Meme Time

Found this one over at Zazazu’s and quite liked it -

Passions in my life…

1. Kindness to animals

2. Fairness and equality

3. Chocolate and Tea

4. Crafting – sewing, embroidery, glueing pretty things together.

5. Staffordshire Bull Terriers

6. Life in the early 20th century

7. Beauty and goodness – in people, places, nature, found objects, things.

8. Music

8 Things to do before I die

1. Go up in a balloon

2. Be happy and content3

. Live right on the beach

4. Finish renovating the house I’m currently in

5. Be able to manage my finances sensibly

6. Do more for others.

7. Consume less.

8. Visit New York, Japan, New Zealand, and travel all over Australia.

8 Things I often say…

1. “Pod.”

2. “ Sorry.” (for no good reason)

3. “I’m not awake yet.”

4. Any sentence ending in “…cup of tea.”

5. “I can’t be arsed.”

6. “Bloody animals!”

7.  “Gonna be a big sleep tonight.”

8. “Crikey!”

8 Books I have read recently…

1. Sublime Stitching

2. Not your Mama’s Knitting

3. Dirty Jobs

4. Softies

5. Trinny and Susannah’s Don’t Wear Your Undies Backwards (or something like that)

6. Don’t Visit the Cosmetic Counter Without me

7. Some book on Self Esteem that Nat gave me

8. The Modern Book for Girls

8 Songs that mean something to me

1. Wide Open Road – The Triffids

2. Strong – Robbie Williams

3. There is a light that Never Goes Out – The Smiths

4. Right Here – The Go-Betweens

5. Into the Dark – Ben Lee

6. I Believe in a thing Called Love – The Darkness

7. You Can’t Always Get What you Want – the Rolling Stones

8.  “Pooh the glistening turd” – this is a happy little number that HP and I came up with on our wedding day.

8 Qualities I look for in a friend…

1. A good person

2. Can make me laugh

3. Similar sensibilities

4. Independent thought

5. Reliability

6. Comfortable silences (I pinched this one off Zazazu)

7. Down to Earth

8. Must love chocolate 

…Have a go at this one if you like.

Bunny with cheez

Work is super busy at the moment, and I think we’re all more than ready for Summer Holidays.  Work buddy Nell sent me this pic this morning, so I’m sharing, ’cause I loves a bunny!  (link for more Cheezburger goodness in the sidebar, as always.)

 

Right now I’m eating lunch (exciting 2 minute noodles) and listening to a kewl kristmas cd that I got in the mail yesterday from Knit Vicious.  Lots o’ goodly songs, and I especially like the cover:

 

I think Nick and Kylie should do a Christmas songs album, a la Kenny and Dolly:

Nick?? Kylie?? Can you hear me?

Okay, back to the mines…

On the beach

staffs on the beach, originally uploaded by drewzel.

Just a pic from last night – went to the beach near a mate’s house in Mt Eliza, and took the Staffords for a swim. Although we both ended up going for a dip in our clothes as it was sooo hot and the water was sooo nice!

Love this!

I love all the fab stuff on this site, but especially this Helen Garcia design.

Mmm, and it’s almost morning tea time.

Check it out!

If you’ve been to a Meet Me at Mike’s Stitching Night, or just love Mike’s in general, please join in!

Breathe.

Time to Tie, originally uploaded by lucyellen06.

Argh! I am so anxious and stressed at the moment, I feel overcommitted and under-resourced, and I think I’m in danger of falling in a heap.
So in lieu of any profound (!) blog posting, here, have some eye candy courtesty of LucyEllen. Yummy.

Raining!

I know it isn’t thrilling to blog about the weather, but overnight we’ve had some lovely lovely rain…yay!

Weather map looks like this right now:

Another pressie idea…

Given my love of chickens, I thought adding one to everyone’s pressie would be a great idea!

