Isaac is 6!

I spent the day baking today for this spunky lad.

 

All he wanted was a $100 note...

 

... The Skylanders Game...

 

 

... and a new remote controlled boat since Milo accidentally ate the last one!

 

Tomorrow we are off to the indoor skate park for his party with a slight Mario theme to it so the grand cake baking had to happen today.

 

Pinterest on the iPad acting as my guide to various Mario cakes on the interwebs.

 

I covered him with buttercream icing, only dipping my finger in once or eleven times!  (Really, how can butter, sugar and vanilla essence taste so good??!!)

 

I colour and then cut out all the pieces I need like a jigsaw puzzle and lay them on top of the buttercream layer.  For Mario I only covered the top, not the sides cause I don't know how to do edges without messing up the icing!

 

So handsome!

 

 

Ta Da!!!!

 

Some of his proportions are a little off, like his mouth is a wee bit small, but the birthday boy loved him when he got home from school today and that's what really matters!

 

 

 

My creative space...

Isaac turns 6 tomorrow!

 

Clearly this... 

 

 

... is NOT going to be finished!

 



Those four missing squares at the bottom there... once I have done those, I'll be halfway...as long as I don't count the weaving in of those dastardly ends or coming up with a border of some description!

 

Want to create something similar in crochet? Three round grannies are your answer... even four would make this project a little less, um, lengthy! 

 

Five!  It's a wrist killer! 

 

 

My creative space...

 

I made a dress!  Can I get a woot woot??!!

 

Miss Matilda has a lovely tea party to attend this Sunday and when I spied this beautiful fabric at Gail B's the other week I knew I had to have it.

 

 

The dress was super easy and one I have made before.  (If you click on that link you can see how I modified the arm hole so that it was a little deeper). I followed the pattern a little better this time though and used bias binding round the arm hole and elastic across the chest rather than threading a ribbon tie through that chest area which would then do up over the shoulder on one side... make sense??!! (Again, you can see this one shoulder do up if you click on my previously made dress link).

 

 

 

I loved it so much I made two and gave one to a little friend!

 

And for an extra little thrill when I put it up on instagram, one of my instagram buddies @meandmy2guys let Melody Miller (@missletterm: the fabric designer) know and she commented on it!  Yay!

 

 

Some other creative spaces are over on Kidspot.  And you must go and visit Paisley Jade and see the beautiful black bordered granny blanket she has made!

Photo a day in October... on the table.

 

 

These are the efforts of barely two hours at Doncaster Shopping Centre!  I was a woman on a mission, with a list and a window of opportunity while the small girl was at kinder.

 

Love bringing everything home, unloading it all on the table and seeing how much damage can be done in such a short space of time!

 

 

 

 

 

This lovely dress also arrived in the post!

 

 

After seeing it on Emily over at The Beetle Shack, I had to have it.  I ordered the large but am returning it and getting the XL.  It fits loosely over my tummy and bum but I feel like I want some more room round my boobage!  They quite happily exchange so it's all ok.

Photo a day in October... something close up

 

How could I not do a close up of a granny?

 

 

They still do it for me in a big way!

 

 

By the way, I survived my first day back in front of a classroom today! 

Really, how frightening can 17 six year olds be?!

 

Photo a day in October... emotion

 

Apparently this is angry, happy, crazy and surprised!

 

He's such a dude this kid.  And almost 6!  Where does the time go???

 

 

In other news, I'm back in the classroom tomorrow.  I dropped a few cv's off on Monday hoping to get some relief teaching work and Bam! three days later I'm in! 

 Look out Preps, Mrs Robinson is on her way! 

Photo a day in October... red

 

I love apple crafty things and this apple basket does my head in with it's cuteness!  At the moment it's storing all my yarn for the rainbow rug that it's sitting on.

 

(I've realise that this is a terrible photo - wonky, blurry.  To really be a player in this photo a day business, some artisitic ability is required.  Even a steady hand will do!!!)

