Wednesday 29 February 2012

Counterfeit Kit Colour challenge and a layout

Just when my brand new Aqua markers arrived in the mail the colour challenge was announced over on the Counterfeit Kit challenge blog. How's this for a coincidence? I made these two cards and the one for my Mojo Monday challenge. I had to use some patterned paper from my stash as I've nearly used up my kit and I have a few photos still left that I want to use with it.



Here's another layout I made with the kit, I had Big Monkey fill out a little survey to see what has changed to previous years. Her favourite colour is now green after it has been light blue for a few years now, pink has long been out of favour but it's not as hated as it was just a year ago.


I want to do the same with Little Monkey but so far he didn't want to answer. I could probably answer for him but there might be some surprises, you never know.

Mojo Monday 230

I made this card for Mojo Monday.


Tuesday 28 February 2012

Photos from the Museum of London

I borrowed Daddy Monkey's little camera and couldn't quite figure out what it wanted me to do so there aren't any photos from inside the museum as flash photography of course is not allowed with all the old exhibits and the camera said no.

Here's one of Big Monkey dressing up as an Archaeologist, she's holding a trowel and a bone ice skating piece.


There are they all in front of the museum, Little Monkey pretends he isn't part of our little group.


Well, at least someone is looking pretty and smiling...


He did enjoy running around here even though it doesn't look like it.


Always good for a silly photo opportunity.


A police phone box, now out of service so rare and greatly admired.


I, too, loved this butterfly art work by Rebecca J Cole from the Guildhall Art Gallery.

Monday 27 February 2012

Look!!

I wanted to do this for a long time.

It's a Baby Monkey!!


So much for my news for the week.

Saturday 25 February 2012

Our week in review

Outside our window: Sunshine and lots of bird visitors. We managed to watch the pair of goldfinches for several minutes and marveled at their beauty. We don't often see them, they are still shy however we notice the seeds go down consistently. We also have two new regular visitors, two starlings who now show up every day to have a taste of the fatball and the mealworms. Our regulars are also often to be seen and as they aren't shy anymore we can have a very good look at them.

An update on that orange balloon, it is now ripped in half and now looks like a bow on the branch.

From the kitchen: Sunday we had a very lovely lunch out at the pub on the way to the seaside, made particularly nice as it meant no work for me. We also had a special treat of cake and smoothies at our favourite bakery, Sable d'or. At home we had stir-fry with salmon, marinated beef, Pasta with bacon and a mushroom (the biggest ever).


 



In the learning room: Maths, no surprise there, eh? The Romans in Britain and a trip to the Museum of London. We also finished our weather project and our home made rain gauge has worked and we were able to read how much it had rained last week. We also started on the organs and where they are in the human body. Big Monkey now can name the major bones in both English and German. We also started with the wonders that are irregular verbs, the English ones aren't that surprising, occasional some mistakes slip in but of course they don't provide many surprises it's the German ones that produce much eye rolling. Big Monkey also had another saxophone lesson and we now have to decide whether we buy the instrument as our rental agreement has run out.

We've been creating: Big Monkey found her French knitting again and has been busy with that. I made lots more layouts from my Counterfeit kit so this has proven very successful for me. But now I'm ready for the new kit. Not too much longer. I also made a few cards and four more postcards for the Alphabetica swap.


Favourite things: An evening out with Daddy Monkey with nice food and a movie. We found a great pub in Hampstead that had great food. We even had time to browse the bookshop before and I bought a book, a real book! I thought briefly to wait and get home and order it for my kindle but then decided it might be nice for Big Monkey to read some time so got it with its new lovely paper smell and heavy weight (not really just compared to the kindle). Friends visiting and Little Monkeys who do their speech exercises even when they scream them and add lots of other words in. We tried an iPad app "ArtikPix" and it lets us record his voice which he loved listening to. The free version comes with only one sound set so I'll have to get the full one soon to practise all the sounds he has problems with, which unfortunately are nearly all of them. I might give it a few more attempts with the free one though to see whether we can reproduce last nights success.

Things we did: Big Monkey went to Messy Play with Little Monkey and decided it was just too messy for her and she wouldn't go again. They played with shaving foam and colours and apparently it was absolutely everywhere. She had paint everywhere she said, and whenever she touched something she got messy again. Well, that's the idea and that's why Little Monkey goes there and doesn't do it at home. However, it's at Missus Wookie's Quaker meeting House.  But it sounds that the messy play teacher is very good at tidying up after herself as so far I haven't hear anything negative from Missus Wookie. I think she just doesn't want to have a look at the going ons. I'm with her on this one. It sounds crazy. We also visited the Museum of London, with Missus Wookie, and Little Monkey wasn't terribly impressed so he "entertained" us with his singing.

