December 11th

2 weeks to the holidays! YEEHAR!!!

Can't wait! Can't wait! Can't wait!

Yarny goodness

Knitting is good. Crochet is good too. I love knitting. I love crochet too.

Boy oh boy. The past few weeks have been a yarn-frenzy! From the time I last posted, I have made a dozen hats (seriously) in both baby and adult sizes, half a dozen of Blythe-sized beanies, and am in the midst of a crochet square pillow and a runched throw. I even made an iPod cozy for my nano! And also have swatches on the cork board. It doesn't help that my Ravelry invitation finally came. Oh man, so many projects, so little time!

And I have not even finished Gloria's wedding gift. But I have perfectly good explaination for that though, the shade of polar fleece I'm after is not available in stores right now.

Heck, not forgetting to mention the Housewarming Quilt for me and Jay. It's taking eons to hand-sew the edgings, it's starting to be quite the penance-project. Actually, it is a penance project. Everytime I pull it out to work on it, Jay would curiously ask "is it almost done?". It's been 7 months now since we moved in, and the darn thing isn't done yet. I have to admit, it's a gorgeous quilt, and I can't wait to use it too.

So while the weather is warming up like mad, and I'm busy with the knitting projects, poor Jay has to put on a brave head to try out the adult beanies that I've knitted for him. I've made him two merino beanies, and have made a mohair/acrylic beanie for myself. The rest of the beanies are for tiny heads. Seeing that my sister has not found out whether Peanut is a boy or girl, I've knitted beanies for both genders. Just to be on the safe side. Besides, babies are popping like mushrooms, I'm sure if Peanut is a girl (or boy), someone else would eventually have a baby in the other gender. Gloria, you reading this?

Next project though: socks. Not that I have any idea on how to work on the heel bits.. but I shall endeavour to find out. And then, crochetting granny squares. I used to dislike them, but funnily enough I seem to have new-found respect for this funny pattern. Am I getting old? Gosh I feel a lot older now with the birthday that just passed.

Speaking of which, I have a gazillion photos to take and load up. Gosh, buying batteries is such a drag..

X-Box / Crochet Night

Last night Jay and I hosted a X-Box / Crochet Night at our place, and it was quite a blast! We had a pot luck dinner (Quen & Grace made some kick-butt claypot chicken), Jack and Eva bought a beautiful Laurent cake, and Jay and I made some lasagna. Jay was also the barman, shaking cocktails with the shaker that Tasha got us for our new home!

Tasha got not only the shaker (but some vanilla scented

candles as well, but that's not where this is all going..), she also bought me my birthday gift! Mono Comme Ca! Yeahhhh!!!! Thank you Tasha, am loving you a lot more now, you know that don't ya? *winks* Yeah, my birthday isn't till next month, however she has purchased MCC for me from Eva, and she brought her over last night! I'm naming her Natasha, simply because.... *swoons over Natasha*.

Eva asked me what her new name was, and she reckons that the name suits as well. Little Natasha was previously known as Sophie, however seeing that there's already a Sophie in the house, she has to be renamed.

MCC seriously has the most kick butt stock outfit, at least her straw hat fits. The straw hat from Candy Carnival is quite a joke. Seriously.

Oh Little Natasha... I love youuuu.... *coos*

*Ahem*

Right, back to the night. So whilst the boys were roaring their way with the X-Box, Grace and I had were crochet students for the night. Eva taught us how to crochet, and man, am I ever grateful to her for teaching me. When she showed me a beanie and said "you can get this done in 2 hours", I was horrified. That is just too quick for such intricate design!

So off Grace and I went, crochet-crochet-crochet until we each had a beanie all knitted up. We even learnt how to make the flower, and that was just all too cool!

Earlier this morning I got up and thought that I had to pen down the steps, else memory will fail me (Chia Ying can testify to this), and I ended up making the 2nd beanie in an hour. ONE HOUR. Holy moley, this totally ROCKS. Hahahahaa!!! After shuffling around the house for a while after breakkie, I gave in and made the third beanie, this time with a pom-pom.

By the way, whatever it was I said previously about not liking knitting, etc.. is no longer valid. Knitting (and now crocheting) rocks!!!

Jay seems to be quite supportive of the new found passion, seeing that our apartment is now overflowing with quilt tops.

