The things you find on the innernets!

Mooching is a very interesting and worthwile occupation whatever any grown-up may tell you. I quite often like to play the random blog game (my title, quite catchy don't you think?) and leaping off from Missus Locket's verandah today I came across these - here and here - hometown blogs!!!!



I have always known someday I would come across a body from Ballas but I had just assumed it would be back in the days when I was working behind bars (pubs not prisons!!). So one of my 'To-Do' things in 2008 will be to puzzle out who these people are and where they live. Not in any stalkerish kind of way b/c that would be creepy, rather in a placeing(sp?)kind of way. Essentially I am nosy and just want to know whereabouts in my town and was it close to where I grew up and do they shop were I used to and is Dennis Thingies the shoeshop still on the corner of Lydiard & Sturt Street? And what has become of my old primary school?



I don't often feel the lack of cultural reference, particularly as I have lived over here for more than 17 years but it is a nice thought to make some little links with back home. Especialy when the blogs have such lovely things on them.

New page. Old year.

Do you like the new look?



This colour green is the same as the Malabrigo wool my ISE 5 partner sent me. Is it not divine? (I mean the slightly darker green, although the other is nice too.) This is the colour I want to use for my sleeveless top. P.G. there will be enough, although if there became less of me in the NewYear I would need less, right?



I mooched up and down the High Street today and found my favourite LYS is having a sale - 40% off all wool! CK made me walk right past it yesterday as he was the only one who had been to the bank but I got there today and guess who is the new owner of a shank of glorious Artesano Alpaca (hummingbird colourway) for only £7.00 something?



The lovely 'Little Red Hen' also has lots of very nice other things on sale too - some of which I am hoping will turn up for my birthday - eg, large jugs . Although I have been playing with an early (or very late) birthday present for the last few days.



I got this i-pod from my lovliest ever brother he was here and it came with the words 'This is all your birthday presents for the last and next ten birthdays, right?' Not as generous as it may sound (although it really is b/c was a little bit shocked when I found out quite what they cost!!!) as he had actually bought it for his 13 y.o. daughter but she wasn't giving up the mini/nano/shuffle thingy she already had so we kind of got the cast-off - no complaints though you understand. As part of my Christmas present I received an i-tunes voucher and haven't we had fun with that!? Everything from this to this - we do eclectic in this house!



It was very knitty kind of holiday season here at Trash Towers - a wooden pair of 3.5mm needles which each child & I will paint together, two knitting magazines with patterns I actually want to use and a book, a murder mystery. A murder mystery. Based on knitting. And when I get my camera back from under the mounds of seasonal crap currently decorating Trash Towers all y'all are going to be so impressed!



Off to visit my god-daughter next weekend for a belated Christmas/birthday lunch. I don't think she will mind things being either 14/7 days late as she only turned one on Boxing Day! So thankfully I have finished both dolls and (again with the camera and the piles of stuff!) I will take a photie before they head off to their new home.



So this year is nearly over and it is another one for which I am extremely grateful. I am very pleased to say that 2007 was a decidedly average and mildly interesting year for us. We all got a year older (the dogs too!), Princess Curly-Wurly and BabyMan went up a class at school. We had minor illnesses, bugs and injuries. CK had stressful moments at work and I shouted at small children (mine and borrowed) but that was it. Not wishing to invoke hubris - but no major calamities, sagas or fall-outs. We are so grateful and I can only hope that 2008 stays on such an even keel.

May the gods smile on you all.

Oh good! That's over.

Isn't it funny how an evening of great hilarity and merriment .........

...........can leave everyone feeling just a little flattened at the end?

So now that the post-Christmas season is upon us I can begin to concentrate on important things again. You see it is in my bones that once all the run-up is done by Christmas Eve I can let the whole thing go. There are more important things to concentrate on.



I have even been known to alter the phone message on Boxing Day to let the world know that it is just over a month until my birthday!


So over the next five weeks or so there will be some more mutterings about birthdays, mooching about ageing, groaning of arthritic joints and who knows there may even be talk of presents?!

Ta Dah!!!!

And now for my 75th post I give you ........

my profile picture!

Seriously that is how long it has taken me to figure it all out.

Ah well, you can't be beautiful and clever I always say!

Just remember - you asked for it.

I may have mentioned once or twice in fleeting passing that I enjoy painting. Well, someone who shall remain nameless has basically told me to put up or shut up! So here are few pieces lurking around the house.

