Cultural Festival Day!

I know I say that my work has been busy, and I guess I can't complain when sometimes the extra stuff is self inflicted. Still, this day, extra work that it is aside, is totally worth it and lots of fun. I run a 文化祭 (bunkasai) cultural festival day for the whole school. It's changing gradually each year and the kids love it. That said, it always required some prep work. 

This year, I had my ninja throwing boards that I painted for the 2025 festival ready to go. I also had the set of blue bean bags I'd made for the first one we ran back in 2024. I needed two additional sets of bean bags (one yellow, one white to match the sports teams we have), but thankfully, Steve's mum came to the rescue there. Not only did she cut all the fabric, but she sewed and filled over 200 bean bags for me as well. Good thing I blogged about it back in 2024, because that post turned out to be the best instructions to follow. 

Rachel came with me to school in the holidays for a day and did some prep work on the boxes I needed for a relay game as well as the shoe boxes I used for a sumo game. 

She also helped me paint the background for this six-metre long cherry blossom mural. 

This was a collaborative art work that the year 1 and 2 students contributed to on the festival day. They added the cherry blossoms all over the trees. 

I've been asking at school if I can paint murals, but the answer thus far has been no. This, however, feels like a step in the right direction. It's hanging where the Year 1 and 2 students put their bags, and you can see it all the way from the carpark because it's so big. Really brings some colour and fun to an otherwise boring wall. Wonder what we will do next time. 

Antisocial Quilt Making

School this year has been a lot of work for me. I don't want to go into it much but I've been asked to teach a second subject area alongside Japanese, without any additional time for planning or actual teaching. It's been a bit rough to say the least. When I got to the end of term and holidays started, I really needed to switch off. 

So I spontaneously decided to make Sophie a quilt. 

She's kind of needed one for a little while now, since the one I made for her back in 2013 is only a single. While it does still fit, Sophie is the type of sleeper who likes to get a bit tangled up, and it wasn't cutting it. She'd found the Queen Quilt that I'd made for Steve and I (pre kids - way back in 2009!) and had claimed it as her own. Which was great for her, because she could roll around, wrap up and sleep peacefully, but not great for Steve and I who were now without a quilt. 

I'd seen a video pop up on YouTube of a "Floating Lanterns" quilt that seemed pretty easy to replicate. I dug through my fabric stash and pulled out some ideas that I thought Sophie would like, and then took Rachel on a trip to Spotlight to get the plain colour for the sashing/background and she helped me pick out a few more colours to compliment things. 

Sophie did have a look over the fabric and veto some, but was pretty happy with most of them, so I got to work. Cutting hundreds of squares and rectangles to sew. Can't say I love this part of the quilting process, especially when it's so reliant on doing the maths right and then counting correctly as you go. I was some squares and rectangles short when it came to sewing, but when I did cut more squares and sewed them in, I found I had excess blocks. Oh well!

The above photo is Sophie lying next to what I think will be the layout and me trying to decide if it's going to come out long enough for her. I was working on roughly double bed measurements but it didn't seem wide enough to me. I was contemplating taking one of the top rows of blocks and moving it to the side (rather than making more), but then that seemed like it would leave the quilt too short for Sophie's long legs. 

In the end, I used the surplus bits and cut and sewed a few more to gain an extra row to add to the width of the quilt. Once I'd lay out the blocks in their final pattern, I had to tell everyone we couldn't open the doors because the wind was my enemy. Also, we were going to have to walk around it being on the floor for a while, since sewing takes time. 

At one stage I thought I had sewn enough and could risk the doors half open, but that resulted in the wind blowing away about 85% of the rest of the layout before I could stop it. Thankfully I'd taken a lot of photos, so I just needed to sort through and lay them out again. Lesson learned though. Once it was finally sewn together, I was well pleased with the result, so I added the boarder and went to get some backing fabric from Spotlight (on sale whew!)

