Filling the well

I don't get to do a lot of non-writing related travel due to time and budget constraints. But this weekend I zoomed off to Adelaide (the capital of South Australia for the non-Aussies) to visit my brother and sister in law and the furry niece dog.

It was a nicely laid back weekend of pottering around and doing a few touristy things. Adelaide is a pretty little city and quite laid back (though home to some excellent doughnuts and, of course, Haighs chocolate - I love the dark peppermint frogs best).

Big brother was somewhat under the weather with a nasty cold so Melissa and I (yes, two Mel Scotts, it's confusing...and that's before you add in Mum being Merilyn lol) left him at home and did the girly browse and shop thing. We did the city on Friday and Saturday headed out to Woodside and Lobethal.

I know a lot of writers like to do various crafty things. I've traditionally preferred sewing and embroidery to knitting (and never really learned how to crochet) but Melissa is a knitting savant and these days also makes beeeeyootiful hand painted yarns (specialising in eco friendly fibres), so there were a few fabric and fibre related shops visited. I may have come home with some more quilting fabrics.

I did come home with this little dude:



He's an amigurumi (amigurumi apparently being a japanese crochet craze) from this book, and he and his creepy cute friends were so cute I think I need to learn to crochet properly and make some.

On Sunday Melissa has a stall at the Fisherman's Wharf market in Port Adelaide (so SA knitters are in luck), so I hung out with her there. And the wools and silks and everything looked so pretty all piled up (really, I think the thing that I really love about fabric and yarn is the colour aspect of it) that I decided to dust off my very rusty knitting needle skills and make some fingerless gloves (Melissa made up the pattern on the spot!). I even managed to finish them in a few hours. Which is about right when it comes to my patience for knitting and project. Apart from quilting I like things that I can complete reasonably fast. I think it's because novels take so damned long to write that the girls like things they can finish when it comes to other creative outlets). I even got some extra wool to make a scarf over the next few weeks.

Anyway, here are some pics of Melissa's gorgeous yarns to whet the appetite of any fibre addicts out there. Her website is www.strandedinoz.com.

Banana silk and recycled sari silk



Hemp and wool



All sorts of wool (sheep and alpaca, sadly I didn't get a pic of the perfectly camel brown baby camel wool!)





(my scarf wool is from the blues on the top of the pile above)



So pretty! You just want to stroke them and possibly eat them. I'd have baskets full piled up just as decoration.

This is what I did with some lovely soft merino she'd dyed in gorgeous deep ocean shades (she's under instruction to do more in this colourway).



I'm hoping all this gorgeousness and play will result in some brilliant words tonight after four days off. Of course, feeding the well may be offset by being slightly wrecked after day job but we'll see. I guess I'll report back later!

And again

Apparently I am feeling sew-y today. This was quicker, maybe two hours and probably faster now I know how it's done.



This is the Flea Market Bag by Grand Revival Designs. The fabrics are Amy Butler (Daisy Chain collection, I think). No messing around with this one, er apart from the bit where I didn't quite read the pattern right and cut the straps too short then had to add a sewn extension, so there's some extra seams. It wasn't terribly complicated once I understood how the straps worked. I'm going to try the Practical Bag from the same company as well.

And now, I think I need to collapse on the couch!

Project for the day

I forgot to take my yoga mat with me to the Nia class yesterday and when I got home I realised I didn't have a mat bag as I've only ever used my mat at home.

I'd seen a free yoga bag pattern on Amy Butler's site (the Nigella yoga mat bag), so I decided to give it a whirl. Ta da!



I'm quite chuffed with it. It was pretty easy to put together (I even remembered how to ease curves and believe me, it's been a long time since I did anything resembling complicated sewing). The fabric is a cotton canvas, so I didn't have to use the interfacing. Though I definitely needed a heavy needle - there are a LOT of layers of fabric in certain parts, particularly attaching the bottom circle to the exterior bag where the strap is attached. I'm happy to report that my new Janome (did I blog about that?) didn't turn a hair, just chugged happily through the loads of fabric.

