Pretty magnets

These magnets are on my fridge (except when they appear in photoshoots for blog purposes) and everytime I look at them, they make me smile. The spotty fabric is Kaffe Fassett, the brown and lime almond shape was a fabric in my stash and I got the purple arcs when I was in Japan.
These little circles cheer up my fridge. I gave some to my friends last Christmas - I hope their fridges are more cheery now too!

One word meme

I was crusin' the suburbs and found this on Curly Pops' blog, and Pip's and some other crafty gals. I will share a secret with you...I love these question/answery things. But keeping to one word answers will be a struggle. Here goes.

1. Where is your cell phone? Bench??
2. Your significant other? Tour de France
3. Your hair? Brownish
4. Your daughter? Hopefully!
5. Your son? Snoozing
6. Your favorite thing? Family
7. Your dream last night? Weird
8. Your favorite drink? Tea
9. Your goal? Happiness
10. The room you’re in? Lounge
11. Your church? Nope
12. Your fear? Birds
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Here
14. Where were you last night? Home
15. What you’re not? Sad
16. Muffins? Cupcakes
17. One of your wish list items? NYC
18. Where you grew up? Albury
19. The last thing you did? Chocolate
20. What are you wearing? Jumpie
21. Your TV? On
22. Your pets? Nope
23. Your computer? Essential
24. Your life? Rosy
25. Your mood? Contented
26. Missing someone? Sis
27. Your car? Driveway
28. Something you’re not wearing? Shoes
29. Favorite store? Books
30. Your summer? Camping
31. Like(love) someone? Yesssss
32. Your favorite color? Yellow
33. Last time you laughed? Tonight
34. Last time you cried? Tonight
35. Who will repost this? ??

This is...something I'm working on

Not sure if you can tell what this is.... it's a work in progress.
Now that I've made three and a half beanies, I feel like I'm ready to tackle a new crochet project. I've decided to make Herbie some arm warmers. Should I follow a pattern? Heck no! Make it up as you go along I say! The cute thing is that his arms are so tiny that I only needed to do about 15 chain stitches - hopefully they'll fit - he'll probably be 14 by the time I've finished.
No seriously - I must finish this before the end of the week. A self imposed deadline and now that I've committed to it on this blog, I'll feel a sense of responsibility to finish them. And if the end of the week rolls around and there is not a picture of a young boy wearing yellow and blue arm warmers, it is up to YOU, the crafty public, to leave snitchy comments about my lack of crafty commitment. Ok?

'This is' proudly bought to you by Three Buttons and lots and lots of other players.

The votes are counted, it's official: the Mr is one good looking man.

The Mr returned from o/s about 2 weeks ago - so naturally today was the day that we both decided that his bag full of washing really did need to be emptied and laundered. Cleaning out all the bags and associated bits and bobs uncovered this little gem:
Obviously in their haste to crack onto the Mr, the 'lovely F/A's' had a mind blank when it came to spelling passenger.

Ants...a reflection

So the ants are back. They are stubborn little buggers and they are SMART. Speaking of smart things, I love smarties - love them more than M&M's (except the white M&M's) and often indulge in a little smartie goodness once the little tacker is in bed. The other night I thought I'd reached the end of the packet and stupidly left it on the coffee table - next morning ANT PARTY. They had demolished the shell of the 2 remaining smarties. Clever and good taste hey?
I went on a killing spree last night with my friend Mortein. I sprayed the sink and got about 100 casualties. And it made me a little sad. I kept thing of Z, the cute little worker ant in Antz and how he was a pretty good guy and that humans did terrible things like stepped on ants, dropped water on them etc. I'm not sure I can remember Mortein featuring in the movie but damn that stuff is powerful. It literally kills them in their tracks.

And then I started thinking like an ant....I thought devious thoughts. I decided not to wipe up the dead ants because I think that if I were an ant marching along and saw 100 dead friends, I would think 'STOP. THIS IS ENEMY TERRITORY.' and I'd go back to my safe little nest, tell my alive friends and we'd all make a decision to uproot our camp and move to Switzerland.
So I'm in a bind - kill them and rid the house of them OR try to beat them with mind games OR let them do their thing and wait till they naturally get sick of our place and move on?
Who knew ants were so complex? Or do I have too much time on my hands?

Image from lookingcloser.org

Cat

A one line drawing of Cat. The Mr did it. Isn't it sweet?

