Running Amok With An Ax

Buh-bye

2010-10-06T22:47:00.000-07:00

Dear Blogger,
It's not me, it's you. I'm tired of getting the run around, tired of things not being fixed, tired of swearing a blue streak when you won't do what I ask, tired...just tired.

So I have packed my blog and run away with someone else.

My new home is: http://elisabetya.wordpress.com/

Buh-bye, Blogger!

Things I Hate

2010-09-27T01:56:00.000-07:00

An irregularly scheduled list brought to you by Grumblebum Crankypants (compounded by blogger refusing to upload my pictures for no apparent reason)

Things I Hate About Public Transport

Other passengers
Passengers who put their bags on the seat beside them and refuse to let others sit there. Note to these people: Your bag does not buy a ticket and is not entitled to a seat all to itself, and I don't care what you say, I WILL stand there and argue with you until the cows come home
Passengers who sit in an aisle seat with an empty seat next to them and refuse to let me pass to sit there, or who get really annoyed at doing so. I get sitting on an aisle, I prefer it myself, but I would never prevent someone else from using the empty seat
Canceled trains
Several trains canceled in a row
Late trains
Would-be humourous announcements regarding 4, 5 or 6. Okay, points for attempting to make light of the situation, but most of us are in no mood, NO MOOD, I say!
Boarding passengers who attempt to push past disembarking passengers. Wait two seconds, it won't kill you, nor will you miss the train
And disembarking passengers who attempt to push past other disembarking passengers closer to the door. Also wait two seconds, you won't get stuck on the train
The stranger who prodded and pushed me to walk up the scary escalators at Parliament Station, even though I was standing to the left to allow others to pass. Next time I may elbow you in the face...oops!
Other passengers who wear bucketloads of fragrance or aftershave - go easy on the perfumes! Some days my eyes stream and nose itches for hours from the olfactory overload
Tickets that refuse to work at the gates, despite being properly validated
Crappy customer service from staff who have no clue how to answer perfectly reasonable questions, and Don't Care
Falling asleep on the train and missing my stop, then having to wait an eon at the next stop for a train coming back the other way. While this might not be Public Transport's fault, I still want to blame them

Hmm, that's quite a list. I'm still grumpy and cranky, but in a couple of days I may actually miss public transport because my current casual employment is coming to an end and I will no longer be forced to partake in the joys of peak hour. But probably not...

Pineapple eating time!

2010-09-20T02:11:00.000-07:00

You might remember the saga of the pineapple, five years in a pot and finally it produced a flower followed by a fruit. It's taken most of 2010 to mature to eating point, but it finally got there this month. That's a lovely view of my compost bins and the fuschia-that-thinks-it's-a-Triffid in the background.

It was probably a little past it's prime because we weren't sure when it was ready to eat. Most of it had turned yellow. I think we waited a little bit too long because the insects had discovered it; there were a few bad spots where the little boogers had penetrated the skin. But we still got a few slices of yummy ripe pineapple off it, and I'll plant the new top and the pup it produced. So who knows, in five years time there may be TWO pineapples!

The fruit ended up about the size of both my fists put together, so a reasonable size. Considering Melbourne is considered too cold for pineapple plants to survive much less flower and produce an edible fruit, I count this as a botanical success :)

Mish mash

2010-09-09T02:46:00.000-07:00

Drawing 946

Drawing 947

Drawing 948

Drawing 949

Drawing 950

Yep

2010-09-09T02:34:00.000-07:00

A page from my art journal. Yep, that about sums it up.

(Pre-loved book from the op shop - 50 cents. Watercolour paints, slathered on in a rage - I was trying to recreate bruise. Purple Indian ink pen (looks black here, but it's truly a dark purple) lettering. Sentiment wholly my own.)

Incubating

2010-09-04T00:36:00.000-07:00

Drawing 941

Drawing 942

Drawing 943

Drawing 944

Drawing 945

Where do phobias begin? In the murky swamp of our lizard hind brains? My lizard hind brain is cooking up a phobia about the stairs in the building where I'm working, on the 18th floor. I've never been fond of heights, but it's not so much an actual fear of heights or falling. More a fear of the landing and then the being dead. Though when faced with a sheer drop into a canyon or off a bridge, I do experience a dark and all but irresistible desire to simply step off the edge. What's with that? But I digress.

No problems going down the stairs to the next floor. My difficulty arises (hah!) whilst going up. The risers aren't solid, there's a gap underneath that lets daylight through (and isn't visible while descending), and a little voice in my head starts to whisper about the eighteen floor chasm peeking through that gap. I grip the handrail like grim death (though why I think that would help in the event of a sudden stair failure beats me) and my legs turn to lead. Looking straight ahead doesn't help, because there's a large expanse of floor to ceiling glass on the landing at the head of the stairwell that looks like open air to my terror addled hind brain. It interprets that as going from frying pan to fire, and it wants no part of any such shenanigans. To avoid the stairs, I began to take the lift the single floor I'm usually traveling but no, my lizard ancestor doesn't like that either.

I've started to eye the crack between the lift floor and the building floor with equal horror. Where will it end?

Random

2010-09-02T00:50:00.000-07:00

Drawing 936

Drawing 937

Drawing 938

Drawing 939

Drawing 940

So here I am again, playing catchup. Work pressures, health pressures, lack of time pressures, blah, blah, blah! Who wants to hear it? I'll just go on coming back, trying to catch up with myself...

There are some random thoughts about my drawing-a-day process in my head just dying to be poured into a post:

Why do I keep drawing-a-day going, even on days when there's no time/energy/inspiration? Because a day without it doesn't seem right, there's something missing (duh!), I do want to keep drawing daily even when there are pressures conspiring against it, it's good for my drawing ability/discipline, it keeps me watching and interested in shape/form/texture...
Limiting my material and colour choices was a good idea. It promotes inventiveness and, sometimes, procrastination: if I don't have to choose which colours or which paper, I just get on with it instead of being overwhelmed by choice.
Drawing is like an ouroboros: it feeds on itself. Drawing engenders more ideas, more luscious shapes and shading and textures, more drawing, more painting, more sculpture. More writing. More of everything.
There are (generally) so many ideas in my head that it makes the poor thing ache. Pouring them out upon a page, even in serial form, provides relief.
Drawing is pure pleasure. The lovely swoop of a curve, the shine of metallic pens, the sexy silken feel of flowing ink, the friction of graphite against paper. Even the little dusty leavings of the eraser being blown off a page. Just made of Happy.
My current materials: a Mills & Boon paperback novel from the 70s/80s provides the paper; a 2B pencil; an eraser; black fineliners, a dozen in a box from Office Works; a red Sharpie; two shades of grey, Zig fine and chisel pigment ink pens, one Steel Gray, one platinum; occasionally a ruler and a compass.
Ideas. Hmm, more complicated. Sometimes I'll have a shape in my head, from a book/tv/newspaper/film etc. Sometimes I just begin and see where it takes me. Sometimes I wake with an image in my mind, not always from a dream, though that happens, too. Going to an exhibition or watching a tv program on other artists will create ideas. Thumbing through my "visual diaries" inspires ideas; I used to keep a "proper" visual diary, now it's a box into which I throw newspaper cuttings, bits and pieces of stuff, the little sketchbooks I keep with me at all times which are more writing of ideas in words and thumbnails than sketching, anything which is grist for the art mill.
Often I work in series, getting a particular shape or line stuck in my head for days or weeks. Usually it unsticks itself spontaneously, sometimes I get so sick of it I boot it in the arse to get rid of it, sometimes I'm forced to find another addiction to replace the problematic one. Is that the lesser of two evils, or simply evil upon evil?

