Yellow

I decided to share a few yellow things from school. I've actually got quite a bit of yellow around the house because we painting a lot of our rooms yellow. Not bright yellow like these things. A buttery colour.

This is a closeup of one of the crowns we made for the Queen for Queen's Birthday. The glue was a bit useless so I had to get the glue gun out and reattach the buttons. I always manage to burn my fingers using a glue gun, but I'm awfully fond of them.

We have been talking about colour. When I was working with individuals on another arty activity anyone spare was working on this rainbow. I have dangled the colour names off the bottom. I wanted the darker blue to be indigo, but someone didn't listen.


For your future reference, the Maori colours. Kowhai is a New Zealand native tree with beautiful yellow flowers. Kowhai is both a colour and a plant. So are tawa and karaka.

Here is the sun I drew. Most of the class helped to colour and dye it. I stapled it together with another big circle of paper, with cellophane sandwiched between. Three of my students helped to screw up newspaper to stuff it with.

Here is Ducky. It is a miracle that he still looks so good because most things get sucked or chewed eventually. The kids' cushions are on display behind. Fabric paints are awesome!

Here is the Rainbow Lorikeet that visited on Friday. His/her name is Kaz. We were all totally enchanted by it. It even poos on command so you can hold it over a bucket so that it can go to the toilet. Then you don't get crap down your back. It is only a baby and will grow bigger. A perfect end to colour week, I think!

Today I had a mad rampage in the garden, plus I rescued my Christmas lily bulbs so that I can take them to my new garden. They are expensive, so I decided they need to come with me. Plus they were all given to me by a friend. One of them always has a huge head of flowers every year. I found out why. The bulb is utterly enormous. I put them in a bucket with some soil and covered them with a damp newspaper. They don't like to dry out.

We have decided to spend Sunday mornings working on the garden at the new place, and Saturday and Sunday afternoons sorting out our world here. I really got a lot done this weekend at our current house. I hacked and slashed the boysenberries and grapes back. I pruned roses with the ruthless attitude of an expert. I weeded and snipped. I had great intentions to rake up lots of stones at our new place, but we had seven (yes, seven!!!) visitors while we were there, and didn't get much done apart from guided tours. I told Mr B we will need a big new coffee machine with all of the visitors we are getting. His current one just does two little cups at a time. So we've had a fun, very busy weekend. I'm looking forward to the next one already. XXX

Black

Today I have just one colour picture. This is all the black a girl would ever need. Darling Miss Dog. Loyal helper in the garden (cat turd disposal expert). Carpet cleaner tester. Ever willing plate cleaner. This is not the best photo of her, but this is the result of a few hours helping in the garden. Today the major ransacking began. The building is going to take around 3 1/2 months to finish and we are getting stuck in so that we can put this house on the market at the end of August or early September. Help!!!!



This is the reason for the sudden flurry of activity. It looks like a house!!!!

Here I am "on" my verandah. What a great space for hanging out.

Another favourite part of the house. The sliding door to outside from my craft and music room.


Today we went out the see our lovely builder and discuss a few details. We took our friend Barbara out for a look and she thinks it looks much bigger than it did in foundation form. I'm dying to get started on the garden, but have more than enough to do around here first. It has got really out of hand, so I was hacking and slashing until my arms couldn't take it any more. I've always been overly ambitious about gardening here, and made masses of gardens that I couldn't handle due to the weeds and invasive plants that were already hiding here when we came. Ivy, incredibly thorny berries, twitch, and perennial sweetpeas (which I'd never plant in my new garden, horrid things). Even the grape vines are out of control. I think I'll have to be very careful not to take anything with me with dirt from this garden. I'll have to rinse the roots clean, and buy new plants to replace ones I really love that I can't do that to. I don't want twitch to come with me because it is really dreadful. The hostas I'm taking will have to go in pots so that I can quarantine them.

I'm a bit sad because Mr B is going away for a few days on a bus trip with other boss teachers to look at other schools. I'm in charge of the building while he is away. I bet our builder doesn't ring to ask me any questions. Well, I really hope he doesn't! There's more work to do on the frames, an inspection on Thursday and, all going well, frame wrap will go on on Friday. Then roofing begins. No wonder the flurry of activity has begun around here.

Happy birthday to Miss M. Wish I was there enjoying DVDs, tasty food and family company. XXX

Purple

Purple. The colour of royalty, bruises and butch lesbians in big saggy t-shirts and no bras. I'm sure that's a stereotype, but it certainly matches the hairy, crewcutted manladies stomping around Motueka in clouds of B.O. when I used to work in a bookshop in the holidays. Mind you, that was a long, long time ago. It certainly isn't a colour I have much of around here. Not that I don't like purple. But I do prefer rich plums, lilac - warmer tones of purple. So it was a bit of a strain to come up with these examples:

Leftover fabric from making cushions with my students' fabric paintings.

