Hi there...

...just drawing your attention to the new pages I've put at the top there about each book.

Check 'em out!

:o)

PS. To those of you who have bought my books over the years - thank you so much. I hope they've brought you a lot of joy.

Sizzix + Hero Arts

Just found these and thought you might like to see.

They're all the stamps with matching embossing folders from Hero Arts and Sizzix.

(Scroll down)

I do love hunting around for things...

The holly set is still my fav - what a winner.

Hotcakes, people, hotcakes.



I've been on the look out for new punches to show you, but there's not much around. Martha's releasing a few Halloween ones, as is EK Success. And the only other ones I've seen, I've already shown you.

Will see what happens with the old punchos later in the year. Maybe some Christmas ones are coming out...

Bye now!

:o)

Ah ha!

Have you ever wanted a background stamp with a matching embossing folder?

I have.

Once I was trying to use the crossword background stamp from Hero Arts and I thought an embossing folder to match would've been great.

Or what about a polka dot stamp to match your favourite polka dot embossing folder?

Well...check it out.

Sizzix and Hero Arts have teamed up and come out with background stamps and matching embossing folders.

Very cool...like seriously c-ooool.

See the video here.

Lovely!

Framelits again...

...from Sizzix.

I really like these!

The bike set really caught my eye.

Below are the three images that they show you. Their intended use (which I like), the dies and the stamps.





 

The thing about the dies is that you can place them around the stamped image and see exactly where you need to cut.

Check out this video to see what I mean. A very good idea.

The Fancy Squarey dies (not their real name!) are nice - hotcakes, I reckon.

Click here to see the dies for the reindeer.

Click here to see the dies for the snowman.

Fun.

Oh, last thing - just saw this video...new Flip-its dies. Love these. Can totally see them working with punch art...the circle one's my fav...

New from Sizzix

They're doing dies that look like the Nestabilities from Spellbinders....good on them.

Check them out here - new Framelits - be sure to click View All to see all the sets. That Fancy Square-y type one is going to go like hotcakes, I reckon.

PS. What are hotcakes anyway? Scones? Cupcakes? Just askin'...

A really snazzy idea...

...that I wish I'd thought of!

Want to turn this square into...

...this rectangle?

Or this square...

...into this smaller one?

Watch here to find out how!

So easy - love it - and thought you might like to see too. 

Thank you, I Teach Stamping lady. 

:o)

Two more October Afternoon sneaks

What do you think?

My guesses were totally wrong!

:o)

PS. Love Sidewalks...

A Scrap Quiz - What about those scraps?

Hi there folks,

Got kind of a different one for you today.

Different in that the question came from a lovely lady named Tina. She sent me this email...

Hello Debra (great oracle of cardmaking and scrapping).  I have just one question for you today and unless I get some wisdom or intervention from someone with more experience, I seriously am concerned for me and my family's wellbeing.   

QUESTION:  WHEN IS A SCRAP NOT A SCRAP?

I keep hanging onto every little thing and I am almost buried.  They fall into three categories: so cute I can't throw it away, just a really good colour cardstock that I can't throw it away, it just MIGHT come in handy at a later date.

The problem is finding it again or otherwise remembering that you kept it in the first place. 

What is the ruthless moment when you go "that's it" you are destined for the rubbish bin?

I need intervention.....

Love Tina


Well, Tina, I'm here to help you!

Hopefully these ideas will help you wrangle those scraps into submission!

Here is how I store my scraps.

I have two types: Patterned paper and cardstock. 

Patterned Paper

The patterned paper scraps (mainly for scrapbooking) are stored in these drawers in three flat containers.

Small, medium and large.

I've got the three containers to break 'em up a bit.

Don't like rifling through the big scraps to find the little ones, so division is necessary.

Pulling them out like this helps to see what I have and if I need a little scrap, I just pick up the little scrap box and find something in there that works.

I also like keeping them together because of the combinations that come out of the whole mixed-up thing.

These are not all my scraps. 

I love October Afternoon and have a lot of their collections. I keep each collection in a bag and the big scraps are put back in the bag.

The little OA scraps are thrown into the three containers to spread the love around.

Purging: These containers are purged when they're overflowing and annoying me.

I just pull 'em out and give them a going over. I usually know what I want to keep and what I don't.

I keep the littlest bits of my favourite papers.

