don't fret precious i'm here, step away from the window...

well. that was a bit of a break, wasn't it?
i'm sorry! i could make excuses, but really, blogging just never came to mind. -_-'
so, what *have* i been up to?
well... not much. i know, poor, but the truth. a little bit of crafting, a lot of working, and a LOT of loving this rainy cold summer! i like my summers like i like my tea: English. :P
ah, but what have i been *crafting* you ask! well, i hope to have pictures for you very soon, i have a couple of finished items, and one so very close to finished that i think all it will take is a bad movie and i'll be at the end. i like to get organised at the beginning of the year, and i'm a memeber of a group on Ravelry (if any of you knitters/crocheters aren't on Ravelry, i highly HIGHLY suggest it. i have met such wonderful people!) called "Mission Possible", where people can post lists of 12 items - works in progress or things unstarted - that they aim to get done in that year. i've been quite bad, and some of my things are on the list third year running, but that isn't even really the point of it. it's to help keep me focussed on what i want to acheive this year, and help me put in perspective those things i haven't finished yet from last year (or the year before...). the scarf i hope to finish tonight is one of those 12 things, and i have already completed another one, so i'm in pretty good stead for january.
pity i just bought a sweater's worth of really, really gorgeous yarn, and have committed to knitting a shawl for a friend who is getting married. XD (who am i kidding, i love a challenge!)
i've also committed to going to Australia with my darling boyfriend in July this year. it will be our first holiday away together (please ignore the week-long chemistry conference in the middle of our week-and-a-half long trip. thank you.), and first time in 5 years that i have visited my dad in Melbourne. he's been over here every year, but i've only been over there once. :) but yes. three days in Melbourne, and a week in Adelaide (re: conference).
trust me, we're workaholics - a conference somewhere is about as close as we are ever likely to get to a *real* holiday. (do you think they ever schedule knitting conventions and chemistry conferences for the same place/time? hmmm. worth investigating.)

anyway, thats enough for a pure-text post. i just wanted to say i do remember i have a blog, and i will be back! and hopefully with pictures! XD

I have laughed at galaxies

it is raining.
i am eating toasted sandwiches, filled with melty cheese and tomato relish.
i am going to have a coffee very soon.
and then i'm going to sit in the library.

i don't know about you, but this is pretty much my blissful day. (if only i didn't have to go out tonight. le sigh. why am i so socially gracious? all i really want to do is put my slippers on and knit!)

no photos today, dismal light lately what with the rain and such, but when it clears up for long enough, i am going to show you pretty pictures of my new flat, which i think you will enjoy!
i hope everyone is having a less stressful week than i have, and a more productive one too.
xoxox

who stole the sand from the hourglass, and who filled it up with stones, drawing time to a close?

my oh my, where did that month go?

i swear i intended to post often and frequently, but i also thought i would notice the weeks passing me by...

so what have i been doing to warrant such fleeting time? studying, mostly. starting to write my thesis, as scary as that sentence sounds. currently not as hard as i had imagined, but i think i've started with the easy bits, and the time is passing me by so quickly...

so, you ask, what crafts have i been up to? what crafts! well. um. not a lot, i'm afraid to say. or at least, nothing worth photographing - little bits of progress here and there on a cabled scarf in the most sumptious black alpaca/silk Debbie Bliss, on my crochet afghan of doom, on dad's Dr Who scarf (please don't ask how long it's been since i started...), and on my bronze cardigan. whew! sounds like a lot more when i say it like that!

i do have a couple of photos to show that i had promised previously...

Mushrooms! a gorgeous six-panel teatowel; a smaller four-panel towel, and a single panel by itself. i just had to get them all! $2 from the Red Cross shop. i think the single panel will go as a patch on a bag, or maybe on one side of a potholder? the other two i'm not sure yet! they will sit until inspiration strikes.

and just so you don't think i never, ever finish anything...

