The Christmas Novel

Christmas is one of those events that can have so much written about it, it's almost intimidating to get down and post about. I've a few minutes now, on this last day of December, to say a little about how my festive season wet, and is going, which seems fitting - it would be strange in some way to write about it in 2007, which is only 8 hours away!!

As I've mentioned before I adore Christmas, but this year realised that I mostly love the build up to Christmas, and the significance the season has to me in terms of childhood memories, abundance of spakles and joy about, and a feeling of specialness and thinking of others. Hand in hand with this realisation was admitting to myself, and actually accepting that Christmas Day itself is never what I build it up to be, is always something of an exhausting mission - and never really will get back to the joyful bubbly heart burstingly full of wonder and love that Christmases of my childhood were.

And that that's ok.

So this year I had a different attitude, and was equipt with the knowledge and acceptance of Christmas is for me now, and I really honestly had a fabulous time :)

Last year skoot and I ended up at home after three back-to-back family gigs, having driven countless kms North and South of Perth City, always feeling rushed from one gig to the next, so we weren't really able to chill back and absorb each scene. But this year was brilliant :)

We started furthest away from home at my lovely Dad's home, where we breakfasted with my Gran and Pa, brother Ben, his girlfriend Sarah and the fluffy muffin Chill bill :) It was such a relaxed and natural atmosphere, chilling out around the brekkie table, then sitting in the lounge chatting and exchanging gifts and cards etc.. Chill was allowed in from outside (being part husky she malts MAXIMUM amounts of fluffy white down which makes inside-dog status not an option most of the time) to take part in the festivities, and I had several fun treats for her all wrapped up! Here she is "playing with" her exciting squeaky rope tailed horse toy! She loved this one and went racing about the lounge chasing it when we threw or squeaked it!

From there we cruised closer to home, to my maternal Grandparents' house for a lunch get together. Ben was in the kitchen creating an exotic salad masterpiece, we all sat in the lounge and caught up - Grandad's been quite crook on and off lately, so it's always great to see him and Gran, plus my uncle Pete and his partner Ingryd were there so it was great to have a natter with them - Pete's a barrel of fun and imagination, awesome to talk with!
We feasted on a delicious pumpkin and something quichey tart Mum had made plus other meat-eatery things for the non-vegos there, and desserted with divine berry tart, icecream, cake... etc! Mmmmm!!! We retired back to the lounge - barrel like and satsified, and there was much laughter and excitement as we gifted each other. As I said, Pete's got a magic sense of humour, and gave Ben a Dr Who Darlek (spelling??) shaped bottle opener with a magnetis sensor on the tip so each time it connects with a bottlecap it exclaims "EXTTEERRRRRMINATTEE!!!!" - brilliant!!
It was my gorgeous maternal Gran who taught me to knit years ago, so when Mum gifted me a book on handknitted Ethnic Socks and Stockings, the three of us absolutely pored over each page oooh-ing and aaaaah-ing at the fair isle and craftsmanship.

Time flew past so much faster than it felt is should, and we were off again down south to skoot's Mum's place - just the next suburb over from us. His Mum, and sister had done the house up with gorgeous decorations everywhere, a stunning table setting out the back for our light, cold supper, and even the little mini doggers were in festive spirits!!
Christmas Kahn
Christmas Poppett
And by the end of the evening when we were too ful for any more grub, and too knackered for any more talk it was only a short sprint home in the car to our own pad to really chill out and wind down from the day - The best way to do the day!

I was amazed by the generosity of our friends and family, and particularly touched with how their gifts reflected how much they know me and care about my interests. I received MANY knit-related pressies which I was absolutely thrilled to bits about!! A copy of Rowan #40 which I've been covetting for some time, The Ethnic Socks and Stockings book, a year subscription to Vogue Knitting and current copies of Vogue and Yarn mags, the Knitting Pattern a Day calendar, and my darling paternal Gran (who was a knitter herself at my age and knit an entire lace dress for herself once!) gave me a parcel of awesome retro patterns she's kept from her youth - fabulous designs I can't wait to have a go at! One of them is even Australian Vogue Knitting book number 2 - can you imagine!!

