Crochet Mojo Returned!!

Hello! Hope you are all well, happy, and enjoying life to the fullest.

I am very happy to report that this week, thanks to the lovely Pip Lincoln from Meet Me at Mikes, who blogged here about some amazing crocheted lamps, I have had my crocheting mojo return in full force. Thanks Pip, you rock!!! 
And not just for that, if you have never checked out her blog, you must go there now- it's awesome!!

I was sitting reading blogs, and came across that particular post, and became consumed by the need to have a go at making my own crocheted lampshade. And this is it!

It's a wee bit wonky, and I think I may try again, but for now I love it, and I love what it means to me.
I have missed that fervent excitement you get when you think- I just have to see if I can make that now, and you don't, or can't stop until it's done!!

Did I mention I am super happy about this?

Also, side note, I'm not the best photographer in the world, and it turns out, not so good at taking photos at night. Of lights!!

But I really, really love it! To make it, I just chained until it fit around the light shade, (I think I should have been more careful as I went, as it actually ended up a  lot bigger than the actual shade,) and then just did grannies, till I covered the length, then sewed it together and added a bit of fringing to enhance the light affect.

So, in other news, I completed the rogaine with my brother on Saturday.  The short version is : It took us seven hours and forty minutes of non stop walking, 5 hours in the pouring rain, it was freezing temperatures, there were bulls in paddocks, and I saw a deer!! Which was the highlight of the day!! We also got kind of lost. But it was absolutely awesome, and I hurt in places I didn't even know existed for a few days. Actually I'm still a bit stiff!!

On to reading, linking in with Ginny for her Yarn Along,  I am happy to report that this week I have been reading a book that I absolutely am adoring! It's called "Lets pretend this never happened", and is by Jenny Lawson,  who is also known as the Blogess. I love her work, and I love this book. It is heart breakingly funny. If you haven't heard of her, or read her work before, check out this post, it's one of my favourites!

And check the size of my blanket!!! I have actually been working on it this week, as it was 2 hours travel to the race on Saturday, so I got a lot done on the way there, none whatsoever done on the way home, as we were too busy recounting stories of narrowly escaping bulls, and maybe sleeping!! I'm linking in with Tami for WIP Wednesday

And this last photo is one of my shawl, which was draped over my exercise bike, and when I got up this morning, the sun was hitting it, and it just looked so beautiful that I had to take a photo to show you all it's sunny happy goodness.

Anyhoo, hope the rest of your week is lovely, take care

xx

Art for the Heart. (or chromosome)

Hello. How's things with you?
This week, the shortest daughter and I went to our local art gallery.
When we walked in , this was the first thing we saw. It was amazingly awesome. It's called X Chromosome 2012 and is by Hiromi Tango, if you want to read more about it, you can here.
Basically, what she has done is asked people to bring personal items that mean something special to them. She has then wrapped them in yarn, and made this installation.
It's absolutely massive, and hugely compelling.
You can actually walk inside it, it's really cosy inside.

I had to make sure I got this shot of the above doll for Gem, as I know she has quite the penchant for creepy dolls.

In other news, I have been running a bit lately, and feeling quite good about that. 

I recently read an awesome post over at Faith's blog where she was talking about the importance of goal setting and dreaming big. She was saying that she often makes big plans, which don't always eventuate, but that if you don't dream big, then you don't try, and you don't achieve anything.  

So in that vein, when my brother asked me to do an eight hour race with him this Saturday as his normal running partner had to drop out, I said yes. (have just popped in to edit this, to clarify that this race is not me running for 8 hours, it's a rogaine which goes for 8 hours, and will include,, running, walking, and orienteering. I am dreadful with directions, and am really fearing this now!)

Despite thinking that I may have lost my mind, and that I will most definitely be hurting on Sunday morning.

