Eggstra warm

These are what all the well-dressed eggs are wearing this winter. A bit of mindless evening knitting fun - Egg-Cozy Hats from 101 Designer One Skein Wonders.

Books

Reading is my great love! I keep wanting to talk to you about books but never get around to it but a couple of posts have prompted me this week.

First, Sarah Bean WOWED me with her post about the true power of self-education in Malawi. As a home-learning family also interested in development (and also having been to Malawi!) this really tickled our fancy. What an encouragement for us all to grasp our own education in our hands.

As always, my kindred spirit Rach, stimulates the brain cells from Off Her Bookshelf. How wonderful it was to meet someone struggling their way through Don Quixote too (waves at Karen as well).

Here's a wee tour of our bookshelves...

This one in the lounge is not big enough but holds my favourites. Do you check out people's bookshelves when you visit their home? I shamelessly do!

The kid's shelf in the dining room.

My recipe books crammed under my computer desk.

This basket usually holds our current reads from the library but this is the kid's Christmas book haul!

The children's selection from Wellington Library this morning. The book love can't be contained by our local library so I forked out some precious homeschool allowance to join the Wellington Library. Their Nostalgia section has proven a goldmine for M8's reading.

My Wellington Library choices.

The shelf in A2's bedroom.

M8's current read.

My craft books under my sewing table.

My bedside table.

My bedside floor.

My current "Bible" on top of my computer desk.

Before I come across as a high-brow literary snob I also have a bad glossy magazine habit which I've been unable to break.

My dream house will one day have huge in-built shelves all over the place but in the meantime we make do with what we have and ensure we utilise our libraries to their full potential.

That is so last year

A few poor photos of some of my sewing efforts from last December...

Scalloped Baby Blanket from Bend-The-Rules Sewing

Swing Swing Smock from Bend-The-Rules Sewing

Another baby blanket

Simple Bib's from Bend-The Rules too

My little sister should have ironed her Wide Leg Lounge Pants before the photo shoot. These are from Amy Butler's In Stitches. I'm itching to make myself a couple of pairs.

Crafting Soundtrack

It's a sticky, warm day here and, while I'm daydreaming of being somewhere else sticky and warm (India fits the bill nicely), I'm getting a bit of sewing and knitting done. The soundtrack of choice is The Pixie's Surfer Rosa. I thought earlier, with a touch of the mid-life crisis, that I'm a lot closer to being 50 years old than the age I was when this album provided the soundtrack to my life!

In a gorgeous crafty segway, Kelley Deal, of The Breeders (dude...one of the best concerts ever and the closest to seeing The Pixies I ever got!) and the twin sister of Kim Deal of The Pixies is a knitter! Yes, indeedy...knitting IS Rock'n'Roll!

Carrots

Bit'o'this'n'that

A bit of sock knitting for M8.

A "Kim's Hat" for M8 I whipped up last night, after realising the night before I can't knit socks at night.

M8 was gifted this cute re-fashioned shirt dress by the ever lovely Karen (I desperately wish I lived closer to my 'Mind Twin'!). Twas a tad big for her dinky wee gingey girl but fits my bigger model perfectly!

I'm now living some crazy flashback to my 1970's childhood by starting to sprout!

A gratuitous sunflower shot from our garden.

Stash Bustin'

This is what I've been up to craft-wise so far this year. A wee bit of stash-busting from my one skein books.

Then I defeated the purpose of the stash-busting by buying four new balls of wool in the Knitworld sale. Sigh. Hurry up, Mr Postie, and bring me my new knitting book;-)

Garden'n'stuff

Grow With Me was finished in time for A1's Christmas pressie. I was hoping for a modelled photo but no joy yet. There was much enthusiasm so perhaps Aunty's knitting isn't considered so naff;-)
My teeny tiny play garden was looking most verdant.

Then on Boxing Day this happened. Ugh.

My beets'n'salad greens were most unhappy with the situation so we ended up pulling them out and making a giant vegie lasagne for New Year's Eve dinner with the Mc's. The hail storm made us consider the fragility of depending solely on crops for food and/or income.

Happy New Year

Welcome 2008, in all your sunshiney, warm (and inevitable in NZ - windy) glory. This weather bodes well. Somehow it seems wrong to be planning winter crafting while nursing sunburned lower legs but the burst of Vitamin D I've had the last few days has energised my organisational capabilities. The "school" cupboards have had a summer-clean, sort, chuck and tidy; books have been ordered from Amazon; knitting swapsies have been started; reading lists are being dreamed of; inspiring home-learning books are being soaked up; icecream is being consumed; bellinis and fruit punch guzzled.