By little I mean 1 x 3cm - if it's little, and I like it, I'll keep it.

I chuck out big bits of paper that I hate.

By big I mean 12 x 12. If I just don't like a piece of paper anymore, out it goes.

If the yuk paper is white on the back, I'll keep it for notepaper for when I'm scrapping. I often need notepaper while scrapping, do you?

Other papers (and scrapping stuff) get sold at the markets once a year or so.

A tip: Keep a selection of dodgy papers/cardstock on hand for that quick play when you've bought something new, for an experiment or when you just need a bit of patterned paper and you don't want to use your good stuff.

Cardstock


The biggest difference for me between patterned paper and cardstock is that I tend to use the bigger pieces of patterned paper for scrapping and card making, but I use the tiniest bits of cardstock because of punch art.

When doing punch art you can get a lot of use out of a 2" square, can't you? Yep, totally.

Here's how I store my cardstock.

12 x 12 on the left there in colour groups.

I need to know the names of colours and where they live, so there's a white A4 piece of paper in there with each colour name written on it and that colour of cardstock is behind the paper.

Works well - helps me identify colours that I'm not as familiar with and also shows me where to put the card colours when I restock them.

Big scraps go at the back here.

If I'm not as familiar with it, I name it.

Yep, I just write on the top of it, so I know what the colour is when I'm using it.

I'm not a purple person, so I don't know them by sight like I do the other colours, so I name them in particular.

These scraps are divided into colour groups from lightest to darkest like your coloured pencils in primary school.

(The brown there is actually a smaller scrap even though it doesn't look like it)

Moving onto the bags.

I really want to draw your attention to the bags.

Each colour of card has it's own bag.

I used to have a cream bag, yellow bag, orange bag, pink bag etc, but I realised I was looking for specific colours for too long within the bags, so they got split up and each colour name got it's own bag. So much better.

Yellow bag got split into:

Dandelion
Butterscotch
Beeswax
Candle
Marigold
Other ones I can't remember
And all the no-names in a bag of their own

I write on the bag in Nikko pen and put a bit of sticky tape over it.

Hello, Dandelion, you are my favourite yellow.

(It's American Crafts from Spotlight)

Bling. I use the back of this for the pink. Nice.

I tell ya, naming all the bags was the best thing I did.

Easy to tell what you're looking for at night when the light might not be as good as it is during the day.

Easy to find the colour you want.

Easy to put colours away.

Easy to see what you need to buy more of.

Easy to keep track of everything, so you don't chop up new 12 x 12 sheets unnecessarily.

Easy to keep track of what you're not using. Instead of organising the bags by colour order like me, you could organise them by use. When you use a colour bag, put it back in the front of the box. After six months, the poor sad bags at the back could be purged without guilt.

(This idea might work a bit better with patterned paper, but you get the idea. The point is to get rid of unused stuff)

Very left (out of shot) - 12 x 12 paper

Back of box - big scraps

Front of box - smaller scraps (usually 6 x 6 and smaller) in named colour bags.

Panning around onto the desk now...

The black and brown are out because of a bear I'm in the middle of making. That's the brown no-name bag there, just needed a brown.

See all the scraps?

When I'm working at my desk doing punch art I always have a pile of scraps like this.

This one's too big though - A purge is in order.

By purge I mean three things:

1.  Trim the cardstock - cut the punch negatives off like on that square bit. I'd get rid of the negative and keep the rest. Make sense? Doing this kind of trimming and sorting of this pile would take 2 mins.

2.  Chuck the dodgy bits like the purple piece on the right with the two circles cut out of it. And the little bits that just annoying at the time.

3. Put the bigger pieces of double up card back into their colour bags. 

The aim with the on-the-table scraps is to have one piece of each specific colour in the pile only. 

That's the aim, doesn't always work.

One piece of cream, one piece of Dandelion, one piece of Lime Crush, one piece of Evening Surf etc etc and all of them about 6 x 6.

I can't stand punching out of big bits of card, so I cut 'em down.

My work flow


I'm working at my desk and I need a piece of Dandelion.

I go here first...

Um, not here (pretend it's not).

Then I go here...

...the Dandelion bag.

If it's empty, I go back here...

...to the big scraps.

If it's empty, I go here...

...to the 12 x 12 pieces.

If it's empty, I need to go to the shops. Rats.

