Ouch!

I had to cancel my button-buying trip to the Hospice shop today. Late yesterday afternoon, while just finishing up some cleaning at Playcentre, I stretched up on tiptoe to pull down some old artwork off the wall and overextended myself, and my left knee dislocated. The patella shot out to the side of my leg. The huge bump in my jeans and the excruciating pain told me exactly what had happened and I managed to push it straight back into the right place.

After a very very long wait at the hospital, I had an x-ray done, then another long wait. Finally a nurse came to say I wouldn't be seen before midnight and very likely later than that so I went home.

Today I can hobble about with the use of a stick, not a good look. My niece, bless her heart, suggested this would be the perfect time to "do a House, fill up a medicine bottle with TicTacs, pop those all day and hobble around being sarcastic". Don't tempt me.

But instead, I've been sat on the couch most of the day, actually knitting!

I tried to knit a few weeks back, after the knife+finger thing. But turns out that injury actually did some nerve damage and even now I have a numb area on that finger. A few weeks ago it was uncomfortable to knit like that.
But now! Not too bad! So I've started work on a version of Glampyre's 1 Skein Wonder, in an as-yet undetermined size. I've added a few stitches, substituted 2 strands of Rowan Botany 4ply, and I'm about 1/3 done. Maybe it'll fit me? Stay tuned!

Happy mail, I've got that happy mail

Wow, Jo's parcel for the Vintage Button Swap arrived on Thursday. Don't believe a word she says, everything in it is fabulous!

I took pictures, but it was a grey day, and I realised today that the resolution on the camera was on it's lowest setting. So I apologise for the quality of these photos, but I'm sure you can appreciate the loveliness of the buttons + extras anyway!
First, cute packaging, I have ribbon now! yay!:

Fabric+button bracelets for two very lucky little girls:


Wee sewn things for me, a pouch and a new tissue holder which I just adore:

And of course, the buttons themselves:

What cracks me up is how the little red buttons are the exact same pattern as one of the white buttons I sent Jo. I love them all, thank you Jo!

I've been playing some more with buttons and wire, and have a couple of rings available in my Etsy store now. These things are so much fun to make. Next week the holidays are over and I'll have a few more hours without girls. One of the things I'm planning is a trip to the Hospice shop (they have the best selection) in search of some really special ring-making buttons. Can't wait!

Rings and things

Oooh! I got cool stuff in the mail today, a mandrel! Not "surprise" cool stuff, since it's something I bought on TradeMe, but still, I'm really happy!

I've been wanting to have a go at making rings for ages, since I have loads of wire, beads and buttons stashed around the place. So as soon as the package arrived, I had to give it a try. They are lots of fun, and surprisingly easy, to make (that is, to my <cough> exacting standards). Not so easy to photograph, however.

Now I need to get my act together with some other button "work", so I can get my package for the Shim + Sons Vintage Button Swap in the post later today.

Paper people

Thanks to Applehead, Jen has spent a lovely afternoon making her own Small People. Here are Maddy and Tom:


I love the library card generator, too. Here's one for all of us who spend way too much time glued to the computer:

Button swap

I've just signed up for Shim + Sons 2nd vintage button swap. Yay!

I haven't managed to get any knitting done from the Lucinda Guy book yet because last week I had a nasty knife-meets-finger accident while removing the stone from an avocado. My left middle finger has been covered in a fairly serious bandage since then, and it just isn't flexible enough to work with sticks. The girls spent a while browsing through the pattern book, then sorting through the wool, playing with colour combinations. Now they're getting impatient for me to make them some little knitted mice. Me too!

Lazy is nice, but maybe I'm taking it too far

Good grief. This one-post-per-month thing has got to stop! I'm hoping that the imminent change of seasons will have a revitalising effect on me, and I'll find myself able to post more regularly. Fingers crossed. Or as the Tui ads would say "yeah, right".

On Saturday night, daylight savings time came to an end here, and all of a sudden it feels like autumn. Officially, I don't think that's supposed to happen until the beginning of April, but tell the weather that. It's been cold, wet, windy, hot, windy, cool, and more windy. Pffff. And, I think I'm coming down with a cold, just to top it all off.

On the bright side, the cooler weather makes me want to knit. It's an automatic response for a knitter, I think. And lucky me, I was recently given a big file box full of gorgeous yarn. Exhibit A:

It's mostly wool, and includes some beautiful Rowan skeins (Kid Silk, DK, Botany) in various shades of red, pink, purple, green and blue.


