A few dot points

There just really hasn't been the scope/need/desire/material for blogging this week. I've got nothing I can show that hasn't been seen before, or else nothing that has been photographed in readiness for posting. Nothing. So, a few dot points is what I'm capable of for now.

• I will forewarn you all (apologies to those who've been reading me whining in emails or in person or on Facebook) that I think my Something Blue cardigan isn't much cop. I intend to post photos of the finished cardigan on the weekend when I can get photos but I'm really not sure it's me. Unflattering, is how i feel about it, but I'll let the readers help me decide.

• Some of you may not know, because we've been slack for quite some time, that RoseRed and I have a shared food blog. It's called Mouthfuls of Heaven and it's devoted to the work of British cook, Nigella Lawson. RoseRed's been baking and updating the blog. Her Boston Cream Pie looks wickedly wonderful.

• I fully intended to be a good girl this year and only buy yarn on the rarest occassions, and when it seemed like a considered and worthy purchase. For the most part, I've done that although I did buy more of that $2.50 Chinese cotton earlier this week. That can hardly be said to be overdoing it, now, can it?
  
  
• On that note, however, I did splurge considerably this week. A blogger many of us know and love, Kylie, is heading to England and Wales for work tomorrow and I've placed an order for some stuff that we either can't get here or which is a better price over there (despite the poor value of the Aussie dollar against the pound). Stay tuned. I'm a little bit excited. Have a safe trip, Kylie.
  
  
• I'm all about the gift knit at the moment. Young Will is turning 5 next week and I'm knitting him a vest which is flying off the needles. Adele turned thirty-something last week and I'm working on a little item for her to accompany her main gift (not knitted). And a friend at work is having, shall we say, intimate surgery next week and will need several weeks' recovery time. I'm going to be working on something for her over the next little while, too. The sooner that's finished the better because I want to give it to her early in the recovery process, not later.
  
  
• Now that the weather is cooling down, I've made a startling and wonderful discovery. This time last year, I owned one shawl. My brown forest canopy shawl. I'm wearing it right now and love it to pieces. It thrills me to no end to realise now that I have not one but four small triangular shawls to choose from every day and I fully intend to have more. Sean asked, 'how many shawls does a girl need?' Scoff. As many as she can knit I say. In all those different colours? Why not?
  
  
• Do you Tweet? If you do, I'm there too as Bellsg. Follow me if you want!
  
  
• One other thing, I believe some readers thought that in my recent post on the crochet doily I had completed said doily in one, sleepless night. Even Sean said it read that way. No no. Not at all. I was only awake for a few hours that night. It was completed a few days later at more sane waking hours.
  
  
• And finally, a bit of advance notice. In April, which is my blogiversary month, I've had this crazy idea that I'll attempt a repeat of last year's Blogtoberfest scheme - remember the month where lots of us posted daily? I thought it might be a fun way to celebrate my third year of blogging and to include random prizes for small items periodically. So keep an eye out for my month of celebratory (and, most likely, draining) daily blogging! With prizes! You have been warned!

Have a good weekend everyone.

Bells

Best birthday cake ever

See this cake?


I made it for Sean's birthday on the weekend, when we had a little gathering so that George and her family and Kuka and her partner could present Sean with a much longed for worm farm (which will get a separate post).

It's a Nigella Lawson recipe - Butterscotch Layer Cake and it was so much fun to make. My first time ever making a layered cake. Rich, decadent and full of caramel, which I've never made before either.

I wrote it up for the Mouthfuls of Heaven blog which RoseRed and I have neglected a little lately, partly due to a general lack of baking mojo. But I think with this cake, I got it back.

Special thanks to Carol who gave me the cake stand a few months ago. It really helped with the table setting.

Bells

A hot weekend

Where the hell did autumn go? A couple of weeks ago I was starting to wear layers to work, sleep under the doona and cook more autumnal food. I was starting to feel alive again.

Once again, it's unbearably hot. Stinking hot. We're all sticky, sweaty and irritable. That said, it's been very pleasant in other ways. We've had family come to visit. My sister Adele, her husband and little Will have been here since Friday night and left not long ago. But more on that in a minute.