I am still not amazing at actual quilting, but I have been watching some videos on YouTube from Pin Cut Sew, and I must have picked up something, because this quilted much better than my previous attempts. I was going to wing it when it came to the quilting lines, but I ended up pre-marking them, because my blocks were not all square and I figured if I was juggling the quilt through the machine I didn't want to have any extra things to think about. It was worth it, because it did make the quilting easier. 

Sophie went away to camp on Saturday morning and I had the quilt bound and finished for her when she came home on Monday. She's given the quilt a stamp of approval and Steve and I have reclaimed our quilt once more. I was pretty anti social for the ten days that I worked on this quilt. Headphones on and off to my little sewing area. Thankfully my family knew I needed the down time and were gracious to give it to me. 

This quilt has some beautiful fabrics in it, PJ fabric, Luke's Christmas shirt, Sophie's halter top/shorts, some leftover maple leaves and cat fabric that Rachel bought in Japan and used to make Sophie a birthday pencil case, some other cat fabric that I got in Japan for Sophie too. I had enough of the pinky floral print (from Sophie's halter top trial) to make the binding for the quilt too. I also learnt that polyester thread does not play well with the very hot iron that I used to press the seams. I melted quite a few rows of stitching making this quilt!

There is something really lovely about seeing a home made quilt on a bed. Hours of work, various skills and at the end, something beautiful that will last a life time. Well worth the effort.

The Black Yukata

After making arduous shorts, I decided I needed a break and a quick sew of something that I knew would turn out. I had this amazing patterned fabric in my drawer since I'd used some of it for Sarah's 40th Birthday bunting 18 months ago. Even though I had bought actual yukata fabric in Japan, for some reason, the time felt right to use this up.

 

When I'd bought it, Spotlight was closing down their store, so I got it at a really discounted price and I'd bought what I thought was enough for a whole yukata (FYI, you need about four metres of standard width fabric). I was pretty sad when I lay it out to discover that I didn't have quite enough! I considered different options, but decided that I would make a half half yukata with some plain black fabric. 

Since I was using non-standard fabric, I decided I'd also just use my sewing machine to sew this, rather than hand stitching like I might have usually done. I did french seams to encase all the raw edges, which is what I've noticed is common for modern made yukata. 

The whole thing sewed up in a weekend and man does it look stunning. I was so happy with how it turned out. I wore it to school with an obi that I also made, back in 2023. Love the little pop of colour it gives on the back. 

The biggest trick with this was making sure I had my left and rights the correct way around, since I didn't want the plain black on the front. Success on that though! 

Reading Thus Far

I feel I've been a bit hit and miss with reading in the most recent years. More than that, I feel I'm very miss when it comes to recording and remembering what I've read. It was really apparent to me at the end of last year when people were sharing their "Read in 2025" lists on social media. Admittedly, 2025 was a light on reading year for us, because we were in Japan for six months of it and access to English books was limited at that time. 

But, as I did a bit of clicking back through the blog, I realise that I'm better at keeping track of reading than I thought I was. Honestly, I thought I hadn't done a reading focused post since I'd talked about the two and a half months I spent reading the David Eddings books. Firstly didn't realise that was so long ago now (2014!), but also, I've done lots of reading posts in between as well. Whew. 

Speaking of reading in Japan, I did read I am a Cat by Soseki Natsume, which was fun to start, but got a little hard towards the end (I read a three books in one copy). Sophie had bought the Circle Opens Quartet by Tamora Peirce to read, so I reread those. I had kind of forgotten how dark they were. Lots of murder... The other thing we read was the Keeper of the Lost Cities books (henceforth called KOTLC). Rachel had been given the first one by a friend before we left and that along with a copy of Detective Beans came with us. 

Both Sophie and Rachel read, and reread the KOTLC book like it was going out of style, so Steve and I ordered books 1-5 for Rachel for her birthday. The girls were delighted, so we thought we had done well. Until they invited us to read them too so we could all discus theories together. The premise was sound: 12 year old Sophie Foster discovers she's actually not human but an Elf, with super powers. Sure. It's the kind of premise that has worked countless times before and we were willing to give it a go. 

