doona day

had a doona day today...we get two a year at work and i woke up feeling like today was one of those days! it drizzled all day and was quite fresh despite the 26 and fine forecast.

i rode my bike and dropped off some stuff at the op shop up the road (thanks to I Op Therefore I Am for letting me know the opening hours!) I came upon a whole box of Golden Hands craft books and various crochet pattern books. i sat on this chair in the opshop for about an hour flicking through with giddiness. all for 10c each! and then i bought two of the most beautiful, large cacti that are about to burst into flower and are as big as my head for $2!!!

it surely is the simple things....

(i will have to consult my secondhand copy of 'what flower is that' by stirling macaboy to determine what cacti they are exactly)

also (sorry, am a bit of a chatterbox tonight) we ate our first bowl of christmas cherries. yum.

books books books

more book looking...this one looks fun! icelandic knitting
check out the back cover - some lovely patterns.

drooling over japanese craft books

oh yes please! found at felt cafe

via Crafting Japanese

super cute

found this gorgeous bunny mobile whilst blog strolling the other day...she's crafty
this lady is super talented and i can't WAIT till her book comes out.
beautiful, contemporary baby things

gettin' back to what makes us happy

gorgeous

love these colours, shapes, lines, everything! oh yeah! potholders never looked so good. from a really great new blog i found mieke willems.

they seem to like a lot of the same stuff as me! take a look!

crafting

1st of december tomorrow - how did that come around so quickly? have to get a christmas card out to shaunn and jelena (friends from canada) tomorrow or there is no chance!

had an early morning craft attack and made a kitschy decoration for our 60's sideboard cupboard and then thought shaunn and jelena would appreciate it's silliness.

spent the rest of the day continuing on with making my rug, doing a bit of gardening and enjoying sneek peeks of sunshine. weather still seems to be dominated by dramatic skies, showers and weather no higher than 25. i love this kind of weather but it makes me scared - does it just mean we're going to be sweating our balls off in march?

a few things

ian was visiting from perth last weekend - this is his shirt he left. so silly. so ian.


my acid yellow 'mum's - awesome!


when ian visited he promised to make me his carbonara. so kee made a big batch of pasta.


kee took this photo - last weekend's breakfast. beautiful bright, orange yolks. yum!

mexico

just watching a doco on mexico. reminds me of when we were there. really have travel on the mind. had a dream last night we moved to montreal but forgot our coats! india. japan. new york city. berlin.

we wish...

perfecto!

had the best weekend with lici - it had everything! art gallerying, pj time, yum cha, drinks, cooking, relaxo, crafting, talking shit, laughing, reading children's books in bookshops.

convinced her to make preserved lemons and harissa for her family for christmas presents so we made cute little tags for the jars. we thought we were pretty crafty anyway! now get preserving lici!

weekend

we went to rum town.

had a few 'dark and stormies' - thanks lici!

strange weather

i'm loving spring in melbourne. best of all worlds. heard a junkie say on the tram the other day "if you don't like the weather in melbourne, just wait ten minutes". so true! everything from 35 degrees, to 17, rain, thunderstorms, clear blue skies and ominous clouds. i love it!

beautiful silvery, bronze skies.

things to make and do!

making some christmas decorations...

old maps

nan and harry gave us a bag of maps and tourist brochures - some were gorgeously illustrated and dated back to 1955!

dirty hands

the old cactus that nanny ward gave us, errupted in beatiful fuschia flowers. planted strawberries, cherry tomatoes, yellow pear tomatoes, spearmint, peppermint and generally gave all the plants some tlc. the chryssies are threatening to burst into acid yellow goodness!

back again!

yes - i did survive the festival. awesome.

and now life has returned to normal, and mum is nagging me for new pictures, i have finally gotten around to posting again.

this is just a little of what i've been doing for the last 3 weeks since the festival.

friends visiting (as always). cooking. sleeping. relaxing. gardening. country drives. being normal. NOT DRINKING! watching bad tv. reading the paper. shopping. crocheting. enjoying weather (all sorts). listening to conversations on trams. riding, riding, riding. looking forward to christmas. getting used to working in an empty office!

taking a break! (well not really)

well the festival is upon us! so i won't be doing much blog-wise as i'll be working 7 days a week for the next 3 weeks. exciting! scary! a rite of passage! *eeep*

to check out all the action have a look!

melbourne international arts festival

lets hope i come out the other end alive!

birthday

what a lovely, relaxing birthday! too lazy and spoilt to take too many photos. received many birthday wishes and gifts from near and afar! jewellery (see the teeny tiny gorgeous earrings k bought me above as just an example!), brooches, bangles, spokey dokes, a kaffir lime tree, a bike, books, mini mola cashola and loads of love! roasted up a leg of lamb, a fish, made some pasta and enjoyed the sunshine. thankyou! xxx

p.s. and oh yeah! how could i forget! i preserved my first jar of lemons!

agonisingly beautiful

found these little gems of inspiration in a book i borrowed from the library about women, bauhaus textile weavers and designers. makes my heart skip a beat. inspiration for my crochet blanket....