Settlement and fragments

On Wednesday I was taken to a marvellous exhibition at the QUT gallery that is really worth a wander through should you work near there or be in the general vicinity. It is by a Phillipino husband and wife team, Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan and was made with many collaborators including their five children and various community groups.
This show,"Fragments- Another Country",  has it all, my people. There is crochet, vintage everything, handmade objects, recycling, clutter and culling and a great deal of thought provoking loveliness.
It is about the ordeal of relocation and  immigration and what we humans think is important enough that we would keep in our  lives should we have to choose.

One room was filled with walls of intricately made aeroplanes all made using recycled and found objects like the rest f the exhibition.

The boys I went with were most taken with this lairy modded bus/car.

 These cupboards are made from a rare kind of oak only found in Queensland but packed with every imaginable bit of ephemera from the owners' past lives in the Phillipines. One boy pointed out a Sarah Vaughan CD. I was impressed that a fourteen year old even new who Sarah Vaughan was!

Then there was a colossal sculpture reminiscent of a ship or the barricade from Les Mis.

It filled an entire room with struts and sails made of crocheted rugs and vintage knitting needles. Yes! Vintage knitting needles! I was in Heaven, I tell you.

Then there were wonderful assemblages made of old cardboard and twigs. Pull yer socks up there, boys!

At the end we got to make our own special objet that we would choose to keep should we have to give up everything and leave our homes. The boys labelled them with names and where they were from and reasons why that was their chosen item. The twinettes were, as usual, chalk and cheese. One wanted to take his bed so that he could always have a comfortable night's sleep. The other made an abstract lucky charm molecule thing to bring luck in his new home. I made a ring to symbolize my family, because like most of us, that's what I value most.

Then we mailed them on a huge pile of treasures made by all the other visitors.

It gave food for thought about people who have to abandon homes and come here with nothing hoping for new lives and those who are already here and lose everything in sudden catastrophic events like the awful bush fires in New South Wales. May they be safe with their families too.

Hope and the Rainbows

On the way home from the mammogram and ultrasound, I hung a lefty (no pun intended) and found myself at a couple of funny places. One was my Grandma's where she lived in the 70's. I couldn't tell you where she lived without a street directory right now but Thursday I ended up at the end of her street accidentally. My sister says Grandma is sending me a hopeful message. She and I were very close. She taught me to knit.So I popped into Spotlight not much further from there and bought a big bundle of rainbow coloured wool. Shorty is into the Rainbow Song so a rainbow bed spread will be dandy. I also feel a yen to crochet so I don't bite my nails to the bone over the next week. Then I swerved by Ron and Brian's. I had decided not to buy more of these a while back but having just been to Grandma's and Spotlight, I reversed that decision. I love knitting on somebody else's old needles! It feels connected and calm and solid. They are rather pretty too.
There happened to be a bedhead at Ron and Brian's for $10 so I bought it for Shorty who is on a mattress as we haven't had time to switch the beds around.
It is line up Heaven. What colour, if any, do you think it should be painted?

Lala had to remake her bed as she had visitors in her hair again. This Laura Ashley fairy quilt set was $4 from the oppy. She tolerates it but it will soon be moved away from her to Shorty's room. The three year old is far more appreciative of fairies than the 9 year old, dark one. The Art Park yellow one is also from the oppy. It was used as Shorty's bassinette mattress cover so I love it even more.
At cricket this afternoon, Shorty met a little girl called Hope. A sign? I'm choosing to read it that way. Later while she slept in the car and the cricket got wetter, I worked on her rainbow blanket. I may need to make a travel bag for the crochet for the times when I am waiting in the car.

I relish miserable rainy days like this. It was perfect to sit and crochet and stare at the cloud wrapped mountain. These fat coloured crochet hooks are so much more cheerful than the grey metallic ones. Rain means never having to say your sorry when the chillun veg in front of a screen and want spag bol for tea. They WANT it Anna, really!
So now I'll fill you in on the other stuff. Friday was a bit of a dud as they wanted to do a lymphatic biopsy too. The doctor didn't like the machine. After lying there propped on pillows with Lefty pointed at the ceiling like St Peter's Basillica, they postponed it all till Monday. S'okay though. I figure between Grandma's intervention, the rainbow connection and meeting Hope in person, things are looking pretty good here.

Op Shop Karma

It's been a while. I had the stuff sitting in the car for a couple of weeks and no time to drop it. Sunday a girlfriend ambushed me with two more bags of boy clothes. I was too tired to scream "NOOOO!" at the top of my voice but should have. Instead I just threw them in with the rest and took it all to Ron and Brian's. I was hoping for a little op shop karma. There was that old black stool but I have really got to get over stools.There was a picnic basket and a big toy box. No, no, no. The Big Fella has expressed a concern that there may be too much vintage 'crap' (how dare he) in this ol' farmhouse.
So I went modern, although it is called 'Retro'. The karmically weird thing is I ordered this very towel rail from a local bathroom shop for $150 yesterday. It is the same design as the toilet roll holders which we bought about ten years ago. There it was inside the oppy for the princely sum of $5!

I had to make a stand on the towel issue. It has reached a critical level to the point where the Mother in law commented on the quantity of towels in the washing. It is partly due to the swimming and partly that nobody hangs them up so the Big Fella puts them all damp and manky into the basket. They will get towel rations now.
There were a few other little bonuses. I broke one of these this week.
I always love some new old knitting needles. The yellow and blue ones were in a packet labelled Balene. The information on the packet was interesting.
Who knew knitting needles were once made from whalebone?
Probably Annie from Knitsofacto for one.
This buttery yellow tablecloth was too good to pass up for $4. It's that old heavy well washed linen. We are on a bit of a yellow bender it seems.

More tea, Shorty! We have to get the drill out now!