Falinks Bag

Falinks is a Pokémon that is a bit like a caterpillar. They walk in a line but rearrange to battle. Their little side shields also move independently to cover their eyes and what not too. It also happens to be Rachel's favourite Pokémon. 

Since we've been playing Pokémon Legends Z-A, thanks to Steve's Birthday Switch 2 purchase, there has been a swing back to enjoying Pokémon from our girls. One of the characters uses Falinks as his Pokémon, and has a very cool Falinks bag as part of his costume. 

There are no good photos of it online (the one above is from I don't know where!), but Rachel drew a reference image for me and I decided I'd be able to make one for her. (I mean, Sophie has a Majikarp Bag after all.) Rachel's instructions were that it would be big enough for her "stuff" - mostly a notebook, pencils and pens. 

I just used whatever I could find in my fabric stash. Yellow fabric from a friends wedding (which I talk about in the Majikarp Bag post) made up most of it. Black and red, I don't know where that was from TBH. The shiny blue was scraps from my Princess Bride costume, and the white was a bedsheet. I also used a zip that I salvaged from one of the girls old lunch bags, and hardware from free conference lanyards. 

The whole thing is stabilized with the sturdiest interfacing ever, though I do feel like I could have added an extra fabric or batting layer to give the thin yellow cotton a bit more weight to it. 

It is, of course, fully lined and has pockets, as per Rachel's design. This blue fabric... was from somewhere too I guess! 

The back of the pouch has two loops so Rachel can slide it onto a belt and wear it around her waist. 

The sides both have lanyard clips, so there is an option of putting a strap on, or just clipping other stuff on. I was going to make a strap with the yellow fabric, but Rachel was too impatient and just wanted to get going, so she used her strap from Japan. Works the same. 

It's the cutest little Falinks bag ever. 

Cooking with Parvin

What seems like a lifetime ago now (maybe December 2024?), Steve and I went for a date night at A Taste of Saffron at Stones Corner. It was a Persian restaurant that we had never been to and the food was delicious. The highlight of the night was an amazing eggplant dish with some kind of yoghurt toping. Couldn't tell you the name of the dish, but I took a photo of it. We had recently had some people from Iran join our church and I thought maybe they would recognise it. 

Parvin did recognise the dish and was happy to tell me about it, so I asked her if she could teach me to make it. She was so excited, but of course, by the time I had shown her the photo, it was late January, and then we left for Japan six weeks later. Fast forward to February of this year and, I finally had the pleasure of learning how to make this Persian eggplant dish with Parvin. 

It was so special to be cooking with this lovely lady. What I thought was going to be an hour or so, was actually more like four hours. We soaked the eggplant, cooked the yoghurt, chatted and sewed. Then finally got to the main cooking. It was delightful to be learning from her. The kind of thing I wish I could have done with my own grandparents. 

I was a little emotional about it, thinking of so many things. The wisdom that comes from the older generations, the traditions they can pass on and stories they can tell. The perspectives that come from people who had to flee their countries, how they continue to cook food that reminds them of home, and keep their culture alive in a new place. How our generation is missing these slow moments of connection in our busy consumer driven lives. Even thinking about God's kingdom and desire for every nation to be one people. 

When we finished cooking, Parvin insisted we go and buy Turkish bread from "the only place in Brisbane with the best Turkish bread" together. The shop was in Moorooka and had lots of Persian products that Parvin told me about as we walked the to the bread section. The whole afternoon/evening was good for my soul and I'm super thankful for it. 

 

Sashiko Complete

In a world where I feel I accumulate project after project too quickly, it's always nice to finish one off. 

This sashiko work started when I decided to make a class set of cloths for my classes to use as whiteboard cleaners. I prepped nearly 30 small squares of fabric and got tracing designs. 

The first few were off to a quick start, but there was a slow down while we were in Japan and I was predominately working on other stuff. Since being back, I was able to make great headway, and then finally, the first week of school being so full of meetings meant that I could finish it off. 

I'm honestly a little surprised that I am finished, since it seemed like a lot at the start and my progress was pretty slow, but I'm happy it's done. I really enjoy sashiko, but don't really know how to work it into my more every-day sewing. 

More than my surprise at being actually finished, is my shock that the kids at school actually seem to appreciate having these. They are also left speechless when I tell them I made them. It’s been rather nice. 

Belated Birthday Post

Is this the year where I only post about people's birthdays months after the event? It happened with Steve, it's happening with Sophie, so maybe? 

