Last week

Last week, le Tour De France began, and so did Miss J's yellow Darwinia dress which I began as a bit of a knitalong. The Tour is only up to stage 11 tonight, but I will be finishing the dress. And starting a new one for Miss M!

 

 

Last week I wrote my very first selection criteria job application. I have written many others over the years but somehow I have, until now, rather successfully managed to avoid selection criteria writing. It wasn't as painful as I had been expecting, but then I suppose all those Uni assignments I wrote a couple of years ago have tended to soften the pain of academic/professional writing somewhat. I have yet to hear whether it has been successful but I am hopeful. Crossing my fingers!

 

Last week I began what I now understand to be the lengthy process that is a tooth root canal. Yuck!

 

Last week I baked my first Flourless Orange Cake and wondered why I had waited so long to do so - it was yum!

 

 

Last week I picked up two of my little Albany landscapes I painted from the framer. I am not entirely convinced that I chose the best matt board colour and am very close to returning them so a better colour can be substituted. Okay. I've convinced myself. Back they go. 

 

 Last week, I painted my first Name Painting in a very long time. And liked it - it was fun! And I want to paint more. Anyone interested?

 

 

Last week I realised (while painting the Name Painting) that my glasses need upgrading - again!

 

Last week I had two entertaining dinners with one of my neighbours, one at her house, one at mine. I feel so lucky to have found another crazy woman so nearby, and the fact that her children are in the same classes at school as mine makes everything so much easier. I have even converted her to the delights of Offspring, lending her the DVD box sets to catch up, for which G reckons I have a lot to answer!!

 

And last (this) week, the girls started school holidays. I can't believe how tired they are at the end of term; neither can I believe how narky they are with each other - *sigh* - but at least they had fun painting today!

  

 

Making and Baking - life is good!

 

xx

Hexagon Blanket Ta-dah!

Hooray - it's finished!!

Sometimes I have liked it, sometimes I loathed it (it hibernated for about 10 months), but now I absolutely love it!

And the part I enjoyed crocheting the most? The edging. I enjoyed the rhythm of crocheting the dc stitches around the outside, and found it quite meditative and soothing, especially with the warmth of the blanket covering my knees on these colder nights.

 

The edging consists of two rows of double crochet with ripply decreases in the inside corners, and increases similar to those used on the hexagons on the outside corners. It is finished with a row of the bobble edge stitch, as demonstrated in a tutorial on Attic24's blog here. A solid colour border for solid colour hexagons.

 

 

And here is the blanket as best as I could photograph before it was whisked away, already in use with today's kid on the couch.



 

 (Miss J has a very sore tummy!)

 

 

Hexagon Pattern:: http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/hexagon-howto.html

Yarn:: 8 ply wool

Colours:: an assortment, mostly from Shepherd Colour 4 me and Cleckheaton Country yarn ranges

Hook:: 4mm

 

Will I make another one? I'm thinking of it - I particularly like the circle version made by Greedy for Colour (photograph in this post), where she uses solids for the centres, and finishes the final round of each hexagon in the same colour. Result? Circles. Clever!

 

 

So happy!

 

xx

 



Artist/Teacher

 

I had it all worked out.

 

My plan was that, once everyone was settled into new jobs and school, I would paint when the girls were in Kindy for their two and a half days.

 

It is part of my personal truth that I only have so much brain space available for creative pursuits once the rest of that space is taken up with caring for my family (which I love doing!). With the twins at school for a little bit longer than last year, I suddenly found myself with the space, energy and motivation to paint and be an Artist again. And that is what happened - I set myself up and began painting some of the beautiful places we have experienced since we arrived in Albany.

 

All was working really well - I finished four little pieces, and had started on a fourth, larger work - until two things popped up to block my path.....

 

1. I started a short term part time teaching contract,

 

and

 

2. I discovered instagram.

 

As always, and I hate to say it, but painting has been the first thing to be dropped while I find my way through these changes. And with that shift, another consequence has been a flagging attention to this blog. I'm a realist. Blogs change as their owners do. What to blog and what to instagram? I'll work it out.

 

And I'll work the painting thing out, too. I expect that next year there may be more time to venture forth with my painting goals. In the meantime, I will still dabble here and there; just not in the way I imagined.

