Ralph, don't eat the paste!

When I was a kid I could never understand nostalgia. When adults started whistfully telling me about what it was like in their day I would feel an overwhelming desire to beat my head against the wall until I fell into a coma and wouldn't have to endure the subject any longer (yet at about this time I was fascinated by 'the olden days', possibly because I believed everyone got a pony). I promised myself not to bore hapless children with my ramblings about how great things were 20 years ago. 

This hasn't been a difficult promise to keep... until recently. Now I am starting to realise how good things were 20 years ago, not because the world was any better but because I was a kid and didn't have to worry about much. I am being careful to keep my promise, but I have been rembering some of the fun stuff and doing it again (it's fun still but in a slightly different way, a bit like watching old Simpsons episodes you haven't seen since they originally aired and suddenly understanding why your parents laughed at bits that weren't funny).

I spent an afternoon window painting and had a pretty good time at it. I have to say the crafts we did back in my day were cheap. I painted this window using straight black student acrylic paint to make the outlines and PVA glue and food dye for the coloured bits (you could also use a small amount of acrylic paint but I am not sure how transparent it woul be). I used a whiteboard marker to do the outline first but that's because I'm an adult, if I was a kid I would have gone straight to the painting. If you plan to fo the with kids, mixing a small amount of dish washing liquid will help with the clean up (but not adding the dish washing liquid means you can peel the dry PVA glue off your hands which was part of the joy of window painting, I didn't do this bit because I am a boring adult).

While I am being a boring adult, make sure all the paints, glue and markers are nontoxic if kids are going to be dipping their hands in it. It should say on the label that it's nontoxic- but even then it's best not to let them eat glue...

This is my whirly thing

Although I have been meaning to post a tutorial on how I made the butterfly mobile, I have found so many other things to do that it keeps slipping down the list.

Not content to just have butterflies hanging from the ceiling, I made a whirly thing and hung it in the hall. I then forgot about it and scared the cheeses* out of myself at 3am this morning when I walked into it. Anyway, it was quickly done yesterday afternoon and I have been considering how to make a better one... I am thinking of using card instead of corrugated cardboard so it curves evenly and using paints instead of textas. Still, this one whirls pretty well and I am thinking of putting a heap of them on the back veranda so they can twirl about the place. If you are interested, it is just a spiral cut out of cardboard and hung on a string- nothing to it really but it looks nice.

This is my whirly thing**

I have also been busily sewing things, and finished a monogramed pillow slip this afternoon. I am really happy with how it turned out and am planning on making a matching flat sheet to go with it... perhaps with some butterflies. I am quite liking butterflies at the moment. Anyway, if you are interested in making one too, the monogram design came from Needle and Thread (http://www.needlenthread.com/2008/06/monograms-for-hand-embroidery-index.html) and the crochet border instructions came from You Go Girl (http://yougogirl.typepad.com/you_go_girl/2010/03/crochet-like-crazy.html)

 

*Trying to give up casual swearing and have been coming up with alternatives, not sure if it really counts when the alternative sounds remarkably similar to the real thing when said out loud though
** Red Dwarf fans will probably understand this quote from the cat, for those who don't know here it is...

Its a bird. No, it's a plane. No, it's a butterfly!

I have been fairly busy over the past couple of days with birthday parties and anniversaries. I was invited to our neighbour's son's 3rd birthday over the weekend and had a momentary panic. There was no time to go into town to buy something and so I decided to make something that, theoretically, should only take an hour or so (Hah!) and could be made using what I have lying around the house. Since I have spent the last four years accumulating craft stuff, I thought there should be something a 3 year old boy would like...

Google to the rescue, and I decided to make a superhero cape. I got the instructions for the cape from here; http://www.momsrising.org/blog/how-to-make-a-superhero-cape-by-lara-from-howdoesshe/ and the logo from here; http://averseembrace.wordpress.com/2007/06/27/super-series/.