I thoroughly enjoyed crafting gifts this year to go along with purchased goodies, but in the frenxy of it all didn't take a photo of even one of the creations!! So in due course I shall hunt them down and take happy snaps! Particularly as I was absolutely spoilt by Scumptious Skoot who bought me a digicam! Hooray!! So no more blurry shots or inaccurate colour! Yipee!! He was equally spoilt with a pottery wheel, crafted items (painted shirts and things - photos to come) and..... an electric remote control belly hopper! He's wanted one for yonks but I've never been able to find one that suited - til now! Wheee!

Notice the extremely Aussie interior of The Shed!!

So all in all the day was a complete success, and not only that - an enjoyable success, and you can't ask for more than that :)

Merry Christimuss, Brilliant Bludgey Boxing Day and HipHipHooray Holidays!!!

I hope you've all enjoyed a lovely, peaceful Holiday period so far, and that the New Year arrives safely and with fun and good spirits for everyone :)And many thanks and hugs to all my gorgeous family and friends who have made my Holidays such a joy so far - thank-you for all your generosity, both material and otherwise XoXo

Dame Candles Company has ARRIVED!!

www.damecandlecompany.com

Go there!! If you wish for divine and delectable candles and tarts!!

Wahee!! This morning there was a knock on the door.. and two delivery men were standing outside!! And in their little handies complete with electronic signing device, was MY DAME CANDLE COMPANY FANCY DELICIOUS SCENTED SOY TARTS PARCEL!!!!! *goes a little bit kooky with joy* They also had a package for skoot - a network card he'd been waiting on - so we both got to do the happy dance together!! The package was very Chistmassy (in my mind) all wrapped up in brown paper...

It took much frantic scrabbling and eventually a kitchen knife to get the parcel open though!
And then I was met with the UPS box - similarly devilish to open!!

But finally.. I had all the little styrofoam pellets in the bin, and there lay my tarts... Sooooooo delightful!! A brochure of Wendy's other scents and candles etc.. and business cards too. Look!!! The 12 tart sampler pack - SO WORTH IT!!

I wasted no time in jumping about excitedly, attempting to sniff them all through the package and screaming far too hysterically to skoot that there's a GINGERBREAD MAN ONE!! When I had first check out Wendy's Dame Candle Company on the net I'd seen the Gingerbread Man scent and though "oooohhh wouldn't THAT be dreamy!!" But the sampler pack is a random selection of 12 scents - RANDOM, and Wendy uses over 50 scents I think, so I wasn't sure I'd get to try the Gingerbready goodness - But I did!! And it's burning right now and the entire lounge/dining/kitchen is filled (but not in an overwhelming suffocating way) with the most delicious edible spicy, cinnamonny gingerbread man smell - it smells exactly like gingerbread out of the oven!! I ADORE IT!!

I cannot - as you can probably tell by now - recommend Dame Candle Company enough. I am absolutely thrilled to bits with my purchase - and so far I've only tried the one scent!! Wendy was very helpful when I emailed her wanting to purchase, but unsure about overseas shipment, and she shipped so promptly and with trackable UPS shipping which you've all seen how much I enjoyed that!! The tarts themselves are divine. Made of soy, they are a creamy white colour and texture, with a sort of satisfying weight to them - not the piddley little mini tarts you can end up buying elsewhere. The tart melted quite quickly and an immediate and sumptuous smell was wafting through the rooms of the house, delicate but all embracing.. ahhhh and SO DELECTABLE!

I decided on the 12 sampler pack because I really wanted to try as many of her scents as possible, and didn't want to dive right in for the 3 or 6 pack of only one scent, to find I didn't really fancy it. From what I've sniffed of the other 11, on top of Mr Gingersniff, I don't think I would have landed myself with scents I didn't like!! But the 12 pack is brillaint - enough to last me well and truly over the Chrissie break and my holidays with every day a house full of exotic, homely and relaxing smells. You can't see on the photo above, but the scents that came in my 12 pack are Gingerbread Man, Lilac, French Vanilla, Buried Treasure, Lemon Tarts, Lavender, Red Currant, Green Tea, Cinnamon Toast, Wild Spruce, Chocolate and Pumpkin Pie.

Excuse me whilst I drift away of the deliciousness....

EEEee!! It's getting closer!!

