Juggling balls and clothes, Caramello bears and campaign buttons, jewellery and beads and buddhas, baskets and macadamia nuts and toy cars, Christmas baubles and sunglasses and singlets, petitions and kits and critters, woodturning and laughing clowns and leadlight - whatever you might want you might find at the festival.
Saturday, November 11, 2006
Friday, November 10, 2006
Mohemian Rhapsody
It's MOVEMBER! When men grow moustaches and it's an opportunity to talk about men's health issues such as prostate cancer and depression. The photographers at Express Publications are entering into the spirit of it by reproducing classic album covers - this one, Queen's Bohemian, er, Mohemian Rhapsody - featuring them with their mo's.
For more information, see the Australian Country Threads blog here.
To sponsor the guys go to http://www.movember.com/au/sponsor enter their Rego number which is 20247 and your credit card details. All donations of $2 and over are tax deductible.The money raised by Movember will be used to change the face of men’s health by creating awareness and funding research into prostate cancer and male depression. For more information visit http://www.movember.com/ . Spread the word!
Thursday, November 09, 2006
Little shop
It may be a little shop, but it's working hard to catch a local clientele with the offerings on this window.
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
Life is like...
If cherries are abundant, it must be coming into summer. The last few days have been grey and thinking hard about rain, although they haven't done much about it (and so the catchment levels fall and fall and the government discovers that Water Is An Issue).
There's something very fresh and cheerful and, well, reddish about cherries. They seem to be one of the fewer fruits that remain resolutely seasonal (barring imports) - enjoy 'em whle they're there.
You never know what you're going to get.
There's something very fresh and cheerful and, well, reddish about cherries. They seem to be one of the fewer fruits that remain resolutely seasonal (barring imports) - enjoy 'em whle they're there.
You never know what you're going to get.
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Mini album ornament
A little while ago I signed up for this (closed) swap and while I've been doing all sorts of work and other commitments, it's been simmering. I need to make ten mailable ornaments, and at the moment this is my plan, an adaptation of the accordion mini album Carrie Utley of Chatterbox Inc taught on the weekend.
The scrapbooking shop didn't have any Chatterbox Christmas papers (sorry, Carrie!), but these deeee-licious Basic Grey ones were growing legs and running out the door (you think I'm joking? They had 1/3 less of them than they did on the weekend). They're from two lines called Dasher and Fruitcake.
So while I can sew or quilt or do any one of a number of things, I like the idea of this little album with pages pretty enough to leave as they are - or else you can paste in pictures of your best beloveds. It would be rather nice each Christmas to pull out the album as you're decorating and see those special faces.
It was so much fun to just be able to get off the deadline treadmill for an evening and fiddle around with papers and adhesives and make this prototype. I was almost whistling a happy tune.
PS. for those who know today was Melbourne Cup day, my nags in the office sweep were as usual called Glue Factory and Dogfood, and performed accordingly.
The scrapbooking shop didn't have any Chatterbox Christmas papers (sorry, Carrie!), but these deeee-licious Basic Grey ones were growing legs and running out the door (you think I'm joking? They had 1/3 less of them than they did on the weekend). They're from two lines called Dasher and Fruitcake.
So while I can sew or quilt or do any one of a number of things, I like the idea of this little album with pages pretty enough to leave as they are - or else you can paste in pictures of your best beloveds. It would be rather nice each Christmas to pull out the album as you're decorating and see those special faces.
It was so much fun to just be able to get off the deadline treadmill for an evening and fiddle around with papers and adhesives and make this prototype. I was almost whistling a happy tune.
PS. for those who know today was Melbourne Cup day, my nags in the office sweep were as usual called Glue Factory and Dogfood, and performed accordingly.
Monday, November 06, 2006
A Year of Color: Green-Yellow (Chartreuse?)
A patriotic lamington (iced sponge), leaves in the light, cooking mangoes and washing baskets. Unity in diversity!
Mini scrapbooking albums
The fruit of the other scrapbooking class I did on the weekend, with Carrie Utley of Chatterbox Inc. Clever ideas, plenty of product to play with in class and later (so you didn't worry about goofs) and Carrie was great. These are ideas I can use again - I got a lot from this class.
The pink one is three sheets of scrapbooking paper folded to create pages/pockets, the blue one is an accordion and the paisley, chipboard covered with papers.
None are embellished yet - there was only time to make the basic albums. So there is more fun to come.
The pink one is three sheets of scrapbooking paper folded to create pages/pockets, the blue one is an accordion and the paisley, chipboard covered with papers.
None are embellished yet - there was only time to make the basic albums. So there is more fun to come.
