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we had a most wonderful holiday

There was bushwalking, kayaking, swimming,
treasure hunting, rock hopping,
sewing, lego creations, reading, snuggling, baking,
knitting and drawing.

And,of course, there was a toy society drop to arrange.

But rather than just making one little owl for the drop everyone had to have one to keep too! Everyone got busy,especially mothers.

Can you guess which one belongs to the pirate?

The cute one on the right was our drop. We left little owl outside the Currarong shops at the end of the holiday. I wonder who found him.

phew

well that was christmas 09. I took a little while to get over it. I won't bore you with all the details - it was busy. it was fun. it was productive.

it was too short.

here is a snippet which includes presents, renovations, a broken arm, the first visit of the tooth fairy, knitting, walking in the mountains, lounging in the mist, a new bike for the pirate, a letter from santa, a letter to santa, heatwaves, vegies, job applications, visitors, friends, parties, naps, sewing, cleaning, freecycle, plans, crushes, wine, champagne, grandparents, air conditioning, travel, new friends, new resolutions, new plans, and a whole lot of love and friendship

Honestly I think I am the luckiest person alive with the friends I have and the support I get. I hope you are as lucky.

And what did I learn these holidays?
that my aircon does work, that freecycling can get rid of mountains of stuff and it feels very very good, that the tooth fairy can remember to come, that a waterproof cast does exist, that it does not come in green, that it costs quite a bit, that you can knit a scarf and not go insane, that stones and a mountain stream can keep 4 boys under 8 occupied for hours, that march flies like blue, that it does get hot in Guthega, that you can get good coffee in Cooma, that knitting socks from the toe up is fun, that you can find a pattern for pants that isn't too bad, that having an oven again is magic, that the pirate can cope with a broken arm without too much problem, that a child can have a broken arm for days and a mother not be sure it really is hurt, that new birkenstocks feel fabulous, that shopping for clothes and fabric after a fabric and clothes diet feels fantastic, that leaving salmon in the car in 5 days of over 35deg isn't at all good, that eggplants produce very very well and peas only grow with mulch and much much more.

I hope your 2010 is a lovely one.

maker's market

The pirate and I were in Melbourne for the weekend. I dragged my good friend out of the city and off to Daylesford for a day in the country and to visit the Daylesford Maker's Market.

Oh such crafty and blogging goodness. The market had much more than its fair share of blogging superstars out of the 30 or so stalls there.

great photo from here

It was great to catch up with Jodie again for a start - and I did manage to spend my market budget almost entirely at her stall. All those cute robots!

Curlypops had great bags and brooches, Kootooyoo had amazing and gorgeous little mp3 player speaker tins as well as a pile of other stuff. And then there were all the bloggers and stallholders I didn't know about but am slowly catching up on here. There must be some kind of creativity gas pumping out down in Victoria.


The pirate was, well, a pirate. In his full splendor. He was duly admired but he repaid the kind attention by wondering at the cleverness of people who could not tell the difference between a pirate costume on a 6 year old and a real life pirate! 'Don't they know I am not a real pirate? I am a kid!' So if you ever see the pirate about remember it is all about the costume and an extraordinary boy.

Creative

The pirate, who is doing much better than I expected, went to a holiday program arts class yesterday with Creative Catalyst. The theme for the day was road warriors.

This is the pirate's invention. Complete with Star Wars Cockpit.

I went to collect him in the afternoon and stayed for half an hour playing with tools, wire and cardboard! It was magic in a room full of happy kids making a huge mess.

I don't know about the pirate, but I can't wait till the next time.

the flavour of my day

looks like this

sniff. groan.

But it does give me time to put this together.

I blogged yesterday about the Sydney Stitches and Craft Fair.

see what leapt into my bag?

tally
2 skeins (one in a great scarf starter kit) of Lush Yarn
A couple of pieces of fabric from Ink and Spindle
off cut pack from Surface Art
off cut pack and a couple of cute kiddy tshirts from Sprout Design
a wonderful felt brooch from Dudley Redhead
a couple of cute badges from Shelbyville
gorgeous woollen felt from winterwood

I went over my budget. oops.

Not sure where to begin

I went to Sydney this weekend - a visit to the Stitches and Craft show dovetailed nicely with handing on some extra children I have been responsible for for a few days -and visiting my sister.


