There are gonna be some changes around here...

I feel the need for a new look for the new year, so things may look a little dodgy for a while... hope you don't mind!

And I hope you had a lovely christmas or holiday and have recovered from any family traumas.

Thank god its nearly over

I'm really not that into Christmas. Shocking I know. Previously I've been called the Grinch, Scrooge etc, but since Lily came on the scene I've had to make a concerted effort to be 'christmassy'. We've dressed the tree, sung carols and done the present wrapping. I've even encouraged her use of bubbles to make Santa's beard - as illustrated here...

I draw the line at tinsel which I believe was thought up by vacuum cleaner companies so they could cash in on the Christmas period. Anyhoo, I have been doing a few Christmas craft things, like little birds soft tree pattern and Wee Wonderful's Elf Stitchettes which are pretty cool...

And that's as far as I'm going. (But I decided I liked non-sewing machine related crafting again and so I did a bit more embroidery...)


And this time in three days most of the hoo-har will be over and we won't have to think about Christmas, other than the Christmas sales... not that I can do much damage in Nowra which only has a Scablight.

The other good news is that this f**ken year will be over soon. I'm so over 2006, especially the last six months. I can only hope that the make-your-life-hell fairy will decide to go and bug someone else.

But the best news is that my little sister will be home from her south american trek tomorrow! Yay! Lil thinks she's just been on a plane for the last six weeks...

So Merry Christmas everyone (well the several folk who have continued to read my sporadic ramblings). I hope that you are safe and well, and happy.

Kisses

A little Rudolf...


A bit of a Labyrinth swap I just did... I made the Bowie fabric myself!

hehehehe

CRAZY CAT LADY...

My sister would soooo be pissing herself laughing at this if she 1. read my blog and 2. was not climbing Machu Picchu... we used to joke that she'd end up spending her days with 'Mr Whiskers' as her significant other!!
http://www.prankplace.com/actionfigures.htm

I miss her....

Sometimes life is a cravat...

I was just at a meeting and this guy was saying was retelling that story of two mountain climbers on Everest....

"...on the way down one of them broke his leg which is generally a mountaineering death sentence. Never-the-less his friend continued to bring him down the mountain, even though exhaustion of both energy & supplies had set in. Tragically, just as they were nearing the end , the injured climber - Joe Simpson - fell over a cliff. For a couple of hours Simon Yates was being pulled inexorably towards the mountain edge by their shared rope. He cut the rope."

Turns out the broken leg man survived, but its a terribly sad story.

However the guy telling the story mixed up crevasse and cravat... and all I could think of was a man stuck in a cravat. Like this...

A weekend, and a world away...

I spent last weekend in Brisbane with the wonderful L, her hubby and beautiful bubby. It was bubby's first birthday and there was much celebration. More than that there was just time to be with my favourite Brisbanites - just 'be'. We didn't go anywhere (besides the park for the birthday), we talked and played and cooked and laughed and it was lovely. I was sad that N and Lily couldn't come up with me, but I was able to spend some really lovely time with my friend without having to be concerned about my own kin. And I made a cute little dress for bubby - a similar version to one I made for Lily last year - with a little doll with matching dress... tres cute.

And that kind of (!) brings me to this post. I enjoy blogging. But I began to feel that blogging, and keeping up with other blogs was not fun. It was one more pressure on me (self-imposed pressure of course) and keeping up came at the cost of family, friends, and time to actually craft! It made me feel bad that I didn't blog as often, didn't create as much and didn't seem to have it all together like so many others seemed to do. I know this is a warped view of the craft community, and that we all deal with similar pressure, but it began to bring me down. So I've decided to adopt a more reasoned approach. Balanced if you will. I will blog when I feel I can, and when I have something to report/show/say. I love reading others blogs, and get so inspired by the wealth of amazingly talented people out there, but given that it is the internet version of reality television I can probably live without the blow by blow accounts and catch up on them when I can.

I guess this is more speaking out loud. And there aren't that many readers so few who will really be 'affected'. I'm just putting it out there.

Hey... where you been so long?

Just a note to say I'll be back on track shortly... Just had a bit of down time and will have a report ready this weekend!

Bloody sploggers...

They've taken 'Where am I going... and why am I in this handbasket'. I don't know if I'll ever recover.

Work's not so bad...

Compared to many, I have such a lovely working environment. A recent move has me sitting near a window, overlooking trees, and when I choose to go outside I see this…




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliamentary_Triangle

We’re just across from the lake, the High Court and the National Gallery, forward of Old Parliament house the National Library and the National Science and Technology Centre (or Questacon).

Today I walked past all these things on the way to the Rose Gardens in from of Old Parliament House… it’s a beautiful day and I came back to work feeling so refreshed.

On another note, have you ever seen such a beautiful child…

Lily and Daddy went down to Nowra on the weekend and spent Sunday morning on the beach. I think we can assume she’s over her wave fear… I, on the other hand, spent the weekend making curtains and watching Scrubs series 3

Stacks of slack...

