the time is almost 9pm here in New Zealand on Sunday 31 January and its sticky hot with 100% humidity, I have had a busy weekend so I have retreated to my boudoir so to speak with my laptop, book, cup of tea, bottle of water, cellphone.....
my very best friend Mary Thistle visited yesterday bearing gifts of produce from her garden, lemons from her tree, fresh eggs from her chickens and a pack of farm raised steak!!!
because I had whined about sleeping poorly due to mosquito's buzzing around my head she bought me this zapper!!!! Mary I love you!!!
The Princess is away at the beach house with the Wasband so I have made good use of the time and cleaned up a storm.... I am ashamed to say that this house was not very pretty around the edges!
I wasn't very pretty around the edges either by the end of it so ran myself a bath with yummy bath salts, slapped a mud pack on my face and had a lovely long soak while reading my magazine.....
before slipping into a cool white cotton vintage styled nightgown ...
As you know I am about to start a 3 year degree at University to train to become a teacher so obviously I have a passion for the education of children.
I am always on the look out for innovative resources for the Princess and I to do at home which is why I can't speak highly enough about Wordtoons as a fun and educational resource.
It is also proving to be a great tool for children with learning difficulties/disabilities or just a general lack of interest in learning to read, write and spell!
If you care about the education of your children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, friends children then just spend a few minutes watching the Wordtoons video clip and reading the amazing reviews Wordtoons is receiving from homeschooling Americanmums!!
WORDTOONS REVIEWS
Sarah says: My child with Autism is finally making connections that we have being working for months on. His vocabulary has exploded!
Pamela says: WOW, my six year ADHD child has finally learned how to know words. This is the greatest thing ever. It has helped me tremendously to help her to understand what a word is. She has blossomed greatly!! She is now getting 100% on her spelling words and letting every one know it to. Thank you.
Mandi says: We are a homeschooling family and enjoy any teaching tools that bring the joy of learning into our home. The first day I wrote the word dog on the marker board my children looked at me puzzled and wondered why I was so excited for them to learn the word dog that day. Now they beg for more words to learn, of course only the words that include creating it into what the actual word is.
I’ve told many homeschooling families about this wonderful ebook. To me it’s an amazing way to teach!
Jackie says: Great idea and even greater effect on the kiddos! This is a super way to get kids to learn spelling words, especially visual learners or kids with dyslexia, like my daughter. I can see Wordtoons being used in Rebus stories very easily. Wordtoons are a great springboard for story writing. Thanks for your wonderful product!
Renita says:
I am awed by your creativity. This is a great book perfect addition to any homeschool curriculum, or just for fun.
This is such a simple yet inspiring idea that my boys ages 9 and 12 absolutely love. My oldest has had some difficulties with holding pencils and not drawing due to brain damage caused by vaccinations. He has only recently started to try to color and draw again after 6 years of struggling and giving up on art.
I gave him access to this cool e-book as part of our homeschool art project, and it has set alight a fire under him. He is drawing like crazy, filling up pages and pages and having so much fun.
I am recommending this to my sister and daughter, who home schools, and all our friends.
This a such fun book for everyone, not only kids but adults too. I love it.
(click on the image to go to website)
of course this is blatant advertising but I am so excited about Wordtoons that I felt the need to do a entire post about it!
thanks:)
take care Rachaelxo
p.s. I am not getting paid for promoting Wordtoons!
p.p.s. Wordtoons creator is the man I having been seeing for a while, he cooks me nice dinners and breakfasts so maybe I do get paid!
p.p.p.s I am busy selling my stash of vintage linens on Trade Me
p.p.p.p.s my fingers are itching, I am going to start sewing some delicious creations very soon!
I found out that I start University on 10th Feb rather than the end of Feb as I have to do a prelim maths course! This has put a bit of pressure on me as the Princess doesn't start school until 5 Feb!
I was banking on having most of Feb to myself so that I could get a whole lot of stuff sorted out, set up and done before I got full on into study life!
Oh well, l nothing like a bit of pressure!
It would be nice if the house sold soon, emotionally I have already moved on from this house and can't wait to have a new one to play in!
