The lovliest birthday present.

My dearest friend Anki wrote a post for me for my birthday. It made me cry and go all goose bumpy. The things she says about our friendship is so true and she writes so beautifully. I love her so very much and she constantly inspires me in the way she says I inspire her. We are lucky indeed to have this friendship. Thank you Anki and I'm looking forward to the next thirty years of our friendship but I think the red sports car may become a retro chic Kombi!!!
Here we are 30 years ago ( or almost- this was taken when we were in year 11 or 12 )

oops!!!

Just had to ring school security to alert them to the fact that I would be disarming the alarm at 10:30 to turn off the laminating machine I was sure I had left on.
It was on. Crisis averted!

Happy birthday to me.

Today is my birthday. It has been a good one.
My sister didn't call me at 6am.
We had cake for morning tea at school.
The kids were good and I didn't have duty or a staff meeting.
I got some presents and lots of birthday wishes and messages.
And I didn't have to cook dinner.
(I am feeling optimistic that 46 will be a good year!)

Sunday, Sunday.

Things I've made recently.

For my trip,

for my Chicky Babe for the dress up for the last Harry Potter film,

for my dear friend.

Something I'm working on. For my Queen sized bed.

Today.

Rooftop view of Fremantle from the top level of the car park. I love this view out to sea.

Ban Live Exports Rally Fremantle.

There were more dogs than people! (Not really but there were quite a lot of them. They are all so well behaved! Pablo gets too excited in mixed company.)

Brunch at a Fremantle cafe. Well technically it would have to be a late lunch but we hadn't been up all that long and it was an early rally 12 noon on a Sunday IS early!)

Elizabeth's Bookshop was offering free wrapping for purchases over $10. These books were for school but I'd fallen in love with the wrapping paper for kiddies with it's circus theme. One class at school are doing a circus act for their assembly and we are doing some circus inspired art works and I thought I could use this in the art room so I had them wrapped. The top one is from Tim an early birthday present. It is a French/English dictionary for our travels.

Dreams are becomming plans.

I have finally done the most simple piece of paper work that has enabled the money I've been saving through the kids scholarship fund to be released to me and the interest earned paid to the kids. I don't know why I found this so difficult to do before now. (All I can say is thank goodness for antidepressants!)
Tim finally does exist. There was a number of dramas in his attempts to get a passport. The first being that he didn't exist on the births register, his name was spelt wrongly and then they gave him a copy of someone else's birth certificate with a very similar name and birth date. Anyway his passport is on it's way.
I went through all my jewellery and ended up recycling about $1000 worth of silver! Tim had collected quite a bit too so now with cash behind us I have spent the day planning, really planning not just wistfully "pinning" pictures to my holiday board on pinterest.
I'm planning 6 weeks away (now that the kids have reassured me they will look after each other and I need not feel guilty for abandoning them for some time during their end of semester uni exams- Why is it I continue to feel like a bad mama when they are almost 18 and a half and almost 20!!?)
I've decided to fly into London then explore Paris, Barcelona, Venice via Marseilles, Florence, Rome, and then back to London via Milan on the train. Once back in London I would like to spend some time Kombi Camper Vanning around at a leisurely pace.
It sounds like a lot but several of the train trips connecting cities are overnight and will be in sleeper carriages and I decided we may as well check out a couple of places along the way! I used to live in Mt Magnet and thought nothing of doing a three hour drive to Geraldton to do a bit of shopping or to dip my feet into the ocean! and returning in the afternoon before the roos, emus and occasionally cows came out and made driving a little more exciting than one would like! So 2 and a half hours from Venice to Milan sounds like a much better proposition to me- even 13 hours from paris to Barcelona sounds more appealing! Especially when there are Gaudi's mosaic buildings and a Picasso museum to visit.

We will start our trip with two weeks in Paris. Then the mad dash about Contiki tour style but just the two of us on a train stopping exactly where and when we want to! Then two weeks in the UK crocheting in sea side villages and at loch sides in Scotland.
I've bought a new netbook computer to use at home -rather than renewing my school laptop rental as I thought I could take it with me when I travel. It is quite nice to use. I've used it all afternoon to do a bit of research and to post this too.
Although I think I might take a break now to do some more crochet for a cardigan I'm working on or my cotton bed spread. And just let the information I've found seep gently into my head, roll about a bit and see if I am happy with it all. (I wish I had more money, more time and less guilt to be able to do and see everything on my wish list!)

progress report

This is my mama's wedding. It was lovely. Small, intimate and simple. These are the only decorations- the table centers that I made. It was a lovely wedding, the groom got so choked up that he couldn't speak! And even though my antidepressants were beginning to work and I was feeling better this started me off, mind you I was not alone!

