Boredom

I am so bored, jaded, craft burnt out, lethargic etc etc etc.  Is it me or is everyones blogs starting to look the same - all pretty, pink, cutesy, twee.  I am guilty of the same but i so want to find something else - I want to look at someones blog or pinterest page and say WOW that different, I want to be inspired.  I want passion in my work, I want fire,

I want to be doing something else.  I love the amineko despite hating cats but I'm not passionate about them, I thought I was passionate about crochet but even that seems to be dwindling. I was passionate about tutoring literacy in an adult group but now all I want to do with that is just get there, do what I have to and then leave.  As for telling tourists where to go - I really would like to tell them. 

The past few months have been hectic, family issues that turned us upside down, work obligations that involved moving to a new building and lots of upheaval, Centrelink paperwork being accidently shredded (not by me, by them) then the new forms going missing - it took 6 weeks to get the whole damm thing sorted from start to finish and a continuing hassle with my job provider that still hasnt been sorted.  I'm bending over backwards to do my part and the system just keeps stuffing up.

I get up in the morning, i go through the motions - washing, cleaning, cooking, reading, volunteering and then bed.  I do a bit of crafting (more out of habit than actually wanting to create something) and a bit gardening and thats my day. The banality of it all is driving me round the bend. I feel like I am waiting for something big to happen, been feeling this way for a long time - I wish the universe would hurry up and show me whats coming... be careful what you wish for LOL.

Owls, loo rolll cosies and cushions

These little guys are hanging out at my place.  Sweet owly brooches ready to find new homes.  They are soooo cute I don't want to part with them.  I wonder if I can find my decorative birdcage, i wonder where I hid it. Somewhere under the spare bed probably packed away. I spent two hours this morning in the craft room looking for brooch backs and luggage labels, why is everything you lose always in the last place you look.

Young love, isn't it sweet.  Spur of the moment make, he was so alone I just had to make him a girlfriend.  As soon as their eyes met that was it. I haven't got the heart to part them now.

These I made a while back to go on the kitchen sofa, both sides are different and the big white one was just made with squares i had lying around.  I wish I could find where i got them from, somewhere in blogland. The diagonal blanket was made from all the odd balls of yarn I had in my stash and had fallen out of love with.

I have been busy with volunteering and keeping my mind and fingers occupied with crochet. Lots of ideas floating around, I'm going to have to get a butterfly net to catch them though, I just can't seem to get them where I want them. My backs been playing up so I have had to give up cleaning for a while, so far I've managed to not slip a disc again. Ryans done work in the garden for me, just getting on top of the pruning, though if he had his way everything would be pruned at ground level. He even got the mower fixed for me as well, new blades, new spark plugs, changed the oil and the wheel put back on. It was fine mowing with three wheels - until of course you hit a bandicoot hole and then chuffing black smoke and the cursing and jumping up and down trying to get it started.  Liams worked on my car and Matt eats all the left overs up.  So they all help out in their own ways.

Okay, better go get petrol, check the radiator, pack my market box etc etc etc.

I want to jump in the shower early as well before it gets cold, first day of winter tomorrow, its not cold by UK standards but it is still chilly.  Perhaps a curry for dinner to warm me up.

UHRU

Jan

End of April

I have been so slack in keeping posted.  I've actually been so slack in my crafting.  But renewed interest in the bunnies and the pigs have sent me scurrying to the craftroom to make a start on a new bunch.  The ideas are flowing thick and fast and my friend and I are considering going back to the markets some time in the future.



I have buying up some beautiful threads recently and so want to start back embroidering, this one i did maybe two years ago and just made it up as I went along. Its stitched with just one thread using a few crewel work stitches.  



The backrest of my daggy computer chair, it'll do me another  couple of years.



My owl brooches made from an applique pattern by RepeatCrafterMe



Well, I'd better get a wiggle on, busy busy busy today, been up since 6 and made a crochet dress for the piggy and  done a quick tidy up, at least I won't have to water the garden today, we are getting a bit of rain from that tropical low.  A cyclone this late in the season, how strange the weather is being.  Off to work I go.

