Sweet Spring

It's still officially winter in Australia but Nature is definitely saying it's spring.
The mornings are warmer, the days are longer, the birds have begun to gather nesting material, freesias and jasmine are sweetly scenting the air...I love this time of the year. I spent the weekend in my garden,
sweeping and weeding and repotting,
clearing up the damage from the March flood,
kept company by industrious bees



and small, squabbling honeyeaters.




Amongst the debris from the storm, lots of flowers were blooming,
including a delicate native flame pea




and the coral gum I planted when I first moved here.




It was a lovely way to spend Saturday and Sunday.

I spent time crocheting a new blanket too. I'm making one with Lucy's Granny Stripe pattern. I haven't taken any progress shots yet but I have managed to take a picture of the yarn I'm using. I've chosen colours to go with my living room. It's going to be bright!



In other crafty news,

• I've crocheted a One Row Lace Cowl:

which I have given to my good friend Robbo,

• I've worked on a stirling silver and copper ring:

which I've since oxidised and polished

• and, lastly, I have had the pleasure of seeing my What the Dickens Fingerless Mittens being made by somebody else! A lovely and busy blogger from Holland has crocheted four pairs, which you can see here. I really like the yarn she's chosen.

And you?
I'd love to hear about what's happening in your corner of the Earth.

Blessings..
x

Little Pockets of Joy

I have sat down at the computer with the intention of posting here quite a few times over the past month but the words just haven't wanted to come. It's been very, very busy at work and I've been doing loads of reporting, interviewing, commenting, reviewing...
And I think I'm just all talked out.
(Which some members of my family will find very hard to believe, I know.)

So today I'm just going to share photos,
mainly,
of things that, in amongst all of the hard work, have brought me joy.


I've walked around Lake Monger in the soft light of dusk:




I've also spent an afternoon with my mum,
where we drank tea, talked honestly, and busied ourselves with crochet and knitting ~ Mum making bandicoot bags for the local wildlife rehabilitation centre, me working on yet another Sweet Lorraine scarf.




I have admired the little posy of marigolds that's been sitting at my sink,





finished the ring I've been working on in my silver smithing classes (hooray!)



and met the charming Little Red Hen for afternoon tea at Fremantle Arts Centre.
But more about that in my next post...

I'd love to know what's been bringing joy to you.


Blessings.
x

Cosy

I'm almost done for the day ~ after I post this I'm going to curl up on the couch with my cat, some crochet and Dr Who on the television for company.
Yay!
It's been another good weekend.
There's been enough balance between paper work and play for me to feel relaxed and to have been really productive...not something that happens often and definitely something to savour...

I spent part of Saturday in my silver smithing class working on this ring:





You can probably tell from the photos that I need to finish riveting the glass bead to the silver cup, and that I also need to clean up some solder and straighten it all too but,
I hope,
I'm almost done.

I've also been sewing up the Monroe Lacy Stole that I crocheted last Winter:




and I have been admiring this gorgeous array of wool (and the little glass button) that I received in my Ewe Beaut Fibre Sampler Box:




(If you follow the link above and look at the contributors for the April 2010 box you'll be able to find out who created all of this hand made goodness.)

I've been enjoying the change in season too.
My poetic friend Jen (who writes beautifully and very very honestly)
says that Winter is a quiet, sacred, restorative time.
I do so agree.

I love wintery skies:



and late roses:





and daisies that bloom valiantly despite the rain:





I hope you, too, are enjoying the time of the year,
wherever you live on our beautiful Earth.

Blessings.
x

Textured

I've had to spend most of Saturday and Sunday writing reports and I'm still nowhere close to repairing all the damage that was done when my home was flooded...but I have had a nice weekend anyway!

I've been admiring this lovely begonia as I've been working on my computer:



I have also managed to get out to a jewellery workshop at Fremantle Arts Centre where I've had fun playing with texture:

(These are little copper samples that I embossed with an onion bag, some upholstery fabric and a dried leaf.)

started to make a new silver ring:



and enjoyed the beautiful surroundings:


(This carved lino floor was installed in the Centre's main hallway as part of an exhibition which was held at the end of last year. Isn't it gorgeous?)

Importantly for me and for my sense of well being, I have been listening to Pema Chodron, a Buddhist nun, who has, I think, a fantastic perspective on life and its challenges.

It's also become cold enough in the morning to wear scarves. Hooray!

(I'm currently crocheting this Sweet Lorraine scarf. It's my second ~ I really like the pattern.)


...and I am just about to eat a large piece of delicious home~made white~chocolate cheesecake.
(Thank you Nikki!!!!)

I hope, dear readers, that your weekends have been full of simple sweetness too.

Blessings.
x

Potpourri

Those of you who follow this blog will know that my home was completely flooded in a storm last month. I've been fixing up flood damage ever since and it's a big job. All of the flooring has to be replaced, so yesterday my dad and I scraped old underlay off the floor in one bedroom and tomorrow we're going to tackle the other bedroom. The underlay is dusty, a little mouldy, makes me wheeze ever so slightly and I can't wait to see it go.
But today I am taking a break!
I thought I'd treat myself to some blogging. I've got some crochet to show you (surprise!), some musings and some long forgotten pen illustrations to share as well.

