Camp

I have just come home from a two night three day camp with 85 teenage girls. I am tired and glad to be home and showered. The girls definitely tested my patience but the scenery made it all worth while. After one day of freezing cold rain we had two day of beautiful clear skies, sun and deserted beaches.

::We visited a tiny historic village run by a few old locals who were so proud and ready to tell stories for hours.
::We went to the wind farm and got to go inside one and press the pause button.
::We visited a lime kiln and an old graveyard
::And of course we did we did all the normal camp things, such as walks on the beach, team building exercises, eating too many lollies and being sick on the bus.

Now I want to go back and explore more. However, I would like to do it minus 85 teenagers!

Sky

I love photographing the sky. Have you noticed? Cloud watching is one of our favourite pastimes. Seeing shapes in the clouds is so satisfying. I wonder how many people have watched the clouds, and imagined stories in them, throughout the years.

A knitting bag

One thing about being an Art/Textiles teacher is that I am so often inspired and itching to create something for myself. However by the time I come home and do all the chores and extra work for school I feel to tired to do any creating. Yesterday having finally finished at Vacation Care, and having two glorious days to myself at home, I decided to whip something up to fulfill my need to create. It was a disaster! I tried to make a top, it was looking good for the first three steps and then disaster struck. The facing wasn't working for me and the instructions were confusing. I finished the day without any finished product and a whole lot of frustration.

So today I was determined. I decided to make something I knew I could do: a bag (I wonder how many bags I have sewn in my life? It must be a lot!). I have started knitting, I am not knitting anything in particular just a bunch of squares, but I love the rhythm and the bit of warmth it generates for my cold, cold hands on these freezing winter nights. Plus, a group of ladies at work are starting up a knitting group for next term which I am excited about. Therefore a bag to hold my knitting supplies was essential!
The fabric is all repurposed: A sheet and a tablecloth from an op-shop and some scraps from my Textiles classroom. It is a bit rough but it I love it none-the-less. The colours make me happy and it does the job.


It feels so good to have made something, now I can go back to chores and preparing for the beginning of school next week.

Day Trip

I am a firm beliver that a day trip can be as good as a holiday. Hopping in the car and driving to a new place to explore for the day brings Adam and I such happiness. It also helps you appreciate coming back home at the end of the day. So off we went to the the Yarra Valley;








We drove on a brand new highway to get there.

We stopped in at tourist information to talk about the region and got a map which was circled with many, many suggestions and recommendations.

We did a short walk up the Dam wall and through a lovely park filled with colourful flowers,tall trees and miles and miles of green. So much green everywhere we went and blue skies and sunshine. Oh and beautiful wispy clouds,I just can't resist whipping the camera out when there are wispy clouds around.

We ate and drank at a winery and visited a dairy.

We finished the day at the Beechworth Bakery Healesville for a cinnamon doughnut and hot chocolates with marshmallows.

Then we came home exhausted and happy to snuggle up in front of the television with a bowel of soup.

End of Semester

I have come to the end of a busy Semester at school. I enjoyed it a lot and the student's created some fantastic work. I am extremely grateful to have been offered the opportunity to work there again next term and am looking forward to the challenges and inspiring work that is created.

Now I am on to my holiday job at Vacation Care. It has been cold and blustery which is a challenge when you have 60 kids inside a hall who are itching to run around outside and explore the play equipment.

See that ominous sky rolling in, this was taken just before my first shift from the balcony. However (luckily!) there were patches of sun, not many but enough to keep thee leaders and the kids happy.

I managed to catch some of that wonderful sun in the kitchen as I was preparing my lunch. Ah, how I miss the sun. I am off to the museum today which is a blessing as the weather man predicted wind gusts of 100 kilometres per hour! I can just picture a 5 year old being swept off the monkey bars and blown down the street!

show and tell

Adam and I had an excursion to Ikea yesterday. It is an adventure to get there! We felt like we were putting our lives on the line to drive there and arrive in one piece. Crazy drivers were rife! However we came away with all our limbs in tack, the car unscathed and a couple of new treasure. A brand spanking new chair. So comfy and cosy and a perfect place to sit and listen to my old records.
The real reason we went was for the coffee table. It is our very first coffee table and I am so excited. Finally the chaise of the couch will no longer have stacks of paper, magazines and books as now we have a real home for them all.
Oh Ikea, how we love thee. We have a lot of Ikea in our home, I blame the ridiculously reasonable prices- plus I have so much fun putting it together, it is like giant Leggo and I feel so darn handy.

While I was cleaning up today. Cleaning because reports have to be written in a week and doing ANYTHING is better then doing the marking. I found these;




I started this series of paintings based on cages and the act of caging awhile ago. I used watercolours, coloured pencils and ink on watercolour paper. I put them away in a folder at the back of the cupboard with only Adam having ever seen them. Now I decided to bring them into the light of day and share them. I am champing at the bit to do some creating (amazing how it always happens when I am supposed to be marking). I have so many unfinished projects on the go (Mum? Did I inherit that trait from you?) I have a vest which needs its final seams sewn, a mini quilt cut up and ready to put together, a case full of paper and photos to be stuck in somewhere, a painting half done, a ....I think you get the idea.

Hopefully, after a few weeks, when the boring work stuff is out of the way, I will have some more creations to share on here.

First Day of Winter

A very cold and grey first day of winter.

Resulted in hat, mittens, jackets, extra layers and fleecy jumpers...

and the making of warm pancakes...

eaten with very sweet strawberries, syrup while reading the Sunday Paper.