Bits and bobs that have made me happy!

Launceston Marina
Originally uploaded by Kah Kit Yoong

A beautiful photo of Tassie for your viewing pleasure. Not my own photo unfortunately - I'm yet to unpack the camera.

Life continues to get more organised! Hurrah. Friday was a day off work, and was the rejuvenating lift that I needed - morning markets, hot bratwurst with sauerkraut, cups of tea with sisters, sister-in-law, mum and dad, house cleaning, repair men fixing things, coffee and red wine in St Kilda while reading the Big Issue. What a day - then off to Tassie that night. I felt so relaxed, the fella commented that I was happy (I take it I've been a grump lately!) and I had good friends to spend the weekend with.

As for crafting time, I need more in my life. But I'm getting plenty of book time (reading Sense and Sensibility), and a fair dose of the tennis too. I am looking forward to the crafternoon this Saturday! Which will give me some crafting hours, some cups of tea and some good chats.

But until then, I need to clean more. I need to organise the house - particularly the shared study/craft room. I need to do our grocery shopping as you can't get everything from the markets. I also need to spend some more time reading blogs, linking with people and loving the creative world that is online.

By the by, thanks so much to MMAMs for putting the crick-star up on their photo gallery in December. It was part of the meme that was running around the theme of "My Place and Yours". Now all I need to do is get the real Cricket back as our house is inhabitable at last.

New things contemplated

A ball of creative potential - uncovered from the boxes in my house, exciting to rediscover what I own!

We have moved from one side of Aus to the other! We have stuffed out little flat to the gills (and it isn't that little really), have unpacked most of the boxes and started to explore the area. What a great place to live it is too! Not quite city, not quite beach, not quite fun-filled inner suburb. How I love it! The best of everything, My mum went so far as to say it is the place to live if you are moving to Melbs. So sweet of her.

In the midst of the busyness of moving, I've made some new crafting discoveries. Thanks to Laura, I've now visited Morris and Sons the wool shop. They were having a sale and I made some new purchases - a pink embroidery hoop and a tapestry for a special someone. Also purchased the Crafty Minx, a new craft/recycling book by an Aussie author. While the projects are not particularly challenging, I'm enjoying the book's layout and the author's choices of fabrics. Also bought some of the beautiful cloth-bound Penguin classics (Sense and Sensibility by Austen, Cranford by Gaskell), after being inspired by reading Persuasion. Poor Anne, overlooked and bullies by those around her, appreciated by a family she chose not to be part of, eventually securing the affection of her heart after rejecting him previously!

As for creating. Oh boy, it has been fun! No sewing, as the sewing/study is an absolute mess. But rather knitting tea cozies. A great project to learn a new knitting stitch. Not too big that you struggle for hours, but large enough to ensure practice ensues. Also achievable in a few days. And who doesn't want a cup of hot tea poured from a vessel protected by a band of golden sea horses? Tea cozie number two is currently underway. I've finished the garter stitch band, then I will learn how to gather/runch up my knitting to get a pleated effect. Chosen purple and blue for the project, simply as I've got two balls of each, the colours are not offensive together, and the resulting combination should be very easy to gift in the future.

Plus, looking forward to a meeting of fellow creating beings! A crafternoon is planned for a few weeks time. We are hoping to have a monthly get together of creating, with lots of tea and cakes too. I need to toute it amongst my circles and coordinate further with my sis-in-law. What will I create...

In the end...

last...

bike ride home from work;

meal at the wharf;

night hugging the crick-star in Darwin;

face-to-face contact with my clients at work;

watching of $1 Tuesday videos from the local store;

Wednesday before we move to Melbs.

And the last chance to shriek when seeing a crocodile. Boy, I will miss freaking out every time I go near water!

Where I lay my hat... My place and yours...

Wow, what a perfect MEME theme this week (thanks MMAM and Myrlte & Eunice)! Perfect as I'm about to pack up all my belongings and transport from one side of Aus to the other! Perfect as I will be living out of a suitcase for a month. Perfect as moving is an ideal time to re-think what treasures belong with you. Perfect as this upheaval is putting life in general in perspective. What do I want from a new place to live? What is important for a work-life balance? What is important for my relationships? What gives me peace? What looks after my mental health? What helps me love and serve others?

