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.