Posted in Food, Gardening, Home life, Sustainability, tagged Garden, Growing on July 31, 2008| 8 Comments »
Inspired by my evil twin I went out in all my waterproof gear this morning and gathered up the citrus that fell during the last storm and discovered some flowers amongst the weeds. I’ll save the vege patch for another post when I’ve finished weeding it š But crikey there’s veges under the weeds!
Wheeny Grapefruit, Poorman’s Orange, Mandarin, Meyer Lemons, still wet from the rain.
Helibore (the winter rose), White Daphne and Earlicheer.
Posted in Craft, Give-away, Paper on July 29, 2008| 2 Comments »
Oh my! You MUST go to Anemone right now and play paper dolls! These girls are so clever!
I can’t decide which I like best and there is so much to choose from!
Posted in Reading, Writing, tagged Library, Writers on Mondays on July 28, 2008| 3 Comments »
The Writer on Mondays series of talks has started up again for the year (a couple of weeks ago actually). The Institute of Modern Letters puts on 12 weeks worth of free lectures and literary events every year and they are free! I missed the first event, which was poetry focused, due to the school holidays (bumm!).
Last week saw Mary McCallum and Susan Pearce discussing their debut novels. Congratulations by the way to Mary for winning the Montana Book Award for First book of Fiction and the Reader’s Choice award.
I scribbled down a few notes for my reader/writer friends:
The novels both track the lives of women isolated by religion (Acts of Love, Pearce) and remoteness (The Blue, McCallum). Mary and Susan discussed the process of producing a first novel with fellow novelist Kate Duignan.
Both books illustrated the importance of community. Inside a small isolated place a group of people are very aware of each other. For some authors characters develop out of a list with functions. Authors may start with one main charcter then other characters begin to emerge with different dispositions. Characters carry around judgements made by other charcters. Character’s reactions to things are their personality traits carried through (Sorry – I did say scribbles!).
Susan talked about something that Rachael blogged very well about a wee while ago – the need for daydreaming time, thinking and vegitating time – yes,yes,yes!!!!!
Today’s author was American novelist Richard Powers, who has explored the effects of modern science and technology in his fiction. He talked with Kim Hill about his writing and philosophy. I guess I’ve thought a lot about how art and science meet so I was sitting there think “So what” when they talked about science and art not being as divided as previously thought.
They are both stories with which we attempt to understand the world and establish “truths”. Kim Hill asked him if he was afraid of technology, which I thought was a bit silly. Powers said he didn’t fear technology itself but it was possible to fear displacement caused by technology. He also talked about how history (and “truth”) cannot be changed but our interpretation of it can.
Really there were no new ideas (of course some people would say there are no new ideas) but he spoke very eloquently. His speaking style, like his writing style was quiet poetic and very dense so I had to pinch myself a bit to stay focussed.
I also trotted off to the library and got out some books about Jane Austen because I’ve been thinking about protagonists making choices and how consequence come from those choices. Of course Austen is the champion of making the right choices. I’ve been thinking about how Pride and Prejudice contrasts with Mansfield Park. How in P&P it’s a good thing to be witty and ironic etc and in MP the Crawfords are villified, hmmm.
Posted in Craft, Craft Markets, Swaps, tagged Craft Markets on July 22, 2008| 13 Comments »
Shelly and I had a blast at 2.0 (sadly Carmen was away and couldn’t join us). It seemed like there were thousands of people, the whole venue was absolutely packed, Yay! We love the Dowse. And Thanks so much to the fabbo Sue!
The paper packs were a winner, we sold out of those, also Shelly’s gorgeous Madonna and child plushys, the decals and iron on transfers, and the button box was totally depleted!I only have a few vintage patterns and covered buttons left and I think Shelly sold everything. It was a great, friendly crowd and I got to meet a few lurky readers *waves* Hi there!!! and meet some lovely online friends in the flesh – Helen, Alison, Louise, Emma to name a few.