Hipstamatic Friday

Wednesday 22 February 2012

Monday 20 February 2012

I like green

Obviously...


What do you think of the kitchen floor in the new house?

Flower brooch


Sunday 19 February 2012

Herne Bay

It was lovely and sunny so we decided to drive to the seaside. Daddy Monkey has been suggesting it for a while now. We drove to Herne Bay in Kent.




Perfect pebbly beach to collect pebbles to throw into the sea.



Time to feel the surf. Aren't wellie boots great?



I think the council is of the opinion that the cliffs might be a tad bit unstable.
Better stay off then.



Saturday 18 February 2012

Our week in review

Outside our window: Rather dull winter garden scenery without snow but, but


The crocuses are out!

In case you're wondering the orange balloon is smaller still and curled around a twig in the cherry tree.

From the kitchen: Big Monkey and her friend made cup cakes and decorated them and hid some sweet surprise inside them. Shepherds pie, Chicken Stroganoff, Vegetarian Risotto, Fish pie, Pasta and Augsburger Sausages with Mash were on the menu this week.


In the learning room: Unsurprisingly Maths. While the schools were closed for half term we only did a few essential lessons which were mainly the now usual speed sheets and multiplication. In science we kept an eye on our bean plants which now do justice to their reputation and grow while being watched. We started a new project, the weather. We made rainbows, a rain gauge and know why it rains, where clouds come from and why the sky is blue and we kept a weather diary. In art Big Monkey painted a portrait of me in the style of Frida Kahlo. She also had her saxophone lesson where she kept working on her sharp Bs (not that I know what they talked about...)




We've been creating: Paintings, layouts, cards. I've made three ATCs to fill the little holder I got as present in the yahoo group 12 Days of Christmas swap from Annie.


Favourite things: Friends who announce a visit and are here an hour later. Little presents that show somebody noticed somethings like the missing bookmark. The pretty brooch I got for Valentine's Day that looks like a scrapbook paper embellishment. Quick healing gums and no complications.

Things we've done: I've been to my Yoga class for the third time this week. It feels really good, my joints really benefit and I certainly need the relaxation. We took the kitchen funnels and colanders into the bath which Little Monkey absolutely loved. He created fountains and streams and it all stayed in the bath tub! I guess this was the biggest surprise to me. I envisioned a flooded bathroom but it was actually better than normal. Big Monkey not only had her bestest friend staying over for a sleep over she also had a friend visiting and on the same day also visited another friend at her house. Big Monkey and her bestest friend got the Monkey cat to do tricks and concluded that she is indeed the cleverest cat in the world. Ever.


She certainly is the cutest. Ever.

Hair clip organizer

If your daughter is anything like mine than she has long hair at some point of time requiring clips or slides to tame it. This is an organizer I made a while back, it used to be pink when I first made it as Big Monkey was still in the pink phase. This has been over for a while now so last Autumn I changed the colours.


It's really easy to make, all you need is a picture frame without the glass front. I covered the back of the frame with green fabric and tacked it tight. Then I added the ribbons and held them taught with upholstery brads. Easy! Now I hope that the hair clips all end up there again after being used. 

For the Kids Friday


Friday 17 February 2012

Big, brave Monkey

Big Monkey had to have another two teeth removed yesterday. The reason was the same as before, the teeth moved back into her gums without any adult teeth behind to push them out. Although one did have one there now as we found out when the teeth were out. We could see its crown embedded in the gums. However, once the wound is nicely healed it will be covered again and the dentist reckoned that it might quite some while until it finally makes its appearance.  Even though the extraction proved again to be quite tricky with one tooth, Big Monkey wasn't as upset because she knew what was coming.There was quite some bleeding last night and she had some pain but this morning she felt much better and had only very little pain. She was well enough to receive visitors and even go visit one of her friends, she was under strict order on keeping things calm and easy. I'm not sure how well this worked though as the drawing time was cut short with the arrival of  Jen's Little ones and there was a bit of excitement going on considering they hadn't seen each other for quite some while.

My knight in shining armour



Hipstamatic Friday