Thursday, July 29, 2010

Imbolc Stirrings


I was drawn outside in the wake of some heavy rain. Everything was so still ... calm before the August winds.


The sun is shining brighter everyday, slowly but surely gaining strength, warming the earth.


Stirrings in the belly of the goddess. She is awakening as the maiden and the mother, rejuvenated and youthful, ready to nurture the new life.


Slowly unfurling toward the warm sun.


Blessed be xo

Monday, July 26, 2010

Beautiful Blogger Award

The lovely Ariad from Rainbow Love Farm has awarded me with a Beautiful Blogger Award.


Thankyou Ariad!
I'm not usually one to get caught up in stuff like this but I owe lots of my creative inspiration to other bloggers, so anything that gives me the opportunity to share is OK in my book :)

There are two conditions to accepting this award:

1. Add a link and note of thanks to the person giving the award.

2. Pass the award on to the bloggers whose blogs you love



I could list heaps of blogs that I'm into at the moment, but I'm just going to pick one this time, my dear friend Cords at over at three in a shed.  





Alternative Suburbia Hits The Road!

Thats right folks; in three weeks we're grabbing the kids, the surfboards, a guitar, a ukulele, a didgeredoo and our best mate Steve, and packing up the little Jayco to head north for a month-long road trip!


The excuse for the journey: My two eldest stepsons are in the army; one is posted at Darwin in the Northern Territory and the other at Townsville in Queensland.
So our plan is to travel up the East Coast to Townsville over four, maybe five days. This is about 2100 kms from our home on the NSW Central Coast (about half way between Sydney and Newcastle on the map). We'll spend three or four days there with Scott (eldest stepson), and then we'll head over and up to Darwin--another 2500 kms-- to spend a few days with Zach (second eldest stepson). We haven't decided whether to head back to the coast or take the inland route home.

Needless to say, I'm very excited! I spent a short but memorable part of my childhood travelling around this country and I'm so happy that now we have the opportunity to do it with our own kids, even if it's only for a month. Not only that ... I get to leave behind our daytime temperatures of 18 degrees celcius to bask in Darwin's balmy 33 degrees celcius. 

So has anyone travelled this route before? Any hints and tips? Must see places? I'd love to hear your stories.
Otherwise, stay tuned and live vicariously! 

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Toy Catalogue Time

Eeeew.

Indi is sitting upstairs reading one of the glossy consumeristic tomes.

Indi: 'MUM! I found something I would love you to buy for me!'

Me: 'What is it?'

Indi: 'A cubby house!'

Me: 'You have a cubby house out the back!'

Indi: 'But this one has swings.'

Me: 'You have swings out the back too!'

Indi: 'But these swings are attached to the cubby house.'

Me: '(insert are-you-for-real? face) I'll move the swing set next to the cubby house for you.'

Indi: 'Oh just forget it!'


I'm not sure if I won or lost that argument ... ?

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

SO ... A Needle Pulling Thread

Who remembers "The Sound of Music"?
I do. Well, it's kinda hard to forget when your partner sticks it in the VCR player every chance he gets, and when a certain Facebook friend (who no doubt has seen the movie twice as many times as I have ;-)) keeps posting random quotes and song lines on my wall!
Anyway, it appears that the frugal spirits of Fraulein Maria her curtain-come-lederhosen-clad charges have infiltrated my psyche because I just made a pair of pants out of a tablecloth.

LOL! Ok wait ... let me explain.
Lately I've been tinkering about a bit with the sewing machine. I've never been very good at sewing (too impatient I think) but I found some pretty easy sewing projects online and thought I'd give them a go. After a few stuff ups, I've managed to produce a heap of pants and a t-shirt for Keanu and a tiered skirt for Indi, all made from recycled clothing; old shirts, dresses, pants and the likes.

Somehow, in a haze of google searches, I came upon this pattern. How cool are they! (and heaps of good sewing tips too.) Suddenly I remembered a gorgeous piece of batik print fabric that my sister bought back from Bali last year. It would be perfect for this pattern! But I don't want to stuff it up; the piece isn't very big. One wrong run through the overlocker and all would be lost.

Hmmm ... need to make a test pair. But what to use?
I could go to Spotlight and grab a few metres of cheap cotton OR I could be my usual impatient tightarse creative frugal-minded self and raid the linen closet. I chose plan B ;-) I couldn't use an old sheet, because that would be cutting into my crocheting stash (remember the mermaid and the bag?) but digging deep I found this old tablecloth that I picked up in a second hand store years ago. We haven't bothered with tablecloths since the kids started eating at the table so I figured it wouldn't be missed.

Turns out that the claim is true ... these really are SIMPLE and COMFY pants. I made them without one mistake! You can see that I've changed them a bit around the waist; I've sort of accentuated the front tie and hidden the back one (which is just bias tape because it was all I had lying around).

And I'm wearing them backwards. They sit better on me that way.

All in all, I'm REALLY happy with them. Not particularly good for winter; I probably wouldn't wear them high on a hill with a lonely goat herd and they'd be no good to Climb Evr'y Mountain ...
but I Have Confidence that they will become one of My Favourite Things ...


So Long, Farewell!



Sunday, July 4, 2010

Winter Crochet

Howdy y'all!

Haven't been around here much lately have I? I'm still hibernating :) It's been soo cold here and we haven't been doing a whole lot other than snuggling under the doona until late in the morning and lazing around in the warm winter sunshine when it's about.
But it is great weather for crocheting, so I thought I'd return to blog land with my latest warm creations.

I decided to crack into some of the wool I got for my birthday. This stuff came from my friend Cords. It's a blend of wool, soya and acrylic and is so delightfully soft!
This is great wool to work with when you have kids around; it has a boucle-type texture and is very forgiving if you miss a stitch here or there because of pint-sized distractions ;)

So far I've made a beanie for Keanu and (finally) a pair of fingerless gloves/wrist warmers.



Hooray! No more frozen wrists from resting on the computer!



I've still got a couple of balls left ... any suggestions? Maybe a cool dread-headband???