Hapy 7th Birthday Holly!

11/11/02 :At about 11am, I was getting my epidural. I remember the anaesthetist standing against the wall, feet crossed, watching the monitor. He asked me how that last contraction felt, and when I said "What contraction?" He said "Right, that's it, I'm out of here!" LOL - I guess it worked! At 7:20pm, Holly was finally delivered by C-section, as no mater how hard we(I) tried, she would not fit the other way. It's scary to think what would have happened a few generations ago, when C-sections weren't an option. But, luckily for us we had a fabulous team of doctors, and she was born, a beautiful baby girl.

She has grown into the sweetest, kindest, gentlest soul I have ever had the pleasure of knowing, and to be able to call her my daughter makes me extremely proud indeed. She was chuffed to bits with all her gifts - a pink Nintendo DS from us, an Avery Moxie girl from her Grandpa and Claudia and Tom, a pizza cooking set from Liam, a cooking game from her cousin Michael, and some spending money from her Nana and Grandad in Africa - thanks Mom - they were super thrilled with that! She's gone off to school with her poppy on one side of her jumper and her birthday badge on the other, and some sweets for her classmates.

We're taking her and some friends to see 'Up' on Saturday, which I'm about as excited as she is for!

And lest we forget....

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

~Lt-Col John McCrae

Greek Day

Aren't us mums a clever bunch? Our kids have been learning all about Greece this week in Year Two, other Years are doing USA, Brazil, Australia, India and Japan, and they end the week with a dress up day. They could either wear something traditional from that country, or pick out colours from the flag.

Well, yesterday morning, what started out as a Sainsbury's Basic fitted white sheet, ended up in a pillowcase-style dress for Holly, with a gold ribbon bodice! A sheet of gold card cut into leaves, stuck to an Alice band makes a perfect laurel wreath. Impressive, huh? Holly's friend has his baby sister's cot sheets folded over a belt for his skirt, with a scarf cleverly draped over him to make a waist coat. Now they could have gone the easy route and worn blue and white, but don't you think they're learning so much more this way? They're tasting Greek food today too, I wish I was there!

The Roof is Done!

I finally felt brave enough to tackle the roof. I mixed three colours: the stone of the walls, seasoned oak and black ash, and then dry brushed the black ash on and blended it in as much as I could. It's tricky to see when you're looking straight at it, the paint has a slight plastic-y sheen to it, which reflects light, and in fact it looks lighter in the pictures than in real life. But I'm happy with it for now. The great thing about blending colours and dry brushing is that you can tweak it as much as you like. I might even try the seasoned oak straight on with a dry brush. But then again, I might just leave it like this.

The silly thing is, I've run out of shingles so the back roof panel hasn't been shingled. I'm not sure if it's because I used too many rows on the front sections, I counted 17 rows on my top one, and on an Arthur I saw on Flickr I think they'd only used 11 or so. Oh well, I'll keep an eye out for similar shingles, but even if I don't find any, at least it's just the back of the house.

I Have a Boot Dilemma

I need new brown, everyday boots. I have expensive taste, and simply cannot afford my absolute favourite leather boots from the High Street (they're over £100). Then, while in Chichester over my birthday weekend, I saw a pair of boots in a shop window, with a price tag (£35) I thought was a mistake. Turns out it was no mistake...they're not leather. I then found a pair at Next that are leather, and at £60 not horribly expensive.

Can you guess which is which? The ones on the left are the fake leather ones which style-wise, I'm leaning towards. The ones on the right are real leather, feel nice, look nice, but are a bit plain. Could I wear them with a skirt?

Here they are on...shot into a mirror so they look a bit hazy.

And what they look like with my boot cut jeans.

Front/ankle view...what do you think? In South Africa we have a great saying, which goes...

"Goed koop is duur koop." It means buying cheap is buying dear, kind of like penny wise pound foolish. Obviously, leather boots will last longer, wear better and have some kind of guarantee at the store if they fall apart after one season. But I do like the style of the cheap boots. Will I kick myself after a season for not having bought leather?

My 'Lil Trick Or Treaters!

The kids just before heading out - three witches and a vampire!

I love how Holly is such a poser for me now - this witch face and hands was all her doing!

My sweet little vampire boy! He so needs new trainers. Those are the ones he rides his bike in, see how worn the toe break pads are? LOL!

And then I found this image amongst my saved ideas file, I'd forgotten about it when it came round to doing my pumpkins this year...it belongs to a Pea and it's from 2007...if it's your shot give me a shout and give you credit for it...and maybe next year I'll feel brave enough to attempt one like the one on the left!