Temari Addict Australia

Finally a new temari project to share

2012-01-27T13:45:00.003+08:00

I've been working on these temari for ages. They look like a multi petalled flower. The blue one is really large and although it is STILL not finished I decided to share it anyway. This temari design is a big commitment despite the fact it is a simple division. This temari took me a week of dedicated stitching to get one side done (I've misplaced the threads for it so I need to find them before I complete it). One of my temari fiends shared a photo of a temari made with this pattern. It took me a good while to decipher the pattern, but I think I've got it.

The temari below is my take on making the temari less consuming to stitch. Fewer divisions on a smaller temari means it is quicker to stitch up. Still it took me a week to stitch this one. There are two different sides on this one. Can you spot the difference? Besides the one on the left being slightly out of focus that is.

I am about to begin a new version of this one with a couple of extra divisions to make it look a little more lacy.

School goes back in 3 days so I will have more time to dedicate to stitching again.

Happy Australia Day

2012-01-26T10:05:00.000+08:00

Not happy Jan

2012-01-25T00:20:00.000+08:00

This is a saying popularised by an advertisement by Yellow Pages and it's now firmly embedded in the Australian vernacular.


Definitely describes people living in the City of Perth for the next 7 days. Our local bureau of meteorology seem fairly confident in their prediction that we will be experiencing hot weather of mind bending proportions.
I've included the forecast below... fingers crossed we keep our power supply for the next few days... the only thing worse than such hot weather is no power to run the aircon! How did the pioneers do it??
Today was quite hot too. We picked up my Mum and took a day trip to Lancelin (315km round trip) for a swim. We wanted to go to Geraldton for an overnight stay but couldn't get accommodation at any hotels there. The beach at Lancelin isn't (in my opinion) as nice as those nearer the city or down south but the water was nice and cool, the air-conditioning  in the car blasted away and kept us wonderfully cool and there weren't too many cars on the road. 



There were only 8 people on the entire beach. We stayed for about an hour, had a bite of lunch and headed back home. 

We have more than travelled 1500+km this week. I am getting behind with my stitching due to all the time I've spent behind the wheel this week. TAST week 4 has been posted already and I still haven't looked at week 3.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Forecast for Wednesday
A very hot and mostly sunny day. Moderate to fresh E/NE winds, easing in the
afternoon with a mid afternoon seabreeze near the coast.

Precis:      Very hot. Mostly sunny.            
City:        Min 24     Max 40 
Mandurah:    Min 23     Max 38 

UV Alert:    8:20 am to 4:40 pm, UV Index predicted to reach 14 [Extreme]  
Fire Danger: Coastal Plain: HIGH        
             Hills:         HIGH        

Thursday     Very hot. Partly cloudy.               Min 26     Max 41
Friday       Very hot. Partly cloudy.               Min 25     Max 39
Saturday     Very hot. Sunny.                       Min 26     Max 42
Sunday       Very hot. Windy morning.               Min 24     Max 40
Monday       Very hot. Sunny.                       Min 23     Max 40
Tuesday      Very hot. Sunny.                       Min 26     Max 40

The next routine forecast will be issued at 4:50 am WST Wednesday.

Feeling a little crispy

2012-01-19T00:00:00.000+08:00

Mr W and I went to the beach today. Sorry for the poor quality pics today, I left my camera in the car, so these were taken on my phone.

The water at my feet was so cool and bubbly.

We only live about 30 minutes from some really beautiful beaches but felt like a change of scenery so we drove to the beach at Busselton.

Mr W (red shirt) immediately made friends some nice kids.

We had a splash about for about an hour and then came home. I got a little sunburnt on my forearms and side of one knee (I missed these with the sunscreen)

Busselton Jetty... almost like a postcard.

At the start of today's trip stopped at our local library and Mr W chose a book to read while we were driving... he finished it on the outward trip so we returned it on our way home. The librarian was very surprised to see us back so soon.

Travelling South today and East yesterday

Today we travelled between A and the southern B (365km 228miles). The other trip on the map is the one we did yesterday to York, Beverley and Westdale A-D (335km 208miles).

Tomorrow we will consider taking a day trip to Gingin (186km 115miles) to see the Gravity Discovery Centre. It will depend on the weather... believe it or not (from the clear blue skies in today's pics) storms are predicted tomorrow. Perhaps we will take one of the neighbour kids with us. Or we might just stay home and watch a movie aka stitch temari.

Maybe heading North tomorrow?

But for now I've covered myself in after sun moisturiser and I'm off to bed.

Unbuttoning My Lip

2012-01-16T21:00:00.000+08:00

I have been keeping a secret for ages and ages. I am quite good at keeping other's secrets even though I really hate to have any secrets of my own. This secret is such a really awesome and juicy secret that it has been just about impossible to keep. I have found myself almost biting holes in my lip and holding my breath while counting to 10 so many times trying to keep myself from blurting it out that I may have done minor damage to my brain function due to oxygen deprivation... not that most people would notice - tee hee:)

Anyway seeing as it has been let out of the bag at TC by the secret's owner I can share it too.
Let me give you some hints... it is:
something ~~most~~ all of us have dreamt about for an awfully long time...
something which is very drool worthy... and
something I wish I could have in my hot little hands today.

No!!! It is not Hugh Jackman, Robert Patterson, Ryan Reynolds, Brad Pitt, Gerard Butler or George Clooney*.

Ok ok ok I'll just tell you...

it's a book...

a temari book...

a temari book written by Barb Suess.

Barb's new book due for release in March 2012

Double excitement with a dollop of cream and a cherry on top, right?!!

I have been lucky enough (along with a select few temari makers) to be able to test stitch some of the patterns which may feature in this new book (Title still TBA)

I have made space in my bookshelf for the book although it wont be available for purchase for some time yet. Possibly another 6 months or more but knowing the book is a near probability instead of a distant possibility is very comforting (wrapped in exciting, wrapped in thrilling and tied with a bow of joyful)

I am sure if you bookmark Barb's website or blog you will be one of the first to be able to order a copy when it is released.

*(Just a side note to my DH in case he reads this post: I googled 'the most gorgeous men' to find out who they are... I don't fancy any of them myself... well unless you count Hugh but that is just because he is a dedicated husband and father - like you - or Gerard but that is just due to our shared Scottish heritage although Dutch/Spanish beats Scottish every time... but can you practice your Scottish accent a bit - just kidding!)

TAST with Sharon B's Pin Tangle

2012-01-14T22:04:00.000+08:00

Week 2: Buttonhole Stitch

This week I tried two versions of this stitch... with varying degrees of success. Buttonhole Wheel and Rosette of Thorns. I think I got the first one OK but managed to keep messing up the second. Nevertheless it seemed to go OK and I am fairly happy (not completely disgusted anyway) with the end result. I am still yet to get my flat sampler organised so I am already a week behind on that but never mind I hope to get to it this week. But first I need to get some Dutch Courage to get into my craft room which is so full of boxes, fabrics, board games and assorted junk that has been dumped in the over the last few weeks. Ugh!!! I hate when it gets into such a state but that is the result of 'get to that later' housekeeping.

Oh now what was I talking about??? Yep got it, my TAST Week 2 attempt. You want to see it right? Well here goes... keep in mind I am a temari maker but not an embroiderer so all these stitches are brand new to me.

Surely it must be easier to stitch these on a flat surface (something I hope to discover during the week once I am organised). When this ball is filled up I will make a new more densely covered temari to continue this challenge which will make all the future stitching look better too.

The Bargain Tomato Box

2012-01-12T17:00:00.011+08:00

In our house we love pasta. I've been making my own tomato pasta sauce for more than a year now. I usually buy about 3 kg of tomato for about $7 or $8 and use a huge jam pan to cook up about 8.5litres (15 pints) of sauce.
A few weeks before Christmas I noticed we were a bit low on sauce but I didn't time to make any more because of all the other end of year activities we needed to do.

On Monday I went to the Coventry Market in Morley and purchased a big black box of Roma tomatoes for $5. Mr W and I had to share carrying it to the car (one handle each). I think there must have been about 10kg (22lb) in the box. On Tuesday I spent 8 hours cooking two batches and ended up with 23 jars of sauce (and a bit to spare which we ate for dinner last night).

I decided to make up another (slightly different recipe using zucchini rather than aubergine) batch on Wednesday to use up the remaining tomatoes. I think there are about 35 jars altogether.

Things I discovered I like about making my own pasta sauce are:
The faint aroma of warm olives when the onions are being sauteed in the olive oil.
The faded scent of garlic that remains on my finger tips even after I have washed them numerous times.
The way our chickens go crazy over the off-cuts of tomato that they get given - this is their favourite treat.
The plopping sound that the thickening sauce makes as the air bubbles surface while simmering.
The way the sauce gloops into the jars as I pour it through the funnel.
The tink sound that the lids make when the vacuum seal pops down when the sauce cools down. It is unexpected because every jar takes a different length of time to seal and I have usually washed up and am relaxing by the time this happens.

I guess I wish we were Italian because the only thing missing is the horde of apron wearing relatives all chattering and helping with a job like this. You know like the sauce making scene from Looking for Alibrandi.

UPDATE: Lilybets commented that the sauce isn't very red and asked what I used in the sauce. I add aubergine (eggplant) and zucchinni so it lightens the colour also I use all the seeds (I think they are traditionally removed but I don't mind them in the sauce) and also I blend the chunky bits if I run out of time and haven't let the sauce simmer for the full four hours stated in the recipe. This breaks up some of the seeds and adds to the lighter colour sometimes. My SIL is going to her Italian neighbours house tomorrow to see how they make sauce... I am a bit jealous but I know she will share all the secrets with me.

Side note:
Week 2 of TAST has been published at Pin-tangle so I am going to read through the information about buttonhole stitching and plan my attack for later in the week (when I stop smelling of garlic).

I was amazed, perhaps more shocked, that my more-than-humble-scratching of fly stitch was selected in the showcase of week 1 due to it being on a ball rather than a flat surface.

Christmas Cherry Jam

2012-01-11T11:00:00.004+08:00

I have been fairly absent from my regular stitching activities since before Christmas. I made a bunch of bunting, six embroidered clothing items, a set of four Kanzashi style flowers but I haven't done much temari. Other things keep getting in the way... like bargain cherries.

My SIL purchased a huge box of Cherries for Christmas day. We all knew there would be no way we could eat them all but it was suggested the leftovers could be turned into jam. Between Christmas and New Year, that is exactly what I did. We ate more than I expected so I added some raspberries that were left over from the Christmas Ice-cream cake too. I just need to remember to share out all the jars now.

The Big One Oh

2012-01-10T22:00:00.004+08:00

On Sunday our baby turned 10. I can't believe it, I have no idea where all that time went, of course that is also what my Mum and Grandma say about their babies too.
To celebrate he had a pool party at a nearby aquatic center. For 2 hours 11 boys (and Miss D, Mr M and Mr H) slid down the spiral super slide pipeline, competed for the largest splash at the bombie pool, created a whirl pool, tried to cross the inflated pool maze in the quickest time and then ate huge amounts of snacks to replenish all those lost calories.

His Mohawk is beginning to grow out now, it almost looks better - maybe I am just getting used to it now.

This year he asked for a devil cake that he saw in the AWW Children's Birthday Cake book. It was actually for a number 6 cake but we adapted it a bit and made it into a 10. If you squint really hard it looks ok, Mr W loved it of course. The cake part was a really nice fudgy chocolate recipe from the book.

For the record I don't want to make black or red icing anytime soon... and I did gently mention this to Mr W so he has a whole year to come up with his idea for next year ensuring there is no black or red icing involved.

I bet you are thinking I am a little drama queen-ish about the icing colour but here is the other cake I made for Mr M's birthday which was celebrated just before New Years.

It is supposed to be Pingu. I make the scary little fish from cake offcuts. They remind me of the scariest fish I have ever seen... Orange Roughy. This cake was make with Caramel Apple... Mr M's favourite. Before I made this cake I made test cupcakes to practice making the icing in black. I think we have all consumed more than enough artificial colourings to last out the next decade.

TAST with Sharon B's Pin Tangle

2012-01-06T09:27:00.000+08:00

Week 1: Fly stitch.

I am not an embroiderer so I jumped at the opportunity to get on board with this challenge. I have been playing with this stitch on a temari (and mostly it looks pretty awful) but hey it is a new skill I am hoping to acquire so I'm going to keep practising.

I decided to try the fly stitch as an Obi decoration. My plan is to stitch rows toward the pole with each weekly challenge until I fill up the ball.

At first I stitched east west around the equator using several long stitches followed by sections which were more densely packed, but it looked too awful and reminded me of the jacket that Adam Ant used to wear. I unpicked all of it and stitched again with a north south orientation in a plaited style. The negative space looked like little houses all in a row when I was done so I turned the ball upside down and stitched another row.

I was more happy with how they had turned out but there were large empty diamond shapes along the Obi that just didn't look right so I went back and stitched tiny fly stitches in alternating north and south inside the holes. Of course this worked until I got to the last diamond shape and I had the prospect of two fly upright together or two down together at the last fly stitch so instead of that I made a reversed fly stitch (which turned out more like and x).

I think I am also going to practice these TAST challenges on some scrap fabric in a hoop. I realise that if I am going to 'traditionally' embroider onto the surface of a temari I need to make my thread wrap tension more firm and dense than usual. I will add more tight extra thread layers on the next temari I use.

Today I made...

2012-01-02T10:53:00.000+08:00

Actually I am about to make Cherry jam. We had some fruit for breakfast (yummiest peaches I ever ate) and went to Coogee Beach for sandcastles and splashing around fun. The water was cool and dead flat, there was just a gentle breeze blowing and the sun had just the right amount of warmth.

Mr W and DH dug a huge pit and I took a walk along the shore. It was really quiet and peaceful... days like these make me remember just how immensely lucky my life is. We ate pancakes (which we cooked yesterday but we zapped back to life in the microwave) when we got home and now I am going to de-sand myself and get cracking in the kitchen.

I plan to get a little stitching done this afternoon.

Life is good in my little corner of the world! Want me to send you a sunshine?

Goodbye 2011... Hello 2012

2011-12-31T23:59:00.001+08:00

2011draws to a close!!!

I think many of us are feeling like celebrating the end of 2011. Feeling thankful we are actually still here it to see it end, and that we outlasted all the drama of it. For all that was awful for so many people in 2011, it still isn't too hard to think of things that were also good too. 2011 flashed by in a blink of an eye (in retrospect) even though some of those individual days were a real grind.

The thing I love most about the change of year is the feeling of letting go of all the old impediments that keep us back, and being able to become open and hopeful for all the joy and wonderful potential that the the new year holds. Hope must spring eternal or why would we continue to carry on.

In 2012 my only goal is accepting peace into my soul. I have had enough of the fight and struggle over the last few years so in 2012 I just want to float and feel the serenity. While I actually realise that this seems wasteful, I have spent so many years fighting to get upstream I wonder what it would be like to actually stop and go with the flow. Perhaps all these years I have been missing my destiny by trying in earnest to reach some other perceived goal. I want to see what will develop if I can get out of the way and just let life happen. I am also going to say Yes to all the things I keep talking myself out of doing.

