Blue

I'm not a big fan of the colour blue as a rule, unless it is fairly bright. I suppose that's no big surprise :-) - I'm not sure why my colour preferences are so strong. The blue I love best is a kind of sky blue, an almost turquoise, zappy, happy kind of blue, and this is the colour that I chose to paint the room that used to be my bedroom (currently my craft/computer room). So I was delighted to get a beautiful handmade postcard from a new friend I have made on Swap-bot, which has that same blue on it. Thank you Evey!

Derek Frolics

Derek was born last night after a few weeks of labour, and early this morning he wanted to get his picture taken in the garden.

Shrinky Dinks on my monitor!

Positive words

I'm cheating today as the pic is not a photo but a scan of a work in progress. I made these little discs out of shrink plastic and am planning to hang them from the tree in front of my house when I figure out how to put them together. It is part of the Guerilla Style Random Acts of Kindness swap. More about that later. I have some wacky ideas but I don't want to write about them until they are fully formed.

Here comes summer! From the Bureau of Meteorology site:
Forecast for Monday
A warm to hot day with a possible shower or thunderstorm. Moderate to fresh NE winds easing in the afternoon.
Precis: Possible shower or thunderstorm.
City: Min 17 Max 34

Garage Sale

I'm glad I got up and did my grocery shopping early today - I was home by 9am in time for the start of a garage sale just up the road. I picked up some super bargains:
Brand new tea infuser - $5
Three brand new canvas bags - $2 each
Breakfast tray - $2
Beautiful red and gold Indian sari - $2
Teddy bear - $1
Glass jug - 50c
Egg separator - 10c
Cheese slicer - 10c
Knife for chopping herbs - 5c
Bright orange melamine jug/stirrer - $1


The egg separator is fantastic and I celebrated by making poached yolks on toast with grilled mushrooms for a nice brunchie snack. Mmmm - even better than usual now I can chuck out those horrid egg whites.

Then I finished doing my tax return. I should be getting a decent refund soonish. I'm kicking myself for taking so long to do it. Normally I do it in July as soon as all the paperwork comes in, but I think I shall blame Swap-bot for my procrastination and distraction this year. :-)

Lantana

I'm bemused that this plant, which has one of the most beautiful, intricate, delicate flowers I've ever seen, is considered a weed in Western Australia. Its bloom is like a posy of smaller flowers. This one is a bit ragged at the edges but lovely still. If you click on this picture to view it in close up you'll see what I mean.

A film of the same name came out a few years ago, and it's one of my favourites, too.

Poppy Petal

I didn't post yesterday - I totally forgot! I was finishing off four swaps which I mailed out today. Did you hear the loud sigh as I clicked on "Sent"?

I need to start cutting back on swapping as I have just been given the go-ahead by work to select a training course and work towards another certification. And they are footing the bill, which will run into the thousands of dollars. The cost of a five-day course, multiplied by three (for airfares, accommodation, etc., as none of them are run in Perth) with the prospect of an expensive six-hour exam at the end of it. I estimate that for every hour in the classroom, I will need to spend at least five hours in home study. I am already quaking in my boots.

Breathe, and focus on the flower above.

Nesting

The temperature reached 30 Celsius or thereabouts today, not a bad time for me to take an enforced break from walking (my hip bursitis has kicked in once again).

I got good mail today: no swaps, but one double CD (the latest of the John Eliot Gardiner Bach Cantata series). I can't wait to listen to it! It lifted my spirits after a mopey, dull day spent feeling glum about my visit to the optometrist. I have just ordered multi-focals after discovering my eyesight has deteriorated quite badly over the past year (the probable cause of my recent slight headaches). But I picked out some nice purple frames (at least I *thought* they were nice as I squinted nose-to-nose with myself in the mirror). I was told to expect deteriorating eyesight now that I'm in my mid-forties. Thanks a lot :-(

I found a bird's nest on the pavement right in front of my house on the way back from checking my post office box. It is now nesting in the dust on my bookcase with the other nests I have collected. So here are some nicer pictures than the ones I have posted the last couple of days:

Is this house really vacant?

More photos of the abandoned house - since I was on my own I trod carefully. Broken bottles, paint cans, girly mags and assorted other discarded items littered the floor and in some rooms the rubbish was knee deep. A couple of the walls provided a canvas for the graffiti artists to practice their skills, but really I was surprised at the lack of graffiti:

This Ole House

Photography Overload

I've taken so many pictures this weekend that I don't know which ones to post. My walk by the river was uneventful today but it was the most beautiful spring day. I wish we had scratch&sniff computers, and then I could post the scent of the air. Just gorgeous. I have taken to walking without my MP3 player - somehow it sharpens my other senses if I'm not plugged in - and I hear the music in my head anyway.

My walk yesterday was much more adventurous as I went and explored an old vacant house that I've been meaning to check out for a long time.


This amused me. I wonder where these steps once led?


The old dunny. I didn't want to get too close, in case there was a snake in there!


I'll post more pics tomorrow, of the inside of the house.

One last photo for today, which suggests that the next project I work on should be a needlebook for myself.

