A so that was christmas...

I had two Christmas dinners at my place this year so the last two weeks have been a bit of a blur. There was the flurry of Christmas tidying which left us all worn out. Check out the look on poor Pablo's face.

I was going to print some tea towels for friends and family for Christmas this year but ran into a spot of bother with the inking of the print plate, so I abandoned that as a last cause. I have since had some advice from a friend who has done quite a bit of printmaking on fabric and she gave me some tips so I've put it on the back burner for now and will explore this technique later. So as I did not get the tea towels done I had to shop- ick! And I foolishly decided to make cloth serviettes for Anki with crocheted edges - 2 days before seeing her. I started out with a sensible number, 6. Then I thought what if she wants to use them as a Christmas thing being red and white and quite christmasy although not limited to Christmas. I reasoned that she would need at least 12 in that case. So at 4:30 on the morning before I was going to her place for a pre Christmas catchup I conceded defeat at 10. I did the 11th while sipping tea and enjoying cherry cake on her delightful deck but sadly the 12th has eluded me. (I still owe you one Anki and I will get there!) I was going to do a tablecloth like this one I am doing for myself too but that would have been pure lunacy in less than two days!

Christmas eve Tim decided to spoil the family with a new TV for Christmas. He had had a little bonus and as is in keeping with his generous nature he has shared it with us. The TV seemed smallish in the shop but it appears enormous in my little house! Scale is everything.

And even at almost 18 one can still play with the box! (I hope she never loses this playful streak!)
Here are some photos of things that took my fancy at Christmas time.

 Rays of light falling on the christmas tree...

 Reflections in the baubles...

The light falling on this lone blue chair. ( It really must have taken my fancy because I took several photos of this chair at different times.)

 Crisp folds in presents remind me of my grandfather. I was eight when he died but I remember he used to be in charge of the present wrapping. Not only at Christmas but I remember Christmas most vividly as when we returned from the northern territory he showed me how to create these lovely neat folds and every time I wrap a gift I think of him.
I read Anki's post and it made me think, I used to love Christmas too for a number of reasons- starting with our not being invited to share Christmas with my Dad's sisters on the first Christmas following Dad's death, although this had been the tradition for years before, my separation - and the muddle of working out of how to share the kids and my sister living far enough away to make it tricky, I have kind of come to fall out of love with it. At least when the kids were little I went to elaborate lengths to create magic for them I didn't have time to think about how I felt about it. I also think I used to get quite melancholic thinking well there goes another year and I'm still single, I haven't done x, y or z. This year has been much better but I am determined to try to fall in love with it again and start to create some new traditions that bring me joy.
This holiday I have decided to make an effort to make some stuff as that brings me joy too. On boxing day I started with this.

I've seen examples here and there on the net and remembered that I had an old case stashed on top of my wardrobe. It is not fancy yet, I will get round to lining it to make it pretty like the others I've seen but I needed to make sure it was functional first and that I had the right stuff in the case lid and in the boxes stashed within the body of the case. It is dedicated to my art journal, drawing, painting and printmaking and the like.
I've taken step by step photos so I will make a tutorial of how I did it at a later date.

PS. I really should have removed the post Christmas wine bottles off the table before making tutorial shots!

carving, cleaning & gardening

For some time I've been wanting a decent set of lino carving tools and a month or so ago Tim ordered me a set on eBay (I think I may have complained that he spoiled the girls -Chicky babe and Bec- buying them manga stuff on line) Anyway I have been waiting and waiting and the girls got their posters and other booty and day after day went by without my tool set arriving.

Yesterday the neighbour handed Tim a package- it was my tool set! They had had them for a couple of weeks and just hadn't got round to bringing them over! Oh well, never mind today was the first day in ages that I've had time to play with them anyway. They or it rather is quite nifty. It has one handle and 5 interchangeable blades that are hidden away inside the ergonomic handle. It is so comfortable to use. And amazingly quick, I'm using a relatively newish product, the white easy carve rubber rather than the traditional lino I'm used to using, It carves like butter!  Which is both good and bad. Quick to use but also quick to cut off more than you thought you were! Fortunately this didn't happen for me but I can see this could happen if you used this with kids. Tomorrow I'll do an artist's proof..

