The 52 Project

'A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2014'

There's a little bit of mischief in this one...

I started this project last year with great intentions - but I found that I didn't want to 'force' the portraits of the girls and that at times that is what I would have had to do to get a portrait of them every week.

Waiting for the waves to come into the sandcastle...

That said I could have done better than I did!

Hard at work on something for yourself, honing your skills

"Go on puss, jump - it's safe. I'll catch you"

So I am having another go at it - I've started off slow as much of our summer has been spent with either water or sand - or both. Not the ideal environment for a camera.

A Scrabble champ in the making

This means a lot of our summer fun has been enjoyed but not captured in a photograph.

No more training wheels

These two are demons in the surf, taking on bigger and bigger waves each day

I've decided to share a few pics from the last four weeks - encapsulating 1 - 4/52.

I promise I will try harder from here on...

Slippin' and slidin'

Water baby all her life

Make a kite from a paper bag then fly it on the beach; instant fun.

In another few days the girls go back to school and the routine returns.
In some ways we all need that, but boy it's nice just to disappear into the waves and sand for a few days.

How was your summer holiday?

13/52

"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2013"

It's school break here - the end of the first of our four school terms for the year so we have been away for the Easter weekend with some friends to their weekend home on the Murray River - the border between Victoria and NSW, here in Australia.

We had the most amazing time - the girls hardly stopped smiling all weekend...

This little lady has always been very comfortable in and on the surf, seems she's just as at home on the river; taking to riding on the 'biscuit' behind a speeding boat like she had been doing it for years.

There's a 'wild child' lurking within that sensible exterior after all!

And yes, since last week she's now got a 'gappy' smile!

Another water baby with eyes as blue as the water. This one in the pool, with a lifejacket just for fun!

All my children are part fish I think!

This little Miss is ready to take on the world, with gusto!

While I have almost lost her out the top of this shot (she jumped higher than I anticipated!), I love the sense of freedom and abandonment shown here.
Jumping for the pure joy of it!

Taking the plunge in a big way!

I'm playing along with Che and Fidel again.
Go and join in if you like.

Summer in the city

In between tripping off to the beach and visiting family and friends, we have been lucky enough to spend some time in the city, with friends and by ourselves.

A trip to the Victorian Opera performance of Sleeping Beauty (a fabulous show, unfortunately finished now) was followed up by a visit to the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) in Federation Square to see the exhibition "Just sing what you feel".

We were really keen to see this exhibition as the artist is a family friend and a really lovely person who has such enthusiasm for what he does, it can't help but rub off on you.

Jon Campbell is passionate about suburban life, slang and everyday language, pop culture and rock 'n' roll music.
He has combined these loves into a really fun and interactive exhibition people of all ages.

Once it was discovered these were magnets the fun was on!

The exhibition is really interactive - with the first space being a room filled with magnets of assorted sizes, both illustrative and graphic, that represent elements of a typical suburban back yard.

The girls had a lovely time relocating the magnets around the room into various groupings or collections.

As is her nature, the small kid wanted to make a 'family' of cockatoos!

Next up was the chance to record a duet with Jon in a small sound booth.  Once you were done you could email the file home to enjoy later.

The girls had waaaay too much fun in here singing into the microphone.

A singalong with Jon was fun for all

Lastly was the chance to contribute to the installation by making a flag with a word on each side.

These were made using only pink and green writing tools, to coordinate with the 'yeah' flags that were around the room, a word that Jon uses regularly in his day to day speech.

Never kids to miss an art and craft opportunity...

The flags were then positioned into one of two large 'yeah's' on the wall for all to enjoy.

By just using the pink and green the result was visually really striking.

Two exhibits this size have been filled and refilled multiple times over

The girls enjoyed this exhibition so much that when we found ourselves in the city again the next day they insisted going again to 'show Dad'.

It's a winner.

It's on until Feb 17th so there's plenty of time to pop in.

Oh and it's also free entry, so now you've got no excuse.

The next day we visited another fabulous haunt - the Ian Potter Children's Garden at the Botanic Gardens, and following a picnic with a gorgeous friend we took some time and explored this fabulous space.

The characters from The Magic Pudding are always a hit for a pose or two...

Cute little garden fairy!

Only one cheesy grin - not bad odds!

And you can't go past a kiss from a koala...

She's a smoocher!

These two lovely statues had been up and down towers, in and out of trees and following waterways (which unfortunately were not running this day) before climbing up the stone bridges.

Standing on one of the stone bridges...

There is also a vegetable garden filled with such delights as Green Zebra tomatoes and purple king beans.

Also free, it is open every day from 10am until sunset.

That should keep you busy for a day or so and I will be back with some actual sewing by then!

Hello 2013!!

Hello...

Is anyone still there!??

Just let me say, I love summer and school holidays.
It's a chance to get all the gang together; to get out and about and do all the things we miss during the school year.

