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Thinking lots about Christmas & giving & sharing & eating & drinking & making & appreciating...

I'm trying really hard to give handmade this year & I thought this might be a good way to spread a bit of Christmas Spirit around.

The Winner Takes it all!

Vintage Father Christmas pillowcase filled with great holiday gift ideas all handmade by me from mostly thrifted/recycled materials. I think that this would cross a LOT of people off your nice list this Holiday Season. You could win the lot! I'm happy to post anywhere! You can view this image with notes on Flickr.

I like to be organised...

Here's a list of places I've been & things I've seen to help me prepare for the upcoming holidays.

COPY FROM HERE:

Still feeling totally inspired by the handmade issue of mankind mag from my favourite design blog.
Q What is the blog author's first name? ANSWER:
use the first letter - LETTER:

We like to keep lunch casual, I've found some fabulous BBQ recipes for the big day.
Q What type of meat is pictured on the rotisserie? ANSWER:
use the first letter - LETTER:

Getting some great ideas for upcycling (my favourite craft) & enjoying the revamp over at this fabulous craft website.
Q They list everyone's favourite Portland based author mama as one of their inspirational sites. Which Portland based author mama is she? ANSWER:
use the second letter of her last name - LETTER:

Looking forward to being able to buy handmade at the shopping shindig with the craft book Queen.
Q What type of car is pictured? ANSWER:
use the first letter - LETTER:

All these letters unscramble to reveal:
WHAT? is all you need.

STOP COPYING

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The convent is located at 1 St Helliers Street Abbotsford in Melbourne.

More information about how to get there here.

What better venue to have our quilt stitched by (mainly)women displayed than at the convent?

If you've been following the project & you're available on the 23rd we'd love to see you.

Just RSVP by replying to my RSVP comment on this post or if you're shy you can email.

The Quilt Project site will be launched on this evening also & will be live on the 24th of October.

& I'll say it again. I'm an all or nothing kind of girl.

Recently, I've been having a lot of all:

work
craft
opping
mess

& a lot of nothing:

housewifeing
maintaining
caring
sorting
cleansing
cutting back

I've reached breaking point & can stand it no longer. We live in a nice suburb with nice neighbours who paid good money for their real estate & frankly we are letting them down. I need a huge garage sale &/or a huge skip.

I pledge to be ALL about the house this week. You could get lucky if you live in Melbourne...

*** You know it's serious when there's no pic ***

Sunday Supper hosted by Meet Me at Mikes.

My smalls are not the best eaters. I'm trying to encourage them to broaden their tastes a bit. The big girl especially would happily live on white food alone! With my goal in sight I picked up some teeny asparagus at the fruit shop this week & with this image in my head set about making this for their dinner. It's more of a construction than a recipe.

They LOVED it!

Birds Nest Pasta
1 Chicken Breast
Sweet Paprika
1 bunch tiny asparagus - chopped
1 handful of mushrooms - sliced
1 egg per person
1 birds nest pasta per person

Rub Sweet Paprika into the chicken breast & pan fry. Slice finely & set aside.

Cook the mushrooms in the same frypan.

Boil water in a large saucepan. Steam asparagus & set aside. Use this water to cook the pasta.

Return the sliced chicken & asparagus to the frypan with the mushrooms & keep warm.

In a separate pan poach the eggs.

Place the pasta in the centre of the plate. Then scatter your vegie & chicken mix around the pasta. Top with the egg sprinkled with Parmesan (& cracked pepper if it's for anyone over 12).

Enjoy.

I think I'll have a couple of Stacey's cheese cubes & cocktail onions for befores & I'd kill for a Melbourne Bitter Cam. I'm so glad you guys could make it to Slide Night.
.

is buried under 5m x 3m of redwork & so am I!

I may or may not be able to dig myself out to get around to say g'day this week I hope that when you see the quilt either live or via photos on the blog you'll forgive me.

Those of you who were interested in last week's space & my music boxes in progress might want to take a look here.

You can visit my favourite space from last week right here.

Don't forget to pop in & add your link if you're playing along this week.

If you live in Melbourne, you know it well. It's a bit boring day after day after day isn't it?

Just like the Elm scarf...
Made using Rowan Tapestry, a 6.5mm hook a "v stitch" ...
Pale grey, dark grey, oh & a little bit of blue grey...

I wish I was escaping the grey too.

Here it is in all it's "ready & waiting" glory.