 

 

Photo a day in October... angles

Angles on the school netball courts.

 

I visited a few schools today, dropping of my resume and talking myself up as a casual relief teacher.  I've got two degrees.  Figured I might as well start using them again!

 

And look what happened at the boys school assembly this morning...

 

 

A visit from Sub Zero, a Melbourne Cup winning racehorse.  He was very large.  I was desperate for him to poop on the sacred school sports stadium floor that us parents get lectures about whenever we wear our heels in there, but alas, the urge never came upon him!  I did get to stroke his lovely nose at which point he made that horsey noise with his lips and freaked me the hell out though.  Animal person I am not!

 

 

Photo a day in October... light

 

I worked all day today, panicked again as I was putting Matilda to bed cause I hadn't done my daily picture and snapped this one off!  I'm all arty farty photo class people!

 

This is her bedside table and that is a charming knitted teapot and cup and saucer set and not an erect willy!

 

 

Photo a day in October... shadow and I'm thankful for...

I got home from work late last night and panicked!  What was today's photo prompt!!??

 

Shadow.  Shit.  How can this be achieved at 11 o'clock at night??? 

And then I looked down at my slippered feet, my finished cup of tea full of secret chocolate wrappers and there it was in all it's glory... my shadow!

 

 

This morning we made a trip to my tool-less brother's apartment so that my tool handy husband could help him hang some new curtains.  As payment for this little deed which took all of five minutes they agreed to take us our for coffee... in public... with our children.

 

 

I'm thankful for the five minutes of peace and quiet that a nice gingerbread cooking and a good chocolate milkshake gave us.  Not quite enough time to really relax with the most delicious spicy chorizo, poached eggy combination I ordered, nor to finish the two coffees I needed to feel normal today but still.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo a day in October... what you read

 

Eeek!  A real live book!

 

 

I can't help myself.  I get sucked into her books all the time.  This one is a sort of prequel to The Bronze Horseman.  Loved that too.  Her best work though is Tully.  If you haven't read it, do! 

 

 

 

Photo a day in October... this happened today.

What really happened was the one day of the school holidays that we had decided to make a jaunt to the other side of town to visit the Werribee Open Range Zoo, Melbourne's traffic was thrown into chaos by some misbehaving tunnel computers!

 

So, along with the rest of the world we made our way to Healesville instead.  Where we were told that the queue to get through the front gate was around an hour and half. 

There were 3 mummies and nine children.

 

Out popped the iphone, open up the interwebs, purchase zoo tickets whilst standing in line and get bumped through the important peeps gate. 

Which should have been renamed:

'The Gate For People Who Can Access The Internet On Their Phone And Purchase Their Zoo Ticket Online Will Be Able To Enter The Zoo Right Now Without Waiting In This Icky Hot Line For At Least An Hour Using Up All Your Food Bribery So That Your Children Will Behave Themselves.'

 

Don't worry, the koala was stuffed.

 

 

 

 

Photo a day in October... lunchtime

 

Oh, look.  An empty plate and cup.  Such artistic photography.

 

What a should have taken a photo of was where I was at lunchtime today and that was braving a ridiculous supermarket doing a Full Grocery Shop with Three Children in Tow all the while concealing the Skylander Starter Pack that I had secretly purchased in Toys R Us for the birthday boy this month... while he was standing right next to me.

 

It takes skill people, skill.

 

 

Photo a day in October

I am going to try and do Fatmumslim's photo a day for October. 

I did it in January and survived and managed and most probably bored you all to tears but we'll see how we go!

 

Here's the wee list if you'd like to do it too.  Just click on the image and it will take you to Chantelle's lovely blog where you can see what it's all about.

 

 

 

Day One: where you stood...

 

 

...in stinky bowling shoes! 

 

Bless school holidays and activities that always end in tears.  I have clearly not parented my children well enough for them to learn to lose 'gracefully'!