They grow up WAY too fast!

My DD is 6. She is in year 1. This letter came home from school today: Dear Parents and Caregivers Welcome to term 3 which is promising to be another busy term. The children have returned from holidays refreshed and looking forward to the weeks ahead. A major unit of learning for this term will be in the area of Religious Education. "Made in the image of God: Being Sexual" (I’m sorry – do they need to use the word sexual in there!? LOL what’s wrong with ‘made in the image of God’ FULL STOP.) Throughout the term we will be covering this unit with the main themes being:

• Looking at how the children have changed from when they were babies to year ones.
• Looking at the people that make up a family. Their similarities and differences.
• How boys and girls are different, but both made equal in the eyes of God.
• Correctly naming all body parts.

If you have any queries about the specific content of this curriculum, please feel free to come in and speak to us. We are happy to discuss the course content as well as the particular learning tasks the children will engage in. You may wish to speak to your child yourself first in order to prepare them for this unit of work.

Thank you for your help and cooperation. We look forward to your continued support.

Are you kidding me!!!??? When did they start doing this so early!!!?? I swear I am no prude, but I thought I had a good few years of innocence left in her yet!!!???

ps. i have added a link to the mini rose tutorial in the sidebar if you come back looking for it after i have pushed the post off the page!

A new paper flower tutorial

I got a cute blog award from Carol, she likes my style :)

Thanks Carol - this one's for you:

That which is old can become new again!

Mini recycled paper roses tutorial

This morning I was playing with the idea of converting Kaiser mini paper flowers (everyone has lots of these don't they?) into gorgeous textured roses like Prima's teeny tiny new ones.

Here's how I did it...

Step 1: You will need between 2 and 4 (or maybe more?) mini paper flowers and a scrap of green cardstock. I have punched a flower shape out of mine but you could easily cut this sort of shape freehand. It doesn't need this many petals (or 'leaves')

Step 2: Add a drop of craft glue to the centre of each flower. You need to move fairly quickly so the glue doesn't dry but it does start to go tacky which makes things easier.

Step 3: Take one petal and pinch the base to close the petals up together around the glue. Squeeze gently until it holds in position by itself. Only takes a second.

Step 4: Turn it over and snip the pointed bottom off.

Step 5: Now it has a flat base, drop it onto the centre of the next flower.

Step 6: Pick the whole thing up and pinch the base again, wrapping the second flower around the first. Again, hold it until it is stuck together.

Snip a little bit off the bottom and continue squeezing and snipping with all your petals. You can stop at 2 petals for a smaller, bud-type flower, or keep going to 4 or 5 or more petals for a really full bloom. This one used 4.

Add a drop of glue to the centre of your punched 'leaf' and sit the whole flower on top. DONE!

Now experiment! You could ink the edges up before assembling, or swipe a distress ink pad over the top once finished, make smaller ones, bigger ones, I made a little bud by stopping at 2 flowers and then folding the leaf right around (this needed a bit more glue than just a drop) Try some using different shades of flowers on the one rose or add some kidyglitz for sparkle. Try different sized or shaped leaves too.

Have fun using up all those old paper flowers!

These guys ended up on a cute project for Lime Tart that I can show you in a few weeks :)

EDITED TO ADD:I made a few more of these last night, using not-so-little flowers. I didn't think it would work with the pointy flowers or the huge ones, but they all turned out OK. Especially nice with a touch of glimmermist!

That huge pink one is Heidi Swapp round petals. It's massive!

Scour your stash for green flowers to use as leaves. I have cut this one in pieces for my leaves. I'd love to see others, like these ones Tiff made. Leave me a comment linking me back to your projects and I'll share them here :)

I've been scrapping!

Hold onto your credit cards girls, Philippa has outdone herself this month with 3 stunning kits you are going to want to get your hands on! I couldn't resist getting an extra one so have been playing with both the Full Tart and the A La Tarte, some sneaks of my work below...

Full Tart:

And a sneak at what I have been doing with it:

Check out the Lime Tart blog for a tutorial on making these buttons!

Half Tart:

Julie's been playing with this one so I can guarantee some gorgeous stuff in the gallery soon. and the beautiful A La Tarte:

Check out the gorgeous stamp that comes in it!

Available for pre-order on Sunday. And you know they always sell out fast!

A Masterchef Moment

Yay for the girls coming over to scrap last night. I love our crops :) We have a precision schedule in place for who is hosting, driving and catering, LOL so last night was my turn to feed the masses and I decided to go a little bit upmarket. pmsl. All easy peasy of course, I'm very lazy in the kitchen. But sooo yum. I would have loved to have taken som gorgeous photos but it was already dark before I started assembling them so you get dodgy burnt out flash photography! Garlic crustinis spread with olive tapenade and topped with a salsa made from cherry tomato, avocado, spanish onion, lime juice and cracked black pepper: Vol au Vents filled with an antipasto mix of finely diced artichoke, marinated green olives, kalamata, sundried tomato, roasted capsicum and marinated mushrooms, topped with basil pesto:

Blinis (mini pikelets) topped with cream cheese, smoked salmon and baby capers with cracked black pepper:

Garlic marinated prawns on cucumber rounds:

Drooling?

Soup

It's cold. My slow cooker is getting a real workout this winter. I love smelling winter food cooking all day. I love the quick turnaround at meal time instead of the frantic rush to get the food ready while everyone whinges about how hungry they are!

Lots of soup in our lives at the moment. LOVE soup! Pea and Ham, Hearty Chicken, Chicken Noodle, and my favourites - Pumpkin (which I make really rustic and thick with some bacon and zucchhini in it - sooo yum!) And Chinese Chilli Chicken and Sweet Corn (OMG this is to die for!)

This roasted tomato soup is an easy peasy one - great for when I forgot to put the cooker on!

Just pile up a huge roasting pan with tomatoes (about 2 kgs and preferably truss for added flavour) Chuck in a whole clove of seperated garlic, skin and all, Lots of coarsly ground black peppercorns and sea salt and a tablespoon of good olive oil. Throw it in the oven for about an hour, giving it a shake around once or twice. Then you just remove the trusses, squeeze the gooey roasted garlic out of their skins and bamix it. We serve it with shaved parmesan cheese and a spoonful of basil pesto. And garlic bread on the side. YUM.

Lime Tart Gallery is up!

Here's one of my layouts using the Half Tart:

Lime Tart News

Check out the new-look newsletter...

Click on the image below to be taken to the cute new online newsletter. Lots of cool stuff - OMG have you seen Julie's blossom tutorial!!!??

You've got until Sunday 5 July to sign up for the newsletter (we've made it SUPER easy for you to sign up!) and you go in the draw to win a Half Tart!