It took two nights to make up, but I think it turned out quite well. The birthday boy's name started with an 'L' so I thought it was a nice touch to customise it for him. I was told that it was good timing since he has just started taking an interest in superheroes and enjoys wearing it everywhere (always nice when you make something that someone really likes).

I have also been busy making a butterfly mobile based on the one in this blog; http://heartlandpaper.typepad.com/heartland_paper/2009/08/handmade-chandeliers-on-studio-5.html. I think the one in the blog is beautiful, but wouldn't look like much from below, so I have modified it a bit.

I am still working on it, so I'll post how I did it once it is finished. In the meantime, here is the almost finished mobile (please excuse my blurry photo, the butterflies are constantly moving and are hard to get on camera)...

It makes me think of the birds I saw this morning circling in the sky

I am not a fly!

I have bugs. Thousands of the damn things crawling all over everything. You can spray as much fly spray as you like but it seems the bugs just laugh at me and say things like 'mmmm, yum! Have you got some more?'. This happened last night as I blearily walked into the laundry some time around 3am and saw what I thought at first was a mouse, but it turned out to be a spider (grown large from feeding on all the bugs I guess). This is a bit like good news bad news. Good news; its not a mouse. Bad news; it is a big ass spider.

Since this isn't my first experience with large spiders (you can read all about it here) I was keen to get rid of it before it produced a million tiny spiders to haunt me. So I sprayed it with fly spray but it didn't do much except hop towards me (I guess the spray was a bit cold). After a few failed squirts I realised it was immune to fly spray and since I didn't have any spider spray I bludgeoned it to death with the can (it took a few goes but eventually the fly spray won out, even if it wasn't used in the way intended on the can).

I have mentioned the horrendous bug problem to the people who manage the property (in the real world they would be called real estate agents, but here they are better known as our glorious overlords who would be quite at home in a mediaeval feudal society) and was told they would be getting a person out to spray the place soon. That was 7 months ago, so I am guessing soon means something different to our glorious overlords than it does to normal people. So for now I will just have to keep a tin of fly spray handy in order to beat the bugs to death while I wait for 'soon' or die of old age.

Also, I put the flatted spider carcass in the garden as a warning to other big ass spiders

Please could you direct me to the foolish!

I have been thinking about blogging a bit lately -mainly that I have one that is looking like one of those frowny clown paintings you see in second hand shops due to all the recent neglect, which leads to bizarre feelings of guilt sometime around 1.30 in the morning. This is probably not a time when I am thinking my most clearly, although it is when my imagination is at its most rampant (a reason why I have stopped watching horror movies). For example, it is around this time that I decide I am going to learn French and amaze people with my ability to rant in another language (to be honest, I probably don't need to learn how to ask where the post office is to do this. However it is usually 1.30 in the morning at this point and in addition to my heightened ability to hear a hockey mask wearing lunatic stepping on a small twig in the back yard I also tend to overlook the reasonable-ness of things. In this case it would involve yelling a request to be directed to the post office in an angry way with perhaps some hand gestures thrown in. I would then hope that A) they don't speak French so I can convince them that I have just told them off in a very chic way, and B) they are foolish enough to believe that I have acquired this skill at 1.30 in the morning. Now, due to an unhealthy habit of pinteresting before bed, I have devised a fairly extensive list of things that I would like to do with some vague hopes of posting the progress on this blog (also done at 1.30 in the morning with no thought as to how much free time I actually have to achieve these goals).

Its not a spice rack!

In my usual style, after proudly announcing I was back to blogging I left my charger in Darwin and couldn't log onto the internet for a week.

I may possibly be addicted to the internet...

and sugar...

Anyway, I became inspired by pinterest (if you have been to pinterest this probably doesn't amaze you- pinterest could probably inspire moss) after seeing a 'pin' for a spice rack turned into a nail polish rack.

