Goodbye 2012!

2012 has been a fantastic year. During 2012 I have turned 30, completed my second year of my degree and started my third and final year, been to several friends weddings, even being a bridesmaid at one, and we've congratulated friends who have got engaged and will be marrying in 2013.

We've been to first birthday parties, welcomed new babies and heard the good news of more expected in 2013.

My Small Person lost her first baby tooth, won 3 art competitions and placed in the children's homecraft section of the Kenilworth show, and she performed her heart out in her dance show in July and again for Playbox Theatre in August.

My Smaller Person has made new friends, gained huge amounts of confidence and is a huge Scooby Doo fan. His vocabulary is growing fast every day. Mr Bogert has worked hard at his day job and also at his photography and he has plenty more trips and photoshoots set for 2013 including a couple of personal photography projects he has been planning. In 2012 we became the proud owners of the Spaceship (our S-Max car) and only had time to fit in one holiday (to Woolacombe) but we crammed it full of fun days.

We've been involved in or attended plenty of village events such as the Open Gardens, Party in the Park and Bonfire Night. Mr Bogert and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary and we planned and executed (rather well I thought) a Muppet Rainbow 2nd Birthday Party for the Smaller Person, and a Princess 7th Birthday Party for the Small Person.

2013 promises to see a big change for us around the end of June. My degree will finally be complete and I will have the entire summer study free to get on top of housework and, most importantly, spend plenty of time with the family without deadlines hanging over my head or bookish distractions calling me away. I can't wait. I haven't had study free time since before my sweet little guy was born. Can you believe that!?

Wishing you all the very best in 2013, and hopefully an enjoyable evening seeing in the New Year. See you on the other side!

Lots of Love, The Wishes xxx

Toddler Group Tuesday - Chinese New Year

In honour of Chinese New Year we have made Chinese Dragon Masks.

You will need:
- a copy of the pdf printed onto card (or paper then glued to card)
- scissors
- a tongue depresser/lollipop stick
- black, white, red and gold collage bits
- glue
- glitter
- yarn or ribbon


Chinese Dragon Mask - colour in

(sorry this is upside down - pdfs on my blog are new to me. If anyone has any advice on how to include pdfs or another file format that would be suitable for images like this, sewing patterns and writing, please let me know!)
Cut out your mask shape and the eye holes.

Use your collage pieces to to decorate all over (the black for the eyes).

Make patterns with your glue and sprinkle with glitter.

Attach yarn or ribbon as 'whiskers' (that's probaly not the correct term, but it's the best one I've got!).

An optional item is adding 'horns' made from your collage pieces.

Finally stick your tongue depresser/lollipop stick to the back of the lower jaw on the mask so as it can be held. (you could also attach elastic or ribbon, but I'm not sure how much this would alter the shape of the mask on the face).

All done!

The pdf image has a fair bit of detail in and could just be coloured or painted, but you could cut the seperate features out in different coloured paper to stick on a base, or you could trace just the essential lines (outline, eyes, mouth) and fill your own details in.
You don't have to stick to the colours I have suggested, why not look for some images on the internet for inspiration on how to decorate yours? You could add all sorts of extras. You could add extra thick black lashes made from paper, and a long forked pink tongue also made from paper. If you don't feel like making a mask, why not use the pdf as the head of a larger dragon? Just use fabric/paper plates/tissue paper as the long body and decorate as you wish.

Please feel free to use the pdf at home, in the classroom, at nursery or wherever else you think it may be useful, but please don't repost without permission. It's my very own little picture :)

The End and The Beginning

I don't do resolutions. They always seem far too easy to break, and are met with comments ranging from "That's nice, dear" to "Yeah, right!". I'm not setting myself any goals or making any wishes that wont come true. I'm just going to try my hardest at everything and hope it all works out well, if it doesn't, I know I couldn't have done any better, and I wont feel any guilt over failure to meet targets!