Sunday, November 05, 2006
Elsie Flannigan scrapbooking class
Towards the end of the class (a year in photographs journal - some photos are on Elsie's blog) there were lots of photo ops asked for with the star teacher.
On the right, Elsie's computer which ran a slideshow of her images throughout the class. On the table on the left, some of the threads available to us.
I scrapbook less than I quilt - scrapbooking and using scrapbooking techniques have been functional, roads to catching family moments for calendars, for instance, and I've drawn on them for quilting projects (eg tags, and using brads). I don't have a zillion albums or pages done, so I'm no expert.
I'm rarely overwhelmed in a quilting shop, in that I always feel (without really thinking about it) that I can manage the cornucopia I see and so create happily. Scrapbooking supplies offer an almost overwhelming choice - narrowing myself down to actually making something is more difficult, as my brain keeps whizzing with "what if?" and "what if?". The other scrapbookers at my table were far more experienced, and efficient, than me.
In some respects, including retrospect (!) what I'd probably find more useful for me would be a techniques class rather than a project class - practising doodling, and handwriting variations, for instance, to expand my repertoire for use in my own work. This is no criticism of the class - Elsie's project was a great idea and much enjoyed by the ladies there - but rather an observation of my creative journey. The ladies went away with a terrific array of journals in funky felt bags.
What did I learn? Although the class requirements didn't specify it, I bought/brought a white pen, as Elsie's work uses these. Writing on my photographs - which I haven't done before - was a good step on my creative journey. Thanks, Elsie!
On the right, Elsie's computer which ran a slideshow of her images throughout the class. On the table on the left, some of the threads available to us.
I scrapbook less than I quilt - scrapbooking and using scrapbooking techniques have been functional, roads to catching family moments for calendars, for instance, and I've drawn on them for quilting projects (eg tags, and using brads). I don't have a zillion albums or pages done, so I'm no expert.
I'm rarely overwhelmed in a quilting shop, in that I always feel (without really thinking about it) that I can manage the cornucopia I see and so create happily. Scrapbooking supplies offer an almost overwhelming choice - narrowing myself down to actually making something is more difficult, as my brain keeps whizzing with "what if?" and "what if?". The other scrapbookers at my table were far more experienced, and efficient, than me.
In some respects, including retrospect (!) what I'd probably find more useful for me would be a techniques class rather than a project class - practising doodling, and handwriting variations, for instance, to expand my repertoire for use in my own work. This is no criticism of the class - Elsie's project was a great idea and much enjoyed by the ladies there - but rather an observation of my creative journey. The ladies went away with a terrific array of journals in funky felt bags.
What did I learn? Although the class requirements didn't specify it, I bought/brought a white pen, as Elsie's work uses these. Writing on my photographs - which I haven't done before - was a good step on my creative journey. Thanks, Elsie!
Saturday, November 04, 2006
Departure
One third of the way up, in the centre of the picture, is the last image of my friends' plane taking them to a new country to live. It was a grey and cloudy day with spitting rain, after many days of relentless sunshine and endless blue skies. A pathetic fallacy if ever I saw one.
It's far from an arty photo - I regretted not having a better zoom lens. But with what I had with me, and the circumstances, it may look like a photo of grey clouds, but it's got significance. So it's here.
It's far from an arty photo - I regretted not having a better zoom lens. But with what I had with me, and the circumstances, it may look like a photo of grey clouds, but it's got significance. So it's here.
Friday, November 03, 2006
Artichokes
One day a designer of aliens for Dr Who will realise the possibilities of artichokes...
You kinda wonder who first looked at them and thought, Yup, that would be edible!
You kinda wonder who first looked at them and thought, Yup, that would be edible!
Thursday, November 02, 2006
Jacaranda street
It's not actually called Jacaranda Street - but aren't those clouds of purple wonderful? I've taken some photos of individual trees and so forth, but I was trying to capture here the way they are beautiful en masse.
Suddenly, at this time of year, a corner here or garden there or, like here, a street, catches your attention as doesn't happen the rest of the year.
So many trees here are evergreen (eg eucalypts) that a deciduous with this sort of flourish is a particular joy. Jacarandas are one of my favourite trees. Their shape is elegant, and they carry the flowers with grace.
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Halloween pumpkins
Ah well, I'm a day late. Never mind. I've not seen these for sale before locally, sold specifically as Halloween pumpkins. More expensive than other pumpkins too, such as Queensland Blue or Jarrahdale. I can't help thinking there would be a LOT of hollowing out work required on these.
I saw, driving past, some very Australian trick or treaters setting out this afternoon - I doubt there would be many in the northern hemisphere who teamed their fright wigs with board shorts and thongs, or who were attended by fairies who were not quite sure if they were good or bad, so had settled for quantities of eye makeup (which didn't really clarify the situation, but they probably enjoyed trowelling it on!).
