Nothing flash. Nothing fancy. Just a simple garter stitch scarf. For my hubby. Started last Winter when I was sitting with him in the hospital. I needed something simple to focus on, so what better than row upon row of mindless knit knit knitting!!
So, why has it taken so long you may ask? 1. Other projects got in the way. 2. I got a full-time job. 3. I forgot about it. 4. I got tired of those rows of knit-knit stitch. 5. My daughters wanted a blanket each. 6 I took up piano lessons. 7. I've been reading a lot and I can't read and knit at the same time (sigh... wouldn't that be brilliant?) 8. It was no longer cold, wintery and scarf-like weather and seemed silly to knit a scarf in the summertime. 9. My daughters still want a blanket each. Is nine excuses enough?
Anyway, it's finished now, and you know what I love about a finished project? The main thing is that something that has been lovingly worked is ready for use, but I also love to cross a project off my Very Long List of Unfinished Projects!! I'm now ready to re-address The List and see What-Comes-Next.
I love it when Girl 2 asks very politely if she could "please have a scarf just like Daddy's but with brighter colours?" And of course I will make her one, but I did suggest that perhaps I should finish her blanket first, so that's what my evenings are now filled with, bright and cheery crochet colours. Will share some new squares with you soon!
I aspire to the cable stitch!!
Never a model about when you need one!!
Have a happy day.
Trudy
The days of May are rollicking by at a steady pace, heading straight for Winter. We're still getting beautiful blue skies, but with chilly winds that go right through to your bones there's no mistaking what month we're in. I was even seen out and about today wearing a very silly hat rather than risk getting a cold head. But I absolutely adore this time of year. Definitely my favourite. I love watching the leaves change colour and fall to the ground. And I'm getting into preparation mode for Winter, collecting acorns.
Desperate for some flowers in the house I went searching in the garden and was delighted to find a single magnolia and a couple of branches of crepe myrtle (slim pickin's at this house). Even so, I thought I could do something with them ... you know, plonk them in a vase with a little bit of water and a whole heap of hope for a lovely arrangement!
And you know what? It worked. I'm loving that simple little Autumn arrangement.
With this chilly weather comes my love of working with wool, so an unfinished scarf from last year is almost done, and I'll share a picture with you soon, right after I've deleted it off my list of unfinished projects on my sidebar. And what a perfectly good time of year to finish a woolly scarf when it will get lots of use.
Hubby and I played truant today and went to a midday session of "Great Expectations". It always seems so decadent to go to the movies during the day when everyone else is at work!! Helena Bonham Carter was perfect as the jilted Miss Haversham. She took jilted to a whole new level. Very impressive.
Now it's raining and getting dark, time to close the curtains, put some heat on and get into my snuggly-warm dressing gown and hunker down for the night.
Hope you've had a happy Thursday.
Trudy
It often happens that I don't feel like crafting, or don't have the energy, or am overwhelmed by other things I need to do, or any number of other reasons and I really shouldn't fret, but I do feel a bit lost when my hands aren't busy doing something.
I've been waiting to get all excited again by a particular project or other. Well, here I am, back in the saddle again! I decided to ignore all those pesky unfinished projects and embark on something brand, spanking new. Oh yes I did!! Just something small to get me started again. Something fun and colourful.
This is a gorgeous stitching kit by UK designer Nancy Nicholson which I simply Could Not Resist. I needed to have a bit of that beautiful design in my life and in our home.
This afternoon, after starting my day with a piano lesson and then sharing lunch with a dear friend who has a new house that needed exploring, there was a lovely half hour sitting outside in the most glorious warm sun, stitching while I waited for my girls to come home. This is what I have been missing, the gentle art of stitching, the slowing down of time, the concentration needed to put needle into fabric and pull thread through.
When I'm done stitching I think I'll make this into a cushion, with the bird as the central piece. I've already been flinging out pieces of fabric to find the perfect one to go with it, but of course I never seem to have just the right thing. More digging needed.
And I love the fabric panel that came with the kit, detailing each stitch, that can be made into a little book. What a cute idea.
Hope you find time for a little stitching in the sun.
I'm off to catch up on some favourite blogs!
Trudy
She knew the importance of matching accessories, but wondered if it really was necessary to have her lipstick and tiny red elephant match when she went out and about.
If you were told the moon was a balloon and you were the only one to see the string, would you pull it close? Would you be tempted to make friends with the man in the moon? And if you did and a small boy was standing at his window, scared because he'd had that same dream again of being chased by a tiger with a crown on it's head, through the jungle, and he saw you and he ran to his parents to tell them that he saw the moon slowly descending to earth, and they just tucked him back up in bed telling him shhhh, shhh it's just another dream, would you keep giving that string a gentle tug?
Or if you grew fairy wings would you fly up to the moon and tell the moon not to be lonely anymore because you were there and would visit often? Would you become friends with the moon and tell each other stories. Learn what it is like to be up in the night sky, and share with the moon what it is like being earthed, with daisies growing at your feet?
Beautiful cards in our store, illustrated by the very talented Lisa Falzon, which inspired a little bit of fantasy and thought.
Hope you've had a lovely Easter.
Don't tell anyone but I'm sitting up in bed eating chocolate!!
Trudy
Hello folks.
