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!!!

So much stuff to post...

Yay! Blogger has now deigned to let me upload my photos!

So firstly you see the lovely mini moopy that sadieandlance sent me! I love him/her so much. The moopster is now at work with me, although I had to secret him away because my daughter loved him so much. A guy at work came up the other day and told me how cool it was - I was in total agreement and a little jealous that I hadn't made him... thanks sadieandlance!




Then there are the freezer paper stencils that I did for my friends and myself! Here is a little charger t-shirt for BigL's daughter in brisvegas. I love it so! It has often annoyed me that you can't get cars on pink shirts for little girls - a problem I have now rectified.


A little onesie

A rhino charging after people... this so appeals to my sense of humour... In another life I'm sure I'd have been the one riding the rhino and laughing evily...


So there you go. Ah... I'd gone right off this blogger business when I couldn't upload the photos. But order has been restored.

Freeze!

Oh. My. Goodness. Is there anything better than freezer paper? I was over at wee wonderfuls and noticed that she'd printed some fabric. 'Geez that woman's talented' I said to myself, figuring she was one of those craft godesses that screen print. But no. She is a craft godess that puts freezer paper on fabric and PUTS IT THROUGH HER PRINTER!!! A lightening bolt went off in my head. 'That would be perfect for the labels that I want but don't want to fork out heaps for,' says I to no one in particular. And this is where they would be if blogger would let me upload them...

Labels


Though I've just realised now that Hilary says "I treat fabric with bubble jet set then iron to freezer paper and send through my printer". In my usual style of not getting it right the first time, I did not use bubble jet set. So these will be a test drive for non washable items only. Once I procure some bubble jet set I will be unstoppable. Ahhhhhhahahhahahahahaha (throwing head back and laughing wickedly).

Joy (and how I got it)

I have had a couple of blissful days... on Thursday I went to the post office and was greeted by a package from funky finds. I had sent her a little southern right whale a while ago in return for some freezer paper. But she sent me freezer paper AND lots of other things! It was like Christmas. Second to the excitement of the 75 square feet of freezer paper, she included a little card from Inside a Black Apple. I litterally danced when I saw it. I have loved this girl from afar for such a long time, but resisted buying anything. And now I have a card! She also included a lovely little whiteboard with magnets for the fridge, some stickers for Lil (now proudly stuck all over her bedroom door) and an Adorn magazine. Such bliss.

Then we went to visit my Nana... and what did she pull out of her sewing cupboard? 75 square feet of freezer paper... unopened. Had it for years, she said. Why didn't I just ask her, she said. She also gave me some great lace. While I was down there I finished a cardigan that Nana and I started ages ago.

Its in beautiful bendigo wool. I just need to add the buttons and Lil will be ready to wear it. I can only hope she doesn't suddenly become surly, like the girl modelling the cardy in the pattern book...

Then I finished off the border around my felt tree picture. It will shortly be hurtling northward as a very belated birthday present for a certain someone.



And then this morning I did my first stencil. I love freezer paper. I think its grand. I shall abandon all other craft persuits forever (or until the next new big thing comes along). This is a dandilion from stencilry. $5 shirt from Rivers and $1 paint from Lincraft clearance bin. Wouldn't have been my colour choices, but I didn't want to spend big if I turned out to be a total gumby at it. And its beautiful. Crisp lines. Reasonable paint coverage. Oh the possibilities...



So this is joy. And me being joyful. And when my little munchin wakes from her sleep we shall be having a tea party. In the beautiful winter sun. With Nanny and Poppy. Doesn't get much better.

Toodles.

We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo

Well, actually we went yesterday. It was so much fun, despite the facility being fairly average, and very short on acurate signage. Lil loved the monkeys and all the fish, and freakin' ell there were some big fish. Especially the Murray Cod. Wow. She like the koala, but as far as animals go they're not very 'flashy' so she tired of it pretty quickly. For all you foreign folk, here's a snap of said koala.



In other news, I finished a felt picture. I saw a painting/illustration of something similar online somewhere ages ago and decided to try and recreate it. I'm pretty pleased. I think I'll put a pink and brown border on it too...





And a little hat that I've finished for Lil, all bar the icord which will pull the top together. Otherwise its just a tube. Which wouldn't be very warm.



And we're off to a farm this afternoon which should be a hoot. And then to walk Mum's dogs. Whow, talk about a few days full of fauna...

Woohoo

I just realised that I've just reached 1,000 hits. Although, to be honest, at least 100 are probably me... I've been fiddling with a new layout and with my less than professional html skills it a bit of a long haul. Anyway. Seeing as I'm posting for this momentous event I thought I'd post a WIP.

I'm doing the 'branching out' scarf from Knitty, and as a featured KAL on crafster. I don't mind it, in fact I love the pattern, but I don't think the variegated yarn really works with it (as with most 'lace' patterns). Especially after seeing Jejune's gorgeous purple one... The yarn was a hand-me-down from my mother; 40%Alpaca and 60% Acrylic.

We went to Jack's Crocodile Safari birthday party today and all I can say is 'WOW'. Jack's mum rocks. There was a blow up crocodile, crocodile crafts with scented pens and glitter glue, a rule that you had to eat three pieces of fruit before you ate the 'junk' food (which was toasted cheese crocodiles, fairy bread, crocodile biscuits and a packet of chips) WHICH ALL THE KIDS DID!, a crocodile piniata, pass the parcel, bubble blowing, and crocodile wrestling. Phew. But the pinnacle was the cake. A yummy chocolate mud cake, covered in 'mud' with two icing crocodiles on top. I wish I had the camera. They had soooo much fun!. And then the fabulous Ms M (aka Jack's mum) sat all the kids down and read them a crocodile story. Hands down the best themed party we've been to! Five gold stars Ms M!!

Anyway, Lil is having a sleep over with Nanny and Poppy tonight so I'm off to spend some quality time with the old man.

Finished!

Last night I finished the felt picture for our friend's son. I'm really happy with it. I had heaps of help with colour selection as my Nana and Pa and my sister and her boyfriend were over. I decided to back it with black felt so that if its not framed then they can pop it on a wall or whatever. Anyway, I loved doing it, and its a vast improvement from Lily's!

On another note, we had such a lovely day yesterday. It was a perfect winter's day - clear, no wind and toasty warm in the sun (although only 14 degrees). We had my Nana and Pa, my dad and his partner and sister and her boyfriend around and we all sat outside drinking coffee and eating yummy arvo tea. Lily was entertaining everyone with her interpretation of hopscotch (basically running up and down with little skips in between) and making everyone play football. It was lovely.

Hi ho

A couple of bits to report... My lovely daughter has started 'nit-ting'. I was delighted to see her click clacking away with her own [mismatched] needles and wool - and not happily unravelling my knitting!

In other news, I finished the bag mentioned earlier which I was so excited about because I was going to felt it. After I completed it I excitedly took 'before' photos so I could see the remarkable difference after I'd felted it...

Well... I now know that 'machine washable' means 'unfeltable'. Even if you wash it to within an inch of its life, then pour boiling water over it and beat it with a potato masher. So here's the after photo. Not that different really. Anyhoo, it doesn't look to bad and I'll probably use it as a grocery bag.

And I'm doing another felt picture for a particular little boy's birthday this weekend. I'll end up putting the little man's name in the tree area.

Oh, and my wonderful supervisor at work has announced she is leaving - within hours of me declaring on this very site that people had to stop leaving work so I didn't have to felt departure gifts. I must have jinxed myself.

Best away... mother is coming for dinner and the cupboard is bare...