Wow!

I came home from visiting my lovely Ma over the weekend, to find not one, not two, not three, but four, (yep, four) parcels, on my doorstep.  Bras from Marks and Spencer, Cardigans from Woolovers, earrings from Cloud Nine Creative, and a mystery parcel.  I love those.  I opened it up to find something entirely unexpected:

You know how it is when sometimes you do something for somebody because you want to, not because you have to... and then bam!  A pay it forward gift.  A very similar scarf to this, courtesy of Mrs Pudding.  Mrs Fluid Pudding.  The extremely generous Mrs Fluid Pudding.   The extremely talented and kind Mrs Fluid Pudding.  Need I say more?

In other news, it was cold and wet in Perth, giving me a fabulous opportunity to take some photos:

It was cold, but just a bit atmospheric... wonderful...

I also got some nice 5" squares at the local market, some smelly soap, and a jar of fabulous Armenian pickled cucumber slices - yummy.

We did a lot of relaxing, and a bit of socialising - OGF Kaz & Az had also come over for the weekend, on their way to a week of wine tasting in the South of WA, and Az cooked one of his special feasts:

which finished up looking like this:

and which was delicious - and so was the scenery:

There were some beautiful blue wrens flying about, and this amazing robin, but they were too quick for me - probably should have put the quick shot thingy on the camera, but hey, I'm old & slow - and trees are easier to take than birds...

Well.  Some birds, anyway:

Truly the fattest bird I have ever seen.  Definitely not a carrier pigeon... and now?  Bed!

Ciao!

Talk about...

Working my fingers to the bone.  Well, kind of.  My very rude friend Ms Creek had the nerve to suggest I was a lazy cow now that I wasn't working, and perhaps my last post about the joys of lunching whilst somebody else (and a man, to boot) cleaned my house, might have led you to believe (especially some of my newer readers, welcome, welcome, sit down, no, here, sit here, have a drink, ice?  Biscuit?  No, I didn't make them, sorry about that.  No, really.) that I was a lazy cow, but you, Gentle Readers, know better.  You know that under this slightly tubby, slightly slovenly** exterior, is a workaholic.  Well, a sew-a-holic.  Well, more of a "I've got to be doing something with my hands-aholic".  


Just as an aside, Gentle Readers, don't you think that there should be a better term than '...aholic' to denote somebody who needs to be doing stuff, all the time?  I don't like that it is derived from 'alcoholic', knowing a few of those, unhappy souls that they are, I don't like it at all, and I want a better term.  I know that the Oxford English Dictionary is looking for people to adopt words that are in danger of dying out through lack of use, and I personally have adopted 'Traboccant', which means 'super-abundant'.  It's kind of appropriate for me, in that I have super-abundant amounts of fabric, ribbon, books, CD's, DVD's, buttons, dust... you get the picture.


Anyway, I'm thinking of digging out the Thesaurus to find a better word than xxx-aholic, and when I do, rest assured I'll let you know.  I know that you'll be worrying until then, but don't fret.  I'll sort it out.


Right, where was I?  Oh yes.  We went to the beautiful Hunter Valley and I made a panoply of presents... (see, big word slipped in there, but more about big words later, perhaps next post?)

And the weather was exceeding kind:

and we had visits from all different kinds of birds, some successful, and some, not so much:

Poor little fire-tailed finch crashed into a bedroom window - how beautiful his plumage is...

And these blurry specks are the local eagles, we saw two breeding pairs yesterday, floating round on the thermals about the house:

And finally, the Jacarandas are magnificently in flower, all over the district:

And now, Gentle Readers, lunch is calling me, and I must then away, away to the sewing machine, for some traboccant Christmas gift-making.


Ciao!


**Slovenly - defined in my book as somebody who buys her clothes from catalogues, and only goes into shops when she has to go to a wedding, funeral or formal function.  Yours?

Did I mention these?

I made these Christmasdecorations just prior to the market, and after beading the birdie's eyes with an actual garnet, stuffing them with lavender and putting little brass beads on the whoopy bits (I don't know they're really called, do you?), I thought they were too nice to sell, so I've sent them off to my lovely friend Clare, who is 96, in the UK, as a Christmas gift.

