Tiddly pom-pom

It must be the decluttering time of year - either that or I'm finally fed up with the amount of useless tat I hoard in far flung places around the home.  Last weekend it was the turn of our sideboard in the hall to be sorted, and amongst the debris I found a half-wound pom-pom hiding in one of the drawers.  It was started by our youngest when he was in pre-primary (a fair few years ago; to think we were at a high school open day for him yesterday ...)  I'm not completely sure if I was looking for a distraction from tidying (surely not) but I had the sudden urge to finish it off.  Making pom-poms was a craze for a while when I was a little girl, whether just in our house or at school is irrelevant, I had memories of it being very therapeutic and lots of fun.  So, off I hurried to find some fat, fluffy, soft yarn, that was lovely to the touch but more  importantly would make a speedy finish for the job.  It turned out really well, and it's obvious where the old and the new, as it were, meet on the finished article.

By the time I'd finished it and proudly shown it to the original creator I was in the mood for making more, but seeing as together we had ruined the pom-pom circles I rummaged in my knitting stash for an as yet unused pom-pom maker I'd been wanting to trial.  I shouldn't have bothered!  Just look at the sorry excuse for a pom-pom - it's weedy and not at all 'succulent' and plumpfy as a real pom-pom ought to be!  

The main problem was that it was very difficult to actually keep the yarn on the darn thing without it all falling off.   And the diagram for starting and finishing was so unclear, that although I followed them 'correctly' the whole thing unravelled before I could tie the knot!  My advice is to bin them as I did - the one here was only kept for the purpose of the photo then joined his companions medium and large in the wheelie bin.

Old-fashioned cardboard circles are far superior and work every time :)

One of the brood has left (sniff, sniff)

My brood

I have been chasing chickens far too much lately.  Princess Leia - who has taken up to sleeping on top of the enclosure - discovered she could fly into next door's garden yesterday morning, at getting ready for school time.  Grr ... after the second attempt at running round in circles and getting nowhere, I enlisted the help of the youngest of my clan who helped shepherd her towards our garden fence.  Leia thought she'd try and be smart and squeeze through the fence gap, whereupon she found herself wedged between wood and wire fence and no way to move backwards or forwards.  After some undoing of wings, and untangling of feet I managed to grab hold of her and post her back over the fence.  Not content with causing mayhem for one day, I've just spent 15 minutes chasing her round the garden at night-time trying to get her to roost in the coop with her mates.  And our Scottish sheepdog cannot have inherited the 'rounding up' gene as he is about as much use as chocolate teapot when escapees are escaping ...

Ruben with his foster mum isn't he a handsome chap

Anyhoo ... our brood is getting smaller, from 5 down to 6.   The other day our gorgeous rooster Ruben found himself a new 'mob' down in the valley.  I took him to a friend of a friend, who introduced him to her 4 girls, one of whom instantly established pecking order and pecked him, hard. I'm sure he will get along just fine.

Now we just need to find a home for our other rooster Chris.  He is trying to bonk all my girls, and to be honest I couldn't stand the stress of rearing more chicks.  The hens are getting rather shirty with him too.  It's no fun being a boy in our garden!

(Even though I sounded distinctly grumpy at the start, I love my chooks wholeheartedly)

De-stressing in New Zealand

Quintessential NZ mailboxes

Life has been .... interesting ... for the past few weeks.  I could offer many reasons for not writing - I think the best by far is that I've been away travelling and have shunned technology as part of my de-stressing process (apart from being contactable by email as the kids stayed home).

The first part of our holiday was in New Zealand, in Auckland, our old stomping ground.  It was so much fun to catch up with old friends, almost as if we'd never been away.  It makes me remember how blessed I am to have loved ones in so many different places.

We stayed near an alpaca farm - I need to get me an alpaca or two.  Spot the baby :)

You can see Rangitoto from nearly everywhere in Auckland.  It's very recognizable, whatever the weather!  I loved this cool day walking around Musick Point and catching the view.

We had a few cloudy days, one memorable day was when the storm clouds chased us as we travelled the curvy back roads to Kaiaua in my quest to find the dragon lady at The Dragon's Nest Pottery.  I will have to share my dragon treasures with you another time ...

Encountering the Misty Mountains in our search for dragons

One of the highlights was the day out to Kawakawa Bay - we shared the beach with picnickers and a couple travelling round on their motorbike.  Here we forgot all our troubles and sat and listened to the waves.  I lay down under a pohutukawa tree and watched clouds through the branches.

We travelled round in an old Mazda 2 that sounded as if it had ambitions to be a supercar, but moved at the speed of a vintage bicycle.   We all have our dreams ...

