Flower Power

A new addition for the Felt Shop

Flower Power head bands for grown ups

They make pretty cool necklaces too :-)

Traffic

We don’t really have much traffic apart for the holiday season.
Tauranga is a city, and to become a city in New Zealand means that 20,000 people or more live there. Which in comparison to many cities around the world we are pretty small. I usually give myself 20 minutes to get anywhere in town and 30 minutes when I think it might be busy. So I don’t have much sitting in traffic time.

On November 1st using cell phones in a car had become illegal. This has posed a wee problem for me, I’ve been used to using that 20 minutes or so to catch up with friends or check with Andrew what I might need to pick up on the way home.
We are a week into the new law and I’ve found that crochet is pretty hard to do whilst moving, however is not too bad if I get a red traffic light, I've also found that the CD’s I have popped in my stacker are okay for now and then and not quite entertaining enough for 20 minutes in a row. Last week I had an audio book in my CD stacker, I’m unsure if it was a good thing or not…. the actual story was great, I couldn’t really tell you what happened on the way to work though, and I also was late starting a couple of times because I wanted to catch the end of the chapter!

I did get to make this new addition to my ArtFire shop whilst at traffic lights over 3 days this week …..


What do you do to entertain yourself in the car if you’re the one driving and you’re not allowed to be on the phone??

Paper Clip Lace Crochet

Today I discovered how to crochet hairpin lace.

I taught myself with the help of the most fantastic resource in the world - the internet. I found this site the easiest to follow, http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art5429.asp the pictures were very clear and allowed me to see if my picture looked like theirs (which is always a good start!)

I've used a really big paperclip and re-bent it, to turn it into a hairpin lookalike. I put the cellotape at the end just to stop the lacey bit flopping about when it got long ('flopping about' is a technical term).

I'm quite excited by the results, especially this one, which I made with pink cotton, my big Paperclip and a #4.5 crochet hook. After I did the hairpin bit (I had 32 loops on each side) I did a single chain along one edge went a bit further for a tie and turned it into a choker.

I think it is very feminine and quite victorian :-)

I get very excited when I find a way to expand my repertoire! Now I'm trying to think of all of the ways I can incorporate it into what I make, and how to make different hairpins so I can vary the size of the loops and use different yarns. I'm thinking shawls and broom sticks!

Smell-o-vision

It would be so great to have smell-o-vision! Why, when it's been talked about for so long, has no-one actually invented it? Some of the Etsy sellers have great looking soaps and I'm sure it would help their businesses! And you would be able to smell how lovely the Jasmine is :-)

It grows all over the bamboo at the back of the orchard and up the drive, it doesn't seem to last long, and when it does it's so lovely. I think in some places it's a noxious weed which is such a shame, this morning I picked a big bunch for the cottage, it smells so beautiful.

Yesterday I popped into Spotlight in Hamilton and went a bit crazy in their yarn sale. One of the things I bought I made into this choker. When I was making it last night it reminded me so much of a dolls evening dress that I think my aunt made for my sister when we were really young. It was incredibly glamorous :-)

I though I might wear one of the chokers tomorrow at the Bethlehem Arts and Crafts market to attract buyers.

How are you finding the new look super-posh blog?

Kakarikis and a Posh Blog

I’ve been trying something different with all of the ribbon I’d bought to do my crochet art with. I’ve made about 6 of these now, I have a couple that I wear and others are in the shops. I love them, they make me feel very Victorian and elegant :-) plus they are very comfy to wear.

I’ve been on a health kick for the past few weeks, and with the change of season we’ve been taking advantage of the lighter mornings and been getting up at 6 and going for a walk. We walk up the hill to the back of the orchard and I like to stop and wash my face in the dew (hmm sounds a bit hippyish, but I’m sure I read somewhere it was good for your skin)

And even though it’s early the thing that puts a big smile on our faces is seeing the Kakarikis. They are parakeets and we call them the Berts.... just because lol.

They travel in pairs and we’ve been seeing about 8 of them in the mornings. They follow us up the road going from tree to tree just ahead of us. I’ve tried to take their photo they’re way to quick for me! They are very brightly coloured and shout their hellos as they are flying, it’s a great way to start the day!

I seem to learn something new everyday at the moment, anything from stuff you can do on Google to see if anyone is talking about you, to making the blog look fancier! So tonight I’m going to have a look here http://www.shabbyblogs.com/ and have a play. Be prepared next time you visit to go: “Wow! What a posh blog!” :-)