check ...

I have somehow found myself at Wednesday today and the list seems to have already been thrown out the window.

Every time I look at the list I think of something else that I need to do before the Stitches and Craft Show extravaganza in May, and of course I am trying to do as much as possible in the two weeks holiday.

(Does anyone remember last year when I started a good 3 months beforehand... )

So today I finished off the hedgehog kits - Like totally finished , and packed in a box.

I dyed some extra delicious 100% wool flannel for elephants. I'm hoping some people want to make woolen versions of Parsley and Beet (but I have to admit that wools are hard on the hip pocket)

and then... this afternoon I tool Edna, spirited filly that she is, off for a brisk trot

There are these crazy wild plants that have been planted along one of the main roads into Ballarat - and they really intrigue me....Their colours are weirdly tropical and bright and they seem to be shooting crazy furry squiggly brain shaped flowers...

So off we went to investigate and Monty and his dear wife Pearl joined us.

But mostly they seemed unimpressed !

(and speaking of unimpressed : Just so you know, tonight when dinner was ready , I called the kids a few times with ever-increasing volume. In the end, I thought about storming down the hallway and kicking someones door in, but then I thought of all the "we didn't hear you" "we thought it was something else " endless argument palaver, and you know what ?
I rang them !
yep ! I wasted whatever-it-costs and I rang my children to come to dinner.
I rang and they came......must be the novelty value.
Judge me ...don't judge me, I don't care.....that's how it is on the front line these days and all I can say is thank god I can sew OK ...cause quite obviously the parenting gig is not my strong point!)

the path to bonkers

Involves the very last little finally final touches on the projects for the Daylesford retreat

and making an apple pie - 'cause nobody said you couldn't eat on the way !

No great surprise

I guess its no great surprise to learn I had a great time at The Melbourne Zoo Earth hour.

I mean , they are certainly preaching to the converted in my case. The evening itself was great fun and I spent quite a bit of time imagining who all the groovy young bloggers were, and what their blogs might be about.

Even though I secretly wanted to go and visit something cute and cuddly - The group I was in went for a behind the scenes tour of the Reptile house..... surprisingly, it was fascinating. I got to spend some time with the crested iguana's and then had a bit of a turn holding a Honduras Milk snake. The guide was great and he really seemed to love his job and his reptilean charges - even the snake he told us was crazy and would "bite our arse" if he got it out.

yep that's my stubby un-manicured hand right there as I try and hand the snake over to someone else and take a photo at the same time.
(As the snakes got bigger I edged to the back of room)

I got to meet some new bloggers (gee whizz name tags would have helped me out here) and to catch up with Pip and Sooz as well.

We were wined and dined by the zoo and then we settled in with Sooz and her gang to listen to some music, watch Wil and Amy dance and play with the other kids and generally chill out.


I am a long-time fan of Tim Rogers so was really keen to hear him again , but have to say I was surprised how much I enjoyed Wagons. (Hmm perhaps I need to listen to the kids more when they make music suggestions - they assured me Wagons were going to be cool!

So, even though I am not convinced that my little visit to the zoo is going to make a huge difference, I was thrilled to be invited and once again just a little bit puzzled about the stuff that comes about because of the blog......


(Oh and consider yourself forewarned - the next two weeks around here are going to be bonkers!)

Who's that there in the dark?

What will you be doing tomorrow night when everyone turns off their lights for Earth hour?

Well due to the craziest of crazy worlds which is blogland - I'm going to be at Melbourne Zoo watching a fantastic concert.

That's right, having said no to the rugs, and lighting, and blingy jewellery and knee high fake tattoo tights and the car accessories and about a thousand other completely unrelated "free" things I have been offered in return for some blog time/space......

Someone gave me something for being a blogger (How weird is that?)

So tomorrow Mr Ric-Rac and I are going to be guests of the Earth-Hour unplugged concert at Melbourne Zoo. Apparently they are having some sort of blogger thingo and lots of Melbourne bloggers will be there. (shhh don't tell them Ballarat is not Melbourne).

and you know the very very best thing...... in return for invitations to this event and what I am guessing is going to be a great fun evening......Do you know what they wanted? How much blog time / space /placement of flashing lights and automated bells and whistles they demanded ???

Zip ! Nada ! Nothing !

Which, of course is why I am telling you.

(That, and it would be pretty cool to save the planet , cause you have to know, crafting on the moon with that weird no-gravity thing is going to be a killer)

Medical intervention

This is Edna,


Don't let her powder blue good-looks and quaint (click release) wicker basket charm fool you,
she is a member of the front line.
Edna is at the forefront of the battle against one of today's worst disease...yes folks she is a warrior against arsicus-grows-ever-fatticus.

(Side effects may include helmet hair, cuts and abrasions, and the closely related disease
arsicus-muchos-painus, which may in turn develop into arsicus-muchos- calloused. If pain persists suck it up princess !)

I'll keep you posted.

ettiquette..........

Oooh tea-parties . My favourite .

I promise I'll be on my best behaviour

Are you sure you put sugar in here ??

OOPS !!!

WAH !!!!! I lost all my tea !

But I still have the shiny spoon

mmmmmm

Really ? How come you're not supposed to eat the shiny spoons at tea-parties?


You people are mad!

Game....set......match

In the garden

tea for two

or more...

seven cups, seven saucers and one teapot.