There's not much of each, just enough to get me thinking about turning it into several smallish and (hopefully) lovely things. So I headed to the library on Sunday looking for suitable patterns. Let me just say, it's been a very long while since I knitted anything larger than a scarf. I haven't made anything in an adult size since before Jen was born, so that's approaching 7 years. Anyway, I came across this lovely book of patterns for kids, by Lucinda Guy. I love it, there are flowers, toys, hats, plenty of patterns that I think will be just right.

While I was there, I also picked up Thrift to Fantasy: Home textile crafts of the 1930s-1950s. So far I've only browsed through looking at the photos, but it looks like an excellent read - part family history, part social commentary.

Coming up for air

Today's not that different to any other day lately. The sun is shining in the most fantastically blue cloudless sky, cicadas are going crazy, the washing's baking to a crisp on the line. What *is* different, is that I'm finally in the right frame of mind to sit down and write something here.

So, what's been happening?
We now have more family living close by - really close, I mean 2 doors down the street, and it's fabulous. Ian's cousin and his family have made a big move from Australia to NZ, and wound up in the same street as us. Our children get along mostly great. And Ian's sister has moved cities and now lives 2 blocks over. I love the pop-in visits, coffee mid-morning, or a wine in the evening.

Craftwerk last week was fun. I wasn't sure I'd managed to make enough stuff for the trip to be worthwhile, but turns out I had, and it was. I met a lovely woman who put me on to a local source of kimono fabric pieces, so I have some nice big pieces to get busy with. As an added bonus, I got to spend some time with my brother and his girlfriend.

Playcentre is keeping me and Helen busy 3 mornings a week.
Jen's happy at school, and rapt that the school pool is now open. We've got a key so we can use it after hours. She's so much more confident in the water now, she's picking things up off the bottom of the pool, and talking to her friends under water :-)


I'm working on these felt flowers at the moment. Some will have pin backs attached, others may yet end up packaged as scrap-booking or card-making embellishments. Better get cracking!

Meet Bill

We have a new family member. Bill is settling in beautifully, although his default look still says "peeved and annoyed". In fact, he's making himself right at home, as you can see here.
A couple of days ago we melted down our broken crayons in cupcake cases (no, Bill hasn't been helping himself to the baking) and set to work drawing all over a hunk of background paper snaffled from the recycling at Ian's work. Bill and the girls loved it, he was even happy to pose with a crayon Jen balanced on his leg (although, check those ears!) How cute is he??!!

I realise it's been a little while since I posted anything with pictures, so here's a couple of bits and pieces I've made lately.

Another pony-tail holder for Jen made from buttons (I've made lots more like these for sale at Craftwerk).


And a finger puppet for one of Jen's friends, made one wet day while we were at camp. Zac described it and chose the colours for it himself.


This isn't exactly crafty - yet! My lovely neighbour has a gorgeous bougainvillea growing against her house and she gave me an enormous bunch of flowers from it about a week ago. Now fhe flowers are dried and ready to go to Playcentre next week to join our natural collage resources. Aren't the colours amazing?

Lazy, lazy, lazy. Just call me lazy.

I've been so lazy these holidays. Ian has been slaving away transforming our garden, with minimal help from me.
The girls have been playing, having friends over, going off to play here and there. We've had a few days away at Sixtus Lodge with our friends from Playcentre. So far, so very good.

I've had such a nice long break from nearly all of the things that fill up my days during term-time - Playcentre, school, work, crafting. I'm not ready for the laziness to be over yet, but I can feel normal life starting to creep back in around the edges. There's cleaning to do at Playcentre, the roster for sessions, admin work. I need to get cracking on some crafting, I'll be participating in Craftwerk in February, and need to build up some stock before then.
And Ian's back at work today, the wind is blowing a gale, it feels almost like autumn. Almost makes me feel like doing some knitting!

Feeling optimistic

There is something about the beginning of a new year that always gives me a feeling of optimism. I sometimes make resolutions for myself, 'tho not just at New Year. Things like spending more time playing with my kids, less time bossing them around. Spending less time worrying about things and more time doing something constructive about them. Anyway this year, I've decided to make only one resolution: I will try to hang on to this feeling of optimism as long as I can.

I'm looking forward to lots of things at the moment, here's a few for January:
• summer weather (it's got to happen some time, right???) • lazing around with Ian and the girls • working in the garden • Helen turning 4 • camping with Playcentre friends • Wellington's Summer Circus festival • getting paid when I start back at work next week • everyone in our family being well again • Bill the cat joining our family • crafting • eating corn on the cob • making Black Doris plum jam ... it all sounds good.

