Darn craft!

So there’s been much chat about mushrooms recently... not the tasty fungi type, but the wooden, darning type. I’ve been darning for nearly two weeks now, and I’ve found it strangely cathartic. It started because my husband is a devoted Bulldogs fan and they were playing for a berth in the finals on Friday night. He wanted to wear his entire Bulldogs outfit - including the 20 year old socks that had long since become NFFPV (not fit for public viewing) due to the large holes in the sole.


Who am I kidding, there was a small amount of sole between the holes. I own quite a lovely mushroom, and like many of my crafting items, it has been gleaned/gifted/stolen from my Nana.


This was not an item I thought I'd be using anytime soon. Under normal circumstances I'd be chucking the socks, not darning them. But a boy with a love of his Bulldog socks melted my stone heart. I just went straight to You Tube to get a tute, got a great one. Darned.

This is another pair I did - the bulldogs pair is rarely off his feet.

And the boy got his socks. It's probably the nicest thing I've done for the old stick for a while - and he was happy. Didn't help the Bulldogs though.

Darning was a really practical crafting activity - and I think that's what I've needed to do for a while. I don’t know if any of you caught my maniacal morning ramblings the other week (i deleted it now) , but I’ve been a bit overcome with the whole being creative thing recently, primarily because I think it polarises my feelings of inadequacy/inaction. That is - I do a whole lotta dreamin' and very little doin'. From the post:

As much as I love the online world I think that the 20 posts daily from Craft and Whip Up et al appear to me to be from one, super-crafting individual and serve to make me feel less adequate/productive as a crafter. The posts from parent hacker and life hacker don't give me tips but make me feel like there are just so many things I could improve because I'm so hopeless.So I'm going to pare down the blogreader to the blogs from individuals - because most people only finish a couple of things a month. I can rationalise that.

I took some action and took a heap of craft sites and put them into a folder on my Google reader called 'Not this month'. Its been really, really good. It reduces the 'noise' of all those competing demands in my head. I've only been doing it for 10 days but I think I've not read about 300 posts. And I think its helped me focus on the things I want to do, and put a bit of time to researching them, and then sticking to them

So i'm starting a little embroidery sampler. Progress photos soon.

It wobbled.

"How do you know the jelly is ready Lily?"
"Well, Mum, it just kind of wobbled when I looked at it"
"You didn't stick your finger in it, did you?"
"No Mum."

[Just placed her whole freakin' hand on it...]

I'm going in to get my bottom wisdom teeth removed tomorrow. I'm trying not to think about it too much, but I've got lots of protein drinks and creamed rice and soup, and have got everything I need sorted so that if I'm out of action for a week then life will go on. The surgeon told me that women in their 30s have the slowest recovery time - but I'm hoping I'll be the exception to the rule and can then just use the two weeks sick leave for crafting. I've done a little embroidery and some knitting, but I'm a bit scatty about craft at the moment. Anyhoo, hoping I'll be back with you shortly.

Spring has sprung

Spring has sprung here... although I did take this photo in August. But there is definitely a little bit of warmth in the air and things are popping out all over the place. It is only 14 degrees during the day, but the days are clear and that makes all the difference.

My blogging this time around might be a little more random. I might include a section of 'stuff that I just want to put out there' or 'thoughts irrelevant to the rest of the post'. Primarily because last time I blogged I was so concerned about each post being a well-crafted story that it took ten times longer than it should have to get stuff out. And while I love going back and reading those posts (and half the reason why I'm blogging again is because I realised how much I valued having those posts to go back and read) I don't think that the occasional typo or bad segue will reduce their readability.

So I bring you:

Random Thoughts

• I drove to Sydney on Monday and it was so lovely to see the fog rising over the windmills around Lake George.
• I sat behind a girl on a train who was blowing bubbles - it was a lovely thing to see on a train full of surly city folk.
• Paddy has started talking and one of his favourite words is bubble.
• Paddy won't say Mummy. He calls me, Lily and Nath 'Daddy'. It bugs me a bit.
  
• Lily had her first orientation day at big school today. That freaks me out.

Anyway, thanks for the encouragement to come back and do this thing... I'll be back later with a few craft related endeavors.