I made some rather cool (even if I do say so myself) paper beads a while ago. They were so easy to make and look great on a necklace, I made two and gave them both away, and I know that one at least gets worn often. At least half the time that I see my young friend she is wearing it. 

What you will need:

• A printer that works, paper
• A few toothpick and cooking skewers
• Glue
• (optional, probably useful but I didn't have any) some kind of glaze

And if you want to make more than the paper part:

• Some other beads, (a few metal ones look nice.)
• A necklace chain, some other chain and some Jump Rings
• And some things which I have googled and I think are called "Metal Head Pins" sounds kinda violent....

First you need to decide what words you want and what font and print them out, but remember that shorter words work better... because otherwise you have the problem of chopping off one end of the word with the other end. Then you need to cut the paper into strips with each word at one end of a strip and you want them to be as straight as possible! 

Make sure your strips are not so fat that the finished bead will be to big to fit onto a head pin with some other beads. You need some other beads on there (at least I did) not only because it looks good and I say so but because the skewer sized hole is probably too big and the bead will just slip off the pin.

Then get glue everywhere, but not too much of it.... contradictory 
terms I know. Roll the strips into beads, tight around the skewer. Once it is rolled take it off and put in on a toothpick-that is resting between some other things that are lying around-to dry. Then continue until you have rolled all of them. As you can see some of mine were longer and others shorter. When they are dry it could be a good idea to glaze them.... I tried it with glue but that did not work so well as the ink started to run...

Now you have paper beads. Next you need to chose some other beads and thread them all onto the head pins. Bend the loops at the top and attach a jump ring or some chain, varying lengths look nice.  Obviously you will then need to attach the pendant you have made to the necklace with a jump ring. And then you are done.

Have you ever made paper beads?

If so what kind were they?

Do you like glue?

Happy new year everyone! Or at least all those in my up to date country of Australia. You Americans seem to lag behind somewhat, so happy new years eve to you all over there. And for your information this photo was taken a few minutes after midnight at the beginning of 2016.

Many people have read these books and have their own opinions about them, or just heard enough about them to make judgments. People have seen the movies and decided if the books are good or not from them. I have been told many different things about them:

"Every child should read these books"

"These books should be banned, they are evil"

"This is my favourite series ever, you need to read it"

"Oh, no you should not read the Harry potter books."

Having never read or watched anything Harry Potter (at least as far as I can be absolutely sure of doing) I did not like to voice an opinion. But one day, after yet another of these conversations, I decided I would read them so that I could have an informed conversation about them. As it turned out, I like them.

A few days after taking all those photos of books, glasses and keys, (can be found in previous post) I was able to borrow an old pocket watch from a friend. Naturally that entitled another photo shoot of my books and the watch and pieces of the insides, pieces of time....

11th October 1943 A British spy plane crashes in Nazi-occupied France. Its pilot and passenger are best friends. One of the girls has a shot at survival. The other has lost the game before it's barely begun.

I have no photos of this event so you shall have to imagine it from my words, and really when it is as dark as the other night, even I can not take a really good photo. 

Motes of hay drift up, hay that has the slightest dampness to it. We leave our places, by the warm fire crackling behind us. We leave the orange glow and settle down on the hay and lean back against another bale. All along the trailer people talk, I am too far away to hear most of what is said. Wordless voices rise high and fall. 

Rumbles of the tractor engine drown out some of the voices. It lurches forward throwing us all sideways and against one another. Red taillights flash, the head lights cut a bright swathe through the grass as we turn and bounce on. We leave the flickering flames behind. Not a trace of their warmth is left. Chords, strummed on strings. Upon one of the topmost bales a shadow sits strumming her guitar. I reach out and touch her as she plays. 

Music wafts through the star spangled night. Overhead the Milky Way stretches, stars glow brighter as we leave other lights behind. The two pointers shine bright, I follow their pointing with my eyes and find the Southern Cross. It shines right overhead in the middle of the misty streak across the heavens, the  Milky Way. I wonder at the vastness of he who names the stars. His Glory is plain if we only but look. 