Quilter not Knitter

I can officially claim that I am indeed a quilter and not a knitter. Apart from the larger number of quilted stuff that has been made over the years as compared to the knitted stuff, I really do love quilting and patchwork a lot more! Although I really, really want to enjoy knitting too...

Why do I love quilting? Well, the entire quiting process is a lot more enjoyable! It's quite a joy selecting and buying bolts of fabrics and selecting the designs to patch! Cotton fabrics are nice to touch and they behave very well. And cotton, who doesn't love cotton?

Knitting yarns on the other hand is predominantly either animal or synthetically derived. Not that I have any trouble with these products at all! I love my baa-baas! Hihii! However yarn shopping is quite a chore at times! Too many selections to choose from, warmth level is difficult to gauge, and some wool can be irritably itchy!

I have to admit though that knitting wins hands down with its portability. It would be ridiculously silly to be lugging a sewing machine around on a train ride, or to sew in bed while watching Star Trek. *Live long and prosper*

Last Friday night I attempted knitting a pair of trial baby booties. Let's just say that it wasn't too successful. Knitting tightly with 5 sticks is quite an eye opener indeed!

However I will be persistant and try again... after I complete a new quilting project. Hiak!

The stork is flying to Mississippi!

Now that it's confirmed, I can now go loud and proud! My sister is the lucky woman who's having a baby! And that would be MY niece or nephew! WHEE!!

Congratulations to Sissy and Bro-in-law! I'm sure everyone is still on Cloud Nine at the news of our little peanut!

This is really exciting, I am dying to be an Auntie! Wow, imagine that! Hahaa, this is really going to get some getting used to!!

There's going to be lots of fun planning ahead of this little fella on their end. And I know I will be busy with projects on mine! At the moment I can only envision projects in creme or neutral colours, but once we know whether it's a little girl or boy, the colour scope will broaden a bit! I am hoping to be able to knit some stuff as well apart from quilting, however at this stage, I am only able to knit rectangle/squares... I'm hoping by May next year I would have known how to knit in circles, decrease and increase stitches, otherwise our poor peanut is going to be wearing angular hats and clothes!! Hahhaa!!

This is all too exciting!!

September!

In the blink of an eye, it's September. Actually, it's almost mid September. Daylight is a lot longer now, and it's not as much of a drag to go to work. Wait. Actually it still is. Har! It always is a drag. Am truly counting the days where I can tender my resignation letter. Yes, I know I've been procrastinating about this since day five when I first started (and that is nearly two and half years ago!) but I've finally set a deadline to leave. No more empty words, it's time for some action. What's planned after is still under lots of thorough planning, so that will all be revealed in due time.

About two weeks ago, Jay and I made a trip to Mt Hotham along with Amy, his ex-colleague. I didn't exactly go for the skiing or snow boarding, but took it as a relaxing getaway. The three-day, two-nights stay turned out really well, despite the accommodation itself put a damper into our moods. We stayed at the Arlberg, and it was quite a shocker. Sorry to say this, but it truly was. Unlike its name, it was more of a YMCA hostel kind of place rather than a nice quiet hotel. Nevertheless, it was quite a good holiday! I took all my UFOs and had what I wanted to finish all done up! Jay and Amy enjoyed it too, they snowboarded their rear-ends off, and came home all achey. And the view, umm.. it's absolutely breathtaking.

The knitted throw is still in progress. I'm starting to get a little impatient with it, seeing that I have some other projects in mind which I'm really anxious to start! Someone I know is expecting a baby, so I'm wanting to move to the next step and learn more to knitting. Not just the basic knit and purl. I know there is a yarn store in Malvern which offers knitting classes, but they are scheduled for Tuesday afternoons. And of course a quilt for the new addition as well! Whoopee!

Speaking of knitting, there is are two additional podcasts which I'm subscribing to, and that's 'Sticks and String' and 'Knitters Uncensored'. Am truly enjoying Sticks and String, and if you're into knitting, crochet or even spinning, chances is you would enjoy it as well.