Here's to you and yours and me and mine for a new type of New Year.
x
Rebecca

Happy Holidays To You

2011-12-24T19:03:00.001+08:00

Well I have been trying to get to writing this post all week, but I have been flatter than flat chat for days on end. Baking, shopping, sewing, entertaining, cleaning and more baking all week long and no time for pit stops at all. So as my Christmas gift to you here is a little last minute treat you can make for yourself or to gift to someone else.

Image from: Call Me Cupcake

Brownies in a bottle
The image is from the blog Call Me Cupcake. If you visit over at her site you will see more gorgeous drool inspiring pictures and recipes. Linda is also writing a book which I hope will be available on Amazon or through book stores here. (I am getting a long list of books to buy which are being written by may favourite bloggers.)

All you need is a 1 litre jar (container) and a set of scales to measure everything in. I gave one of these to a girlfriend yesterday and told her to keep it in the pantry "in case of emergency" because all you need to bake them are 3 pantry staples that everyone always has on hand.
In fact she liked the idea so much I decided to make some more to give out to guests at Christmas dinner tomorrow. I made a little hang tag to go on the bottle which gives the extra ingredients and instructions to bake the recipe. On the back of the tag I included the complete recipe so the recipients can make another emergency jar for their pantry.

Here is the tag so you can print it too. I've translated the cooking terms into something I understand (it is originally written using decilitres which I believe is French and more precise). Cups work equally well as the measurement and any straight sided cup can be used so long as the same cup is used to measure everything. Feel free to click the label image and then print the labels off, fold in 1/2 and punch a little hole in the top to tie it onto the jar.

Best wishes to you all for a safe, happy, wonderful holiday season and I will catch you all again soon!

xox
Rebecca

PS don't forget the last minute project I shared last year: Reindeer Food.

Today I made...

2011-12-18T12:30:00.000+08:00

Christmas stockings for the kids. I guess I wasn't feeling pressured enough so I decided to add another project on a whim.

Spotlight has all their Christmas stuff at 50% off so while I only walked in to refund $7 worth of bias tape I decided not to use and spend a $10 voucher on a new ironing board cover, I actually walked out with a bunch of Christmas fabric, some new moulds (which I used in Yesterday's soap projects), and a couple of other small items.

The stocking panel really only made 2 stockings but I stretched them out to 4 by backing them with a cute owl and tree printed fabric and I added padding then lined them with the left over plain red fabric from Mum's bunting project. Sorry Mum I used it all up but you didn't really want any of it back right? [I said smiling my sweetest smile... this only works with your own Mother when your nearly 40].

The stockings did turn out pretty cute though.

Mr W invited his mate from down the street for a pancake breakfast today. 10 minutes before he arrived I dropped a Pyrex jug on the floor from less than a foot (30cm), it totally shattered and split my little toe open, thankfully DH was on hand (and wearing shoes) to help clean up the mess and me. I think I lost a small chunk of skin off my toe but I covered it in a band-aid put on a tight shoe (apply pressure) and carried on with making the pancakes. After breakfast we dropped a glass bauble off the tree so out came the vacuum again. Luckily no injuries this time.

My next job is cutting up the fruit for the pudding cakes. Another sticky job... better run off and look for the brandy - for the cakes!

Today I made...

2011-12-17T23:00:00.000+08:00

the last strand of bunting for my Mum... and about 2kg (4lb) of soaps.
I can't really believe that all the bunting is finally finished, I got quite quick at stitching it all together by the end. It also helped that I ordered 25 metres of continuous bias tape so I didn't need to repeat my I-can't-join-these-two-@$%#-pieces-of -#@$%*^@#-bias-tape-together tantrum from last week.

I didn't really intend to make all that soap, it just happened that way. I made reindeer soap, mini gingerbread men, larger gingerbread men (which I am going to gift to the neighbours for Christmas), pond duckies, dragon flies and lumps of coal. Now my house smells divine!

If you want to make some soap too check out these soap project tutorial pages from BrambleBerry and Otion.
Coal Soap
Ducky Soap

I actually love the smell of the coal soap (which is made of real charcoal) because I used a new Cranberry and Pomegranate fragrance in it, so it is a really nice soap.

Holidays Holidays Holidays

2011-12-16T13:00:00.002+08:00

Yesterday was the first day of the Summer holidays! Yay! Mr W had been waiting in desperation for them to begin. Yes there is all the fun, warm weather which means swimming and playing all day with his mates because there is no school, and then there is Christmas which means pressies, and his birthday which means more pressies but the real reason he has been aching for the holidays to start is because he was allowed to get a haircut on the first day of the holidays.

Walking into the Barber shop

We always go to Fremantle to get his hair cut at Norm Wrightson's (Mr W affectionately calls it 6 chairs), he's had all but two haircuts done here (one was a 1000Yen cut in Japan and one somewhere else when we were desperate and couldn't make it to 6 Chairs). His first ever haircut was done at this same Barber shop on his 1st birthday (yes I did cry a bit), and I almost cried a bit today too (I was biting my lip really hard)

He's been growing out his hair since the last school holidays, and now it is almost touching his nose. Whoop-de-doo* you say and I can understand that... but what you don't know is that this haircut would be HIS free choice!

So without further ado here is the after shot.

And walking back out of the Barber shop

He loves it! Me not so much but I keep reminding myself that it is better than a tattooed face on my child. I honestly thought he would chicken out and I gave him lots of opportunity to do so. I told him he had to ask for the style himself and he had to pay for half of the cost. I think he may have thought I might put my foot down at the salon and outlaw a Mohawk style at the last moment, but I didn't. Lesson learned we can't call each other's bluff.

After the haircut we went and did some ingredient shopping for the Christmas baking. I kept losing him everywhere we went because it hadn't quite sunk in that he looks so different. I guess I'll get used to it... and it will probably have grown out by the time he goes back to school in 7 weeks. Fingers crossed!

*Whoop-de-doo is usually used negatively to show that you feel unexcited or uninterested in something or event.

We built a house...

2011-12-15T11:00:00.016+08:00

made of gingerbread!

Every year we make a house with the kids at out tree decorating night, it's just one of those traditions we love to keep going. We got the biscuit part from IKEA and decorated it with so much candy I am surprised can bear its' own weight... a good portion of candy didn't make it onto the house of course.

I finally found the best table to decorate this on a thin trestle table. This means the adult helpers and all the kids can get really close to the house from all sides and the bowls of candy can be evenly distributed around... this means no fights because someone is in the way. Of course I haven't figured out how to get it to stick together without placing something inside it to support the house while it dries. I've got some small dipping bowls in the house that I usually use for gyoza sauce... (last night we had to be a bit uncivilised and use a small jug to pour the sauce over our gyoza.)

It smells so yummy every time I walk past it I just want to eat it! The only thing that stops me is remembering the number of times all those little fingers got licked while picking up the sweets.

The kids sure did have fun though, and by next year Mr H will be getting his sticky fingers in there too. This will no doubt get munched on Christmas day.

One less Christmas gift under my tree

2011-12-14T10:00:00.001+08:00

As we gear up for our own Christmas celebrations, making everything special and perfect, surrounding ourselves with friends and family, sometimes we get so focussed on our own small circle it is easy to forget those outside of it. This year I'd like to encourage you to place one less gift under your Christmas tree and use those funds to help someone else in need.

Barb linked to video a few days ago, but I've also linked to it in this post. Click the caption below if you haven't seen this you-tube video, but grab a tissue (if you're like me) you'll need it. Please watch the video because it is all about thanks and more importantly hope. It is wonderful that despite experiencing such a horrifying event, life for some is beginning to evolve into a new type of normal.

Japan says thank you to friends around the world

Many organisations are still taking donations for the 11.3 Tohoku Earthquake Appeal and I've linked to the one being organised by the Japanese Consulate in Australia. Donations will be accepted until March 2012.

I have made many donations to various agencies for this appeal including my latest at through the Genki Japan festival. Here is also a beautiful song sung by some guys in Australia, Pray for Japan, Play for Love project.

You could also choose to help someone (or some other cause) in your own local district. There are people that are sleeping rough (are homeless) every night in every neighbourhood around the world. We've recently had major fires through our own state (in and around Margaret River, Prevelly and Grace Town) which burnt out many homes and properties. Please join me in giving up one gift under your tree to help make a big difference for someone you will never meet.

Best wishes from me to you and yours this holiday season.

More embroidered T-Shirts

2011-12-13T09:37:00.001+08:00

Last week I shared a T-shirt that was embroidered for Miss D. Today there are a few more that I've done. These two were given to Mr B.

I really love the gnomes, they're so cute. I think I am getting a bit better.

This time I transferred the design using Chaco paper. It is a waxy chalk transfer paper made by Clover. There are 5 assorted coloured sheets in the pack so there is always a colour that will show up no matter what the fabric colour you're using. There is also a 'pen' you can buy to trace the designs with when using this paper, but it was $9 (a bit exy* for my taste) so I used an old Nintendo stylus that kept falling out of the holder in Mr W's DS.

*Exy is Australian slang for expensive.

TAST with Sharon B's Pin Tangle

2011-12-08T23:40:00.000+08:00

I've signed up for TAST (Take A Stitch Tuesday) over at Pin Tangle which is run by fellow Aussie Sharon B.

I saw that Barb S and Jane C have also signed up. I am sure I'll learn a whole bunch about embroidery (let's face it I know nothing at this point) so it should be fun too. Up the learning curve I go! If you want to sign up for this cool challenge too click on the TAST banner in the bottom left panel of this blog. All my entries about this challenge will be labelled TAST.

Miss D's Tee

2011-12-08T11:30:00.000+08:00

I have tried to be a bit more creative with the gifts I give this year for Christmas. I know that space in all our houses is limited and filling them up with even more toys is not preferable. I got Miss D a really cute flared skirt in a bright pink colour and purchased a plain white tee to go with it. I wanted to embroider something onto the t-shirt to make the two items more of a set. Now I just need to decided on gifts for the boys.

I've never embroidered anything before (ok I've done loads of temari but IMO embroidery is quite a different form of stitching).

I looked on the Internet for some cute pictures of flowers and when I found some things I liked I played around with them on my computer until I got the look I wanted. I had no idea how to get the design onto the fabric so I just printed it onto paper and placed it behind the fabric then traced it out lightly with a pink pen. Sorry purists I know you are most likely cringing right now about how I transferred the design but it seemed to work ok and I'll try to work out some better way next time.

Anyway here is how it turned out. I haven't given it yet, but that's probably ok... she is only 3.91 years old and doesn't read my blog anyway.

So here it is. My first embroidered item, stitched in 3 shades of pink, with lots of love... and a few wonky stitches.

I should have flicked the tags out over the back of the shirt before I took the picture because you can see them (green and pink shadows) through the fabric. There was more design on the sheet that I made but I only transferred small sections at a time. When I got to this point I thought it was enough for such a tiny top.

I hope she likes it!

IMO means in my opinion in computer shorthand.

Christmas Bunting

2011-12-06T12:00:00.002+08:00

One of the many projects which has been keeping me more than a bit busy lately is Mum's Christmas bunting. We went to Spotlight a while back and she fell in love with some red and white bunting panels that were on sale. Of course I encouraged her to buy them seeing as they looked like a fairly easy project she could do while tending to our Old Nana.

She took them home and cut them out with a friend who proceeded to zigzag them together. Then next time Mum visited at my house she came with her large spotlight bag in tow... I knew exactly what she was going to say... Could I please stitch up the second set of bunting?

Mum showed me what had already been done and no disrespect to anyone but the first set of the bunting turned out a bit naff*. The triangles were zigzag stitched with wrong sides together and the edges looked really jagged... not at all how I think Mum had hoped they would when she purchased the material. So I set about making the second set of bunting. I unpinned all the pieces, turned them right sides together, stitched them and then turned them right ways out before pressing them into lovely neat little triangles. It took me ages to do them this way but I didn't say anything to Mum when I showed her what I had done. She said she did prefer the way I had sewn them and so I suggested that if she really liked my way better I'd be happy to resew the first set if she unpicked them.

A week later and Mum had managed to unpick just 6 flags... I couldn't believe I was saying it as I heard the words roll out of my mouth... but somehow I managed to return home with all the flags to unpick. I guess that means Mum raised me so well that I would do something I really do not like doing just to see her happy and that I really adore my her too.

I stacked the triangles of fabric into bundles of 5 to make the job seem a bit more manageable. After many hours of seam ripping I got them all unpicked and slowly began to restitch the flags.

Actually I think they turned out pretty nicely even though they took forever to make. Even so, I think next time someone sees nice bunting panels at the store I'm going to whistle and walk (no run!) away.

Here is the first set. It is about 5 metres long and has 20 flags on it. Only 3 more sets to go...

*naff: British slang, today meaning uncool, tacky, unfashionable, worthless... or as a softer expletive, in places where one might use the ["F word"] as in "naff off", "naff all", "naffing about".

It's December 1st!

2011-12-03T11:30:00.002+08:00

Sorry I forgot to hit the POST button so this entry is a little late.

I just can not believe how fast this year has gone! Today we begin December which means a final mad dash towards Christmas. The next two months are non stop in our family with Mr M, Miss D and Mr W all having their birthdays near (or in Miss D's case on) Christmas Day.

We will start putting up the tree tonight which means rearranging some furniture and juggling boxes (trying not to break my neck or anything else for that matter) of ornaments etc. I also need to get my baking list together and recheck my gift list. I've got such a lot to do and I can't help procrastinating about it.

We did get the first job done last night. Mr W wrote his cards out for his classmates and teachers. He also chose a small gift for each of his teachers from my present shop. Through the year whenever I find something so adorable that I just can't avoid buying it, I buy it and place it into my gifting draw. I think I've been a bit of a naughty shopper this year because Mr W had a really wonderful selection of items to choose from. He took ages looking over every item and evaluating them... I am amazed that he actually chose the things I had purchased with his teachers in mind.

We have opened our Christmas treat. Quality Street Chocolates yummy!!! They are usually really hard to get but this year Coles (one of the big chain grocery stores in Australia) has them (and they are on special 1/2 price yay!!) My favourite chocolates (apart from Lindor which I've put into Mr W's advent stockings this year) I also love the tin that the chocolates come in... many people I know have kept the tin(s) over the years and use them for storing various bits and bobs.

I've got several temari projects on the go right now but they are on pause for the next week or so.

Pudding Coins

2011-11-25T15:00:00.004+08:00

In Brittan a traditional food to end the Christmas meal is a pudding. It is a sweet spicy boiled dense cake concoction that is served hot (sometimes served flaming with brandy) with custard or brandy butter etc.. Despite the fact that it is summer time in Australia many families eat Christmas Pudding too. Must be something about our country being colonised by the British and carrying on their traditions from home in this new land.

Now I don't actually like Christmas Pudding, it usually has dried orange peel in it (which I find quite revolting) and I can't really understand why anyone would want to eat a hot dessert when it is 41C outside.