I want to make some handmade Christmas gifts and this year it might be hand printed tea towels. I have several plain white towels ready for printing. I looked through a book I have on designs from different cultures and historical periods and found some inspiration from the Asian flowers which carry a meaning of happiness- a perfect wish to incorporate into a gift. Maybe I should do a second one reversed so that I can print them alternating along the edge of the tea towel, maybe not it is actually quite big....We'll see.

I just had to include this photo of my sister and my mum from not this weekend but the one before when my sister decided to relax some more in my garden -in the middle of the day in the horrible heat on my only day off that weekend (I was not amused at the time- but this photo is quite amusing and just blurry enough to afford them some anonymity!) She woke me early and asked if she could come to visit- no mention of gardening - half way through morning tea she was up and gardening, then mum joined her, hence the nice top and the fluffy purple hat on mum (tee hee!), it was hot and we were totally unprepared for this kind of get together!They came back again this Sunday but I was prepared this time and had the whole weekend  spare this time. We ran out of room in the skip bin so and will be returning next Sunday ( one of my trees had to come out because it was damaged when the pipe burst recently and then there was 5 years worth of weeds along the driveway!!!!) I think that her garden is so totally clean and tidy she has nothing left to tackle. Fortunately for her my garden could use a little work especially in those areas that I ignore and pretend are not there.
So I was in charge of cooking morning tea and lunch on Sunday and will be again next Sunday- I now have a new found respect for farmers wives or scullery maids of yore. As soon as I finished washing up dishes from first morning tea (yes they are part Hobbit) They were ready for second morning tea. Wash those dishes cook lunch, clear and wash again. Mind you they were a very hungry and appreciative customers.
I made pizzas and a leek,asparagus and fetta tart, potato salad, sausages (at my niece's request) and these scones made with yogurt and oil- they are my step fathers favourites and very easy to make.
I will be able to repeat the scones but I'll have to think up another lunch.
I won't know myself soon. Our newest house mate is quite tidy and likes to clean especially while she is supposed to be studying and likes to rally Bantam Boy into joining her!

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.

Kawaii Kokeshi Dolls

I found this pattern on Ravelry, Very cute ,very easy. It would be a good one to use for a first project. I am using up some of the yarn that Tim bought for me at a garage sale. I have no idea who they are for. I might sell them or maybe they would be good for a Toy Society christmas toy drop.

I love Totoro

This little fellow has inspired Chicky Babe to want to learn how to crochet!
I made him using the pattern mentioned in my last post, with some modifications (smaller ears, skinnier arms and bigger white belly) to make him look more like the big grey guy rather than the medium sized blue fellow.
I still have to embroider on the features and invent a pattern for the legs.

PS: (Later in the afternoon.)
Embroidered features...

Still no legs!

the red shoes

The other day I went to buy walking shoes ie. joggers. I hate them. They never quite fit properly- well I never seem to find them comfortable and I hate the way they look. So I went into a rather large well known chain store to spend as little as I could for a pair of walking shoes. I found one pair of size ten shoes that fit me, my ugly step sister foot refused to squeeze itself into any other pair and I was rather alarmed and worried that I'd have to try men's shoes!
The store had a sale on if you bought one pair of shoes you got 60% off the second pair....so I spent $49 on joggers and an extra $22 dollars on these lovely red shoes! They are SO cute on. I could not resist (That's only 3 magazines!) and I have a thing for red shoes. I think I've mentioned before that I loved the story about the red shoes -though why I don't know as she danced herself to death! Although what a way to go hey? Dancing through life.

Before I left the shop I had pants for me and a t-shirt for Chicky babe and a pair of PJ's each all these bargains cost me $150!!! I'm a sucker for a bargain, I love saving money. (???)

Today I spent my lunch hour well my lunch 25minutes teaching two of my colleagues how to crochet. I really enjoyed it.

This afternoon I came home to a clean kitchen. Bantam Boy cleaned it up last night , after a pretty heated exchange in the morning. The pattern has been to spend time procrastinating until very late then doing homework until some outrageously late hour and then not get up in the morning, this cycle is accompanied with a large monotonous amount of red hen nagging. I was fed up. I think I may have used some inappropriate language!
anyway...

I came home tonight to a clean kitchen so I made his favourite spinach and ricotta cannelloni. And had a bit of time to invent a recipe with the left over filling these little fritters.

