glory day

But they're so deliciously creme-y

I've had a pretty bleh week - isn't it funny how being bullied can instantly take you back to high school? - and I have turned to Easter treats for solace.

For various reasons I haven't been able to eat Easter treats for the past few years, and oh! I am so excited!  The very clever people at Bakers Delight had the [frankly genius] idea to add chocolate chips to hot cross buns - and really, is there anything that isn't made even better by chocolate chips?  I am delighted.

I'm no longer able to eat my much-loved Cadbury Creme Eggs, but I have replaced them with a whole bunch of wee Lindt eggs, and I'm finding the subsitution acceptable.  I used to work on the line at a Cadburys factory - where you ate all the chocolate you wanted and let me tell you they took a beating on that policy when I worked there - and my love for the Creme Egg will never be surpassed.

I posted off a birthday parcel to my wee niece today and that made me think about my birthday present for my big niece.  I made her a necklace, and while I'm sure she opened the present hoping for *things 16 y/o girls like* and ended up with something made by her Mad Drunken Auntie she was gracious enough to have her photo taken wearing the necklace.  So I could see that she had received it and worn it at least once, and really that's all I ask.

Although yeah, I do hope she liked it; it was made with much love.

My life in snippet form

Now I really hate to moan (HA!) but this weather simply can't go on.  Both my lillies are dead - aue, the lillies I raised from teeny, teeny bulbs - and I am losing the will to live.  Supposedly there will be a dramatic lowering of temperature tomorrow but that remains to be seen.  And the promised thunder-storms would have been nice, too.

*****

I had my hair done yesterday, into a shorter style which my hairdresser describes as 'edgy'.  That would be the 'suburban housewife' version of 'edgy', of course.  It looks nice, I like it, but in no way is it 'edgy'.

*****

Foxtel played the mini-series Roots last week, which De and I watched together.  It's a great series, and interesting to watch in light of current events.

*****

My house is seriously upsetting me right now.  There's so much stuff here I can't even begin.  I berate myself for not tidying up, but seriously, there's nowhere to put anything.  And there's nothing I can do about it!  If I try and think about it for a moment I get all stressed and panicky and hyperventilate-y.  I honestly don't know what I'm going to do about it.

*****

I wrote up a long schedule of sewing projects for the next few months, which I now don't really feel like doing (and frankly, there's no room downstairs to sew) so I made some necklaces instead:

So while I'm not doing the stuff I need to do, at least I'm doing something.

*****

And now I'm going to make cupcakes for tomorrow's afternoon tea.

In which I fail at trousers and navigation

Tonight was sewing night with De.  She forged ahead with her projects and I managed to completely mangle sewing a pair of pinstriped pants.  Tonight was also the night for stupid decisions, it seems.

I spent some time in the Eastern suburbs today - I always forget just how much I love the architecture and the history of that area.  I also forget just how hard it is to get over that way with any regularity, and I really wish I'd taken my camera with me today.  I was forcibly reminded of just how pathetic my sense of direction is when I confidently turned left up the street, and saw no familiar landmarks.  After a while I realised I could see Aussie Stadium and was able to re-orient myself.  Or, actually, turn around and go back the way I'd just come.  And once I was walking the other way I recognised a whole pile of landmarks - perhaps things just look different when you're walking the right way?

I went to pick up our freebie copy of the new Dimmer album, and I'm really looking forward to hearing it.  We also discovered tonight that they're playing here tomorrow night, but sadly I don't think we're going to be able to make it.  And not just because they're playing at my least favourite venue in the world.

And the Necklace of the Day:

onyx, crystal, silver

This is more of a dressier two-strand, built around the onyx drop I've had for about twenty years.  I've usually always paired it with contrasting colours, and I really like the effect of it with black crystals.

Sadly this concludes the Necklace of the Day feature, as while I did make headway on a couple more during the Cup I haven't finished them yet (they are languishing in the I have many other things to do first, damnit, and good lord, don't I have enough necklaces? pile).  Although I guess I could just post pictures of my other necklaces; I'm sure there would be enough there to see me through NaBloPoMo.

My little guilded soldiers

I like to make xmas ornaments for my family.  I can only spend every other xmas with them, so I like it that they can (if they choose) think of me and remember me when they're setting up their tree.

And every bloody year I think I'm going to get very organised, so I cast about for a project in, say, June.  And I pick out my project, and in my head it's all done.  And now it's November, I need to have everything done in ten days and I'm all suddenly 'oh, now I actually have to make them!'

So I have spent the day painting matchboxes:

Don't they look cute?  But not half as cute as they looked after they were engoldened:

 

I went down a few blind alleys with the painting, but I'm really happy with the way these are turning out.

So now I'm about halfway there on this project, and I still have to sew a birthday cushion for my mum.  That freaks me out a bit as my mum is a hugely talented woman, and I can't help but feel that anything I give her, she could make better.  And I don't even know yet what I'm going to do but hell, there's five days before I have to make a final decision.

