Something promised... and the promise of something good

Yesterday I wrote about the ladybug temari I have been working as part of the TC stitch-a-long... that just finished. Did I mention yesterday I am really far behind? I am sure I did... and here is the proof.

The good news is that I had my lovely niece for a sleepover on Sunday night and when I asked her what I was stitching on  this temari she said without even pausing "Oh they are ladybugs Auntie!" So at least I know I am on the right track even though I am way behind.

We had such a busy Sunday. Mr W's soccer match was at 11am, then DH was asked to referee the match that followed. We didn't leave the ground until after 1:15pm. Then we dashed to collect Mr W who had gone home with a friend. Actually not only did we collect Mr W, but his friend came with us too, together we headed home for a quick bite of lunch and an equipment change before heading off to DH's soccer match at a soccer ground on the other side of the city. DH hasn't played for a few years but his old team was desperate and begged him to play this game. This game started at 3:30pm (we made it just in time) and we sat through several rain storms and saw really passionate, spirited soccer - I learned a  few new swear words - and watched DH get taken out big time. I heard the cracking sound from the opposite side of the field, he actually laid on the pitch for ages before he could get up again. Don't worry he's a tough guy and there are no permanent injury (although I did keep checking on him for the following 24 hours because it was his head that got cracked). Good news is that his team won 1-0 (not as good as Mr W's team that won 9-0). I took a bunch of craft books from the library by Barb Suess with Kathy Hewitt (9781933308210) and Kumiko Sudo (9781933308043 and 9781933308142) and I read them during the rain breaks. At 5:30 we were leaving the soccer ground and went to pick up Miss D for her sleepover, then drove back to Fremantle to drop off Mr W's buddy before heading for home. Phew what a big day!

What do you do if you can't pick between 5 colours? Paint them all of course!

Today I spent the day with Miss D. Another busy day!! We took Mr W to school then, painted her nails (in five shades of varnish), baked cupcakes, pressed out icing flowers and leaves, decorated cookies with royal icing, did some washing, played with and fed the chickens, same for the dog, had lunch, cleaned up again, picked up Mr W from school, met Miho and my nephews, took all the kids to the skate park, came home again, cooked dinner, cleaned up again, played with everyone, bathed the kids, ate dinner and said goodbye as they all headed off home.

But the most fun and indeed most satisfying thing we did today was let Miss D make her own temari ball. I stitched a little on my ladybug temari and Miss D chose the thread wrap and wrapped most of it herself (I did the final layer) and then she chose her own threads while I went looking for a suitable needle (a bit thicker and not so sharp or long as the type I use). Then off and on all day she kept going back to her temari and stitching a bit more on it. I was so pleased she willingly went back to stitching on it. She didn't stab herself (or anyone else) with the needle and I just let her go at it after I showed her how to take a stitch and how to thread the needle. A totally freestyle temari stitched by her apart from a heart she asked me to make for her because she said she couldn't quite get it right.  Here is a progress shot.

Miss D's (4 years old) first temari in progress.

After this she chose some deep purple to add to the lavender and metallic red threads. I did try to stitch down the long piece of thread until she said "Hey hey hey Auntie don't break my hanger please!" The finished ball got wrapped up during the dinner preparations (before I thought about taking another picture) so she can give it to her Papa when he returns from a business trip.

Perhaps she will ask to make another temari some other day... I hope so!

Chucking it down

After a long hot (and fairly dry but not as much as last years') summer we are getting the first good Autumn rain today. It is raining fairly hard, hence the phrase 'chucking it down' which just means raining hard. It was reported in our local news that for the first time in almost a decade the whole of Australia is free from drought. Lucky us! It has been so dry for so long that we let some of our gutters get a bit old and ignored a rust spot by the front door... now the rain funneling through the small hole in the gutter, falling onto the pavement path and driving me nuts. I'll be lucky to sleep at all tonight if it keeps up.

On the positive side (not that I am failing to see the positive of the lovely rain) I am catching up on my Ladybug temari that I am stitching with the TC stitch-a-long. I realise that everyone else is almost finished but that doesn't bother me. I marked my C10 weeks ago and planned to add marking lines to make a T6... but I just couldn't get motivated to do the marking. I did pin out about 1/4 of the ball but things kept getting in front of doing this... like working at a new job, school holidays, baby shower, birthday and funeral wake baking.

Image from: http://www.how-to-draw-cartoons-online.com/

This week I decided to abandon the plans for additional markings on my temari and just start stitching as a C10. This means that there will only be 20 ladybugs to stitch and 12 areas for flowers and lots of in between places for smaller blossoms and leaves.  I have decided to make my ladybugs follow each other around a path on the ball, like when you stitch a HHG on a C10, the bugs will spiral from the north pole all the way down and around to the south pole. I am stitching the bugs using the first method outlined by Debi.

