Wasting my day...

So...last week I got a replacement iPhone, not because I particularly wanted one, but because Phoebe needs a telephone (new school is further away) and we'd said that she could have mine when mine came up for renewal, so it seemed like a good idea.  Thing is though I got talked into having the new 'BIG' one. and wished that I'd stayed with a smaller version, partially cos it's too big and too rounded to feel like I'm not going to drop it. 

I looked at some cases, which as usual, were naff... and then I had a stupid idea...I'd make a case!  So I did...and it took me all day when I should have been doing some painting...and it's well....a bit naff really!  Milled it out of aluminium, but really I needed a bit of 10mm and only had 3mm, so thought I'd assemble it from bits. It's OK but the lumps on the side are a bit of joke.  

Lah di dah.  

The funny hole is shaped on the other side to accept a foot (that I've not made yet) so that it can be mounted onto the car dash or a tripod or whatever.... and the screws need to be made flush.

Certainly not a pink fluffy kind of case is it!

Happy Christmas 2014!

Well, here we are, another year on!

So much has happened, and yet it's all gone so quickly hasn't it? You feel like it's all moving along, and then you find it's not moved along so much.  I feel so much more experienced as an artist and a teacher of art, yet I'm still not making enough money to 'more than' cover my costs.  I'm not even covering my costs mostly...!  I feel like the kids have 'got it', or at least substantially, and then they revert to 'monkey' again.

This morning was a case in point.  Matilda woke us up by literally 'stomping' into our bedroom at 4.40am...clutching her present gorged stocking, sister in tow and 'stated' that it was time for the opening to begin.  I said that it was too early and that they should go back to bed, but she just re asserted that it was time, that she'd been waiting for ages, and that she was not going to be going back to bed....in a verbal equivalent of stomping the feet.  Daile duly got up... to my surprise and went off with them, and I was left to sleep.

In fairness, I'd only been asleep for an hour and a half... It's always a late night on Christmas Eve, and this year it was because I was finishing the thing I'd been making for Daile.

It's a T-Bag dispenser!  It has an internal slope that feeds the bags against the front opening at the bottom.  It's really like this with Daile and PG Tips! Sublime contentment or crisis when she's run out!  She's usually got it in stock to the tune of up to 5 to 6 boxes of 80 bags.  It's her only vice!  

Matilda bought herself a box of antique hammer heads and a 'stirrup' (singular) the other day, so that she could have the American axe head that was for sale with them!  The head predates 1955 we were told because it had been stamped with the markings of a Queensland railway company that went out of existence in 1955.  So then 'we' needed to make a handle for it!  (The Royal 'We'...it happens all the time here).  So I said I'd make her one for Christmas.  We went off to buy some suitable wood as we didn't have anything big enough or hard enough.  This is Jarrah, and it's more like metal than wood!  

Here it is, all done, with an oiled handle, polished and sharpened head, and a traditional leather safety cap.

You can see the 'USA' stamp in this pic.  

Phoebe wanted these pants....so I went to find some lightweight orange/red fabric.  I coudn't get the exact colour but did OK.

The shirt is based on this black and white thing that she loves....

Here they are before the buttons went on the shirt..

... I forgot to photograph her in them, till the end of the day today...so a bit crumpled looking....but you can see, and she loved them!  Woohoo.

Matilda and Phoebe also made their own this year...;

This is one of Matilda's acquired hammer heads, with a new handle fitted and oiled and a leather belt holder that she made for me.

This is a sock snowman that Feeb made for Tild...

A 'Santa' cup with a buckle made from a ring pull, that Phoebe made for Tild with Tild's (current) favourite chocs....Ferrero Rocher.

This is a wooden spoon that Tild made for Daile...

A cup of sweets that Tild made for Feeb...

...and a Sculpy heart that Feeb made for Daile...

I must say, Christmas feels quite a bit more like 'Christmas' when you go to the effort of making something.  It's strange, but I felt quite excited by the process in a way that I've not felt for years.  We all liked how it felt and we're going to do more of it next year I think.  

Meantime, here's a pic of Matilda, who for some strange reason came over all knackered this afternoon at Andrew and Lee's house!  Can't think why that would have been!  

Phoebe shone tonight!

This was the moment at the end of January 2009, right before Phoebe walked into her classroom on the very first day of her school life.  Look at the look of determination...well OK you might not be able to see that, but that's what it was, I can tell you, as her father that that was what she was carrying....that and a bottle of water with ice in it...  Matilda was carrying both their bags...in a big sisterly kind of way :-)

I was thinking of this photo tonight as Phoebe graduated from this same school 6 years later.  This first pic is of one of her current class teachers Pauline, and one of her close friends, Rosie;

...and this is a group of three great teachers that they both had, John, Tiffany and Natalia. 

...Ross, the principle;

Stephanie her robotics teacher;

...and two of a group of four wonderful teachers that they both had as class teachers, Julie and Karen.  Karen (in the black dress) was the one that advocated for Phoebe to be moved up a grade, back in the juniors.

At the time, the worry was that she would be just turned 11 when she was going to senior high school if they put her up....but if they didn't she'd be bored.  It turned out to be a safe decision to put her up, this week her final report was nearly all A's, warm words about Phoebe as a person, and tonight she got two awards.  One for ICT (primarily for robotics) and the other for Production.

She danced in two different dance groups tonight, at the centre front in one of them and she really shone!  I was grinning from ear to ear!

Well...needless to say, we are very proud.

....and on top of that she LOOKED gorgeous (well she IS gorgeous!)  Her hair was very kindly done by one of our neighbours, and the dress was by yours truly!

Here's a twirl...

After Christmas she starts at Kimberley College... where Tild is already, and she's getting Matilda's current class teacher...so we're sure that she's going to be in great hands!

The end of one era and the beginning of the next.

Matilda got Dux!

Until recently I'd not heard the expression 'Dux', but here in QLD it's used for the student with the highest academic score in her class or school.  In Tild's case it was in her year, as tonight was the Year 8 graduation ceremony.  She also got awards for excellence in Maths and Science and Language Arts.
Blimey!  Unfortunately I couldn't be there with Daile and Feeb cos I was at the Art School, and that's why the photo is at home afterwards

Anyway, we're very proud of course...

Here's a pic:

Halloween harvesting time...?

Is it me, or are trick or treat-ers getting greedier? This year, I was the stay at home person whilst the girls went out with their mates...and Daile followed behind with another Mum, for safety.

The first knockers were a girl and her mother by themselves.  I'd guess the child to have been about 10 or so, diminutive, skinny, and quite pretty.  She had quite small hands I noticed, which, as it turned out, was quite good, because she stuffed one of them into the bowl I was holding with a selection of mini chocolate bars and Mentos and like a mechanised coal bucket with sweets falling away that were just beyond her grip, she 'harvested' that thing!  I raised my eyebrows at her mother...and she said to the child 'er....just a small handful darling'!!!  WHAT!

Thereafter, I told all the other kids that came, that they could choose ONE chocolate and ONE sweet each.  Shame that you have to say it really....even if the parents are standing there!  Daile came back with ours after a while and had a go...and came back in with a shocked look as a whole bowlful had been decimated by one small group!  We huddled...and I explained my method...so we managed to get through the night without running out.  Blimey!

Anyway, here's this year's offering ...