Craftapalooza

happy h**ker...

Yep, I've turned into a h**ker. Crochet h**ker that is. It started with the ripple and then this scarf and then progressed to softies. There are heaps of awesome patterns out there. Next up I want to teach myself to read Japanese crochet patterns. The dinosaur I made for a friend's birthday, pattern from Owlishly, did it matter that he was a 40 odd year old man? No, I didn't think so either.

Lovely Fran tagged me, just for you Miss F six random things about me:

1. I like to poke my tongue at small people just to see their reactions. They're mixed and generally hilarious for those of you that are interested, anything from dobbing you in to mum or dad to poking their own tongue back at you.

2. I'm left handed though I play any "bat" sports right handed.

3. I make a lot of noise at the cinema, not intentionally. Apparently I agree, clap my hands, gasp and laugh very loudly.

4. I'm freckly.

5. I never finished high school, left at year 11 and went to technical college and did a certificate in office studies. I've been working full time since I was 17.

6. Aaah, I have a thing for country music. In particular Lyle Lovett and recently....Reba McIntyre.

Tag, ok for once I'm gonna, here goes. You guys are it: Auntie Cookie, How About Orange, Molly Chicken, Buzzville, Red Felt Flower and Sodeste.

Here are the rules:
1. Link to the person that tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.
4. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
5. Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.


I couldn't leave you without a picture of at least ONE of my furkids. Here's the Spud for those of you that have missed him. He's doing very well, aside from some mysterious fur loss on his belly and legs and tolerating his older brother's boisterous love.

Sondra, I love you.

ready, steady, ACTION!

Blog Action Day, today 15 October.

What am I doing personally to help the environment? Well, little things. We have an egg timer in the shower, 4 minute showers for us. We're also going to be a one car family. We recycle our trash, well the council does, we just separate...

Kath over at Whipup has done a rockin' post on environmental crafts. Link

Creativity

I think I'm about 2-3 weeks off from having the crafty room ready to go. Not that I'm counting or anything....much!

I have been knitting mainly, no sewing, I'm itching to sew. The Son and I went to the craft fair, picked up some booty from the Patchwork on Central Park stall. There were some great fabric stalls, but overall, same old stuff as last year and a little disappointing. Great review of the fair over at One Hour Craft. Son's first experience and she handled it well. I put her onto the task of spotting knitted garments out of Feathers and other such gorgeous yarns (YES, I'm a yarn snob).

So...since I don't really have anything crafty to share I'll share another embarrassing story, it's been a while since I've shared any quality stories with you all, last one was here.

OK. I'd been feeling unwell and tired. Yesterday The Son and I got home about 7.45pm. I needed to go to the toilet. I had gum in my mouth and as I was sitting on the throne I pulled off some toilet paper and put the gum in it. I don't know what I was thinking, or not thinking. Finished my business pulled up my tracky pants and sauntered up the hall. As I was sitting there eating my dinner I'm thinking, that's odd, I have a strange cool feeling in my bottom area, sort of like a cold menthol feeling. Nothing registers but I'm sitting there getting more and more curious and a little concerned and I don't say anything. I finish dinner and go to the toilet to see what's happening. As I try to pull the trackies down they stick to my bum, people, I must have been tired, I STILL don't register that I have a wad of gum in my butt. The first thought that pops into my head is that someone broke into the house and put glue in my pants! YES, that is the thought, they didn't steal anything, they broke in and put glue in my pants. I get the pants down and then realise my cheeks are stuck together.....with gum. At this point it registers and I am laughing, crying. I manage to make my way into the living room and show The Son. Who loses it, laughing and crying in hysterics. I say, can you please help me. So she spends the next 15 mins or so picking gum out of my butt....yes, very sexy. Yes, it hurt, especially where hair was involved.

Ummm, sorry no, no photos, I was asked by someone who'll remain annonymous if I took photos. Don't think it didn't cross my mind...

Any of you guys got a story to match or beat that stupidity?! There'll be a prize in it for the one I think's the funniest.

The photo above, a slight distraction from the gum and me playing  with a little depth of field photography (thanks Miss Kate for the link)....taken at night but no flash, hence the photo has a little too much noise.

This picture is my giant apple container, it's about 30cm tall and very cool. I saw it and had a complete irrational have to have it moment. Isn't it beautiful.

drop in for a cuppa

That's what I'm doing here at the blog. I'm stealing a moment during a work day to say hi to you all. I know, the blog's a little cobwebby at the moment. Hang in there with me peeps, I'm not giving up the blog. My crafting is limited at the moment due to the recent house move and all my supplies being in boxes. I do have a scarf out that I'm knitting for The Son so I'm not completely craftless.

We're progressing slowly, slowly with the minor home reno's. I need to remember to take some before pics to share. It's all very exciting if a little nerve wrecking. Electricians doing his thing at the moment installing new ceiling fans, light switch plates and a bunch of other little stuff. On Tuesday new wardrobes for all 3 bedrooms. WOOT.

THEN hopefully the painter will paint the whole interior and by the end of May we'll be "finished" for now. Future projects involve, new toilet, retiling the floor in the toilet, new floor coverings in 2 bedrooms and a zillion other little things you want to do as a home owner (I just like writing that, home owner, but really it should be mortgage payer).

Anyhooo. Just as I was thinking my craft juju was drying up, the Harlot saved me. I was driving to pick The Son up after work yesterday and I had a copy of the Harlot's book "The Yarn Harlot's Guide to the Land of Knitting" in the car. I was reading whilst stopped at traffic lights and trying to read driving in peak hour traffic, yes, yes, very irresponsible, and laughing and smiling to myself and realised the juju's still there even if I'm not immersed in craft at the moment.