Linking in with Ginny for her Yarn Along, I have been reading a book called Run Like Crazy, by Tristan Miller. It is really interesting, and is about an Australian guy who runs 52 marathons around the world in 52 weeks. It's quite inspiring. And I'm still making the Ocean blanket, which may be renamed the Nemesis blanket. To be truthful, I've not really been doing much crochet lately, I've probably only managed a couple of rows a week. I'm hoping my making mojo returns soon.

And again, I have no photos of either, I will have to start getting more motivated.

Being a child of the eighties, I really liked the above picture.






Well, that's it for me, nothing exciting going on, will chat again soon hopefully. Take care, and I hope all is well in your world.

She Sells Sea Garlands

Hello there.

Well today's title is somewhat of a misnomer, for she does not in fact sell sea garlands. perhaps because she is too lazy, perhaps because she could not be bothered making more than one, perhaps because she closed her etsy shop after no one bought anything after 3 weeks..........so many perhaps. perhaps she will stop referring to herself in the third person you might be thinking. Well she will.
Shortly....... Its oddly addictive you know referring to yourself in the third person.

Anyhoo, to days title. As I was on my weekly walk around this beautiful island,I thought to myself how much I love both the beach and crochet, and began to think about combining the two in a way that is not just making an ocean blanket. How can I mix shells and crochet I wondered?

Well this is the answer. I made a seashell crochet garland.
Which by the way is most difficult to photograph. Especially if you have a penchant, as she does (sorry that one slipped through, no more third person I promise) for taking photos against a backdrop of nature. I spent a most frustrating morning coming to the slow realisation that brown yarn does not photograph well against either trees or leaves. Or paintings, or my floor, or anything really. Most frustrating.

Anyway, here it is. I just crocheted a chain and crocheted in shells with holes that I had collected on my walk, and here it is.I lost a few shells in the process with some rather rough crocheting. What can I say? I'm a badass!

So what other awesome highjinks have I been up to apart from crocheting shells?
Well, today I'm slow cooking a delicious ham and pea soup, it smells delicious, I wish we had scratch and smell blogging, as unless you were vegetarian you would love the smell of this. I'm actually cooking it today because my vegetarian daughter is at school, then working till nine tonight, so the smell will not torture her.
Speaking of torture, I went to the chiropractor this morning. Very painful.

I also went to see the Dictator, and loved it. Very much. Same with the Avengers.

Readingwise, I'm linking in with Ginny I'm also linking in with Tami. I'm still making the ocean blanket. I fear it may never end. I wont bother showing you a picture as its just more of the same.
I was reading the new Augusten Burroughs book. Sadly I am really not enjoying it, and have made the decision not to finish reading it.
This is a big decision for me. Augusten Burroughs is one of my top five male authors. In case youre interested, my top five are:
Nick Earls, Nick Hornby, Ian Rankin, Colin Bateman, and Augusten Burroughs.
Big Augie has written some amazingly brilliant books, but sadly his newest is not one of them. It's a different genre, he's written a self help book, and I found it patronising, simplistic, and excruciatingly annoying. I hate that I hate it. And I feel awful bagging it, but it's just my opinion, and I am sure it will work for some people.
So to deal with my sadness at the lacklustre book, I have begun the newest Camilla Lungdren, and am loving it to pieces!

Anyway, hope you are all well and happy, almost forgot to mention in other news I got my hair done again, here is an awful bathroom pic. I will leave you with it, and an apology for what may be my most rambly post, and for the quality of the pictures today.
Take care
xx

Was it the best Mothers day Ever-Let me Koalify!

Hi there. Interesting post title? All will be revealed as to my koalifications for making such a big punny statement shortly.

I hope you are all well, and enjoying good weather. It's Autumn here, and is finally starting to get a bit nippy. It's still warm enough to enjoy the beach however. here are some shots of a trip I took down the coast yesterday. It's a beach I don't often go too, because as you can see it's quite populated, and I generally prefer the quieter more secluded beaches.

