And fun with my Gocco.  I finally got the courage to burn my first screen and did a print run with some artwork from Xanthe …

More info on Flickr, just click the photos.

If you’re pregnant, just recently had a baby, or know someone who has, you must check out the website.  Breastmates have everything you could possibly need from maternity lingerie, to breastfeeding clothes, to natural remedies.

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PS:  In order to get back some blogging mojo, I am going to try and commit to doing “short & sweet” posts, although still on a random ad-hoc basis, lol.

Xanthe came down with this condition the other week.  Gave me a helluva fright, when I checked on her on my way to bed.  Had to call the hubby in, who took these photos:

I give you the following evidence. Exhibit A, ink on finger tips:

Exhibit B, felts and pins on bedside table

It’s a fairly serious condition that can spread to the hands:

Funny thing was, the next morning Xavier was checking her out with a weird look on his face, seriously studying his sister up and down, and round and round.  Turns out she’d even decorated the soles of her feet. No photo of that though, so here’s another parting shot:

Had our first hard frost yesterday morning … car doors frozen shut. Needless to say, late to school. Well, actually, we arrived to school on time, but the kids wasted precious seconds eating ice of the car as we disembarked, that we walked into the classroom late.

Another frost this morning. Yay, the car doors were NOT frozen shut!!! But it took me a good ten minutes to scrap ice of the front window with my “spotlight” discount card. Yes, late to school again. Crap! I wanted to say “holy crap”, but didn’t think that would be in good form given Xanthe’s at a Catholic school.

Anway, saw this on Etsy:

And instantly thought of Hay! I mean seriously, check out her Flickr. Luckily, she counts me as a friend (thanks Hay), so I also get to see her hidden photos (very secret squirrel), and very oar-some awesome.

Credits: Photo courtesy of http://kaylah7@etsy.com

Right there in our vase of “nature” (sticks and pine-cones keep longer than fresh cut flowers, lol) …

So fun to make, cause it’s hand-stitched. No mucking around setting up the sewing machine on the kitchen table. If anyone wants to give it a go, here’s the tutorial at spool sewing: http://www.spoolsewing.com/blog/2008/05/16/bird-mobile/

He’s kinda lonely, so I’ve got another one cut, ready to stitch up.

Aside from that I’ve been making a few new pieces to send up to CraftWorld. Haven’t been able to photograph them all yet due to weather (snow flurries = poor lighting). But here’s a wee preview:

Although, I’m umming and arring about CraftWorld. It’s great not having to deal with sales and just concentrate on keeping my booth stocked (which I suck at). But it’s hard not being there to play around with how the stand is setup, and trying different ways of displaying stuff. Plus, the monthly rental and sales commission is a big overhead, which I starting to wish is money I could keep in my pocket. So I am thinking of stopping it for a bit.

Aside from that, as you may have noticed in my side bar, I’ve succumbed to the lure of etsy and opened up a store. I reserved my name two years ago, and finally decided to gave that a whirl.

And because I just can’t stop mucking around with website technologies, I’ve gone and upgraded my ChookMook website so it’s now sitting on the mighty fantastic Wordpress platform (boy, I lurve this blogging tool). I’ve created a new theme based off this one I’m using for Hot Strong Coffee, and modified it to work as a business website. All I need to do now is setup my content. Go check it out if you want.

www.chookmook.co.nz

So if anybody wants to breed their labradoodle or spoodle with Jack, and make cute and lovable little itty bitty fluffy labradoodles or labraspoodles, feel free to contact me …. he’s in some pretty bad debt at the moment, and he’s willing to “give it a shot”, lol. He also loves a good snowball fight, and he’s got a non-shedding fleece coat.

This photo is of our backyard from June last year. Hopefully it snows through the night and is still on the ground in the morning so we can play in it.

Happy Birthday to my beautiful Mama!!!

And Happy Birthday to my lovely Mother In Law who celebrated her birthday yesterday.