I'm back

I've decided I need to come back, its been a while and my life has changed a bit and so too will this blog. I have been trying to work out how I can write the same blog when I don't feel the same and my days look so different now. I realised I can't, so here we are and I guess what this new blog looks like will reveal itself to you as is it revealed to me. Expect crafty goodness, expect domestic frustrations and occasional victories, tours of favourite places and new discoveries, a fasination with interesting merchandising, stories of dressing up and pictures of yummy food and coffee art. I hope you enjoy joining me occasionally, I will be here anyway just for fun....

Some quiet shopping

With the stress of it all lately, my body decided I needed a wee rest and I have had a very heavy cold. Never mind, I view this as a chance to sit around on the couch- movie watching, crafting, and taking nana naps.

I'm feeling better now but have lost my voice. For the last three days I have gone from squeaking and croaking to no voice at all. Luckily I am a super fine actor with absolutely no shame and have been acting my way through all the mummy directions that need to be given. Also the girls and I know just a little bit of sign language, that has helped too. The girls dragged me out for a shop last night and giggled every time a shop assistant was confused by my mute response. You see the girls know that given a chance I will make friends with every shop assistant that looks kindly my way. I am that annoying person who is inclined to answer the "how are you" question honestly. I promise I don't go on and I am always positive but I am never just fine "I am great/fantastic/excellent, thanks for asking, how is your day going?"

This morning I headed out on my own with a note book in hand. An op shop happened to be in the middle of all my messages and I found these lovely tins in the window. I had to write a note asking if they were for sale and they were, which ones she asked, all of them I signed. And for how much? just $1 each! excellent. I already gave one away to a friend who will appreciate the Scottish theme, the rest will be used in my play space to store some of my bits and bobs. Of course these days I can't look at a tin with out thinking of Tinniegirl who has the last of her tins avaliable at her shop, if you want your own full of treasure go her see her before she sells out.

Not being able to speak has sure made me think about what I really want or need to say and given me a chance to be a lot more introspective but I have missed singing at the top of my lungs when at home alone or driving around the city. Anyway; I'm great thanks, how has your day been?

edit to add Little Sparrow has some of Tinniegirl's tin as well.

The Train Trip

I can't believe it has been nearly a week since I headed off on my wee Train trip adventure and I haven't had a chance to tell you about it.

For various reasons the only one to join me on the trip was Michelle she had actually travelled in on the Hurstbridge train so we just jumped back on the train and pulled out our crafting supplies. Michelle was making some of her stretchy necklaces, and I was stitching some brooches. It's a good thing there weren't many others in the carriage 'cause we were taking up bit of room with our crafty gear and our giggling.

As we pulled into Eltham station we noticed a market nestled amongst the trees. We quickly gathered up our stuff and jumped off to have a look around. There were some really cute hand dyed pants and t-shirts for children. I didn't take a photo as I totally planned on going back on our way back out. Unfortunately and fortunately the market was bigger than we first thought so she was packed up by the time we got back to her end, so I will surely have to go back. I did manage to get some very delicious Autumn Chutney from "Alot of Good Stuff". We have already made a serious dent in the contents of the jar so I will have to return for some more of that too. Michelle brought some lovely Proteas from a farm up at Kinglake. We were told the guy had lost a third of his farm and his shed to the fires but still had some proteas to share. Michelle's Dad used to have protea he was very proud of at their house in Kinglake, so she brought them for him.

As all the stalls were closing up we headed back to the station to continue our journey. At Hurstbridge it was a short walk down to Heart and Soul Cafe. The atmosphere was great, quiet and friendly and they had a great fun mural on one of the walls. No photo as I wasn't sure the people having their lunch in front of it would appreciate me taking one. There are tables inside and out but we choose one next to the heater. The wedges we shared were the best I have had in ages. Fresh, really hot (temp) and spiced up tasty, there was plenty of sour cream and sweet chili sauce. At the chefs recommendation, we split a chickpea burger which was delicious toasty and not a bit dry which I find they often are. Filled with food and a good coffee we headed back into town again. I loved the day away from the routine and will defiantly plan another one when the weather is warmer and folks are over their winter ills. I love to craft on the go and with a new view and company was gathering inspiration all day. I hope you can come on my next one or are inspired to do some of your own 'crafting on the go'.

Busy weekend - train trip and markets

My bag is packed ready to a crafty train trip tomorrow. I will be lovely to get away from the usual routine especially since I have a list a mile long of things that are to be done today. It will be great to sit and chat and craft away on the train. If you want to come along check out the details here and I will see you at 11:20 at Flinders.

I think I might have time to drop into Mathilda's Market in Malvern before I head in . I also hope to get over to Northcote later today for the markets there. Geeze weekends can be a bit busy can't they?

A game of tag - Eight things

Busy Lizzie tagged me for a game of Eight Things last week. I had such a busy week I confess to forgetting all about it. Luckily she didn't give me a deadline and I am finally able to get my head around it today (between finding the floor and the kitchen bench, not to mention the bottom of the laundry basket!) Like Lizzie it has been a while since I played tag, when the kids were little and they ran and I made scary noises to make them run again, whilst I stayed still, so I don't think even that counts.

So here are my lists of 8:

8 things I am looking forward to:

*My first joint exhibition, soon, in Christchurch, in July with two dear friends - hence the currently busy schedule.
*Seeing family and friends on this trip 'home' especially....

*My nieces 2nd birthday which I will be there for. (I hope)

eight things really?

*the week after the exhibition when I am over the stress and before I start the next project.

