May 15, 2008

Waiting

Waiting for work to begin with the next child. If it does. The parents that go through the agency tend to change their minds a lot apparently.

Waiting for payday. They told me the wrong day so I have one more to wait. Must buy fabric from superbuzzy!! I’m calling it my reward for surviving that first horror child. Yeah, whatever justifies buying fabric right?

Waiting to find something to replace this that doesn’t cost a fortune:
Oops

Waiting for inspiration to turn this pile into the projects they’re going to become.
Project pile

Waiting for motivation to try turn my sewing room back into a sewing room from the junk room it has become. How on Earth did that even happen? That’s what the ‘computer suite’ is for!! Dave’s room, not mine! I think it’s time for a major destash. This house is well over twice as big as the old place and yet it’s slowly but surely filling up.

May 9, 2008

Thanks and stuff

Thanks to everyone who commenting on my trial by fire. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about this childcare business since then. We’ll see what the future holds but for now I am focussing on me - embroidery and sewing (which would go a lot faster if it wasn’t utterly freezing in my sewing room - might have to move things into the warmth of the living room) and lots of reading of trashy novels. I think I even have a Mills and Boon I got for free tucked away somewhere but I am not that desperate yet. Have you ever seen the new style ones in bookshops lately? They all involve pregnancy - usually some woman having a baby for a rich guy who has got an urge to be a daddy and will pay her the money she so desperately needs to pay her bills/mothers medical expenses/etc but suddenly as he sees her carrying his unborn child he realises he so desperately needs her. I have never read a M&B without laughing my head off or finishing the whole book. Maybe I’ll make it a goal for May, to try read one from cover to cover without laughing myself into a hernia. Do I dare?

May 8, 2008

And lo, her name was P-Rex

K-Fed would be spitting jealous if he heard my new nickname. P-Rex. I dropped into my brothers work today to kill some time and as it usually does the subject of my shortness came up. It’s guaranteed that he’ll mention either my shortness or fatness once per conversation and today shortness won. Apparently I have short stubby arms, so I mocked a T-Rex’s little arms as I left his shop. Yeah, sometimes I wonder how I ever got a boyfriend too. Anyway he said he’ll call me T-Rex and then not 5 minutes later I got this delightful text message from him:

I’m going to call you p-rex. Cos you have stunted short arms. And a big mouth. And a large tail “for balance”.

Delightful. Truly, he’s a catch with a mouth like that.

In completely unrelated news - and to give my blog some sort of maturity - here’s some prints and greeting cards I got printed today. The back left greeting card is waiting on Daves desk with a kissy kissy message in it and the two front left prints are destined for my shop in the next day or so.

Greeting cards and prints

May 5, 2008

Mosaic Monday

Thanks to everyone who commented on my last post. I got a call today from my visiting teacher to say that the next potential placement has fallen through, the child is overseas right now. It’s a messy situation and not very inspiring. In an attempt to find my crafting mojo (I’m a little worried it’s frozen to death in this first blast of winter) I’m sketching some embroidery patterns. My sketching is not very inspiring so here’s some things that have caught my eye lately on flickr.

Mosaic Monday - what tickles my fancy today

1. embroidered button swap - bunnies, 2. umbrella, 3. bunny with toy train, 4. au jardin embroidery, 5. Someone is in my spot, 6. sweetest sleep, 7. Archie + Mabel’s B’day stitch, 8. gift tags, 9. Cadfael’s treat, 10. Flowers, 11. her face, 12. My model :o), 13. Untitled, 14. E Under The Tree, 15. For Flickr Group Roulette and Environmentally Friendly, 16. “Restaurant in the Latin Quarter”

April 30, 2008

Frazzled

I started care of that little 11 month old boy on Monday and today the care was stopped. These 3 days have been some of the worst of my life. He was so upset the whole time. And I was too. I burst into tears this morning, sobbed my head off and nearly did it again this afternoon at the park. The mother kept me waiting for THREE HOURS at the park before she turned up. He screamed for 2 of those hours. The company I work for have been fabulous thankfully and hopefully I will have a better work situation soon but for now I need to calm myself down and spend some time with my poor freaked out cat. I am working on a few ideas for the shop and also some personal embroidery for no other reason than I can now leave needles around again.

