Back in Business

Now that uni days are behind me (have I mentioned that yet??), I can now do as much guilt-free sewing as I want!!!

And that means, that my little business is back up and running! I'm very excited about it, and I'm really hoping that LOTS of Christmas orders will keep me nice and busy over the next few months while I wait to see what happens in regards to teaching next year (Oh my goodness I'm a teacher now!!!)

I visited my favourite store yesterday, and stocked up on some lovely new materials especially for notebook'n'pencil sets and nappy wallets.

Then, last night, inspired by my owl-obsessed daughter, I created these:

Named after my girl, of course! I've never done much in the way of appliqué before, so I'm super happy with myself for how well they turned out. How cute! I'm selling them for $10.00 through my facebook page, and you can even choose your colours!

Bring on the Christmas orders!!!

Why you ask? Because, um, we have just finished our UNIVERSITY DEGREE!!!!!

  HOORAY!!!!

This week, I have written a 2000 word assignment AND a 4000 words assignment, and from and forever more (unless in the future some form of insanity convinces me to study again) I will never have to write an assignment again.

Yesterday we celebrated with our cohort, and both sets of our parents (which was so lovely of them to come all the way!)  at a lovely ceremony put on by the uni (not our official one with the awesome hats and gowns - that’s on April 30th, 2011, at 2pm if anyone’s interested), and on Friday night we will celebrate again at a grad dinner we’ve organised. Maybe by then it will actually feel real!

At the moment, Peter is finishing off his 4000 words assignment (don’t worry, I’ve been rubbing the fact that I’m finished and he’s not in every chance I get – lovely wife that I am), but it won't be truly over until he joins me in this floaty state of finished blissfulness.

But this journey is very nearly over. Five years of hard work, persistence and dedication has finally paid off, and it feels so good. I’m so proud that I get to graduate with my gorgeous husband, and I’m so proud of HIM that I don’t even have the words. For someone who never thought he’d be able to even get into uni, he’s done a pretty awesome job!!!

Bring on the next chapter!!

 

Look out world, USQ graduate teachers of 2010, coming to a school near you!!!

Just another manic Monday

We’re ‘home’ again… at least at the house which we will call home for only 17 more sleeps! Isn’t there just something awesome to be in your own bed?

We’ve hit the ground running and pretty much haven’t stopped since we got back. Yesterday we had to restock our cupboards and fridge – it was a total do or die situation.

We had a one-year-old birthday party, dinner with friends, and in between all that finished of a nearly 2000 word assignment! For the first time I think since our first year of uni, we pulled an ‘all nighter’ (or as close to one as we will let ourselves get, anyway), and it was nearly 1am before our heads were on our pillows. *Yawn*

Now we have only one more to go, which is exciting, but still hasn’t quite sunk in as yet. This is a big one – THE big one: 4000 words. I wasn’t feeling all too confident about it all, but somehow managed to spit out nearly 2000 words today, which was such a big relief. I have high hopes of finishing it tomorrow, when we spend the day at the uni library.

I work so much better at the uni library, and I think that’s one place on campus that I’ll miss. It’s quiet there, but there’s a buzz too. It makes me want to work, and helps me to be very productive.

So if I can pull out 2000 words with a very distracting Mayana-Berry running around me all day, imagine what I can do at the uni library.

Speaking of the Mayana Berry, she has been SUCH a good girl today. She’s been missing Nana and Pop, and asks for them every couple of hours, but seems to have resigned herself to the fact that they’re no longer at her beck and call. Today we opened up the doors and let her have free reign of the back yard.

It was a lovely warm day, so Peter put some water in her little ‘pool’, and we gave her some cups and buckets and other outside toys, and she had an absolute ball playing and splashing and searching for ‘nails’ (aka snails).

Mayana with her ‘nail’ shell… (she won’t touch the ones that still have creatures in them though!)

Remarkably, she didn’t end up IN the pool, which was quite a surprise to me, as I was convinced that’s exactly what would happen. Mind you, that doesn’t mean she didn’t get wet! The awesome part was that she really did entertain herself for the majority of the day. The kid loves to be outside, and it was quite a tragic moment for her when we told her it was getting too cold and it was time to come in.

  
On the happy side, she has well and truly worn herself out, and was well and truly ready for bed tonight. Fingers crossed she lets us sleep till a reasonable hour in the morning!

Last days in Dubbs…

  Riding her “Gee-Gee”

Helping Nana sweep up..

Watching The Wiggles with the bear that my Internship class gave me as a goodbye present, eating the left over popcorn that my class didn’t eat on our movie day.

On the road to home…

 

I’m sooo kicking myself that we haven’t got more photos of Miss M with her Nana & Pop while we were away. Just you wait till Christmas, that camera won’t be going away!

She’s cutest when…

* She steals my hairbands and puts them on her wrists and comes out so proudly to show me her pretties.