I read somewhere that the most popular Halloween costume in the US this year is khakis, with a stingray barb attached to the chest, alluding of course to Steve Irwin. Hmmmm. That's a bit sick puppy queasy-making for me.
I saw, driving past, some very Australian trick or treaters setting out this afternoon - I doubt there would be many in the northern hemisphere who teamed their fright wigs with board shorts and thongs, or who were attended by fairies who were not quite sure if they were good or bad, so had settled for quantities of eye makeup (which didn't really clarify the situation, but they probably enjoyed trowelling it on!).
I read somewhere that the most popular Halloween costume in the US this year is khakis, with a stingray barb attached to the chest, alluding of course to Steve Irwin. Hmmmm. That's a bit sick puppy queasy-making for me.
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Salad
Corn fed chicken cooked with lemon, black pepper, wild lime and chilli. Salad of potato and green beans (cooked) with Spanish onion, red capsicum, pear and yellow grape tomatoes. Dressing: honey mustard spicy citrus black pepper.
Yum.
Yum.
Monday, October 30, 2006
daisy hook
A domestic detail from the house of friends - blue and white are colours all through the house, even in small details like this. I like the offset of the hooks
It also looks like a figure, with the shadow - but I didn't realise till after I'd taken it and loaded it on the computer. They be the purtiest boxing gloves I'd'a ever seed! (!).
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Fruit & Veg 2 mosaic v.2
I was there today again and decided to get a few more photos so this could be a satisfying 6x6 grid. While the seasonality of some fruit and veg may timedate it, the Halloween pumpkins make it pretty precise.
How to fix a punctured tyre with fabric
It was just a triffle spooky how the M&Ms (Pirates of the Caribbean Pirate Pearls) worked with this selection of fabrics.
Had to get a puncture repaired yesterday, and golly gee, picked the tyre place which is oh, three minutes from a patchwork shop... well, I'd rather spend three-quarters of an hour in a patchwork shop than in the tyre place with a bleating out of focus telly and well-thumbed car mags.
And sometimes fabrics just follow you home, you know? The oriental fabric bottom right was the starting point.
No, I don't know quite what I'll do with them. Make a quilt, will that do for now? (Must remember next time I get a puncture to budget for the fabric purchasing as well as the tyre repair!)
Had to get a puncture repaired yesterday, and golly gee, picked the tyre place which is oh, three minutes from a patchwork shop... well, I'd rather spend three-quarters of an hour in a patchwork shop than in the tyre place with a bleating out of focus telly and well-thumbed car mags.
And sometimes fabrics just follow you home, you know? The oriental fabric bottom right was the starting point.
No, I don't know quite what I'll do with them. Make a quilt, will that do for now? (Must remember next time I get a puncture to budget for the fabric purchasing as well as the tyre repair!)
Saturday, October 28, 2006
Vegetables
I went to the big well-lit, don't-bother-with-a-basket-take-a-trolley greengrocery/market yesterday. I never emerge with just one or two things - there's always a nice brie, or particular fruit, or cold meat for weekend sandwiches, or an unusual bread, or their consistently excellent plain yoghurt , or the generally needed fruit/veg- or a combination of the above. Thus I skip the basket.
Late on Friday, it wasn't so crowded, and I couldn't resist pulling out my camera as I did earlier in the year.
Here's a set of the photos I took yesterday
and here's the March set.
How beautiful are fruit and veg? Wonderful colours, wonderfully individual shapes even within the same type or family, wonderful texture - AND you can eat them!
A few more of these photos may creep in as daily ones - I love the sense of cornucopia, fruit and veg filling the lens with colour and light.
Late on Friday, it wasn't so crowded, and I couldn't resist pulling out my camera as I did earlier in the year.
Here's a set of the photos I took yesterday
and here's the March set.
How beautiful are fruit and veg? Wonderful colours, wonderfully individual shapes even within the same type or family, wonderful texture - AND you can eat them!
A few more of these photos may creep in as daily ones - I love the sense of cornucopia, fruit and veg filling the lens with colour and light.
Friday, October 27, 2006
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Grevillea
This one is "Superb", I think - it's a bit more pink/yellow than the redder "Robyn Gordon" variety.
Isn't it elegant and amazing? They're easy to grow and they flower and flower (or are they bracting and bracting? - who cares, they're noice either way).
Isn't it elegant and amazing? They're easy to grow and they flower and flower (or are they bracting and bracting? - who cares, they're noice either way).