(That wouldn't happen because I would've noticed and bought it already. Please, I can't be running out at 3am in the morning...)

If there's a bit of Dandelion there, I grab it and cut it into quarters. Three for the Dandelion bag and one for my desk.

Done.

I know it sounds extreme and very system-y, but I've been doing this a long time and trust me, staying on top of your scraps, particularly with punch art, is key to success and saving money.

One last thing with the cardstock scraps

If I'm packing up my desk and want it to look clean, I just throw all the current on-the-table scraps in a bag and put it on top of the 12 x 12 paper.

Gets the place tidied up in a jiffy.

It's also easy to pull out and dump on the desk for next time.

What do other people do?

These ladies are scrapbookers, so I assume they're talking about patterned paper, but this is what I know they do.

Noell Hyman keeps all her scraps in one container on her desk. She likes seeing the combos that come together when the paper is all mixed up.

Michelle Wooderson does the same. One container. Purges when it gets full.

Angie Lucas - She suggests purging if you're feeling buried. If it's weighing you down, it's gotta go. I totally get that...you know that feeling when you walk near your space and you feel weighty because it's annoying you? Purge!

My advice is the same - purge.

Make a keep pile and chuck pile and sort your scraps into those two piles.

Chuck the chuck ones and then enjoy your keep ones for a bit. Oooh, pretty.

Try a system for your keepers.

I'm an organiser, so I like systems - but my systems work for me. They may not work for you.

Some suggestions though:

Try the three containers for patterned paper.

Try the named bags for the cardstock.

Try named bags for patterned paper.

Do you like your scraps all mixed in together or separate?

What about access?

I would never store my patterned paper scraps the way I store my cardstock scraps because I use the scraps differently.

How do you use yours?

Collections together?

Mix and match?

A bitta both?

When you scrap or craft next time think about the way you work and organise accordingly.

When I scrap I don't know what I'm looking for usually, so I like to rifle through all the scraps I have.

Enter...three containers.

Tick, tick my system works for me.

(And my policy with rifling is to use the first piece I come across that I know will work. I don't try to find the best option, just the first good one)

When I do punch art I know definitely what colour I want and I want to find it pronto.

Enter...named colour bags.

Tick, tick my system works for me.

Try something. See how it fits. Change it up. Give it a go. 

Remember my advice when re-organising things?

Make a decision and see how it works. If it works, yay.

If it doesn't, try a different approach and see how that works.

Basically your scraps will be organised by:

Size

Colour

Theme (Christmas, collections)

Inspiration (all jumbled together)

A combo of above

and stored in:

Bags

Baskets

Containers

and they'll either be:

Out in the open where you can see them

Or in a container/drawer where you can't.

What combo works for you?

Get 'em out in front of you if you need them there to inspire you.

Put 'em away if you can't stand to see the mess.

A couple of other suggestions:

Becky Higgins doesn't keep any scrap under 2" square. Toss, toss.

(She scraps completely differently now, but that's beside the point. I remember her saying she chucked the littlies and I remember thinking I wouldn't do that with cardstock because of what I could get out of it for punch art. It all comes down to how you use what you have)

You could do what Stephanie Howell does and totally toss your scraps altogether! I know, amazing, hey? But it works for her.

She's a mother of four girls (including twins) and her husband is a soldier. She's on a design team and she has to stay on task. She gets the new release each month, uses the stuff from it and then all the scraps go in the bin. She does it to clear her head, I reckon, she doesn't want all last month's stuff getting all messed into this month's stuff, so she knows that what's on her desk is current to what she's doing.

Not that I know Stephanie or anything, I'm just saying I reckon that's why she does it. She doesn't keep her scraps, she has no need for them. She might give 'em to the bigs as she calls them, they do a lot of craft together, but my point is she just moves 'em on out. Good for her.

One other thing

I used to sort my patterned paper scraps by colour.

White/cream bag
Yellow bag
Pink bag
Multi-coloured bag
etc

I also had a couple of themed bags (actually I still have a couple of themed bags)

Christmas (have)
Lined and ledger paper (have)
Music paper (have)

Some of the above scraps are mixed in with the others, but I've a lot of lined and ledger, so they have their own bag.

And Christmas only comes once a year (feels like twice), so those scraps stay in their bag until I need 'em.

