A Wedding Gift & The End Of An Era

You know what I love?  I love when I make something and post a photo on my Facebook page, that someone else loves it too and immediately orders one!  That's exactly what happened a couple of weeks ago when I finished the ring bearer's cushion for my brother-in-law's upcoming wedding!

The customer requested specific fabric for the cushion - which I had none of!  Lucky for me, I'm in a few fabulous FB groups, and put a call out for scraps of Sugar Flower.  Even luckier for me, a couple of lovely women came to the rescue!  And yesterday, I spent the afternoon putting the order together.....

I adore this little paper piecing pattern by Quiet Play.  I already have another one printed out, ready to make a third!  I used the old faithful Aurifil #2024 to piece and quilt all the little pebbles on the front.  I'm getting pretty damn good at those damn pebbles!  It's taken a few projects to get in to my pebbling groove - proof that practice makes better.

Can you believe the back of the cushion is made from two scraps?!!?!?  Thanks Toni!!!  I love how bright and sunny this print is.

I heart hearts!

My favourite, but most nerve wracking part of these cushions, is the stamping.  I bought these divine little stamp sets before Christmas, not having any purpose in mind - just because they were cute!  And they have already been used twice!  Who knew!??!

And just because I've been talking about it for weeks now, Chloe started school today!  In what I can only describe as "an end of an era", today ended 15 years of having a child/children home with me.  Whilst I can confirm I did not cry when we dropped her off, I cannot deny my throat closing over and choking up last night when I got her uniform out.  And I can also not deny the tears that were shed this morning whilst I was by myself.  I'm sure there will be more tears over the coming weeks and months, when I find myself wondering where my little quiet companion is?

The four most precious "little" people in my life.

And the fifth, who started work late so he could continue the tradition of taking our kids to their first day of school.

THIS is what I will miss!

I'm linking up with Pretty Bobbins and Quiet Play - You can too!

Too School for Cool?

The discussion going on in our household (and work, and on the phone) is about schools.  To my shock and amazement (and relief), Lochie's Dad told me Sunday night that he was not thrilled with his school and that he would be looking for another school.  I did answer that perhaps WE should look for another school, and perhaps talk about it??  Anywho, after a brief discussion on all things uncool about Lochie's school, we agreed to look into some alternate educational solutions for our almost 14 year old. Which translates to - I spent the week looking into some alternate educational solutions for our almost 14 year old, then shared this information with Lochie's Dad.

I spent a couple of hours on line looking through Catholic school websites.  I sent messages and chatted to friends who have children at said schools, questioning their happiness with the education provided and also querying the terrifying price (OK, not so terrifying, but certainly thousands more than we are paying now) we would have to pay to get a better education?  And I then called schools only to find out that they have waiting lists.....

Sooooo, this week I will be photocopying reports and filling out application forms, trying to say all the right things, in the hope that my intelligent young son will gain a place at a school that will not tolerate the type of classroom behaviour my son's current school seemingly does.  I will then sit on the edge of my seat for the following months wondering if I wrote down all the right things and whether his great reports (in my unbiased eyes) are good enough for him to be allowed a better education?  And if he DOES gain entry into one of those schools, I will then panic about always being able to pay the fees required to keep him at a school that offers more than what he is getting at present?

What has become clear to me, and many parents I have spoken to, is that you really don't know what a school is like until your children are actually attending.  Which, I guess, is the same as life in general?  You don't know what people are like, until you get to know them.  You don't know what a job is like, until you're working it.  And you don't know what the future holds, until you're living it.

Have you had to change your kid's schools part-way through their education?  Do you think we need to set the bar higher in terms of Government school expectations?  Discuss.....

The new neighbourhood

My love of people-watching has been spoilt this past week or so.  I'm living in a new neighbourhood, with new people.  And given that I know NOBODY, the voyeur in me is out in force.  Eight years in our last suburb meant that we were used to everything.  Every sound, every sight, every person.  No surprises.  If the dogs barked like banshees, we just expected the psycho neighbour would be up in arms.  If we heard what sounded like a chassis being left behind on the speed hump outside our bedroom window, we knew it wouldn't be, because we had checked millions of times over the years.

So far, I have made a few observations:

Apparently, Motorsport attire is acceptable to wear to school pick up.  Paired with polar fleece, jeans and running shoes - it seems to be a uniform for a number of school Mums.

There is a Charles Manson look-alike picking up his child from school on a motorised scooter (not the type you hire from the shops for the elderly, the type you see at the skate park - minus the motor).  It's rather unnerving.  I would be lying to say I'm hoping our kids aren't friends with theirs!