Do you see the flower in my hair? It turned up in the mail just before I left, it’s from the amazing Sandra. We did a swap, I sent her some hand printed fabric. I think I got the best end of the deal! The back has the most lovely secret message…
Great crafters obviously think alike because not so long ago I got the same message in the mail from Helen!
I’m trying! Some days I don’t feel so beautiful but when you have little messages like these it helps you get some perspective don’t you think?
Posted in Craft, Knitting, Refashion, Sustainability, tagged Wardrobe Refashion on July 22, 2008| Leave a Comment »
Okay, so now we’re back from holidays time to get back to re-fashioning!
My MIL gave me some odd balls of wool and I had some bits kicking around from old projects. They were in a nice pinky/purple colour scheme, perfect for my daughter who is still pretty obsessed with pink, sigh…
I found a pattern in a library book (sorry can’t remember the name) which showed how to make a poncho out of two basic rectangles – easy peasy! So here is the first half of the poncho. The second half is exactly the same size ( about 45 stiches wide on size 6 needles and about 55cm long) I just made up a repeating stripe pattern as it took my fancy.
To put together sticth at right angles then right angles again hmm, sound weird? Have a look at my terrible diagram! š
I will probably finish it off by putting tassles all around the bottom edge. You never know I might actually finish it before winter is over!
Cross posted to Wardrobe Refashion.
Posted in Home life, tagged Holidays on July 17, 2008| 6 Comments »
We made it back! Motueka and Nelson are great, even in the cold of winter. Up Mt Arthur it was truly enchanted with snow in the beech forest.
An ice dagger to slay the evil goblins in the enchanted forest.
Mr SYW’s mother lives on the edge of this estuary, the kids frolicked in the mud for crabs and sea snails at low tide.
Only 2 more sleeps ’til Craft 2.0 eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted in Home life, tagged Holidays on July 11, 2008| 3 Comments »
That’s because we are away for the school holidays…back at the end of next week.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Politics on July 3, 2008| 4 Comments »
Kira Cochrane in the Guardian, a must read. Hat tip Blue Milk.
Lets start liking ourselves and other women.
Posted in Refashion, Sewing, Sustainability, Thrifting, tagged Sewing, Wardrobe Refashion on July 2, 2008| 13 Comments »
Iāve just finished reading Barbara Kingsolverās Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, which was great by the way. I really want to try making the Mozzarella. Any way, there was a passing comment in it about the
āhuman desire to control an entire process of manufacture. Karl Marx called it the antidote to alienation.ā
This really struck a chord with me. Kingsolver talks about it with regards to eating food we have grown ourselves, which, I agree, is a very grounding (excuse the pun) experience. It also really relates to why I make anything from scratch, be it growing vegetables, preserving, baking, cooking the dinner, sewing clothes or talking my partner into building bookshelves. I wish I knew how to build a wind turbine! Going off grid would be my ultimate antidote to alienation.
Of course I am not alone; it is a real growing trend for people of my generation to do this. I think we are feeling alienated. We’ve been unhappy for a while now, not quiet sure why. The Multinational corporations told us weāll be happy if we buy the latest gadget, or save time by buying their instant meals, because weāre āworth itā. This has just led to an escalation in Affluenza. No wonder there is a rise also in Simple Living and cottage industries in response. Actually, this takes me back to a previous post about the pursuit of happiness.
On that note here is my first Wardrobe Refashion post. Over the next 26 weeks Iāll be posting about once a week about clothes and accessories Iāve sewn or adapted from thrifted or old stash fabric. Thereās also bound to a bit of pure thrifting or buying of handmade from other crafters. Pyjamas are, in my book, the most essential part of a wardrobe (Iām sure Epicurus would approve). It makes sense then to begin with these. I made two pairs, one from a single sheet and one from a double sheet (both thrifted). The double sheet still has enough fabric to make my daughter a nightie.
Dark, early morning with a cuppa.
Double sheet folded over, legs cut out. (kids and cat optional extras)
Two legs, ready to sew.
Show Your Workings 