random heart shape

Did I mention we have a puppy? Not so little anymore, she is 10 months old. And she is housetrained.




Mostly.

One night last week when the childer were in bed CK called me out into the hall.

"Your daughter's puppy didn't make it outside."

Funny how on those occasions she is MY daughter.

Crafty knowledge and knowhow required for sharing.

Am trying to transfer some recent sketches to fabric. Have both aquapen AND airclear marker. It is dark. My lightbox has been stashed very safely somewhere in the house. And I hate drawing straight onto material.

Any clues?

Anyone??

Blatant and unashamed vote canvassing

Young Ms. CurlyPops rose to the Loz and Dinny tassel challenge with grace and style one would expect of a crafting superhero. This in turn gave rise to a challenge of her own, a call to the crafty inhabitants of blogland to create a SuperPops character from any media they favour.

destructoBoy took up this challenge and with a flick of his wrist here and a smattering of coloured pencil there he created his very own SuperCurly Pops a la 1970s rollerderby film (and no, I haven't been letting my eight y.o. watch crubbish late night telly).

The voting is on, the race is hot. While he actually has no chance of winning it woud be lovely for the results to show that someone other than his mother voted for him ;-) So click here to boost his ratings. It seems there has been a time extension so you have until 3pm 4/11 AUSTRALIAN time (about 4am 4/11 GMT or god alone knows what in the US) so GO! Hurry quickly and cast your vote for my small boy. It will bring a smile to you face - honest!

How very dare she!

Am finally getting out and doing some much needed work in my garden. Lots of chopping, raking and squishing of vegetable matter before taking it up to the 'tip' after lunch. My wellies are properly muddy again (as oppposed to just wet) and there was no need for me to feign bravery when a frog jumped out from the border onto my foot (my wellie-clad foot I hasten to add or I may just have succumbed to the vapours).

Suddenly at my front gate appeared Fraser and his owner. Fraser is my assistant's brother. My assistant loves having her brother drop by. He is fun and lets her bounce on his head and doesn't mind too much when she bites him (unlike everyone else here in this house/place of employment). I like Fraser too. I just wish he would arrive without anyone else.

As I said, they turned up at my gate out of the blue with her beetling forward "We can't come in, (Good. Wasn't going to ask you.) just wanted to say hello."

Propietoral gaze, nosey intentions, looks at my assistant scrabbling madly at the wire to get out and play with her brother and says "My, hasn't she got a lot of coat?!"

"Yes." I said. "We like her floofy."

"Oh she is bigger than I thought. Perhaps it is coat though." Considering face, head tilted at curious angle, conspiratorial air, leans forward and says (patronisingly) "Perhaps I give mine too much exercise."

"Well you don't want to do that. Too much exercise buggers up their bones."

"Oh. Well he only does the mile here and back twice a day and a run in the evening for 45 minutes" Flustered voice, taken aback demeanour "Well, I have never had any problem with any my other dogs." Stumble in voice, feeling affronted. "And they have lived until 18 or so!"

"Okay."

"Well must go. Have to visit one of 'my' old ladies in the hospital. We haven't seen her for weeks." Sanctimonious twitching, pull at coat lapels. Dog lead jerking down all the way down drive.

Do you think she will be back?????

Post-Halloween Roundup

We had a Halloween Party here last night that devolved into a sleepover for both pink and blue models. The boys went to bed at 2100 and the girls 2130. destructoBoy went out quite quickly but Dervish was still awake at 22:30 when I relieved him of his mp3. This morning the girls confessed that, even though I had read them the riot act at 2300, they stayed awake until they could legitimately say 'Good Morning' to one another and then went to sleep!!!!!

The day was spent prepping for the party. CK went out to the shops at least 5 million times for 'just one more thing' while Princess C-W and I cooked the spooky meal. I poured blood and guts with extra eyeballs over rotten bones (homemade pasta sauce with mini-mozzerella balls stuffed with rolled-up basil leaves over macaroni) and my girl made spooky tortilla sesame shapes.

Once Dervish and Dynamo had arrived there was a house to decorate and spooky pumpkins to design. CK's US-based workmate come through on a trip here recently and stocked us up with some fabulously scarey and suitably gory Halloween decorations. So I left CK in charge while I made 'just one last trip to the shops.

Everything in place before the meal meant I had time in hand to 'carve' the patterns the childer had drawn.

I say 'carve' but we discovered last year that a small bit in a trusty Black and Decker gets the job done just as well. We finished off with sparklers, the scarey stories the children had written earlier and s'mores. And then sleep. Eventually!