Finally, some crafty content

Thank you all for your warm wishes for Gorgeous Girl, she is well and truly on the mend now and has been keeping down her feeds. She is back to the usual puddle of drool that seems to be par for the course these days.

Since there has been a dearth lately of crafty content on what is ostensibly a craft blog, I thought you might like to see a few of the things currently on the needle(s).

Last night I finished quilting another block for the African Animal quilt and began a new one.

Gorgeous Girl is currently sleeping and I’m hoping to put in some quality time with this once this post is finished.

On Monday I began a crocheted sun hat in this brilliant yarn from The Secret Knitter.

The orange isn’t actually that bright in real life. See the background? It’s a box. My mum and brother gave me the box as a thank you for having them stay. It’s currently living in the living room at the side of the couch and is housing my WIPs.

Also on the needles is Mum’s sock in the pfau (peacock) yarn by Opal that she chose while she was here.

I made the bag in the background too.

Also on the needles, but having made no significant progress since the last time they were shown on the blog is the cardigan for charity and tiger socks for me.

After spending quality time with the quilt I’m hoping to get into the sewing room to sew some bibs from the pattern in my Christmas present, provided of course that Gorgeous Girl stays asleep.

I start back at work on Tuesday I’m teaching one class, so that’s only 5 hours a week. We are hoping to coordinate our timetables so that Gorgeous Man can watch the child when I’m teaching. The extra money will be nice and it’s only an hour a day. Hopefully it won’t eat into the crafting time too much; by the time I’ve packed up Gorgeous Girl, dropped her off with Gorgeous Man, taught the class, picked her up and walked home it’s about 2 hours total. Hmm, notice there was no mention of housework there lol. One good thing about the work is that I have to walk up and down a steep hill every day, very good for the figure.

Ok, enough rambling, off to hang the washing on the line – it’s a lovely day today in Cape Town, but stinking hot, and do some quilting.

Have a great day and if you’re a visitor who doesn’t comment (I won’t use the ‘L’ word) feel free to introduce yourself.

Read Full Post »

A parenting first

Well Gorgeous Man and I racked up another parenting first last night (or should I say this morning): the midnight run to the Emergency room.

Gorgeous Girl started vomiting late last night. When it got to the point that she was extremely lethargic and vomiting on an empty stomach we decided to take her in and get her looked at. The doctor thinks she has a virus – there’s certainly one going around; the ER was full of vomiting children and one toddler was carried off to the children’s ward with an IV in his arm while we were there. The good news is that Gorgeous Girl was not ill enough to need further treatment from them. I’m very grateful to the doctor who respectfully treated us as good concerned parents, rather than as over-anxious first time parents.

I spent today trying to get Gorgeous Girl to drink rehydrating fluid from a bottle, after I was spectacularly vomited all over following her morning feed. The virus seems to have run its course and she has managed to keep some milk down this evening and is currently sleeping.

There was minimal stitching done today. I’m doing some consulting work tomorrow (and I’m getting paid for it yah!!) but hopefully that won’t take too long and I can put some more stitches into the African Animal quilt. That really suffered while Mum and my brother were here. I’m keen to get this one finished so that I can start on the kit that my mum delivered for me when she came over – I refused to trust South African post with that one. If you’ve only been reading for a short time you may not realise that I’m an odd type of quilter that only works on one quilt at a time (means I have no UFOs though).

Mum’s sock is coming along nicely. I knitted frantically on it in the car coming home from the airport (distraction knitting) and I grabbed it as we were heading out the door last night and spent half an hour knitting on it while we waited to be seen by the doctor.

In other news (or no news) the Christmas Parcel from Mum still hasn’t arrived – hopefully it’ll turn up by Christmas next year…

Read Full Post »

Feeling a little sad…

We put my mum and my brother on the plane this morning. It was very hard to say good-bye. I have my sewing room back, but the house is strangely quiet.

Here’s Mum enjoying some quality time with Gorgeous Girl.

Mum did not go home empty-handed. I made sure that she went home with lots of crafty goodness. In addition to the Bible cover, I delivered her quilt that I finished last year. I told her I wasn’t going to trust it to the post office and that she would have to come and collect it in person.

She’s thrilled with it, can you tell?