 However, yesterday was lovely, and the views were stunning.
There were however quite a few older gentlemen wearing uncomfortable for my eyes swimwear! I have spared you any photos of that!!

This building however really caught my eye.


OK, now we've exhausted my chat about the beach, lets move on to Mothers Day.
I had a lovely lovely Mothers Day.

Daughter No.1 was incredibly thoughtful and bought me a leather cuff that I had been wanting for ages, and the most beautiful glass teapot which I absolutely adore.I also got the most awesome pair of sneakers, which have proved to make me run incredibly fast, and a stunningly designed hand decorated vase from Daughter No 2.

We had a picnic with my Mum, sister, brothers and their family. It was one of those lovely perfect days.
A massive highlight of the day was taking a walk to the koala shelter, and seeing these guys!
The second highlight was when I asked my son to climb a tree and pretend to be a koala for me, and he did it!!

The third highlight was when he said I could put the picture on my blog!!!! So happy!
(I should explain, his girlfriend's name is Jane, he doesn't just have a weird penchant for girls named Jane)

I'm linking in with Ginny for the Yarn Along, and Tami for her WIP. I'm still making my ocean blanket, which feels like it will never be finished, and I'm reading the new Jonathon Kellerman book, which I'm loving. Sorry for the lack of pics of it!!

Take care, and hope you are having a wonderful week

Mothers Day Excitement

Hi, hope your week has been fantastic. It's Mothers Day here on Sunday, and Daughter No. 2 has been crazily excited about it, and preparing like mad. 
She is quite similar to me, likes to plan, loves lists etc. She has asked me to make a list with plans for her birthday party this year. Which is in October. We actually bought a special book for the plans!!
But I digress.... mothers day. 

Daughter No. 2 has already prepared her own Mothers day outfit, I'm not allowed into her room to see it, and on a daily basis she tells me how many sleeps there are till Mothers day, and asks what I will be wearing. (If you're interested, I'm planning on my green and white spotted dress, with a yellow cardigan)
I've been making a few bits and bobs for my Mum, I made this brooch,

I also made her this cowl, she wanted the one from my giveaway, so hopefully this will be a good replacement :-)

Nothing exciting has been happening here lately, I'm trying to make an effort to keep blogging but, it's a bit tricky after having such a big break.
I'm linking in with Tami's for her FO's

Anyway, I hope those of you celebrating Mothers day on Sunday have a fabulous day, I know I'm looking forward to finding out what the shortest one has been hiding in her room, and if I'm getting the Darren Hanlon CD I really want......
Take care
xx

Pursuit of Happiness

Hey. How's things? I like what you've done with your hair!!
It's been a while since I last posted, and I am looking forward to the time when I don't start a post with apologising for the length of time in between posts!

But this is not that post, so I will begin by saying- Sorry I haven't been around, I've missed you guys, missed chatting, missed reading your blogs, and missed having you chat and comment on mines. 

As the title of the post, and the song suggests, I have been madly pursuing happiness.
Times have been tough lately around these parts, and have left me with no time to blog, or to read blogs. I am hoping that will be changing, and that this post is the start of getting back to normal.

 I have been pursuing happiness, trying to put as many good and positive things into my life, to compensate for the sadness.

I thought you might like to see a few of them......

Obviously, most of the happy I have tried to pour in has involved beaches and water. 

Whenever I get a few free hours, I have been catching the ferry to this island, and walking around it. 

It's an island that's not too far from my home, and is relatively unpopulated. I think I saw maybe five people all up this day.

There may have been few people about, but there were ridiculous amounts of crabs around, scuttling everywhere.

On the making stuff front, there has been very little action lately. I did make this scarf, which was initially going to be a cowl for my Mother for Mothers day, but I ended up liking it too much and deciding to keep it. (Sorry Mum!)

So anyway, Ima love you and leave you, hope all is good in your world, and hopefully I'll be around here a lot more.

Take care
xx