Inspiration


We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us.
It is not just in some; it is in everyone.
[Marianne Williamson]



Saturday, March 28, 2009

A slippery snail drop

The snails I made for Wombat's birthday turned out beautifully. I will post a pic of them when I am finished making their mat to race on (my sewing machine has not been cooperating, so I have only been able to finish things which could be done by hand.)

I couldn't find any felted wool jumpers that I was happy with, so I ended up crocheting the shells. This was a trial and error process, so I had a number which were good but not exactly what I wanted. Yay!!! That meant more snails for toy drops :P

Steff, recognise the body fabric on this little guy? It's the waistband from the maternity jeans she passed down to me after her first pregnancy. I wore them for two pregnancies and most of the time in between, until the denim part was full of holes... and now they live again lol



Dropped: Camden, NSW

Number of toys: 1

Made by: Schelle

Dropped by: Schelle & family

When: 27 March 2009

And: When I left, this friendly fellow was happily admiring the magnificent steam engines on display at Camden Show.

I have another snail to drop this morning - I am hoping to leave her riding the ferris wheel :D

I have won Yeti's approval for this now so I am sure you will see more drops from me in the future - probably not as many as some as I don't get far from home very often - but every chance I get! Yeti likes the street art aspect - that's what got him on side :D

Monday, March 16, 2009

The bird is the word

Yup, the bird is out - in more ways than one :)

First, YIPPEEEE! My birdies were found!

The Toy Society website is back up - the birdies are drop #153. If you don't have time to click on over, here is what the finder said:

Found safe and sound, Friday 13th March, one pair of cute little twins. They were hanging out in bushes at Austinmer beach enjoying the view of the ocean and eagerly waiting for the sun to rise. The twins will take up residence this weekend at Berowra Heights when I visit my grandchildren. They will have a good home and be well looked after.

Thank you for the beautiful work

Sandra


Isn't that nice?

Also, I don'tneed to worry about Yeti finding out lol... he was looking through the photos I took at the beach - and I forgot to delete the birdie photos. His comment:

"Why are they hanging in a tree????"

So I explained all about the Toy Society (his comment: "sounds weird")... with the proviso that I was planning to make a set for the boys (true) and I wanted to test the pattern out (true), and had found some things I wanted to do differently (true) and just decided to give away my first attempt rather than keeping them as clutter (true)... I didn't tell him I was doing it because it was FUN! and EXCITING! He might have thought I was even weirder (he knows how weird I am but he still married me lol).

I left up The Toy Society website later in the day so he could see it was all legit... he had a quick look, shrugged and said "all right..." in an "I still think it's completely weird but I'm prepared to humour her this time" kind-of-way. Hey, he didn't say no, so I am going to take it in a "yay, you go girl - within limits" kind-of-way lol.

Next on the agenda - Wombat has requested a cuddly snail for his birthday, so I am going to make him this racing snails game. I will need to make a test-snail first, of course.........

His birthday is less than a week away so I had better get a wiggle on - just having trouble getting Yeti to part with some old felted jumpers - he's only got two wardrobes full of clothes he never opens lol... but when I pulled out some candidate jumpers (felted, way too small, and full of moth-holes) he got a little offended, so now I must gently nudge him to choose some himself. (I showed him the snails, and he likes them... and if he won't do it for me, he WILL do it for Wombat lol). I'd use some of my own jumpers but I shoved everything that didn't fit in a bag and took it to St Vinnies lol (dratted decluttering... I knew I would need them someday...) {ROFL @ Yeti's tongue-in-cheek suggestion: "Can't you find some old felted jumpers on eBay?"}

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Two little lovebirds sitting in a tree.

I made my second drop for the Toy Society today! I am blogging about it this time, because it was nowhere near home :)

Although I know someone took my bunny home, no-one has contacted the Toy Society to say they found it. That's not surprising - I'd say that was true for the majority of toys that get dropped. It doesn't alter the addictiveness of the experience lol - it just adds to the excitement of wondering where your toy is now :D

I had so much fun with this one - I wonder if someone has found it already - though the Toy Society blog hasn't been updated since Monday. Very unusual... I guess Bianca, the brains behind it all, has a real life as well lol! I hope it comes back soon - I love watching what other people make and where they drop them - and especially reading about toys that are found :D

Dropped: Corrimal Beach, NSW, Australia




It was a BEAUTIFUL day for the beach. We were on our way to pick up an eBay purchase from a nearby suburb, so we gave the boys a treat after the long drive.