I called it Music and Butterflies after the two main motifs in the fabrics. The music is especially appropriate as Mum plays in an orchestra. Mum and I went shopping for the fabric in Dec 2004, but I only got it done last year… Mum picked the music and butterflies fabrics and I added some material that I had left over from my first quilt. This is only the second quilt top that I completed – the points mostly match…

My little brother was very impressed with the quilt and has left me a hint in the form of a strategically placed bookmark in one of my quilting books

I also made Mum a set of placemats. But only managed to photograph this one as she had already packed the rest.

I think I’m going to have to buy some of this material for Gorgeous Man and I.

I also measured Mum’s foot and cast on a pair of socks for her, but simply ran out of time and they will have to be posted.

Ironically, Mum’s Christmas parcel still hasn’t arrived and she has been and gone. I’m beginning to think that it’s suffered the same fate as the Christmas 2005 parcel from her which had some of the Christmas presents stolen out of it by South Africa Post. I maybe wrong, but it’s looking like some postal worker is enjoying Gorgeous Girl’s Christmas gifts.

Thank you to all of you who dropped by to wish Kerin a happy birthday. It’s her first experience of the loveliness that is the craft blogging community and I think she’s a little overwhelmed

My knees are still very sore and I’m finding it difficult to walk for a long period of time. Now that the tourists have gone home I’m able to rest them a bit more, so that should aid the healing. They are a beautiful set of colours.

Since today is Monday it’s ‘Making for Araminta Day’ and I’ve started crocheting a sun hat for her with the orange yarn from The Secret Knitter. No pictures since it’s only got 4 rounds so far.

Well, folks my computer time is over as I can hear the child awakening. Have a great day, and thanks for stopping by.

Oh yes, I should just mention I won a contest at Syko - an angel fairy, how cool is that! Thank you! I’m really looking forward to seeing the package arriving. Doing the happy dance!!

Read Full Post »

A surprise virtual birthday party

My friend Kerin is having a birthday tomorrow (27th) – it’s a big one. I can’t be there to hold a party for her in person, so I’m wondering if my bloggy friends will help me throw her a virtual one?

Please  pop over to her blog and wish her a happy birthday. Thanks

Read Full Post »

The scariest moment of my life

On Wednesday I had the scariest moment of my life. Worse than falling 13.5 metres (~40 feet) off a rope ladder while climbing out of a cave when I was 16 or being in a single vehicle accident and writing off a car at 26.

It happend like this:

We decided to make another attempt at Table Mountain. We called in advance to make sure that the cable car was running and drove into Cape Town.

The Cable car got a third of the way up the mountain and then, after some muttering into his walkie talkie the driver reversed back down. We sat at the bottom for a few minutes and then the car once again went up the mountain. Just as we docked at the top an announcement came over the loudspeakers that the mountain was closed due to strong winds, but they let us out.

We emerged into cloud skidding across the ground – we were walking through the clouds and howling wind. After about 2 minutes I took Gorgeous Girl and was hurrying to get her out of the mist.

Somehow, I lost my footing and pitched forward. Because I was holding the child I couldn’t break my fall and my knees took the full impact, as I continued to fall forwards I threw myself to the side in an attempt to avoid landing on top of Gorgeous Girl.

After a fairly decent commadno roll I ended up flat on my back, with Gorgeous Girl screaming hysterically clutched to my chest. People came running from everywhere and were trying to help me up and pry Gorgeous Girl out of my hands. My brother who saw me fall and is quick on the up-take realised that I wouldn’t give the child to anyone except Gorgeous Man so he called him over.

The child was whisked inside and I was helped to my feet. The cable car staff put us on the car first and found me a place to sit near the ‘driver’, then they packed the car with all of the people still on the mountain and took us down. Gorgeous Girl was fine, she spent the trip ‘chatting’ with a lovely Xhosa lady who tried to teach her how to say hello in Xhosa. I, on the other hand was a wreck.

Damage to me is two skinned knees, two bruised knees, one quite spectacular bruise extending from the knee to the shin, one sore elbow and a good dose of stress dermatitis spreading across my left hand, wrist and arm.

