Things you do for love
Well, not love of a person in this case. Love of an organisation this week. Just back from 2 days stint on a board I sit on as secretary. Brain-straining stuff for two days in Perth…but have achieved lots and feel satisfied we are working towards some excellent outcomes for our network. But doing stuff just creates more work!!! So lots of things to get done in between the rest of my work/life!!!
Although I’m rather busy, I’m defininitely scheduling in some craft time this weekend! Especially as I have a yummy pack of Basic Grey’s Hopscotch range!!
cool things to make
In some random browsing, I came across some really gorgeous scrap magnets, as pictured below. They are really gorgeous. When I go to town next I’m definitely going to buy some magnets and make some. You can read a great tutorial on how to make them at the SEI Lifestyle blog.
Scrapped magnets over at SEI Lifestyle
I also stumbled across some very cool printable/cut out and make things over at Cannon’s Creative Park website. I think they’d make great fun activities at the end of term for some of my students. There are a lot of really cool things in the scrapbooking and art sections too.
One of many print and cut outs from Cannon's Creative Park
orchid beautiful-ness
I had thought orchids where the most difficult of plants to grow, and when I won an orchid as a lucky door prize at a conference earlier in the year I was sure I would end up killing it (not that I have black thumbs or anything, just that orchids sounded too high maintanence for me). Anyway, it go sunburnt so I moved it to a shadier spot in the patio. I never water it (it was getting the incidently spray from the hose while I watered the plant around it, then when the rains started, I’ve just left it to nature). About a month or so ago, flower spikes started forming and low and behold over the past fortnight the flowers have slowly opened. Aren’t they just beautiful?
football, morality and some cool things
I’m not a huge sports fan, but I quite enjoy watching a decent game of AFL (a recent development in my interests) and I really think that sports players have a huge role as models for children. However, I was really ANNOYED at the weekend when I watched the West Coast Eagles game. I really noticed the incredibly pathetic contact between players (shouldering each other, pushing, and generally acting like puffed up little peacocks). This irritated me on two levels, the first being that it’s just so unnecessary, they are standing waiting for the ball to be played and they are just being so negative. I know they want to win, but this is hardly the kind of behaviour that we would think was acceptable for our children, so why should their heroes be acting like this. On another level, it makes me even further irritated that the television stations chose to feature this footage, surely not every set of marked players are acting like this and would good sportsmanship not be the thing to be featuring??? It really makes me wonder what the AFL and the media are thinking is ok behaviour.
The whole Matthew Johns thing is bugging me too, but for different reasons. It is disappointing that these footballers thought this kind of behaviour was ok (and that it seems like sex and bonding does come up a lot with teams in the NRL) and it’s a bit disturbing that these people are huge role models, especially in the eastern states. However, I really am getting annoyed with the media outlets that are demonising Johns. I really don’t get why this NZ chick has so much credibility. She had consensual sex with a group of footballers. Dumb. What did she think was going to happen? She made the choice too. I just don’t get why a) Johns has basically had his media career destroyed and b) the media seems to feel so sorry for this woman. I didn’t watch the 4 Corners presentation, but I’m actually really disappointed that the ABC (my favourite station) gave this story such credibility. I think it sounds like some money-hungry skank trying to cash in on the media’s desire for pathetic salacious gossip. Makes me soooo annoyed. I wonder what Johns did to someone at either Nine or the NRL to have him made the fall guy for this. He made a morally questionable decision but I think the whole thing has been seriously manipulated by the media and this woman.
Ok, rants over. I’ll try and relax and enjoy the football on the weekend without focusing on the parts that annoy me!
How awesome are these cool things? (Well, you’d probably like them more if you are a WCE lover).
West Coast Eagles Casserole Holder
And do you think you’d catch many footy fans in these? I might wear them to the footy for a laugh.
Football Earrings
lovely treasury feature-age
Vanilla Pixie very nicely included my Little Birdie Clutch in her latest treasury – cleverly themed on the idea of Indian Spiced Pumpkin. Quite a yummy selection.
