Sew Proud!

Wow, 2 posts in the one day! lol

I just had to share these. Tonight we put together some Wheat Bags to give to Matt's parents for birthday gifts. I let the kids do all the work that they were capable of. Shawn has been able to sew for a few years now. Liberty still sat on my lap and pressed the buttons, lifted the foot and that was about all. Not any more! She has found her groove.



She just loves to sew... my girl, in so many ways :)

Friday?

On Wednesday the Enrichment Art classes had a gallery display. The year 5/6 classes studied Pollacks Blue Poles, one of my favourite paintings that I was thrilled to see at the Canberra Art Gallery on a school excursion....many years ago :)
This work of Shawn's was inspired by Piet Mondrian. Students had to take an item from home to paint... Since I have an ambundance of Pepsi cans, they were an easy choice! lol
Shawn has also been chosen in the Maths Enrichment program this term, I am so very proud of him!

Yesterday was the first chance I have had this week to start sewing for the Armidale Farmers markets this Sunday. I have 2 bags almost completed... just a little sneak peek at them. I hope the red/cherry bag doesn't sell, I love it! lol

Today I have a few things on, but hope to get more things made up ready for the masses of Mother's day shoppers... if only!

Gostwyck Photo Shoot

This is a beautiful place at this time of the year.
It has been a few years now since I have managed to be there at the perfect time.
It was a good day!

Off to go fishing tomorrow, back next week!

Back to school tomorrow!

Well the school holidays have been looong and busy, productive busy, but still busy!
Last Sunday I went to the Armidale Farmers Market with my goodies again. It is actually a fun day out for all of us. The kids ride their bikes around and have a great time.
This is my new bag style. I made this one first and fell in love. It is a yummy micro suede.



This creature is one of my favourites... well sort of. This is a Dugong and my first love is the Manatee. Oh to go to Florida and find one!


We went to the Sydney aquarium at Easter and arrived at the Dugong's right at feeding time. They look so gentle.
Well, I am ready for bed. Night x

Troubadour Reunion

On Easter Monday, Mum and I went and saw the wonderful Carole King and the fantastic James Taylor at the Sydney Entertainment Centre. It was like watching 2 old friends sing and play in their lounge room.
Earlier in the day I read above the entry doors that photography was not permitted. I thought I would follow this rule, so I didn't lug my camera with me on the night. However, everyone else was snapping away and security didn't drag them out. So on the very last song, (Locomotion, in honour of 'our' Kylie) I remembered I had my very flat phone in my bag. It had just enough power to turn on and then snap these 2 shots. 2 very bad shots, but they recorded an amazing experience!

Stockton

We spent Good Friday at Stockton visiting my mentally disabled Uncle, Lester. It is always so great to see him and know that he is so well loved and cared for where he is. Anyway... we found these little creatures, millions of them, all over these particular trees. Anyone know what they are? In all of the millions, we only spotted the one, large orange beetle (top photo).





We also took a few minutes out of the day and took the kids down to the beach, it is a great fishing beach, not a great swimming beach. They still managed to get the hems of their shorts wet! :)
This was the most fun though, Dune Jumpin!

Drum roll please...

Liberty just drew the winner of my Etsy giveaway...

Congratulations.....










I'll have my people call your people! lol

Thanks to all of you who take the time to leave comments, it is very appreciated xox
I will hopefully resume normal blogging tomorrow, I still have so many easter photos to share!

Easter away

We are home from a nice few days away. just thought I would stop by and share a few pics from the Sydney Royal Easter Show. The top one is Robosaurus, the car eating dino. The middle image was one of the highlights of the show, these guys were pretty awesome! The bottom image is of the cutest newsreaders around! Shawn got to read a script, just like the news people do. The lady in the front, middle of the photo is Johanna Griggs. Commonweath games swimmer and now TV personality... she is in love with Shawn's eyelashes :)
I will leave the giveaway open until Sunday evening... (see 2 posts below)

night x

Costume time!

