My band

in my mind, originally uploaded by Savannah Jane.

I decided to give Pottymouthmamma's idea a go and form a band.
I too was in the school band and my claim to fame is Matt Mchugh from The Beautiful Girls was in it too!
Anyway, my band is called Leonov.
Our album is called " What's going on', and this is our album cover.
Great idea.
This is how I did it, give it a go.

1 - Go to "wikipedia." Hit “random”or click this. The FIRST random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2 - Go to "Random quotations"or click this. The last FOUR or FIVE words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.

3 - Go to flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”or click this. THIRD picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

Eye Spy - My secret (food) shame.

mjc45454, originally uploaded by wiccked.

Jade came up with this fantastic theme, good choice!!!
Right after Christmas you hear the grannies in the supermarkets chatter, "isn't it shocking, we've only just finished Christmas and now there are Easter eggs in the stores!!! Shame, shame, shame".
I just smile.
Mmmmmm the Cadbury Cream Egg, mmmmmm the creamy centre surrounded by that thick, milky chocolate, mmmmmmmmmmm.
My mouth is watering as I'm writing this.
Fill the stores I say, bring it on!!!

Back again!

sam the koala and firefighter David Tree, originally uploaded by melinda_rose_2000.

What to write, what to write.
I have been avoiding blogland and the media altogether, hiding in my safe little bubble, unable to deal with all the loss.
How silly!!!
When i think about all the wonderful people I've been in contact with through my blog all I can hope is that your all alright.
How lucky I am to have my home family and friends safe and sound.

So I finally return to blogland to find a wonderful suprise,

what a fantastic effort people are putting into helping the communities devastated by the fires.

It's no suprise really, the bloging community is full of wonderfully kind and creative people.

You just have to check out Etsy and Ebay to see all the fundraising that is being done, you may even find something you like too! All the items in my Etsy sidebar are part of the appeal.

Handmade Help is a wonderful site dedicated to the bushfire relief , you can help out by donating craft materials, handmade goods, knitting socks. There are heaps of ideas listed there.

Now I'm off to check out my craft stash and see what I can come up with.

I'll keep you posted.

Eye Spy - Something Delicious

Summer pudding, originally uploaded by Here's Kate.

Handmaiden chose this great theme and what a mouth watering one!
A great thing about summer is all the yummy fruit that comes into season and one of the most delicious things about summer is my Mum's summer pudding!!!
Mmmmmmmm summer pudding.
I didn't want to wake dear ol' mum up this morning so here is Neil Perry's version ( I think he pinched it from my Mum!)

Summer Berry Pudding

* 4 punnets strawberries quartered
* 6 punnets raspberries
* 6 punnets blueberries
* 400 g caster sugar plus extra lining for the bowl
* 1½ cups Water
* 2 tablespoons unsalted butter melted for lining the bowl
* 1 loaf fresh white Sliced bread crusts removed
* Double cream to serve

Mum also uses the frozen berries that you get at the supermarket if fresh ones aren't available.

Method

* Combine the berries, sugar and water in a medium pan.
* Stir gently over a low heat without boiling, until the sugar has dissolved.
* Simmer without stirring until the juices are released from the fruit, about 5 minutes.
* Strain the juices from the fruit in a sieve and reserve.
* Lightly butter a 3-4 litre glass bowl, sprinkle with a little caster sugar and shake away the excess.
* Cut half the bread slices into triangles, leaving the rest in squares.
* Line the sugared bowl with the triangular bread slices around the bottom, firmly packed to totally cover the base.
* Line the sides of the bowl with the squares of bread, overlapping slightly.
* Fill the strained fruit into the centre of the bowl and pour enough juice in to nearly cover the fruit, ensuring the juices run though the bread slices lining the bowl, to colour.
* Cover the top of the fruit with more triangular pieces of bread, overlapping and pour a little more juice over to saturate the bread.
* Place the bowl in a larger dish so as not to spill any juice and weight the pudding down with a flat plate that fits perfectly on top.
* Refrigerate overnight to allow the pudding to set.
* To serve, remove the pudding from the mould, slice and serve with double cream.

Flickr Felt.

1. Happy Birthday Mouse, 2. super cute apple face pin, 3. Felt Fishy Bag (front), 4. Moew~~~, 5. felt illustration, 6. flying elephant, 7. Sunny, the Felt Robot, 8. Felt Octopus, 9. felt cute teddy bear
I am going to join "Make along with Mike's", and this months theme is felt.
I'm having trouble making a start so I turned to Flickr and as usual, found heaps of inspiration.
Now where did I put that felt.

Check This Out.

