Borrowed vision for today

Love this video made by Amy Krause Rosenthal, a very talented writer on a mission to make the world a lovelier place.

Check out her "Loose Change the World" project here.

As the new owner of a terrific little flip camera, I'm looking forward to making a vid for this space sometime soon (after the notebook cover tute - I promise it's coming! My husband is sitting his FINAL EXAM on Monday morning - after studying (and working full time) in various forms for over 10 years - and then things will free up a little around here. Can't wait!)

Chicken Tonight

Had Tandoori Chicken from this book for dinner tonight. Delicious. Sorry, no photo. Arms full of babies.

I bought this book for my sister for Christmas and now Jane Kennedy has a blog and is reproducing some of her recipes on it. So click here if you'd like to see a little more.

I like the way in the book she credits some of the recipes to Jamie Oliver (and perhaps others, I'm not sure) and the way she writes is fabulous. Down to earth ("You say you can't cook. What are you? A baby?") and entertaining ("Boombah - food that makes your arse huge").

Just a little community service.

Photos that tell a story

Here's a story about a really expensive lunch box that is designed so that you don't have to use any packaging - and that makes it better for the environment... and yet it breaks after the first use! I'm going to email the company on this one and I'll report back.

Here's the one about the 11 year old who now proudly mows the lawn... but occasionally has some trouble with the mechanics of it all.


Love the expression!

And here's the story about the second egg. Held ever so carefully in two year old hands. And only dropped once before it got cooked and eaten. Delicious!

A birthday and a chook shed in action

This is what the birthday painting ended up like. The dress was Jacinta's valedictory dress, made for her by her amazing mother. Her mum made a lot of her clothes, but this was an extra special one, and Jac wore it a few more times while we were at uni. It was so heavily boned she sometimes couldn't quite sit up on a couch. This dress brings back so many lovely memories of our friendship all those years ago.

This is us now. A lot more black going on. Hopefully we'll be back in gold again by the time the 50ths roll around.

And look at Jacinta's amazing blue eyes. She's just gorgeous.

On a totally different note, here's S checking out the roosting box in the new chook shed.

Here it is. All ready to go.

And here are the chooks. Patiently waiting for their check in time. One got so excited she laid an egg, which was carefully washed by young J, and then fatefully dropped, just in front of the sink. So egg number 2 will be our egg number 1. That's how he's figured it anyway. It's all very exciting.

No more art or craft to report. Made chocolate cupcakes and have covered school books, but that will be all until school goes back on Wednesday. And then the year can really start!

Mixing Skin Colour

After about 38 years of attempting to mix a true skin colour, I've done it! (As demonstrated here - totally blending above the lip!)

Unfortunately it wasn't in paint, but in a delightful mix of banana and apple puree and yogurt. Go figure.

The Chookshed

I haven't spent much time on the computer this week, but because I have had so many lovely friends ring and check that I'm getting by with such little sleep, I thought I'd better check in. We're having some success with daytime sleeps at the moment, they're not long, but they're not on my lap. We've also just realised that the little one has 3 teeth coming down at the top, so that may account for some issues. The bigger one is just being two I think.Anyway, we're all ok for now.

The pic above is inside the current work in progress - the Glenn Whitton Memorial Chookshed (below). Of course, as it's built by David, it's the taj mahal of chook accommodation, and we're looking forward to spending less on eggs (we're going through so many at the moment!). It still needs to be painted, and he's down there now doing some extra things so that I can do the painting.
Speaking of painting, we're off to a dear friend's 40th this Saturday and I've done her a painting. I can't show it yet because I don't want to spoil any surprises, so here is a teaser. I'll post the finished work next week.


That's it for now. Next week is back-to-school prep, so if I'm not here much, don't worry. Normal transmission will return soon.

she's up

45 mins

not a personal best, but a start

(can you tell i'm typing with one hand?)