This year at Shawn's school was the first time they have done an Easter Hat Parade. I remember them when i went to the school, how times change!
Shawn made his rabbit Helmet on his own last Sunday afternoon.
Liberty and I worked on her hat together. Then at Preschool she made another eater Hat, so we just stuck it on the top! She felt like a Queen!
Last night was the first school disco for the year with a theme of Celebrity or TV characters. Can you guess who Shawn is? Liberty had a great night of dancing, she will be so comfortable at school when her time comes....I hope....

Don't forget to leave a comment in the post below to have a chance of winning $20 to spend in my new Etsy store!

500th POST!

Welcome to my 500th blog post. I started this blog on November 13th 2007... 2007!!!! Thank you everyone who has stuck with me on my ramblings and to anyone who has joined in recently, thank you! :)
Lots has been happening, but I have been waiting to announce something very exciting, well, to me it is exciting. I have opened my very own Etsy store. This is the link that will get you to it, or on the side bar I have put a widget thingy that I think will update as I load more goodies into the store, there is also a link on there. http://www.etsy.com/shop/PhotosAndCreativity

Sooooo, I have been thinking what can I do to celebrate my 500th post. So I opened a can of Pepsi :) Then decided that I have never had a 'giveaway'. So to celebrate my new Etsy opening, I am going to have a giveaway! So if you have often lurked (like I do on many blogs) and never left a comment, now is the time!

No catch, just leave a comment, any comment will do nicely. It could be about the weather. Current events in your part of the world. How wonderful you think my Etsy goodies are. How wonderful you think I am..... Ok, sorry, I got carried away :)
I will leave this open until after Easter, I will pick a date and let you know in another post.

So the random winner will get $20 to spend in my Etsy store PhotosAndCreativity That can get you a Fabric Camera Strap or a Tote Bag or whatever your heart desires...as long as it is in my etsy store. :)

I still have goodies to load, and so many ideas and fabrics that I want to make things with... I just need more hours in the day!



STOP PRESS
I just discovered that I had my first Etsy sale!!!!
This Camera strap is going on a plane trip, all the way to Pennsylvania USA! What a small world it is!

Thanks so much for reading! x

Autumn Skies

Autumn skies really are stunning!
I captured these earlier this week on my quest to get out of the house, just for 5 minutes!!! :) I am so glad I did, the sky was beautiful!
For more Sky watch Friday images visit HERE




This is my 499th post so blogger informs me. I think I will have to do 'something' special for the 500th....hummmm what to do.... If I was Oprah, I would give you all a car :)

Hope to see you on my 500th!

Toasty Tuesday

This guy surprised Shawn as he walked into our yard on his way home from school this afternoon. We had not spotted this Blue Tongue Lizard all Summer, but on this beautiful warm Autumn day, there he was!
So Today I took Liberty to Preschool, then I came home and putzied, then went to the gym, then had my hair cut, then had lunch with my hunky husband, then came home and picked up Liberty from Preschool. ...and that was pretty much my day. The kids and I have been melting crayons to replenish my market stock this evening. Silly me decided to cook using the oven, not a good idea on such a warm day. I think it is shower time to cool off.

A lazy Monday...

Today was recovery Monday!

It was a busy weekend. Work Saturday. Autumn Festival parade. Grocery shopping. Get ready for the markets. Visit frends while in town. Dinner with friends and their family. More getting ready for markets. Markets. Unpack from markets. Recover and fall asleep on the couch.
So today I did very lttle. Caught up with a friend, washed some clothes, went to the school then to Basketball. Now Matt is at Basketball and I have just watched 'The big bang theory' and now am spending time with Simon Baker... Such a nice Aussie boy!

My keyboar needs cleaning ot with the compressor, not every key works first go... very annoyingand slow...

