The laziest

blog post ever.

But this mosaic of flickr favourites is to remind me that there are people who know what they're doing.
Not only that, but they do it beautifully.
And silently. Yes, I was teaching today. Now I finally understand why when I was little and my mother would come home from Prac Teaching and the first words out of her mouth would be

"Make mummy a gin and tonic,would you"?

before repairing to a horizontal position with 'the vapours'.

Credits here.

Have a good weekend everyone.

On being a grown up

Sometimes it just sucks being one.
Take right now for instance.
What I should be doing is calling the solicitor and the broker and asking some very important questions that arose out of a conversation Goat and I were having last night.
Also semester starts in just over a week and there are some areas of my knowledge I need to take a refresher in before attempting to impart it to the Youth of Australia.
Instead, I find myself here uploading some photos of the dogs.
Yep.
I'm the girl making dandelion chains in the middle of the battlefield while the armoured soldiers clash around me.
La la land?
Me?
Never.


Stick chewing is a serious business. Scout likes to get them right back to the molars for maximum leverage.
Apologies for supremely ugly fence in the background -it really breaks the aesthetic rhythm of the blog- curse you Marrickville Council for not being considerate enough to provide more attractive backdrops for dogwalking photo opportunities! If you could put some Art Direction into it guys, I'd be most apppreciative.

But maybe I shouldn't be so tough on myself. After all, I manage to be a responsible dog parent; I can measure incrementally how much Harper has improved in the three and a half months she's been with us, from a damaged and dull-coated pup into a happier, calmer, shiny-coated girl that doesn't wee when she's in trouble and actually plays with toys.

And I manage to keep my human family well fed (perhaps too well fed in my case). Even more so since I discovered the treasure trove that is Lucy's blog : nourish me. The name says it all really.
If like me you're feeling jaded by overwhelming flavours and overly fussy recipes *cough* jamie, bill *cough*, and so over-stretched and fragile by dinnertime, that you really need to quickly whip up some nutritious, delicious comfort food with barely more than the canned legumes in the pantry, then you are going to love Lucy's take on food. (No, you actually don't have to spend a day and a half traipsing about searching for organic thyme-infused puy lentils for this one!). So far I've made her Thai Chickpeas (makes great leftovers!) and her Banana Leaf Snapper Parcels on the barbie, courtesy of our lovely neighbour's banana tree that hangs over the fence. You can almost pretend you're on a (gourmet) survival course on a desert island with this one.

And while I'm on the shout-out trail, if you're also like me in wondering about the gendered nature of craft/design blogging, then nina's post may also tickle a different kind of taste bud and perhaps echo your thoughts on the topic as well.

The Purple Story

Clockwise: Clap,
juniper berries in a dish,
black grapes (in a dish),
plums and pods...yes you guessed it - in a dish!

Martha, you may need to avert your gaze for a while; I know how you feel about purple.
I'll let you know when it's safe to look again.
Although the title just may have tipped you off.

Regular readers may also be keenly attuned to the sudden and uncharacteristic quickening of my posting.
You should know that I'm deeply enmeshed in the horror show that is tax returns and Imminent Mortgage Freakout (IMF), and as we all know, in these situations it's best to just pretend it's not happening.

Yes, sometimes blogging = procrastination.

And for someone who vowed not to bore the pants off you with clap updates, I'm certainly going on and on (and on) about it, aren't I?

When I went fruit shopping yesterday I didn't consciously select fruit that echoed the colours in the yarn I'm using -basically I just went for everything that was $1.99 a kilo, and these days my very good friends, that means tomatoes, plums and grapes, grapes, grapes!- but this morning the colour echoes were hard to deny.
Outside the fruit market, there's a fascinating leguminous tree that is weighed down by these fantastic seed pods, so I had to pick some of those too.
They start out half brilliant green and half bruise-brown, but after a week the green part turns into a deep burnished copper. Quite beautiful.

The Great Valentines Day Bleach Stain
on the knee of my trakky pants.

Happy Valentines Day
With an irony quotient of 98.78%.

Just because

it's Monday.
And just because I can.


Credits here.

Incidentally, try staring at "Just because" for a while, and see if it doesn't start to look weird and lose all meaning.

Read a book, do something different ! !

is what a vehemently, bitterly angry and thoroughly pee-ed off young lady just yelled as she walked past our house just now. Not to me (I think anyway).

Whoever you are, thank you for the title -and indeed it's not bad advice in general- although by the sounds of it I hope I never get on your bad side or run into you on the street late at night.