The next door neighbour is a yeller.  Being the reformed yeller (well, I've had a slight relapse this week - more about that another time) that I am, realising the noise at 10pm, that makes you and your husband jump from your chair wondering who is being killed, is actually the neighbour losing her shit at her child, sort of makes you cringe..... and try harder not to relapse.

You can hear the trains.  I had never noticed this in all the years I have been a visitor to this house (if you're behind the 8-ball, read this).  Late at night when lying in bed, waiting for slumber to arrive, the toot of the train can be heard in the distance!

Discovering new shops in the local area, makes you realise how accustomed you become to knowing who is wrapping up your strass or baking your rolls.  It's unchartered territory.  But realising at the same time, that the likelihood of running into someone you would have to pretend not to see are minimal, makes up for the anonymous strass handler!

There's a lot of grass cutting happening.  Every day - I hear the whirr of a lawn mower.  Makes sense when you live in such a green enclave...

Walking to school pick up for the first time, you get to pass this: 

And dream of the months ahead when the weather will be kinder. See what I meant by green?

Looking out your study windows to see your kids playing in a safe court - bliss.

I am quite impressed that I don't really have any expectations of this neighbourhood.  I can walk in to the school assembly, blissfully unaware of any unsavoury undertones (Holden V Ford?) running through the groups of Mums there.  I can go in to the local milk bar, and not be surprised that they have no bread first thing in the morning.  And I can go to sleep at night knowing that we have moved to a lovely little part of the world, that will hopefully provide a great childhood for our kids, and a sanctuary for our whole family.

Do you people watch?  Did you have expectations of your neighbourhood?

School sucks...sorta

I organised to have today off work over two weeks ago.  My astoundingly athletically talented freakishly flukey daughter, Chelsea, is running in the district cross country today!  To say I was surprised when she told me this little pearler, would be an understatement.  Let me clarify - she spent the first two seasons of basketball skipping down the court and looking off into space as if the fairies were coaxing her to their toadstool.  Obviously one season of serious basketball with her hard-ass Dad as coach has paid off - she can run!

Anyway, I digress.  So today was meant to be one of relaxing, getting my nails done, taming my eyebrows and generally doing whatever the hell I wanted, oh as well as watching Chelsea run.  This is how my day went.....

At 8.30am, I rang Lochie's high school and demanded requested a meeting with his level co-ordinator.  She obliged and said she would see me at 10am.  I then had to rearrange my appointment to meet with the renovator at the house.  Check.  I spent the hour before school meeting pouring bleach all over the tiles in the bathroom and scrubbing them with a toothbrush.  Cos that's what you do when you're annoyed with something yeh?  I inhaled said bleach and started packing.  Who knew we had so many freaking books!!  Honestly - I don't think I ever actually see anyone reading them?  Oh well, they're packed and moving with us, so they can patiently sit on the bookshelf in the hope that someone will read them again.

Meeting at school was actually with the co-ordinator AND the Vice Principal.  This shit just got serious.  To cut a really long story short - a few weeks ago Lochie told me of some issues he had with one of his teachers.  I rang the co-ordinator at the time and discussed with her my concerns.  She reassured me that it would be dealt with.  It was. A week after that I had to ring her again with a more serious concern.  After getting off the phone I was sure it too would be sorted out.  I was wrong.

So this morning I find myself in this office trying to convey my frustration.  Thankfully they were very understanding and apologised that this had not been dealt with in a more timely manner.  Then it happened - I got emotional.  FUCK IT!  Why do I always feel like crying when I'm passionate about something??  Anywho - I got all of my points across, and was thanked for being a parent who cared enough about my child's education to try and work it out.  Lochie had a meeting with the Teacher and her superiors, and it "seems" to be sorted out....along with an apology to him from said teacher.

Chelsea survived the cross country.  133rd from 160+ kids......I think that's pretty damn good. She was stuffed.  I lasted 30 minutes at cross country.....I was stuffed.  Headed straight for the shopping centre...

I forget how quiet it is when you get to have lunch by yourself.  Albeit with a million people rushing past your seat, busily going about their lives and all important shopping.  But I sucked in that serenity and took advantage of it.

The rest of the afternoon fell into place.  The nails were done, as were the eyebrows.  I even managed 20 minutes of torture via the chinese massage place.  Heaven. 

How do you spend your days off?  Is bleach and/or wax involved?

