I dyed this afternoon

In preparation for the Wellington felting class I've been making up a few kits to send down for participants to purchase if they want.  I needed some silk to use for embellishment but didn't have some of the colours that would work so my cunning plan for this weekend was to dye some!

The top three rows are synthetic dyes.  The bottom row are natural dyes.  I used an Usnea sp. of lichen for the bottom left silk cap and onion skins for the bottom right.  I must say I'm impressed with the depth of colour for the onion skin one!

The kids made paper. It looks disgusting, like cow pat paper!  Of course, once they'd made 2 pieces each their interest waned so I dumped the rest of the pulp into some cupcake moulds and turned them out to make paper shapes.

School holidays are coming up. I have heaps to do at work before the end of the month and can't afford to take leave this time, so Mr8 is heading up north to stay with his grandparents for a week.  Miss4 has daycare of course.  I really dislike having to work through - it just adds to my working mother guilt.

We've joined a karate dojo!  I did karate about 10 years ago so it feels good to get back into it.  We thought it would help Mr8 with his confidence, motor control and self-discipline.  He really loves it which is great, and the exercise is so needed for me.  Now that daylight saving has begun I'm trying to do the C25K program ... again.  Maybe this time I'll make it to 5K!