A whinge, an update and some piccys

The Ultimate 'Bobble Hat'

Not sure what is happening with this damm blogger, i keep adding photo's and they disappear.  Its such a hassle post I might even give up blogging.  But then if I had a new computer with all the whistles, bells and up to date technology it wouldn't be such a headache. Thereagain, my computer does what I want it to, I'm not fussed over having the latest gadgets, I get by with what I have and I don't want to sit in Maccas using the wi-fi. I like comfort - curling up on a comfy sofa with lots of cushions and the privacy of my own house to do my computing or at my desk with coffee and cake. I think its sooo rude if I go in a cafe to have a quiet coffee to have business meetings going on at the next table, especially if they get heated, same with mobiles - I had no option but to listen to a council exec give someone a blasting over the mobile (they were in my space and I wasn't going to move) and I think she did it to look good, I just glared and she went outside to finish her tirade. OK, whine over, back to the love of my life - or one of them, I am so fickle. Crochet. I've been hooking up a storm lately, cushion covers, blankets, flowers, hats and a section for the Alice Springs Beanie Festivals attempt at the worlds longest Beanie, mini beanies for a garland and beanies to sell. I'm seriously trying to get my stash down (stop sniggering) and I am doing well - four cushion covers this week made a serious dent in the boxes.

These cushions are front and back pictures, the patterns are off the net and I can't remember the designers, I love their patterns though and despite a few times where I had to wing it cos i didn't understand what they were writing they came out just how I wanted. They would have been hard to do for anyone just starting out.There are so  many similar out there though it would take me forever to find them again.

Easter school hols and I have had the girls over, we've walked in the rainforest and down by the creek, we've baked pizzas and brownies and made fairy castles. Played games and had girly fun.

Grandma, help me make this fairy castle in my book, Of course, dear grandaughter I will help you make it............

I am knackered, back to my busy schedule of volunteer tutoring this week and at the visitor centre and my cleaning job.  The weather is wet and windy and more forcasted to come.  No chance of getting to relax this week, apart from vegging out in front of the tele for a couple of hours at night, but that doesn't count. I want to play hooky from my life for a while, just me, my hooks and yarn and a couple of good books - no phone, no mobile, no computer, no one demanding my time, no schedules, no shopping, no cleaning. Oh well, maybe not this week.

Back to the grindstone...

Rain today, yeh, so much cooler for working in a classroom with no air conditioning, with the 85 to 90+ degree heat we have been getting I was dreading going back to school.
I'm only a volunteer so I can walk out whenever i want but I wouldn't do that.  The 'powers that be' refuse to fix the ancient air-conditioners and the ceiling fans only work on the highest settings which means papers are flying off tables and its just too 'windy'. 
Heres the poopster just a couple of weeks before she left us, I'd just given her a pigs ear and she wasn't quite sure what to do with it. 

I've been trying to get back into crochet, mainly just for something for my hands to do at nightime when I'm watching t.v.  I hate sitting there with nothing to do. I would love to get back into embroidery, I'm trying so hard.....bought the most gorgeous embroidery threads and sat and looked at them and played but the passion I once had stays deeply buried. 

Back to the crochet, I'm doing a blanket, using as many of my stash colours as I can, its on the diagonal and will be roughly 5ft square. I'm just about two inches off the half way mark and then I can start decreasing. One 100g ball does 7 rows at the moment so My stash is getting down and the lids stay on the yarn boxes without being weighted down with other boxes.  The granny squares are from the cover i did for my cube. I was just checking  a hint from another blog about how to load photographs. When you are composing and want to add a photo switch to HTML, add photo and then swtich back to to compose.  At the moment I can only add photo's that have been already in my blog.  Now I can add a photo or two I might get back into blogging.