Sorry, still no pics. I have a new toy The Son gave me and am a little shy with it still. Promise, pics with next post.

grunt, sweat and a whole lotta tape and cardboard

Hey! I'm here. Moved into our "new" house last week. I've been up to my elbows assembling furniture and cleaning the place. Then decided that we needed to pay to have the interior painted. So within the next month we'll have freshly painted walls, ceilings, doors and skirtings. The walls, "Harlem", the ceilings "White on White" and a couple of feature walls, one called "Venus Flytrap" and I can't remember the other right now. I'd love some wallpaper in our bedroom but will sit on that for the moment.

Also in the midst of choosing light fittings. I'll try and get some before shots so you can see the before and after, for those of you that are interested. It's an interesting process to go through "styling" your own home. Choosing where you'll spend money, what can wait and what you absolutely couldn't live with. What I do know is whilst we have the momentum and enthusiasm it's worth being a little tired and feeling slightly overwhelmed by painters, electrician and wardrobe refitters. But dang, not such an unfortunate position considering I'm making these choices for my OWN HOME. Quite exciting.

After a stroll in the yard the other morning I discovered a lemon, apple and pomegranate tree and a few herbs. Very nice surprises. I have plans and visions for a compost heap, worm farm, vegie patch and potentially a rainwater tank for watering the garden. Future considerations, recycling our grey water.

So, no pics for now, but I'm out there reading you all. Crafting wise, little quiet at the moment, but I have a stack of things I'd like to make for home, table runners, napkins, coasters, a quilt for our bed to name just a few.

Happy crafting!

wine, food, napping, knitting, loving and a whole lot more

Hello there! Hope you all had great Easter breaks. Mine was fabulous. The Son and I hit Margaret River hard, well sort of, if you call napping, eating, drinking, sightseeing, DVD watching, knitting baby garments for a friend's impending birth, kangaroo and kookaburra spotting hitting it hard. Of course, lots of chocolate and hot cross buns.

Spud not very happy about goodbye cuddles.

View from the deck at Hilltop Studios.

The indoor/outdoor spa....heaven.

Spa treatments, can you tell who's mother is the beautician??

Sunny Hilltop Studio

Yallingup Beach

Moses Rock,  Wilyabrup

Brookland Valley, lunch view at Flutes Restaurant.

Showing off new birkies.

Son at Moses Rock.

A little something that's been on my mind lately, manners in the blog world. Warning, slight soap box rant here, stop reading if this will offend! Too often I read in blogland others criticising or leaving passive aggressive comments, often anonymous. Especially the nasty comments. I'm not referring to my land here as things are pretty mild in the land of Craftapalooza. Why mention this now? Well there's the recent Kathy Sierra nastiness which is terrifying, then I was reading Cara's site and via her found this article about manners in the blog world. I'll leave you with this, we all started our blogs with our own personal reasons and we all put out there what we feel comfortable sharing. Other's opinions are just that, opinions. At the end of the day if I want to post about my rosy crafty life, that's what I'll do, I don't feel the need to share a lot of the "real life" stuff, I come here to post mostly about the positive crafty stuff in my life and I think we all need to learn a little empathy, be less judgemental and more accepting about each other's differences and also sameness. Aside from all that, you don't like what you're reading at someone's blog, stop reading, step away from the keyboard and don't write that petty negative comment, you'll feel a whole lot better for it.

See you in a couple of weeks

Busy! Busy. I know, boring but true.

Going on holiday's to here and then moving house. I'm crafting just have no time for photo taking and posting at the moment.

Hope you're all well, have a safe and love filled Easter and see you all in a couple of weeks!

When my baby...

Yep off to see HUGE do his thing tonight with my mum. My mother is going to be one big girly giggling mess, her football team is having its grand final tomorrow and she's going to see HUGE. She'll pop a vessel for sure. Hoping HUGE will deliver!

Lovely Lisa's opened her store! Check it out. She's also been featured on apartment therapy. Don't you wished you lived at Lisa's??? I sure do.

I've got a big crafty weekend planned. Sewing, cutting, pinning, followed by more sewing. Hopefully I'll get the bug and sew like a mad lady.

I'm also attending my first fair day as part of Perth's Gay and Lesbian Pride Festival. My first. More detail maybe for another post! LOL. Anyhow, I'm sure it'll be a blast.

Have a great weekend.

An Inconvenient Truth

If there's only one film you see this year, please see "An Inconvenient Truth". Kelli, right up your alley. Half way through the film I was all "we're fucked", the planet is doomed, but thank goodness Al came through with some positiveness at the end. I use both washing machine and fridge/freezer with excellent energy ratings, for you Aussies, you can do a search here for latest products and their rating. Next up I need to change over light bulbs to compact fluorescents and contact my local energy supplier to change over to green energy. Small steps... EDIT - Join the Stop Global Warming Virtual March.

Been a bit quiet around camp crafty. I got sick AGAIN, too sick to craft, can't even knit! Saturday night sore throat and coughing. Sunday sick as a dog. Fever, sweats, hurling and coughing. Nice. I'm hoping today will be the final day and I've kicked it. Managed to hang up on two friends yesterday for a spew break, too much info? Aaah thought you'd be used to that by now!

Thanks too for the great comments on the bouncing right tit. Tit appears to be fine, knees and ego bruised. Glad you were amused.

Oh and you see the new knitty is out. I'm liking Cactus and I'm not usually a wrap girl but Tamarah is interesting. On the sock front, frogged the Elfine's, need to go down to a 2mm and wasn't happy with the toe shaping.