Mrs Darling has a point

This excerpt is from today's post on this blog post on Art Nest. Great quote and thoughtful sentiment...

"One of my favorite quotes that keeps me going when I'm scared is from Peter Pan. Mrs. Darling is explaining to her children about sacrifices that parents and adults make...

Mrs. Darling: There are many different kinds of bravery. There's the bravery of thinking of others before one's self. Now, your father has never brandished a sword nor fired a pistol, thank heavens. But he has made many sacrifices for his family, and put away many dreams.
Michael: Where did he put them?
Mrs. Darling: He put them in a drawer. And sometimes, late at night, we take them out and admire them. But it gets harder and harder to close the drawer... He does. And that is why he is brave.

Don't you ever lay in bed wide awake and visit all of your dreams? I do. Then I hear the little foot steps running down the hall and I remember where I'm supposed to be and that it is where I want to be. "

Check it out...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RY-dXsR_ZFg

A stream full

My funny little people this morning. Right when we were supposed to be walking out the door, but I was photographing a layout quickly before sending it to Scrapbook Creations and Sienna wanted in on the photo action, funny kidlets.

So, today. A bit of kinder work - rescheduling some important things in the office since the cluster date has been pushed by YET ANOTHER month. It was going to be April, we knew that was wishful thinking, so were banking on it being 1st May. Then it was really truly going to be 1st June, at least until yesterday when we found out it is confirmed for 1st July. I have to say it's a much less convenient date than 1st June. I was all set to have it sorted, the follow up admin stuff done and out of the way BEFORE baby 3 is due to pop. But apparently not. Bloody kinder and being their bloody treasurer. And excuse my French but it is damn annoying.

ANYHOW, I did manage to post two layouts to SC this morning, getting ahead of my deadlines. I have one more layout to send before Cedar is born, and am saving the next one due in July for after so I can hopefully use pics of our new arrival for that one. Cutting it a little close given my habit of being a couple of weeks overdue, but I'm quite excited at the prospect of scrapping while Ben has time off from work to help with the kids :)

Am going to the movies with my lovely sister tonight to see 17 again, should be a really fun movie (well, Kell has seen it already but is up for a reprise so I figure that's a good sign). And I feel like lighthearted - yay!

A bit of scrapping and some more decorating has been going on, but the decorating is not photo-ready yet and I forgot to photograph the latest 'just for fun' scrap page - will share in a couple of days.

Annoyed this afternoon that I can't get Sienna's test results until tomorrow afternoon AT THE EARLIEST. Doctors, hmmph. Make a 5 year old girl go through an hour and a half test with a painful bung in the arm episode of screaming and being held down by mum and doctors - not nice - and then we have to wait to find out what it was even all about, and if there was any point at all. And we still haven't heard anything about the heart echo she had a couple of weeks ago. I just want it answered and over with, but that will be another couple of days it seems.

Something fun, though, Sienna is booked in for a try out session for this drama class, so she might have that happening during terms 3 and 4. Her teacher and school guidance counsellor both think it is a great idea for her, and I think she should enjoy it, so am looking forward to finding out more at the try out in a couple of weeks.

Yep, a stream full of random randomness. And now it's time to walk through the rainy old hills to get Sienna from school - time for gumboots and umbrellas Mr Ash!

Thirties style

On Thursday Sienna had a 'Special Persons Day' with an old-fashioned theme - guests and students were invited to dress up 1930's style, as this year the school is 75 years old, and it was established in the 30s.
Kell came as Sienna's special person for the indoor half of the morning, and then we went and picked up the boys from kinder.

After that I dressed Ash up in my Poppa's old hat and took him back to the school for the outdoor games.
Sienna had a few emotional moments, but at least they make for good photos :P And what responsible mother wouldn't take this shot before talking her out of the tantrum?

By the end of it she was quite grumpy - apparently everyone kept telling her she was beautiful and it was annoying because they were all saying the same thing. Oh my, what a little miss! She does make us laugh though.

Kell and I were remembering a colonial-dress up day for the bicentennial in 1988 when we were in primary school - a photo of Kell and another student with a teacher making damper over a campfire was published in the local paper at the time :) I think I even have some photos on the computer somewhere (not of the newspaper) ... ok I found one but I think it is from a different dress up day that I don't remember at all. Funny tho ;)

Ash's new domain

Not quite finished, but close enough to show... I've just spent a few days redecorating the old study to be Ash's bedroom. Final coat of paint on the last bit of wall went on this morning, by dinner time he was all moved in :) I plan on changing his quilt cover, and there are still some blank walls and toy storage to sort out, but it's pretty much there.