Ovoids

2010-08-16T02:09:00.000-07:00

Drawing 931

Drawing 932

Drawing 933

Drawing 934

Drawing 935

Sometimes a shape gets under my skin and I draw it again and again, compulsively. Obsessively. These ovoids with crosshatching are currently in residence, and I can't stop drawing them. I try, I draw something else, and the next day, there they are: back again. Sometimes they change form a little, but essentially the crosshatched ovoid reigns supreme. For now.

Other than the ovoids, I'm wrestling with altering a pair of cotton pants, part of a tunic/pants set from Africa (meant to be worn by men, but also worn by me). I've been wearing the tunic for a couple of years but the

pants languished in the alteration pile, too long in the body and legs. I removed the drawstring - I like a gathered waist, it's very comfortable, but prefer elastic - then chopped a couple of inches off the waist, and pinned a new channel for the elastic. Then I started my temporary job and the pants sat there, no longer in the alteration pile but not going anywhere. Today I picked them up again and sewed the new waist, put the elastic in and (too late) tried them on. I thought I'd measured and tried on before reaching the pinning stage when last I worked on them, but evidently not. They're now too short in the body. Pooh! So I am frogging the waist, cursing dark purple thread on this dull grey day. But at least it's progress, of a sort :)

One day I shall triumph over the unfinished projects heap.

Tempus fugit

2010-08-08T01:43:00.000-07:00

Drawing 926

Drawing 927

Drawing 928

Drawing 929

Drawing 930

This working lark really puts a crimp in one's free time! Not complaining, though, I am enjoying my temp job enormously. Having a cold, courtesy of public transport I suspect, is also contributing to my woolly brain

syndrome. I did get a free trip to and from work one Friday: there was major railway debacle here in Melbourne and, as a sop to the masses, everyone got a day's free transport. Woohoo.

Finally caught up, and a new (temp) job

2010-07-31T01:01:00.000-07:00

Drawing 921

Drawing 922

Drawing 923

Drawing 924

Drawing 925

I've finally managed to bring posting my drawings-ad-day up to date - there are two from the last couple of days, but I'll wait till I have five before putting those up. Phew!

Meanwhile, upstream, Jim and the giant anaconda...I have a temporary job. I'm working three days a week,

flexing my library technician muscles once more. I was a leeeetle anxious said muscles might have atrophied after three and half years of disuse, but they seem to be bouncing back. I am sadly out of practice at getting up early, though...crawling out of bed before the sun is not my favourite thing. On the other hand, train travel provides plenty of time for reading, and people watching. The things people do in public!

Driven to abstraction

2010-07-26T00:20:00.000-07:00

Drawing 916

Drawing 917

Drawing 918

Drawing 919

Drawing 920

Almost there...

2010-07-25T01:39:00.000-07:00

Drawing 911

Drawing 912

Drawing 913

Drawing 914

Drawing 915

Skellingtons

2010-07-24T00:03:00.000-07:00

Drawing 906

Drawing 907

Drawing 908

Drawing 909

Drawing 910

Closer and closer

2010-07-21T22:20:00.000-07:00

Drawing 901

Drawing 902

Drawing 903

Drawing 904

Drawing 905

Another big number

2010-07-19T00:55:00.000-07:00

Drawing 896

Drawing 897

Drawing 898

Drawing 899

Drawing 900

Another lovely round number - now I'm closing in on 1,000 drawings. I shall have to plan something big to celebrate when I hit that one!

Creeping up...

2010-07-18T01:16:00.000-07:00

Drawing 891

Drawing 892

Drawing 893

Drawing 894

Drawing 895

Slowly, slowly, catchee monkey...

2010-07-17T01:33:00.000-07:00

Drawing 886

Drawing 887

Drawing 888

Drawing 889

Drawing 890

Bear with me...

2010-07-16T01:02:00.000-07:00

Drawing 881

Drawing 882

Drawing 883

Drawing 884

Drawing 885

Ketchup

2010-07-15T01:06:00.000-07:00

Drawing 876

Drawing 877

Drawing 878

Drawing 879

Drawing 880

The next few entries will be heavy on drawing-a-day as I try to catch up to myself. I'm about a month behind with posting them, and the knowledge that so many of them are languishing about has been hanging heavy at the back of my mind. If I clear them off the to-do list, perhaps I can think of something else to say...

Fowl feathered friends

2010-07-14T01:00:00.000-07:00

Drawing 871

Drawing 872

Drawing 873

Drawing 874

Drawing 875

Cat-in-a-box

2010-07-13T02:20:00.000-07:00

Pye has developed an obsession with boxes. He was always keen, but the addiction is escalating. There are now (hmmm, counting...) six cardboard boxes around the house for the cat to play with. There's three in the living room, one in the sun room, one in the kitchen and one in the bedroom. This is the kitchen one. If he wants attention, he runs to the nearest box, though sometimes he goes to his favourite in the sun room, even if it's further away. The favourite hardly deserves the title of "box" - it's barely two inches high, more a cardboard tray than a box! Once ensconced in the current box, he expects to be patted and skritched under the chin. I can pat the box and the cat comes running for his fix. Sometimes he even tries to sit in the flat of tinned tomatoes underneath the kitchen cupboards, only because it has a cardboard tray underneath. Perhaps he's trying to tell me to save that one for him, too.

Who's in charge of this house, anyway? (don't answer that)

Tangled web

2010-07-13T02:00:00.000-07:00

Drawing 866

Drawing 867

Drawing 868

Drawing 869

Drawing 870

Ghosties and ghoulies

2010-07-06T01:50:00.000-07:00

I made this Halloween hexagon quilt top last year, while I was working part time in a quilt shop - there were a lot of quiet periods in the shop, and I cut out and hand sewed two and a half quilt tops in the three months I was there. I think I posted a picture of this last year (look under the "quilts" tag) as an almost finished top but felt it still needed something. It wasn't quite done. Adding the black border makes the colours almost float. I like it much better now.

