Rooftops

Time to share some holiday snaps ... though not the traditional ones of family at the beach!

We were lucky enough to be taken out to lunch by some very special friends to Jamie Oliver's restaurant in Bath.  We ate outside on the terrace and I couldn't resist taking pics of the fascinating rooftops.  Not often you get such a bird's eye view.

I found them inspiring me in my weird little creative world to be making a quilt or a mosaic or a collage.  All those different shapes, yet they fit so perfectly together in their imperfection.

Illustration Friday - 'Influence'

I haven't done one of these for a while.  This is something I had to produce as part of my coaching course, something that reminds me what makes me feel joy and authenticity.  So I drew all the things that influence my feelings of well-being, like the grass tree that reminds me of the nature and forest surrounding my home, the rainbow as a symbol of hope, words explaining the influence of creativity in my life, my feet reminding me of the importance of being grounded ...

this all before I read the quote to go with this week's theme -

"In the beginning you must subject yourself to the influence of nature. You must be able to walk firmly on the ground before you start walking on a tightrope." ~ Henri Matisse

My Creative Space

It needs blocking ...

We all tried it on for size, but it definitely looks best on HB ...

Today I finished my woolly hat - and it looks rather cool!  It's so comfy and cosy, not at all tight fitting like a beanie, so no danger of 'helmet hair'. :)  I knitted it from a pattern from Ravelry - if you go to their site and enter ETTA in the search box, it should come up - the pattern is by Kim Whelan.

Finally managed to find the 'Our creative spaces' blog as well this week!  Yay!  So I'm posting my hat pic there and have already checked out a few of the other blogs listed.  What a creative lot - it's hard to pick just a few, there's a lot of creative talent out there.  Go visit.

A great day for making chocolate crispies

We have an extra dog for 4 weeks - our lovely friends who looked after dear old Charlie whilst we were in the UK are now having their OE holiday, so we are looking after their dog.  I feel as if I have two extra children!  This morning I caught them running across our backyard, playing tug of war with one of the kids school shirts.  Managed to get to it when it was just rain sodden and dirty rather than in pieces!

Consequently, I felt a great need for chocolate.  So I made these lovely chocolate crispies, from a recipe given to me by my lovely, lovely friend on the Isle of Wight.  As well as heaps of chocolate there's butter and syrup too.  Not helping me remove those extra kilos I put on whilst on holiday, but needs must ...  do you like the lovely 'Cat in the Hat' fabric used for background?  If you eat too many of these crispies I reckon you'd get hyper just like the Cat ... well, we do already have the Thing 1 and Thing 2 characters running around the back yard ...

Getting creative with Mr Potatohead

Wandering around the house today I found this little masterpiece by Little Man.  I just love it.  Thinking outside the square potato ...

Since my last post, things have been looking up on the feeling normal scale.  I've restarted my beret which I frogged the other night (ripping it out; rip it - which sounds a bit like 'ribbet', hence the term 'frogging' - witty people, knitters :))   Made my dad think jet lag had finally got to me and I was speaking gobbledegook!  Anyway, I will probably finish it as spring approaches and have to put it into storage!

I'm definitely feeling more crafty, even getting out my overlocker and completely re-threading it - not a task to be taken lightly; those of you who own an overlocker will know what I mean.  I can feel some sewing coming on ... 

Jet Lagged

This picture sums up how we all feel after our return from the UK on Friday.  Dear Little Man had actually got up but obviously got tired on the walk around the bed and needed another rest ... hopefully we'll all be feeling more human by the end of the week.  I'm desperate to do some crafty stuff but think I'll leave it until my head feels less like cotton wool - I had to frog a beret I was making last night as I'd miscounted stitches and made it too small - aargh - don't want that sort of thing happening again!  So I'll wait a while.

The journey home was all ok until we reached Perth, when I was asked by customs if they could inspect my bag, as the dog had sniffed it out and I had traces of cocaine, explosives and cannibis in it.  Duncan stood there quite calmly and said 'go for your life' as he knew there was nothing to find, whilst I stood there on the verge of tears panicking that I'd be taken away and searched more thoroughly.  I think the main culprit was a pair of kids' sandals that we'd bought in the UK with fabric straps, which I suspect were made of hemp ... the rest however is a mystery.  The nice gentleman (he really was very polite) said we'd probably just brushed up against other people with the offending items - makes you wonder who you're travelling with hey?  I can laugh about it now ...

No more travelling for a bit.