Monday 28 February 2011

I have got my baby back

BJ has been using my laptop as his was being seen to in the shop. I don't mind sharing, but did miss being able to hop onto it anytime I liked. It is now Monday night and we have had some budget talks.....dull but essential and all I want to do now is crochet. Need to chill a little after a crazy day.
More Rome snaps to come and a look at my current WIP.
Inspired by Attic24 and this blog I feel calm when I crochet.

Saturday 26 February 2011

Remembering Rome...

We have been back a few days and it has been hard to find time to absorb how wonderful the trip was. My sister is a fantastic person anyway, but was so lovely with the girls. It was good see their relationship with their aunt grow. I thought I would put some pictures up and add comments rather than write in detail.

She is doing a drawing residency at The British School at Rome. Mentioned here before.
She has a studio/room with brilliant lighting and here are the girls in it, on the computer and reading.
We ate a meal with the artists and academics after touring the school. Silver service, a little formal and with a tiny hint of Hogwarts! A challenge was made between Barbie, another Australian artist, and Antonio, staff member, to a game of table-tennis in the common room after dinner. Em played with Barbie to warm her up, but Antonio won, and then played and beat Em! It was a lot of fun.

Apart from siblings, Rome has many old and ancient buildings. The girls and I went to the Colosseum.


We visited the Forum, Pantheon, the Vatican City and saw the Sistine Chapel. We also went to markets, one selling cashmere, leather, vintage clothes and tat....everyone bought something there. Another was a pretty cool flea market with old Jimmy Choo bags, other designer gear, nic naks, clothes and jewellry. The shopping is lovely because everything is not the same as the high street here...and it is nice not to be one of the mob.

The food was fabulous. It was artichoke season

We ate paninis,

pizza

guinea fowl, pork, steaks, antipasti and pasta and of course

gelato


The coffee was superb and pretty too at times!


The other things we loved were the trees and these will be on the next post.

Sunday 20 February 2011

Help Queenslanders who lost so much

We are in Rome in a fabulous B&B and apart from it being spotless, friendly, evironmentally friendly, central and in-expensive, we have access to the owner's laptop.
On it tonight I discovered this site Crochet a rainbow
Seriously, if any of you feel like it, a small square or two could go a long way.
If I had a crochet hook here with me I would go mad.
What a fabulous project.

Thursday 17 February 2011

Twas the night before holidays

We are off late morning tomorrow to Rome and here I sit surrounded by 'things that I need to do before we go away'...
But that can wait a few minutes for me to blog. BJ and Step son are off to Whitley Bay at about 5:30 in the morning, so they have things to get ready as well.
Have to make sure that we have cameras ready so I am about to clear the memorystick to make room for the Italian pictures. Watch this space.
A friend is cat/fish sitting so that is great as well.

Wednesday 16 February 2011

Where do you go when you are alone in your head?

But where do you go to my lovely
When you're alone in your bed
Tell me the thoughts that surround you
I want to look inside your head, yes I do

Peter Sarstedt 1969

I was telling BJ about a night of dreams that left me feeling somewhat limp and wilted. In them there were crocodiles, (baddies in my dream world...don't like them a bit in dreams and am very scared of them in life,) tigers, leopards, dogs, a dinner party into which a huge tiger appeared and I rather cruelly burnt its nose with my handy steam iron...(yep, at the table, I was ready with a steaming iron and ironing is a bugbear of mine!!) In my defence however, this was a completely wild animal and we were all at risk of becoming his meal at our dinner party! There was a bus trip to observe nature and we all accepted that a rather thin dog that got onto the bus was in fact a leopard!! Then a boat trip over a stretch of water full of manatees...
They did not seem to be bothered by the boat powering over them even though they were on the surface.
Where all these creatures came from no one knows, but my head is a busy place at the best of times.
After telling BJ all about it, he quoted to me the song

'where do you go to my lovely, when you're alone in your bed, although I think 'alone in your head' are better words.

But to end on a lighter note...when I said I dreamt of a pod of manatees ( is that the counter or is it a herd?) BJ asked if one of them was named Hugh.

Hugh Manatee.

For 7am, not bad!!

Saturday 12 February 2011

Indulgences

These red shoes were calling out from the window of the charity shop this morning. I love red shoes and when they fit, that was it. Now, what to wear them with? That in time, will become clear. These are an indulgence, there is something party-like about red shoes.

