the week that has been

A new coaster for next to my bed

 Australian tea

 $3 from a church fete

 $1 each from a church fete

$1 dollar from a church fete

 in the garden.

Dwarf sweetpea love - I have wanted to grow sweetpeas for years! Simple delights.

 From a fundraiser for the City Mission.

 City Mission fundraiser.

 City Mission fundraiser. One can never have enough tea cosies.

 A co-worder knitted me this with some wool I gave her - I love it!

Around the teen's neck :)

 End of 11 years at one school for me - Mass of thanksgiving for the parents. boy, will I be a mess in a few weeks at theprizegiving.

 Ryan at Mass speaking.

Happy 11th birthday to Ryan - we all had a lot of fun at paint ball yesterday.

What a glorious weekend too - partying with 11 year olds; letter writing; knitting; pottering around the house; catching up on laundry. Amazing weather wearing tees and shorts. (H & M love). My favourite type of weekend.

without photos...

I can't find my camera... hoping I did not leave it in Australia.  I had the BEST time in Melbourne. It is always fab catching up with my friend Kristy. Kristy is a grade 6 teacher and of course we went book buying for my school - you should see the pile - 15 kg worth!!! Why, oh why are children's books SO MUCH cheaper in Australia than NZ? Case in point - the new Wimpy Kid book is $NZ8.80 in Oz; here in NZ it is $NZ18 !! There really is not much difference in the exchange rate either. Kristy was a great help in picking older fiction for the year 6/7/8 students.


And it is kinda funny going to Australia and buying a NZ label (Karen Walker Hi There) and being 40% cheaper (on sale, but still... very rarely on sale here!). And the towels were nearly half the price... And Target and Gap and H & M... oh my. It was a bit of a shopping bender after I had been so good for months. I did start a bit of Christmas shopping too. The shops/CBD go on and on and all the little laneways are cute. LOVE the city 11 years after we left to come back and live here.


We took the 16 year old over to help move the business and re-set up all the computers in the business - he is having a fab time! Totally amazed at how big Melbourne is and being a public transport nut, had a great time jumping on and off trams and trains. he remembers little from when he lived there.


I am totally gutted that the memory stick I had in the camera decided to play up. We took the 16 year old back to his old kindy, all the old playgrounds, to our old suburb and house ... actually I was nearly in tears seeing it all again, as it has been so long. The camera took the photos, but in between one day and the next, it decided not to "write" the next photos to the SD card and it seems everything on it is not there... I am gutted. I never ever use my cellphone to take photos and am kicking myself ... of all the photos to lose... I was so upset.


Anyway back to reality; the others come back home tonight. I have over a week's laundry and housework to sort... the place is a tip..... I have several hundred books to find from stocktake, on Friday I am supposed to be at a year 6 leaver's parents Mass and morning tea and at the other school, cooking 500 sausages (few non teaching staff drive or have cars, so it is me driving to get food for entire school and parents on Athletics Day)... I am going to Mass and I am  going to cook the sausages too - one school might just have to wait a bit longer... and give me help :). No PTA....


Hope everyone has contacted their swap partners - I need to crack on with that too!


happy week...

Awesome little things

I've had such a good week!

* my presentation went well - yes you have a dead library if you have zero budget... (many NZ schools do...)

*snail mail love - and a divine snail envelope with gorgeous sweet things in the envelope

* socks - hilarious to me - kinda a pair but then not really.... i have plenty more wool to try and match them both up with a real mate :)

* day after presentation heard about my 2015 library budget... at the moment it entails spending around $250 a week - OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHH - of course I can do that! Still getting over hearing that figure - holy moly... it might still go up more apparrently - cue hysterical laughter at principal from me :)

* one weekend coming up in Melbourne - whoop! Book buying for school and a bit of clothes shopping too.  And moving a business across town.

What has been happening in your week?

Hanging with the animals on a birthday

Every single day I drive past the zoo for school pick up. On a birthday last week,  we stopped and went to the zoo. It will be 13 years at the end of this year doing this trip and the last year of doing school pick up and drop offs for me. I am seriously excited about this! It will also probably mean I hardly ever drive past the zoo ever again. It is the best time to go to the zoo with hardly anyone there and easy to see all the animals. I love the Tasmanian Devil photo - a total fluke.

Library love

Wow. Freedom of time is amazing! I spent the weekend cross stitiching, knitting, sewing an impulse cushion, cutting out bunting triangles, writing 9 letters (!) and just generally enjoying being around the family and NOT studying! Winner of a weekend.

I am presenting at a seminar tomorrow to a whole bunch of school librarians around inspiring readers/encuraging readers. I've taken the viewpoint of what does your library look like? What does it have in it? Is there a budget? Any school with no library budget does not take literacy seriously and has a dead library... I guess I have been asked to talk due to my strong thoughts on school libraries and where they are at.. I am pretty okay at talking to large groups of people including my new-ish principal... fingers crossed for me.

Here are the latest pics of the lovely place...

Send us Christmas Swap details

Hello everyone,

I think my brain is still working after writing 18 A4 sides in my exam.....

Here are the "Send us Christmas Swap" partners. Please contact your partner and please do get in touch with me if there are any problems contacting partners/ other issues.and i will see what I can do....  Hopefully everything will link correctly. Happy swapping. Please blog about the swaps if you have a blog.

(Remember Christmas posting dates too - if you are swapping on the other side of the world, do try and leave plenty of time for the mail to get there. )

Busy Little Chicken and A Place for Everything

A Little Bit Country and Sprouting Creative Wings

Fat Dormouse and Blueberry Heart

Daisy Row and Jayne

Holistic Hippy and Mason Mumblings

Kiwi at Heart and Niki-Kate (no blog - please contact Leonie Niki-kate. Thanks )

NZ Green Buttons and Zaranne Handmade

Michell and Tall Short and Tiny

Grammy Braxton and Silly Chickens

Tracy and Laney

Peta and Miriam

Creative Chaos and Homemade Heart

The Patchwork Robin and Gracious Living

Cate and Melissa (Lisa)  - please contact me Cate or Melissa, contact Cate :)

Mrs A and Lindy Laine Crafts


Whew! That was very time consuming. :)

Three more sleeps

Three more sleeps till my university exams. I have no fingernails left. I am PETRIFIED that my brain will forget weeks of memorizing 3 essays (and I pray that these topics WILL be in the exam.)
I have knitted 3 and a half socks in a week to stop myself biting fingernails (did not work). I am sure I will finish the 4th one tonight. Bedtime has been 12 midnight to 1 am - no wonder I am zonked!

I made the 13 year old's bed up today in these - waited a few hours for a reaction. He said he did not mind, as long as his mates do not see the bed! Hee hee - it was a joke to make his mother laugh amongst all her study! He is quite happy to keep them on the bed which makes me giggle even more.

Guy Fawkes in a few nights and fireworks are already flying left right and centre around the nieghbourhood. I hate them. Our rabbit will be living inside nights this week.
Have a great week. :)