New year washing line.

The Yarra river flowing through Warrandyte. Amazing to think that huge tracts of Queensland are under water.




Bloodrose, I like this one.

Whats on the line today? More silk fabric in Dale's colour Uluru, wool batt for flimsies and more wool. It will be dry in one minute or less. 38 degrees here today and a north wind.

Treasures for Christmas.

This little treasure was in my post box today! all the way from Russia. It's a lacquered miniature box painted with tempera and tinsel. And inside.....


Were BUTTONS!


Thank you so much Marina.

This is a closeup of velvet felted.


3 books received for Christmas.
This page is from the Art of Embroidery.



This is from The Garden of Eden



This is from the book Bark. So many colour combination's, so little time....




Bella's treasure from Marina, we put it next to Butterball to give you an idea of how small he is.


It's out to the shed for me to dye more flimsies for Dale.

Butterball

Santa with toilet paper for a beard.


Introducing Butterball!


Just the thing to keep your neck warm while playing on the interwebs...


Or keeping in your t shirt...(Doesn't she look tired? Not getting enough sleep Madelen...)




Or in the doll's house?


And here he is. Sooooo cute!
Christmas was the usual overeating, over spending it usually is, but I really am so lucky to have my husband and girls to spend the day with. Belle of course was up early. She rang Madelen to tell her to hurry up and come home so she could open her presents ( Belle that is). Girls are not allowed to open presents until we are all in the lounge with coffee. It's been hilarious over the years to what lengths they would go to to get us up. Not one child has ever worked it out that if they made the coffee,we would get up in an instant. I hope that each of you had a lovely day with enough warmth in the Northern hemisphere for family to make it home.

Whoops

I slipped when I was at the vets today picking up Madelen's new kitten. I accidentally brought home a kitten for me too. Sigh......
So now we have another one and my darling Willow is already not speaking to me. (remember the cat I accidentally dyed at the start of the year?) Oh well, kids are happy. Will take photos tomorrow. Name is Butterball. I think I need to dye it-the name not the kitten! Ginger through to soft, milky butter.....

I take all the credit!

My baby girl passed her final year at uni and has a "Baaaaaa" after her name! ( You must make the sound of a sheep when saying this) Madelen successfully completed her course in International Development and the parental units are very proud. Well, we already were anyway but if she is going to keep giving me reasons to show off to the world, who am I to say no? Lots of love and air kisses to you Mad! ( she doesn't like her parent's kisses)

Beautiful Birdie

Check out Geninne's art blog, she has a wonderful free tutorial on how to make this gorgeous thing. I'm going to send one to my aunt. I love the color!

How to Felt a Bracelet

I was going to put this on etsy free but you have to charge a listing price. So, here it is on the blog. No pics I'm afraid, but if I can get one done, I'll take some pics and put them up.Felt Bracelet Instructions

Set up your work area by placing a sheet of bubble wrap bubble side up on a table covered with a towel. Fill a bowl with warm water and have a cake of soap at the ready. There is enough fleece in this kit for you to make one large bracelet or three smaller ones (thinner).

Measure the hand’s closed palm to find the circumference, you will need the finished bracelet to slip on and off. Because merino fibres shrink to form felt, you will need to add 30% to the circumference.
For example, if your closed palm measures 21cms around, add a third (7cms) to the 20cms.
You would need to pull a strip of fibre from the wool 27cms long. During the felting, the bracelet will shrink back to 20cms.

To find the correct diameter of your bracelet (the look you most like) twist the length of fibres tightly to see how wide it will become when felted. If you want thicker, add some more fibre along the length.

Holding the roll by the ends, dip it briefly into a bowl of warm soapy water and lay it onto your bubble wrap. Leave the ends dry. Roll very lightly and gently the entire length, backwards and forwards.
You can also roll a section at a time between your hands. Think of how you would roll pastry or play doh into a sausage. Do this for a few minutes until a ‘skin’ forms on the outside of the roll. (matting)
Now lay the dryish ends together overlapping to form the loop, hold it together and submerge into water. Now gently roll joining section between you hands. If a crease form or it feels thinner than the rest of the bracelet you can add some more fibre, winding it around the join to support it and blend it in.

After rolling it for a couple of minutes, place the bracelet onto the bubble wrap and using a circular motion rub your hand around and around over the surface. Keep adding soapy water to keep it wet. Turn it over and do the other side.

Now stand it up and rub the inside of the bracelet all around. Keep doing this until the bracelet has shrunk to the desired width.
Rinse the bracelet out in hot water and place around a drinking glass to stand it to dry in shape.
I've finally managed to work out the etsy treasury widget so enjoy having a look at my pics!

From Rae for the time poor.

Rae makes this yummy pudding every xmas eve. It works every time and tastes as good as any other pudding made in advance. So, from her to you.....

