Monday, June 29, 2009

New Look (What do you think?)

You may have noticed that the blog has had a bit of a makeover.

I decided that I needed a new look - well, yes, I need a new look, take that as read - maybe six feet tall, slim, pale and masses of flaming red curls - no, sorry, that's Nicole Kidman. Sigh.

No, I decided the blog needed a new look. So when I tidied it up, I did a bit of a paint job.

I may play with it some more. We'll see. I like the colours though.

Breaking news.

Our wild social life has included a birthday party for a one year old, and having the in-laws and the lovely but blogless Jill over for lunch. Other than that, life has proceeded as usual, with the added excitement of winter and the on-going lure of hibernation.

The most exciting thing which has happened is my discovery of The Dresden Dolls - check out this film clip of one of their performances. They describe themselves as Brechtian Punk Cabaret and I have been loving their stuff. I am further investigating Amanda Palmer's solo catalogue. I love finding new and interesting music. This dark burlesque genre has passed me by until now.

Finished the Kim jumper last night, still needs to block, and the day is grey and rainy, so photos later. Today is the end of the financial year, so it seems I will need to update stash honesty. As months go, it hasn't been too bad.

In:
Four sock club packages (Four! Count 'em! What was I thinking?) All came in June. That's 5 skeins of sock yarn, or 600gr.
A slight lapse at a wool shop sale - 10 x 50gr Grinasco Tango, 2 x 50gr Kaffe Fassett Regia. I blame Rose Red for these. If she hadn't put me on to the Grinasco, and made the Kaffe socks....
Total from there 600 gr

Total in: 1.2kg

Knitted:
As I don't count things unless they are actually finished I can't include half a clappy or half a pair of socks. Drat.
Kim - 5 x 125 gr - 625 gr.

Destashed:
1.6kg re-homed to Ravellers

One large bag of not-terribly-good yarns sent off to school for finger/French knitting - say 750gr

AT LAST!

In - 1.2kg
Out: 2.975kg

I'm afraid next month may not look quite so good, but I hope to have more finished objects, so I can count more....or some tidying up may lead to further re-homing. We'll see.

Happy New Financial Year to you all - may your assets ever exceed your liabilities!

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Happy Again!

Thanks so much for your lovely comments - I'm back to my usual happy self now!

I will admit, though, that despite it looking terrible and chipped, I still have not been able to bring myself to remove my holiday nail varnish - because that would mean I was back to real life, where there is no point in wearing nail varnish because after a couple hours of normal wear and tear it looks awful.

A while ago, Bells posted a lovely, laughing wedding photo. So I thought (always being original) that I would do the same. The Accountant and I have been together for more than twenty years, and in a few weeks will have been living together for 20 years, but we only married in 2001.

We sort of eloped, in that we told noone, except the Accountant's sister, that we were getting married, just invited out parents (and step parents) for lunch, and after the main course, sprang on them the fact that the celebrant was due in 10 minutes, and we needed to get changed. We married in May, in the garden, under the oak tree. Our dog was there. A horse looked over the fence. It was informal and fun and cheap. Then we drank sparkling shiraz and ate cheesecake.

It also got us out of all the to-ing and fro-ing about who should be involved in the wedding and flower girls and bridesmaids and so on. I did buy a new outfit, since worn to other weddings. It was a lovely day, and one of the last photos of my Dad (He's the one laughing next to me.) The Accountant's sister was best person - she held the rings and bouquets and so on, and took some photos.

Knitting has been happening. The new jumper is up to the armholes, and I am loving the yarn and pattern and looking forward to wearing it. Children are back at school, life is happening in spite of me, and on Tuesday I finally got to see the third episode of Cranford and knitted while they were at school.

Life is full of small joys!

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Post-Holiday Blahs

We're back, and I have a severe case of the post holiday blahs.

We arrived back late on Wednesday night, and the house-sitter had done her usual wonderful job. The first day back was a beautiful sunny winter day, just right for all the post holiday washing.

But since then it has been cold and grey and drizzly. The kids are in quarantine because we passed through the swine flu capital of the universe (Melbourne Airport) and after running around on a sub-tropical island, have a severe case of cabin fever.

The holiday itself was grand. We spent a week on the Gold Coast, where the children sampled the delights of the theme parks and the Princess adored Rollercoasters and the Giant drop. She made the 120cm height restriction by 2cms - and then insisted on repeating the experience. Destructoboy preferred merry-go-rounds, although he did like river rides and flume rides and the associated wetness.

Club Med Lindemen Island was lovely - although the swimming pools were freezing, even for a Tasmanian! The kids club was next to the circus school, so they had high trapeze (yes, both the 4 and 6 year old loved this), bungy bounce, their own swimming pools, and enormous climbing fort, tennis, archery, putt-putt golf, beach stuff and lots of other activities, including starring spots in the nightly shows.

I put the cocktail list to the test, was hugely active in order to be able to eat a reasonable sampling of the food which someone else had cooked - and which other people were going to wash up after. Other people cooking, washing up, cleaning and tidying up is a mothers' dream holiday!

But since we've been home I've had a severe case of blahness. There is no real reason for this, except perhaps the winter weather and its greyness. So I have been catching up on blog reading (but not commenting much, my apologies). I have cast on another jumper (of course) and pecked at the holiday socks (one done and most of one to go). I haven't done much more on the half done holiday Clapotis.

But currently it's all about the colours of a tropical sea. All my current knitting is blues, greens and turquoise. The socks are in Fleece Artist Trail Socks in Angel Fish, the Clapotis in Touch Yarn in gorgeous turquoise washed with greens and blues and the Jumper is Fleece Artist River in Nova Scotia. So maybe it's about the Fleece Artist, too.

I had all four sock club packages get into my hands either the day we left or the day we arrived back, and they are all lovely, but now I have to wait at least 2 more months for the next packages. Sigh.

It's a good thing that I have the thought of Bendi to sustain me - and the thought of my lovely kids being able to see their friends at school on Tuesday when their quarantine ends. No Hamthrax so far!