Anniversary
If you read RoseRed's blog you'll maybe have seen her post yesterday about our anniversary. Around this time a year ago, RoseRed was offering a spare copy of Interweave Knits on Good Yarn Karma and I snapped it up. After that, I started reading her blog and found out we shared, apart from the knitting thing, a love of Nigella, Buffy and Jane Austen - all sound reasons to become friends.

Now we share a blog, Mouthfuls of Heaven, and a Knit Along, Southern Summer of Socks and much more besides. We're a team and a damn good one. I might have done either of those things by myself, but I think the chances are that I wouldn't have. Just about everything is more fun and more effective with friends and the good ones are worth everything.

We've bought gifts for our anniversary too - what a laugh - it's a good excuse to find something nice to give someone, don't you think? We'll be exchanging gifts in a couple of weeks when we catch up. Can't wait!

Dirty Fun
First thing Saturday morning, before we'd even changed out of our PJs, a dump truck arrived to bring a huge pile of compost soil to us.


Somebody got a little bit into it.


He'd been forewarned that there would be dirt and came prepared with his own equipment.

Later on in the day, after a the fun in the dirt, we went to Belconnen Markets where there's an enormous mushroom over a playground.


Much fun was had.

Birthday Cake
From there, it was home to make a cake for Adele's birthday. This is Nigella Lawson's Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake (from Feast). A delicious cake. And I didn't make the flowers. I bought them.

We took the cake to Uncle Boy's house (our brother, Keith, who is known as Uncle Boy). Aunty Fee was there too.

Apologies to Mum, but we didn't get a photo of the four of us together. It happens so rarely and we didn't think of it 'til afterwards. Sorry!

So who's birthday was it, really? Put it this way, the girl turning 33 didn't get to blow out her own candles!

Modelling the Jacket
Early this morning, when Willem and I were up by ourselves (letting Mummy and Daddy have a sleep in), we had a bit of fun. Check these out.


I promised photos of the jacket being modelled. I didn't promise it would be modelled on me (yet). 7am was the only time today it hasn't been too hot to wear it but I am sure as hell not putting photos of what I look like at that time of day up on the net!

And anyway, he's cuter than I am.

Bells

Christmas Cupcakes

For those of you who were keen to know about the Christmas Cupcakes that showed up in a post a week ago, you can find a write up on them over at Mouthfuls of Heaven.

Also, because it's very nearly Christmas, I'll send out the recipe to anyone who wants to include these in their Christmas baking. Just let me know. You won't regret it!

Bells

Home made flat breads

I made these!
They were great fun. Read about them here.

Muffin anyone?

The perfect Blueberry Muffin is here.

Hungry?

Check this out over at Mouthfuls of Heaven.

A Harry Potter Free zone

Sorry. That title refers to absolutely nothing that will be written in this post. I just felt the need to say up front that, nothing against Harry, Hermione and Ms Rowling herself, but seriously, nobody here gives a damn.

There's a new book out? Well, how about that. I have actually read the first one and it was fun enough but I'm afraid I don't really get it. I might watch the movies on DVD some time because of the great cast like Dame Judy etc, but it'll be a while yet.

OK, now that I've got that off my chest....

This post is actually about domesticity and the lack of it around here. I may share a blog with RoseRed that suggests we are Domestic Goddesses but really, that only relates to food. It's probably quite telling that my idea of housework is to spend the morning in my kitchen, cleaning it, cooking in it, preparing shopping lists and a menu for the week and that's about it. Once that's done, I figure it's time to knit.

I by no means live in a pig-sty. I am not dirty. I'm just not tidy. And just to prove the point, here is what I will call my Gallery of Shame. These are the bits of the house I tend the neglect most. I will just add though, before I lead you down the Gallery of Shame, that I did manage to tidy up my tupperware cupboard this morning, over a year after we moved in and threw everything in there. So, I'm not all bad. I'm just slow off the mark sometimes.

And yes, blogging about this is a serious procrastination technique.

First up, we have the dining table. It's less a dining table and more a work space that's somewhat short of space.

The other end is tidy because we actually ate breakfast there this morning. My lovely father in law is visiting. I couldn't ask him to eat on the couch.


