Where do you go to my lovely...

Tell me, loyal Gentle Readers, have we had that one before?  I think we may have.  I like to recycle my titles every now and again, just to see who's keeping watch.


Anyway, I'm posting this one today for all the blogs that are no more... when I started out reading other people's stuff, I was completely in awe by how funny, and clever, and creative they all were.  I got inspiration for crafty projects, links to other interesting blogs and even made some new friends and an enemy or two, but hey, it's all good.


And now, some of my favourites are no more.  I feel like I've lost old friends, or that one of my favourite authors has died much too young (RIP Sara Douglass), and I don't like it.


What're the options?  Well, I do go through from time to time and remove the interminably cheery ones, the ones that always make me want to puke with their nauseating 'everything is lovely in my world' vibe, and the ones where the person writing it is just posed over the razor blade waiting for Australia to lose the Rugby so they've got an excuse to slash their wrists.  


I got rid of 'diary of a nutjob housewife' before she bored me to tears with her tales of woe and how they couldn't afford to eat anything except hot dogs but they could afford a subscription to Fox... and I miss Felicity from All Toile and No Reward, and I wish she'd come back.  Or somebody would tell me what's going on!  I miss Gerald Gee, who used to put lovely 1930's music on his blog, but he's gone to the great Artists Studio in the sky and he won't be coming back.  I miss Baino and her eloquent endless supply of 'useless as ...' sayings.  I miss Sara from Streaks on the China, although I know she reads this from time to time, and is kind enough to comment, but I liked her writing and I miss it.


So... where does that leave me?  Out looking for new blogs to read and enjoy.  If you have any suggestions, I'd be happy to hear 'em.  I quite like House on Hill Road but I think she might be a bit too foody/quilty/kids-y for me.


And in news of the other kind, I took some nice pics of My Lovely Ma's garden whilst in Perth (Oh, I'm back, btw, did you notice?), and spent most of yesterday asleep.  Jetlag will do that for you.

And now, back to my knitting. Ciao!

Two strands of thread...

And then last night...I made some lavender bags as gifts for my colleagues - it's amazing how much lavender one of these things actually takes - I use a 25ml scoop - which in theory should equate to 25 grams, a litre of water weighing a kilo and all, and one of these takes three scoops!  


Anyway, I've ordered more from lovely Christine at Ratho Lavender, who doesn't have a website of her own (but she should!), but who can be contacted via this link.  Her lavender has the most distinctive smell of any lavender I've ever bought, and all my customers comment on how fantastic it is - so I'm really happy that she can get more to me before Christmas - lavender bags make a simple but effective gift (hint!)!  


Oh yeah, the gifts!

and all wrapped up and ready to go:

I love 5" squares, they are the most versatile things - coasters, lavender bags, jumbo lavender bags, frog components, lavender pyramids etc etc... every one of these is made from a single 5" square - fabulous.


and then... I love finding new blogs - but it does make me think, "is there anybody out there who doesn't blog anymore?"... I just found this one, via Etsy, of course, when I was looking, as I do every single day, at the beautiful, the bizarre, the ridiculous, the fantastic, the incredibly cheap and the amazingly expensive things for sale...

Anyway, I've added two new blogs in the past two days, and I'm thinking... what the hell, a third new one won't take up any more time to read... and it's an embroiderer's blog, which is a nice change amongst all us common sewers and knitters.. so check it out!

And now, I'm multi-tasking at the moment, partly watching Stargate Universe, which has just started - it's looking a bit grim at the moment, but we'll see - also we'll see if Channel 10 gives it a better run than Channel 7, who eventually relegated Stargate to 11.00pm on a Thursday night - and partly doing this blog - but the strain is starting to tell - so it's off to the Universe... more when I remember the dialling sequence for Earth!