[mini cupcakes for the teenager]

My eldest son turns thirteen tomorrow, so a day with his mates at the indoor skate park is planned, and I shall merely tag along as the food and drink carrier.

I have yet to make the famous 'scooby snacks', that went off a treat at my Mum's wedding in April, however, I have triumphed with mini cupcakes. I used my new food processor to make the cake mixture, and whatever magic it wielded resulted in the most delicious, moist and perfect textured cakey mouthfuls of yumminess!

No doubt the boys will 'inhale' these little cakes inbetween carving it up on the quarter pipe and the mini bowl...

[Courtney’s special hat]

Our dancing instructor is moving to Alice Springs, and we joked at our last class for the year she’d need a hat with corks for the flies. But not any ordinary hat ... hers would need bling! Well, I thought I'd make one!!

[teacher’s pet part 2]

My eldest had his Year 7 Graduation tonight, marking the end of his primary school years.

Here's the card we made for his teacher:

He's really going to miss her...

[teacher’s pet]

It’s the last week of school for my kids this coming week, and I only get a gift for the teacher if my boys say they want to ... so here’s the first creation for my littlest man's teacher, who just loves owls!

The gift box is handmade and it's decorated with a Christmas decoration that's intertwined around the box’s ribbon. I love what my Grade 2er wrote on the inside of the card for his teacher. Nawwww, so cute.

[quilled Chrissy decorations]

It's such a busy, busy time of the year ... with end of year celebrations happening and yet to happen! 

Tonight I'm heading out to dinner with my girlfriends and we've reached a little milestone ... we all met when our kids were in preschool and this year marks when those little preschoolers finish primary school! Where did the time go?? Over the last 7 years we've lost a few of the 'originals' who've moved away, but essentially it's still the same group of friends, which I think is rather cool.

Anyways, I managed to whip up some cute little quilled decorations for everyone last night - momentarily escaping the work and other chores to find a little Christmas spirit. :)

'Tis the season... :)

[Christmas papier mache bowls]

I was again wondering why I proposed such long-winded projects for my Year 2 art gig on Wednesday arvos ... especially as this one took four weeks for all the kids to glue two layers of newspaper into the plastic bowl mould. Thankfully this week I could finally undercoat/seal them at home and then the kids got to decorate them yesterday. 

I will have to take photos of the designs the kids have done and show you, but for now, you'll have to be satisfied with my prototype design I did as an example...

BTW (this bowl won't be gracing my Christmas table - the teacher really wanted one, so it's hers now!)

Bowls, bowls, everywhere... took a couple of days to do two coats of undercoat/primer so no newsprint showed through!

[patchwork owl proposal]

I've put together a proposal to create a group art project with my son's Grade 2 class – some wall art to go up at school! The kids will decorate the 'feathers' of the owl with their own design and will be made of laser cut MDF. The eyes, 'horns', beak and wings will be made of 3D recycled objects, such as hubcaps for eyes, showerheads for the centre of the eye, and plate aluminium (or faux metal decorated MDF). The kid's pieces and the 'found objects' will be assembled by myself and another artist friend. 

As this year's Grade 2s won $1000 for the school to put towards an art project with their self portrait collaborative artwork, we're hoping to get the 'feathers' done before school finishes this year – before they're split up into different Grade 3 classes next year. Afterall, they won the prize!

Let's hope the Principal likes it and approves it soon!