(Tomorrow I'll let you know who came to tea with me )

not dishwasher safe .........

seven saucers sitting.

Im a little teapot......

Short and stout

here is my handle

here is my spout

When I get all steamed up......then I

(then, quite obviously I send abusive emails to spammers)

P.S I am actually a bitch !

So today is the end of the working week for me ...and it been a kind of prickly one - Not dreadful, but a bit uncomfortable - like bad undies....

and the toilet has finally given up the ghost. Regular real-life visitors will know it has been a bit of a disaster for a while...with strict directions about which button that could be pushed.
Well now it just runs constantly and the lid sits on the floor and.....its a disaster. (and we are in water restrictions and I am scared I won't be able to have a drink 'cause my dunny used all the water)

So I have a plumber who is THE BOMB.... He had me take photos of the toilet and email them to him, so he didn't waste a trip to check it out.... How cool is that ?

This week I met a new friend called Amit.... a lovely guy I am sure, but as I said earlier - it has been a bad undies week..... so when Amit wrote me a little comment (one of very very many comments about setting up a home -based business in India) saying "oh Great teacups"

well, I'm sorry to say words failed me and my general bonhomie had expired and the best I could do was " Oh get yourself totally and irrevocably stuffed "
Having spent hours this week (no exaggeration) wiping stupid advertising and crazy Viagra comments from posts as old as two years ago ) I have had enough !
I'm sorry that I am not witty or erudite or scathingly brilliant in my retorts...really I just want them bugger off.... simple as that !

parole

With time out for good behaviour, (because I have NAILED two patterns over the weekend)

I have been making tea-cups for a display tea-set... 42 outer pieces and 42 inner pieces - just for the cups !

I once read, on a blog funnily enough, a person who said if they became ridiculously, embarrassingly rich then they would hire a cutter-outer....

If I were ridiculously embarrassingly rich (after I had dealt with world peace and poverty and all that)....I would hire a personal shopper, someone to go and buy all my clothes for me, organise them and tell me what to wear on which day, what matched and what to avoid...or if I were super really embarrassingly rich enough - I might just take to wearing pyjamas everywhere.

(I'm so superficial )

playing truant

So , having devoted the whole weekend to pattern-writing I am not really here. I have been quite productive so far, made the most stupendously ridiculous mistakes and mis-printed far far too many pages.

But, in a dash to Aldi...I found this little cart.

I had seen these months ago and thought they would be a cute display item but I resisted, so I was pretty surprised today to find one still there (and better yet half-price). So I bought one and assembled it this afternoon.
(It's lucky I speak that crazy weird instructional assemblage language.....this made IKEA look like baby blocks)

I think its a bit OTT myself and am planning to give it a bit of a makeover these holidays .

(oh and don't tell anyone you saw me- I'm writing patterns!)

If my brain had an off switch...

So I liked, but didn't love the little guys.....I'm not sure why really, they are quite cute. I kept thinking about them and I just wasn't sure they were finished...

I thought it would be good to make them a little bag to be carried in...something simple...maybe drawstring? But because its me I had to go one step further....

I thought of windows... round windows .... and if you have windows, obviously you need a door !

and if you have a door, and a letterbox and a number, then obviously you have a house.

a portable house for your pig and your kitten and your monkey with special window pockets on the front and plenty of room inside for all the things that a pig and a kitten and monkey might need.
Too much?

(*with that, she dusts of her hands and tells herself firmly that she is not allowed to start ANY new projects until she has made a man-sized dent in the pattern writing).
Groan

I booked the choir

Man, I have been busting myself to get this project finished today....

But no matter how many times I tweak and re-tweak, the inevitable crunch came when the perfect fabric ....was about 10 cm's too short. Oh the agony of a finish that is soooo close.
(insert chest beating and clod throwing here)

Today I also wrote a bit of list for myself and totally fruck myself out . The thing is , I'd like to get some new patterns ready for the Stitches and Craft show in May. I have a rather long list of things I'd like to do but in reality I have to accept that they will not all get done , so today I auditioned for projects to become patterns....

First place of course has to go to Ernst and his dear love Pebble...yes?

Then maybe these guys , once I finish their accessories...

and I'd love to do these guys as well.....
What do you think?

Will you be coming along to Stitches and Craft? If you came along last year you might have had the chance to visit one of the uber-busy craft bars.
Well, Living Creatively are looking for people to help "man" the craft bars. Volunteers are needed in Sydney(April 14 - 18), Canberra (April 22-25) and Melbourne (May 5-9).
They are looking for people to share basic sewing and embroidery skills with people at the craft bars.
There is also some fun crocheting that needs demonstrating in Sydney and Melbourne.
In return for a days "work" you'll get two free tickets to the show and a stitches and Craft bag.
Apart from that of course you'll get to meet a bazillion or so crazy crafters and share your skills with craft-lovers.

To find out more email enquiries(AT)stitchesandcraft(DOT)com(DOT)au

and if you're there, I'll be seeing you in Melbourne, displaying my usual grace and decorum and even reprising the bloggy talks of last year, this time hopefully with
less mishaps and less blood!

Seriously guys,

Craft camp has put the spring in my step, the smile on my dial and the duck in my truck!

I laughed, I guffawed, I snorted !
It was only the utmost concentration and leg clenching that kept me from total embarrassment.

(Personally I find this guy oddly appealing, right after I took this photo he winked and asked me to "spring" him. He said he would make it worth my while)