Lovely Treasury by Vanilla Pixie
I’m sitting at home waiting for Mr Petit to hurry up and come home from work so we can go to Perth. I’m impatient.
this is so not what I should be doing right now
Tomorrow afternoon we are off to Perth for the weekend for Mr Petit’s brother’s wedding. I have half packed (well, clothes all over the bed) and there is more clothes in the washing machine (nearly ready for the tumble drier). I have masses of stuff to organise, as well as get some things done for work. Arrrgh. At least we have leftovers from last night’s yummy dinner (see previous post for details) so that just needs re-heating. So this means no blogging, no internet etc until Sunday night! Well, I guess I’ll have lots of nice family pics to put up when I get home anyway.
Feeling all wedding-ish, I browsed Etsy and found these gorgeous cake-toppers. Just lovely
Linen and Satin Love Birds by Cotton Bird Designs
Well, not a particularly inspiring post, but I really have to be getting organised. Wishing you a happy weekend and check back in after the weekend for some (hopefully) lovely pix.
monday’s musings
I went back to work today – it actually wasn’t toooooo bad (just a few rather long meetings). Looking forward to seeing my kids tomorrow but so much stuff on this term, it’s going to be REALLY busy. I did a bit of sewing and added some new clutches to my Etsy shop which you can check out if you feel like browsing.
Creativity really seems to get a bit suffocated when I’m at work, usually so busy making ‘work’ things that I just can’t be bothered with more relaxing creating. Lately I’ve been doing more knitting, which I’m really loving as, even with a slight complicated stitch pattern, you don’t have to concentrate THAT much (especially with scarves). I never thought I’d be a knitter though, must be showing my age, although I’d like to think all my scarves are quite cool. I’m about halfway though my latest creation – photos when complete, can’t wait to wear it – yay for winter coming (I’m sure I’ll be eating my words in a few weeks!).
No matter how busy I am with work, I still like to find time to do some creative cooking. I’m currently cooking Beef Bourguignon which I saw on Food Safari the other night. It just looked so good, although I have a few recipes for this already, Mr Petit was very keen on the one on tv so I found the recipe – http://www.sbs.com.au/food/recipe/103/Beef_bourguignon and it’s bubbling away on the stove now. Crusty bread to serve with. MMMM
My Beef Bourguignon in progress!
Continuing in the French theme, I found these lovelies by New Zealand shop, Nostalgem. Quite cute, yes?
Frenchie-theme stuff
what a little princess
I received a late birthday present from my friend Sammie yesterday – a gorgeous velvet scarf.
My lovely birthday pressie from Sammie
It was wrapped beautifully – as always with Sam – white wrapping paper with a delicate ribbon. I up-cycled (feel a bit weird using that word) the ribbon and incorporated it into this little clutch which I made last night.
Princess Clutch
I think it looks rather lovely. I’m going to make a couple more styles this afternoon, but first have to walk the dog or she might be a bit sad with me.
new kid on the baroque
I’m the first to admit that I am VERY musically challenged. In primary school I attended a very small school where the motto for the choir was ‘the school is a choir and the choir is a school’, lovely except myself and 2 boys were told to kindly mouth the words so as to not make them sound awful.
Despite this, I try and incorporate music into my classroom (in real life I teach in a primary school). We have our music lesson once a week (which I recruit a couple of students who are quite musically inclined) to be my assistants and then during our independent work on things like learning centres for language and maths the kids can put on a classical CD. When I first started putting on a classical CD, half of the nearly killed me for polluting their ears with such stuff, but after a day or two, they stopped complaining and I heard things like ‘Shhh, I’m trying to listen to the music’ and ‘Miss, can the group playing Scrabble be a bit quieter, I can’t hear the tunes properly’. Oh, the irony of it. At the end of term there was a general consensus that I needed to buy some more CDs for extra variety, quite a surprising request. So, as per instructed I bought 2 box sets (8 CDs) when I went to Perth yesterday. Hopefully they get the seal of approval next week, I’m listening to the baroque (my fave) at the moment and I think it’s quite a good compilation.
While browsing on Etsy in a musical frame of mind, I came across a gorgeous hand embroidered cuff by Water Rose. It’s really quite delightful.
Gorgeous Wrist Cuff
treasured
Got lucky this morning a made a Treasury on Etsy this morning. Usually I have no interest in soft toys, but I love Two Little Banshees/NeverEnoughHours’ stuff and curated the Treasury around my fave item from their store. Hope you enjoy the Treasury too.
