Buttons

For those that know me, button collecting used to be a tiny bit of an obssession. I got over that a while back and have been having a regular cull of them.  After watching me crochet over a large wooden bead a student said those would look good as buttons on a dress she had just made. Maybe they would be a bit too big and chunky so I delved into my button collection (currently stored in a 55 ltr box) and found as many shank buttons as I could, mainly those destined for the bin due to scuff marks and broken shanks. Then I went off on one of many side tracks and made a few large flowers, crocheted over a few buttons and sewed them to the centre of the flowers, how pretty they looked. I have lots of buttons now all covered, I use the bits of crochet cotton left over from other projects, usually too small to even make a flower with (and I am too tight to part with because I might find something to make with them), and cover a button. I have a little baggy filled with buttons and cotton and if I have a few minutes while waiting for an appointment I hook few up. I usually use a 1.25 - 1.50 hook. I had fully intended to post with piccys but I seem to have forgotten to take any. Too late now, I'll do it later, got to get dry and dressed and off to work. Its so easy for me to get side-tracked, i was only having a quick read of someones blog and then thought I'd just nip into mine and make a quick post and before I knew it I was off crocheting one more button cover and finishing off a flower and then went looking for more cotton and then found a a book I needed to look at and I am still not dressed and the clock is ticking away reminding me I should have been out the door ten minutes ago. I feel like crap, what I really want to do is curl up with hook and yarn and create but I have responsibilities and I made a commitment to doing what I do even though it is only voluntary work, it is meaningful, what I do does make a difference in someones life and I am being relied upon. Its so easy to walk away and give up when the going gets tough, so easy to not make that effort. I'm glad I stuck with it through all the upheaval and changes. So I'd better get my butt outta here and get there before time runs away from me again. I'll be back later to put in some piccys. Jan

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.