The cute stays...

I can't fight it, the cute has to stay.  Maybe I'll do cute and weird together.

I love these guys

Yungaburra Wacky Birds

Pink Flying Pig

I've been cruising through my photographs. The cuteness just jumps out, I cannot escape it.
Unfortunately I am not in the mood. I had thought perhaps seeing all my creations would fire up the old creative juices.  There was a little stirring, not enough to make me jump up for my hook though.
Rereading though years of old posts, I can see this is a regular occurrence. I can also see that this is the longest slump I have been in.

Family history and writing have taken over. I
am immersing myself in the past.  I have a few weeks before the last unit of the Diploma in Family History that I am doing starts and I had hoped to have quite a few ami's made.  But time-travelling takes up all my time.


The uni is talking about extending the Diploma and adding an Advanced Diploma.  That's all I need.  I have got addicted to learning.  I recently did a course in Understanding Dementia and now have an opportunity to further it.  The uni is offering three different levels in Dementia Care studies.  I suppose if I was still in the workforce and expecting to work till I was mid 60's it might be a worthwhile pursuit.  The level I want to do is a two year + course.  That would take me to just over 60.  It does interest me. I found what happens to the brain when Alzheimer's takes hold fascinates me.  My mother was diagnosed a few years ago and is now in a care facility in the UK.  Slowly, slowly we are losing her.  The upheaval of being taken out of her own home against her will and being put into a substandard care home greatly affected her.  By the time my brother was notified of this, the damage had been done and her overall health was compromised.
Eventually my brother was able to get her into a home nearer to him.  I researched homes in his area and gave him the list of the top ones for him to check out. We found a lovely one, very caring and with special Dementia Carers. We have SKYPE calls and she is a lot happier and her health is improving.  She still knows who I am but is forgetting certain words, this is distressing to her.  She thinks she is in a posh hotel and is on holiday.  But she is still very independent and finds it hard to have her meals prepared for her and her cleaning done.
The home is expensive, but we would rather this than a cheaper alternative with bad care.  It is 'end of life' care and she deserves to be cared for in a respectful and dignified way.
I'm working in the information centre this morning.  As always, I'll take my little bag of crochet... little tiny flowers.  I never get chance to do any, even if I was inspired to do so. School goes back next week I think, so there might be less tourists around.  There hasn't been many tourists around but what there has been have been very demanding.  Not in a bad way, the majority of them are lovely, but some are unused to the distances they have to travel and the weather and how it affects our roads. With all these wild storms  along the east coast the roads can be very dangerous. There has been a lot of flooding and people tend to take chances when crossing flooded roads.  Believe me, I know how scary it can be.  On that note, I better get a wiggle on.  I have to open up the centre, put on my happy face and be sweetness and light.

Jan

Flora, the first ami doll I designed

Lunch Date

Yesterday, I took my youngest grandgirl out for lunch.  We opted for the Whistle Stop Cafe in the village.  My favourite eatery for great coffee and cake.  We found a nice table under the trees in the shade with a cool breeze gently blowing through.  A friend recommended the home made pies - that's if they had any left.  We were lucky, YAY.  Yes, they were the best homemade pies I have eaten for a long time (except mine of course).  No photo's, I left the ipad at home.  But here are some I made earlier.

The Whistle Stop Cafe

Peterson Creek

Rather than going back home and slobbing out in a heap we went for a walk. Through the trees, over the suspension bridge and along the creek. We found a nice spot to sit in the shade and just watch the water go by. No platypus at play, but they were there, hiding away from us.
It was getting quite hot, so we went back home and

Peterson Creek

slobbed around, watched a movie and ate
popcorn.
It's a long time since I have actually sat and watched a movie without doing something else at the same time. I enjoyed it - Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.  I had always thought it was a kids movie, but when I saw Tim Burton's name on it I knew it had to be a bit 'dark'. The highlight of the movie was seeing Blackpool - where I grew up.  I developed my fear of clowns at the Tower Circus, and spent a lot of my older teenage years on that pier. I also remembered a quick snog on those benches with a distant ex-boyfriend.
I don't have very many memories of my grandmother and I like to think days like these will stay with my granddaughter.  I might not have captured our day together in a photo but it will always stay in my heart.