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Vintage quilts and knitting needles
I have a bunch of old coloured knitting needles like this, pairs and orphans, in a blue and white striped jug. Makes a great arrangement of colour - no water needed, doesn't go off, charms my eye each time I look at it.
I love the repetition in this picture - knitting needles, rolled quilts, folded quilts.
I love the repetition in this picture - knitting needles, rolled quilts, folded quilts.
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Vintage cups and saucers
Tea, anyone? (or in my case, since I don't drink tea or coffee, hot chocolate anyone?)
Fine china has something so graceful about it.
Australian photographer Olive Cotton's photo, Teacup Ballet, captured a wonderful view of cups and saucers.
Fine china has something so graceful about it.
Australian photographer Olive Cotton's photo, Teacup Ballet, captured a wonderful view of cups and saucers.
Monday, October 23, 2006
A Year of Color: Salmon
Not that I had any photos tagged 'salmon' - but pink yielded a few candidates. The quinces may look like a fudge, but it's the salmon tissue paper that critically defines and separates them...
They're a vintage quilt I saw at a show, dollhouse, quinces, sunset.
They're a vintage quilt I saw at a show, dollhouse, quinces, sunset.
Sunday, October 22, 2006
Reading: children's picture books
I was reading some favourite children's books today with children I have known for most/all of their lives, who will soon be living thousands of miles away, the chance to share books like this gone.
These ones have been favourites:
The Elephant and the Bad Baby (Elfrida Vipont & Raymond Briggs), Where the Wild Things Are (Maurice Sendak) and The Man Who Walked Between the Towers (Mordecai Gerstein).
I can recommend them all wholeheartedly - story and imagination and space for aha! which is so valuable in children's books.
The Elephant lulls them with delightful repetition, then does an abrupt about face to catch them out.
I have seen, over and over, Sendak's book transfix a child aged between about 4 and 7 in particular - something about it makes tremendous, compelling sense to them.
Gerstein's book is the newest of the three, chronicling in spare words and at times vertiginous illustrations Philippe Petit's dangerous, extraordinary walk on a tightrope between the almost-built World Trade Center towers in 1974.
And there is, inarguably, something about curling up on a couch with a picture book and children that a computer, with as many bells and whistles as you like, cannot capture.
Saturday, October 21, 2006
Cannoli (no gun)
In You've Got Mail, Tom Hanks' character quotes from The Godfather - "Leave the gun. Take the cannoli."
I didn't do either today, although there was, as you can see, PLENTY of cannoli, and as it was in a RSL club, one of the returned services league displays of militaria was bound to feature a gun or two...
Friday, October 20, 2006
Racing car
It's been a madly busy week, I've driven hundreds of kilometres - maybe I would have been faster in a sleek speed machine like this one!
Isn't it amusing how your eyes can be opened to noticing different things when you're interested in something new? The films in the DVD player in the last couple of weeks have included one of my all-time favourites, Life as a House (in which there is a multitude of architectural models at the start of the film, before the full-size house-building begins; and Suddenly 30 (known as 13-30 in the US, I think - Jennifer Garner & Mark Ruffalo) in which the dream dollhouse made by one of the characters for another of the characters is a critical plot element.
Is there a theme here? I wasn't trying to create a list of dollhouse films (I did a list of films featuring quilts years ago), let alone select viewing choices based on dollhouse content!
Isn't it amusing how your eyes can be opened to noticing different things when you're interested in something new? The films in the DVD player in the last couple of weeks have included one of my all-time favourites, Life as a House (in which there is a multitude of architectural models at the start of the film, before the full-size house-building begins; and Suddenly 30 (known as 13-30 in the US, I think - Jennifer Garner & Mark Ruffalo) in which the dream dollhouse made by one of the characters for another of the characters is a critical plot element.
Is there a theme here? I wasn't trying to create a list of dollhouse films (I did a list of films featuring quilts years ago), let alone select viewing choices based on dollhouse content!
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Farewelling
Farewelling a colleague today. The quilt stays (it's my farewell from another workplace and lives on the wall of my present office) but the balloons were presented to our colleague, who will be much missed. (Oldwhatsisface, we'll say - remember that one?!)
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Balls
Today I'm trying to keep a whole lotta balls in the air.
I'm not sure I'll manage without dropping some.
(at least they're pretty colours...)
I'm not sure I'll manage without dropping some.
(at least they're pretty colours...)
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Lampshade
Judging by the quantity, these are probably reproductions or new, rather than originals. There is something about them I find immensely appealing - the slightly mottled cream, the open wandering roses, the fluting, the scalloped edge.
