Goodbye 2011, Hello 2012!!

J and I spent a lovely week in Sydney over Christmas catching up with lots of my family and good friends and eating and drinking lots of delicious treats. We arrived back in Adelaide last night, just in time for the 40C heatwave forecast for the start of the new year!

Now that Christmas is over I can put up a few pictures of the cross-stitch tea towel/table runner that I made for my parents to use on their boat. I chose an assortment of whales, dolphins and colourful fish from a cool cross-stitch pattern book full of sea creatures. The book is a DMC special edition called 'Seaside/Bord de mer' which has more than 300 designs that are all related to the ocean/seaside...I think I found it at Spotlight several years ago. As you can see from the photos, Puss n Boots tried their hardest to be involved in the making of the project.

This morning (01/01/2011) it seemed like a good time to go through my stash of un-finished craft projects, triage them, and decide on a plan of action to complete as many as possible as well as preparing for a few new projects I have in mind. Two friends are expecting babies in the next few months, so I would like to make something homemade for each of them, plus I have 2 scarfs in progress for gifts, 2 other baby clothes in progress to keep for the future, and the crochet blanket that I am slowly working on in between everything else. I have now completed 17 granny squares for the crochet blanket, probably 100+ to go...I'm not sure whether to start stitching them together or to just leave them all as squares until I have enough to assemble an entire blanket.

Grand Canyon National Park

Just returned last night from a work trip to America. The conference in San Diego was amazing with 20,000 haematologist clinicians and scientists attending! Following the conference I took advantage of being in America and took a 3 day holiday to visit the Grand Canyon National Park. It was spectacular! To make it even better, it had been snowing and everything was covered in beautiful white snow! It was pretty cold, the maximum temp was zero degrees C, and it got down to -17C! Due to the ice and snow it wasn't possible to hike down into the canyon without crampons and snow shoes, but there were still lots of walks along the South Rim trails, full of amazing views. There were also plenty of Elk around, which seemed to be pretty confident around humans and came nice and close :-) A friend and I stayed the night in a cabin in the national park so we could experience a sun set and also a sun rise over the canyon. I'd say winter is a wonderful time to visit, no crowds of people, and the snow made it even more magic.
 

As the security people at the airport kindly confiscated my 'safety' (blunt) scissors and wouldn't allow me to take a crochet hook on the plane I did not get any craft done on the long flights between Australia and America. Hopefully should get some time to finish a few projects in the next month or so and post pictures up soon.

Introducing "Puss" n "Boots"

The exciting news is that last weekend we added two new members to our crazy household - "Puss" n "Boots". I have never really been a 'cat' person before, but these two are so adorable and I love them already. They were just under 6-weeks old when we picked them up - a bit young to be taken from their mother really, but they were unwanted by their previous owners and were advertised as a giveaway, so we happily adopted them. They seem happy playing and snuggling together, have already managed to figure out what the kitty litter is for, and are gobbling up kitten milk and kitten-size dry food already. Puss is more inquisitive and mischievous than Boots, and Boots is a little bit more cuddly and shy, but very quick to catch on to whatever mischief Puss is getting into! They are very gentle and snuggly when they aren't going wild playing together. When we cuddle them and they start purring their whole body vibrates it's so cute!

The kittens have pretty much stolen most of my spare time in the evenings now so not as much craft happening, especially as I can no longer leave half-finished knitting project lying round in case Puss n Boots discover them and think they would make a good chew-toy! I do have a few projects on the go but mostly they are for upcoming Christmas presents so I probably wont be posting pictures of them until after Christmas.

Kayaking for 'Girl's Day Out' 2011

Had a busy weekend. With some friends I took part in the 'Girl's Day Out' charity paddle to raise funds for cancer research and support for cancer sufferers and their families. It was a 6km paddle in Adelaide's West Lakes, and was lots of fun although my arms can really feel the effects of the headwind now! The kayaks were supplied for free by uniSA which was great.

I also made another pair of little baby booties, for another friend who is having a baby soon... and I also discovered by trial and error that the wheat bag I made recently is too fat to heat up properly...so I have made another one; smaller and with less wheat. The new one is about 15cm x 30cm and contains 3 cups of wheat.

Annual pilgrimage

Have just returned from what seems to be becoming an annual pilgrimage to the bogan V8 races in Bathurst followed by a few days on Sydney's Northern Beaches catching up with friends and family. J and I were both volunteer flag marshalls at the race, which involved 4 days of signing on at 6am (or 5am on the 4th day), heading out to a designated flag point around the track with a small team and waving all the flags and safety directions to the race cars, checking the track is free from hazards and helping out if there is a crash or some other incident. They were very long days, standing for about 12 hours each day in very rainy and foggy weather, but it was also interesting and fun, seeing a different side of motor racing and being a part of a volunteer team. The beanie I knitted recently came in very handy as it was freezing in the evenings.

In Sydney we spent most of the time catching up with as many friends and family as possible to see in a few short days, plus enjoyed some nice walks along Palm Beach, up the Smuggler's track to Barrenjoey headland, and also visited Bangelly head where we caught a glimpse of some whales and a big school of fish from the cliffs at the top.

On the craft front, not a lot to report. Managed to complete another 3 crochet granny squares in the car on the drive over to NSW from Adelaide, and that's about it. On returning home, all my veggies and herbs are growing well, and the sweet peas climbing up the trellis in the back yard are in full bloom and look lovely. I planted a whole lot of more seeds and seedlings this week too - chives, coriander, cherry tomatoes, strawberries...

Today I also made a wheat bag. I just got some wheat from the local pet shop, and quickly sewed up a little rectangle of fabric into a pillow shape, filled it with the wheat, stitched up the little opening, swept up all the extra wheat I managed to spill all over the floor, and voila - a cute and handy wheat bag to heat up next time it's cold or I have a sore back! :-) I had wanted to make one for a while and when I was in Sydney I saw some that a friend had made to sell in her Chiro practice and it inspired me to actually make one myself (thanks Georgie!).

Images from Port Willunga Beach

I seem to have a head full of craft ideas and projects but nothing in a finished state to share photos of just yet. I'm working on knitting another pair of newborn booties for a friend whose baby is due in November, also another plain vest (similar to the ones made here and here), but with some lovely light blue wool with little brown speckles in it. I have plans to start a cross-stitch tea-towel but am still deciding on the exact details of the design. I'll post pics of these projects when they are finished. For the moment here's a few photos taken down at Port Willunga Beach over the last week or so. I love going for walks and runs down at this beautiful beach, and I usually bring my camera with me to capture some of the ever-changing scenes.

Bathurst Beanie

Well things have been a bit crazy and busy lately, so I haven't managed to find much time to do any craft, let alone write about it on my blog! But this week I have started to make time for craft again - I really miss it when I haven't got at least one project one the go! I have been slowly working on my crochet blanket, just doing a square here and there (I've finished 10 squares now). In preparation for our Bathurst camping trip, I also started making a beanie for myself this week, and have just finished it. It was a very easy pattern. The beanie is nice and snug and warm. I made it with a multicoloured yarn that is a mix of blues and greens called "Scottish meadows".

Also, towards the end of August I planted some of the seeds for my purple carrots, assorted carrots, scarlet runner beans and purple-podded peas. They have just started to sprout this week...can't wait until they are big enough to harvest! :-)