More inspiration from work!?!

Two of our great staff are moving on and so we wanted to do something for them that was specific to the species they'd been working on. So I give you the Spectacled Flying Fox mobile phone case, and the Southern Right Whale stuffie.
I'm so happy with both of them. My husband drew a picture of the whale and then I made a pattern from it! My colleague insisted that it must have 'paddle shapped pectoral fins' so the fins and tail are pretty close to biologically correct! I love them... its a shame they have to go, but they're going to good homes! More later, but right now I have a date with Lil and the Playdoh.

The plague!

We'll not quite. But Lil has come down with some nasty vomiting thing. So I'm at home trying to get through some stuff for work while she's asleep. Poor poppet. I did do a little bit of sewing last night - a head band that I'd seen on craftster.org. I'll post a photo later because the camera is currently flat. It was all I could handle on my poor broken down sewing machine. Its almost like handsewing because I have to rotate the flywheel before it will start to stitch. And I'm still battling away at this cardy for Lil. I can't work it out. I've done the front panels exactly as in the pattern and they just don't match. I'll have to wait until I've got a bit of brain clarity before I try and work out where its going wrong.

And I got a great catch up email from my friends R and A who are honeymooning in Europe at the moment * waves!!!*. They are coming back to Australia soon and are expecting their first bubby.

Random word today - spigot

spig·ot

• A wooden faucet placed in the bunghole of a cask.
• The vent plug of a cask.

Sometimes I feel like my spigot runneth over... Like all the emotion of life it bottled up in a cask and when I try and tap a bit of it I get the motherload. Or maybe it just seems like that because I'm premenstral. Anyway. Spigot is not a word that really conjures up much inspiration or thought for me, except for all those wonderful wine-tasting trips in the past and the warm smell of oak and red wine. I try not to think about them much now.

Best get back to reading about endangered frogs...

Busy

Lil and I had such a busy day yesterday... Lil had her fringe cut at Snippety Do Dah and sat in the Thomas the Tank engine (a big deal for her). And S and Will came over for a coffee while Lil was asleep. When L got up we made fairy cupcakes (normal cupcakes with strawberry icing and 'fairy dust' on top).
Then my friend F's husband M sent me a message about a new old sewing machinehe just bought, so we drove over the other side of town (in torrential rain!) to help him work it out. It must be 20-odd years old, 'Celestial' made for Waltons. And its a cracker except that it will only do straight stitch. We opened her up to find out why and found that a little plastic duverlacky had disintegrated so the different stitch gears wouldn't engage. Anyway, I told him that I could count on one hand the number of times I used the other stitches and I think for $25 he did really well! Then we drove home and made some great Saag Aloo for the Indian feast with my Mum and her partner, and Sister and her partner. Yum. Then settled in front of the tube for The Chaser's War on Everything and pissed ourselves.

I'm doing a quick post from work because I'm sooo excited! I was casually looking at www.whipup.net yesterday (a daily pleasure of mine) and scrolled on down to see ME!!! Well, the Cassowary Bag anyway. I'm so *honoured* to have been noted by someone as wonderful as Kathreen and Whipup. Here at work we thought the ol' Cassowary Bag was a cracker - especially the spatial mapping guys who created it - and the lady who I gave it too thought it could come in very handy at Cassowary meetings where the full maps would be cumbersome. Who would have thought that work as a public servant could be so inspiring!!

On the craft front, my sister's sewing machine -which I've been borrowing - has timing issues so I'll either have to revert to my clunky old one, or suck it up and get them both serviced. I made a bag on Saturday and its finished all bar the top stitching which is so frustrating because if the machine was working ok it would be finished! I'm nearly finished a cardigan for L. My Nana had knitted the front panels and I did the sleeves and back, but I've had to redo the front ones as they were, um, irregular. Nana would never believe that she'd got it wrong so I'm just quietly re-knitting them.

And now for a home grown meme. Method: open word and - with your eyes closed - randomly hit keys. Then do a spell check and get the first word it suggests. Look it up (if you need to) and write something about it. My word today ' YAW'

1. Nautical. To swerve off course momentarily or temporarily: The ship yawed as the heavy wave struck abeam.
2. To turn about the vertical axis. Used of an aircraft, spacecraft, or projectile.
3. To move unsteadily; weave.