What I do like is the idea of Pudding Coins, a rather old tradition where the discovery of a coin in your slice of Christmas Pudding is considered good luck and provides health, wealth and happiness to the discoverer. Coins used for this honoured Christmas custom are the pre-decimal sixpence and threepence and of course they must be Australian currency. I have always wanted a set of pudding coins. A few years ago the Mint decided to not continue making these available for sale. But last week I decided to go on line and see if I could find some.

The Australian mint had none in stock, the Perth Mint had them for $29.95 for a set of nine coins. I found them in Queensland and they were just $12 for a set of ten coins (I purchased 2 sets). They didn't come in a cute red bag but were $17 cheaper and I have lots of little bags to keep them in anyway.

Now I just need to find a pudding recipe I like perhaps this site will have something nice.

Hinata Gallery Cafe round up

2011-11-23T10:00:00.001+08:00

This stall is Riin's, her brand is Handmade by Riin. She makes lots of beautiful things as you can see in the pictures. I love the bibs... makes me wish I had a dribbly little one again just so I had a reason to buy a bib. Also there were sets of felted hungry caterpillar toys which were so cute and my Mum purchased 3 strings of bunting (which is why Riin is sticking up another set of bunting on to the wall in the first photo.

I asked each stall holder if I could take photos. I took the picture on the left and then I asked if I could put a link onto my blog and quickly she said wait wait wait and picked up a stock item for her photo. So funny and such a sweetheart too!

Here is Chiharu's stall. Her brand is Senhouse. This stall had the most beautiful bags and house slippers among other things. In fact her bags were so beautiful (and in demand) that I heard a lady near my table quietly willing another to not buy the bag she wanted so she could swoop across the gallery and purchase it. So funny... we've all that moment haven't we, when we can't quite make up our mind and another person suddenly takes interest in the object of our desire.

The last stall I managed to take photos of was Tomomi's. Her brand is called Japanese Gifts. I love the tee shirts in Tomomi's range (especially the one in the second picture).

I did miss photographing some stalls because I couldn't manage to ask the stall holder's permission to take a photo. I am sorry if yours was a stall that did not appear on this blog.

Now this weekend was also a Japanese cafe experience. The food was WONDERFUL. Such a treat for the taste buds and eye too! There were also 4 demonstrations of the tea ceremony in the cafe area. I didn't get to see the whole demonstration but I did take some photos.　

Genki Japan donations were collected throughout the weekend and when Tomoe came past me with her smiling face I grabbed up a 50 and tossed it into her collection basket. I have managed to donate whenever there has been an opportunity this year for the Fukushima appeal. There are still many thousands of people displaced from this area, many will not have the opportunity return to their homelands for the remainder of their lifetime. Tomoe looked at my donation and asked if I really wanted to give that much, all I could say is what I always say. Without Japan there is no temari, without temari there is no happy me.

More Hinata Gallery Cafe

2011-11-22T10:00:00.006+08:00

Here are some more photos of the stalls at the 2011 Hinata Gallery.

The first two photos are from another lady called Naoko. Her stall was next to mine so we spent two days chatting between serving customers. Such a nice lady and she sold beautiful handmade cards using Japanese papers and lace. I loved the display items at her stall and had to share them. I also fell in love with some cards she had for sale when I was taking the photos... I had to buy them of course!

I love the little fabric acorns and the teeny blue flowers.

Here are two of the cards I purchased, the lace edged one was calling me, the tree one was too amazing so I had to get another to make a happy number.

Next is Chie at her Calicot stall. So many lovely things, beautiful clothes, cushions, hair accessories. I love her old typewriter too!

Last stall for today is Yoshiko's weaving stall. It is amazing to see such beautifully textured fabric made into unique items. Her loom was also on display.

I'll share some more tomorrow.

Hinata Gallery Cafe

2011-11-21T00:11:00.008+08:00

Here are a few pictures of the stalls at the Hinata Gallery Cafe. There was a really wonderful collection of handmade items for sale.

Here is Naoko at her stall. She makes the most beautiful artwork, and painted the image used on the advertising posters for this event.

Next is the beautiful jewellery created by Ryoko and branded Zelkova. The display here was so beautiful including a large whitewashed tree branch. Her daughter make the cutest felt creations, so tiny and intricate. It is a very small world here in Perth because I met Ryoko and her husband at my friend Suzie's wedding earlier in the year. She said 'Oh yes I know... you are the temari lady.'

Last stall in this post was run by Sachiyo. Her brand is Angel Beads. Her stall has very interesting display objects for her products to sit on and besides jewellery she also had lovely soaps and crochet scrubby cloths.

I'll share some more photos in my next post.

Hummingbird Cake

2011-11-20T23:00:00.000+08:00

Laura asked what Hummingbird cake is when I mentioned I had made it in my last post. The name conjures up all kinds of strange possibilities but it is simply the yummiest, most moist cake on the planet. Here is the recipe I use to make my Hummingbird cakes.

Hummingbird Cake

450g Crushed pineapple in syrup
150g All purpose flour (Plain Flour)
75g Self raising flour
1/2tsp Baking soda (Bicarb Soda)
1/2tsp Cinnamon powder
1/2tsp Ginger powder
220g Soft brown sugar
45g Dessicated coconut
1C Mashed banana
2 Lightly beaten eggs
180ml Canola or vegetable oil

Cream Cheese Icing
30g Butter at room temperature
60g Cream cheese
1tsp Vanilla extract
240g Powdered sugar (Icing sugar mixture)

Cake Method:
Preheat oven to moderate (350F or 180C) Grease 23cm square pan (or use cup cake papers this makes about 12 medium cupcakes)
Drain pineapple pressing with a spoon to remove as much liquid as possible, reserve 60ml of the syrup.
Sift flours, spices and sugar into a large bowl. Stir in all remaining ingredients including the syrup saved from the pineapple. Pour into pan(s).
Bake about 40 minutes (cupcakes about 20 minutes). Cool in pan for a few minutes then cool right side up on racks. When cold cover with icing and try not to eat the whole cake ;)

Icing Method:
Beat butter and cream cheese with vanilla until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in sugar.

I like to top the cake with toasted coconut shavings.

Hinata Cafe

2011-11-19T23:25:00.000+08:00

Today I have been participating in the 2011 Hinata Gallery Cafe. It is a pop up market organised by a group of Japanese artists/crafts people. I am the only non-Japanese stall holder. It was a really fun day today... almost like being back in Japan with all the happy faces and chattering Japanese voices all around me... except it is just a 3 minute drive from my house so I didn't get lost on the JR on the way there (like I do every time I catch any form of public transport in Japan).

I took along temari, yubinuki, kanzashi and several other types of crafts I make. I made a small table on which I had a display of temari along with my most recent JTA certificate.

On my larger table I had lots of things for sale and some items that had very small signs that said Not for sale.

I took these photos as I was setting everything up on Friday afternoon so not all the little signs are up and everything isn't quite ready but I guess you can get the idea.

I also made 6 types of cupcakes which were sold in the cafe: Lemon, Banana, Hummingbird, Orange White Choc with Cranberry, Double Chocolate and Cinnamon Caramel Apple. Of course Mr W had to taste test every type but instead of having 6 whole cupcakes I cut them into thirds so he had a bite sized taste. I think my favourite is a tie between Apple and Hummingbird (I had a third of each and DH had the remaining third in our tasting party)

I really love spending time talking about temari and thimble making. I also love sending my creations off to new happy lives with people that fall in love with them. Thanks to everyone that stopped by today. I really enjoyed meeting and talking with you all.

I'll try to remember to get around to some other stalls and take photos tomorrow.

Just what I needed!

2011-11-18T15:00:00.006+08:00

Fellow Aussie temari maker Rosa O and her husband Brian from Bundaberg have been holidaying in WA this week and were kind enough to stop by for a visit at my house on their way back from Margaret River..

After a rather stressful week, their visit on Sunday was just the pick me up I needed to get me out of the funk.

Brian does wood turning so I gave Rosa a set of music box stuff with the thought that perhaps he could turn a box to make a stand for one of Rosa's temari.

Rosa showed me a simply amazing piece of tatting she was working on and also an amazing rosebud design kumihimo braid.

We talked and talked about all kinds of things for ages. I love how sharing our passions for crafting can bring strangers together like this.

Thank you so much for visiting, I enjoyed meeting you both so much!

Hinata Gallery Cafe 2011

2011-11-13T17:11:00.000+08:00

If you are in Perth next weekend come and see what is on show at this boutique craft event. I will have a stall of temari, yubinuki and other items. Here is some more information about this two day festival.

Teeny Yubinuki

2011-11-13T12:00:00.004+08:00

You have probably seen some teeny temari before but you may not have seen teeny tiny Yubinuki. Check out the Thimble Japan website to see the post written about these. The photo below shows just one of the beautiful thimbles featured at this website.

All I can say is WOW!

Bye bye Fur Baby

2011-11-12T18:33:00.000+08:00

Today was a sad day in our home. Our Chilli died today. He was part of our family for 15 years. He'd been sick for a while now due to a tumour growing in his snout. Even so he was still happy and enjoying life, some days he could still dart about like a pup and other days he was a little slower on his feet. Overnight his condition rapidly deteriorated so when we took him to the vet today, we had no option but to put him to sleep. We all got to have a last pat and say goodbye.

Here is a happy memory, the very first photo we took of him when we brought him home as a puppy.

With a cute face like that it is no wonder he managed to wriggle into our hearts.

We'll miss you Chillibilli boy.

Today I made...

2011-11-12T14:30:00.000+08:00

Pendants with clay.

I made some of these a while back. I really enjoyed it and now that I have a little time I've made some more.

I have been experimenting with different designs and techniques.

Unfortunately my camera (more accurately Me the operator) can't quite get the colour represented right, the colours look nicer in real life. I really like how most of these turned out... even if some aren't quite right.

Can you see the little chain on the square purple one? I think I can see that one hanging on my temari scissors in the future.

I think my DH is a little frustrated with all the crafting going on in our house lately. He'd prefer I spent my entire day cleaning and cooking treats to eat. So yesterday I did a bit of folding... and now I can see my family room sofa again. I also baked a delicious salmon impossible pie for dinner.

Chick Magnet

2011-11-10T12:00:00.000+08:00

I'm not sure how popular the term Chick Magnet is around the rest of the globe, but it is often used here in Australia. It is usually used to describe a male that has an amazing (almost magnetic) ability to attract lots of women (chicks).

Well here is a picture of my little 'Chick' Magnet.

The little chicks were 9 days old in these pictures (taken on Sunday) and took their first field trip onto the lawn in front of the cubby house which we have used as a nesting box. I was a bit worried that they wouldn't be able to get back up the step to the house, but after a few failed attempts they all managed it.

I hope that these are the only type of chicks Mr W attracts for a few more years!

Today I made...

2011-11-08T15:00:00.000+08:00

Yubinuki!

Well actually these bead style Yubinuki took more than a day to make but you get the idea. They are threaded onto my Tekobari case so they didn't roll away.

I use fine silk threads to stitch the designs and fluffy silk topps to pad the base. Lucky me, I got all these supplies when Miho went to Japan last year. I have such an awesome sister.

You might remember a while back I made a bunch of forms for my Yubinuki so I had evenly spaced marking lines... they worked a treat. The Yubinuki above are S11 (purple/blue and green/magenta), S15 (blues/white) and S8 (blues and in-progress gold/bronze).

The S8 ones could have been stitched on S4 but I used the additional 4 marking lines to place the thin stripes.

Super cool way to mark a C10

2011-11-07T11:25:00.000+08:00

Yesterday Barb and Kathy shared a snappy tutorial video they made about a way to mark C10. They learned this from Ozaki Sensei during their recent visit to the JTA museum in Japan.

There are several ways to mark a C10 and this new (to us) way looks like a really great method which takes less thread and (if practised) seems like it would be quicker and more accurate too. This method is outlined in the Japanese book Owari Temari ISBN483770391 on page 22-23

I am going off to look for a nice practice ball so I can try along with the video.

Thank you so much to Kathy and Barb for sharing this with everyone. I think Barb will be sharing lots of information about the Japan trip at her blog so bookmark for future reference.

To remove or not remove... now that is a question

2011-11-06T11:00:00.001+08:00

I noticed on TT this week a thread started about the merits of removing marking thread. Everyone has their own feeling about this, and it prompted me to reflect on mine.

I guess I really love to see sparkly marking lines on most temari (for a gal that wears no jewellery - except my wedding ring - I sure love my temari bling) so I love to leave those marking lines on the temari. If it looks good I leave it.

I find it very difficult to ignore 'inconspicuous' threads, they just never seem to fade into the thread wrap for me. I have tried matching Perle 8 or a thin embroidery satin thread but they are quite obvious. I find using two wraps of the base thread just hopeless as I tend to stitch more at night when the lighting isn't as perfect as it could be. There was a time when I would have been too scared to remove my marking threads for fear the whole temari design would explode off the surface. These days I am more confident about the security of my stitching (nice thick base thread layer and I ensure I take a good bite off it with my needle at every stitch) and as I understand the divisions better it is easier to remove the marking threads I don't want to leave on the ball. If the design calls for having inconspicuous marking threads I am usually inclined to mark with a contrasting sewing (serger) thread and just remove it at the end.

I guess we all do what we like (and feels comfortable for us), and as our experience grows so does our safety zone. This means we all eventually amaze ourselves when we realise what once seemed impossible (or daunting) has become a part of our regular routine... and we hadn't even noticed.

A dozen flowers... round up and a new bunch

2011-11-05T09:00:00.003+08:00

So all in one post here are the images of my recent bunch of flower temari. Actually, although the post titles in this series we labelled A dozen flowers technically there were two dozen.

First, here are the twelve C10 faces.

Next is the same designs all stitched on S10.

I've also started restitching these designs on my football (soccer) temari. This temari has been wrapped and sitting in a drawer for about two years (maybe even longer) so I have been feeling a bit guilty about neglecting it for so long. The circumference on this one is 42.5cm so I should be able to get some nice detail down with pearl cotton #5.