My mother had two things to say:

1. “You fell out of your pram and hit your head on the concrete when you were six months old and you’re fine.” (some would say that’s debabtable)

2. “Thank goodness for that knitted hat which saved her head from being grazed.”

If you’ll excuse me, I’m off to knit my daughter a padded crash helmut and bodysuit so she never has to worry about being carried by her mother again…

Read Full Post »

Quality time with the sewing machine and a finish

My Mum loves her Bible. She’s had it since 1968 and it’s been underlined, coloured, and written in. There are notes from sermons she’s liked, and photos of people important to her glued into it. But it is really looking its age. It’s had several covers in its lifetime and I decided it was time for a new one. We went through my stash and found this vintage jersey that she liked and I made this.

It’s not great, but I’m pretty pleased with it given that it’s my first attempt at anything like this and I made it up as I went along.

Mum isn’t at all crafty and on the right you can see her previous repair job.

My mother and brother took the Red Bus around Cape Town today and Gorgeous Girl and I went to Baby Show and Tell. The woman who held the birth education classes for us hosts a morning tea once all the babies have been born. Here’s the ones that were able to make it.

This picture makes me laugh.

I also have my first charity finish for 2008. I didn’t meet my goal of 25 Things for Charity last year, getting pregnant and having a baby kind of messed with that, so it feels good to have the first one for the year done.

I still need to weave the ends in, but they will be dropped off with some of Gorgeous Girl’s clothes on Thursday.

Tomorrow I have to go in to work for an hour or so to run the new person through my old job and then Mum and I are going fabric shopping. I’m going to run up some placemats for her to take back to Australia as gifts. They will be the same ones that they sell at the markets, but at a fraction of the price

Thanks for stopping by.

Read Full Post »

Doing the tourist thing

Well my mother and brother arrived safely, and goodies from home were provided Gorgeous Girl has morphed into perfect baby and is doing us proud. Here she is enjoying a cuddle with Grandma.

On Saturday we visited the penguin colony at Stoney Point. I got to walk 10 metres and take this picture

before Gorgeous Girl decided that she was starving and I had to return to the car with a screaming child. After the feed I decided to play around with the camera. This was the best shot.

It just cracks me up.

We also visited the Harold Porter Botanical Garden, which my brother declared the most beautiful garden he’d ever seen. I think it was something to do with the mountains in the background and the sea in front, and the waterfalls…

Today was also a busy day, we visited the Two Oceans Aquarium. If you are ever in Cape Town it’s really worth a visit. Here’s Gorgeous Girl with her uncle.

Yes, he got the tall, thin genes *sigh*

We then drove up to the Table Mountain Cable Car but because of this

(wind so strong we could hardly open the car doors) the cable car was closed for the afternoon and we’ll need to try again another day.

So we then drove around to Signal Hill which has a great view of the city and the ocean across to Robben Island. Gorgeous Girl decided that she was a kung fu baby.

It was cool enough up there for her to need handknits *yay*

I’ve been knitting on the second baby sock for the local public hospital on the car drives and it’s nearly finished, so pictures soon. I’m also managing to sneak in a little hand quilting. I’m quite keen to get the African Animals quilt finished since Mum played courier for me and brought over a very cool quilt kit I ordered and I’m keen to start it.

I should also mention here that I won a competition on Kate’s blog, some very cool Christmas themed log cabin blocks and they arrived this week. Thank you Kate. I feel very lucky. Sorry no pictures at the moment. I know, I’m a bad blogger.

Anyway, I’d better go to bed so that I can play tour guide again tomorrow. I tell you, being on holidays is exhausting…

Read Full Post »

Visitors are coming

My mother and little brother are arriving tomorrow to meet Gorgeous Girl – they are in the air as we speak, actually they’re probably in Singapore Airport for their lay over. The house is tidy, floors vaccumed and mopped; the mountain of ironing done; and clothes put away. Of couse I had to stop and do some hand sewing while I waited for the power to come back on. We’ve had a power failure of at least 2 hours duration every day this week *sigh*

Mum is going to be staying in my sewing room, so it’s unlikely that I’ll get much sewing done while she is here, though the hand quilting and knitting can continue.

There may not be many crafty posts for a week or so, but we will be doing the touristy thing since this is their first visit to South Africa, and I’ll try and post about some of the places that we visit. I won’t be doing much blog reading next week though as it would be a tad anti-social to hole up in front of the computer when they have come all this way to see me.