This is...what makes me happy

Lots of things make me happy but probably the thing that warms my heart the most is watching the Mr and the little man. He is so good with Herb, he creates fun games that I would never even think of, he encourages him gently and catches him when he falls (both metaphorically and literally). He is Mr Fun and it is pretty clear the joy that Herb feels when the Mr comes home from work.
At the zoo yesterday, we were holding his hands helping him walk. I am sure he is capable of walking on his own but I'm not sure that he thinks he is. The Mr hit his strides and before we knew it, they were bounding along.Other things that make me happy are:

• Putting the little one to bed at night with no tears and no screaming
• Going into his room when he wakes up in the morning and seeing his huge smile
• Laughing
• Rainy days
• Cooking something really tasty and then eating it with loved ones
• Loved ones
• Family get togethers
• Craft
• West Wing, Scrubs and Grand Designs
• Friends
• Cups of tea
• Caramel slice, smarties and white chocolate
• Going to the movies, eating popcorn
• Growing vegetables
• Smell of clean jumpers
• Playing with the little guy
• Breastfeeding him
• Making a dinner which he and the Mr really love
• Pasta
• Sharing meals with friends
• Printing mailing labels
• Getting handwritten letters in the post
• Using the quilt I made
• Going to the park
• Not worrying about what time it is
• Snuggling under the covers
• Going out for dinner
• Nice cutlery
• Holidays
• My blue and white stripey milk jug
• Seeing people reunite at airports
• Saying hello to people on a walk around the neighbourhood
• Doing things on the spur of the moment
• Sleeping through the night
• Having a bath
• Reading books that you just can't put down
• Weekends
• Christmas
• Flicking through housey magazines looking for renovation inspiration
• Watching Herb grow
• Flowers - in the garden and in the house
• Lots of things...maybe I'm just happy?!

Note: not listed in order of importance (!)

Kissy Saturday

Today my little one learnt how to kiss! For a while, he's opened his mouth right up and every now and again, he'll press it up against my face and give me a big wet mark. But today I made a kissy sound at him and he turned around and gave me a (wet) kiss. It was soooo cute. Then the Mr said, 'Herb, give me a kiss' and what did he do? Planted one right on his lips.
We took advantage of the 10 minutes of Melbourne sunshine today and went to the zoo. What a different experience that is with a small person. We were there for 70 minutes and we pretty much saw everything (minus the birds...shudder).
Although the zoo has animals of the exotic variety, Herb's favourite seemed to be the carp swimming around near the otters. I must say, he took it very well when the lions roared and was very gentle when the kangaroo put a paw on his leg and sniffed him.
What an adventure it was. Happy days.

Image from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Lions_-_melbourne_zoo.jpg

I love my boy

Wow, this must be my 'I love' week. So far this week, I've declared my love for Grand Designs, Pantone, Arial (well, my hate for TNR), and SATC. But today I declare my deepest love for my little bub.

This morning he was so lovely and in this rush of emotion, I thought I should blog about it. We had a lovely breakfast of porridge with pear and blueberries. And he fed himself most of it. I love watching him do that. When he gets the spoon in his mouth, he throws his arms above his head and smiles at me while I say 'hooray!'. Then he skeeted around playing with the esky handle, the picnic basket, the washing basket and his plastic hammer - so incredibly cute. After that, I thought things would quickly slide downhill because it was time to change the nappy. Ie. time to have a tantrum, arch his back and protest. But not today! He lay down quietly with his Casper Caterpillar book and played with Casper's googly eyes while I did the nappy thing. Peek-a-boo is something he's learnt to play this week. I've been peek-a-booing for a while now but lately, he has gotten the hang of it - so we played it for a while...he shielded his face with Casper and then flung Casper down in one swift motion and giggled himself silly.

We played with some empty boxes and put some things that don't belong in boxes, into boxes. Onto Playschool. We caught the last 10 minutes of it and he sat in my lap while I cuddled him and watched peacefully. My little boy is a wriggly worm. He really only sits still when he is sick but today we had a big cuds and the best news is - he isn't sick (thank god). After a lovely breastfeed, he is tucked up in bed for his morning sleep while his happy mama blogs the hours away.

Aint life grand?

Grand designs. Grand show.

I love Grand Designs. Kevin is SUCH a good host, he is so gracious and kind. I love that he has such an open mind and is encouraging yet challenging with his ideas.
And boy did I love that episode with the crazy house in the middle of nowhere that had 2 pools and the most bizarre mis-match of styles. I didn't love the house, I didn't love the couple but I did love how unimpressed Kevin was. It's the first time I've seen that side of you Kev!