Look!! LOOK!!!
It's in Oz now!! My little package is almost here! Maybe I'll even get it this week!

Woohoo!! Oooh the excitement! This is the most fun postal system feature! The anticipation can really build!

What is my elf name?

It's a question I've often asked myself, but this morning I found the answer! This website will tell anybody the name of their secret Christmas Elf identity!!
Mine is as follows... *grin*...

Christmas Elf Name My Christmas Elf Name is Get your Christmas Elf Name at JokesUnlimited.com

That's Ms. Monkey-Buns to you!! hehehe Now, must zip off and do some cleaning and tidy, moving and rearranging. It was my plan to get a whole bunch of tidying done on these three days (mon Tues Wed) while skoot's at work still and I'm home on hols, but yesterday it didn't go so well, a bit of morning tidying, then off to do a GIGUNGOUS grocery shopping trip, so I ended up pretty fagged by the end of it, and knitting on the couch! He was similarly knackered from work though so we made a good pair :)

Christmas is coming!

Woohoo! I actually enjoy the build up to Christmas more than the actual day I think.. maybe.. I can never quite recapture the joy, magic and whimsy of Christmases from my childhood, and am always a little disappointed by that I think - that the day is a run-around mission between three family get togethers, pretty exhausting stuff. But seeing everybody and being together and jolly together makes it worth while :) And I truly do enjoy and love it =D

So a couple of things lately have been striking me as good signs that Christmas truly is right around the corner! It's beginning to look (and feel!) a lot like Christmas!!

(in no particular order)
Christmassy Sign #1:

Our last Library SnB for this year!! I made up a little treat for everybody, and handed them out to all - but luckily I had some spare so some ended up on my tree at the end of the night, and I'm hence able to share photos!! Knitting Baubles!!

I made non-knitterly ones as gifts for my workmates, and of course each time I finished one I'd brandish it to skoota and exclaim whatever I'd glittered onto it .. "Joy!!" ... "Merry!!"... "Peace!!".. so I couldn't leave skoota-roota out, so made him a little anarchy bauble for his punky self!! *grin*

So at the SnB Helen had some stock from the Jacaranda festival she needed to clear, but was also having a CHRISTMAS SALE! Wheeee!!! So I picked up two fabulous goodies (along with the copy of KnitScene she had picked up for me, and a whoooollle bunch of Rowan mags she has loaned me - generous!!)! One of the goodies I've ogled online for AGES but couldn't justify purchasing it at the price with postage included.. but Helen had them at brilliant affordable-ness! Little Sheepie Measures!!

I picked up one like these little fellows above, and the little outcast chap below too! *grin*

The black sheep of the flock!! How cute!! For those of you who haven't seen these little chaps (and chapesses) before, they are actually measuring tapes, in sheep's clothing *huge smile* so much fun!!
And the other exotic and delicious purchase I made, at a laughably low cost thanks to Helen's generosity and Holiday Sale-ings, is this stunning Lantern Moon woven seagrass basket
*drools down chin a little*

Oh. My. Isn't it GORGEOUS?!?! I simply couldn't resist it. It is such a fabulous size, big enough to fit a sheep load of spinning fiber to have beside my wheel, or carry around to spin guild meets etc.. or at the moment, I'm storing some of my yarns in it, as it sits prettily and oh-so-aesthetically-pleasingly in my studio, basking in the love and admiration I'm showering over it! I adore it.

See the inside is all beautifully lined with (my absolute favourite colour) GREEN lining, stitched in diamonds, with two long tails to tie together at the top if needed to hold the basket shut.

And the detail of the weaving.. oh... so lovely :)

Christmassy Sign #2:

The company I work for has had its State end of year "Away Day"! Basically it's a day where we all get togeher (at the Royal Perth Yacht Club no less - la de dah!!) for a morning of the CEO and various others talking about what happened in 2006, celebrating the acheivements of different programs, what funding we've received etc.., what's ahead in 2007 - pretty much a super long and boring staff meeting on a giant scale. I always find the first part of the day completely tedious and long winded, so this time I came prepared! I brought three different knitting projects! Ha HA!! One of which was Skoot's scarf which I have... FINISHED KNITTING!!! WOOHOOO!!