For FarStarr

This is my living room. It contains a fridge that should be in the kitchen, and a buffet that should be in the dining room. I had to move them into the living room when I got my floorboards polished, but I need to borrow some man power to move them back and none is available right now.

I'm sort of used to it now.

In the foreground to the right is an Ikea storage unit still in its packaging. I will build it when I'm good and ready :-) but right now it is handy to put things on.

New (Old) Bicycle

Today as I was heading off for my usual walk by the river, I noticed that a new bike shop is opening up on a corner not far from my house. I had a little pang of regret that I'd gotten rid of my old bike because it was such a pain to maintain (I never even got the hang of pumping up the tyres) and the nearest place I could take it to for all the little repairs was miles away.

A little while later I passed by a skip bin with a perfectly good (if a little rusty) bike propped up next to it. I wasn't able to ride off into the sunset on it, because the back tyre was flat (and it was the middle of the day), but I wheeled it home. I'm now waiting impatiently for the bike shop to open its doors so that my adopted treadlie can be fixed up for carefree pedalling adventures in the summer.

A true story.



And here's a picture of some lovely flowers in another shop around the corner.

New goodies from Big Bubble

I got a call the other day from the boss at my volunteer job at the Cancer Council to go replace a collection tin at Big Bubble. I'd never heard of this place before and I drove out there yesterday afternoon to find - yippee - a fantastic craft shop!!! So much nicer and more friendly than Spotlight. I couldn't resist buying a few pieces of gorgeous ribbon and some other little bits and pieces. Here's the ribbon I bought, looking fabulous against a backdrop of fun fur:

The Hiding Spider

I must apologise for today's picture which is a bit crap.

There's a permanent spider web across the driver's side mirror of my car. I thought quite an arty photo could be made if I sprayed a light mist of water from my ironing spray bottle, and captured the sunlight glinting on the water droplets that would land gracefully on the web.

However when I sprayed, a fairly large black spider crawled out from behind the mirror looking very cross that I'd disturbed her home. She was a bit shy when she saw the camera, and retreated back inside. In the meantime I had pressed the nozzle a bit too hard in my fright, resulting in more of a downpour than the light mist that I had intended.

Daily photo

I'm going to try and take at least one interesting photo each day and post them here. Actually I have two today, as I started this little plan yesterday but didn't actually get around to blogging last night.
Yesterday's pic is a mural I only noticed for the first time on my walk yesterday. It is just above the side of the Oxfam office down the road from me! Wow, street art in Bayswater!!!

Today's pic is of Sid's chicken who was visiting my garden in search of herbs (which she found. Grrr). As I rushed inside to get the camera, Eddie made a swift escape, but as soon as he got out he came face to face with the chicken. He has never seen one before and I think I managed to capture his puzzled expression quite well. In the picture you will also see a traffic bollard which turned up in my garden a few weeks ago. All sorts of things seem to turn up in my garden lately!


P.S. I think the chicken has been hanging around for a while, because the other day I found a poo next to my bin that made me think that the pigeons were stealing too much birdseed from the feeder.

Updates

I've just re-read some of my blog entries from a couple of months ago, and I feel the need to report on a couple of things:

I completed the City to Surf (a 12km fun run which I walked) with no pain and no problems. I'm not sure how long it took, but I think it was about three hours or so. I got a nice purple polo shirt and a sausage in a bun afterwards, then I went home and drank wine :-) Yay me.

Jury duty was a non-event. I managed to get into two courtrooms but the first time my number didn't come up for the actual jury (thankfully, since it was a very dull-sounding "holding funds" case). The second time, we were taken to the Supreme Court but the accused pleaded guilty at the last minute to assaulting four people and a car (but strangely he pleaded not guilty to being armed with scissors) during a robbery. (Should it be "pleaded" or the word that sounds like "pled"? I don't know, but I like the way the word "pled" rolls off the tongue.)

Most of the time I sat and waited for hours and hours for my number to be called out. I almost finished the cryptic crossword on one day, and I met some interesting people including one lady who had brought her needlepoint project. She said to me that Security had confiscated her scissors when she had entered the building, but she was allowed to keep her needle.

The whole experience was like checking in at the airport, only to find that your flight has been cancelled. Every day for a week.

I'm back......

...after quite a long break from blogging.

I've been feeling a bit down lately. I'm noticing a lot of inhumanity, disrespect and just plain rudeness among people, be they strangers (like the hit and run I witnessed at the bottom of the street last week) or friends/acquaintances (gossip and slander). I'm not sure whether these things are making me depressed or I'm more affected by them because I'm depressed.

Either way I hope it shall pass soon.

I've been trying to cheer myself up by cooking nice meals, listening to music and doing creative things, but I'm in a bit of a funk. I have swaps to make but I'm procrastinating and I just can't be bothered right this minute. Luckily they aren't due for another couple of weeks so I have plenty of time.

It's 3:30pm on Sunday afternoon and I have just put a casserole in the oven since it's still rather chilly.


I've tidied up the house and done a little bit of gardening. That sheep manure I put down last month has done wonders for the weeds!