I've got this one labelled with tags so I know which face to stitch each design on. I've also added the extra marking lines. This time I am stitching in 3 shades of pink, 3 shades of blue and 3 shades of purple so theoretically I should end up with 4 faces of each colour set. I don't expect I'll have this one (the third dozen) stitched before Christmas (although I just might surprise myself).

~~~

I am working on another temari (34cm) which I would like to show soon but it is still only half done and it is turning out too lovely to share an 'in progress' image.

TT Renzoku Stitch Along

2011-11-04T18:00:00.001+08:00

Ok I didn't actually plan to do this stitch along but decided at the last moment to try it out. All the talk about Renzoku/HHG designs lately has got my interest peaked. I remrember seeing this design on TK but it didn't strike me as one I wanted to do.

I have really enjoyed making this one. It came together fairly quickly, once the path was established, and needed only a small amount of ripping out.

Gotenmari exhibition in Akita

2011-11-03T21:02:00.001+08:00

Here is a link that was originally shared by Glenna on the message boards at the Temari Challenge Yahoo group. I'm not sure if I have shared this link before, but go check out the eye candy.

There are some really amazing temari in this slide show.

My understanding is that this competition is held annually in Akita, Japan in the last weekend of October.

I love so many of the designs, some of my favourites are slide 18 and the top left of slide 23. I adore the bullion rosettes on the ball in the lower center of slide 26. Now I want to learn how to stitch bullion roses, I wonder how many there are on this design.

There are two many beautiful temari for me to pick a number one. Which one is your favourite?

A dozen flowers... 12th of the bunch

2011-10-30T12:00:00.002+08:00

Peach Blossom variation. This one is almost identical to the last flower. Can you spot the difference?

Did you guess the pentagon is over the flower shape instead of underneath? The previous flower had the pentagon tucked under the Kiku area.

I still haven't managed to perfect the French Knots but I still live in hope.

I really love the S10 colour selection again but I think it works much better having the white as an accent colour rather than the main colour.

The obi is created by stitching wide wedged Uwagake Chidori around the equator. I alternated a row from the North then from the South.

I've finally finished stitching the pentagon outlines for my new version of these flowers on a big C10. This time I am using Sakasa Uwagake... right now it looks like a white and green soccer ball. Hope that the flowers fix that once they're all stitched on.

Meet Pip, Pop and Peep

2011-10-29T19:40:00.000+08:00

Twenty one days ago we purchased four fertilised eggs for our broody hen. Yesterday was hatch day. Sadly one egg was found flicked out of the nest during the dark hours of Thursday/Friday and when we found it the egg was already cold and the chick (which was fully formed inside the shell) had no chance of survival. Happily however, we have three cute balls of yellow fluff which Mr W has dubbed Pip, Pop and Peep. The reason for the name selection is because they pip at the shells before hatching and then when it is time they pop out into the world, then they begin to make cute peeping sounds.

Want to see a picture? Or maybe two!

Toetoe's Chickies, They are French Wheaton Marans.

Boy it's hard to get some grub when everyone is standing in the bowl!

Now we just need to hope that one is a girl and that we can twist DH's arm to keep one. Please please puuuuurrrrrlllleeeeaaaasssseee.... [batting eyelids and pulling our most angelic looking faces]

A dozen flowers... 11th of the bunch

2011-10-29T18:00:00.001+08:00

Peach blossom. I like this one despite the dodgy french knots. I will perfect french knots one of these days. This design really needs to have the outer points stretched as it is stitched. I chose a bit of an unusual colour combination for the S10 version of this design. I think works. I'll share the obi and last flower of the dozen next time.

Aaaaaarrrrrggggh! What a big week!

2011-10-28T23:00:00.000+08:00

This week has been hectic. Lots of events, changed plans, sleepless nights and deadlines happening all week long... with a bit of hair pulling and a few tears along the way too. I must admit some of the dramas were actually self inflicted this week.

This weekend our city is hosting CHOGM* so we have a public holiday today. The holiday is usually held at the beginning of October to celebrate the Queens birthday (I know it isn't on her actual birthday but October is the time when we recognise it). Anyway the holiday was held over to today because the Queen is actually here in Perth to open the CHOGM meeting and having a public holiday now limits the traffic within the city area which will help all the delegates get around much easier.

My DH has been on night shift this week which means I've been sleeping very lightly. On the first night I finally exhausted myself by 3:30am, and each successive night I managed to get off to sleep an hour earlier the previous night.

In addition to my usual crazy schedule this week, on Monday I decided I really needed to have raspberry jam on toast, but we had run out of jam several weeks ago so (as I was looking for pointless projects due to my procrastination over other deadlines) I spent several hours cooking and bottling jam. That night I planned pasta for dinner but we had run out of home made pasta sauce, store bought sauce always tastes very acidic to me so I try to avoid using it, so we had sausages and vegetables instead.

On Tuesday I made and bottled 9 litres of tomato and eggplant sauce. It takes about 4 hours to cook and as it simmered on the stove I tinkered with a few other projects. Then my husband's best mate dropped in for a coffee (DH was home from work). This meant I forgot to stir the sauce near the end and one corner of the sauce cooked onto the base of the pot. Thankfully it didn't transfer any burnt flavour into the sauce but it took me about 45 minutes to scrub the pot clean.

On Wednesday I made some fresh pasta to go with the sauce. I took some fresh pasta, sauce and a small jar of jam to my Aunty. She is recovering from a full knee replacement and recently lost her last sibling. I intended to cheer her up with my visit but we did share some tears too while I was with her.

I also finished taking photos of my S10 flower sampler temari sampler and did the grocery shopping. We were supposed to a have dinner guest but his plans got mixed up so it got rescheduled to Thursday. Instead we decided to all go up to Mum's for a visit after school. We came back via Miho and Seth's house to collect a red lamp and we played with the kids, stayed for Curry Rice for dinner then came home late.

On Thursday I started getting everything organised for the workshop this weekend. I ran out of ink as I began printing the patterns and had to dash down to Officeworks for more. I changed the ink cartridge only to discover that the new cartridge had broken the print head. After a few minutes of wringing my hands and feeling tears well up in my eyes I called EPSON to ask for help. This has happened before when I was working toward a tight deadline and they kindly couriered me out a replacement printer. To my horror I discovered that they had closed their Perth Office at 2:30 (probably something to do with the Public Holiday today). So I called Officeworks and they very kindly agreed to ~~help~~ save me. Not only did they refund the $80 I'd spent on ink even though one of the cartridges were jammed in my printer but they also professionally colour printed all my workshop notes for free while I waited. Hallelujah for good old fashioned service!

Also on Thursday our guest came for a quick dinner. I was a quick dinner because DH was rostered on a night shift and Mr W had a school dance. I am surprised but I managed to get the dinner organised by 6pm. We had spaghetti cabonara made with our own eggs and home made pasta noodles and fresh crunchy salad and a tasty apple shortcake slice for dessert.

Today I have been packing up ready for the weekend temai workshop beginning tomorrow. I hope I don't forget anything... I really should make myself a checklist.

*CHOGM: Commonwealth Heads Of Government Meeting

A dozen flowers... 10th of the bunch

2011-10-28T13:00:00.002+08:00

This flower is a variation in the last one. The difference is the distance from the center of the inner points on the striped star. I am about to restitch this entire project but this time I am limiting my palette to pale shades of pink, blue, purple and yellow on a white ball. The obi shown in the last photo is stitched with simple Chidori Kagari in the Jyouge Douji (merry-go-round) style. I think this maybe the best of all the obi stitched during this diamond experiment. If you missed any of the other flower designs look through the other posts labelled A dozen flowers from earlier in the month.

... all beef patties... and a coronary!

2011-10-27T16:29:00.000+08:00

I follow the Ogijima blog which is written by a French guy about his beloved Kagawa area of Japan. His posts are really varied and interesting. Sometimes he posts something really unexpected (quirky) that makes me laugh out loud. Today he wrote about the healthy reputation of Japanese food.

OMG I almost went into cardiac arrest just looking at it... but what value... only 990Yen.

Hey Super Size Me!

Oh my arteries!

A dozen flowers... 9th of the bunch

2011-10-27T10:00:00.002+08:00

This flower is stitched and woven Uwagake Chidori. I like the contrast of the striped and plain stitching. The little plum flower in relief that is formed at the center is so cute. I just noticed I forgot to remove the marking lines on the S10. Oops! I really like the colours of blue with white, they really pop in person.

I will show the C10 obi next time.

A dozen flowers... 8th of the bunch

2011-10-26T09:00:00.009+08:00

Here is the next flower in my sampler set. This is Mr W's flower. Can you tell why?

I think I prefer the look of this one on the C10 where you can see it on a more flattened surface.

The Obi on this one is just a set of 10 diamonds stitched over each other. I had planned to interlock them but I lost my way while watching a good movie. I do like the effect of larger diamonds encased in a row of smaller ones.

I am surprised but there is still no hankering to keep the marking lines on the ball. I can remember the days when I would never dream of taking off the marking lines for fear that the entire design would melt off the surface.

I like the circle centres on the C10 more than the S10. I had stitched on every line (20) on the C10 but I had used a darker marking thread on the S10 which made it impossible to see for such fine stitching (even with my work lamp blazing away).

PS. I can still hear Mario-kart theme music when I look at this pattern.

A dozen flowers... 7th of the bunch

2011-10-25T12:00:00.000+08:00

I tried something totally off center for the next two temari flower patterns. I've probably seen something like this somewhere but I'm not entirely sure. It think it is a kaleidoscope of rainbow flower petals. When I finished the petals on the design I didn't like the open space so I added the concentric rings of stitching to the middle. Then I thought "Super Mario flowers".

I'll share the Obi and the other design on the S10 in my next post.

A dozen flowers... 6th of the bunch

2011-10-24T12:00:00.000+08:00

Striped Snowflake Flower. Hmm don't know of a better (or real) name for this flower but it does remind me of a snowflake.

This one is stitched with double the divisions (I added 10 extra lines) as the last design. I also included a little step out just near the outer edge which I think adds a bit of a lacy element to the pattern.

And as promised the last image is the Obi. This time I stitched Uwagake Chidori Kagari from both sides of the equator.

Yummy Pasta

2011-10-23T12:59:00.002+08:00

I've been making my own tomato pasta sauce for a while now, I make a huge batch every few months when tomatoes are cheap at the store (or if we have them in the garden) and share it out with family and friends. Home made sauce is so much nicer than store bought even if it is messy and probably not any cheaper to make.

On Thursday my Mum surprised us with a quick visit. She had a wonderful gift for me too. My very own Jamie Oliver pasta machine.

Jamie Oliver Vintage Blue Pasta Machine

Wow lucky me! And I can't believe it is blue too! My favourite-in-the-whole-world colour. Of course we had to try it out straight away, so we had fresh home made pasta for dinner that night. For some reason I already had pasta making flour (TIPO 00) in the cupboard.

I was on my own making the dough which was a golden colour due to the lovely golden yolk in Puffle's chicken egg. Mr W helped to crank the dough through the machine, it was really fun to do. Unfortunately I had run out of my own tomato sauce and my new crop of basil still isn't big enough to make pesto so we used our emergency store bought sauce.

The pasta was delicious and I have pushed making a new batch of tomato sauce to the top of my to do list.

Mum suggested we get one of those pasta drying racks. But do I really need to spend $50-$90 on a rack when I could make my own? Better yet as my clothes airing rack is almost always out why not just place some strips of baking paper over a few rails and use that.

Thanks Mum for the cool prezzie!*

*Prezzie (also spelled as pressie) means gift or present.

A dozen flowers... 5th of the bunch

2011-10-23T12:00:00.000+08:00

Striped Star Flower. I am sure there is a name for this flower but I don't know it. I like it but I prefer the switch up I did of this design which I will show in the next post.

I am getting a real appreciation for how different the designs look on the C10 face and S10. I don't usually stitch a design on two different divisions at the same time so I am finding it very interesting. I think this is an example of a design I prefer on the C10 where the open areas are more obvious and the final shape doesn't get lost with the curvature of the temari.

I'll show the Obi in my next post.

Happy International Temari Appreciation Day 2011

2011-10-22T13:40:00.001+08:00

October 22nd means it is International Temari Appreciation Day.

I'd like to give thanks to all my temari mentors and friends for sharing your passion of temari making with me and for guiding, supporting and inspiring me along my own temari journey. I am constantly amazed how our shared love of this wonderful craft has brought so many people together from every corner of the globe.

In Perth it is cool and overcast today so I didn't get to spend time out stitching in a park like I had planned... I have been having some bad asthma symptoms over the last week so I don't want to risk getting a cold. I am getting more sensible as I get older.

So instead got out all my temari books to browse through them and be inspired to try new design projects through the coming year. I also wrapped 4 balls in shades of blue (my favourite colour) and read several of my favourite temari related blogs, then spent time working on my temari for the workshop next weekend.

I'd like to remind you about the competition running over at the ITAD site. Pop over and have a look.

Happy stitching! Enjoy your day!

A dozen flowers... 4th of the bunch

2011-10-21T14:00:00.001+08:00

Here is the next flower in the series. It is another type of rose. This one has more petals (it is stitched on more marking lines) which spiral around the centre. I added French knots to the centre instead of having the usual pentagon stitching there. I like how much more raised off the base this design is. There are so many layers of stitching is ends up with a slight dome and feels quite textured.

The last picture is the Obi which separates the two roses.

This one is stitched in the merry-go-round style (Jyouge Douji) but done with plain old Chidori Kagari stitching then a keeper stitch tacks all the little bundles together.

It has suddenly dawned on me that the last few temari I've made have all had the marking lines removed after the stitching was completed. This means my usual metallic bling is missing... and I didn't even miss it while I was stitching... so could this mean my addition to metallic threads is finally broken? Probably not.

Broody hen gets some eggs

2011-10-20T16:00:00.000+08:00

Our little Lavender Araucana/Silky cross has been broody for ages. We tried everything to break her of her desire to sit on a clutch of eggs but we just couldn't. Finally, after having a day with no eggs laid (because she was hogging the nest) and seeing her sit on the nest even though it was empty, we gave in and have purchased 4 fertile eggs for her to try to hatch.

We've moved her from the hen house and she is snuggled into a small doghouse that I reclaimed from a roadside rubbish collection inside Mr W's wooden cubby house.

4 Maran Eggs

Not that I am counting my chickens before they hatch... but hopefully in a few weeks we'll have some lovely new French Wheaton Maran chicks. Here is a pic of the eggs before we put them under Toetoe.

See how gorgeously dark the Maran eggs are compared to the eggs laid by our hens!

They should hatch around the last day of the month. Fingers crossed!!!

While Toetoe is locked away in the broody box everyone else had a morning of free-ranging around the garden. They all had a pecking and scratching good time!

A dozen flowers... 3rd of the bunch

2011-10-18T12:00:00.001+08:00

A Rose Garden. These ones are outlined with a contrast colour to separate the petals. I think with the difference in tone I used to stitch these the outline wasn't really necessary, but I do like it.

I like how much more round rose on the S10 looks compared to the C10 version.

Sometimes I write about how the colours I choose don't work out quite 'right'. I think the rose on the sample ball is an example of this. Although now I have seen it for a while it is growing on me (a bit). Joan Z has just started her own blog, and in her second post she has let us into her mind to understand the creative process of how she produces her gorgeous temari. I recommend you visit her blog if you haven't already and read how she gets her colours to work out every time.

Next time I'll show you a variation on this rose theme and the obi on the S10 ball.

A dozen flowers... 2nd of the bunch

2011-10-17T12:00:00.002+08:00