Damn you Times New Roman

One thing I really don't like is Times New Roman. I think that Excel has the right idea - it defaults to Arial. But what is going on with Word??

This is...what scrambles my brain when I try to understand it

This weeks theme is from Flightless Boyds and I must say, there isn't just one thing that scrambles my brain when I try to understand it. I've limted this post to two brain scrambly things...
1. Physics
The Perimeter Institute for Physics. Isn't the building cool? (Image from www.egodesign.ca)


Physics is something that I think is kinda cool but I just do not understand it. It makes my brain ache. I tried my hand at physics in Year 11 and in the first class was told that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. The example given was: 'See this glass on the table? It is putting force onto the table and the table is putting equal and opposite force onto the glass.' I DO NOT GET THIS! The table is a lot bigger than the glass so shouldn't it be throwing up lots more force? So shouldn't the glass shoot off the table? And why does the table need to throw force upward anyway? Can't it just let the glass sit on there without throwing up any force? I grappled with this theory for a while and then made the decision that physics was not for me. I went and changed my subjects. Ditch physics and enrol in drama.
I can see that the area of physics is interesting. I really love maths. I think maths is super clever and interesting and I know that physics and maths are practically best friends, so I don't know why I have trouble with physics. The Mr has tried time and again to explain different aspects to me. I can follow it for a while but then the brain goes scrambly and it is no use trying.

2. The Tour de France

Cadell Evans celebrating in 2007. (Image from www.theage.com.au)

I love the Tour. It is on at the moment and it is great to watch. All that lovely french countryside, that commentator who makes every meter of the Tour exciting. The bit with Gabriel Gate at the start of SBS's coverage making something delicious from each region of France. It is all great. So what makes my brain scrambly? The rules. I don't get the yellow jersey, the green jersey, the teams, the strategy, the pelaton.

Like physics, I know that this is all interesting. I know that if I understood it, I'd find the strategy really, really interesting. But right now, it is a mystery to me.

I think if you are fit enough to be able to bike ride a billion k's around France, why would you not want to win? Or at least try your hardest? The Mr has explained a bit of the Tour to me and I'm sure he said that they race in teams but some riders have the job of being the sacrifical lamb. Basically they are willing to sacrifice themselves and their spot in the race for the best rider in their team. On one hand I think that is very admirable - one of the few sporting events that seems to have such and element. But then I think of the dark horse. Who chooses the 'best person' in the team? What if another member of the team was having a great race and would have gone really well but instead they put themselves on the line for their 'best chance'? People put years of effort into training for this race, only to be a mere wing man.

But I suppose that the real achievement of the Tour is actually finishing the race.

Ok. While I've been typing away here, I've made up my mind that tonight I am going to sit down with the Mr and ask him to explain the tactics of the Tour. I will try my hardest to use my grey matter and understand all the confusion.

Then maybe tomorrow we'll tackle physics.

Sex and the city

For those of you who haven't seen the movie - read on at your own peril....

I saw it a week ago with some gals from my mother's group and I have to say the expectation going into it was low. I was thinking about other TV disapointments eg. last episode of Seinfeld. How could the girls recreate the magic after such a long absence?

Who knows how they did it but they damn well did.

I loved it. I loved that it was a long movie, loved that I was chowing down on a mega box of popcorn in the dark theatre, loved that I saw it at the Westgarth, loved that it still felt a little TV episode-ish and LOVED the bit where Carrie hit Big with the bouquet. Hit him over, and over, and over again.

What I also loved about the movie was the good girlfriend vibes that went with it. I loved seeing it with 3 of my girlfriends and I loved seeing other women with their gal pals. It kind of felt like a grown up sleepover.

The Mr is o/s this week for work with instructions to lay his hands on a DVD of the movie. That way I can watch it over, and over, and over again!

image from http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/movies/galleries/

The ants are marching

Bloody ants!
They are everywhere. I first spied a lone ant in the kitchen and then, on closer inspection there was not one ant, or even two - but approximately 50 squillion.
HOW do they get in? WHY do they come in? WHERE can I find out how to rid my house of these little devils?

I've tried several wives tales: Cayenne pepper, peppermint oil, borax but nothing works. The only thing that does work that is remotely child friendly is talcum powder. Squirt the buggers with talc and they seem to wobble around. Problem is, I don't know if they die from the talc or simply avoid it.