Quite nice, methinks.  Shame about the reflections.  Picnik, where are you now?

Ciao!

Sneak Peek

Well, here's the fruits of our labours - that's me, My Best Friend & the Kidlets.  We stuffed, stitched, punched, cut, knotted, stamped, wrote and argued, mostly about the pricing.  I admit I have no idea how much to charge for things - I always worry that they're overpriced, but then I remember Lois McMaster Bujold in 'A Civil Campaign', where Kareen Koudelka tells Ekaterin "don't undervalue your own work, there's plenty out there who'll do it for you - what they pay for, they'll value".  So, I've gone with more than I would have, say, three months ago, and we shall see.

Fingers crossed!  I will report back on Sunday night, if I'm still alive.


Ciao!

Falling off the wagon

Well, Gentle Readers, that didn't last long, did it now?  Although the eagle-eyed amongst you may see the time and think "what in hell is she doing up at 2.57AM (ESDST)"?  I'm thinking that too.  I'm getting a little tired (absolutely no pun intended) of waking up in the middle of the night, so maybe I need some pharmaceutical help.  Maybe.


Anyhoo, in other parts of the world, I have two lovely new followers, one of whom you may recognise (if, like me, you waste creatively spend time browsing your followers' profile pages and the blogs they follow), the very lovely Felicity, from All Toile and No Reward, and Carolyn, from somewhere in the wilds of NSW (that's New South Wales to you furriners), whose blog is called 'Ordinary World'.  She has the most beautiful banner, all pink hisbicus (hibiscii?  hibiscuses?) and ferns, and each page is graced with a butterfly and more hisbicuists [joke].  Gorgeous.  And of course, like every blog, her world isn't really ordinary, it's special, because it's hers.


In other news, this blog appears to have been found by the [presumably] Chinese spammers, who left a message advertising:

"spy products, self defense products, gsm baton, spy pepper spray, spy gsm phonestun gun, Stun Baton baton, gsm bug for spy" 


on my blog, and a link to something I didn't even go near, all of which I have promptly deleted.  If this keeps up, I'm going to have to introduce comment vetting.  Next thing you know it'll be Nigerians with offers of cash & Russian brides seeking husbands.  I'm tempted to offer up Mr Golightly but I'm pretty sure he'd be sent back PDQ once they find out he can only cook three things, one of which involves baked beans, raw onions, bread and the microwave.

In happier news, work on the market stall produce races ahead, I spent a very happy & productive three hours with My Best Friend yesterday punching holes, tying ribbon, popping items into bags, arguing about prices and even a spot of sewing - I made one of these:

from Joel Dewberry's new book 'Sewn Spaces'... I didn't do the blanket stitch thingy round the outside the wings, and my pattern appeared to be missing half the markings, but the end result was cute enough - but making one of these took me the same time as it took to make two doorstops.  All those curves to pin & carefully sew around, I s'pose, plus the individual-ette wings to be carefully handstitched on.  I promise to post a picture after the market madness is over.


I've also made another christmas tree, this one jumbo size & decorated with bells, going off to a secret destination after the market (ditto on the photo).  And now, I'm tired, which hopefully means I can go back to bed & actually sleep, as I have a busy day tomorrow involving haircuts, lunching, more sewing, more packaging and bunting!  


Ciao!

Heat burns, y'know...

So, did I rave about the little iron mwh bought me for Christmas? Well, if I didn't, I should have, because it's great for getting into those tiny little corners & the insides of things. But it also has this magic property - it burns things... good thing I was watching (sort of) what I was doing... the silk bird (top left) I made has a light brown patch right under her tail from the shaft of the iron. Boy you have to watch those hot shafts.

Hmm. Moving right along.

I made these today, for Mary, and the birdies yesterday. I just love that Olive Rose. Also, as promised, I posted the zippered pouch & matching lavender bags off to MGF Kaz. We'll see what she has to say!

Back to work today. Notice how that's the last thing I note here? 'Nuf said.