A-May-zing May, 2018

One of the girls I work with thinks I'm crazy.  Apparently working 4 days a week, studying one subject, being a wife and mum, doing a bit of art and helping out when I can with the Little Big Fella's school events is a bit much.

Sometimes I think she's right.

But mostly I think I'm trying to get the most out of the short life I have and trying to prioritise the people and things that I love and make me feel good.

May had some good stuff in it!

The Big Fella took the Little Big Fella out for a motorbike ride.  When they came back, the Little Big Fella was buzzing!  I asked how the ride went and he had this funny face and said, "show her, Dad!".  The Big Fella's phone gets passed over and I watch a video of my little boy driving our manual car!  He's 9!!!!

*Disclaimer: They were driving in the middle of the bush on a good dirt road with no other people, animals or trees nearby

Apparently the Little Big Fella has a bit of a knack for driving, because he didn't do a single bunny hop, and changed gears really well.  My nightmares about future car incidents have begun!  He did decide that 70kms per hour felt a little fast, though.

We had dinner with friends a few times this month, which, now that it's getting colder included a fire in their chimenea one night.  It also included an experiment with homebrew spirits, where toffee was poured into a bottle of rum.  It looked pretty cool!

My hairdresser's daughter had her first birthday in May and we were invited to celebrate with them.  Going to the hairdresser's is a noisy, social event for us, because there is a group of 3 or 4 of us who go together and the kids play while we get our hair done.  It's lots of fun hanging out with friends like that!

These two are surrogate brother and sister.  Both only children with no chance of a sibling, they get along SUPER well... for a while ;-)

A classic Little Big Fella face at the moment.

The birthday girl with the spoils of war, and a friend.

All the kids who get to play together on hairdresser days.

One of my dear friends came back for a visit and we got to spend a bit of an afternoon with her and a couple of other friends.  Even when it's a short catch up, it's fun and good for the soul.  I love that our kids get along so well, too!  It makes catch ups fun for everyone.

One of the main events in May each year is the local high school art show.  They show the work of their students, teachers, students from the Primary (Elementary) schools, and adult artists.  It's a decent show in the local art world, attracting works and visitors from up to 8 hours away.

I wasn't that excited about any of my pieces this year.  Uni has distracted me and work has been busy.  But I submitted a couple of photos I took in our local area, two paintings and my first ever mosaic to support the school.

We had a brilliant night!  Lots of laughter with my art friends, a bit of wine, and awesome shoes.

On my way to the show, I got a call from my youngest sister, who was in Italy with her partner.  I wondered why they were calling from overseas!  She told me they'd been to dinner at an ocean-view restaurant and at the end of the meal the waiter brought out another closhe, saying, "I think he has something to ask you" (in his gorgeous Italian accent, of course).  He proposed and she accepted and I squealed and probably broke her eardrum!

I'm so happy for them!  They obviously love and respect each other and he makes her happy and encourages her to be her best self, which I think is one of the keys to choosing a life partner.

I guess I'll have to start saving the pennies for another trip interstate!  Yay!!!!

The Little Big Fella's class submitted a piece for the show and won "Best Overall Student Work", too.  His contribution is the green one in the top right hand corner.

I only took one other photo of the art from the show - my favourite of the night because of its realism, colour and skill with pastels:

The artist who judged the show, Jenni Kelly, then stayed on and did a 2-day workshop for the weekend and I got to go.  

T doing the pizza dance while her canvas was drying

Teaching a little trick to give the lorikeets a bit of a highlight

Lay down the petals in white with a palette knife for texture, then spray the colour on!

This is my piece!  I LOVE the colour and learned so many fun techniques that I think I'll get to use in other styles of painting as well.

These three ladies are my heroes!  The two on the left are in their 80s and they are inspiring in SO many ways.  All three gave up much of their weekend to wait on those of us who were painting - preparing food and drinks, making sure we had what we needed, sorting out our finances, and encouraging us the whole time.  I am so blessed to be able to hang out with them each week!

These are all of our paintings at the end of the weekend.  Not all of the paintings are complete, but they're looking amazing!  Can you believe that we all started with the EXACT same process and colours?  And the lady in the top left of the photo has never painted before!  Such a fun weekend with a brilliant group of people.

A HUGE shout out to my dear friend, D, for taking the Little Big Fella for the whole weekend and looking after him so well!  She was going to do the workshop but pulled out, agreeing to look after our boys in exchange for me showing her what I'd learned.  I took plenty of notes and photos, so hopefully I can make the deal worthwhile for her!

There was a group running a laser tag event in the park over the weekend, which is one of several activities they got to do!  They had a ball and were exhausted at the end of it all.

I did a workshop with an indigenous lady from our art group a while back, and the Big Fella really liked it.  So I got it framed this month as well.  (My framer loves me in May!)

I'll finish off May with a new development in our lives.  The Little Big Fella wanted something online, so instead of just asking for it, he offered to do jobs around the house to earn it.  I nearly fell over!

Then gave him a list, of course!

The proof is in the photo ;-)