* She believes us when we tell her that dried fruit is lollies, and begs and begs for more!

* She does all the actions when she watches Wiggles, and answers them when they ask questions.

* She tells us that her Loch-Ness Monster slippers that Uncle Daniel & Aunty Katherine sent her are Dorothy the Dinosaur.

* She takes my phone when I’m talking to my mum, says “Hello”, then sits silently, nodding oh-so-seriously while Kami chats away to her.

* She says the words, “I love you!”

* She counts: two, four, six, eight (what can I say, she really is advanced!).

* She collects the chicken’s eggs and says, “Thank you Girls”.

* She’s Pop’s little shadow and follows him everywhere saying, “Help, Pop! Help!” (though I sometimes wonder whether Pop sees it more of a help or a hindrance).

* She insists on having a “Shar” (shower) all by herself.

* She repeats the names of everyone in our families when we say prayers at night, and jumps ahead because she knows that Lock-Lock and Lala come after Boo, and Shane comes after Ali.

* She drags me to every blind in the house in the mornings, so that she can help me to open them whilst proclaiming, “Hello Day!”

* She tells us the colour of every car that goes past, and gets it right about 70% of the time.

Aaah who am I kidding. She’s cutest ALL the time!

Smiles for you…

It has been brought to my attention that certain people in my life are having rather serious Mayana withdrawals, and as such I thought I would share a few of our latest fun times with her.

She’s been having so much fun here with Nana and Pop, and is learning so many new things. She loves to ‘help’ (though sometimes the amount of actual help she offers is questionable). She has discovered the joys of running under a garden hose (something she’s never been able to do in our drought-stricken town), and enjoyed her first dance in the rain.

She’s cheeky, and fun and full of love… here’s proof!

It’s probably hard to tell, but in this photo, the Mayana-Berry had perfected Pop’s limp to a T. He has ligament damage and is hobbling a little at the moment, and his little shadow has decided her ‘knee sore’ too. So she wears a bandage, and limps with him.

Apparently Nana’s cupboard is the *best* place for picnic lunches. I’ll just have to take Mayana’s word for it.

Poser much?

Mayana absolutely loved her nudie-rudie play in the rain. It took some pretty forceful convincing for her to come back inside.

I’m not sure what this was all about, but it makes me giggle every time I see it.

Hope you got a good dose of smiles :-)

Times they are a-changin’

In two weeks, I will have finished my internship.

In three week, I will have handed in my last two assignments ever, and celebrated at an awesome graduation dinner with my uni mates. I will be a teacher!

In four weeks, our household items will be in boxes, in a storage shed somewhere.

In five weeks, we’ll be officially homeless, living with the in-laws, praying and crossing our fingers that everything turns out okay.

It’s blowing me away, the culmination of all this – of five years of hard, hard work; of being uni students with no money – stuck in a place where we never felt completely at home, three hours away from family we wished we were closer to… and in five short weeks, this chapter of our lives will come to a close.

Such a big ending – and such an unknown beginning. I never knew you could be filled with so much excitement and so much anxious dread at the same time.

83 days…

Until Christmas! Can you believe it?

I love Christmas, pretty much everything about it makes me happy.

One of my favourite things to do at Christmas is decorate our house. I go all out, and there is always something Christmasy in almost every room of the house. This year, we won’t have a house at Christmas. In fact, in another 6 weeks, we’ll be homeless! (But I’m trying not to think about that).

Regardless, I couldn’t help myself, and when I saw the delicious Christmas prints at Spotlight, I had visions. And before I knew it, I had created my newest Christmas decoration…

 

And I’ve already asked Mum if I can hang it at her house… haha.

Did I mention how much I love Christmas?

New things for sale!

Here’s some of what I’ve been making lately – and they’re all for sale! So either check them out and leave a message at my facebook page, or send me an email via that ‘contact me’ tab near the header on this page!

Nappy wallets… Only $10.00 each + postage. 

Size 3 T-Shirt with crocheted owl design. Too cute!
$15.00 + Postage Size 5 T-shirt with vintage crocheted doily design. I got this pattern from books that belonged to my great-grandmother.
$15.00 + Postage
I apologise for the photo, for some reason the green went white when I took it with the flash on, and the weather has been too dismal to do outdoors shots.

And I have more T-Shirts coming! (And I’m working on some boy ones, too)

What other sizes and kinds of designs would you like to see?

We Have a Winner!

Excuse my slackness, I had to draw this morning instead of last night due to an unexpected (and very welcome) dinner invitation!

And the winner of the gorgeous pink Spring Dolly is:

Congratulations!

Please send me an email via the ‘Contact’ tab near my header, and I will get it in the post ASAP!

Thanks to everyone who entered. Make sure to check out my Facebook Page for more dollies, and other awesome hand-made goodies!