I have now to sew in the ends, mattress the two scarf lengths together, and I'm planning on knitting him up a matching beanie and stubby holder [stubby = glass beer bottle, for non aussies:) ] to make a complete set for him, and then I can give it to him for Chrissie! He knows I'm finished the scarf knitting, but doesn't know my secret plans for global matching set domination!! so Shhhh!!! Don't tell! ;)

One of the lovely and fun things of the meeting part, is the last part before lunch, where they announce the nominees of the Outstanding Service Award, then the winner/s of the award for that year. And I was nominated!!! *proud excited beaming* So many nice things were said about me that I couldn't even take it all in. I was nominated last year and 2004 but this time I tried to take it all in a bit more and absorb what people had said - I was blushing and felt so good inside to have my hard work noticed, and that people appreciate the little things I do to try to make everyone's day brighter and more fun :) It was so SO touching, one lady even said something to the effect of "We have national treasures, I suggest we elect Sasha as our Agency Treasure!" How sweet is that?!

Then we all break for the Chrissie buffet lunch, so we socialise and scoff til we feel like heading home. Everyone kept calling me "treasure" and even at work yesterday people continued to use it - they've adopted it as my nickname it seems!! This year we were also all gifted with a lovely boxed Poinsettia, one for every staff member (and that's State wide so it was an awesome fit out!) - another lovely gesture :)

The Royal Perth Yacht Club is a gorgeous venue for the lunch, check out the views!


Which brings me to...

Christmassy Sign #3:

The weather! Many of you may be surrounded by cold winds, the need for knitted and woolly items, and even some stereotypical and stunningly beautiful snow - a white Christmas. We here in Oz are surrounded by baking heat, the need for fly swats and shade, and even some stereotypical and stunningly yobbo-ish thongs and tiny shorts! An Aussie Christmas! We don't have roasts (generally - though some families do), we have a barbie (barbie-q, not a small plastic anti-feminism icon) or a spread of cold meats, seafood (prawns especially) and salads. Well.. they do, I have similarly cold but vegetarian treats :)
The sunsets have been becoming more and more stunning as Summer gets into gear - these two I took driving home last week, and aren't the full blown colour extravaganza we normally get, but gorgeous none-the-less.

And of course the clear blue skies, and mercifully tall and shady trees to park or sit beneath :)


And lastly, for the moment,

Chistmassy Sign #4:
I have my tree finally up and (almost) satisfactorily decked. I unpacked all my ornaments at the very end of November and was awash with memories and sentimentality :) I've placed all my figurines, and lovely snowgloves etc.. around the house, and hung all my collectibley ornaments on our wonky cheap-as-chips tree! Must look at getting a new tree for next year - over even a real live one in a pot! I share with you one of my favourites - a gift from my Mumma from last year's Christmas :)


And with that I'm off to the couch to finish painting and knitting up some gifties!!
I'm on holidays now until January 11th, so I'll have much more time for crafting and blogging - wheee! =D

Quick note

Went to the library SnB today and it was grand - uber grand :) Picked up some absolute bargains from the fabulous Helen of Knitting Inspirations, all in keeping with the Christimuss budget - am very pleased. Shveetie was less pleased :( I really must reduce my "stuff". Fair enough to be loving my arts and hobbies and things, but it's simply not practical to have this many things - lovely though they are - in one house. Maybe even two houses. So I must reduce and condense. Move out some of the older and less used things, to make way for the newer things. Even working out better storage methods would help. Must get on to it. Must stop procrastinating and driving skoot crazy. But he must start being a bit more.. positive.. Anyway, it's a knitting/crafting/excitement blog not a whinging disappointed moping blog, so I'm not posting about the SnB tonight, I'll leave that til tmw when I'm perkier and have the sparkle back about all the loveliness from tonight :)

It's on its way....

ooohhhh...
Lookee here!
Wendy sent me an email with the UPS (US Postal Service) tracking number of my package!
So I can keep tabs on what it's up to and where it's at!

N J - that must be New Jersey? I know Wendy's based in New York, so maybe my scented tarts will arrrive with a New Jooiissey accent!! hehe!

Many excitements :)

ooohhh a few little tidbits of excitement happening at the mo!