It was so refreshing to be in a cooler climate for a while.  Although I have always been strange and enjoyed the cold; and see what it does for the countryside, just look at that lovely green field!

Happy Birthday to me :)

A selection of my birthday gifties - and yes that is a krispy kreme donut - HB said she had enough money to buy me one.  Excuse the scratches on my feet - I picked a fight with some rose bush clippings when going out to the car.  They won.

Crikey - 46 years old today!  I was thinking I'd have a very quiet day, I didn't really want to think about my first birthday without Dad; however my friends (and family too xx) guessed and looked after me so well I feel honoured to know such gorgeous and special people.  It all started yesterday at my little crafty meetup with 3 dear friends for tea and cake and carried on today with coffee and cake at the patisserie, followed by a high tea and colouring in session in my friend's studio, finishing with a special meal and choccie cake at another friends house - and they had something nobody else did - baby ducks!  The most divine little creatures ever - one nestled in my hands and nearly fell asleep until cold pasta was brought out.  I need some ducks! But I think I will simply visit theirs ... much easier and a lot less poo to clean up!  :)

The kids made my heart smile most though.  HB who'd had to leave the house before 6 this morning to volunteer at uni (she knows I don't get up for anything before 7 at weekends, even presents) phoned me at a more respectable time of the morning to wish me happy birthday.  Then surprised me with a new bottle of perfectly purple nail polish on returning home, to replace my favourite shade shattered in the kitchen floor at Christmas (no names mentioned).  Youngest man split an A4 sheet into vouchers for making me cups of tea, and by the expiry date wrote, 'if I get plenty of hugs there is no expiry date', and eldest boy gifted me a book on kombi campers, as he knows my secret dreams of having a mobile studio in one!

I really do love that purple nail polish!

So it didn't feel too harsh being on the downward slippery slope towards 50 :)  In fact I felt very blessed to be so loved.  It's a cliche I know, but that's the best gift.  xxxx  Thanks to everyone who made my day so special, you know who you are ...

Quote for the month - January

I used to find quotes quite frequently and use them here, but not for a while now.  Thought it might be a good idea to rediscover my passion for them and round off the month nicely.  I did read this one out to my hubby and he said he'd read it somewhere recently, but he enjoyed hearing it again and I'm sure the energy from repeated tellings will do more good than harm, so here 'tis:

"Be soft.  Do not let the world make you hard.  Do not let pain make you hate. Do not let the bitterness steal your sweetness.  Take pride that even though the rest of the world may disagree, you still believe it to be a beautiful place."  -  Vonnegut

I believe :)

Little Red Riding Hood Pencil Case

In an effort to keep up my creativity with as little effort as possible I did invest in some colouring books (always a favourite activity of mine in my childhood and with my own children) and some lovely coloured pencils which I can never resist.  My absolute favourites are the Inktense pencils by Derwent, stunning colours with a real depth and intensity of colour as the name implies.  However recently I discovered the Lyra brand, favoured by Steiner schools I believe - a lovely 'feel' to them when I use them and a similar depth of colour.  I had to buy them individually so no tin to keep them in as with the Derwent brand.  What was I to do to keep my pencils safe?

I made my own pencil case!  Using a tutorial by Noodlehead I slightly altered the measurements to accommodate the gorgeous fairy tale pictures on my retro styled Little Red Riding Hood fabric.  As you would expect from Noodlehead, it is also fully lined, and ... quilted no less ... with iron on wadding so no actual quilting involved, but it is lovely and sqiushy and provides extra protection for my pencils.  I so don't have a problem with over-attachment to  my art materials :)

I love you coloured pencils xxx

Happy Holidays

Happy Australia Day everyone :)

This cow is nothing to do with Australia Day, but rather is a clue to where we have just spent 2 lovely, relaxing days and nights with friends who moved away from Perth - in the lovely country town of Cowaramup!  It's much better if you say the name out loud, it has a lovely ring to it!  There are plasticky/concrete? cows up and down the high street, and some even have 'moo' sounds emanating from them!  Nearly as impressive as the real camels I saw sharing a field with cows on the return journey to the big smoke.  I kid you not, - yes I thought I was seeing things too, but the other passengers in the car verified it for me.

I had to include a pic of my lovely Christmas present made by my Mum, it slowly made its way here, was unwrapped in a rush and very much appreciated by its new owner.  My favourite mode of transport in my arty dreams, in my favourite colour, on a squishy, soft cushion cover made with lots of love - another little lift for the spirits :)

One thing I did take away from the break was that I really am too stressed most of the time and that I need to make some big changes - will 2016 be my year to stress less?  I hope so.