Weary Sunday evening

Aaaah. The end of another busy busy weekend. A beautiful Sunny early Autumn day - how clear it is that Autumn has a arrived - the cooler mornings and evening, the change in the light, the first browning leaves on the London Plane Trees down along New South Head Road.

I am enjoying:

*my Dirty Granny Apple Cider from Matilda Bay Brewery in WA
* my almost completed set of fingerless mits in so soft possum-merino
* watching my almost 5 year old daughter discover the delights of lego sets and the joys of time spent with her Dad (it has taken a while!)
* listening to my 12 year old battle and battle with a Mozart Rondo and sound better each time and loving it.
* Smelling Lamb Rogan Josh cooking on the stove for dinner. Yum Yum.
* thinking of all the progress I have made today in cleaning up the house
* avoiding thinking tooo much of how much more there is to do
*looking forward to attending the Supreme Court Tomorrow to see our friend Robert Beech-Jones SC inducted as a Supreme Court Judge.
*how terrific the house looks now it is painted. Why did it take us so long?

*looking at my newly planted lavender and gaura plants and pretty pink Mandeveillea, along with the pots of gardenias and moruya and hoping they will be looking a little more established by the time of the open inspections in a month or so. 

The housemoving files

Another day on the road. Michael the Ukranian painter has been here all week and has done a marvellous job touching the place up. I have been in his employ moving furniture, Things and more Things out of the way as directed, finding buckets, power points, old paint tins which might or might not (NOT as it happens) match the walls and making coffee and providing cakes sufficient to keep Michael's substantial appetite content. Brings joy to a baker's heart.

So tonight, Friday night, I am sitting in the kitchen which is a shadow of its usual burdened self, breathing in paint fumes and unable to find anywhere comfortable to sit. The furniture is piled into the middle of the room pending the Final Coat in the morning. All available surfaces are playing host to the displaced contents of the rooms being painted. Needless to say, it was takeaway tonight.

Despite the hassle, I find myself strangely bouyed by the experience. Possibly the thrill of visible progress that I experience when making good progress in a craft item in production.

Speaking of which I must confess to indulging in a wee bit of showing off this afternoon. Under the somewhat lame pretence of wanting to find a backing for Kaffe Fasset's Gridlock Cushion, I took a detour after picking the children up from school, to Calico and Ivy in Birchgrove. That shop is truly a tonic to my frazzled brain. Sue (I think it is her name) is delightful and shamed me not at all when I produced my latest FOs and UFOs from my felted crochet bag. She further indulged my vanity by insisting on photographing my bag and suggesting she would blog it!! I did insist that she mention that it was inspired byAttic 24. I also showed her the PJ bottoms that I'd made for Eva from her fabric and she was suitably impressed. Eva, who is showing enormous promise in her early craft apprenticeship became healthily excited by the mass of wonderful fabrics and chose not less than three new pieces for more PJs and another library bag (this one in pink with small bambis on it - only a 4-5 year old could get away with it). I will post photos tomorrow.

We spent a gratifying period of time choosing some plain shot cotton in a delicious peacockish blue as backing and lining for the KF cushion and I checked my progress on the Japanese flower shawl (doing well). Eva managed to slip 3 more skeins of the Debbie Bliss Andes into the basket for a skarf.
A good time was had by all.

Whilst I could fantasise about spending the weekend sewing endless pairs of PJs for my dear daughter and for half of her soft toys, as she has requested, I expect it will be occupied in more mundane matters. The council cleanup is on Monday and I will be purging. There are books to sorted and boxed into 'Keep on shelf', 'Store', and 'get rid of'.  and so much more....

In the meantime, I have cast on the second possum merino fingerlesss glove in Touch Yarns Possum for my darling grandmother who does get such very cold hands and who turned 95 last Sunday. This is my current mindless knitting project.

I am trying to have a car project (the mindless one) that is portable and simple and can be dragged to school meetings, waiting rooms, coffee shops etc. Then a Complicated project for when I am feeling like being challenged and then a couple of other projects which can reside at home in a convenient spot.