A Week of Birthdays

Greetings lovely friends & readers

Gosh didn't March disappear rather too quickly?!  Here we into another shiny new month already . . . . .

Since Easter it has been a week of birthdays.  First we had Sid's 7th birthday which we were all keen to celebrate after last years sorry episode.

This soccer-mad young boy got new clothes in his favorite players colours, a soccer ball & Sid's Dad built him his very own goal.  He had 4 school friends for a birthday party & then all the family came for a pizza dinner.  It was wonderful.  

 

I looked after him Tuesday & Wednesday as he was unwell.  Tuesday he seemed most definately sick but Wednesday he was fine & I think the idea of a day crafting with Granny appealed way more than a day at school.  We made plaster-of-paris dinosaur fossils in molds & Sid painted them. 

A couple of days later was Sid's Mummy's birthday.  I bought this beautiful bunch of flowers from a local stall & gave to Nicole along with a gift card, choccies & a gardening magazine. I also made my usual banana bread for them as it seems to be popular in that household.

On the weekend my dear friend Julie celebrated "a special birthday" & I was invited to afternoon tea.  We had a lovely time with drinks, nibbles & the most delicious Chocolate Mud Cake.  (I have cropped the other 4 ladies out of the photo as I don't have their permission to publish)  Read about Julie's gift a little later on in this post.

And then today is my dear Mum's heavenly birthday.  Mum would've been turning 95 today.  I miss her incredibly & I've played her favorite Ed Sheerin songs all day as well as buying 2 pots of pink cyclamen, one of Mums favorites - & potting them in my wall hanger.  

(Mum's birthday is the 8th, I started this post yesterday but had internet issues hence I am a day late publishing)

For 3 days last week we had the Tree Trimming Men here.  We've had a couple of big old trees removed & many pruned.  I currently have 4 piles of mulch to spread on my gardens even though one pile did go to my daughter in laws.  They still have a half day left to finish up. 

There is wood to be cut up for firewood & much cleaning up to be done.   The old walnut tree out the front of our house was pollarded & has let a huge amount of light into our house.  We have to get this done approximately every 4 years as otherwise it grows over to the power lines.  I have been gathering up buckets of fallen walnuts. 

Although the tree trimming men were lovely I found having them here incredibly stressful.  If I felt stressed can you imagine how 3 furry beings felt??!!  The noise from the chain saws & their huge mulcher is very loud & constant.   

I wanted to make 2 soy candles for gifts - the one above was for my friend Julie's birthday, mentioned previously.  

I had earmarked this pretty china trio to make into a candle for Julie.  

When the wax set I was admiring the smooth top on it & thinking "how wonderful" when I realised I had completely forgotten to put a wick in first (!!!)  😲 Seriously friends I could not believe it - that is how stressed I was with the constant noise & tree crashing. 

 Thankfully I managed to slide one of my wood wicks down into it before the wax fully set.  The fragrance is French Pear as I knew Julie loved this.  She was thrilled with her gift & I've yet to share this story with her 😉

When the noise got too much I went down to the Pond to finish some weeding I'd started before Easter.  Little One usually appears when I am working down here as he is fascinated with the goldfish in the pond.  I snapped these pics of him trying his hardest to get to them - I did warn him if he fell in I was not rescuing him but it fell on deaf ears, as most things do with him.

I loved this photo of him sitting under the ferns with the suns ray shining down.

Easter was very quiet in our house as The Mr is in full calving mode & not home much.  I found this board purchased in my large op-shop haul in this recent post..  I gave the flower a light sand, then painted it with 2 coats Vintage White chalk paint before applying some of the leftover transfers from Juno's suitcase in * this post *..  It made a sweet little Easter sign on my outdoor deck table.

Although March was decidedly chilly here I am pleased to say April has warmed up a bit.  I am not quite ready for winter just yet.  I sat out in the sunshine (with Blackie) on Easter Sunday & stripped this native timber stool that I've had for Ever.  It's Rimu & a solid heavy piece.  I often used to stand on it for painting as you can see.  It came up really well & I was so pleased I took the time to clean it up.  A couple of coats of furniture oil was all it needed to finish it off nicely.

I took the enamel candlestick that I paid $1 for in my thrift haul, dug the old wax out of it, then put it through the dishwasher.  It came up beautifully so I tied a lace bow to the handle & added a simple taper candle.  I'm enjoying it on my nightstand. 

Thank you for staying through this long rambly post dear readers,

Wishing you an enjoyable week ahead - remember to be kind to yourselves & to each other,

With much love & friendship to you all,