Now we can all be Obamas!
Head on over to obamiconme.pastemagazine.com and check it out.

Pure Magic.

Last Tuesday night I had a magical experience.
I was lucky enough to see Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova with The Swell Season at Sydney's Opera House.
From the minute they walked on stage you could feel the warmth in the air.
They are both amazingly talented musicians and songwriters and it comes across in their performance just how much their care for each other.
If you have seen the movie Once you know exactly what I am talking about and if you haven't stop reading this and go out and get it now!!!!
Once is a small Irish Indie film they made and starred in. It won several awards including the 2007 Academy Award for Best Original Song and the soundtrack as a whole also received a Grammy nomination.
It is by far one of the best films I have ever seen.
This is a night I will always remember.

Eye Spy - Something Small.

Getting back into the swing of things with my favorite meme, Eye Spy Sunday.
Jessica over at The Crafty Librarian came up with this week's theme, Eye Spy Something Small.
I've found the only projects that I have been able to finish lately have been small ones and so I have returned to beading.
I have a love hate thing going on with beading.
I love that it takes no time at all, it's quite affordable and the end result is usually pleasing to the eye yet I don't find it that challenging.
It's not like the feeling you get when you've finished a big project like crocheting a blanket or sewing a doll yet time and time again I return to it.
I must admit it is a nice feeling when you wear a piece of jewelry that you made yourself and I do enjoy making pieces for other people. I guess that's why I like it.
Here are my latest creations.....


The bracelet is made from Thai silver beads , silver charms are from Tibet, freshwater pearls, and glass beads.
The earrings are coloured glass. Hope you like them.

Welcome to February.

It's February and I say thank goodness!!!
Hopefully things will settle down to a slower pace as I am absolutely exhausted.
The last few weeks have been action packed, keeping the kids entertained through the school holidays, trips to pools and beaches, sunburn, swimming and sand!!!
We had an emergency when Emily got a little too confident with one of the pet rats and squeezed it resulting in a mercy dash during a storm to the vet!
Two injections, an ultrasound and a few dollars later she is doing fine safely padlocked in her cage!
We've been to movies, seen live music, more putt putt, lots of drawing, singing, board games, computer games, playstation games, even a spot of gardening and school went back on Wednesday with a great sigh of relief .
Hopefully February will be a slow month.
Swimming lessons start tomorrow, wish me luck.

Out to Lunch Back Soon

Out to Lunch Back Soon Sign at Yak Yedi Quick Service, originally uploaded by BMS-LOU.

I am here,
I am alright,
I am very busy,
I will get back to you ASAP!

Eye Spy - A Taste Of Summer

Sprinkler Fun, originally uploaded by Joe Thorn.

Anastasia of Anastasia Drawing And Dreaming came up with a great theme this week, a taste of summer.
Summer is the smell of sea air, frangipannis and mangos.
Summer is magic.
Barbques with friends and family, sandcastles, swimming and daylight savings.
Summer was always a favorite as a child and the very best thing was dancing on the wet grass under the sprinkler!
I love summer, hope you enjoy yours too.

From Little Things........

Three great musicians and a really great song.

I Went Walking...........

I went walking.
What did you see?
I saw a camera pointing at me!
We went for a walk through the neighbourhood this morning and just for something different the kids took photos of what they thought was interesting.
Duncan took these pics,the guy on the motorcycle thought it was pretty funny. I love the one of his sister.
Emily took these.

Duncan thought taking photos on your walk was a silly idea at first yet once he started he couldn't stop!
He was most disappointed when the batteries ran out so we went to the park.
It's nice to see the kids perspective.

Thank Goodness

Cry Baby, originally uploaded by threerabbits.

A sigh of relief and thank goodness it's the weekend.
I survived my first week back at work.
This photo sums up the week for me.
Working with children is always challenging, working with babies when they have been left with strangers for the very first time is heartbreaking not to mention deafening.
We survived, the mums , the babies and I. We all survived.
I wonder when I'm due for holidays.

All Good Things etc,etc, etc.

Yes it's true, all good things come to an end and alas, my holiday is over.
But................
yesterday we had a truly magnificent day!
We had a delicious lunch of Yum Cha, followed by a meander amongst markets and shops.
We went on a beautiful walk up and around the headland and Benny the champion that he is braved it with NO SHOES!!!! What a man :-)
We went swimming as the sun went down while beautiful blossoms floated by ( we wont mention the dead flys) and topped it off with a good ol' BBQ.
Just awesome.
Can't wait 'till next holidays, hope you all enjoyed yours too.

