Chilly

I've written my first pattern
...for fingerless mitts!
It's winter here in the Land of Oz and it has been very, very chilly in the mornings. I have really needed something to keep my hands warm
and I've come up with these:







They are made out of 8 ply wool, although the pattern is easily adapted to 10 ply, they're crocheted in the round so that you can fit them as you go
and they're super quick to make.
I'm planning on posting the pattern in the next couple of weeks (once I've finished tweaking the construction of the right hand glove and when I can fit blogging into this crazy, busy life of mine.)
I haven't come up with a name for them yet. I'm considering something Dickensian ~ fingerless mitts always make me think of Dickens and I actually crocheted one of these while watching (and loving) the television adaption of Little Dorrit. I could call them Little Dorrits, perhaps? I've also thought of naming them Crisp Morning Mitts, which is a play on my name. My pun loving sister came up with What the Dickens. Or maybe I should go with something more sensible like Lacy Fitted Mitts?
What do you think?

I came up with my own pattern after making two sets of Shell Lace Fitted Fingerless Gloves:




This is one of the most clearly written patterns I've ever worked from and really helped me to understand how fingerless mitts are constructed.

In other crafty news,
I received this gorgeous knitted washcloth and soap in a Ravelry swap from the wonderful WendyLew, my swap partner




and Little Red Hen gave me one of her beautiful HANDbags when we met up for coffee:




It's constructed so cleverly and I love the pretty floral fabric.
As well as generously giving me some of her handiwork Little Red Hen engaged me in a really interesting conversation that covered, amongst other things, travelling, teaching and selling art which was very thought provoking. I never usually sell any of my work but after talking about how validating it can make you feel, as an artist, I'm thinking that I might exhibit some of my paintings some time in the not~too~distant future.
Thanks for the inspiration, Dette.

I've enjoyed cooking comfort food during this cold snap. I made a Bread and Butter Pudding for a family dinner that was so nice I came home and cooked another one just for me!





The recipe asks for vanilla beans, and demerara sugar that's sprinkled over the pudding to create a crunchy, caramelised top. I left the crusts on the bread and that made it even crunchier, a fantastic contrast to the egg custard beneath.
Yum. Yum. YUM.
(It was so delicious I had it for breakfast too.)

It's been too cold to do much outside
but my garden's bloomed,
regardless:





Flowers bring me so much pleasure.



I hope this finds you enjoying the comforts of home too.

Blessings.
x

Reasons to be Cheerful

I'm still loving being on leave.
Simply being able to get enough sleep is fabulous!
So is having time to cook, time to go to art classes, becoming relaxed enough to really enjoy being with family and friends, having small adventures ~ so many joys.
I'm just back from a holiday,
going out into the Western Australian wheatbelt to see a spectacular show of wildflowers,
and what a lovely time I've had...
but, just before I show you any travel photos, I'd like to share some creativeness.

Here's my almost finished Monroe Lacy Stole:



(I've sewn on one panel of the edging lace and I have only one row of the second edging panel to crochet.)

and here are some Burnt Butter Biscuits which I made from this recipe on Little Red Hen's cooking blog:


(yum)

and, lastly, here's a gorgeous little coin purse that I received from the ever generous 2paw:

Thank you Cindy!

So now on to my little vacation.
I went to find wildflowers with a dear neighbour and fellow flower enthusiast. We stayed at New Norcia, a monastic town (and a little oasis of Spanish culture) that's found in the middle of the wheatbelt. My friend and I also travelled out to a farming community called Dalwallinu. We were rained on a lot (it's been a wonderfully wet Spring) and got very, very muddy but we found wildflowers everywhere ~ blooming along the sides of the road and flowering in carpets out in the bush. Bliss!


Egg and Bacon, blooming just behind New Norcia Hotel.


New Norcia Hotel, where we lunched. Their pizza was delicious!


The view from our room at the Monastery Guesthouse.
Such a tranquil place to stay.
I struck up a conversation, over dinner, with two fellow guests who were translating papers from French and Spanish in the Monastery's archive. They were very European, very devout and fascinating to talk to. I am so grateful that I have the time and the opportunity to meet people who are so different to me and to the people I normally encounter (much as I love the familiar.)


Climbing Fringed Lily, New Norcia



Purple Fan Flower, New Norcia



Milkmaids, New Norcia





White Banjine, Dalwallinu


Acacia, Dalwallinu


Unfurling Everlasting, Dalwallinu


Molly's glad I'm back, although she didn't have to go to the cattery this time ~ Mum and Dad kindly offered to cat sit. She looked very relaxed on my return:



Incidentally,
she's given my Monroe Lacy Stole the seal of kitty approval:





I have so much more to share!
I'm looking forward to showing pictures of the glass beads I've made, the pastel drawings I've worked on, further progress on my stole and yet more pictures of wildflowers...

Have a wonderful week.
x

Surfacing

I'm posting this very quickly before plunging back into paperwork and packing. There's only two weeks to go before I'm on six months long service leave (hurrah!) and, as we're only half way through the academic year here in the Land of Oz, I'm preparing a handover for my replacement
so I am busy busy busy with work
but taking lots of little crafty breaks in between.

So the hexagon pillow cover has grown:

(By the way, you can find a link to a tutorial on how to crochet the hexagons here. ... and Andrea, who asked if I thought this would be good for people who aren't very experienced with crochet, my answer is yes! The second row and the joining row are a bit fiddly but the tutorial's so explicit this shouldn't be a big problem. )


I've started to make a new scarf:


which is based on the Romantic Wrap pattern (Ravelry link) from Crochet Today! magazine.