Yesterday was cold and I dressed Gorgeous Girl in a very cute little sweater and hat that I knitted. I picked her up to take her into the lounge to take a picture and we didn’t go two steps before she spat up all over it… so instead of hand knits here’s a picture of her in her latest top from Mummy.

She likes it, really.

The little gift I sent to Barbara arrived today, it didn’t take as long to get to The Netherlands as I expected.

There’s also been reading.

Books read in 2008:

3.  In Search of Genghis Khan  Tim Severin

Well I’m off to get the clothes off the line. Have a wonderful day, and thanks for stopping by.

Read Full Post »

The Good run continues

Well, it seems that the good run with the post office continues. I was starting to think that I was seeing a re-run of Christmas 2006, and although we are still missing 2 parcels of Christmas presents from Australia, a package did make it through the gauntlet of South African Postal services this week.

A lovely package arrived yesterday from Mark. In it was this very cute hat for Gorgeous Girl, and today was actually cold enough for her to wear it.

There was also a ball of bright orange Sugar ‘n Cream cotton for me to play with (first time I’ve laid fingers on the stuff as I haven’t seen it available here). I’m thinking I may have to dust off my crochet skills and turn it into a hat for Gorgeous Girl. Thank you Mark, we love the hat, and I have to say I think she is very cute in the hat (though I may be a touch biased) lol.

In Cape Town you know that summer is truly here when the power cuts begin. We’ve lost power for 4 hours both yesterday and today – thankfully it’s been during the day and not at night. A lot of businesses have bought generators so that they can continue to operate…

I finished the baby sock. Note to self, do not knit socks while tired. I remembered that it usually takes me two inches to shape the toes and so began shaping at the appropriate place. I didn’t think about the fact that two inches to shape the toes is on an adult sock with a gazillion more stitches! So the sock is too short for Gorgeous Girl. I’ll knit a partner and toss it in the bag waiting to be handed over to the local public hospital and cast on again for Gorgeous Girl. Good thing I’ve got lots of that yarn left over…

I got another quilt block finished today so only 37 more and the border. I’m looking forward to this being finished.

There has been reading, can’t watch dvds while feeding when the power is off.

Book update for 2008

2. Trace – Patricia Cornwall.

Don’t bother, her early stuff is really good, but the latest stuff kind of sucked. This had story elements that started and went nowhere, the ending was rushed and unsatisfying and although it started well was a great disappointment. I should have listened to Gorgeous Man who told me not to bother.

Read Full Post »

Work in progress update

I have very talented friends, one of my friends Kerin is a great photographer – she did our wedding photos for us, and an amazing scrapbooker. She has offered to do a one year scrapbook for us of Gorgeous Girl. I’m very excited, if her latest scrapbook is anything to go on (it’s a self-bound album, it’s going to be great. Go check it out.

Yesterday was our 11th wedding anniversary. We didn’t do anything fancy, just got take-away curry from the new Indian restaurant in town. We first tried it when I was pregnant and it was the worst curry I’ve ever eaten. Just hot, no flavour and there was more bone than meat in the dish. A few weeks ago we noticed that it was under new management, so we thought we’d give it another try.

Yum!! They were great, an English couple have take it over and it’s more like the curries we are used to in Australia. Very, very satisfying.

Anyway, on to the knitting.

On the needles at the moment I have a baby sock

and a mummy sock

and a top down cardigan for the local public hospital.

The colour is completely wrong, it’s actually a deep scarlet red. It’s been far too long since I knitted anything for them and it feels good to have this project on the needles.

The weather has been very warm and that always brings a feeling of lethargy so apart from 4 loads of washing, nothing much got done today. I do need to do a bit of a spring-clean though since my mother and brother are arriving on Friday from Australia and they will need somewhere to sleep. That puts the sewing room/office out of commission for a while. My brother can bunk in the nursery since Gorgeous Girl is still in our room. I’ll be giving Mum her quilt when she arrives so I hope she likes it.

I’ve finished my first book for 2008:

1. Behind the wall – A journey through China – Colin Thubron

I like travel books and this one was particularly well written.

 

Read Full Post »