Almost

I am tired of paperwork.
My poor neglected cat is tired of paperwork.
Here she is. She's forced herself onto my lap and insisted that I pay her attention,
after a weekend where I've done nothing but feverishly shuffle notes and type into my laptop:

...but I am nearly there.
I'm so close to resuming my life outside of work
and I am looking forward to baking,
and tending my garden,
crocheting,
doing lunch,
hanging out with my darling niece and introducing her to the fabulous North and South,
making jewellery...
(actually, I make quite a lot of jewellery and when I've organised good enough lighting to take decent photographs I'm planning on posting some pictures of pieces I've made here.)

Oh, I am looking forward to soooo many things
and if I get back to the paperwork NOW
I might even get enough done
to be able to get out to Bazaar at Fremantle Arts Centre, which I usually go to every year because it's such a smorgasbord of hand made delights.

'Tis the season to be jolly
...almost.

Rescued

I've been really sick with a migraine.
I was so unwell at the beginning of the week that I had to be rescued by my parents ~
my dad came and picked me up, drove me to the doctors' and then whisked me away to spend a couple of days at his and my mother's home.
I usually live very independently,
I haven't relied so much on them for a looooong time,
but it was nice!
I was sympathised with, given cups of tea, cooked for and sent off for naps. As I felt better, I worked in the garden with Mum and talked about lots of arty things. My mother loves to create, and to draw in particular. She showed me this little pencil sketch she did a few weeks ago while she was waiting in a doctor's surgery:

(This is probably destined to go on the front of the Christmas cards my parents are going to print this year. )

My mother gave me some copies of other pieces of her work for me to share here.

This is a pencil drawing of my niece when she was a baby:

...and here's a portrait that my mother drew of me:




She's clever, isn't she? Not that I'm biased or anything.

I'm glad to say that I left Mum and Dad's feeling nurtured and nourished and healed.
May it continue!

Happy weekend, everyone.

It's Starting To Look Like A Lot Like Christmas

Which means, here in sunny Western Australia, that the jacarandas are flowering in profusion and our beautiful native Christmas trees are covered in honey coloured blossoms
...and last night I was driving home in the dusk and saw, for the first time, a house lit up by Christmas lights. Hooray!

This little macaroni angel was made with some of the children I worked with the year before last.
I love kids and Christmas time ~ children's excitement is so infectious.

Here's a picture the angel on last year's tiny tabletop tree:


Only two weekends to go before I've finished most of my paperwork and can start really enjoying the festive season. I'm itching to craft again!

Mixtape, Dickens, Tea And Roses

Spending most week evenings and much of the weekend doing paperwork is a bit grim.
I keep going by treating myself to things like cups of tea in the garden and short recreational reading breaks (...um, and unlimited amounts of icecream.)

I've been looking through my copies of Mixtape. Mixtape is a new craftzine, and, I'm happy to say, an excellent diversion, celebrating things hand~made, green and groovy.

...and speaking of treats, I was taken out last night to see Miriam Margolyes in Dickens' Women. (If Miriam looks familiar, that might be because she plays Professor Sprout in the Harry Potter movies.)
It was fabulous.
Thanks Dad!

Consolation

For the next month I am going to be spending a significant part of my weekends doing paperwork. Sigh. This Saturday and Sunday I am consoling myself with Unbelievably Easy Fudge, which actually is unbelievably easy to make.


I am also planning on breaking this weekend's work by going to the Margaret Woodward exhibition at the Gomboc Gallery. I went last weekend and the drawings were so delicious I want to see them again.
...and if any Perth readers plan on going too, you'll need to be quick. It closes on the 18th of November.

Snowflakes For Christmas?

I'm starting to look forward to Christmas. I'm organising tickets for Christmas concerts, I have been helping put together the work do, I've made a trial run of fudge, I'm signed up for a Secret Santa and, of course, I'm considering Christmassy crafts. Last year, amongst other things, I crocheted snowflakes:

This was fun to make. (Actually, I got so attached to this snowflake I just couldn't bring myself to take it down ~ it's still hanging up in the kitchen ...and, while I'm at it, I'll also sheepishly admit to leaving up Christmas fairy lights all year 'round too.)

This season I'm thinking amigurumi. How sweet would some of these look hanging from a tree?

A Pretty Visitor

Look who visited my garden this afternoon:

I'm pretty sure this beautiful creature is a Lesser Wanderer butterfly. (Edited to say that, after consulting the butterfly book I bought from the museum, I think I've made a mistake. It's more like an Australian Painted Lady.) It flitted about these flowers for about half an hour or so and didn't seem to mind having its photo taken at all.

I was thrilled to have it come in. I always get myriads of Cabbage White butterflies, who lay their eggs on my nasturtiums (with my blessing), but hardly any other species. Very occasionally, a small native Skipper butterfly visits. Sadly, I haven't seen any Skippers for a year or more.
I've been doing a little bit of research on butterflies for work and I've found out that some butterflies are losing their habitat because of land clearing around Perth, so I've armed myself with a copy of Bring Back The Butterflies from the WA Museum and I'm going to see if I can grow plants that butterfly larvae like to feed on. Hopefully, I'll be able to encourage a more diverse range of butterflies back into my neighbourhood. Wish me luck!