What I couldn't handle was how badly written the books were. I made it through books one and two, trying my best to keep my distain for the awful writing, terrible character development and implausible plot from infecting everyone else. I didn't want to destroy it for the girls since they were enjoying reading it. But by the time I opened book three and couldn't bring myself to get past chapter one, there was no stopping it. Even though we were all starved of reading, these books were so terrible that I just couldn't do it. 

If you or anyone in your life is considering reading the KOTLC books, for the love of all things good in the world, stop them now. I don't think Steve made it past book two. The girls were obviously waiting to discuss our thoughts on it and it was hard to be positive for them, so we opted for honesty. I'm so thankful that they were able to think critically about what they were reading and understood our perspective. Last month, someone asked for a review and the girls said if it was the only book left on earth, it would be better to burn it and write a new one rather than reading it. Sorry KOTLC fans. Actually, not sorry, go read something (anything) better. Please. 

Anyway, the end of 2025 and the start of 2026 has been rather full of reading, so here is what's been on the shelf. 

Newt's Emerald by Garth Nix
Just Stab Me Now by Jill Bearup
The Zoo Keeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman
The Martian by Andy Weir
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

The Martian and Project Hail Mary were both recommend to Steve by friends of ours and were Christmas gifts for him. He read them very quickly and I found them both fantastic too. If you had said I would read books about guys trapped in space, and not want to put either of them down, I would have said you were nuts. But here we are!

Riddles of the Runes by Janina Ramirez
The Wingfeather Saga (all 4 books) by Andrew Peterson
Nanny Piggins: The Origin Story by R. A. Spratt
A More Christlike God by Bradley Jersak
An Offer from a Gentleman by Julia Quinn

The Wingfeather Saga was on my list for the girls, and I happened to be talking to someone at church who said he had all four of them to give to us! These were really great Christian fantasy and I was impressed at the world building. Some flaws and a little slow to start, but from halfway through book two, it was another "Can't get enough of this" situation. 

Murder Most Unladylike by Robin Stevens
Arsenic for Tea by Robin Stevens
The Duke and I by Julia Quinn
The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn
Romancing Mr Bridgerton by Julia Quinn
Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson

I read some of the Bridgerton novels based on a friend's recommendation, but I honestly wouldn't bother with any more of them, or with revisiting them. Plot was average at best in the first one, not well written in the second and the third had characters who were just so unlikeable I couldn't believe it was made into TV. Maybe they fixed it there though, I dunno. Never watched it (and don't intend to). 

Sophie wants me to read more of the Murder Most Unladylike books, but she and Rachel managed to pool their savings over the holidays and they now have all the Friday Barns Books on the shelf too, so I'd like to give them a go. I'm particularly fond of R. A. Spratt, Australian author that she is, and her Nanny Piggins books are delightfully hilarious. Sophie also went through her bookshelf and cleared out her Wings of Fire books to make space (mostly for the Murder Most Unladylike ones). Funny to see her be so decisive about her preference change. 

I really enjoyed Tress of the Emerald Sea which was vastly different to Brandon Sanderson's usual writing style. Every chapter was a delightful surprise and I didn't see the ending coming. Might read his other stand alone novel that we have on the shelf, Yumi and the Nightmare Painter next, if Steve's done with it. Happy days!

Making Shorts: Arduous Journey Part 2

It took a good week to sew these shorts. The night I cut them out, it was still early-ish, so I thought I'd get the interfacing cut and ironed on too while I was at it. Then I started doing some of the "prep" sewing; getting the pocket linings in place and finishing edges off things that would be sewn in later. On a bit of a roll, I ended up getting more than I thought I would done. 

The next day I was back at it. Feeling good. But after getting all the pockets in, the main shorts pieces together and successfully installing the zip, I stalled. I had a niggling feeling that the waistband would be too short. I had already had that feeling when I was looking at the pattern and I had taken the time to measure all the pieces and check that the maths worked out. 

