A taste of Spring

I realise that writing about the weather can be the equivalent of watching paint dry but I really do have to celebrate the delightful weather we have had for the last two days! After a winter that has been long, gloomy and icy, the last two days have felt like a harbinger of Spring. The sun has been out, the sky has been blue, and we have all been able to be outside with less layers of clothing on! I am considering getting the hammock out, thinking about finally planting my front garden, and imagining a camping trip to the coast. Of course, this is just a teaser – the real spring is still weeks away, but just a taste of it is so delightful it has to be celebrated!

The nest has been a busy place for the last few days. Last night I attended a Gala Ball connected to celebrations with the children’s school. This of course necessitated a trip to the hairdresser, during which the artist in residence (who has the straightest glossy hair) convinced the hairdresser to give her curls…. what a sight! Because I try to protect the chicks from full face photos on the web I won’t put up a shot tonight – but she loved it so much she has convinced me to buy a curling wand so that she can have curls again – so we will try for a shot of just the hair very soon!  (Nothing quite like an 8 year old who knows her own mind when it comes to fashion!)

The hairdresser did a great job with my hair – and even added a subtle touch of glitter as a giggle! I had my new dress, the obligatory high strappy shoes, and an extremely debonair partner in his bow tie and black suit. But do you think I managed to remember to get even one photo? Nope. So you will have to take my word for it that I looked glamorous! It was a lovely night with great friends, good music etc. My date coped very well with meeting a table full of strangers, and I had a number of compliments from friends about how handsome he is!!  Luckily several of them also noted that he seems to be a lovely person!

Before starting on the path to being glamorous, we had the children’s sport yesterday. All three chicks played really well in their games of rugby and hockey respectively, but I do need to share a photo of the middle chick being goalie in the hockey game. She is quite petite, so the shin pads covered her thighs! She managed to stop quite a few balls going into the goal, and enjoyed playing the position, so may do it again next week. If it keeps going I might need to look for a better fitting kit!

I have also had a lovely weekend with a couple of my items making the front page of the Etsy website.  I missed seeing the first one, which appeared in this treasury

Then the same pillowcase was on the front page again today

And then tonight one of my bags was on!

Then, while I was writing this post, that pillowcase popped up again on the front page!!

How have I managed to get such great coverage?  I am part of the Australian Wandarrah Team, a team on Etsy representing Australian sellers. One of the things that the team does is to take turns at promoting each other’s items.  We put together treasuries, featuring items from fellow team members’ shops, and comment and ‘favourite’ each others treasuries.  These treasuries are then available for selection for the front page.  It is a great way to get to see the talents of other artists, to support each other, and to have some fun.  So if you are an Etsy seller I encourage you to join an active team and form a network!  If you are not, I encourage you to look for items tagged as being from the Wandarrah Team when you are browsing Etsy, as there are a huge number of very talented Australian artists who belong to the team.

As for sewing?  Not a lot in the last few days.  I have spent most of today tackling some of the long term household tasks – sorting piles of paper into new piles, sorting toys into keeping and non-keeping piles, and doing the same with some bookshelves to make way for new books.  Not very exciting, but quite satisfying in it’s own way!  Once the house is a bit more tidy and organised I can return to sewing with gusto, knowing that I am sort of on top of things in the house!  And I do need to sew – I have a number of orders for superhero capes coming in – and so far the majority of them are for girls.  I am enjoying the continuation of that trend.

As for geocaching?  Not so good!  We picked one up on Wednesday night on the way home from school, then on Thursday and Friday completely forgot to do it!!  Although we discussed picking up some caches this weekend, we didn’t actually get to it…… so the drive of last weekend was a bit short-lived!  However, all is not lost.  The children have found a place that they think is appropriate to release a cache and are busy planning how we will do it.  They took the dog for a walk this afternoon and spent quite a bit of time scoping out their chosen site.  I am very impressed with their ideas!

The week ahead ‘should’ provide time for a bit of sewing.  I haven’t quite finished the quilt top, so want to get to that.  I also want to make a bag to donate to an annual function at my work where we raise money for Medecins san Frontieres.  And of course it is time to  look at costume repairs, one new costume, and any last minute changes before the big performance in a couple of weeks.  In the meantime I am off to continue tidying up this house while I am on a roll!

Wishing you a week of Spring weather and time to do things that are important to you!

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