Bonnie over at Going Home To Roost has been lovely to me recently, if you have a few spare minutes hop on over to her blog and see what words of wisdom she is blogging today I was the very fortunate winner of a giveaway that she had a few weeks ago, so I have some of her Etsy goodness coming my way!

Armidale Farmers Markets

Today was the frst time I have had a market stall at the Armidale Farmers Markets. With licencing restrictions, I also had to include baking, fresh produce or second hand goods with my handmade goodies. Since my Vegie garden only just feeds us, that was out of the question. I do not bake.... :) So yesterday we quickly went through Shawn and Liberty's rooms and found some clothes, books and toys. My Grandmother had a garage sale not long ago so I was able to find some treasures there.




My Heat Wheat bags were my best seller, followed by my heart crayons. Just as I thought they would be! Heat Bags are one of my favourite Winter items, so now you know what I did with the 10kg of wheat in the post below, Matt is off to pick up another bag for me tomorrow :)
So, it was a great morning! As I had hoped, but better than I expected!

Today!

Today started out pretty rough. This food poisoning and low blood pressure have really thrown me!

But this lady made it worth the energy to get out of bed and check my emails. More on this excitement later.... :)

This afternoon I had the energy to move about, so I did. As my Grandmother in America would say, I was putzing around. I love that. Putzing.

Then after school this beautiful 4 year old, with very little effort did this...





... no training wheels!!!!

Matt spent, maybe 30 minutes with her at the park and then we went to the basketball court so she could show us all her new found skill. Like a duck to water! So proud of you Miss Liberty! x

My sewing machine came home yesterday!!!!

Matt picked it up from the 'doctor' and he was very complementary... I have an 18 year old Janome Memory Craft 7500. The Doc told Matt that he had heard alot about how great this machine was, but had never actually seen or used one. He loved it! Said it goes better than most new machines!!!

See my machine, was my 'first car' (that is how I explained it to Matt) I worked hard to purchase it as a teenager and have had many great moments with it! I was quite chuffed that it is such great condition! So tonight we are going to see what we can do with this...



...all going well, I may just make the Armidale Farmers Markets after all...

Night x

A WEEK!!!!!!!

It has been one, full week since I have posted on my little blog.... I am sorry :(
If anyone is still out there and cares, I have just been so busy. This was my year to slow down and so far that plan is not going to plan. This week looks no better, but I have decided not to sell my bits and bobs at the farmers market this weekend, just not enough time to get the goodies made. That, and the fact that my sewing machine has been at the doctors, but it should come home today feeling much better!

I also had a trip to the doctors myself with food poisoning... Now that is an experience I do not want to go through again. My BP is still low and I am pretty weak. Since I said I will work 4 days this week, my timing could not be any worse! So since I now have to find the energy to run out the door, I will post later on what we did over the weekend :)

Tonight!

A good weekend

I started this weekend working and teaching a group of people how to create photo books.
Then I crashed a wedding to take photos of this cheeky flowergirl and her beautiful family...

Then in the afternoon I rescued these boys and then had dinner with them...

This morning after we stopped at the Armidale Farmers Market we went to Matt's parents and did some of this...

Then while Shawn was at a birthday party and Matt and Liberty went to cut grass at my Grandmothers I edited some more of Bec's wedding shots and I made these...

I am sleepy...

Wedding SWF

This is not my favourite shot in this location, to see it visit my other blog that I keep just for Photographics and Creativity I captured this shot last weekend. When I saw this paddock a few days before the wedding I knew I had to use it... how nice for the sky to be dramatic and join us :)

For more interesting skies around the world visit HERE

Have a great Friday!

My Boy

These are from Bec and Jared's wedding a few weeks ago. Shawn was their Paige Boy, he is also Bec's Godson. The 2 flowergirls are Jared's Goddaughters. Shawn was, as he always is delightful! He was so good with the flowergirls.
The photo of Bec holding up her dress in the bag shows Shawn making a joke to her, I love the looks on their faces... he is growing up. 10 in 3 months... my baby boy...