Is it stuff? Is it belonging? Is it spirituality? Is it security?

I'm not sure of answers, and thinking about things is making me listless. But I do know some things that are essential. Where I lay my hat has to do with the following things:

1. Where the fella is.

2. Where the Crick-star is.

3. Where I feel loved and can give lots of love.

What is important for keeping your hat hanging - with bells and ribbons on?

This is Mr Cricket, my little cat. He is not so little any more. But he still likes to hide in safe places.

My place's best feature, so nyoice!

(a tropical lightning storm around 2 a.m. - so powerful, so beautiful, so Darwin)

What is unusual about my place? This is the question asked by Tony from Little Suitcase in the MMAM meme.

Lots of things really. But nothing that makes me cringe too much. And nothing that is really out of the ordinary. We live in a pretty standard apartment. Three bedrooms, an open plan living area, a decent sized balcony. Nothing strange there. We don't live up that high, just on the fifth floor. We get decent reception on the telly, can spy on the neighbours if needed but have sufficient privacy too. What is unusual is maybe where the house is, who else lives around, and that it is in a tropical climate.

We live in the middle of three apartment blocks, all of which have the same street number. This is unusual. You give directions to people and say "come to the middle tower". Lost tradies will approach you down stairs and say things like "where do I find unit 78?", as it could be in any of the three buildings. Our building is named after a war person, some guy who did something heroic. There is a picture of him next to the lift, with a spiel about his accomplishments. This is strange, maybe a little embarrassing also. And everyone who lives in these apartments works for the company the fella does. I really cringe about this, and certainly wouldn't say this is nyoice. If I'd known before we had moved here, I would have found alternative accommodation. But it hasn't worked out too badly.

But what is unusual, and the feature that I love is the view! We overlook the water, seeing the sun rise and set over the sea daily. There is a fishing boat marina just outside, and when a good haul comes in fireworks are set off on the boats. One such catch reached shore last night. It was spectacular to have fireworks exploding right outside our bedroom window. Oh, I will miss this. I've not lived so near to the ocean before and truly love sitting on my balcony and contemplating life. With a good book, a glass of red and the breeze lightly rustling through my pot plants. Please enjoy this unusual feature of my place, particularly as we are leaving it in only two weeks!

What's going on with me

Making: a picnic backgammon set
Writing: job applications
Eating: healthy stuff
Drinking: good red wine
Thinking: about living in St Kilda
Planning: for the big move
Wishing: for some serenity
Loving: lightning, parties for two year old girls
Reading: not much - I need something new
Watching: Capitalism, a Love Story
Wanting: to go to bed now

But before I go, a picture of this funny looking dolly. She was at the Tip Shop when we went exploring there on Saturday. I think she is too scary for words. I could just imagine the horrors she gets up to at night. Surely there is a film about a discarded doll who goes on rampages after twilight sets in...

My collection, better late than never

Life (well time anyway) seems to be slipping away from me. There is too much to do. In just over two weeks I will be moving from one side of Aus to the other. And I have to finish work, communicate with the removalists, plan where we will be staying along the way after we devise a route to take, buy Christmas goodies as we will be arriving on Christmas eve, orientate a new worker to my job, clean the mess we live in, encourage the cat that he will be okay on an aeroplane, apply for any job in Melbs that seams okay, etc!

So much to do, not enough time.

So the Meet Me At Mikes meme just got away before I knew it. I've not posted for the past couple of weeks, I've not trawled through the creative posts others have put up. Oh, so sad.

The theme of the past week was around collections, with this lady asking the question "What do you collect?". I collect junk, shoes, recipe books, board games, metal cigarette cases, dust. But most consistently I collect birds in the form of Christmas decorations. My ultimate plan is to one day have a tree just full of birds. And to tell you the truth, I sometimes put them up when it is the middle of the year. They are too lovely really to have hidden away. The bird thing started after the demise of my real bird, Hairy the Canary. He was a lovely little fellow, who died after dehydrating in the typically unseasonably hot Melbourne weather that sometimes hits. The gold papermache bird was purchased in memory of him. And the collecting took off from there.

Want to make me happy? Buy me a bird ornament thanks. What do you collect?