I think I will adopt 'yaw' as my touchstone word... it seems that a day doesn't go by that life doesn't yaw. Especially with a small child. For example; Start making dinner *yaw* (which I imagine would be signalled with a creaking noise like a boat on high seas) instead end up making playdoh gingerbread men; intend to have an early night *yaw* end up awake all night with a toddler with middle ear who wants to watch Willy Wonka; think that you're going to get a spot of shopping done *yaw* cue screaming toddler with nappy explosion. And of course just normal life often throws a yaw or two in the way; working towards a reasonable deadline at work *yaw* boss wants it by 5; dream about having that cheesecake when you get home *yaw* someone's already eaten it, etc etc. I suppose the thing is that it is a variation from how you think things are going to go. And if you're too wedded to the idea that things have to go a certain way then the more upset you'll be when you are yawed. Something to think about as I yaw my way through day to day life...

No craft, but crafty photos

We spent a day of the long weekend down at the beach. Mum has a coast house and so we went down to visit her and her partner. L loved playing in the sand - just like a huge sandpit to her. Then she discovered the waves and after some initial caution she was running in and out of the surf. It was bloody freezing though, and after Mum and L got engulfed by a wave we decided to call it a day. I took some photos and have been playing around with a free progam called inkscape. It lets you do stencils which is so much fun!

The rest of the week we've all been sick. N and L both had colds/flu/sinus earlier in the week and now I've got it. Blerg. I'm trying to make a scarf at the moment with the Variety Club logo on it for N's uncle. He does the bash every year and they have a competition to make a scarf with the logo on it which will then be auctioned. I found this great site Microrevolt that will convert pictures/logos into knitting or crosstitch patterns - so I'm trying to learn intarsia or weaving or whatever you call it so I can set the red logo into the white scarf. Wish me luck!

And I really want to start another map bag. I have grand ideas that really just need a little time to come to fruition. And there's so many other things I want to do, but just don't have time. Oh well. Enough wingeing! I'm off to tackle the folding pile which is threatening to collapse and suffocate me...

I love swapping!

I just got the most fantastic package from hardcoremothball in a craftster swap!

A wonderful knitted backpack (with great retro fabric inside), a knitted squid filled with crayons, a crochet octopus (which I *love*), a lovingly hand-quilted turtle, a little turtle, heaps of little cars, two nemo colouring/painting books and a gorgeous crochet poncho in the most soft blue wool. She must have been working night and day to finish this load!

L wasted no time getting into the colouring in!
And ran away when we tried to take the poncho off!


A fantastic first swap for me!! Thank you so much for everything hardcoremothball!

Finish what you have month...

What a great idea... Turkeyfeathers is following on from use what you have month to finish what you have month. I started this blog with a list of things I have outstanding - so I'm thinking this might be the motivation I need to get started (or is that finished?). So my priorities are:

• Wavy scarf from Knitty
• One pair of knitted wool soakers for my lovely friend L in Bris (well for her daughter - I believe L has been toilet trained for some time now...)
• The lovely blue cardigan for L that Nana is knitting the front of, and I'm knitting the back
• Finishing off a cardigan for L that I started last year and that probably won't fit her till next year (it only needs to be made up for g*d's sake...)
• Three miniature felted dresses to frame for L's room
• Stuffed felt toy for a friend
• Doing the ribbing on two baby sleeping bags for M's daughter
• Hat to go with L's jacket (cut out but not sewn).

In other news, today I became an amatuer plumber. We've been having some rain, and were delighted because the it was good for the new grass. However, when the grass was no longer visible because of the puddle formed over the top I knew we were in trouble. The new house being built next door has a roof, but no downpipes so all the water from their house ended up in our backyard. So what's a girl to do? Grab the hose, dig a trench on a slop leading away from the grass, place one end of the hose in the large puddle, lay the hose in the trench and then start sucking on the end of the hose until you get a mouthful of dirty, freezing-cold water. Then sit back and watch the water drain away. Ah. A thing of beauty.

And my poor baby had to get the chicken pox injection today. Not suprisingly she forgot about it pretty quickly (with the assistance of a milkybar chocolate). And she can request songs now too(well twinkle twinkle and baba black sheep)! Anyway, I'm off to get pizza. Have a nice weekend.

I give you The Cassowary Bag!!

What is a cassowary??? I hear you say. Well! A cassowary is a prehistoric looking bird that lives in Queensland, Australia. It is endangered, doesn't fly, and is, well, pretty ugly. Anyhoo, a woman I work with has been doing a lot of work on the cassowary and as a result she has plenty of maps of the region where it lives. Given she's been eating, sleeping, and dreaming cassowary so I got one of her old maps and made it into a bag - hence the cassowary bag!

I sandwiched two maps between two layers of clear pvc/vinyl.

I don't know how sturdy it would be, but it was my first attempt at sewing pvc so I didn't want to make it too complex. Even the handles are part of the map...
I'm pretty pleased with it. The only problem was that the map got pretty crinkled when I tried to turn it inside out. I'd probably do side seams a little differently next time for that reason.