Brown Owls

I've been a bit lazy with advertising our Brown Owls classes lately, in fact, really doing anything about them at all. Luckily Sarah has been picking up the slack. So I thought I'd let you know we have a Brown Owls class this Sunday, from 2 -4 at the Bayswater Family Centre, corner of Murray and Crowther Sts in Bayswater.

All you need to bring is yourself, something to craft while you're there and a gold coin towards room hire and tea and coffee. 

We'd love to see you there!

I'm going to be working on this, if I can find the right colour floss which I have somehow misplaced...

Our Brown Owls facebook page

Crafting galore

The creative space thing has been happening big time over at my place, in my standards anyhow.  There has been sewing, as well as building, painting, hooking and stitching.  It's all been a bit exciting to have been getting so much done, even if there are still are humungous stack of wip's lying around and it seems a bit ridiculous to start anymore!

Ahh well, after I have finished off these, I think it is time to delve into the wip box, right down the bottom to something I started probably about 3 or 4 years ago now.  These sort of things are all over the place now but at the time there wasn't anything like it that I had found!

But onto the stuff I'm doing right now...

 Check out this awesome little mini lego kitty I got from a friend when I was in hospital last, I keep forgetting to show you! It was quite fiddly to build, what with the mild shakes I have from the medication but it was good fun.

 I also stitched this little snowflake ornament using this pattern that I bought ages ago meaning to make some for Christmas and never got around to.  Nothing like starting the Christmas crafting early!  And I do have to ask, does anyone have any tips on sewing with metallic threads? It was such a pain, they kept untwisting and getting caught and knotted.  But pretty once it's done.

I mentioned a while ago I was having a go at my first ATC - well here it is, complete with fluffy painted cloud (which I'm very proud of) and lacy raindrops.

 I've been using this very lovely book from the library to whip up some assorted body parts for a few cute little amigurumi critters.  Can you guess what I'm making?

I've also been hooking up a little pattern for a pencil/hook case, I'm going for a scallopped edge look...

And finally, I made up this little flower pouch for a swap.  I lined it with the same fabric I used for the flowers.  Mitred cornered are getting closer to being aligned!

What have you been up to in the creative world lately?

   

Tied with a bow

I made a top! I pinned it a while ago and then Sarah pinned and made it which got me motivated. 

I finished it today when Sally and Sarah came over for a day of sewing but it was a bit gapey and baggy at the front, so I added some darts. 
I'm pretty happy with how it ended up!

It's 2am...

 
... and I'm making mini crustless quiches.  Of course I am!!

excuse the glarey flash photo - it is 2am after all!

I roasted the pumpkin earlier and was going to put them together tomorrow for when Sally and Sarah come over for a sewing day and lunch, but I exercised again today and I'm not tired. Even after getting up at 9.45. *sigh*

So instead, I started putting the quiches together.  Roast pumpkin, leek, english spinach, cherry tomato, spring onion and parmesan.  All I need to do tomorrow is whip up the egg mix and pour it over them, dollop on a bit of ricotta and bang them in the oven.  Lovely lunch ahead!

Goal change

 
So, I'm giving up (for now) on the recording and aiming of being in bed by 11pm.  It's just Really Not Working.  And that really is the understatement of the year.  I was getting so annoying at myself for not being tired on time even when I'm getting up a bit earlier and doing exercise to help wear me out.  Unfortunately, the exercise is just giving me more energy! Argh!

So,  the focus has changed.  Instead of stressing about not getting to bed on time, I am going to focus on getting up before 10 every day.  Once I can get up before 10 for more than a week, I am going to try getting up before 9.30 and so on until I get to somewhere between 8.30 and 9.  Along with that I am going to focus on doing regular exercise.  As I said a few posts ago, I have done 3 lots of exercise a week for two weeks now, a big deal for super slack me, so I am going to keep that up.  I went for a walk today as my first lot of exercise for the third week.  I managed to jog for 100m or so, my longest stretch of jogging ever (since transplant).  I was proud.  Much more positive goal.  And I'm much more certain I can achieve this goal and so MR is very kindly letting me out of my bed by 11 (although, I'll still try that when he is home - much easier to go to bed earlier when he is in bed waiting for me!) and instead, if I manage 3 lots of exercise a week for a month then he will treat me to a spa pedicure.  To be honest, he is entirely wonderful and he did say he would just send me to get one anyhow, but I really want to feel like I've earnt it.  (Being poor really sucks.  I feel like I am back in uni!!) And being a total Star Chart/Reward type of girl, well, this will work for me and make me not feel like a total freeloader.  And even if my sleeping is shit at least the rest of my body is getting healthier and fit.  And hopefulllllllly, all that exercise combined with the earlier mornings will just get me heading to bed earlier without stressing over it.

So here's to the new me driven by exercise.  I'm even toying up with the idea of whether or not I would be ready to start back with netball?  Maybe just a quarter per game... too soon?  Probably.  I'm thinking I might be a bit too scared of elbows and balls to the tummy yet.  But it would be a nice way to meet new people and make some more friends!  Perhaps next season..

Garden dreams

Happy Easter Bunny Day!

