A Pleasant Time

I've been enjoying a bit of company lately while youngest son, Jordan (who looms over me alarmingly!) has been spending the week here with us. Saving some money and eating free food! I'm more than happy to have him. Hubbie's quite often pre-occupied with work or training and there's no-one else to talk to but the dogs and the cats. So I have been enjoying it greatly!

He even was good enough to join me working with polymer clay!

His water lily was so nice too but he discovered that if you roll the clay too thin it really does compromise the stability of the whole thing and sadly the middle petals fell apart. But I have pictures to prove it was beautiful!

I've also finally discovered a way to use the clay that I like. The pendants and the large disc have given me renewed hope that I might actually like using polymer clay. I've finally used up my pendant trays so now I'm wondering how to proceed...ordering more is NOT an option. 

I'm still making progress with the combo yarn beanies and the Monty Python cross stitch. 

I've finished up the last beanie using the blue combo yarn...

...And I finished the third line of characters on the cross stitch. Only one more line to go!

Still busy, still compulsively crafting!

I find it sometimes really discouraging to think of how many completed projects I have stored up, jewellery, tatting, knitting, various crafts that I have no use for. I will never wear all the things I make. If I were a bit more like everyone else I might. My mothers has hundreds of earrings and wears many of them because she likes social occasions and is both gregarious, cheerful and outgoing. 

I am not. I'm just an overly anxious introvert!

Social occasions fill me with an underlying wave of panic and anxiety that I can usually disguise adequately enough when I have to but invariably leave me washed out and exhausted afterwards. It's lovely when people compliment me about the things I make, but sometimes I question what point there is in me constantly churning out various crafts when all it does is cost me money. I feel a bit like a crazy crafting ant. Constantly creating things I have absolutely no aptitude to convert into anything useful. 

Obviously I'm still a bit blue at the moment. On Friday I'll be driving Jordan back to Perth. 

I think I'll even miss the continuous talk about movies and famous Directors...

Ah well.

See you all later

Dx

Better late than never!

We're away for the Anzac day weekend. Hubbie was lucky to get the public holiday's off so we came back home to Albany to enjoy family time together. Hubbie at his parents with our dogs and his sister visiting and me at my parents place while my brother and his family were staying here as well. We've had a lovely time!
We went and saw the Anzac march, spent time with my bright, active little 5 year old niece, enjoyed ribbing my brother and girl time with my mum and Kim, and a great time (I hope!) was had by all!

I have done a lot of knitting. I'm churning out beanies like it's going out of fashion and using up quantities of cone yarn combo yarn. I gave David and Kim a beanie each so that's  two off my hands. Now I have to make one for Mackenzie, the lively 5 year old. I'll be posting it to her when I've finished it but they had to go home today. I'll have it ready no doubt by the time I arrive home in Kellerberrin tomorrow.
It has been a lovely weekend all round!
Really lovely!
See you all later.
Dx

Today is another day

And more hours to put craft into to keep fidgety hands busy!

It does puzzle me why I can sit hunched over a cross stitch or drawing up a picture or nutting out a new technique I've  never tried knitting before for hours! But when I have to tidy a bathroom or hang out laundry...blimey! It suddenly takes on the proportions of some enormous, insurmountable chore, sucking all the fun out of my creativity and rudely breaking in to my own little world. It's so inconvenient!

So what have I achieved so far this week?

The Marvellous Vest is all done and put away. I dusted off the Monty Python and the Holy Grail cross stitch and have actually managed to progress to the next line of characters! The light issue still remains so I can only do it during the day, so at night I knit.

I'm knitting a pair of socks with a lace insert with some yarn I dyed about 2 years ago but I still don't have a pic of those so I'm keeping them as a surprise for later when they look more like socks.

Also I realized I had accumulated a large number of left over cone yarns with ridiculously thin yarns on them that I really couldn't use in their present state. So I dragged them all out and combined a lot of them to make useable yarn for beanies. I must say, so far I am very pleased with the results! Much better than I'd expected and since they're almost all acrylics, they should be easy to wash. I'm going to see how many I can make and then I'll donate them to my local charity.

So there you have it. Does anyone else suffer from excessive creativity and nil enthusiasm for useful accomplishments?

Maybe it's just me :)

See you later!
Dx

I've been busy!

I have! Well, Hubbie had holidays in the last weeks of August and we decided we'd visit home (in Albany!) and then go back to Kellerberrin, pick up our little caravan and head off to Kalbarri where Hubbie's parents were staying with their caravan. Being a bit Asperger's like youngest son the idea of leaving home where all my things are makes me fairly anxious and apprehensive but, ah well....off we go!

