Summer To-do List

Since this year’s summer holidays are going to be the longest one yet at more than 2 months long, rather than spending it on the internet(ok, I’ll be doing that anyway) I want to be productive while still having a holiday at home. And being the list-lover that I am I just had to compile a checklist of all the things I wanted to accomplish over Summer. Hopefully I can cross at least one thing off my list each week.

Sew a piece of clothing

Learn to touch type

Read Cloudstreet by Tim Winton

Read Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey

Re-learn the piano

Crochet a heart garland

Make Christmas tree earrings

Write a song

Write an essay

Read the first Harry Potter book

Finish my travel journal for when I visited China

Complete a puzzle

Write an article For Snippets

Print all the photos on my computer

Hopefully I can cross at least one thing off my list each week and I shall let you all know of my progress. I will most likely add to the list as well. Ok, I’m off to read Jasper Jones in preparation for my English literature class in ’10.

Anyone else with end of year plans?

P.S. A big thankyou to Seli for awarding me the Awesome Blogger award, it is highly appreciated!

Hiatus

The blog shall be on a short hiatus over the next week or so due to a lot of the following. I'm literally counting down the days till my exams are over.



I've added labels(or tags as some people call them) to my all my posts and a little cloud of the labels at the bottom down the left hand side of my blog so you can easily look through certain sub-topics. I've also changed the 'top five blogs I ♥' so make sure to check them out, there's an interesting mix(Not that the previous blogs are any less interesting though).

In other blog news I've received the following blog award from Janice



Three(!) bloggers awarded me this one. (Toongen, BB & Cat)



And this lovely one was from Blaize



Thanks guys! I'm going to be a bit of a rebel and break the rules, I won't be filling out the 7 things about myself and I'm not going to be sending the awards out to 7 people. Instead I shall award the Kreativ Blogger award to one blog(as I believe awards are very special and should be handed out sparingly) and that is Kerri & Eva!

Quick Bento before I leave you all: chicken, avocado, cucumber and snow pea sprouts on cape seed bread with a couple of cherry tomatoes on the side. All in a collapsible sandwich bento box, which has vents out the sides so that your sandwich doesn't go all soggy.



:)

Un-Christmas Christmas cards

School broke up really early this year due to the exams but I didn't want to abandon my yearly tradition of giving out Christmas cards and a little extra gift to go with it. As per usual of me I left it to the last minute but I did have some idea of what I wanted to do. I wanted the cards to be eco friendly and made out of recycled newspaper. I realised though I couldn't just make them out of newspaper otherwise they'd be much too flimsy. So instead I mounted pictures from a festival guide on the back of cardboard shoeboxes and cut out a bauble shape in the corners of the card, to detract slightly from the text/images on the newspaper.

The cards were still a bit plain and not hugely Christmas-y so a bit of gold and white paint sparingly swiped along the edges made them more to my liking.





Then to finish them off I wrote the greeting and inner message in some calligraphy-style felt pens that I nabbed off my mother(which was NOT easy can I tell you).





My cards weren't largely Christmas themed but since I handed them out so early, not even in December I think that suited well plus my friends enjoyed the quirkiness of them(I hope!). I'm attempting to make this an eco Christmas and I'd say it's going well so far; handmade cards out of newspaper and cardboard and may I add that I even picked out all of the tiny little paper scraps from the mess I produced and put them in the recycling bin.

The little gift I added were these handmade friendship bracelets/anklets that I found in this new little boutique in my local shopping centre, Tree Of Life. I'd previously seen their products advertised in magazines so it's great to be able to finally buy them. They sell all these beautiful home wares made in India. They also sell all these beautiful handmade dresses in to-die-for fabrics. I'll show you a picture later of the one I bought. I'm really glad they're adding great little shops like it to shopping centres, I am so sick of all these rubbishy chain stores that essentially sell the same things year and year out.

I shall hopefully have a tutorial for the cards posted up closer to Christmas on the Cut Out & Keep crafting site.

Happy November!

There weather is definitely heating up over here but all the flowers in our garden have started to come out including these lovely little blue ones(no idea what they're called). Unfortunately for some that means hay fever season but luckily for me my immune system is like a brick wall, nothing can hurt me.

2009 seems to have flown by! And Christmas is right round the corner, I'll really be able to enjoy it this year as school will be finished by November 25th for me so I'll have all of December ot really embrace and enjoy the season.

Thought I'd get a new desktop background to celebrate the new month, a cheeky little blythe doll to keep watch over me.



I was in the mood for baking the other day so I decided to make some wholemeal fruit scones. They tasted much better than any of the ones you find in the bakeries or cafes, plain white flour ones that are just really stodgy and not particularly good for you. Mine had a lovely crunch on the outside and a real 'homey' taste to them plus they're healthy too with hardly any butter or sugar.



Have a lovely November all!