Here is the second in this flower series. Again it is a Camellia flower, but this time I have changed it up a bit from the classic look. I've stitched the centres as French Knots. The sample ball was stitched in Perle 8 so there are A LOT of knots there. The colour changes are quite bold and I wondered if a more gradual change would be better so in the S10 version I did very subtle colour gradation... a little too subtle. I can barely see the difference.

Below there is the picture of the diamond pattern obi.

Did you miss the last post about this series? Check out the links in the archive. All these posts are titled 'A dozen flowers'.

A dozen flowers... 1st of the bunch

2011-10-15T11:27:00.002+08:00

I've been working on these flowers for a while now. I know I haven't shown temari for ages, sorry about that. Hope the next 12 posts makes up for it. The top image is from my sampler ball and the second image is from a set of six S10 temari I've been making. I have also been experimenting on these making diamond obi designs using different methods. I'll show the obi in the next post.

The sampler ball is of course much larger than the second temari. It is interesting to see how different the flowers look given the change in curvature of the surface area covered by the design.

The next post will be a different take on this Camellia design.

Until next time... happy stitching!

ITAD in less than 10 days... the excitement is building.

2011-10-13T08:00:00.000+08:00

Not long to go until we celebrate the 2nd International Temari Appreciation Day.

I've set up a competition over on the ITAD blog so you can share your stories about Temari and ITAD to win a prize.

If you haven't heard about the competition yet GO take a look.

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What? You're still here?

Click the link above to visit the ITAD site.

;-)

Perth Royal Show 2011: Part 3 - The Finale

2011-10-12T23:58:00.001+08:00

I did take a lot of photos at the show, and I so enjoyed the pavilions with all their interesting displays.

I really loved the floral and cake decorating areas. I couldn't take pics in the cake area because when I went through the crowd was rather tightly packed in (think Crocodile Dundee at the subway) and there was just no stopping or moving against the herd.
Here are some of the photos from the floral displays. There were two category sections. Ladies Day at the (horse) races. The spring racing carnival is just about to begin here in Australia so this is a timely theme.

What does the left one remind you of? My Fair Lady? The hat is amazing! Such a classic beautiful look and I could instantly see Audrey Hepburn in my minds eye when I saw this display.

The right photo is also part of the racing day display but it is more of a modern and stylised interpretation. I thought it was so cool as a representation of Fashions on the Field which is a tradition on Ladies Days at the races.

The other category was floral arrangements inspired by paintings. What do you think the first one might be?

Did you get Ballerina? I did, and that was before I realised the theme was painted canvas in flowers... or saw the print at the base of the stand. The next photo is what made me realise the theme (yes I am oblivious to the obvious most of the time). I looked at it and thought 'hey that looks like a monet' then I saw the print at the base of the display and then the penny dropped.

The last photo I planned to share was one with Japanese fans represented with flowers... but something happened to the image and it didn't work out so lets take one last look at the hat from the first photo.

Makes me want to recite: 'The rain in Spain falls mainly in the plain' with a pebble in my mouth.

Well that is the wrap up of the 2011 Perth RAS.

If you follow my blog you may have seen two posts about a dozen flowers... sorry to tease you but these are some posts coming up which are currently saved in my drafts (I accidentally hit the post button instead of save). Rest assured they will be posted over the next few weeks and they are all temari I have been working on recently.

Day tripping to Bunbury

2011-10-12T15:00:00.001+08:00

Mr W just needs to push a little harder to knock over the light house.

We took a trip to Bunbury last week. I went on my own about a month ago, the weather was awful and I never did any exploring when I got there. This time with my little driving buddy to keep me company (and some nicer weather) we had a great time.

Having a little rest after climbing the tower of 'terror'.

My legs are still aching a bit after climbing the lookout. A testament to how unfit I have become over the winter. The pic of Mr W at the start of this post was taken from the tower.

I took this picture from the top of the tower. Can you see the top right circle? That is our X-trail. The lower red circle is Mr W waving to me. And if I zoom in....

...there he is!

We had a pretty cool day. We went to target and he purchased a lego model which we built while eating our lunch.

Remember in my last post about the new Forrest Hwy I said how boring it was? Well this time a local insurance company (RACWA) with help from the Brand Agency advertising firm has done something to entertain you along the way.

http://www.campaignbrief.com/wa/2011/09/vultures-remind-motorists-of-t.html

I love it!!! Immediately Mr W began singing 'magical food' from Ice Age... if you have kids/grandkids you probably saw this scene.

Perth Royal Show 2011: Part 2

2011-10-10T14:00:00.000+08:00

I live in a very big state and the local community display pavilion showcases all the differences between the districts of WA.

Working from the top of the state down here is the display for the Kimberly/Pilbara area. Click on the pictures to see more detail. In this area there are loads of mines. Iron ore, pearls and diamonds all come from this area. The Ord river offers a veritable bounty of food. There is a strong aboriginal culture in these areas and you can see some of the implements they use near the rock formation in the photo. See the croc skin and bones? There are lots of salties and freshwater crocs in the top end of our state.
Above is a picture of the Great Southern districts. Another great diversity of produce is grown in these communities. The area includes Albany, Esperance and Denmark. The display was so big I couldn't fit it into a single photo.I think the display of grains is awesome, I never realised how many types of grain is grown right here in my own home state. So many types of wood too, Jarrah, Marri and Karri. Also there is a wide variety of wool and fresh produce raised in these areas. Did you notice the wine and all the varieties of eggs?

A little closer to Perth is the South West district which is featured in the next two pics. Or as we say 'Souwest'. Another wonderful area which includes Donnybrook, Harvey and Margaret River. Here they grow the best apples and oranges in the world! There are also many dairy farms and that means lots of cheese and yoghurt too. I loved the spinning apple display and I saw a new variety of apples (Kanzi) on show, I can't wait to try them.

Second last is the Wheatbelt district. Can you guess what they grow? Yep that's right wheat! But that's not all, there is also some mining and sheep farming. I like how the various grains were displayed here because they look like fields (just how you'd see it from the air flying over it). This area is full of very large farms (and as far as I know not too much else) I imagine life in this area is pretty tough and quite lonely too.

Last of all in the Goldfields display. Kalgoorlie/Boulder and Coolagrdie are the main areas in this district. Take a look at all that sparkly stuff!!! I think of gold, pubs, miners and brothels when I think of Kal (Kalgoorlie)! It has a pretty colourful history since the late 1800's.

I really loved a solid gold encased USB stick that was on display... so did everyone else... I didn't get close enough to take a photo. I think it might be time to take Mr W out to Kal to brush up on the history of Paddy Hannan (a gold rush icon) and CY O'Connor (a man that laid a water pipeline linking Perth to Kalgoorlie).

Perth Royal Show 2011

2011-10-09T12:00:00.002+08:00

On Saturday 1/10/11 we had a day at the Royal Agricultural Show (RAS) in Perth. We took Mr W last year and had no intention to go again this year but the government has sponsored kids under 12 free entry (due to them delaying the usual public holiday that falls on the Monday during show week), it was too good an opportunity to pass up.

Last year we did all the things the boys wanted and this year we got to do many of the things I missed out on last year. Namely the cake decorating and crafts displays. Also we had a big interest in the poultry (now that we have our own chooks). Mr W spent ages at the Scouting and defence forces displays.

Here he is in a huge tank. He also spent ages in the night vision tent and has a good go at the exhibition guns that were on display. His dad (who is ex-military) showed him how to switch a gigantic gun from single fire to automatic fire and all about it how to sight it etc. I felt nervous just standing near by... I am glad that the artillery they had hanging out the side was just for show.

The boys also went on the chairlift which crosses the show-ground end to end. It was my favourite ride as a child and we would count the number of lost thongs* and show-bags on all the pavilion roofs as we travelled along. (I must note I did grow up in the 70's and they were simpler times) I walked along underneath the chairlift, which was good excerise and helped me make some calorie room for the basket of hot spiral chips we ate for afternoon tea.

I'll add another post with some more pictures later.

*Thongs: In Australia thongs are a rubber apparel item for the feet not a type of underwear that lodges in your butt. No offence to anyone who prefers to wear that type of underwear but I spend most of my life trying to avoid my knickers going like that :) Also while most Aussies own at least 1 pair of thongs, in recent years many of us prefer to not be seen wearing them... maybe we are finally becoming a little more style conscious as a nation.

Today I made...

2011-10-08T13:00:00.000+08:00

Stamped pendants.*
Remember the Sculpey clay from a few weeks ago? I finally got to play with it last week. Apart from using this type of clay to make handprints of Mr W's hands when he was a baby, I have never clay played.

One thing I realised was it is really (I mean really) hard to get to a workable texture if it is a bit old. I think I may have bruised my palms trying to get it to squish together. Another thing is that it takes longer to bake than you'd think. I had a few misfires along the way.

I have discovered that using a special conditioner helps get the clay back to a more workable texture. I think I'll invest in some for next time. My Mum wants one of these made with a silver butterfly. The blue/white combination makes it looks a bit like a piece of delft pottery.

I am having a bit of fun with these and learning as I go along. I also made some really nice pendants with black butterfly scene (larger) and a deep orange blossom scene (smaller) which I strung together for a friends birthday a few weeks ago. I didn't get a photo but I think they looked really cool.

* Small correction... this post has been sitting as a unfinished draft for a few weeks (since 30/8/11) as I couldn't make time to take the pictures.

Carnival

2011-09-23T17:31:00.001+08:00

Today was Mr W's school faction carnival. We have had dreary weather all week but today was heavenly. Not too hot and just the right amount of sunshine.

The kids are all allowed to dress in their faction colours and even do weird things to their hair and faces. Today Mr W requested a red mohawk. Here's a pic... note the lack of smile - apparently you can't smile if you have a mohawk!

Yep, glad I didn't decide to got into a career in hairdressing (so is everyone else I am guessing). I just hope we can get all the red out of his beautiful hair tonight when he washes it. My Mum always told my brother 'do what every you want with your hair but don't come home with a tattoo'*... I think I'll be happy to have the same rule for Mr W. If you hate your hair you can cut it off and it will grow out nicely again, but if you regret your tattoo you're stuck with it.

Anyway back to the sport carnival. Mr W's team won for the first time since 1996. Blue faction had won almost every year since then. Go Red!!!

*In less than a week during his teens my brother had a long style then it was yellow, then it changed to purple and then it had a shaved undercut and then cut shorter with tracks shaved into it. I think it might have been the following week (or sometime very soon after this) that he talked Mum into rubbing wax into his hair for dreadlocks. He never ever got a tattoo though.

Gosh I don't relish the prospect of my boy with dreads... and what would that look like anyway????

Answering emails... Which thread?

2011-09-21T12:09:00.000+08:00

For many of us there is no local needlework store (LNS), we are often left with no other choice than to turn to the Internet for our supplies. This week I got an email from a customer who had a question about the difference between two metallic threads.

When I began temari making in Perth the Internet was also my only option. There aren't too many LNS in Perth and those that are here don't carry everything a new temari maker wants and most of the staff behind the counter (while knowledgeable in other forms of embroidery) have never even heard of temari, let alone seen one or know what tools and threads to suggest to a newbie. I guess this is how my online store began. I got tired of never being able to find what I wanted at the store to I started my own small business and the rest is history.

Now I carry a range that includes metallic, rayon & cotton threads, needles, v rulers, books and the like.

We all have our own favourite threads for stitching temari. Each thread has its own pro/con depending on the projects use, users desired outcome and stitching skill.

Here is an image to compare the various threads I have for sale in my store.

From this image you can see the thickness of each thread. I've even included a sample of DMC (which I don't sell) so you can compare a thread you are familiar with to others you may not have seen before. In addition to the thicknesses there are other aspects of each thread to take into consideration when choosing which one to use in your project.

Cosmo Lame and Nordic Gold while very similar in terms of thickness, are manufactured in different ways. Nordic Gold is a chainette and has a slight stretch when pulled. Cosmo Lame is a braid and it has a slight flatness. Both of these threads are a little thinner than Perle 5 cotton so you need to be aware of it's potential to get lost between lots of tightly spaced rows of stitching. Cosmo Lame is sold in 3 shades in our store, Nordic Gold comes in 14 shades.

Treasure Braid Petite is substantially thinner than the other metallic threads (although one or two shades are a little thicker than the one in the image). They are made as a braid and are quite strong despite their fineness. They are great for adding multiple lines to a C10 or C8 temari. While I wouldn't stitch with them along side Perle 5 thread, they are great for adding fine detail to outer edges or making small matsuba, stars shape, obi chidori and the like. They work perfectly as a substitute metallic stitching thread when using fine stitching threads (like top stitch quilt or single strand embroidery thread) on tiny and teeny temari. This range comes in more than 70 shades and several levels of shimmer.

KYO thread is made with rayon which makes it GLOW on your temari, so much so that taking a really great photograph of temari stitched with KYO is quite difficult. It is thinner than Perle 5 cotton (between DMC #5 and DMC #8) is a little slippery but it is divine to work with as it rarely gets kinks and is quite strong. A good size knot or several zigzags underground at the beginning of stitching will keep it anchored nicely and you'll need a couple of zigzags at the end too. This thread is also available in more than 70 shades.

Cosmo Cotton #5 pearl is the thread used in many of the Japanese language temari books. It is softer than DMC so it plumps nicely and knots up much less too. This thread is not very well known to the rest of us but has a long history of usage in Japan and is much loved by Japanese embroiderers, it really is a great quality thread equal to (if not better than) DMC. There are 260 shades in this range. I really like using this thread to stitch my temari and although I don't carry the full range of colours at this stage, I hope to continue to widen the selections available over time.

There is an almost infinite variety of threads available to temari makers and the ranges I sell are my favourites. They are the ones I have tried, tested and found to offer the best results for most applications. Visit the Temari Addict Australia supply store for more information of these ranges of threads.

My number one recommendation for purchasing threads on the Internet is to invest in a colour chart for the ranges you prefer to use. Purchasing from an image on the screen can sometimes result in disappointment when the 'in person' shade doesn't match the 'monitor' shade and it can throw off your whole design.

Just when we'd given up hope

2011-09-18T16:44:00.000+08:00

... we finally got our first egg from our Andalusian hen! We've had her since February and were told she was already 16 weeks old. She has been threatened with being 'invited' for 'dinner' a few times but now she has laid her first creamy white egg we are happy we didn't put Lusia in the pot.

Unfortunately is is really dark today so the picture isn't very good but let me assure you the in real life the eggs are pinky beige (L), mid brown (B), pale blue (R) and creamy white (T).

Seth and Miho also had an Andalusian but she only laid a few times then carked it*. Hope we have better luck with our bird, because she is quite lovely looking and gotten very tame.

Our other chickens are all doing well, but we have a little silky/araucana cross (that lays blue eggs) who dearly would like to be a mama. She sometimes spends hours sitting on the nest trying to brood everyone else's eggs. Shame it wont ever happen because we don't have a rooster. If she doesn't get this idea out of her head soon I might need to go and buy some fertilised eggs so she can get the baby chicken making thing out of her system.

Definition: cark it
An Australian idiom said to have originated in or before the 1970's. To die, as in don’t tell the kids the budgie carked it. Perhaps it is a play on the standard English word croak ‘to die’, or it may be a shortening of carcass. Cark it also means ‘to fail or break down completely’: my blender’s carked it.

