My February

February was a month of contrasts for me. I got a job halfway through the month, so I left behind much of the time I had for doing arts and crafts. Weather-wise, it's been much hotter than normal for this time of year. Usually there are only a few days above 35oC (95oF) by the time we get to February, but this year there have been many. I'm looking forward to Autumn more than ever this year!


What I've been working on ...
Work has been continuing apace on my art project, a crocheted blanket. I put off measuring it for a long time because I was worried it wasn't as big as I'd like it to be at this stage. I finally did measure it though: it's 180cm wide and 130cm long. At the moment it's a bit of an odd shape. Ideally I'd like it to be at least 180-200cm long, but that depends on how much time and energy I have to work on it before the due date. I was in too much of a hurry to get proper photos of the whole blanket, sorry about that. It's hard to take photos of something so big without a ladder!

What I've been sorting ...
Like nearly everyone else (it seems!), I've been influenced by Marie Kondo's Netflix TV series and have renewed my KonMari de-cluttering journey. I decided to KonMari my fridge magnets. Husband and I have quite a large collection, most of which were stuffed into a bag when we moved house and never unpacked. We always buy at least one magnet when we travel and sometimes to art exhibitions, and a few friends have given some to us, too. It brought back some lovely memories. I'd forgotten I had so many pretty magnets.

What I've been blending ...
I made my first spiritual oil this month. I'm leaving it to blend for a month, so I won't know how it went for another few weeks. See this post on my other blog for more about it.

What I've been cooking ...
I made a stir fry earlier in the month and realised that it was perfect for Lunar New Year. Pork for the Year of the Pig, long noodles for longevity, plus the noodles are golden for prosperity. The photo wasn't pretty enough for Instagram, so I've put it here. Though now I come to think of it, I was the one who first started the #allfoodisinstaworthyfood hashtag, so perhaps that's a little hypocritical of me!

What my cat has been doing ...
For some reason Sharick has decided to make the towels shelf in the bathroom his new hidey hole. It's very cute, but all the towels will need to be re-washed at some point.

Selections from Instagram

Actually I never posted this flower to my Instagram, so enjoy the blog-exclusive, hehe

In The Kitchen, Special Edition: SPAM!

Recently, I've started receiving spam comments on my blog. They're mostly ads for what seem to be dating sites or online training courses. I'm not 100% sure, because they're in Russian. Google translate is good, but you can never be completely sure. [Note: this passage refers to my Livejournal blog, where this post was originally hosted.]

I don't know if I've been bestowed this honour because I've reached a certain number of readers, or just because my blog has been around a long time. Either way, I've decided to take the bull by the horns and make lemonade. Or Spam, to be more precise.

I declared a Weekend of Spam! A Spam-aganza!

I went out and bought 3 cans of Spam for 3 meals. All varieties just happened to be on sale at my local supermarket. The only varieties I could get were these ones:

But they were more than suitable for my needs.
On Friday night, Boy and I made Pita Pizzas with sticks of Hot & Spicy Spam for the meat. Sometimes when a food is advertised as 'hot' and/or 'spicy', it ends up tasting fairly lame. But this really had some kick to it. We used half of the can. The pizzas also had capsicum, red onion and a scattering of brie:

On Saturday morning, I made Eggs Spam-edict. I used the Spam with Real Bacon. It tasted quite bacony and had a certain, slightly chewy texture. I cut the slab of meat (or should that be 'meat'?) up into 4 large slices. Here it is sizzling away nicely in the pan. I used garlic butter to give it some extra flavour.

Here is the Spam with Real Bacon assembled on the muffins with the eggs. Boy and I like our hollandaise sauce! Needless to say, we didn't really eat much for the rest of the day.

On Sunday, Boy and I had Spam Lite for lunch. See how it glistens appealingly on the board after it has slid with an satisfying slurp from the can?

I wanted to make Spam Musubi (the Hawai'ian favourite). I've never made shaped rice by hand before, so I think I did pretty well. Boy made some handrolls as well with Spam cut into sticks, and eggroll that he had made. We had a couple of rounds of rice paper in the cupboard, so I turned the meal into a smorgasbord by cooking up some noodles and making Spam Paper Rolls. I'm glad I reserved the Spam Lite for this meal, as it gave the food a fresher feel. We used up about 3/4 of the can making this Asio-Pacific Spam-tacular for Two.

Even the cat loves Spam! (We made sure only to give her some of the Lite version). Actually, I think we've created an addict. She wouldn't leave us alone the whole time we were in the kitchen. Oops.

Tonight we'll be having the left-over Hot & Spicy Spam on another round of Pita Pizzas, as we wave goodbye to our 3-day Exploration of Spam. One thing is for sure, I won't be eating Spam again for a long, long time.

A Day's Work

I had the day to myself this fine, freezing cold winter Saturday. So I made up a long list of Things To Do so I wouldn't get too cold or bored. I tried to make sure the housework was interspersed evenly amongst the fun crafty things, so I could hopefully trick myself into doing it without too much pain.