Another indulgence is time for crochet and this is what I have been working on this week:


I followed the tutorial on Attic24's blog and have made some hexagons. I find working with colour difficult as there is always some straightlaced voice in my head telling me that only certain colours go with others. I have decided to experiment with the yarn I have to see what kind of patterns develop and to remember the only rules are my rules. You can see that the bits are sitting in my crochet box, all lined now...all though not completely stitched up yet.

The last indulgence is HERSHEY'S KISSES, which BJ brought back from New York. Nice.

Thursday 10 February 2011

Praise

For some it seems that praise is like a loaded gun. Dangerous and or threatening. Youngest has been working on her GCSE choices and we went to talk things over with her teachers. Nothing but praise from them all, she is a high acheiver, well liked. She seemed to think though, that by doing well she is now expected to always do well and that in turn becomes pressure. My heart goes out to her. I wish she could see what we see in her, a gifted, delightful young woman, and that she could be comfortable about that. Her results are the icing on the cake. She is just blessed and it would be lovely if she could embrace that.

Wednesday 9 February 2011

Sweet Child of Mine

This is what the Han-solo's band played tonight at the Musician of the Year concert. It was great. She is so happy on the bass, but played her flute in a classical piece with as much enthusiasm. Step son, littlest daughter and I went to watch. The man of the house is in NY.

Today I did not gardern, in fact I did lots of admin and some food shopping with Step son. I also put together some clothes for the charity shops and felt pleased to be rid of some items that have been hanging in the cupboard for ages, unworn. To me at least, it looks as though there is more space in there.

I spoke to my artist sister in Rome about the imminent trip. It is so exciting and I am really looking forward to spending time with her, seeing where she is working, what she is working on and of course, the city itself.

My crochet box is nearing its final adjustments, pics to follow when the camera is charged. Inside it I hope you will see the latest little things I have been working on... Crochet is addictive. I need to keep off sites like flickr and the wonderful blogs that I follow that just glow with colour!

Tuesday 8 February 2011

Light in the sky

Driving home tonight via the supermarket I was thinking about how much I love to drive and what a not so good thing that is. The cost of fuel is so high here, there are complaints all the time of a local cartel. Only a few miles down the coast the prices are much, much lower. Not only that, the government plans to increase the fuel duty so we could pay 5p more per litre at the pump in a few months time. It is time to embrace walking to work. Great exercise, free and good for the environment. But it also means schlepping along with changes of shoes, lunch boxes and sometimes gym gear....mmmm.

The other thing I was thinking as I unpacked the shopping was that it was still light. The western sky was yellow, there were birds everywhere, singing, enough light for a last minute forage for some of them. The house felt almost too warm for this spring-like evening.

I am hoping for another sunny day tomorrow, my day off. I want to get my first raised bed into some sort of shape ready for the new season. I will take a photo of it when it is done....

Sunday 6 February 2011

A brand new person....coming soon

We had wonderful news last night that a brand new person is on their way. Still tiny and not due to appear until the late summer. Before you all choke on your tea, wine, or what ever it is you are imbibing, it is NOT me!
Someone very near and dear and their lovely, lovely partner is expecting.
More news when we have more news from them.

Since then though, my head has been FULL of ideas. I really want to make a blanket or a wrap, a la Attic24 style. Something that is their very own to have and keep them warm.

My granny genes are kicking in, and that is not a hint...I am WAY too young to be a granny, and my kids are WAY to young to be anything other than kids!!

Friday 4 February 2011

End of the working week

Full of cold and feeling grotty. Tonight we celebrated a colleague's birthday in our local...code name Watersp(r)outs! Although I felt too rough to go at first, I managed it and had a great time. I work with some amazing women.
Home and the cold has taken hold. The Six Nations Rugby started tonight and BJ is watching it. I think a hot drink and bed is what I need.

Wednesday 2 February 2011

Late night blogging

Queensland is being hit again, this time by winds and rain. They have had enough don't you think?

Tuesday 1 February 2011

Back from the snow

Han-solo is back from her snowy trip to Norway. She loved it and has lots of photos to remember it by.
We are now getting ready for BJ to go away, this time to the States. This month is a busy one for travelling.

For Christmas I was given a MAC make-over voucher and tomorrow is transformation day! (Given that the session is about an hour, there will be a limit to what they can do.) But I hope to learn some of the tricks and would love to be able to do more than the lippy + mascara = made up equation. I should take the camera.

Continuing with the crochet and a little seed of an idea is in my head. My hairdresser was here last night and she thinks it should be a box. I like it. That is the challenge. Boxes I have done before and baskets, but this one I would like to line...