The maths did work out on paper, but when it came time to actually sew the waistband on - short by three centimetres on one side, and at least two centimetres on the other. 

Don't know how, given that I had checked the maths, but alas, this is what we were working with. At this point, I didn't touch the shorts for a week. When I got back to it - cut out a couple of extra bits from the main fabric and lining and added them in, the waist band worked fine (and actually, I didn't even need the extra length because the back seam on me sewed up narrow (thanks to my sway back situation)). 

If I'm being honest, the shorts then sat another whole week before I got the courage to put them on. I had tried them on when sewing (after getting the zip in, and to check the where to sew the final seam at the back), but now that they were done, putting them on to finally see how they actually fit seemed like another huge effort. 

Put them on I did though, and they look pretty good on. There are a few slight tweaks to the side seams I'd make (I've already added the extra length to the waist band pattern pieces), but otherwise fine. 

What's not fine is actually moving in them. I don't know if it's the fabric, but something is off at the front. There isn't enough fabric somehow on the front of each leg. I am obviously not explaining it well, probably because the actual problem is still unclear to me. Something is not right. 

I don't know what I'll do now honestly. Scrap these pants and start again? Maybe it's the design that's just not working for me. Shame, because they are cool shorts. 

Missed Opportunity

One year ago today, we were getting on a plane to Japan. Not for a short trip, but to live there for a six month stint. What a time. We were a huge bundle of emotions all rolled into one. You could not have prepared me for the hard parts, how much we would love it, or just how much we would miss it when we got home again. 

I'm thinking on it now and a few things come up, not as regrets, but just reflections. I know it's unlikely we will ever have the chance to do this again, but these are certainly things we might have done differently. 

My first one would have been to enrol into a kimono classes. I am fairly good at wearing kimono, but it would be nice to have a bit more in the way of "official training" to give me a bit more confidence. I did think about it before we left, but we were so busy organising everything else that it really got put on the back burner. By the time I thought about it in Japan, we only had two and a half months left in Tokyo, and seven weeks of that I was doing the teacher language course in Saitama. The shortest class was three months and would have been a stretch. Alas, missed opportunity. I'll have to look for some online classes I can do instead. 

When we were in Nagoya, strategically at the same time as the World Cosplay Summit, we got to see the final parade of Cosplayers down the main shopping street. That was really cool. We do wish we had also been organised enough to actually attend some of the other cosplay events that happened that weekend, and been able to participate in the cosplay parade itself. Logistically, packing a cosplay costume with everything else we were lugging around at that point, did not make sense, but in a perfect world, it would have been great to do. 

We knew we wouldn't be using a car much in Japan, but the travel around Shikoku really needed one. Steve had organised to have his International Driver's Licence before we left, but I opted not to. At the time, I figured I'd rather not drive and Steve would be able to do it all anyway. However when we were there, Steve ended up having to do all the driving with a broken hand. Not fun, especially through the mountain roads! On top of that, Japan has a zero alcohol limit, so if we drove out for dinner and Steve wanted to get a beer, he couldn't. I felt really silly that I hadn't sorted my licence too. Lesson learnt, better for me to have the licence even to be a support driver than to leave it all up to Steve. 

Our last reflection was that it would have been good to go to some Japanese conversation classes to help us all with our Japanese speaking. Steve especially felt that he could take in the language easily enough, but producing it was another matter. Of course, in the grand scheme of things it's fine, but it's another "would have been nice" moments when we look back. 

The girls ask us quite frequently now, when we will be going back to Japan. I'm so glad it has made such a positive impact on their lives and that they want to return! Hopefully next year we can squeeze in a visit. 

Making Shorts: Arduous Journey Part 1

Shorts. 

If there is one gap in my wardrobe, this is it. It's hard to find a pair RTW (Ready to Wear) that is all you ever imagined. As far as sewing goes, I feel I can pretty comfortably make a dress without much thought, but stuff that fits the lower half is considerably much tricker. Maybe that's why a pair of RTW shorts is also like finding a unicorn.

