Coming up for air

Today's not that different to any other day lately. The sun is shining in the most fantastically blue cloudless sky, cicadas are going crazy, the washing's baking to a crisp on the line. What *is* different, is that I'm finally in the right frame of mind to sit down and write something here.

So, what's been happening?
We now have more family living close by - really close, I mean 2 doors down the street, and it's fabulous. Ian's cousin and his family have made a big move from Australia to NZ, and wound up in the same street as us. Our children get along mostly great. And Ian's sister has moved cities and now lives 2 blocks over. I love the pop-in visits, coffee mid-morning, or a wine in the evening.

Craftwerk last week was fun. I wasn't sure I'd managed to make enough stuff for the trip to be worthwhile, but turns out I had, and it was. I met a lovely woman who put me on to a local source of kimono fabric pieces, so I have some nice big pieces to get busy with. As an added bonus, I got to spend some time with my brother and his girlfriend.

Playcentre is keeping me and Helen busy 3 mornings a week.
Jen's happy at school, and rapt that the school pool is now open. We've got a key so we can use it after hours. She's so much more confident in the water now, she's picking things up off the bottom of the pool, and talking to her friends under water :-)


I'm working on these felt flowers at the moment. Some will have pin backs attached, others may yet end up packaged as scrap-booking or card-making embellishments. Better get cracking!

Meet Bill

We have a new family member. Bill is settling in beautifully, although his default look still says "peeved and annoyed". In fact, he's making himself right at home, as you can see here.
A couple of days ago we melted down our broken crayons in cupcake cases (no, Bill hasn't been helping himself to the baking) and set to work drawing all over a hunk of background paper snaffled from the recycling at Ian's work. Bill and the girls loved it, he was even happy to pose with a crayon Jen balanced on his leg (although, check those ears!) How cute is he??!!

I realise it's been a little while since I posted anything with pictures, so here's a couple of bits and pieces I've made lately.

Another pony-tail holder for Jen made from buttons (I've made lots more like these for sale at Craftwerk).


And a finger puppet for one of Jen's friends, made one wet day while we were at camp. Zac described it and chose the colours for it himself.


This isn't exactly crafty - yet! My lovely neighbour has a gorgeous bougainvillea growing against her house and she gave me an enormous bunch of flowers from it about a week ago. Now fhe flowers are dried and ready to go to Playcentre next week to join our natural collage resources. Aren't the colours amazing?