Seems like I never get a chance to pop in and say hello. So pop in and say hello is exactly what I'm doing right now. But please don't get too excited because I have nothing to share with you particularly. No craft projects, no news, no secrets or surprises, because it's been all work and no play around here for quite some time now. I did try to crochet, honest I did, I picked up my Mixed Stitch Stripey Blanket and I just couldn't remember how to do the stitches. Oh dear, I need time to concentrate with a clear and awake mind ... not present at the moment.
What I can share with you are some beautiful images of artwork from the wonderfully talented Barbie Kjar, a Tasmanian artist. I first saw Barbie's work about 12 years ago at an exhibition in Melbourne and fell in love with the drama of it. Sadly her work is not in my price range, so no Kjar originals hanging on the walls here!
I'm trying to feel a little bit Easter-ish, but this "all work and no play" situation makes everything seem just that much harder. Normally we traipse off into the bush to find the perfect tree branch to paint and decorate, but that hasn't happened and I know it won't happen, so with my crochet bunting of the teeny tiny flowers and some miscellaneous rabbits scattered through the house that's as much decorating as I can summons up this year. Mind you in saying all that, the display in the shop is looking rather lovely with spotty and stripey egg cups, Easter baskets, stickers and activity books. What about you? Are you ready for Easter?
At the risk of navel gazing (because I have no news and I'm tired and the little creative munchkin inside my head is sound asleep already) I have to share with you that I love red shoes!! There. An insight into the Life Of. Love these red shoes. They make me want to put a party frock on (yes definitely a frock, not just a dress), step into some red shoes and take me on an outing! And while we're on the subject of red shoes, and I'm in this sharing, open state of mind, I will tell you that I have always had a pair of red shoes in my wardrobe, for at least the last 30 years! When one pair is old and worn, another pair is quickly purchased to replace them. Seems I must own red shoes!! Do you have a special something that you always have to have in your wardrobe?
Wishing you a fabulously, relaxing choc-filled Easter. Promise I will be back soon with something crafty to share with you, yes I will.
Trudy
I think I may have mentioned that things are a bit different around here now. I'm working six days a week, I'm juggling all those other things that working Mums need to juggle and I'm beginning to find the rhythm of it all. And it's fun. It's fun work! Look what I'm surrounded by all day long. Funny faced, googly-eyed spacemen for one thing, who would have thought? Seriously though (do we want to get serious? maybe not) I'm having a ball. I'm connecting with my inner seven-year old stationery lover and she's very happy. Very Happy Indeedy.
And I'm also connecting with my inner (and possibly ever present, bubbling at the surface) obsessive compulsive *me* because I can line things up and put all the matching things together and be happy when those little pencil-ended Chinese girls are behaving and looking the right way. I can shake them up and put purple next to green, next to blue if I want, or walk them around the store and put them somewhere else. Ahh, bliss. Hours of faffing about, playing working to my heart's content.
I've always loved stationery. And it doesn't even need to be grand and gorgeous. I love the everyday, the bottles of Clag and the pencil grips, the rulers and the staplers. A Newsagency has always been a favourite place because the possibilities are endless as to what you can find hidden in the corners or on the bottom shelf. And so much colour!
With Easter fast approaching (sorry, I know you don't want that reminder) I've created a little Easter corner with activity books and stickers, baskets, chicks and lovely spotty and striped egg cups. I'm slowly selling off old stock that we started with and am now purchasing bright and fun craft supplies for children, novels for holiday-makers passing through town, a fun and bright range of stationery for kids, and big kids, art supplies and gift stationery.
When a box is delivered to my door it's like Christmas to open it up and then there is the fun of displaying it just right. Most of the shelving is new after a shopping day at Ikea for Billy bookcases (I won't even mention the illegal and very uncomfortable bouncing around in the back of the little Postman-Pat van all the way home because there was no room in the front any more. I'm guessing we're not the only ones who visit Ikea with one thing on our minds and come home absolutely squished to pieces because we've purchased one or two extra things or miscalculated how they will fit in!!)
For those who love pink, or if you don't then maybe green or blue or purple or black you can have matching pens, erasers, sharpeners note books etc. etc.!! Can you see how much fun this is for this little black duck?
And magazines. I love magazines!! I have ordered over 50 new titles! Firstly because my favourites weren't stocked (no Country Living UK, no Country Style, no crochet magazines at all, no Mollie Makes, only one quilting magazine etc. etc.) but lots and lots of 4X drive and hunting magazines!! I have to cater for all tastes, I know that, and I'm being asked for all sorts of fabulous titles, but I needed to rework the mix, find the balance, until there is something for everyone.
It was exhausting moving from the old store to the new. Shopping trolleys filled with stock were being raced up and down the street at the hands of our fabulous team of family and friends. And much organisation was required to get it all ready for trading, not that we closed for business!! Everyone was quite happy to pop in among the disarray and grab their paper.
So that's where I've been, why I've been so spasmodically present on this blog and yours. It's not that I haven't wanted to be keeping up with what everyone is doing, but I'm pooped by the end of my day, and I'm dreaming of what I can do in that little store down the road. In my head I'm planning new displays, contacting new suppliers, thinking about possible new lines and what I need to be doing tomorrow.
Hope you're all having a lovely weekend. We're off to celebrate the engagement of my nephew! And more of that later because there is a very exciting wedding destination coming up at the end of the year!
Trudy