I don't sort my patterned paper scraps by colour anymore because I just don't need to. I used to scrap differently to what I do now and I found myself moving away from it. I distinctly remember it working for me though, I'd pick up the pink bag and see what pink paper it had to offer. Anyway, just a thought.

Well, I think that's it.

Far out, are you still with me?

Didn't know I had so much to say about scraps now did you?

I'm just going to re-read Tina's email to make sure I've covered everything...

QUESTION:  WHEN IS A SCRAP NOT A SCRAP?

I keep hanging onto every little thing and I am almost buried.  They fall into three categories: so cute I can't throw it away, just a really good colour cardstock that I can't throw it away, it just MIGHT come in handy at a later date.

The problem is finding it again or otherwise remembering that you kept it in the first place.

What is the ruthless moment when you go "that's it" you are destined for the rubbish bin?


My specific advice for you, Tina.

~  Sort into keep and chuck (you define the keep and chuck criteria)

~  Chuck your chuckers and love it!

~  Try a system I've mentioned above - one that helps you store and keep track of your scraps. And one that inspires you. Some people can't stand storing their stuff in bags - if that's you, don't do it, you'll hate it. Try baskets instead.

~  Make a collage of all those cute bits you can't throw away and frame it.

I'm thinking white frame, with a white background and your cute, colourful bits in the middle. Leave a border of white around the collage for extra design impact. For example, 4 x 6 collage in a 5 x 7 frame - this'll leave a 1/2" border around the collage, make sense?

For the collage you could punch the scraps into squares and line them up grid style, or just leave them free-form as you found them. Or hand cut your bits into squares and line them up grid style. A bit of handmade and a bit of organisation if you need that sort of thing in a collage.

With your frame done and hung you can enjoy those bits every day - I know, patterned paper makes me happy too, so I just might steal the idea.

~  Don't throw that good colour of cardstock away - even if it is a scrap. Put all like ones in a bag and label it "I just couldn't throw you away" ha ha

~  Seriously, try the bags. See if you like 'em.

~  The ruthless moment is - when it's annoying you.

My philosophy is - I know I paid for the bit of paper that this scrap came from, but it's annoying me, so it's gotta go.

You might think you are throwing away money, but you are throwing away time if you keep it.

Time in working out how to store it.

Time to sort through it every single time you reach into that drawer.

Time lost because of inspiration lost. You hate that paper. You see it. You lose your inspiration. You don't want to craft. You walk away from your desk. That actually equals money lost too because you're not using all the other stuff you've bought.

One scrap of pattened paper can't cause that much strife, but lots of little annoying scraps can!

As Noell Hyman says, We have to pay attention to all the little blockages because they do block our flow.

I agree.

Totally.

Anyway, Tina, I hoped that helped you! And for everyone else out there, I hope it helped you too. Or intrigued you. Or gave you an enjoyable peek into someone else's process.

That's all folks.

Hey, Tina, let me know how the scrap wrangling goes, okay?

:o)

New October Afternoon

October Afternoon has three new lines debuting at CHA Summer later this month and they just released this sneak on their blog...



What do you think?

I love it.

Think it looks a little different to their other lines. Looking forward to seeing the whole thing soon.

My picks for the other two lines are a girl type one because they did Rocket Age for the boys and a Christmas one because they didn't release a Christmas line last year.

Fun, fun.

Crochet frenzy update

The crochet frenzy of late has not extended to getting last year's cushion done. It's still without the flowers, but they'll get stuck on soon. 

Ah, this cushion - I still like it. It's full on, but it's fun.

Can't wait to see it finished.

Get to it, Debra, get to it.

I will, I will, but I've been busy making this...

It's a rug that no longer exists.

I decided to flick the cushion for a while because who really wants to sew those flowers on right now? Not me.

I decided to flick it for some therapeutic crochet. That is, repetitive stuff. And using-up-wool stuff.

I was going along quite happily and then I started to run into quite a few problems and the rug got pulled right out again.

The main reason was - what was the main reason? Can't remember now. Maybe too many ends to run in? I don't crochet to spend my time running ends in...

Anyway, flicked the blanket...oh, I know the reasons! I started that sucker three, count 'em, three times.

1.  The original line of chain stitch was too tight and horrid.

2.  The whole rug was too long.

3.  And it was too long again.

The rug is for me to use while I'm on my roller chair in my room here. That means it needs to be short, so it's out of the way of the wheels.