They are driving me crazy. Here's a list of where I've seen them:

• in the kitchen cupboards
• in the sink
• on the floorboards in the lounge
• in the toy box
• on the coffee table
• in my wool stash (why??)
• in my handbag
• on my computer - and in my computer
• ON my son. (not happy with that)

You are probably wondering what squallor I live in. I swear this house is clean! And just to give you an idea of exactly how clean it is - I tell you this: my mum has just visited me for one week. She is a champion cleaner and has mopped, wiped, re-mopped, ironed, bleached, bi-carbed, vinegared, scrubbed and washed to within an inch of the houses' life.

But still the ants are here. Not even she could rid the house of them.

Anyone out there have a sure-fire, kid-friendly remedy?

image from msinsights.com

I love Pantone

I love colors and my fine attention to detail (ok, some would call it anal) personality loves that colors are organised into one massssssive classification. It makes for such easy reference.
Plus the color wheel is so nicely designed - crisp and clear. In exciting news - a Pantone color wheel might be coming my way...

Pic from Babymammoth's Flickr page

No crochet today. No craft today.

It's been a day of looking after the little one. He is sick and is needing lots of TLC. Although not 2 yet, he is well versed in how to throw a tantrum. Arch the back, bang the head on the ground, turn red in the face and give a good old scream.

Mint Slice vs Tim Tam

Tough call ... I think I'll go with Tim Tam.

I just love this cabinet

Remember the garage sale? Well, the point of having the GS was to get rid of stuff but somehow this cabinet snuck into our house. One seasoned garage sale bloke came and bought 6 items for a whopping $3 then asked me to carry them to his car (I think he'd had a hip operation - luckily cause I thought it was a bit rude to haggle down to $3 then expect valet service) and I spotted this little gem in the back of his station wagon. Turns out he'd bought it for $35 (!) at another garage sale that morning. He offered to sell it to me and I tried to act all 'oh...I don't know...I guess I MIGHT be interested' when all the while my insides were screaming - I WANT THAT CABINET. In the end we settled on $50. He drove a hard bargain but I still think that I was the winner of the day - a cheap price for such lovely deco-ness. God I love art deco.

Supermarket happiness

Last night I did the supie shopping and stumbled across a very small craft section. I think it was in the same aisle as cleaning products - which may explain why I hadn't seen it before. To my great delight they sell crochet hooks! I love the idea that at any time of the day or night, crochet-a-holics can dash down to the supie to pick up an emergency hook.

This is...my most treasured childhood possession

Cat.

Isn't he beautiful? I think I got him when I was 3. One of mum's friends gave this cat to my sister and gave me a monkey. I didn't like the monkey, sis didn't take to the cat so a happy swap was executed. Cat and Monkey were our best mates. And still are.

p.s. I love how kids call their toys by such obvious names. The Mr has a panda called Panda. I love Panda too.

This is....my best op shop find

I bought this cheery dress to make a door snake. But I can't bring myself to cut it up! I think it was $5 from Vinnies. Maybe $3?? Anyway, the weave of the fabric is really cool and the pockets? So cute.

Would you believe that it is originally from Target? How times have changed eh? The cut is very 1960's, the top is quite fitted and the skirt flares out in a major way. I've tried it on but I don't think I could pull it off - maybe I'll have another preview in the summer time.

I could make a dress for a little girl - actually, that is a great idea. Now I just need to have a little girl!

Boys in the hood

Herbie's beanie is finished and my addiction to crochet is still going strong. Next up, a beanie for me.

Art Deco comes to Melbs

provided by: www.glittertools.com

Have you seen the Art Deco exhibit at NGV? Me neither but I wanna.

Wool glorious wool!

Now that I've got the crochet bug I've also caught a related illness...the wool fetish. I've always wanted an excuse to buy wool.
I went on an excursion to Wool Baa in Albert Park, lots of nice wool to be had there. I had the little one in tow which meant I spent about 10% of my time looking at wool and the other 90% making sure that he was not eating wool.
I chose this beautiful blue Jo Sharp ball. I think the color is called Boheme, it is part of the Silkroad collection. Plans are to make a little beanie so the boy can match his dad.

I also bought another ball of Silkroad, the color is Emporio which is a really rich red/maroon with flecks of orange and brown. The camera just didn't do it justice.