This is a bin.

An 'umble Ikea bin such as what knows its place and doffs its cap or tugs a forelock as required. It has lurked around our house since Princess Curly-Wurly was just a small wee thing; been painted a variety of colours with a handful of texture thrown in at various points. Until one day I said 'NO! No more my little wooden Marhbarkelhurgen!' All very friendly like you understand.





This is one of my favourite styles of folk art painting. It is based on the fruit of Peter Ompir, a world-reknowned American painter. I love the simplicity and brilliance of colour in his work. O.K. this is probably too much geekiness for you all but really are those little men not just fabulous? (aah go on, follow the link.)



This is a decoration I painted over ten tears ago and its seasonal home is on the mirror in the hall.



I like his cheery face.


This was just about the first lot of serious shading I did. Yes serious, there was no fun to be had doing all of that bloody floating of colour let me tell you! Plus for some reason my bells all seem to be sporting Zapata stylee moustaches!





So instead of 'Jingle Bells' mine probably play the 'Mexican Hat Dance'!


Unlike so many who have sufficiently interesting lives to lead that the computer will be all dark and sad over Christmas I will be here. Probably. Unless C.K. catches me and hides the computer at the bottom of a dark well. Or me. If you don't hear from me for sometime please send blankets.




And food.
















And the police!

Wishing all y'all a fabulous festive season

and looking forward to a

delightful 2008 in the blogoverse!

My husband's love is a different kind of thing.

After the childers' evening play performance they stopped off at Y.O.T.'s * for a celebratory pudding run and came home with gifts for the Lubbard Mummy**.

There is nothing CK likes more than buying flowers for me. It is his special thing to walk into a supermarket (yes it usually is a supermarket b/c petrol stations just don't do the really good things!) and find a bunch of beautiful blooms (alliteration anyone?).

His best and his favourite is when he stands in front of the banks of blossom at Mr. Y.O.T.'s house and spies a shiny pretty in the corner of the wrapper.

Would you like a closer look?

I can't begin to tell you how pleased he was with this purchase (although apparently they were from Princess Curly-Wurly). And knowing the joy he gets from these pretty yellow stickers makes me think the flowers are even lovelier!

Do you think this makes us weird?

*Yucky Old Tesco's

** (BabyMan could not say Mother Beloved when he was little; not that I make my kids call me fabulous names or anything.)

A whole new method.

I have to confess something. I am not very good at being organised. In fact I am bloody appalling and would probably live in near squalor if it were not for the thought of my mother's horrified face at finding cockroaches setting up home in my children's sock drawers.



(Not that this has actually happened! It is just an example of the potential for nasty living here at Trash Towers.)



So, having been blog-hopping for the last few days around all the innernets I have taken inspiration from ideas I have seen over at Missus Lucy Recycled-Pocket and Missus MoogsMum. Rather than list my 'To Dos' and cross them off as bits are completed I think I am going to post a 'Want To Do' list.

I have just emptied out one (yes, one. Is that a problem?!?!) of the sewing boxes and found lots of lovely material. And cross stitch patterns and threads and sewing patterns and embossing brasses and sticky paper and aqaurelle pencils and yarn and old Delicious and BBC Good Food magazines. The mind begins to boggle a bit when I begin to think that there are still two more sewing boxes, the bottom third of the airing cupboard and a whole 8x8 garden/summer house. In fact it is enough to make anyone go and take 'a bex and have a good lay down.'*

But I am stronger than that so I gird my loins (have not yet figured out if this is painful but will let you know when I am done). My goal over the next few weeks is make a to list ofthe craft type projects I would like to do over the next 12 months. Not necessarily to blog about them (although I might) rather just to identify things I want to do and see them to their completion.

Following is a list just off the top of my head (metaphorically speaking y'all understand).


1. Sew the donkeys I have been planning for a few years now.
I keep cutting up my old cords when they are no longer publicly reputable and putting the material safely away



2. Knit the sleeveless top I have decided will suit me.
For the body I plan to use the divine emerald green Malabrigo my ISE5 pal sent me and some purple donegal tweed for the ribbing. It probably sounds kind of vile but I mostly wear white shirts and t-shirts so I think it will be okay (I work with toddlers and babies, of course I wear white!!).



