Halloween

L12 let me have great fun with his gore this year.

P9 was harder. She didn't want me to make her "a big crazy costume" so she decided to be a goth. Which meant buying a wig and some black pants it seems. We found these amazing eyelashes, but she found them so annoying they didn't even make it out of the house. Sigh. Children eh? Just don't know when to suffer for art. 

Geeky husband was a last minute attempt, but I made the wrong call usuing wax instead of latex, and while it started off great, it just didn't last the distance once he started talking. Next time, I'll just poison him with latex direct I think.

Ready to go.

I totally cheated and recycled the voodoo doll outfit from last year's 6K walk. 

 And some more close up gore on L12. . . you have been warned. . .

Pustulous arm gash with maggots.

 Peeling off hand with exposed tendons (or maybe they are bones, who knows?) and more maggots for good measure.

 This one survived really well and still looked like this at the end of a couple of hours walking the streets. The skin flap has to be my favourite effect ever.

Happy halloweeen!

Quiet Sunday

L12 is away at a sleepover, so we were a single child family for an afternoon. P9 certainly made it easy. First she helped by planting all the labour day tomatoes, and a pumpkin that she just couldn't resist. (Looking at this pic I realize we should perhaps have been cutting the lawn rather than planting, but growing is so much more rewarding than mowing.)

 When we got out of the garden, we found menus up around the house.

 So we proceeded to enjoy our starters, and leave her to it.

She's such an independent cook these days.

Since I'm totally over cooking, I really, really appreciate a night off.

MMmmm. . . best home made croutons ever. Better than the photo in the book I reckon.

Thanks P9!

Well Done L12!

Top of the school :) Proud mum brag. 

Neologism Of The Day

P9 eating lamb bones, that she referred to as 'chewy-gnawy'.

Chewy:

Nori:

School Show

One lighting boy.

 In pride of place just left of the stage.

 And one harem girl.

So proud of you both chaps.

More Playing With Resin

Fish egg pattern. Shinier in real life. I thought if I did a bunch of these they'd look interesting together.

I could be wrong.

Weekend Business

Basketball hoop finally up! Only took a year and a half ;-) L12 is just about too tall for it now.

 P9 cooking dinner for us from Clara's vegetarian cookbook.

My first attempt with resin to do something Kintsugi-ish. I transferred one of my Alice White paintings onto wax, then added the fissures and gold, and covered the whole thing in resin.

Next time I'm going to try to get the gold much smoother by using a different compound. I also learnt I didn't need to stress about getting the transfer clear (which made me destroy much of it) as the resin does that just fine.

Ten Times Louder And A Hundred Times Larger

Just Because

Sitting next to my lovely boy and had to take a pic of him.

 So he had to play with the long exposure and photobomb his own pic so it looks like a foot is coming out his head.

 Meanwhile P9 was wrapping up coconut ice she had made, and placing them in a basket.

Not sure why. Just because.

Back To School

The first day since June with Geeky Husband at work, and L&P back at school. What's a free woman to do with herself? I might have had a wee shop in the  midst of all that quiet time. I saw this months ago and there was just one left in the shop, clearly waiting for me. 

After school P9 and I had a library visit. I was hanging around waiting for her to get ready, and found her here:

 And now:

Thank goodness school is back to break up all that reading time.

Took My Children To The Zoo On The Last Day Of The Holidays

This is not a picture of them. This is a picture of some orangutans. I love orangutans. 

Stuff Of Nightmares!

Ok, I'm never ever going on one of these again. Last holidays L12 and I had to brace ourselves on one similar (but much higher) but we knew that we couldn't let fear rule our lives, and it was really perfectly safe, and less risky than crossing the road and all that jazz. . .

And then we see this.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/travel-troubles/72853652/lake-waikaremoana-tramping-bridge-collapse-video-emerges

Eeeeeeek! Yeah, nah. Never again.

I can't believe we watched that.

Blue Annie

I did some more work on Blue Annie. Oh she is so blue! Her hair is scratched to gold, but you can't quite see that here. I like the gold. She isn't finished though. I thought she needed some more detail, but now I think she needs some words. I don't really do words, so perhaps Aunty Izzie can give me some words for her? (Preferably in English, but I understand if that can't be done.)

She is a companion for Red Annie, who lives with AI in ChCh at present, so I might just have to repaint her, with the gold underneath this time.

 I like Red Annie more, but probably only because she isn't here.

Wintergarden Hugs

And some classiness.

Happy Things

 I mowed the lawn. Somehow this gives me a ridiculous sense of achievement, every. single. time.  It's made sweeter because I found a dusty thing that can reach this windowsill, so I can enjoy it from here without the view being sullied by fly corpses.

Coming in after mowing, I found P9 had made a cushion, and L12 had been helping her try to put  a button through the centre, when they lost the needle in the middle. L12 was busily unpicking so they could retrieve it and sew it back up.

Tween helping his sister sew? Priceless.

Spring Garden

I heart spring. Wandering around today - with a camera even! - my red sticky friend is all limey green and delicious now. (I'm almost looking forward to next winter already to see his gorgeous reds again.)

I didn't quite manage to kill my ginko biloba by moving him so much. Slow, but clearly alive! You can't rush these thing when you can live for a couple of thousand years.

New, rather tall, gleditsia. I have high hopes for her yellowy beauty.

 Speaking of which, my lemons are ridiculously perfect and abundant for quite a small tree.

The plane tree that was just a stick is quickly becoming more.

My swamp maple is frustratingly slow. 

But it is happening.

The alder trees are looking much happier after their soggy winter, constantly being dug around to fix drainage issues.

Another year and the poo house next door will be obliterated I reckon.

The overland flow is looking so much better now it's not just a muddy stream over grass.

Blossoms almost done on the nectarine tree.

But just starting on the baby plums. These look healthy, but really not much bigger than last year. How slow are plum trees to grow?