Autumn love

I love autumn.  It's my favourite season.  Except the bit where it starts to get cold.  I hate being cold and don't like winter much.  But you can't have summer without one and I do love seeing the changes in seasons.  And autumn does it with such flair and sassiness!

And is there a more autumn-y autumn tree than a Liquid Amber?  I think not and I'm so happy to have one in my front garden.  After a week of gloomy drizzle the cat and I enjoyed a sunny photoshoot in my autumn garden.

(I'll do anything to put off doing the housework!)

Time for a cuppa and bit of a clean up.  How's your Sunday?  Are you getting a chance to notice the little things in your space?  Hopefully not just the stuff that needs to be cleaned and tidied!

Talking books

I've got a new thing to share!

I finally discovered how to download talking books from my library!  How exciting is that!  Yes, I am an easily pleased girl.  

I work with my hands and it's very important to have my head engaged and entertained otherwise I just wouldn't sit still long enough to get anything done.  The only way to stay firmly planted in a seat is to be in the right headspace and mentally occupied.  And a cuppa on hand.

The tv usually fills this gap, I record favourite series and old movies in the middle of the night and watch them during the day when I crochet.  Although I can easily be 3/4 the way through a movie and realise I have no idea what the lead characters look like!

I like the radio and have favourite programs to listen to.  I'm a community radio and ABC girl.  How much do I love a radio quiz!

Then there are podcasts.  They are amazing, for a short term.  I find it annoying to sit through too many at once.  This American Life and The Moth are pretty good.

And music, natch!

But my favourite, and most effective way to stay rooted in one spot, is a talking book.  What is a road trip without a talking book!  I am a frequent borrower from my local library.  Have you got one nearby?    Did you know you can borrow talking books!  Free!  Fabulous!

The only problem is, CD players are quickly going the way of the tape deck.  We just don't listen to our CDs anymore, everything is digital and wi-fi, and iphone and ipod and itunes.  And then you have to make the trips to the library to borrow and return - oh it's a hard life.

Image from The Guardian. 

Disturbingly familiar!!!

Until now!

It took a little mucking about to get set up but within the hour I had 2 books downloaded and ready to listen to and I didn't even have to wait for the library to open!

They are sitting on my iPhone, which means I can listen to them ANYWHERE!  I can go for a walk without looking like a sad old Luddite carrying a Discman.

You need an app - Borrow Box - you need to register, select a library, enter your library card number and password and the world of talking books is at hand.

So that's me, I'm off to the PO and when I return I will make a cuppa, settle on the couch with crochet in hand and have a blissful couple of hours entrenched in a new talking book.

Workspaces on Pinterest

Source: flickr.com via sfgirlbybay / victoria on Pinterest

I'm having one of those post-market, mid-week, still-too-many-things-to-do, next-deadline-looming-and-I-don't-have-the-stamina slumps.  And rather than fight city call I thought I'd make a cup of tea and give myself permission to linger on Pinterest for a bit.  Just a bit.  At workspaces.  Might get me in the right frame of mind, don't you think?  Better than funny cats and plates of food!

Sometimes you just need to be gentle and kind to yourself.  And I'm counting on a bit of inspiration to get me up and running.

That and more tea!

Source: jansdotter.com via sfgirlbybay / victoria on Pinterest

Source: frenchbydesign.blogspot.com via Ranu on Pinterest

Source: 4.bp.blogspot.com via Kanvas on Pinterest

Source: blog.brizk.com via Inspiration on Pinterest

Source: arkpad.com.br via Bruna on Pinterest

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New Tricks

I'm getting ready to pack everything into suitcases for Bowerbird Bazaar in Adelaide this weekend.  I've got some new tricks and I can't wait to share them.  I've been working with leather for the past few months and I think my favourite bit is the smell!

See you in Adelaide!

Art Deco

I'm mad for Art Deco.  That fabulous visual arts design style that conjures images of flappers, jazz, architecture, fashion, Coco, 1920s and 1930s, travel, colour, art, cinema - someone stop me! And it keeps popping up everywhere I turn.  Is that just me?  One of my favourites is Downton Abbey.