Number of toys: 2




I did think about making two separate drops, but they looked SO sad when I tried to put them in different baggies... I couldn't bear to keep them apart! (Plus, it is our 17th anniversary next week, and I'm feeling romantic.)

Made by: Schelle

Sitting at the computer at midnight, I suddenly realised we were going to the beach today... and it would be the perfect place to drop a toy... and I DIDN'T HAVE ONE READY! I grabbed the first piece of fabric I found in my craft cupboard, a handful of embroidery threads... and a few hours later these little lovebirds were hatched.

Dropped by: Schelle


I am keeping my toy-dropping a bit of a secret lol... otherwise Wombat would claim every toy I make as his own! I am also not entirely sure how Yeti would feel about it - he's a bit sensitive about time management at the moment, and me getting enough sleep. Staying up late to make toys for strangers may (or may not) fit in with his idea of priorities. It also makes things more exciting!!! I waited until Wombat and Yeti went off to explore the rockpools, and I snuck around behind a great big bush, while Munchkin watched from the picnic mat.

When: 12 March 2009



I sat with Munchkin for about an hour, during which time a number of people walked past from the car park and went up the steps to the road. They didn't see the bag - you would have to be walking down the steps to see it. I was worried about Wombat spotting it while he was running around - but I told him he had to be careful not to scare the real birds ----->

And: This 'tweet' pair of lovebirds should be right at home on this bush while they wait for their new nest-owner to find them - there was a family of Superb Blue Wrens bouncing around them!





My camera is great for many things, but it is just hopeless at photographing birds! Anyway, this gives you the idea :) and shows the steps down which the birdies' new owner will have walked.

Wednesday, March 04, 2009

Out for the duration

The boys aren't that sick, just enough to be demanding extra attention (there's a voice in my ear right now - "Mummy, you have to make lots of cars. Lots and lots of lego cars!")...

and my home journal planning is finished & being put into practice, so the housecleaning has started and is going well (yesterday I washed the velvet curtains in the loungeroom - for the first time in two years!!!)...

and Munchkin is getting more mobile (I was filling Wombat's bath last night, sure that Munchkin was still snoozing soundly in my bed... he heard the water running - loves his bath - and tried to crawl out to us landing nose first on the wooden floor OUCH!)...

and I have to re-enroll at the College of Law this month, which means getting all my notes in order...

and Wombat's birthday is coming up, so any computer time is vanishing into the search for perfect presents (for a little boy already so spoilt by eBay that he expects something new every other day)...

and the posts I wanted to write are piling up behind me in an avalanche of "shoulds"...

and the doctor tells me my insulin resistance and blood pressure are too high as a result of the extra weight I am still carrying from the pregnancies...

and I have decided to go back to drinking full cream milk as breastmilk is still an important part of Munchkin's diet and he is very obviously craving fats to build that growing brain. I was cutting all fat out of my diet in the hope that my body would burn some of the extra I was carrying to feed Munchkin, but it's just not working that way, and I refuse to compromise his development. The change is obvious - he is instantly sleeping for longer periods and is more settled. I used to notice the same thing with Wombat whenever I started drinking lite milk while feeding him. I was just being stubborn about it, but oh well... I have cut out all sugar from my diet, and the only other answer is more exercise... which takes time I would otherwise spend at the computer....

so I am declaring a time out :D I won't be writing or opening my Google Reader, so please excuse my absence. I'll probably be back after Easter. In the meantime, I will still try to keep up with my daily photos at Fleeting Reality - I am taking photos every day, and just getting them up onto the internet when I can squeeze in a few moments for myself, so they tend to appear in clumps rather than one at a time - yay for being able to backdate posts!

See you soon... I'll miss you... but a mama's gotta do what a mama's gotta do!!!