switch off saturday

Last weekend we decided to have a "switch off Saturday" rather than Sunday.  I took some pictures of some of the things we got up to.  I neglected to photograph the morning bike ride or bread making but made an effort after lunch.  Big brother did some (self initiated) needlework as a gift for his teacher.  It is so much easier for kids to sew on felt than cotton (lesson learnt the long slow way).

Little brother enjoyed colouring and doing an activity book.  He also learnt to fingerknit.

The boys and I played (a modified version) of Ticket to Ride.

While DaddyB drew up plans for a TV unit (which he whipped up on Sunday).  He is amazing.

And then at the end of the day the computer came on for just a tiny bit of skyping to the family down South.  Which technically is switching on but we made a big effort not to check email or blogs or bookface or pintrest... Really it was just like having a visit with the rellies.

Once again, we had a great day thanks to less technology.  You should try it.  

Let me know how it works out for you.

I thought I should post a photo of how my cloud turned out... if you make one of these don't do what I did and forget the ribbon.  It's quite a lot harder to try and jam it through a gap between tiny stitches than to think ahead and sew it in as you go.  Same goes for if you want to embroider a face... do it before you've stuffed and sewn the whole thing up.

job description

Today I'm being nurse to these two.  They require frequent temperature taking, feeding, cuddling, cooling and loving (occasional bed changing and nose bleed stopping also necessary).

I'm also a housekeeper (folding this ridiculously large pile of clean washing) and a TV technician (yes, our television requires a hair-dryer  to get it going in the winter).

 Sadly the kitchen hand and cook haven't bothered to show up for work today so there's been dishes to wash and benches to scrub too, along with making the meals and snacks.

  Thank goodness that the hair-dryer did the trick!

How's your day going?

day 26 - closeup

My bread is starting to look pretty flash these days.

wordless sunday

this moment

{this moment} -  A single photo (from my cell phone this week) - no words - capturing a moment from the week.  A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Thanks SouleMama for the inspiration.

work in progress wednesday

Oh I'm loving this Mario toadstool, it's so much fun.

day 19 - bumped and bokeh

So I hadn't been home for more than two minutes this morning and school was phoning me to come back.  This wee guy had tripped and got a rather large bump on his head (plus grazed his knee and elbow).  The side on view is much more impressive but this was the better photo.  And because photo challenge day 19 is bokeh (that's those pretty blurred background lights) I made sure to get a bit of pretty bokeh into my shot.  The trick is to use the widest aperture you have (the smallest f number) and get some dappled light in the background.  Here's a few old photos as examples...

Christmas lights or street lights have the same effect too.

If you use a bokeh filter then you can have all sorts of fun!  It turns the lights into shapes.

 

  

And just in case you are under the illusion that all of my photos are easily obtained...

...they're not.

It doesn't look like winter does it?  It's the shortest day tomorrow and winter hasn't quite arrived.  I'm enjoying the mild weather and being able to have the windows open all day to let in the fresh air.  Having said that though, it's 7pm now and the heat pump is well and truly on.  Yay for heat pumps!

crafty

I've been all inspired to sew this week which has been awesome.  I spent a whole day with a lovely friend chatting and sewing while the kids were at school.  It was so nice and I've been feeling like making things ever since.

Yesterday B was away fishing all and the boys woke me up before five!  Not impressed at all.  Tried to go back to sleep but in the end we all got up around quarter to six!  We listened to the kids show on the radio and I sewed and made bread. I finally made a bread bag from the pretty tea towel Aunty Katie gave me for Christmas.  It was too nice to use, especially as we cook in cast iron a lot and it tends to blacken the tea towels.  I also made myself a wee felt needle book.  It's shockingly poorly sewn but still much cuter than the piece of plastic I've been using all these years.

day 19 - something orange (x2)

We don't have a lot of orange at our place, heaps of red, but orange and pink are lacking.  So I got out the finger puppets for a bit of colour. I'm still enjoying the photo challenge.  Last Sunday's "sunset" picture is the only one I've totally skipped.

day 18 - my shoes

wordless sunday

soccer

Yes he scored!  Several times that night.  I should have had my camera on continuous shooting mode.

this moment

{this moment} -  A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week.  A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Thanks SouleMama for the inspiration

day 17 - technology

day 16 - long exposure

Light sabers at night are cool!

day 14 - eyes

I know I've skipped a couple of images but they're here on the blog just not labelled as photo challenge shots.

day 15 - silhouette

this was hard!

day 13 - me and 13 things

day 8 - a bad habit

thursday in pictures

It was a double mohawk day today

I tried out some long exposures on the way to school. 

 Ate tuna, risotto and sprouted lentils for lunch, yummy!

Did a teeny bit more sewing. 

Spent far too long peeling pumpkin for this awesome Alison Holst soup. 

Not sure if I want to share it!

 And when the sun set we headed out for a bit of slow shutter photo challenge action.

 Spooky!