Baubles Baubles Baubles

It's definition is:
-noun 1. a showy, usually cheap, ornament; trinket; gewgaw.

Isn't it funny how we attach sentiments, words, memories to certain words, smells, sounds, etc!
To me, bauble describes Christmas, or at least how I feel about it: bright, shiney, fun, beautiful, family oriented, group activities and preciousness.

My favourite day of the year; the day the family gathers to eat, give and generously have good cheer! It's a great example to the kids - to be coureous, loving, giving, generous and thoughtful. Each love language is spoken for - spoken, touch, gifts, time and effort.

MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone :).

A calendar I made for both sets of grandparents for a present with classic quotes from the kids:

–noun



18





ps: word of the day gewgaw!

Spooktacular

'Fly fly spider' or if you're our resident superman ghost 'spider spider fly'

Devlin had his 6th birthday party on Saturday (last) the 9th of October.
Since having parties at functions seemed to be expensive, this year I decided to host them at home; that and we wanted to do the fun games and things :).

Blythe the zombie 'I heart brains' tip o the hat to plants vs. zombies. Jackkellington.

So we had Blythe's here, which was about twice as much to fund then going out somewhere! We'd already promised Devlin one so I thought 'well, this will be the last for some years then!'. He'd picked out his cake first - a pumpkin with snakes so the theme followed along - the Haunted House and straight after he decided it would be fancy dress and he would be a spider.

Mr creepy crawly himself. Took me about 5 hrs to make it, not sure why.. it was the very first time I'd used a sewing machine - to make the legs - that was fun :). Stuffing them took at least 1 hour, they were so thin, I watched Burn Notice while doing that, and then sewing the joints on the legs and lastly sewing fishing line to the sleeves and the legs so they would wave up and down in unison to the sleeves, that was my proudest feature ;).

I spent many days planning the party to the absolute last detail and 1 and a half day preparing for it! Suffice it to say the hour previous to the party was spent in a manic flurry and the party started while I was still getting stuff done!
The result was half the food didn't get made, I didn't dress up, Mum and the kids did the decorating and I totally forgot the lollies for the loot bags lol.

A rare two faced brain eating clown abbzombie of the cutest kind.

Even so, the party was a big success, we had 13 kids (9 declined the invitation.. that's huge) and some mums stayed in the wings to watch. Because of the rain, the outside activities were cancelled and we all stayed squished in the lounge room.

A big sister with her own awesome costume, Amywitch and a seriously creepy mask, mr Goul.

After 2 hours of yelling and hosting continuous games I was ready to 'go home' :p. I'd run out of games too! I've always had parties for 3 hours before -unlike most others which are 2 hours- not sure what was different this time. We made up some more games and had some food then passed the parcel; had cake and before we knew it the third hour was well and truly up.

Aformentioned musthave cake, eyeball eggs, 'blob' merangues (or failed to stand up ghost merangues lol), chocolate crackle spiders and some brain triffle!

We played 'fly, fly, spider' (duck duck goose); zombie tag (I'd sewn a blindfold inside a monster mask for 'marco polo'); monster mash (statues); monster rely (acting called out monsters), bang charades (wrote down - and drew pictures - of various scary things, put them in blown up balloons [except we didn't have time for that lol, so they were drawn out of a witch hat] and then the child would act out the thing to a chorus of guesses); creepy crawly (hands and feet rely race).....

Lukenstien.

.....mummy hop (in pairs, one would wrap the other with crepe/tissue paper but not their arms and when they finished the roll the other would hop to the finish line); Frankenstien (I'd cut out millions of foam bits for arms, legs, feet, hands, bodies and heads; the kids had to use a straw to carry each foam bit to their paper and then sticky tape them into a frankenstien); scary sets (I'd drawn and cut out 8 types of pictures, stuck them to fabric and tapped the fabric to each child's back; the idea was that they had to collect one of each picture while protecting their backs, unfortunately the fabric wouldn't stay on).


After that we did some thinking on our feet and played murder wink, corners, and more statues this time with 'who can freeze in the scariest of posses or expressions'.