Obviously the two people who live in this house spend the majority of their time either knitting, playing with computers or cooking. Here is the evidence. There's yarn, a knitted sock, a cooking magazine, cook books, a coffee plunger, a computer and computer bits. That's us, geeky food lovers. And proud.

The computer screen actually has the the first paragraph I wrote of this post before I decided to document my slothful ways with photos. Weird. A photo of a blog post I'm still writing.

Here's my kitchen bench.


Normally, when I post food photos for Mouthfuls of Heaven, I've taken some trouble to show only the best bits. I clear a space, use the macro function on the camera and readers have no idea (unless they have been here before) that beyond the frame of the camera it actually looks like this. Shame, Bells. Shame.

This shot is taken from the other side to where I work and yes, I've been cooking for Mouthfuls of Heaven this morning. The bench, now that I look at it, actually looks better than it normally does but there's no hiding the fact that we have a pathetically small kitchen which we hope to obliterate and rebuild one day.


Here's one of the other flat surfaces that really suffers.


Our hutch, which is just near the entry way. Everything in our hands at the end of the day gets dumped there and often left for months at a time or until visitors come. Honestly, we are slobs.

Here's my coffee table. The thing I hate about cleaning it up is that it's always only a matter of minutes before something is put down there and the whole cycle starts again.



I read the other day that the laundry is one of the most neglected rooms in any house. I am living proof.


This is my knitting space on the couch.


I think the last time I posted a photo of this, there was some cosmetic work done before I took the photo. It never looks as good as that. This is more true to life. Why put knitting away when there are no pets or kids to mess it up and I can just sit and pick it up at a moment's notice?

When there's a two year old in the house, things might be different. I'm afraid of that. Really I am.

And finally, I know I said I'm not dirty, but I really, really hate dusting. I hate it so much because really, no sooner does Mr Sheen get a chance to go over things (and we haven't spoken in a while so he doesn't get that chance very often) than it seems the dust settles again immediately. I think life's too short to fight that battle too often.

Evidence is here. Our bedhead. God I am so ashamed. This is really, really awful. I'm going to go and dust it as soon as I hit publish. How did I let it get this bad? And why doesn't the other inhabitant of this house ever notice? Oh yeah, that's right. He's a man. Of course.


The finger marks are there from a week ago when I wiped my finger over it like a disapproving mother-in-law inspecting how the woman who married my son is demonstrating her worthiness. I walked away in disgust and have been ignoring it ever since.

I had hopes that this post would be the motivation I need to go and do something about this appalling state of affairs but you know what? I've got Radiohead playing, bread in the oven and the sun is shining. I just want to put the kettle on and knit.

Oh and before anyone asks, no the steeked jacket has not progressed. Not an inch. Not one single stitch. I'm starting to worry.

Bells

Lamb on the run

If you follow the adventures of Lulu the Naughty Lamb and her lover, BB, there's big news over at Jejune's place.

We're asking everyone who knows Lulu to keep a sharp eye out for her. She's gone missing after committing daylight robbery earlier today.

However, if baking bread is more your thing, check out Mouthfuls of Heaven. I made Finnish Rye Bread and it was fantastic!

Bells

Friday night musings

Here we are, the end of another week in which, to be honest, not much happened. Some friends and I try and end our weeks thinking of three good things that happened. I struggled to think of anything.

Not that anything bad happened.

It's just that nothing remarkable happened.

Let's see if I can review the week and come up with something...hmmm..oh, I know.

The week started nicely on Sunday with an afternoon spent with the lovely SnB crowd. We welcomed a jetlagged Georgie home from Germany and spent some time watching the sheepy lovers, BB and Lulu, cavorting as if none of us were even there.

Here's Jejune's naughty lamb Lulu pretending she didn't just steal my malabrigo scarf.


I played down how irritated I was with her. She's just the sort of lamb who, if she had an inkling how much I love this scarf, would make sure I never saw it again. Naughty Lulu!

She's a very bad influence because soon after, her beloved, BB, stole it too. But he was coming home with me so there was no point in him thinking he was getting away with anything too naughty.


Soon, the lovers settled down for some quality quiet time together. Kind of hard at Starbucks, but they managed.


So that was the start of the week. The rest of the week was just work, work, work. But it's Friday night so I choose not to think about the busy week right now.