See? Don't I look eager to go??

Anyway, I enjoyed the first part, mainly because I got to spend as much time as I liked with my Mum and Dad and I like that since Dad is a bit like me and Jordan, fairly daubed with the Aspergers brush! and my Mum's the friendliest, most outgoing person I know of except my eldest son! Genetics is such a tricky bugger!

While I was there though I'd started knitting these simple beanies for a knit4charity group in W.A. asking for teenage boys beanies and mitts. They're just a reverse garter stitch brim and simple stocking stitch body with a basic 4-corner decrease.  Really easy, mindless knitting and a great way to use up small amounts of stash yarn. Gives a great edge to the beanie. Anyway, I started knitting a few of these. I could complete 1 a day and was pretty stoked with that.

Anyway, returned home, hitched up caravan, packed up a bag of stash and two dog's and headed off to Kalbarri. Considering we didn't head off till 12 in the afternoon, we knew there was next to no chance of us making it the Kalbarri that day. So we didn't try and stayed in Carnamah! Which was really nice. I never thought I'd miss the place when I first moved there but it was really nice to return, even for just one night!

Always loved the mural on the only supermarket in town!

Hubbie and Dogs play in Carnamah Sports Oval

So next morning, up and off to Kalbarri! It really is a pretty place and the caravan park we stayed at was really nice but being the social cripple I am, I stayed in the caravan mostly. Not of course when the dogs were all there but fortunately they stayed mostly with Hubbie's parents in their much larger van and annex!

Not much room in the van!

Kalbarri Sunset!

So we had a lovely holiday. Hubbie thoroughly enjoyed his time with his parents and I didn't make a complete tit of myself by being overly reluctant to be in company because I didn't know what the social situation was supposed to be or have a huge hypo (because being slightly aspergers isn't enough, throw in Insulin-dependent Diabetic since 14 too!)  so I was pretty happy and I had knit so many of these cute beanies! While I was in Albany I'd bought a heap of DMC tapestry wool skein's Spotlight seemed to be getting rid of cheap and they were so many great different colours so I'd been doing some of the brims in them...and they were really great! Once we got home I was looking forward to finding out how many I'd managed to knit and give them a wash and final tidying up.

I had 12 beanies! I'd meant to knit 10 but clearly got ahead of myself. A couple of them had unavoidable knots and one had heaps because I used all the off-cuts of the tapestry wool knotted together to knit up the final beanie. I wanted to cover these up but first I washed them all, just to prove that none of them were delicate little flowers since I figured they'd need to stand up to fairly indifferent handling if they were going to teenage boys! They all passed!

Okay, I have...8 beanies?

No! I have...11?

Well, 11 not including scrap beanie :)

So once they were all dried I decided to sew little scraps of felt over the knots. I have HEAPS of different coloured felt so it made it really easy. Just little 1cm squares were fine for the one or two knots on some of the beanies but I went to town with the Stash Scrap beanie!

Front Side...

Join Side

Isn't it cute?? Hubbie calls it my Hippy Dippy Hat!. I reckon it works really well. There were lots of knots so this really was the only solution. I couldn't sew them all in without it showing really badly. But this way it's a great design feature!

I'm so pleased with this beanies and their many different colours and shades. But I wont be happy till I've knitted the same amount of mitts! 

This is why I say I knit compulsively! 

See you all later :)

Dx

I'm a Business!!

I've just registered my very own business! Totally Unique by Danielle is registered and I have my own ABN. I don't know what that all means exactly but I know it means I have responsibilities to the tax office. Not quite so pleasant :/ 

But I finally had my first sale on my etsy shop!! Totally Unique by Danielle So happy!

This is, as we speak, winging its way to Florida!

It also helped me realize I had grossly under-estimated the cost of postage not just in Australia but around the world, especially since a simply beanie being posted to the USA cost around $7! Was a bit shocked. So I had to go over and change my postal charges.

So, everything is moving along, slowly it's true, but at least moving. I've sold a number of scarves, I have another beaded cuff to do once I've received the shirt it's supposed to match and I'm still compulsively knitting this and that. Also I need to buy more resin to make up some more tatted pendants. Starting to organize myself for the Carnamah Show which is held in September.

Ah...life's tough :)

This is the first completed cuff, all finished and sparkly :)

Happy Knitting :)