The other day I was trolling about the 'net checking out some knit and spin spots and found That Spinning Place - an Aussie based store/blog/etc.. that I'm really enjoying! Wendy has an etsy store too, and I saw some little stitch markers SO ADORABLE I snaffeld some up *grin* She emailed me Friday after we'd sorted out the invoicing and things (I made everything a little more complicated than it really needed to be!) and said they'd be in the post that arvo! So they'll probably arrive on my doorstep TODAY!! Wheee!!! but.. they're actually a Christmas present from Chilli.. so they're going STRAIGHT into some wrapping paper and STRAIGHT under the tree! I don't even get to see them before I wrap them - thems the rules! Must get little goodies for the rest of the family from Chill too - she finds it much too tricky to carry all the shopping bags with her paws - far too slippery.

I, similar to most online knitters, am an avid listener to Brenda Dayne's knitting podcast Cast On - which if you haven't heard of before you must RUN right now to fetch your mp3 player, if you don't have one you must straight away go to her website and download the episodes to play straight from your computer! They are FABULOUS! In anycase.. Her podcast is sponsored by an independant store (meaning one woman and her home studio) Dame Candle Company. I've often thought "oooh must check out the online store" but always considered buying candles (amongst other things) from overseas inefficient as the postage costs would be so high. I tend to save overseas and online purchases for things I absolutely cannot source here in Oz. But then I read her blog, Candles, Yarn and Catnaps and heard her tales of woe that her little store might have to shut down, but that she adores the business so much, and was really hoping some Christmas trade would pick things up and give her another shot at making it work. So I indulged. I thought, I could use something nicely scented - I find it really makes the house into a home, a gorgeous smell wafting through, and a lit candle always adds such ambience.

And I figured the price was similar to purchasing from any of the fancy candle stores here in Oz, and the postage would be considered a donation to Wendy's business (another Wendy - I know!) which I would have made had I not ordered. So I made a modest purchase, the 12 pack of tarts sampler scents, so I can get an idea of lots of the different fragrances Wendy does.

And LOOK!!! She posted this on her blog the other day - the packages all ready to send off to customer like ME!!! Woohoo!!!

I wonder which one's mine!! One of the little thin ones in the middle I expect.. ooooh how exciting!! This is a package i WILL open before Chrissie *wicked grin* Imagine... next week I'm on holidays from work, maybe the tarts will arrive by then (wishful thinking?) and I can relax at home in my 'jamies knitting, singing along to Chrissie carols, wrapping pressies, baking yummy foods in festive shapes... *drifts off dreamily*

STOP THE PRESS!!

LOOK WHAT HELEN JUST EMAILED ME!!!!

Treetops Colour Harmonies!

*pant pant*
They're a fiber dying company based HERE IN PERTH!!!! And they make such. beautiful. Things.

I was barely restrained from running there straight after work and spending all our Christmas money by the stern mothering look Sharon my co-worker gave me when I excitedly gabbled out about the fiber colourways, then the responsible way Skoot said "I'm not the boss of you, but keep in mind Christmas.. etc... etc.. " So I came to my senses and realised, exicited YES, but patience is a virtue and I plan to be both virtuous and financially responsible.
BUT IT'S HARD!! Particularly with colours like this...
Rhubarb
Edible.. and this one..
Sea Lavender
Divine!
madras
Look at the vibrancy!

And the silk! The beautful drapey silk!!
They also have undyed merino tops etc.. so I can buy some and dye my own!! Eeee!!!!!
And perhaps most exciting is...

The Artist's Palette! A sample selection of all their dye lots... Mmmmmmmmm!!!!

Me thinks I'll be spending up big and stocking up huge on fiber after the holiday period! If I have any spare change at all I'll buy some over Chrissie so I can spend some of my holidays spinning - that would be awesome fun :)

Lemme tell you a little story..

A story of knitting obsession!

Firstly, let me fill in a bit of context...
I've been doing a fair bit of Christmas Crafting lately - especially knitting. One of the projects I started a few days ago in gorgeous aqua, green and blues has a lot fo patterning and design in it. So I dutifully followed each row by row description : "K3, P3 *K1 P3 K5 P3, repeat from * til last 2 stitches, K2" ... but then it started to look funny. It was not at all like the picture next to the row patterning lines! I had completed a good few inches by now and the lovely colour variagation had come through... but I knew it wasn't right - I knew something was wrong.