I was at that show for 6 hours! (you can tell I was without the pirate)

I was so completely shattered by the end and even champagne could not revive me.

The good news is it was nice to see some wonderful fabrics in the flesh and some clever crafty people flogging their wares. But, it was a very disappointing turn out for the knitters - only 1 stall selling yummy yarn not available at one of the local shops.

They did have these great drop in spaces where you could learn a skill or just join in. I knitted a cup cosy thingy at the knitting drop in and had a lovely chat to some ladies from the knitters guild. The cup cosy was great timing as my sister has those latte cups that will burn your skin clean off if you don't have a buffer of some type, as I discovered that morning. Knitted cup thingys are so much more sexy than a paper towel.



But the most fun was meeting the famous ric rac , having a big belly laugh in her talk on blogging, and getting up close with those cute bots. Jodie had some notes up for the talk and I could see the name of my wee blog up on them. Big breath......Eek, - I really hoped this would turn out to be a good thing, wondering what on earth she was going to say. And it was in the context of a community you meet through blogging and how complete strangers can be supportive - so all good, and fun. And don't we all love a bit of good attention? So thank you Jodie - you made my day, and I promise to do a post on my avatar to put it into context and show it is not me wearing scary scary make up!

I came home with a cold, less money in the bank - and some things to show off next time.

wingnut wendy

My 9 yr old neighbour is facinated by the whole Toy Society thing.

So I made a toy and showed her how it goes.

She was interested to a point.

Really I think she just wants to find one.

But then wouldn't you?

Meet Wingnut Wendy (in honour of my wingnut pirate).



Wendy was left at Dickson Library yesterday.


I wonder where she is now.

a little more

of our Melbourne break - which did include some work, but then even the work was quite something.

When I wasn't at meetings we did what we do in Melbourne - I drank coffee - the pirate had milkshakes, we looked at shops, opp shops, at art and at tried not to spend all my money.

We both found treasure. Good, Good treasure. The pirate and opp shop with jewels and me - a retro fabric shop.

And then we did what all people do in Melbourne, right?

We turned a giant vegetable into a baby named Jim Clary Hawkins.

Sadly he was abandoned at the airport.

and Flair had its first outing - unblocked but still devine to wear. It did end up pilling quite badly unfortunately.

worn with some Melbourne purchases

and as an aside - this time my crochet hook was confiscated on the plane. rats.

old tins

There is nothing quite like coming home to a brown package wrapped parcel on your doorstep.

My mum has been amused by my button love and promised a surprise. These are not hers, in fact she hadn't even been born when some of this was collected, they are from a shed my dad cleared out years ago as a favour to someone - wasn't it clever of him to not throw them out?

I thought both tins might contain buttons - but the second tin was altogether different treasure.

The pirate was as excited as I - he found all manner of glittering jewels and a key which fits into the key hole of his treasure chest perfectly. He loves that key. So much so he woke me at 2am to tell me he had gone to sleep with it in his hand and had lost it and needed to find it. now.

My love of button tins and small red headed pirates knows no bounds.

holiday snaps

We are back to the usual routine all too soon. It is always too soon isn't it?

We did have a lovely holiday - visits to grandparents, friends and old haunts. Cocktails and squid on the beachfront at Noosa, finding enormous worms in the garden and some daredevil driveway rafting.

Grandma has a tin of buttons which belonged to her mother. I was a treasure chest for both a button fiend like me and the pirate.

They began to find their true form during a relaxing second week at the south coast...

and for the first time, I do believe, I managed to both start and finish a project in one break.

The details:

Taters cotton cardi. Free Ravelry pattern.

Made for Cousin Edie in Size 2

Yarn: Mama llama squish in Cowgirl. A mix of cashmere and merino. It is so so soft and is about a 5 ply. I have to say though that it is best not to knit with it whilst wearing black.

I would have added a photo of the lovely Cousin Edie wearing it if only she hadn't refused to put it on.

There was more making going on - but this I will save for another day.

The holiday was nicely polished off for the pirate with a visit to the powerhouse in Sydney to see... THE Star Wars exhibition. Oh such bliss for a 5 year old.

And now we are back to cold, snow capped hills and our little home - bliss for a sprout.