We rattle past round bales, fences, a dam. Six wallabies start up in surprise as we rumble towards them, fixing them in the tractors headlights. They flee in all directions, we give chase. "Kangaroos" comes the shout, "Look, there!" Voices exclaim, hands point. Some of the wallabies hop along a fence, trying desperately to get away. They bound through the grass and melt into the darkness.

The tractor and its heavy load rattle away to into the darkness. Back to the fire, back to warmth. As we go voices are raised in song from the rear of the trailer. As those in the middle can't make out the words we begin our own. Song, laughter, hay, starry skies, a beautiful memory, a beautiful world, a great God.

Yes I did used to be that cute! Since I turn ... ah lets say old today I thought I should post photos of me, as time passes. I don't know who all these photos were taken by, probably my parents, though with the really old ones I took photos of the photos since we didn't have any copies of them on the computer. 

I am not exactly sure if they are in the right order (the old ones) but they are close. There is also proof here that my hair was not always long and it has been cut short once.......

So in celebration on eighteen years, from the beginning, me. 

Yes this it taken at our place..... it was so different back then..... I remember this moment, watching the storm come in.

And I'm rather confused of the order of the photos around here....

I was once taller than my sisters too..... and Jane had longer hair than me.

I know this was taken at school some time.....

And now the lovely digital age! these photos are in the correct order. The photo below was taken in 2006. With the digital age also comes me not being able to chose which photos to put here so there are a few more for each year..... oh well... Look how many freckles I had! Well I still do, but not so obvious.

The massive flood of 2007

I have never had a horse but if there is one nearby I will probably go and pat it..... even climbing onto private property.... though this is in a paddock next door, and any one can walk there.

This chook is still alive even though she has tried to die numerous times.

Do you like to look back over old photos?

Have you ever counted back the years to see if you are really as old as you are meant to be?

I actually enjoyed it. Well I enjoyed it once it was happening but not for the days before. Yesterday A few days ago our Bright Lights group went to a nursing home and sang for some of the residents. I was the eldest (of our group, not the old people) and responsible for the nine other young ladies, all but three of which were taller than me. I drove seven of the girls there (our car only holds eight people), that was slightly scary. Then we went into the nursing home. It was a little awkward because it took a while to actually find any of the staff. Then we were take to the dementia ward. Because we had forgotten So we could sing for the residents there. 

I had already worked out where everyone would stand and all the girls remembered so that went smoothly. Jane stood at one end and played the flute. After a few song one of the women asked if we could bow or something at the end of each song so they would know when to clap. So I curtsied since I had a long skirt on. I always knew it would come in handy to learn to curtsy properly back when for some reason I did.

I was moved while singing "Trust and Obey" as we got to the chorus I could hear a few quiet voices in other parts of the room and looking about I could see the many of the residents mouthing the words to the song. As we finished one woman said "It has been years since I heard that." We were thanked many times.

As we got to the sixth song I said "This is the last song" and whatever it was called. We were asked to sing again, we managed to sing all six songs again, I figured most of the residents would have forgotten we had just sung them before so it would be as though we were singing new songs each time. The only problem with singing them again was the breathing factor. Despite what you may think breathing is slightly  important. After the six songs I felt a little light headed, but when I curtsied for the second last song I stumbled and nearly fell right over because I was so dizzy. 

Still everyone enjoyed the experience and we were asked to come again next school holidays. One of the staff mentioned how amazing it was that a group of young people would give up their free time for others. It was just a wonderful feeling to be able to do that, young people can make a difference. And those that do really stand out because they are so different from other people their age.

No that photo has nothing to do with singing at the nursing home except it happened on the same day. Later that afternoon an epic sword fight raged from our front yard up to the neighbors a few houses away. And there a knife thrower joined in.

Swords got dented, scratched, chipped. They parried and whacked at other swords and shields. Watchers were randomly stabbed. Missing limbs, and how dead people were were debated. And after all that I was the only one who did not get shot... as it was me doing the shooting. People (like me) were pronounced dead two seconds after a minor slash in the leg, even though I had been "shooting" the knife wielder the entire time she was charging at me. The epic battle raged. 

 Until eventually one of the throwing knives got sorta smashed.  

Quite a fun afternoon really. If you are interested in the making of the swords, have a look at this post on the master craftsman's blog. For a more detailed account of the epic battle, and from one of the sword master's point of view check out this post on my sisters blog.