Its hard to stay motivated and fluff with this house but I did put this little stool in the family bathroom with some pretties on it the other day.
our visitors have all gone, tonight its just the Princess and I, home alone... lovely!
the Princess has her ears pierced, it was a family event, the wasband, my god-daughter, my god-daughters cousin and the Princess's wee friend all attended the event! She was so brave, not a tear shed!!
my plan to live to 100+ is going well, obviously as I am still posting - haha!!!
I know I keep harping on about my friends wordtoonsbut really worth a look, go check out the reviews he's getting from home school Mum's who have trialled it!
Its been lovely here, I have had my almost 18 year old god daughter to stay and her 16 year old cousin as well as the Princess's little friend who we have had staying since Saturday.
I took the girls shopping today, well the big girls shopped while the little girls had decadent chocolate milk shakes from Wendy's!
The little girls insisted on sitting in every ride on toy and having a photo with the big girls! My god daughter is the blond one and her cousin is my namesake.
and its hot, hot, hot, the little girls are in and out of the pool several times a day!
too cold for me yet, I just dangle my feet in it to cool down!
The Princess has some very dear little friends. One of these little friends is at our house a lot and such a brave little girl, she stays for sleepovers quite often.
Last night we went to my Mum's for dinner. The grand kids and their friends always get 'cocktails' at Nana's, fizzy drink, umbrella's and they choose their own swizzle stick!!!
Look at these posers, shades of things to come.....
This morning they got up bright and early, went for a walk round the corner to Nana's, probably hoping for a breakfast 'cocktail' and then back home for a swim in the leaking pool!
Do not be fooled into thinking this is a happy picture, the Princess is about to have a meltdown because her friend splashed her (accidentally)!!!
Meltdowns are what happens in this house when little girls don't go to sleep until 11pm because they are chatting!!!
It was a busy Sunday, I showed 3 lots of people through both my home and the grandmothers across the road....... fingers crossed for a house sale or two!!!
take care Rachaelxo
p.s. every time I eat at my Mum's I manage to break something and have to get the vacuum cleaner out - last night was no exception, she is now down one glass and two little spoons from a cruet set she brought back from Armenia. Sorry Mummy!!!
I watched this Dan Buettner link a friend told me about and it makes so much sense and nothing difficult about it, no extreme diets, supplements, exercise programmes, just good old common sense really......
So following my new common sense lifestyle I cleaned my fridge to an inch of its life and filled it with colorful fresh foods (I also cleaned behind it but we won't go there, lets just say EEEKKKK!)
for dinner last night I made Sushi, my brother and sister in law gave me a sushi maker for Christmas so made it so much easier than rolling with a mat.
all I need now is a good sharp knife to cut it properly!
I plan on looking real good when I am 100+ so I bought myself exfoliating gloves, a pumice and an emery board, of course that's just the tip of what I need - lol
got to go, am about to clean my outside windows, its part of living to 100+ ya know!
Jenn left a comment that reminded me of a little story about my blog banner. I have told it before on here but there is now a twist to it....
to cut a long story short... I bought the print in a thrift store (Op Shop) in Coburg, Melbourne about 5 years ago for $35Aus.
Couldn't afford it at the time but just had to have it. Was living there with my best friend Mary Thistle as I had left the Wasband after finding out about his first affair (tedious I know!!)
anyway, aside from falling in love with the beauty of the print, it spoke to me, it represented peace, tranquility, innocence, love, beauty in life... a whole lot of things I was having trouble believing in at that time in my life.
I used to have it displayed in my shop, a customer once offered me a $1000 for it and I declined!
Just before Christmas I was doing one of my periodic searches on the artist A.Collino when I found a print smilier to mine on EBay Australia. The opening bid was $10,000 or you could buy it for $20,000!!!! I kid you not!!!
I made the mistake of telling my family about it over Christmas, "SELL" was the unanimous opinion, "NOPE" said I....... it means more to me that $20,000!!!
Somethings are priceless!
On a smaller scale, I spent $16 today on 8 plants to pretty up my front gardens, street appeal for the potential buyers!