Most of the fabrics came from a stash of Halloween scraps I was gifted, with a few of my own (large) collection thrown in. The lime green and orange accents - well, what can I say? I love me some lime green and orange, the brighter the better.

Spiders and ghosts, ghoulies and goblins, witches and beasties, candycorn and pumpkins. I feel a Halloween themed skirt coming on, with bright orange bias binding on the seams. I'm not sure I can bear to cut into my favourite pieces of Halloween goodness, though...

Four fiery eyes and a laff

2010-07-06T01:29:00.000-07:00

Drawing 861

Drawing 862

Drawing 863

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Drawing 865

Golden eye

2010-06-30T00:58:00.000-07:00

Drawing 856

Drawing 857

Drawing 858

Drawing 859

Drawing 860

Stickybeaks

2010-06-26T02:28:00.000-07:00

Drawing 851

Drawing 852

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Drawing 854

Drawing 855

Things that make you go: "Hmmm..."

2010-06-26T02:21:00.000-07:00

Really, who thinks up the names for these things?

Feathered

2010-06-23T01:33:00.000-07:00

Drawing 846

Drawing 847

Drawing 848

Drawing 849

Drawing 850

From fish to flow to fancy suits

2010-06-21T00:23:00.000-07:00

Drawing 841

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Drawing 845

Oakleigh Lions Op Shop

2010-06-20T02:24:00.000-07:00

Having a job interview just down the road from the Oakleigh Lions Op Shop (in Neerim Road, Murrumbeena, just outside Murrumbeena Railway Station) was too great an opportunity to miss a visit. These Grosby shoes were just the ticket for my clodhoppers, particularly after a disappointing experience a few weeks ago with a pair of shoes (from a chain I won't mention by name) which turned into sieves in the rain. A mere $4 for these black beauties, and I think they've hardly been worn.

A good sized red handbag from a rack all priced at $4. I'm not sure if I'll use this myself, or use it as a canvas and paint on it.

A cute little wooden bowl, for the grand price of a dollar. Destined to be a canvas for ink drawing or perhaps some practice with the wood burning tool.

1000 journals

2010-06-17T01:36:00.000-07:00

Drawing 836

Drawing 837

Drawing 838

Drawing 839

Drawing 840

Last Sunday night there was a program on ABC2 called 1000 Journals. Wow! I'm so inspired. There's

a website that's well worth checking out at 1000 journals

So many inspiring pages and artists, and now even more art journalling (yes, that is so a verb). My drawings-a-day have become something of an art journal exercise, but after seeing this tv show I've now started an art journal proper in an old hardback book (from the op shop, nothing precious - not sure why I feel I have to justify altering a book, but I have copped quite some criticism for "defacing" books in the past. Probably will again in the future!). In the last four days I've completed six journal pages. I turned the book upside down and back to front, my usual habit with printed matter :)

Outside the constraints of drawing-a-day (self imposed: black, red, grey, occasional gold and silver), I'm using colour, at least at times. I do love me a black/red/grey piece. And it's good to have two pages to draw

on rather than one. I have some ideas for embellishing the cover, but I'm still mulling over those. No theme,

just doing whatever I feel like at the time. To come: collage and paint, yes, actual paint! So far I've stuck to the tried and trusted ink pens, and watercolour pencils. I'm going to dig through all my art/craft stuff and go wild...

Arrrr

2010-06-12T01:20:00.000-07:00

Drawing 831

Drawing 832

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Drawing 835

Mostly botanical

2010-06-08T02:48:00.000-07:00

Drawing 826

Drawing 827

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Drawing 830

White blossoms

2010-06-08T02:13:00.000-07:00

The white tree dahlias are blooming like mad things. The flowers are double petalled and quite large, more showy than the purple-pink variety, though perhaps not as prolific. These would be even more spectacular if they were the same pink!

Not particularly good photos but the light is poor this week - it's been mostly grey and dreary. Last week was lovely autumn weather, with sunny afternoons. The flowers do brighten a trip to the backyard clothesline on days like these. I've been trying to convince myself to get out there and pull some more weeds, but the cold
is discouraging.

Still going

2010-05-11T02:54:00.000-07:00

Drawing 821

Drawing 822

Drawing 823

Drawing 824

Drawing 825

It must be May...

2010-05-11T02:29:00.000-07:00

...if the tree dahlias are blooming. They flower like clockwork, same time each year. The buds have been developing for a week or two and a few days ago the first pinky-purple flowers crept out. Now the blossoms are coming thick and fast, and the backyard will be awash with pinky-purple snow as the petals fall. They're tall plants, well above the house eaves. It's been windy and the long, long stems - a bit like bamboo - are propped up with fence palings lest they topple over. One windy night last week, one of the thinner and weaker stems did break off, but I leaned it up against the parent plant and despite its separation the buds on the broken limb have opened anyway. These plants are tough.

The bees love these flowers. Perhaps there's not a great deal to choose from at this late stage of autumn, but there is usually a host of happy bees buzzing in and out of the blossoms gathering nectar. In the lower right corner you can just make out a bee zeroing in on a flower, and lots of buds to come. It looks like a lovely day in these photos, and part of it was, with the sun out and blue skies. Don't let the blue skies fool you, though, it was cold! I have on my fingerless gloves to type.

That's the roof gutter this bough is leaning on. There's another bee sipping at the centre of the flower on the right. I have a double white tree dahlia, too, but it always flowers a couple of weeks later than the pinky-purple variety: the buds are just beginning to form. After if flowers, I plan to move the white one from it's current position underneath the clothesline because I haven't been able to raise, lower, or turn it for a couple of months since the dahlia grew through the wires :)

The tree dahlias are amazing. They survive heat, wind, drought, cold and keep on coming back. Every year after the flowers are finished, I raze them to the ground, and within a couple of months they send up new shoots. I am always astonished at how quickly and how tall these plants grow - easily sixteen or more feet of growth in a season. Gotta love that.

Crankypants

2010-05-03T02:10:00.000-07:00

Drawing 816

Drawing 817

Drawing 818

Drawing 819

Drawing 820

Pineapple pup

2010-05-03T02:01:00.000-07:00

The pineapple still lives, nay, thrives! It is larger than my fist now, and still growing, as is it's healthy topknot of leaves. I wait with bated breath for it to ripen - apparently the fruit body will turn golden yellow.