One of the things I did was finish the Creativity page in my art journal. (Though I guess they're all creativity pages, aren't they?) I started it the other night using the journalling prompt from Suzi Blu's YouTube video on layering. I just found out about her, and she's great inspiration. So, for this page. First, you write down all of the reasons why you can't or won't do art journalling. Then you cover it up with paint. I had to put a few layers on before it was all covered up, but it felt good. It ended up being a slightly different colour to what I'd planned in the start, but I liked the reds and yellows - they made me think of the fire and passion of creativity. I used my fingers to dab paint onto the edges. Then I set it out to dry.

Art Journal 18-JUL-09, unfinished.
Today, I got it out again to finish it off. You're supposed to stick a photo of yourself as a child on it, but I don't have any. So on the right-hand side I made a base with white paint that I could draw on, and used up the leftover paint on the left side, where I tried to make more of a raised, textured effect. When that was dry, I drew a polaroid-type frame with a Sharpie, and drew a picture of myself in it. I don't really remember what I looked like as a child, but I did have very long, thick hair which people always commented on, so I drew that. Actually, I don't think the face looks really like either an adult or a child - it has an ambiguous quality to it. But somehow that's appropriate - I'm not really an adult now, and I wasn't really a child then.
I couldn't remember what I was supposed to do next from the video, but then I thought, perhaps that's not such a bad thing. I'll let my instincts guide me instead. So I wrote across the top: "Perhaps from a creative point of view it's better if I don't remember exactly how to do it". I had been thinking of putting some blue on for contrast, so I mixed together some sky blue, white and silver paint, and I rubbed it on with my fingers. The finished effect on the left makes me think of steam - as if the creative fire is dissipating all the frozen misgivings and fears. I don't even remember now what I wrote underneath there! Perhaps that's the point.

To finish it off, I mixed the leftover blue/silver paint with some purple, and used it with a squiggly rubber stamp I got from Riot Art N Craft a few weeks ago. I love how it looks! It came in a pack of 6 with different textures. They are Teacher's Choice brand. I highly recommend going into the children's or school supplies section of any art or craft shop you find yourself in. You can pick up some really great stuff.
Here is the finished page:

Art Journal 18th - 25th July '09, finished.
Part of me wants to add more to this page. But then again, another part of me wanted to stop after the first, yellow layer of paint. I hate covering up stuff I've done before. It's so hard to decide when to stop. You just have to draw a line and trust that it's in the right spot.

In other news, I bought this last week:

It's my first (and probably not last) purchase from Notemaker. Here you see a mini Moleskine notebook (my first Moleskine, yay!), the Rhodia Essentials Box (also a very reputable maker of paper goods - and see how the box the notepads came in looks like a notepad itself!), and for special I also got some O-Check rubber stamps and stickers (a similarly reputable stationery brand from Korea). I have to say, I was very impressed with Notemaker. I had been unable to find the things I'd wanted in any of the bricks-and-mortar shops that I'd had time to go to. This site had them all. Some of the things my heart desired were on sale. And they had free postage over $60 so I added a couple more. Within 2 hours of ordering, I received an email saying my order had been shipped! And I received it the next day! And my things came in the lovely free drawstring bag you see in the picture. It's perfect for keeping my rubber stamp collection in. I was really thrilled with this purchase.

I think I'm becoming a bit of a pen and paper snob. I never anticipated it, but it's true. In Japan I saw a little of their aesthetic for beauty and quality in everyday things. I'm starting to realise that money well-spent on quality household items can be life-enriching. Gosh, I love to sit down and write with my Platinum Preppy fountain pen! So much so that I wrote this whole blog post out on paper with it before typing it up. And if you don't have the money to buy nice things, then making them yourself is just as special. Even more special, in my opinion. (Which is what I've been saying ever since I started this blog!) Hence the desire to learn how to bind my own journals. One day soon Ill get around to it, I hope!

Meanwhile, this is what I'm doing with my mini Moleskine:

The first page.

Amy being curious about the sticker page.

Tragedies, Swaps and Cats

I don't really have too much to say right now. The bushfires were just horrible, and they've left me feeling very sad and helpless. I've been thinking a lot about how lucky I am to have a house, and the things in it, and all my family and friends. Work has been absolutely flat out too. Because I work for a Government department, we are directly involved with some aspects of the bushfire recovery. It has been very draining, and I come home from work every night exhausted. I'm not complaining though - it's been very satisfying to be able to help in some way.

I have managed to make a few things in the last week though. I made this fabric bookmark for a swap on Swap-bot. Yes, I know, I've been going on about that site a lot! But it's my current obsession, so just get used to it! =)

Fabric Felt Bookmark
Once again, I missed the point and made something a bit different to the specifications. It didn't really need to have all that embroidery and needle-felting. But I enjoyed making it anyway.

Then I started making some sewn Artist Trading Cards for another swap. There's also an embroidery on a bought pouch that I'm working on there, too:

My portable workspace
(ATCs are playing-card-sized pieces of art. They are exactly the same as ACEOs, but you use the term ATC when you are swapping them, and the term ACEO selling them. I gotta get the terminology right!)
I've been working on my stable table (which has a background of coffee beans embedded in it) because it seems to be easier than getting everything out and putting it away again every time I want to work on something. I don't have any free table space anyway. I'm much more inclined to do some work when it seems easy!