Do not get me started on Downton Abbey!  I love that show.  I love a period drama.  I've been feeling stunned all week after Sunday's season finale.  I won't be giving any spoilers here, I'll just say I can't believe how this last season has ended.  What?  Nooo!  WHY????!!!!

And doesn't it just look divine!  Isn't it just fabulous!

I've been somewhat obsessed with the Art Deco period for ever.  And you must know Baz Luhrmann's Great Gatsby is on the radar, ready for release any minute now.  I will be there on day 1 to soak up the lusciousness of it all.

With all this lovely Deco-ness around me I've been busy getting my latest necklace creations ready, inspired by my love of Art Deco style.  They've been a work in progress for ages, leaving little sparkly trails of sequins wherever I go in the house - it's very bewitching! I have a fresh and fabulous new batch ready for Bowerbird Bazaar next week.  And, in a very grown up moment, I've even got them in the shop already!  Doesn't that sound organised, I'm impressing myself!

And just because I love her so much!  Maggie Smith as the Dowager Countess of Grantham.  Wonderful!  

Image from IMBd

Things lined up neatly!  

Image from IMBd

Shop update

I'm chasing deadlines.  Again.  No time to play, no time to take pictures.  Barely keeping up with my favourite blogs (well, a girl has to have her priorities!).

But I did get a sneaky hour or 2 to update the shop with some tassle necklaces.  Hoorah!  They are so popular which is fabulous, I love them!  Now don't everybody buy them at once, I'm hoping to have enough ready to take with me to Bowerbird Bazaar next week.

Next.  Week.  So soon! *insert here a big loud audible gasp*

And look at that, midnight, again.  When will I ever get it together?!

Some marvellous behind the scenes Washi Tape action!

A-tisket a-tasket

A-tisket a-tasket

A full and fuller basket

I started hooking at daybreak

And lost my mind at midnight

I lost it

I lost it

I lost my mind at midnight

A cup of tea and big coffee will save my blowing gasket

(Sung to the tune of "A-tisket a-tasket" by Ella Fitzgerald)

WARNING:  this ditty will worm it's way into your mind and drive you nuts for the whole day!

DISCLAIMER:  I didn't actually make all these in a day - it just feels like it somedays.  I am, however,  often losing my mind at midnight!

Monday motivation with a little help from Pinterest

Source: inspirationalspaces.blogspot.com via Michelle on Pinterest

OK, Monday, I'm ready for you.

I've eliminated all possible ways I can lead myself astray.  I've got a list.  I've got tools laid out.  I've got new ideas screaming for their time in the sun.  And I've got deadlines, the most effective tool in history to getting things done.

I've got some beautiful images from Pinterest of my ideal workspaces to keep me motivated.  If I begin to feel uninspired by routine, repetition and loneliness then all I need to do is look at these pictures and I'll feel I'm not just sitting in the same old space doing the same old thing - I can imagine I'm in one of these lovely new spaces ... doing what I love!

This week will be super efficient.

This week will be so filled with Things Getting Done I'll need to pinch myself.

This week I'll notice I'm drawn to yellow and lamps and I'll wonder .... it's funny how that happens, how you're drawn to different colours and objects with no notice!

Source: lillelykke.blogspot.com via Michelle on Pinterest

Source: eltedelas5enparis.com via Michelle on Pinterest

Source: thunderinourhearts.com via Michelle on Pinterest

*ch 1, dc in next dc. Rep from * to the end of time

I'm officially starring in my own version of Groundhog Day.  I've been so busy with the same old same old routines and who cares about routines, right?  And then I think that unless you've walked a mile in anyone's shoes you never know, one person's dull routine could be another person's inspiration.  So I present my Groundhog Routine.