This is the end of a very fast moving year. It was the first full year of my ittle man's life, and it flew by at rocket speed. I dropped out of the blogosphere for quite some time as I struggled to find a balance between my many roles, and I think right about now I have a very tenuous hold on it all. I've had to learn to let some things go. If I haven't made a handmade gift for a certain event/birthday, if I've had to BUY a card, if I've had to say to the Small People 'just watch a movie/tv programme', if I've had to say 'pizza/take away for dinner tonight, if I've not contacted friends for weeks or even months, I've just had to learn to LET IT GO. I can't do everything as much as that niggling voice in the back of my head says "sure, you can do this. *INSERT NAME HERE* would manage this fine". There simply isn't time, and our current situation is a temporary one. The other things have to be set aside so that I can complete my degree, look after the Small People, have some time with Mr Bogert and have some time with just ME. These are the essentials to survival and a happy future.

I spent the first 8 months of my degree feeling bad every time I didn't return a phonecall or remember a birthday. I've now come to terms with it (I'm hoping my friends have too!). My head is filled with coursework and day to day chores. It wont be forever, and hopefully once I have my degree, I can work towards having a career and buying a bigger house. We live in a shoebox :D

So, after that mad ramble, what I'm trying to say is, I will try hard in all the things I manage to fit into my life, but I can't afford to beat myself up if things get skipped out or I don't quite acheive absolute perfection in. This is a temporary state of being - normal programming will resume (just not until about 2015!).

So for the speed and chaos with which 2011 has been experienced, we have slowed it down for the very last day. We got out of bed later, we ate breakfast later (and it didn't involve a great deal of preparation), we took a walk around the village and tired the Small Person out as much as possible. The Smaller Person is now having a nap, Mr Bogert is visiting a neighbour, The Small Person is lying on the sofa reading a book, and I'm here talking to you, my blog friends. Later, Mr Bogert is cooking a roast dinner, we've got a bottle of wine ready and a cheesecake for dessert. The Small People will go to bed early, then Mr Bogert and I are going to curl on the sofa with a movie and some Christmas chocolate. There will be no books (me), not knitting/crochet (me), no sewing (me), no photo editing (Mr Bogert), no computer game playing (Mr Bogert), no answering emails (Mr Bogert), just us and some random actors.

I'm sure things will begin to speed away from us again next week, and through 2012, as Mr Bogert returns to work, the Small Person returns to school, the Smaller Person and I return to toddler group and I tackle my next assignment before my next course starts alongside this one, but for now, it's peaceful and there are no demands of any of our time.

Have a lovely last day of 2011, see you in 2012!

Don't mean a thing if you ain't got that swing.......

And I certainly haven't.

I'm still ill. Sicky Vicky :( The cough that plagued me all of Christmas developed into full blown flu just in time for check in at the hotel for new year :( How much partying did I get done? Not a whole bunch. I did make it downstairs for dinner on New Year's Eve and stayed up drinking lemonade until the clocks chimed. I even ventured to the bar of the health club on New Year's day with my book whilst Mr Bogert and the small person went into the pool. Then I went back to bed with a really bad headache.

I still have the worst chesty cough and feel rotten. You can tell how awful I feel. There has been no crafting! I know! It's terrible! I also feel incredibly cheated. I now have to wait another 12 months to enjoy my favourite time of year.

I have done a few of the small person's craft kits with her. We made a family of puppets (I drew the outlines and she filled them in) she sewed a picture frame and a purse, and today she decorated a mirror and hairbrush with a whole bunch of bling.

l-r - Lion ('cos every family needs one, dontcha know), Me, The small person, Mr Bogert

There is snow everywhere, which I would love to go out and enjoy, but can't because of this stupid yuckiness that's ruining all of my fun. My little sister did however save the day, and took the small person out the front to make a snowman and snowangel. My sister's not big on the making of snowmen but points for effort.

I am now going to sit on my comfy sofa and attempt some of my own crafting, that's if I can get into the swing....