They just need to grow.
and another chore got crossed off the very long "To Do" list, tidying up the laundry area.
Before.... After....
if I was staying in this house I would have prettied it up with baskets, old linens etc but I'm not so.....
a little lavender and the Rosemary heart is my lot. My youngest brother and I picked the Rosemary from my Mum's garden the night after our Granny's funeral 3 years ago and wove it around the heart to symbolise 'remembrance'!
and some random bits and pieces...
I was woken this morning at the crack of dawn by a demented old women (my Mum) yelling out "you hoo........time for a walk, you need it for your health and fitness, you will love it" She always says "you will love it" when it is something you are going to dislike, maybe even hate! Anyway got her back, made her walk up a big grassy hill... ha ha.
I am desperate for chocolate right now, might have to walk to the supermarket...very rarely do I crave chocolate but right now I am!
Sorry lovestitches, I can't even hand wash Melanie, her skin is so very thin..... and Ele believe me you would not want to see her naked body!
did you know that watching TV reduces your life span by at least 46%, even 1 hour a day of sitting watching TV is bad for you. Blocked arteries, diabetes etc. Imagine what reading a book or sleeping for 8 hours could do.....(was on the news tonight!)
so if I don't post ever again, it will be all that unhealthy sleeping, flat on my back, that has caused my untimely departure from this blog.....
its been lovely....
take care Rachaelxo
p.s
Mel, they do have such interesting lives, the taxi is priceless! or pricey!!!
Melanie's worst to date was sailing through the air and landing head first into the toilet, I laughed till I cried, the Princess just cried and Daddy had to retrieve Melanie and console the hysterical child!!!
yesterday's funtivity was "crafting". I decided to teach her to use my sewing machine (in a very basic way!)!
Material was chosen and a pattern cut to make her doll Melanie a 'summer' dress and a 'winter' dress.
It would be a little makeover for Melanie, who frankly needs more than a couple of new dresses as you will soon see!
Using the machine, testing out all the different stitches!!!
Melanie's 'summer' dress, I admit to doing most of the sewing but her idea for a flower, pockets etc! and Melanie, modelling her 'winter' dress!
and yes she is absolutely filthy but I dare not wash her, I don't think she would survive it!
and here is Melanie and her sister called "Melanie"! Almost 7 years ago Melanie looked exactly like her sister!!! lol
but we love Melanie as she is today, for all her dirt, leprosy, alopecia and other ailments like one leg longer than the other (thanks Taila) !!!
you see I bought Melanie, a Russ doll, to put in my 4 day old baby's bassinet, the first time we were taken to see her. For those of you that don't know, we were blessed to adopt the Princess. Of all the soft toys that shared her bassinet and later her cot she attached herself to Melanie.
Hence Melanie's loved look. She still sleeps with Melanie, looks for in her the middle of the night while still asleep, wants Melanie when she is upset and after God, loves Melanie next! Daddy and I rank 3 in the love ratings!!! lol
She's now having another beach holiday with her Daddy, their funtivity today is to write a very silly story, each having a turn to do a sentence! Will make for interesting reading!!!
in our case that was a walk to Bunnings (hardware/handyman) store to buy a watering can, the Princess needed her own...of course, a fixit thingy for the carpet and some fixit liquid stuff for the walls......
pretty WILD aye!!!
all go, tied in with the funtivity of the day which was to go for a walk!
so we did, the three of us, yep that's right, the Princess, her father 'the wasband' and myself....
after a brunch of pancakes and banana smoothies
the talented Karla Nathan did this caricature of the Princess a few years ago, I think she captured the delicate fairy features she has beautifully.
tomorrow the Princess goes away with her Daddy for about 7 days:(
I start back at work, that is my own self employed work of selling stuff and thingy's!!!
should never be split on the kitchen floor.....especially a tiled kitchen floor because they are not called 100's and 1000's for nothing....
what's more is those little suckers take flight with the air from the vacuum cleaner and travel long distances......
the cat refused her dry food and it was so pretty with all the sprinkles, as was her water.....
funtivity of the day was to 'visit Amah and have a lolly!'. Amah lives across the road and is the Wasbands grandmother, therefore the Princess's great grandmother.
it rained today so we started a jigsaw puzzle, 1000 pieces (yep that's today's lucky number!) of a Victorian house with dark trees....
no photos, lost the plot
take care Rachaelxo
p.s but hey, I am blogging daily, now that's what I call a small miracle!
the Princess & I have a new thing we do called 'funtivities'.
