Seven to Eight to Nine

I took this photo while standing under the boardwalk at Coogee Beach during Mr W's swimming classes this week. I had been sheltering under there not because of the scorching sun but incredibly because of the driving rain. Something about the lapping of the waves and the darkness of the tunnel created by the black pylons leading to the light at the end called to me and I just wanted to wade out there. I took a bunch of other photos trying to capture the moment but this one turned out to have the best framing, I was juggling my umbrella, beach bag and umbrella so I guess you had to be there...

Are you wondering about the cryptic title to this post? Well the Seven to Eight refers to my son passing his beach swim certificate. I'm so proud of him, he had to stay out of the water until he was 6 due to recurrent ear infections, and us not wanting him to undergo surgery to insert drainage grommets in his ear canals. His ENT specialist cleared him to begin lessons when he turned six and he has passed 7 grades since then. During this class it was the first time he has been allowed in the ocean without a parent holding his hand to keep him safe.

Here he is crashing into the surf to head back out to the instructor. He is racing another student who is obscured by the girl standing in front. She was also in Mr W's class but is about 12 years old and taller than me... that is a big height difference!

Eight to Nine in the title refers to Mr W's birthday, I can't believe my boy is nine years old. I am beginning to understand what my Mother and Grandmother meant when they said raising their babies to adulthood seemed to pass in a blink of an eye. He still fits on my knee (just) and is still happy for hugs and snuggles so long as none of his mates are around. We began the day with homemade buttermilk pancakes and opening gifts at 6am (initially it did seem more like 3am though I managed to generate a more than adequate level of enthusiasm after a few minutes of waking) Here we are cutting his cake, it was an Echidna and I forgot to take pictures before we began cutting into it, but it was an ice-cream cake so we couldn't wait around or it would have melted away to nothing. Thankfully Miho had grabbed my camera as we sang happy birthday or we wouldn't have any pics at all. We had a casual family barbecue tonight to celebrate and in a few weeks (closer to the start of school) we'll have his party with his buddies at the local ice arena... and that means a new cake so I'll try to get pics of that one.

Mr W ate a piece of this cake that totally filled and hung over the edges of his bowl (the one near his hand) and Miss D ate a slice almost as thick... I was sure she wouldn't be able to eat it all but she did which just goes to show what I know. Mr M (who is allergic to dairy) had his own mini pavlova cake piled with fresh pitted cherries. I think the children will all need to eat 1/2 a cucumber, 3 carrots and a whole head of lettuce each tomorrow to make up for all the sugar they consumed tonight.

Goodness me, after all this excitement today I'm off to bed... I think I deserve to indulge in some temari making tomorrow.

Hope your day brings you much joy!

Japanese Temari Book Review Resources

Barb Suess has been reorganising her bookshelves and supplies, and has kindly consolidated all her resources for anyone interested in information about Japanese temari books into a single downloadable file. Here is a link to the PDF file on her website. There are 7 pages of book reviews which include each book's cover images, also a listing by ISBN and another by title. There is even a convenient book label page so you can print it on sticky paper and stick the title in English on the spine of your book.

Ginny at Temarikai also has a listing of book reviews here, it is spread over a few pages and the link will take you to the first of three pages... you can click the other pages from there.

Check out both of these excellent resources, you'll gain a valuable insight into which book(s) are right for you. When you decide which book(s) you want visit our store to purchase them at very reasonable prices... better than ebay. I've got a huge (more than 20kgs) order of books making their way from Japan, and we will be expanding the range of books we carry... keep an eye out at our supply store.

Queensland is wet and getting wetter

Our weather has been unusually harsh here in Australia. We have extensive flooding in several states including the mid coastal area of my own state (the big orange one). But Queensland has it particularly bad with an area roughly the size of New South Wales under water. This is quite a horrifying thought. Here is a map of Australia, Queensland is purple and New South Wales green.

 Now here is the same map broken up, I haven't altered any of the sizes, you can see NSW inside Queensland. This is approximately the size of the flood affected areas..

I have made contact with many East Coast temari makers (rather a lot of them live in Queensland) everyone I have been in contact say they are that so far they are lucky to remain more or less dry but many of their family or friends haven't been so lucky. So far 10 people have been swept away and drowned. I want to ask you to please join me in praying for those water levels to drop so everyone can get back to a safe and normal life. And if you gals in Queensland (especially Kristy, Rosa, Daphne, Vicky, Joyce, Belinda and Sonia) are reading this, just know my family's and my thoughts are with you all. 

Traditionally many homes in Queensland were built like the one pictured below. It is a style referred to here as an 'Old Queenslander' (my hubby always talks about wanting to buy one of these... I keep telling his he is an old Queenslander so there's no need to buy one). The area under the house is used for storage rather than living space and even the cyclone fencing is designed to allow the water and wind to flow through. We have been in such a state of drought for so many years that lots of new homes are now built at ground level... and in flood affected areas these new homes are now under water to the roof line.



Image from: http://www.travelpod.com/s/photos/queenslander

I know there have also been terrible storms in the US and Europe, if you are in an area affected by nasty weather right now please stay safe and well (and know I am saying a little prayer for you too).



De-treeing the house and gaining a room

Today it is time to do the job I loathe, I can't avoid it any longer... putting away the Christmas tree. How can something that is so joyous to put up be such a chore to put away? And where do the hordes of people that help decorate it disappear to? I wonder if Martha Stewart's many housekeepers feel the same?


I remember when I was a kid one of the neighbours had a huge argument just before Christmas and the next thing we saw was their decorated tree and many various presents go flying out their front door and all over the lawn. Unfortunately this memory still makes me laugh, but now I am a parent I can understand the frustrations of being the Mum, and I do consider doing the same thing after Christmas just to avoid packing away the decorations.

After almost 3 hours of searching for decorations and then the correct box to store them in we are finally tree free for another year. I told the boys that we would be doing a 'special family project' when they returned from swimming today... I think they guessed it was taking down the tree because they should have returned by 12pm but they rolled back down the driveway just after 2:30pm. On the upside they did come back sporting haircuts so that is a job off my list.

Now that we have the use of our family room again we spent some of the afternoon playing wii because it is just too hot and sticky to be outside. I stink at baseball (and many other things too) but I can out shoot and hula hoop the boys.

I also unpicked the banding on the temari I had recently posted about but I can't work out what to put back on, I am thinking thin ribbon but I'm just not sure. I mean how would I hide the cut ends? So back into the UFO pile it goes for a little longer.

Sound the trumpets it's 2011

Welcome to 2011! Wow how fast did 2010 go?! I set myself some temari goals for last year I think achieved most of them. This year I aim to knock off the one I missed out on... an entry into the Perth Royal Show. I have researched the categories now and I think I might be able to enter into one of three: Folk Art, Handicrafts or Needlework -Hand. Now I just need to dream something up.

I was amazed to see that I posted 123 posts and had 13,000 visitors to this blog in 2010. We also began celebrating our love of all things temari by celebrating International Temari Appreciation Day on October 22. Our temari supply store expanded to include a wider range of threads and books and personally I achieved my first step on the JTA study path.

I can't help but wonder at the possibilities for this new year? Where will we be in 12 months? It's time to sit back and reflect on what I want to seek out in 2011 and then develop some plans to make sure I can achieve them. I know there are some wonderful things waiting to come for all of us... we just need to be ready to catch them as the fly past.

If you are interested in so goal setting hints Anne-Marie Faiola from Brambleberry has some excellent pointers on her amazing SoapQueen blog. She sure is a lady that inspires me.