Instagram

I haven't been doing anything interesting lately, though I do try and fake it on Instagram. I love making my life look all arty and cool.

I've yet to try printing any photos off in a serious way - anyone have a good experience with a printing company? I printed a few off on my printer but I think I'd have to glue the photo paper to cardboard to stop them curling in the humidity. I created these mosaics over at instagrid.me, and they link up to printstagr.am who have some cute options, but I haven't investigated the international shipping. One never knows with US companies - sometimes they're fine, other times they seem to regard the existence of the rest of the world as offensive in some way and the shipping is so exorbitant you'd expect the item to show up carried by Daniel Craig in an Aston Marton. I think I've just convinced myself that it would be a good thing if Printstagram was in the latter camp... ;)

A finished quilt

No, that's not the fun thing I promised for yesterday - it had to take a raincheck for a couple more days.

I do think that finishing a quilt is fun though, partly because it means I can get on to something else! I see from the photo from when the top was finished that it's been sitting around since JUNE last year. Yeesh. Anyways, it's done-diddly-done!

The Spotlight basting spray washed out fairly well, although I think there might be a bit left - it's hard to tell to be honest. It certainly feels less stiff! So a reasonable substitute for the mythical 505 spray for those of us downunder. The back was put together from three sections of the linen, hence the two long lines between the two smaller bits.

I love the back.  The front...I don't know. I'm not a bright quilt kind of girl, so while I love the linen, and the design (Batch of Brownies by Elizabeth Hartman) and I'm pleased with myself and all that I'm not in love with it. It sort of reminds me of this little little ditty by Tom Brown:

I do not love thee, Dr Fell,
The reason why I cannot tell;
But this I know, and know full well,
I do not love thee, Dr Fell.

Everyone seems horrified that I don't love it, but it must happen right? Tell me your story!

Part of the reason the fun stuff has taken a raincheck is that this little guy has made an appearance in our lives -

He was dumped at a park and has been attacked by a dog. Hazel and her friend Jessica found him and captured him and made us grownups look after him. So here we are with a shared bunny named Sniff. He's been checked over by the vet and at the moment he's at Janet's in a borrowed hutch while we decide if we want to be bunny mummies or not. We don't have a decent back yard for him to live in sadly, so not sure if it'll be us looking after him longterm or not. He sure is a sweetie though!

The handwriting meme

I saw this over at Meet Me At Mike's and of course it was super-cool so I had to join in!

The questions I'm answering are these:
1. What is your name
2. Blog URL
3. Write: The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
4. Favorite quote
5. Favorite song (at the moment)
6. Favorite band/singers (at the moment)
7. Say anything you want
8. Tag 3-5 bloggers

I'd love to see your handwriting if you would like to do it - it's something we all miss in this digital age I think! My handwriting has become a lot messier than it used to be, partly through dis-use but also because it's only me reading these days! At some point I switched from cursive (all my Uni notes were written in it) to some sort of hybrid printing/cursive thing - prinsive? I read somewhere that some schools are discontinuing teaching cursive but I think that would be a massive shame to be honest - how are kids going to develop a decent signature for one?

Stay tuned for something interesting on Tuesday - the first day back at school for Hazel and the first day of freedom loneliness for me. Ahem.

Pinecone pincushion

I was in an opshop yesterday and my eye fell on this curious thing



Looking closer I realised it was a pincushion so I picked it up, only to discover this on the bottom



It's made on a pinecone! The faded tag on it suggested it would make my work basket smell nice, so I suppose originally it would have had a lovely pine-scent as well. Of course I had to buy it for the princely sum of $1. When I got home I googled 'pinecone pincushion' and found some instructions for making them, as well as some other examples. I really like how the one on BubzRugz has some of the ummm... bract scales showing (I googled that too!).

Mine sits very nicely on its base, although in some ways it's a shame because I think I almost like the exposed cone contrasted with the fabric the most!

Comments hiccup

I've just realised that unbeknownst to me, my commenting system Disqus had stopped working on my blog, or was only doing a half-assed job, and I wasn't being notified of comments! It was sending me a notification of the first comment per post and then nothing else, and I hadn't been checking the blog - I've just discovered a whole pile of lovely comments left in the last 2-3 weeks! I've replied as best I can but I don't know if Disqus sends out replies to people if I do it via the website - I usually reply by email and send one directly to the commenter so I know they get it. Hopefully it's fixed, although really I have no idea what was wrong or what I did to fix it but it looks ok now.

So if you left a comment and didn't get a reply please check back on the post! I can't seem to send replies by email retrospectively.

So annoyed.

Summer

We had such craptastic weather over Christmas that the arrival of summer at long last doesn't seem quite real!

We (and half of Auckland) took advantage of the holiday today for Auckland Anniversary to head out to Muriwai Beach. First the beach at Maori Bay (next to Muriwai)







Then up onto the headland to see the Gannet colony there...



 
...and finished with an icecream - not photographed as I kept my iPhone well away from melty icecream!

Today Mat found a page out of a diary that Hazel must have started, abandoned and then discarded that says (translation to follow): Rily rily tierd!!! Today. In desprit ned of pony tile. Wishing it was yastoday. [Really really tired today! In desperate need of pony tail*. Wishing it was yesterday.] Where did she learn to sound like Bridget Jones?


*chewy little gummy My Little Pony snack. She is allowed to have one a day.

My Learn to Sew Book

When I was 5, my grandmother sent me the My Learn to Sew Book* all the way from New Zealand for Christmas. It was great. I can't remember how many things (if any) I made but I know I read and re-read it until it was practically falling apart (probably setting a pattern for me and craft books that has lasted until this day).

It remains the standard to which I hold all other craft books - and why not, it has an impressive array of actually quite cool projects (for a 70s craft book):

The end papers

Pipe cleaner dolls and funky furniture. Work it pipe cleaner dolls, work it!

Cute little mouse - have a vague feeling I might have made this one

What a self-satisfied looking cat!

These hints are so very true and I love the illustrations

Hazel found the book when we were back at my parents place last Christmas, so it returned to New Zealand 35+ years later, and yesterday she asked if we could make something.

Not the clothing though, she said that it was too "old-fashioned", and I was forced to admit that the market for very short dirndle skirts and head scarves is a bit limited these days.

She wanted to make Baby Billy

And so we did! Except he's now a she and called Baby Rose

Oddly enough, for all the modern aesthetic we applied, mostly courtesy of the Wee Wonderfuls Book, Baby Rose looks startlingly like another product of the 70s, a Muppet! Specifically this one:



*My Learn To Sew Book by Janet Barber. Illustrated by Belinda Lyon. Hamlyn 1972. ISBN 0 600 35910 7