UHRU

Jan

Poppy

R.I.P. Poppy the Poopy Puppy

1997 - 2013

Its been a week now since Poppy went over the Rainbow Bridge, my faithful friend, my comfort.  The picture is an old one since I can't upload new photo's.  A very contrary dog, she didn't play with toys unless food was involved - she loved her Kong. Squeeky toys were out as was balls and sticks, she would look at you as if she thought it was beneath her to actually chase after them - you threw it you go get it.  She lay by Miks side in his last couple of weeks, her head pushed up under his hand. She wasn't  a cuddly dog, cuddles were on her terms yet she would sneak into the boys beds and sleep under the blankets curled up by their feet.  Storms freaked her out and she would jump on my chair and try to get as close to me as she could, burrowing down between me and the chair arm, yet she slept through two of the worst cyclones I have ever been in.  It was heartbreaking taking her to the vets knowing what the outcome was going to be, even then she managed a pee or two in the beautiful rainforest garden where our vet has his practice. I could have kept her at home till the end but that would have been a painful slow death, I could have paid hundreds of dollars for surgery but that would have given her a few weeks extra, the mammary cancer too advanced for it to be cured.

One minute she was fine, no problems, just a lump that didn't bother her, no pain, still kept her appetite and then bang it accelerated, literally eating her away before my eyes.

She was intact, we never got her fixed up as we were going to let her have at least two sets of puppies, but that never happened, Mik got sick and we just let it slide. Keeping her inside whenever she came into heat.  What I didn't know was that a lot of bitches that are not spayed and haven't had pups can get mammary cancer.  She lived to a ripe old age, she had a healthy diet, walks by the lake and a lot of love, what more could a dog ask for.

Lazy day

I do not feel like doing anything today, I did not feel like doing anything yesterday. I have been very busy all week.  I really have to allow myself down time and stop feeling I always have to be busy.

The Tibi finally flowered

I think this is called a beauty bush, I never planted this, it just came up in the middle of the Banksia and I have ripped it out twice. It keeps on coming back.

I love the colour combo of this Brom flower, its spectacular against it very dark purple almost dark chocolately brown coloured leaves

When I say I have done nothing all day, it doesn't mean nothing all day. I've actually done quite a lot - cleaning, gardening, shopping, those are the normal everyday things. All those things will get done today.  Yesterday I had a lazy day, I watered and weeded the garden, I dusted and vacummed the whole house, I washed pots and put away and I entertained a friend. I didn't pick up the crochet hook once - though we did talk about crochet and embroidery over our coffee.  I later lay on the bed under the fans and read a book and did half a dozen sudoku's, I sprawled out on the computer chair and read blogs and trawled through pinterest.

I was given a day lilly bulb and threw it in a box of old compost and I forgot about it, it has not stopped flowering. This must be the 10th flower it has had and there are more to come.



I love the old hibiscus that hangs over my fence from next door, I really hope the new owners will let it stay

Just a little trip around the things growing in my garden, the grass might be dead and the dandelions prolific but here and there there are still a few flowers, luckily they all thrive on neglect.

The grey day is starting to brighten up and the thunder has gone elsewhere. A bit more blue sky and I might be encouraged to get outside and mow over all the dandelions or take a drive out to a market. See, I can't just sit and do nothing and relax, I want to be lazy, I feel like doing nothing but I have to justify it by rushing round like crazy being busy. I overthink. Once upon a time I had no trouble at all being lazy - I worked all week and stayed in bed till lunchtime on the weekends, on my days off I just lounged around with a book or listened to music. I am talking pre-kids here. 

Okay, I am off to wash the breakfast pots, make the bed, kick the dog out, do the poo hunt, deadhead the flowers and maybe sweep off all the Petrea flowers and leaves from the verandah and then think about the rest of the day.

Uhru

Jan

After the eclipse...