I am so pleased that I have started taking the medication. I am in such a better space than I have been in years! It is like waking up from a very bad dream. But now I have discovered that my home has been a reflection of what has been happening internally. I have said before that I have been acting happy and confident especially with work. I knew that my work is important not just for me but for my family- my work pays for everything, mortgage, food, transport -everything. Then I feel that the kids I teach deserve the best I am capable of doing and I feel this responsibility and take it seriously, hence every ounce of energy I had went into maintaining that and as a result my home life and home business things fell by the wayside. So I've woken up to a huge mess.

To make matters worse this last term has been outrageously busy. I did the lecturing for the Uni students. Somehow I thought they would be more scary and demanding. I was worried because I'd never done this before and as it was a totally new course for the uni there was nothing for me to go by so I had to come up with it all myself (while still doing my ordinary teaching job) I had a lot of very positive feedback from it all and I am sure they will ask me to do it again. 

The uni students ran workshops with all the kids at school over two days and set up a display of this work to show alongside the art exhibition I had been working towards during the first semester. It was a heap of work but I was proud of the results. Here's some of them.

 

Hundertwasser Houses yr 4

 

Klimt inspired portraits yr 5

 

Matisse inspired collages yr 5/6

 

Paint chip collages yr 1 (thanks for the great idea Anki and kids!)

 

"Warm and cool"  landscapes yr 4

 

This is a bit blurry but I loved these I got the kids to  imagine they could go into an art work of a famous artist (Gauguin, Rousseau and Frida Kahlo) They then drew themselves inside that art work and painted them- it really had these yr 2's hooked! Love it when that happens!

All the kids from kindy to year 7 had a piece of work framed and on display. 

That's 398 pieces of kids work.

We also had artworks by local artists, me included!

At the same time as all of this I had to shift art rooms, we barely got into the new room in time for the exhibition! And for about a week I taught with no power and limited furniture. And it was report time at the same time! (Anyone who teaches knows how much I enjoy doing those.) I worked every night until 2am with only short breaks to cook dinner, then up bright and early to go to school and teach. I worked for three weekends in a row. (And only had one migraine!)

As a result my already messy house got messier! So now that it is holidays I am taking one small job at a time still giving myself some time to sit and crochet or browse the net or read. I'm not going to try to get it all done at once. Yesterday I cleared some space in front of my wardrobe and threw away 2 large boxes of handbags and clothes. The day before I cleared one bench in my kitchen. Today I did some businessy type stuff and folded some washing, which I can now put away inside the wardrobe because there is space. It will take a bit of time but I am getting there. Hopefully it won't be too long before I can start to take some photo's of around my house again.

Oh and I forgot to say I sold 6 pieces of art works at the school art exhibition and got a commission for some more crocheted pears!

I made enough money to buy three pieces of art that I liked and still have a bit left over to treat myself to a massage this holiday!

This weekend...

Yesterday I went walking with my friend from across the street,Wearing these sneakers I bought on line.
They are fantastic, I was worried about them being unstable but the fact they are supposed to be good for knees and bad backs won me over. I love them. They are the first pair of sneakers that actually feel comfortable and my knees didn't hurt when I walked and they don't look too sneakerish.
I went shopping- for food, I did some drawing and painting and watched BBC1 Streamed Dr Who episode at 2am with Chicky Babe.
I did not do ANY school work.
Today I slept in and I have procrastinated, I've found my camera cord but lost my camera...I should be a school packing up my art room because I am going to be shifting to the new building sometime, last year, this year last term, this term, last week, this Friday that just went now maybe Wednesday or possibly Thursday or Friday. It is driving me crazy...AND I have a whole school exhibition happening in there on the 27th June and uni workshops on the 20th. So today I thought it best to go in an pack some stuff up so that it is ready to shift when it happens. But I am struggling to be motivated. I think I will do some more drawing.
Hopefully I can find my camera so I can start sharing photos again soon.