We have such a cornucopia of choice in decorating styles, and yet it's fascinating how one item like this can conjure an entire room. Gentle colours, age-worn furniture, comfort. Not necessarily cluttered, but with the evidence of lived lives in the room.
I can not comprehend how anyone lives in a streamlined moderne box of a room as illustrated in some magazines - don't they own books, the bric-a-brac of daily life, any kind of nod at who they are beyond clean lines and a spartan emptiness? Or have the stylists emptied anything that would evoke humanity?
As I make progress with the dolls' house (more pics soon) I'm observing how I think about that space, those rooms, how I am creating, in miniature, rooms that will tell a story.
We have such a cornucopia of choice in decorating styles, and yet it's fascinating how one item like this can conjure an entire room. Gentle colours, age-worn furniture, comfort. Not necessarily cluttered, but with the evidence of lived lives in the room.
I can not comprehend how anyone lives in a streamlined moderne box of a room as illustrated in some magazines - don't they own books, the bric-a-brac of daily life, any kind of nod at who they are beyond clean lines and a spartan emptiness? Or have the stylists emptied anything that would evoke humanity?
As I make progress with the dolls' house (more pics soon) I'm observing how I think about that space, those rooms, how I am creating, in miniature, rooms that will tell a story.
Monday, October 16, 2006
A Year of Color: Tan
Tan being a rare brown, I've interpreted it a tad liberally. But at least two of these are particularly favourite photographs, so it's nice to be able to share them.
Vintage homemaking and needlework books
There's something delightful about the confidence of these, that all necessary knowledge can be gathered between stout covers by ladies with capable names like Beryl, and even the odd Lady this or that, and made available at modest but not insignificant cost to those wishing to do things as they ought to be done, with propriety, skill and orderliness.
And this style of book is far from dead - there are always new versions. Shannon Lush has had a huge hit with Spotless, published by ABC Books - there's still a hunger out there for old fashioned stain removal (and I believe she's doing one on other housekeeping matters). In fifty years' time (if not less), Spotless will be on shelves like these.
And this style of book is far from dead - there are always new versions. Shannon Lush has had a huge hit with Spotless, published by ABC Books - there's still a hunger out there for old fashioned stain removal (and I believe she's doing one on other housekeeping matters). In fifty years' time (if not less), Spotless will be on shelves like these.
Sunday, October 15, 2006
Country church
There's a Sunday picture! This was taken in late afternoon - I rather liked the shadows, some leaves lit to lime by sunlight, others not, the harmony in the greens and greys. This is the only church in the village, so the service welcomes all, Protestant or not, who would rather worship locally than travel further afield. And it seems to work happily.
Saturday, October 14, 2006
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month
There's pink everywhere! I bought a pink light globe today, but it will go in a lamp in the window, rather than the porch light.
At a friend's 50th - she fought breast cancer in her mid thirties, and wondered if she would reach fifty - she talked about this fight in her speech, and said that through it, her son had been her hope, her daughter, her joy, and her husband, her strength.
If you'd like to use a pink ribbon image on your blog for October, FD's Flickr Toys has a page of ones you're free to use (like the one I've used in the right hand column).
Click here for the link.
At a friend's 50th - she fought breast cancer in her mid thirties, and wondered if she would reach fifty - she talked about this fight in her speech, and said that through it, her son had been her hope, her daughter, her joy, and her husband, her strength.
If you'd like to use a pink ribbon image on your blog for October, FD's Flickr Toys has a page of ones you're free to use (like the one I've used in the right hand column).
Click here for the link.
Vintage bread bins
Visited a shop with a cornucopia of vintage home wares this afternoon. There are more photos in this Flickr set. I could wander in this shop for ages, just looking and wondering and turning each corner into each room and noticing something else - vintage bread boards and washing boards, quilts, buttons, silverware (hard to photograph, poorer light), doyleys and cups and saucers and vintage lacrosse sticks and - and- and-
Among all the big stuff, there were a few miniatures. So I photographed the big stuff and invested in a couple of things for dollhouse use. As you would.
Among all the big stuff, there were a few miniatures. So I photographed the big stuff and invested in a couple of things for dollhouse use. As you would.
Friday, October 13, 2006
Op-shopping finds.
Including: books from my past (I've read Chocolat but must have lent my copy to someone and never got it back; haven't read this Geoffrey Household, but enjoyed his thriller Rogue Male; and I'm sure I had this Ladybird book as a child!), a trophy sugar bowl (tennis, 1950s) and a ?pewter tankard-to-become-pen-holder, decoupage boxes, chest for a dollhouse, brass cups for dollmaking (but not for the dollhouse, rather larger in scale), Better Homes book from the fifties (spiffing moderne rooms!), a magazine rack....and an old school desk.