 

But the most interesting shift for me has been my teaching job, which has been more rewarding than I expected. I have been working with young mothers to support them as they work on TAFE qualifications online, and I have enjoyed it so much that I have applied for the job on a permanent basis. One day a week, I have been utilising my Literacy Education teaching skills, and I love it!

My instagram bio states that I am an Artist and Teacher. I am both.

Except, right now it seems the emphasis is more as a Teacher.


I hope I get the job!

xx

Super Moon, Yellow Sunflower

 

Driving home from Perth last night, we watched as the moon rose and journeyed its way across the sky. The girls were fascinated, especially as it seemed so very large as it began its path above the horizon - G told us that it was a Super Moon, that the moon was at its closest to our planet as it had been for the last two years. It was beautiful. I tried to photograph it without too much success, as you can see. And we arrived home late, at 9.30pm, with not one of the girls having slept in the car.

 

Which meant that today I had a 'day', a day in which.....

 

 

we all woke up late,

 

I spent what seemed like hours trying to clean up last week's mess amongst the new mess of this one,

 

Miss J had many, many, many "I'm Tired" tantrums,

 

we were late for school pickup,

 

we ran out of gas (the cooking kind) (my fault),

 

which then meant that I couldn't cook dinner,

 

and I had to run the kids up the road to a friend's house for a bath,

 

while I am trying to write a job application for the job I'm already doing as a Casual Staff member...

 

 

But there was a little bit of sunshine to my day, in the form of a package in the post.

 

 

 

 

Sunflower Yellow, from Bendigo Woollen Mills, amidst the Monday blues.

 

 

Mind you, I'm not so sure that my usually sunshiney Miss J, for whom it is intended, deserves it right now! Hopefully though, with a good night's sleep, we will all do better tomorrow.

 

Sleep well!

 

xx

Granny's Favourite Cardi Ta-dah!

Miss E is loving her new cardi - she chose the yarn and buttons herself, so I'm hoping it means that this time she will actually wear it! And she is!! Hooray!!!

pattern::     Granny's Favourite
designer::  Georgie Hallam aka tikkiknits
yarn::         Moda Vera Pure Wool 8 ply printed from Spotlight
needle::     4mm
yardage::   5 skeins = 435 yards / 397 m

I really enjoyed knitting this pattern - it was fun and has been so well written, allowing for all ages, sizes, arm lengths and yardage. It's seamless, too! In fact, this pattern encourages that the knitter plays yarn chicken to see if they can use up all their yarn.

Fun, fun, fun! I'll be knitting this again.


xx

Hexagon Update and Inspiration

 

 

It has been an interesting project, this hexagon blanket of mine. There have been times when I have loved it, and times when I have just not had any more hexagon love to give! But when I see those solid brights, the colours bouncing off each other and resonating with energy, I fall in love with it all over again.

 

In love once more after sewing in all the ends, I am now at the edging stage.

 

I considered squaring off my hexagons but decided to embrace and celebrate the hexagon! Let's keep the distinctively hexagony shape! I initially thought about using Attic 24's single crochet and scallop edging that she had used on her first hexi blanket. After all, the hexi pattern I used was hers. However, I just didn't feel that it suited the blockiness of the solid colour hexis.

 

Instead, I have settled on two rows of double crochet with increases reflecting those used in the hexagons on the corners, and Attic 24 ripply decreases on the inside corners. When that is finished, I will consider my final row options - at this stage it is most likely that I will use Attic 24's bobble edging, but we will see.

 

And there it is. My crochet inspiration blog of choice, Attic 24. Thank you for all your brilliant online tutorials.

 

Loving the hexis!

 

xx

  

 

Should I?

Hmmm. Beautiful twin 1940s Radio Rockers. Excellent condition, original fabric.

 

I only sat down in one to check it out, to see how comfy it was, which was very! And no sooner had I sat in it than the store owner offered the chairs and a matching footstool to me for less than half the price.

 

Two weeks ago I sat in a similar chair at knitting group. It was definitely my style. Perhaps not the fabric, but spectacular upholstery type things can be done with beautiful contemporary fabrics.

 

Hmmmm.

 

Should I or shouldn't I??

 

 

Pondering this one, for sure.

xx