Wonder Pudding

This is a great recipe, really light but fantastic at soaking up the brandy sauce!

2 cups soft breadcrumbs (some rye and/or multigrain are nice)

1 large or 2 small bananas, mashed

375g mixed dried fruit

1 cup skim milk

1 tsp bicarb soda

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp ground ginger

Dissolve soda in milk and mix into banana, add everything else and mix thoroughly.

Pour into lightly grease pudding basin, cover and steam for 1-2 hours. This can be made ahead and stored in the fridge for a couple of days, or cooked on Christmas morning. It is ready in 1 hour but will darken if cooked for longer.

Avatar

So, a very patient customer asked for a colourway based on Avatar the movie. After much pondering and procrastination it is dyed. The light is sooo bright here in Melbourne today so it looks lighter than it is, and the greenish blue is barely visible. I'll photograph it inside when it is dry.
The girls have finished school for the year!!!!! Too early for me, I'm still in the shed with the mice and spiders cackling over my cauldron.

Is grey a colour- my first treasury!

My first etsy treasury. All in grey. Only took me two days. Of course I should have been dyeing.....

Shopping on the Interwebs...

I hate shopping. i hate leaving the house, getting into a hot car (sorry people in winter climates) driving through crazy traffic, finding a park I wont forget ( Melbourne has a lot of shopping malls and hundreds of acres of car parking to lose your car in), battling around other shoppers, entering shops that have prices that clearly are marked up in preparation for xmas, xmas carols playing over the top of others, frantic mothers, whining over hyped kids, spaced out teens, out of their depth husbands..... Oh, I've just hyperventilated thinking about it.
So, my aim this year is to get almost everything delivered to my post box and let my fingers do the typing. So far so good, can't let to much out of the bag, but husband and girls have all written to Santa and what he isn't bringing, the post man is.
I seem to have been blessed with geeky kids, including the 21 year old. It makes it fun shopping online. I could never find these things in any shopping mall but I have been to www.thinkgeek.com and had a blast. What I really need though, is a life size Stargate wall decal for Madelen. Still looking. Did the book shopping online, for those of you in Oz, visit www.seek.com.au because it ended up cheaper than Amazon. Hard to find books though I always go there. www.fishpond.com.au is good for books and games. For my friends, it's dead easy. Etsy of course. However, thanks to Hensteeth, all I did today was shop for me. I bought this fantastic needle holder for me- hoping I might have them in this instead of husband's foot. And then, checking out her favorites, she sent me to a vintage supplier ( Penelopes Linen Loft who had these very lonely buttons clearly needing a new home.....Dale if your reading this, visit thinkgeek for your sons....
I'm just going to email Thethreadstudio catalog to my husband and hope he gets the picture...

Rain, heat, Rain, heat, rain.....

The blonde on the left is Bri, the red head is her best friend Sophie.


She had a gorgeous red tulle petticoat- very rockabilly!


Royal Shiraz batt drying- or trying to, sending it to The Thread Studio Monday.


No room for clothes on the line!


Mmmm, yum. A bunch of silk rods drying for dinner.
Kidding....
We had pizza instead.

It's been a wet spring in Warrandyte. It's so hard to get the wool and silk dry. I dye it in the morning, put it out on the line in the afternoon, go to bring it in and it rains just before I get it. Well, at least it's well rinsed.
Big week, Belle's first school camp, tents and all. None of that cabin camping other schools do. Bri had her formal and I have the photos that prove she has legs. Most people had never seen her in a dress.

What I have been up to.

Holey scarf in Pilgrim colourway with tissue silk.



Bowl with hand dyed scrim/ muslin nuno-ed.


Bowl with hand stitching. circles were cut from prefelt ( oops felt), applied as last layer.


Looking more washed out than it is- same kind of bowl with chain stitch as embellishment using Mulberry Silks silk thread which is a dream- supplied by The Thread Studio.

Well, a lot it seems to me! As promised- photos of the cake for Madelen's 21st. We didn't cut it after all. She liked it so much, she took it home with her intact for the next nights celebration with her friends. Most of them seem to be Stargate fans as well. Bri helped enormously in making the cake and I got to pass on some of the things I had learnt about cake decorating from my Mother. That was kind of nice too. I only got one photo of Madelen opening her Stargate figurines I found in a shop in Tasmania. She squealed so I think that meant she liked them.
The little felt bowls were samples I played with in Tasmania. I like making them but love using them. I always have little bits of everything that need to be put somewhere!
The weekend is shaping up to be hellish. Belle's dance concert is tomorrow night and I have to be a helper- what do I know about sequins? Bri has her best friend's 16th party to go to. Next night is her formal and after party, Saturday is extra kids over.....And worst of all.....I am out of decent coffee. I need a little lie down....