do while waiting at an evacuation centre etc.

I have been emailing the lovely Monica at beyond pink and blue ( who set up and managed the bushfire rainbow effort), and she is working on the logistics.  Details when they come to hand will also be posted on the handmade help site http://handmadehelpsout.blogspot.com/

 I will keep you posted, but it looks pretty certain it will go ahead.  I am planning on setting aside some time next week to sit down and sew up a pile of simple bags (simple shopper type bag with a long strap to go across the body, maybe a velcro closure if I get back to spotlight (under the back table in  the Brunswick store, pre-cut 1m lenghts scanned at only 50c each!)
If you would like to buy some cool stuff to put in the bags, I just bought my boys a cool puzzle book each, Angus and Robertson Puckle St store, $1 each. Plus they had the "how to draw warriors" and "manga" books for $1 also, just need to add in some pencils.
Thanks!

Monday 10 January 2011

Random Holiday stuff...

The holidays have been fairly relaxing so far, well, after the to-ing and fro-ing of family Christmas catch ups that is. We even managed a couple of days at the beach, just walking, collecting rocks, looking in rockpools etc.  The best part was just hanging out together, the 4 of us doing the Giant Crossword in The Age (they take ages though, we are generally about 4 days behind. But a great insight into what general knowledge the kids have - we have both been quite impressed with their efforts!). AND we managed to NOT turn on the tv or have the kids PLAY THE DS for 3 days at the beach!  Which of course has all changed now we are home!
Lots of lego, watching Clone Wars, Pokemon this morning, in our pj's still. 
Heading off to the Westgarth again on Wednesday to see "Tangled" and planning on visiting "The Friendship Tree" whilst in Northcote. I can't believe how it has changed in the 10 years since I was teaching there, all those trendy shops and cafes on High St now!