Mandy in Oz

 2011 is Lily's first year at school (prep), so for her birthday we did the unthinkable - we invited her entire class to our home for her 5th birthday!  Now, we decided only 3 weeks out from her birthday that we'd do this, hence the complete silence from me on my usual forums and here on the blog - I've been working like a demon to put this 'Fairy tea party' themed do together (with a little help from the amazing Mr J of course ;)  )  The party was yesterday, and while we are still in clean-up mode, it all went really well!  Lily had a wonderful time with her classmates and family (around half of her class came - that's a lot of 5 and 6 year olds!) and we had loads of positive feedback from parents and kids alike :)  My favourite part of the day was definitely the pinata - I almost split my sides from laughing so hard, it was just adorable!  I over-catered of course (lets face it, it beats the hell out of under-catering), so the fridge is full of party goodies :

But it's finally done! I mentioned in my last blog post that I had a big project on....well, I actually had *two* big projects on. The first one was my commitment, as part of a fantastic swap organised by the lovely Kelly , to make 17 items for a swap. All 18 swap fiends do the same, we send them all into Kelly and receive 17 different items. It's a fabulous idea of course, but I did find it quite challenging for a number of reasons. The first reason being that I find it *very* difficult to do simple :P Anyone who knows me is quite aware of this of course! I'll start out saying 'I'm going to keep this really simple', then start justifying why I 'need' to make things more elaborate and before you know it, I'm doing 17 entirely unique hand-dyed and hand-painted bags, and panicking that I won't be done in time! I'm very pleased to say, however, that I did in fact get them all done, in plenty of time. This is a minor miracle in itsel

Yep, I've been a slack blogger again, blah blah, slap on the wrist :P Anyway, I've been a little sidetracked - but not by crafty goodness this time. I've been cheating on my crafting.....with the gym. And the treadmill. Oh yes, I'm really getting around. It's been a long time (years in fact) since I last had a gym membership, but now that I've returned, I can remember just why I used to love it so much :) I've been having a fantastic time, and am feeling so much fitter and healthier. I'm even doing the C25k program (squeezing that time in on the treadmill *very* early in the morning). That's not to say that I haven't been doing any crafting - there has been some dyeing action, in preparation for my first ever 'production line' kind of crafting. I've cheated a little and have dyed up a few different colours, so my items won't be *identical*, just similar. Thankfully, I won't be the one deciding who gets what (hehehe

Yep, that's right - I'm a slack blogger. There, I said it. I have been doing quite a lot of *other* stuff though, which may redeem me a little. Not to mention, I haven't been feeling terribly great, of late. I had a somewhat disastrous experience with a dentist in mid December, the end result being that I now have damage to my inferior alveolar nerve :S Which basically means numbness, tingling, burning and pain in half of my chin, lower lip and teeth. The really bad bit? Feeling like my teeth are being crushed in a vise, a lot of the time. Oh yeah, and the occasional sensation of bugs crawling under my skin. Worse bit? This could last for 6 months, or 2 years, or forever. Though I'm hoping for a somewhat shorter time than forever, you know? Because that doesn't really bear thinking about now, does it? There has been some improvement lately, in that I can now make it through some days without having to resort to pain relief. lol. How awesome is that, I