I'm still here

2011-09-17T16:23:00.000+08:00

Just being a little quiet. We've had lots going on lately, but this week has been quiet because I caught a cold. I've spend the last few days doing as little as possible apart from blowing my nose, using my asthma medication or stuffing my face with headache tablets and hot honey and lemon drinks. I am glad I squeezed all those lemons a few weeks ago because now all I need to do is pop a ice cube of juice into a mug add the honey and pour over the hot water... it's even easier if I batter my eyelids and cough as my DH will make it for me. He is such a darling!

I must admit I have felt a bit sorry for myself, but I do keep reminding myself how truly lucky I am despite the inconvenience of feeling a bit off. This month has been filled with milestones and reminders of how lucky life in my small corner of the world is and has always been.

Since my last post I have been working on my temari patterns for the October weekend workshop. This week I've been typing up my handwritten notes... I think I'll wait until my head clears to draw the diagrams. Goodness knows how diagrams would turn out otherwise.

Today I'm feeling a bit better so I just made cheese scones from Jamie Oliver's website for lunch. I Changed up the recipe a bit, substituting some Parmesan for cheddar, and powdered chicken stock for salt. I also added some Cajun spice mix. Mine turned out great (even though I forgot to brush the tops with milk before I baked them) they were really golden coloured, tall and flaky on the outside but soft in the middle. We ate them with Vegemite spread all over them. Yum!

Vegemite, I think Aussies are born with a predisposition for the love of this stuff, we also take a tiny bit of pride (or maybe sick pleasure) in the fact that, with very few exceptions, people from other parts of the world absolutely dislike it in almost every way. I think it is a bit like Natto for Japan. My niece loves loves loves Natto and while it has taken me nearly 3 years, I now no longer gag when I smell it... I still can't bring myself to eat it.

Oops I did it again!!!

2011-09-09T17:00:00.001+08:00

well almost! Lucky for me I remembered before DH did!

Today is our wedding anniversary. We have only been married 5 years so I am more used to thinking of the day we met (back in July 1995) as our anniversary. I can't really believe that we have been together for 16 years now, I know it isn't really very long in the broad scheme of things, but in these times of disposable marriages I guess it is an achievement.

I read that wood is the traditional gift for a fifth wedding anniversary so I purchased a lovely locally made wooden box. It is made of Sheoak wood which is native to the southern corner of Western Australia (like me). It has a really lovely marble type of grain and is a much lighter and more golden colour than Marri or Jarrah (both also WA native trees). I filled the box with his favourite snack and I'll give it to him this evening.

No romantic dinners for us this evening though, Mr W chose home-made pizza for dinner tonight - but that is always a fun family activity. I better make a list of what we need from the store.

A busy day

2011-09-08T23:59:00.001+08:00

Today was a very busy (but awesome) day.

I took Mr W to school, listened to all this classmates reading, then zoomed back home to get ready for a one-on-one refresher temari class. Between 10 and 12 we played with temari, working on refining basic marking skills before venturing into marking a C10 then a quick demo on a take home C10 project. It was totally fun to have a session just focusing on temari with one student.

At 12pm I tore out of the house heading for the city to enjoy a birthday lunch with my bestie Louise. I gave her two handmade pendants, some perfume and a set of stacking retro (but funky coloured) mixing bowls.

I had planned to catch a train into the city but after driving around the station parking lot for more than 10 minutes I gave up and drove instead. I don't mind driving into Perth (except that every time I do the Council has changed the direction of traffic flow on yet another street) and I really dislike paying for parking there. I don't know what they charge in your city, but today I paid $12 for just under 2 hours. I am getting old (obviously) because I am getting to the point in my life when now regularly say "I can remember a time when..." and in this case the sentence ends with ... I parked for the entire day in that same parking garage for less than $12.

While I was waiting (I am a habitually early to arrive) I got to do some people watching. I love doing this, and I even make up stories to amuse myself based on what I observe. There were so many different types of people in the city today: people of all colours, nationalities and walks of life, people with silly things printed on their t-shirts, people listening with amusement to foul mouthed messages on their phone, people with armfuls of shopping bags, some with suitcases, others rotating maps while looking for street signs and even one man with a plush R2D2 backpack. It is really interesting and nice to see our once boring grey city becoming more vibrant through diversity.

Lunch was awesome, we ate at a small upstairs cafe and our table was on the balcony so we got to see and hear the street below. We had a really good catch up, shared all our new stories, lots of laughs and shared a great meal too. I had squid for the first time ever.

On the way back home my Mum called asking if I was very far away because she was locked out of my house (in our family everyone has keys to each others homes and can just let ourselves into each house whenever we need to - but DH and I changed a broken lock and I forgot to cut new keys for everyone) luckily I was just a few minutes away. We made a quick cup of tea before school pick up time and then when Mr W came home we walked up to the corner store for an ice cream. Before we knew it the time came to make dinner, delicious steak and vegetables followed by a custard dessert. Mum and Mr W played Monopoly while I made dinner. DH and I also started playing but then he got a phone call so Mr W made an executive decision and split all of his Dad's money between the three of us... then I started dinner and they shared out my assets and continued playing. Mr W had a dubious victory... we are all very certain he did more than a little cheating.

I was worn out by the time I fell into bed just before midnight.

Last Weekend

2011-09-06T19:00:00.002+08:00

On Saturday I spent the entire day cooking in my tiny kitchen. In the evening we went to Scitech (a technology and science themed entertainment venue). We got a family pass which meant we could take along one of Mr W's friends. It was really fun they had chickens hatching out of eggs in one area (I knew the answers to all the questions asked at this display thanks to all the research done from keeping our own chickens) lots of different experiment areas including water, gravity, electrical to name but a few. We saw a cool show where they used a Tesla coil to generate electricity and tried to make a composite identikit image of a 'criminal' being described by a 'victim'.

Sunday was Fathers' day. Mr W had an early 9am soccer match so the boys headed out to that while I stayed home and iced the cakes I'd made the previous day.

We usually give homemade gifts (of the foodie variety) for Father's day and flowers (or something handmade) for Mothers' day. These days retailers are so busy pushing their wares on us that many families have forgotten that these special days are actually days to recognise and give thanks to your parents for all the care and support they have provided (and still do once were grown adults). I don't know that a new car, dishwasher, jet ski or any other high priced consumer item says you love your parent more than a simple gift made and given with thought and love. Anyhow getting off my soapbox about that now...

So this is the list of what I made (with minor assistance from Mr W) for both my Step-dad and DH.
Caramel Popcorn
Coconut Rough
Speculaas Butter Cookies
Lemon Butter

We had a family lunch on Sunday to celebrate Fathers' day and also two birthdays. (Miho's and John's - our Step-dad). I was in charge of dessert - no great surprise right? So I made chocolate cupcakes for the kids and Hummingbird, and Lemon cakes (which I also used some of the batter to make cupcakes.) I also made the cutest mini lemon meringue and chestnut filled tarts. The little lemon tarts were so cute, but I forgot to take a photo of them before they were all gobbled up.

We had such a great day together, the ~~kids~~ children wandered down the road to look at the ~~baby goats~~ kids, the boys all took turns playing wii and Miss D showed us her inner ninja by kicking butt on Swordplay Showdown... she isn't even 4 yet but plays better than me. We were all exhausted by the end of the day... too much food and fun crammed onto the weekend.

Sunday was also one of my best friend's birthday. I had to miss the afternoon tea she had to celebrate it, but we will be catching up for a lunch-date sometime this week.

Today I made...

2011-09-01T12:00:00.003+08:00

Dairy Free Chocolate Cake and Coin purses.

The cake was for Miho's birthday. The recipe made A LOT of batter, I made mini cupcakes so the kids didn't eat too much cake and poured the left over batter into a round cake tin. I didn't test the round cake with a skewer and it ended up being a little undercooked (well moist anyway) which reminded me of fudgey brownies. We heated a slice up with ice-cream for dessert. Yum! I almost slipped into a diabetic coma!

Handy to hold a few notes and coin at the bottom of your beach bag, gym bag or to put your bus/train swipe card into, these coin purses are kind of cute. Actually I think these would also make a great orts container when stitching out and about. I used fabric scraps from my stash and the snaps I purchased last week to make these. They are really easy and fun to make, I really liked adding the snaps... there was something rather satisfying about bashing the heck out of the setting tool after a few very parentally frustrating days. Also it's much better to whack the snap than snap and whack the kid... don't you think?

The first one I made with patchwork patterned fabric, but the other was pieced together and then cut to the pattern shape. Note the Suica and Mt Fuji phone card in the bottom right image?? Yep I am all ready to travel on the JR system too bad the reality is the smart card for the Perth transport system... a girl can dream though!!!

It's Spring... well almost

2011-08-31T11:00:00.000+08:00

Tomorrow is the first day of spring. The days are getting longer and a little warmer. We are having our rain a little later than usual this year, and I don't mind because there are plenty of blue sky moments between the grey.

Our garden is coming back to life. This week we got the first blossoms on our Plum tree. I love to watch these blossoms arrive, because we don't get cold enough temperatures for real Cherry Blossom in Perth so this is the closest thing. One day I will get to drink sake under the Cherry blossoms in Japan.

I took this photo on the way back from School this morning. I love the little sparkles of rain on the flower (and I am amazed my camera managed to capture it).

There are lots of buds but just a few flowers at the moment so I am hoping for a nice show of flowers this year. I feel so lucky to have such a lovely tree in my yard. Also this year the Blue Irises are going gangbusters!!! We planted these several years ago and each year we leave them in the ground and cover them with a new layer of mulch for a bit of protection from the summer heat. I must say I am surprised to see them sprout new shoots every year and I a simply AMAZED that they multiply and flower so abundantly. Since we planted them, each year has gotten better and better.

There are Irises along almost the entire front of our yard. It reminds me of the Van Gogh painting of Irises which I have a print of hanging in my bedroom for many years. (I like Van Gogh and we have a print of Street Cafe in our dining area.) The pond should have some lily flowers soon, I forgot to take a picture last year, and you might see the red flecks in the pond which is our fishy family. There is a baby fish in our pond. I don't know how it got there (ok, I know how it got there) rather I am not sure when it was born but we first noticed it at the end of summer. So now there are 4 fish, 3 are about the length of my hand and then there is the little one but it is too well protected by the parents to see its actual size.

I also really like the Lillypilly hedge that borders this little corner of the garden. At this time of year it has a flush of new red growth which is just lovely. There will eventually be tulips popping up (I hope) and somewhere there is usually a single white Iris that flowers

Not too bad for a couple of black thumbs!

Workshop in Fremantle

2011-08-29T12:00:00.002+08:00

I have hijacked a most lovely group of ladies from their usual lace-making activities and I am slowly but surely turning them into temari addicts. Earlier this year we had a workshop and many of the ladies made their first ever C10 temari ball. In the last workshop we dabbled with C6 (a modified C8 division).

Here is a small selection of temari made in the August workshop in Fremantle. I love stitching time with this group of ladies. I do feel slightly guilty about getting you addicted to temari making, but I also think your temari are amazing.

Photograph courtesy Shirley B

See you all in October for the next instalment. Thanks to Shirley for organising everyone, opening your lovely home to us and sharing this photo.

Where did the week go?

2011-08-26T17:00:00.000+08:00

I can't believe it has been so many days since my last post! What have I been doing with myself? I took a trip to Bunbury down the new(ish) Forrest Highway. Spent a day trying to get a start on cleaning up my Mum's craft room while she was on holidays (I have neglected my own craft room... I can barely get a leg into it). Had Miss D for a sleep over, we baked several recipes, visited the park, did some artwork and painted our nails. Spent a day at Miho's helping out with all the kiddies because Mr M had overdosed on delicious strawberries and made himself sick - I completely understand him because who can stop at just one or two strawberries right? I also did a bunch of boring stuff that doesn't rate a mention and vegged out almost all day yesterday.

Maybe it is a planetary alignment thing but I have not been my usual very motivated self this week, not even in the crafty arts. Last night my Mum came for a sleepover and to spend some time with Mr W. Today we went out to some of our favourite stores together. Spotlight, Howards Storage and Kitchen Warehouse were some of the top shops we stopped at (goodness me try saying that last bit 3 times!). I think I am inspired again to play in the craft room.

The bird fabric cried out to come home with me!!!

Spotlight had lots of lovely fabrics in for Christmas and with 30 percent off the usual price. Wahoo!!! I got 3 really nice bits... I can see several machine sewing projects in my future. Mum purchased fabric for making some festive bunting. I also got a few odds and ends for some little projects I've got planned.

Never used any of these things before.

I am going to challenge myself to using a few new craft materials I've not considered before. I have made covered buttons using a giant pressing machine in a furniture factory when I was a kid, but never using these self covering button kits. The snaps look interesting too. Don't even ask me about the Sculpey, I think I am going mad but I want to try to do something with it.

So hard to find Aust Standard Measuring spoons (1Tbs=20ml)

I also purchased a new set of measuring spoons and a whisk set at the kitchenware store. I snapped my tablespoon measure measuring butter while making cupcakes with the kids last week. The new set is a bit deluxe and I hope they last me another 20 years.

Ok I didn't get these last things on my trip today but I hadn't shared them yet so here they are, a new calico bag and cute milk jug from New Norcia. I took the bag to Spotlight with me today and they gave me a card that rewards you for every purchase taken home in your own bag. I like that they are rewarding us for thinking about caring for our planet by utilising reusable shopping bags. The jug was purchased to use for pouring lip balms etc because it is thin and microwavable... the whisk above is also for that same purpose.

I have been gathering temari making ideas this week but I wont get time to stitch anything until next week. I did see a lovely glass vase that came up to my hip today. With very wide eyes I asked my Mum how many temari she thought I'd fit into it. She reminded me it was a (just) little narrow at the base so thankfully I didn't purchase it. What a lifesaver and I'm sure my DH will be grateful!

Day Tripping... and Temari Inspiration

2011-08-21T19:40:00.001+08:00

Yesterday we took a day trip out to New Norcia. This lovely, peaceful town is entirely a Benedictine Community tucked away just 1.5 hours north of Perth. I am sure I must have been to New Norcia as a child but I don't remember it and as an adult I have always wanted to go there. We took along Mr W's friend Mr C, they found all the history a bit too much at times (they saw the AFL goals and wanted to kick a football) so to keep them 'manageable' while on the tour I gave Mr W my camera and Mr C my camera phone. All the images in this post have been taken by the boys.

Photographers Mr C and Mr W

What is the most impressive thing about New Norcia? Hmmm it is hard to say, the buildings are wonderful, there is 164 years worth of amazing heritage to see, an incredible art and history gallery to experience, but maybe the most surprising feature of this township is the sense of peace and tranquility which is felt everywhere.

Pax (the Latin word for Peace) is the motto of the Benedictine Monks of New Norcia and it is central to their daily life. We took a 2 hour tour through the town, our guide (Roy) was a previous student of the St Ildephonsus boarding school and had great knowledge of the history and workings of the area. The land area 15 kilometres East and West of the town and 5 kilometres North and South all belong to the Benedictine community. They grow canola in many of the fields and there are many vistas of gold to be seen in all directions.

Canola Fields in New Norcia

