Woops!! I've been tinkering with the banner up above and background colours etc. Bear with me for a little while until I get it all looking fresh and smart.
Other tinkerings:
a small plastic bag vessel with chubby thighs.
its innards
a beautiful and delicate visitor
a small empty space on my table...... a rare event
A busy day today.
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Hope you all had a wonderful holiday and feel bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, ready for 2012. I'm back in the studio this week after a visit to Sydney, Christmas celebrations and visitors to my little red house. Feels good.
some doodly fun
with thread
a petri dish doodle
and a slime mould experiment. Not really!
abundance from the garden
my first banana crop.
Good news: The ' Entropy Collection' will be exhibited in the Tweed River Regional Gallery this November. I'll be scaling it up to approx. 5.0 x 1.5m.
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The long-legged, jodpur-wearing Grand Champion of the Murwillumbah Show.
The curious Reserve Champion.
Our local produce.
Yummy cakes.......... note padlock.
The sweet smelling roses.
The gerberas.
and last but not least............ Mr. Potato Head.
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This time last year we had serious drought and had to get water trucked in, this year we're being inundated with rain and the tanks are overflowing. Australia apparently has the most variable weather in the world (according to meteorology professor I saw on TV the other day). The La Nina/El Nino weather pattern swap is very apparent here.
A couple of days ago Tigger and I had to abandon the car at the creek causeway, pack our valuables in a plastic bag and wade carefully across the swollen creek hanging on to each other. The water came up to my hips. It was exciting but also a bit scary!! Luckily Lucy was at home.
This photo was taken on the way out, by the time we came home the top bit of the reflector posts was all that could be seen. The water rises quickly but also dissipates very fast. Anyway I have the pantry stocked with a few essentials just in case we ever get flooded in.
This adorable little calf lives in the paddock just by the creek. She's a Hereford/Angus cross, I think. Such a pretty little moonface.
My house, looking back from the road. The two trees in the foreground are Gauvas which have been pruned by the cows.
A wallaby grazing in amongst the avacados. These cheeky guys also eat my vegetables and new little trees if they get a chance.
We're safe, dry and snug in our little house. Here's hoping the people living in Queensland are coping with the catastrophic floods. The rivers there are receding now, thank goodness.
From the Bureau of Meteorology:
"La Niña translates from Spanish as "the girl-child". The term "La Niña" has recently become the conventional meteorological label for the opposite of the better known El Niño.
The term La Niña refers to the extensive cooling of the central and eastern Pacific Ocean. In Australia (particularly eastern Australia), La Niña events are associated with increased probability of wetter conditions.
El Niño translates from Spanish as 'the boy-child'. Peruvian fisherman originally used the term - a reference to the Christ child - to describe the appearance, around Christmas, of a warm ocean current off the South American coast."
Hope you're new year has been good so far.
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Harriette is fully weaned, loves her grass and chews all day. After her daily grooming session she lies down next to me and either naps with her big head in my lap or chews cud blissfully. A lot of burping happens at this time. Just as well I've been planting lots of trees....... the carbon credits should help offset her methane emission.
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I had a visit to Sydney to see family and friends. The suitcase was stuffed full of unfinished projects and not many clothes....ha! The city completely consumed me and the unfinshed projects were barely touched.
Now back home in peaceful surroundings, I'm busily making up for lost time. The little red bag is made from yarn cut from an old Tshirt. The gingham came from the Salvo Opshop and the buttons were in my stash.
Tshirt yarn and a little patchwork pad for the Tpot.
Some time ago I had the "Plastic Detritus" linocuts printed onto fabric. The fabric has been tucked away for ages and I finally decided to make some little pouches from it.
I've been thinking about selling these at the local markets or perhaps online...not sure yet. Some sideways glances have been cast onto the crochet hook and plastic bag yarn. It won't be long before I start again. There are still some coral gardens in me waiting to materialize.
In the background of the shots are some old sheets of corrugated iron..... I love their colour, texture and patina. My partner Tigger, has been making a series of compost bays using these sheets which he bought at the "Tip Shop" for $2 a sheet......... now that's what I call a real bargain. There's a full wheelbarrow of Hariette's poo waiting to be composted.
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The sun came out today.......... a good opportunity to take some pics of the cushions I recently finished. It's been good to leave the plastic bag yarn and crochet "on the shelf" for a while. Playing around with the fabric stash and vintage needlepoints is a lot of fun.
Vintage floral needlepoints and some barkcloth were used in these two cushions. Also fabric scraps and ribbon left over from previous sewing projects.
First hexagon patchwork quilting attempt ever. The little quilting stitches are completely random and I used the paper piecing technique and sewed them all together by hand. I love running my hand over the dimple textures. It felt good to be sewing after concentrating on crocheting for so long. This could get addictive I think.
Ha!! A crocheted cushion too made entirely from cotton stash. It's based on the Babette afghan pattern by Kathy Merrick, Interweave Crochet, Spring 2006. You can find the pattern here .
..... and a baby blanket for little Twohill baby No.2 due in the next few weeks. The fabric is from IKEA, the light green Annamoa designed by Lotta Kuhlhorn. I cut out squares of my favourite bits of the pattern and machine-sewed them together. The backing is a green flannel cotton.
Coolest crabs around!!
A satisfying stack of cosy comfort.
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The rosella bushes were harvested a couple of weeks ago and I ended up with only about a 1kg of fruit. Once I'd removed the seeds I had only half the volume left........ it amounted to 3 small jars of rosella jam. Not much to show from 7 bushes. I must admit the bushes took a bit of a battering; they were attacked by all sorts of pests including cheeky Harriette.
After pulling out the spent bushes I decided to keep the branches......... such a pretty red.
I had a fun afternoon making this strange structure. Don't ask me what it is!!
More red vegetable matter...... red coral lettuce, ready for eating.
Harriette is doing very well. Her legs are getting really strong and she likes to gallop around kicking, bucking and swishing her tail around. The nights are cold now and I've noticed her fur is changing....... it's not as red, but a darker brown, it's coarser and much longer too.
My cheeky little bovine sweetie!
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Using preloved tapestry wools can mean a limited palette. When I'm restricted in the colours I have available to use........interesting accidents happen. Colours I would not normally put together sing out to be part of the composition.
Linnaeus Project wip and quandong fruit (Elaeocarpus grandis).
Photo taken on my very dry bird bath with fleshy leaves of tumeric sprouting in the background.
Quandong fruit and its red leaves. That reminds me of a lecture I'm going to on Thursday..... Andy Goldsworthy (the master of leaf arrangement) at the Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane. Yippee!!!
Linnaeus Project wip.
Bench Monday and woolly polyps between the toes.
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