Artist

Tonight I went to parent-teacher interviews. One question that is always raised is – “Has Philip thought about what he might like to do after school?”

I don’t really like this question. Pip has the intelligence to be whatever he chooses in this life. He is very interested in all things scientific and technological. He could follow a path that leads him into this field.

He also has creative and artisitic talents. I have known this since he was very young. Every where he went he drew little pictures that told stories.

 Every picture that he ever drew had a horizon line. Under the ground there was always a whole other world.  Some times his drawings showed trees with roots, worms and fossils under the ground.

This one shows pirates at the beach. He did it when he was about four. The pirates are all wearing hats – it gets quite hot at the beach. Under the ground you can see a crab living in a hole and some buried treasure. The pirate on the left is digging a hole with a shovel to get the 300091 gold coins from the treasure chest. He brought it to me one day and told me the long story that went with it. I have kept it in a drawer ever since.

Pip continues to study art – both at school and at private, after school lessons.

He enjoys drawing and sketching the most.

Whatever he chooses to do in the future, I hope he continues to find an avenue for his creativity. He has quite a talent for it.

I am a Red Button

I am indeed a red button. I know this because in my side bar there is a button to prove it.

How did I come to be a red button? Really it is a delightful consequence of being a blogger. Through my blog I met Kirsty, I already knew Flo and Sharon through quilting, then we all met Tanya through her blog. Each of us enjoying quilting and crafting, each of us enjoying photographing our work and blogging about it. BEST of all each of us live in Townsville.

After knowing each other for a little while we decided we should meet and stitch and chat and eat – once each week. Kirsty had the perfect spot for us to meet, so we began spending each Monday night together. We have been doing this now for quite some time. During that time we have grown a baby (she’s really Sharon’s, but she does share) and now we are planning a wedding dress. We have let children go and welcomed them home. We have been on overseas visits and started studying at university. We have been supported in grief and laughed until we fell from our chairs. All the rhythms of life move through our little group.

For some time we have been saying that we needed a name. Suggestions were made, but no decision was ever reached. With the beginning of this year Kirsty found a new energy. She painted and decorated our space (now referred to as ‘the club house’) and decided we needed a blog. A name had to be found in order to keep a blog of our weekly exploits. So we became the red buttons. Why red buttons? It sounds good and a google search did not reveal any other blogs of that name.

The great joy of meeting in a craft group once each week is that it gives you a motivation. I want to have things finished to show my group and I want to see what they have done. You’d be amazed at the talent that sits around our table each week. Some of us have even been published in crafty magazines. Now you can see what happens each week. It will be as though you have pulled up a chair at our table. Click the red button below to come and visit.

PS I’m now tweeting too. If you’re on twitter then look me up under the name peppermintpatch.

Hairless

They wanted to raise over ONE MILLION DOLLARS…

to support research into leukaemia.

He shaved his head in support…

rediscovering an old scar and gaining some street cred.

You helped him to raise over $600!

Soccer Post (I don’t have a better name than that)

This year, after taking a season off to recover from surgery, Philip has re-joined his soccer team.

Last week was the first game and I watched very nervously from the sidelines. He felt strong and fit and I know that he is safe, but I still worried that someone else might get too close or get too rough. This week I felt much more relaxed and took the camera along.

Before the game started…

He is pretty serious out there on the field. He throws himself into every tackle and chases the ball with great determination. He played in the forwards for the last part of the game and took two very reasonable shots at goal. He felt pretty pleased with himself afterward.

Now that he is playing in the upper grades his shorts and shirt are part of his team strip and need to be returned to the team bag after the game. Last week he just took his shorts off right there on the field after the game to change (he wasn’t the only member of his team to do this). When I asked what he was wearing under his shorts when he had done it he became all indignant and told me that he was wearing underwear. Now he has some black pants too – see them in the photo. Even though he doesn’t see the need for them I’m certain that the crowd at the game is glad that heis wearing them.

They play two 40 minute halves. Despite the fact that his games generally start at 4pm, it is still around 30 degrees celcius. The referees stop each twenty minutes for a drink break and he drinks around two litres of sports drink and water throughout the game. By the end he is tired and sweaty. It is definitely windows down in the car for the trip home!

This is the last game that he will play with a pony tail right down his back. Tomorrow his hair will all be shaved off. So many of his friends are excited about it. A few of them called out to him about it as we were leaving soccer. He just laps up the attention.

Thanks so much to those people who have offered him sponsorship for shaving his head. He has raised over $500, but the lessons he has learnt about community spirit and generosity are worth so much more than that. If you are still interested in sponsoring him you can just click here to do so.

I’ll have photos very soon of my baldy boy.

Tea Party…

Life has been busy. We are all suffering time loss due to the start of the soccer season, the guitar lessons, the art lessons, the netball games, and every other activity that has me driving hither and thither.

I have been a poor blogger, but I have been a busy stitcher.

Miss Abby has  Tea Party.

A new pattern is coming to my website soon.

The Hair of the Matter

Pip has been growing his hair for more than 18 months.

It is curling right down his back.

He generally wears it in a ponytail, otherwise it is wild and woolly.

It is the perfect length for rocking out…

to guitar hero.

BUT…

He will only have these gorgeous locks for just eight more days.

Quite some time ago he decided that this year he would support the Leukaemia foundation’s Shave for a Cure.

Each year, during the morning tea break, his school student council members shave the heads of willing volunteers in the main assembly area of the school in front of a huge crowd. Each of those willing volunteers collects sponsorship during the weeks before and donates the money to the leukaemia foundation to support research and, hopefully, the development of a cure for this cancer which affects so many.

He is very excited about doing it. He has been talking about it for so long.

He is such a good man.

(If you would like to sponsor him, let me know and I will arrange it.)

Milk or Sugar?

Would you care for a cup of tea?

 

I am making new Imagine That… quilts and making changes to the way I have set up my blogs and website. See just over there on the side bar. I made a button – I used html and everything! Well, really I copied and pasted some html that my amazing computer guy wrote and modified it, but it did the job and I still feel as clever as clever. My button is the one that links to the patterns page of my website. I am in the process of making some more. I am going to link to EVERYTHING! Just because I can…

Just Charming

I have become a little obsessed with charms squares.

I think I love them as a collector rather than as a quilter. Five inch squares of every fabric in a collection. Forty different fabrics in a sample size all connected by colour and design.

Even though I love them just for their own sake I really should do something with them. 

Luckily they look beautiful stitched into a quilt top, just waiting to be quilted with swirly feathers.

Melbourne

What a fabulous weekend my Pete and I had in Melbourne. If only it was a little more tropical I could happily make it my home.

We went for the quilt show, but our weekend was so much more than that.

We walked the length of Brunswick Street on a Sunday, late in the morning…

and felt delighted by every new store, every new cafe and every new ideal.

We ate homemade cake with some little lovelies…

and were entertained by their stories and drawings and soccer rules.

We visited a fabulous quilt store…

with talented people. See that wall behind me? I wanted it all so much that I could barely make a decision.

Best of all was a bloggers’ dinner – with people I know so well, but had never actually met.

The meal was delicious, the company was delightful and the evening much too short.

Thank you for your gracious company, Melbourne bloggers. Thanks for your hospitality Miss Caroline and thanks for your patient and generous taxi service Kellie. I just knew that I would love your company and I was right. It certainly won’t be the last time we get to meeet!