It was so amazing it was repinned multiple times and then I stumbled across Anna White's instructions for a jewelry cabinet (Anna White- Wall Jewelry Cabinet) I decided the cosmos was clearly telling me to find a home for my growing collection of nail polish. For those of you who witnessed me smash a window on the far side of the woodwork shop after failing to hold a block of wood on the band sander properly during wood work class at school prepared to be stunned.

So I went the the hardware store and spent more on wood and nails than the whole thing is probably worth. Its probably best to include the satisfying experience in the end price, that way its relatively cheap.

Ta-da!!!

I still have to paint it and put my fancy fabric on the backing board but you get the idea. Its a little wonky, but I am blaming the bendy wood for that (when Anna says to check the wood is straight, you should listen to Anna).

I'll post a photo of the finished piece of amazing once its all painted and stuff.

Before I go, I thought I would share my new great wall of tea. I was given some delicious tea for my birthday and luckily have recently constructed a shelf to house it all. I think it is far too nice to have it all shut away in a cupboard.

One day I will have an antique dresser specifically dedicated to the preparation of all kinds of hot drinks and it will be a short distance from a fire place with comfy deep armchairs so I can sip my tea in front of a fire (possibly falling asleep, possibly dribbling all over myself).

The clay bat concussed the cat

I spent the evening last night painting glaze onto clay bats that are destined to go on a wall somewhere. Possibly somewhere there are bats... or not (well there will be once these ones are glued wherever they are going to get glued- hopefully firmly since these things have a bit of heft to them. I can imagine some poor person, or stray dog, stopping to sit by a shady wall, possibly to snack on a tropical fruit, only to have a bat to fall on them... all that effort smashed). I'm not entirely sure of the grand plan for them (possibly obvious by my opening sentences), although I do know they will end up somewhere public. Which is why I haven't signed my bat. This way they won't know who to blame.

After spending far too much time with the vampire genre lately, I made an owl in an act of rebellious-ness. I have no idea what I'll do with it. I like to think that art doesn't need a purpose, although it probably has the same degree of artistic-ness as the same thing crafted by a 6 year old. Still, I like it and can always stick a pot plant on it if nothing else

Hello? Is this thing on?

Blogging is relatively easy. Blogging regularly, thats the tricky bit. Reading back over those few sentences makes me pleased the 'l' key works on my keyboard, otherwise that would just seem... disgusting. But I digress, the point of this rambling return to blogging is just that, a return to blogging. So look out interwebs, I have more general randomness to clog things up with.

But I can't think of much now, and besides that I am supposed to be doing something else other than messing about with ipad apps. So hopefully this uploads okay...

We are digging a hole, we are digging it deeper...

Ever wondered what a puppy and a senile dog get up to all day? I'm thinking I could make a pretty good guess- thankfully I didn't discover this one after dark. I would be wandering around Shanghai wondering what had just happened...

Friday 13th not just for a day

I have always liked dates with a particular pattern such as the recent 12/01/12 for example. So as Friday started and I realised it was Friday 13th I mused sceptically about the 'bad luck' associated with the date. Hah! There is no such thing as bad luck... Then as I was sitting there at work at 8pm, 14 hours after arriving there I started to change my mind.

There is no fun springing the worst ever horror movie style scare on someone when they are expecting it, like say on Friday 13th. No, Friday 13th had better plans. It would lul me into a false sense of security before unleashing the ultimate terror on Sunday night. Here I was, snoozing peacefully when something soft flopped onto my cheek waking me up. I flicked on the light to see what it was, then kinda wished I didn't. It was a wolf spider. Yep, a massive freaking hairy spider had jumped onto my face. I did the only sensible thing in the circumstances and twatted it with a handy slipper (8 eyes and it didn't see that coming).