A good day's thrifting - we enjoyed ourselves.
(An op shop is an opportunity shop = goodwill/oxfam/charity shop with second-hand goods)
A good day's thrifting - we enjoyed ourselves.
(An op shop is an opportunity shop = goodwill/oxfam/charity shop with second-hand goods)
Thursday, October 12, 2006
Coming soon...
The first croquet photo ever for this blog! (Bitacle's dastardly ways haven't stopped transmission).
Maybe I'm the only person excited by a croquet shot. But that's OK - it's my blog!!!!!
ttys.
Maybe I'm the only person excited by a croquet shot. But that's OK - it's my blog!!!!!
ttys.
Croquet
And what would a civilised afternoon on the croquet lawn be without afternoon tea at the ready? I was a mere observer of the U3A learners (and enjoyed the shade).
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Bitacle warning
Dear reader,
Please look carefully at the web address in the URL field of your browser. It should read ‘http://rooruu.blogspot.com/‘. In case you see a web address containing the word ‘bitacle’ or ‘bitacle.org’, you’re not looking at the original page on which this text was posted.
If this is the case, the text you are reading right now might be incorrect or out of date. After I place a post on my weblog, I always try to keep published information up to date, or incorporate additional information, which I receive from readers. You will never find this information on bitacle.org.
Bitacle.org copies the content of weblogs without permission of the author, the holder of copyrights or the licensee. By visiting bitacle.org, you create income for the people who run bitacle.org, at the expense of me and other owners of a weblog, without permission and often without respecting copyrights and/or terms of use as in a license. So please, next time you want to view my posts, do so by using the web address of my weblog, which is ‘http://rooruu.blogspot.com/‘. Please make a bookmark of my weblog’s address, if you would like to visit it again.
Thank you!
This post is following the suggestion at http://stopbitacleorg.wordpress.com/. Read more about the theft of copyright material there and here and here, including the comments.
Some bloggers are ceasing to publish because of this - how would you like to see your words and photos surrounded by ads and republished without your permission?
If you want to subscribe to a feed of this blog, Bloglines works for me.
This blog - words and pictures - is copyright, and not to be used without permission. There is a copyright notice in the column on the right.
Thank you.
Please look carefully at the web address in the URL field of your browser. It should read ‘http://rooruu.blogspot.com/‘. In case you see a web address containing the word ‘bitacle’ or ‘bitacle.org’, you’re not looking at the original page on which this text was posted.
If this is the case, the text you are reading right now might be incorrect or out of date. After I place a post on my weblog, I always try to keep published information up to date, or incorporate additional information, which I receive from readers. You will never find this information on bitacle.org.
Bitacle.org copies the content of weblogs without permission of the author, the holder of copyrights or the licensee. By visiting bitacle.org, you create income for the people who run bitacle.org, at the expense of me and other owners of a weblog, without permission and often without respecting copyrights and/or terms of use as in a license. So please, next time you want to view my posts, do so by using the web address of my weblog, which is ‘http://rooruu.blogspot.com/‘. Please make a bookmark of my weblog’s address, if you would like to visit it again.
Thank you!
This post is following the suggestion at http://stopbitacleorg.wordpress.com/. Read more about the theft of copyright material there and here and here, including the comments.
Some bloggers are ceasing to publish because of this - how would you like to see your words and photos surrounded by ads and republished without your permission?
If you want to subscribe to a feed of this blog, Bloglines works for me.
This blog - words and pictures - is copyright, and not to be used without permission. There is a copyright notice in the column on the right.
Thank you.
Moving house
It's all got to go somewhere when the electrician and wallpaperer are at their work. Although the removalists could have been a tad more careful.
My favourite blog entry of the day is this one!
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Victorian cottage
Not that I'm currently besotted with aqua or anything, but this was so pretty in the sunshine - the freshness of aqua and blue, and the white Iceberg standard roses tossing in the light breeze.
Monday, October 09, 2006
Flannel quilt
It's all made from quilter's flannel, front and back, and how good does it feel?
- well, except when the weather's warmed up and flannel is suddenly heading for at least six months of being irrelevant.
It's NOT a Christmas quilt (flannel? for Christmas in Australia when it's usually over 30degC? Puhleeeze!) - the fabrics I had came together like this, what with the redbird fabric and the house fabric. I'm sure it will still work next year, midyear, midwinter.
I often use flannel for the back of quilts, particularly when they're for a child, but it's a while since I made a flannel-front-and-back-and-binding. As we're coming into summer, I won't be making any more for a while - too hot to wrangle through the sewing machine.
- well, except when the weather's warmed up and flannel is suddenly heading for at least six months of being irrelevant.