Of course, this space is really just a massive laundry (where the washing & drying will actually take a back seat). It's also going to be my new creative space. We're so close now & it's all I can think about. Planning, thinking, imagining & totally letting the current space turn into more of a tip than usual.

Hope you'll enjoy furnishing it with me!

Sorry about the fizzer last week. I'm hoping that the Link Man does all the right things this week.

Also, I'm trying out the "Live" option of Echo. I'd love your feedback on how you feel about the most recent comment first thing. I posted earlier in the week about how to get the most out of commenting on kootoyoo. You might want to check it out here.

Pop in and add your link if you're playing along... fingers crossed.

So...I was planning a move away from blogger but you know, I've worked pretty hard in this space for a while now & it seemed a bit like going back to square one. The main reason I was considering a shift was that was the flash commenty systems going on elsewhere.

I've been enjoying the friendly chat over on twitter & was hoping to get something like that going on.

I'm trialling JS-kit comments which seems to be pretty good.

However ... I did transfer my comments from blogger yesterday afternoon so anyone who left a comment last night or today - your comment had disappeared. They are still saved behind the scenes in blogger & if I dump JS they will magically reappear. I'm sorry girls.

Anyway, let's try it out for a few days & make a call after that.

Note: All those trial comments are live on this post. Feedback most welcome.

EDIT: Oh yikes...it seems as though all previous comments are not properly readable. Need tech support.

UPDATE: I think I'm going to keep on keeping on. I can always reload original template tomorrow morning.

Woodish Loveliness

1. ACEO- She wore Beauty Brown - Original fabric/colored pencil on wood art, 2. Live stump, 3. rabbit companions flee scene, 4. Green Room Sketch- print of original drawing on wood, 5. powerful books, 6. Wood slice

I live in a nice street in a nice suburb with carefully maintained nature strips.

So it comes as a shock when home owners don't care less.

Hanging over from summer. Yup...my nature strip, but I actually think it looks quite beautiful.

A photo a day.

The Heat Beads Hawkers' Market is running as part of The Melbourne Food & Wine Festival.

What a magical event this is!

I was lucky enough to be there to watch the Vic Market transform into a bustling Hawkers' Market (& then back again ready for this morning's regular market).

Last night the Vic Market sheds were filled with the smell of delicious Asian foods sizzling over hot coals. There was live entertainment, cooking demonstrations & tables jam packed full of people soaking in this rather magical event (& they are doing it all again tonight & Wednesday).

It's certainly an experience I'd recommend so if you're in Melbourne you should consider making tonight or tomorrow night's meal plan "The Heat Beads Hawkers' Market".

My dad & step mum live in North East Victoria, they are not under threat.

They rang today to ask if they could donate a doona that I'd left there... It's cold at the relief centre & they really need bedding.

YES!

We talked more about how awful the situation is & where the greatest need is. I offered to get more stuff together. A few friends from school are helping out too.

I'm meeting Dad on the highway tomorrow morning & I'm feeling like my contribution might make things just a little easier for a small number of the bushfire victims left with nothing.

It’s a freezing Melbourne day.

I’ve got the heater going in the car and it’s nice & cosy. I have to force myself to turn off the engine. I’m staring across the road at the “manor” and willing myself to go in. I tell myself it’s too cold to get out of the car, acutely aware that’s not the real reason for my reluctance.

Non hasn’t recognised me for months. The visits are painful for me and I’m sure her as well. She’s not one of those sweet little old ladies who retain their social niceties and chat merrily about church, hydrangeas, cooking, suitcases and their cats. The visit isn't easy. I force the conversation and offer prompts.

Remember?
Warm moccasins, hand knits, sweet treats, close cuddles, leather gloves, working together, imaginary games.

Remember?
Pancakes, deep baths, silky pillowcases, strong perfume, daytime television, cross word puzzles, travel stories.

Remember?
Tic Tocs, shared dreams, dinner parties, Max Bygraves, the garden, Pop, your girls….me?

Non doesn’t, she can’t.

Occasionally I see that she is searching the far reaches of her failing mind, but she comes up blank.

She stares straight through me. When she does speak she is often angry and argumentative. I can’t blame her, I’m sure I’d be the same. I suppress the urge to scream.

This is no way to live.

I leave feeling completely drained.

The grieving began long before she died. I do remember & I cherish.

More remember? stories here.

for my friends.

My lovely friend is walking this. I've done it - it's the hardest thing ever! If you'd like to donate to her team of go-get-em girls and support OXFAM go here. I'll be tracking her progress over the next 20 hours or so.