There is also a "pup", a baby pineapple plant, growing from between the leaves of the original plant, pictured here with a friend (the garden is populated with praying mantis, this one is a gorgeous vivid green - he doesn't really blend with the pineapple leaves but he seems quite happy there). When the pup gets a bit bigger, I'll twist it off and plant it in a new pot to grow on all by itself. When I harvest the growing fruit, I plan to plant the
crown of that, too. Someday in the distant future, I may have a pineapple plantation in the back yard :)

Nosey Parkers

2010-04-26T00:54:00.000-07:00

Drawing 811

Drawing 812

Drawing 813

Drawing 814

Drawing 815

Buffy, balls and batik

2010-04-25T23:59:00.000-07:00

Another happy trip to Dandenong Savers yielded three Buffy novels I hadn't read (though that state of affairs did not last and I finished all three in a glorious reading binge - they're like chocolate, I can't leave them alone until they're done). Ah, how I miss Buffy! They had twenty or so of these novels and about a dozen Angel ones but I limited myself to three, though it was tough choosing. $1.99 each.

A bag of assorted eyelash-ish yarn for $2.99. There are eight untouched balls, and two part-balls to add to my burgeoning yarn stash.

Approximately two metres of a really pretty cotton batik fabric, destined to become a skirt. I think. At $3.99, it was impossible for me not to buy this, even though I really don't need more fabric!

Sewing for Ebay

2010-04-18T05:49:00.000-07:00

Four new tunics just listed on Ebay. I haven't been Ebaying much this year; sales were rather slow on my last few listings. Perhaps I have exhausted my market there? Perhaps it's the GFC - it seems to be the scapegoat for everything...

Feed me, Seymour!

2010-04-18T05:29:00.000-07:00

Drawing 806

Drawing 807

Drawing 808

Drawing 809

Drawing 810

Shoulda known...

2010-04-14T01:52:00.000-07:00

More Slow Stitching, french seams, facings sewn down, no raw edges.

Not so pleased with how this garment turned out. I should have known, really, that any pattern marked "simple" is usually bound to be a disappointment, but I wanted a basic sleeveless top. The pattern includes a sleeveless version and one with long or short sleeves with a vee/square/round neck variation. It has bust darts and the neck and sleeve edges are fully faced, so I had high hopes that this would work out to be that basic shell top, but nope: gotta keep looking. It's wearable under something else - which is what I wanted - but
I'm disgruntled with the neckline. I chose a square neck because I don't have a garment with that neckline, but the finished result sits oddly out from my body. Not much, but enough to be annoying. I adjusted the bust darts (is anybody else above a B-cup irritated by that constant adjustment for the fuller busted?) but they're still not quite right. I also cut this at a size that should've matched my measurements according to the pattern envelope, but turned out to be at least two, perhaps three, sizes too large; I did a pin baste to try it on before sewing a seam, and ended up cutting it down two sizes but could have cut a little more and still had it fit.

I had issues, too, with the sewing instructions. I know these simple patterns are aimed at new sewers, for the
most part, but I think this one is teaching bad habits that will be hard to unlearn later. Why bother to face the
sleeve and neck openings with a finished edge facing (nice and neat) measuring about two inches in width, then instruct makers to edge sew at one inch, so that there's a nasty flappy bit of facing flopping about on the
inside of your garment, probably crinkling up and spoiling the fit? Instead, why not either make the facing narrower, so it gets sewn down completely, or use a wider edge stitch? I looked at those facings long and hard, trying to convince myself I could live with those flappy facings, but in the end I couldn't. As I often do, I ignored the instructions and made my own up. I considered cutting the facings down, but laziness prevailed and I edgestitched a wider margin as they were. It looks fine and it's better for my peace of mind :)

So, I have a wearable garment in a colour I love. Bonus, if a qualified one given my misgivings above. Would I make this again? Nope. It requires more tweaking to make it a truly satisfying piece than I'm willing to put into what is meant to be a simple garment.

Grumbly

2010-04-14T01:28:00.000-07:00

Drawing 801

Drawing 802

Drawing 803

Drawing 804

Drawing 805

Illuminati

2010-04-03T01:24:00.000-07:00

Drawing 796

Drawing 797

Drawing 798

Drawing 799

Drawing 800

Another nice round number!

Bitchin' stitchin'

2010-04-02T01:08:00.000-07:00

A selection of wrap skirts listed on Etsy over the last few days.

This one is from an op shopped length of retro green lusciousness. If there'd been a little more of it, I'd have made this for myself but it was just a tad scant.

Blue and green floral, from an op shopped sheet. I'm not sure it's actually vintage, but the motif harks back to the sixties/seventies. Pretty, anyway. I still have quite a bit of this one left to turn into something else. I wonder why the fabric stash never seems to diminish despite all my making? I've bought very little over the past two years but the pile is still humungous.

An op art-ish cotton skirt from a piece I bought on sale, though I can't remember if it was at Spotlight or Darn Cheap, who are exactly what their name says. I love this design.

And this purple and white geometric pattern, made from a huge length of polyester I bought on Ebay about an eon ago. I try to use natural fibres, but sometimes a design will suck me in. I do like the geometric patterns. Bold is good.

Dreaming of dreaming of dreaming of...

2010-04-01T01:22:00.000-07:00

Drawing 791

Drawing 792

Drawing 793

Drawing 794

Drawing 795

The other night I was in bed asleep dreaming that I was in bed asleep dreaming that I was in bed asleep dreaming.

Before I was sucked down the vortex of that particularly mindbending rabbit hole, I distinctly remember thinking: "This way madness lies." And I woke myself up.

My attempts to teach myself lucid dreaming have not quite reached fruition, but recognising that I'm dreaming and being able to wake up on command are definite steps forward.

In-a-box

2010-04-01T01:11:00.000-07:00

"Hmm. This is new. Dunno about new."

"I suppose new is okay."

"Let me try this new on for size."

"It fits! Or I fit. Whatevs."

"Aaaaaah. I like it. Cat Seal of Approval granted. Now get away from my new."

B is for...

2010-03-26T01:27:00.000-07:00

Drawing 786

Drawing 787

Drawing 788

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Drawing 790

Double Eagle

2010-03-26T01:12:00.000-07:00

Drawing 781

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Drawing 785

Feathered follies

2010-03-25T01:18:00.000-07:00

Drawing 776

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Drawing 780

Doin' the safety dance

2010-03-23T01:12:00.000-07:00

Another length of fabric transformed into something wearable, even if I do glow in the dark whilst wearing it. I'd kind of forgotten quite how bright an orange this piece of cotton voile was, but I still like it. More slow stitching with french seams and fifteen (yep fifteen!) buttons down the closure - a feature, donchaknow (yes, I needed a feature, as if the colour didn't already scream "Look at me! Look at me!"). The buttons all came out of the button box, which I'm beginning to believe has similar qualities to the TARDIS. I'm not sure where they came from and there may even be more little orange buttons in there, but fifteen seemed a reasonable number at which to stop looking. Even slow stitching, I suspect my patience would have worn thin had I needed to make another buttonhole. Though my Janome does make a nice automatic buttonhole, I must say.

