Lilly

Gorgeous CurlsGraceful Lines

Elegant Hues

'nuff said!

Changing Seasons

I'm all turned around with the seasons at the moment. One minute I'm about to go into Spring and the next I'm once again at the start of Winter. I should be eating strawberries and picking my veggies now but instead the few seedlings I've managed to grow have gone to seed.

To add to the frustration I can't find a single magazine in Australia that deals with vegetables. And I don't mean a general gardening magazine...there are heaps of them. I mean a dedicated veggie mag like Kitchen Garden or Grow your own. I think I'll have to purchase a book or something just so I can get my head around the seasons in this hemisphere. Especially since I once again have a backyard!

So because I'm feeling nostalgic here are some veggie photos...I grew 'em myself!!

beanszucchini
cheery tomatoeslollo rosso lettucestrawberry

Relief

As the deadline for the tenants moving out of our house has drawn nearer the stress levels have risen. The fear of the unknown has led to our imaginations painting all sorts of horrible pictures of our house.....dirt, grime, dead rats, strange smells, rotting unidentified objects, the garden a barren wasteland, the house a burnt out shell or simply a pile of rubble with the letterbox hanging sideways off it's post.

A frightening and unrealistic projection that has lead to many a sleepless night and distracted day, however all was revealed today and of course it wasn't half as bad as what we had imagined.

After six years of no maintenance the house wants for some TLC as you'd expect. There are some additional issues we're not best pleased about BUT overall the house is A) still standing and B) almost livable. With some serious elbow grease, some intense airing out and a lot of ongoing handyman type activity we will, once again be able to call it home. (I oversimplify somewhat but you get the idea.)

SO, although we're relieved (I can't tell you how relieved we are) we are still looking at a week or two of extremely hard work of scrubbing and cleaning before we move back into our home. If in the meantime the blogs a little light on, my apologies. I can't type in marigolds.

my first (half) sock

There's a lot going on in our lives of late and few things are simple or
black and white. However there is one tiny, simple thing that brings me joy and happinesses. My first sock

My first sock is full of tension issues, pattern mis-reads and dropped

stitches.

My first sock has surprise elements like increases and decreases and

even the occasional ladder.BUT my first sock......looks like a (half finished) sock

I love my first sock!

it's coming

A-ha...the sun was up before I was today...just. Now I know that summer is a while away yet but this is a very good indication that it is coming.

Considering the fact that I've already done winter once this year I am holding on to this ray of hope with the strength and dedication of a knitter at a boxing day yarn sale!

Mosaic

I've been seeing this around the blog scene recently and, loving the idea of it, I just had to try it for myself. I've listed the titles and photographers below cause I think that's important.

Why don't you try it out for yourself?!?

The Rules....
1. Type your answer to each of the questions into the Flickr Search.
2. Using only the first page, pick an image
3. Copy and paste each of the URL's for the images into Mosaic Maker

The Questions....
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. What is your favorite drink?
7. What is your dream vacation?
8. Your favorite dessert?
9. What do you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One word to describe you?
12. Your Flickr name?

My Answers....
(titles and photographers for the above)

1. Sunrise at Katherine by Morland Smith
2. Flickr loves Sushi by Drp
3. Art deco bathroom, Elltham Palace by Whipper_Snapper
4. Red Source by Chis (archi3d)
5. Smoking by El sueno de un Mayordorno
6. Acquarello by Konrad
7. Iceberg “Isle of the dead” – Antarctic by Blather
8. Mini pies by bellnad
9. One would by antimethod
10. Jonathan Livingston seagull by jalca
11. Underwater rose by freg
12. Into the wide blue yonder by your funny uncle

I begin to make some sense

I finally made it back on to the Sideways Jacket project. I've been distracted by beanies (still am a little!) and beading and all kinds of laziness. The main problem was that I put it on to circulars due to the large amount of stitches (this is knitted sideways y'know) and then couldn't get my head around how to knit it.
I find this happens whenever I have a glass of wine...it interferes with my knitting gene. It had been annoying me for a while as to why I'd done this, clearly stupid thing. I was sure I'd be able to fit the stitches on my straight needles. It might be tight but it was do able and I'd lost valuable knitting time because I'd tried to be clever.

So after giving myself a stern talking to and still not remembering why I'd switched over I finally returned the project to its rightful needles. I put aside any thoughts of being clever ever again and things seemed to progress really well.....right...up...until...Sunday...night!
That's about the time I realized that I'd forgotten to cast on some stitches. 66 of them....yup 66.

You can't fake 66 stitches.
You can't claim it's a personalization of the pattern.
You can't pretend that people wont notice.
You also can't fit another 66 stitches onto already crowded needles.

It was then I remembered why I'd switched to the circulars needles!!