I'm about to cast off the first monkey sock so will have a photo of that tomorrow. A friend asked about the steeked jacket the other day, saying she hadn't seen it on the blog for a while. It's true. It's been keeping a low profile while I finish off the monkey socks for the Craft ACT exhibition. I must admit I struggle some days. It's a long, slow ride this one.

It's not much different to the last photo I showed of it, is it?

I'd really like to get it finished soon so that I can a) wear it and b)stop feeling like it's taking forever. Don't get me wrong. I still love it and when I'm having a good burst of quality time working on it, I feel smugly smitten with it. But it's getting to that point that's tricky some days, especially when there are the instant gratification projects calling to me (hello monkey socks!)

RoseRed suggested a reward system as motivation the other day. You know, if I can get one repeat done in X amount of time, then I can have Y. An excellent suggestion, but I'd be open to more suggestions on motivation if anyone has thoughts.

Oh, and in big news, in case you're not yet aware, The Knittery is now stocking Addi Turbo lace circulars. Woohoo! Go get 'em!

And finally, if you want to see some delightfully made Night and Day cupcakes, check out what RoseRed posted on our Nigella Lawson blog.

Bells

want to know what these are?

Then check out the Nigella Lawson blog, Mouthfuls of Heaven. The link is fixed now!

the weekend in photos

It's been great fun to have a new camera.

We went for a walk this afternoon to take some photos and as I was photographing anything and everything (quite specifically for the blog), Sean was heard to say, 'what's that got to do with knitting?'

He was teasing of course.

So here's a little tour of our walk this afternoon. I'm really going to have to not leave it til 4:30pm if I want photos in better light. I was hoping for a misty morning this weekend but we didn't really get one.

Here's our street. Our house, which you can't see, is where that bus shelter is.


Not far from us is a cycle path. Here is Sean walking along the path. I said, 'can I put a photo of you on the blog, if it doesn't show you from the front?'

He said, 'No.'

I said, too bad. So here he is.


A bit further along, there's a big open area with a swampy little creek.


It looks like we live in the middle of farm land, doesn't it? We don't really. It's just that our suburb backs on this research land, belonging to the CSIRO. Just to show you that we don't live a bucolic lifestyle, directly opposite this research land is the back of our suburb.


Returning from the walk, I made a lovely stack of brownies, which had been cooling while we were out.

These will be posted properly on Mouthfuls of Heaven some time in the next couple of days, after everyone's had a chance to admire RoseRed's Victoria Sponge.








And finally, the big achievement of the weekend, knitting wise, is this.

I sorted out the problem I had with the steeked jacket sleeve by just undoing it.

Julie had suggested a bit of a cheat's way of fixing the problem and I seriously considered it, but in the end, decided ripping it out down the hem was the only way to go.

This gave me a chance to fix it up in a few other ways too. I've got the hem rolled under, to show me what it will erally look like and I LOVE it.

I am officially back on track with this. I foresee every evening this week being devoted entirely to this sleeve, while the desire is strong.


However, before I got this sleeve this morning, I spent last night hanging out with a purple monkey.

This is exceedingly striking wool, don't you think? As I'm working with it, I'm admiring the genius of Julie throwing in the bright blue. I remember when she created this and it was a bit accidental.

Some of the best things in life are accidental and this sock wool is one of them. Thanks Julie!

It turns out I'm not alone in making Monkey socks out of Purple Trainwreck. Coffeelady wrote in the comments that she'd done it and I remembered that yes, she had! You can find them here, just scroll down to the bottom of the page. They look fantastic!

Bells

Biscuits with a funny name

Wanna know what a snickerdoodle is?

Go here.

Things I forgot to say about Sydney

In the rush to tell you all about the drunken exploits of the weekend, I forgot two, no, three seriously important things I actually HAD to say.
1. I met RoseRed - my partner in the Nigella blog fun. We sat and chatted with a third person (see next point) in the Queen Victoria Building and found out a funny thing, which if you read her blog you'd already know. We were once both *in love* with the same boy although we lived about five hours apart. A certain JT that Rose went to school with and who I later knew through church, was serious crush material for us both, several years apart. We sighed and remembered the killer smile, the blonde good looks, the *perfect girl* he ended up marrying. I actually still see him around from time to time but he doesn't remember me. Small world huh? We simply added that to the list of shared interests and experiences we have figured out already. I love that!