I'd read this review of the pattern (really, how cool is the internet?) and decided to take her advice. I made the strap an inch narrower, and the bag itself four inches longer. I decided not to lengthen the strap itself (wasn't sure if that would work with a drawstring closing) so I just attached the top of the strap four inches down from the top of the bag instead of against the top edge, turned the raw edge under and top stitched that then stitched another line of stitching two inches below to reinforce. It appears to be pretty strong, yoga mat aren't that heavy after all. And seems to have worked fine, though I guess you could lengthen the strap. I've made a channel for a drawstring cord (or shoelace or whatever I end up using) at the top by turning over an inch, sewing that down then turning over another inch and sewing with a gap for the drawstring. It took me about four hours including cutting out the fabric and a few breaks.

The longer length is good, my mat doesn't stick out. A note about the pockets, they're pretty close fitting, good for keys or some cash and a card but you wouldn't get a water bottle in there. There's a reasonable amount of fabric left over so I might even make a bag or something out of it eventually.

Shaking it up

I've been pretty good with the exercise lately, getting in four sessions a week on the old elliptical trainer and sweating along with Coach Sean plus doing once a week pilates but for awhile now the girls have been thinking "some dance would be fun". Actually they want tango lessons but I think that will have to wait for a bit.

But Barbara has been talking about Nia and how much fun it is, so tonight I tried my first class. And now I know what she's been raving about. I've not done many exercise classes where you find yourself grinning away during the process. I love my pilates but it doesn't often evoke smiles (unless it's relief when you're allowed to stop doing something painful lol). This did. I was still smiling driving home.



Nia is part dance, part yoga, part martial arts, part tai chi, part pure play. And still a pretty damn good workout. But you don't need to be super co-ordinated like aerobics or even super fit (you can do all the moves at your level and it's all about finding the movement that feels good to you). I'll be going back (and next time I might be nerdy and wear my heart rate monitor just once to see what it says).

If you'd like to know more about Nia then the international site is here, the Australian site is here and this is the site for Melissa Page, who taught tonight and made it a great experience.

Indolence and indulgences

So carrying on the tradition of the last two years, I thought I'd take a look at how I'd gone on my planned indulgences this year and then work out how to pamper myself next year.

So here's last year's list:


1. Live music and music generally
Well, I've bought a fair bit of music on iTunes this year. I saw Bon Jovi (even if it was a bit of a dud concert due to shocking sound), went to the Rocky Horror picture show, listened to Irish music in a Hobart bar, there was several viewings of Mamma Mia (which counts) and I'm sure there was another musical, plus four ballets, so this is a tick even if I'd like there to be still more. Still I already have Wicked and Pink lined up for next year.

2. Pilates classes.

Hmmm. This is probably a half tick. I've managed to go more regularly but still not every week and somewhere along the line the reformer classes that I was really enjoying fell by the wayside. Exercise has been a bug bear this year while we've been focusing on sorting things out physically but in the last six weeks it's been slowly creeping back.

3. Dancing of some sort
Nope apart from boogying in the loungeroom occasionally. Not sure why I'm resisting this one...

4. The girly things...facials and makeup and sparkly nail polish and hanging out with the gals

I've had a couple of manicures/pedicures, some makeovers, worn lots of sparkly nail polish, worn make-up most days to work and spent plenty of time with the gals being silly, so this is a pass.

5. Relaxation - meditation, massages and naps and feeding myself stories in various forms

I think the massage count doubled to about four. Mostly at the start of the year then tapered off again (possibly cos I was spending a lot on various naturopathic stuff) but I've been good on napping and meditating and there has been plenty of story (though strangely, I get the feeling when I add up my books read count for the year, it's going to be lower this year...lots of re-reading this year and too much driving to work).

6. Quilting - learn some more, do some more

Well I did some more but haven't done any more classes. Will keep working on this one.

7. Scents - especially roses

I bought myself Red Roses by Jo Malone and wear it most days. I love the scent of roses. Nice soaps and aromatherapy have happened too, so pass.

8. Learning something for fun

I didn't do any formal classes but I've been trying different cooking things, kind of learned Dvorak (another project to reboot soon), learned how to change kitchen cabinet handles, a bit more html/web design stuff, the teeniest dabble into knowing more about photography and managed to speak a few words in German plus the myriad other magpie bits and pieces that catch the writer brain attention here and there and get investigated. I'll give me a pass though I'd still like to do something more formal for fun again.