Sexy Sewing

Just a quick post this afternoon between eating chocolate freckles (everyone loves them yeh?), swigging Pepsi Max (they did not sponsor this post unfortunately, I'm just addicted), squishing orders into postal satchels and getting quotes for renovations!!  Here's some useful information for you......

Sexy huh?

The lovely Renee over at The Sewing Library is celebrating their First Birthday!  She has an amazing prize on offer - and it makes sewing look pretty damn sexy!  Great opportunity for everyone (well except me, because I am one of the sponsors of said sexy prize, now I know how Karl and Lisa feel when they can't enter Today Show comps!) who loves sewing, would love to sew, or knows someone who sews to win a beautiful machine!  Pop over there and let Renee know I sent you!


Who knew carpet was so freakin expensive??  I mean really.....it's just big rugs on floors yeh?  Seems I am taking a master class in "how not to get ripped off by big companies" during the infant stages of our renovating.  Today was the 3rd hour spent sitting around whilst a strange man wandered around with his measuring tape.  Let's hope the quotes get cheaper - please.....


I keep looking at the rather large amount of "stuff" we have, everywhere, and wonder how I am possibly going to get it all packed and moved?  Remedied some of the problem by emptying out our garage of all the useless shit we have been holding on to "just in case" on the weekend.  Hard rubbish collection has perfect timing this time round.  Seems our crap must be really, really crappy this time round.  Apart from a few random items, it's all still on the nature strip.  Unheard of in this suburb!  Some people must roam from area to area, trailer hooked on, picking through others crap in the hope of finding good crap to transfer to their own crappy garage?  Noice.


I've sort of, kind of, maybe decided that the kids will be changing schools next year.  Our moving date will be some time in July, so I will have at least half a year of travelling to their current school.  Yes, it may only be ten minutes each way, but given we have only had to walk 300 metres to school for the past five years, I'm guessing I will be over it by year's end?  I have a school in mind, and they just happen to be holding their open night later this month.  I'm already bribing Chelsea with the news that they have piano lessons during school hours!  Bribery 101 will be my best friend in the coming months.....


Bella the kitten has made herself well and truly at home.  She now flies from one piece of furniture to another, and scares the absolute bejeezus out of everyone at some stage during each day.  Found her on top of the printer this morning after hearing it turn on.  Printer lives on top of three filing cabinets.  Still trying to work out the logistics of how she ended there....


That's it.  Must go and look productive.  Husband just pulled in the driveway!

Playground Politics

When I was in PRIMARY SCHOOL, I was blessed to make some wonderful friends.  Some of them I still count as my closest confidantes.  That doesn't mean those seven years went by without little issues.  I don't ever recall being bullied.  I'm pretty sure that if I WAS bullied - I would remember?  There was the odd name calling or similar, but nothing really worth writing home about.  I do remember when I was in grade 3 and I had called another little girl a BITCH.  And I also remember going beetroot red when the teacher made a point, in front of everyone, of informing me what the correct meaning of a bitch was.  I think about this meaning every time I hear that word!  Cudos to the teacher....

I can also remember times when playground politics would arise.  There were a number of "GAMES" in which such politics could come in to play.....Here are but a few of them:

  * The Sacrificial Friend - Where one friend would cover another friend's butt, or their own, at the expense of the third friend, by lying about what had happened in the playground.  I am guilty as charged, and can remember one such incident 30 years later, because I still feel guilty about it.  If you're reading this T and S - sorry!!!

  *  The Merry-Go-Round -  Where one friend tells another who they can and can't play with.  You could be best friends with someone one day - and the next - you had no idea where you stood!  Luckily, we had a pretty awesome year level, so regardless of where you got off on that merry-go-round, you always found a friend, even just for that day.

  *  Friendship Monopoly -  When one friend will tell another that someone isn't worthy of an invitation to a party, a play date and well, just about anything really!  Another one I can remember well!  It all boils down to popularity I'm afraid.  I was the kind of girl who floated between the "popular girls", the "everyday girls" and the "unpopular girls".  This followed me right through until High School.  All the girls I went to Primary School with went their separate ways and made their own little groups.  They found their "place".  I did too, but always managed to mix between them all anyway.  But I ALWAYS had that one friend I could count on.

  *  Chinese Whispers - Self explanatory.  We ALL know how that one works.