I have managed to get out into my garden and to enjoy,
if only for a little while,
the Winter sunshine and my beautiful, bright red, ivy geraniums:

and I've baked two batches of a quick yet delicious slice called Cammy's Father's Favourites.

I have also started to get ready for my wonderfully long holiday.
I'm planning lunch and dinner dates, and weekends away, with long neglected friends,
I've booked an overseas trip
and I've enrolled in (big breath)
a pastel drawing course,
a nuno felting workshop,
a glass bead making workshop
and a silversmithing workshop.

I'm so excited!

Have a wonderful week everybody.

Buttons, bags, biscuits...back to business!

I'm very happy to report that my new bamboo floor has been installed.
It's taken a bit of doing.
There's been a lot of dust swirling around,
much packing and unpacking,
a weekend spent wading about on a gritty concrete pad
but it's all over
and I love it!
It's shiny,
beautifully patterned
and it even smells nice (in a woody sort of a way.)

(The first photo best captures the real colour.)

Molly,
who's terribly timid and who's spent a lot of time hiding under the bed,
is very glad it's all over too:

Renovating has been unexpectedly time consuming but,
since the floor's been finished,
I've had more time and energy to devote to being creative
and my chevron lace cardi now boasts a sleeve:

Incidentally, here's a close up of the button necklace I'm wearing with the cardi:

I made it, stringing the buttons with fine wire, a few years ago.

I've been keeping the cardi in this gorgeous bag that I bought from the Station Street Markets out at Subiaco:

I love the applique flower, the polka dot lining and, especially, the vintage corduroy fabric ~ my mum made me a butterfly sleeved smock out of material much like it in the seventies.
When I've finished the cardigan I'm looking forward to wearing it with the bag.

I've even been baking. I made these orange and poppyseed shortbread fingers for friends who came over for morning tea:

They're moist and tasty
and my visitors left with the recipe, which is always a good thing.

Have a wonderful week everybody.
...and thanks for dropping by.
I haven't been posting a lot of late, I know, and I really appreciate that people still take the time to come and visit.
Blessings.
x

Love Notes in Library Books

I love the internet and the way it allows me to connect with and be inspired by creative people. I've just been reading a beautiful blog post on joy, written by a dear soul called Brandi. She has a wonderful, whimsical take on random kindness and senseless acts of beauty, and has had me secretly posting love notes in library books, telephone boxes and bus stops.

It's fun!

...and I've also been drawing inspiration from my friend Andrea at abccreativity. Amongst other things, she facilitates creativity workshops and gives great guided meditations.

Meanwhile, I'm still painting. I've had trouble with the the feature wall in my living room and have changed the colour three times. I started off with a french wash in a butterscotch colour but couldn't get nice, clean edges so I painted it over with a matt paint called Banana Crepe:

Frustratingly, that colour came out too bright and clashed with the lime~washed pink walls in my bedroom:

so I've just painted it again with the cafe~au~lait shade I used in the kitchen
...and I really, really like it!
Phew.

Of course, I've been crocheting and currently have a chevron lace cardigan on the hook:

Although the pattern's written for wool, I'm making it out of cotton and so far it's draping well. It's a great design ~ it involves top~down construction so I can try it on as I go and it's really quick to crochet.

I've been growing silverbeet too:

It's extremely easy to cultivate and it's lovely to have fresh greens on hand. I've been putting it in salads with fresh and sun~dried tomatoes, marinated fetta and avocado, as well as trying recipes from here and here. (Edited to add: silverbeet is called Swiss chard in the USA and Britain.)

I have been working really long hours as well. I'm glad I have enough energy to spend some time on living creatively outside of it.

Wishing you all a week that's touched by kindness and beauty.

Fresh

I'm sitting writing this surrounded by freshly painted walls and ceilings.
Hooray!!!!!!!!!
It took double the time I expected it to
(the last lick of paint went on the day before I went back to work),
the process felt hellish at the start ~
when it became apparent just how much bigger a job it was than I had first thought,
but
I am soooooo glad I've done it now that it's over.

So, for those of you who have asked,
here's a close up of the french washed wall
(which has more ochre in it than shows up in the photo):

and a shot of the other feature wall:

which, again, doesn't really capture its cafe~au~lait colour
but does show, in the reflection, my pristine white ceiling and cornices
of which I am ridiculously proud!
I'll try and post more photographs, that give a broader picture of what I've done, soon.

Life hasn't been completely dominated by renovations.
In between painting there's been some cooking.
I've been going through a Nigella Lawson phase and have made her One Pan Sage and Onion Chicken and Sausage casserole:

This, by the way, was at it's best on the third day after I'd cooked it, when the flavours had been given lots of time to develop.

I've also made Nigella's Pomegranate Meringue Mountain
which was so quick and delicious I was inspired to go out and buy my own potted pomegranate tree:

There's been a little bit of crocheting too.
I've added a few extra rows to the border of my Easy Daisy blanket:

I'm so happy I have time to craft again!

...and yesterday, with all the painting done, I was able to wander around the garden with my camera in hand:

Despite the steamy heat, it was bliss!

I hope that life
is treating you kindly too,
wherever you are in the world.

Have a wonderful week.