The Benedictine Monks escaped religious persecution in Spain back in the mid 1800's and fled to Italy where they met an Australian who suggested they return with him to Western Australia to do some ministerial work with the 'natives'. Their 20 acre parcel of allotted land was expanded and became the town of New Norcia, they established a mission and school settlement and became self sufficient. It is said that during a rather savage bush fire that threatened the Monastery the Bishop Salvado (the founder of New Norcia) held the painting Our Lady Good Counsel facing the fire and prayed for help, at that time the winds weakened, changed direction and the fire burnt itself out. The Aborigines that witnessed this are said to have remarked that the white woman was very powerful. Prayer answered, lucky coincidence or a bit of both it's up to everyone to decide, either way it is a colourful bit of history.

We purchased some really delicious New Norcia Bakehouse bread and a few other trinkets at the gift shop including a calico shopping bag and a beautiful milk jug.
Here are a few more photos of town... at the end you'll see some temari inspiration:

Mr W sitting on the Monastery step, a close up of the inner door behind.

Chapel Pipe Organ. Look at the keys... a shortage of Ivory?

New Norcia Church

And now for some temari inspiration. Can you see the shapes I see?

Stained Glass in Chapel

Doorway at St Gertrudes

Various Pressed Tin Ceiling Finishes

Wall Finishes in Chapel

Monastery Gate to Monk's Private Residence

Explore Temari Site

2011-08-19T10:43:00.000+08:00

Debi Abolt has long run an amazing site called TemariMath.Info. It is a place I have visited many times, there are mathematical studies on many aspects of temari making (many of which make my head spin to varying degrees) and there is a notebook section in which are so many amazing temari featured along with the notes kept for replicating the design. I think this site is a great resource for all temari makers and an excellent example of how to keep an organised temari notebook which records not only the basics such as the size of the ball, threads used and scratch notes on the method but also the source of the design, illustrations and notes on Debi's experience stitching each project. And that she is willing to share all this with the temari community WOW amazing.

Explore Temari Homepage

Over the last couple of years Debi has been quietly working on her new site ExploreTemari, and this week she launched it for the www to see. I really love the new search feature which allows you to browse the gallery for temari by various criteria: size, source, and keywords (such as stitch types and divisions) to name but a few. There is also a resource section where information about all the source materials can be found and also a glossary for terminology. I haven't found the notebook patterns associated with the images in the Browse tab but I hope they are there somewhere or will be added at a later date (especially the lovely pink and orange one featured in the top right of the homepage banner - it is lush!!!)

Did I say wow before? Well I'll say it again WOW WOW WOW what an amazing job at putting together this new website. Thanks Debi!

Musical movement temari

2011-08-10T08:00:00.005+08:00

I mentioned in my last post that I have been toying with the idea of musical temari for a long time. I have a tendency to be a bit frugal (let's say I am a cautious spender) so I want to get the biggest bang for every crafting buck I spend. While the musical mari bases I've seen available aren't that really too expensive, they do represent a much larger investment than the rice hull I use for my cores. Add to that the fact I am easily bored and want a new 'special' temari for each Christmas, I'd need to buy a new musical core every year.

So here is my cunning plan for a musical temari with the bonus of movement, the bare bones of the concept at least.

As you can see from the picture above, the music box itself is tiny. I've removed the winding key and added a Perspex shelf which doubles as a winder. I've also got a smaller shelf but I'm still playing around with the components to see what works best. I picked up 6 boxes which play various tunes... I see temari gift giving in my future.

I am going to look for small (possibly) wooden box to house the music maker which is sitting inside a cute Mor Marshmallow body cream box (my favourite body product!) in the video below. I've stacked the musical movement on top of my camera battery charger in the box and punched a small hole in the lid for the stem of the turntable.

The tune being played is called Everything is Beautiful... (I think it should be renamed Every Temari's Beautiful)

So what do you think? Good concept? Silly idea? Unworkable? Any ideas to improve it? Post a comment and let me know.

Weekend Workshop

2011-08-08T22:35:00.001+08:00

Last weekend we had another two day Temari making workshop.

Like Christmas, workshops require a lot of planning and preparation. As the day approaches a nervous excitement begins to build, I wonder if the everything I've planned will be well received and hope the designs provided will be the right mix of learning, challenge and fun. Also like Christmas, no sooner have we sat down to begin the workshop and in a flash it is all over and it is time to pack away and go home again.

Shirley opened her home to hold the workshop, which was so kind, and we got to see the wonderful view of the Indian Ocean from her home's very large windows. It was just amazing that every time I looked out of the window the ocean and sky appeared so different.

We were treated to the sound of many ticking, striking and chiming clocks through the weekend. I really love the sound of ticking clocks (but not ticking wrist watches which always keep me awake for some reason) and having a bunch of them in the room all ticking away was wonderful. I never really thought about it before but each clock has its' own unique sound and some of the clocks had such beautiful melodies, they made me think about musical Temari bases.

I have long considered making a musical Temari base but I figured that having a lovely Chirstmassy tune coming out of just one Temari was a bit of a waste. I know... maybe I am easily bored or just a bit fickle but I want to prepare a new and special Christmas Temari every year. So I have been mulling over this idea of musical Temari for a while and I've come up with a cunning plan which involves sound and movement.

I haven't quite worked out all the specs but I'll share the bare bones of the idea tomorrow.

Answering emails... Where to find Temari Classes in Australia

2011-08-05T23:04:00.001+08:00

I get emails on a regular basis which are seeking the answers to many Temari related questions, lots of them ask similar things. So seeing as I haven't got any new stitching to show today (I'm packing up for a 2 day workshop) I thought I'd share another recent email.

The writer is interested in starting temari making and asked about the possibility of finding Temari classes in Victoria because she wanted to see temari making in action as the books at her local library just didn't do it for her.

Promoting temari making... well I am all about that, so here are my suggestions.

I am not sure which books you have been looking through, there are some good ones I highly recommend for beginners.

Making temari is really the most enjoyable creative pursuit I have discovered but I too found it tough going working from a book alone when I started out. Sometimes I would get lost in between Picture A and Picture B on the page... sometimes there really is no substitute for moving pictures to show technique. (I know those of us lucky enough to have attended a real live class will agree)

The only place I know in Victoria that takes classes is Kimono House . I am not sure how often the classes run, but several ladies in Victoria have attended them previously. (I really must get around to calling them to find out more about the workshops they offer to Temari makers.) There are also some stitching videos in the temarikai website toolkit, but these deal more with executing various stitches once the temari has been prepared for stitching.

I run workshops in Perth from time to time (and I am honoured to have a lady who travels from Victoria to attend some of these). Also I think some CWA branches and embroidery associations around Australia may also run classes occasionally (if they have a temari maker in their local guild).

I also have a video tutorial series available from my store which shows how to wrap, mark and stitch 2 designs. There are also printable copies of the pattern and shopping lists on the disk which give advice on the best type of threads, needles, etc... to use which will make starting out a breeze. Just pop the disk into your computer and off you go.

I hope that this information is helpful, please don't hesitate to make contact again for any further assistance.

Here is a heads up for my fellow Australian temari makers. If you are interested in reaching out to other potential temari addicts (or forming a local group) in the Real World just drop me a line and I can try to put you in touch with someone else in your area. I know there are now temari makers living in most Australian States.

ITAD Competition 1 and 2 winners...

2011-08-03T18:12:00.000+08:00

have been announced click over to the ITAD site to see all the details.

Also I have been playing with some new features on this blog and I've added a new icon to the address. Oooh fun!!! Now I'll just need to go to the ITAD page and do the same.

:)

My ITAD logo ball entry at Flickr

2011-07-31T22:48:00.000+08:00

This has sure been a busy week. Mr W started back at school and I've been to visit my gorgeous niece and nephews several times. There have been cupcakes and cookies baked, and we even had one of Mr W's school mates over for the whole day on Saturday when (amongst other fun stuff) we made animal face soap.

All this extra activity has put me a bit behind on my temari stitching... but I finally got my ITAD ball completed and added to the Flickr group today. There are some other really nice temari which have been added by others... click over and have a look, remember to vote for your favorite.

Temari making in Indonesia makes the news.

2011-07-29T00:00:00.001+08:00

The Indonesia Temari Association is currently holding an exhibition at the Japan Foundation in Jakarta. In August they will also be holding temari making classes. More details can be found at the Jakarta Globe.

Last year the Japan Foundation held an exhibition in October at Jakarta. There is an article here about it. Check out the amazing Ikebana styled temari display picture. Wow that is an achievement in engineering!

Temari making is slowly but surely stitching its' way across the entire world.

Answering emails... Where to buy temari books

2011-07-28T13:00:00.001+08:00

I get emails on a regular basis which are seeking the answers to many temari related questions, lots of them ask similar things. So seeing as I haven't got any new stitching to show today (I've been pattern writing this week) I thought I'd share one recent email.

The writer asked about a magazine that regularly has temari patterns or to recommend a retailer and books to help encourage her Mother in continuing with temari making.

Promoting temari making... well I am all about that, so here are my suggestions.

There are no magazines (I am aware of) which regularly feature temari making but there are several books written in English about this craft.
You can find a post on this blog where you will find details about temari books. Some shop front book stores may be willing/able to order in these books for you if you provide the ISBN, Author's Name or Book Title.

The English language books I recommend are Barbara B Suess and Mary Wood. There is also a 5 volume series of temari books written by Diana Vandervoort, (personally I don't find them very easy to follow - but then that is just me, many other people find these texts a wonderful resource).

I don't retail the English language books but I do sell most of the in print Japanese titles and an excellent range of temari making threads, needles etc. from my supply store.

On the Internet there are several good places to visit for free patterns. Once you have learned the basic stitching and marking techniques Debi Abolt's Temari Math Info site has a wonderful range of patterns. You can also go to TemariKai to view a toolbox of techniques. [I omitted the reference to TK in my email because I hit send too soon - silly me - also TK has 9 pages of free patterns too.]

I run workshops in Perth from time to time and I think some local CWA branches and embroidery associations around Australia also do this occasionally (if they have a temari maker in their local guild).

I hope that this information is helpful, please don't hesitate to make contact again for any further assistance.

Hope that information is a good start point for anyone interested in beginning temari making.

I'm an Aunty

2011-07-26T12:00:00.001+08:00

Again!!!

My brother and sister in law's much anticipated baby boy has arrived! He is quite a little night owl too arriving at 2:10am on July 22nd. A little smaller than his big brother at 3460g (7lb10oz I think) but just as cute. Like his big sister, brother and even bigger cousin he is gorgeous.

Miho did an amazing job, using no pain relief at all. Unfortunately I didn't get to learn any new Japanese 'bad language' during the labour. There really are no words to express how in awe I am because of the incredible person she is. My brother Seth was an excellent support person, they really are a fantastic team.

I had the honour of cutting the cord, which was surprisingly tricky to do. When I came home I had to apologise for the occasional ribbing I'd given DH through the last 9 years after he struggled with the same task when Mr W was born. I guess I am better with embroidery scissors than those blunt duck-billed hospital ones, but I did manage it after the midwife kindly teased me a little.

Team KAT: Miss D, Mr H, Mr W and Mr M

Team KAT is what I've dubbed our collective kids and represents our original and married surnames. They are all having their first hold of the baby in the photo above, Mr M looks like he is wriggling away to get another cupcake.

Miss D had called me to let me know 'the baby is coming today' and promptly requested cupcakes to celebrate. How could I resist?? Of course I made lemon cupcakes decorated with blue sugar hearts on top. I packed them in my bag and took them to the hospital with me before Mr H arrived.

OMG that must have hurt!

2011-07-25T09:00:00.001+08:00

Both our Isa Browns are finally back on the lay which is wonderful because it means 12-14 yummy brown shelled eggs from them each week. In addition to these we are also enjoying blue shelled eggs from both Auracana chickens (6-8 eggs per week). Last week our Polish/RIR started laying too, she has laid 4 eggs in the 6 days she has been laying and they have a lovely creamy pink tint on the shell. You might remember this is the chicken we got in exchange for the Rooster we gave back to the breeder a few weeks back. So the only hen not to be laying is our Andelusian... maybe she is sad that her Rooster buddy is gone or just hasn't matured enough yet to begin laying. This week we have gathered a grand total of 23 eggs.

Scratchy (the Isa Brown who had the horrible moult earlier this year) had not laid for about 3 months but since she has restarted her eggs are increasingly large. The weight and size of her eggs have grown from 50grams (1.76oz) to 60grams then 67 grams to 75grams and today her egg was a whopping 82grams (2.89oz).

Here is a picture of Itchy and Scratchy's eggs today.

These are Vegemite, Toetoe and Puffle's eggs.

And here is a comparison of the eggs from smallest to largest.

What's stitching this week

2011-07-24T12:00:00.001+08:00

Over the last month or so I have found myself more than slightly enamoured with C6 marking. There are two ways to mark this division, either by marking a S6 and adding additional lines at points determined by calculating a formula or by starting a S4 without and adding additional diagonal lines from the equator. Both methods are explained in the toolbox section of TemariKai.

I like the second method (it avoids most of the maths). Once outlined in green a C6 gives you 4 nicely sized triangle faces to experiment with. I have played with the arrangement of the colours on each one and I've shown each face in the last picture. Which colour sequence do you thin is best? I think I prefer dark petals on the outer edge.

I have also really enjoyed seeing some net stitched (Amime-giku) designs on recent web searches and so the idea sprang into my mind to combine both ideas. So far I've made 3 with each getting better as I go.

Round 1:

Round 2:

Round 3:

I think that the 3rd one is my favourite, the green base on the second one was just too out there colour-wise. I think I am going to take a leaf out of Rod's blog (Jtex) and invest in one of those colour wheel thingys, his colour choices are always right on target. I also found this cool colour wheel gadget on the web, I've bookmarked it for future reference.

I really like this netting look and I plan to play around with this style a little more.

My JTA Temari Submission

2011-07-23T12:00:00.000+08:00

I just realised I haven't shared the pictures of my temari which I submitted to the JTA in June as consideration for the Koutouka level.

Sorry to have overlooked this, I guess my excitement at everyone's successes just got away with me and I simply forgot to share my own temari.

C8 Group 2011

C10 Group 2011

Level 1 Group 2010

I know there are a few years before I can even consider making a submission for Level 3 but the dark, quiet spaces in the back of my mind are percolating ideas already... which is a good thing because it will take a long time for me to develop enough original temari designs which are stitched with a suitable level of excellence to be considered worthy of Shihan status.

Road trip to nowhere

2011-07-22T17:00:00.004+08:00

Out on the open road

Last week we took a road trip to... home. It was a nice day for driving so we set out for destinations unknown.

Mr W chose the direction we would drive toward by spinning around several times then randomly pointing and checking the direction with his compass. DH did all the driving, usually we swap but he was happy to drive the whole way, he suggested that it will be my turn to drive a whole trip next time... I bet we will be heading out to Road Train territory. Oh how I do hate driving with road trains.