I also did some research on what flowers attract ladybugs. It seems that mostly they are yellow and orange flowers, some are white. I thought instead of stitching the kiku or lazy daisy style flowers that many other people are using I'd try some of these suggested flowers. This is just a thought at this stage of course and I do reserve the right to do whatever takes my fancy at the time of actually stitching the flowers on :)

So far I've got 5 spotless, eyeless, antenaeless, black headed, outlined ladybirds and 2.5 red hexagons stitched. I've decided to stitch 5 at a time so it doesn't seem so overwhelming - not that it is overwhelming in anyway... I am just feeling a bit overwhelmed with life in general at the moment :)

I'll take an in progress shot of my ladybug temari tomorrow and load it on another post.

It's apple season

On Monday I baked cupcakes and because it is apple season they are some of them are apple cupcakes.


Pink Lady

I love apples, my personal favourite is Pink Lady pictured above. They are crisp and juicy with a sweet to tart taste and are never floury like Granny Smith can sometimes be. Also they are an apple developed right here in Western Australia. How could I not love them?! I ran this photo through Kuler and I'll see if I can make some Pink Lady inspired temari.

Pink Lady Kuler Colour Selection

Ooops I lost my train of thought... oh that's right cupcakes. I need 4 apples for my recipe and I used some delicious new season apples grown just a few hours south of where I live, in the Manjimup and Donnybrook areas. Of course I used a Pink Lady and a Granny Smith (Mr W's favourite apple variety), but I also used two new apples.

These new apples on the market this year are Kanzi and Greenstar varieties. I saw the Kanzi at the Perth Royal Show last year so I was excited to buy it at my local grocer this week. Kanzi is a new variety of apple that was first grown in Europe, where it was developed from a natural cross between a Gala and a Braeburn apple. This created an intensely flavoured apple with the juiciness of a Gala, and the tartness of a Braeburn.

Kanzi

"Kanzi is a very crunchy and sweet apple; it'll be another fresh eating experience after the galas."

Greenstar

"Greenstar may well look like a granny smith but one of the great differences is that Greenstar won't oxidise due to high levels of vitamin C so you won't get that browning." The Greenstar apple was also developed by the European organisation Better 3 Fruits, from a natural cross between the Delbarestival and Granny Smith varieties, both of which are known for their juiciness and fresh taste.

I actually did my own test to prove this point made about the browning... it was true, even after a few hours the Greenstar and Kanzi apples were hardly brown at all, the Pink Lady and the Granny both browned fairly quickly.

What is in season where you live?

Look what google alerts turned up

I have a google alert set up for various things I am interested in. As you can imagine one of those alerts is set for Temari.

I was quite surprised to see this link in my alert list today. It is for a verbena. It is quite lovely but I did feel a bit sick in the pit of my stomach when I saw the word Temari had a registered symbol next to it. How can anyone register that word? And could that mean a potential problem for the all us Temari makers?

This world is getting to be a scary place when words that are have been used with a generic meaning end up being trademarked or registered for business. Anyone remember the Ugg boot saga recently. Hope we don't all start receiving cease and desist notices.

ANZAC Day 2012

Today is ANZAC Day. After the dawn service, and the March most people go on and savour the free time afforded by this public holiday.  Many people with previous defence force ties go to their local RSL (Returned Services League) to have raise a glass and enjoy time with mates and remember those friends that are no longer here.

A tradition for ANZAC day is a game of Two-up. It is a gambling game, Aussies (mostly) love to bet on almost anything horses, dogs, goannas, even which fly will reach the top of a wall. Perhaps this evolved from the early settler days of living in a large mostly desolate country and needing to find their own amusement in simple things.

Two-up is a traditional true-blue Australian game which is actually illegal to play in public, apart from special days such as ANZAC Day public holiday, since it's actually gambling. Of course you can gamble and play it any time in an Australian casino. There is a good video on YouTube about how to play Two-up.

It is played in a ring which must be a smooth area of ground 3 metres diameter with any number of players participating. Here's a few terms used in the game:

KIP : Piece of wood on which the pennies (coins) are placed for spinning
RINGER : Assistant to the Boxer who runs the centre of the ring
SPINNER : Player spinning the coins
COCKATOO : Keeps a lookout for the "Law" aka Police .
BOXER: Owner of the game

The RINGER will call for the SPINNER who will place a bet with the BOXER. When this is set, side bets may be made, for either Heads or Tails. The RINGER will then call "Come in Spinner", the SPINNER will then walk into the centre of the ring and tosses the coins upwards.

If the coins land with 2 Heads facing UP, it is called "HEADS". 2 Tails is called "TAILED THEM", and when one of each is showing, then it is "ODDS". The coins must be tossed until a result is obtained.

The game is for the SPINNER to spin as many pairs of "HEADS" as possible. When 2 Tails are showing, the SPINNER passes the KIP to another person.The modern game is now played with three coins thus giving a quicker result i.e. 2 HEADS or 2 TAILS.