Percy the Pigeon

I was handed this stunned pigeon yesterday and it was quickly named Percy. The poor birdy had flown into a wall or something and was knocked silly. I did the right thing and took it to the vet to get looked after properly, even though I wanted to take it home and feed it shredded wheat biscuits. As it turned out Percy wasn't a pigeon but a dove. In all likelihood Percy is probably a Petunia (I'm not sure what the female derivative is- Percina perhaps), after all I have a male budgie called Penny and learnt to ride on a mare called Albert...

The lion, the giraffe and the sheep

After surprising myself yesterday with how little I had actually done on the cross stitch, I sat down with an audio book and finished off the train engine. I am really happy with it, and I am sure it will look even better once I get around to doing the back stitch on it. For the moment all the cross stitches are done and I am now onto the caboose. It is oddly filled with a sheep and a cow that are both the same size and are happily travelling along next to a lion. Its vaguely biblical in a way.

A giraffe without a nose

I was slightly disappointed by my efforts at the water bottle holder after it stretched out of shape and became some sort of medieval torture implement. I also want to find something that isn't basically a granny square, and found Crochet Pattern Central. I got all excited at the possibilities of all those patterns, I ended up slightly dizzy and had to go and have a lie down. I am still going through them and when I finally decide on one I will be sure to post something about it.

.
I also had a half hearted attempt at the cross stitch sampler and was fairly pleased by almost finishing off the previously headless giraffe and half a duck. Actually, now I look at it, I haven't really done all that much more to it. The giraffe still hasn't got a nose. I guess this is what happens when you watch a movie while cross stitching...

Cocky wanna bikit?

What do you do with shredded wheat biscuits? Feed them to the local wildlife! These two showed up this afternoon and had a great time munching on a couple of biscuits.. and pecking each other. The one closest to the camera even stepped on the other one to get to the biscuit. I guess a shredded wheat is like a tim tam to a bird. I was going to get them a cup of water to dunk the biscuits in, but then thought that was going a little too far.

.

Jack got jealous and had some biscuits too... and of course the budgies, Luke and myself. I think Jack and the cockys liked them the most out of all of us.

.

They flew off a little closer to the ground as well.

Stretchy bottle holder

After a couple of weeks of crocheting a an enormous granny square that only got to about 30cm square I got bored and ended up on Ravelry. I found this crochet bottle holder and thought it was a great idea, so I made one.

.

I learnt a very important fact about crochet. It is really very stretchy. The handle is now twice as long as it was intended and bangs me in the knees when I walk.

Stuck in the mud

Its hard to believe a whole month has gone by already. I really should pay more attention. I was convinced it was Wednesday today and was really pleased when I found out it was Thursday. Still, its better than Tuesday when I was convinced it was Saturday and was horribly depressed all the way to work.

I have been busy crocheting away and now my crochet square is getting close to 20cm square. Not bad for thin crochet cotton and a teeny tiny hook. I am still not sure what it is, but will keep going until I get bored with it and pack it away with my enormous scarf that I never finished. I would put up a picture but it is just like the one from two posts ago only slightly bigger. Although I have to say I was pretty pleased to find out that you are allowed crochet hooks and knitting needles on domestic flights again, so I was crocheting all the way from Darwin to Brisbane. Its quite surreal to crochet in the early hours of the morning.

The other bit of news is that Jack and I have been biking along the trails behind the town. I have only run over him twice, and each time I told him to get out of the way so its his own fault. Poor Jack has never really been taken out with a bike so it was all a bit scary, what with all the spokes and tyres and everything. I am sure I must look like a crazy lady riding around the place yelling at Jack to get out of the way and not to sit in the mud.

One whole year

One year ago today I started the job I am in now. Its hard to believe it has already been a whole year, so I treated myself to a pie and a milkshake. Its not exactly the traditional paper present given on a first anniversary (although that may only apply to wedding anniversaries), but I did come across a great paper cutting blog which kind of makes up for it... Scherenschnitte. Here is a small sample... Nice huh?