Speaking of which I just cannot wait to move out this suburb (I'm getting too old for this particular brand of urban edginess) and finally the Great Australian Dream aka home ownership looks imminent

It's simultaneously very exciting and profoundly stressful.

And like bugheart, what do I do when I'm stressed out?

Knit, of course.

It really calms me down.

You know you're really just a knitter when you're traipsing through a house for sale that's been professionally styled right down to the tshatshkes and baskets artfully tossed in the corners to give it that homey feel, and all you hone in on is one particular basket in one room. The one that is just the right dimensions and proportions, sturdy yet yielding, leather with a nice buckle on top. Just right in fact for a chair-side knitting basket. And you're tempted to tell the agent "I'm really not interested in buying the house, but how much is that basket"?

By the way, I am knitting a clap-oh-tee, and I know I'm only the 6000th person in the world to do so. I won't bore you with double entendres about 'the clap'. But one thing's for sure it's absolutely curing my knitting ennui that had set in after months of knitting with cotton, which was starting to feel like a chore rather than a pleasure. Time for some soft and sproingy, some gently unfolding colour and some slightly chunkier needles.

Pure loveliness.

Kung Hei Fat Choy

I really wanted to make a rat toy for Chinese New Year.

(reject : too much like ratatouille)

I knew there was no way I was going to get it done in time, but I've been doodling anyway.

(maybe he should be wearing buttoned pants?)

Then I started thinking about all the other signs in the Chinese Zodiac as well.

monkey : definitely

Twelve toys from scratch is a big ask isn't it?

I will have a go at some.

ram : super shaggy yarn

But in the meantime I'm happy just doodling frivolously in my margins.

Monday

Thank the gourds for Mosaic Monday, otherwise I would still be unable to post.
Y'see.. Goat is away on yet another conference and I am rendered camera-less. I simply can not summon the chutzpah to post without an image, it's just not in me and so good ol' flickr has come to the rescue.

This one started out with a definite theme: curvy, swirly, soft, pretty, then it started branching out, quite literally, then closed with some interconnectedness (is that even a word)? -That'll send some of my readers *cough* martha *cough* to dictionary.com-

I honestly don't know how I ever survived without flickr, in a similar vein to how I'm amazed how I survived without a photocopier and gaffer* tape!

Which brings me to the point (trust me, I do have one) of this:


from suse at pea soup.

Thank you suse! I can now step up and join the assembled throng on the (slightly chipped now from all the shoes tripping on it as they ascend) podium of bloggy award-iness (another one for the dictionary!)

I'm quite chuffed that suse slaved for hours, people! to compile her fabulous list and I'm on it. Even more chuffed that someone who makes me laugh feels likewise.

And as I don the glittering tiara, I have to nominate 10 others for this award also.

Now, this is where I may be ignominiously shoved off the podium for being disrespectful of the rules. Shocking iconoclast that I am, I'm nominating four people (and only two of those blog) whose web presence truly makes my day every day, because ten -ten-! is just too hard (you should see my bloglines, seriously you all make my day, otherwise I wouldn't subscribe! ) so I'm choosing to go with some wonderful folk you may not be aware of.

First up are three people whose tireless whimsy and wit make me giggle, often to the point of snortling my morning beverage out through my nose (note to self: get coffee out of the way first). Granted, this is not an attractive image for you, but conveys why I love them so much.

Stephen at Coelacanth Diaries.
One seriously talented illustrator, his insights into the freelancer's working experience gets my vote every time.

Andrew at firstdogonthemoon.
Ok, so he doesn't blog, but man, can the guy cartoon! The subtlety of expression that he can convey in just the nuances of a dot in the eyeball are genius. Plus he tends towards the surreal, which also gets my vote.

Sharon aka Ms Charm and Poise.
Imagine a mid-century buffet table at the Algonquin Hotel round table, and you've pretty much got her stock in trade. The wit! The wisdom! The canned-product hors d'œuvres !

Next is
Danica at slowprogress.
Danica's blog has such a quiet authenticity and charm to it you can't help but feel invited in. And she takes such exquisite photos that I just want to move into her house. Thoughtful and keenly observant, her little guys are pretty cute too.

Lastly but not leastly, I nominate every single one of my flickr contacts,whose daily visual offerings truly make my day, especially when they line up in a spooky way.So much so I had to start a group.(thanks for the gee up on that one Alison)

How's that for a bookend?



*duct tape