A grotty lavender towel. I'm going to need some new towels for my new bathrooms.

My plum coloured skirt and purple (pretend pashmina) scarf.

My very special amethyst and sterling silver necklace given to me by our neighbours after their trip to the USA.

I'm glad it's the weekend. Tonight we are going to the school play of Cinderella. It should be a real laugh. I am sad because our amazing Deputy Principal is leaving. She has always been there when I've needed advice, help or a pick-me-up chocolate fish. She is the director of the play. I hope tonight will be a great tribute to her. I'll get to say goodbye next week as she will be back for a celebration on Friday afternoon.

Tomorrow we are going to be able to walk through our house with the framing and roof trusses up. I'm really excited about that.

Not sure if I will get on the scales this week. I'm a disaster when I'm trying to lose weight. Horribly depressing.

Red

Red. In no particular order.

Spicy seasoning. I love spice!

I love red clothes too. This little combo had an outing today.

Manolin, aka Hand Slicer. The red signifies the threat this thing poses to the careless user.

Laura Ashley strawberries. Love, love, love them.

Wallace Cotton laundry bag.

Brocade fabric on one of my obi belt creations.

A corner of a Miss Ruby Two Shoes painting.

Ruby, my muse.

Delicious lace on my velvet coat.

The sweet wee cosmetic bag that carries my warpaint on the front line. Even better cause I got it from my brother's pharmacy on his wedding weekend.

One of Mr B's photos.

Braeburn apple.

Red is gorgeous, glamorous and rich. I love to wear red, but prefer it with other colours than black. Black and red are such a predictable combination. I am, however, being predicable today. Sometimes I dare to leave my house in shades of red and green, just to give a touch of Christmas spirit to any day of the year. No, I don't look like some rampant Christmas elf.

Green

Green day today. I love green. It suits me to wear, and there are so many beautiful shades. I tell Mr B that if I ever have a baby girl I'd call her Emerald. Not sure if that would be his first choice! Maybe I'll call a cat Emerald if it has appropriately coloured green eyes. Actually my eyes are dark murky green around the outside of my irises and brown in the middle. I'm fond of dark green eyeliner.



Of course my favourite magazine has a lovely, fresh green cover.


And here's my Olga Berg bag. I should have featured the pink lining yesterday. I carry my sheet music around in this at the moment.


Mr B got me a green music stand to match my 'cello bag. I didn't take a photo of that because it is empty and uninteresting at the moment.


I've got a green frog umbrella.


Here's a top I got at Colorado. I don't believe in ironing unless under duress, or sewing. Bad wife.


This green paint is called Frog. I love the name and I love the colour.


Other news:

• Our frames are up! It is starting to look like a house. The roof trusses go up tomorrow.
• I only had six students today as one was sick. It was so much better with one less.
• Tomorrow we are going to the matinee performance of Cinderella presented by the students and some of the staff of our Special School. Should be a good laugh providing no one from my class blows their stack. Highly probable.
• I managed to get out of the supermarket without buying chocolate bars or crisps. Whew.

See you tomorrow!

Pink

Miss Ruby Two Shoes has decided to have a colour week and I am joining in. Tonight I've popped here and there around the house snapping pink things here and there, some of which look pinker in real life (and a couple which I practised my enhancement skills on to bring out the pink). Country Living magazine featured a few pink things too. In my house pink seems to come along with other pretty colours.

Country Living- oh so pretty!


Kitchen curtains- the flowers are pinker in real life!


I made this pretty pink bag. It even has a pink lining. The wall behind even looks pink. Not sure how that happened because it is actually yellow.


Monty in his favourite spot under the pink squares on my quilt.


Mmmm- chocolate and pink. Yum.


I wish I owned this cerise lantern. Country Living again.


My Wallace Cotton Rosalicious quilt.


Gorgeous pink ribbon. Haven't got far into this book, but it is a bit of a laugh.


A closeup of a painting I did a while ago.


My pink colander XXX. I love colanders.


Pink roses on this pretty trio given to me by the wonderful Mother-in-law Black.


I love pink. Did you know that it is called mawhero in the Maori language? Ma is white and whero is red- blend them together to get mawhero. Isn't that clever? I just think that it is a shame that pink is associated with putrid Barbie stuff, and other gaudy kid-associated paraphernalia. So I'm thinking of rose, cerise, watermelon, blush ...