I ended up needing a new pair of boxer shorts at the start of the year because my pjs needed replacing, so I whipped up a pair one night. Unfortunately, I made the wrong size, so Sophie got a new pair of shorts and I made a second pair the next night that were much more successful. I don't know if it was these quick boxer shorts that gave me the confidence, or having made Sophie some beautiful pants last year, but I had sudden renewed motivation to finally tackle actual shorts again. 

Turns out the journey of making shorts is long. I rolled out my pattern pieces that have been meticulously adjusted and checked so many times, and made the final tweaks to them (I had hand written what needed changing (mostly length adding or hem leveling) on the pieces last time, but actually needed to make those changes visible before using the pattern). That took less time than I thought (maybe an hr or so?) so I dug out the fabric and looked at it for a while. 

Even after I puzzled the pattern pieces onto the fabric I honestly just sat looking at it some more. I knew the whole cutting of the pattern pieces would easily take an hour. I still had to find lining fabric and cut those pieces as well as the interfacing. And as I looked at the pattern there on the fabric I knew it already represented hours and hours of trial and error, fitting and checking, sewing and unpicking and starting all over again. Literally hours of my life, and still no perfect pair of shorts existed yet. 

More than that, since the pattern had again been tweaked before this time round, there was every chance it might still need some small adjustments. Last time I tried it was over two years ago too, so also every chance that my body has changed since then too. Even if it all sewed up perfectly, just that time alone will take hours as well. It took a lot to get myself cutting I can tell you. 

For reference, I'm not over exaggerating when I say shorts are the work of hours. I started the shorts journey way back in August of 2021, with three pairs of shorts which I mostly blogged about here. I then tried again in January of 2024, with a white bedsheet pair for fitting and then a maroon pair that were wearable but a little tight, pictured below. 

I don't know why I never blogged these, but looking back, January 2024 was busy, as was February, and then we went to Japan at the end of March that year, so I guess time got away from me. I was feeling good about these shorts though, five pairs in, even if they were not perfect yet. 

Alas though, size fluctuates for all of us, so I knew I would need to try again. That's where we are now. Trying again. With what remains of the maroon fabric from the fifth pair. Is it sixth time lucky for shorts? I sincerely hope so. Anyway, you'll have to come back another time to find out how it all turns out, because this post is long enough, and the shorts aren't finished yet. See you next time!

Fabric Notes for Future Paula Who Likes to Remember Things. (Sorry there are no photos of my quick boxer shorts)

Boxers shorts round 1 were made with some of the fabric I had made Sophie's wearable toil Zero Waste halter last year. I was hoping I could make a matching top with the rest of the fabric, but since the shorts don't fit and Sophie prefers a T-shirt....

Boxer shorts round 2 were made with the leftovers of Luke's Christmas present shirt. Good to use up the scraps! 

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! 

Belated Post: Steve's 40th

I wasn't going to post about this, but I looked at the photos and realised I wanted to remember it one day. Surprisingly (or unsurprisingly) this blog often turns out to be the best way for us to look back and get a summary of something. Even when I'm looking for a photo to show someone, I'll often come here first, rather than trawl through the endless photos in the gallery. 

So here we go: Steve is 40. 

We didn't want a big party, but also didn't want to let it slide by unnoticed. So a casual afternoon tea on the deck and then blokes around for beers afterwards. The beers event we were hoping would be at Hiker, but they decided to host the school trivia night there so we had to change those plans. 

Food highlights were the croquembouche (which was not stressful as such, but involved and tricky, mostly because of my rather ridiculous oven) and ninja chocolate biscuits, along with the usual afternoon tea fare. 

There was bunting. 

And Sophie wore her graduation outfit for a test drive and I wore my purple arrow dress even though it still had wonky sides and the sleeves were too long. 

Everyone had a good time, and lots of people chipped in for Steve to get a Switch 2. There has been much gaming in the household since. Happy Birthday Steve!