Tuesday teacup is half full & the studio is safe!

My current favourite morning coffee cup. I recently bought a coffee machine and coffee grinder so am treating myself to a delicious morning flat white. This particular cup is delightfully round and somehow has a real 'mother' feeling, round, smooth yet.... I have typed and erased about three or four descriptions here. It is kind of reassuringly round and maybe earthy.

Good things and bad.

The good news is my studio is safe! the plans have been approved and now I can continue to work on it with confidence.

Cute little double doors...

lead onto the patio where the sun streams in through in the morning...

Most of it is windows or glass doors with a skylight in the roof, which means it is light and airy even though it is quite small- cozy rather.
I've bought cupboards to go in it, the idea being I will store all my bits in one place, a shelf for printmaking stuff, another for jewelery making, soldering etc & beads, one for painting and for my clay, molds & modeling tools. The best bit will be being able to start on something and leave it until I can get back to it with out having to pack it up!

This side faces out onto a small paved area, my private studio garden- well it will be, I can already see it. It has a raised limestone garden bed where I think I will plant some vegies and I'll put in a passion fruit vine to block out the view into the neighbour's house. It gets quite a bit of morning sun, a lovely little spot to soak up the sun. Well it will be lovely- eventually!

Well that was the good news. The bad news.... Chicky Babe sent 664 sms messages to her friends... in 1 month. I pay for the kids phones as a part of their pocket money. I pay $20 a month on a plan for $50 worth of calls. We can call each other for nothing because we are all on the same bill so that works well. She now owes me $130. I also had to be the 'parent' and take her phone off her for 2 weeks. I hate having to be the "bad cop" but that's parenting I suppose. (an old fart at the party and now a disciplinarian mother! All in one week! My kids are generally so good I haven't had to do this before really. Not bad considering they are 15 and 16and a half.)

Actually, whenever I have to growl at my kids I find it difficult to do so without laughing. I know it was bad that she abused the phone privilege, considering we have had this discussion when she has gone over the limit on a few occasions before. Usually only by 10 or 20 dollars but 664 sms's that's so outrageous it's funny. Why don't they call each other and actually talk, rather than have a text conversation sending 10 texts in under 10 minutes! Yes, I am definitely an 'old fart'.

The other bad thing was my car overheated and cost $400 to repair the broken radiator pump! I'm trying to save for my Melbourne trip! The fortunate thing is, I have a lovely mechanic who was able to fix it today and will let me wait until pay day to pay it off. I enjoyed the walk home from school this afternoon and I can still keep my dinner date with a dear friend who lives on the other side of the city. This lady has been my friend since we were in year 10 - 1981! 27 years!! I just did the math... gosh, I am fortunate to have this friendship that has stood the test of time. That is another good thing.

Yes my cup is half full.