Hear that? The washing machine. Not nursery rhymes on repeat, not a screaming baby, not me crying, just clothes on the wash cycle. Music to my ears today. If I hear baa baa black sheep (or have to sing it) anytime in the next week I’ll scream.

April 27, 2008

Acorn Fairy

I start working at home tomorrow with that 11 month old boy I mentioned. He’s never been apart from his parents before, so I suspect by the end of day 1 I am going to be an exhausted mess. This may be the last craft project I have the energy to complete for a while. 7.30am-5pm, this’ll be interesting.

Acorn Fairy

April 22, 2008

When babies attack

Parents that read this will laugh themselves silly at me. I’ve cared for kids since I was 16, in their homes, in centres but never in my home. This is just so different. Their homes are set up for them, centres are set up to be safe for all kids to a point. My home, which I thought I did so well at childproofing (again, to a point) just screams HAZARD to me now. I had my first parent interview this morning with a couple and their 11 month old boy. Just starting to try walk - bye bye glass coffee table! Teething - sticking everything in his mouth. So looking around I can say the coffee table has to be swapped, that pot has to be moved, that stuff has to go, those have to be hidden, that has to be cushioned…and thats after I thought it was reasonably baby safe. Eep. Oh yeah, the cat was NOT happy about the intruders either. I have the scratches to prove it.

This is the results of 45 minutes of an 11 month old baby:

45 mins with an 11 month old

On the crafting front yesterday did not go well. Every craft I tried went wrong. I sewed my ‘go to’ craft, the little birds from Last Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts which I always make when I want to sew but have limited time. All went well until I poked the corners with the chalk pencil tip and it went sliding through the seam. I must have not caught the seam properly so that was the end of that poor little birdy.

When good crafts go bad

Then I tried embroidery. The less said on that matter the better. Unpicking gets old fast is my only comment. Lets hope the crafts pick their game up this week.

April 21, 2008

A Moment

A moment to myself, a moment to breath and regroup. My home based childcare course ended on Friday (amazing how 10 sessions over 3 weeks began to feel like an eternity) and we go back on May 1st for a morning tea ceremony to get our certificates. We slogged our way through a 6 hour first aid course on Saturday (Saturday hmmmpppfff!!) and now I have a moment to myself. Sunday was spent reviving after 3 weeks of homework and list making, tomorrow and Wednesday I have parents coming in the mornings to interview with about childcare and if tomorrows one goes well I would be starting next Monday. So today is my day. I have peace (if you don’t count a needy cat who I am not going near right now cos he has grass sticking out his bum and it’s giving me the giggles), a house to myself and an urge to poke my fingers with a needle for a couple of hours and call it crafting.

In lieu of any photos right now here’s a mosaic of my current flickr craft faves:
Crafty inspiration

P.S. we got another cat sighting and this one sounds optimistic. Fingers crossed!

April 15, 2008

Elephantitis

I used to collect elephants. I still sort of do, except that the large majority of my elephants (approx 100 of them) have gone missing. Not good. They’ve just vanished off the face of the earth. I have lost two full boxes of them including ones bought by family, ex-boyfriends made of crystal, resin, glass, wood, stone. I have less than 20 left. I’m trying to avoid thinking of the cost of them all - close on $2000. I’ve also lost the Bunnykins plates and mugs we used as kids - as close to family heirlooms as we have had. Not good!!! There’s not a single place left to look for the elephants and only one possible place left to look for the Bunnykins stuff. This is really my year for losing stuff - cats, elephants, heirlooms. Ack.

On more cheerful stuff I am back on the happy pills and finally have my need to stitch back. I found this image from a book Hope thrifted and I just had to embroider the elephant. Starting my collection again, on the cheap anyway. And they came out super cute!!

Boy and Girl Heffalumps

April 6, 2008

Freebie pattern

I was fiddling with a pattern this weekend and thought I would share it with you. I’m not actually a cross stitcher, but I do like creating patterns. I have no idea how this will look stitched up, perhaps someone will do it and show me? Either way, here’s a free little something for anyone who might be looking for a free little something. (the black line at the bottom of his hat is optional, I couldn’t figure out how to remove it)

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