Thursday, January 28, 2010

Times are busy


So we get back from camp, barely sleep then I get a wake up call from a very excited teenager.."today's the day mum!!!"  She is going to the IDEX Doll Expo in Florida then up to Washington DC with a friend for a few days before coming home.
We were at the airport way earlier than need be and everyone else got to sleep in..

Here is the plane she flew out on to Sydney, there she transfered to another plane to fly to LA and onto Florida

We had a bit of pre-flight fun with little Arabella, Bonnie's latest doll, she is a very talented doll maker.  She has her own blog here

Bon voyage Bonnie, have a fun trip!!




Meanwhile, back in the trenches we are having some doggy dating going on.  My friends have a Brittany/Cocker Spanial bitch so I left Abraham 'whole' so they could breed in the future.  Over the last couple of years her heat hasn't been at the right time for breeding but we finally caught one that works out for everyone..
This is Abe, puppy daddy..

This is Shay, puppy mummy...


Two exhausted doggies.. and below, doggies doing what dogs do..


So all things going well, in a couple of months, we should be the proud grandparents of a litter of the cutest puppies in the world...eta 30th March
Will post more pics of the expectant mums progress in the future.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

RAYMOND ISLAND HOME SCHOOL CAMP '10

Location, Raymond Island, Victoria.
We try to make at least one home educators camp when finances allow.  They are more a meeting of families who home school and activities may or may not happen.  Most activities are organized by the kids, like talent quests and birthday parties as at least 3 kids had a birthday.  This year we only went for 4 nights as we had to get back for the eldests leaving for the US.  The kids were all in favour of just sending a text.
Here is our home away from home.  We have been camping with the kids since there was only 4 kids and friends used to send their kids away with us.  The tent and vehicle have gotten bigger over the years.


Aww....aren't they just the epitomy of home ed kids....

Our foot print..

I sent the kids off with the camera from time to time...I like to call these God photos..
Beautiful sunset..

Kids jumping off one of the boat jetty's.

 Pippin exploring in the lake.  Well they call it a lake but it's salt water.  Not very tidal on account of the mouth of the bay being so small.  It makes for very interesting sea life.

Brie actually has a couple of hands full of jelly fish eggs...

Looking across the channel to Raymond island from the ferry loading point.

On the Ferry

Photographic proof that Bella does wash her teeth on camp......at least once...

Swans and gulls on a little sand bar.

Smooth as glass...the day before it was so choppy we bought a little boogy board..

Charli posing for her brother..

Kam....soo cute when she's asleep..

Waiting for breakfast....

Skinny boy..E

Ahh..onto the wildlife...I didn't actually get a photo of the Koala's this time although there were many sitings..
This is a Galah...cute but really dumb...

Swans...

This little guy cruised around the camp for a while.  The kids even gave him a little pet.
Echidna.

This lovely little lady was on the roof of the kitchen the last morning we were there.  She's a Huntsman, she was cleaning her face.  The photo is pretty true to size, she was about as big as the palm of my hand.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Dyeing....non toxic...

Most people think that natural dyeing with plants and other stuff is, in a word "natural", what most people don't know is that the mordants to get those colours to stick can be and often are, very toxic. 

On the other hand, most people thing that dyeing with food grade colours is something you do for play dough and cheapy paints for kids.

WRONG

The only down side of food grade colours here in Aus is the lack of colour options.  The mordant or setting agent for food colours is plain and simple white vinegar..

Cooking time is about 45 minutes at a simmer.  Either immersed or in bags.

SO, here is my latest dyeing efforts...


This wool is wet and will look a lot different once I have finished prepping it.








Well that is that for this lot.  Will post more pics once it's dry and presentable..

Monday, January 18, 2010

Let's party!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HOLLYBURTON PARK

We had the great pleasure of being invited to our friends farm to help celebrate 16 yrs of living at HollyBurton Park (Anyone who does patchwork, Colita has great batts for quilts!!).  We have known Rob and Colita for a good many years now and they are one of the few not afraid to ask a family of our size around for a visit.  Colita was one of my first sources for spinning fleece in the local area too.  She has mostly meat sheep but there is a couple of lovely merino x's in her flock.


So anyways, back to the party.  I think about 30 or so people managed to arrive, about 60% of which, were kids.  Colita and Rob, like myself, home school so the kids are the best kids around when they get together.  It was hot on the Saturday, so many went for a swim in the lake.  It wasn't very late when the temp dropped a good 10 degrees and other activities were pursued. 


Here is Colita, our lovely hostess, putting a nice pork leg into the bbq and spicing it up.

It's a great cooker and the food comes out great!!

Here is the banner that the kids made.  Looked fantastic!!!

Rob and a few guest catching up (I'll point out Rob properly below)

These are some photos I took when we went down to the lake for the kids to swim!!

It's a beautiful spot and I have spent quite a few visits down here.  It's not uncommon to light up a fire and cook some food (when there isn't fire danger of course)

Looking back up the hill to the old shearing shed.

The soccer game was hilarious!!!! No bands to tell the teams apart and a lot of banter..


Sorry, was too busy eating, talking and generally having a lovely time to take photos of the party later on...so here we are the next morning.... Farm noises are a lot different than town noises and I was woken up by these guys who were rather disgruntled (hehe) as Colita was late with breakfast....talk about stress!! sounded like they were picking out who look the weakest ready to eat them.....

It was a little dark under the trees (not to mention it was 6.30am) and the flash from the camera actually shut them up for a few minutes.

So anyway, I was awake, so I went for a little walk to take some dawn pics.  The geese were having a great time on the lake..

This pic was a bit  of an experiment, I was walking up the race with the sun in front of me and it looked great coming through the gum...

Here I am...look how tall I am!!!!!

Looking down on the lake again...

The cloud sitting on the hill caught my eye...The farm ends at the top of the gully there I think, just behind the trees by the lake.


One of Colita's girls has a hobby business of eggs and fowl, this is a guinea fowl.  They are great for warning the chickens that a fox is around.  They're pretty flighty too it was hard to get a good photo of them as they kept running away.


Colita has a traditional stonewalled vegetable garden and this lovely stone based bird bath...it looked nice so I took a photo..


The morning after the night before...this is the teen contingent looking very tired.  It wasn't long after this photo that most of them got up for some aerobics (I jest not, it was hilarious!! espcially the antics of Rob and his friend Daniel)

Speak of the devil, Rob on the left, Daniel on the right.


Many thanks to Rob and Colita for a wonderful night, food and company.  And many more happy years at HOLLYBURTON PARK!!!

SOAP SOAP SOAP

The show went well.  Not as well as I would have liked but well enough... Now it's soap I am doing a lot of...Yet another old craft no...