Things I have learnt this week and a funny note from my Granny

This week, I have learnt:

• Dust is universal. There is no escape from dust.
• I am missing my sewing machine more than my dishwasher.
• I will never tire of watching my girls play together. The fighting, though, is another matter.
• I am continually amazed at how imaginative Abbey is. At this very moment, she is cutting up a banana (with a bread and butter knife) and serving it in plastic mugs for her and Zoe to eat.
• Hong Kong is so clean. I like it.
• I love school holidays.
• I love staying in my pajamas for as much of the day as possible.
• I feel like a bad mother as I get so bored when I take the girls to the playground. I yawn constantly and can hardly keep my eyes open.
• I think I need to learn to crochet, so I won't be so bored at the playground.
• I need to find our local library here in Hong Kong. We are all a bit sick of reading the same books over and over.
• I miss Zoe's cloth nappies. I personally don't like using disposables. When we do the big move to HK, I will be bringing the cloth nappies with us.
• It really is quite difficult writing this post with a 19 month old Zoe climbing all over me.

On a final note, I want to wish my gorgeous Grandma a HUGE Happy Birthday for today. How cute is her little note to me in the photo above? I bought her a lovely hand made birdie brooch for her birthday, I hope she likes it.

Have you learnt anything this week?

Have a lovely day, peeps.

Cat.

* If you can't read Grandma's old fashioned writing, it says "for being a good girl and also keeping in touch with old granny". Gosh, I love her!

Scrappy fun.

So, what do you do with your fabric scraps? Your ribbon scraps, pieces of pretty wrapping paper after a present has been unwrapped? I had been collecting all of these in a plastic box for Abbey. Once Zoe was born, this box was overflowing (all the ribbon and wrapping paper from gifts for newborn Zoe filled it up very quickly)

I don't like throwing out perfectly lovely fabric, ribbons or paper, so I needed to find some ways to give away my overflow. I gave some to friends, with a glue stick, for their children to have as an arts and crafts activity.

For the last 3 and a half years, every Friday during school term, I have taken Abbey to one of our local libraries for Story time (and now Zoe comes, too) Our librarian (and her helpers) are fantastic. There is usually a theme each week, and our librarian reads books, finds songs to sing and dance to, plays silly games and at the end there is always an arts and craft activity relating to the days theme. This part Abbey loves. It can be cut and paste, colouring in, making little people out of pipe cleaners to sit on paper surf boards or spiders in a web for Halloween.

It is always lots of fun and I am sure I enjoy it as much as Abbey. I have given our librarian two large snap lock bags, mainly of fabric off-cuts. I have started another large bag to give to Abbey's kinder.

These are some fabric covered people Abbey made recently. The two on the blue paper she did at the library, and the other ones she made at home.

We will definitely be taking this scrap box to Hong Kong when we move over permanently. Abbey so often uses it for crafting and creating, and I am sure Zoe will too, when she is a little older.

As I said in yesterdays frog head tea post, the girls and I are in Hong Kong at the moment for the school holidays. We are a family again. We hope to do some more exploring, find the local library and find some more playgrounds close to our apartment. The last two days have been wonderful, crossing the road from our apartment and going to the outdoor pools, of which we can see from our apartment windows. It feels like we are living in a resort. The warm sunny weather is so lovely and making up for the very cold January we spent in Hong Kong earlier in the year.

Cheerio for now, Cat.

Frog head tea, anyone?

Would you like a cup of frog head tea? I am not sure if this was one of Abbey or Zoe's creations. I had to take a photo as it looked so colourful and almost drinkable.

We are actually in Hong Kong at the moment for the school holidays. It is lovely to be together as a family again, not just for a whirlwind weekend.

The weather at this time of year is gorgeous, between 21-27 C most days and not too humid - yet. Interestingly, Hong Kong has an ozone layer. I can feel the ozone layer working. It is such an amazing feeling, the sun on your skin, but not feel like you are burning instantly. We are still wearing sun screen, it is such a habit to always apply it when you come from Australia. It is a good habit to have, I know.

Have a lovely weekend. Enjoy your tea, with our without frog heads.

Cat