More Christmas thoughts

I was reading about this film yesterday, and it piqued my interest. I totally agree with an anti-commercial Christmas as all the promotional crap, and pressure to buy expensive presents really annoys me.

Shopocalypse – noun. (shah-PAW-kuh-lips)

The end of mankind from consumerism, over-consumption and the fires of eternal debt!

About the film:

From producer Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me) and director Rob VanAlkemade, “What Would Jesus Buy?” examines the commercialization of Christmas in America while following Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping Gospel Choir on a cross-country mission to save Christmas from the Shopocalypse (the end of humankind from consumerism, overconsumption and the fires of eternal debt.) From the humble beginnings of preaching at his portable pulpit on New York City subways, to having a congregation of thousands – Bill Talen (aka Rev. Billy) has become the leader of not just a church, but a national movement. Rev. Billy’s epic journey takes us to chilling exorcisms at Wal-Mart headquarters, to retail interventions at the Mall of America, and all the way to the Promised Land on Christmas Day. The Stop Shopping mission reminds us that even though we may be “hypnotized and consumerized,” we still have a chance to save ourselves this Christmas.

So it sounds interesting, not sure if it will be in Australian cinemas or straight to DVD… but I’d like to find out a bit more about it.

And you’ve probably seen this button about in Craftyblogland too:

Their mission and vision are as follows:
The ascendancy of chain store culture and global manufacturing has left people all dressing, furnishing, and decorating alike. The connection between producer and consumer has been lost. Buying handmade helps them reconnect. We created the pledge as a call to action for consumers to be conscious of how they spend their money this holiday season. We want people, whenever possible, to support independent creators and shop outside the big boxes.

But this point from Christy Petterson rang true for me:

2) Create your list of who you are shopping for. And be realistic. Some people are hard to shop for period, and then when you throw in the handmade part it makes shopping even more difficult. I believe gift giving should bring joy to both the giver and the receiver. If it becomes a chore or obligation it’s no bueno. But this is why you’ve made your short list of exceptions. If you can’t find something handmade for someone make a point to buy them something used or a gift from an independent shop.

So far I haven’t signed the handmade pledge (and you might also recall me talking about “Wholly Handmade Christmas” a while back too) because I can’t pledge to give only handmade, for the point above. Stressing about what to give my rellies and friends is bad enough already, without me making unrealistic promises. My family don’t really value the handmade, and I come from parents who in the past had to make things because they couldn’t afford to just go out and buy the same thing from the shops. So they see handmade stuff as reminders of a less comfortable past…and they’re in their 60′s now. My sis is cool with handmade, but she’s always easy to gift to. My brother and his wife usually just give us a large sum of money for Christmas…so that doesn’t make it easier either. HP’s side of the family has a lot of kids – do they appreciate handmade? It all becomes too hard for me, and I don’t want to give gifts that disappoint. So I support the ideals of Handmade Christmas, and as always, will try to shop responsibly and sensibly. At this stage I’m thinking RSPCA stuff for bro and sis-in-law (both animal lovers), a combination of handmade and bought for mums and dads, and I’m hoping Meet Me at Mike’s will contain the perfect pressies for the kidlets, and I’ll try Oxfam and make sure everyone gets some Fair Trade coffee/tea. Oh, and there will be lots of embroidered tea towels from me. Lots.

Monday morning

…feeling very blah.  So some eye candy is in order.  I love this pic – there’s a series of them here.  I’m in a swap for “5 things stars”, so I’m thinking of incorporating this image into what I make…somehow.  I want to look into printing pics onto fabric…hmm.

Woman Looking Out from the series Flowers of Darkness (Yami no hana)
期待　闇の花より
Japanese, Taisho-early Showa era
Kobayashi Kaichi, Japanese, dates unknown
Publisher: Sakuraiya
Place of Creation: Japan
Overall: 8.8 x 13.8 cm (3 7/16 x 5 7/16 in.)
Color woodblock; organic and inorganic colorants, metallic pigment on Japanese paper adhered to card stock