Hello Winter!

Winter has come early and hard to my part of Australia this year. The frosty mornings and overcast skies have blown in suddenly like a southerly wind straight from Antarctica. Thankfully, Winter isn't completely relentless here -- there are still some sunny days which bring a little warmth and hope.

Here are some ways that I'd like to celebrate Winter this year:

BAKING
As I mentioned in my last post, I really want to get back into baking again. I love making cakes, loaves and biscuits that I can share with Husband and with friends. I have a secret love of rock cakes -- they make the perfect snack! Collecting cute utensils to use in the kitchen is another wish of mine.



KNITTING & CROCHETING
In Summer it's just too hot to handle wool or have large blankets-in-progress draped over my lap. But Winter is the perfect time for that! I've even been taking one smaller blanket to work with me and working on it during my lunchbreaks. There's something comforting about holding the yarn in my hands which goes well with cold weather.



CAT SNUGGLES
When I've had a long day at work, all I can think about is coming home and snuggling with my cat. He's a confirmed lap cat and a huge sook, so I know I'm guaranteed some time with him on my lap every evening. Sometimes I even joke that I'm nothing but a heated cushion in his eyes! Not only is it nice and warm, but I can scratch under his chin easily and it's bonding time for both of us.


I hope your Winter is warm and snuggly, and if you're in Summer right now, I hope you're enjoying the sun!

End of 101 Things in 1,001 Days

A couple of days ago, I finished my first 101 Things in 1,001 Days. Like with many things, the last two-and-three-quarter years has seemed like a very long time and also hardly any time at all. My life has changed tremendously since it began, but I'll save that for another blog post.

I ended up finishing 35 things on the list -- approximately one-third. And that's even with reviewing the list every 6 months to take out things I was no longer interested in and adding in new ones. I'm trying not to see it as a dismal failure rate, but in just that it just reflects my personality as a person loves novelty and whose interests can change pretty quickly. I also have a feeling it probably says a lot about the lack of time and energy I have to devote to my hobbies. Perhaps the experience will give me motivation to look at the way I spend my spare time.

I always knew that I'd start a second 1,001 Days well before I finished the first one. I love the concept of (slightly!) longer term planning. Sometimes I want to plan further ahead than a year, but 5 years is a bit too long and daunting! A time period about half that length just seems right to me. I rolled over some of the things I'd completed and enjoyed from my last list. I also re-added others that I didn't complete, because I'm still interested in doing them. Others are new.


Here's the full list (there's also a tab at the top of my blog), and here are a couple of the highlights:

✦ finish KonMariing my house -- well, it's still not finished, even after 2.75 years ... a little outside of the 6 months that KonMari recommends! But I'm determined to finish one day.

✦ write a "reverse bucket list" -- as much as I hate the term bucket list, I think it's a good idea to remind myself of the things I've achieved so far in my life, big and small.

✦ hang all my art -- this was uncompleted from my last list, but it's important to me. Tara Leaver recommends hanging your own art in your studio to help inspire you, and it just makes sense to decorate the house with it instead of it sitting stacked up in a corner somewhere.

✦ watch 50 new movies -- I finished this one way early too, and now that we have Netflix, Husband and I watch a lot more movies. So I've increased it from 30 to 50.

✦ go to 15 art/craft exhibitions -- increased from 10 on the last list.

✦ create a gluten-free flour mix for bread -- I've been meaning to do this for a while. Gluten-free flour mixes are available from my local supermarkets, but they're expensive and only come in small packages. I want to experiment with different blends until I can make the perfect bread. (And perhaps pizza dough, cakes and biscuits too!) Since I've been unable to eat gluten, I've baked a lot less and I've missed it. This item will be a great excuse to take it up again.

✦ have a Harry Potter themed feast -- because who wouldn't want to do that?

✦ write 30 reviews on my blogs -- this item was a lot of fun, and I finished it about a year early last time, so I've increased it from 20 to 30.

✦ read A Christmas Carol every Christmas -- I had this on my list to do once, and I loved it so much that I've decided to do it every year. The message of goodwill and generosity in the book is so wonderful that I want to remind myself of it regularly.

✦ learn 5 songs on ocarina -- I didn't have any music-related items on my old list, as I only took up playing the ocarina late last year. I've been sadly slack with my practice and would really like some motivation to do it more regularly.

Winter Reading List

As the weather gets colder here in Australia, my nesting instincts have kicked in. I'm suddenly into reading again. My interests in reading are quite broad -- from non-fiction of all kinds, to classic literature, to cheesy romance novels, to toddlers' board books. (I like to know what the kids are up to!)

