Weaving Project

So I have been rather busy lately helping my oldest to plan and execute her project/competition that she is taking part in. The theme for this is making a bridal gown out of what would normally be considered waste or junk materials. We really had to think about how we could take plastic bags and create something hopefully stunning with it. We came across a tutorial on how to take plastic shopping bags and weave them into material. So this is the plan we have started with...

We started with some heavy duty plastic shopping bags. These we cut up in a special way so that we ended up with one long piece of plastic string or yarn.


Then we took this heavy duty yarn and put it onto our weaving frame...


Then we took some left over lavender coloured bags hanging around the cupboards and cut them in a similiar manner. These we are using to make the bulk of the material with...


Here s what the lavendar bags look like once we started weaving them onto the other strips...


Will post an update soon.... :)

Claudia Cox Find Your Way to me home video.wmv

First attempt at sharing a youtube video...
Just have to share this awesome song! Can't listen to this song enough right now

Happy Buddha

I created a few customised backgrounds for my PC the other day. So i thought i would share a few with anyone that may be reading.

I just love this buddha picture.. he looks sooo happy!

Not waving but drowning...

I have always loved this poem and have it jotted down in several of my journals along with appropriate doodles along the sides...

Not waving But Drowning - by Stevie Smith

Nobody heard him, the dead man,
But still he lay moaning:
I was much further out than you thought
And not waving but drowning.

Poor chap, he always loved larking
And now he's dad
It must have been too cold for him
his heart gave way,
They said.

Oh, no no no, it was too cold always
(Still the dead one lay moaning)
I was much too far out all my life
And not waving but drowning.

This leaves much to ponder and wonder. What does it mean to you?

For me it seems a perfect description for the dark times in my life. those times when i feel like everything is totally overwhelming. Of course everyone gets times like that, but how many would be brave enough to admit when and to what extent it effects them. Society seems to have us so well programmed that we keep this dark side of us well covered. Is it not time to look within the darkness and see the treasures that lie there. Feeling down can have it's advantages too. We only need to seek within the dark for the gold hidden there :)

And so it begins...

So i have decided to once again try to blog and this time to get through more than one or two pathetic posts. I figured the only way to keep myself interested in it would be to blog about things that i enjoy doing and thing that i am doing often. So that narrows it down a little but still gives a lot of scope for possibilities too.

What am i doing... well at the moment alot of my time is taking up with homeschooling my three munchkins. At first it was a really daunting experience but now that the first few hurdles of organisation are tacked, I am actually starting to enjoy it. I am also learning alot in the process. I love the fact that we can discover so much more than what is just in the syllabus/curriculum. If we are discussing endangered species and look at the Baobab tree, we can go further into the subject and look up some history and myths regarding the trees. It makes for a much more interesting day altogether.

Little one (and that would be the youngest - she is almost 5 years old now) loves to colour and practise her writing. Some days she wants to do "school work". Other days she just wants to run around playing crazy. One thing that i have don loads of searching for is FLASH CARDS and little lesson plans that can be used for her. There are loads of things out there on the internet to be downloaded. But not all of it is going to work for us. There are certain things that i would prefer to do in certain ways. So this is were my other talent comes in. Designing... so i have started with planning in my head of making up lesson plans etc for her. So i figured i may as well share these on here in the hope that it may help others too.

First thing i have put together is a little poster that will sit on our notice board...