It's NOT a Christmas quilt (flannel? for Christmas in Australia when it's usually over 30degC? Puhleeeze!) - the fabrics I had came together like this, what with the redbird fabric and the house fabric. I'm sure it will still work next year, midyear, midwinter.
I often use flannel for the back of quilts, particularly when they're for a child, but it's a while since I made a flannel-front-and-back-and-binding. As we're coming into summer, I won't be making any more for a while - too hot to wrangle through the sewing machine.
Sunday, October 08, 2006
Reading: white + Christmas
Yeah yeah, I know to some shabby chic is a much-bandied trend, but I've not read (as opposed to browsed) any of the books before. What I liked most about this one was her give-and-take attitude. Some things HAD to change, but others she found were liveable-with - she bought a house and through the book shows the renovation of it.
There are a couple of places in my house that could do with some white paint, or lighter paint. The wider world attaches 'shabby chic' to all sorts of frizzy-frou-frou, when she is often enough more likely to assume less is more, rather than a roomful of stuff letting nothing be seen properly.
Did a big spring clean of the living room yesterday, and it was good to have had this book in my head. I'm not sure you could have seen the difference - but I did, as I dusted and vacuumed and put things in the rubbish or the opshop box.
The Christmas issues of craft magazines, which come out in October, are starting to lob in. This one includes the results of this blog entry and this one . So I don't really have to make any Christmas craft - I was stitching and quilting months ago!
There are a couple of places in my house that could do with some white paint, or lighter paint. The wider world attaches 'shabby chic' to all sorts of frizzy-frou-frou, when she is often enough more likely to assume less is more, rather than a roomful of stuff letting nothing be seen properly.
Did a big spring clean of the living room yesterday, and it was good to have had this book in my head. I'm not sure you could have seen the difference - but I did, as I dusted and vacuumed and put things in the rubbish or the opshop box.
The Christmas issues of craft magazines, which come out in October, are starting to lob in. This one includes the results of this blog entry and this one . So I don't really have to make any Christmas craft - I was stitching and quilting months ago!
Saturday, October 07, 2006
Reading: a favourite magazine cover
It's not the latest issue, but it's nice to revisit a favourite. Isn't that cover quilt a corker??!! ;-)
(I didn't blog about it at the time, and wanted to work it into this ongoing blog narrative).
My quilting/craft to-do list includes a flannel quilt, an applique cushion, a two-colour quilt and something entrancing in the craft line involving old wooden egg cups. Variety! The spice of life!
I do plan to do the lighting in the dolls house this weekend, though. Just because.
(I didn't blog about it at the time, and wanted to work it into this ongoing blog narrative).
My quilting/craft to-do list includes a flannel quilt, an applique cushion, a two-colour quilt and something entrancing in the craft line involving old wooden egg cups. Variety! The spice of life!
I do plan to do the lighting in the dolls house this weekend, though. Just because.
Friday, October 06, 2006
Thursday, October 05, 2006
No bull
Not in this china shop, anyway.
Did you guess that it was dollhouse scale? That's one inch=one foot, if unlike me you haven' t been studying the subject with notable intensity in the last month or so...
I visited a dollhouse shop today. The blue house now has a white table to go with the pine chairs, and a white mantelpiece containing a fireplace that will light up. And I've had instruction in how to go about wiring up lights, so that should happen soon. A lit fireplace seems kinda corny, but also kinda nice. Still waiting on some skirting and cornice pieces.
Some old metal furniture pieces arrived today courtesy of eBay, and I'm so glad the photo was overexposed - they weren't white, but my current favourite colour, aqua. Probably 1950s. I don't think I'll use them as a suite, but separately.
A favourite monthly email came today too, the Quilt of the Month from the International Quilt Study Center in Nebraska. Always a great glimpse of quilt history - you can sign up for the email on their site (which has lots and lots of lovely quilts to see in the archives).
Did you guess that it was dollhouse scale? That's one inch=one foot, if unlike me you haven' t been studying the subject with notable intensity in the last month or so...
I visited a dollhouse shop today. The blue house now has a white table to go with the pine chairs, and a white mantelpiece containing a fireplace that will light up. And I've had instruction in how to go about wiring up lights, so that should happen soon. A lit fireplace seems kinda corny, but also kinda nice. Still waiting on some skirting and cornice pieces.
Some old metal furniture pieces arrived today courtesy of eBay, and I'm so glad the photo was overexposed - they weren't white, but my current favourite colour, aqua. Probably 1950s. I don't think I'll use them as a suite, but separately.
A favourite monthly email came today too, the Quilt of the Month from the International Quilt Study Center in Nebraska. Always a great glimpse of quilt history - you can sign up for the email on their site (which has lots and lots of lovely quilts to see in the archives).
