May the 4th be with you!

Happy International Star Wars Day to all!

Today I am proudly wearing my T-shirt like this . . .

(Available from Snorg Tees if you want your own!)
So have a great day, geek out and “Laugh it up, fuzzball!”

Geeky Art Projects . . .

I have added a couple of geeky artworks to the house recently, 

and have a longer-term project on the go too.

I bought a great 'Game of Thrones' print from Redbubble earlier in the year - 

it's the vow taken by new members of the Night's Watch.

It's by the artist mcgani , and I love it. I'm such a sucker for word art!

Anyway, it sat untouched for a month or so because it's 49cm x 52cm

and I just didn't have a frame that big.

Luckily for me, I found one, with glass, at Lifeline for $4. The colour was not great 

and it was a bit banged up, but it was big! The print fit nicely over the 

ugly picture that was already in the frame, leaving a crisp white border.

Some light sanding, a thin coat of watered-down chocolate-coloured craft paint and some

 double sided tape later. . .

Ta-da!

The other addition to the house is a frame of little gamer stickers for the boys' TV room

(where the X-Box and other such game nonsense lives). These are also from Redbubble.

It was a difficult project . . . not!

Step 1. Pick your favourite stickers from the website and order them while ordering T-shirts as gifts. 

Wait impatiently for the package to arrive from the States by snail mail.

Step 2. Find an unused  frame in your stash. Buy a piece of poster card that matches the 

TV room couch (navy).

Step 3. Cut the poster card to fit the fame. Play with the sticker arrangement on the card 

with helpful hints from sons 2 and 3.

Step 4. Carefully peel the stickers off their backing and attach them to the card in their final positions.

Step 5. Put the card into the frame and attach the mandatory (at our house) 3M picture hangers.

Step 6. Hang on TV room wall and smile each time you go past.

The final project I'm working on involves one of these . . .

But I'll show you that in a new post soon! Let's just say that I've taken the saying

 "If you can't beat them, join them" as my own.

P.S. "There is no place like 127.0.0.1."

We will remember them . . .

I have to admit, when my alarm went off in the dark at 4.40am this morning, I did think about 
how easy it would be just to turn it off and snuggle back into my cosy bed for a nice
 public holiday sleep-in. But a nagging voice in my head kept reminding me that in many places 
in the world there are, and have been through history, Australian Defence Force personnel 
getting up in the dark to undertake dangerous patrols or secret manoeuvres 
and face violent hostility, on my behalf. 
This selfless force included my grandfather, gone from us now for a year. 
Could I get my lazy bum out of bed and go to the ANZAC Day dawn service on a mild 
Queensland morning to say a quiet 'thank you'? Hell, yes. 

I was not alone . . .

There were so many people at this service that I had to stand with a crowd on the footpath 
outside the fence, behind the stage!

As the sun rises on a beautiful day in our lucky country, " lest we forget."

Happy Easter !

To all my friends and family, I wish you a happy day full of love and goodies! 

Hope you get the chance to spend the day with the people most important to you and

the time to reflect on just how lucky we are to be here right now.

P.S. Put “eat chocolate” at the top of your list of things to do today. That way, at least you’ll get one thing done.

Coming up fast . . .

The fact that Easter is at the end of March this year has really caught me 'on the hop ',
even though , as Wikipedia explains, it is a 'movable feast ' and can be anywhere from the
22nd of March to the 25th of April. I really should be more organised!

This weekend I have pulled out the egg tree I made a few years ago and also the garland
I made last year and created a couple of vignettes around the house.

You might notice my new additions for this year  . . . 

So very sweet.

I also made some printable tags to use on Easter gifts this year. I made 5 different colourways,
so that each gift would be individual. Feel free to use them for your own projects if you like.
 (I created them in the ' Ribbet ' photo editing program, in case you're wondering.) Just right-click
and save them to your computer for printing.

I used two of them for the primary school kids' teachers - one male and one female.
 I sorted through my scrapbbok paper to find something that matched well, in terms of
colour and simplicity. I chose a different stripe for each.

I mounted the paper tag on some plain white card (to create a border and make it stiff),
though if I'd had any large pieces of card I would have printed directly on to that.

I used small acrylic craft pails to make the gifts (I bought a whole stack of these on sale
ages ago, but you can get them from craft shops or online), with a strip of paper cut to
size to line the inside of pail.

Once the pails were filled with some eggs (mini candy-coated speckled ones in pastel colors
 for Mrs N and hazelnut praline chocolate ones for Mr M), I punched a matching scallop for
each and glued it to the lid.

The kids added their Easter wishes to the back of the tags and I attached them to the
 handle with some co-ordinating ribbon. All ready for Thursday.

Now I just need to get the rest of the things for family and friends ready . . .
6 days to go. Yikes!

P.S. "All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt." Charles M. Schulz

IWD 2013 . . .

                                                                                                        source
                    As we celebrate International Women's Day today ,

I thought these quotes were appropriate. . . 

"I measure the progress of a community by the 

degree of progress which women have achieved." 

B. R. Ambedkar, Indian jurist, political leader, 

philosopher, anthropologist.

"I've yet to be on a campus where most women 

weren't worrying about some aspect of combining 

marriage, children, and a career. I've yet to find 

one where many men were worrying about the same 

thing." Gloria Steinem, American feminist, 

journalist, and social and political activist  

“You educate a man; you educate a man. 

You educate a woman; you educate a generation.” 

Brigham Young (though I think he was a nutjob, 

still a great quote)

To think on, today and going forward . . .
“Above all, be the heroine of your life, not the victim.” 

Nora Ephron, journalist, essayist, playwright, screenwriter, 

novelist, producer and director.

"After all those years as a woman hearing 'not thin
enough, not pretty enough, not smart enough, not this
enough, not that enough,' almost overnight I woke up
one morning and thought, 'I'm enough.' " Anna Quindlen,
author, journalist, and opinion columnist.

And for a giggle . . .
"Women who seek to be equal with men lack ambition."
Timothy Leary, psychologist and writer.
"You see alot of smart guys with dumb women, but you
hardly ever see a smart woman with a dumb guy."
Erica Jong, author and teacher.
"I hate women because they always know where
things are." Voltaire, French Enlightenment writer,
historian and philosopher. 

 

 

No fuss Valentine's day . . .

We don't make a big deal about VD around our house - it's all gotten a bit commercial.
But with so many feebies / cheapies around the interweb, it would be a shame
 not to do something.
This year's effort involed my local Aldi supermarket, the computer and printer,
some cello bags, ribbon and a stapler.
A few weeks ago I bought 6 red chocolate roses and a bag of foil wrapped hearts
while grocery shopping.

Last night I made and printed out a card for my hubby, designed on GreetingBee.com.
Together with the roses tied with a red ribbon, they were his gift.

For the kids, I printed out some free bag toppers from Pepper Scraps , divided the
bag of hearts up into small cello bags and stapled the toppers on.

These went into thier school lunchboxes - to eat or share or give to a Valentine!
In return hubby made me a delicious fluffy cappucino and bought apple danish
for morning tea at work. I also got a single red rose, which was not made of
chocolate and smells lovely!
That's the sum total of VD in our house - simple and thoughtful.

P.S. " Sometimes the heart sees what is invisible to the eye. " H. Jackson Brown Jr.