I'd also forgotten, or never took any notice, that voile is, um, kinda fine. This means it will be cool in the (almost over, hurrah) southern summer, but it also means it's a little translucent. And guess who doesn't currently have a flesh toned brassiere? It turns out that black, or blue, or red undergarments are highly visible under voile. Even fluoro orange voile. I do have a camisole, though, so all is not lost.

I am pleased with the way all the buttons look. Funny aside: when I was stitching the buttons under the buttonholes, I finished number fourteen and couldn't find the final button. Hmmm, whatever could I have done with it? I could've sworn there were fifteen originally (I almost always use an odd number). Not on the table near the machine. Not on the floor. Don't think a cat would've swallowed it (and if a cat did swallow it, I don't think I want it back). I figured it would turn up. Or not. Wouldn't be the first time I've been missing the bottom button on a shirt.

It turned up - the next time I used the machine I took the buttonhole foot off and, lo and behold, there is the fifteenth button, still in the little gripper doodad that tells the machine how long to make the buttonhole. Duh!

Huntin', shootin' 'n' fishin'

2010-03-23T00:44:00.000-07:00

I'm not really into the whole huntin', shootin', fishin' thing as such, but I find myself strangely attracted to images from that (probably) imaginary world that I loved so much in novels of the early twentieth century, that seemingly quintessentially English world of grand houses and weekend parties that always featured a hunt. Or Agatha Christie's stories of English drawing rooms and high body counts. This tablecloth came from Dandenong Savers for the princely sum of $4 (after Sunday student discount). I think it's printed damask, a nice weight.

I'm not sure if I'll keep it as a tablecloth, or treat it as fabric (as I do many of my op shop treasures - I gravitate instantly towards the textiles, and then the books) and transform it into a garment. It would make a great skirt or blouse, if I can creatively cut it to use as much of the pattern as possible.

Mixed bunch

2010-03-21T00:06:00.000-07:00

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Oi, I'm trying to sleep!

2010-03-19T00:51:00.000-07:00

"Oi, I'm trying to sleep here!"

Note that Bel chooses to sleep on the colour that best sets off her beautiful jet black coat. That's a lime green sari I'm refashioning into a tunic. She likes to curl up on the end of it while I'm actually putting it through the sewing machine.

"Perhaps if I ignore her, she'll go away."

"Perhaps if I wash the vulgar bits, THEN she'll go away."

"I shall kill you in your sleep. And eat your liver."

"Right, that's it, I'm outta here."

Wings 'n' things

2010-03-18T01:31:00.000-07:00

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Fish 'n' fowl

2010-03-18T01:05:00.000-07:00

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Come into my parlour...

2010-03-11T00:22:00.000-08:00

There's a Golden Orb spider resident in my front garden. Every day (or night, I think they're nocturnal) she spins a new web, attaching the anchor strands between the house and a tree, or my car and the tree. The web is not quite as huge as it appears here - this looks like it should belong to a people eating arachnid! - but is a good two to three feet across. The silk is incredibly strong if you walk into it.

A couple of weeks ago, an unfortunate door-to-door salesman had a very close encounter with Ms Orb. I'm not sure how he missed it on his way to the door (maybe cut across the lawn), but as he left he ran face first into the massive spider web. Poor man emitted a very high pitched, girly shriek. It was getting toward twilight and the spider was active: I saw her run across his hair, down his back and make her escape via his trouser leg into the grass, so at least |I could reassure him that he was spider-free (I didn't go into detail about how she escaped). He spent a good ten minutes sitting on my front fence, shaking, muttering under his breath and wiping spider silk from his person. I'll bet he has nightmares.

I quite like my spider neighbour. And yes, she has trapped me, more than once and scampered across my head. She's beautiful, and I like looking at her creations. They're small miracles of design and function.

Flowering fish

2010-03-03T22:42:00.000-08:00

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Mirror Mirror

2010-03-01T23:55:00.000-08:00

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One sheet to the wind

2010-03-01T01:04:00.001-08:00

An unexpected op shop visit to the Red Cross Shop in the mall in Oakleigh yielded this pretty floral sheet for $5. I'm going to use it for fabric - I've already created a lined wrap skirt for my Etsy shop, and there's still quite a bit left to make something else.

Vinnies in Crewe Street, Oakleigh, is great for books. Au Revoir by Mary Moody (once a presenter on Gardening Australia) made me want to run away to France, too (mind you, I'd run away to almost anywhere I'm so keen to go travelling again!). The red book is a great basic guide to knitting, in the Pelham Craft Series (I have another of these on soft toy making) and published in 1973. It might actually encourage me to learn a couple of new stitches and make something other than socks and scarves! Each of these was a mere $1.

It's a Wrap

2010-03-01T00:43:00.000-08:00

I've gone a bit mad on wrap skirts. These are all made from stash fabric, mostly op shopped - I think the Miss Piggy one was from Ebay. All four are now on offer in my Etsy shop. I just adore the red and yellow floral, it's so in-your-face. I've made myself skirts from both the Miss Piggy and the green op art pieces, too. Miss Piggy features as a showgirl with Kermit appearing in multiples as the chorus boy - gorgeous!

In the spirit of Slow Stitching, I've taken care over the construction with french seams and enclosing all raw edges either within a hem or using bias binding - all the waists and hems are finished with toning bias binding, from my embarrassingly large stash of the stuff. They each fasten with vintage buttons and a press-stud (metal snap). I'm still trying to go the "use what I have" route, and all these garments fit that bill with fabric, thread, buttons, and bias binding on hand. I probably have enough of each of these fabrics to make something else, though perhaps not enough for another skirt - perhaps a tote bag.

Missing in action...

2010-02-22T23:22:00.000-08:00

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Shrug

2010-02-10T00:25:00.000-08:00

I'm still working my way through the sewing stash. I bought this fabric at Darn Cheap, the store I love - it's a rare visit when I don't come out of there with something lovely. This was on sale during one of their January clearouts at $1 a metre, and I think I got 10 metres. They even rolled it onto a cardboard core for me. It's semi sheer with mostly black and white ideograms, scattered with a few coloured ideograms. The pattern is VERY simple, a "For Dummies" one, but the idea appealed to me. Basically sleeves joined across the back. I have an idea for a knitted one similar to this, but not so voluminous, which I tried to create last winter. Major failure and I frogged it, but this has cleared up my concept and I'll try the knitted version again in light of my discoveries making this. I'd use the pattern again.

Bad photo, really should have ironed that skirt! I seldom iron except when I'm sewing.

