School holidays - a craft program

Today was officially the first day of School Holidays at our house.

With two very active kids home life during school holidays can be somewhat stressful! If things get out of hand the whole atmosphere can become totally unbearable. If you happen to visit at the wrong time you might find yourself making excuses for why you have to suddenly leave or desperately scratching at the wire security door pleading for the neighbors to let you out!

Yes it may be true that on some unfortunate occasions one or both of the responsible adults of the household have been known to stand in a corner banging their head against the wall and pleading to be taken to the Tower of Mordor for respite! But today was not one of those days...

Today the mother of the house decided to get crafty and turned her hand to model making. The results were quite impressive.

(City village - of cereal boxes)
I think the kids really enjoyed this, I certainly did. I also brought home a rather large box which kept them busy for the rest of the night! Who know's what amazing architecture I will return home to tomorrow.

Fancy Paper

I've been fascinated with paper for a while and have had a couple attempts at making my own. Below are a couple of my favorite paper things.

(Banana-pulp-paper... A hand made gift from a friend)

(Something Sam made a while ago... Actually the paper is not hand made but I really liked the way she painted it.)

(hand made paper from pulp)

Are you taking me seriously?

Crafty skills

One of our little friends has been learning to sew and has picked up some pretty neat stitches along the way. I've been watching her practice her stitches the last few times we've been together and have been very impressed.

I was even more impressed when she told me she was creating a cushion for her friend (Our daughter). Time passed and we've been off gallivanting around NZ and Victoria for the past couple of weeks.
When we got back what do you suppose we were presented with...?


(Best butterfly cushion ever!)

Just the finest butterfly cushion I've ever seen from an 8 year old! And my daughter was well impressed too! There's nothing like the creativity of a child to make you feel good!

How will I use my Blog?

Well I have been blogging for just two months now and am beginning to wonder what is the purpose of my blog. I think it is a means of self-expression that enables me to project my thoughts, feelings and experience out into the world via the Internet.
However it does not replace real experiences nor is it an alternative to facing the daily challenges of life. I think good blogs are a way of extrapolating from simple experiences an essence of creativity that has the power to inspire and encourage (or something like that).
Therefore I have decided to apply a practical purpose to my blog (sometimes).
My wife recently complained that I am always talking about things I want to do. There is so much out there to captures my imagination, I rarely get a chance to begin a new project and my life is already crammed full as it is. So she suggested that I make a list. What a great idea! So I thought about it and realized that I can use this blog as inspiration to try new things and document or at least report on my experience while attempting various projects! The Rosella Jam was a good one to start with. I got a great feeling from doing that and it gave me something to write about.
The parameters will be simple there will be no deadlines or quota for things done. I will simply be having a go at various things that interest me and keeping a rough record of these things on this blog, when I feel like it.
PROJECT # 1

Repair the Chair



To begin with I would like to repair this old wooden chair that I found at the dump shop. It is much worse than it looks. It seems like every joint is split and the upholstory framework is pretty rough.

Disclaimer: I do not promise to complete any of these projects in order or infact to finish them at all.