2. I got to meet long standing virtual friend, Carol. What joy! How long have we known each other online Carol? About three years? The friendship was there in real life as much as it is online and that's a bloody marvellous thing.

Here we are, looking pretty darn happy to be having a night out! Note, this is before things got too murky for me.



3. On Sunday morning, Carol and I popped into the Sydney shop, Tapestry Craft. Admittedly, I was more than a little green about the gills, but Carol took lovely care of me and we each found scrummy things to look at and buy and both came away feeling like that was a great way to spend some time together on Sunday morning. You know, I've probably walked past that shop so many times before I heard of it and passed it by without knowing the wonders contained in its two floors, all because of the name. Tapestry doesn't interest me in the slightest. Why would I go in there? But the basement floor is ALL wool and other fiber goodies. You'd never know!

Open Plan Office Space - grrrr
One final thing, it's hitting me pretty hard that blogging, reading blogs and all related stuff is not really easy in my new job. Open plan offices are not good for that. So if I appear not to be around much, it's because i'm now cramming all my blog and email time into the evenings when obviously there are other things competing for my attention, particularly my husband who feels somewhat neglected once in a while if I don't at least hang with him a bit. Fair call, right?

Bells

Much excitement!

Guess what?

This weekend while I'm in Sydney, RoseRed and I are going to meet up!

We figure that since we actually share a blog, it'd be kinda cool to meet in person.

I have a pretty full on weekend planned but there's a small window of opportunity mid-late Saturday afternoon when we can catch up. And since my hotel is right near Tapestry Craft (not just a tapestry shop, but a mecca for all fibre crafts, so I'm told), we are going to take a little excursion. tee hee. Could be dangerous.

Yay!

So if you happen to be in the area, that's where you'll find us. Shaz and Brown Pants, you guys free? Nora? You know where to find us now. :-)

Bells

Mariah is back on track

My main problem with the Mariah project is that when I think of the name, I find myself humming really annoying, schmaltzy, over produced pop by a woman whose music I once read described as 'so twee, that if wallpaper could sing it would sound like Mariah Carey.'

Let's not even discuss the fact that I know any of her songs. How I know them is unclear since I neither listen to the stations that play her "music" nor do I watch the TV shows that play her film clips. I own no CDs of hers, nor any compilations that she appears on. So how is it I know the names of her songs, much less the melodies? Thankfully, I think it's safe to say I couldn't actually sing any of her lyrics.

But I digress.

With Jejune's patient support, Mariah is now going very well. Being the innumerate dope I am, I've screwed up the numbers no fewer than three times now and appear finally to have it correct. True, I'm well behind my Mariah-along buddies, but they have school and work and OPs (other projects) on the go, too so I'm sure i'll catch up in no time.

Here she is.

I was worried that with the increase in stitches, the reverse stockinette panels either side of the main cable would look too wide, but it was concluded at SnB this afternoon that actually those panels serve to bring the centre cable into greater relief and that it works.

Thank God for that. Because I'm not frogging it. Otherwise she might go the way of Mariah Carey's career.

Back to work tomorrow. I've had five marvellous days off and now they're over and I have the fun of facing two weeks of tidying up loose ends and doing all those months' of filing I've never done in an attempt to get ready to leave my current department on the 11th. What fun.

And thanks for the resounding support and interest in the new blog I'm doing with RoseRed. I hadn't realised how rude the picture of the sausage was until she mentioned it to me today. he he.

Now there's a teaser for those of you who haven't looked yet. Go find the rude sausage.

Bells

What fun!

A little while ago, I hinted that RoseRed and I were cooking up a little project.

Well, the project has been gestating for a month or two, a mad flurry of emails flying between Canberra and Sydney, and at around 12:30am this morning, Mouthfuls of Heaven was born. RoseRed and I are now the proud parents of a happy little blog devoted to cooking our way through Nigella Lawson's How To Be a Domestic Goddess.

It struck us as a good way to, you know, use up all those spare hours we have when we're not knitting.

Go have a look!