Ms Sulky

2010-02-06T20:28:00.000-08:00

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Pineapple progress

2010-02-05T23:29:00.000-08:00

The pineapple continues to grow. It now has quite a long stalk, a developing crown of leaves, and the "body" has little purple tongues of flowers. The leaves of the plant itself were looking a bit worn out, perhaps pumping all the plant's energy into the developing fruit, so we gave it a feed with some fertiliser and it's looking much happier. Also added some compost around the base where some of the soil had leached out and what should pop up, but a healthy looking tomato seedling. Sometimes I wonder why I bother buying fancy seeds or seedlings, I could just fill a pot with compost or spread some on a garden bed and see what develops. Pumpkin, tomato and melon seeds seem to enjoy passing through the composting process and hurl themselves lightward with abandon - I've plucked out at least twenty little pumpkin leaflets from the tomato pots, and at least as many extra tomatoes looking to take up residence with the advanced seedlings I planted out.

Here you can see a little of the long stalk underneath the fruit.

And a detail of the tiny flower tongues studding the fruit body. This is such a fascinating process, eating any fruit that eventuates is like the icing on the cake - a sweet treat, but not the whole point :)

Ships and shoes and sealing wax

2010-02-05T01:02:00.000-08:00

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Frankson Op Shopping

2010-02-04T00:37:00.000-08:00

These finds are from a trip to Frankston in December, to take advantage of one of Saver's half price garment Mondays. Above are a jumper and cardigan which I intend to deconstruct for the yarn. You can't ever have too much yarn :)

The purple one has giant snaps down the front, which I'll also reclaim and repurpose. I'd priced snaps about this size in the haberdashery section a while back and they retail for at least $1 each, and I have six of them now. Both knits were two or three dollars each.

A large scarf featuring a gorgeous print of horses. I tried to convince the checkout operator that scarves are apparel, but apparently they're considered accessories and not included in the half price offer. Still a bargain at $3.95, I think. I may turn this one into a halter top, if I can bear to cut it.

A cowboy motif doona cover that I'll use as fabric. I couldn't resist the cute print. Enough here to make a shirt, a skirt and still have some left over. Can't remember the price exactly, but it was
about $5.
A gorgeous green caftan, for me to wear in the heat. Cool and comfortable now that I've altered it to my satisfaction: it was a little tight over the Rack of Doom, so I let it out at the side seams only to find that this rendered it rather shapeless in other areas. So I added a couple of waist ties to tie at the back and now I love it. $9 at Savers.

An "Eight Wives of Henry the VIII" tea towel, to be refashioned into a tote bag. $1.95.
(Edited: Obviously that was meant to be "Six Wives of Henry VIII" - I think Melbourne's hot and muggy spell has damaged my brain)

An Isle of Wight tea towel, also to be refashioned into a tote bag. Also $1.95. Both tea towels from Savers.

On the same trip, I also bought ten balls of black mohair yarn, at $1 a ball in St Vinnies, plus a
set of dominoes for $2 in another op shop (can't remember which, memory failure due to hot weather). Like I wrote earlier, can't have too much yarn! The dominoes are intended for a jewellery project I have in mind, and they came in a little wooden box that I'll use for something else. A good day.

Enough with the heat, already...

2010-02-04T00:20:00.000-08:00

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We are having a stretch of hot, sticky weather. Enough, please! Can't sleep, can't do anything
more strenuous than read or I'm a lather of icky sweat, I am motivated to do nothing. I am
restless and bored. At least the weather broke a bit today and it's raining (the vegies will be grateful), so a bit more pleasant. Perhaps I will actually sleep well tonight.

Okay, enough whining.

Yum!

2010-01-22T22:22:00.000-08:00

Yeehaa! The tomatoes are finally colouring up and I ate the first one yesterday evening. It was delicious. I can't remember what sort these are, the plant is a volunteer that popped up in the same pot that I planted a tomato in last season. The fruit along this vine is slowly ripening, one by one. They may not make it as far as the kitchen because it's too tempting to eat them straight off the bush. Sometimes I'm conscientious enough to wash 'em under the garden tap, sometimes not.

In other vegie news, the zucchini are powering along. So far I've picked 20 zukes, many more on the way. The food dehydrator dealt with several, most have gone into meals. The dried zucchini were something of a taste surprise - the 'chips' are very sweet and the texture appealing enough to eat on their own as snacks rather than just reconstituting into soup or casserole. I'm sure a handful of zucchini chips will be much better for me than a cookie...

Doodle doodle doodlin'

2010-01-22T22:12:00.000-08:00

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Purple Slow Stitching

2010-01-21T01:28:00.000-08:00

This is the purple check dragonfly shirt that I made. Sorry for the crappy picture, the mozzies were about to eat me alive and I wasn't staying out to take more photos! The body of the shirt is purple check with little embroidered dragonflies scattered over it, and the sleeves and yoke are a solid handkerchief linen. I like this two-tone effect and will use it again (there is a large pile of shirt fabric lined up). I enjoyed making this! The buttons are five odd ones from the enormous button stash - I like the look of non-matching buttons (they match in size but not design or colour, except that they're all variations of purple/mauve). I've lost count of how many times I've used this particular pattern. Must be at least half a dozen incarnations.

Here is the dragonfly I stenciled and embroidered on the centre back of the yoke. The stencil wasn't quite crisp enough for my taste, so I split-stitched around it to give it a better edge.

This a 'swing' style vest in purple cotton, again with all raw edges either enclosed in the facings or french seams. The cotton is probably a little crisp for the design - it would be better in something more flowing, like jersey, maybe - but will soften with washing. It's a simple pattern, two main pattern pieces plus a neck and arm facing, and a button loop, but because it's cut on the bias takes a lot of fabric. Again, the button is from the seemingly bottomless button stash. I like the way this turned out; there's a jacket variation (basically the same as the vest but with sleeves) and a sleeveless top that I may make in the future. Pants, too, but I kind of swore off making pants due to fit issues. Perhaps I should try again.

I'm enjoying the sewing process now that I'm less deadline focussed. Taking pleasure in making and not worrying about finishing in a time frame. It will be done when it's done :)

Next: hmm, so many choices. Perhaps a skirt...

La, la, la

2010-01-15T22:35:00.000-08:00

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Turn your back...

2010-01-15T22:26:00.000-08:00

...for five minutes, and the baby zucchini barely the length of a hand turns into The Zukinator, scourge of the vegetable world.

And it brings friends.

There are three large zucchini currently processing in the food dehydrator, being turned into zucchini chips to store for later. The plants are busy producing lots more fruit; I'll be keeping a close eye on them lest more turn into marrows and threaten to take over the earth.

Planted

2010-01-13T20:43:00.000-08:00

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Botanical

2010-01-11T23:32:00.000-08:00

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Slow Stitching

2010-01-11T22:56:00.000-08:00

I made this skirt on Christmas Day. I haven't made a garment for myself in about a year, despite the lengths of fabric stashed away meant for clothing. I got a bit burned out on the process, I think, making things to sell on Ebay and Etsy, always rushing, not taking pleasure in the actual making but focused on outcome.

