Keeping in touch..

That is exactly what Bantam Boy has done this month.

 He sent 1680 text messages,

I think that perhaps about 3 were for me and the lion's share was for his girlfriend!!!! I however pay for his phone, this is something I said I would do while he was on his holiday to make sure he would be able to ring at anytime he needed without having to worry about running out of credit.

I was not happy. His sister scoffed and said "He's such a girl!" She was secretly pleased because her 600 odd text messages in one month has now paled into insignificance next to BB's effort!

He has been missing home dreadfully- and this is the result of that.

Small Joys.

Today when I came home from work I hoped that I would find the dishes done ready for me to start making dinner. We often end up leaving the dishes because for one reason or another they are not done after dinner and need to be done the next day- Often someone will say "I'll do them later."  Later often ends up being the next day and if I'm working it means that's when I get home before I make dinner and having run around dealing with mess in my work it's often something I find a huge chore and then having to cook dinner is not something I do with joy or love, despite loving to cook sometimes I'm just too, too tired.

Today the dishes were not done. Apparently I'm too messy (I actually like a bit of clutter and don't do streamlined all that well.) and after it's been cleaned it gets messy again the next day-somehow it needs to be done more than once, I think I'm also not bossy enough to insist that everyone has a job and it has to be done by a certain time. I pleaded with Chicky Babe to stack the dishwasher and clean some space so I could make dinner. Then ducked out to the shop and to the chemist to get some very strong headache tablets (It had been one of those days), they weren't done by the time I got back.  So we made a trade- I did the dishes...

This is pretty much as good as it gets, I'm pretty pleased actually the dishes are done after dinner as well as before!
(Oops... you can see my bottle of gin on the window ledge- I truly don't drink that much!)

 and Chicky Babe made vegie soup.

I glad to be relieved of my cooking duties, I really didn't want to have to do both chores tonight.

If you look closely here you can see the broccoli that Chicky Babe forgot to add to the soup. I didn't notice this until I cropped the photo for this post.

Yummmm

I found this groovy blog. It's called "they draw and cook". People submit recipes with drawings. Cute. Tim has discovered recently that he is wheat intolerant so I might try to make this one - Secret Mexican Flourless Chocolate Cake.

blue room

Originally uploaded by sarah kate

I am going to paint my lounge room blue. I had pretty much decided to paint the kitchen end plain white but looking at this photo has made me indecisive again. This looks nice too.

driving around with my new camera: part 2

clouds near leighton
Originally uploaded by dette.k

Could not resist these clouds by the sea. Made Tim take a detour and stop by the beach to capture a few clouds. And the sea. I love all the blues.

driving about with a new camera: part 1

Tim bought a new fancy camera recently, an Olympus digital SLR, now I have no excuse for bad photos apart from ignorance of how to use it. I finally downloaded the camera software onto my laptop and downloaded the photos I've taken on it over the holidays.

We went looking for an all day breakfast as we slept in very very late one day last week we headed towards Freo as Tim had a hankering to visit an op shop that had recently reopened and I wanted poached eggs on toast.

.

As we were too late to get breakfast at my favourite poached egg cafe we went to Hubble's Yard.

They weren't serving breakfast but they did have a lovely blue wall with the most beautifully luminescent red poinsettia we decided to continue on towards Claremont where the op shop was.

As it turned out the op shop was closer to Subiaco. Subi has for years been an upmarket trendy place to go to so I felt sure we would find somewhere nice offering all day breakfasts. We walked up and down (well actually down then up.) the main street, there was nothing.

Finally we came across this little place. They advertised freshly baked pastries etc along with all day breakfasts, so I assumed they should be able to fry an egg - that they couldn't poach one should have alerted me to possible disappointment. I asked if they could fry my eggs separately from Tim's sausages and bacon as I was allergic to it, and could I please have soft yolks.

