Normality and Routine vs. Reality

I WAS hoping for a bit of normality to return to my life after the kids returned to school, however it seems that 'normality' is far from happy to return - it's off being itself somewhere else and I'm just running around from one thing to the other and not getting anything done.

The children, on the other hand, seem to have settled back into the routine of school ... the routine of not wanting to get up in the mornings and the routine of rushing off to the school bus with seconds to spare. Not to mention the routine of not wanting to do their homework.

I've been told by the girls in no uncertain terms that they'd much prefer to stay home and read. (Good for bookstores and libraries but not so good for their school reports I'm sure).

Perhaps we all need a little more R&R (six weeks obviously wasn't enough...) and my R&R is more likely to come when the children are at school and peace reigns over the house. But then a phone call from MIL, or SIL or a request from the accountant or a job to do for hubby because he can't do it - he has to go and plough ... and next thing you know the day is gone and the kids are walking back up the hill after being dropped at the front gate by the school bus. *sigh*

I HAVE made an effort with son though - his performance (at school) dropped off quite a bit towards the end of last year. Our idea that he should be made responsible for his own work (getting homework done in time, projects finished in a half reasonable state etc) kind of failed. In a world of sink or swim, he definitely sank. So now, each day after school I sit down with him at the dining table and get him to show me what he did that day, asking him to explain it to me. If he can't, I endeavour to lead him through, kind a bit like revision on a daily basis. I look at his diary, make sure his homework/project due dates have been notated and make sure he packs the correct books for the next day. I think he's entered that teen fog where they see and hear nothing that doesn't interest them, so I feel I have to do this. Otherwise he may just fall off the planet and not realise.

The girls have been fine with their homework and seem to understand everything so far, so I guess I should be grateful for small mercies.

On the creative front, I did manage an afternoon at my bench recently and made some lovely heart jewellery to celebrate the imminent occasion of Valentine's Day (the photo above is one - its a gorgeous lemon citrine pendant and chain - a whopping 1 inch across, it's big and sparkly and very desirable!

Are you expecting anything for Valentine's Day? My hubby isn't big remembering Valentines (although I do recall a bunch of long stemmed roses that arrived at my work from him one year). But he will go and pick me a red, red rose from the garden on the spur of the moment - just like he did this morning:



And that's worth more than anything, don't you think?

Till next :)
Annette

My gardening wall of shame!

Another week flies by and lots of average excuses for posting this late! I won't bore you with them all though ;)

Hubby and son returned from their Boy's Own Adventure, crossing the continent and back, covering 3500 miles and with thoroughly sore rear ends LOL. I survived being Farmer Piper again (apart from a seriously trying morning moving cattle with two 9 year old girls helping - I'll leave that to your imagination!) - luckily the split water pipe didn't appear until the morning after hubby's return as that's really something that I couldn't have fixed!

I started the mammoth job of weeding my rose garden last weekend. And if you wonder why, after a week I've only weeded half of it, I will now post a photo on my 'wall of shame'! I need a lot of coercion to get into the garden at the best of times so I ignore it all through summer, apart from watering if required. Well this year we have been blessed with regular rain, so I haven't even had to do that. This is the consequence though.



Yep, that's a tangle of weeds folks, and in the centre of this photo is supposed to be a path - you can see it at the top of the photo, in the half that's weeded. No, it's NOT a pretty sight. My keen-gardener-mother-in-law has to force herself NOT to look when she visits as she is totally appalled. Amongst some very spiky rose bushes there is a mixture of 'paddy melon'-like vines, kikuyu and rye grasses, lucerne, a variety of burrs and thistles and the odd nasty patch of 'sticky-beaks' that are even taller than the roses!

It's taken quite a bit of persistence on my part to get as far as I have. If you had been watching me I'm sure you would have opened your eyes just a tad wider at my numerous vocalisations, which basically centered around the word 'OUCH' and the odd, colourful adjective. Luckily roses are hardy and some lovely blooms are still coming forth in what will be probably their last flush before the cold weather closes in. This is a David Austin double pink with a terrible, rangy habit, but gorgeous scented flowers.



I'm feeling a little floral at the moment ... the roses in the garden, photos of spring blooms at every turn on the web and my girls have been making paper flowers which currently have pride of place in a vase on my dining table.