I think I prefer using felt rather than fabric for the backing of the ATCs as it doesn't need finishing around the edges. I have cut out a second piece of felt for each one as a backing, and I'll probably blanket stitch around the edge to finish them off as with the first one. I'm a bit stuck at the moment as to what to put on next. Perhaps I should plan them out next time? Today I was looking at the blog Dot's Life and Art for inspiration. She is a lady who lives in Melbourne and does the most amazing embroidered and beaded works. I really admire her creativity - and her patience! She has a full time job just like me, but she manages to make the most beautiful, detailed work that she must spend hours and hours on.

I have also been doing a bit of writing this week (though not on my zine, unfortunately!). I've done both creative writing and a biographical piece. I'm not going to share that as I'm not very confident with it yet. Plus it's kinda yawn-worthy on a craft blog.

I was mucking around with the camera this morning, and I took some shots of the cat being schmoozy on the windowsill. On their own they weren't too crash hot, so I found a photo editing website and made them into a collage:

Amy-La
I have more Fabric ATC swaps and a handmade bookmark swap coming up, so there'll be more of that next time, probably.
Take care everyone.

Craft Progress ... Or Lack Of?

I was going to wait until I had finished more stuff before I posted again (procrastination being the better part of my weekend), but I'm having ex-flatmate server problems at the moment, and it seems I'll be losing internet access in a few days, and might not have it back again for up to a week. It's fairly usual for me to not post for a week anyway, but you never know. Someone out there might think I've died or something...

Anyhoo.

I have a confession to make. In my last post, I said that I had finished the Berry Bonce hat. It wasn't true. I still had the ends to weave in. I'm actually not really ashamed. I don't care one little bit. You see, I've lost my motivation for making things for other people. I just can't get up the motivation to keep on plowing away if it's not me that gets to wear it or use it afterwards! Sure, I have these high-handed notions of making excruciatingly fine and details baby shawls and bootees and jackets, but am I really going to finish them?
I sometimes wonder if the things I make for other people actually get used. Do they think they're too precious to use and they don't want to ruin them? Do they not wear them because they're fugly? Do they (e.g. Boy) wear them out of a sense of loyalty and not wanting to hurt my feelings? I'm just paranoiding again. Sorry. I really have to snap out of that if I want to start selling my works! Here's the Berry Bonce:

Mmm, yummy!
I now feel like I can start on something else. Will it be the heirloom baby blanket? Or the Elizabeth Zimmermann Baby Surprise Jacket? Or something totally mean and selfish?

I'm well along on the Baby Bum pants:

I'm really quite happy with the fair aisle bit just after the ribbing, and the colours. too. I actually managed to find some pure wool in my stash in gorgeous colours that co-ordinate well. I couldn't have asked for more! I don't want to give the darn thing away! I'll probably ruin the end part with the leg-holes though, and then I'll be quite content to give them away. Hmmm, is this why I'm such a bad knitter???

Last but not least, the piece de resistance - I finished the Happy Baby Grassy Feet!

Groovin' in the grass
They turned out much better than I had hoped for. I was really worried about the sewing up, but I just followed the instructions in Elizabeth Zimmermann's book, and they look almost perfect! The cords were a bit of a pain to make. Boy helped me with them - he's a gem! I was hoping to have the rest of the bootees and mittens made by now, but I've found that, not havin much spare time, I'd rather just do whatever I feel like than forcing myself to do something I don't want to do at the time. Ravelry has helped immensely with that actually. Instead of a situation where I'm moaning about the thought of trawling through all my stash for a ball of wool that I thought I remembered I had, I can just look it up online, even from work, note down the location and go straight to it! My motivation to knit and start new projects has been so much higher since I joined. Or got in, I should say. As it's still in beta testing, there are only a limited number of users (first in, first served.) There are over 19,000 people on the waiting list, apparently. I hope they won't have to wait too long.

Enough of wool. Spring is in the air and I'm branching out to new things. On the weekend I went to Polyester and bought some zines:

It's pretty much a random selection of stuff that looked appealing. I'm really liking reading them, and learning a lot. I think it's great that people are sharing their personal stories, their writing and art. Speaking of art *sniggers*, here's my second LOLcat:

The knack seems to be not in thinking of a funny caption, but actually getting a decent picture of the damned cat!!

Katie's first lolcat!

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. My first LOLcat!

It's hard to take a good photo of that kitty-cat!
The battery in my camera conked out before I could take a close up.

Top Secret

Guess what people? I've started knitting again.
I've decided to give you a sneak preview of the Top Secret Project, just to get you all going:

Ooooh! I can just hear the gasps of excitement...

Plus, as a bonus, I thought I'd include a picture of my flatmate's cat, but she was
being unco-operative, as usual. For some reason she likes to stick her head through
the railings on the stairs. Must have been a French aristocrat in a past life.
Still kinda cute though.

"No photos, please. I'm too busy to
eat your face off right now."

Top Secret Project Status: 70%. Woo hoo!!