Before I go on with my reading list, I'd like to mention that I joined Goodreads earlier this year. I mainly joined so I could do the yearly reading challenge, but I'd really love to have some more friends there, so if you're a member, please friend me!


To begin my reading quest for this Winter, I've decided to sign up for an online course (sort of crossed with a book club) reading Ulysses by James Joyce. It's generally thought to be one of the hardest books in English to read, and it's certainly one of the longest. I've been wanting to have a crack at it ever since I was 14 and bought a copy of it at the local bookshop to make myself seem smarter. I never got around to the important part of actually reading it, of course, which is why I'm endeavouring to do it now. Hopefully doing it with a group will be fun and keep me motivated.

The course begins on 16th June, so there's still time to sign up if you'd like to do it too.

After that, I want to re-read The Lord of the Rings. I first read it when I was about 13 years old, over a boring Summer at my grandparents' house. That was an incredibly long time ago, and I think it deserves the justice of a re-read. I've decided to add it to my second 101 Things in 1,001 Days, which just happens to start in two weeks (there'll be a blog post about it!). Husband apparently has a copy of the book, but I can't find it, so I decided to buy a nice boxed set. (I recommend reading The Hobbit first as a prequel, but I'm not going to because I only re-read it a couple of years ago.)

Meanwhile, while I'm waiting for the Ulysses course to begin, I'm going to try and reduce the number of books I'm currently reading -- 14, which is a little long even by my standards. I've already given up on a couple, and there are a couple that are more like textbooks so I'm not sure they should count. Here's a short list of ones I'd like to actually finish. They're not the necessarily the hardest, or the easiest, the shortest or the longest. I guess they're just the ones that are piquing my interest right now. There might be reviews coming soon if I feel like writing them.

May Unfinished Crafts Report

Project: Divination Mat
Craft: crochet
Started: 1st September 2017
This project is a relatively recent one, and it's quite large already. I think I wanted it to be 50-60cm square. I already had a small mat which I use for Rune readings, but my interest in Oracle card readings re-surfaced last year and it was too small for that. I happened to have this beautiful Bendigo Woollen Mills Stella, which is silky to the touch. I started making a scarf with it but changed my mind and ripped it. Now it's being re-purposed -- if I ever finish it! I measured it and it's already 45cm wide, so it's well along.

Project: Frankenstein's Toyster
Craft: knitting
Started: 2007
Similar to last month's project, this was more of a fun experiment in making a monster. I deliberately tried to make it as 'ugly' as I could, with blocky shapes, exposed stitches, and different knitting stitches creating strange textures. Poor old Frankie has suffered the same fate as most of my other monsters so far -- languishing in the back of the cupboard, unfinished. Frankie just needs a head and maybe some embroidered embellishments and he can join my finished monsters.

Project: Yarn Picture
Craft: yarn painting
Started: c. late 1980s
I started this project in early high school. I think I must have read a book about Mexican crafts, because I remember deliberately trying to give it a Mexican style. I worked hard on it and prepared a frame for when it was finished, so I'm surprised that I still haven't finished it. Glueing the wool down was unexpectedly fiddly and messy, so perhaps that's why I was put off.

There are only a few small areas to finish off, so it won't take much work. And I might perhaps touch up a few areas, like this squished-looking flower:

I still really like the idea of yarn painting as a craft, and would love to create a series of them to decorate my house.

The accidental theme for this month seems to be: nearly there! All of these projects were much closer to being finished than I thought they were. I feel more motivated to work on them now than I was before.

April Unfinished Report

I meant to post my unfinished crafts report on the last weekend of April, but due to the health issues I mentioned in my last post, I spend most of that weekend sleeping. But never fear, here it is now:


Project: Squares Blanket
Craft: Crochet
Started: 1 March 2011
This was the first large blanket I'd planned. I was inspired by a photo of a bedspread from a magazine. I didn't have a pattern so I made up my own -- and I think that was the problem! The corners of the squares kept rolling up. Later I found a pattern in a book and started making the squares from it, but then I had the problem of the earlier, failure-y squares. I started fixing them, but then I must have unconsciously given up, because I started making the Granny Square blanket from last month's report.
Chance of completion: I'd say about 60%.

Project: Kitten Embroidery
Craft: Embroidery (tapestry)
Started: Mid-2011
I do like embroidery, I just don't have the patience most of the time. For some reason I chose this piece with tiny, tiny squares as one of my first projects. Some of the colours are also very similar, and it was very difficult to make them out on the pattern. I managed to get the grey parts finished last year, and I'm pretty sure I'll finish it one day. Then I need to find a place that will frame it, as I probably won't be confident to frame a circular piece myself.