9. Food adventures - both out and at home

Well, there was a fair bit of travel (and some of it not work or writing related) so there's been a reasonable amount of eating out this year. Home-wise, I've been playing with the crockpot and the Kenwood in the last few months so I think I pass this as well.

Now I need to go and eat some dinner (having done half an hour on the ET a little while ago) before I think of what my indulgences for next year might be.

A walk in the urban sprawl

I have the day off today and it's a lovely sunny day so I decided a walk was in order. I live in the suburbs but there aren't any really good parks for walking anywhere nearby so most of my tromping is done around the side streets. Which is always entertaining.

Some things noted on my walk today:

A bright red and black HB pencil jammed into the nature strip for no apparent reason.

A discarded mattress half curled like a cat basking in a puddle of sunshine.

A jack russell terrier with one black ear playing with his little boy.

The spicy summer smell of hot eucalyptus.

An abandoned shopping trolley sitting near a pedestrian crossing. I think it was just poised waiting for there to be no humans or cars so it could hit the button and make its dash across. Or maybe I've just read too much Pratchett.

The hundreds of colours in the bark of the gum trees lining the streets, everything from deep rust red to rosy pink and palest creamy green.

An army of ants scurrying up and down on of said gum trees. Maybe we're due another storm.

And now I'm listening to the outraged chirps of the birds out the front. I think the orange cat must be prowling around. I think they're safe. He might bag the odd mouse but I haven't seen him climb a tree for a LONG time.

Photo frustration

I make no claims to be any kind of a photographer or even knowing much about photography but I would kind of like to know a bit more than I do now. I have friends and read blogs belonging to people who take such gorgeous pictures and I'd like to be able to as well. I did a little bit of photography back in high school but that was back in the pre-digital days and I could never afford an SLR and never pursued it.

I occasionally manage to fluke a shot I think is okay but my little Canon Ixus 55 is getting on a bit and has some limitations. It takes some really nice snaps...for instance, I think this is not bad for a point and shoot after I did a teeny bit of cropping and adjusting in iPhoto (given a teeny bit is all I know HOW to do):



But then this evening when I got home, the sun was starting to set and the light was all golden and pretty. I have those blinds which are kind of opaque (you can see through them but they block out some light etc) and there were some amazing intricate shadows of leaves from the plants outside playing on them with all this glowing gold light behind. And this is all I could capture of it:



which in no way resembles how striking it actually was. Wah. Colour the girls (who do have a love of colour and image) all frustrated. And yes, I could probably know a bit more about how to use it but my main gripes with it are that it doesn't really do close up images (as evidenced by the fact that my measly 2megapixel, no zoom iPhone camera took a better pic of that old photo I posted last month than I could take with my camera), which is a problem because I like to take pics of flowers and plants and cats which never quite work. It just doesn't have the zoom or the depth of field or whatever the technical photography thing is that lets you focus more on the foreground than the background etc (told you I knew not much at all).

The other thing it is TERRIBLE at is anything more than 1 or 2 metres away in dim lighting (yes, even with the night settings, I worked that much out). Which is not good when you semi-regularly go to evening award ceremonies to watch brilliant friends win awards...everyone else manages to take decent shots and mine come out looking like I was drunk, lying under a table and trying to shoot through a linen table cloth. Lots of vague dark blurs apart from the odd moment at a rock concert or something when there's enough light from the lighting show to compensate (not something that happens often at romance writing award ceremonies, I must admit). So maybe I need a camera with a bit more grunt for when I feel like taking "photos" rather than snaps. And need to learn a bit more about the whole process (luckily I have a brilliant friend who falls into the 'serious amateur photographer with mucho dollars of equipment who can probably help me' category) but I'm willing to take advice from the peanut gallery as well. Anyone out there got a digital camera they think takes good shots that wouldn't require a second mortgage? Anyone done a good, short, fun digital photography for dummies type course in Melbourne? In true virgo fashion I shall do some research and maybe you'll see some slightly better photos here in the future!