3. Finish painting my bug box (although you may know it as Sewing Box #1).
It has fabulous creatures crawling over two sides of it but they have never made it to the other half and it is best not to mention the top. Suffice to say if it is being used as a table top I do not rush to place a protective cover down.



4. Get the orangutan and border painted on the cupboard down at school.

Just in front of the staffroom down at my childers' lovely school is a cupboard. A bland double door wooden cupboard with four panels in each door. Six months ago I sweetly asked the headteacher if I could paint it. She smiled in a kind of 'poor, sad creature' kind of way and said yes. To date there are lions, flamingos, sheep, a deer, crows, four elephants and a blue tit.

5. Turn the beautifully soft angora mix jumper I deliberately felted into a lovely cabled cushion.

I bought it in Berlin the last time I visited my sister and it was nice and all but it never quite felt right. I guess if there was a half-size less of me it would still be a jumper but



6. Try some sort of quilty type thing.

No idea what but I love the whole idea of them.



7. Paint the wooden storage box I have been using as a bedside table for several months.

It is similar to a hinged archive box but made of wood and much nicer than cardboard. I was given a pattern of a rosella and have been wanting to paint it for over three years but you know, time got in the way and all






So there you have it. The 'Want To Dos' is not a comprehensive list and is subject to alteration but it has begun. Feel free to kick me (again with the metaphor) if it remains uncrossed off for the next six months.

*(Sincere apologies for using this publicly shared private space to air this very old family joke but I just could not resist.)

So very glad it is December.

That means I have 10 whole months to get this done.

www.knitty.com/ISSUEfall05/PATTyorick.html

Oh, so much fun to be had at Christmas!

I have been playing on Ravelry for the first time in ages today and oh! oh! oh! it is too cool for school! (Okay so that makes me very uncool just using that phrase but keep with me it is worth it.)

Just on the first page that metaphorically says 'this is like a cross between Hamely's, Harrods and Mall of America' there is so much fun stuff to see. If any of you fancy spending five minutes of your life having a hoot of a time then I suggest you go and have a look here -

http://weloveholidaysweaters.wehatesheep.com/

Princess C-W kept asking if it were possible would I buy the product she had created? Being a lovely, facilitating kind of mother I said that under no circumstances would I pay money for such an object and she would thank me for it later in her life. Her father on the other hand said he would buy it for her for next Christmas and make her wear it to school!

Do you have a stash?

Are you regularly encouraged to stand forward and say

'My name is Trasha. L and I am a fibre addict.' ?

Well now is your chance to prove to those concerned faces in your life that you are simply enjoying specialist artist materials and in

no way have a problem.

http://mochimochiland.com/weblog/?p=111

Because unless you have given over your entire house

and then built extra rooms you really are just a beginner.

Graham Norton is too funny!

He has just shown a picture of website that does cat wigs! I think the link was www.Kittywigs.com

Too, too funny!

What do you think?

Does it work?

I kind of like it. It is all lovely and warmy but still sort of perky. So I think it might stay with us for a little visit throughout the festive season. Hope all y'all enjoy it too.

A tag!

Well, sort of.

I am picking up the tag baton as handed out by the loverly Mrs Moog over at Moogsmum (still haven't sussed out linking very well yet). The game is to offer up seven random things about yourself. So let's see what we can find out.......




1. I have large feet. No, really quite large for a girlie. I haven't been easily able to buy women's shoes since the age of 12. I asked the assistant for trainers and she sent me upstairs to the men's department! I was so upset about it at the time but have come to terms over the years.

When my sister and I were shopping all those years ago for my bridesmaid shoes she was stunned that the first thing I do when entering a shoe shop is ask what size they go up to. B/c y'all know there is no point looking unless you can buy, right? Yup she was very taken aback but what would she know? She wear size fives.

2. I have an inordinate amount of information about dogs stashed away in my brain. As a teenager I had a wall of my bedroom plastered with dog pictures. Nope, no posters of U2 or Culture Club for me (can you tell my age yet?) just loads of man's best friend. It is a pretty uncool thing I guess but it impresses Princess C-W no end when I can pinpoint the dog's breed, sex and approx. age from 30 paces.

3. I have four brothers and one sister.

4. My hayfever really is caused by hay. I discovered this working on my Uncle's dairy farm in Ireland one Summer alooooong time ago.

