Talofa lava!

We've just returned from a 10 day family holiday in Samoa. 

We attended a friends wedding and had an all round fabulous time. I ate more fish than I thought possible, mostly Oka, but also lots of with Samoan Chop Suey and Taro cooked in coconut cream..Palusami. The food was delicious, the temperature in the high twenties to thirties, and the people, lovely.

Too many Pina Coladas have expanded my waistline, however. Back to the gym today and it was hard yakka!

Now I need to make a gift for the lovely couple who made us so welcome. Thank God the hols are nearly upon us and I can get down 'n dirty in the sewing room for a bit. I'm thinking of a quilt but am having a mental block with ideas. Any suggestions?!

This afternoons great achievement...

...was not sewing...

...or knitting his Gryffindor scarf..

...or cooking dinner...

...or baking biscuits...

...or doing the housework...

...or shopping...

Nothing like a spot of boatbuilding and decorating to wile away the afternoon.

Rapunzel

I've always fancied myself as a bit of an artist...but perhaps I'm deluded. I used to do a bit while I was teaching and really enjoyed it.

We have bought a fair bit of art since we've been here in Australia in preparation for filling the walls of the house in NZ, when it gets built. Now it's getting a bit crowded on the walls here, to be honest. But there will be a lot of wall space to fill when Le Manoir is built!

Two of my favourite pieces are by a local Camberwell artist and illustrator called Anna Walker. She exhibited at the Canterbury Primary School Art Exhibition for the last couple of years and we commissioned her to do "Into the Woods" last year and "The Princess and the Frog" this year. Ours are similar to these but Red Riding Hood has a wolf too! The leaves and dresses are made from tiny bits of fabric.

Anyhoo, I was inspired to try to emulate Anna's work when I saw Heather Ross' Far Far Away Collection of fabric. Here is a very bad photo of the Rapunzel fabric (sorry!)

I started this about a month ago so not much progress made yet, I'm afraid. Bear in mind, this won't be the finished product as it would just be a copy of the Fabric design (or what I think passes as a copy!) I'm just trying to get a feel for the watercolours and how they go at this stage.

God knows if I'll ever actually finish anything worth framing. And I have the frame all ready too (ever the optimist!) Shame the paper I bought is the wrong bloody size!

Bulbous

The biggest little boy is still sick. Sounds like he's got a 40 a day habit. He's been off school all week but we were going to send him today as the fevers have stopped.

That was until the tears welled up in those little eyes and a little, whispery voice proceeded to tell us that he didn't think he should go to school as he would cough all over his friends and give them germs and it still hurt his chest and head when he coughed.

I'm glad I didn't send him now. He's sitting on the couch, playing a game on the iPad in PJs, coughing ...and coughing.

I haven't been to the gym since Saturday. But I did manage to get into the garden on the first day of winter, which was cold in the morn but gloriously sunny for the rest.

With the help of my smaller gardening companion, I planted some of these, hoping that...

these will emerge in the spring!

I also planted some of these by the front door. They don't look like this yet, sadly!

Now I'm going to sew, but will go out and plant my vege seedlings later.

And before you ask - no, I haven't done the dishes yet!