It's a short one, but I don't want to forget it. Sophie is now 13. She's taller than me. She loves Greek myths and musicals. She's committed to BJJ trying to get her next belt (it's a yellow and black, so they call it the "Vegemite belt"). When she's not reading, Sophie is drawing on every bit of paper available. 

This sweet girl didn't want to try to juggle mixing friends from various circles for a party, so we had a casual family afternoon tea and a movie night. A plain chocolate cake was requested and I added the decorations (it's a Parthenon and the sister blades (a weapon from the Hades 2 Switch game)). 

Rachel made her a new pencil case with fabric she bought in Japan. These two together are like sunshine to me. Sophie's cooking continues to expand and the highlight of Rachel's holidays (that she shared at the first night back to Guides) was eating all of Sophie's cooking, especially the lemon bars. 

Study Makeover (and Misc. New Year Holiday Things)

We didn't go anywhere over Christmas last year. It was very much a stay home and rest kind of break. Steve had ten days off work, but instead of trying to put in any kind of travel or get away, we just stayed home. It was surprisingly relaxing and also productive. 

Belated Happy New Year:
Rachel with her latest balloon creation to celebrate the Year of the Horse

Thanks to working in the tech industry, Steve gets a laptop upgrade every two years, which means we have older, but still great laptops just lying around the house. Since Sophie was moving into high school, and the girls are both just generally older and more capable with computers now, we thought we would actually set up the study with spaces for them to work in. 

The study is Steve's official office, since he works there everyday. It's got his big desk with all the screens and gadgets, but it also stores a stack of other stuff. We had the piano in there, under the shelves we had installed back in 2013 and all our extra musical instruments and cases in the corner. The shelves had initially served the purpose of holding our DVDs, but was currently holding our board game collection. And against the wall under the windows, was three 2 by 2 cube storage units (hand me downs from Fi) that had a collection of things from tech stuff to kids toys. 

This is an older photo, but you get the idea - stuff!

Knowing we needed to put two desks in the room ment we absolutely needed to clean out everything else. I did a huge cull of all of the games, and the kids toys, and all the craft supplies that I still had from when I ran a Family Day Care. So much stuff. But it was great to get rid of - most of it went to other people, or sold on marketplace. Not to landfill just yet. 

We also realised that we'd need to paint one of the walls, which had been hiding behind the piano. After the renos were finished in 2019, I had used the leftover wall paint to paint the entry, hallway and most of the study before I ran out. Since the final wall was firstly in the study (where really only Steve went) and secondly hidden behind a piano and some very full shelves, it was not worth getting more paint at the time. Now, however was different. So we took everything out and I painted the wall. 

And reinstalled the shelves. 

Twas beautiful! 

Two trips to Ikea later and we also had desks to set up and arrange. The piano (and other instruments) didn't fit back in, but they are not taking up too much space in the dining room. The girls both have smaller desks in their room and we had office chairs for them (that we picked up free from a furniture company down the road one day). Rachel has put her office chair out in the study and is using a big stool in her room while Sophie is doing the opposite. 

Everybody loves the new set up and the subsequent gaming that came with it. Steve and the girls are loving getting into playing together. Meanwhile my space is still round the corner near the washing machine and though I'm apart from everyone else, I love my sewing space so much that I can't complain. 

This whole study makeover was completed in the ten days (though I guess I did lots of the culling of things in the lead up to facilitate it) which was pretty cool. At no point did we feel rushed to get it done and Steve had a sleep in every morning. The right kind of holidays. 

Sophie enjoying the slow holidays making crepes in the pan she got for her birthday. 

As You Wish

For Steve's 40th last year, I got us some tickets to a Brisbane Arts Theatre production called "The Cliff Notes of Insanity", which was a cabaret version of the Princess Bride. It had a three course meal (the Feast of Florin), songs, dances, trivia, costume competition and the Princess Bride movie - or the cliff notes version at least. What a fun night!

The idea of the costume competition really caught my attention. Obviously I wanted to make and wear costumes, and Steve was in, but for some reason, it was a real struggle. Firstly I felt bad buying new fabric, but I didn't have anything in my stash. Then when I finally gave in and went to look at the fabric, most of the offerings in the colour I wanted/needed were very polyester. Not only did it look like cheep costume fabric, I also didn't think I'd enjoy wearing it on a hot December night, especially when I was unsure if the venue would be air conditioned. 