I recently joined the "Use what you have" Flickr group. I love the idea of this, but I know I won't manage it this month. I'm hoping to ease into it this month by buying only the few little bits I absolutely need. I'm applying for a Craftwerk stall at the circus festival and I will need to buy more pin backs in order to finish the items I hope to sell there.

On that note, I should get off here and make a start on the list. Happy New Year!!!

A new look for the new year

I've switched to the new Blogger, and chosen a new look for this blog. Hopefully everything still works!

I'm supposed to be in the garden, potting fresh seedlings so we can have a few bits of colour here and there, around the deck mostly.

I'm 100% certain it's going to rain later so I'll be back, maybe with some garden pics.

Happy New Year's Eve!

Baking for friends

Jen and I decided to make cookies for her class on Sunday, which was fun, but so so time consuming. You know what I mean. Bright idea: 10 seconds. Mixing cookie dough: 10 minutes. Cutting, baking and icing cookies: way too bloody long.
They did look great though, with tiny tags courtesy of allsorts (thank you Jenny!)
Next year, we're sticking with *cards only*!

Christmas is an odd time of year for us. We don't celebrate "the true meaning of Christmas", or observe any other religious traditions around this time. As the girls get older, it's increasingly difficult to keep things low-key, increasingly necessary to explain to them why this is. At least, it's a good opportunity to help them learn about what beliefs and traditions and values make different cultures ... well, different.

One thing that I'm pretty sure we have in common though, is that we're all looking forward to the holidays! Only 1 day to go, yippee!

It's too messy here, I can't make things

It's been a long time since I used to go to work in an office each day. August 1999, I think. Since then, I've been mostly at home. Mostly with my kids. Mostly surrounded by mess of one sort or another. I love being here, but from time to time the mess bothers me. I can't think straight when I have no surfaces, my mind gets as jumbled as the junk on my kitchen counter-top. Remember Edina from AbFab? "I just want surfaces, darling. I don't want this, look, I don't want this. I don't want things on places like that." That's me at the moment. On a good day.

So at the moment my house is too messy for being creative in. I'm trying to get the motivation together to actually tidy it, but even that's doing my head in, I'm afraid.

I'm off!

One little crafty thing before I go, this bag tag I whipped up for Jen the other night.
I'm off in a few minutes to spend a couple of days at my Dad's place. It'll be a nice relaxing break from normal busy life, I will get in to sleep in! And not be woken up in the night! Yay!

Being creative and expressive

At Playcentre, we plan for our children using the national early childhood curriculum (Te Whariki). One of the aims of the curriculum is that centres provide an environment where children can discover different ways to be creative and expressive.
So, here's Helen at Playcentre on Friday. We had an excursion to see Ian at work and he took photos of the children for our photo board at the centre. He gave us a huge piece of background paper, a bit tatty in places, but perfectly fine for us. When we got it back to the centre, we set out paints and brushes and the children got to work. Helen painted herself entirely blue (she had help with the pink!) and danced and dived and rolled around on the paper, being a humpback whale in the ocean.
How marvellous it must be to feel that kind of artistic freedom, to literally be able to put your whole self into your creations.

I finally finished some kimono flower pins last night. I gave up on the tsumami folding with these ones. I think the busy floral pattern suits this style of petal better. As I was attaching pin backs to them, I did think they'd actually have made cute Christmas decorations, if I'd made a wee ribbon loop to hang them instead. Oh well, maybe next time.

Windy Wednesday

This morning I got up early and went shopping. Now and then, EziBuy sell off their returned mail-order clothes and housewares in a retail free-for-all that starts somewhere around 6:00a.m. (I arrived at 6:30 and nearly all the housewares were gone already.) Everything costs $2, so I bought 12 tops and a skirt. As you do :-) Plus a couple of storage tins for the girls.
Two of the tops I bought were so not me, but were embellished with masses of little shell buttons, so I snipped the buttons off and will bag them up to go in my ever-expanding button stash.

Then for a special treat, Helen and I waited for ages at the ENT clinic at the hospital, to be told that she's completely fine, obviously recovered from a suspected case of glue ear. We'd waited 5 months for a referral to the specialist, so I wasn't altogether surprised there wasn't a problem now.

Aren't these old embroidery transfer sheets cool? I got them for 50c at the Arts Recycling Centre on Saturday.
I'm not sure how old they are, I think they date from maybe the 1950s. Maybe even earlier?

The sashiko stitching is finished! Not the best job of attaching it to the canvas, but oh well. Now I need to work out what pattern to use for the other two.