Christmas 2014

I'm over cute

The little grubs on my header just had to go  I'm so over cute. Cute sells though. Perhaps I should look at all my ami's and uncute them.   Once I get back in my crochet mood though.  Not sure what sort of mood I am in.
I can't even be bothered to tell you about my boring Christmas and uneventful new year. Or the deluge that poured in over the cooker, from a hole in the roof.

2004

December 2016

Tinaroo dam dropped to around 31% and people from all over came to look.  We took the usual 'once in every ten to 12 years' photo on the bridge, except this year Ryan held his dad's photo.  It has poured down for a week, the ground so hard and dry that the rain just ran over it, causing flash floods in many areas. Our village alone has had nearly 500mm in a week.
 There's a small respite from the rain today and I can hear so many mowers being rushed around newly sprouted grass.  Not this little duck, the mower can stay securely locked in the shed.  Spoke too soon... Matt has decided to mow before the next shower comes down. Judging by how dark it is going he should have enough time to get the front done.
No energy today for anything. I should be working but decided I didn't feel like it.  I'm only a volunteer and feeling taken for granted, and I don't like how things have changed within the system.
Lunch time.  The fridge is bare except for a couple of peaches and pears. I'll shop tomorrow after I take Stacey home.

Jan

As 2016 draws to a close...

This year has sped so fast.  While I have crafted, it has been done half halfheartedly.  Family History has taken over my life and I seem to be constantly time travelling.  
I am still volunteering though the joy has gone out of adult literacy tutoring.  New teachers, new stricter system - cramming too many students into a classroom too small - get the numbers up, get them out of here and get new ones in, there is no time or space for one on one tutoring. I'm trying to get more hours at the info centre, which will mean less travel as the centre is only a short walk away from home. I love meeting people from all over the world, and chatting with people from my own country who are visiting Australia. 
My life is full of itty bitty things, I have spent all of this year trying to catch up or get into some sort of routine.  My health has been up and down, nothing major... a few falls, three biopsys (all fine), blood sugars all over the place, and the usual aches and pains.  
I have been embroidering.  I had the huge idea of embroidering an annotated map of the York area where my ancestors lived. It was part of a uni assignment.  I quickly found out it was way too ambitious in the time scale I had.  Using Publisher I created a map from images on the net and my own family photos.  I scanned a photo of my grandmother as a young woman. Then I cut out a piece of calico A4 size and I ironed on a piece of stiffening onto the back, then with fingers crossed I printed the photo onto this. It worked.  Then I embroidered details onto the photo, flowers in the background, the outline of her dress, and highlights in her hair.  I used my own hair to embroider her hair, very fiddly and time consuming but it gave me the effect I wanted, my grey bits were perfect for the highlights.  I have still a lot to find out about my grandmother so the outline shows that I only know the outline of her story, I still have the details to fill in.  The half finished background shows I know a little about where she came from and the hair links her to me.  The map shows how close the families lived and how small her world was, it also shows that I was born close by and yet never knew any of the family history when I was growing up. 

I crocheted a little White Rose of York and added it to the map.  I learnt something as well. Having the one petal at the top signifies that it is North Riding, if the two petals are at the top this signifys West and East Riding. 
I also have a photo of my grandmother aged around 10, she is wearing a string of pearls and a white lacy dress. I will use a pearl bracelet that I never wear so will use them in the embroidery.   
One of my ideas was to embroider a tryptich, using photos of my grandmother, my father and myself

I had red hair, dad was dark haired, almost black, and I am not sure what colour my grandmother's hair was.  We all have that bee-stung bottom lip. 
This year I have found out a lot about my Yorkshire side, some things not very nice and some that have a little bit of mystery surrounding them.  We always thought the temper came from the red hair but now it might be from my grandmothers side... great great great granny Kirby running through the streets of York, in a passion, with a rolling pin to bash up her daughter in law, and was also fined for fighting with a neighbour in the street. 

Jan