Easter Holidays!!

Thank goodness the school term finished yesterday! We have been overwhelmed with event after event at school - an Easter Bonnet parade, the ANZAC ceremony, Easter tabloid activities, classroom Easter activities. The outcomes were good, and some of the moments were gorgeous. But, it was just too much! Everyone was desperate to finish!

Here are the Easter Crowns we made for the parade.

This is one of the Ojo de dias the children made. They are a Mexican Easter tradition. You say 'O ho day dee os' which means Eye of God. The diamond shaped 'eye' in the middle represents Jesus, and the twigs are the Cross.

In our class, the children made these Easter tags during the Easter Tabloid activities, (there were 140 of them in the end, and I burnt myself on the hot glue gun!), while other teachers read Easter stories, had egg and spoon races, decorated biscuits, and played pass the parcel. It was a rewarding, but chaotic afternoon!

The children added some bling to the Easter cards they made for their parents.

And this is how their basket of chocolates looked. They made the patterns on the side with Easter paint rollers.

Here is how they looked together. Adorable!

We took the Pre-Primary children to their first Anzac Ceremony. They were a bit naughty really, playing with leaves, and dancing and clapping during the songs, until we gave them "The Look", but, hey, it was their first time and at least they were quiet!

The children spent nearly all day making an Anzac page for their school books. I forgot to take a photo (dang!) so you'll have to see it after the holidays.

Jonathon started his holidays last Friday and has been feeling sickish this week. Jack was so fed up with school, that I let him stay home with Jonathon for three days. I was happy for him to have some time with his Dad.

Meanwhile, I read this book:

I could barely put it down because I needed to know how it ended, but at the same time it was so confronting. To cut a long story short: a woman catches her husband sleeping with her best friend, leaves him to live in their holiday cottage, he attempts suicide and ends up mentally damaged and thus, needing full-time care, she takes him to the cottage to care for him, because there is no one else to do it, even though she resents him, and it goes on. I so felt for the woman in this story. It was just a horrible situation.

Now, onto the holidays!!! A few days of rest and recuperation, and I'll be ready to start creating again!

Also, I must wish a happy 50th Wedding Anniversary to my Aunty Lyn and Uncle Keith!!!!! They celebrate it this weekend, and they are two of the most lovely people you could meet. I have the fondest memories of visiting their house when I was little, and my cousins were my heroes. Jenny always had the coolest toys, followed the latest fads and took us rollerskating, Sandra had a 'posh' job and we would meet her for lunch in the city, and Murray was a totally crazy, headbanger, always listening to AC/DC music, adding new skull ornaments to his collection, and scaring me with a Native American mask and headdress. I was terrified, but I adored him!! I love catching up with my cousins now too. It might not happen very often, but there are always lots of laughs when we do!

Paper Bag Easter Nests

Georgia from Verbosity (on my blog list), made these paper bag nests for her young ones to find in their Easter egg hunt last year, and I thought they were adorable! I only had coloured bags, but they were tiny, and perfect for the job! To make them, you just scrunch down the bags, fill with shredded paper and add eggs. I've just made some for the kindies in my class, to find on Wednesday. I'm hiding them in a box for now, with the little spotty chocolate eggs already in them. Aren't they the cutest? I can't wait to hide them in the playground, and for the children to find them!

For the love of scrap

I bought some more scrapping supplies today. It was a sparkly venture! Ribbons, rhinestones, metal frames, stickers, masks, feathers, glitter, rub on transfers. I went a tad over the top, but, hey, I was in town anyway, and with this stash I can probably make the rest of the Alice cards, make a few more Wizard of Oz cards AND.... get started on my Phantom of the Opera series! I know I'm getting ahead of myself, but while the ideas are flowing...

I just wish I had more hours in the day!! I'm trying to plan lessons, blog, make cards, answer 52 questions, do drawings, read, love my family, live! (Secretly, I actually THRIVE on having hundreds of things to do. If I was bored for a minute, I'd just invent something else of mountainous proportions to fill my time!) It all gets done in the end.

The Other Boleyn Girl

Of course everyone's heard of Anne Boleyn, the Queen of England that was beheaded. Well, Mary Boleyn was her sister. You can read their tale of rivalry in the novel, The Other Boleyn Girl. I LOVED this book! That horrid Anne! Mary was the nice one! I watched the movie too, with Eric Bana as Henry VIII (he looks yum in this), Scarlett Johansson as Mary, and Natalie Portman as Anne. Perfect casting. The film actually portrays Anne as quite vulnerable, but in the book, she is an ambitious cow! Loved both versions, (which is not something I can usually say) so highly recommend that you indulge! The film is fairly slow paced, but gotta love the costumes!

Tulgey Wood Cards

There's a part of the Alice in Wonderland movie which had a huge impact on me when I was a kid; when Alice is lost in Tulgey Wood. The red pathway is brushed away by a dog creature with a broom for a head, and she realises she does not know where to go. She cries and cries and is so alone. As a child it was my worst thought, to be lost in the woods all by myself. Little Red Riding Hood, Babes in the Wood, Hansel and Gretel, they all played a part in this fear. But because Alice's trauma was captured on celluloid, it had the biggest impact of them all. Still, the images are appealing in an artistic way and I needed some blokey colours for my set of Wonderland cards.

Besides, owls are too cute!

My intention is to produce a set of 10 cards, each representing a different part of Alice in Wonderland, that can be used as greeting cards, birthday cards, Valentine's Day cards, Halloween cards, wedding cards, 21st cards, anything that suits, really. I'd love to start an Etsy shop, and I already have a name for it: Whimsical Works. I've had this name in mind for about 15 years, from when I wrote a children's book at uni.

I intend to make other card ranges too, all related to fairytales or magical tales. (I've already started planning some ideas for my next set: The Wizard of Oz). Who will be interested? Who knows? All I know is that I watch one of the Etsy shops each day (A Black Apple), and a month ago she had sold 21100 items from her shop and now she has sold 21700! It is a full time job for both her and her partner. She sells magical, and often odd, paintings, prints, postcards and dolls, and does a roaring trade. So, you never know....

Nursery rhymes and Easter

The Pre-Primary kids have been drawing and painting castles at school. I'm loving how they look with glitter!

The children made crowns and I took a photo of each child dressed as Old King Cole.

The Kindies collaged Easter Bunnies and painted Easter eggs.

Here is a glimpse of some of the Easter cards the children have made. Using these papers helps me get in touch with my inner scrapbooker! The backing and eggs on these cards were all made from one little papers book from the $2 shop. Pretty thrifty!

Now for some close-ups:

All this art and craft - one of my main reasons for working with little kids!

Here are the final three drawings!

Finally, the last three characters from Alice in Wonderland; the March Hare, the Dodo and the Dormouse. There are now 12. Yay!! We can start making a quilt! Check your mailbox next week, Auntie Anne!