They have a bit of flour added and milk added to the ricotta and spinach filling. Now I've finished this I'm going to go on with my "Babette" rug, a project that has been shelved for a little while. I draped it over my knee it is long enough to cover my feet! but it's less than half way done. It is very much a long term project.

Best get on to it!

Funny...ridiculous

But it just had to be done! The children 'chatting' over the new wireless network!

I had the family all here for dinner, as I mentioned before I was trying to make amends for my inadequacies. Well at least I can cook! My sister and her family, my mum and ron me and the kids and tim. 12 people in all. It was a lot of fun. We managed to avoid an argument between mum and myself about ANZAC day. I think it is important to remember that war is a terrible thing but I object to the glorification of war that can creep into this day. I also think it should be a day where we think of maintaining peace and how conflict can be resolved rather than explaining why we are still involved in conflicts today that perhaps we shouldn't be. I've typed and untyped my ideas here but I think that this enough said. Or we may all end having arguments here too!

Then I nearly put my foot in it again because I said I was shocked that our school chaplin- who is supposed to be working at the school in a completely non religious sense said a prayer at the assembly and invited the children to join in if they like. We are a government school and I thought that years ago there has been a directive to say there should be no prayers said at assemblies.

"What's wrong with a prayer?" asked my niece.

"Well I don't think school is the place for it. It's something you do at home if you want to."

Oops! My sister actually goes to church and her children attend a catholic primary school.

However my sister did call last light to say how much she enjoyed the dinner and that she loves me!

Phew....Now onto something safe. I'm knitting a new capelet, I saw this one and loved it. I have been inspired to make one of my own. Although my wool is purple not charcol and considerably less chunky. It is so nice to feel that I decided to go with it anyway, it's a merino and silk blend.

This is going to be a coral necklace similar to the flower garlands. I have some tiny red glass beads to sew onto it, and am playing with sea creatures that I might add- starfish and snaily things are the front runners at present.

Finally "Crochet Rocks" I've seen these about in blog land and thought I'd give it a go. One of my friends and her daughter (chicky Babe's friend) both thought it was one of the most ridiculous things they'd ever seen. Laughed so hard, called it thoroughly post modern and the daughter pretended to steal it. So I gave it to her as a birthday present. She was so pleased.

Holidays

I've been busy doing all sorts of things but nothing particularly of note. On Good Friday I spent the day making fabric bags to stash all my projects into. My long term Babette rug project that is growing oh so slowly has a lovely pattern made up of squares on it. My scarf project has a floral drawstring bag. The children's hats and vests have a bag with cowboys on it. This is so I can just grab the right bag when the urge hits to do a certain project.

This hat and the vest below are for the winter warm project. I'm knitting hats and vests for the save the children fund for children who will be freezing in the Afghanistan winter- follow the link in the side bar if you want to know any more apart or how you can join in.

This vest was made from a pattern my grandmother 'Cammy' used to make for our kids. They are quite quick to make and take about 400g of yarn. They were so good to pull over the kids long sleeve tops and the kids were always happy to wear them so I'm assuming they are comfortable. Cammy always made them quite long in order to keep their kidneys warm. She had such a preoccupation with this and as teenagers my sister and I would dread the birthday gifts of cotton undies, usually washed out colours and floral patterns. These undies were full briefs of the fullest type designed to embarrass any teen and of course keep our kidneys warm!

I finally got round to planting a tree in the middle of my paving in the front yard. This area is the hottest spot imaginable. Paving may not require watering but it gets bloody HOT. Especially as this is on the western side of the house and gets sun continuously from 12 o'clock onwards. It's not a nice place to be in summer. So I've planted a Chinese Tallow- especially for its non invasive root system and deciduous habit, shade for summer and sunshine in winter.

I planted some veggies and herbs in amongst the flowers, I figure if I'm going to tend it it's got to give me something back!! (Both the kale and the silver beet are going well. The snow peas not so well. And the coriander is dead... I don't know what it is but i can never get that right.)

I made a new garden bed just out from the patio. (That's Chicky Babe in the hammock.)

This little frangipanni earns it's keep by providing unusual little flowers with lovely perfume.

