Done and Dusted. . .

F has the last birthday for the year in our
nuclear family , and he 's now 11.
How could this little guy . . .

now be this one ?

Where does the time go??

He had a great celebration , with a couple of friends sleeping over , eating
 make-your-own pizza for dinner , watching movies , staying up late and
opening gifts with them on Sunday morning .
As per the last couple of years , the Baked Coconut Cheesecake is now
the standing order for the birthday cake .
This year we added strawberries as they are so plentiful
at the moment ( and match the candles! ).

He is still into Lego in a big way , so that's what most of his gifts were -
including this amazing 'Minecraft' set (from the computer game) ,
 the latest production in the CUUSOO range of fan-suggested sets .
You should check it out if you are a Lego lover or have a great idea
 for something that could be made out of Lego !

Personally , I am hanging out for this one -

(pictures from www.lego.com)

it's next to go into production !

He has been shopping with his gift money and has bought
still more Lego , as well as a slushy maker.
( The power of TV advertising, yeesh ! )

Now that the last birthday has been celebrated ,
 we are free to look forward to Christmas .
Yikes !!

P.S. "Let him who would enjoy a good future waste none of his present. " Roger Babson

Birthday Wrap-up . . .

Another family birthday is over for the year.

As promised, some gratuitous cake shots . . .

Our little strawberry lover asked for a strawberry cake, of course. I made a strawberry flavoured (and coloured) batter, baked it and then split it horizontally. I spread the bottom half with strawberry jam, frosting and sliced strawberries. Once the top layer was on, I added some strawberry essence to cream before whipping it and mixing it half and half with vanilla frosting. The whole cake was covered with the cream, then strawberry halves and a dusting of cocoa. It was delicious!

R also took the usual caterpillar cake to school to share with his year 3 class . . .

This year he requested a green, blue and purple caterpillar. (By the way, teachers love this type of cake - no cutting or mess - just hand the cupcakes out to the kids on the way out the door to lunch!)

He received lots of cash gifts (his choice), and yesterday he finally went shopping! This is his haul . . .

so many thanks to all the family.

You'll notice the giant Lego set - hmmm. Luckily R is a bit of a Lego prodigy, and the 'age 14+' label and the 1230 pieces didn't phase him at all! He only needed a little bit of help to get from here . . .

to here.

And that about wraps it up. Hope you had a great 9th birthday celebration R!

P.S.  "How old would you be if didn't know how old you you are? " Satchel Paige

Latest happenings in the Creek . . .

I have tried my hand at sewing something new lately - doll's clothes.
 It's a lot harder than it looks!

I think that my fingers and the arm of my sewing machine must be much fatter
 than other people's, 'cause I've found it very frustrating.
I have managed these so far . . .

(they are Blythe sized)

I might have to improve my hand sewing if I'm going to continue in this endeavour, or perhaps outsource! Muuuummm . . .

On the other hand, the youngest has used his new-found stitching skills to make his bear more comfy . . .

And seeing his brother's pillow, F conned me into making a bed for his action figures!

(Mattress, pillow, sheet and blanket, no less!)

(Doesn't Master Chief look cosy?)

We haven't just been sewing though, we've also been strawberry picking
in Eumundi ('tis the season, after all) . . .

and had a family picnic trip to Alma Park Zoo to celebrate R's 9th birthday tomorrow.

So back after tomorrow with gratuitous birthday cake shots! 

P.S. "Rejoice with your family in the beautiful land of life!" Albert Einstein

A Whiz Through the Past Few Weeks . . .

I'm baaaack .

Phew , been busy ! But a quick catch up should put things right . . .

The Winter Carnival was great . 

With stalls . . .

 and treats . . .

 and games . . .

and rides .

But the best thing about the day . . .

The weather fined up a few days before, so the oval was dry enough to get all the rides , stalls and equipment in , and the day was dry and clear. *sigh of relief*

On the home front , the art wall is finished !

We are really happy with how it turned out . Hubby was a bit unsure about the whole deal , until I told him what I was planning as a pretty cool art collection. What better to surround a TV than lots of images from popular culture - taken from some of our favourite books , games , movies and , of course , television shows ! With the help of Etsy , fansites like fanpop.com and my own creativity , I came up with enough postcards , maps , prints and cut-outs to fill all my frames, so now the lounge room looks like this . . .

instead of this!

If you're as old as me , you can probably recognise most of them ! Here's a quick round-up just in case .

In this section it's Doctor Who and The X-Files . . .

then Sherlock and The Princess Bride . . .

Ghostbusters and Back to the Future (sorry about the reflections!) . . .

Let's not forget the Big Bang Theory . . .

Game of Thrones (otherwise known as A Song of Ice and Fire series) . . . 

Skyrim . . . 

Harry Potter (again, the reflections! Sorry) . . .

The Hunger Games and The IT Crowd . . .

and of course, Star Wars .

 I love it!

In other family news, we have had a couple of musical events, sports day and the local show -

and on the organisation front - my fabric stash and sewing gear has been sorted , culled and is all tidy !

And that's it. All caught up.

P.S. "If time flies when you're having fun, it hits the afterburners when you don't think you're having enough."
       Jef Mallett

Leave it to Fete . . .

After this weekend ,  I might have some time to get back to my usual routine , cause it ' s our school fete on Saturday . Known as the ACSS Winter Carnival it ' s only held every second year , so everyone makes a big effort to make it a great fundraiser.

Anyway ,  I have been busy making goodies like these . . .

and these . . .

and these . . .

but now they are safely delivered and after tomorrow ' s displays and rides and music and food and fun I will get my life back.
See you then!

P.S. “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”  Winston Churchill

Coming Up Roses . . .

Well, Ranunculus actually.
I wanted to show you a quick gift I made for a workmate on the weekend. We had a bunch of flowers and a box of chocolates for her, but the gift needed a finishing touch. So I made a quick flower brooch.

The recipient is like me and loves red - the flowers were striking Gerberas - so I chose a red ranunculus from my stash to match.
I started by taking the flower apart - you just pull out the centre out firmly and then the base will come away.

This left all the petals loose. I stacked them back together in size order, turning them just a little each time to give the bloom some fullness and putting a small dab of glue near the centre hole on each. (I did this over a wooden skewer, to keep the centre hole lined up neatly and my fingers out of the glue.)

Once the petals dried I added a pretty rhinestone button to the centre, stitching it through with embroidery thread.

 Then I used the same thread to tie on a brooch back, and secured it with a small piece of matching  felt and strong craft glue.

Ta daa! I pinned it over the ribbon around the chocolates to finsih the gift.

Now the birthday girl can use it as a brooch on a jacket, or scarf, or bag or whatever, or she can re-gift it the same way - as a finishing touch to gift wrapping.

P.S. “The greatest gift is a portion of thyself.” Ralph Waldo Emerson