Sorry for the slackness... busy week last week, and this week on leave - which is even busier! We just got our mushroom compost and mulch delivered so we've been busily laying it down to protect and feed our little plants.

Last Friday we headed down to the coast for the long weekend. Lil was so excited about the beach. You should have seen the excitment in her face! Unfortunately it wasn't long after that she started crying and saying 'home'. Beach freaked her out. We found a happy medium in the Lagoon, where the water is calmer and there were more little kids (obviously the aforementioned kids are absent from the photo below - it was 7am). She and Daddy made heaps and heaps of sandcastles.


I also did a little knitting with some wire and beads I had hanging around. I think I could become very fond of wire knitting...

See ya

A bad start to the week...

We left Nan's early yesterday and I drove most of the way back. I was only about 25 minutes late to the planning day, but already people were right into the drum segment of the morning. Oh dear, I thought. But it was great. These guys were from Monkey Jump and the drums (and maracas and sticks) - even though played by mild mannered public servants - made the most incredible sound. The rest of the day went as planning day's do. Eh. It was held at the National Museum of Australia, so DH and Lily wandered around for an hour or so until it was time to pick me up. I think they had a better time than me... I was tired and exhausted from all that 'planning' and a little grumpy.

Shortly after we got home I began to feel a little 'bloated' and not long after that I was struck down by some gastro-type illness. It was not a fun night. Today hasn't been much better. So I'm home. Two quick snaps... a bag I made ages ago out of a placemat - complete with little magnet clasp thingo - tres professional.

And the other is a sneak peek at something I making for someone... The blogger herself will know what it means (and anyone else who reads her blog...). It will be fashioned into something fantastic and amazing, then packaged up and sent south. Just as soon as I can spend more that 5 minutes at a stretch away from the bathroom...

And the wind blew

After 10 days from hell, we've had a lovely weekend in Nowra for DH's Grandfather's birthday. We came down Friday, and spent the night watching the Bulldogs lose their chance at the Grand final (sad for DH; I'm indifferent). Then a beautiful warm day (bit of wind) with family, great food, and lots of laughing at children (Like poor Lily when she jumped in the pool with me. Let's just say it was very 'bracing'. Not so funny was her picking up the phrase 'bugger him' from Uncle Dave...). On Saturday night I spent the night playing with my Nana's 'new' Bernina 1630. It was alot of fun! It writes, embroiders, and pretty much runs itself. A far cry from my old Elnita (Elna). I've made a couple of things for various blog-folk. Watch this space for sneak previews.

We got up early this morning and got ready to come home. My grandparents had just got home and had narrowly missed being hit by a falling tree. My grandfather's cat-like reflexes and the early hour were the only things that had stopped them being squashed. Nana got hot coffee all over her lap, but better a hot coffee than a large tree...

The wind had picked up heaps and by the time we left there was a gale force wind warning. The road was littered with broken branches and detritius was flying about everywhere. DH and I commented that it you wouldn't want to be a motorcyclist out in this weather; too dangerous. Just out of Kangaroo Valley we had to stop because of an accident. It was only 100m in front of us. A motorcyclist had been hit by a falling tree and struck off his bike. His bike had continued on without him for a further 200m until it hit an oncoming car. The poor driver of the car - visibly shaking - was telling people to turn around. It had happened moments before and the Ambulance arrived about 2 minutes after we got there. As this was one of the only roads back to Canberra we stopped tentatively under a huge gum. DH got out to see if it was possible for us to pass. That's when he saw the ambulance officers lay a sheet over the man. Meanwhile, more and more people were getting out of their cars to walk up and see what was happening. Right up to where this man was laying. Upon finding out what happened, many were just pissed off that they'd have to go hours out of their way to get home. This man's death was considered more an inconvienience than a tragedy. More an interesting story to tell than the end of a life. We turned around and tried to go down the Berry Road, but only 2km I had swerved to avoid 3 trees on the road. Given Nana and Pa's close call, the accident we'd just seen and the prospect of driving at least 100km through heavily tree'd forests we decided to come back to Nowra. DH's parents decided to try and get back to Canberra via Ulladulla, but got stopped by a fire. It ended up taking them 8 hours to get home. If it had been DH and I we'd probably have done the same, but we couldn't do it to Lily. Anyway, we're back at Nana's and will be doing the dash back early tomorrow morning because I've got a planning day for work.

The whole thing has shaken me. I can't identify exactly why, but it was just so sad and tragic. And close. And real. I thought writing about it would help. It hasn't helped me understand why I feel so bad, but I don't feel anxious anymore. Thanks blogmosphere.

Australian Lungfish...

or Queensland Lungfish,

• are a link with our prehistoric past
• has gills and a lung
• can grow up to 2 metres long
• is pretty freaky looking
• has kept me busy for a day or two...

Spring has sprung...

We went to hear my dad singing in a combined public service choir on Sunday at Merici College and they had the most amazing blossoms!

The singing wasn't too bad either - featuring the ever amazing Shiny Bum Singers.

Spring has definately sprung!