It came and went, the weather threatened to be cloudy and it was. It cleared enough to see the beginning and then at totality it clouded over, but the corona was visible even through the clouds.   People from all over the world have come to see the event. I spoke to many yesterday at the visitors centre, the highlight of their trip being the eclipse and to see a platypus.  I sent them off down the creek with the necessary map and I hope they got one thing to tick off their wishlist.

Tutoring today and tomorrow, I love it.  I've got the library this afternoon as well.  Not much time for crafting though I am getting ahead with the flower brooches.  Lots of bright cheerful summery colours.  I have them in the visitors centre and unfortunately we think three were shoplifted last week, they are not on the shelf and they are not in the sales book.  Oh well, I suppose i should be flattered that someone liked them enough to take them as souvenirs, so if you see any one wearing my giant felted spider flower brooches you know where they came from. I did sell one earlier in september and there is a bird brooch missing as well. 

Better get a wiggle on and get to class, not good to have the teacher late. 

Uhru

Jan

Solar Eclipse 2012

6.30 a.m. Two days before the solar eclipse and the weather has changed - wet, windy and grey.
So glad I have decided to stay home and watch from the comfort of my own bed, actually the best seat in the house to see it is from my loo.  Hopefully the weather will be back to hot and dry by then. Update: 7.40 a.m and the sky is blue and the rain has stopped.

The last time an eclipse was seen from this area was the 8th Century and the next will be so way into the future that its not worth commenting on.  Roads will be closed, hotels and motels have been booked up for this day for months and they reckon an influx of more than 60,000 people from all over the world are coming into the region to see it. From start to finish it will be two hours, totality for my immediate area will be 29 seconds.

But life goes on and I can't wait around, haven't got time to spend sitting looking at the sun (with special dorky looking glasses that cost me $5.00).  Now just call me MRs  Scrooge. The glasses were $4.99, the woman in front bought of me bought 4 prs, it should have come to $19.96 which should have been rounded down to 19.95.  But the young girl rounded up each individual pr to $5 and the woman was charged $20. I was charged $9.00 for two prs and  since i was paying by card it should have been $8.98.  Considering they were one of only a handful of shops selling these viewing things  (and they had run out twice and had to order more) they must be making a bit of extra money from not rounding down.  Why have something at ?.99, why not put it up to the straight dollar, we don't have 1c or 2c coins anymore. They must get 300 or more customers a day, 7 days a week. I know its small change and won't amount to much for the individual customer but  multiplied over the year I'd rather it be in my pocker than theirs.

I've had my whinge for the day, now back to more pressing things...Getting all the brooch backs sewn onto 25 crocheted flowers. 

Jan

November, christmas just around the corner...

Where has the year gone?  I have been so busy with one thing or another that the year has flown by. 
I'm loving the work I do at the Literacy centre, a wide range of students from all backgrounds.  We have one lovely lady who is an ESL student (English as a second language) who insists on feeding us all, she bakes wonderful concoctions with bananas.
Wednesday is a busy day, after i finish at lunchtime i rush home, have lunch, feed the dog, do a few chores and then off to the library to volunteer there.  I'm usually ready for my pit by 7 p.m. and curl up with a book and a cup of tea.  Wide-awake now at 9.30 pm, got my cuppa and just catching up with blogging.

I didn't put up a piccy of the finished footstool, how remiss of me.  Must rectify that immediately: 

Been busy making flower for brooches.  Using up some of the cotton yarn i have in my stash, though I couldn't resist a pretty pink and a yellow varigated in the craft shop the other day.  I really should wear blinkers when I'm shopping or there again I shouldn't go any where near a craft shop. But the pull is too strong, it grabs me by the hand and just yanks me in. Resistance is futile.

I wish all my geraniums flowered like this one,  the first of many and intended as a birthday pressie for a dear friend.

I made this brooch a while ago and it sold straight away. It looked so pretty on my cardi and its impossible to make another one just like it no matter how hard i try. 

Finally I feel sleepy, so its nite nite from me, an early start in the morning and another busy day so I am hoping for a good nights sleep.

Jan