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Sandstone wall
The foundation stone of Sydney is sandstone, its warm colour magic in sunlight in some of the older buildings in the city, such as the Education Department building in Bridge St.
I've also seen cliffs of it alight in the late afternoon in the Cudgegong valley between Lithgow and Mudgee.
I only truly realised its warmth and light when I'd visited other cities with different stone as their foundation - granite, for example, which has its own noble beauty but not that warmth and light.
I once lived in an 1850s cottage with random stone walls like this. Very thick walls - you stayed cool for the first couple of days of hot weather, but then, once they warmed up, the house was an oven.
Even though this photo was taken as the light was ebbing, the stone still shows its wonderful variety.
I've also seen cliffs of it alight in the late afternoon in the Cudgegong valley between Lithgow and Mudgee.
I only truly realised its warmth and light when I'd visited other cities with different stone as their foundation - granite, for example, which has its own noble beauty but not that warmth and light.
I once lived in an 1850s cottage with random stone walls like this. Very thick walls - you stayed cool for the first couple of days of hot weather, but then, once they warmed up, the house was an oven.
Even though this photo was taken as the light was ebbing, the stone still shows its wonderful variety.
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
New sheets for spring
Much as I love putting on the flannelette sheets for winter, knowing they'll take the chill off even on the coldest nights, it's equally a small, important pleasure to change over to cotton sheets in spring. The old set of these gave up the ghost after years of faithful service, and so I bought new ones (half price in the winter sales, a rare and happy bargain!). They don't have the highest thread count - their pleasure is not thin silkiness, but the firmness of good hotel sheets, the slight and pleasant rasp of cotton. They are longtime favourites.
Aren't our lives an accumulation of such small things? Some are gifts, and some choices. The way you take your coffee, the cushion on your favourite chair, the dancing heads of flowers in your garden, a garden, the endless variety of a cloud-painted sky, the fall of sunlight through leaves?
Aren't our lives an accumulation of such small things? Some are gifts, and some choices. The way you take your coffee, the cushion on your favourite chair, the dancing heads of flowers in your garden, a garden, the endless variety of a cloud-painted sky, the fall of sunlight through leaves?
Monday, October 02, 2006
49up
The series remains (intrusively) brilliant - it is a gift that these people, who had no say in being chosen, choose to participate so many years later. Thank you.
Seen in a cinema (I hate chatty people in cinemas - it's not a DVD IN YOUR LIVING ROOM, FOLKS) it was nevertheless fascinating to hear the (nonverbal) reactions - gasps of recognition, amazement, pleasure, laughter at the humour to be found in the everyday of life. However intrusive it is in these people's lives, others, every seven years, feel as though they're catching up with friends; and having a chance to measure their own lives, achievements, failures, their own journey over the seven years.
Brilliant, inspiring, thought-provoking. Recommended.
Read Michael Apted, the director of the series, interviewed by film critic Roger Ebert here.
September mosaic
A summary of September, with rather a lot of S things, when I look. It's quite inadvertent. Serene water, strawberries, swishing carwash, spring blossom, soda bread, a September 11 film, sassy picture book, strings of beads, more serene water, um .... salad, sunset, serviettes, sweets/lollies, strong winds....and so it goes.
Which is my favourite picture? Probably the soda bread, for sentimental reasons and because I'm happy with the light and the cloth cradling it.
Which is your favourite picture/blog entry from September?
Which is my favourite picture? Probably the soda bread, for sentimental reasons and because I'm happy with the light and the cloth cradling it.
Which is your favourite picture/blog entry from September?
Sunday, October 01, 2006
Dolls' house attic renovation in progress
From the bare attic, with its redundant staircase access, to an underfloor of sueded box board, with cotton woven carpet, two walls papered with scrapbooking paper to a possible version of the room.
The white block represents the not-yet-arrived wardrobe. A false wall behind this will conceal the wiring board for the lights (which aren't yet installed). There will also be skirting board, and a wallpaper on the flip-up roof (not visible here) and some sort of window solution (still thinking on that one).
The 'bed' is a Carlton Ware ashtray which has recycling potential as a dolls' house bed. Or so I believe.
Plenty to go, but progress made.
The white block represents the not-yet-arrived wardrobe. A false wall behind this will conceal the wiring board for the lights (which aren't yet installed). There will also be skirting board, and a wallpaper on the flip-up roof (not visible here) and some sort of window solution (still thinking on that one).
The 'bed' is a Carlton Ware ashtray which has recycling potential as a dolls' house bed. Or so I believe.
Plenty to go, but progress made.
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