Care Package from Home.

Yesterday i received this little pile of goodies from home....oh how i love to get care packages, with tastes from home, bits of newspaper, and in this package woolly socks and something very special. this is what i got....btw, in the background, you can see the boxes of chocolate i have received lately from students who've passed their course!. i'm not short of choccie at the moment!!.

snuggly woolly socks for the winter!

fruit puffs to make lolly cake, and shrewburys.....which i'm not ashamed to say, have almost gone!!

love love love chokitos!!. these were brought in Australia, cos they arent readily avaliable in NZ anymore, taken back to CHCH and then sent to me!

mmmm......jaffa thins....i save these to last!.

perky nanas...banana flavoured choc bars!.

black knight liquorice....love it!

and finally, these beautiful earring with huge sentimental value. they are designed after the now destroyed rose window of the Christchurch Catherdral. apparently they are limited edition, so i'm thrilled my mum thought to get me some, i just love them and what they represent.

right.....what shall i eat next?!!

GO THE GREEN!!!

What a game!!!....one of the most exciting games i've seen in a long time!!!. Ireland beating Australia!!!!!!.....something that doesnt happen everyday, and for this kiwi, simply fantastic!. After my beloved NZ, i do actually support Ireland. I've had a long standing love affair with Ireland since i was introduced to an Irish pub in south London 20 odd years ago. I love the country, i love the music and i have even been known to love the odd Irishman for good measure!. (i'll leave you to decide if the Irishman was actually odd, or not!!, or i mean a couple!). So yesterday morning i got settled on the sofa, praying that the Irish would keep in touch on the scoreboard and it wouldnt be the whitewash, that it could be, given Australia are the second best side in the world (after NZ!!). By the end of the game i was jumping up and down in the living shouting, clapping and cheering them on. I knocked the laptop off the side of the sofa, which knocked over a glass of drink, which went flying and shattering glass all over the floor!!. the laptop survived, but i bent the broadband dongle!. thankfully that still works, but is at an odd angle!. I was over the moon.....just brilliant!!. And cos the game was so exciting, i didnt do any crochet!. So this morning i got up and watched the end of one game and the French v Canada game and got 2 more squares made!!. I'm loving this new pattern...i pretty much have it in my head now and dont have to refer to the written instructions often. I have 6 squares now, so need to crank it up a bit if i'm to have a full blanket by the end of the year!!. I'm going to have to come up with a way of being able to do it on the bus, and i think the answer is to do the circle part at home where you have to fasten off every row, and do the squaring off part on the bus cos it only needs one colour of wool and no fastening off til you finish the square. then do a couple of complete ones at the weekend!. We'll see how that plan works out!!.

Giddy with excitement!

for some strange reason i find i have more creative flow when theres a sports match on the telly.....dont ask me why?!!. its always been the case, and today was no exception. I showed you last night what i had done...that is, the white edged square. this morning thru to about 2pm i parked myself on the sofa with my wool beside me, my laptop on the arm rest and away i went!. Ireland v USA, one square completed....took most of the game, cos i had to remind myself of the squaring process, and the double treble stitch which i hadnt done before. Wales v South Africa, next square done mostly in the first half, so speeding up some. btw.....Wales played bloody fantastically and deserved to win....TMO for penalty kicks please!!. Then the Italian Grand Prix, (go Jenson!!), and i got the 3rd square for today completed. then i stopped cos i was beginning to get crocheted out!. so i photographed them instead!!. so here we are, the 4 squares so far towards a nice woolly blanket for the winter!. size wise, they are about 8" x 8".

new project on the hook!.

Since i finished the bloomin flower cushion, i've been looking round for a new project. I pretty much knew i wanted to make a blanket, and had started some smaller squares for it, that i could do on the bus. then i came across a blog with a great blanket and tutorial and decided to make that my next project. I took a trip to a yarn shop and brought 5 colours. Each square uses 4 colours, but i decided that i would add a 5th colour to the next so that the blanket doesnt become to repetitive. It should also give me 20 different combinations for each square!. I ahev photographed the progress since i started this late this afternoon, but the last couple of photos were taken at night, so i will redo them on the next square in the day time. when you look at the completed square, refer back to the colours in top posts to get an better idea of what it really looks like. the colours-

the first 4 rounds-

the first corner made-

the completed square-

photos from fri, sat and sunday

Friday was spent cooking food for the freezer. I cooked mums curry chicken and my bolognese sause. Anyone else do this...eat the last piece of carrot as you chop?!. I think its a throw back to growing up - i remember mum used to eat the carrot as she chopped and she always offered us some!.

I love looking outside seeing my clothes on the washing line in the sunshine....nothing better!.

Saturday was spent watching the rugby from NZ in the morning (yay! Canterbury winning the national title!!). after that i was surfing the net and getting to grips with Raverly, and came across a tutorial for a xmas tree, so had a go!. was pretty easy to follow and took about half an hour to make.

Then today....i've been a lazy mare!. I'm not looking forward to returning to work tomorrow so needed to take my mind off it for a while, so decided to crack on with LSNED and get up to date!. I've made notes each day so far, but hadnt even finished the cover, so this afternoon i have done it all!. I've created this little craft space in my room, and it has lots of light and the outside world to look at, so hopefully the creative spark will be lit here!.

heres the cover

1/9/11

2/9/11

3/9/11

4/9/11

and a look at how its sitting inside the cover at the moment

WOW!, i've never posted so many photos in one go!.

I ate a blue potato!

.....and i liked it!. in fact, its just the same as eating a normal potato once you get over the fact that its blue!. not only did i eat it, i also grew it!!.

So, this week i have been on holiday. I've had a major clean of my bedroom, packing some stuff up that isnt used and making space for some creativity, since i joined Shimelles, 'Learn something new every day'. I've been up to the allotment once, and saw the 3rd bloke i wanted to see about taking some of my stuff. There have really only been 3 men i've talked to there and they are the ones i want to have first pickings, so i'm pleased now all 3 know i'm going and seem keen at accept anything on offer. I shall go back tomorrow and do a few wind chores like empty pots. The guy i saw on tuesday offered me some of his runners, so i hope i can grab some tomorrow, then i might put a bag full in the freezer for the winter. this little pile is what i've grown this year...theres more on the vines.

This month, as i mentioned, i'm doing Shimelles online class called 'Learn something new every day'. All i've done so far is make a space to work at, paint some chipboard, and cut the covers to size!. I was thinking of just doing it on my blog, but it wont be as much fun!. i wonder how long i can keep up with it!. It might be a case of making notes during the week, and doing the pages at the weekend!.