5. I am a rubbish swimmer. Someplace somewhere it is probably illegal for an Australian to publicly admit but it is all true. I am rubbish at swimming, especially freestyle.

6. I do not drink tea or coffee. Or alcohol much. Although, over the last few years I have discovered iced tea. I quite like the flavoured powders you can buy from Whittards. Except for when I drank two litres worth in 12 hours. It was 4a.m. before I figured out why sleep was so elusive. And boy did I power through my lengths the next afternoon! (I didn't say I couldn't, just that I was rubbish.)


7. I love a good discussion. Not necessarily an argument, just a frank and forthright exchange of views that may or may not end with the combatants participants agreeing to disagree!


This was kind of fun. Who knew talking all about me was soooooo interesting?


Oh yeah! I did!!


Feel free to join the D.I.Y. tag thing. It is the choice of the new Millennium.

Is it raining at your house?

It sure is at my house.

Not just rain. There is wind.

Lots and lots of wind. Big swirly wind, flying up the hill and swooshing through the High Street just as half the town is out Christmas shopping. I can't decide if it is a funny or sad sight but there are discarded umbrellas everywhere. Mine included. TG it was just a freebie from a magazine. I would really have been cross if I had paid for it.

However despite getting soggy, windblown, driving on flooded roads and hoping that the odd whining noise my car was making was not serious I got lots done.

Have changed CK's order for Christmas turkey to rolled and boned turkey breast. Not a dramatic saga you would think but there is a story.

1. I do not do roasts. I particularly do not do 'Christmas Lunch' and all that entails. Not least b/c I do not do stress and would be quite happy with curry or a bowl of cereal for the big day.
Don't get me wrong, I am no Scrooge or Grinch. In fact I love Christmas. The smells, ideas, pictures, presents, fun and family that go with it. I usually start buying my presents for Christmas in the January Sales. It is just that I don't really follow the regular drum beat of societal conformation (ref: previous post). So with equitable divison of labour in mind, CK does Christmas Lunch and I walk the dogs. Usually by myself b/c Pr. C-W & Babyman are to busy trashing playing with their brand new booty to come along. I sometimes get wet and usually am cold.

2. I go out and hunt the turkey from the butchers. I gather the vegetables from the supermarket and greengrocers and last year I ordered a rolled and boned bird. However it was wrong! What I was supposed to ask for was a 500 pound turkey to feed the four grown-ups and two small people in the house. So I had to go back and change the order.
Last week I went to my nice butcher and said I will have a 6/7lb dead bird please. She smiled politely and said you can have a 10 lb one if you would like. So I agreed and took the nice raffle ticket she gave me (#189 since you ask). When I told CK what I had done he said (wait for it!) 'I thought we had agreed we were having a saddle of turkey this year?' What!?!?!?!?!? So braving the driving gales and horizontal rain I went back and discussed with several of the butchers what I should order (Huh? A saddle of turkey? Would that be a lambturkey madam?). After the laughing stopped I was put down for an eight lb rolled&boned turkey breast. At least I think that is what I have done, I was wet

3. I collected the laundry before the Laundrette closed for the weekend. CK took the dirty bucket in while I was in London and it has been sitting there in its clean bucket since. But now we have clothes again! Yippee! Because I was still wet!

4. Before being able to send off my parcels to Australia I had to drive 12 miles along the sodden delightful English country roads, up hill and down again and through roadwide puddles to buy Sylvia the fabric she loved while here. As I may have mentioned before nearby is a fabulous fabric warehouse type place & the range of quilting materials they stock is enormous. I wish I had had a chance to photograph the fat quarters I purchased b/c they were quite lovely but there was just 15 minutes to wrap, parcel them up and get to the Post Office before it closed. But being nice daughter I bought two celtic patterns and three japanese print ones. None were my favourite but she will think them triffic. It was raining down there too. Crossing the road to buy some of my favourite scented candles I got wet again.

5. I bought my sister's birthday present too. She needs five more balls of Rowan Cotton Glace and can't track them down at home so I will get lots of points for providing them but I will lose most b/c I won't be posting until Monday which is her actual birthday :-(

6. I finished the back and began the sleeve of my first ever children's jumper. I am trying to get it done for Xmas for one of the borrowed children but I have frogged it completely once and partially once. Last night it involved scissors too. It seems like it may be miles too big even though I have gone down a whole size but it can always be for her birthday in February. She might have grown by then.