I went back and forth for ages, trying to figure out what I was going to do. Got some fabric. Regretted it and couldn't bring myself to use it. Then I decided I'd just make Buttercup and Westley costumes from the very start of the movie when they are in their farm gear, since I had old bed sheets I could use for that. Tried to make mine; it came out too big. Ripped the whole thing apart and tried again; sewed the sleeves on wrong. At that point, with a week to go, I gave up and put all the fabric away in a cupboard. 

Two days before the show, I did a complete 180 and decided that I did in fact want to wear a costume and I would just have to make it happen. So the fabric came out again. Not wanting to be reminded of the previous failures, I opted to try making Buttercup's blue royal dress (which she wears when she realises Humperdinck has lied to her but resolves to remember that Westley will come for her never the less). 

I drafted a pattern on some old sheets and did a test run on the Tuesday night. Told the girls I would be spending the entire next day sewing. Did spend all of Wednesday sewing and had my dress 90% done by the 5pm (just had to hand sew the collar facing down). So then I drafted Steve's boot covers and whipped him up a Dread Pirate Roberts black pirate shirt following a few Bernadette Banner tutorials on YouTube. 

The next day I woke up early and hand sewed the collar of my dress down before I took the girls on a road trip to Maleny to visit friends for lunch. I dropped the girls to my parents for their sleepover and was home in time to finish the boot covers and lie down for twenty minutes before we had to go to the show.

I did not win any costume competition prizes (it was not really a well run/serious competition at all), but I did love being in costume at the event. Especially since (as I had predicted), every other Buttercup wore the red dress, and thus I was unique. Steve looked great as a Westley, though I do wish I'd made him the mask/bandana thing. Oh well. It was fun. 

I am glad to say that both girls have offered suggestions as to occasions they can wear the Buttercup dress (Book Week, Halloween etc), so I'm hopeful it will get worn again. The black pirate shirt won't have any problems being worn again in the future I think. As always, I'm bummed not to have better photos of this whole thing. Why is that part always so hard!?

Learning Mandarin, Teaching Language and Generally Being Inspired

I can't believe how much Mandarin I can speak and understand now. It's a very weird thing for me to say, given that I had zero desire to learn Mandarin and the classes I took were only for a week, but here we are. 

2026 started with an opportunity to attend the Comprehensive Input Down Under conference which was being run at South Bank for a week. Comprehensive Input (CI) is a teaching method for language based on the premise that language is acquired by listening and reading to compelling, comprehensive inputs in the target language. It's how we all learnt our first language, so why not use it for a second, or any additional language for that matter? 

Obviously there is a difference in development levels, if you are comparing a baby or young child learning a language to a teen or adult. For the latter you can add the development of different skills, and you have a first language to map onto. But still, listening and reading - that's the way to go. 

I've been teaching using a CI method since I returned to the language classroom in 2024, but it was largely based on my own guess work (after seeing my kids acquire language) and things I'd listened to in podcasts. Not a lot of direct training in the field. A whole week of conference about that with teachers from all over Australia and presenters from around the world was an opportunity too good to miss. 

Along with all the usual conference type offerings - key note speakers, workshops and presentations, this conference also ran Language Labs. This was where two teachers (Spanish and Mandarin) would teach a class of "students" using CI methods every day for the week. We had about three to four hours of classes every day. The teachers attending the conference could sign up to be students in the class, or attend as observers in the room. 

I really wanted to get the experience of what it's like being a student, and despite being really keen to learn more Spanish, I figured the Mandarin class would give me a better understanding of how to teach an Asian script. More practical for my Japanese setting.  

When the conference rolled around in mid January, a full week before any teachers were due back in the classroom, I was a little bit second guessing my decision to attend. So hopeful that it was going to be great, but also aware of the huge time commitment. But the conference did not disappoint. Far from it. Even when we were on day three and I was expecting to start fatiguing from all the brain use, we were so motivated and excited by the learning and connections that it was amazing. 

Along with learning so much about how to teach with a CI approach, I was also lucky enough to make great connections with other teachers. An Indonesian teacher I met on the first day who came down from Agnes Waters to attend was staying with her daughter a few streets over from me, so we ended up being bus buddies. The two Japanese teachers from Genesis (where I've taught previously) and I also ended up connecting and sharing our love for Jesus. 

I can't even say how encouraged I was by this full week of fantastic professional development. So ready to head back to the classroom and put it all into practice. And I'm still going over my new Mandarin vocab in my mind, and listening to Taiwanese dramas on Netflix to see if I can pick out the words. Language learning really is so fun, and I get to teach it!