Socks! my Charade socks, in al their firey glory. okay, a bit washed out it the sunshine, actually, but you get the idea. finished just in time for spring! yeah...

The other thing i have been doing lately, is spring cleaning. In anticipation of moving in November (our lease runs out and we want a nicer flat, with y'know, insulation and all that fancy stuff) i've been cleaning out a lot of my stuff. old clothes, books, and cds have been donated and thrown, and i finally dug into the two "misc" boxes that i haven't unpacked really since i moved out of my dad's place, oh, four years ago? they were quickly decimated, ruthlessly shed, and what few things i kept reintegrated into other areas of my room. but stashed away in there i did find a wee surprise. a suggestion that, maybe, maybe i knew where i was headed afterall.

Owls! charts for two Tawny and two Barn owls, plus an expanse of aida cloth. i have vague memories of begging my mother blue for this one day when we were in the craft store, when she was probably getting supplies for her never-ending Castle cross-stitch. i remember she kept showing me little mice, and flowers, and things done in thick wool, simple little kids kits. but i was adamant i could do the owls, i would do an owl for her and an owl for dad to go with their big dragon/unicorn/fantasy collections of stuff. i never did, of course - i think i remember mum buying one or two colours of floss to go with it, but i don't know i ever even started. but i kept them, in the paper bag they came in, with the aida. so maybe, even before i really knew i was destined to fall in love with textiles? i like to think so. and maybe i'll still stitch an owl or two for mum and dad, just to remind me why i love them.

Seahorses

sorry, a rather picture-less post for today, because i feel bad for not posting in a while, but i'm at university (i swear i'm working, i'm just... mulling. yes, that's it, i'm mulling over something. and mulling requires blogging, because if i clear away some of the debris in my head, my mulling will go better. yes.) and therefore have no pictures/camera/sunshine/stuff to take pictures of.
At home, however, i do have a wee stash of gorgeous thrifted finds, finished(!!) knitted socks, and Things to Do with Mushrooms, all of which i will try to take photos of for next time.
For now, i'm just revelling in feeling productive, having finished crafty projects (socks and cross-stitch), started new ventures (inspiration scrapbook!), and actually got a decent amount of study done yesterday.
However, in the back of my head, there's a little conga-line of happy playing, which is distracting me, because my best friends are coming home in exactly one week and 12.5 hours. They have been gone for about nine months, tripping around Ireland and Europe and getting into all sorts of mischief, spending losing and making money, drinking and partying and hauling trees off French roads in ungodly heat, and taking about a million bazillion photos all of which i plan to see when they get home. You know what's even better? they're coming home the day after my birthday.
Friendship is the best. birthday present. ever.

Summertime Blues

It's sunny again! after a nice dose of fog. Fog until lunchtime, now there's something you don't see every day! i was almost expecting zombies to shuffle past or something. why yes, i do connect everything to horror movies, why do you ask? :)


You would think university being back would mean less crafting. actually, the exact opposite happens - i feel the need to craft more, simply because i shouldn't be. as soon as you tell me i should be doing something else, i am guaranteed to want to pick up the knitting.


Thanks to the help of my friend Claire, i figured out what was stumping me about my lace shawlette chart - basically, i was reading it wrong. i've never done lace before, and this billed itself as an intermediate pattern, so it's my own fault really. So, i need to frog what i already have and start again, this time without just making things up when it doesn't look right.

What has been keeping me from that, however, is this:





yup, i started cross stitching.


I have done a little before in the past, but got bored easily - all those tiny little stitches never seemed to turn *into* anything, and don't even ask about the back of my work!



After getting sucked into the flickr group for http://www.subversivecrossstitch.com/ i decided i really needed to give cross stitch a second go, and managed to find the book on trademe for a pittance. It arrived yesterday, and i've already finished my first piece, so it's satisfying my need for immediate gratification quite nicely! This piece is for one of my best friends, who is returning from a jaunt in Ireland next month. The next piece will be a design of my own for the other best-friend-returning-from-Ireland. (i really need an acronym for that. BFRFI?)