I've been trying to get back out into the garden a bit more now that it's starting to cool off and I'm looking forward to planting my Easter Bulbs (instead of eggs) so the other day I cleared out some plants I didn't like from the little garden next to our front door in preparation for that to be my bulb garden.

before

after

 

 

I'm a bit concerned about the dry patches in the back two corners so I'm gonna very nicely ask MR to have a look at the reticulation when he gets home to see how easy or difficult it would be to put some more in. 

And then after that I'm going to see if I can convince him to chainsaw down this terrible stumps so it is at least ground height and then I can use it as a stepping stone, slice off a few more pieces to make a couple more and plant veggies all around my little wooden stump path.. that's the idea growing in my head at the moment anyhow!  We'll see what he thinks of that tonight when he calls...

Genres

I finally, recently, joined the local library and it has been a bit exciting!  I have this list of books I want to read but don't know if I'd like them so didn't want to buy them.  And I went a bit overboard looking them all up and reserving the ones that I found. And then they all arrived at once!  I usually tend to go only for fantasy when I'm buying because I'm almost guaranteed to enjoy it.  But I've got a nice selection here, some fantasy, historical fiction, family drama, real life stories, australian romance and a bit of word etymology with Filthy English - not sure what genre that would get classified under.

I started the Fiona Palmer book last night, The Family Farm.  It's the Aussie romance, in case you hadn't guessed.  Fiona is doing a talk at my local library next week and I've booked to go and listen so I thought I had better read one of her books first! I quite enjoyed the story once I got into it, which did take quite a while.  The first third of the book was a bit too long winded and description-ey and it felt a bit like she was showing off how much she knew about farming, it went on about it so much.  Sure that's the books title and it is about a girl fighting her father to let her help run the farm but it just seemed to go on a bit.  There are a few moments that are a bit too ocker (although there are many moments in the country in real life that seem a bit too ocker as well, going by my memories) and I wonder how well it would go in a foreign market.  It's set in WA and I knew all but one of the land marks and all of the towns mentioned. Once the story started going and getting into the good bits (I don't mind me a bit of a romance novel!) I got quite into it and I finished it off today. I'd give it a 3.5 stars.

I'm trying to decide what to read next, I need something that is not going to encourage me to stay up til all hours keeping on reading to find out what happens next so I'm thinking I might read Filthy English.  I find word origins so fascinating and I'm sure it will be broken up nicely chapter by chapter and not too hard to put down.

What are your favourite genres?  Do you stick to just one type or read across the range?

This is me.

I may have posted this before.  But it is just so relevant at the moment (I refound it going through and sorting out my photos) that I just had to post it (possibly again).

Take out 'party' and add 'craft/blog/read/tidy/watch tv'

I've been trying to get up earlier, most days I am up before 10 now instead of rolling out of bed somewhere around 11 - 12.  I am tired, but then I start to wake up in the evening and then I am not tired and the cycle repeats and this little cartoon illustrates it Exactly.

I've even been doing exercise in an attempt to 1) tire me out and 2) get fit.  Last week I went for a walk, went to the gym and went to yoga.  I was so proud of myself!  So far this week I have done the same again and I'm hoping to encourage myself to go for another walk tomorrow.  This would probably be the first time ever in my life that I have done exercise 3 times in a week for two weeks in a row.  In fact, this is probably the first time in my life I have done exercise 3 times in a week period.  I am le slack but I am trying so hard to turn it all around.  The exercise has only given me more energy in the mornings to stay up until truly ridiculous hours. 

I'm sure it will turn around soon, it is just frustrating.  I am frustrating myself by my bad habits.

Habits are so hard to break!

 

This morning...

... I started my day a little bit differently.  Instead of sitting on the couch with my laptop and my breakfast checking emails and blogs I decided to go sit outside with a book.  It has been cool enough for trackie dacks today - first time this year! - so I was a bit excited.  I even needed a cardi.  It was so peaceful sitting there with a fresh hot cross bun slathered with butter and a banana smoothie that I ended up staying outside for a few hours until I had finished my book.

I love Autumn...

Ta-dah!

A while ago, I posted about beginning this project which I couldn't show you in it's finished form because it was for a private swap I was doing with a very lovely girl I met on blogland, Christie of Describe Happy.  Well, it arrived at her place the other day so it has got me out of my blogging funk and got me posting!

 I saw this pattern on Ravelry for the mushroom (although mine turned out a bit more toadstool-ish), which I recently joined (you can find me here) and thought it was just so adorable.  Christie and I originally bonded over our love of all things forest and mushroomy so I thought this would be perfect.

I started off doing a square base for the pot rest part but it really wasn't working for me so I unravelled and found a pattern for a circle done in spirals.  Much neater looking!  Unfortunately I didn't do an especially good job of centring my mushroom on the base and some of my french knots are a little bit iffy but overall I was really pleased with the result.  Pleased enough that I plan to make another one for my kitchen but with a blue background. 

I attached some brown felt to the back with possibly the neatest blanket stitching I've ever managed to do and it was all finished.  Lovely!

Our swap started off with Christie seeing these pincushions I had made on my blog and commenting that she thought they were cute so I offered to make one for her.  They are only itsy bitsy pin cushions so I sent her two.