I've just finished these felt place mats. They were inspired by a design on a piece of fabric I am crocheting around to turn into a tablecloth. I am in need of some long tablecloths to cover my long outdoor table. I had mum and Ron here for lunch and was mortified by her sideways look at the shortness and unironedness of my tablecloths. That and the fact that I didn't have any place mats to pop on the end where it didn't quite meet the end of the table.

As my sister and her crew are coming for tea next Thursday along with mum I thought I might just be able to redeem myself.

Two little dancing dolls

Here they are two little dollies ready to fly over to victoria to play with someone who needs a new friend.

I'm pleased with the way this hairdo turned out.

and I'm happy with the little ballet slippers and bows.

I really wanted to do something pretty and as I said before these dollies had strong opinions about what they thought was pretty. I think they chose quite well.
Unfortunately I've run out of time this weekend and the third doll is still unstuffed...but I really must spend some time preparing classwork for school.

Doll Number 2

Almost done!

In my mind originally she was going to have stripy stockings and a cute floral smock type dress. But these dolls appear to have minds of their own. She didn't want to wear it at all. She was happy with the stockings but...

She insisted on having a tutu with the same red and white floral trim as her friend.


I think she wants ballet slippers too!
Back to it - it's almost 2am, last night I worked until 4am I think I should go to bed a tad earlier tonight. I still have one more dolly sewn up waiting to be stuffed! But I'll be stuffed if I don't get some sleep, but I'm having too much fun and am a bit impatient to see how they turn out.

Bushfire toy drop: doll number one.

She's ready to go!

I'm off to make the next one now.

Go to the Toy Society Blog to find out where to send your handmade toys.

Doll

Well I've made a start on my little doll tonight to send off to someone who needs it.

Here she is trying on clothing...

Yes she was happy with the Balinese braid and the very full pink skirt.

She is still thinking about the braid going over the shoulders...

But she is very happy with her red dancing shoes!

I am happy with her little hands. Tim said they looked like they were stretching out for a hug. Perfect!

Things I hate and christmas but not in that order and not really in the same sentence...

Merry Christmas!
And best wishes for a fabulous 2009

Although I had mixed emotions arround the whole christmas thing Christmas day was quite stress free round here. The kids woke at a reasonable hour (7am-chicky babe was excited about the arrival of her new red iPod) , I then went back to bed for a nap. I woke up about 10ish and started to leisurely prepare Christmas dinner. Mum and Ron came for dinner about 6pm. I had crayfish for entree and we had roast rack of lamb with potato salad, a green salad with roasted pumpkin, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and almonds and warm green beans blanched and tossed through fried onion and pancetta. We had fruit mince pies with brandy butter, cream and/ or ice cream. A super easy spread! This was followed with a game of poker sparked by a mini pack of cards found in one of the crackers! Mum won! She is so competitive!

My sister and her clan came up from the country for breakfast- not lunch as originally planned, on the Tuesday before Christmas. Most of the cooking had to be done the night before because alas I am not a morning person! I made stuffed mushrooms and ricotta pancakes with brandy butter and berries in syrup the night before. I found some organic sausages(that I could eat) to have with scrambled eggs and bacon which we cooked in the morning. (It cost me a bloody fortune! But no-one goes home hungry on my watch!)

Boxing day!

ONE THING I REALLY HATE:

Tangled cords. I hate them they stress me out! I don't know why but one look at a tangled mess of cords leaves my shoulder muscles cramped up and heralds the beginning of a tension headache! I decided to have a look for the printer CD to reinstall the printer and the modem one in order to fix my wireless connection in doing so I came across a tangled mess of cords many of which I had no idea what they were for!

So I spent some time tidying up the area (gathering up the empty choc milk cartons and lolly wrappers- this is one reason I am desperate to get my laptop working again) and doing this....

As many cords as I could label I did with a little masking tape tag to tell me what it is for.

They are now all sorted into snap lock bags under the appropriate headings so it won't take me forever to work out which cord does what when I want to add photos to my blog or download pictures from my phone. I just hope that my little chicks decide to play along and remember to put them back in the right bags! (Note the label on the largest bag at the back!!!! I'm too worried to throw them away just in case we discover we need them.)

Then , so I don't have to look at them at all they are tucked into a shoe box with a lid!
I still can't find the right information to fix my wireless modem connection- I am so close to going out and buying another modem just to get it going again but I know it would be such a waste of money!!! BUT I WANT MY WIRELESS TO WORK AGAIN!!!!