*Learning to crochet, again after the exhibition

*Going swimming tomorrow, I haven't been enough lately

*Watching the second born perform tomorrow night, a singing recital at school

*A date with Husband at the end of the week

*A crafty train trip

8 Things I did yesterday

*Slept in! I love mornings with no alarm clocks

*Pretended to clean up whilst actually checking up on my favourite blogs and catching up on emails

*listened to great music in a backyard concert featuring Once Twice Sofia (I love Naomi's lyrics) and Cadmium Waking (a great a Capella trio) and a band made up of Alex, Kaz, Cam and Pete. Click on their links and have a listen. It was a great set and the sun even came out to warm us up, for a while anyway.

*Did a little crafting at the same gig while sipping a glass of wine, I was maximising the fun.

*Chatted to my Mum on the phone, actually on speaker phone which meant I was able to clean up a bit at the same time.

*Feed the family dinner

*Tested the first born's baking, just so I could tell her what a great job she did of course.

*Stayed up too late blogging.

8 Things I wish I could do

*Draw well, I can tell what I have drawn but I would love others to be able to as well. I know I could learn just need to practice more (that's what the books tell me anyway)

*Crochet, will learn that one.

*Always be a calm parent, and reasonable and moderate and sensible and wise. Don't think I will ever learn that one.

*Time travel so I can go back and try again when I am not the afore mentioned parent. While I am time traveling I will also give myself more time to fit in more crafting
*Play an instrument, instantly without all that painful learning carry on.

*Be more efficient with my time given that I can't yet time travel.

*Have a better memory, I am shocking! I really can feel things I need to remember fall out off my brain.

*Arrange world peace

8 Shows I watch

alright confessions I am being brutally honest here cause I am supposed to say I don't watch TV but...

*Rove -cause he is my boyfriend don't ya know, that's what the girls reckon

*Oprah - yes the TV is sometimes on in the middle of the day, I swear I am crafting at the same time, I do have to proviso that it has to be positive, I don't do negative themes.

*House - well I used to, it has finished now. Used to be date night on the couch with Husband

*Any house make-over show, at the moment that is Homemade.

*Good News Week

*Antiques Road show, not often its a busy time of day but when I'm not cooking or...

*MASH rerun after rerun unfortunately it is on the same time as #6

*Whatever is best at the time, if I have the remote, which I often don't.

Right so there you go a whole lot of things you may not have previously known about me and lets be honest survived just fine without knowing it.

So now apparently I need to tag eight people so

Little Sparrow

Amity ville Boronia

Tinnie Girl
And sew I sew

Missie Krissie

Konstant Kaos

Sparkly Green Knickers

Bug and Pop

Here are the playground rules if you care for them

1. Mention the name of the person who tagged you.

2. Do the lists of 8.

3. Tag 8 bloggers of your choice.

4. Let them know that they have been tagged!

So if you are on the list you are IT!

Another important date for your diary

Melbourne people-Those of you who have been here before might remember me writing about my passion for crafting on the go. Would you like to come and join me for my first blogging crafty train trip? I have set a date and found a cafe to head to.

So my brilliant plan is on the 21st of June (that is the last weekend before the school holidays start) to meet on Platform one at Flinders Street at about 11:20, jump on the 11:35 train out to Hurstbridge. We can craft all the way out and then when we get to Hurstbridge there is a short 5 minute walk down to a groovy wee organic cafe the "Heart and Soul Cafe". When we are full of lunch or coffee and cake, we can craft our way back again. I reckon we should get back into Flinders at about 4.

You can buy a Sunday saver card for just $3:10 and that will allow you train/tram and bus travel all day, a bargain priced venue I reckon.

So if you like to craft with a view and to meet some other crafty/bloggy types then write it in your diary, leave me a comment so I can book a table and gather your portable crafty gear.

I will be at platform one just near the food booth and to make it easy for you to find me I will wear my red coat. I look forward to having a great crafty adventure.

Wide awake Owl

I just got home from a Brown Owls meet and I am a little bit wide awake. So as everyone in the house is either asleep (as we all should be) or out (when we should be home by now) I am frying some left-over sushi and sharing with you dear reader my thoughts of the day and evening. First the sushi- the picture is not what I am eating but some I had prepared earlier. Have you ever had it fried? I recently discovered it and it is soooo good. Sliced sushi rolls fried in a little oil soy sauce drizzled on it as it fries so it goes kind of caramelly crisp. Lovely. I eat rather a lot of sushi as I try to avoid wheat as much as possible and it is nice occasionally to have it hot.

I have had a lovely crafty day. I made some more felt mobiles but forgot to take photos of them and have been doing various embroidery projects most of the day, including on the train and tram on the way to Brown Owls and during the evening too. Brown Owls was a talk tonight, mostly about blogging and mostly by Lucy of The Design Files and Angela of Three Buttons and, although Pip from Meet me at Mikes was officially asking the questions luckily she let us pick her brains too. They had lots of hints and tips and experience to draw from in regards to this blogging world. I do plan to get my head around it sometime but in the meantime I am enjoying just doing it in the imperfect way I manage. Pip is going to write some of the ideas that were talked about so I will leave that to her.
During the meet I realised Lucy is a friend of a friend which I didn't get to mention to her but isn't it funny how small the world is sometimes, especially considering I still know very few people in this city. It is nice to be getting to meet some folks recently and crafty types are just so nice. Thanks peps for sharing on your blogs and in person to. And for keeping me company as I wind down tonight. All this linking has worn me out. Ready for bed now, big crafty day planned tomorrow and a couple of coffees too I think.