Some mojo found

Isn't it lovely when you write a post about missing mojo only to have that inspire you to bloody well find some of it later that evening?

I went with Sarah's advice to do something fun first and I didn't even go with something on my list.  Not to worry!

I found this quick pattern on ravelry and decided I could probably whip it up in one evening.  Nothing works quite so quickly as a big crochet hook and a chunky yarn!  I ended up making a couple of changes - I added an extra round in the lengthening section and made the band thicker and a bit tighter with some decreases.  I like that I am at a level where I can make alterations to a pattern and have them work out successfully.

This is the first thing I have crocheted in a while, I've been busy knitting lately.  It was nice to get back to the hook actually.  And I think this is the first thing I have crocheted (and finished) for me as well!  I wore it out on Saturday for morning tea and with rain forecast for all this week apart from today I might just get a few more wears out of it before it goes in the cupboard for next Winter!

I still haven't done anything on that list.  But I'm about to go hang out a load of washing and then my plan is to get grouting while the sun is still shining.

Hopefully this is the start of a productive week!


raveled 

 

Missing mojo

I've lost my mojo lately.
Not just my crafting mojo, or my blogging mojo but all my mojo. 


I have a stack of overripe bananas that I should make into yummy banana bread.

I have an embroidered clock waiting for numbers and clock parts to be added.

I have a mosaic waiting to be grouted and then sealed.

I have many other unfinished crafty projects.

I have a garden filling up with weeds and not much else.

I have a very messy craft room.

I have tax that really needs to be done.

I have two ginormous stacks of washing to put away because thankfully I still have managed to find enough energy to do a load here and there this week.

I have a September One Task a Day calendar missing many, many ticks.

I have a get together to organise for my liver's first birthday.

I have downloaded some new music to exercise to but have not yet exercised to it.



The list is growing.
And I am completely uninspired to do anything about it.


How's your list looking lately?

Wood Lovers Anonymous

Hello, my name is Megan and I really love wood stuff. 

Any wood stuff - be it in its natural state of tree or chopped down to make furniture or little bits of pretty.

I love it all!

I also really love clocks.  Cuckoo clocks to be precise and I have always wanted to get one - one day.  But then Amanda very kindly offered me one that used to belong to her father.  It was destined for the op shop pile unless I wanted it.  Did I ever!!!!! 

How gorgeous is this clock?! It was also really nice to go over to Amanda's place and meet her for the first time, she has an amazing home - the type that looks like it belongs in magazine pages it is so beautifully decorated.  You can check it out on her blog, Homely One.

I love the pendulum blur in this shot

In its new home next to the wooden bookshelf and the wooden bookends...

The best shot I could get of the cuckoo

I feel so lucky to have been offered such a gorgeous piece, I love listening to it cuckoo and counting what time it is.  MR is a big fan as well, so much so that he took over setting it up and hanging it when I wasn't even home to join in.  Thank you so much Amanda!


My other latest wooden piece I got down south on my birthday trip.  It is a hand turned mushroom made out of a banksia nut!  Isn't it gorgeous?  I love facing it this way because it looks like a little face and makes me think of May Gibb's Banksia Men (even though when I was little I thought they were scary)  I am quite in love with it.

It is also a little container, although goodness knows what I would put inside?  Some potpourri maybe?

With some of out other favourite bits of wooden stuff

 Unfortuntely, my love for wooden stuff does not make for very colourful display shelves.  I need to do something about that!

  

Back to the stitching board

I've had a little bit of a break from the knitting lately, namely because one knitting needle got lost down the black hole that is the side of the couch and even after pulling the couch half apart MR and I were not able to retrieve it and the other project I was working on, one knitting needle got broken in the first second of a knitting needle war with MR.  Note to self: do not use vintage op shop purchased plastic needles for swords, apparently they are fragile.

Also, it really was time to get a few project closer to being finished as I thought about it and haven't finished anything of note since late June.  Dreadful.  So this past week I've been dutifully stitching away on the couch and I've finished the stitching part of two projects.

On the left is my sashiko panel which I had planned to turn into the first ever throw cushion for my bed and on the right is an embroidered bit of ink and spindle's birch trees line, destined to be a clock for a friend's engagement present.

Of course, now that I see them next to each other and realise that they are about the same size, my mind is thinking how cool a sashiko clock might be?  Oh the decisions!!! Turn this one into a clock too or make this one a cushion and stitch up another panel for a clock?  I am really liking the idea of it being a clock, and lets face it, the throw cushion will never stay on my bed because I hardly ever make it.

 I tried to make the red robins look a bit feathery by doing little stitches and using three strands of browns in different shades to add a bit of depth.  

