Amanda’s Musings

In September Keziah turned 2 but we have only just had the last of the celebrations for her birthday last weekend. Another little girl from our church also turned two recently so we decided to have a combined party at an indoor play centre for them.

Saturday morning at 10am we, along with quite a few others went to the indoor play centre at Riverton Leisureplex and Keziah ran around like a crazy nut! She had such a great time and you can tell from these few photos.

The other Mum and I thought we were very clever organising it like this. Each family paid for their own kids and then she made the cake and I made the lolly bags. No mess, not a lot of organisation and fun had by all!

Oh, and she wore the little top I made for her last week and it survived all that chaos so I must be doing something right!

PS. If you’re wondering where the photos of the other little girl/kids are, I haven’t asked their permission to put their kids faces on the web.

Once again I have entered the monthly challenge for the Polymer Clay Artists Guild of Etsy. This month the theme was masks and I struggled to come up with something this time. In the end, wanting to represent our gorgeous country I went with the theme of the Aussie Bush for mine. This is the first time I’ve created a mask, not sure if I’ll do another one but I’m always happy to try. Here’s a screen shot of all the entries this time:

and this is my entry:

You can vote here PCAGOE

My mask is for sale in my shop also, although at an elevated price until the voting is finished. You can view it here: My Etsy Shop

Every second Monday a group of women from our church (don’t worry, this isn’t a preachy post) gets together to study the Bible and this term we’re looking at the book of Daniel (commonly known as the guy in the lion’s den). The first study last Monday was about the first chapter of the book and looked at Daniel’s courage to stick to his guns.

Basically Daniel is one of many who is captured by an opposing King and taken away from his homeland. Part of the deal with this is that he and the others are to learn the new language and culture of Babylon (where they are taken to) and are educated in their systems (actually sounds familiar!). They are also given the Kings food to eat.

The story goes that Daniel refuses to eat the Kings food because it goes against his conscience. In his own Jewish culture he wasn’t to ‘defile’ himself with foreign meat and besides, eating the Kings best food pretty much tied him to the King. Daniel chooses to eat veggies and fruit and to drink water for 10 days and he turns out to look better and be healthier than everyone else (surprise, surprise, if only I could do that……ahhh chocolate).

The part of all this that I find interesting is that amongst being captured Daniel manages to find a sort of freedom. He doesn’t just do what he’s asked because he feels obligated to follow everyone around him and he’s better off for it.

For me, I grew up being quite self-righteous and judgemental. I wasn’t aware that I was like this until I was a bit older. It took me a long time to change my thinking and now days I don’t see anyone as below me or anything like that, just because they don’t share my beliefs. I have strong views on a number of topics (particulary spiritual ones) and feel free to ask me about them, but if you don’t agree with me then thats your right to disagree. How does this relate to Daniel? Well I feel that he is a great example of standing up for what you believe without being the traditional ’shoving the Bible down your throat’ type. He just says ‘I belive this to be true, test me on it’.

Having said that, there are some things that ultimately come down to faith and you can’t test me on them (eg: the afterlife, my belief in God and his control etc…). I’m happy to share with you why I believe in these things if asked.

We are only just starting the book of Daniel and its one of those stories that has many pearls of wisdom and memorable moments. I’m looking forward to seeing what we learn next.

For a while now I have been trying to work out how to store my business cards, I don’t mean my personal ones but ones I collect from here or there. I didn’t want one of those little folder things with plastic sleeves but more of the indexed style.

We went to officeworks the other day and found some little fabric designer boxes for $3.99 so I decided this was perfect. Then I went to look at the cost of index tabs and all up it would have cost more than if I’d just bought a plastic sleeve!

Then I had an idea (ding!). A while ago a paint company sent me a stack of samples like you get at hardware stores like Bunnings. I love these sorts of things and tend to hoard them until I find a use (hate to waste things, love to recycle/upcycle). Here’s some of the ones they sent me:

I’ve actually got a heap of ideas for using these but one day I’ll get to them!!

This is the box I bought:

And this is what I did with the two together:

As an additional use of resources to upcycle, I once again found another use for tic tac boxes (click there for my other use for them). They are holding the indexes apart so they don’t all fall over in a heap. They work perfectly (and give the box a lovely fresh fragrance!) and I can remove them as I fill up the box.

So all I can say really with all truth is….waste not want not. : )

Amongst this new obsession of sewing I’m still polyclaying just as much as before. I’ve created a few new pieces this week that I’m quite happy with. Most of these are using scrap clay and I just love the randomness of them thats drawn together with the repeated floral shape. Here they are:

A brooch using a new technique I discovered while playing.