Maybe after that i'll do something a little less offensive for my nephew. I'm currently toying with the idea of one fish, two fish, but let's see what i can get done before the end of the month!


What i do already have for Flynn, my nephew, is this:












The most gorgeous little picture book i've ever seen. and i work in a bookstore, so i see a lot of books! It's sweet and simple, about a rabbit and his "not-a-box"; all the fun things you can do with a box! i happen to know Flynn likes his boxes, so i think this is fairly appropriate. also coming are a crayon roll and owie bag from http://felt.co.nz/browse/user/cattaylor, with little trucks all over them. All of that is going in a nice brown recycled paper gift bag for Flynn's first birthday. i'm hoping my sister-in-law will let Flynn draw all over the bag with his new crayons, and use it for a gift bag for his grandma or something - i'm trying to be that eco-friendly gift person, in the hopes i can influence them without being nagging or self-righteous. I don't want to make them feel bad for buying new things, or things made in china, or disposable things - i just want to show them a few other options, and how cool those other options can be!


How do other people introduce or encourage other being to be thrifty or sustainable?

Finally, to go with the sunshine, some flowers.









Made for the Slip installment for the Winter Garden at the end of this month. i never managed to pick up any of the sponsored wool, so i hope my stashbusting wool is suitable! i had great fun crocheting these in ad breaks and while cooking dinner. :) 14 in total, i could have done more, but wanted to actually post them off in time for them to be useful!


Now that the fog has lifted i might walk down to the supermarket. Hooray for sunshine!

vintage people

today was sunny. this meant i did no work whatsoever. not even an email.

i did, however, go into town and do some shopping.

the impetus for being in town was actually to take some boots to the shoe repair place in there, followed by lunch at Java with a friend.

Both of those things happened, but were followed with a trip to Two Squirrels thrift store.

That is where i fell in love with these:

Vintage red kerchief-scarf-thing. i finally have one of those things everyone else has! only i win, because mine is red. even though i cast on for something like this last night at knitting, but in pink.

A gorgeous green vintage apron. do i have a use for this? not even slightly. am i going to try and get away with wearing it over skirts to uni, just because? totally.

They also had these gorgeous wee bags of old buttons, which when i bought one up to the counter, made the lovely guy there grin and pull out a HUGE tin of old buttons, and ask if i wanted to look at some of them too. urk. at that point my eyes popped out and i started drooling, and then (very responsibly i thought) told him i'd have a look next time, and would just start with this bag.

i turned down buttons? gosh, i must be growing up!

i also got some shoes, but if i posted a picture of every pair of shoes i bought, i'd have to completely change the focus of this blog.

Speaking of the focus of this blog, i cast on a new project at knitting last night. i know, i should really be trying to finish any one of the 7 other things i have on the needles, but this is *cashmere*.

Isn't it pretty? from http://www.needlefood.co.nz/ at Craft 2.0 last month. Absolutely gorgeous and smooshy and needs to be near my face so i can snuggle it, so is going to become a shawly-scarf thing. like what i bought today! only pinks and blacks and cashmere. so it doesn't count as a double-up. *looks innocent*

must go, time to cook dinner - i swear there'll be better photos next post!

xoxox

New Beginnings

Well. i've finally emigrated. (virtually, that is!)

After being on LiveJournal for years now, i've decided it's time for a fresh start. No more gloomy posts! No more ranting about the weather/assignments/life! (okay, well maybe a little. but less!)

Crafts have taken over my life, it is only fitting that they take over my blog aswell.

Hopefully, this blog will be a place for inspiration, new projects, and pretty photos. A new blog for a new post-graduate life, and some thinking about the future and what being a Grown Up (TM) might mean.

(Or at least, ways to avoid being one!)

As ever, however, it will be a great tool for procrastination. She says from the warmth of the Grad Lab. :)

Look out interwebs, i come bearing cake!

xoxox