This has been my week:

• exhausted from last big event, walking around in a fog and need coffee, lots of coffee
• next big event only weeks away
• stock take - what do I have left over from the last big event
• make list
• can't be right, make another list
• cull list because it looks too mad for words
• build worksheet allocating a task to every hour of every day between now and big event
• further list culling 
• feel smug that on paper all will be well
• goes pear-shaped on day 1 when unexpected order comes through
• re-jiggle worksheet, it's like playing tetris (.... gee, a bit of time out with a Sudoku puzzle and a cuppa would be good right now.....)
• need a new list, this one is unreadable with all the scribbles, doodles, scratchings and add ons
• finally a workable worksheet is telling me what to do and when to do it
• oops, another order
• urgent urge (chuckle!) to play with something new.  Us creatives are like that, all I have to do is touch something random and an idea jolts to life in my head and forces me to figure it out NOW
• everything is at a standstill as the new idea comes to life
• new idea is dodgy
• obssessed with fixing new idea
• worksheet needs updating, again
• oh look, it's Friday and I haven't done anything yet
• next big event getting closer, and now there's another lined up after that
• make list
• repeat above

Are you like that?  I wonder how I ever get anything done.  Yet I am always with hook in hand and the only photos I take on Instagram are crochet ones because that's all I ever do.  Prompting lovely Instagram followers to comment "Do you ever sleep?".

My Groundhog Week in pictures:

The last big event, Finders Keepers at the divine Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne

 Preparations for Finders Keepers - otherwise known as The Great Easter Crochet-a-thon

Out of the house, away from the desk, running errands. 

Stuck in traffic, loosing a day pursuing a new idea.  

Something tells me the Comedy Festival is on.

Wonder at how people manage to fit lives into their, well, lives. 

They clearly don't crochet for a living!

The next big event - Bowerbird Bazaar in Adelaide

Meanwhile, how lovely are the girls at Bowerbird Bazaar?!  They have officially declared Crayon Chick to be gorgeous!   Check their blog out here!  And that's a free Big Smile from me to them!

And just in case you thought it was all glamour and cups of tea, here's a late night iPhone shot of how it really is.  Crocheting on the couch, close to midnight, wine, late night tv, comatose cat on lap, worksheet telling me I can't go to bed until I've filled my daily crochet quota, work stacks (always neatly lined up), trakkie daks.  

Keeping it real, peeps!

A beam of sunlight - and a win!

The most amazing thing happened to me the other day, I entered a draw on the Temple and Webster blog for a fabulous prize ... and I won!

That's never happened to me before.

And it's extra amazing because I really really wanted to win.  It's a little original artwork by Julie Paterson of Cloth Fabric.  I'd seen her working on them on Instagram (@clothjulie).  I've been a fan of Julie's work since I first noticed her in an Inside Out magazine way back in 2001.

It's not because I'm a stalker or anything weird like that, I've remembered the article because it had a special impact on me.  It's funny that only yesterday I prattled on with someone about my experience returning to study Fine Art as a mature age student and how I nearly crashed and burned in the first semester because it all went pear shaped and horribly wrong and I didn't know what I was doing and *sniff* I didn't think I was ever going to be good *sob* enough *sob sob*.  I'm pleased to say that after walking out at the end of my first semester in tears I returned with a *ahem* blank canvas for the next semester and went from personal highs to personal highs.

I digressed (what a surprise), back to the article, I think I went into study with a certain expectation about what art should be.  Clearly that was never going to end well.  Along came Inside Out and Julie's story and it was like a beam of sunlight into my gloomy mind.  I was mesmerised by her beautiful raw and organic artwork .... painted on blocks of wood and branches of trees.  BRANCHES OF TREES!  What a revelation.  I quickly discarded the precisely sized linen on tight stretchers.  Everything fell into place.  I was in the right place.



I noticed a beautiful beam of early autumn morning sun falling on my new artwork the other day and immediately Instagrammed it.  As I sat there the sun moved so quickly I took more pictures as the beam tracked it's way across the painting and down the wall and out the window.  It took all of 5 minutes and I felt really happy to have been right there at that right time to notice.

And the lesson from today is that if you keep noticing the little things then everything will be all right.