Have you ever made flowers with some sort of medium? I've made some floral designs with gems in the past and I saw today that Phersmay had posted a photo of some organza flowers that she has made to attach to headbands, brooches and hairpins.

Totally NOT floral, however, today's jewellery piece is a wonderful long, long (did I mention it was long!?) strand of lustrous peacock freshwater pearls in semi-baroque, stick and coin shapes. It's so long it makes a decent length 2 strand necklace or a brilliant shorter length 3 strand. I've added in a sprinkling of amethyst, iolite and tanzanite gemstones to enhance that purple-blue hue that I love so much, and a gorgeous starfish sterling clasp. Do you like it?

Till next
Annette :)

Roses, gardening and lots of other things too!

Yet another busy week has passed (when are they NOT busy these days)! My back is stiff, my hands are sore...and no, jewellery isn't that hard a job most of the time :) The cause of all this discomfort is the rose garden - it has now been pruned, somewhat weeded, fertilised and mulched!

We have a formal rose garden at the front of the house that contains about 70 rose bushes, mostly hybrid teas and old fashioned roses, all scented. The smell in summer is quite divine (when I don't have hay fever that is lol). Divided into quadrants and with five rows - the outside is white, the second row in pink, the third and fourth rows are red and the centre was supposed to be red but we made a little mistake so its actually red AND white.

They put on a lovely show and I really am very naughty at taking care of them. They get pruned heavily in late winter (now), they may get a spray for aphids (should they arrive in plague proportions) and they get another light prune in summer. They get mulched every 3 years and weeded maybe 3-4 times a year.

I have lost a couple of bushes over the years and a friend who is an avid gardener and owns a nursery asked me how often I feed them. "Feed them?" I say. "Hmmm" she answers as she notes down her favourite fertiliser and instructions on how to give the poor suffering plants a little bit of tender loving care. So I left armed with instructions and a beautiful pair of leather rose pruning gloves. Yes, I know. The gloves weren't exactly a necessity, but my they're lovely. And I really haven't bought myself anything new in ages :)

So, a HUGE sense of achievement at having it done, but it couldn't have been done without a good friend's assistance (what a trooper, coming to face 70 odd roses!) and of course hubby who did the heavy work (aka shoveling!).

Whilst my hands survived relatively unscathed - thanks to the gorgeous gloves - I did take them off and replace with normal gardening gloves when I was clearing the mulch and doing some weeding. So they are looking a little worse for wear. I saw this wonderful looking Wild Citrus Grove body butter, hand balm and soap on one of my favourite online gift stores, Tonic Gifts. Perfect for a gardener's hands I would think!

Well, what else has been happening this past week? Ooooh, I was featured in the eSMArts blog last week - a whole article just on me :) And I got to write an article there this week on statement jewellery. Very much my thing!

Speaking of eSMArts, one of the wonderful eSMArts artists, Kari of Novel Approach Designs tagged me. But as I am SURE I can't think of another 6 things to tell you all, I am sure she will forgive me for not completely following through!

I also tidied up my bench. I was glad to see a recent post by Teresa of Inspired Designs had the same problem with her bench mysteriously filling up and becoming messy ;)

She has the most brilliant quote which I have now stuck to my desk:

"One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries." A. A. Milne.

Love it :D

My son received a new puppy - a little smooth coated border collie who is so happy and so intelligent. He has been dubbed "Patch" and it suits him perfectly.

The other HUGE piece of news is I found the MOST brilliant web designer who has built me a site!! Emma does limited edition and one of a kind e-commerce sites and has a real flair for what she does. She's super friendly too and I would highly recommend her if you are after a boutique e-commerce site but don't want to break the bank to do it! And please ask her if you have something in mind but can't see it there as she has other designs not up yet. I still have quite a bit of work to get stock in and refine it somewhat to how I want it to look, but it's very exciting. I hope you like it when all is revealed!

My goodness, I HAVE talked a lot today - look at the length of this post!!! A quick pic for today. A pretty, summery pair of freshwater pearl earrings to remind me of the gorgeous colours that will bloom in that freshly pruned rose garden in a few months time!

Have a great day!