Homemade Jewellery

Ever find it difficult to find jewellery that matches your special dress or earrings that match the colour of your blouse exactly? Well, I have that probelm no more because I have discovered the wonders of homemade jewellery!!

You don't need very much to craft your own beautiful pieces. I picked up all my essentials at a local store called 'vintage jewels.' I needed head pins (straight pins with a small flat end), ear wires (where the bead hangs from), beads, a wire cutter and a pliers.

First I chose the beads for my earrings. These ranged from expensive, top-quality gems to cheaper beautiful beads. I placed the beads onto the head pin. I continued adding beads until the desired earring length. I cut the wire after I had reached the desired style and length. Then I cut off the extra wire, leaving enough to curl around a couple of times. I used the pliers to twist the straight wire into a small circle. And voila!!

Now to find an excuse to wear them. Anyone for dinner?!

Homeschooling Fun!

I love homeschooling my children! Every day they learn things that they would never have been taught in a state school. Take some highlights from this week for example. On Sunday my husbands brother, who is a Pastor and lives about an hour from our house, came to stay with us and we had a wonderful day together reading from the bible and discussing ideas such as the importance of valuing yourself before you can value and respect others. On Monday we read from Jane Austin's Pride and Prejudice and had a group discussion on the themes in the book. On Tuesday, we devised our own recipe for brown bread, packed with walnuts, bran, and almonds. And finally today, my husband took part in the learning process. A colleague at his work, whose family come from Russia, told him about a diamond mine outside the Russian town of Mirna. What he said sounded incredible, so we researched it more on the internet with our children. I though I'd share the unbelievable facts about this place with all of you too!

The Mirna diamond mine is located in northeastern Russia. The Mirna Diamond Mine is the deepest open pit diamond mine and one of the deepest open pit mines in the world at nearly 2000 feet. It takes approximately 2 hours for an ore truck to drive from the bottom of the mine to the upper rim.

Difficult to get your head around the scale of this thing, isn't it?! I love how homeschooling teaches me, as well as my children, lots of new and exciting things!

Sunday Giggle!

Thank you to Polly for sending this bit of humour on to me today. I hope you are all having a lovely weekend and that you laugh at this as much as I did!

The Two Choices in Life:

Life essentially boils down to two choices.

1. Get a dog....

2. Have children....

Haha! Oh how I have had so many experiences that come very close to what is pictured in these photographs!

Valentine's Day

I know Valentines Day is often disregarded as an overly commercialised holiday, but if you really look at the hidden message amongst all the Hallmark cards and big fluffy toys, it can be something really special. There is alot to be said for being reminded to tell those you love exactly how you feel about them!

Our local Feminine Womanhood society holds a valentines tea party every year and this year it was my turn to host it. I spent the whole day before Valentines Day preparing for the party but I think my work paid off!

First, I covered the back of the chairs with vintage cloth, then light pink tulle, and tied a beautiful handmade name tag on each one. With my children, we cut out lots of paper hearts and sprinkled them over the table.

These are the chocolate cupcakes with vanilla icing that I made and served on this vintage tray.

And above are similar cupcakes but without the chocolate. Also in the picture, you can see that I provided pink lemonade for those who do not drink tea. I tried to stick as much as possible to a pink theme!

These are cookies my good friend, Charlene, made. She made 85, every one being different. You can see, surrounding them, I put beautiful tea tins. And in the tea pots I put hot water, giving my guest a variety of teas to choose from. Also in this picture you can see how I placed an antique hat on every teacup, so when my guests arrived, they could mix and match their hats with their outfits.

It was really a wonderful afternoon with tea, cakes and reading. And I am so lucky to have four little helpers who were so good for Mama when it came to tidying up after everyone had left!

Busy, busy, busy!

Hello everyone!

Sorry I haven't been blogging in a while. Things have been so busy recently. I don't know if I can even remember what I've been doing because it's pretty much just been the normal day-to-day stuff: looking after the kids, schooling the kids, cleaning, cooking, washing clothes etc etc! Sigh! My good friend Martha is coming over to visit tomorrow with her husband, however, and she really wants to cook dinner so I won't be saying no! I think I have most things in order around the house now!

Anyway, my main reason for blogging today was for something else. On Saturday, my eldest son went to play in a dear friend Jack's house. In the afternoon Jack's mom rang me to ask if it would be ok for the two boys to go to visit Jacks cousin who lives nearby. I have never met this cousin but I trust Jacks Mom and agreed to it. To cut a long story short, my son came home that evening asking me I had ever wondered if I was gay?! Obviously I was horrified by this question so I asked him why he was wondering such things. He said that Jack's cousin's father had a discussion with all of them while they were in the house and told them that now (ie. between 10 and 14 years of age) is the time to consider whether you are straight or gay and that if you think you may be gay that you should explore it further!! What was this man thinking?!!

I have discussed the issue with my husband and we have agreed to call over to this father at the weekend to let him know how angry we feel about the situation. Jack's mom was also horrified and she will be calling over with us. We have since sat our older children down and discussed with them that being gay is not the Lords way and that as long as they follow the path that the Lord has set out for them, then they will find eternal happiness. I will let you know how the meeting at the weekend goes!

I ask Him to give me the strength to deal with problems that arise for parents!

Fun with lipstick!

I don't know how they do it, but I leave the room for literally two minutes and K has managed to find a lipstick I didn't know I still had! And the evidence of how much fun she had with it was all over her face when I came back into the room! It did turn out to be an expensive lipstick I got as a present a few years ago but all I could do was laugh when I saw this cute little face!!

We had a very lovely Christmas. We had dinner in our own home and then went to visit both my parents and my DH's parents the next day. My DH just went back to work on Monday so things are finally back into a routine again. I've spent the last few days steam cleaning all our carpets using a steam cleaner that we've hired for the week. Our next project is to repaint our living room. At the moment it's a rather dull cream colour. I'm very fond of using lots of colour in my rooms so would like to find a more exciting colour for the living room.

It's great to be back blogging in the new year. Hope 2008 finds you all well!

Happy New Year!

Wishing all my blog readers and friends all the best for 2008. We had such an enjoyable and peaceful Christmas at home here and I will be sharing some memories with you all soon!