Eye Spy Sunday

This weeks suggestion was Eye Spy ......... something I want to try in 2009 and comes to us from Bek at Red Chocolate.
It's always nice to find a new blog and it's even nicer to find someone with similar interests who also lives in Sydney.
So here goes.........
something I would like to do in 2009 is improve my sewing skills, they are very basic and leave a lot to be desired.
Something new I'd like to try would be Crazy Patchwork!
It appeals to me for a few reasons,
* it's super cute
* doesn't look too hard
* it's not as precise as your "sane" patchwork
* I think it may be possible even with my dodgy old Singer.
* I found a fantastic tutorial here
So there you go.
As per usual I'm not sure exactly when I'll get around to it but hey, I have all year right!

1. Sachet Detail, 2. crazy patchwork blue bag - detail, 3. Crazy patchwork heart detail, 4. Crazy Patchwork tutorial 3

Love Fridays.

Get In The Hole!, originally uploaded by yerffej9.

I love Fridays though this Friday I find myself feeling slightly anxious as work is drawing near.
We played putt putt golf today, I much prefer this to bowling. It's fun and it's in the sunshine, two of my favorite things!
We also played Monopoly, ahhhhh school holidays you've done it again.

I Love Summer.

It's going to be so hard to go back to work on Monday.

Rat Wrangling

So I now find out after many hours of studying that rats are not the low maintenance pet I thought they were.
Silly me, who would of thought.
Apparently rats not only need to live in the Taj Mahal of animal enclosures equipped with all sorts of well crafted items such as hammocks, climbing ropes and blankies all made exclusively by me.
It turns out they also need to "free Range" out of their palace in a carefully designed play area for about 1 hour a day on top of lots and lots of handling and patting.
It's not really that bad, it's actually quite fun. Duncan and I are having fun watching them explore and tear through our mazes that we make out of all sorts of things, even our shoes get used and they are very cute (the rats that is, not the shoes).
Note to self, remember to check shoes before wearing them again, eeeeewwwwww.

This year will be...................

I get disapointed when I think of all the great ideas I've had with craft and never getting around to putting my plans into action ( hence the blog name ), and the number of things I have started only to add them to the "finish one day pile" in my craft basket.
This year I decided to finish more things and one way to do this is "enforced crafting"! That's my name for it.
I bought myself a Kirigami fold & cut a day calendar.
Every day the page has the folds and the cut outs marked on them, it also has a picture of what the previous days effort should have looked like. So far so good.
The result is a cute little paper-cut everyday, there you go , enforced crafting!
This year will be more crafty.

Going With The Theme

rat: i shall return, originally uploaded by sylvie LS.

Still on the whole rat theme,
we've gone a little rat crazy at my place.
I found this tattoo on Flickr, very cool indeed.

Introducing...............

Here they are,
our new rodent friends.
Meet Freddy and Remmy, two female rats!!!
They are five weeks old and full of life.
Duncan is absolutely smitten with his (Remmy), she's very active and runs up and down his arms the whole time she is out of her home. Freddy is more quiet and chooses to snuggle up and sleep on you.
Emily is more of an observer, she pannicks if they walk on her though she does try and squeeze them if given the chance.
We have already had Emily "set them free" in the lounge room which proved to be very exciting as we had to retrive one from under the entertainment unit.
We have since invested in padlocks for the cage doors!
Ahhhh, don't you just love school holidays :-)

Eye Spy Sunday - A Little Late.

I am playing along with Cindy's Eye Spy Sunday meme . This week Kat of Kat's Creations has suggested the theme of our best memory of 2008.
I was looking back through my photos, thinking, thinking and do you know, I realised I have had the greatest year it's too hard to think of any one great moment.
I've seen live music , Foo Fighters and You Am I to name a few,
I have two new tattoos,
I've met lots of new people,
Had great moments with my children,
Had a fantastic birthday,
A few relaxing weekends away,
Shared moments with family and friends.
Thinking , thinking, and then I found this photo...............


I was having a rather ordinary day at work so I decided to take a walk in my lunch break.
I walked for about ten minutes only crossing three roads and found myself here and yes I did have my camera as most people who know me by now know i photograph everything!!
Anyway, I walked up the beach feeling the warm sun on my skin, the cool breeze in my face smelling the salty air and feeling the chill of the water on my feet, then I turned back to see how far I'd walked and took this shot.
I felt wonderful as it hit me, this is my lunch break, how lucky am I!
It was a magical moment of 2008.

New Additions

Le Président, originally uploaded by Hugo&Pauline.

We are expecting the pitter patter of little feet any day now.
We're very excited.
Hopefully we'll be collecting them on Sunday, I'll let you know how it goes.