Some new styles of beads and pendants

Some lovely scroll-like beads. These are about 3cm long and remind me of rolled up carpet rugs

I love the way you can slice through some scrap clay and come up with these fantastic designs. These just looked delicious when I cut through and so I made them into pendants.

All these are unsanded so will look even smoother and shinier when I get that far! I’m also working on a top secret project for my sister-in-law (Hi Candy) so I can’t post any pics for a while, actually until after Christmas!

Thanks for looking, don’t forget to keep on checking out my shops for new items, links are all on the sidebar.

For a long time now I’ve observed a lot of stay at home Mums who buy fabric from op (thrift) shops and reinvent it as something else. Finally today I got my chance to do this. This fabric was for sale in a couple of op shops which are around 10 minutes walk from here so Keziah and I took advantage of the sunshine today and went for a wander.

Now, seeing as I’m very new to all this I can’t tell you too much about the fabric except to say that the top and bottom ones are cotton and the middle is fleece. The prices are great in op shops for this sort of thing!! There are around 1-2 metres of each piece of fabric.

I also did a bit of a dig through the pattern box in the op shop and found a couple that I thought I could try. One for babies (probably too small for Kezi but there are plenty of others I can sew for when I get good enough) and one for soft toys:

I really love the idea of upcycling things so I can see this being a new obsession!

So, amongst other things this weekend I’ve managed to sew the other half of Keziah’s outfit. This is the first top I’ve ever sewn and I somehow managed to follow the instructions. It came out really well and all I need to do is finish it off with some press studs and then I can get her to model it properly. Here it is;

I also managed to sew the first of the bags and as dodgy as it might be in the even-at-the-sides stakes, I’m pretty pleased that I managed to figure out how to a)follow instructions b)put a zip in!! So, again, brighter than it looks due to the light used but here it is:

This now holds all the little bits of sewing things I need to use now such as scissors, measuring tape etc… I really need a sewing box now!!

Today was a good day really. Church was great, good message (my hubby preached today), good conversations, only one event where Keziah drew blood (she’s had a few bumps from trying to be a big kid!) and time to sit and listen while Kezi enjoyed creche. She loves the creche as its pretty much her only interaction with other kids all week.

This week there are few things on including some meetings, a Bible study tomorrow, a combined birthday party for Keziah and another little girl who also turned 2 recently next Saturday…..plus polyclaying, sewing, curves and fun with Kezi!!!! I’m tired just thinking about it all. (not to mention the usual houseworky stuff that happens every week/day/hour).

Anyway, have a good week everyone!

PS, plenty of polyclaying going on behind the scenes and now I’m getting back my painting itch again!

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned before that I recently opened up shop at madeit.com.au. So far no sales but I’ve not been focussing too much on it either. I did however make the front page a little while ago. Not sure whether this happens when you list your items or if they’re selected. Here’s the front page (mine is the blue heart):

Here’s what my shop looks like currently:

You can access my madeit store by going to this page:

Polyclarific on MadeIt

I have a collection of items in there which you can also find in my Etsy store (115 items for sale), Wahmania Store (12 items for sale) or Mintd Store (25 items for sale). Each store has a different collection of items but the Etsy store is in US dollars. All the others are in Aussie dollars.

I was also in some Etsy treasuries this month. I only have snapshots of two of them so here they are:

Funky Bubbles in Pink Napkin Holders (bottom left)

Purple Party Ring (middle third row)

For an explaination of what a treasury is, go here.

Its been a while since I’ve done a highlight of the mission we work for - SIM. Recently the International SIM site has had an overhaul and it looks great! You can see what it looks like by clicking here:

SIM International

I really like the way the site looks and that you can see the different parts of the world that the mission works in right away.

You might ask who SIM is. Firstly, SIM is the former Sudan Interior Mission, the initials now stand for Serving In Mission. You can read SIM’s purpose statement here.

SIM works in just over 40 countries around the world in many different fields. Some of those fields include Bible work, Medical work, Education, Health awareness, Prison work, HIV and AIDS work and more.

Our involvment in SIM is that Michael is the Western Australian Ministry Director and I help him for a day or so a week, depending on the week. We assist those in WA who want to go overseas with the mission as well as representing it at various events and churches.

SIM Australia has their own website too so feel free to take a peek at that. You can see it here:

SIM Australia