Would you like to see perhaps one of the cutest pictures ever? Scroll on...........

Is it time for a change?

Having spent quite a bit of time recently mooching through the 'innernets' I have noticed a lot of veeery pretty blogpages happening. The feeling here at Trash Towers is this eucalyptussy green and purple is getting a bit old now. Perhaps I can make a New Year's Resolution to learn Html and jazz up my page.

Something to think on........



Far more importantly I have put my name down to join the 'Mmmm...hot cocoa swap'. The sign up is on Dec16 and I just wish I was sufficiently Html literate to gt hold of the button. Any suggestions?

I have risen to the challenge and been found wanting.

Or not.

Apparently I am 35% normal. Mrs Kitty's Bloggy Bits issued a call asking for any who blog to find out whether we are truly a 'weirdo' subspecies or just people with an intersting angle on life.

So I stepped up to the plate and voila I am 35% normal.


It is kind of intriguing to get the innernets view on what makes normal (some of the questions where definitely odd!) so rush over and have a play. If it helps think of it as scientific research!

You Are 35% Normal

You sure do march to your own beat... But you're so weird, people wonder if it's a beat at all You think on a totally different wavelength And it's often a chore to get people to understand you

How Normal Are You?

Look what CK found!

My two love the Cadbury's Gorilla clip (as does CK - but that is a whole Phil Collins thing) and we have just been surfing through YouTube comparing the ad with the real life video of 'groovey Phil Collins'.

Then look what CK found!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCEe0D146zM&feature=related

I was going to dedicate this to M.M. & V.C. but then I found this one and thought it was probably even more apt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUnIvwyrfLg&feature=related



Just keep going right until the very end.



Listen really hard.

This one is especially for M.M. and V.C. Cheers for the many laughs girls!

It's never too late to join in, right?

Saturday afternoon found me in the perfect place for all those who suffering from undiagnosed but none the less dreadful ailments - on the couch under a beautiful, warm blanket (purchased on recent trips North of here). When the phone rang I was hoping CK would answer it and tell whoever it was I had officially emigrated back to the colonies (b/c it is never for him apparently - does this happen in anyone else's house?). Instead he handed it over mouthing 'It's The Blonde.'

'Are you still doing flowers this afternoon?'



'Um, you tell me what I was doing with them and I will tell you if I still am.' I thought this a reasonable compromise as I had absolutely no idea what she was talking about.



'Christmas flowers. With Sah. Remember? Can you bring secateurs?'

'Aaaaah! Yes now that you mention it in fact I do. That's today is it? Ummm, yes I have secateurs. '



Inane chat and discussion of impending Christmas occasion. Then I had to ask that integral question -



'Err, so, what time is this all happening? Oh. Right. See you in an hour or so then!'



So I stood in a village school hall last Staurday afternoon, listening to Christmas carols and poking bits of green stuff into oasis. And I have to say the results are pretty jolly good!

Please excuse kitchen door instead of front door but yesterday we were soooooooooooo lazy CK went nowhere near anywhere that would yield screws, bolts, drills or the inclination to hang this (quite heavy) Christmas wreath.





Have also been a little busy on the k-nitticating front. The ungodly bus trip to London plus two nights in an hotel room with tropical s-i-l and niece then bus trip home on M25 & M3 at 1700 hours on Friday night meant I got a whole doll done.

Obviously just the knitting bits finished but have bought fabulous dark brown wibbly-wobbly yarn for hair. Was starting to sew it up when I thought how nice it would be if she were fragrant (in a nice and not 'boys can be fragrant' kind of way). So I went to the lovely herbal shop in town, purchased a packet of highly scented dried French Lavender and once have stuffed them into small sachet type things will incorporate into body of doll.

Then I got thinking that if I just used bigger needles I would get a bigger doll. Obvious really isn't it? But it has taken many months to think of this. See, I always say you can be pretty or clever.....................

So here are the legs in the next size.

I should have something for comparison but they are about 1/4 as big again as the first. These are for my goddaughter and her sister for Christmas.

Oooo! Buzz is in there for comparison!!

Pants! Item for comparison only works when it is next to both differently sized objects. Bugger!

This link is my contribution to world music knowledge and those little 70s hits we are all engendering and oh well, I just love this song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5RDn5Y0D_0 . It would definitely make my 'Desert Island Discs list. Hope you enjoy it too.