I decide to slow down and enjoy the making, with no deadline. It would take as long as it took. I wanted to properly finish all the seams and make it look good inside as well as out - I don't have a serger/overlocker and while zigzag stitching the edges of the pieces works okay, it's not pretty.
It doesn't show when wearing the garment, but I know it's there and it bothers me. This skirt is a simple one, a front, a back, and a pocket in each side seam. I used french seams for the side seams with the pockets, but it bunches a little where the pockets meet the front and back. I may try a Hong Kong finish next time. The waist is elastic, no waistband piece, just the top turned over. I did machine stitch the hem (see aforementioned rush to finish, which was kicking in at that point) but I think I'll hand hem next time.

I am far more pleased with this skirt than I've been with a garment I made in a long time. And I didn't have to frog a single seam :)

The fabric is cotton from Tanzania, one of my long ago Ebay purchases (detail below).

An email friend named this process for me: Slow Stitching. Taking time over details, allowing it to take as much time as necessary, enjoying the process, pausing to breath and look out the window from time to time, putting it aside when I'm tired or had enough, no rushing. Breeeaaaathhhe.

Aaaah.

Gules

2010-01-10T19:48:00.000-08:00

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I love it when I find a new word, one I didn't know existed. I'm reading PD James' "The Lighthouse", and this passage taught me a new word: ...the dancing gules of light from the fire on the stone floor...

From my Cassel's English Dictionary: gules - n. a red colour, represented on an engraved escutcheon by vertical lines a. red

Resolve

2010-01-09T23:27:00.000-08:00

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I tend not to make New Year's resolutions, but I am aiming toward a few goals (not related to the turning of the calendar, more in general). One of them is to get rid of stuff I don't need. I'm beginning to feel oppressed by the level of stuff in my house and garage, and I'm slowly whittling away at it. I think this oppression is preventing me starting projects (or finishing them), simply because I feel overwhelmed.

To this end - the whittling - each day I aim:

to clean/tidy something (at least in part - could be in the house/garage, may be in the garden)
work on a sewing or art project (don't have to finish, just progress)
draw every day (which I do, but it doesn't hurt to restate)
chuck something out (might be in the bin, might be in the box for freecycle/op shop, could be the "sell on Ebay or Etsy" box, might be in the "Sculpture Stuff" box, purpose of contents as yet undetermined)

This is a minimum, if I get more done, hey, bonus! And it's not hard and fast, if I miss a day it won't matter. It's to aim for.

Today I have:

put away a basket of clean laundry
worked on a sewing project (a drapey asymetrical vest, in glorious purple)
made my drawing-a-day, plus an extra drawing and a half (!)
sorted about a third of my wardrobe, culled one outfit for the "sell" box, and set a top aside to refashion - it needs shortening at hem and sleeves

Little by little, I intend to win the Battle of the Stuff.

Sparkle-arkle

2010-01-09T01:13:00.000-08:00

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Another nice round number :)

And getting closer to 1,000. I think I should do something special when I reach that milestone.

Icon-ish

2010-01-07T22:48:00.000-08:00

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Striped

2010-01-06T22:50:00.000-08:00

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Fish and foliage

2010-01-05T23:38:00.000-08:00

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An apple a day

2010-01-05T00:03:00.000-08:00

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Oakleigh Oppy

2010-01-04T23:35:00.001-08:00

These were my finds on a trip the op shop in Station Street, Oakleigh in December. Above is a photograph album, $3. On my next visit, I may mention that masking tape does not make a great substitute for sticky labels - despite my best efforts the tape pulled off a chunk of the cover and made an unsightly mark. Sigh.

A set of gouache paints from China, barely used, $5. I'd say maybe three of the tubes have been opened. Gouache makes lovely colours :)

And lastly, a batik square from the 50 cent box. I'm not sure if it's a very small tablecloth or a scarf, but its intended purpose in my hands is fabric yardage - it will be part of a tunic top, I think.

Happy New Year!

2009-12-31T20:37:00.000-08:00

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Number of the Beast

2009-12-29T23:40:00.000-08:00

Drawing 666 (HAH!)

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I am easily amused.

Pineappling!!

2009-12-29T00:36:00.000-08:00

Last year I bought a fancy tomato (the name of which escapes me) from the nursery and nurtured it, nursing it along on water bucketed out of the shower, and it rewarded me
with a grand total of six fruit then carked it. Several of the fruit were chewed on by bugs
or possums and fell into the pot. Evidently some seeds made it past the pests and this
one grew in last year's pot. It looks WAAAAY healthier than its parent ever did, and I
water it if I remember, no mollycoddling for this freeloader. It has lots of flowers and
about a dozen little tomatoes growing happily.

Zuchini plants sprawling where winter's snow peas grew against the makeshift trellis. Grown from seed, they are finally producing female flowers after an age of impatient inspecting by me and now:

...actual zuchini. There are several teeny tiny zukes coming along. I picked this one - it's about four or five inches long - and plan to steam it for my dinner. There will be the inevitable zuchini glut at some point, I'm sure, but for now I am Pleased.

My pineapple plant is flowering!

I think. Inflorescence is the proper term, I believe, but this particular growth
looks more like it might just be going straight for fruiting and skipping the
whole flower thing. Don't know, I've never grown a pineapple before!

I planted the top just after christmas 2005. It's survived since then on summers outside and winters inside, except for this past year when I left it outside in the cold weather, though in a sheltered position. It didn't seem to bother the plant much. It has grown considerably over the years, though I wasn't sure it would survive this far south.

And now there is the promise of a pineapple.

A Google search informed me that a pineapple flowers/fruits once and then dies, but will likely produced pups or slips first, so I can plant those plus the top of the (potential) fruit developing. Pineapples are part of the bromeliad family, which may go some way toward explaining its success here: shallow root system, likes shallow poor soil (potted), grows on little water, likes heat (it got some, though not as much as it would have in Queensland).

Can't wait to see what emerges!

Pigtails

2009-12-29T00:14:00.000-08:00

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Artifice

2009-12-27T23:16:00.000-08:00

Set 'em Up, Knock 'em Down
(mixed media using tin cans, found paper, Indian ink and watercolour pencils)

Owlish
(mixed media using Indian ink, watercolour pencils and found paper)

Fish Face
(mixed media on canvas using acrylic pain, Indian ink, and dressmaking pattern tissue)

SOLD A Stitch in Time
(mixed media on canvas using acrylic paint, marker, Indian ink, stitching)

SOLD It's the End of the World
(mixed media on canvas using acrylic paint, marker, Indian ink, stitching)

Above are the works I included in a recent group exhibition called Artifice, with some ex-classmates from my Visual Arts course and two other artists (through a mutual friend). Opening night was SO hot, a 39 degree Celsius day, but we still got a good turnout. It was great to catch up with people I've not seen much of over the past year, and meet some new art lovers, too. I sold the two bottom works at opening night, and I was thrilled. They're a bit of a departure for me, but I enjoyed making them and may make more in a similar vein.