You may be curious as to WHY I would be writing about this at age 37?  Well, simply because my daughter is getting through primary school NOW, and it seems the exact same games are still popular now!  And not only amongst the children.  If someone had of told me a few years ago that I would be faced with grown women playing these games, I would have laughed hysterically.  But two years ago, I was confronted with being what is, in this post-facebook era, now commonly known as "de-friended".  And it gutted me.  Threw me for an absolute six.  And devastated me beyond words.  I sorta kinda wrote about it way back THEN.  And I have wanted to write about it many times since.  Because it got to the stage where it CONSUMED me.  I had no idea how to cope with it all.  Being ignored, made to feel invisible and alienated was not something I was familiar with, and I ended up seeking help to deal with it.

I am pleased to say I am "over it".  But it does not mean that I do not notice the ever-changing dynamics of the school yard.  And put two and two together to realise they are not adding up to four!  It saddens me.

So this is my experience.  What I want to know is - Is this common in other school yards?

The one where I sound like my Nanna.....

Today was parent/teacher interview day at Lachlan's high school.  He rang me from his Father's last week and said that his Dad thinks because his test scores etc were so good, he didn't have to go to the interviews.  I did not agree with this.  Lochie went forward and arranged for the interviews.

For those not familiar with high school - at this school, your child goes to each teacher and fills in a form with a ten minute slot for your interview.  He gained four slots for me, one after the other - good boy!  This meant the process would be done and dusted in 40 minutes.  Fab.

So the time arrives and we head off to school.  Get there right on time for Japanese teacher.  Now, I wrote last year of Lachlan's eagerness to learn Japanese.  And how I was astounded that he "got it".  This year - a little different.  He told me a few weeks ago that he was finding it boring.  And not doing so well.  So this was crunch time.  Same teacher as last year greeted me with a familiar smile and got straight to the point.  "Lachlan's working a little differently to last year".  I like a teacher who doesn't pull any punches!  Our interview progressed well, I told her Lachlan's thoughts, whilst he sat prostate in his chair, embarrassed that I had told his teacher he thought it was boring.  But she was very honest and shared some interesting points.....

"Do I have your permission to confiscate his iPod and laptop in class?"   PARDON????  My response to her was one of raised eyebrows, a WTF? look on my face and me sitting forward in my chair.  This is when I went all Nanna......

"What is he doing with his iPod in class?" I ask.  Mrs Japanese enlightens me.  Apparently the school policy on having iPods and phones in class is up to the discretion of the teacher.  PARDON????  Mrs Japanese gathers I am rather entertained by this fact.  I am actually surprised, shocked and disgusted.  She proceeds to fill in the blanks by telling me that whilst she is teaching, children (I will call them children opposed to students, because I want to bang home my Nanna-ness by stating they are bloody CHILDREN!!!) use their laptops to watch movies.  They ignore her directions to hand in their iPods and will question her authority to do so.

By this stage I am rather aghast at the fact that this is all going on in my son's learning environment.  Whilst I'm peeling my jaw off the ground, Lachlan tells Mrs Japanese that he has stopped listening to his iPod in class after she last requested he do so.  He then says "lucky I don't have a bra" and laughs at his little joke.  PARDON????  Another pearler.  The year 8 girls will put their iPods in their bras so the teachers have no choice and cannot confiscate them........  Oh Dear.

I look at this lovely and charming 50-something woman, who must have the patience of a Saint, and give her these words:

"Can you imagine us doing that when we were at school?"

Just as the words were escaping my mouth, I realised I was now old.

Although I left Mrs Japanese feeling disheartened about THE YOUTH OF TODAY, (Yep, old old old old old) I was happy that she assured me Lochie is a great kid who is still doing well.  But clearly his boring thoughts were getting in the way of him excelling.  

The other three interviews were fabulous and made me a very proud Nanna Mum!  

Tell me - are you shocked by what kids are getting away with these days?  And are you a Nanna too?

Patting Myself on the back!

One of the many things I wanted to share here yesterday, before the fear of burnt fish crept in, was that I have been trying some new patterns!  And I have been rather chuffed with myself - as I am finding that my abilities and sewing technique far outweigh what I thought I could actually achieve!  I continue to surprise myself!  So today I'm patting myself on the back.....

The Pierrot Tunic

The Vivienne Skirt and embellished top

I popped the pattern photo of the skirt up on my Facebook page and had an overwhelming response!  And then broke out in a cold sweat wondering if I could actually make it!  Turns out it wasn't as hard as I had anticipated - or I am cleverer (is that a word?) than I thought....It's also interesting to note that one's imagination seems to return when one's children return to school!

Today also happens to be Day Two of Photo A Day Challenge, so here is mine:

WORDS

I tried to remember reading something....anything today - and this was it.  The school newsletter.  Which leads me to this - YAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!  Yep, the kids are back at school.

Do you not give yourself enough credit with your abilities at times?