*Shiver* *Shiver*

What a cold week it is here in Melbourne. Yesterday, temperature was only 5 degree celcius at midday! Not sure how true this info is, but that was what I was told. Whether or not it was truly 5 degrees, it certainly felt like it! Frosty frosty Melbourne! And it hailed too. It's not normal to have temperatures so cold. A few places in country Victoria reported 5cm snow!

Tick-tock to the move to the new office! Can't wait to be in the new place, but I'm sure I'm going to miss the current place. Took some pictures of the office today, and will have it uploaded when I get home.

It's been a really nice and quiet week than usual, no complaints! Kids are back to school so I guess parents' are too involved with them at this time. Thank you kiddies!

It's Colombian Independance Day party this Saturday and I've got nothing to wear!!

Question: How do you look bubbly and party-ish in the middle of dead winter?

Great Saturday

Had a really wonderful Saturday this week. We had a Blythe meet and a fabric purchase shortly, and later in the arvo, Grace & Quen, Jooli and Jack, Jay and I, along with Quen's brother Selwyn went for the Human Body expo at Flemington. It's really amazing, and strange as it seems, they don't feel like corpses, more like plasticky exhibits. http://www.amazinghumanbody.com.au/

Back to lovely bits... Got to see Gentle River in the flesh and she's really well made! There is quite a lot of attention to detail in creating her and Christina (of Team Sibley) said that the crocheted hats for the dolls are handmade. HANDMADE. Jeeps! Piccie on the left is the original Gentle River, who won the competition.

Well anyway after dinner, the guys had a night-long XBox session while the girls did what we know best (apart from crafting); talk. So the boys playeeeddd the whole night... and the girls chatteeeed the whole night.... Hehehh!

See you again soon Jooli! Have a safe and pleasant trip home!

Good Monday

I found my METcard! Gee! And I didn't think I was going to find it!

I made a mental note to scan the entire 2km walkway that I take to work, and it completely slipped my mind until I was 2 houses away from the office. After some @*(&#! session in my head, I spotted a METcard on the floor, and that was MY METcard! Mine! Mine! Mine!

It has been drenched in the rain, and I think the magnetic strip is gone. But no worries, I'm sending it back to the MET people, and they will send me a replacement! Yay! Yay! Yay! Couldn't believe my luck!

Had a rather fulfilling weekend too. Grace came over for a stitching session and we stiched-chatted-stitched-chatted-shopped-chatted-ate-chatted a storm! We both made a bag each in the morning, and in the arvo Quen took us fabric shopping. She was telling me how Quen would rather sit in the car waiting, and funnily enough Jay would rather do that too. When Grace interrogated Quen as to his wait-in-car decision, he failed to convince us of the male-mind logic. I went home that night and asked Jay too, and his reasoning wasn't any better.

07-Seven-07

It's 07-07-07 but I can't help feeling blue. This is supposed to be a good day, seeing that a lot of weddings are set on this date, and most of all, 7 is my favourite number.

Maybe it's just me and my slacking organisational skills, I feel I now have very little time for everything! And geez, Jay and I have no kids yet. And to think to have a monster or two to manage as well. Yikes!! At this rate I don't think I would conceive in bizzilion years. So, sorry honey you would need to coo at other people's babies; cos it just ain't happening with us anytime soon!

And I really wanted to do everything (crafts, meet-ups, shopping, house work, relaxing, organising) during the weekend, but lo and behold, I have to do some work from home. It's tax time and with the office moving, there is suddenly more things to do. I seriously wish we only have a 4-day work week. 2 day weekends is HORRIBLE!

And I stupidly lost my monthly MET card. My monthly train ticket which I had just bought 2 days ago. $100 down the drain.

I need some chocolate..

On the lighter side though, we went to Ikea to furnish our place a bit more and bought some shoe shelves. Uber cool I must shameless-ly say, and we also got a cork-notice board for my craft space. Am very excited and am still blank as to the bits of papers that would go up there.

And I finally finished Jay's double-layered flanette PJ pants. It's super-heavy, and I hope the elastic is strong enough to hold the pants at the waist! :X

The new quilt top is coming really well as well, so that's really good. The centre bit is all done, and am working on the borders. Will take some photos once it is all nice and ready. Which I will think will take several weeks (I hope not!) seeing that there's buttons that needs to go on the quilt as well. Egad!

And an update of the s the other (!) project. ..

Have a good day everybody!