Project: Rambunctious Roy
Craft: knitting
Started: 2008
This project is an experimental piece. I was trying to create monsters using various techniques of crochet and knitting. I figured out pretty early on that this technique wasn't really my thing -- too fiddly, too many double-pointed needles. Unfortunately that means poor Roy lay, languishing and unfinished, in my cupboard ever since. I really only want to finish Roy so I can have this particular project off my plate, and because ... well, look at that face!

My April

Unfortunately I had some health issues last month, and didn't get to do much of what I wanted to do. That's why this post is a bit late!

I did manage to do a couple of things, though:

What I've been celebrating ...
April is my birthday month, and I celebrated with a brunch. Many of my friends have kids and dogs now, so it's just easier to go to a cafe that I know is friendly to both, plus has great hash browns!

As a thank you to my friends who attended, I made these 'Wisdom of 42' spoof oracle cards. My friends and I have an occasional running joke that when you reach the age of 42, the answer to the ultimate question is revealed to you. I spent an afternoon painting a design, then printed out copies onto cardstock and wrote out oracles for the insides. Before everyone arrived, I placed one at each table setting so they received a random oracle.

My favourite one: "I see bacon in your near future."

P.S. I'm no closer to knowing the answer to the ultimate question than I was before, I'm afraid to say!


What I've been planting ...
This month I planted a tree (well, to be honest, more of a small shrub, but it sounds cooler to say I planted a tree!). I planted it for spiritual reasons that I might write about someday, but not right now. It's a Mexican orange blossom. Mr. Gnome is there to watch over it until it grows big and strong.

What I've been showing ...
I may have mentioned it on my Facebook a couple of times, but not here on the blog: I had a painting in an exhibition this month. (I'm terrible at self-promotion! It's still open until tomorrow if you're in Melbourne!). Here's my little fella, the one at the top:

I almost feel like I cheated with this one: the exhibition involved artists who had previously exhibited at the gallery, so my application was automatically accepted. The painting is an old one that I did last year. I chose it because it's my favourite one, I think. I'm not feeling very confident with my art lately, and I think it was better for me to show an older piece that I like rather than make a new one that I might not have been happy with.


What I've been eating ...
Husband and I went with a friend to One Plus Piece Cafe. It's a themed cafe based on the anime One Piece. We were incredibly excited because, despite Melbourne's reputation for good food, it's not often that you can find fun food, in the tradition of cafes in Japan and Taiwan. I have to admit, I'd never seen One Piece, so I researched by watching the first episode of the anime and reading the Wikipedia page before going.

I had a karaage (Japanese fried chicken) burger with coleslaw and spicy sauce, and a red-haired shake for dessert. The shake was so tall I had trouble taking a photo of it! We were completely overwhelmed with the inventiveness of the foods and the attention to detail paid in the decoration of the cafe. Ironically, it's located less than 10 minute's walk away from where we used to live before we bought our house. If it had been open then, we would have been regulars! Now, we're half an hour's drive away, but it's worth the trip!


Selections from Instagram
Just a couple, as the rest of this post is already quite picture-heavy!

New Art / Craft Project

Last weekend I had an idea for a new project, and, seeing as I have all the materials I need, I started it straight away. I'm crocheting a blanket, but it's no ordinary blanket. I want to highlight how long it really takes to make a hand-crafted item. So I decided to time myself, and change colours once an hour so there's a visual record of how long it takes.

Then I started to think about what it would be like if this blanket was being created in an office environment. How many rows would I get done in a day? In a week? Also, as anyone who's ever worked in an office would know, you don't work 8 hours straight each day and then go home. Some days you might need to work back late. There are the inevitable interruptions that pull you away from your desk: meetings, morning teas, fire drills. Not to mention the everyday occurrences like toilet breaks and getting a cup of tea. Some offices even have mandated 5-minute breaks every hour, though I've never worked anywhere like that.

How can I document these occurrences in this imaginary office job? I could attach small cards to the finished blanket highlighting different events: "team meeting", "Janice's going away", etc. Of course, those colour sections will be shorter or even non-existent to reflect the time I was away from my work. I even thought about making up fake pay slips to show how much I would have been paid if I was making this blanket at an hourly rate.

I'm really curious to know how long it will take to make the blanket -- both in real time and imaginary "office" time -- and especially how much my imaginary wage will be! (Will I get paid overtime? Sick leave? Perhaps holiday leave is pushing it a bit far!) It's this conceptual aspect that pulls this project out from being purely a craft project and into the realms of art.

Will I need to buy more wool? Yes, I think I will!