And the Necklace of the Day:

crystal, silver, pearl, quartz crystal

was built around the quartz crystal pendant - something that I've had for a while but hadn't been able to work in to any of my existing pieces.  While I quite like it I think it might be a bit too white for me to wear very often.

Day is for faces

I've just realised that technically I might be flouting the rules of NaBloPoMo because my post won't be up until after midnight.  But you know how it goes - I was finishing my book downstairs, didn't notice how late it was, didn't mean to, te mea, te mea.  So while technically there will be two posts with the same date, in reality they were written on different days.

I define a "day" as "the period of time after I get up, and before I go to sleep" and date-slippage is not something I worry too much about.  I've always been a night person, I have crazy-bad insomnia, and sometimes I just get a little bit ahead of myself date-wise.

Today was really rather productive - things were hauled about, stored away, re-sorted, re-housed, you know, all the good things to start off the week.  And I re-stocked the wine rack.  A full wine rack gives me such a frisson, I can't tell you.  And I bought books (three English murder/mystery thrillers).

And the Necklace of the Day:

crystal, silver

That's quite a good one for today: it's just a little black necklace.  It's nothing too flash, but it goes with everything - it's the necklace that, when you find yourself leaving the house without a necklace on (heaven forbid!) you can just throw it on and trust it to do its job.

And now I'm going back downstairs to get a start on my next English murder/mystery thriller.  Delicious.

If a picture really was worth a thousand words this would be longer

Now that I have given Re her birthday cushions (only a month late!) I can show them here.

I made her two cushions with two different personalities, one for her lounge:

where she likes deep, rich colours, and one for her bedroom:

which is more pastel and girly.

And the Necklace of the Day is the one I wore today:

blue lace agate, lapis lazuli, silver, glass

It's another old favourite that I've been making and remaking for years now.

Tattoo: the Aftermath

So the tattooing was about as much fun as you'd expect (ie, not very). There was a series of snafus and miscommunications, and the whole thing took quite a bit longer than expected but overall I'm really happy with both of them. Pictures will be forthcoming once the scabbing has happened, and after the huge bruise has gone away.

I rather think that this will be my last tattooing experience. I behaved as well as I could but there was a terrifying moment early on when I thought I was going to throw up. And afterwards my body went into a kind of shock, which wasn't much fun.

Say it with me, now: nobody forced me, I chose to do this, I paid for it. Madness.

Today's Necklace of the Day:

turquoise, carnelian, lapis lazuli, pearl, onyx

I originally made this about five years ago when I was deeply enmeshed in my love affair with crystal chips. I remake it every year or so depending on the rest of my colour choices, and although simple, it has become one of my favourites.

She's Lost Control

It's the first day of NaBloPoMo and I'm writing this with less than an hour to go. I honestly believe I'm generally quite organised, but I usually fall to pieces in the face of a deadline. In this case it was a couple of birthday cushions which needed to be done by Sunday, but now they are done and all's well. Of course, things I have not done include the dishes, clearing up the crafting mess downstairs and trying to make some headway in the workroom.

We went to see Control last night, a film about Ian Curtis and Joy Division. It was incredibly intense, and really really well done. We've been discussing various parts of it ever since (always the mark of something good, don't you think?)

The Necklace of the Day feature has been woefully lacklustre lately, so here is another:

amethyst, silver

This is my poor, much abused amethyst necklace. It is hacked up at least twice a year, the beads are often cannibalised for other projects, and small fragments can sit around in broken state for months. But here it is more lovely than ever, and I'm going to try and keep it this way for at least a year.

And speaking of birthday cushions here is one I made last weekend for Ke's husband:

He likes some of the rockabilly imagery, and I thought he'd like his age picked out in felted dice.

Oh daylight saving, how you toy with us

So last night I spent an hour trying to work out how to re-programme the microwave clock. Wouldn't it have beeen so much easier if we had kept the written instruction?! Why yes, I think it would.

centrepiece of nephrite jade with enamel, crystal, glass

And now it's going to take us a week or so to come to terms with the new timing arrangements. It's light but it's not late, it's not late so there's no need for dinner, and all of a sudden it's 11pm. Things are strange.

I love it my bathroom, just not around my neck

So I finally worked out what to do with some old beads:

silver, ceramic, black pearl, hematite

I bought the blue and white Chinese ceramic beads about 10 years ago while on a mini-break in Nelson, and I think they're gorgeous. I've always loved blue and white china, of any provenance, and I thought having that in a bead form would be great.

Except - I don't wear white. And they didn't go with anything else, and I couldn't see where I'd wear them, and things became problematic.

And then I made a mistake with the grey suede fabric, and De gave me a white skirt, and the whole episode looks like it will wrap up nicely when I finally master the new pattern for the Magic Empire-Line Frock.

And now we're off to Ke's place for dinner - she is preparing a Japanese dinner, which will no doubt be lovely.