We headed Northeast to York and did a loop around to the South past Beverley and Brookton and turned back West and home via Armadale. All up we travelled almost 350km and had lunch in York (and visited the candy store again). Mr W proved he can run really fast across the suspension pedestrian bridge, after several attempts he managed to cross and return in just 20 seconds... but had to get helped back to the car because he was so exhausted. A nice (and clever) way to get a free piggyback if you ask me!

It was amazing to see how different the countryside looked since we visited back in April. I took a few pictures of the beautiful green fields.

Sorry we're travelling at 110kph, but look sheep!

In April this was dusty, brown and barren.

Love that sky

I adore the spots of blue peeking through the beautiful clouds and those lush green fields.

A cool looking gnarled dead gum tree, sorry still doing 110kph.

We had afternoon tea in Beverly and played a few hands of Uno in the park there. We didn't stop at Brookton because we wanted to get home to collect the eggs before our chickens went to bed.

What a great day together.

Revisiting an older design

2011-07-21T16:00:00.000+08:00

Remember the C10 starry design series of temari I made earlier in the year? I guess I hadn't finished tinkering with it yet because a few new ideas have evolved lately. I have stitched the first idea... it wasn't too successful, nice enough but leaves me with a 'Meh' kind of feeling.

This was done using a rainbow variegated thread. I'm not sure if the reason it doesn't grab me is the paleness of the colours or the thinness of the thread. I hadn't used this thread before (it is called Mercer #40 and I guess it is for crochet???) but I liked the colours well enough in the store to give it a go. I think perhaps it might work better on one of those spirograph flower designs. The link will take you to Glenna's webshots album

I thought I had published this post already (on July 18th), but seeing as I hadn't, I've added idea 2 now that it is finished. I quite like how it turned out, and I can't say I remember seeing anything exactly like this before. Perhaps it is original?? or at least I came across the idea from within myself after wondering what if about other temari I had made. I don't think we can call it a Renzoku design though now that the colour changes within each shape.

From Urban Dictionary: Meh is an interjection used to imply indifference towards a subject; "a verbal shrug". This particular interjection has somehow become quite popular among teens, the reason for this popularity is a mystery. Other popular interjections are "bleh", "dah", and "mih". Usu. pronounced shortly, without eye contact or body movement.

"You wanna go to the mall?"
"Meh, I have nothing to do for the rest of the day..." etc.

Mmm mandarins

2011-07-20T12:00:00.005+08:00

We're right in the middle of winter and all our delicious citrus trees are bearing fruit. We have had so many limes that we sent Mr W around to place a bag on all the neighbours doorsteps. Our lemons are going gang busters too. I've squeezed a load of them and placed the juice in the freezer to use later. The orange and kumquat trees aren't doing much this year... they are both in pots and suffered badly with our long, dry summer.

The mandarin tree is a big success this year. I can't remember ever eating fruit off this tree before, but this year they are just delicious... and there are lots of them.

Tinkering with design

2011-07-16T12:00:00.000+08:00

Sorry for not posting in a while, the sky over Perth has been dark grey for so many days but today was sunny enough for some photography.

The last 3 temari I've made have all been variations of the same design. I really like playing with the colours and seeing what difference (if any) it makes to the overall look of the temari.

Round one:

Round two:

Round three:

Can you work out what was changed or do they all look the same? I am thinking of further embellishment on the 3rd temari, I have used removable marking thread on this one... but then again I might just remove the marking thread and leave the illusion of the design floating on the temari surface.

Today I made...

2011-07-10T09:00:00.001+08:00

home made soap from scratch by the cold process method.

Well actually it was Tuesday when I made these but I only got to cut into it today. It was fun but scary to make as I had to use a lye solution to saponify the oil mixture which resulted in soap. I must admit I don't really like the fragrance very much (I think it is called Linden Blossom) but decided to use it in case I mucked up the batch. I am a bit more confident to make the next batch in a few weeks with the other fragrance (the one I prefer) that came in the kit. I didn't add any colour to this batch, but the next batch will have green clay added to it.

It was really fun but I heated the oil a little too hot so it all took a long time to get to a the temperature required to mix with the lye water. Ok so the cutting is dodgy but I am sure this will improve too. Also I'm not sure how much these will shrink as the curing time is when the water component evaporates away. We can also cut the pieces in half later on if they are still too big. The darker marks are loofah shred. DH fashioned me a cutter out of bamboo and wire fishing trace. Now that I see the photo it looks a bit like a 'kill' kit especially with the latex gloves on the left of shot. I can assure you the ONLY thing we dismembered was soap.

I did lots of net researching and read a few e-books about soap making before I did this project but the best resource was from soapqueen tv. There are four videos in the cold process soap series and I watched them all at least twice before I started.

Now I just need to wait and wait for 4-6 weeks to let it cure before we can use it. Lucky I am getting more patient with age.

2011 International Temari Appreciation Day on October 22

2011-07-09T14:54:00.000+08:00

There are just over 3 months (105 days) until October 22 a.k.a. International Temari Appreciation Day a.k.a. ITAD.

Here is a quick challenge for all of you who write a blog or have a website.

We want you to give our craft's special day a shout out so please write a post to let your readers know about ITAD and then make a comment with a link to your page at the ITAD blog. You can write about what you did to celebrate ITAD last year, what you plan to do to celebrate this year, add a button to your page, suggest your readers enter our new 2010 logo competition or anything else temari related... just remember to provide a link so your readers can find the ITAD blogspot.

One entrant will win $15 of threads from the Temari Addict Australia Supply Store.

Here's the small print: You can enter more than once, so if you have multiple blogs or web pages you need to make a separate comment with a link for each page you wish to enter. You must provide a link to direct readers to the ITAD blog in your page.The prize threads totalling AUD$15 can be chosen from any range but shade selections will be from current stock only so please be aware we may not have all shades available. The winner will be announced on the ITAD blog on July 30th at 6pm. You will need to provide a postal address for delivery of your prize before August 10th or the prize will be re-drawn. All competition times are Western Australian Standard Time.

There is also another ITAD competition running but you will need to visit the ITAD blog to learn all the details.

Big Fun with Little People

2011-07-09T09:00:00.003+08:00

On Thursday we were lucky to have Miss D for a sleep over. It has been ages, maybe more than a year (?) since she came and stayed over night so we tried to make it a big treat.

On Thursday afternoon, after playing for several hours at my Mum's house, we got some shopping and fuelled up the car then we picked up Mr W from school. Off home to cook cookie pressed butter cookies. Miss D made heart shapes and Mr W made Christmas tree shapes. Next it was lots of fun with the neighbourhood kids playing basket ball and hide and seek in the garden. After dinner it was time for a nice long soak in the tub with some Japanese Bath Salts - which start out orange but turn the bath water green. Then it was story time and time for bed.

On Friday morning we made pancakes for breakfast. Miss D asked for mini ones. I made her a very small one and she said 'No Auntie, not small ones, Minnie ones!' Then I understood she meant Minnie Mouse shaped ones. We took Mr W to school and made a big puzzle with some of his classmates because it was Fun Family Friday. We got the puzzle finished before the bell rang so everyone got a token in their jar. Mr W got three because he also got one for each family member he had brought to school.

Back at home Miss D and I made soaps. Lots of mini shaped soaps (about 1.5kg altogether) which were made into hearts, 2 types of fish, flowers, stars and disk shapes. When they set we counted them out and packaged them up into little bags. We made some tags and tied them on with ribbons which Mr W later helped to write the names onto. After lunch we made some lip balm pots. Miss D wanted Raspberry and Chocolate flavoured balms. Next we wrote a shopping list and went to the store for a few things to make a roast lamb dinner.

We got back just in time to pick up Mr W from school and after a play on the monkey bars we came home for a snack. After running around the yard for a while and feeding the chickens/collecting eggs they both settled on the sofa to watch a movie and chat while I got the meat and vegetable ready for the oven. Just as I got everything in the oven (at about 4:30pm) I noticed that the conversation had stopped... Miss D has completely run out of energy and had fallen asleep.

The only thing we didn't get to do was paint Miss D's nails - we'll do that next time.

Soon Seth, Miho and Mr M arrived for dinner and DH came home from work. We ate dinner - we were all so hungry - and then we played a few rounds of UNO (Miss D and I were a team) and Mr M entertained us with some of his new comedy routines. He is so cute and finally beginning to come around to liking to be with me... maybe next time we can have him for a sleep over too.

Insert Happy Dance Here

2011-07-05T09:00:00.022+08:00

Almost every night before bed I check my emails. Being in a time zone approximately 12 hours apart from many people I communicate with on the Internet makes this something of a necessity. Last night I didn't check my messages before bed, instead I sat by the heater and stitched temari (yes it was -0.4C and now it is July we are using the heating sparingly).

This morning at 7:30am I logged on to check my messages while we ate breakfast. I saw a e-card from Barb and it told me I had passed my Level 2 JTA submission. How exciting I am now Koutouka!!! I am glad I didn't know late last night or I may not have been able to get to sleep.

I really want to give thanks to Ai for facilitating and supporting all of us that choose to follow the path of JTA accreditation Without Ai's kind assistance it is doubtful that any Westerner would have such opportunities. Also thanks must be given to Barb who held my hand, gently encouraged and supported my learning efforts over the past 2 years while I was making this journey.

I am sure many other people passed their submissions for various levels too. To date I know that Glenna Kipp has passed her Level 4 Kyoujyu (now a Professor of Temari) and I saw a notice on TT about Anne too (but I am not sure about the level she had submitted).

Congratulations everyone.

Now let the happy dance begin!!!

Thanks too Deb from Sydney who had already sent me an email to congratulate me this morning.

Here is a sample ball pattern that was part of the submission.

In English:

In Japanese:

Today I made...

2011-06-30T18:00:00.000+08:00

Roll-on perfumes.

First for some good news... I have beaten the cold bug and feel fine again (my DH has caught a cold though it seems to not be the one I had because he is losing his voice too) and some small bad news... my right elbow is aching (for some reasons unknown) so I haven't been stitching at all for the last few days.

I've needed to do something to fill in my time so I have been playing around with my soap and cosmetic making supplies. Remember a few weeks back when I made lip balm? Since then I've made some solid perfume balms for my Mum (trying to replicate a scent that she loves but is no longer available to purchase) which were packaged in some small lip balm pots. They smelled divine and Mum loved them.

Today I got the idea to make a roll-on perfume. It is packaged in these cute little roller ball topped bottles and I made four different scents. The first was the same as the balm I made last week, and the remaining three were made because I couldn't narrow down the definite scent that I liked the most. They were totally easy to make just a slosh of this a splash of that and pop on the lid. In fact the little labels I made to go on the bottles to about 10 times longer to produce than the perfume did. Weird huh?!

Also today I remelted some of my tubed lip balms from earlier in the month. It was fabulous in the little pots, just the right consistency but a complete failure in the tube that I had been trialling. Actually it feels wonderful on my lips but it is rather soft and will wind up (but not down) and can only really be applied by patting it on my lips and I prefer to smear it on. So today I got a little cosmetic beeswax and added it to the tube mixture. Still not quite happy this time it is a little too hard (and my tester doesn't feel as nice on my lips) so tomorrow I will remelt it again and have another go. The third time will hopefully be a charm.

I also picked up a starter kit for making my own soap from SCRATCH. I am really nervous about doing this cold process soap making as it requires adding highly alkaline liquid to melted fats and oils and then letting nature take its course. I am sure I can manage it but I just don't want to burn a hole in the bench, myself or any other object in my home. I hope it will be fun and safe to make but I'm not exactly looking forward to the 6 weeks it will take to cure and dry before we can use it.

Another year older... but am I any wiser?

2011-06-29T09:00:00.001+08:00

Short answer? No probably not. Long answer? Maybe, but it is too soon to tell for sure as my day was only on the 23rd.

Last week I had my X9th birthday, it was a fairly subdued event. I don't like too much fuss and fanfare directed at me, I prefer to get excited about other people's birthdays. I am at the point where I've had enough birthdays to realise that reaching each additional one is an achievement (and a blessing) but not enough to wish I could begin counting backwards each year.

I did get some lovely pressies and my Mum and StepDad took all the family out for dinner to celebrate. Miho and Seth gave me some cute gifts from Zakka Box. There store motto is Nothing You Need But All You Want, I think that is really cute and a very honest sales pitch. Miho and I must pop in for a look... I bet it is full to the brim of gorgeous things I couldn't possibly go home without. ;) Here is a selection of all the little treats I received - also the rug (in the background) is a new one from my Mum.

I planned a girls day with my Mum for my birthday, we rarely get time just for the two of us to natter about everything and nothing at all and just enjoy each others company. Usually our time together is filled with the happy bustle of making kids snacks and giving foot rubs, tripping over toys, giving back tickles, painting very tiny finger nails, looking at ant bites, and building cushion forts etc. Of course we both adore doing all those things too, but sometimes at the end of a visit we realise we never got time to say more than 4 words to each other amongst the happy hubub.

I arrived a bit earlier than expected because the traffic was so light. I let myself in with my key (as I always do) and found the house quiet and dark. I guessed Mum was having a well earned lie in (a rare indulgence for her as she is always so busy helping us all the time) so I quietly set about doing some of her chores. I hung out the washing, brought in and folded the dry washing, put away the ironing board, washed the few dishes in the sink and wiped down all the bench tops. Then I looked around for something else to do but there wasn't too much (quiet) left so I sat on the sofa and flipped through a few coffee table books. After about 20 minutes I was bored so I decided to unpack the dishwasher. I figured I couldn't do it without making some noise with the pots and pans and I didn't want to have a panicked mother calling 000 (911) to report me as an intruder so I used my mobile phone to call her house phone. When Mum answered I softly said good-morning and that I'd try to be quiet while I unpacked the dishwasher... to take her time getting up and I'd put the tea-kettle on in a little while.

We visited a book wholesaler together and I got Speedcleaning by Shannon Lush. I hate housework and cleaning, always have but I am hopeful with all the great strategies in this book I can't say I always will. I spent the day on Saturday testing out some of the ideas. I must say for the first time ever I actually felt like my bathrooms were clean when I finished cleaning them. I have been scouring ebay for some of the other books in this series.

I stretched my birthday to the weekend by indulging in some cooking. I made some more Raspberry Jam because believe it or not all that I had made last week was eaten or given away and I also stayed home from Mr W's soccer match which was held at Mandurah (a 2 hour round trip from our home ugh!) to cook up more tomato sauce for our pasta dishes.

We had the first bottle of sauce with our dinner tonight... I hope it isn't too boastful to say it was absolutely delicious.

Blue Stars Class Design

2011-06-28T18:00:00.000+08:00

I have finally finished the main design from Barb Suess' Blue Stars class. I love this design and the class was fun to take. I especially liked watching the videos that were included in the class this time.

I'm not sure how keen I am on doing the spider-web back-stitching required for this design and I suspect it is one of the reasons I dawdled on completing it... apart from my elbow which has been sore and resulting in me avoiding hand stitching a bit lately. The design really looks great with the lovely red centres so I couldn't imagine not stitching the spider-webs.

I will complete the other designs provided in this class in the near future but for now I have some other temari that need attention.