Mum had come and helped me (done most of!) clean on Friday and then after the party had stuck around tidying up for me. After 3 hrs sleep Friday night I was so glad of her help, I just wanted to go to bed. I couldn't stand the floor though, it was like walking on a spider web, it was so sticky. I didn't mind what got done but the floor was vacumned and mopped forth with!

Rebeccarella, a detachable arm vampire and Joshuarrrrrrrrrr.

Everyone had fun and apart from the last hour previous to the party I didn't freak out much heh, and the house got back to normal pretty quick after wards too. I bought the Women's Weekly cake book number 2 this week and don't tell anyone but I'm looking forward to the next party ;).

An Avant-guard Antediluvian Photo Feast

After years of promising, we finally made it to the Abbey Medieval Festival this year. We knew it was soon but in true us style we heard it had arrived at 12:30am that morning. After playing board games all night with some friends they invited us to go along with them and since we'd been invited by our good friend Mr Cheery to watch his fencing company, Prima Spada, for the last two years, we thought we would!


Phill volunteered his presence to my surprise as he is not into spectating.. anything, but came for the company. It was a good hour after our arrival and we'd watched the opening ceremony of all the houses and clans parade and we'd found Mr Cheery's band and saw the different fighting styles incorporating each weapon - rapiers, broadswords, bucklers etc. It was the highlight of the day actually, for me, with or without an inside friend. They danced around each other very skillfully and each different weapon changed the whole technique. It wasn't until after their performance since the kids had been distracting with their need to be fed, watered and toileted that I remembered my camera! And suddenly the whole day opened up before me like petals, wow, what an absolute feast for photographic opportunities.

The village blacksmith. There's something about working with raw materials that always appeals, glass, wood and metal. In its simplest form it can be a creation of great practicality and beauty.


I regret two things: that I didn't get to take photos of the first Prima Spada display and that I missed the archery tournament. I really liked this picture of the quivers, you can't tell but I painstakingly selected and blurred out the background.
Blythe was most intrigued with this game but kept getting smashed. With a little help from daddy she manage to snatch a win.


There was a mock battle with several different companies at once. They were very careful with their weapons, with a tap here and suddenly a body on the ground, but it was pretty entertaining.
The festival was quite large, this wide shot captured only about a third of one side and only half its width.


There were safety boundaries everywhere including around the main field so it was hard to get a shot of anything without posts or sting somewhere. I liked the little glimpses of details I could capture zooming in instead of taking a larger picture with interference.


We saw a falconry display with a spitfire, peregrine, owl and eagle! The falconer would launch the bird and then swing a lure around and around. One of the birds required a bit of enticement, it seemed quite happy up in the trees. The owl was the best, it was particular about rabbits and the falconer would drag a stuffed bunny by rope along the ground until the owl pounced. It was a minute or two before the falconer stopped dragging the bunny during which time the owl happily perched on the bunny bumping over the ground. It would only release after it had received its treat!

The eagle was too large to fly in this arena, which was quite large itself, but what a beautiful creature. Now I have met a person with longer hair then me too lol, a man to boot.








There were many ironic images, of which I love to take the most; two conflicting subjects or ideas married in a balanced capture. There were also lots of lovely little details. I really enjoy capturing an atmosphere.


The joust was the big highlight for the family, I know the kids liked it the best. They really developed at atmosphere of excitement and there were lots of cheering and Oooos and broken lance ends flying through the air.


Click on any images to see them in their larger glory :).


Yes I did try, yes I did totally suck :D. I loved the combination of Phill on the stilts with his funny walk shirt on.


On guard! We fortunately caught the end of Prima Spada's second and last performance and I whipped out the camera. This one was of a renaissance duel between the Maestro and Michael; much flair was included and some cheating too.


Once the blackguard had revealed his hand, or in this case his hidden dagger the Maestro's second was incensed and joined in the fray with Michael's second.


And so no offensive comments about gentlemen, goats or barmaids shall prosper!


I am already looking forward to next year :). The kids want to dress up and I'll get to spend as much time taking photos as I want, I've already told poor Phill he's not coming, we'll see how much the kids let me do. Considering they were 'soo bored' to begin with, they didn't want to leave.