School Holiday's have come to and end 😢

I have loved the change in pace though I have managed to late to work a couple of times.

Mo and I did quite a bit of walking to the beach during the holidays and did a couple of trips all the way to Henley which is about 6km round trip from our house. We have just come home from a bit shorter walk this afternoon after school.

We also saw a few movies, Baby Driver which we loved I'm not usually into car chases but I really enjoyed all the driving choreographed to music, Despicable Me 3 another winner how can you not love minions and The House which we both hated, and nearly walked out halfway through I kept waiting for it to get funny and it just didn't and got more senselessly violent.

We have a new edition to the household.  Mo purchased the cage a few months ago to get a cockateel but she wanted a baby that she could tame.  Her Dad took her to a local bird guy to ask if he was expecting babies in the spring and he told her he had a hand reared one that had had a fall and had injured his leg but expected it to heal in a couple of weeks and she could have him cheap,  and bring him back if he didn't improve.  I think he is staying and it has been quite good for Mo as she is really focusing on the bird and not on all the other stuff that goes on in her head.  He already sits on her hand.

I have updated the Putting it together documents on the Celtic Tree of Life.  There is now a template for the knots for the corner stones  and more instructions for the border.  I have finished stitching two of the knots and I think I will do a post on what I have found the best way to glue the knots in place without wrecking your paper template.

Picture of the 4 knots are below.

Tree of Life Progress

Mo and I headed out for a walk this afternoon.  We made it to Henley Square which is about a 6km round trip from our house.  The local creek looked pretty spectacular but Mo was more concerned that I would drop my phone off the bridge as I took the photo.  

At least Mo now follows the rule that if you take the lead and the dog does a No 2 you have to pick it up and put it in the bin and not leave it to your mother to do.

The sky was pretty threatening but we made it all the way there and back and didn't get wet.  I think most of the weather action was out to sea.  The view on our walks never get old.

Conversations with Mo are always interesting on these walks nothing seems to be off limits... last week there was discussion about sex ed at school and what the other kids had told her they talk about ... this week we had 2 ladies and an older gent walking towards, us he was wearing lycra .... I only hope he was out of earshot when she said "OMG did you see his bulge that was just gross".  To tell the truth I registered the lycra and made sure to keep my eyes at head level.  She couldn't believe that I had missed it.

Progress Report on Tree of Life: I have been working on borders this week.  The top and bottom border of the Tree of Life is all stitched on and I have put together one of the side borders and have the 2nd side ready to piece.   I have chosen the corner stone design there will be only one template at this stage and i will probably use 4 different fabrics for the knots.  

I am working on the next version of Putting it all together and with any luck will post Version 3 in a few days, so you can get working working on the border if you want to.  Once I have finished the border and have the final Putting it all together version ready to post it will stay there for a month before heading to my Etsy shop. 

School Holidays and time to just breath

I rarely take extra time off during school holidays as I only work until just after lunch.  Hubby usually takes a couple of days here and there I have my regular Thursday when we usually do the holiday dental checks and other appointments that need to be slotted in.  This holidays, I had today off in lieu of the extra time I worked a couple of weeks ago trying to catch up because our computer rack with all the internet and routers got fried.

We got up early Mo had a physio appointment she has shine splints which are on the mend and physio has given her some exercises to strengthen butt (cause of shine splints) stretches and exercises to help ankles and calves.

Mo and I then checked out a Raw Food Cafe which she had been wanting to try for a couple of weeks... now we are going every weekend according to her.  She had Birchers Muesli with coconut yogurt, she promptly came home and tried to make her own version of the Muesli, she was all for making her own coconut yogurt as well but I put a stop to that until we have thoroughly investigated the mechanics of that.

We then headed out for a walk, we didn't quite get to Henley Square but it was a good distance I've been encouraging Mo to walk when she hasn't been able to run especially when the day is a glorious as it was today.  See the great cloud formations below.

Mo can really use the downtime from school as she puts so much pressure on herself throughout the term.  We are finding ways to help her, she is doing yoga a couple of times a week at the moment and she is going to try some meditation as well and talking to a councillor.  I don't think we are out of the woods yet but we are getting there and taking things one day at a time.

 Some one was building stinky Seaweed Stacks on the beach glad we weren't down on the beach and there was no wind otherwise this section of the walk wouldn't have been too pleasant.

I have finished all the long geese for borders.  I really think they would make a great quilt in themselves when you see them all lined up together (first picture) and I've just thought of a way to change it up and make it a bit more interesting... probably would require more planning but there are possibilities.

Celtic Tree of Life Putting it together progress

Last week I managed to cut out the strips for the pieced border.

I may start it with a narrow border (still deciding) but so far it looks pretty good without it.  I am stitching the border pieces in pairs so that they look like geese.  The corner stones at this point will be more knots.


This is what I have done this morning lots more stitching to go and we have to fiddle with colour placement but I think it is going to look good when its finished.

Also I need to let you know that the Australian Government have decided to slug downloading of digital content with a tax. I'm not sure if overseas buyers  get charged it or not but we definitely do here which is CRAP and it means all my patterns have increased by 10% and I don't get one cent of it.

A can't wait for the school holidays to come.  I am over of arguing with Maestro about subjects, study habits and exams and Mo really needs a break from school for a couple of weeks just to breath.  We really wonder how they can be so polar opposites (one an overachieving perfectionist and the other expecting it all to happen with the least effort as possible).  If they both were more a mix of each other High School would be a breeze for everyone.  Throw in Maestro's man flu into the mix during exams and it has been a wonderful couple of weeks. The one good thing no body else came down with the bug.