So I counted the stitches and found... *dramatic pause*... A STOWAWAY!!
So THAT was why my patterning was all out! *heavy sigh* I looked down aty the inches of lovely shiny knitting and thought "I could keep going, knit two together to get rid of that extra stitch and pick up the patterning... " But no, I really couldn't. It wouldn't look right - and even if the recipient couldn't tell the difference and wouldn't know - I would know.

So rip it, rippit, ribbit I went down to the frog pond - luckily it was only several centimetres.

And I started over again! This time counting the stitches every few rows! And I'm loving it - I so adore knitting with this cotton - delish delish delish!!

Yesterday I arrived at work early as normal, and settled into an arm chair in one of the offices and attempted to regain the lost (and knitted) ground. Time to start work and I hadn't even made it half way, so I set it aside in my knitting bag, determined to make huge leaps forward in my lunchbreak. But then... we had a trainee *sombre note* She was a lovely person, and sat between us at the desk watching us work, and when it wasn't so busy we'd show her the ropes. She didn't go to lunch with my workmate who goes with a large groups of the girls, but instead waited and WENT WITH ME!!! And I was really disappointed. I'm generall not an unkind person, and there certainly wasn't any malice in my anti-social turn at all! I simply was too passionate about my knitting to be bothered socialising in 45 precious minutes I could be spending knitting!! It was very nice of her, and we did have a good chat.. but the whole time I sat there munching and talking I was ITCHING to knit!! I couldn't whip it out and knit while we talked because I need to concentrate on the stitch patterning - Arrrghh!!! I kept glancing down at my bag beside the table, envisioning its contents... The inhumanity!!!

Hehehe So the point of the story is... how knit obsessed can I get?!?!

Crafty meme!

A "meme" I saw and "tagged" from the fabulous Craftapalooza blog - I've never meme-d before but I thought it looks fun!

1. Flip to page 18, paragraph 4 in the book closest to you right now, what does it say?

FWOOPER: Ministry of Magic Classification: XXX
The Fwooper is an African bird with extremely vivid plumage; Fwoopers may be orange, pink, lime green of yello. The Fwooper has long been a provider of fancy quills and also lays brilliantly patterned eggs. Though at first enjoyable, Fwooper song will eventually drive the listener to insanity and the Fwooper is consequently sold with a Silencinbg Charm upon it, which will need monthly reinforcement. Fwooper owners require licences, as the creatures must be handled responsibly.

2. If you stretch out your left arm - as far as possible, what are you touching?

Console game disc - Buzz The Music Quiz - Such awesome fun to play with a bunch of mates! Skoot is SO good at it! Gets the feet tapping and people playing along, everyone has their own little buzzer they hit to answer questions - lotsa funsa!

3. What's the last program you watched on tv?
Mythbusters, on SBS, always fun to watch *grin* This time they tested out the "myth" that if you drive faster over a bumpy road the ride is smoother - Skoot and I were going "it's true! It's true!" then groaning in disappointment when they trialled it out on an irregularly bumpy potholed road. "It should be corrogated! Corrogated!!" We yelled at the tellie - they must've heard because they then tried a "Washboard road, typical of the Australian Outback" and sure enough the "myth" was confirmed! hehehe

4. Without looking, guess what time it is.
Ooohhh... I'd say about 9:20 or so.. But the recent change to daylight savings may be messing with me! *checks on clock* 9:21!! Wahee! Daylight savings assimilated!

5. Except the computer, what can you hear right now?
Hot Docs : China Blue, an SBS doco about the working conditions of Chinese sweatshops, Skoot's watching it in the lounge here, so I can here the Mandarin being spoken. Apart from that just the ticker-tackering of my typing!

6. When was the last time you were outside and what did you do?
Hehe I was outside this evening, an hour or so ago, sitting on the out door setting while the sky turned all dusky with the sun setting, I was doing some knitting on a Chrissie pressie :)

7. What are you wearing?
Trackie dacks - super comfy!!

8. Did you dream last night? If you did, what about?
Hmm.. I can't rememebr dreaming last night - doesn't mean I didn't though of course..

