Two Months in....

I finished work two months ago - boy has that time gone fast.

It's 8.45 am and already 90% humidity - I might be buying a paddling pool for my birthday in 2 days! We have had stunning weather for days and days - summer has arrived with a bang!

I'm stoked this morning - Massey University e-mailed asking permission to use my Educational Psychology essays and other work as exemplars in their 2018 classes - isn't that an awesome validation of my writing skills? I'm waiting for my final grade, so I can get the graduation process underway and Massey credentials over to the University of Auckland for my teaching study in 2018.
The lecturer e-mailed me again and said "I hope you are intending to go the ed psych route" - that made me giggle! Let's just get the teaching thing out of the way first....

And at 2.21pm - one of my final grades has been changed to an A- for Issues in Maori Education. My other paper - Family, Intimacy and Domestic Life is an A grade, so I'm doing fab so far!


I think Christmas might be a right off this year - the eldest has a second job, and is scheduled to work Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Years Eve, New Years Day, day after New Years day (still a public holiday here) - 4 days a week for the next two months. Working all these days is good money plus a day in lieu for most of those days being public holidays.
And the twin brother has broken his leg playing hockey, so he won't be driving anywhere (lives 3 hours away) and since we won't be either... oh well. I'd run away every year if I had my way with just the 5 of us.... And I'm not sure what the rest of the family is doing - doesn't it make it so hard with multiple families to fit in? (found out my parents will be down south, so it won't be happening as we won't be travelling) -  I'm not really that into it at the moment! Hate the spending of money on stuff that nobody needs, currently going through a "don't do religion" stage... i need to find some spirit somewhere !!!! THIS really appeals to me......

I spent the day with an aunt on Monday and came home with this gorgeous bag which she had stitched -

 New purchases - top one in Sydney - bottom two from "wool on wheels" two weekends ago -

 And this is today's project - a rather slow process project! I'm not 100% so have spent a couple of days at home in bed coughing my lungs out!

State Library of New South Wales

It's my life mission to one day make it to every state library in Australia.... I really had no idea of what a state library even was until I saw the South Australian one in Adelaide (and even then I only saw part of it, as discovered it too late and we were leaving early the next day). I've been to Brisbane, Queensland twice, but still never been to the state library. And i visited the Stae Library of Victoria in Melbourne last October - i think this is my favourite so far! I still can't believe we lived in Melbourne and I had never visited it until last year (maybe having toddlers back then had something to do with

 it?!)

So it was on my list to visit during my recent Sydney visit. The official website it here.

I've lost count of how many trips to Sydney that I've had over the years, but this was the first time I'd even walked through this side of the city and up this road to see and visit the NSW State Library. We were here not long after it had opened on a Saturday morning. It has an old and a modern part to the library which interconnect. This is the oldest library in all of Australia being first established in 1826.

A lovely little stop, with a small, perfect gift shop and adjoining cafe. And so very, very quiet (my school library was anything but! ;) ).

We were here at 11 am for the minutes silence for Armistice Day - pretty perfect location - it already was pretty silent before then!

(the first 3 pics are just before the library).

Oh how I love libraries. i was back in my old school library today, looking at some not so pretty data. It's not pretty as no-one has done anything about overdue books... 2000 of them. I might be marking 2000 missing in 2-3 weeks time before the end of the year....

Sydney Botanical Gardens

Kristy and I walked a ton in Sydney. The Sydney Botanical Gardens are right in the city, over to the side and it's a huge, huge area which I had never walked through before. They are on a jut of land right by the harbour with incredible views. We entered from across the road from the NSW State Library, which is pictured below (the old bit of the library).

It was a truly beautiful walk through the gardens and when you get down to the bottom, the Opera House is right there! Incredible views and amazing being so close to the bottom part of the central business district. We barely touched on the gardens though, as it is huge!

A fabulous walk and better than pounding the city streets, which we also did plenty of last weekend.

a quilt finish

I started this back in the July school hols, with a friend teaching me how to cut squares. The squares were all sewn together then (all scraps). Earlier this week, I cut the borders (whew! That was  a learning experience - working on the floor does wonders!) and then the backing. It was another new experience for me pinning and then also learning how to make my own bias binding. There was a bit of muttering at the machine over that...

But anyway - a finished product! The border fabric was the only newly purchased fabric - all the rest was from my stash. I tied the squares - boy was that hard getting through the layers..

But I'm happy! Another one ticked off the cousins' challenge list! And fabulous to teach myself new skills!