The constant wind here lately is driving me insane. The noise of it, and the pushiness of it gives me the same feeling as when I've had kids clambering all over me, wanting to be carried, needing me, needing something, all day. Aaaaagh! There's a good reason the hills near here are covered in wind turbines.

WIP Friday

Sorry about that rather whiney post the other day! Playcentre can be a bit all-consuming at times.

A while back I mentioned an idea I'd had of having a go at sashiko, using some motifs common in Pacific Island art. Last night I started the first of three 4"x4" pieces which I'll cover some little stretched canvases with. The fabric is some dark brown linen, stitched with cream wool thread. It's fun! But I'm having a little trouble getting the stitches to finish at just the right spot towards the centre, so there's a tidy little circular gap in the middle. The rain has started again today, so this could be the perfect project for the weekend.

I also want to come up with a couple of quick crafty gifts for two friends with little babies - a wee boy born *very* prematurely (6 weeks) and in NICU 2 weeks later, the other baby still an unknown quantity in every respect, due to be delivered exactly a week from today. Got any bright ideas? I'm thinking tiny embroidered t-shirts...

Playcentre on my mind

This week I've been so distracted with worries about our Playcentre. Playcentre has been wonderful for my girls and me. It's a parent-led early childhood education service, run almost entirely through volunteer work, with parents working alongside the children. Our adult:child ratios are fantastic (1:4), and our last Education Review Office report was really positive. Children lead the way into the activities they want to do each day, and we do whatever is necessary to bring their ideas to life.
Helen attends 4 morning sessions each week, and so I spend 1 morning "session helping". I spend at least one other morning doing administration work, often 1 night a week at some Playcentre meeting or another, hours cleaning & tidying, writing narrative assessments for the kids' portfolio/profile books, and on and on it goes.

Next year all 3 and 4 year olds in New Zealand will be entitled to up to 20 hours free child-care, which is an admirable thing. The down-side for us at Playcentre is that it only applies to teacher-led services, and it's still unclear how it will be implemented by those services anyway. With the changes already this year to eligibility for child-care subsidies, many at-home parents found it's worthwhile (financially speaking) to return to work, at least part-time, now that they don't have to spend half their paycheck on child-care. Playcentres around the country have already felt the effects of that, with roll numbers decreasing in many urban centres, and some smaller rural centres closing or at crisis point.

I'm beginning to feel that our centre is just about at crisis point now, so I've been worrying and wondering about what to do. That, and wishing I knew some flash marketing company who could entice lots of new families to come along with their little ones.

On a lighter note, I got a wee bit of crafting done. Etsy finally re-appeared on Tuesday (NZ time) and over the next few days I managed to list the new flowers I'd finally finished. I love how Etsy now allows categories in stores, so all my kimono flowers are grouped together, brooches together, etc.

On Thursday Helen and I went to the Arts Recycling Centre and I picked up a heap of remnants of (new) polyester neck-tie fabric. They've been turned into flowers now, and the first one listed in the store.


The rain we've had for over a week has finally cleared away this afternoon, and when Ian and Jen get home from the hardware store we're off to the pool!

Have a good week!

It's raining, it's pouring

What a dismal day. Thursday is my "lazy, busy day". No Playcentre today for Helen and me, so instead we've been doing some errands round town. In the pouring rain. My list for the day:

• Spotlight for pinbacks - didn't make it
  
• Bead Bazaar for Swarovski rhinestones - didn't make it
  
• T'n'T for summer pants for Jen - check
  
• $2 Shop for storage bags (so I can remove some clutter from the girls' room and give/store it away instead) - didn't make it.
  
• De-cluttering the girls' room - you guessed it.
  
• Vacuuming - nope.
  
• Laundry - har!
  
• Grocery shopping - check
  
• Update and run a full check with SpyBot - check
  
• backup this computer - not yet.

So what kind of "success" rate is that? 33%? My report card for today reads "Miriam could do better".

And the dishcloth exchange deadline I thought I had loads and loads of time for is now just a week away.
I wanted to try and finish these flowers today too, but I just remembered I have a meeting at Playcentre tonight, sigh.

Guy Fawkes fireworks

Today is Guy Fawkes. So that the girls could stay up late enough to watch the fireworks, we actually set ours off last night. Jen's not at all keen on the loud noises, but they both loved the sparklers. Junior pyromaniacs:
.

The launch of Etsy V2 has been postponed until next weekend, so that's giving me some extra time to get more flowers ready for the store. I've got 9 in progress so far, all in varying stages of completion. Pics to follow :-)