We spent alot of the weekend outside because it was such lovely weather - and we even had a Zebra in the backyard!

And a little bit of crafting... A lovely woman at work gave me some snowdrop bulbs, which inspired me to make this little one.

Peek-a-boo! She's hiding in my clover-infested bulb pot...

Ch-ch-ch-changes...

A couple of cosmetic changes around here. I got sick of the brown and had been tinkering with another template for a while, but it just wasn't coming together. So here we are. In soothing green. Ah.

Don't look at this if I'm swapping with you!!!

Firstly, here is a little Japanese girl I made to go with the babushka doll. She rocks. I also love that she's sitting in our one blossom tree. Well, our one tree actually. And it was already there when we bought the house. I need more trees!













And the other thing I've been doing is this gorgeous little set of stuffies for a craftster swap. My partner likes mermaids so I thought I'd just go with a whole sea theme. I love the mermaid and I'm so proud of her. Usually I get to the face and they are ruined with a dodgy smile or wonky eyes. But she looks like she's just laying back, resting her eyes and enjoying the spring sun. Which is what she was doing when I photographed her on these big water-feature-rock thingos at work. Needless to say I got some interesting comments and stares. Different-ness is not always embraced in Canberra...

I sound like a broken record (or scratched CD for those post Gen-Xers out there...)

I love freezer paper. I think I might have said that before... Since I found out that you could print on fabric with the assistance of freezer paper (thanks wee wonderfuls) there has been no stopping me. On Saturday I made this little chicken. She's based on a babushka doll, printed on calico, machine sewn, stuffed and da-da! I love her. I still must get some Bubble-jet Set because the minute it gets damp it the ink runs. I did one of my Lil too - sooo cute. I can take her everywhere now!

I also used freezer paper to make a picture for DH's Dad for Father's Day. It had 'World's Best Poppy - Poppin' since '04 and a picture of him. And I did a t-shirt for DH's workmate who was leaving. I'll post them later as we're on our way out to dinner at my brother-in-law's.

Counting is... strange...

I overheard this conversation between my husband and Lily this morning. They were counting...

DH: 2...
Lily: 3...
DH: 4...
Lily: 5...
DH: 6...
Lily: 6...
DH: But what comes after 6 Lily?
Lily: Yellow!

Red-tailed, orange-bellied whale...

There are some that think that the Australian Minister for the Environment and Heritage is only interested in protecting particular species, for example the orange-bellied parrot, the red-tailed black cockatoo, and the whales. The Australian ran a cartoon to this effect...

I noticed that it is a very popular cartoon amongst some of my colleagues and so I decided to make one. Weird, yes. Strangely satisfying, yes.

You'll notice the beastie has roosted on my rose (one of the four we bought when they replaced the roses at Old Parliament House) which means that spring is nearly here! All the blossoms are out and we saw a bee yesterday that was absolutely laden with pollen. Lily and I had lunch outside at her little table - complete with golden daffodils - and basked in the sun. I forgot how much I missed my flowers until the daffodils that we bought over in pots came out. Our other house had so many bulbs and flowers - we just have dirt here... so we did some planting to rectify that. Lil and I got a huge punnet of pansies to plant. Today we bought some star jasmine plants to run along the fence so we don't have to see quite as much of the neighbours.

I also organised the cupboard in the craft/computer room. It had been a disgrace for so long. But now everything is back in its particular box, and every box is labelled with its contents. Like fabrics together. No more searching high and low for anything.

{you may now commence taking bets on how long it lasts}

I'm baaaack

After a forced hiatus due to blogger upload issues and general lack of time I'm back. I have done lots of little bits and pieces but this is my favourite.

My friend in Brisbane, BigL, loved Savannah in the US. She loved the book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, which is based in Savannah. She also loves her daughter, who is called Savannah. So I thought I'd give this a go. And I think it worked wonderfully.

I've been doing a couple of other little felt projects, three for a swap, one to become our Divisional mascot at work and one for a guy at work.

A few lovely things... We had a lovely high tea at the Hyatt for F's birthday. It was great to catch up with the girls and a new arrival - baby Sienna who was so gorgeous! We had cucumber sandwiches, smoked salmon, quiche, scones jam and cream, cakes, biscuits and little mini chocolate mousse. And no, I didn't just give you a list of what was available, that is what I actually ate. And problably more besides. And it was great. I never want to be thin if it means missing out on occaisions like that.

My dear friend R came down to see us from Sydney last weekend and relieved us of many baby bits and pieces for her impending arrival. It was lovely to see her and for her to meet Lily again. In fact Lily was so taken with her that she got very upset when she found out R had gone back to Sydney and was in tears at the car door saying 'sissy' and wanting us to drive up there.

Lil is also obsessed with Thomas the Tank engine at the moment - and I'm not pleased. We have one DVD with three Thomas songs on it, and at the end of the three she says 'more tomash?'. If you say no you risk a huge 2-year-old tantrum. If you say yes you risk your own sanity. argh!!

Anyway I have to go and rescue the clothes from the line because its raining - yay!!!