a hatching toy platypus

Brianna got a hatching egg toy from Alysha for Christmas. Inside is a toy platypus. 


We put it in water on Christmas Day morning. It looks so cute today poking out from the egg.

What a great present - $10 from the Australian Geographic shop. There were also emus and frilled neck lizards as well as dinosaur ones. 

It's January in 4 days!

Four days to go until January. 2010 has been a good year and I am looking forward to the start of a new one. 


As I have mentioned on here previously I am taking part in an online writing project during January - my form of new years resolution I think. Here is part of an email I received from the project facilitator, Fiona Robyn:

"Hello – I’m taking part in a new project starting on January the 1^st and I thought you might like to join me.
In an attempt to pay more attention, I will be noticing one thing properly every day (a bird eating berries, a child playing in the street) and writing it down. People from across the world will be joining me and we’ll be creating a ‘river’ of these short pieces of writing.

You can write them down in a notebook or on a blog – and it doesn’t matter if you’ve done any writing before or not. The purpose of the project is to help us to pay attention, and to start the year as we mean to go on.

If you’d like to join us find out more at http://ariverofstones.blogspot.com or emailfiona@fionarobyn.com for more information."

It would be great if you could join in too!

I will be putting my writing for this project on my other blog, pausing to pick up small stones. Please take a look. I have already written a few. It's been fun to practice without the pressure of doing one each day. (It has ended up that I have added one each day though!)

I am looking forward to this project beginning in four days!

Wylde Women's Daily Wisdom in my inbox

I love getting a daily piece of wisdom in my inbox from Tammy Vitale. I recommend visiting her site and signing up!


Two days ago this piece seemed almost to leap out of the screen when I opened it - 

QUICK!

Who are you today?

Are you the same as yesterday?

Who Might you be tomorrow?

It reminded my of this piece of artwork I made last year

If I tell you who I am today, does that mean that you know who I am tomorrow?


One thing I love about this piece is that I finished it completely in a couple of hours. I often take my time developing ideas for my art and I think that is great most of the time. But I do love that this was a more spontaneous piece. I made it during a session of a group I attended. We were exploring the use (both positive and negative) of masks in our lives . 

Boxing day - a Zhu Zhu track, mini cupcakes and a hatching egg

I've had rather a busy morning. Brianna woke up quite early, eager to play with some of her newly acquired toys. She wanted a track, like her cousin has, for her two new Zhu Zhu pets to play in. Zhu Zhu pets are interactive toy pets, about the size of a guinea pig or hamster. What started as a simple track quickly became more complicated. I was enjoying the design process. We worked together, trying out different ideas, solving problems and wishing we had some masking tape in the house. The result is a great play area for the two Zhu Zhu pets, Shamrock and Harlow, including doorways, ramps and a roundabout. I knew there was a reason for the recent collecting of various sized boxes and toilet rolls! There will be further adjustments later (especially when we have masking tape) and we hope to paint it too. For now, though, it should provide lots of fun. As Brianna said, 'It's fun to watch them.'

bird's eye view of the track

and from the front

Shamrock goes through a doorway

and around the roundabout!

Harlow pushes the door at the end of the tunnel

Harlow going through a doorway - that christmas decoration box came in handy

After the track designing we moved onto some mini cupcake making and trying out Brianna's new 'Fantastic Cupcake Maker'. We made some fantastic chocolate mini cupcakes.

We checked, too, on the expanding egg toy Brianna got for Christmas from Alysha. The egg is placed in water and in a day or so a toy platypus will 'hatch'. It's starting to crack a little this morning. 

snacks and a note for Santa

Brianna left these snacks and note out for Santa last night. She used Google to find out the names of the reindeer.

about two small stones

I have just posted two more small stones on my blog pausing to pick up small stones. I am participating in a river of stones during January and will post a small stone each day. I think that sometimes I will want to write a little more about the small stones and I will probably want to reflect upon my participation in the project. I will do that on this blog and keep pausing to pick up small stones for the storage of the small stones. 


Today I posted these two small stones:


breathe in 
wafting hopes 
and expand


   ---


dip into your past
splash around
dry off
and return


   ---


I wrote both of them a couple of days ago, so I am cheating a little. In January I plan that each stone I write will be posted on the day I write it. That, I think, I am going to find very challenging. I often like to sit with my writing for a while before sharing it, so writing and posting one a day is definitely going to be stepping outside of my comfort zone. I don't consider what I will post to be fabulous, finished writing but more of creative exercise that I am willing to share. I am hopeful of discovering some real gems though!


The second stone here came about when I was thinking about my new blog Silent Sometimes. I enjoy reflecting on the past without getting stuck there which is why I set up the new blog to reflect on some of my past experience and to keep this blog more in the present.


And one last thing to say right now...Happy Christmas eve!

My poems won't stand still

written yesterday/today

My poems won't stand still

I want my poems neat and tidy

Filed away

Together in a book

with dates as to when they appeared

My poems don't agree

They keep moving 

Shuffling words around

Sometimes whole lines go away

Invite other words to play

Joining together

Splitting apart

They just won't stay still

Some try to hide

Others scramble to be seen

My poems won't stand still

The December garden update

This free collage customized with Smilebox

Here are the December garden photos thanks to the fun that is Smilebox. There are tomatoes galore in the garden at the moment! The chilli pepper plant in the photo looks quite thirsty. It seems to be feeling better today thanks to some water, as well as the tomato plant next to it being tied to a stake. The celery seedling is still alive but hasn't grown much whereas the pumpkin (from the compost) has. And the most exciting news - there are baby worms in the worm farm! 

Also, thanks to advice from my dad I have removed the poisonous plant growing - Deadly Nightshade. 

This morning I've removed all of the Silverbeet which went to seed and now have a garden bed ready for some more planting. Hmmm, what to plant?

introducing... two new blogs

I have been blogging for a few months now. I was unsure exactly how this blog would turn out and decided to just start anyway. For a while I have been pondering the purpose of this blog and the direction it is taking. Should I keep everything I am blogging about together or divide it into categories or different blogs? Should I have a blog just for gardening, just for writing, etc. I'm still pondering much of this!


When I began blogging my major goal was to share some of my art/writing more than I was. That has certainly happened. Another of my major plans was to provide information about Selective Mutism and to write about how my experiences of struggles around talking have affected me. This is something I am still passionate about and I have quite a lot of writing from the past few years that I would still like to share. It seems, however, that this blog is taking a different path. This blog is more about how my life is now rather than how things were in the past. I would really like this to remain the case.


In order to share my experiences and insights around Selective Mutism I have started another blog called Silent Sometimes. Feel free to visit!


Recently too I signed up to participate in the International small stones writing project. I hope to write a small stone ("a very short piece of writing that precisely captures a fully-engaged moment" - Fiona Robyn) each day in January and have started another blog to store the stones. Feel free to visit pausing to pick up small stones. 

Reindeer cooking fun

biscuits made by Brianna

Last Sunday was craft day. Today was cooking day with Mel, Lou, Kate, Berto, Teya, Alysha and Brianna. The theme of this Christmas seems to be reindeers (more specifically - Rudolph). 

I also made these little puddings - a marshmallow covered in chocolate and placed in a tiny patty pan. 

Kate decorated these biscuits - gorgeous!

and thankyou to Mel for the cute little packages containing everything I need to make some more felt reindeer.