Unfortunately I can't get the colour right in this stairwell pic, but I have to put it in 'cos this tree looks cool! LOL, not perfect close up but not bad for a freehand drawing on a high wall (um... mum, you don't want to ask how I got that high at over 7 months preggers, hehe)




Custom You-Are-Awesome print by Kal Barteski


Neverland original painting on book paper from elsiecake on etsy

I also made this baby blanket recently, it's like a pram blanket or throw really, made out of vintage chenille and embroidered with trees from Elsie Flannigan's Autumn craft kit which I bought last year. Each side has the four patches of chenille, and it is quilted along the centre cross. I've never embroidered like this before (cross-stitch, yes, but this is a different technique completely), and it was quite fun :)

Whimsy and rollerskates

There's this etsy shop I just love, and it seems that a few times a year this artist uploads a collection of jewellery. Anne Julie makes it by hand and it features her illustrations. The idea is to be subscribed to her blog so that you get advance notice of the upload, and then you can check them all out on flickr ahead of time. The only glitch - she's in France. So her upload time was 6am Monday morning.

I was all like, oh man. So I didn't set an alarm or anything like that, but I did have it on my mind. And when I woke for the bathroom just before 6:30 I hopped online to see what was there. Out of the 63 necklaces she uploaded, 56 had sold in that half hour already! Wow. Luckily I loved this - one of the ones that were left - and promptly checked out of etsy with 'Alice in Wonderland - Magical Leaf' in my shopping cart :)

Another recent purchase is this print from littlestflower... goes rather well with the tree theme we've got going for our boys here (Ash and Cedar).

Fun news for me - check out the Willow Crafts Blog! (My bio was what I wrote in the submission email, LOL, I didn't realise it would see general public release!). I'm really thrilled to connect to this UK and international community of scrappers and find out what they'll have for me to do :)

Ooh I have rollerskates. I'm quite excited - I bought them from ebay and they were supposed to be size 11 but actually they only just fit (so more of a 10), but they are red and white and I'm looking forward to skating around all nostalgic like :) Sienna has skates too, I picked them up from a garage sale, but they are really too big for her which makes it harder for her to balance. Since she's really quite into the idea I am looking out for some that will fit her now. If anyone has any girl's size 11-12 skates they don't need... it's going to be quite fun!

Museum and Making Stuff

"At a certain part in your life, probably when too much of it has gone by, you will open your eyes and see yourself for who you are. Especially for everything that made you so different from all the awful normals. And you will say to yourself, 'But I am this person.' And in that statement, that correction, there will be a kind of love." - Phoebe in Wonderland (film)

OK

An update on my earlier post, Zeke is out of the ICU this evening and his doctors are happy with his progress after a successful surgery. Still fingers crossed, but things are looking up at least, which is a relief.

Love this shot I just found today, I was having a marathon photo printing session! Sienna was sitting on the verandah playing a dominoes game with me back in March and Ash had my camera, he took this shot. I love her profile, she looks like a fairy tale character :) I had a great night scrapping with a few friends and made two layouts, one I can share so I will post it in the next couple of days!

Thinking and praying

...for this little guy, he had a bad accident last night, had emergency surgery, and is now in intensive care in the Royal Children's Hospital. My heart aches for my friends, imagine the sort of turmoil they must feel seeing their 2 year old in this position! Fingers crossed things work out for the best.

This morning at Cloudehill Gardens

Lately

This is a little gift envelope I received today from Hana-Jane, a NZ customer of Q Tea - isn't that sweet? Really cute things too, just waiting for a little mini-album to be made from them. Love the trees!
This morning we took these cupcakes in to school with Sienna - they have been doing a bee theme in her class, and she had to leave early on Friday so missed out on a few of the activities planned. So yesterday was bee-cupcake-making day and she took them in to share with her class today. It's also nice to show that you can have treats and activities just for fun, especially since Sienna doesn't participate in birthdays and that seems to be the only reason special things happen at school. I prefer the random fun stuff anyway :)

I made this little 'fairy garden' for Sienna on Saturday afternoon, with a couple of succulents and an XL goblet (it's about 8 inches across). It's missing a few little ladybugs and things I bought to put in it, but it's pretty sweet and is in her room now.

A couple of funny kidlets playing games on the couch the other day...


I still plan on getting one of these crochet sacs from etsy but am now thinking this grey below might be more my style than the chocolate brown - what do you think?

Speaking of baby Cedar, we've bought the kids a special gift each for when he is born. Since my kids don't read my blog I think I'm safe showing them here :) Only a couple of months now.

Ash has this shock-proof digital camera...
And Sienna this sweet dollhouse.

It's quite big though, I will have to re-think her bedroom to find a place for it! It's funny choosing, the same amount was spent on each item but one is super small and one quite large. Both I think are great choices for their personalities and interests at the stages they are in at the moment. Ash needs to leave my camera alone, LOL, and Sienna loves role-play and making up stories and characters.