So now, as it lay there twitching slightly you would think the excitement would be over wouldn't you. Hah, Friday 13th had something more in store. Thousands of tiny baby spiders, everywhere. I have never seen so many spiders. The were all over the walls, floor and ceiling. Now I like to think I am pretty good with a handy slipper, but no slipper was going to make any difference to the swarm of tiny spiders covering everything (no, I am not exaggerating). Thanks to a couple of tins of mortein and an hour while the room aired out and every thing in that room was either dead or drowning in a pool of fly spray.

Thank you Friday 13th for holding out until Sunday 15th for true horror movie style.

Its another year Jim, but not as we know it

What a relief to wake up and find out the world hasn't ended. I had gotten a little confused and was a day behind everyone else wondering why everyone was wishing everyone a happy new year a day early. When the fire crackers went off at midnight I vaguely remember thinking they were quite keen letting them off one night early and they should save some for new years. How awful it would have been had the world really ended, and I was out by a day. There would be the smoking ruins of the apocalypse and me saying "but its still December isn't it?" Perhaps somewhere it still is.

So in celebration of surviving yet another end to the world I was asked if I had any new years resolutions (may as well plan since we have another year now). I thought this was fairly short notice, although I suppose the more organised people out there (i.e the people who actually managed to get their Christmas cards out in the same month as Christmas) probably had them all prepared in case the world didn't end. Of course I didn't prepare, heck I thought I still had another day (and I still have the Christmas cards all ready to go- just need to get them out of the box, although hang on its January now isn't it...), so all I could think of was possibly being more proactive in getting the lawns mown before they out grow the fence and the dogs get lost the moment they step of the back verandah.

Ah yes, to be more organised. 2012 will certainly be another year, but not as we know it...

NaNoWriMo

Last year was my first attempt at NaNoWriMo. And I didn't finish it. About halfway through I realised that if you are going to write 50,000 words it is probably a good idea to at least have a plot... or a clue. So this year I am prepared. I have a plan, a rough outline of what each chapter will be about, and a month to do it.

Whats big and red and green all over?

I got a new puppy! He is a cute little thing, I had forgotten how smart border collies are. Needless to say Jack is jealous of Hamish and is always trying to hog all the cool toys (Hamish doesn't care, he has more fun with the bottle of water anyway).

Here are some pictures of how cute he is...

It's alive! It's alive! Mwah ha ha

Jack is the equivalent of a a 57 year old man*, who acts like a teenager. He recently started climbing over the back fence and hanging out with the neighbours dogs.

This sounds like a lot of doggy fun, but what was actually happening was Jack was hanging out near the fence while the great dane cross zombie rottweiler chiuaua in the neighbours yard tries to smash its way through the fence to eat Jack and all his doggy I'm-outside-the-fence-and-you-can't-get-me-nyer-nyer-nyer smugness. Add to this, grumpy miners who work night shift and you can imagine how great it is to come home to find Jack sitting in the drive way with a large self satisfied grin.

At first I started tying him up through the day, only to find he started making his escape at night (keep in mind this is a decrepid old dog that can barely chase a ball or go for a walk longer than 10 minutes). He seemed to enjoy being tied up during the day since this allowed him to get in a good nap for the following nights escapade.


So then I started tying him up all the time and only releasing him for walks. He responded by tangling himself up every hour or so and howling. I haven't slept through the night for a while. Something had to be done. A red cattle dog was not going to out think me. So I did what any sensible person would do...

I put in an electric fence! Mwah ha ha ha ha

* http://www.onlineconversion.com/dogyears.htm

Blackout

You know you live in the tropics when you wait for a blackout to clean the ceiling fans. I'm just pleased I'm not in the middle of cooking dinner or trying not to set my finger nails on fire lighting candles. As a teenager I thought candles were cool- now that I occasionally have to rely on them in the evening as my only source of light (and have pondered more than once the possibility of using them to finish cooking dinner) I think they suck. I would much rather be watching telly while boiling an egg and curling my hair.

But I don't wanna be a pirate!