I did the chain stitch what I thought was the right length, but as I added the extra rows of trebles it grew in length! Is this normal?

Anyway, the sucker ended up too long twice.

Yes, I did it twice. So annoying. Who knew trebles multiplied the original chain stitches? Not me.

To thwart the problem once and for all, I actually went and sat on the roller chair and measured where I wanted the blanket to come to and pulled some of the chain stitches out to compensate.

Of course it would've been better if I'd have done that in the first place, but I didn't.

Anyway - summary?

All is well now and it's the right length.

Good.

Here it is last week.

Seven rows of each colour.

The light yellow above is the final row in the pattern. I'll repeat the seven rows of seven again and then it'll be done.

Actually, I think I'll add another band of red to finish and then it'll be done. Fifteen bands total.

I'm up to the second band of orange (number 11) now, so I've only got about a quarter to go. Nice. Yep, been doing a lot of crocheting.

And giving myself a blister. Don't care. I just crochet through the discomfort.

I think my rug was inspired by my new tablecloth...

And this rug that I said I wanted to make.

My rug didn't want any purple or pink though.

It scoffed when I brought it out.

I tried.

It said no.

I said okay.

I know how inspiration works and that's how it works.

Sometimes the project just has a mind of it's own.

I'm going to finish this rug soon and then I try another and see if it wants some pink.

Love crocheting - it's so fab.

I've got somethin'!

Coming soon - new punches from Fiskars.

Just saw on the Fiskars website that the company was established in 1649 and is the oldest company in Finland. A-mazing.

My favourites (not ones I'd necessarily buy, but just like):

~  Bubbles border - like it.

~  Medium Cloud - they have two other sizes already - large and extra large?

~  Perfect Pear - like it. Like pears.

~  Not even a mouse...(that's the name of the punch) - he's got big ears.

Click here to see the punches.

Thoughts?

Care factor?

I had grand plans...

...to come here and write something magnificent, or post something fabulous, but I've got nothin'.

What I do have is a new keyboard that's driving me crazy with all the mistakes it's making.

It's not user error, why would you suggest that?

I just fixed 12 mistakes in three lines.

I'm not going to fix anymore mistkakes for the rest of th epost just to prive tht things aren't going well on the typing front.

I'm also veery.  tired.

Seriously.

I'll stay off here until I've got somthin' as opposed to all this nothin'.

Have mercy.

Just to claifify (again with the keyboard!!!) - I've gotta lotta somethin's for the blog-o, I just don't have a lotta somethin's right now.

Where's that mercy at?

Gwyneth, cooking and craft

Gwyneth Paltrow has a passion for cooking.

I did not know this.

She's also written a cookbook.

I did not know this either.

I read about her in the May edition of the Women's Weekly and found myself relating to her words and her story.

Everyone that has a passion has it deep-rooted in something. And that deep-rooted something is the heart behind what they do.

I know this for myself. I know I love punch art for what it is, but I also love it for what it means to me.

What it is:

~  Fun
~  Colourful
~  Bright
~  Cute
~  Reproducible (I need that in my art. I need to be able to reproduce the same thing over and over. And reproduce it exactly. Don't know why)


What it means:

~  Expression
~  Creative outlet
~  Me. Just me in something.
~  A filling station.
~  Time
~  Quiet

There are more things on this list, but I don't know what they are. I can feel them, but I don't have the words for them. It doesn't matter, that's where the heart of it all comes in. Not everything needs an explanation.

In the article Gwyneth talked about her story and how she started cooking - ie. with her dad. It became important to her and a deep-seated part of her life. She now cooks from those experiences with her dad, it's where the heart comes from.

We had a family dinner recently and we were all in the kitchen helping. I remember sitting on the other side of the bench (not in kitchen, no room) with Dad next to me and the others all around too. There was a lot of activity and chatter and I remember thinking to myself how special it was. I actually suggested to Andrew the other day that we make our own pizza dough. I think he'd be up for it. 

Anyway, I like what Gwyneth said her dad imparted into her through cooking and their cooking adventures together.

That is, his beliefs about food:

~  Invest in what's real.
~  Clear up as you go.
~  Drink while you cook.
~  Make it fun.
~  It doesn't have to be complicated.
~  It will be what it will be.

As I was reading them I thought they could be applied to craft too.