I'm catching up with my friend this weekend so I need to get gluing and decide whether to use small wooden numbers or buttons to finish off the clock.  

What do you think?

creative spaces

Lost and Found chores

the type of bed you never need to make!

I was just reading Kirsa's blog and her amusing post about scatter cushions and she mentioned something about bed making that got me thinking.

Do you make your bed? Every morning without fail?  My poor bed gets awfully neglected.  If it's lucky - and most of the time it's not - I'll flick the covers up over it.  If we have visitors I'll make a bit more of an effort and return the second pillow to the bed and make the doona all neat looking but underneath the sheet is still usually all twisted.  Really, I haven't properly made my bed in the morning since boarding school where we got in trouble if we didn't.  I'm wondering if there's a point in my life where I will go back to proper bed making?  Will it be when I have kids and I want them to make their beds so I have to lead by example?  Or is bed making a lost chore? 

When I was younger, some of my jobs were to make my bed every morning, dry the dishes as Mum washed them and when I was old enough to be trusted around an iron, iron the hankies and tea towels.  Now, I certainly do not dry the dishes these days.  We do not yet have the luxury of a dish washer but once the dishes are washed they get left to drain on the dish rack and put away once air dried.  In my opinion, unless you have guests and a shitload of dishes, drying dishes is an immense waste of time.  Similarly, ironing tea towels falls into that same category.  It's like ironing sheets.  Why would you do it? (Although I certainly know quite a few crazy people who do.) And who uses hankies these days apart from old men?  Yuck. 

Now, not having kids myself I don't know how things are looking on the chores front.  I like to think most families still have their kids helping around the house although from an anecdote my sister told me when she took a bunch of private school teenage boys on a ski trip over east and they had to help out with the chores in the dormitory and one of them asked how to turn on the vacuum cleaner I have an inkling this may not be the case everywhere.  I'm sure though that where chores are happening, drying the dishes may have been superseded by emptying the dishwasher.  And I'm curious, what other new chores there are out there these days that we all wouldn't have done when we were young?  And what chores have been relegated to the "when I was your age" stories?
 
  

BFFs or just BFs?

My first best friend was apparently in Kindy. I don't remember him, yes he was a boy, because we moved to the city when I was in year one. In fact, I had forgotten all about him til I saw a photo a couple of years ago of us together and I remembered that his name was Timmy, just like one of our cats. That is all I really remember.

My second best friend was in year one to three. Her name was Danielle and she was an only child. I remember having sleep overs and she had an intercom in her room and her parents would shush us through that. She always had very neat hair and I remember thinking she was cool. We lost touch when we moved back out to the country.

My third best friend was in year three to five. Her name was Nicole and she lived on a farm and only had brothers. We used to play horses at school together. We lost touch when we moved to another country town.

My fourth best friend was from about half way through year six to year eight. It took my a while to make friends in this town and in fact she was probably my only friend. I remember we tried to start up a drawing club and we invited the boys we had crushes on to join. Unsuccessfully. We were not popular. We gradually lost touch after I started boarding school in year eight and then my parents moved back to Perth in year ten.

My fifth best friend I met in year ten. She had just started at my school and we were on camp. We bonded over the awfulness of walking ten kms a day with fifteen kg packs and our very hot camp instructor. Her name is Emily. She is still my best friend. I don't see her very often even though we only live about half an hour from each other. She is one of those crazy (in my mind) fitness people who exercise 5 times a week. We can go months without talking and pick up as if it were only yesterday. But sometimes I wonder, how do you know if the feeling is reciprocated? I know she has other friends she sees more often than me.

Is a best friend just your oldest one? Or the one you see the most? Is she (or he) the one that knows all your dark and dirty secrets or the one that's there at the drop of a hat?

What makes a best friend and what unmakes one?

I have met again all my old best friends except Timmy. Danielle I met again at high school when we went to the same one. We didn't become friends again, let alone best friends. Nicole and I reconnected again when I ended up teaching her daughter. Same story. Kelly and I reconnected through facebook and met up after Run For A Reason earlier this year. We don't really have a lot in common now but I'm sure we'll stay fb buddies.

I haven't really made any good friends since high school. I had friends I met at uni and at jobs I've had but none that have really stuck around or that I could just ring for a chat. Most of the time that doesn't really bother me because I have MR and at the risk of sounding like a smarmy cliche because I believe best friends and partners are different roles, he still sorta is. At the moment though MR is off on a boys trip in Bali for the week and I'm sorta feeling a bit lonely after depleting the one friend I have for a phone call and a chat. There's only so much conversation you can hold with your cat before you want a reply (she's not much of a talker).

This is starting to sound like a pity post when it wasn't supposed to. I'm curious about your BFFs and your opinion on those questions above!