school's in...

and so dear readers you may recall at the beginning of the school vacations i was not embracing ten weeks with my little brood as willingly as i should have been...today is the first day back to school and i have to tell you that i am aching inside.

the summer with my little sprogs has passed in the blink of an eye and now my little nest is cold and empty...it has been a big morning for three of my 'dears' starting new schools...i am quite sure they are perfectly okay, it is their mother who requires a 'stiff drink' to make it through. i told my man that i am not cut out for these moments in motherhood...he doesn't get my need to run out the door shouting "don't go, come back...stay with me forever...", he is most definitely the 'hard center' in the candy box, i am the soft one...

and so today i feel it fitting to show you what our #4 got up to last week...

my friend Suzanne is a crafter extraordinaire and even more fabulous, she has a rare gift of knowing how to teach children to sew. i'm not talking the 'hand sewing thing' here, but the 'sewing machine thing'...and even better she runs summer camps for all the budding crafters of the next generation to learn some skills.

our #4 went for three days and in that time he learnt to use a rotary cutter, an iron, an unpicker (his favorite thing) and a sewing machine (without his mother hovering)...some other impressive skills he acquired...to put a zipper in and applique. by the end of the camp, he was the proud creator of a patchwork, appliqued pillow and ugly monster...i was the proud mother of a boy with sewing skills.

i have to tell you, i get a kick out of knowing my ten year old can put a zipper in a cushion cover, something i have never achieved...i get a kick out of the fact he is a 'boy' taking sewing lessons (whether that's right or wrong) and i get a kick out of him coming home and saying "i feel it's time you got a Bernina like Suzanne, i think i'll save up for one...they run so much better than your machine, no offense."

it's not even nine in the morning, i have been awake since four...thinking about my kids and their first day, making new friends, getting to know a different school...and then dear readers it happened, the unthinkable...my brain started to drift towards more crafty thoughts and by golly, i do believe i have found what i lost a while back...

yes it is true, she has found her crafting mojo ~ Tif