I'm not going to go into everything we've been up to - it would take me too long to catch up and I already have lots to share with you.

So here's a little photo montage of some of what we've been up to...

It includes city visits to shows and exhibitions, family and extended family holidays, lots of water play at the beach and in the pool, parks, last day of school, Christmas lights, special birthday celebrations and even a tiny bit of sewing!

(If you follow me on Instagram then most of these photos are probably old news as I find it really quick and easy to just post a daily pic (or two!) about what's been happening. Sorry if that applies to you!)

Regular programming will resume shortly...

Thirsty??

Miss A and her friend Miss A decided they wanted to have a lemonade stand and after about a month the two mums realised they weren't going to forget about it so we planned a date.

Yesterday the exciting day came.  Rain in the morning resulted in tears but by afternoon it was a lovely clear sunny day.

So chalkcloth bunting was hung...

Everyone helped with the decorating

Signs the girls had made were put up for all to see...

Lemonade, Anzacs and choc chip cookies on the menu

Straws and cups had been decorated...

Fantastic free printables came from this fabulous site

And of course lemonade had been made...

Love me a striped paper straw

The weather stayed fine and the customers started to roll in...

Yes that is Cookie Monster on the sign - they are six years old after all!

The two little shopkeepers worked hard for two solid hours...

Serving all who came - including their school Principal who they decided to invite!

Counting the money and making change was a bit of a challenge!

They were friendly and kind to all who came...

Two little buddies

And worked really well together to serve customers ...
"you hold the cups and I'll pour this time..."

They quickly discovered teamwork was the way to go.

And everyone had a great day.

More fabulous free printables cut with a pinking rotary cutter

Half the proceeds will go to the Social Services collection at school and the other half two little girls split.

And the next lesson is spending versus saving!!

More summer fun

We've done so much these past few weeks I can't keep up to tell you all about it, so let the pictures do the talking...

Gorgeous interstate visitors came to stay...

they played with small children, swam with them, read to them and generally let them crawl all over them...

Two of my favourite people making fruit salad for dinner

They also pulled some pretty funny faces when playing with the best 'Man' Christmas present ever.

For the record, she held this catch and bunch of other ripper ones too.

Just make sure that the small folk are not in front of said toy before you throw, and no we didn't use her for target practise.

We also didn't let her build a cubby under it as she wanted to.

Brilliant for big kids and small ones, one player or many.

We've done a lot of bouncing...

Smiling and posing...

Could eat this kid at the moment... well,  most of the time

And the guy who lives here and the girls built a much anticipated vegetable garden, filled with lots of goodness we are looking forward to enjoying.

It won't quite yield crops like these, but will do for now!

They proudly built it from scratch and it was painted wearing hats, shoes and knickers - perfect painting attire for minimal clean-up (that's what the kids wore - the man was clothed!).

Decorated with a plate we each painted and the tiles our two kinder girls of 2011 made for Fathers Day last year.

There actually has been some sewing going on - but I keep giving things away, zip pouches and hats among the gifted items to family and friends.

And there's another gift winging its way to someone lovely, so once it arrives I will reveal all.

Cool customer

How to get the most out of homemade ice creams.
(A tutorial brought to you by the smallest member of the household.)

Take the bowl in which the mango-passionfruit icy-poles were mixed and discard the provided spoon immediately.
Use your hands instead, you will find them much more effective.

When you can't get enough of the remaining contents out using your hands, lift the bowl to your face.

Twist yourself slightly so you can get more of your head inside the bowl to best lick out the contents.

Oops - try to do it without your mum catching you!

If she does, assume a stunned-mullet look and try to ignore the mixture that is in your hair and around your mouth.

Hope you are enjoying some summer fun at your place too.

Thanks to Buttons by Lou Lou for the homemade ice-cream inspiration.

My creative space

Hats!!

The sun is out and with predictions for 30+ for the weekend and early next week it's time I got to making hats for the small folk of the house.

This one is for the oldest apple loving girl.

Some of my favourite fabric and a hat pattern that everyone says is quick and easy.

We'll see about that...

Head on over to Kirsty's place to see who else is feeling creative this week.

Spots before my eyes

Anyone who has seen much of my sewing will know that I am mad for fabric with spots and dots of all shapes and sizes (stay tuned on that one for my new swimming-lessons bag!!).

But the one kind of spot I am not keen on seeing is the one called chicken pox, which is what is currently keeping us quarantined at home.


(Just included this pic because it is my all-time fave of me with the little miss, despite my messy hair - look at those chubby thighs!)

Still there's plenty to do on a hot Melbourne day even when you can't leave home and paddling is always top of our list (don't worry, we collect rainwater from our roof in large barrels for the purpose of paddling for those worried about water restrictions).

The little one seems to not be enjoying it as much as the other two - but it will grow on her I'm sure.


And this just because I never could go past a 'frilly' knickers shot!