I've Fallen Weeks Behind

I've been so lazy with my blogging these last few weeks. I had a marvelous school holiday and even escaped to the beach for a couple of days. It was crispy autumn weather. We went to Point Nepean. On the left is the peaceful bay and on the right is the open ocean. We walked through the park and caught the shuttle. It used to be an old army base. There were some very cool rusty relics.

We sat on the beach and walked and drank coffee and ate yummy food.

The boys are studying for their mid years. Hard Life!

I took my hexies with me. They are so portable.

There is no plan with these guys. I am just adding on scraps as I go. No paper piecing. I'm just drawing the lines and sewing them together with running stitch. My textile teacher way back at uni would be horrified but it works! 

I loathe to throw away even the tiniest bits of fabric which is why I am getting so much pleasure out of this project. I also have been using my scraps to make these.

I got the idea from One Shabby Chick. I have linked her straight to her tutorial on how to make these little purses. They are so easy to make and use up lots of scraps.

I think they will make great end of year presents for some of the teachers I work with.

During the holidays I had to baby sit Phil, my class pet. When I first introduced him he looked like this.

During the December holidays he lost his exoskeleton and now looks like this.

He is no longer brown and 'twig like' but green with yellow horny legs and hard to find amongst the eucalyptus leaves. He is also nearing the end of his days. I found out that he is a Goliath Stick Insect which makes sense because he is probably 10" long.

I finished Rivka's quilt for her brother. It really is fun. It's binding was from Denyse Schmidt's new range. Although I can't say I love the range, the colour was perfect for the binding.

I think there is still more to tell but that is for another day.

Mini Beasts

On Thursday my co teacher and I went on a school excursion to the Botanical Gardens and Melbourne Museum on a search for mini beasts. The Gardens were beautiful and we looked at insect repelling plants and plants that attract insects. We found the herb garden which was the centre for medicine making 150 years ago in Melbourne. It supplied many of the herbs for doctors in the early days.

We smelled the different plants and made little pot pourri bags to take home just as the rain started tumbling down in earnest. But not to be deterred these intrepid 8 year olds marched onto the Children's Garden where we learned about and played with worms.

And fished for  bugs in the pond.

 It was really cold.  Of course few were well dressed for the occasion.  After all, it is nearly summer.

I really got a buzz out of finding this active bee hive in one of the trees.

The museum was equally inspiring and some of the mini beasts were alive. Ants in colonies, giant stick insects, spiders, locusts.....

I loved the beetles the most. The colours and varieties are just incredible.

We came back to school tired but totally mad about bugs!