I'm off to support another of my lovely friends tonight. She is doing live stand-up - that's gutsy!

This game is only able to be played if you have a blog.

1. Sign up to play on the game post with "I'm in".

2. Start your clicketty trip. Click around & pick up your answers. Have a pen & paper handy.

3. Copy & paste the Q & A section of the game post into your own blog.

4. Enter your answers in red.

5. Schedule your post to go live at the time specified on each new game post. I'll be clicking around at that time & unfortunately if you've made an error in your time calculation your entry won't be able to be included in the draw. You should also check your profile to make sure that your blog time is the same as your local time. Check what time you need to schedule for here.

6. Check in at kootoyoo to vist other players & find out who the winner is.

Help, I don't know how to schedule a post!

How to schedule a post using blogger
How to schedule a post using wordpress
How to schedule a post using typepad

The convent is located at 1 St Helliers Street Abbotsford in Melbourne.

More information about how to get there here.

What better venue to have our quilt stitched by (mainly)women displayed than at the convent?

If you've been following the project & you're available on the 23rd we'd love to see you.

Just RSVP by replying to my RSVP comment on this post or if you're shy you can email.

The Quilt Project site will be launched on this evening also & will be live on the 24th of October.

grinning.

This morning I threw all the entries into the air. I kept throwing until only 1 was facing up. The v-smile is going to live at Meet me at Mikes.

Thanks for playing along.

I made a lemon birthday cake for The Date...for desert at the family(his) lunch.

I'd scoured Delicious and found just the recipe. A nice list of ingredients that made me sure the resulting cake would live up to the "delicious" promise.

I made sure I had the best ingredients, nice olive oil, home grown lemons, quality prosecco, beautiful eggs. I set to work and made the cake. It did all the right things in my new oven (which I'm not great mates with yet) & looked gorgeous when I removed it from the tin.

I tasted the tiny bit that stuck to the side of the tin & my heart sank. It tasted very eggy.

What was I worried about? I'm normally pretty good with this sort of thing. I thought that there'd be plenty said about the egg cake rather than the lemon cake. Then all sorts of crazy food poisoning scenarios were running through my head.

I knew I wasn't going to be serving my cake. We went to Browns on the morning of & picked up a white chocolate & raspberry cheesecake (stunning) & a flourless orange cake (meh).

The cake was duly sampled when we returned home on Monday evening & it was, just as the magazine promised ... absolutely delicious.

There's a lesson here ... if you think it's good - it IS good & who cares what other people think.

I responded to a request from Kami this week & it really got me thinking & then I found this...

The value of the collective and the community in the continuation of successful practice

Presenter: Carole Hanson Epp
Verge: 11th National Ceramics Conference
Brisbane, Australia 10th - 14th July 2006

...Only through active involvement will we as practitioners see the growth and development of these organizations and the artists they support. Attendance at events, membership, financial support, volunteering of skills and time, are all means towards common goals."

What does this mean for me? How can I nurture the relationships I've been building with this craft community & particularly the Melbourne girls?

Support the community in which you hope to prosper whether financially or otherwise. Get around - have a chat.

If you enjoy a blog, admire a piece (or collection) of work, got inspired, had a laugh, shed a tear, made your day, touched your heart - support them!

Buy their work, leave comments, shop in their store, celebrate their wins & take an active interest in their journey.

Everyone has to buy stuff sometime. Before you head to a nameless, faceless, bigger than Ben Hur store owned & run by a man in a suit you'll never see - consider buying from someone you "know" & who you KNOW will appreciate it.

Put back what you take out and then some.

I'm trying really hard to live this rather than just think it. A community is a powerful & wonderful thing. So to all who take the time to post, make, create, share or care - thank you.

This post has been rather more deep than my usual drivel so I'm going to finish on a totally tacky low note...

Mike Brady in the Brady Bunch Movie: Alone, we can only move buckets. But if we work together, we can drain rivers.

If you think that I was going to get close enough to a real live chicken then you are crazy!

No...not really...my mother-in-law has chickens & I probably could have summoned the courage but they are on holidays with her at the moment.

I am REALLY scared of chickens. I think it comes from visiting the country cousins & having 20 chickens chased out of the hen house towards me on a daily basis. The country cousins would of course roll around laughing their heads off.

Sweaty palms & racing heart .... I was truly terrified & too scared of my aunt to say I didn't want to go down to the chooks anymore.

The fear is actually for all winged creatures. I'm NOT a bird girl.

Thanks Jodie for this weeks theme.