Invest in what's real.

Well, I've done that. I've invested a lot of time, money and myself into my crafting, particularly my punch art. Hello? It's an investment and it doesn't always pay dividends straight away...you gotta wait on these things sometimes. 

Clear up as you go. 

Well, I do that too. Sometimes too much and then I have to pull that thing out again. And then again. 

Mum used to tell me to clean up as I went in the actual kitchen. I do that to this day and actually try not to make a mess in the first place. You know, peel potatoes straight into a bag (in the sink), so the peelings don't drip all over the floor as I try to get them into the bin in five trips.

Drink while you cook (craft). 

Well, I don't agree with this one. I don't drink near any paper crafting stuff generally because it's a disaster waiting to happen. Actually, not true.  I do have a cup of tea near me sometimes. Once a lady spilt her Diet Coke all over the table in class. Not good. 

Make it fun. 

Oh wow, this is a biggie. 

Things are fun when they're fun. And they're NOT fun when they're not fun. 

You know, I turned my hobby into my living and then I had to find a new hobby (scrapping). I love that I love what I do, but what people don't realise is that it's still work.

I have deadlines, I have things I have to make, I have to force myself to be creative sometimes when I'm just not feeling it. I have to turn up, show up and be 'on'. Frankly, it's exhausting, but at least it's craft which means the work of it takes, but it also gives, so I'm not left in deficit all the time.  

Also, there's a lot more to working in the crafting industry besides the actual creative work. There's so much other stuff I do and it's not necessarily fun. A recent Paperclipping episode was on working in the industry if you want to have a listen. 

Moving on to my hobby stuff. 

I still make cards for me. 

I still make cards to give away. 

I make things to hang around the house. 

I make things to hang around my mother's house.
I make bits and pieces for the fun of it. 

I make stuff, but the process of it is for me.  

And because it's for me, it's my choice when I do it and how. 

My desk, my rules, I've said that before. 

For example, my niece turned 13 and I bought her birthday card. Yep. Totally. 

Walked into the shop, saw the perfect one, paid my money and walked out. So fab. 

Do you think I'm going to push myself to make a card every single time I need one just because I have the skills? 

No. 

No, I'm not. 

Investing in yourself through a passion means you make the rules regarding it.

You know what you're willing to do and what you're not.

And what you can do and what you can't.

And also what you won't do.

Sometimes the thought of making a card makes me want to run away screaming, so I take that as my cue not to make one. 

Let me correct that, sometimes the thought of making up a card makes me want to run a mile. Maybe I should start card lifting? Really, maybe I should, just so I can do the making and not the thinking. I should do that.

This whole art thing is a huge lesson in control and surrender all at the same time.  

Let me just say that again...

This whole art thing is a huge lesson in control and surrender all at the same time. 

Life's like that really, isn't it?

Back to Gwyneth's dad...

It doesn't have to be complicated. 

But sometimes it is. 

Sometimes I want to spend hours on You Tube watching other people make things and yet I don't want to make anything myself. 

Sometimes I'd rather surf online for new punches rather than make anything with the ones I own.  

Sometimes I'd rather just go to the beach with the fellas because the thought of crafting makes me want to barf. 

Just because it's my thing, doesn't mean I want to do it every second of the day. Sometimes I don't want to do it for months and that's okay because....

It will be what it will be. 

Just like this post. 

I started out with the Gwyneth article as inspiration and these words are what came out. 

That's life. 

That's craft. 

That's crafting in my life. 

Alexandra's strawberries

Hi there,

Wanted to share someone else's project today.

Alexandra (Hi, Alex!) from Germany sent me some photos of the labels she made for her strawberry jam jars using the punch art from this card.

Don't you love them?

What a great job, Alexandra! Thanks for sending them to me, I loved seeing what you made. And your swirls are fab...good for you.

I love the strawberries on the lids too - nice touch. Makes me want some jam on toast. And jam on a pikelet with cream. Oh, yum.

I wonder if there are pikelets in Germany?

I love how some paper and glue shared online can go across the oceans and inspire someone else and they send their paper and glue back across the oceans to say thanks!

Pretty cool, really.

I love the internet.

:o)

My name is Cody...

...and I'm at the BEEAAACCCHHH!

I love the beach!

I love the beach!

I love the rocks!

I love the sky!

I love the birds that fly around and tease me!