And I have made a couple of postcards today for a swap, even though I'm not 100% happy with them. I almost dropped out of the swap but then I stayed in because I thought it would stretch me creatively. I guess I'm feeling inadequate because the lady I'm sending them to is an art teacher and very talented and interesting.

Needle Felted Hat

Playing with the embellisher today, I thought I'd try making one of my hats for another friend who may need one. These pieces....
























Became this hat....

A few things.....

I have upgraded to flickr pro and added a few photos of things I made quite a while ago but never got around to uploading.

I have torn my achilles tendon. Grrr, my fault for not stretching. I will be having it treated by my chiropractor with acupuncture this week (I'm skeptical, but he is a great chiro and has always treated me very well). He says I will be okay for the City to Surf on 31st August but I need to rest up this week and then start gently back with water-walking. Yuk I want to do REAL exercise.

I have been summonsed for jury service the week after next (but I guess I'm not allowed to talk about it!)

Life goes on...

Needle Felting

Mum gave me a bag of knitted bits and pieces and balls of different kinds of wool yesterday, and I've been doing a bit of experimenting. I have learned that two very different effects can be achieved depending on which side faces up in the embellisher.
The fuzzy finish towards the top of this pic was made by placing the knitted side face down with the plain fabric on top. The lower part was made with the knitted side facing up, and as you can see this leaves the original knitting stitches very distinct.


This was made with a handful of thread remnants (now I know why I saved them!) felted to a plain red wool fabric.

I like the subtle differences in texture made by the direction in which I moved the fabric: a circular motion produced the swirling effect which I like very much.

Felting fun

I bought a new toy today so if I'm not online much for the next few days, this is why. On the other hand, I hope to post some spectacular new creations as they are made!

It's an embellishing machine, which is used to do needle felting - fusing fabrics together without sewing.

New Old Floors: Before and After

The week before last, I moved out of my house for a few days while my floorboards were sanded and polished. I barely had a chance to get used to them before heading down to Denmark for Cathy's send-off.

Now I'm back home and absolutely loving it.

Before (nasty old vinyl):

Then after moving Eddie and ripping up the vinyl:


After:

RIP Cathy

The picture is of Rob, myself and Cathy in Denmark in December 2005 - almost a year before her cancer diagnosis - I was enjoying a short but lovely holiday staying in their cabin. Cathy had retired early; she and Rob were looking forward to their next Asian expedition. I had forgotten this photo had been taken, but a mutual friend sent it to me this week just after Cath passed away.

Tomorrow Jannie and I will be heading down to Denmark to say our final goodbye and take part in a celebration of Cath's life. There will be so much to celebrate - but there will be a massive gap in the gathering, of the one who drew us all together.

Visit to Denmark

I drove down to Denmark* on Tuesday to visit some dear friends and we spent some lovely time together. I don't want to talk about personal reasons for the visit, except to say that I am overwhelmed by feelings of love and respect for them, and their incredible courage and dignity in facing the most dreadful of circumstances.

I stayed in a motel alongside this beautiful river with abundant bird life and massive eucalypts:




While I was in Denmark I checked out the local galleries and craft shops and came away with some goodies: a fabulous oil painting by Robyn Lees, is now sitting above my (unused) fireplace (I need to drill a hole in the wall!)


and some fabric and shiny thread


*Denmark is a town on the south-west coast of Western Australia, near Albany and about 400km south of Perth.

Back again

It's been a while since I blogged - I've spent the last three evenings helping my neighbour set up his new computer and I've told him not to call me this weekend. I need to finish a swap and mail it out on Monday or I'll miss the deadline; plus I have other swap deadlines looming. It's late Saturday afternoon and I have a total block on the one that's due on Monday so I hope something will come to me when I relax in a hot bath.

I've just come in from a solid two hours of tidying up the garden, prepared dinner (beef casserole, which is cooking on the stove as I write) and am now catching up on email. Today I also went grocery shopping at 8am, went to the chiropractor, finished making two postcards, listened to some cantatas, and buried the contents of my bokashi bucket in the garden. I thought Rufus was stalking a mouse under the fridge, but it turned out to be a dust bunny, so I suppose it's time to vacuum. Tomorrow.

Glorious weather this weekend - sunny and temps in the low 20s. Chilly wind though. This week I had my ceilings re-strapped so that they don't cave in, and also had insulation batts installed in the roof. It's hard to tell if it's making any difference. The two bare-chested boys doing the installation were so so cute but they made a real mess in the garden with bits of plaster everywhere.

Off for a long hot soak in my bath, then dinner.

Here are the pics of two Morsbags that I mailed to California today...

Morsbags - my new craze

These are just so easy and quick to whip up in less time than it takes to drink a cup of tea! Morsbags

The first one I made with the gold hearts on it has been sent to a friend. The black and white one, well, I just don't know whether I can part with it!!

Bread

I made a lovely loaf of garlic and herb bread for myself today - the same as the loaf I made to take to Mum's. I cut a couple of warm slices and ate them with real butter and some bean&tomato&garlic soup. I will stink tomorrow; all the better to keep people at work away from me!!!

I also went for a long walk by the river, did 3 loads of washing, and had a major clean-up of my craft area but am now feeling the pull to get back to the sewing machine - the night is yet young!!!!