My eggs came dripping in sausage grease without any utensils and as hard and rubbery as you could get. The waitress said they were not touching as they cooked...then when I said that the preservative in the fat that spread around the pan was enough to make me sick, she said that perhaps they had been cooked separately...they were not in the same pan... perhaps they might have been in the same pan but they definitely weren't touching. Yes she had cooked them herself and after further questioning and reiteration that it would make me ill to eat contaminated eggs she offered to cook some more and as I was by this time feeling VERY hungry I accepted. The tea looked very funky with it's unusual tea infuser. But it was tepid by the time I got it. The second lot of eggs were edible -as my Grandmother used to say 'hunger is a great sauce'.

Although we were not very lucky with regard to breakfast we were rewarded with a full rainbow that followed us almost all the way home.Hopefully it bodes well for the lotto ticket I purchased.

One ball of yarn short of a cardi

This is one of my holiday projects. It is a very basic black crocheted cardigan. Unfortunately I was one ball of yarn short, so that the front band and collar are a tad too thin. When I went to Spotlight to get another ball of machine washable merino yarn in black they had none!!!!

(P.S. The alien tongue I'm sitting on is actually my foot tucked up underneath my behind! Thanks Anki for pointing that out I hadn't really noticed it I chose this photo because it was the least horrible photo of me. Now I discover I have an alien tongue foot. Thanks my dear! I should have cropped it.)However it is wearable as it is and it is deliciously warm although a little boxy and a tad on the big side. But I'm sure it will do for the job I have in mind for it. I wanted something to wear to work for those chilly days when I'm on duty but something that is not hydrophobic and can be tossed into the washing machine along with my other work clothes.

I might make it a little more fancy by adding some embroidery on the collar.

Today I ran a "Drawing with wire" workshop at Red Feather (the little shop that has sold some of my work lately.) I had a group of 7 kids.They ranged in age from 7- the little girl who did this rabbit. (With a little extra help from her mum to hold down the wire as she bent it.) To 13years- the young lad who did this worked absorbed in the wire work and thought carefully about his design creating in his words a "rustic design to go with the rustic wood that it is sitting on."

I actually enjoy these small group teaching sessions because they are purely about passing a skill on to kids and it's all about fun - no assessment, no MSB (managing student behaviour) etc. Just teaching, learning and enjoyment.

Who Stole My Tail ???

#607 八色躍際 Who Stole My Tail ???
Originally uploaded by John&Fish

John&Fish have the most amazing images of birds. It is difficult to find a favourite one.

Brrrrrr...

It's so cold here at the moment. My two girls looked like Sesame Street monsters rugged up in the computer room last night.

Yesterday I taught knitting to a very small group of children in a holiday workshop. There was a little boy who was 6 and two 9 year old girls. I thought it is important to show them how to cast on and cast off so we made a small square which I sewed together for them and they made little finger puppets. They added felt bits to create eyes and wings etc. They were cute but I forgot to take pictures (of the puppets not the kids!)

My Thailand inspired join as you go hexagon rug is growing slowly but has taken a back seat as I've started a crocheted cardigan in plain black machine washable 100% wool. I'm thinking of adding some embroidery on the neckline.

I'm steadily working through sorting through stuff and organising but making sure to balance it with some fun stuff too.

Today I had lunch with the girls at Hubble's Yard Cafe. Our table was in the back room and the sunshine was streaming into the room through the lovely old lead light window.
Delightful!

holiday goal

I am going to spring clean my bedroom this holiday.

I'd like it to look a little like this one I found on roomenvy.

But I fear at the moment it looks more like those seen on TV news shows of neglected houses!

I've made a start and I have a huge pile of washing to do. I have found an amplifier and a bag of half eaten fairy floss - neither of these actually belong to me. I've sorted out two bags of stuff to go to good will so at the moment it looks worse than it did before! I'm afraid that that's the way it goes, it gets worse before it gets better.

I am beginning to see the wisdom of the thoughts of minimalism. Keeping only things that are useful or truly beautiful. I have difficulty throwing things away so this morning as I was waking I visualised myself trowing away or donating everything that was not absolutely necessary or lovely. I have got rid of some stuff but it was harder than I imagined and now I'm running out of enthusiasm for the job...

I'll have a little break and get back into it.

Holidays!

Exhale...