Colour seems to be creeping into my work. I tend to work in a limited palette, odd since I'm attracted to colour - the brighter the better - in other things (such as clothes). Perhaps that box of paint will come in handy after all...

Blah blah blah

2009-12-27T23:06:00.001-08:00

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The hurrieder I go, the behinder I get.

Oopsie

2009-12-27T22:47:00.000-08:00

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Oops, managed to miss a drawing.

In my fiftieth year

2009-12-12T00:19:00.000-08:00

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It's true, the longer between blog posts, the harder it is to get back into the habit. I shall persevere.

Still preparing for the group exhibition, opening this coming Wednesday December 16th. I have two mixed media works to stretch onto frames, one three-part ink/watercolour piece to finish and insert into a bought frame, and one mixed media (ink, acrylic, collage) on canvas to tweak - I think it needs something else to complete it, perhaps some plantlife in the foreground (it's of fish creatures floating in a blood red background with collage weed). And, of course, the staple gun has decided to hide somewhere in the (cluttered) garage. I'd better get a wriggle on, because we hang it on Tuesday!

I turned 49 last Monday. I'm considering embarking on a "fifty" project of some description, perhaps a blog of fifty things I want to achieve or do in the coming year and the following one, too. I figure 2010 is my fiftieth year, and 2011 is my year of actually being fifty, so I get two years to work on my Fifty Project :)
Did consider creating fifty art works based somehow around the number 50, but that may a bit too ambitious added to drawing-a-day, the other half-finished art works lurking around here, and all my other crafty projects. Plus the day to day boring stuff of life. We shall see, I'm still thinking ("I have a cunning plan").

Blast the cicadas

2009-11-26T23:48:00.000-08:00

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Dear neglected Blog,
Sorry it has been so long since I posted. Hallowe'en was a long time ago. My apologies.

For me, summer always begins with the racket of the cicadas, and they have been singing up a storm in the last two or three weeks. Some evenings they're so loud I have to shut the front door so I can hear the tv (some nights I have to shut the front door because the feral neighbours are carousing on their front lawn and they're so loud I can't hear the tv. I think I prefer the cicadas; at least I know they'll shut up when the temperature gets below a certain point. Not so the ferals).

While the constant cicada buzz gets wearing, I can't detest them. Up close, they are very beautiful, a gorgeous green with glistening gold highlights, particularly on their wings. And big insects, too. Once, I saw a sparrow trying to catch a cicada, and it was nearly as big as the bird - quite a large meal for a little bird (I didn't see the denouement, I hope the cicada escaped). It's the boys that make all the noise, trying to attract a mate. For a long time, I thought they were like grasshoppers, creating that hullaballoo by rubbing their legs together, but I discovered that they actually have special membranes (tymbals) that they snap back and forth to create loud, almost continuous clicks. Fascinating! Perhaps I'll be a biologist in another life :)

In other news, I am preparing for another art exhibition in December. Decisions, decisions, what to include? I'm slowly winnowing the wheat from the chaff, and will likely try to complete a couple of things I'm working on currently, too. It's always the most recent work with which I'm infatuated. At the moment, I'm painting loose canvas (ie not stretched on a frame) in various ways, to be ripped up into strips and oblongs to sew back together randomly, found objects attached, and then put back on stretchers. I'm having fun with it.

Toil and trouble

2009-10-31T22:47:00.001-07:00

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Cranky

2009-10-26T00:41:00.000-07:00

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I am being forced to undertake an inappropriate job training exercise by the Powers That Be, and I am not happy. What a freakin' waste of time...

Wonky

2009-10-22T00:41:00.000-07:00

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My photography is all wonky today. In face, it's been a very wonky day.

Isn't wonky a fabulous word?

Carping

2009-10-20T01:59:00.000-07:00

Drawing 626

Drawing 627

Drawing 628

Drawing 629

Drawing 630

Spring

2009-10-19T00:32:00.000-07:00

I have a series of deep thoughts percolating in my head that may be vented in a blog post once they have matured. In the meantime, pretty Spring pictures of the garden. Above are broad beans, only a few have progressed to edible as yet but there are plenty of baby beans coming on. I hope they manage to beat the mildew: once the weather warms up, broad beans are horribly prone to diseases of damp.

Apple blossom on my ballerina apple tree. Last year the possums beat me to the few apples to appear. Perhaps this season I'll net them and beat the little boogers to the fruit.

The bees love the apple blossom and were happily about their work as I took this. I also managed to scare at least six months growth off the gas meter man when I popped suddenly out of the side gate on my photography expedition as he was taking a reading beside the apple trees.

This rose was a sorry sight when I moved into this house twelve years ago, gnarled and in sore need of serious pruning. It got a hard prune at the start of last winter, and is absolutely covered in flowers, with lots of buds developing. The aphids are just beginning to take an interest, so I must spray soon. The blooms are scented, but don't last well as cut flowers, tending to shed petals almost immediately. I just enjoy them in the garden. Besides, the cats try to eat the petals given half a chance. Don't know if roses are poisonous to felines, but cleaning up petal barf is just icky.

What's with all the fish?

2009-10-13T01:15:00.000-07:00

Drawing 621

Drawing 622

Drawing 623

Drawing 624

Drawing 625

So, it has taken me nearly two weeks to feel almost back to what passes for normal around here, after what the doc says was most likely a virus, but I suspect may have been food poisoning. Either way, not much has been happening in this neck of the woods due to extreme fatigue and inertia. I did manage to keep drawing-a-day going, though some days it was a major effort!

Confession: I vowed last year NOT to succumb to the temptation of rescuing any more treasures from the hard rubbish collection. This year I already fell off the wagon with the disembodied mannequin parts, but I fell again: two bookcases, in slight need of sanding and perhaps a new back on the smaller one, but otherwise in good condition. In the dead of night, the Bloke and I balanced the larger piece on the roof of the car on top of a blanket (for traction) - I have no rope - and drove v-e-e-r-r-y carefully the kilometer or so home. It didn't so much as threaten to topple off, even around the corners. Now I need the weather to improve so I can go to work on them outside (sanding is too messy even for the garage, plus it's dark in there and last week I found a mummified mouse corpse when I was sorting out my own stuff to discard in the hard rubbish. Ew! Mousie is now keeping the raven company in its own little jar of enzyme enhanced laundry liquid, processing. I'm hoping for a mouse skull!).