9. When was the last time you laughed?
Chatting w Skoot when I got home from work this arves - always have a chuckle with him!

10. What's on the walls, in the room you're in right now?
Wall clock, Christmas stockings, mountain biking action shot, photo sequence of Skoot's late dog Boutt destroying her Christmas fitness ball!, 5.1 surround speakers, frames artwork, a skateboard deck, giant world map, uber giant mountain bike picture banner, beautiful framed photo of Chill and I in Leis from Dad's 50th - a family friend photo shopped the image to look all watercoloury and gorgeous then framed in in a wooden frame made by her carpenter son - such a touching gift and stunning! and a little wooden criss-cross display set of squares I've had since I was a little girl, they have my dragon figurines and other special items on the shelves :)

11. Have you seen anything strange lately?
A woman came into work today looking for work, before I sent her upstairs to the HR department I couldn't help noticing her lips.. not only the bright and glossy pink colour, but they seemed such a strange shape, and when she spoke even stranger.. could it be a bad collegen job?

12. What do you think about this meme?
That it's... pretty? What an odd question!

13. What's the last film you saw?
Oohh I had to think pretty hard.. I think it was Devil Wears Prada - I went and saw it with Binkett for some light relief and popcorn fun. I was 2 parts entertained and 2 parts revolted by the consumerist narcissism portrayed!

14. If you became a multimillionaire, what would you do with the money?
Selfishly - Buy a gorgeous big country block of land with alpacas, geese, ducks, etc.. etc.. Set Skoot and I up with invevstments to keep up out of financial trouble in future. Go on an extensive travelling adventure with Shkootah! Take Dad skiing in New Zealand, take Mum to London.. ooohhh I imagine a whole bunch else! Benefactorish - Donate bunches to local Dogs' Homes and animal centres, buy up a whole bunch of luscious yarns and have regular knitting sessions to teach friends to knit - all finished items going to the Dulaan project

15. Tell us something about yourself that most people don't know.
Gosh.. uhh.. I tend to pretty much wear my heart - and personality- on my sleeve, so I don't know that there's much of the mysterious left about me! But let's think...

16. If you could change ONE THING in this world, without regarding politics or bad guilt - what would it be?
Change.. well.. I think I'd help people to adapt their perspectives to more easily look for and find the silver lining in situations.

17. Do you like dancing?
I sure do!! Not that I get much opportunity to, but I certainly do! I'd love to get back into ballroom or latin of some sort. I also enjoy dancing in the spectator sense :)

18. George Bush?
No thankyou, I'm full - plus I don't eat meat - or hateful little men.

19. What do you want your children’s names to be, girl/boy?
I think that's one I'd have to wait til I've got the pup in the pod and get some sort of sense of who they're going to be :)

20. Would you ever consider living abroad?
YES!! Definately! I already HAVE considered living abroad! Not necessarily as a long term lifestyle - but certainly for a few years. I'd love to fully submerge into a foreign culture - an involvement one can't attain through touristing.

21. What do you want God to tell you, when you come to heaven?
I was going to leave this blank, but then I thought of a fun paradox - "I don't exist!"

22. Who should do this meme?
I agree with Craftapaloooza.. "should"? Anyone who would like to I imagine :)

Yippeee!

I hopped on the treadie today after work and did a good sweaty little work-out! Yahoooo!! I will be a slim trim, HEALTHY little munchkin in no time!! By "no time" I of course mean, several months... But still - I'm making good first steps!!
=D

Grab yer pillows we're havin a sleepover!!

Last night I stayed over at a very good friend of mine, Bink's house - we had a good old fashioned sleepover! Yay! It was such good fun, watching movies, eating delicious gourmet pizza, chasing bare foot and in trackie dacks after the pizza lady down the street when she forgot our garlic bread... ( I was hungry ok??), chatting into the night once we were in bed and of course, snuggling lots with the delightful Tess - awwwwww!

We took Tess for a nice walk around the suburb when I first arrived, and threw her ball in the park too - lots of fun! She's certainly got a bit of energy, that little Tessla!