Here are the drawings:


(The picture above is a stylization of a nocturnal gecko that's native to Perth. I currently have one of these dear little guys living in my garden shed and another one living under the bird bath.
They're very shy and very sweet.)





I rediscovered the drawings when, after the storm, I was salvaging belongings I'd stored in my spare room. They are part of a set of posters that I made waaaaayyyyy back in the 1980s when I was studying Education. These pictures are pretty modest little efforts but I'm fond of them, and I am very happy that I didn't lose them to the flood. Actually, I'm amazed that they survived without any water damage. They were packed in a big box that got wet but, miraculously, the box's cardboard absorbed all of the moisture.

I think that one of the reasons these old pictures are precious to me is because I do so little drawing these days. I'm always making resolutions to get back into drawing...but never getting around to it. Next year, though, I'm going to apply to work part time and, if I get an extra day to myself and all of my creative dreams, I hope I'll be able to summon up the energy and focus and commitment that I need to draw. In the meantime, I love the inspiration I can gain from people like Paul Heaston and Kelli Nina Perkins, who's been interviewed at Janeville (thanks to Judy for this link). Do you know of any other inspiring artists?

Crochet, on the other hand, is a very well developed habit.
Since my last post, I've finished felting my Marvellous Mini Tote:



I've also started crocheting squares for the Save The Children Fund's Knit One Save One campaign:

(The pattern's called the 6-7-8 Square and I'm sure it will look much prettier after it's been blocked. )

I've crocheted a necklace too, which I really like:





I used a slightly modified version of this tutorial. I worked with tigertail instead of craft wire ~ tigertail is much easier to crochet with than craft wire because it's more flexible. Unlike craft wire though, tigertail doesn't hold it's shape so I had to finish off the necklace with cord tips rather than the wire wrapping that's suggested in the tutorial. You can see the cord tips (they're little clamps) in the photo below:



This worked up really fast ~ it only took a few hours to create and I'm sure I'll be quicker next time.




I don't feel that I can finish this post without marking that today is Anzac Day, the national day of rememberance for Australians and New Zealanders when we honour those who died and served in military campaigns. Anzac Day is always a day of reflection. This year I've thought of some of the places I saw in Vietnam, which made the horror of war very real, and I've thought of some of the people I met in Vietnam who touched me with their capacity for forgiveness. Anzac Day has personal signifance for me too: my grandfather and great grandfather lost their lives in World War 2. They were both very brave men and their loss, of course, has had a huge impact on my family.
Lest we forget.








Blessings.
x

Wet

So much has happened since I last wrote here:
there's been some creativity
(which I'll get to eventually if you can bear with me)
but last month my home was flooded in a freak, incredibly intense, autumn storm. It hit at about 5:00 pm, meaning I had to drive into it on the way back from work...under ink black clouds and forked lightning, through rain so heavy I often couldn't see out of the windscreen and flash flooding on the roads...and arrived home (safely, to my amazement) to discover that instead of a parking bay I now had a small lake, and that the water had poured off the street, down the driveway, gushed into my back garden and streamed under the laundry door covering everything inside with at least a centimetre of muddy water. After a few moments of open~mouthed disbelief and some frantic phone calls I started the very, very big job of cleaning it all up.

Luckily for me my neighbours and my family were, and have continued to be, terrific. On the night of the storm, my sister and brother~in~law drove for an hour and a half, through chaotic traffic, to come and help. My dad, too, spent much of the next week at my place doing the most horrible jobs while I was at work. Thanks to everyone's assistance, and despite a few near misses, I haven't lost anything irreplaceable. My family have mopped, moved heavy furniture, cleaned out muddy electrical points, repaired brick paving that collapsed (with me on top of it), ripped out all of my sodden, smelly carpet and patiently listened to a few slightly hysterical stinking~carpet~induced rants from me. Theoretically, my insurance company should have helped me with most of this but they were so overwhelmed by claims I couldn't get anybody to come out...so I took photos for them instead:




Mopping Up, Midnight






My Back Garden, Morning After


There's lots more to do: my no longer beautiful bamboo floor is going to have to be replaced, my bedroom's too dusty and mouldy to safely sleep in, the back yard's still full of debris...but I'm getting there.
Molly's quite happy to keep the bed warm for me, for however long it's going to take:

(By the way, the windows are always wide open when she's in there.)

I've tucked cheerful little pots of flowers in amongst the mess out the back, which makes such a difference:











I'm planning on getting bamboo laid in the bedrooms too ~ hooray!!!!!

and,
of course,
I've been crafting.
Nothing too taxing,
sorting out the storm damage's challenging enough,
but I've taken some more jewellery~making classes:


Copper Pendant and Bangle

I've started knitting another Fascinate wrap:






(I love the Noro yarn's subtle colours ~ they remind me of looking out over the sea and the sky on an early, wintery morning.)

and I've crocheted a little project bag which I'm just about to felt:






The pattern's called the Marvelous Mini Tote Bag
and the flower's another five petalled rose made with directions from Crochet Bouquet. I've crocheted with stash yarn, in much duller colours than I usually use, but I really like it regardless.

Anyway,
I'd best get back to it as there are phone calls to make and quotes to organise.
I hope, dear readers, that you're all well and happy
....and that Nature's being a little kinder to you than she's recently been to me.
x