It seems everytime I move into a place, there are curtains that need to be done. I have been pondering stitching up more curtains for a few reasons, in no particular order;

1. Sewing curtains is boring, I would much rather annoy the dog with his own tail

2. I already have curtains, they just don't fit the windows in this house (perhaps if I just wait, eventually I will end up in a house where they do fit)

h. Whenever I almost finish with the curtains, we move and I replace the curtains with vertical blinds (of course the new house will have differently shaped windows that the old curtains will not fit over requiring me to contemplate curtains again)

IV. Sewing curtains is boring

With this in the back of my mind, and only just recently regressing back into my teenage years by watching endless episodes of Seinfeld followed by the X-files, I found a curtain that rivals the wonderfulness of the puffy shirt.

For those of you not currently watching too much Seinfeld, here is a picture of the puffy shirt for you to compare the amazing puffy curtain with the amazing puffy shirt.

I now have some motivation, if only for a very brief moment, to create the most amazing curtain that will make me grin like a fool imagining the window saying "I can't wear this, I look like an idiot!"

As usual, for everything on the internet, there is always a handy tutorial. This one is from a boy, a girl and a pug. Sometimes its nice to have instructions to not follow...

Looks like a pony, smells like a dog

While we were in Sydney, we had a short visit from Gizmo (a fantastic name for a dog that looks like a pony- such a shame everyone knows Gizmo so I can't snatch the name for use on my own Great Dane that I will own one day (along with the peacocks and possibly flamingos if I ever figure out where you get a flamingo from. I suspect I wouldn't be able to keep one in a small duplex in the middle of a national park)). I thought I would post this picture because its great (no pun intended).

I am also very excited because I have just gotten the overlocker I have been wishing for for ages. In just 30minutes of messing about with it I managed to snap a needle and discover the joys of replacing and rethreading the needle. I don't think I will do that again (at least not on purpose). So here is a picture of my new obsession. Now I am off to see what I can overlock...

Bitter sweet

I had planned on posting a few more things about what I was up to last weekend, since it was a long weekend and I had a lot planned. A few games of golf, some sewing and crochet...

But then something happened that turned everything upside down, and we suddenly realised how little time we have with those we love. All those things we planned suddenly don't seem so important. We booked a flight and within 6 hours of getting the news, we were in Sydney for the day. Its difficult to write this, and it is such a private thing and the internet is such a not so private place.

I guess, the thing that has been most on my mind is the importance of being able to say good bye to someone properly. When a friendship ends, its difficult not being able to finish things properly and to leave so many things unsaid. Underneath it all though, you know that person is still around and you may yet get the chance. But when that person isn't around any more, it is so important to be able to get in one last good bye, to let you know that you love them and that they will be missed.

They are teeny tiny and make a sound like mnmnmnmnmn

After last week, I was all excited and got out all the purple I could find and started making teeny tiny flowers. I had no purpose in mind when I started making them , and until I was asked, never even considered what to do with little crochet flowers.

Then I thought, why not put them on my head?

What a great idea, and so obvious! So I stitched one to a clip and was pretty pleased with the outcome. Then, I thought, why not stick a bunch of them on a comb? So here I sit, when I should be getting ready to go out, stitching up a flower.

Yep, I am probably going to be late...

Note to self- check post box more often

Although it was my birthday a couple of weekends ago, I finally got a chance to open my present sent by one of my best friends from uni. I am so thrilled with the purple, I have to make something with it. I have a pattern for a bag that would be really nice, and I need a new bag (or at least need to wash my old one, urgh!).

I knew straight away that I would crochet little flowers with the thread though. They are beautiful shades of purple (my tiny camera just doesn't quite do it), and would make a fantastic long necklace... Now where did I put my hooks?

My sweet friend also sent me an anniversary card, and so to differentiate the two put a date to open them on. This created a few moments of philosophical debate this morning as I lamented that I didn't want to wait another year for my specific birthday to come around again. Of course, this was all done while tearing the paper and squeaking with joy.

Thanks Goldie, you're tops :-)