We watched the latest Harry Potter movie which was on tv, The Prisoner from Azkaban, then put on the dvd of Crybaby. If you haven't seen Crybaby - you must! It is awesome! Particularly if you're a fan of Grease, as it is the same era, and similar Good-Girl-Turns-Bad-And-Likes-It storyline - brilliantly good, brilliantly hilarious, brilliantly quote-ful and brilliantly Johnny Depp! - right Bink *wink*


I had done loads of spinning of the Pie-In-The-Sky spunky Finn yesterday, and took my wheel to Bink's to show her the spinning. It's spinning up really nicely :) It's awesome being part of the Spunky club - not just to receive exciting surprise-ful fiber in the mail regularly (although this is my first one!) but because it makes me use colours I would not normally choose. It widens my horizons, and I find that incredibly creatively stimulating. I'm really enjoying this colourway, even though I would always pick bright vibrant colours over pastelly browns and blues - but that's the POINT! Get out of my normalcy and try something different - I really am enjoying it very much =D Plus, most of the stuff I make is for other people anyway, and not everyone likes the colours I do!

I plied it with the cream coloured Corriedale I had on the bobbin waiting to ply with the grey/brown corriedale - but was too excited and badly wanted to ply it with something so used the cream! I was a bit hesitant, as the cream had a few fluffs and bumps in it (having spun it from almost felted post-wash fleece!) but decided, I'm still new at this, and that's no reason not to do things - don't "save" things for when I'm "better" just enjoy it all now!! So I did - and I'm having a BALL!


Binkett is a pretty magical code-programmer-web-page-makerer-special-fancy-person so Iw as able to get some help fixing my blog a bit too! Hurrah! Whenever I log on to my blog at work the sidebar doesn't appear, and this made me start to think maybe other people can't see it too! Why would it work at home, but not at work? So Bink looked into it for me, changed some things in the Blogger template for me and Ta Da!

THANK-YOU BINKETT!!

So if anyone can't see the sidebar on the left still, please drop me na comment letting me know. It seems that Internet Explorer creates the sidebarry problem, whereas Firefox web browser displays it as it should.

Right! I'm off to finish plying this lovely stuff up then I might even knit something out of it! Waheee!! Oooh and even more delicious - I've got this week's Cast On, and Sticks and Strings to listen to while I spin!! How blissful! Normally I listen in teh car driving to and from work - so it's a bit of a special luxury to listen while actually fiberartsing! :)

snip snip snipitty the package!

Hoorah!
I arrived home and sure enough, there was the package awaiting me!!

I had bags of groceries in the car to unload and put away though, so I barely glanced at the packarge the whole time - though it was sitting RIGHT on the kitchen counter! I ignored it completely, wanting to savour the opening and excitement, so saving it til the chore-ish things were done!
While I was unpacking skoot came in and said, "what's hapennin? Why you not open ze packarge?!?" Knowing how excited I am about it!! I explained to him, he poked the bag AND IT SQUEAKED!!! Like a dog toy!! Well that just upped the intrigue 100% so the groceries were thrown away in a frenzy, and the packarge snipped open to reveeeaaaalllll.....

Spunky's PIE IN THE SKY FINN FIBER!!! Woohoo!
Nothing squeaky in the pack what-so-ever - How bizarre! must've been the fiber against the plastic wrap or something.. curiouser and curiouser!

So I'd not heard of Finn before, so didd some searching and found lots of pictures of the little sheepies!

Also a note regarding the marketing of the sheep that mentions we spinners!

"The Secretary of the USA Finnsheep Association, said that some interest has been shown in recent years by hand spinners for Finn wool, but basically the breed has lost popularity because shepherds do not like dealing with the extra work that multiple births entail. "

Apparently they often give birth to twins or triplets - cute!

And the fleece on them is incredible! Able to grow a foot long! Yeehar!!

So I just helped shveetie swap some tyres around from one of our cars to another, and now I'm gonna wash up and get a-spinning!! Yaaaaaayy!! =D =D =D

p.s. On my drive home today there was a seductively gorgeous red ferrari driving in the lane beside me, I ooogled much but my lane moved faster, then a bit further on he was in the lane behind me! You can't really see, but I jagged a shot in the rear view mirror... mmmmmm... red and curvy....

p.p.s Traffic was pretty much at a standstill so I wasn't being irresponsible, I promise :)