I love the water and I can't wait to get in it!

What?

What's that?

You want me to turn around for a photo?

Was that good enough? 

Can we go yet? 

Can we go yet?

What??? 

You want me to come there for a photo?

What's with all these photos, anyway?

I don't even know what a photo is!

Okay, will this do? 

Yes, I'm smiling. 

Yes, I'm happy. 

Yes, I'm free except for this darn harness thing, which I hate, but I'll put up with, because I'm at the BEEEAAACCHHH!

Can we go yet? 

Can we go yet?

Ah, yes, now I'm at my happiest! 

I am swimming!

I am free!

I love the water!

I'm just waiting for you to come in with me!

(No chance)

I know I'm going to have to have a bath when I get home because it's cold, but I'm willing to put up with it, so I can be in the water now. 

I love you two! 

You're good owners! 

If only every dog was so lucky!

No, mate, we're the lucky ones... 

Crochet frenzy - part 2 - My mother

I'm not the only one with crochet fever. My mother has it too! 

In fact, I think she gave it to me. Her and Rochelle, both of them...

It's a good fever to have, I'm a-thinking...

Anyway, Mum caught the bug (and the fever, ha ha) and started making crochet samplers. 

You know, I like how our crafting and creative-ness can give us what we want (or need) at any given time. 

If I want therapeutic crocheting (which I do), I'll make a simple rug or something that doesn't require too much thought. 

If Mum wants a bit of fun and experimentation, she can get that too. And she got it through crochet samplers this time. 

Pretty cool, hey? I love crafting and creative-ness. 

Onto the samplers. 

Mum decided to make them because she said that if you choose a pattern and then buy the wool and then start crocheting, the whole thing can turn out really....um, different to what you thought. 

You can't always tell how big a granny square is going to be from the pattern, so enter...

....the sampler.

Here's my mother and her sampler folder.

Yes, her sampler folder.

I know, I cracked up too.

She's hilarious. This is so her.

Really, it's just the pattern with a sampler in display pockets in a pink folder...you know, no biggie to put together, but if anybody was going to do it, it'd be my mother. And she did!

You're hilarious, Mum. I love it.

Now, my mother can read a pattern.

It helps, you know.

Look at those squares - beautiful. Love that first one.

This is why you do a sampler. You ask yourself - "Do I want to make 155 of these suckers??"

It's kinda like a choose-your-own-adventure book.

All the adventure, but without all the effort.

Or what about these ones?

Again with the pretty one on the left there. I like that one.

And the other one is interesting.

Again, this is why you do it.

Sorry, this is why she does it.

To see what they look like.

To see how big they are.

To see if they float her boat.

To see if she wants to commit.

To see if she wants to take on the full adventure.

It's a good crochet tactic when you think about it.

Pretty simple.

I think these ones were all about the size.

Don't want to set out to make a queen bed rug and end up with only enough wool for a dog blanket, now do you?

Cody wouldn't mind though.

Oooh, now I like this one with the flower on it.

Very interesting and pretty, yes?

And these remind me of tulips. I like this one too.

And that pink and white one reminds me of the brown and white suit thing that Mum made for Pete when he was little.

Look what I found?

Pete at 5 months (in 1975) sporting his shirt/top thing, but I'm sure there was a jumpsuit, Mum? Kinda like overalls?

Anyway, too cute.

So, Mum's a crochet queen. She made more samplers for her book, I've just shown you a few. They were kinda bulging out of the folder a bit - pretty thick the old wool samplers.

Good job, Mum, you're amazing.

Just had to show you the crochet hook roll that she made too.

Being the organisational queen that she is, she just had to do it to keep them all in one place.

Cool, huh?

Look how big!

Look how tiny!

Never seen either in my life...I think I've had the same crochet hook my whole crocheting life and it was probably my mother's to start with...

Ah, here's the roll all rolled up with a cute crocheted tie.

Of course.

So fun.

Thanks for letting me share, Mum. You're fab. Done any more samplers? Ooop, don't answer that, I know you've been painting the house....

PS. Oh, wait, wait, I've gotta catch my breath....this is so funny! LOOOOK at that brunch coat thing!! And guess what they called it? A Granny Square Snug Sack, can you believe that?? We completely lost it in the (antique-y type) shop and then Mum pulled it together for the photo. SOOO funny.