quirky characters

Lately it's been all go, with work, decorating, tidying up, and squeezing in some play time with my daughter - so I haven't had much time for creating. But I managed to quickly make something when I was working last weekend, running a creative writing and craft weekend for gifted and talented kids, with the theme of 'Creating Creatures'. All the students were building their fantasy animals / people out of junk and mod-roc (aka art-roc), building up a fact file on their creature with samples and information about it's habitat etc, and then writing stories with their creations featured as a character. I was on hand with a glue gun to fix eyes (which used to be earings) onto a 'Fither' (a bird-like creature by Maisie) or hair and jewellery to a 'Jinx' (a cloud-mermaid by Sophie) and lots of other bits and pieces onto models or fact sheets:

Whilst I was waiting in between creatures, and after the kids had gone to bed, I managed to put together this character of my own:

She started off as a 'Queen of Adventure', but she evolved during the process to be something else. With her goat skull staff (made from the handle/temple/earpiece - don't know what to call it!- off a pair of glasses), her clothes peg wings, and her belt with a dagger and charms, she now feels like a guardian or leader, I imagine her protecting lost fairies and showing them a safe path home. She doesn't have a name yet, but she's definitely got presence. Any suggestions for what to call her? I might dig out my 'New Age Baby Names' book and flick through it for inspiration.

After all that fun over the weekend, we also managed to come back and have a barbeque, in true brit style, as it looked like the heavens were going to open on us at any moment. Luckily it held off though, and we managed to sit outside and enjoy some food, including sweetcorn, which my two year old loves loves loves! She ate some that we'd cut off a cob, then she ate a whole cob, and after that she came around bugging us all for bites of ours!

But I can't really blame her, as it's her father's influence:

I hope we manage to fit in lots more barbeques this summer! - x

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de-decorating

Why is it that 'decorating' is actually mainly de-decorating? It takes soooo long to tear down the wallpaper, clean the walls, wash the ceiling, strip paint off the radiator, and navigate all the mess you're creating in the rest of the house because you're doing nothing else! Here's our dining room in it's current stage:

We have managed to paint all the woodwork, and put lining paper up on two of the walls, so at least it's starting to feel like we're getting somewhere!

Our little girl has been at nursery a bit this week so that we could get on with it, but when she's been at home she seems to not even notice the mess, and has even chipped in by helping us clean walls and floors:

I also had my first ever driving lesson today! Well, apart from when hubby tried to teach me the basics in a car park a couple of years ago! It was quite scary as well as exciting, I am looking forward to my next lesson. I want to be able to take my daughter out places when hubby is at work, it's so frustrating when it's a nice day and we can't get to the beach (unless we want to spend an hour on a bus!).

Before we started all this I did manage to get my next layout done for the journaling junkies blog. It was to scrap about how you find balance in your life, juggling all the different things you have going on. Very apt for me at the moment! If you want to read my journaling you can see it on the jj blog here, and if you feel inspired then please join in and email your layout to Stefanie!

Right, I'm going to scrape a bit more lilac paint off a radiator, then I shall enjoy an episode of Cougar Town and a glass of wine, before painting some lining paper. Hmm, I never try and do too much at once, do you?!

x

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flouring the floor

Yesterday afternoon we baked banana bread, though a lot of the ingredients ended up on the floor or in my daughter's belly! She's getting good at helping though, she squished the butter, broke the eggs, cut (with a blunt knife) the bananas & then mashed them, and mixed it all up. Now I've just got to train her to do the washing up and to clean the floor afterwards too!

The bread got a little bit overdone on the outside, but took ages to cook in the middle. I'm not sure if this was because I was using a silicone baking 'tin', perhaps it took too long to heat up? Does anyone else have any experience with silicone bakeware? I've got fairy cake cases too and not had any trouble with them, so I don't know! It tasted fine anyway!

The weather has been somewhat dissapointing here, on Tuesday it was gorgeously sunny but I had to work. It was suppossed to be sunny for the rest of the week, but has been grey and dismal instead. I bet it will be sunny at the weekend when I have to work again! Still, it hasn't been raining, so we managed to go to Bournemouth beach today with my friend Rosie. We had a picnic and threw stones into the sea - it was nice to get some sea air, but I wanted it to be warm enough to go for a swim!

What's the point of living by the sea if the weather's never nice enough to swim in the ocean? Next time I'll take my wetsuit!

x

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