Finishing Off

It hasn't been the coldest of winters. A couple of weeks ago we actually put a crocheted blanket on each of the girls' beds for a little extra warmth around dawn. It is very satisfying to see something you've made yourself warming and enfolding your little ones. 

The granny square rug was made for our bed and occasionally ends up there but is more often found on the couch over the TV audience. I found the squares a little tedious by the end although I avoided hours of joining together by using the method where you crochet the last row (blue in this case)to the next square. So it gets joined as you go, a much less onerous task.

It was time to go back to the stripes although this time they are not zig zag ripples. This one is for one of the boys. It is not quite as long as I'd like it but can be used in the meantime between stages because it only needs one stitch to start again. By crocheting in the ends as you go there is no finishing off at all.

It could do with a  couple of rows all around to edge it but I'm not sure in what colour and it doesn't feel like it is finished yet. There are only two more to go till each child has one.

It feels like a little trick I'm playing on my body. You can't get sick again because I haven't finished all five blankets. That might mean I'll never quite finish the last one....just in case!

Now to finish off this post a little tight pants humour to set the day right. My brother showed me this long ago and you may have already seen it but it makes my heart sing! Number 3 Child did the little tight pants dance and song out to the car yesterday and will do anything I say if I start to do it myself in, for example, a school car park.

Rock-n-roller, Ayotollah!

Like old times

My work gave us a couple of days off for the Ekka. 

So I went to the op shop.

There were queens, West Germans and bears....oh my.

We ran into some other old friends at the oppy a while back too. Papa  Moomin and Horsey's foreign cousin, Slotneck Holeback led the group of newcomers into our home.

They seem to have settled in nicely to the animal house although Slotneck is already missing in action.

The queen and the other princesses are whooping it up in the girls' dorm.

Meanwhile there has been a small bit of making at home. The Divine Ms M did not like shirts with long sleeves so I have printed m's on them all to make them more palateable. 

The old chairs that I bought for the flairy godmother's offspring were returned for our youngest

but got a bit mouldy and tatty so they have been rejigged with some quicky spray paint and some good old Grip lock universal primer. 

She is very happy with the result and has been using them for various activities.

Unfortunately, Lola aka Chew-bacca, started eyeing off the tea set. She has now moved onto the chairs themselves, apparently finding them quite tasty with an earl grey or three.

Grrr...

It must be fete.

It's fete season again. Luckily I only had to buy two armbands this year. For a couple of years there it was a very expensive exercise to get the wee uns on the rides and out of the hair for the day.

When did these big ride fetes become the done thing? I remember taking the boys to fetes preschool when the wagon behind a ride on mower was the thrilling highlight of the day. Ironically they don't do that any more because it's too dangerous!?

See that boy third from the left in a blur of sweat and panic. That would be my second one, Twin 2- he, with astonishing eyesight for finding the tiniest objects and a serious dislike for anything high. It may be because of that time he fell off the bench as a baby. I had been bathing him after making inky hand prints (as you do) when the other one crawled across my foot wanting something. I looked down for a millisecond and the higher one did one of those bionic baby lurches and shot off the bench. He was always a good sleeper so of course he dozed off soon after but I was afraid it might be concussion as I couldn't wake him. He was a REALLY good sleeper. The ambulance men arrived post haste and bustled into the darkened room. I heard a panicked voice call out, "Quick. Get in here! His hands are blue!" I had to apologetically mention that it might just be the residual ink on his hands. Turned out he WAS just a good sleeper.

The other one never slept and has no sense at all when it comes to height, speed and danger. Twins! Today he is going to the Ekka to throw himself on as many rides as his meagre purse will allow. He is going with another twin who is of the same ilk. That twin's twin and my other twin will be staying home to chill because they see no sense in blowing all their money at the Ekka and have better things to do.

Planning where to meet, what rides to go on, what to eat and if we can squeeze a skate in beforehand.

This one, below, also has no fear of height and has also been leaving a lot of DNA on the tarmac around our suburb with the footy and the skateboards, etc. He also appears to be channelling Rodney Dangerfield which he has done since he was two. I  recall him staggering out of a bouncy castle when he was little, wet with sweat in a floral shirt looking for all the world like a frat boy emerging from a mosh pit.

Ah. Good times!

They were giving these hats away in case you were wondering. Mine like to jump the trash and treasure when the fete is finishing to bring home replacement stuff for the stuff we just donated...

 ...like this bunny. Yes. Another stuffed toy. Sometimes life is like walking up the down escalator.

Remember artistica?

She used to live symbiotically with Domestica in our old farm house on the hill. Seems there is less time than ever for attending to her needs lately, especially in household areas like stool painting and op shop trawling. However one of the perks of the job is that I do get to help making some resources and demonstrating techniques for the students.

A couple of things were finished off recently with some kiln firing, another skill that it was nice to dust off.

 These are the Hermansberg style pots. I'm particularly fond of the bottom on the pink lady. It is comfortingly generous.

I'm sure this has been done before a gazillion times but I found these mud wasp nests just as I was loading the kiln one day. There is still some thought going on what to do with them. I'm thinking pastel underglazes and mounting them in a box frame like tiny Baby Bjorns in a row- which they kind of are when you think about it. (Oh look. There's one of the marbles I lost.)

 Last week my esteemed colleague made these with the boys so I had to have a go too because how can you not? Mine is on the lower left with the unfortunate underbite.

There is a strange pleasure to be had in loading and unloading the kiln. It is the magic of the transformation when things are fired. It never gets old. I just can't wait to open it up and see they have become. It's a bit like the cocoon, wasp nest thing I suppose. Here they are all lined up expectantly facing the yawning maw of the open kiln before being fired.

Speaking of being fired,  the northern mountain was thoroughly roasted the other day. On another gloriously clear warm winter's day, the crispy grass went up like paper straight over the hill. We saw it start behind some houses on the way home from soccer when it was just leaping up a couple of trees. An hour later when we drove back over to Nanna's it had spread across the entire mountain.

 Nature is quite dramatic even in the suburbs in Queensland.