I wrote out a whole lot of cards, each one has a different activity to do and she gets to choose one daily (in lucky dip fashion) during the school holidays.
Today's was bake a cake or cookies. She chose a recipe from a cooking set she got for Christmas.
We were making these cookies....
this is what we ended up with!!! lol
dodgy recipe, well that's my story anyway.
No truly it was, strange quantities of dry ingredients against wet ingredients!
They tasted dodgy as well so we binned them and will make some tomorrow from MY trusty cookie recipe!!!
We did go out for dinner tonight though, the Princess ordered a banana sundae for dessert, 20 minutes later they came and told us they had run out of banana's. I suggested they ran around the corner to the local supermarket and bought some.... which is what they did!!!! lol
about eight hours of which were spent fixing a heinous virus on the Wasbands grandmothers computer,
not all bad though, we did go to the Tea House at the Buddhist Temple for lunch.... yum!!!
And then I did a little dusting and polishing and fly spraying in the grown up living room. I say fly spraying because I picked up the wrong can and polished a table with it!!!
Oh well, at least that table will be fly free!
I also spend a considerable amount of time, puffing and panting, trying to move the piano by myself to retrieve my lovely picture that had fallen down behind it!
and cut what the wind hadn't destroyed of my Iceberg roses, not many as you can see!
off to a good start here, my daily blogging for January - lol!!
today the Princess & I put away Christmas 2009, it wasn't an easy run, I managed to horrifically tangle 3 sets of Christmas lights, bit like my tangled web of a life really!!!
Anyway, I was about to take to them with the scissors when I remembered that Babes, whose name I must change (suggestions welcome!) Mum was staying at the Grandmothers across the road so a little phone call & the Christmas lights were saved!!!
the Princess & I built very cheesy cheesy pizzas for her dinner tonight. She is very into 'helping' at the moment, long may it last!
A good day, also cleaned out the Princess's drawers & closet, 2 years of clothes to sell!! And she still has plenty to wear!!
The family - 3 grandmothers & Babes had dinner here tonight also, its still the festive season at my house!
One of my resolutions this year should be to surely improve my time keeping skills!!!
Anyway, I hope you all had a fabulous Christmas (I did!) and a really happy New Years Eve (I did!) !!!
My only real resolution for 2010 is to have a fantastic and fabulous year!!! And I am GOING TO!!!
Leading up to Christmas I made nine bags, 5 of the kind I showed you in my last post and 4 of these delicious (if I do say so!) doily bags for the ladies in the family.
Today I am reunited with the Princess, Babes (who I need to find a new name for!) took her away on holiday to his Dads beach house on Boxing Dad. Oh my goodness, I missed her so much.
I can't stop kissing and hugging her today, I am just so happy to see her!
I also went away on Boxing Day to house sit for my brother and sister in law. Their beautiful home overlooks a bay and has a path down to the beach. It has a wonderful big deck and a real holiday home feel to it.
I took sewing and stuff to do and did none of that, in fact did not even get it out of the car. Had a relaxing time with friends, eating yummy food, drinking wine, watching movies, doing puzzles and beach walks. It was great!
Its summer school holidays here, the Princess finished school on 14 December and does not go back until about 5 February.
We have a fun filled January planned and I am going to try and do a little post daily for the rest of January (hmmmmmm!) to tell you what we are up to!
Need to go check the Princess, she is tucked into my bed!
Wishing you all a fabulous and fantastic 2010, like the one I am going to have!!!!
take care Rachaelxo
p.s I have 607 Google Reader posts to catch up on - forgive me if I don't comment on each one!!! lol
The Princess is away at the beach house with the Wasband so I have made good use of the time and cleaned up a storm.... I am ashamed to say that this house was not very pretty around the edges!
